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46 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2024 critical to model and analyze before signing off on a design. It doesn't end there. Optics are also becom- ing a bigger part of the story in today's designs. e complexity of modern design flows means it's more important than ever for companies to invest in design flows and methodologies. A streamlined and optimized system-level design flow is today's competitive advantage in the world of 3D heterogeneously integrated systems. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Aer years of focusing on packing increased functionality into a single system-on-chip (SoC) design, some in the semiconductor industry think that chasing the latest node is no longer practical for most applications. In the face of PPA constraints and reticle limits, and with the high cost of production at advanced nodes skyrocketing, there is increased interest in a disaggregated approach to chip develop- ment. When cost and lower-volume products are a factor, a system-in-package (SiP) seems like the best alternative to designing an advanced- node monolithic SoC. Gordon Moore was aware of this possibility and predicted, "It may prove to be more eco- nomical to build large systems out of smaller functions, which are separately packaged and interconnected." For some applications, we have reached that predicted point. is age of "more than Moore" brings many new challenges and opportunities for designers and the tools they need to create world-class products. DESIGN007 The spin of the electron is nature's perfect quan- tum bit, capable of extending the range of information storage beyond "one" or "zero." Exploiting the elec- tron's spin degree of freedom (possible spin states) is a central goal of quantum information science. Recent progress by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researchers Joseph Orenstein, Yue Sun, Jie Yao, and Fanghao Meng has shown the potential of magnon wave packets— collective excitations of electron spins—to transport quantum information over substantial distances in a class of materials known as antiferromagnets. Elec- tron spins are responsible for magnetism in materi- als and can be thought of as tiny bar magnets. When neighboring spins are oriented in alternating direc- tions, the result is antiferromagnetic order and the arrangement produces no net magnetization. The Berkeley Lab team also showed that magnon wave packets in the antiferromagnet CrSBr (chro- mium sulfide bromide) propagate faster and over longer distances than the existing models would predict. The models assume that each electron spin couples only to its neighbors. An analogy is a system of spheres connected to near neighbors by springs; displacing one sphere from its pre- ferred position produces a wave of displacement that spreads with time. Surprisingly, such interactions pre- dict a speed of propagation that is orders of magnitude slower than the team actually observed. This long-range interaction accounts for the remarkable speed of spin pro- pagation discovered by the Berkeley Lab team. (Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Scientists Demonstrate Potential of Electron Spin to Transmit Quantum Information