Rapidus and IBM are jointly developing mass production capabilities for chiplet-based advanced packages. The collaboration builds on an existing agreement to develop 2nm process technology.

Vanguard and NXP will jointly establish VisionPower Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (VSMC) in Singapore to build a $7.8 billion, 12-inch wafer plant. This is part of a global supply chain shift “Out of China, Out of Taiwan,” according to TrendForce.

Alphawave joined forces with Arm to develop an advanced chiplet based on Arm’s Neoverse Compute Subystems for AI/ML. The chiplet contains the Neoverse N3 CPU core cluster and Arm Coherent Mesh Network, and will be targeted at HPC in data centers, AI/ML applications, and 5G/6G infrastructure.

ElevATE Semiconductor and GlobalFoundries will partner for high-voltage chips to be produced at GF’s facility in Essex Junction, Vermont, which GF bought from IBM. The chips are essential for semiconductor testing equipment, aerospace, and defense systems.

NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Microsoft are under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department for violation of antitrust laws in the generative AI industry, according to the New York Times.

Quick links to more news:

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Global
In-Depth
Education and Training
Security
Product News
Research
Events and Further Reading

Global

Apollo Global Management will invest $11 billion in Intel’s Fab 34 in Ireland, thereby acquiring a 49% stake in Intel’s Irish manufacturing operations.

imec and ASML opened their jointly run High-NA EUV Lithography Lab in Veldhoven, the Netherlands. The lab will be used to prepare  the next-generation litho for high-volume manufacturing, expected to begin in 2025 or 2026.

Expedera opened a new semiconductor IP design center in India. The location, the sixth of its kind for the company, is aimed at helping to make up for a shortfall in trained technicians, researchers, and engineers in the semiconductor sector.

Foxconn will build an advanced computing center in Taiwan with NVIDIA’s Blackwell platform at its core. The site will feature GB200 servers, which consist of 64 racks and 4,608 GPUs, and will be completed by 2026.

Intel and its 14 partner companies in Japan will use Sharp‘s LCD plants to research semiconductor production technology, a cost reduction move that should also produce income for Sharp, according to Nikkei Asia.

Japan is considering legislation to support the commercial production of advanced semiconductors, per Reuters.

Saudi Arabia aims to establish at least 50 semiconductor design companies as part of a new National Semiconductor Hub, funded with over $266 million.

Air Liquide is opening a new industrial gas production facility in Idaho, which will produce ultra-pure nitrogen and other gases for Micron’s new fab.

Microsoft will invest 33.7 billion Swedish crowns ($3.2 billion) to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in Sweden over a two-year period, reports Bloomberg. The company also will invest $1 billion to establish a new data center in northwest Indiana.

AI data centers could consume as much as 9.1% of the electricity generated in the U.S. by 2030, according to a white paper published by the Electric Power Research Institute. That would more than double the electricity currently consumed by data centers, though EPRI notes this is a worst case scenario and advances in efficiency could be a mitigating factor.

Markets and Money

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced global semiconductor sales increased 15.8% year-over-year in April, and the group projected a market growth of 16% in 2024. Conversely, global semiconductor equipment billings contracted 2% year-over-year to US$26.4 billion in Q1 2024, while quarter-over-quarter billings dropped 6% during the same period, according to SEMI‘s Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) Report.

Cadence completed its acquisition of BETA CAE Systems International, a provider of multi-domain, engineering simulation solutions.

Cisco‘s investment arm launched a $1 billion fund to aid AI startups as part of its AI innovation strategy. Nearly $200 million has already been earmarked.

The power and RF GaN markets will grow beyond US$2.45 billion and US$1.9 billion in 2029, respectively, according to Yole, which is offering a webinar on the topic.

The micro LED chip market is predicted to reach $580 million by 2028, driven by head-mounted devices and automotive applications, according to TrendForce. The cost of Micro LED chips may eventually come down due to size miniaturization.

