Articles – Page 149

January 23, 2017

Green Hills, the company known more for embedded systems and real-time OSes and such, is now a Certificate Authority (CA). Or, more accurately put, their Integrity Security Services subsidiary is the CA.

“What??” you say. Does this put them into competition with the likes of Verisign and Symantec? Actually… no. For this we need to dig deeper into the world of security and certificates. Because Integrity isn’t a CA for the types of certificates we’re used to; they’re going to … Read More → "Green Hills/Integrity Premiers as Vehicular CA"

IPUs – A New Breed of Processor

Machine Learning Platforms for AI

by Dick Selwood

January 19, 2017

Last year, Jim Turley wondered why we have ranges of different processors. Now I want to bring another TLA to the processor table – the IPU (Intelligent Processing Unit). This is the brainchild of Graphcore, a company that came out of stealth mode last November with the announcement of $30m Series A funding from investors including Bosch, Samsung, Amadeus Capital, C4 Ventures, Draper Esprit, Foundation Capital, and Pitango Capital.

Graphcore is based in Bristol, in the West of England, and, if its management team does not include “ … Read More → "IPUs – A New Breed of Processor"

Making Your Phone Prettier

New PowerVR 8XE Plus Adds Guts to Previous Glory

by Jim Turley

January 18, 2017

“I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.” – Bernard Manning

In the automotive industry, it’s called a model-year midcycle refresh. In the fashion trade, it’s an update. Cosmetic surgeons call it a facelift. In the software world, it’s a patch, an upgrade, or a “user-focused feature enhancement.”

For Imagination Technologies and its PowerVR line of GPUs, it’s simply called Plus.

Starting this week, Imagination is offering a new midrange GPU core that slots in between … Read More → "Making Your Phone Prettier"

FPGAs Duel in the Data Center

Key Xilinx and Intel/Altera Strategies Diverge

by Kevin Morris

January 17, 2017

When there are only two competitors in a race, the tactics change dramatically. Winning is no longer necessarily a matter of simply going as fast as possible. In bicycle match sprints, the winning strategy is actually to stay behind, drafting the leading bike until seconds before the finish line, then catapulting past for the win with a burst of speed built in the wind shadow of the unfortunate leader. In yacht match racing, “covering” is the proven way to victory – mimicking the moves of the rival, and only rarely taking the risk of diverging in order to … Read More → "FPGAs Duel in the Data Center"

A New Round of Multicore Tools

Silexica Picks Up Parallelization and Mapping

by Bryon Moyer

January 16, 2017

It’s been quiet on the multicore parallelization front for a while. We looked at one example a couple times several years ago: Vector Fabrics*. We looked at the overall problem of extracting parallelism and then some advances in Vector Fabrics’ tools at the time. I include those links here because they go into some detail on the nature of many of the challenges – details I won’t repeat here.</ … Read More → "A New Round of Multicore Tools"

Solid-State Lithium Battery Renaissance?

Ilika Tweaks the Formula

by Bryon Moyer

January 12, 2017

It’s been quite a while since we looked at solid-state lithium batteries. They sounded like such a hot topic a few years ago, and then it got deafeningly quiet. Almost, anyway. A conversation with Ilika at the MEMS Executive Congress suggests that there may still be life in this technology.

We started the conversation back in 2012 after speaking with IPS, a company marketing flexible batteries roughly the size of a postage stamp. What differentiated them was the use of LiPON as a solid-state electrolyte in … Read More → "Solid-State Lithium Battery Renaissance?"

Little Chips, Big Numbers

Annual Statistics for the Semiconductor Industry Looking Rosy

by Jim Turley

January 11, 2017

“I told the Inland Revenue I didn’t owe them a penny because I lived near the seaside.” – Ken Dodd

Things are looking up in the chip business. The trend lines are pointing up and to the right, sales are up, investment is up, employment is mostly up, and the Magic 8-Ball says “Outlook good.” And if you can’t trust a Magic 8-Ball, well…

Much of this good news comes from the number crunchers at SIA, the Semiconductor Industry Association. The SIA takes … Read More → "Little Chips, Big Numbers"

2017 – The IoT Administration Begins

A New Leader for Electronic Design

by Kevin Morris

January 11, 2017

During the fifty-year history of Moore’s Law, technological progress in electronics has served two distinct masters. While the industry produces an enormous range of technologies, deployed in countless systems and addressing innumerable application domains, there has always been one clear driver, one prototype system, one application that rules them all and bends our collective innovative energies to its will.

First, we had the PC administration. Technological innovation followed and served computing – specifically, personal computers and the first generation of internet connectivity. While the chips, tools, and boards we created were applicable to … Read More → "2017 – The IoT Administration Begins"

Lidar Goes Aesthetic

MicroVision and Velodyne Go Micro

by Bryon Moyer

January 9, 2017

Lidar is getting a lead role as part of a cast of many sensor technologies needed to keep automated cars and trucks from trying to occupy the same space.

For the longest time, Lidar has languished as that dreaded tool of final resort for the state trooper. It’s like radar (originating as “light radar” and back-ronymed as Light Imaging, Detection, and Ranging, available in upper- or lower-case models), except for the annoying fact that it’s only a dot. Radar conveniently fills the entire air with its signal so that you can detect its presence. Not … Read More → "Lidar Goes Aesthetic"

Everything I Know Is Wrong

Looking Back at a Year of Surprises and Discoveries

by Jim Turley

January 3, 2017

“Stupidity is a talent for misconception.” – Edgar Allen Poe

It is customary at this post-festive time of year for bored journalists faced with a shortage of real news to compile lists of the good and bad things that have happened – a kind of Greatest Hits of 2016. Not here. That’s what Facebook is for.

Instead, I’ve compiled a list of surprises, innovations, discoveries, and misconceptions. Some of us got a bit smarter in 2016; maybe a few of us got dumber. But it was interesting and eventful either way.

Twenty-sixteen saw … Read More → "Everything I Know Is Wrong"