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Zigbee/Thread Collaboration

Zigbee has a long history and is presumably familiar to our readers (at least at some level). It’s got the 802.15.4 physical layer, its own middle network/transport layers, and then profiles (in the Cluster Library) at the top application layer.

Those profiles define specific behaviors for a wide variety of devices; they define what I’ve referred to as “business object” semantics. Their value is in interoperability: you can share a Read More → "Zigbee/Thread Collaboration"

Driving ADAS

ARM reckons that the computational power in your car is set to increase by 100X in the next ten years, mainly through the growth of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems). These systems use sensors of many kinds to gather information about the environment, process it, and present it to the driver. While at one level all that ADAS is doing is what a reasonably alert driver does- notices speed limit signs, the position of other vehicles etc, at the next level it gets more exciting. In poor light conditions ADAS can use visual light and RADAR sensors to see … Read More → "Driving ADAS"

AMD Pulls the Plug on SeaMicro

One-third of a billion dollars doesn’t go as far as it used to. AMD acquired SeaMicro in 2012 for $334 million, hoping to jump into the hot (at the time) market for “microservers,” machines that use a lot of small microprocessors instead of just a few big ones. Now, AMD has killed off the entire product line and reassigned the staff.

SeaMicro wasn’t one of the many ARM-based server startups. Instead, it used small x86 processors to make its microservers, an obvious selling point for AMD. Nevertheless, AMD is moving forward with its ARM-based server chips, including … Read More → "AMD Pulls the Plug on SeaMicro"

Getting Onto the IoT

Today we talk IoT enablement. Two sources with different goals.

The first one is a platform called iChipNet from ConnectOne (we’ve seen their modules before). And it’s brought to you by a concern for interoperability, which they see as a big barrier to IoT adoption.

When we think “interop,” often we think about hardware compatibility – sensors from different sources working with hubs and brokers and what not, humming away like a well-tuned orchestra. But … Read More → "Getting Onto the IoT"

For the reason’s posted under “I

For the reason’s posted under “Intel Plus Altera
What Would it Mean?” … Intel simply doesn’t need Altera, or Xilinx IP.

Everything that is important they will need to engineer themselves anyway, and that isn’t very much. A co-processor FPGA fabric is a very very different beast than today’s Altera and Xilinx FPGA’s.

Done right, and Intel will redefine computing … and implemented from XEON’s to Atom SOC offerings, so that Xilinx and Altera will spend the next decade playing catchup. Game over.

And with it, new important … Read More → "For the reason’s posted under “I"

Optimizing at the Cellphone Antenna

So you run across an announcement from Imec that they’ve presented a circuit at ISSCC that involves tuning to match changing antenna impedances in cell phones. And if you’ve been hanging out in the same places I have, you might have the following reaction: “Hey, this is what some MEMS guys are doing as well! Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Turns out it’s not quite that simple. I’d feel like it was just another day of me discovering yet another knowledge gap, but I wasn’t the only one conflating two concepts. Conversations with Cavendish … Read More → "Optimizing at the Cellphone Antenna"

Intel Altera Deal Off?

Multiple financial news sources are reporting today that talks between Intel and Altera have ended. According to multiple sources, Altera declined Intel’s offer and the two companies have ended negotiations.

For the rest of the FPGA industry, this may be a bit of a disappointment. Other FPGA vendors we’ve talked with were optimistic that an Intel takeover of Altera would be good for the other FPGA players – altering and narrowing Altera’s focus, creating uncertainty among Altera’s existing customers, and disrupting the company’s existing development projects. Now, apparently, they’ll have to continue … Read More → "Intel Altera Deal Off?"

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