In-Depth

Semiconductor Engineering published its Automotive, Security, and Pervasive Computing newsletter this week, featuring these top stories:

• The Uncertainty Of Certifying AI For Automotive
• Why It’s So Hard To Secure AI Chips
• Toward A Software-Defined Hardware World

More reporting this week:

• Chip Design Digs Deeper Into AI
• Why IC Design Safety Nets Have Limits
• Opportunities Grow For GPU Acceleration

Security

Scott Best, Rambus senior director of Silicon Security Products, delivered a keynote at the Hardwear.io conference this week (below), detailing a $60 billion reverse engineering threat for hardware in just three markets — $30 billion for printer consumables, $20 billion for rechargeable batteries with some type of authentication, and $10 billion for medical devices such as sonogram probes.

Photo source: Ed Sperling/Semiconductor Engineering

wolfSSL debuted wolfHSM for automotive hardware security modules, with its cryptographic library ported to run in automotive HSMs like Infineon’s Aurix Tricore TC3XX.

Cisco integrated AMD Pensando data processing units (DPUs) with its Hypershield security architecture for defending AI-scale data centers.

OMNIVISION released an intelligent CMOS image sensor for human presence detection, infrared facial authentication, and always-on technology with a single sensing camera. And two new image sensors for industrial and consumer security surveillance cameras.

Digital Catapult announced a new cohort of companies will join Digital Security by Design’s Technology Access Program, gaining access to an Arm Morello prototype evaluation hardware kit based on Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI), to find applications across critical UK sectors.

University of Southampton researchers used formal verification to evaluate the hardware reliability of a RISC-V ibex core in the presence of soft errors.

Several institutions published their students’ master’s and PhD work:

• Virginia Tech published a dissertation proposing sPACtre, a defense mechanism that aims to prevent Spectre control-flow attacks on existing hardware.
• Wright State University published a thesis proposing an approach that uses various machine learning models to bring an improvement in hardware Trojan identification with power signal side channel analysis
• Wright State University published a thesis examining the effect of aging on the reliability of SRAM PUFs used for secure and trusted microelectronics IC applications.
• Nanyang Technological University published a Final Year Project proposing a novel SAT-based circuit preprocessing attack based on the concept of logic cones to enhance the efficacy of SAT attacks on complex circuits like multipliers.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a number of alerts/advisories.

Education and Training

Renesas and the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT Hyderabad) signed a three-year MoU to collaborate on VLSI and embedded semiconductor systems, with a focus on R&D and academic interactions to advance the “Make in India” strategy.

Charlie Parker, senior machine learning engineer at Tignis, presented a talk on “Why Every Fab Should Be Using AI.”

Penn State and the National Sun Yat-Sen University (NSYSU) in Taiwan partnered to develop educational and research programs focused on semiconductors and photonics.

Rapidus and Hokkaido University partnered on education and research to enhance Japan’s scientific and technological capabilities and develop human resources for the semiconductor industry.

The University of Minnesota named Steve Koester its first “Chief Semiconductor Officer,” and launched a website devoted to semiconductor and microelectronics research and education.

The state of Michigan invested $10 million toward semiconductor workforce development.

Product News

Siemens reported breakthroughs in high-level C++ verification that will be used in conjunction with its Catapult software. Designers will be able to use formal property checking via the Catapult Formal Assert software and reachability coverage analysis through Catapult Formal CoverCheck.

Infineon released several products:

• 600 V CoolMOS 8 high voltage superjunction (SJ) MOSFET product family.
• CoolGaN bidirectional switch (BDS) and CoolGaN Smart Sense device.
• New CoolSiC MOSFET discretes 650 V, with two product families housed in the Thin-TOLL 8×8 and TOLT packages to increase system power density.

Augmental, an MIT Media Lab spinoff, released a tongue-based computer controller, dubbed the MouthPad.

NVIDIA revealed a new line of products that will form the basis of next-gen AI data centers. Along with partners ASRock Rack, ASUS, GIGABYTE, Ingrasys, and others, the NVIDIA GPUs and networking tech will offer cloud, on-premises, embedded, and edge AI systems. NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang showed off the company’s upcoming Rubin platform, which will succeed its current Blackwell platform. The new system will feature new GPUs, an Arm-based CPU and advanced networking with NVLink 6, CX9 SuperNIC and X1600 converged InfiniBand/Ethernet switch.

