Category: Uncategorized

EvoNexus and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Team to Accelerate Growth of Wireless and IoT Startups

Santa Clara, Calif., October 26, 2020 – EvoNexus, a leading non-profit technology incubator, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®), the world’s leading specialty semiconductor foundry, today announced their collaboration to accelerate the growth of semiconductor startups developing breakthrough products in wireless and the Internet of Things (IoT). EvoNexus has extensive history and success incubating startups across the wireless ecosystem.

GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. As one of the leading innovators of SOI-based technology, GF’s solutions deliver greater bandwidth, ultra-low power, higher levels of integration, and lower latency for scalable and reliable applications that are fundamental to smart, connected IoT and wireless connectivity markets. Specifically, GF and their customers, along with the products they develop, will have a foundational impact on the emerging global 5G ecosystem. Through access to this technical expertise and these cutting-edge technologies, EvoNexus’ partners will be further empowered to develop new solutions and will speed their time to market.

“We are excited to collaborate with EvoNexus to drive innovation and bring disruptive products to market,” said Dr. Bami Bastani, senior vice president and general manager of Mobile and Wireless Infrastructure at GF. “EvoNexus’ proven incubation program and corporate partnerships that include Qualcomm, Murata, pSemi, TDK InvenSense and Viasat, coupled with GF’s differentiated, feature rich solutions will enable promising semiconductor startups to build innovative products that will help connect and power the digital world.”

“5G, IoT, Telemedicine, Industry 4.0, AI, Smart Homes and AgTech represent opportunities where an early stage venture can establish a beachhead in nascent markets,” said Dr. Jim Cable, CTO of EvoNexus. “The GlobalFoundries and EvoNexus collaboration will provide innovators with differentiated solutions, while reducing the cost of product development and speed time to a market window that is fleeting.”

“GlobalFoundries manufacturing and technology access provides a key element as EvoNexus launches an outreach to locate and assist early stage semiconductor ventures regardless of their location,” said Rory Moore, CEO and Co-founder of EvoNexus and Co-founder of Peregrine Semiconductor & Silicon Wave. “Access to high quality chip manufacturing has never been more difficult with the major OEMs consuming most of the global capacity. GlobalFoundries recognizes that semiconductor design innovation often comes from a startup. EvoNexus and GlobalFoundries provide an ideal partnership for breakthrough designs that make IoT and 5G a reality.” 

###

About GF

GlobalFoundries (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. GF delivers differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable its customers to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of clients across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit www.globalfoundries.com.

About EvoNexus

EvoNexus is California’s leading non-profit technology startup incubator with locations in San Diego, Orange County, Silicon Valley, and a virtual program. EvoNexus has successfully launched around 230 technology startups with a survival rate of over 85%. Since the incubator’s formation in 2010, EvoNexus Ventures have secured over $2B in venture funding and outcomes, $6B in pre-exit valuation and 28 acquisitions. Of the 230+ startups incubated, 19 have been of the semiconductor sector with 5 of them becoming acquired. EvoNexus is supported by corporate investors, including some of the largest multinational corporations in the world. For more information, please visit evonexus.org.

Dialog Semiconductor授权格芯在22FDX平台上使用非易失性阻性RAM技术，旨在推动物联网和人工智能的发展

英国伦敦和加州圣克拉拉，2020年10月19日 — 电池和电源管理、Wi-Fi®和蓝牙®低能耗(BLE)以及工业边缘计算解决方案的领先供应商DIALOG SEMICONDUCTOR（XETRA代码：DLG）与全球领先的特殊工艺半导体代工厂格芯®（GLOBALFOUNDRIES®，GF®）今日宣布，双方已达成协议，Dialog将其导电桥接RAM (CBRAM)技术授权给格芯®（GLOBALFOUNDRIES®）。这种阻性RAM(ReRAM)技术由Adesto Technologies公司开创，该公司最近被Dialog Semiconductor收购。格芯®（GLOBALFOUNDRIES®）将首先在其22FDX®平台上提供Dialog的CBRAM技术，作为嵌入式非易失性存储器(NVM)选项，并计划扩展到其他平台。

Dialog经过生产验证的专有CBRAM技术是一种低功耗NVM解决方案，旨在支持物联网、5G连接、人工智能(AI)等一系列应用。CBRAM具备低功耗、高读/写速度、低制造成本以及对恶劣环境的耐受性，因此特别适合消费电子、医疗以及部分工业和汽车应用。此外，CBRAM技术还能为这些市场的产品所需的先进技术节点提供高性价比的嵌入式NVM。

Dialog Semiconductor企业发展高级副总裁兼工业混合信号业务部总经理Mark Tyndall表示：“CBRAM是Adesto标志性存储器技术之一，也是Dialog产品组合的颠覆性新产品。与格芯建立新的授权合作关系，体现了Dialog和Adesto携手开创新事业的迅捷速度。

展望未来，我非常看好我们与格芯的紧密合作关系。这项协议不仅能够为行业提供先进的技术，而且还使Dialog有机会在下一代片上系统(SoC)采用领先的CBRAM技术。”

格芯高级副总裁兼汽车、工业和多市场总经理Mike Hogan表示：“我们与Dialog的合作关系表明，格芯致力于加大投资力度，进一步为客户提供差异化的增值产品。Dialog的ReRAM技术为我们领先的eNVM解决方案系列提供了有力补充。该存储器解决方案与我们的FDX™平台相结合，能够帮助我们的客户推陈出新，提供新一代安全物联网和边缘人工智能应用。”

