Articles – Page 186

December 17, 2014

Sometimes even the circuit designer doesn’t know how the chip works. And that can be a good thing.

If you’re designing a chip or a system that includes security features, anti-tampering mechanisms, DRM protection, or defenses against DPA attacks, it’s probably better if you don’t know how it all works. That kind of stuff is mysterious. Secret. Black magic. And there are practitioners of these dark arts who are far more skilled than mortals like you or me. For … Read More → "I Am tRoot"

Five Ways to Detect

Different Approaches to Assessing the Environment

by Bryon Moyer

December 15, 2014

A couple of months ago, we took a look at one way of using MEMS cantilevers to detect gases. Our focus was on the optics used to read the status of the cantilevers, but, however detected, the use of cantilevers to measure concentrations of substances is common – at least in research papers.

Since then, this topic of detecting… something (officially called an “analyte”) has come up several times, each with a different twist or approach. So this week we follow up … Read More → "Five Ways to Detect"

Encapsulating Engineering

Construction at the End of the Road

by Kevin Morris

December 15, 2014

Those who build roads are fundamentally different from those who use roads.

Those who build roads immerse themselves in every detail of the route. They know the distances, the hills and valleys, the rivers and forests, the grades and angles, the weather, and the wildlife. They have considered every aspect of the particular journey and imagined and re-imagined the trips of the travelers to come. They have contemplated every contingency, every possibility, in an attempt to craft a safe, smooth and seamless experience.

Those who use the roads are … Read More → "Encapsulating Engineering"

New Synopsys SoC Test Features

Cell-Aware: Meet Slack-Based. And STAR: Meet eFlash.

by Bryon Moyer

December 11, 2014

Ah, the air has cooled. The sun lolls about at a low angle for a few tentative hours. Morning frosts seal the fate of any remaining tender plants. Here in northern Oregon, the Gorge winds blow random gale-force patterns, making it unnecessary to sweep the leaves off of the patio. And, slightly farther north, it’s ITC (that would be the International Test Conference) season, in Seattle this year.

Which means it’s the season for test announcements by EDA companies. Synopsys made some noise, but not with one big blockbuster new thing; rather they Read More → "New Synopsys SoC Test Features"

Berkeley’s RISC-V Wants to Be Free

New RISC Processor for SoC Developers is Yours for the Taking

by Jim Turley

December 10, 2014

“There are two major products that came from Berkeley: LSD and Unix. We don’t believe this to be a coincidence.” – Jeremy S. Anderson.

Ready for some radical, left-field (not to say left-wing) thinking? Believe in free love, sharing, and open markets? Step right this way. We’ve got something for you.

Oh, goody. It’s another new microprocessor instruction set.

The great minds at the University of California at Berkeley (that’s “Cal” to insiders) have added … Read More → "Berkeley’s RISC-V Wants to Be Free"

Everything as a Service

Will People Stop Buying Electronics?

by Kevin Morris

December 9, 2014

It is always fascinating to follow trend lines, and then to extrapolate them out toward infinity to see what absurd conclusions you can reach. We do that a lot with Moore’s Law around here, and it’s pretty easy to come to absurd conclusions extrapolating on those particular exponentials.

Even with the absurdity disclaimer in place, however, it is interesting to look to the not-too-distant future implications of our most recent half-century of progress. Yes, the cost of a transistor has dropped to … so close to zero that we might want to … Read More → "Everything as a Service"

Single-Electron Transistors

A Whole New Way of Switching

by Bryon Moyer

December 8, 2014

I love surprises like this. You go into what promises to be a wonky, even dull, conference presentation – and come out agog.

That’s exactly what happened to me at the recent ICCAD in San Jose. It was a presentation based on a collaboration between the University of Michigan, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and National Tsing Hua University about some placement or routing algorithm, but it happened to involve a transistor type that I’d never heard of. And… I don’t know, there was something about the regularity of it, perhaps its elegance, illuminated through a … Read More → "Single-Electron Transistors"

Intel’s 14nm ‘Tock’ Dilemma

Can an Asymmetrical Metronome Turn Process Delay Into Product Advantage?

by Jim Turley

December 4, 2014

With the production arrival of Broadwell, Intel has finally executed the ‘tick’ onto their impressive 14nm FinFET process. Broadwell is built on the Haswell microarchitecture, introduced some half-dozen quarters back on the 22nm FinFET process. The question under discussion is when and where Intel will execute the ‘tock’ onto the new Skylake microarchitecture.

The possible answers to that question are so fascinating because of the six-quarter (being kind) delay bringing up the 14nm FinFET process and the Broadwell products. Given that [a] Broadwell is a modest architectural step from Haswell and [b] Skylake is engineered to take … Read More → "Intel’s 14nm ‘Tock’ Dilemma"

VISC Processor Secrets Revealed

Soft Machines Uses Combination of Tricks to Improve Performance

by Jim Turley

December 3, 2014

Still trying to juggle those flaming chainsaws? Splendid, because now we’re going to see how it’s done.

Last week we introduced Soft Machines and its VISC processor, a new CPU design that runs native ARM code even though it’s not an ARM processor. Soft Machines says VISC can also be tailored to run x86 code, Java code, or just about anything else the company decides is worthwhile. It’s a tabula rasa microprocessor: able to run just about anything you throw at it.</ … Read More → "VISC Processor Secrets Revealed"

Xilinx Divides the World

Separate Flows Target Software and Hardware

by Kevin Morris

December 2, 2014

The problem… is you.

I know, it seems a bit harsh, blaming FPGA designers for restricting the expansion of the FPGA market. After all, FPGA designers are the fans, right? We are the loyal, the ones who have supported the technology all these decades, the ones who have toiled and struggled and applied our customer-side creativity to help solve the myriad challenges associated with getting one of the coolest and oddest chip architectures ever invented to behave well enough for actual system use.

Exactly.