Intel showed off its Xeon 6 processors at Computex 2024. The company also unveiled architectural details for its Lunar Lake client computing processor, which will use 40% less SoC power, as well as a new NPU, and X2 graphic processing unit cores for gaming.

Research

imec released a roadmap for superconducting digital technology to revolutionize AI/ML.

CEA-Leti reported breakthroughs in three projects it considers key to the next generation of CMOS image sensors. The projects involved embedding AI in the CIS and stacking multiple dies to create 3D architectures.

Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT-CSAIL) used a type of generative AI, known as diffusion models, to train multi-purpose robots, and designed the Grasping Neural Process for more intelligent robotic grasping.

IBM and Pasqal partnered to develop a common approach to quantum-centric supercomputing and to promote application research in chemistry and materials science.

Stanford University and Q-NEXT researchers investigated diamond to find the source of its temperamental nature when it comes to emitting quantum signals.

TU Wien researchers investigated how AI categorizes images.

In Canada:

• Simon Fraser University received funding of over $80 million from various sources to upgrade the supercomputing facility at the Cedar National Host Site.
• The Digital Research Alliance of Canada announced $10.28 million to renew the University of Victoria’s Arbutus cloud infrastructure.
• The Canadian government invested $18.4 million in quantum research at the University of Waterloo.

Events and Further Reading

Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:

Upcoming webinars are here.

Semiconductor Engineering’s latest newsletters:

Automotive, Security and Pervasive Computing
Systems and Design
Low Power-High Performance
Test, Measurement and Analytics
Manufacturing, Packaging and Materials

The post Chip Industry Week In Review appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.

Synopsys refocused its security priorities around chips, striking a deal to sell off its Software Integrity Group subsidiary to private equity firms Clearlake Capital Group and Francisco Partners for about $2.1 billion. That deal comes on the heels of Synopsys’ recent acquisition of Intrinsic ID, which develops physical unclonable function IP. Sassine Ghazi, Synopsys’ president and CEO, said in an interview that the sale of the software group “gives us the ability to have management bandwidth, capital, and to double down on what we’re doing in our core business.”

The U.S. Commerce Department reportedly pulled export licenses from Intel and Qualcomm that permitted them to ship semiconductors to Huawei, the Financial Times reported. The move comes after advanced chips from Intel reportedly were used in new laptops and smartphones from the China-based company. 

Apple debuted its second-generation 3nm M4 chip with the launch of the new iPad Pro. The CPU and GPU each have up to 10 cores, with a neural engine capable of 38 TOPS, and a total of 28 billion transistors. Apple also is working with TSMC to develop its own AI processors for running software in data centers, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. is expected to triple its semiconductor manufacturing capacity by 2032, according to a new report by the Semiconductor Industry Association and Boston Consulting. By that year, the U.S. is projected to have 28% of global capacity for advanced logic manufacturing and over a quarter of total global capital expenditures.

Fig. 1: Source: Semiconductor Industry Association and Boston Consulting Group.

Quick links to more news:

Global
Market Reports
Automotive
Security
Product News
Education and Training
Research
In-Depth
Events
Further Reading

Around The Globe

The U.S. Commerce Department plans to solicit bids from organizations interested in creating and managing a new CHIPS Manufacturing USA institute focused on digital twins in the semiconductor sector. The government will award up to $285 million to the selected proposal.

The U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Energy announced the first 35 projects to be supported with computational time through the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot. The initial selected projects will gain access to several U.S. supercomputing centers and other resources, with the goal of advancing responsible AI research.

Through its new Federal AI Sandbox, MITRE is offering up its computing power to U.S. government agencies. “Our new Federal AI Sandbox will help level the playing field, making the high-quality compute power needed to train and test custom AI solutions available to any agency,” stated Charles Clancy, MITRE, senior vice president and chief technology officer, in the release.

Saudi Arabia’s $100 billion investment fund for semiconductor and AI technology pledged it would divest from China if requested by the U.S, reported Bloomberg.