Dialog的CBRAM技术克服了ReRAM经常面临的集成与可靠性挑战，提供了可靠的低成本嵌入式存储器，同时支持ReRAM在低电压下工作。这意味着需要比标准嵌入式闪存产品写入和读取访问耗能更低。

CBRAM将于2022年作为格芯22FDX平台的嵌入式NVM选项投入生产，供格芯客户使用。客户可以借助IP定制服务，对CBRAM单元进行修改，以优化其SoC设计，增强安全性，甚至调整单元以满足新应用的需求。此外，作为“后端制程”技术，CBRAM更容易集成到其他技术节点。

如需了解更多关于Dialog CBRAM技术的信息，请点击此处。

如需了解更多关于格芯®（GLOBALFOUNDRIES®）22FDX平台的信息，请点击此处。

Dialog、Dialog徽标和CBRAM是Dialog Semiconductor plc或其子公司的商标。格芯®（GLOBALFOUNDRIES®）、格芯®（GLOBALFOUNDRIES®）徽标和22FDX均为格芯®（GLOBALFOUNDRIES®）或其子公司的商标。所有其他产品或服务名称均为其各自所有者的财产。版权所有 © 2020 Dialog Semiconductor。保留所有权利。

关于Dialog Semiconductor

Dialog Semiconductor是领先的标准和定制集成电路(IC)供应商，用于物联网和工业4.0应用。Dialog凭借成熟的专业技术，提供电池管理、蓝牙®低能耗、Wi-Fi、闪存和可配置混合信号IC，以推动下一代设备的发展，提高电源效率，减少充电时间，同时提高性能和生产力。

Dialog采用无晶圆厂的商业模式，作为有社会责任感的雇主，推行了多项福利计划，以造福员工、社区、其他利益相关者和经营环境。我们凭借数十年的经验和先进的创新，帮助制造商实现下一个目标。凭借对创新的热忱和创业精神，我们始终站在物联网、移动、计算和存储、互联医疗和汽车市场的高能效半导体技术的前沿。Dialog总部位于伦敦附近，销售、研发和营销组织覆盖全球。2019年，营业收入约为14亿美元，持续名列欧洲增长最快的上市半导体公司之一。目前，它在全球拥有约2,300名员工。该公司在法兰克福（FWB代码：DLG）证券交易所（受监管市场，主要标准，ISIN GB0059822006）上市。

如需了解更多信息，请访问www.dialog-semiconductor.com。

About GLOBALFOUNDRIES

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. GF delivers differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable its customers to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of customers across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company.

For more information, visit www.globalfoundries.com.

Erica McGill
GLOBALFOUNDRIES | Corporate Communications
O: 518.305.5978 | M: 518.795.5240

Dialog Semiconductor Licenses its Non-Volatile Resistive RAM Technology to GLOBALFOUNDRIES for 22FDX Platform, Targeting IoT and AI

London, United Kingdom and Santa Clara, California October 19, 2020 DIALOG SEMICONDUCTOR (XETRA:DLG),  a leading provider of battery and power management, Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) and Industrial edge computing solutions and GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®), the world’s leading specialty foundry,  today announced that they have entered into an agreement in which Dialog licenses  its Conductive Bridging RAM (CBRAM) technology to GLOBALFOUNDRIES. The resistive ram (ReRAM)-based technology was pioneered by Adesto Technologies which was recently acquired by Dialog Semiconductor in 2020. GLOBALFOUNDRIES will first offer Dialog’s CBRAM as an embedded, non-volatile memory (NVM) option on its 22FDX® platform, with the plan to extend to other platforms.

Dialog’s proprietary and production proven CBRAM technology is a low power NVM solution designed to enable a range of applications from IoT and 5G connectivity to artificial intelligence (AI). Low power consumption, high read/write speeds, reduced manufacturing costs and tolerance for harsh environments make CBRAM particularly suitable for consumer, medical, and select industrial and automotive applications. Furthermore, CBRAM technology enables cost-effective embedded NVM for advanced technology nodes required for products in these markets.

“CBRAM is one of Adesto’s marquee memory technologies and a game-changing addition to Dialog’s portfolio. This new licensing partnership with GLOBALFOUNDRIES speaks to just how quickly Dialog and Adesto have hit the ground running together,” said Mark Tyndall, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and General Manager of the Industrial Mixed Signal Business Group at Dialog Semiconductor.  

“Looking ahead, I am very positive about our strong relationship with GLOBALFOUNDRIES.  This agreement not only enables a state-of-the-art technology for the industry, but it also creates the opportunity for Dialog to adopt leading-edge CBRAM technology for its next generation of System on Chips (SoCs),” added Tyndall.

“Our partnership with Dialog demonstrates GF’s commitment to intensify investment in areas where we can further differentiate and add value for our customers,” said Mike Hogan, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Automotive, Industrial and Multi-market at GF. “Dialog’s ReRAM technology is a great addition to our family of leading-edge eNVM solutions. This memory solution, coupled with our FDXTM platform, will enable our customers to push the envelope and deliver a new generation of secure IoT and edge-AI applications.”

Overcoming the integration and reliability challenges often associated with ReRAM, Dialog’s CBRAM technology offers a reliable low-cost embedded memory while maintaining ReRAMs low voltage operation. This translates to lower energy write and read access as compared to standard embedded Flash offerings.

CBRAM will be available in production for use by GF customers as an embedded NVM option on its 22FDX platform in 2022. Through IP customization, customers may modify the CBRAM cell to optimize their SoC designs, enhance security, or even adapt the cell for new applications. Additionally, CBRAM being a “back-end-of-line” technology enables relatively easy integration into other technology nodes. 

