MAY 1, 1992
This year's 14th Annual IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC)... is one of the biggest to date. Some 30 technical sessions, with over 170 papers, cover a wide range of subjects. On the digital side, the latest, fastest, and densest CMOS and biCMOS processor, memory, and logic designs are explored. CMOS dominates the analog and mixed-signal side, with designs running the gamut from systems on a chip, to managing utility power, to complete hearing aids. To design these circuits, the CICC unveils the latest developments in mixed-signal design automation and synthesis technologies. Also examined are the latest in testing technologies for mixed-signal and analog ICs, as well as data-compaction and boundary-scan testing techniques. (Technology Analysis, p. 41)
In addition, a wealth of communication-IC designs using a variety of CMOS, biCMOS, and gallium-arsenide processes highlight the conference's technical program in at least three sessions.
Flashback > 25 Years Ago
APRIL 26, 1977
The problem with flat, flexible cable (FFC) is less one of troublesome specs and more one of filtering out the right cable from the hundreds of kinds available today. After that, most FFC problems settle around cost, reliability, and production headaches.
In fact, the virtues of FFC are so many, it's a wonder that conventional round cable is not yet a distant memory—especially after you've listened to the FFC manufacturer's claims. There's no doubt that FFC can save weight and space. It can carry more current per cross-section, and it has lower propagation delay than conventional wiring.... But.... No one FFC can improve on round cables in every respect. And test methods for FFCs are not yet standardized. (Focus Report, p. 60)
Flashback > 40 Years Ago
APRIL 26, 1962
Several recently developed devices depend for their operation on bulk, rather than junction, effects in semiconductors and other materials.
These experimental devices are evidence of a trend to attain new circuit functions and improve performance of existing elements by exploiting physical phenomena now barely sampled....
The general advantages of bulk effects are that they permit new circuit functions, such as coherent phonon generation, and provide a potentially rewarding approach to some circuit functions that are difficult to achieve. (News, p. 4)
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