Japan’s SoftBank is holding talks with UK-based AI Chip firm Graphcore about a possible acquisition, reports Bloomberg.

India’s chip industry is heating up. Mindgrove launched the country’s first SoC, named Secure IoT. The chip clocks at 700 MHz, and the company is touting its key security algorithms, secure boot, and on-chip OTP memory. Meanwhile, Lam Research is expanding its global semiconductor fabrication supply chain to include India.

Microsoft will build a $3.3 billion AI data center in Racine, Wisconsin, the same location as the failed Foxconn investment touted six years ago.

Markets And Money

The SIA announced first-quarter global semiconductor sales grew more than 15% YoY, still 5.7% below Q4 2023, but a big improvement over last year. Consider that the semiconductor materials market contracted 8.2% in 2023 to $66.7 billion, down from a record $72.7 billion in 2022, according to a new report from SEMI.

The demand for AI-powered consumer electronics will drive global AI chipset shipments to 1.3 billion by 2030, according to ABI Research.

TrendForce released several new industry reports this week. Among the highlights:

• HBM prices are expected to increase by up to 10% in 2025, representing more than 30% of total DRAM value.
• In Q2, DRAM contract prices rose 13% to 18%, while NAND flash prices increased 15% to 20%.
• The top 10 design firms’ combined revenue increased 12% in 2023, with NVIDIA taking the lead for the first time.

A number of acquisitions were announced recently:

• High-voltage IC company, Power Integrations, will purchase the assets of Odyssey Semiconductor Technologies, a developer of gallium nitride (GaN) transistors.
• Mobix Labs agreed to buy RF design company RaGE Systems for $20 million in cash, stock, and incentives.
• V-Tek, a packaging services and inspection company, acquired A&J Programming, a manufacturer of automated handling and programming equipment.

The global smartphone market grew 6% year-over-year, shipping 296.9 million units in Q124, according to a Counterpoint report.  Samsung toppled Apple for the top spot with a 20% share.

Automotive

U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Tesla committed securities or wire fraud for misleading consumers and investors about its EV’s autopilot capabilities, according to Reuters.

The automotive ecosystem is undergoing a huge transformation toward software-defined vehicles, spurring new architectures that can be future-proofed and customized with software.

Infineon introduced a microcontroller for the automotive battery management sector, integrating high-precision analog and high-voltage subsystems on a single chip. Infineon also inked a deal with China’s Xiaomi to provide SiC power modules for Xiaomi’s new SU7 smart EV.

Keysight and ETAS are teaming up to embed ETAS fuzz testing software into Keysight’s automotive cybersecurity platform.

Also, Keysight’s device security research lab, Riscure Security Solutions, can now conduct vehicle type approval evaluations under United Nations R155/R156 regulations. Keysight acquired Riscure in March.

Two autonomous driving companies received big funding. British AI company Wayve received a $1.05 billion Series C investment from SoftBank, with contributions from NVIDIA and Microsoft. Hyundai spent an additional $475 million on Motional, according its recent earnings report.

The automotive imaging market grew to U.S. $5.7 billion in 2023 due to increased production, autonomy demand, and higher-resolution offerings.

Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a collaborative cross-industry effort developing an open source platform for all Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), released cloud-native functionality, RISC-V architecture and flutter applications.

Security

SRAM security concerns are intensifying as a combination of new and existing techniques allow hackers to tap into data for longer periods of time after a device is powered down. This is particularly alarming as the leading edge of design shifts to heterogeneous systems in package, where chiplets frequently have their own memory hierarchy.

Machine learning is being used by hackers to find weaknesses in chips and systems, but it also is starting to be used to prevent breaches by pinpointing hardware and software design flaws.

txOne Networks, provider of Cyber-Physical Systems security, raised $51 million in Series B extension round of funding.

The U.S. Department of Justice charged a Russian national with his role as the creator, developer and administrator of the LockBit, a prolific ramsomware group, that allegedly stole $100 million in payments from 2,000 victims.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) launched “We Can Secure Our World,” a new public awareness program promoting “basic cyber hygiene” and the agency also issues a number of alerts/advisories.

