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Tracing Rays in Real Time

Caustic Tries to Change How Design is Done
by Bryon Moyer
February 27, 2013

It’s not every day that an embedded design project results in claims of fundamentally changing the way an industry works. To be clear, new products try to claim this all the time; it’s just less often that it’s actually true. Well, the Caustic division of Imagination Technologies is saying that they have made such a change available to the graphics and animation worlds.

To lay some background for this, let’s review some basics. There are a couple of fundamental ways to create (or render) a graphic image. One might be considered “quick and … Read More → "Tracing Rays in Real Time"

Breaking the Balance

Achronix FPGAs Disrupt the Status Quo
by Kevin Morris
February 26, 2013

For two decades, the FPGA market has been a well-balanced duopoly – a yin and yang cocktail of equal but opposing forces arranged in perfect discordant harmony. Xilinx and Altera have acted as a matched pair of mutual predators in the evolution of a market that has played an important role in the electronics ecosystem. For every Xilinx action there was an equal and opposite Altera reaction. Each Altera thrust was met by a Xilinx parry followed by an Altera riposte.

The foils in this twenty-year fence-o-thon have clearly been semiconductor processes. There were … Read More → "Breaking the Balance"

A Smoother Sidewall

Plasma-Therm’s Take on DRIE
by Bryon Moyer
February 25, 2013

It’s probably fair to say that no single processing step has done more to enable MEMS than deep reactive ion etching (DRIE). And the poster embodiment of this was invented by the Robert Bosch Company – giving them an early advantage. It’s typically referred to simply as “the Bosch process.”

Of course, these days, DRIE isn’t just about MEMS; it’s also used for any deep trenching in advanced semiconductor processes – most notably, through-silicon vias (TSVs). Its value is in creating features that are much deeper than they are wide. Its use is usually made … Read More → "A Smoother Sidewall"

Lawyers, Bankers and Engineers

by Dick Selwood
February 20, 2013

Next week I will be at the three ring circus that is the embedded world trade show in Nuremberg, Germany. My diary is packed with meetings and even the odd social event, and next month I will be covering the main stories.

In the run-up to the show, my attention has been caught by the different approaches to life between the people I will meet in Nuremberg and some recent stories around technology and ownership of companies and intellectual property. One trigger for this is my slightly bemused observation of the American habit of reaching … Read More → "Lawyers, Bankers and Engineers"

Introducing VTOS for Embedded Hardware Verification

by Kevin Morris
February 19, 2013

An environment for functional testing, peeking and poking memory, bus discovery and a powerful scripting because today’s embedded hardware design tools do not address the design test and verification process for prototype hardware, hardware engineers are forced to resort to in-house tools or application OS based testing, resulting in poor test coverage. This paper presents a new hardware test and verification process, based on a Verification and Test OS (VTOS™). VTOS is a user configurable test platform, requiring no porting and can be testing new prototype hardware in 30 minutes. VTOS provides … Read More → "Introducing VTOS for Embedded Hardware Verification"

A Functional Test Approach for Counterfeit, Substandard, and High Risk Microcircuit Detection

by Kevin Morris
February 19, 2013

The production and distribution of counterfeit parts is rising and finding their way into consumer and military devices. As counterfeiters get more sophisticated, so must the tests used for detecting counterfeit parts. A functional test strategy can provide an additional detection methodology that will exercise the device under a variety of operating conditions exposing functional deficiencies. This paper will discuss how establishing a functional baseline will define the bar for functional performance and can be very effective in detecting and stopping counterfeit parts from being shipping in assembled electronic devices.  It describes … Read More → "A Functional Test Approach for Counterfeit, Substandard, and High Risk Microcircuit Detection"

Lessons From the Old Clock Tower

Cyclos Brings the Past Into the Future
by Kevin Morris
February 19, 2013

Back in the old days, they really knew how to make clocks. Their energy sources were less than ideal – usually a big tensioned spring or an elevated mass on a chain. They wanted whatever energy they stored there to last as long as possible, as it was usually recharged manually by humans. Their go-to solution was simple harmonic motion – usually in the form of a pendulum. As long as they tuned the resonant frequency of the pendulum to the frequency they needed for their clock, the system would tick and tock for days – at a steady pace – … Read More → "Lessons From the Old Clock Tower"

Analog at 20

Cadence’s Virtuoso for Advanced Nodes
by Bryon Moyer
February 18, 2013

Analog designers bear a heavier burden than many other designers. If you’re a digital guy, someone is out there creating cells for you, abstracting away the nasty bits so that you can operate unsullied in a land of make-believe that, magically, seems to work.

No such luck for the analog engineer. He or she has to do a lot of heavy lifting on his/her own. And this is largely of their choosing, since “trust” is not easy for analog folks: it’s too easy for someone else to make their … Read More → "Analog at 20"

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