Articles – Page 153

November 2, 2016

“The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth.” — Stonewall Jackson

“Hey, kids, let’s put on a show in my uncle’s barn!” That cliché, which traces its origins to a string of Mickey Rooney movies, pretty well sums up the rLoop team: an ad hoc group of engineers who decided one day that they’d take up the Hyperloop Challenge. Because, hey, 700-MPH trains don’t just build themselves.

Playing the role of Judy Garland is Tom Lambot, … Read More → "Ad Hoc Engineering"

Software is Hard

And We’re Still Not Very Good At It

by Kevin Morris

November 1, 2016

Let me first make one thing perfectly clear: I’m proud to be a software engineer. For the first twenty years plus after I graduated from engineering school, I worked as a software engineer and managed teams of software engineers. We did good work, and I took pride in our accomplishments. I worked with some of the brightest, most innovative, hardest-working engineers I have ever met, and we built some amazing technology.

During the time I was in software, the art of software engineering evolved and matured dramatically. The languages, methods, paradigms and … Read More → "Software is Hard"

SiTime Mauls Quartz

Elite Platform Targets Higher Precision

by Bryon Moyer

October 31, 2016

You know, SiTime really seems to have it in for quartz. I talked with them last month about their new Elite family, and, reviewing my notes and their presentation, it’s just slam after slam.

Not that this is inconsistent – SiTime has been working its way up the timing precision path, gradually providing MEMS alternatives to venerable quartz crystals. But, with the Elite family, they’ve entered the realm of super-precise, claiming to conquer all but the uppermost peak of clock offerings (and … Read More → "SiTime Mauls Quartz"

Cyberwarfare and Cyber Whack-a-Mole

Are the Aggressors Going to Win, and Who Wears the White Hat?

by Dick Selwood

October 27, 2016

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz, the Prussian general who also was a theoretical thinker, wrote, “War is a mere continuation of politics by other means.” What exactly he meant by this is the subject of serious debate. Today, however, we are seeing another “continuation of politics by other means”, as cyber attacks are moving from data gathering and financial fraud and theft by criminals to attacks on physical systems, including elements of national infrastructures by nation states or organisations closely linked to nation states – in short, cyberwarfare.

I was forcibly made aware of this at a recent … Read More → "Cyberwarfare and Cyber Whack-a-Mole"

Being and Nothingness

ARM’s Cortex-M23 and -M33 Battle Intel’s E3900 for IoT Supremacy

by Jim Turley

October 26, 2016

“Two households, both alike in dignity… from ancient grudge break new mutiny.” – Prologue, “Romeo and Juliet”

The two companies could not be more different, nor their announcements more similar.

On the same day, Intel and ARM both announced new processors for IoT applications. In Barcelona, the California-based chip giant took the wraps off of the new Intel Atom E3900 microprocessor chip, while halfway around the world in Santa Clara, British-based ARM rolled out its new Cortex-M23 and -M33 designs.

They’re the same, but different, but still the same again. The … Read More → "Being and Nothingness"

Tackling System Design

Mentor Xpedition Multi-Board

by Kevin Morris

October 25, 2016

What is a system? Each of us probably has a different definition. Many of us probably have more than one. Even though the term “System on Chip (SoC)” has been popular for years, we all know deep in our hearts that SoCs are not really systems. Systems are, well, bigger. After all, chips, including SoCs, always go on boards or in modules. Does that make a board a system? Well, most of our end products consist of more than one board, plus some mechanical elements like enclosures, actuators, sensors, displays, and other stuff – all connected to those … Read More → "Tackling System Design"

Analog Circuit and Model Exploration

Two Tools for Vetting and Optimizing

by Bryon Moyer

October 24, 2016

Call it a new age of exploration. You’ve got a design to do – an analog one in particular – and you’ve got to come up with circuits that perform and that yield across the range of both operating environment and process variations.

You need to figure out whose process to use, for one thing. You may have a long-term relationship going with this foundry or that, but… wouldn’t it be nice to know what you’re missing (if anything) in those other foundries?

Then, before you commit to your circuit, you might want … Read More → "Analog Circuit and Model Exploration"

Ethics and Horizontal Integration

Engineering in an Age of Denial

by Kevin Morris

October 19, 2016

“Obviously bad people could use this to…” The presenter paused, and didn’t finish his sentence. The audience was left to fill in the obvious gap, completing the phrase for themselves. The presenter wanted to cast light on the positive potential of the technology, while at least making a “full disclosure” nod to the possibility of misuse.

It’s a common theme these days, as technological progress steams full speed into an era with both amazing and terrifying potential. If you want to envision a Star-Trekkian utopia, there’s plenty of evidence to … Read More → "Ethics and Horizontal Integration"

The 21st Century Garage Startup

Adapteva’s Epiphany-V 1024-Core Processor Achieves a Milestone

by Jim Turley

October 18, 2016

“It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company.” – George Washington

“It’s taken me eight years to prove my thesis from 2008. I started this company with the goal of changing the way computers are built. It’s been an exhausting journey, but we finally got it right!”

Those are the words of Andreas Olofsson, engineer, entrepreneur, microprocessor designer, visionary, and very persistent (and likeable) guy. After years of effort, he’s just taped-out his new microprocessor chip and now he’s in that pins-and-needles waiting period before the … Read More → "The 21st Century Garage Startup"

How Secure Are Fitness Devices?

Open Effect Breaks In to Study Privacy

by Bryon Moyer

October 17, 2016

Privacy is a gnarly problem. It’s a big concern for consumers – part of the reason why the consumer Internet of Things (CIoT) isn’t yet the big deal that proponents were hoping it would be by now. There are no purely technical solutions – or, perhaps better said, any technical efforts to boost privacy ultimately rely on people and the policies they create. Policies are great, but does reality match the policy?

At this point, it has fallen to non-profit organizations to monitor … Read More → "How Secure Are Fitness Devices?"