Power Architecture in the news

130nm, 4th gen SiGe processes have arrived
Talk about timing (since we ARE this month): just when you thought it was safe to get comfortable with the 180nm process, IBM announces the availability of the fourth generation of its silicon germanium (SiGe, say it like "siggy") foundry manufacturing process, complete with Big Blue claims that it will provide twice the performance of the previous generation. The processes are 130nm SiGe bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) -- looks like there will be a high-performance version (8HP) and a lower-cost version (8WL) designed for low-power-consumption wireless devices.

• Gettin' SiGe with It! (ElectronicNews)
• About outta GaAs: Is SiGe the inheritor? (EDN)
• SiGe gunning for GaAs. (CompoundSemiconductor.net)
• This process is a new and unique creature. (CommsDesign)
• Will the process influence consumer electronics design? (WebProNews)

Compile real-time apps across multiple operating systems
What do you imagine when you think about NASA? Space? Rockets? Those wonderful Mars Rovers? Well, now you can think software -- Goddard Space Flight Center has developed and released Operating System Abstraction Layer 2.0 (OSAL). OSAL is a software library that provides generic interfaces for real-time services, file systems, port I/O, and memory interfaces, designed to allow real-time applications to be compiled on various real-time and desktop operating systems.

• For a Real-life example of OSAL in action. (Linux Devices)
• NASA provides lots of detail about next-gen goals for OSAL, the little library that could (cross-compile). (NASA)
• OSAL is a lot like OS Abstractor, a set of APIs that lets you reuse code across RTOS. (MapuSoft)

The games people play

• More from Sony's Kuratagi: PS3 hardware will be expensive. Look at it as an investment. (X-bit labs)
• Single architecture may help game console developers by simplifying compiler work (In-Stat Processor Watch).
• Sony licenses PhysX for game console. (X-bit labs)

SoC it to me

• The benefits of using multiple processors as SoC task blocks. (Embedded.com)
• Ahmed Jerraya, MPSoC organizer: "The programming model as defined by the software community cannot work for SoCs. We need a different programming model." (Design and Reuse)
• SoC performance needs integrated design system innovation. (EETimes)
• Pay close attention to integrating SoC with external chips and systems or die. (EDN)
• "Software guy" calls for "software-centric" SoC design. (Design and Reuse)

It came from the Lab: News of the future

• "In aligned wafer bonding, wafers are aligned and bonded, then thinned and interconnected before additional stacking processes or dicing." Sounds tasty. (Semiconductor International)
• Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have fabricated nanostructures consisting of pairs of suspended superconducting wires as tiny as three to four molecular diameters (DNA). (Isn't that where HAL was born?) (Semiconductor International)
• New life for old silicon processes: Orbitronics works well with lighter atoms (such as silicon), unlike spintronics. (APS Physical Review Letters)
• Which is better, dips or sprinkles: The best way to get those nanotubes on your IC. (PhysicsWeb)
• Heat salt and iron-platinum molecules and you've got magnetic nano-particles. (Add butter for tiny popcorn.) (PhysicsWeb)
• Modern time is 50 years old. (Test and Measurement World)
• Getting atoms to dialogue could be key to more accurate atomic clocks. (EETimes UK)
• Photons almost ready to go where electrons can't: Microphotonics on the near horizon. (EETimes)

It came from the Fab

• Chartered beats the Street by a month with commercial shipments from its 300mm Fab 7 facility. (EE Times Asia)
• Cost modeling of 450mm wafers (for dummies). (Semiconductor International)
• Need your wafers tested? Largest testing facility goes online 10/05 in Japan. (X-bit labs)

Crystal ball watch

• Everything you can imagine about research in optics and exotic approaches to hot interconnects -- chip-, board-, and system-level links. (Comms Design)
• What's the next killer app? No one can agree. (EETimes)
• And next: Concurrent hardware-software co-design? (EETimes)
• Semico says profitability achievable if industry innovation and outsourcing overcomes rising photomask costs, lengthening design cycle times, and shrinking market windows. (EETimes)
• IDC says shipments of handhelds declined while Gartner claims they're up. The difference: Whether you include wireless devices. (ZDnet, EETimes)
• Is the handheld-desktop combo pushing out the laptop? (ZDnet)
• "I want my PDA to do everything!" Device convergence is right move for some. (ElectronicNews)
• Slim margins to knock some players out of the small display market? (ElectronicNews)
• In global semiconductor purchasing in 2005, win, place, and show are the US, Japan, and Taiwan -- but China's coming. (EETimes)

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Supercomputing!

