Articles – Page 102

July 2, 2019

“People who like eating sausage, and respect the law, should never see either one being made.” – John Godfrey Saxe

The one certainty in law is that it’s unpredictable. Yesterday’s laws didn’t anticipate today’s technical quandaries, so we call upon the courts to apply sober judgment and insightful wisdom. Did the Founding Fathers mean for us to stream recorded music via monthly subscription? Are the engineers making autonomous vehicles liable for their mishaps? And what do we do about APIs? Are they mechanical contraptions, works … Read More → "Can You Copyright Software?"

We Need to Talk!

Communication Needed Between Verification and Safety

by Bryon Moyer

July 1, 2019

What we have here is a failure to communicate. – Cool Hand Luke

The farmer and the cowman should be friends. – Oklahoma

There are apparently a couple of silos in the EDA world that could use some breaking down.

On one side, we have verification. This is a well-established discipline involving numerous EDA tools and a brief that compels verification engineers to make sure … Read More → "We Need to Talk!"

Intel One API

What if … it Actually Works?

by Kevin Morris

June 26, 2019

Intel released more information last week on One API – a “unified programming model to simplify application development across diverse computing architectures.” This obviously ostentatious claim evokes a firewall between the functionality of a software application and the computing hardware that is executing it. The most extreme interpretation would be that, using One API, a developer or team could develop code once and have it execute on anything from a simple MCU to a complex distributed parallel heterogeneous computing system, including CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, neural network processors, and other specialized accelerators.

< … Read More →

A Modem Bundled with Time

OptConnect Sells Oversight and Management Along with its Hardware

by Jim Turley

June 25, 2019

“The ultimate of being successful is the luxury of giving yourself the time to do what you want to do.” – Leontyne Price

There’s something to be said for good service. When you eat at a fancy restaurant or check in to a nice hotel, you expect exceptional service. That’s part of what you’re paying for, not just the creative antipasti and the fluffy pillows. When you take your Rolls-Royce in for an oil change, you’re treated better than at the Hyundai dealer. (McLaren owners don’t take their … Read More → "A Modem Bundled with Time"

Fundamental AI Concepts

A Review Stimulated by the Linley Group

by Bryon Moyer

June 24, 2019

We hear a lot about artificial intelligence (AI) these days. The mentions are typically delivered in acronym salads that include machine learning (ML), deep neural nets (DNNs) and the other various NNs (convolutional – CNNs, recurrent – RNNs, etc.), and a pile of other technologies. Many of these are accessible only to specialists; the rest of us nod our heads sagely, pretending to understand, hoping no one calls us out.

But at this year’s Linley Spring Processor Conference, Linley Gwennap did a keynote that looked at many of the technological vectors … Read More → "Fundamental AI Concepts"

When Companies Shoot Themselves in the Foot

Killing Off a Product for No Reason is Bad Customer Service

by Jim Turley

June 19, 2019

“We’re sorry. You have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service.”

It’s summer, it’s hot outside, and I’m cranky.

The weather isn’t the problem. It’s the #%$@ hardware vendors that have me steamed. Why do they seemingly go out of their way to irritate and annoy thousands of happy customers? Do the marketing people in these companies have some sort of death wish? Are they angling for jobs at the DMV … Read More → "When Companies Shoot Themselves in the Foot"

High-Speed Communications: Not Just Binary Anymore

A Look at PAM-4, Courtesy of eSilicon

by Bryon Moyer

June 17, 2019

Flash memory technologists had a problem. Their customers needed more memory, and so they were trying to make the memory cells smaller so they could fit more onto a chip. But the demand was growing faster than the technology was shrinking, so they needed to get to higher densities more quickly.

The basic flash memory cell had traditionally stored one of two values: a 1 or a 0. They read the memory by detecting the amount of charge in the cell: a lot meant 0; a little meant 1. But they … Read More → "High-Speed Communications: Not Just Binary Anymore"

What We Lose If We Lose Maker Faire

(An Elegy for Maker Media and an Ode to My 3D-Printer)

by Larra Morris

June 13, 2019

This week, we found out that Maker Media, the company responsible for Make: Magazine and Maker Faire, ceased operations and laid off all of its employees.

Kevin Morris has already written for EE Journal about the tragedy this represents for the engineering world. While his piece points out that the maker movement is much larger than Maker Media and will last beyond it, the potential loss of Maker Faire is devastating.

As EE Journal’s favorite sandal-making hacker, Becky Button, recently wrote on twitter: “the end … Read More → "What We Lose If We Lose Maker Faire"

Instrumenting the Internet of Really Big Things

Everactive Does Low-Power Sensors Bundled with Service and Support

by Jim Turley

June 12, 2019

“I like to rattle cages.” – Viv Albertine

Noise, vibration, and harshness. In the automotive world, NVH is a bad thing. There are specialist NVH engineers at most carmakers laboring away to exorcise mechanical gremlins.

But not all NVH is bad. In the industrial world, we can steer those gremlins toward good. We can even – if we’re clever enough – make them do work for us.

That’s the premise behind a new hardware/software company called Everactive, formerly named < … Read More → "Instrumenting the Internet of Really Big Things"

Staying Too Long at the Faire

Maker Media Closes

by Kevin Morris

June 11, 2019

It’s a sad day. Maker Media, Inc. ceased operations this week and laid off all staff. The company published Make: magazine and operated and licensed “Maker Faires” around the world. We have covered the maker movement and Maker Faires for years, even though our audience is professional engineers. We saw value there. Maker Faire was a window into the future of engineering – a place where we could go to escape the stodgy booths and stilted demos of typical industry events, and walk around in the dirt asking 10-year old kids how they wired up their own LED-blinky-sneaker contraption, … Read More → "Staying Too Long at the Faire"