Articles – Page 173

September 3, 2015

The paper supply place down the block from my apartment may be the happiest retail store in all of Manhattan.

Every time I walk in there, the workers inside brighten and start asking questions: “Oooh! Poster board? What are you going to make?” They want to know all about the project and whether I’ve considered the merits of hot glue over tape. Their enthusiasm is enough to make a person feel a little self-conscious about the rather basic, uninspiring plans they have for their card stock purchase.

These paper enthusiasts, much like the friendly … Read More → "Mentoring Makers"

(Almost) Like FPGAs, Only Better

eASIC Chips Break the Mold

by Kevin Morris

September 1, 2015

Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat. eASIC does not make FPGAs. As their name implies, they make ASICs (sort of). But their ASICs might just be the best solution for your next FPGA design. They’ll do what you were probably wanting your FPGA to do, only faster, with less power, and at lower unit cost.

Huh?

The catch is, they are not “field programmable” or reprogrammable. Just like regular old ASICs, they come from the factory all configured with your custom design. Unlike ASICs, … Read More → "(Almost) Like FPGAs, Only Better"

AMD Gets All Tokyo with Fiji

Twenty-two die in a single package?

by Jim Turley

September 1, 2015

The semiconductor business is a lot like selling real estate. It’s not the dirt you’re paying for; it’s the location. A square acre in the middle of Manhattan will cost you a lot more than an acre in the desert (provided it’s not in the middle of a Saudi oil field). Likewise, a square millimeter of 28-nanometer silicon can cost a lot or a little, depending on who made it and what they did with it.

To stretch the analogy a bit further, the cost of the real estate also depends on what “ … Read More → "AMD Gets All Tokyo with Fiji"

A New Silvaco Emerges

Transforming the Family Business

by Bryon Moyer

August 31, 2015

You know that old Italian restaurant down the road a ways? Mamma – that’s what we called her; no one knew her actual name – ran that place for longer than anyone can remember. The recipes were secret. The books were… well, we don’t ask about the books. Money comes in, money goes out, shuddup and eat yer gnocchis, okay? Somehow, the bills got paid and the employees got paid and the customers kept coming.

And then something happened to Mamma. And the one person holding the whole thing together was no longer there … Read More → "A New Silvaco Emerges"

Silicon Pioneer

A review of "Moore's Law: the Life of Gordon Moore"

by Dick Selwood

August 27, 2015

More years ago than I want to think about, I expressed interest in a PR job at Intel. In a preliminary meeting, things were going well until I was asked how I dealt with confrontational situations. My reply, that I worked hard beforehand to make sure that the need for confrontation didn’t arise, was clearly the wrong answer, and so – probably just as well – I never worked for Intel. After reading Moore’s Law: the life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley’s quiet revolutionary, I now know why this was an important question.

Gordon … Read More → "Silicon Pioneer"

Ad-Hocurity

Lost in the Security Labyrinth

by Kevin Morris

August 26, 2015

No. Not another security article. Please, haven’t we all had enough? We’re afraid already. We are sick to death of the doomsday warnings about the number of glaring security holes in just about everything we touch and the inadequacy of our own security measures. We don’t want to be lectured again about how careless we’ve been. We don’t need to be pitched yet another snake-oil, safe-as-a-baby’s-bottom, can’t-survive-the-apocalypse-without-it, magic-button security solution – that costs only slightly more than the thing it’s protecting and probably makes it so hard to use that we’ll … Read More → "Ad-Hocurity"

RTFM vs. UIX

Communicating with Customers is Tougher than it Sounds

by Jim Turley

August 25, 2015

People don’t read anymore. Actually, I’m not sure they ever did. Okay, I know – people do literally read words and stuff. They just don’t… y’know… read.

And this makes it hard for designers of electronics.

Most of us are familiar with the initialism RTFM: read the freakin’ manual. To get the full effect, you have to yell it, usually just after ending a conversation with a particularly frustrating idiot/user. “Why can’t people RTFM? It’s right there in black and white!”

Because nobody reads, that’ … Read More → "RTFM vs. UIX"

IoT Security Artifacts

Keys, Signatures, and Certificates

by Bryon Moyer

August 24, 2015

[Editor’s note: this is the third in a series on Internet-of-Things security. You can find the introductory piece here and the prior piece here.]

This was going to be an article about authentication. In putting it together, I realized that there are a number of fundamental concepts that can help the authentication discussion. Some of us tend to toss out words related to those concepts rather freely – and tentatively, perhaps, … Read More → "IoT Security Artifacts"

Keepin’ It Real

Rambus Gets Into the Chip Business in a Very Small Way

by Jim Turley

August 19, 2015

Comedian Steve Martin once did a funny bit back in the 1980s about certain phrases you’ll never hear anyone say, such as “hand me that piano” or “please saw my legs off.” He might have also included “intellectual property.” That’s a term your parents probably never used in everyday conversation. Today, IP is everywhere. We license our books, music, and movies – we don’t buy them anymore. Art is considered IP. Inventions are IP. And, of course, there’s semiconductor IP.

One of the biggest microprocessor companies in the world today doesn’t really make … Read More → "Keepin’ It Real"

New FPGAs… From China?

Gowin Debuts New FPGA Line

by Kevin Morris

August 18, 2015

Let me guess, you’ve never heard of Gowin Semiconductor? You have a lot of company. Gowin, based in Guangdong, China, has been operating quietly for only the past 20 months. Now, they are announcing their – wait, what? SECOND FPGA family? Wow, that’s fast. Most FPGA startups take years to announce their first attempts.

Maybe we should step back for a second and survey the scene here.

Gowin, backed by Chinese private investors, has R&D in 3 Chinese cities: Shanghai, Jinan (Shandong), and Foshan (Guangdong). They have a … Read More → "New FPGAs… From China?"