Learn more about Dialog CBRAM technology here.

Learn more about GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 22FDX platform here.

ENDS

NOTES:

Dialog, the Dialog logo and CBRAM are trademarks of Dialog Semiconductor plc or its subsidiaries. GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the GLOBALFOUNDRIES logo and 22FDX are trademarks of GLOBALFOUNDRIES or its subsidiaries. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Copyright 2020 Dialog Semiconductor. All rights reserved.

Media Contact Dialog:

Mark Tyndall 
SVP Corporate Development & GM
Dialog Semiconductor 
Phone: +1 (408) 845 8520
Email: mark.tyndall@diasemi.com 
Web: www.dialog-semiconductor.com 
Twitter: @DialogSemi 

Media Contact GLOBALFOUNDRIES:

Erica McGill
Corporate Communications
GLOBALFOUNDRIES
Phone: +1 518 795 5240
Email: erica.mcgill@globalfoundries.com
Web: globalfoundries.com
Twitter: @GLOBALFOUNDRIES

About Dialog Semiconductor

Dialog Semiconductor is a leading provider of standard and custom integrated circuits (ICs) that power the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 applications. Dialog’s proven expertise propels the next generation 

of today’s devices by providing Battery Management, Bluetooth® low energy, Wi-Fi, Flash memory, and Configurable Mixed-signal ICs, improving power efficiency, reducing charge times, while increasing performance and productivity on the go. 

Dialog operates a fabless business model and is a socially responsible employer pursuing many programs to benefit the employees, community, other stakeholders and the environment it operates in. With decades of experience and world-class innovation, we help manufacturers get to what’s next. Our passion for innovation and entrepreneurial spirit ensures we remain at the forefront of power efficient semiconductor technology for the IoT, mobile, computing and storage, connected medical, and automotive markets. Dialog is headquartered near London with a global sales, R&D and marketing organization. In 2019, it had approximately $1.4 billion in revenue and is consistently one of the fastest growing European public semiconductor companies. It currently has approximately 2,300 employees worldwide. The company is listed on the Frankfurt (FWB: DLG) stock exchange (Regulated Market, Prime Standard, ISIN GB0059822006).

For more information, visit www.dialog-semiconductor.com. 

About GLOBALFOUNDRIES

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. GF delivers differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable its customers to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of customers across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. 

For more information, visit www.globalfoundries.com.

格芯®（GLOBALFOUNDRIES®）将通过22FDX平台的自适应体偏置功能推动物联网和可穿戴设备的创新

3从事物联网、可穿戴设备、射频和边缘计算的格芯客户利用ABB技术，借助22FDX平台的超低功耗和低漏电功能进一步提升设计效率

德国德累斯顿，2020年10月15日 – 作为全球领先的特殊工艺半导体代工厂，格芯®（GLOBALFOUNDRIES®，GF®）今天在全球技术大会(GTC)欧洲、中东和非洲(EMEA)活动上宣布，将通过先进的22FDX®平台的专业自适应体偏置(ABB)功能，进一步推动物联网和可穿戴设备市场的创新。 

ABB功能使设计人员在微调电路的晶体管阈值电压时获得更高的精度，更有效地优化芯片的性能、功耗、面积和可靠性，以满足特定应用的需求。从事物联网、可穿戴设备、可穿戴音频设备、射频和边缘计算的格芯客户利用ABB技术，借助22FDX平台的超低功耗和低漏电功能进一步提升设计效率。 

GreenWaves Technologies首席执行官Loic Lietar表示：“GreenWaves的GAP物联网应用处理器使开发人员能够将复杂的超低延迟、信号处理和人工智能集成到能源极为有限的设备中，如可穿戴设备和物联网传感器产品。我们的GAP9物联网应用处理器建立在格芯的22FDX平台上。我们利用22FDX的自适应体偏置功能来缩小我们的核签裕量，这是优化设计以实现超低功耗的重要因素，从而支持开发人员将下一代智能设备推向市场。”

Perceive首席执行官Steve Teig表示：“Perceive的边缘推理处理器Ergo为物联网设备提供了大型神经网络的能力，同时增强了安全性和隐私性。得益于小尺寸和超高能效，Ergo具备更长的电池寿命，产热更少，并支持创新的产品设计和封装。格芯22FDX平台拥有大量的功率，具备功率优势、低泄漏和自适应体偏置功能，非常适合我们这样的物联网应用。”

ABB功能是一种全新的方式，帮助格芯扩展22FDX平台的价值、高性能、超低功耗和广泛集成能力。迄今为止，格芯的22FDX平台已经实现了45亿美元的设计创收，向全球客户交付了超过3.5亿枚芯片。

格芯高级副总裁兼汽车、工业和多市场总经理Mike Hogan表示：“格芯差异化的22FDX平台具备出色的性能、功耗和广泛的功能集成能力，是物联网、可穿戴设备、边缘人工智能等令人兴奋的应用设计者和创新者的理想解决方案。”例如，平台允许客户利用体偏置技术的优势，进一步提高设备的性能、效率并延长电池寿命，这也说明格芯推动行业将前沿连接技术扩展至全面实现的全球物联网。”

广泛的ABB功能得益于格芯强大的IP和EDA工具合作伙伴生态系统的支持，22FDX工艺设计套件(PDK)中包含了体偏置功能。大多数广泛采用的成熟建模、设计和验证工具都经过了准备测试，以支持格芯客户利用22FDX平台的成熟ABB功能。

