News

Xilinx Acquires Silexica, a Former Startup Co-founded by Prof. Jeronimo Castrillon

Published on Mon, 14 Jun 2021 in NEWS

Fantastic news from the markets: On June 10, 2021 Xilinx, a world leader in FPGA technology with around 5,000 employees, announced the acquisition of Silexica. The company Silexica providing software development tools was co-founded bei cfaed professor Jeronimo Castrillon (Chair for Compiler Construction) in 2014. It once was a spin-off of his work at the ICE Institute at the RWTH Aachen together with Weihua Sheng, Max Odendahl, and his doctoral advisor Prof. Rainer Leupers. Silexica has been successfully producing bleeding edge C/C++ compilers and programming technology for heterogeneous computing systems since then, and secured over 28 million USD from international investors in the process. First seed funding has been provided via the BMBF EXIST program, and early technology adopters from industry included Huawei and Samsung.

"We are particularly looking forward to see the result of the integration of Silexica’s SLX FPGA with Xilinx’ VitisTM", says professor Castrillon. "The CC Chair is proud of Maximilian Odendahl (Silexica’s CEO), Johannes Emigholz (Silexica’s COO), and the rest of the team at Silexica for the amazing work over the past years!"

Tuning the Energy Gap: A Novel Approach for Organic Semiconductors

Published on Thu, 10 Jun 2021 in PRESS RELEASES

illustration of different molecules against a crystal structure — Varying the ratio of 3T molecules (foreground) and 6T molecules (indicated in the background) in the blend allows tuning the gap continuously. Credit: Sebastian Hutsch, Frank Ortmann

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What is already established for inorganic semiconductors stays a challenge for their organic counterparts: Tuning the energy gap by blending different semiconducting molecules to optimize device performance. Now, scientists from TU Dresden, in cooperation with researchers at TU Munich, as well as University of Würzburg, HU Berlin, and Ulm University demonstrated how to reach this goal.

Lead Halide Perovskites – a Horse of a Different Color

Published on Mon, 07 Jun 2021 in PRESS RELEASES

Illustration of a horse running over a ground which resembles a schematic crystal lattice — © Y. Vaynzof

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In a joint experimental and theoretical effort between Lund University (Sweden), the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia), and the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden at Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), researchers developed a novel spectroscopic technique for the study of charge carrier dynamics in lead halide perovskites - publication in the renowned journal Nature Communications.

Epidemic explosion despite careful testing?

Published on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 in PRESS RELEASES

little figures carefully handling a covid test bar — Photo: Marco Federmann / Pixabay.

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Scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) and at the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed / Technische Universität Dresden) show that little differences in behavior decide between success and complete failure of epidemic control. In their study, the scientists were able to show that limits in testing and contact tracing are responsible for this sudden change in the epidemic outcome. Testing followed up by contact tracing is extremely efficient in slowing down epidemics, however once their limit is exceeded the epidemic accelerates resulting in a faster than exponential spread. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Between Financial Incentive and Limited Convenience: Research Team Investigates Ride-sharing Decisions

Published on Tue, 01 Jun 2021 in PRESS RELEASES

illustration of different transportation models — Illustration: Christiane Kunath

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An interdisciplinary research team from TU Dresden at the Chair of Network Dynamics headed by Prof. Marc Timme (Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden – cfaed & Institute of Theoretical Physics) has studied people's motivation to use "shared mobility" offers. In ride-sharing, trips of two or more customers with similar origins and destinations are combined into a single cab ride. The concept can make a significant contribution to sustainable urban mobility. However, its acceptance depends on human needs and behavior. For example, while shared rides typically offer a financial advantage, passengers might suffer drawbacks in terms of comfort and trip duration. These factors give rise to different adoption behaviors that explain usage patterns observed in 360 million real-world ride requests from New York City and Chicago in 2019. The study has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.