Energy efficiency is one future direction researchers can pursue to address the increasingly power-hungry nature of today’s technology.

This was a major point of the keynote address The Era of Beyond Moore’s Law that Sehat Sutardja, co-founder and board chair of Silicon Box and known for being co-founder of Marvell Technology Group Ltd., delivered at the second annual conference of the Center for Integrated Circuits and Devices Research (CIDR) of the UP Diliman (UPD) Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (EEEI).

“If you look at the chips that we’re building in the last four to five years, it’s getting out of control. [The] chips they used to consume like 110 watts, maybe 200 watts, now some consume kilowatts, and it’s projected to consume two or three, even 10 kilowatts of energy,” Sutardja said.

He added that companies nowadays are investing on solving the massive energy consumption brought by modern chips.

“That’s a great opportunity to build a solution to provide these kilowatts of energy to big, modern chips. On one hand, it’s true, that’s an opportunity, but I would say that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You’re nibbling at the edges. There are even bigger opportunities, which is to solve the problem of this massive energy consumption that the modern chips have become. So this is what many companies are investing a lot in in the last four, five, six years,” Sutardja said.

Held on Aug. 12 at the Novotel Araneta City, the CIDR conference showcased the latest updates on CIDR’s research and served as a venue to strengthen existing networks for integrated circuit (IC) design.

According to EEEI Director Lew Andrew Tria, it is important to replicate and expand the network of institutions teaching IC to meet industry demand. 

“Companies are really seeking talents, that’s why they are strongly supporting this kind of program,” he said.

The conference brief states the CIDR is a three-year program by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) implemented by the EEEI in partnership with Mindanao State University–Iligan Institute of Technology. It aims to create an ecosystem of technology development to “produce and maintain a critical mass of graduate-level integrated circuit designers.”

There are four component projects under the program: Energy-Efficient RF [radio frequency] Front-End Architectures for Large-Scale Sensor Networks, Model-Driven Co-Design of MEMS-Based Sensors and Interface Circuits, Energy Efficient Machine Learning Hardware Co-Design, and Energy Harvesting for Battery-less IoT [internet of things] Device Operation.

Project lectures were delivered in the afternoon of the conference as posters of some smaller projects were on display at the conference venue.

The conference was capped off by a multi-sectoral forum with the theme Shaping the Future of IC Design in the Philippines: Integrative Approaches by Government, Industry, and Academe.

Discussed at the forum was the development and growth of the Philippine semiconductor industry which currently makes up nearly 63% of the country’s exports, according to a report from the Department of Trade and Industry.

One of the points highlighted during the forum was the need to increase the talent pool of IC design engineers in the country. This is a need that the CIDR wants to fulfill as it aims to create a network of “mirror laboratories” in member universities to teach students microelectronics and IC design. 

The forum gathered academe, government, and industry representatives, who discussed the state and future of the IC design ecosystem in the Philippines.

Moderated by EEEI professorial lecturer Rafael Nestor Mantaring, the panel consisted of Lendl Israel Alunan from semiconductor company Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI); Juan Luis Ng of IC design firm Xinyx Design; Glenn Quiro of Apl.de.Ap Foundation International; Adonis Santos, dean of the College of Engineering at First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities Colleges; and June Villasanta from the Department of Trade and Industry Board of Investments.

Also present at the conference were UPD officials headed by Vice Chancellor for Research and Development Carl Michael F. Odulio representing Chancellor Edgardo Carlo L. Vistan II.

The second CIDR conference was organized by the EEEI and sponsored by the DOST, ADI, Apl.de.Ap Foundation International, Xinyx Design, and Embedded Silicon Technology Solutions Corporation.