Articles – Page 142

June 8, 2017

It is sobering to be in a presentation discussing a range of problems and to suddenly to realise that one of the problems that the presenter is talking about is you. This happened to me in May, when I was attending the Digital Innovation Forum organised by the ARTEMIS Industry Association – a grouping of around 180 European organisations (universities, research organisations and companies) active in what the organisation calls Embedded Intelligence Research & Innovation. You can read more about ARTEMIS-IA and the complex relationships of European Union funding for research and innovation … Read More → "Digital Innovation in Health Care"

Intel Pulls the Plug on Itanium

Possibly the World’s Most Expensive Failed Chip Project

by Jim Turley

June 7, 2017

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” – Mark Twain

Friends, engineers, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come not to bury Itanium, but to praise it.

In case you missed the news – and it was easy to miss – Intel quietly pulled the sheet over the still-warm corpse of Itanium, the company’s fabulously expensive yet spectacularly unpopular microprocessor family. In its place, Intel will encourage everyone to keep buying regular ol’ x86 chips.

The notice crept in quietly on little cat’ … Read More → "Intel Pulls the Plug on Itanium"

Flex Logix Fires Second Salvo

Challenging FPGAs on AI Applications

by Kevin Morris

June 6, 2017

For decades now, FPGA companies have struggled to overcome their de-facto positioning as “ASIC alternatives.” Of course, FPGAs are great for prototyping your design, or for getting something into production much earlier than we could with a custom chip design. But, eventually, for designs that go into volume production, there comes a time when it’s worth designing an ASIC or ASSP to do the same thing, yielding better performance, lower power consumption, smaller area, and lower unit cost. This is bad for FPGA companies because just when a design win should turn into … Read More → "Flex Logix Fires Second Salvo"

Machine Learning Hits EDA

Solido’s ML Labs Spawns New Tools

by Bryon Moyer

June 5, 2017

OK, you’ve just been assigned a new project. There’s a cell that’s in need of Monte Carlo variation analysis. You’re looking for 6σ accuracy – 1 failure in a billion. So you run the numbers, and you find that you’re going to need 5 billion separate simulations. Yes, that’s with a “B.” No, retreating to a less aggressive node won’t help; this number is independent of the number of varying parameters. Straight statistics. Yeah, this project is going to take… years.

So, of course, that’s not going to happen. What are your options … Read More → "Machine Learning Hits EDA"

Add Glamour to Your Product

Microchip PIC32MZDA is an MCU with a Capable GPU and LCD Controller

by Jim Turley

June 1, 2017

“Most people think glamour is happiness.” – Peter Falk

They say sex sells, maybe even in the MCU business. Once found only in dull products like coffee makers, washing machines, and industrial tools, microcontrollers (MCUs) are now in flashy and exciting products like… coffee makers and washing machines. What’s different now is that those embedded systems are a lot more glamorous, sexy-looking, and consumer-oriented than ever before.

Just look at a Nest thermostat. It’s a $250 device (yikes!) that replaces your average, run-of-the-mill, hardware-store home thermostat. What could be more mundane and unsexy … Read More → "Add Glamour to Your Product"

Sunshine Changing the World

NovaSolix Aims to Upend Solar

by Kevin Morris

May 31, 2017

As an electronics editor, I am constantly being briefed on new technologies. Often, the presenter struggles to establish a framework for the innovation being described, trying to make a case for the big-picture importance of what they’re doing. Seldom am I left with a feeling that I am learning about an engineering development that could truly change the world.

This, however, was one of those rare times.

Before we descend into the fascinating world of nanotubes, light-wavelength antennas, nano-scale rectifiers, and commodity manufacturing processes, let’s get the … Read More → "Sunshine Changing the World"

Discrimination by Photon

Spectral, Multispectral, and Hyperspectral Analysis

by Bryon Moyer

May 30, 2017

Having braved several weeks hiking through the jungle, facing all the usual hazards, they find the entrance to the cavern. Only here it isn’t a cavern, but a hole barely big enough to squeeze through – after hacking away the vines and thorns that have, for centuries, protected it against intruders.

They slide in, oblivious as to what lies on the other side, driven by ancient myths, and, besting snakes and spider webs and two-headed fanged newts, they find themselves in the cavern of legend, with the priceless document resting at the base of … Read More → "Discrimination by Photon"

Giving Consumers a Say

Smart Home Devices Benefit… Whom?

by Bryon Moyer

May 25, 2017

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a stunning advancement of technology. Like a lot of us, I follow it closely, and the details of how things are done have held me in their thrall. But there are times when I need to step back and look at the big picture – and this is one of those times. After all, when we’re building these systems, it helps to know who we’re building them for.

Let’s start with the notion of the market – a really amazing concept when it works. In theory, you have a bunch … Read More → "Giving Consumers a Say"

How the Mighty Have Grown

Synopsys Goes Superscalar with ARC HS40 Processor Core Designs

by Jim Turley

May 23, 2017

“We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.” – Bill Vaughan

All life on Earth is insects. Statistically speaking, there are so many different species of insects on this planet that all other forms of life – mammals, birds, viruses, plants, algae, you name it – are collectively all just a rounding error.

Similarly, all microprocessors are embedded. So few CPUs go into “computers” like PCs and servers that they might as well not exist (says the guy typing on … Read More → "How the Mighty Have Grown"

The Shifting Startup Scene

Electronic Entrepreneurship Update

by Kevin Morris

May 23, 2017

The seed of a technology startup has always been the same – expertise plus idea. Someone with a particular skill or expertise (and some entrepreneurial spirit) comes up with a novel idea and decides to “make a go of it” – creating a new company. The first part is easy, as most engineers are working completely in their comfort and competence zone. They get a couple of laptops, scopes, dev kits, or whatever. They find a garage or basement to work in. They burn a lot of midnight oil and a little more caffeine until they have a thing … Read More → "The Shifting Startup Scene"