Articles – Page 128

April 4, 2018

One clear effect of the IoT revolution has been the integration of technology ecosystems that had been independent for decades. Because the IoT is an enormous super-system that takes data from edge nodes through a vast network to the cloud/data center and back again, just about any system we design today ends up connected to every other system being designed. The scope of the communication required is almost incomprehensible, and a large portion of that communication – particularly as we approach the edge – is wireless.

With literally billions of devices transmitting and receiving, the only thing more … Read More → "Qorvo and the Rare Air of RF"

Dude, My Embedded Processor Is Epyc

AMD’s Zen Family Moves into the Long-Life Embedded Market

by Jim Turley

April 3, 2018

“I want to have an epic life. I want to tell my life with big adjectives.” — Isabel Allende

Following a tradition more often honored in the breach than in the observance, AMD has designated eight of its new x86 processors for the embedded market. The new Epyc Embedded 3000 family takes AMD’s latest Zen architecture (the core technology behind Ryzen and Epyc) and tweaked it for long-life systems in networking and high-end embedded systems. The new chips are fast, very … Read More → "Dude, My Embedded Processor Is Epyc"

Full-Power WiFi at Half the Power

Silicon Labs Reduces WiFi Energy Consumption for the IoT

by Bryon Moyer

April 2, 2018

In IoTland, communication is king. It puts the Internet in the IoT. But how to communicate? LTE? BlueTooth? WiFi? It partly depends on the application and the location, but it also depends on how far you are from a wall plug.

Because many IoT devices are small, portable, and – this is key – battery-powered, they will forever be infinitely far away from the wall plug. While WiFi has featured in IoT discussions for years, there’s always been that bit about WiFi consuming too much energy for thrifty tastes. … Read More → "Full-Power WiFi at Half the Power"

Fifty (or Sixty) Years of Processor Development…for This?

“Dennard Scaling and Moore’s Law are dead, Now what?” – a 4-act play by Dr. David Patterson

by Steven Leibson

March 29, 2018

“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.” – Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Dr. David Patterson quick-marched an audience of about 200 pizza-sated engineers through a half-century of computer design on March 15. He spoke from the podium in a large conference room in building E at Texas Instruments’ Santa Clara campus during an IEEE talk titled “50 Years of Computer Architecture: From Mainframe CPUs to … Read More → "Fifty (or Sixty) Years of Processor Development…for This?"

A Better Way to Define Industry Standards

OMA SpecWorks Creates IoT Standards, But Also Redefines the Game

by Jim Turley

March 28, 2018

“You can’t have high standards without good discipline.” – William Hague

It’s lovely when two partners find each other. They meet at work or at a party, exchange small talk, and find that they have a lot in common. The early attraction turns into something deeper and more meaningful. Before long, they know they’re meant for each other. “Let’s share assets” becomes, “Let’s get married.” Their friends and associates assemble to celebrate the union and the couple lives happily ever after. I get a warm feeling just thinking about it.

< … Read More →

Deep Learning with MATLAB

Making AI Accessible

by Kevin Morris

March 27, 2018

We are in the midst of a revolution in computing that will uproot our entire digital ecosystem at its core. If IoT has been the banner buzzword for the tech industry for the past several years, you’ll do well to notice that its flag has been lowered just enough for the AI burgee to take the top position. It is no secret that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has reached a critical inflection point, and that the implications of that are being felt throughout an enormous gamut of existing applications as well as enabling entirely … Read More → "Deep Learning with MATLAB"

Small, Fab-Friendly ReRAM Selector

SK Hynix Shows Novel Structure at IEDM

by Bryon Moyer

March 26, 2018

We’re still in the hunt for new memories – particularly non-volatile ones that can compete, at least to some level, either with DRAM and SRAM or as longer-term storage. Resistive memories (RRAM or ReRAM) have been getting a fair bit of play over the last few years as a potential solution (if not the only one), in particular, to the latter.

It’s particularly attractive to try to use such a memory in a cross-point configuration. That makes them simpler and smaller as compared … Read More → "Small, Fab-Friendly ReRAM Selector"

Embedded World Means Business

A Personal Round-Up From This Year’s Monster Trade Show

by Dick Selwood

March 22, 2018

The overwhelming feeling about this year’s embedded world exhibition and conference is summed up by the late Douglas Adams:

“Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space.”

Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

And that is seriously how embedded world feels, although the time taken to get from one end to the other is only partly caused … Read More → "Embedded World Means Business"

Top Ten Reasons to Be Scared of IoT

Survey Data Highlights Developers’ Concerns

by Jim Turley

March 21, 2018

“Lies, damn lies, and statistics.” – common phrase attributed to many

I love data. Data is good. (Data are good?) There’s nothing like good firsthand data to fuel informed and rational decision-making.

There’s also nothing like good firsthand data to launch a completely ill-informed product strategy, an Internet meme, a political screed, or a family argument. Data is what you make of it.

So, with that caveat in mind, let’s take a look at some survey … Read More → "Top Ten Reasons to Be Scared of IoT"

Xilinx Previews Next Generation

What the Heck is ACAP?

by Kevin Morris

March 20, 2018

New Xilinx CEO Victor Peng made his public debut by sketching out the latest vision for the world’s leading FPGA company last week, and it included a bold claim – that Xilinx was inventing an entirely new category of semiconductor device, the Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform (ACAP). We’ll say right up front that there is precious little information available on these future devices; the first examples of them will be based on TSMC’s upcoming 7nm process and won’t be shipping until sometime in 2019 at the very earliest. And, as one might expect, Xilinx’s “vision” pitch … Read More → "Xilinx Previews Next Generation"