Articles – Page 227

October 23, 2012

We often talk about your FPGA projects in these pages as if they were your whole universe. We know they’re not. Most often, your FPGA project is a small part of a bigger task, and the FPGA is acting as a sub-part – ranging from the glue that sticks incompatible parts together to the system-on-chip at the core of your system. Since FPGAs are used in many small-volume and prototyping projects, we often use pre-made modules or even development boards for the FPGA portion of our design. That way, we don’t have the huge additional task … Read More → "The Whole Wide World"

Embedded Vision

by Bryon Moyer

October 22, 2012

Systems are becoming more and more human. We are gradually endowing them with the ability to do some of what we do so that we no longer have to. A part of that involves giving them some version of the five senses. (If they get a sixth sense, we’re in trouble.)

Arguably the most complex of those senses is the ability to see. Actually, seeing is no big deal: add a camera and you’re there. It’s making sense out of what you see that’s so dang difficult. Work on vision technology has presumably … Read More → "Embedded Vision"

ARM Goes Big… and Little

Switch Fabric and BeagleBoard Define Two Extremes

by Jim Turley

October 17, 2012

Another day, another ARM encroachment into nontraditional markets.

Last week ARM announced yet another addition to its dizzying array of licensed hardware IP, this time a high-end multiprocessor interconnect fabric designed for servers and networking equipment. Are we sure this is the same ARM processor architecture that started out in the little BBC Micro home computer, lo those many years ago?

Yup, pretty sure. I’m also pretty sure this is the same ARM that’s been grinding its way into the low-end microcontroller market with its Cortex-M0, stealing market share from traditionalists like Renesas, … Read More → "ARM Goes Big… and Little"

Analog-to-Digital-to-FPGA Gets a Boost

Analog Devices Supports JEDEC JESD204B

by Kevin Morris

October 16, 2012

We’ve yammered on a lot in these pages about how these newfangled FPGA whipper-snapper chips are neater’n dirt when it comes to crankin’ out a whole mess-o lickety-split figgerin’ fastern’ you can say “Bob’s yer Uncle.” Yep, if you got something like that whatcha call digital signal processin’, they got them some-o them there DSP blocks that can do yer times-es, your gozeintas, yer take-aways, and yer summin’. You just pile up the data and pump it in, and the FPGA will do the figgerin’ fastern’ cuzin Winki can go through a stack-o flapjacks.</ … Read More → "Analog-to-Digital-to-FPGA Gets a Boost"

Did the Paradigm Shift for You?

by Dick Selwood

October 15, 2012

At one time, every new product announcement was said to mark a paradigm shift in the industry. Thankfully, it is no longer the case that a new release of EDA software or an upgrade of a piece of silicon is treated on a par with the theories of gravity or relativity. However, there are times when paradigms do shift, and, for the semiconductor industry, this may be one of them.

Just as a quick refresher (and simplifying greatly): Thomas Kuhn, in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, put forward the word paradigm for the accepted model … Read More → "Did the Paradigm Shift for You?"

Intel Offers Embedded Processor… Sort Of

Atom Z2760 “Clover Trail” Aimed at Exactly One Product

by Jim Turley

October 10, 2012

Since Intel produces only about 2% of the world’s processor chips, that leaves an awfully big 98% market share for everyone else. But for the past few decades, that lopsidedness hasn’t bothered Intel much, because it controlled the right 2%: the processors that went into PCs. For decades, Intel was happy to relinquish the lion’s share to other vendors. It stuck to PCs because that’s where the money was. There was even a brief period when making ’387 floating-point coprocessors was literally more profitable than printing dollar bills.

No longer. PC sales have been flat … Read More → "Intel Offers Embedded Processor… Sort Of"

To Microsemi and Actel – an SoC

by Dick Selwood

October 9, 2012

Why do companies buy other companies? In one case, I was told, it was because a very large multi-national organisation had an M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) group and the group needed to justify their existence by carrying out projects. But, more sensibly, the main motive in the headline events that make the financial pages of the newspapers, or even the heavier news programmes on television, is usually financial: the intention is that the combined company will be worth more than the two individual units through the magic benefits of synergy. Trimming overlapping administrative functions should save money ( … Read More → "To Microsemi and Actel – an SoC"

Skating, As Sensors Might See It

by Bryon Moyer

October 8, 2012

I recently had a conversation where it was noted that navigation is possible using only an accelerometer, since turns register as acceleration in the lateral direction. On further reflection, I realized that this is true only as long as you know something about how the accelerometer is mounted. For instance, if you’re in a car, then the direction you’re facing changes as you turn and always coincides with the direction in which you’re moving.

Gyroscopes are typically included for a more general solution that gives independent information on the direction you’re facing. In … Read More → "Skating, As Sensors Might See It"

Your Basic $99 Supercomputer

Adapteva’s Epiphany-IV Chip Rocks Floating-Point Math

by Jim Turley

October 3, 2012

What do you get when you combine a floating-point processor with a mesh network? The Adapteva Epiphany-IV microprocessor, apparently. This Boston-based startup composed of four refugees from Analog Devices has developed a brand new high-performance processor that should help smartphones and other mobile devices get even smarter.

Epiphany-IV comes in chip form or as licensed IP. You can also get an evaluation board for $99 (described below), which the company proudly boasts is the world’s most power-efficient supercomputer. Big words from such a little company. But from tiny acorns do mighty oak trees grow, as a certain … Read More → "Your Basic $99 Supercomputer"

Imagine

What If - There Were No Patents?

by Kevin Morris

October 2, 2012

John Lennon famously exhorted us to “imagine” a world with an alternative set of assumptions. It’s an exercise worth doing. We trudge along day-to-day with our preconceived postulates safe in their sanctuaries, seldom taking the trouble to ask ourselves what would happen if some of the underlying framework of our profession suddenly changed.

We have talked before on these pages – sometimes with a measure of controversy – about the possibility of abolishing patents. (See My IP – Brain for Rent, and Read More → "Imagine"