Articles – Page 137

September 27, 2017

Imagine you are an admissions counselor at your favorite engineering school. It’s a top-flight institution, and you have far more applicants than openings. You need to be very selective about who you admit.

The first candidate enters your office and takes a seat.

“So, tell me a little bit about what you’ve done in high school, and why you want to be an engineer.”

“Well, I have a 4.0 grade point average, perfect SAT scores, I was robotics club president, and trumpet section leader in the band. I want to study engineering … Read More → "The Bright, Bright Future of Electronic Engineering"

Security Processors Made Easy

Synopsys ARC SEM Subsystem Does the Dirty Work

by Jim Turley

September 26, 2017

“I don’t pay to have my dirty work done for me. I do it myself.” – Ted Nugent

Security experts are like proctologists: you wouldn’t want the job but you’re glad they’re around when you need one.

So let’s all give a (gloved) hand to the engineers at Synopsys for doing what the rest of us don’t want to do: creating a secure microprocessor island for SoC development. The hardy souls at Synopsys’s IP clinic have made it easier for … Read More → "Security Processors Made Easy"

Faster Power Analysis

Baum’s Power Model Works with RTL Simulation

by Bryon Moyer

September 25, 2017

After years of speed trumping everything else, we’re definitely in a period where we often give speed a back seat to power. Batteries are in; dead batteries are out. So, for a few years now, power analysis has rushed to catch up with timing analysis in the IC design tool chain.

Power analysis has never been a quick and easy deal – if you want high accuracy. We do much of our design at higher levels of abstraction so that we can do more in less time. But, ultimately, understanding … Read More → "Faster Power Analysis"

EE Journal Live Coverage of NY World Maker Faire 2017

by Larra Morris

September 23, 2017

The EE Journal team went to World Maker Faire!

We live tweeted the event @EEJournalTFM as we made our way through the tents to check out the over 750 maker projects at this year’s Faire at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. All of our live tweets are collected here so you can catch up on the highlights of the Faire.

… Read More →

Intel Previews 10nm “Falcon Mesa” FPGAs

Next-Node Monte Begins

by Kevin Morris

September 20, 2017

Step right up! Who feels lucky? Find the money card and win! Moore’s Law is a fickle beast. After fifty years of consistent behavior, it seems the old Law has finally gone a bit off its rocker, and nowhere is that hitch in its git-along more pronounced than in the FPGA world. Now, figuring out who’s on which node first and what it means is like trying to win at 3-card Monte when you’re not running the game. Nonetheless, new news has broken and we’ll try to help sort it all out. Just find the … Read More → "Intel Previews 10nm “Falcon Mesa” FPGAs"

The Sun Also Sets

Oracle Kills SPARC and Solaris, Turns Back Time

by Jim Turley

September 19, 2017

I’m old enough to remember when Sun Microsystems was one of the cool up-and-coming companies in Silicon Valley. It had the best engineers, created the most innovations, and had the most constant “buzz” of any company around. Pizza boxes – both literal and figurative – were a badge of honor on your workbench. PCs were just for managers and their secretaries – real engineers had a workstation. And Sun’s pizza box–shaped workstations were the currency of the nerd economy.

Sun workstations were known for their extensive use of existing standards – … Read More → "The Sun Also Sets"

Yet More Sensors

Some Unusual Bits

by Bryon Moyer

September 18, 2017

Yes, more sensors. We covered new sensor developments earlier this year, based on papers from the ISSCC conference. But you know what? People didn’t stop developing sensors after that. I know – amazing, right? And, yes, as we’ve noted before, many announcements now aren’t about revolutionary new approaches, but rather about faster speed, lower power, and/or a smaller footprint.

Not to say that such … Read More → "Yet More Sensors"

Where Does an Engineer’s Responsibility End?

Whom Can You Blame for Mis-used Technology?

by Dick Selwood

September 14, 2017

EEJournal, as its name implies, concentrates on the bits and bytes or the chips and boards of the electronics industry. But there are times when it seems like a good idea to look at wider issues. And this may be one of them. What has triggered this is a series of news stories that have demonstrated technology failings that have led to broader consequences.

Botnets and passwords

An engineer created a cheap digital video reorder (DVR) designed to be connected to surveillance cameras, and so it was given an IP address. He was … Read More → "Where Does an Engineer’s Responsibility End?"

A Work in Progress

PGS Lab is Remarkably Open about its Rocky Development Progress

by Jim Turley

September 13, 2017

“Think of success as a game of chance in which you have control over the odds.” – Bo Bennett

They say confession is good for the soul. Maybe it’s good for product development, too.

A small 30-person team is taking on the seemingly impossible: they’re designing their first handheld game console. Think Nintendo 3DS but with Windows 10. And Android. And a titanium case. It runs any PC game you want and any … Read More → "A Work in Progress"

Game On for FPGAs in the Data Center

Intel Launches Major Counter-Strike

by Kevin Morris

September 12, 2017

Intel has just announced a major counter-strike in the battle for the data center of the future. The company announced a new suite of software tools, which (according to a blog post by Barry Davis, General Manager, Accelerated Workloads Group, Intel® Data Center Group) “make FPGA programming accessible to mainstream developers, a major leap forward for customizable silicon solutions that complement the endlessly [SIC] diversity of customer-defined workloads, including 5G network processing, artificial intelligence, data and video analytics, machine learning and more.”

We love to say “Told ya so!”

Back in 2014, around a year before … Read More → "Game On for FPGAs in the Data Center"