Product News

Siemens unveiled its Solido IP Validation Suite software, an automated quality assurance product designed to work across all design IP types and formats. The suite includes Solido Crosscheck and IPdelta software, which both provide in-view, cross-view and version-to-version QA checks.

proteanTecs announced its lifecycle monitoring solution is being integrated into SAPEON’s new AI processors.

SpiNNcloud Systems revealed their SpiNNaker2 system, an event-based AI platform supercomputer containing chips that are a mesh of 152 ARM-based cores. The platform has the ability to emulate 10 billion neurons while still maintaining power efficiency and reliability.

Ansys partnered with Schrodinger to develop new computational materials. The collaboration will see Schrodinger’s molecular modeling technology used in Ansys’ simulation tools to evaluate performance ahead of the prototype phase.

Keysight introduced a pulse generator to its handheld radio frequency analyzer software options. The Option 357 pulse generator is downloadable on B- and C-Series FieldFox analyzers.

Education and Training

Semiconductor fever is hitting academia:

• Penn State discussed its role in leading 15 universities to drive advances in chip integration and packaging.
• Georgia Tech’s explained its research is happening at all the levels of the “semiconductor stack,” touting its 28,500 square feet of academic cleanroom space.
• And in the past month Purdue University, Dassault Systems and Lam Research expanded an existing deal to use virtual twins and simulation tools in workforce development.

Arizona State University is beefing up their technology programs with a new bachelor’s and doctoral degree in robotics and autonomous systems.

Microsoft is partnering with Gateway Technical College in Wisconsin to create a Data Center Academy to train Wisconsinites for data center and STEM roles by 2030.

Research

Stanford-led researchers used ordinary-appearing glasses for an augmented reality headset, utilizing waveguide display techniques, holographic imaging, and AI.

UC Berkeley, LLNL, and MIT engineered a miniaturized on-chip energy storage and power delivery, using an atomic-scale approach to modify electrostatic capacitors.

ORNL and other researchers observed a “surprising isotope effect in the optoelectronic properties of a single layer of molybdenum disulfide” when they substituted heavier isotope of molybdenum in the crystal.

Three U.S. national labs are partnering with NVIDIA to develop advanced memory technologies for high performance computing.

In-Depth

In addition to this week’s Automotive, Security and Pervasive Computing newsletter, here are more top stories and tech talk from the week:

• Communication Is Key To Finding And Fixing Bugs In ICs
• Can Models Created With AI Be Trusted?
• Adapting To Evolving IC Requirements

Events

Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:

Upcoming webinars are here.

Further Reading

Read the latest special reports and top stories, or check out the latest newsletters:

Automotive, Security and Pervasive Computing
Systems and Design
Low Power-High Performance
Test, Measurement and Analytics
Manufacturing, Packaging and Materials

The post Chip Industry Week In Review appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.

Synopsys refocused its security priorities around chips, striking a deal to sell off its Software Integrity Group subsidiary to private equity firms Clearlake Capital Group and Francisco Partners for about $2.1 billion. That deal comes on the heels of Synopsys’ recent acquisition of Intrinsic ID, which develops physical unclonable function IP. Sassine Ghazi, Synopsys’ president and CEO, said in an interview that the sale of the software group “gives us the ability to have management bandwidth, capital, and to double down on what we’re doing in our core business.”

The U.S. Commerce Department reportedly pulled export licenses from Intel and Qualcomm that permitted them to ship semiconductors to Huawei, the Financial Times reported. The move comes after advanced chips from Intel reportedly were used in new laptops and smartphones from the China-based company. 

Apple debuted its second-generation 3nm M4 chip with the launch of the new iPad Pro. The CPU and GPU each have up to 10 cores, with a neural engine capable of 38 TOPS, and a total of 28 billion transistors. Apple also is working with TSMC to develop its own AI processors for running software in data centers, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. is expected to triple its semiconductor manufacturing capacity by 2032, according to a new report by the Semiconductor Industry Association and Boston Consulting. By that year, the U.S. is projected to have 28% of global capacity for advanced logic manufacturing and over a quarter of total global capital expenditures.