格芯客户设计实现高级副总裁Mike Cadigan表示：“格芯的生态系统合作伙伴发挥了关键作用，使设计人员能够在芯片中无缝、有效地实施ABB。格芯的生态系统合作伙伴通过创新的IP和EDA工具支持，为ABB创建了IP模块和端到端实现流程，以及静态体偏置，涵盖一系列应用。”     

合作伙伴正面评价：

Cadence IP研发部企业副总裁Sanjive Agarwala表示：“格芯与Cadence的最新合作，基于格芯22FDX平台与其差异化的ABB技术，成功完成了两款测试芯片。我们共同完成的第一个测试芯片项目，利用Cadence数字全流实现了功率、性能和面积及吞吐量的优势。我们完成的第二个测试芯片项目，利用Cadence Tensilica HiFi 5和Fusion F1与数字全流实现了高性能优势。这两个22FDX项目都缩短了周转时间，这对于物联网、语音处理和始终在线的传感器融合等高增长市场的设计工作至关重要。”

Dolphin Design董事长Philippe Berger表示：“我们的目标是让无晶圆厂制造商无需数月，只需几周就能嵌入强大节能的电源管理系统，这要归功于我们的SPIDER设计平台。它包括晶圆厂赞助的ABB IP，能够配合传统的标准电池、存储器和设计流程。在商业化仅几个月后，我们的第一批用户已经开始批量生产。下一个ABB IP符合ISO26262标准，将助力汽车应用。”

Racyics公司首席执行官Holger Eisenreich表示：“我们利用现有的设计服务经验，开发了ABX作为易于使用的ABB交钥匙解决方案，可以无缝集成到现有的设计流程中。这是通过在IP表征中直接封装角特定体偏置电压来实现的，反映了我们ABB生成器的特性。” 

Synopsys公司IP营销和战略高级副总裁John Koeter表示：“快速增长的物联网和可穿戴设备市场需要超低功耗SoC，使电池寿命从几天延长到几周。Synopsys为格芯的22FDX工艺提供通过芯片验证的低功耗DesignWare® Foundation IP产品组合和优化的设计流程，使我们的共同客户能够利用格芯的专业ABB功能，以风险更低的方式提供高性能、高能效的SoC。”

About GF

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. GF delivers differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable its customers to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of customers across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit www.globalfoundries.com.

Contact:

Michael Mullaney

GLOBALFOUNDRIES

518-305-1597

michael.mullaney@globalfoundries.com

 

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Accelerating Innovation in IoT and Wearables with Adaptive Body Bias Feature on 22FDX Platform

GF customers working in IoT, wearables, RF, and edge computing are leveraging ABB to further boost the efficiency of their designs by utilizing the 22FDX platform’s ultra-low power and low leakage capabilities

Dresden, Germany, October 15, 2020 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®), the world’s leading specialty foundry, announced today at its Global Technology Conference (GTC) EMEA event that it is accelerating innovation in the IoT and wearables markets with the specialized Adaptive Body Bias (ABB) feature of its industry-leading 22FDX® platform. 

The ABB feature affords designers significantly more precision when fine-tuning the transistor threshold voltage of a circuit, enabling them to more effectively optimize the performance, energy efficiency, area, and reliability of a chip to meet the needs of a specific application. GF customers working in IoT, wearables, hearables, RF, and edge computing are leveraging ABB to further boost the efficiency of their designs by utilizing the 22FDX platform’s ultra-low power and low leakage capabilities. 

“GreenWaves’ GAP IoT Application Processors are giving developers the ability to integrate sophisticated ultra-low latency, signal processing and artificial intelligence into highly energy constrained devices such as hearable and IoT sensor products,” said Loic Lietar, CEO of GreenWaves Technologies. “Our GAP9 IoT application processor is built on GF’s 22FDX platform. Our ability to take advantage of 22FDX’s adaptive body bias feature to narrow our sign-off margins was a significant contributing factor to optimizing our design for ultra-lower power consumption, toward our goal of empowering developers to bring the next generation of intelligent devices to market.”

“Perceive’s edge inference processor, Ergo, brings the power of large neural networks to IoT devices while enhancing security and privacy. Thanks to its small size and ultra-high power efficiency, Ergo enables longer battery life, produces less heat, and allows for innovative product designs and packaging,” said Steve Teig, CEO of Perceive. “GF’s 22FDX platform has a tremendous amount of horsepower, and its power advantages, low leakage, and adaptive body bias feature make it an excellent choice for IoT applications like ours.”

The ABB feature is another way GF is extending the value, high performance, ultra-low power, and broad integration capabilities of its 22FDX platform. To date, GF’s 22FDX platform has realized $4.5 billion in design wins, with more than 350 million chips shipped to customers around the world.

“With its best-in-class performance, power consumption, and broad feature integration capability, GF’s differentiated 22FDX platform is clearly the solution of choice for designers and innovators working in IoT, wearables, Edge AI, and other exciting applications,” said Mike Hogan, senior vice president and general manager of Automotive, Industrial and Multi-market at GF. “Empowering these customers to take advantage of the platform’s body biasing, and further increase the performance, efficiency, and battery life of their devices, is another example of how GF is enabling the industry to advance the frontier of connectivity toward a fully realized, global IoT.”

This wider use of ABB features is made possible and supported by GF’s strong ecosystem of IP and EDA tool partners, and body bias features are included in the 22FDX process design kit (PDK). Most mature, widely used modeling, design, and verification tools are readiness-tested to empower GF customers to leverage the 22FDX platform’s proven ABB features.

