Month: November 2014

The Imitation Game

November 27, 2014

The imitation Game

We rarely do film reviews – mainly because we rarely see films that are relevant – but the Imitation Game is about Alan Turing, the breaking of the German Enigma code and the invention of the computer. Or is it?

Turing was a mathematical genius, probably well along the Asperger’s spectrum, worked as a code-breaker, was gay, and whether he invented the computer or was the catalyst that helped others define a computer, is one of history’s great debates.

The film works through flashbacks from 1952, when he is being interrogated … Read More → "The Imitation Game"

Verdi: Not Just for Debug Anymore

by Dick Selwood

November 25, 2014

There’s a bit of repositioning going on in EDA-land. It involves Synopsys’s popular Verdi tool, acquired through the SpringSoft purchase. Conceived as a flexible debug tool, it also has an open scripting environment that gives engineers access to data in the fast signal database (FSDB) file. With that capability, folks have been bolting analysis utilities onto Verdi for a while on an ad hoc basis.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed at Synopsys, and they’re now in the process of repositioning Verdi: it’s not just for debug anymore. While … Read More → "Verdi: Not Just for Debug Anymore"

Two Weeks of MEMS and Sensors

by Kevin Morris

November 20, 2014

The last couple weeks have involved two events with sensors center-stage. The MEMS Executive Congress is a confab of executives from the MEMS industry (and some non-MEMS companies), put on by the MEMS Industry Group (MIG). It’s been around for years.

TSensors, by contrast, started last year as a push by MEMS luminary Janusz Bryzek to identify and eliminate roadblocks to … Read More → "Two Weeks of MEMS and Sensors"

Wireless Power: Making Actual Product

by Kevin Morris

November 18, 2014

Things have been a bit quiet on the wireless power front, but occasionally I’ll become aware of a new player and will dig in to find out how they work. In particular, given that there are now two main competing resonant (e-field) charging standards, it’s interesting to learn where the various … Read More → "Wireless Power: Making Actual Product"

A Dev Board with Both Touch and Gestures

by Kevin Morris

November 13, 2014

How do people want to interact with their machines? Some of us are most productive with mouse and keyboard (although I keep seeing presentations complaining that we’ve had them for too long – as if we need to get rid of them even if they’re the best tool for some jobs).

Touch has obviously taken over a large number of systems, and for many things, it’s simpler and more obvious (never mind that trying to make it be everything for everyone doesn’t work…). Most importantly, it’s … Read More → "A Dev Board with Both Touch and Gestures"

Express Logic’s X-Ware Platform

by Jim Turley

November 11, 2014

The Internet of Things (IoT) is all about platforms. Exactly what constitutes a “platform” is unobvious and left to the reader, however. In some cases, they’re so obscure that you have to pull teeth to find out what the platform actually contains.

Many of the platforms are about the connection between Things and the Cloud (and the Phone). But Express Logic recently introduced their X-Ware Platform, targeted at IoT applications, and its focus is on basic Thing OS and middleware: all of the pieces that allow a Thing to communicate, take on peripherals, … Read More → "Express Logic’s X-Ware Platform"