Anirudh Devgan, Chief Executive Officer of Cadence Design Systems, said that the United States should increase investment in cutting-edge semiconductor packaging.
According to the head of the company, the expansion of financing programs for these activities will allow the United States to become a leader in the area of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence. This position is justified and confirmed in the practical plane. For example, complex chip packaging helped Nvidia create advanced artificial intelligence accelerators. At the same time, a limited number of suppliers is a so-called bottleneck for this company.
Assembling silicon into three-dimensional structures and overcoming physical limitations are tasks whose importance is growing against the background of the emergence of new requirements for computing technology, reducing the size of transistors and increasing the cost of manufacturing modern chips.
Anirudh Devgan stated that production is essential, but investment should also be made where the puck is going. According to him, the puck is going to 3D-IC. Cadence Design Systems is one of the three main suppliers of semiconductor design software in the world. Among the clients of this company are Nvidia and other developers of hardware for machine intelligence.
Combining so-called chiplets into a multifunctional 3D chip is one of the ways used by silicon developers as part of efforts to expand their capabilities. Currently, the desire for an ever-increasing reduction in the size of transistors is approaching the limits of the possible, beyond which there are no laws of physics and reality in its material format suitable for human life. The mentioned method helps to create chips that have a power level sufficient to calculate workloads, including generative artificial intelligence, and carry out this activity within reasonable cost limits. According to the CEO of Cadence Design Systems, for the United States, securing leadership positions on this technological front should be a priority task.
Anirudh Devgan notes that in order to deal with packaging, it is not necessary to have its own factory since in some cases chips can be assembled from different plants. He also stated that the availability of this technology is a profitable solution for the United States government. This statement should be considered in the context of the impact of scaling and development of chip packaging on the position of the USA in the global market of advanced technologies.
The Nvidia example is a clear confirmation of the correctness of Anirudh Devgan. This company has an obvious technological advantage over other representatives of the industry, but cannot fully realize it due to the limited nature of supplies resulting from the insufficient capacity of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, a manufacturer of chips for advanced artificial intelligence components.
Last week at Semicon Taiwan, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said that the shortage will continue for the next 18 months. At the end of August, Nvidia stated satisfaction with the progress in acquiring more components.
Cadence Design Systems software is an important design tool used by large and small semiconductor companies. The US Department of Commerce noted the significant role of this company in the global chip industry. Last year, this department decided to establish an export control regime over software for the development of advanced semiconductors as part of the implementation of a strategy to restrict China’s access to new-generation technologies.
Anirudh Devgan also stated that his company is currently considering applying for funding under the Chips and Science Act. This law was passed last year in order to expand the semiconductor supply chain within the borders of the United States.
As we have reported earlier, Taiwan’s Chip Firms Want Tax Fix.