“GF’s ecosystem partners play a critical role in enabling designers to seamlessly and effectively implement ABB in their chips,” said Mike Cadigan, senior vice president of Customer Design Enablement at GF. “Through innovative IP and EDA tool support, GF’s ecosystem partners have created block IPs and end-to-end enablement flows for ABB, as well as static body bias, across a range of applications.”     

Partner Supporting Quotes:

“This latest collaboration between GF and Cadence resulted in two successful test chips based on the GF 22FDX platform with its differentiated ABB technology,” said Sanjive Agarwala, Corporate VP, R&D, IP Group at Cadence. “We jointly completed one test chip project, which utilized the Cadence digital full flow for power, performance and area and throughput benefits. We completed a second test chip project, which used the Cadence Tensilica HiFi 5 and Fusion F1 for high performance benefits in conjunction with the digital full flow. Both of these 22FDX projects resulted in reduced turnaround times, which is crucial when designing for high-growth markets like IoT, voice processing and always-on sensor fusion segments.”

“Our goal is to allow fabless makers to embed in weeks, instead of months, a robust and energy efficient power management system thanks to our SPIDER Design Platform. It includes the foundry-sponsored ABB IP, made to work with the conventional standard-cells, memories and design flow. Only a few months after its commercialization, the first of our already many users are now starting volume production. The next ABB IP will be ISO26262-ready to empower automotive applications,” said Philippe Berger, Chairman of Dolphin Design.

“Driven by our design service experience, we developed ABX as easy-to use turnkey ABB solution that allows seamless integration into existing design flows. This is achieved by encapsulating corner specific body bias voltages, reflecting the characteristic of our ABB generator, directly in the IP characterizations,” said Holger Eisenreich, CEO of Racyics. 

“The fast-growing IoT and wearables markets demand ultra-low power SoCs to extend battery life from days to weeks,” said John Koeter, senior vice president of marketing and strategy for IP at Synopsys. “By providing a portfolio of silicon-proven, low-power DesignWare® Foundation IP and optimized design flow for GF’s 22FDX process, Synopsys enables our mutual customers to leverage GF’s specialized ABB features to deliver high-performance and energy-efficient SoCs with significantly less risk.”

About GF

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. GF delivers differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable its customers to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of customers across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit www.globalfoundries.com.

Contact:

Michael Mullaney
GLOBALFOUNDRIES
518-305-1597
michael.mullaney@globalfoundries.com

 

GREENWAVES TECHNOLOGIES Announces Next Generation GAP9 Hearables Platform Using GLOBALFOUNDRIES 22FDX Solution

GreenWaves’ GAP9 hearables platform enables state-of-the-art features such as scene-aware active noise cancellation and neural network-based noise reduction with no compromise in area, cost or energy

Grenoble, France, and Dresden, Germany, October 15, 2020 – GreenWaves Technologies today announced a next-generation hearables platform based on its GAP9 IoT application processor using GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®) 22FDX® solution. The announcement was made at GF’s annual Global Technology Conference (GTC).

Targeting the fast-growing hearables market, which is forecasted to be over one billion units in 20241, GAP9’s unified and easy-to-program architecture enables state-of-the-art sound quality and user experience. It does this by significantly reducing the energy required for normal activities such as music playback, active noise cancellation and voice commands, and freeing up power to improve audio quality through neural network-based features including deep noise reduction and acoustic scene detection. It does this with no compromises in area, cost or energy versus competitor solutions.

GAP9 uses two innovative features of GF’s 22FDX solution – adaptive body bias (ABB) and eMRAM. GAP9 uses ABB to narrow the sign-off window, which contributes significantly to its ultra-low power consumption. GAP9 processes neural networks with a power efficiency of 330µW/GOP, at the same time providing market-leading energy performance for low-power, low-latency digital signal processing (DSP) operations such as audio filtering.

“What is really exciting our GAP9 partners is the unprecedented room for innovation that we are offering them,” said Loic Lietar, CEO of GreenWaves. “Processing a music stream with active noise cancellation consumes less than 10 percent of GAP9 resources, leaving plenty of headroom for dramatically improving the audio comfort or other new cutting-edge features, at the same time simplifying their development. GF’s 22FDX platform, with its incredible performance, ultra-low power capability, low-leakage, and flexibility, was instrumental for enabling us to hit our performance targets.”

In addition to ABB, GAP9 also takes advantage of 2MB of GF’s advanced embedded non-volatile memory (eMRAM) feature of its 22FDX solution, which has allowed GreenWaves to reduce by 3.5 times the energy used for transfers of neural network parameters. 

“What GreenWaves has accomplished with its new hearables platform based on the GAP9 application processor, by realizing significant efficiency gains and redirecting that windfall of power to support the architecture’s innovative features that provide great sound for users, is incredible,” said Mike Hogan, senior vice president and general manager of Automotive, Industrial and Multi-market at GF. “GreenWaves’ achievement showcases, loud and clear, why GF’s feature-rich 22FDX platform has become the solution of choice for innovative companies working at the forefront of IoT, hearables, wearables, and edge AI.”

With its high performance, ultra-low power requirements, and broad integration capabilities, GF’s industry-leading 22FDX platform has realized $4.5 billion in design wins, with more than 350 million chips shipped to customers around the world. 22FDX solutions deliver the industry’s lowest operating voltage, with the ability to operate at 0.4 volt ultralow power and at 1 pico amp per micron for ultralow standby leakage. 22FDX solutions are manufactured on GF’s state-of-the-art 300mm production line at Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany.