• IBM POWER5™ Pelican chases out ghost at Louisiana State. (Austin Business Journal)
• The East and West race to the petaflop; Japan vows "We will be champions of supercomputing." (Science Daily)
• A great photo of a supercomputing cluster machine that fits under a desk. (smh.com.au)
• With this compiler, even managers can turn FPGAs into supercomputers. (Design and Reuse)
• The problem with general industry adoption of the supercomputer: "Few independent software vendor applications today can take advantage of more than 128 processors." (Red Herring)

Other headlines

• PGP's Phil Zimmerman secures your voice with VOIP encryption release. (Wired News)
• Stirring up trouble with a JVM, Linux, PowerPC-based wearable computing system for soldiers. (Linux Devices)
• Become an expert in one easy step: Be an IBM Redbook™ Resident. (See the list of active residencies.) (iSeries Network)
• The EFF says your printer may be Big Brother. (EFF)
• Vint Cerf explains how the Internet was born (and his role as midwife). (The Register)

Product watch

• Pitch at 910 Mbits and catch at 400 Mbits: Xilinx manages new embedded PPC TCP performance levels. (Design and Reuse)
• Final PPC-only CodeWarrior to release Fall 2005; Metrowerks to focus on embedded. (Macsimum News)
• z9 is chillin'. (And we're not talking about heat dissipation.) (Ovum)
• Is the OpenPower™ 710 and eServer™ p5 510 the same box? How are they different? (Red Nova)
• TimeSys will tailor embedded Linuxes to fit your frame -- all chips welcome. (NewsForge)
• To exploit parallelism, CoDeveloper FPGA design tool develops FPGA algorithms from C/C++ (Electronic Products)

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Power pow-wows: Upcoming Power-related events

The following are the Power Architecture™ editors' "shortlist" of events of particular interest to the Power Architecture Community. For a comprehensive listing of all industry events of interest to the Power Architecture Community, please see the Power Architecture technology zone's event listings.

13 Annual IEEE Symposium on High Performance Interconnects (Hot Interconnects)
August 17-19, Palo Alto, California, USA
IEEE Hot Interconnects brings together designers and architects of high-performance chips, software, and systems at the university and global business levels. Presentations focus on up-to-the-minute developments demonstrating leading-edge designs by engineers and researchers throughout the world. More information.

Magma Users Summit on Integrated Circuits (MUSIC)
August 24-25, Bangalore, India
MUSIC is dedicated to providing an open forum for Magma users to exchange ideas about, and solutions for, the challenges of deep submicron IC and SoC design. Users, partners, and Magma engineers will present techniques for fully leveraging Magma's software. More information.

European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD 2005)
August 29-September 2, Cork, Ireland
This conference is devoted to all aspects of circuit theory and techniques and both analogue and digital signal processing. The emphasis is on new circuits, simulation, modeling, and signal processing. In particular, design techniques for future telecommunication systems as well as system architectures and circuit implementations for neural computing are covered in the program. More information.

Chartered Technical Forum
September 7, Taiwan; September 22, San Jose, California, USA
Transitioning to 90nm, 65nm and beyond: Learn more about the IBM/Chartered common platform, as well as 0.13-micron and 0.11-micron processes. More information.

2005 FSA Suppliers Expo & Conference
October 5-6, 2005, San Jose, California, USA
Networking, education, and cocktails for the fabless, IDM, and OEM crowd. Learn more.

In-Stat Fall Processor Forum 2005: The Road to Multicore
October 24-26, 2005, San Jose, California, USA
It's not just for servers anymore: embedded processors are actually setting the pace for advanced multicore design, with some new procs boasting as many as one hundred cores or more. More information.

For a complete listing of Power-related events, please see the Power Architecture technology zone's event listings.

Resources

• Learn more, pay less for training with the IBM Education Advantage Program.
  
  
• Keep up with the latest front-page Power Architecture headlines every weekday on the developerWorks Power Architecture home page (in a "standard" size browser window, the news items appear in the lower-right hand corner).
  
  
• Upcoming IBM events are found in more than one place on the greater IBM site: For processor-related events, see IBM Semiconductor Solutions on the road. IBM Global Services conferences and events offer opportunities to participate in IBM technology learning seminars and conferences around the world. The majority of IBM Redbooks workshops are also open to the public.
  
  
• For webcasts, check out the IBM Semiconductor Solutions WebSeries, catch up on the 2004 WebSeries of webcasts, or try TechOnline, "Delivering e-Learning Solutions and Resources to the Electronics Community."
  
  
• For a comprehensive listing of all industry events of interest to the Power Architecture Community, please see the Power Architecture technology zone's event listings.
  
  
• Power resources
  • Got news or events you want to share with the Power Architecture Community? Send a note to the editor. See also the article on how to contribute to the Power Architecture Newsletter; and the Newsletter's editorial calendar.
  • For more Power content, check out the developerWorks Power Architecture technology zone archives and the IBM Semiconductor Solutions Technical Library.
  • Keep up with of all the latest Power news and documentation! Subscribe to the Power Architecture Community Newsletter today.
  
  
• Return to the front page of the Power Architecture Community Newsletter 15 August 2005, or view the current issue of the Power Architecture Community Newsletter.
  
  

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Table of contents

• Power Architecture in the news
• Power pow-wows: Upcoming Power-related events
• Resources
• About the author
• Comments

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