Articles – Page 207

October 30, 2013

Texans know clouds. Whether he’s a rancher or a farmer, your basic Texas agriculturalist makes his living looking at the sky and knowing which way the wind blows. And in Texas, it blows a lot. (Trivia: You can tell a rancher from a farmer by his hat. Ranchers wear cowboy hats; farmers wear ball caps.)

And that ol’ Texas wind is blowing clouds right up into Dallas, home of Texas Instruments. The clouds have blown through the marketing department and straight into engineering. And after stirring up a little dust, out blows a new MCU family.</ … Read More → "It’s Raining MCUs Over Texas"

ARMing a New Generation

Altera Announces Processor Architecture for Gen X

by Kevin Morris

October 29, 2013

The future of FPGA-based processors is coming into focus. Altera just announced that the processor architecture for their upcoming “Generation 10” Stratix FPGA family will be the ARM Cortex-A53. Pretty clear, eh? OK, that’s it. End of article. Move on along.

What? Still have questions? What does it all mean?

To review, Altera has announced that their next Stratix family (Generation 10) will be built on Intel’s 14nm Tri-Gate (FinFET) process. Read More → "ARMing a New Generation"

3D IC Flow Challenges

Cadence Talks About the Toughest Bits

by Bryon Moyer

October 28, 2013

Cadence recently announced a design flow for CoWoS 3D ICs. We’ve looked at some of the issues surrounding 3D IC technology before, but what we’ve looked at less are the specific ways designers will implement 3D ICs within their EDA flows.

So I talked with Cadence’s Brandon Wang to see what specific … Read More → "3D IC Flow Challenges"

Shift Left

Intelligent Testing for Software

by Dick Selwood

October 24, 2013

Everyone knows that, when developing software, you are going to have to spend a lot of time testing: identifying the bugs that are causing the software to fail, correcting the bugs, and then testing again. This phase has been estimated to take as much as 70% of the software development time for an embedded product. Last week, I attended a conference on intelligent testing, expecting to hear from a range of speakers on how their tools, research, or consultancy could improve or shorten the testing cycle. And, indeed, there was some discussion of specific tools – as we will see later. … Read More → "Shift Left"

Imagination Deploys a MIPS Warrior

New P5600 “Warrior” CPU to do Battle with Cortex-A15

by Jim Turley

October 23, 2013

In the never-ending battle of good versus evil, Coke versus Pepsi, NASCAR versus opera, and ARM versus MIPS, the MIPS brigade has fielded a new combatant. Behold, the P5600, the point of the spear in MIPS’s epic battle to dethrone the incumbent Cortex as king of the microprocessor-IP hill.

But first, there’s the name.

Remember the MIPS “Aptiv” line of processors? Forget about it. Now that MIPS is part of Imagination Technologies, their British marketing overseers have overhauled the branding. Henceforth, MIPS processor designs will be known as the M-class, I-class, or P-class. … Read More → "Imagination Deploys a MIPS Warrior"

FPGAs Fuel (Sensor) Fusion

QuickLogic Announces Ultra-Low-Power Sensor Hub

by Kevin Morris

October 22, 2013

Sensors are literally taking over the world. Projections vary as to actual numbers – some say we will reach a trillion – but it is safe to say that we are in the middle of an exponential explosion in the number of sensors deployed in the world. Beyond the obvious gajillions in smartphones, sensors are being designed into just about every kind of embedded system you can imagine. All those sensors promise a revolution in the real-world intelligence of the systems we all design.

One of the biggest problems with putting sensors into our systems … Read More → "FPGAs Fuel (Sensor) Fusion"

Bad Touch a Mile High

Sorry, It's Not What You're Thinking

by Bryon Moyer

October 21, 2013

There’s nothing like 10 hours in the air to help you get intimate with a piece of technology that you must stare in the face the entire time.

I’m talking, of course, about the screen in the back of the seat in front of you. I had two different experiences with two different screens on two different flights last week.

On the first one, my only observation was that the screen and light controls had been moved from the arm rest (where you are forever turning the damn thing back on by resting your … Read More → "Bad Touch a Mile High"

Chilly Reception at the Junction

Hypres Adds Superconducting Fab Capabilities

by Bryon Moyer

October 14, 2013

Hypres recently announced an upgrade of their commercial superconducting circuit fab from four layers to six.

OK, whoa whoa whoa whoa there… If you’re like me, you got lost at “superconducting circuit.” I mean, aren’t superconductors mostly for research labs? And MRI machines? And the occasional showcase public transit system? And SQUIDs*? And the perennial press release about how someday we’ll have practical superconductivity at room temperatures?

Apparently not. There’s something stirring in the cold, cold world of … Read More → "Chilly Reception at the Junction"

Do Engineers Even USE Social Media?

by Larra Morris

October 11, 2013

It’s a myth with several variations…

“Engineers aren’t really on twitter”

“Engineers only use Facebook for personal use. None of them are looking at work-related stuff.”

“Social media isn’t a good way to reach an engineering audience. Engineers don’t use social media.”

It seems counterintuitive that a group of people usually known as early adopters – the inventors and users of the latest new tools and technologies – are so … Read More → "Do Engineers Even USE Social Media?"

Own the Media

Don't Let It Own You

by Kevin Morris

October 11, 2013

I was chatting with a marketing executive recently, and he explained that they didn’t really know how to do “branding” with online advertising. “With print,” he said “we could run pure branding ads. With online, we can’t because we need a call-to-action and something to track.”

This is a classic case of letting the media own you.

While it’s true that online advertising offers great benefits in immediate calls-to-action and tracking of results, those benefits should never be seen as limitations. … Read More → "Own the Media"