GAP9’s architecture combines an autonomous, intelligent peripheral controller and streamer capable of processing data on the fly, with a trans-precision compute cluster capable of energy scaled performance from a few MOPs up to 150 GOPs. The level of performance provided enables real-time, ultra-low power processing of state of the art recurrent and convolutional neural networks (NN). With GAP9, hearable and wearable products can now provide voice pickup features that were up to now only feasible in cloud-assisted applications.

The intelligent peripheral controller in GAP9 includes a revolutionary new building block for digital filtering: the smart filter unit (SFU). The SFU is an application specific stream processor designed to perfectly blend ultra-low latency, ultra-low power filtering with the flexibility of traditional cores. The SFU’s data is streams, its instructions are filters and its program is a graph of filters. The SFU revolutionizes Audio Filter development for Active Noise Cancellation, Spatial Sound and other general music and voice stream filtering, blending microsecond latency with AI based filter adaptation at market leading energy levels.

The combination of the intelligent peripheral controller and streamer and the cluster delivers a single, unified architecture for control application, NN, DSP and filtering.

GAP9 simplifies hearables development through a homogeneous design, which provides DSP, Neural Network acceleration and ultra-low latency audio streams processing with a RISC-V based core architecture combined with a complete development flow for integrated neural network and audio filter design.

GreenWaves is partnering with leaders in the audio algorithmic and tools industry to offer our customers the state of the art in sound quality and user experience.

GAP9 is already enjoying strong customer traction and will be in volume production in Summer 2021.

1 Strategy Analytics, MOBILE ACCESSORIES: Global Bluetooth Headset Sales Forecast to 2025, July 2020         

About GreenWaves Technologies

GreenWaves Technologies, a fabless semiconductor company, designs disruptive ultra-low power embedded solutions for interpreting and transforming rich data sources such as images, sounds, radar signatures and vibrations using AI and signal processing in highly power-constrained devices such as hearables, wearables and IoT sensors. Founded in 2014, GreenWaves’ mission is to revolutionize the market for next generation hearable devices and intelligent sensors. The company is headquartered in Grenoble, France. For more information, visit www.greenwaves-technologies.com.

About GF

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. GF delivers differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable its customers to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of customers across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit www.globalfoundries.com.

Contacts:

Martin Croome
GreenWaves Technologies
+33 6 07289900
martin.croome@greenwaves-technologies.com

Michael Mullaney
GLOBALFOUNDRIES
+1 518-305-1597
michael.mullaney@globalfoundries.com

 

CSEM Joins Forces with GLOBALFOUNDRIES to Deliver Best-in-Class Bluetooth Dual-Mode Silicon IP for Next Generation Portable Audio

CSEM announced today at the GF Global Technology Conference EMEA that it has released its Bluetooth Dual-Mode silicon IP on GF’s 22FDX platform for next generation of portable audio devices …

GF’s AutoPro™ Solutions Drive Automotive Electronics Forward

by Gary Dagastine

Today, “4D” on a car’s window sticker means it’s a four-door model, but that designation soon may come to mean something else, too. At least that’s the hope of GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ customer Arbe, a world leader in automotive-grade chipset for so-called 4D imaging radar systems. 4D radar enables higher levels of safety and autonomous driving capability, because unlike existing automotive radar systems, it doesn’t just alert the vehicle about an object in the lane ahead. Instead, it actually sees hundreds of objects in the vehicle’s environment in great detail, including vehicles, pedestrians and stationary objects. It detects their movements in real-time, providing dynamic, free-space mapping of the vehicles’ surroundings.

Arbe’s 4D imaging radar chipset, enabled by GF’s 22FDXTM platform, is only the latest example of the fundamental changes taking place in the brave new world of automotive electronics. It’s a fast-growing, compelling end-market for semiconductors because chips are essential to the industry’s efforts to differentiate vehicles from one another for competitive reasons, and to make all cars and trucks more connected, efficient, and autonomous in general.

That’s why the average semiconductor content related to safety and electrification in a mid-range car continues to grow, from $410 in 2018 to an estimated $643 in 2025, and an estimated $1,097 in 2030, representing an annual growth rate of around 8.5 percent, according to a recent IHS Markit report.

How quaint the first automotive use of a microprocessor now seems – a modified Motorola 6820 which ran a dashboard mileage display in the 1978 Cadillac Seville1 – compared to the diverse semiconductor technologies used in today’s vehicles.

This growth in automotive applications could hardly be more favorable for GF, though, because as the world’s leading specialty foundry, GF’s broad portfolio of differentiated solutions and its AutoPro™ Solutions service package uniquely support all automotive technical, packaging/testing, sourcing and quality requirements.

For example, the 22FDX platform is not only ideal for many short- and long-range radar applications, it also offers outstanding signal processing capabilities for cameras, and low-power, real-time functionality for ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) applications. Its high power-added efficiency (PAE) reduces the thermal budget, making it versatile for uses in vehicle chassis and bodies where thermal performance is key, such as for radar sensors embedded in foam bumpers.

GF’s HP SiGe platform, meanwhile, is the gold standard for image quality in long-range automotive radar, and offers unparalleled response times for LIDAR (light-based) sensors. GF’s 12LP FinFET solutions, on the other hand, provide the ultra-fast, high-performance compute power needed for autonomous driving, AI inferencing and sophisticated in-vehicle infotainment capabilities.

For vehicle control, GF’s various BCD/BCDLite® solutions for analog, power, mixed-signal and RF applications enable state-of-the-art powertrain control and battery management, among other functions. Rounding out the offerings, GF’s 130/55/40nm CMOS solutions, some of which incorporate rugged embedded nonvolatile memory (eNVM), are used in a wide range of applications, from short-range radar and LIDAR to all manner of vehicle controls (e.g. windows, mirrors, seat adjustments, etc.).

