Articles – Page 107

EEMBC Benchmarks Correlate Power with Performance

March 13, 2019

“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.” — Edward R. Murrow

To twist an old cliché, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and benchmarks. EEMBC aims to improve all three.

For more than 20 years, EEMBC has been in the unenviable business of creating, testing, and distributing … Read More → "EEMBC Benchmarks Correlate Power with Performance"

The Moon, Moore’s Law, and Marketing

Making Engineering Schedules

by Kevin Morris

March 12, 2019

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

– John F Kennedy, May 25, 1961

The complexity for minimum component costs has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year… by 1975, the number of components per integrated circuit for minimum cost will be 65,000.

Gordon Moore, “Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits – Electronics Magazine, April 19, 1965

Countless industry studies over the past several … Read More → "The Moon, Moore’s Law, and Marketing"

A Stacked Deck

Well, Stacked Components Anyway, from IEDM

by Bryon Moyer

March 11, 2019

We’ve engaged in a decades-long battle to reduce the area footprint of integrated circuits in an attempt to put more faster stuff on one die and sell it for less money. The much-ballyhooed end of Moore’s Law (whether or not you believe that) has spurred much searching for ways around this endless loop. Wait… we’re already going around the loop. How about ways out of the loop?

One of those ways is to escape the tyranny of area by going vertical instead. Yeah, I know, there’s … Read More → "A Stacked Deck"

RISC-V Business

RISC-V Evolves from Academic Teaching Platform into a Major Microprocessor Player

by Steven Leibson

March 6, 2019

“Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” – Satchell Paige

Last week’s RISC-V Tech Symposium, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, had all of the spirit of a tent revival meeting, which is appropriate because microprocessor ISA supporters tend to sound a lot like religious zealots. The open-source RISC-V ISA is no different in this respect. Although begun for the most grounded of purposes – the education of future processor designers – the RISC-V ISA is rapidly growing far beyond its origins and is bumping along the road … Read More → "RISC-V Business"

Cubbit Crowdsources Cloud Storage

Shared Hard Drives Rely on Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

by Jim Turley

March 5, 2019

“We have about 100 million cells interconnected in our brains. They communicate with one another through electrical signals.” – Miguel Nicolelis

It’s been said that if you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product. While that’s true of certain social networks and search engines, not all free services come with the same depressing catch.

Normally, we trade away our privacy and personal information in exchange for a service. But a new startup … Read More → "Cubbit Crowdsources Cloud Storage"

Smaller, Lower-Power Neural Nets

Advances in In-Memory Computing from IEDM

by Bryon Moyer

March 4, 2019

We’ve looked at a lot of different solutions for AI computing, each trying to be somewhat more efficient than some prior architecture. However, pretty much everything I’ve been exposed to up until recently has reflected serious attempts to make calculations using CPUs, GPUs, and DSPs more efficient. Each of these has been some version of a von Neumann architecture, meaning you have someplace where you store all your data, and you then … Read More → "Smaller, Lower-Power Neural Nets"

Flipping the Script on 5G Networking

Intel Launches FPGA Programmable Acceleration Card N3000

by Kevin Morris

February 28, 2019

Let’s start out by simplifying the name. Since “Intel FPGA Programmable Acceleration Card N3000 for Networking” is kinda’ a mouthful, they gave us the shortcut “Intel FPGA PAC N3000” – shorter and suitably opaque. But, when it comes to 5G deployment, nothing is as simple as we’d like it to be. We’ve spent a lot of time on the radio end of 5G, discussing beamforming, massive MIMO, millimeter waves and the like. But all those extra towers pushing and pulling so much data are gonna put some major stress on the network itself. IP … Read More → "Flipping the Script on 5G Networking"

Will the 5G IoT Race be Won Solely by Marketing?

AT&T and Verizon say They Have 5G. Don't Believe Them.

by Steven Leibson

February 27, 2019

Create the hype, but don’t ever believe it. – Simon Cowell

Despite the tons of early hype, the worldwide 5G race has just begun. In a race to announce the first operational 5G network in the US, cellular communications vendors AT&T and Verizon have both initiated limited 5G cellular trials in a handful of cities. AT&T’s 5G trials started in twelve cities along the East coast of the US and will spread to San Francisco and San Jose later in 2019. Verizon’s trial cities include Sacramento, Los … Read More → "Will the 5G IoT Race be Won Solely by Marketing?"

Renesas Bundles 64-Bit Chips with 10-Year Linux

Long-life Linux Distribution Overshadows Impressive CPU Hardware

by Jim Turley

February 26, 2019

“Linux is only free if your time has no value.” – Jamie Zawinski

Chip giant Renesas has created a whole new line of high-end microprocessors that sit at the tippy top of the company’s product range, so let’s talk about… the software.

In a reversal of normal hardware protocol, Renesas is making a big deal about the software support for its new chips, with particular emphasis on the Linux port. It is a differentiating feature, just not one that most CPU companies talk about. </ … Read More → "Renesas Bundles 64-Bit Chips with 10-Year Linux"

Bridging to 3 nm

Samsung Achieves High Compatibility with Prior Nodes

by Bryon Moyer

February 25, 2019

We got away with lax discipline for a long time. Like an out-of-control classroom, we had kids at the front of the class paying attention, while, as you got towards the back, kids were passing notes, tossing spitwads, flying paper planes, and even simply leaving class. The only discipline was imposed from the front; the back and the sides of the room had no enforcement mechanism.

We’re talking, of course, about planar transistors. The gate touched one edge of the channel – the top edge – and that was it. It … Read More → "Bridging to 3 nm"