Latest news with #chiparchitecture
Reuters
19-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Top semiconductor lab imec eyes 'programmable' AI chips, CEO says
AMSTERDAM, May 19 (Reuters) - The CEO of imec, one of the world's top semiconductor R&D firms, has said the industry needs to steer towards reconfigurable chip architectures if it wants to avoid becoming a bottleneck for the future generations of artificial intelligence. Rapid AI algorithm innovation outpaces the current strategy of developing specific, raw-power-focused chips, leading to major drawbacks in energy, cost and hardware development speed, CEO Luc Van den hove said in a statement seen by Reuters ahead of its publication. "There is a huge inherent risk of stranded assets because by the time the AI hardware is finally ready, the fast-moving AI software community may have taken a different turn," he said. Some, like OpenAI, have taken the path of building custom chips to speed up innovation, a move Van den hove said was risky and uneconomical for most. The Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (imec) pioneers many semiconductor breakthroughs that chipmakers like TSMC ( opens new tab and Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab often widely adopt years down the line. As the AI industry moves beyond large language models to agentic AI and physical AI for medical or autonomous driving applications, Van den hove sees future chips regrouping all necessary capabilities into building blocks called supercells. "A network-on-chip will steer and reconfigure these supercells so they can be quickly adapted to the latest algorithm requirements," Van den hove said. This will require true three dimensional stacking, a manufacturing technique where layers of logic and memory silicon are bonded together, he added. Belgium-based imec was a significant contributor to the advancement and refinement of 3D stacking, a technology that will be featured in TSMC's A14 and Intel's 18A-PT future nodes. The research and development firm will hold its flagship conference, ITF World, on Tuesday and Wednesday in Antwerp, Belgium.
CNA
19-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Top semiconductor lab imec eyes 'programmable' AI chips, CEO says
AMSTERDAM :The CEO of imec, one of the world's top semiconductor R&D firms, has said the industry needs to steer towards reconfigurable chip architectures if it wants to avoid becoming a bottleneck for the future generations of artificial intelligence. Rapid AI algorithm innovation outpaces the current strategy of developing specific, raw-power-focused chips, leading to major drawbacks in energy, cost and hardware development speed, CEO Luc Van den hove said in a statement seen by Reuters ahead of its publication. "There is a huge inherent risk of stranded assets because by the time the AI hardware is finally ready, the fast-moving AI software community may have taken a different turn," he said. Some, like OpenAI, have taken the path of building custom chips to speed up innovation, a move Van den hove said was risky and uneconomical for most. The Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (imec) pioneers many semiconductor breakthroughs that chipmakers like TSMC and Intel often widely adopt years down the line. As the AI industry moves beyond large language models to agentic AI and physical AI for medical or autonomous driving applications, Van den hove sees future chips regrouping all necessary capabilities into building blocks called supercells. "A network-on-chip will steer and reconfigure these supercells so they can be quickly adapted to the latest algorithm requirements," Van den hove said. This will require true three dimensional stacking, a manufacturing technique where layers of logic and memory silicon are bonded together, he added. Belgium-based imec was a significant contributor to the advancement and refinement of 3D stacking, a technology that will be featured in TSMC's A14 and Intel's 18A-PT future nodes. The research and development firm will hold its flagship conference, ITF World, on Tuesday and Wednesday in Antwerp, Belgium.
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Chip tech provider Arm forecasts first-quarter revenue below estimates
May 7 (Reuters) - Arm Holdings forecast first-quarter sales and profit below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as global trade tensions threaten revenue from its chip architecture used across the smartphone and data center industries. While Arm's fourth-quarter revenue slightly beat analysts' estimates, companies across the board have provided cautious quarterly forecasts as sweeping global tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump and tighter U.S. curbs on the export of advanced semiconductors to key chip market China have clouded the outlook for semiconductor firms. Arm shares fell 7.4% in after-hours trading after the forecast. Arm's chip technology powers nearly every smartphone in the world, and the UK-based company has attempted to make inroads in data centers and other markets. The company forecast first-quarter revenue of $1.00 billion to $1.10 billion, with a midpoint below analysts' average estimate of $1.10 billion. Arm CEO Rene Haas told Reuters that the below-expectations guidance is due to a large licensing deal that may not close during the fiscal first quarter. Haas said that royalty revenue growth will be between 25% and 30% in the fiscal first quarter, higher than in the fiscal fourth quarter. "Why are we guiding slightly below consensus - it's really down to licensing," Haas said. "We just want to be prudent relative to some large deals that we have visibility on." Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, a major customer, flagged the addition of $900 million to costs this quarter from supply chain shifts to minimize the impact of the ongoing trade war. Shifting trade policies are likely to hurt consumer demand, bringing on a possible decline in the smartphone market this year, according to research firm Counterpoint. Arm expects adjusted profit of 30 to 38 cents per share for the first quarter, compared with estimates of 42 cents per share. Haas said that profit forecast was due to the assumption that a licensing deal may not close in the quarter. Arm makes money via licensing deals for its intellectual property and a royalty charged for each chip sold that uses its technology. Arm's revenue in individual quarters can be volatile based on the timing of individual licensing deals. The company reported fourth-quarter sales of $1.24 billion, slightly above estimates. Adjusted profit of 55 cents per share in that period beat estimates for a profit of 52 cents per share. Sales in the fourth quarter were "driven by increased deployment of our CSS platforms across AI (artificial intelligence) data centers, cloud compute and mobile," CEO Rene Haas said in a statement, referring to the company's comprehensive blueprints for chips. The company's chip architecture competes against Intel and AMD's longstanding x86 stronghold in the server central processor market- a booming area in the AI market where central processing units are used alongside advanced graphics processors in modern data centers.