However, the raw performance of any semiconductor technology is only part of what automakers need. Automotive electronics also require much higher levels of quality, reliability and documentation than traditional applications, because vehicles must operate properly and reliably in all weather, road, and traffic conditions over long service lives.

Suppliers must certify that their chips will withstand the temperature extremes, shocks/vibrations, and other harsh conditions found in many of the operating environments within a vehicle, such as the engine compartment, because, as Michael Brucker, GF’s Senior Manager of Automotive Systems, put it: “Let’s face it, in a car the best-case outcome for part failures would be that you’d have to spend money on repairs, but the worst case outcome could be fatal.”

Brucker leads GF’s automotive-related corporate policies and programs, which involve all GF fabs and business units so that the company’s automotive policies, systems and procedures are coordinated, implemented properly and continually improved.

GF’s AutoPro Solutions Manage Complexity

A cornerstone of this effort is GF’s AutoPro Solutions service package, which since its introduction in 2017 has evolved into a major corporate effort to manage the complexities that come with serving the automotive marketplace.

Under the AutoPro umbrella, GF works to meet customer performance requirements, manages the design and manufacturing process, provides turnkey assembly and test services, and takes any and all actions needed to meet required AEC (Automotive Electronics Council) quality standards from Grade 3 to Grade 0, which encompass all present requirements plus evolving ones that call for more autonomous vehicle capabilities.

AutoPro grew out of the realization that the automotive industry expects deeper partnerships with its suppliers than commercial customers do. For example, Brucker described a meeting in Dresden which GF hosted a couple of years ago with representatives of the AEC and OEMs, including BMW, Renault, Volkswagen, GM (by phone) and others. “One fellow pulled me off to the side and said he was concerned that there are a lot of Johnny-Come-Lately chip suppliers in the automotive market, who’ve maybe had success in traditional data processing applications but who’ve never worked in automotive before and see it as a fertile market.

“He said that these suppliers may meet IATF 16949 and other standards, and so they think they’re all set, but he said was worried, because companies like GF that have been in the market for a while know there’s a lot more to it, such as how to handle outsourced assembly and test effectively. I think his comments describe in a nutshell the need for our AutoPro Solutions package,” said Brucker.

AutoPro is a customer relations management framework built on GF’s technology readiness, quality systems and the operational controls running through all GF fabs. “Say a customer comes to us with a design,” Brucker said. “Maybe that design is robust enough to meet all necessary automotive quality requirements, maybe it isn’t. AutoPro enables us to pull resources from every relevant area of our organization in an integrated fashion to ensure that the design is capable and robust enough for the intended use, producible on the required timeline, and that it will lead to a quality part. If not, we work with the customer to change it, based on our decade-plus experience serving automotive customers.”

Differing Needs Demand Different Solutions

Brucker’s comments are echoed by Matthias Klude, GF’s Account Manager for EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), based in Dresden. “The automotive industry is conservative in how it chooses suppliers, which means it isn’t sufficient just to create great applications. Suppliers also need to have the customer’s mindset – the drive for zero emissions in production and zero defects in the product and so on,” he said.

That’s hard to achieve, though, because the various industry players have different viewpoints and needs. The automakers, or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), he explained, have two core concerns. One is how to differentiate their vehicles from the competition. “Some 90 percent of new automotive features are driven by electronics, and, in fact, some OEMs have found that trying to develop these solutions by going through their Tier One suppliers sometimes simply takes too long, so they are working directly with us,” he said. “The other core concern of automotive OEMs is quality, because they are the ones who’ll suffer the most from quality lapses.”

By contrast, he said, Tier One suppliers such as Bosch, Continental, Delphi and others, who supply automotive-grade parts and systems to the OEMs, face huge cost pressures and also are risk-averse. “They have a great need for custom solutions but this becomes increasingly difficult when traditional silicon suppliers want to sell their standard platforms. There is no perfect match and thus you pay extra for something you do not need but still could be an additional potential source of failure,” Klude said.

Meanwhile, newer, smaller, innovative fabless chip suppliers such as Arbe need entirely new and soup-to-nuts solutions for new applications such as 4D imaging radar, and GF must meet these needs as well. Avi Bauer, Arbe’s Vice President of R&D, said, “On the one hand, we need to reach high levels of reliability and quality, but on the other, our solutions must remain affordable, and the cost should be competitive and provide the highest value proposition”

“GF’s experience in the automotive market has enabled the creation of a silicon process for us that meets both goals, with cost-effective digital content and the highest millimetric-wave RF performance,” he said. “At the same time, as a close partner of Arbe, GF supports both our silicon manufacturing and our post-silicon activities. We get significant field support for design-related process handling, and GF acts as Arbe’s supply-line management focal point. In that role, GF is responsible for our packaging, testing, supply management, and RMA (warranty) management.”

“Having GF as our silicon supplier helps us to deliver our differentiation and eases our market penetration path to major automotive players,” Bauer said.

The Road Ahead Looks Good

Sudipto Bose, GF’s Senior Director & Business Unit Leader for Radar and Automotive Sensors, said that semiconductors will continue to bring vastly greater capabilities and features to transportation systems, and in the process make our world a better and safer place.

“Electronics has brought about many significant societal transformations, such as the pervasive connectivity that benefits our lives. One of the next ones, alongside the Green Revolution, is mobility. I tell my kids that if you can participate in something that can change the way you live in 20 years for the better, that’s a good thing to do. And we here at GLOBALFOUNDRIES are helping to make it happen.”