Fig. 1: Source: Semiconductor Industry Association and Boston Consulting Group.

Quick links to more news:

Global
Market Reports
Automotive
Security
Product News
Education and Training
Research
In-Depth
Events
Further Reading

Around The Globe

The U.S. Commerce Department plans to solicit bids from organizations interested in creating and managing a new CHIPS Manufacturing USA institute focused on digital twins in the semiconductor sector. The government will award up to $285 million to the selected proposal.

The U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Energy announced the first 35 projects to be supported with computational time through the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot. The initial selected projects will gain access to several U.S. supercomputing centers and other resources, with the goal of advancing responsible AI research.

Through its new Federal AI Sandbox, MITRE is offering up its computing power to U.S. government agencies. “Our new Federal AI Sandbox will help level the playing field, making the high-quality compute power needed to train and test custom AI solutions available to any agency,” stated Charles Clancy, MITRE, senior vice president and chief technology officer, in the release.

Saudi Arabia’s $100 billion investment fund for semiconductor and AI technology pledged it would divest from China if requested by the U.S, reported Bloomberg.

Japan’s SoftBank is holding talks with UK-based AI Chip firm Graphcore about a possible acquisition, reports Bloomberg.

India’s chip industry is heating up. Mindgrove launched the country’s first SoC, named Secure IoT. The chip clocks at 700 MHz, and the company is touting its key security algorithms, secure boot, and on-chip OTP memory. Meanwhile, Lam Research is expanding its global semiconductor fabrication supply chain to include India.

Microsoft will build a $3.3 billion AI data center in Racine, Wisconsin, the same location as the failed Foxconn investment touted six years ago.

Markets And Money

The SIA announced first-quarter global semiconductor sales grew more than 15% YoY, still 5.7% below Q4 2023, but a big improvement over last year. Consider that the semiconductor materials market contracted 8.2% in 2023 to $66.7 billion, down from a record $72.7 billion in 2022, according to a new report from SEMI.

The demand for AI-powered consumer electronics will drive global AI chipset shipments to 1.3 billion by 2030, according to ABI Research.

TrendForce released several new industry reports this week. Among the highlights:

• HBM prices are expected to increase by up to 10% in 2025, representing more than 30% of total DRAM value.
• In Q2, DRAM contract prices rose 13% to 18%, while NAND flash prices increased 15% to 20%.
• The top 10 design firms’ combined revenue increased 12% in 2023, with NVIDIA taking the lead for the first time.

A number of acquisitions were announced recently:

• High-voltage IC company, Power Integrations, will purchase the assets of Odyssey Semiconductor Technologies, a developer of gallium nitride (GaN) transistors.
• Mobix Labs agreed to buy RF design company RaGE Systems for $20 million in cash, stock, and incentives.
• V-Tek, a packaging services and inspection company, acquired A&J Programming, a manufacturer of automated handling and programming equipment.

The global smartphone market grew 6% year-over-year, shipping 296.9 million units in Q124, according to a Counterpoint report.  Samsung toppled Apple for the top spot with a 20% share.

Automotive

U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Tesla committed securities or wire fraud for misleading consumers and investors about its EV’s autopilot capabilities, according to Reuters.

The automotive ecosystem is undergoing a huge transformation toward software-defined vehicles, spurring new architectures that can be future-proofed and customized with software.

Infineon introduced a microcontroller for the automotive battery management sector, integrating high-precision analog and high-voltage subsystems on a single chip. Infineon also inked a deal with China’s Xiaomi to provide SiC power modules for Xiaomi’s new SU7 smart EV.

Keysight and ETAS are teaming up to embed ETAS fuzz testing software into Keysight’s automotive cybersecurity platform.

Also, Keysight’s device security research lab, Riscure Security Solutions, can now conduct vehicle type approval evaluations under United Nations R155/R156 regulations. Keysight acquired Riscure in March.

