ICs & Semiconductors Archives - Page 66 of 230

Simplicity Studio supports Mikroe’s mikroSDK 2.0 Click board driver

Wed, May 03, 2023

Silicon Labs is the first IC vendor to integrate MikroElektronika (Mikroe)’s mikroSDK Click Board drivers to its software environment.

Support for the mikroSDK 2.0 Click drivers was achieved by adding a hardware driver extension (plugin) into Mikroe’s Gecko SDK (software development kit), which is now available within Silicon Labs’ Simplicity Studio IDE (integrated development environment). This integration means embedded engineers can use the Mikroe peripheral Click boards to develop both the hardware and software for an embedded system based on Silicon Labs’ controllers.

Nebojsa Matic, Mikroe’s CEO, said: “Many IC vendors now include the mikroBUS socket standard on their development boards. This enables developers to try out thousands of different peripheral Click boards, saving hardware cost and design time”. The addition of the mikroBUS socket in Silicon Labs’ Explorer Kits, has added hardware driver extension support for the mikroSDK 2.0 Click drivers into the silicon company’s IDE, Simplicity Studio GSDK which will allow designers using Silicon Labs SoCs or microcontrollers to easily include Click board libraries into their code. According to Matic, this means that engineers will save time and money by using the Click boards hardware, but they will have also seamlessly addressed the software task too. “It’s a real validation of our approach,” he added.

Anders Pettesson, director of mass market marketing at Silicon Labs, added: “After partnering with Mikroe on Click board projects and seeing the possibilities of the ecosystem, we decided to bring that flexibility and ease of use to the Silicon Labs environment. By creating the mikroSDK 2.0 Click driver extension, we’ve now made it easy for embedded engineers to add thousands of peripherals to Silicon Labs software projects.”

MikroElektronika (Mikroe) invented the mikroBUS development socket standard and the compact Click boards for peripherals that use the standard to dramatically cut development time. Since its introduction in 2011, the company now offers 1350+ Click boards – 10 times more than competitors. The mikroBUS standard is included by leading microcontroller companies on their development boards.

SiBrain is Mikroe’s standard for microcontroller development add-on boards and sockets and the company’s DISCON standard enables uses to choose between a wide variety of supported LCDs and touchscreen options. Mikroe also offers the NECTO IDE and a wide range of compilers, development boards, programmers and debuggers.

http://www.mikroe.com

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Rutronik adds Intel’s latest desktop workstation processors

Fri, Apr 28, 2023

Adding the Intel Xeon W-3400 and W-2400 (code-named Sapphire Rapids) to its processor portfolio, Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente offers the desktop workstation processors for high-end computing. The Sapphire Rapids processors have new computing architecture, faster cores, and a new embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) package.

The Sapphire Rapids processors offer scalability for increased performance with support for DDR5 RDIMM, PCIe Gen 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6E for the increased demands expected with future computing workloads. Developers and data science experts in particular will benefit from the powerful performance, said Rutronik.

The Intel Xeon W-3400 and W-2400 desktop workstation processors are available with up to 24 cores and 64 threads (Xeon W-2400) or 56 cores and 112 threads (Xeon W-3400) on a single chip. They feature a redesigned memory controller and a larger L2 cache as well as the L3 Shared Intel Smart Cache with up to 105Mbyte. The flagship of the series, the Intel Xeon w9-3495X, is the most powerful desktop workstation processor Intel has developed to date. It offers performance improvements of up to 28 per cent single-thread and up to 120 per cent multi-thread compared to the previous generation. In addition, operating frequencies of up to 4.8GHz with the Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 to handle the challenges posed by constantly increasing computing power.

The processors also have an increased L2 cache and shared L3 Intel Smart Cache (up to 105Mbyte), Intel third generation Deep Learning Boost (AVX-512 support), support for select Intel vPro Enterprise technology, comprehensive overclocking support for unlocked processors – including the industry’s first DDR5 XMP 3.0 RDIMM memory overclocking capabilities, operating frequencies up to 4.8GHz and Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0.

Target applications are in media and entertainment, particularly for the creation of 3D scenes, video effects, or game development.

They are also suitable for engineering (CAD, CAE, AEC, simulation), where they can be used for product design, architectural design, product development and analysis, and product visualisation. In scientific computing and artificial intelligence development, the Intel Xeon W-3400 and W-2400 processors support data science, scientific computing, or machine learning / deep learning.

http://www.rutronik24.com

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Cadence embraces AI with Virtuoso Studio

Wed, Apr 26, 2023

Generative AI technology features in the Virtuoso Studio to empower designers to push semiconductor and 3D-IC design boundaries by seamless integration, said Cadence Design Systems.

