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IP / SOC Products Articles

• Avoid HPC Data Traffic Jams with High-Speed Interface IP (Nov. 04, 2020)
  This article examines technology developments that will help accelerate and manage data movement within and between data centers, within servers, and within system-on-chip (SoC) packages.
  
  
• Specifying a PLL Part 2: Jitter Basics (Oct. 22, 2020)
  This article explains a some of the key terminology and parameters commonly used to describe jitter. It will also help clarify the most important parameters for a some PLL applications, allowing the designer to better understand what is required from a PLL.
  
  
• Understanding Efficiency of Switched Capacitor DC-DC Converters for Battery-Powered Applications (Oct. 12, 2020)
  This application note provides a brief theory on the efficiency in SC DC-DC converters and a comparative efficiency analysis between the two types of switched converter architectures using a typical application case.
  
  
• Creating Domain Specific Processors Using Custom RISC-V ISA Instructions (Sep. 28, 2020)
  When System-on-Chip (SoC) developers include processors in their designs, they face choices in solving their computational challenges. Complex SoCs will usually have a variety of processor cores responsible for varied functions such as running the main application programs, communications, signal processing, security, and managing storage.
  
  
• PUF based Root of Trust PUFrt for High-Security AI Application (Sep. 14, 2020)
  This article will discuss how to strengthen the security of AI systems from the structure of the AI hardware device, to the security requirements, solutions, and etc. To do this, we will use PUFsecurity’s hardware root of trust module, PUFrt, as an example to help readers understand how combining AI application architecture and physical unclonable function (PUF) can benefit hardware security technology.
  
  
• How a voltage glitch attack could cripple your SoC or MCU - and how to securely protect it (Aug. 31, 2020)
  Hackers and criminals have an array of techniques available to them to intrude into, tamper with, disable or destroy electronics products and services. Some of the techniques are invasive, and call for very expensive equipment and deep engineering expertise to analyze and modify nanoscale electronics circuitry.
  
  
• The Answer to Non-Volatile Memory Security Issues at Advanced Nodes: Go Volatile! (Aug. 31, 2020)
  As semiconductor technology nodes continue to push into smaller and smaller geometries, a pattern has emerged: the basic semiconductor components that define the new node – gates, flip-flops, SRAM, etc. – are put in place with relative ease. However, below twenty-eight nm there have been serious challenges to scale Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) in the same way and at the same speed as the standard components.
  
  
• Super Edge Medical SoC (SEMC) (Aug. 27, 2020)
  Post Covid 19, the biggest bet for revival of the industry is on 5G proliferation across the world. It is widely expected that 5G’s Enhanced Mobile broadband (eMMB) with speeds as high as 20X of 4G speed, Ultra reliable and Low Latency Communication ( URLLC) and massive Machine type connectivity (mMTC) will transform the world.
  
  
• Simplifying AC and DC data acquisition signal chains (Aug. 13, 2020)
  This article describes continuous-time sigma-delta (∑-Δ) ADCs that inherently and dramatically solve the sampling problems by simplifying signal chains. They remove the need for antialiasing filters and buffers, and solve signal chain offset errors and drift issues associated with the additional components.
  
  
• DDR IP Hardening - Overview & Advance Tips (Jul. 27, 2020)
  DDR is most critical IP to SoC’s successful operation, because processors in SoC typically spends the majority of its cycles on reading and writing to DDR memory.
  
  
• AI Edge Inference is Totally Different to Data Center (Jul. 23, 2020)
  While inference accelerators started out primarily in the data center, they have quickly moved to edge inference with applications such as autonomous driving and medical imaging. Through this transition, customers are finding out, often the hard way, that the same accelerator that did so well processing images in the data center fails badly in edge inference.
  
  
• At the edge of data processing (Jul. 20, 2020)
  Neural networks’ data processing raises several challenges in terms of performance requirements. Therefore, the cloud was the first location to host this large processing demand, but this is currently evolving .
  
  
• Part 2: Opening the 5G Radio Interface (Jul. 13, 2020)
  Carriers are now deploying 5G across the globe driven by the need to keep up with relentless mobile data growth. 5G New Radio (NR) operates at higher frequencies to increase bandwidth, but at the expense of range. There will therefore be a need for a much larger number of 5G RUs to provide the same coverage. The availability of cost-effective, reliable and open 5G radio units is therefore critical.
  
  
• Formal Property Checking for IP - A Case Study (Jul. 09, 2020)
  In this paper we concentrate only on formal analysis using ‘model checking’. The model checking uses assertions (term broadly used to mean assertion, assume, restrict) written in System Verilog Assertions (SVA) language to prove the given design behavior. The focus of the paper is to provide an introductory flow of formal property check, however, the paper uses a real example to explain the flow.
  
  
• Why VAD and what solution to choose? (Jul. 06, 2020)
  More than ever before, the attention to power consumption is paramount when developing new products. In this environment, voice activity detection has a major role to play for any new voice-controlled system.
  