Two autonomous driving companies received big funding. British AI company Wayve received a $1.05 billion Series C investment from SoftBank, with contributions from NVIDIA and Microsoft. Hyundai spent an additional $475 million on Motional, according its recent earnings report.

The automotive imaging market grew to U.S. $5.7 billion in 2023 due to increased production, autonomy demand, and higher-resolution offerings.

Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a collaborative cross-industry effort developing an open source platform for all Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), released cloud-native functionality, RISC-V architecture and flutter applications.

Security

SRAM security concerns are intensifying as a combination of new and existing techniques allow hackers to tap into data for longer periods of time after a device is powered down. This is particularly alarming as the leading edge of design shifts to heterogeneous systems in package, where chiplets frequently have their own memory hierarchy.

Machine learning is being used by hackers to find weaknesses in chips and systems, but it also is starting to be used to prevent breaches by pinpointing hardware and software design flaws.

txOne Networks, provider of Cyber-Physical Systems security, raised $51 million in Series B extension round of funding.

The U.S. Department of Justice charged a Russian national with his role as the creator, developer and administrator of the LockBit, a prolific ramsomware group, that allegedly stole $100 million in payments from 2,000 victims.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) launched “We Can Secure Our World,” a new public awareness program promoting “basic cyber hygiene” and the agency also issues a number of alerts/advisories.

Product News

Siemens unveiled its Solido IP Validation Suite software, an automated quality assurance product designed to work across all design IP types and formats. The suite includes Solido Crosscheck and IPdelta software, which both provide in-view, cross-view and version-to-version QA checks.

proteanTecs announced its lifecycle monitoring solution is being integrated into SAPEON’s new AI processors.

SpiNNcloud Systems revealed their SpiNNaker2 system, an event-based AI platform supercomputer containing chips that are a mesh of 152 ARM-based cores. The platform has the ability to emulate 10 billion neurons while still maintaining power efficiency and reliability.

Ansys partnered with Schrodinger to develop new computational materials. The collaboration will see Schrodinger’s molecular modeling technology used in Ansys’ simulation tools to evaluate performance ahead of the prototype phase.

Keysight introduced a pulse generator to its handheld radio frequency analyzer software options. The Option 357 pulse generator is downloadable on B- and C-Series FieldFox analyzers.

Education and Training

Semiconductor fever is hitting academia:

• Penn State discussed its role in leading 15 universities to drive advances in chip integration and packaging.
• Georgia Tech’s explained its research is happening at all the levels of the “semiconductor stack,” touting its 28,500 square feet of academic cleanroom space.
• And in the past month Purdue University, Dassault Systems and Lam Research expanded an existing deal to use virtual twins and simulation tools in workforce development.

Arizona State University is beefing up their technology programs with a new bachelor’s and doctoral degree in robotics and autonomous systems.

Microsoft is partnering with Gateway Technical College in Wisconsin to create a Data Center Academy to train Wisconsinites for data center and STEM roles by 2030.

Research

Stanford-led researchers used ordinary-appearing glasses for an augmented reality headset, utilizing waveguide display techniques, holographic imaging, and AI.

UC Berkeley, LLNL, and MIT engineered a miniaturized on-chip energy storage and power delivery, using an atomic-scale approach to modify electrostatic capacitors.

ORNL and other researchers observed a “surprising isotope effect in the optoelectronic properties of a single layer of molybdenum disulfide” when they substituted heavier isotope of molybdenum in the crystal.

Three U.S. national labs are partnering with NVIDIA to develop advanced memory technologies for high performance computing.

In-Depth

In addition to this week’s Automotive, Security and Pervasive Computing newsletter, here are more top stories and tech talk from the week:

• Communication Is Key To Finding And Fixing Bugs In ICs
• Can Models Created With AI Be Trusted?
• Adapting To Evolving IC Requirements

Events

Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:

Upcoming webinars are here.

Further Reading

Read the latest special reports and top stories, or check out the latest newsletters:

Automotive, Security and Pervasive Computing
Systems and Design
Low Power-High Performance
Test, Measurement and Analytics
Manufacturing, Packaging and Materials

The post Chip Industry Week In Review appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.