Articles – Page 138

September 11, 2017

These days, it’s all about keeping power down by all means possible. Power domains are a thing. Clock gating and power gating are a thing. Even applications can change the power state of the system.

All good, but let’s explore that last one a bit. In order for software to change the power, it has to go through the operating system. Which might seem kinda like this:

You: Hey, ‘sup, I’d like to set us up in this low-power mode now, cool?

OS: Really … Read More → "Sonics Does DVFS"

Carbon Is Cool

Startup KULR Technology Uses Carbon Fiber to Cool Chips

by Jim Turley

September 6, 2017

“I am now standing in a mixture of cooling fluid, gasoline, and cola.” – Adam Savage

What do Lycra-wearing bicycle racers have in common with server farms? KULR Technology might have the answer.

Everything gets hot if you put energy into it. That’s just basic physics. Everything also conducts heat; that’s also basic physics. But just as some materials conduct electricity better than others, some make better heat-transference devices than others. There’s a reason we make heat sinks out of copper … Read More → "Carbon Is Cool"

Developing for Smart Speakers

XMOS and Cirrus Logic Debut Dev Kits

by Bryon Moyer

September 4, 2017

Voice is a hot topic these days. It represents the layering of a lot of technologies, from identifying and separating sounds to identifying individual voices to identifying specific words. And, while voice recognition is a broad topic, specific applications are effectively being layered above it for so-called “smart speakers” – the Alexas and Dots of the world. And right away, I’m going to warn you that we’re likely to get confused since speakers (human) are talking to speakers (“smart”). Hang on tight.</ … Read More → "Developing for Smart Speakers"

Help! My Product Is Suing Me!

What’s Your Recourse When a Product Changes Features Under Your Nose?

by Jim Turley

August 30, 2017

“Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.” – Nelson Mandela

Sometimes you just have to call in the lawyers.

The law is rarely intuitive, and technology-related regulations are even more inscrutable. Oh, sure, we all think we know right from wrong. Family conversations and Facebook faceoffs are filled with people who just know that this company is corrupt, or … Read More → "Help! My Product Is Suing Me!"

Digital Design Reinvented

AI Rewrites the Rules for Computing

by Kevin Morris

August 29, 2017

It’s time to come clean. Let’s face it, digital design dudes and dudettes, we’ve been phoning it in.

It’s true. Those of us doing digital design have spent the last several decades designing one thing: the computer. Sure, we can do 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit, big-endian, little endian, RISC, CISC, memory-managed, pipelined, single- or multi-core… The variations and subtleties go on and on. But, at the end of the day, one truth emerges: we long ago passed responsibility for the creation … Read More → "Digital Design Reinvented"

Clocks, Xs, and Resets

Real Intent Discusses New Solutions

by Bryon Moyer

August 28, 2017

Does it ever feel to you like, no matter how many new tools features appear, it’s never quite enough? In some cases, you solve one problem – but it doesn’t stay solved. Complexity, scaling, performance and power requirements – they may all catch up to the solution, necessitating further tool refinement. In other cases, new problems arise that were never dealt with before.

We’ve got some examples of each, distilled from a conversation with Real Intent at DAC. Let’s start with problems that have already been solved.</ … Read More → "Clocks, Xs, and Resets"

Why So Complicated?

by Dick Selwood

August 24, 2017

Why do we keep changing things and, at the same time, making them more complicated?

We should be making things simpler.

Firstly, I need to provide some context. My PC died. There was an intermittent hardware fault that started some time ago and it finally killed the entire system. I had back-ups and even had access to a hard disk reader. Unfortunately, for about a week, I had no machine on which to load the back up.

Now … Read More → "Why So Complicated?"

The Information Food Chain

How Good PR is Like a Network Router

by Jim Turley

August 23, 2017

“I’m not deaf. I’m just ignoring you.” – Heideroosjes

Pardon me while I set down my caviar.

Contrary to popular belief, being a technology journalist isn’t all champagne, private jets, and hot and cold running interns. It’s a messy job. But somebody has to do it.

It’s a combination of digging out information that doesn’t want to be found, combined with fending off propaganda that desperately wants to be published. One day, it’s the needle in the haystack. The next, it’s a … Read More → "The Information Food Chain"

Why Are Design Tools So Bad?

Or… What? Another bug?

by Kevin Morris

August 22, 2017

As much as the EDA industry would like us to believe otherwise, it’s almost impossible to find an engineering team who is satisfied with their design tools. More often than not, when chatting with designers about their tools, we get sentiments ranging from “survivable” to “horrible.” The “survivable” end of the spectrum usually amounts to something on the order of, “We managed to get the job done in spite of numerous issues we ran into with tools along the way.” “Horrible” usually leans more toward, “I lost my job because bad design tools caused my … Read More → "Why Are Design Tools So Bad?"

Further CNN IP Integration

Synopsys Announces Their EV6x Series

by Bryon Moyer

August 21, 2017

Not long ago, we published a piece describing Cadence’s new Tensilica Vision C5 processor. We used the opportunity to give a brief primer on convolutional neural nets (CNNs) and their role in vision processing. In fact, if you want a quick CNN refresher, I’d encourage you to go back to that.

In ironic timing (at the risk of reviving the argument over what “ironic” really means), right when … Read More → "Further CNN IP Integration"