 

[1] https://www.embedded.com/motoring-with-microprocessors/

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Announces New 22FDX+ Platform, Extending FDX Leadership with Specialty Solutions for IoT and 5G Mobility

22FDX+ platform builds upon the success of GF’s industry-leading

22FDX platform, with more than 350 million chips shipped

Santa Clara, Calif., September 24, 2020 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®), the world’s leading specialty foundry, announced today at its Global Technology Conference the next generation of its FDXTM platform, 22FDX+, to meet the ever-growing need for higher performance and ultra-low power requirements of connected devices. GF’s industry-leading 22FDX® (22nm FD-SOI) platform has realized $4.5 billion in design wins, with more than 350 million chips shipped to customers around the world.

GF’s new 22FDX+ builds on the company’s 22FDX platform, offering a broader set of features that provide high performance, ultra-low power, and specialty features and capabilities for the newest generation of designs. The differentiated offering will further empower customers to create chips that are specifically optimized for Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, automotive, and satellite communications applications.

“Dialog creates highly integrated, energy-efficient SoCs and specialty memory devices optimized for connecting the Internet of Things,” said Jalal Bagherli, CEO of Dialog Semiconductor. “GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 22FDX+ platform, with its advanced RF performance, low power capabilities, and comprehensive platform features, is a key enabling technology that allows us to stay at the forefront of our industry for the next generation of these IoT products.”

“We are proud to partner with Dialog, and work together to leverage both companies’ ultra-low power, high performance RF capabilities, and embedded memory to advance the frontier of connectivity into the ever-growing IoT market,” said Mike Hogan, senior vice president and general manager of Automotive, Industrial, and Multi-Market at GF. “The launch of GF’s differentiated 22FDX+ platform will strengthen our collaboration with Dialog, and accelerate the incredible advancements in IoT that are already changing our lives.”

The first specialty solution to be available on GF’s new 22FDX+ platform will be 22FDX RF+. With digital and RF enhancements, the new 22FDX RF+ solution is optimized to boost the performance of front-end-module (FEM) designs. The 22FDX RF+ specialty solution will be available in Q1 2021, and manufactured on GF’s state-of-the-art 300mm production line at Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany.

About GF

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. GF delivers differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable its customers to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of customers across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit www.globalfoundries.com.

Contact:

Michael Mullaney

GLOBALFOUNDRIES

518-305-1597

michael.mullaney@globalfoundries.com

28HV Solution Accelerates GLOBALFOUNDRIES Leadership in OLED Display Drivers for Mobile Devices

With more than 75 million units shipped to leading smartphone suppliers, GF’s 28HV solution is optimized to enable faster, brighter, sharper, and more power-efficient OLED displays

Santa Clara, Calif., September 24, 2020 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®), the world’s leading specialty foundry, today announced it has shipped more than 75 million units of its new 28HV specialized semiconductor solution for organic-light emitting diode (OLED) display drivers to suppliers of leading smartphone makers. The announcement was made at GF’s annual Global Technology Conference (GTC).

Built on GF’s 28nm platform, the new 28HV specialty solution is optimized to enable faster, brighter, and sharper OLED displays with more power-efficient variable refresh rates. The performance provided by 28HV’s area-efficient high-voltage design, optimized standard cells, and high-density memories position GF for further leadership in the display driver space, as mobile phone makers continue to transition from liquid crystal displays (LCDs) to lower power OLED displays.

GF’s 28HV solution entered volume production in Q4 2019. GF is the only pure play foundry in production today on 28nm technology for display applications.

“We are proud to be the leader in OLED display driver integrated circuits (OLED DDIC). Driven by our relentless pursuit of cutting-edge technology, we have consistently held the top position in the non-captive market for the last 13 years,” said YJ Kim, CEO of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation. “OLED technology will continue to expand into the global smartphone market driven by 5G ramp-up and will also further penetrate into new applications such as TV and automotive. We will continue to churn out more innovative products with our long-established design know-how and lowest power 28-nanometer technology, and we are encouraged by successive momentum for this growing product family. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is an important partner for us, as we continue along our trajectory of success in the OLED DDIC market.”

GF was the first pure-play semiconductor foundry to produce OLED display drivers, starting with its 55nm platform. The new 28HV solution is the latest milestone on GF’s OLED roadmap, which started with 55nm, and includes 40nm, and 28nm. To date, GF has shipped more than 135 million total units of its 55nm and 40nm OLED display driver solutions.

“GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the clear leader in specialty semiconductor solutions for the mobile phone market. GF silicon enables so much of what you love about and have come to expect from your smartphone – reliable connectivity, great sound, sharp display, and more,” said Bami Bastani, senior vice president of Mobile and Wireless Infrastructure at GF. “GF and MagnaChip have an unmatched heritage of developing and manufacturing analog and mixed-signal chips. GF’s new 28HV solution is a result of the close collaboration between our engineering teams to meet the demands of a new generation of mobile devices with smaller, more energy-efficient, ultra high definition displays.”

Several GF Ecosystem partners are approaching qualification of IP enhancements to the 28HV process design kit, which will provide designers an even more efficient design experience and faster time to market on 28HV.

GF’s 28HV solution is manufactured on GF’s state-of-the-art 300mm production line at Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany.

About GF

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. GF delivers differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable its customers to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of customers across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit www.globalfoundries.com.

Contact:

Michael Mullaney

GLOBALFOUNDRIES

518-305-1597

michael.mullaney@globalfoundries.com