Articles – Page 174

August 17, 2015

Well, it looks like we just might have ourselves something of a tussle playing out deep in the corner of your friendly neighborhood silicon fab. Applied Materials has announced a new way of approaching atomic layer deposition (ALD), but others say, “Not so fast…”

Before we can tackle the nuances of what’s going on here, let’s back out and review what ALD is all about. We keep hearing about how dimensions in ICs are shrinking to atomic levels – which, in some … Read More → "Atomic-Layer Dispute"

The Sneak Peak

How Important is Name Brand Recognition for Your CPU?

by Jim Turley

August 12, 2015

It’s a common typing mistake. Someone offers you a “sneak peak” at a new attraction when they really meant to write “peek.” It’s the kind of goof that spellcheck won’t catch and another reminder of why copyeditors still walk among us.

There’s a corner case, however, when “sneak peak” may actually be correct. Put your hand up if you’ve heard of the Andes microprocessor. Anyone? Anyone? Named after the mountain range in South America, Andes was actually designed in Taiwan and is the property of Andes Technology in Hsinchu City.

… Read More → "The Sneak Peak"

Avoiding the Expert Trap

Don’t Let Your Skills Go Stale

by Kevin Morris

August 11, 2015

Don’t get me wrong – we NEED experts. When everybody on the team is at wit’s end, and the doohickey is still 90 degrees out of phase with the whatchamacallit, causing the franistan to reboot the microkernel and locking up the fritzerator just when it was about to recombobulate, we want to be able to call up the Mighty Casey, who can waltz into the lab, make some grumbling noises, poke around with his 1958 scope probes for a bit, type a few keystrokes, and then announce, “There ya go! Just a simple recalibration of your anhydrous lookup … Read More → "Avoiding the Expert Trap"

Asserting Machine Control in the IoT

Sending Commands Where Data Publishing Dominates

by Bryon Moyer

August 10, 2015

While watching the unending array of Internet of Things (IoT) discussions, it occurred to me that something important was missing from the conversation.

When we talk about the IoT and all the data and all of the messaging protocols required for sharing the data, we’re talking only about one direction of data flow: sensing, and then transmitting the sensor results somewhere else. But a true automated system – whether home or factory or farm – also involves the reverse: making the edge nodes do something. A world of sensors does little good without accompanying actuators unless … Read More → "Asserting Machine Control in the IoT"

Embedded Journalists in a War Zone

We Attend ESC So You Don’t Have To

by Jim Turley

August 5, 2015

At last, I’ve been vindicated. A semi-official study has shown that car alarms are wholly worthless, and that they actually may be a social and economic drain on the community at large. Not surprisingly, 99% of people who hear a blaring car alarm completely ignore it (which obviously defeats … Read More → "Embedded Journalists in a War Zone"

SoC Everywhere

Is the Future All One Thing?

by Kevin Morris

August 4, 2015

Sometimes, while wrapped up in the day-to-day minutia of technology trends, we can lose sight of the big, slow movements. Underneath the fast-paced, frenetic world of next-node Moore’s Law chaos are some giant trendline tectonic plates – slowly sliding, shifting along fault lines that are barely visible in our normal tech lives.

Let’s fire up our future-facing seismometers and see what electronic bastions are poised to slide off into the ocean when the next “big one” hits.

For the past thirty years, there has been extreme diversity in … Read More → "SoC Everywhere"

Cloud EDA Round 2

Silicon Cloud, IBM Give It a Go

by Bryon Moyer

August 3, 2015

Four years ago, EDA in the Cloud was cool. Since then, it seems to have, well, cooled off. Until recently: it’s once more showing signs of heating up in an attempt to become cool again.

Cloud computing has always been problematic for EDA. Anything requiring the transfer of company jewels into unknown hands has too often been a deal breaker. The noise made by Synopsys and Cadence several years ago has noticeably subsided. OneSpin added a Read More → "Cloud EDA Round 2"

Who Watches the Watchers?

Subjecting your Design to an Audit Can be Painful and/or Enlightening

by Jim Turley

July 29, 2015

The German put out his hand. “Do you have ze papers?”

Of course I had my papers. I’d been planning this for weeks. My papers were all in order, I’d practiced my rudimentary German, and I’d anticipated every question he might ask me, along with my answers. Just act cool, I told myself. Confident, but not over-confident. Just give the man what he wants and he’ll let you go on your way.

This man stood between me and freedom. But there was something about his manner that told me he wasn’ … Read More → "Who Watches the Watchers?"

Making SoCs Easier to Debug

A New Technology Aims to Track Both Software and Hardware Bugs

by Dick Selwood

July 28, 2015

System debugging used to be fairly straightforward. Components were on a board, linked by tracks, and, with a ‘scope and probes, you could look at signals and work out what was happening. Of course it didn’t seem so simple at the time – isn’t hindsight great? In time, systems got more complex, microcontrollers got more complex, and the companies building ‘scopes and other tools for hardware debugging came up with more and more sophisticated (which implies expensive) products. Digital ‘scopes, logic analysers and emulators all helped engineers in their efforts to keep up. JTAG was created to provide … Read More → "Making SoCs Easier to Debug"

Trust

Proving You’re Legit – to Yourself and Others

by Bryon Moyer

July 27, 2015

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

So you’re buying a car. I don’t know how it works in other countries, but in the US, it’s one of the least favorite purchases someone can make. Partly it’s because it’s our only haggling purchase, and, as buyers, we’re not used to haggling, so we’re not skilled at it. That aside, all too often, when the … Read More → "Trust"