  
• Why a True Hardware PUF is more Reliable as RoT (Jul. 02, 2020)
  In line with the theme of security, this article will highlight the importance of chip-security operations and the relationship between the root of trust and chip security. This paper will also analyze the advantages and disadvantages of “root of trust with software algorithms” and “root of trust for pure hardware” as the basis of chip security.
  
  
• Analog and Power Management Trends in ASIC and SoC Designs (Jun. 29, 2020)
  The design of modern Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and Systems on a Chip (SoCs) in advanced process nodes can be differentiated by the on-die integration of analog functions, such as power management. Vidatronic offers this white paper to give some historical background on this trend and delve specifically into the integration of power management. Vidatronic IP solutions and the benefits they bring to ASIC and SoC designers are discussed.
  
  
• The Quantum Tunneling Mechanism of NeoPUF (Jun. 22, 2020)
  In this article, I will explain, in detail, the quantum-tunneling mechanism in the gate oxide of MOSFET in advanced silicon processes and how it applies in the creation of NeoPUF characteristics.
  
  
• Specifying a PLL Part 1: Calculating PLL Clock Spur Requirements from ADC or DAC SFDR (Jun. 08, 2020)
  In high end RF systems, such as 5G radios, the requirements are so stringent that the source of this strongest unwanted tone can be the PLL. This article outlines how spurs in the input clock to the ADC or DAC may limit the SFDR. This in turn will set the requirements for the spurs for the input clock (from a PLL), in order to achieve a specific SFDR.
  
  
• Breaking new energy efficiency records with advanced power management platform (Jun. 08, 2020)
  The free lunch offered for decades by Moore’s law is now over and scaling down to the next technology node no longer offers the required energy efficiency gains. Design teams must now pursue their gains by deploying increasingly complex power management techniques to meet the demands of the new IoT markets.
  
  
• Time-Domain Analog Design: Why and How (Jun. 01, 2020)
  The widespread adoption of scaled CMOS process technologies has made battery-operated consumer devices more powerful, cheaper, and last longer. In the last two decades, CMOS technology scaling has resulted in orders of magnitude reduction in transistor sizes, from 90nm in 2004 to 7nm in 2019 and 3nm in 2024.
  
  
• Accelerating 5G virtual RAN deployment (May. 25, 2020)
  This whitepaper provides an overview of the O-RAN Alliance and the value provided by O-RAN to the carrier industry along with a brief introduction to Comcores, our O-RAN solutions and our role in the O-RAN eco-system.
  
  
• Why Do We Need SERDES? (May. 25, 2020)
  Despite their design and verification complexity, SERDES have become an indispensable part of an SoC block. With SERDES IP blocks now available, it’s helped mitigate any cost, risk, and time-to-market escalation.
  
  
• RoT: The Foundation of Security (May. 18, 2020)
  The goal of this white paper is to provide a primer introduction to RoT and how to choose a right RoT as the trust anchor for a novel hardware based security architecture
  
  
• 5 Tips for Creating a Custom ASIC (May. 05, 2020)
  Custom application-specific ICs (ASICs) can help OEMs significantly cut the cost of overly specified products and streamline bill of materials management. As more and more companies take this route for their designs, here are some key tips to consider when navigating the custom ASIC path.
  
  
• Build Trust in Silicon: A Myth or a Reality? (May. 04, 2020)
  Currently, there is a strong belief among the cyber security experts that hardware security is imperative since it is more efficient, effective, reliable and tamper-resistant than software security. As a matter of fact, providing trusted execution environment (TEE) and embedding a hardware root of trust (HRoT) as the anchor are necessary to provide a firm foundation for electronic systems security.
  
  
• Why Software is Critical for AI Inference Accelerators (Apr. 27, 2020)
  
  
  
• SRAM PUF: A Closer Look at the Most Reliable and Most Secure PUF (Apr. 06, 2020)
  A recent article on the reliability of SRAM PUFs as a security mechanism for connected devices raised points worthy of discussion. Certainly, in today’s ever-more-connected world of the internet of things (IoT) and proliferating 5G networks, hardware-based security is more important than ever. So, if you’re looking for a way to secure a connected device, how do you evaluate the security and reliability of the various options available?
  
  
• NeoPUF, A Reliable and Non-traceable Quantum Tunneling PUF (Mar. 30, 2020)
  PUF stands for “Physically Unclonable Function” and is a physically derived “fingerprint” that serves as a unique identity for semiconductor devices. Their properties depend on the uniqueness and randomness of the physical factors induced during the manufacturing stage of a chip. T
  
  
• SamurAI: a 1.7MOPS-36GOPS Adaptive Versatile IoT Node with 15,000x Peak-to- Idle Power Reduction, 207ns Wake-up Time and 1.3TOPS/W ML Efficiency (Jun. 22, 1998)
  This paper presents a versatile IoT node covering this gap in processing and energy by leveraging two on-chip sub-systems: a low power, clock-less, event-driven Always-Responsive (AR) part and an energy-efficient On- Demand (OD) part.