The new Cadence Virtuoso Studio is a custom design platform for custom analogue design, said the company. It features a reimagined infrastructure, manages design processes and allows more than a three-fold improvement in design throughput for today’s largest designs.

A new design space optimisation feature lets customers use AI algorithms to navigate competing specifications and aid in design centring, particularly after the process migration of a design. Customers can experience faster interactive editing in both the layout and schematic tools, thanks to optimised code and algorithms, while multi-threading accelerates rendering, connectivity extraction and design rule checks in parallel. The Cadence Spectre FMC analysis is integrated into Virtuoso Studio and provides a complete machine learning-based Monte Carlo variation to deliver a three-to-six-sigma yield with orders of magnitude speedup over brute force Monte Carlo analysis.

Virtuoso Studio addresses the challenges customers face with larger, more complex designs, with analysis and verification to ensure that design intent is maintained throughout the design cycle. This iteration features seamless integration with other Cadence tools, including the Cadence Spectre Simulation Platform, Cadence Allegro PCB Design and Cadence Pegasus Verification System. According to Cadence, it removes traditional barriers between different design domains and speeding design closure. Virtuoso Studio is integrated with AWR Microwave Office, Pegasus Design Rule Check (DRC) Solution and Layout Versus Schematic (LVS), all available from within the Virtuoso Layout Suite. These provide mmWave design and interactive signoff quality analysis during layout creation. Additionally, customers can access the Spectre Simulation Platform, including the Spectre X Simulator and Spectre FX Simulator, through Virtuoso Studio, which allows designers to analyse the industry’s largest analogue and mixed-signal designs.

The new Virtuoso Studio can be used for analogue, RFIC and mixed-signal designs. It allows design teams to leverage comprehensive planar and FinFET-based layout placement automation and new routing to improve engineering productivity.

It also offers scalable, cloud-ready solutions for occurrences when hundreds of simulations become thousands. The software is optimised for customers’ preferred cloud providers or ready for private cloud deployment.

To ease with the process migration for schematics and layouts, tools within the Virtuoso ADE Suite quickly re-centre and validate designs post-migration, to reduce time-to-market. Customers can use the AI-enabled tools to take existing IP and transform it for the next-generation designs.

It also allows the heterogeneous integration of 2.5D and 3D designs for advanced nodes, analogue / RF packaging / modules and photonics systems.

http://www.cadence.com

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Ryzen Embedded 5000 processors secures ‘always on’ NAS systems

Mon, Apr 24, 2023

Developed for use in ‘always on’ networking firewalls, network attached storage systems and other security applications, AMD’s Ryzen Embedded 5000 series processors is the latest member of the Zen 3-based AMD embedded processor portfolio, joining the Ryzen Embedded V3000 and EPYC Embedded 7000 series families.

The processors are equipped with six, eight, 12 or 16 cores and 24 lanes of PCIe Gen4 connectivity.

The Ryzen Embedded 5000 series processors offer scalability up to 16 cores and 32 threads and up to 64Mbyte of shared L3 CPU cache.

The processors are designed for enterprise reliability to support the consistent uptime requirements needed by security and networking customers, explained AMD. Features include an ECC-supported memory subsystem. The thermal design power (TDP) profile ranges from 65W to 105W, enabling the Ryzen Embedded 5000 processors to reduce the overall system cooling footprint for space-constrained and cost-sensitive applications.

According to Rajneesh Gaur, corporate vice president and general manager, embedded solutions group, AMD: “This expansion of our embedded product portfolio offers a mid-range solution that fills the gap between our low-power BGA Ryzen Embedded and . . . EPYC embedded family for customers requiring both high performance and scalability of up to 16 cores.”

The series consists of the 5950E with 16 cores, the 5900E (12 cores), 5800W (eight cores) and 5600E (six cores) all with 24 PCIe Gen 43 lanes and 3.05 to 3.4GHz CPU base frequency, depending on the model.

The Ryzen Embedded 5000 processors are built on 7nm technology and are currently in production, with planned five-year manufacturing availability.
For more than 50 years, AMD has innovated in high performance computing, graphics and visualisation technologies, says the company.

http://www.amd.com

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Simplicity Studio supports Mikroe’s mikroSDK 2.0 Click board driver

Rutronik adds Intel’s latest desktop workstation processors

Cadence embraces AI with Virtuoso Studio

Ryzen Embedded 5000 processors secures ‘always on’ NAS systems

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