2013 – Page 3 – EEJournal

Marking Up Your Two Cents

November 13, 2013

We have already looked at some of the touch technology presented at last month’s Interactive Technology Summit. But the same touch and stylus overview presented by Ricoh’s John Barrus addressed another issue: markup.

Much of the touch technology is targeted at large format screens, including interactive whiteboards. But the key to many such devices is interactivity: multiple people in multiple places contributing to the content of the board. Doing that apparently isn’t easy using existing products: he noted that … Read More → "Marking Up Your Two Cents"

Gesture Progress

by Jim Turley

November 12, 2013

At the recent Interactive Technology Summit (erstwhile Touch Gesture Motion), gesture was featured more on the day I was checking out the TSensors summit. But I did get a chance to talk both to PointGrab and eyeSight to see what has transpired over the last year.

These two companies both aim at similar spaces, gunning for supremacy in laptops, phones, and other household electronics (HVAC, white goods, etc.). Part of the game … Read More → "Gesture Progress"

Going Expensive to Reduce Interposer Cost

by Bryon Moyer

November 11, 2013

Imec has been working 2,5D IC issues with a particular focus on optimizing costs and, in particular, test yields. Yields can take what might have been straightforward-looking cost numbers and make things not so clear.

In their work on interposers, Eric Beyne took a look at three different ways of routing the signals from a wide-I/O memory. These puppies have lots of connections – like, 1200 per chip. He … Read More → "Going Expensive to Reduce Interposer Cost"

A Touch Technology Update

by Jim Turley

November 5, 2013

This year’s Interactive Technology Summit took the place of what has been the Touch Gesture Motion conference of the last two years. It was expanded to four days instead of two, and it was moved to downtown San Jose from last year’s Austin retreat (a posh golf resort a $30 cab ride from anything except golf). The content also took on displays in general as a topic to which the last day was dedicated.

So, with a broader brief, it braved the vagaries of being located where all the engineers are. In other words, … Read More → "A Touch Technology Update"

Simpler MEMS Models for ASIC Designers

by Amelia Dalton

October 31, 2013

Some time back, we took a look at the library of mechanical elements in Coventor’s MEMS+ tool for building MEMS device models. In the “be careful what you wish for” category, making it easier to connect elements into models meant that engineers started connecting more elements into models, and the models got bigger.

Big models can stress a tool out, resulting in slow results and resource starvation.

Well, they’ve just released version 4 of MEMS+, which … Read More → "Simpler MEMS Models for ASIC Designers"

Qualcomm Plugs In @ Home

by Jim Turley

October 30, 2013

It almost sounds too good to be true. You plug in your new connectable gadget, and not only do you get power, but you’re also connected to high-speed data with no further wires.

People have talked about using home electrical wiring for communicating for a long time, but it doesn’t seem to have gotten much traction – at least not in the US. (Ok, not that I’ve noticed, anyway.) Given the big clunky unshielded wiring, I’ve more or less assumed (without really thinking about it) that they weren’ … Read More → "Qualcomm Plugs In @ Home"

CEVA Goes for Base Stations

by Kevin Morris

October 29, 2013

Mobile communications have been one of CEVA’s focus areas (others being audio and images). If you’re new to CEVA, they do DSP cores for SoCs, focusing on low power as a critical feature. (They have lots of hardware features, but at the end of the day, whether it’s a hardware accelerator or an optimized instruction set, it all leads to lower power and longer battery life.)

< … Read More →

Programmable SoCs?

by Amelia Dalton

October 28, 2013

The scene: a top-secret conference room in the West of England.

Present: a group of high-powered technical guys.

Topic: The next stage in project X

We are now shipping quantities of project X. The press are going to start asking where we go next

We will soon be able to announce that Sony is using an 8 core device in their new headphone amplifier.

That’s good

And we are going to give away 2500 startKits and then sell more for only $14.99.</ … Read More → "Programmable SoCs?"

LinkedIn’s Man in the Middle?

by Amelia Dalton

October 25, 2013

LinkedIn has just introduced a new phone app called Intro that helps provide information to you about LinkedIn members when they send you email. That info is added to the email itself. Or something like that.

Now… before I go much further, I have to admit (to anyone that hasn’t already seen this obvious point in some of my earlier stuff) that I still hold to quaint notions about privacy and keeping control over my own things and any statements or messages ascribed to me. When I tried to install the Facebook app on … Read More → "LinkedIn’s Man in the Middle?"

Breker Supplements Simulation

by Amelia Dalton

October 17, 2013

We’ve talked about Breker’s C-level test generation tools a couple of times in the past. But the context for that discussion was simulation – the tests were run in the virtual domain.

But not all validation happens there. There are several scenarios where hardware platforms contribute to the verification plan. Emulators are one good example, where programmable hardware elements implement newly-designed logic so that extensive testing that might be too slow for simulation – in particular, running software – can … Read More → "Breker Supplements Simulation"