Articles – Page 238

A Dinosaur is Leaving Footprints in Your Smartphone

April 25, 2012

The old playground joke was, “How do you know when an elephant is in your refrigerator?” Answer: “Footprints in the butter.” Now British company, eoSemi, is asking a more serious question: “How do you know that there is a dinosaur in your smartphone?” “Footprints in the PCB.” This isn’t Jurassic Park, so eoSemi’s dinosaur is the quartz crystal oscillator that is vital to the operation of the ever more complex smartphones and tablets.

Smartphone developers are trying all the time to squeeze more and more performance and functions into the restricted format of the handset. … Read More → "A Dinosaur is Leaving Footprints in Your Smartphone"

Staring Down Giants

Achronix Introduces New 22nm FPGAs

by Kevin Morris

April 24, 2012

It takes a lot of guts to go head to head with an established industry leader. It takes even more guts to go up against an established duopoly – directly in their most heavily fortified markets. Fighting against one giant is tricky. You have to look carefully to find a vulnerable spot and put all your energy into exploiting that vulnerability. Fighting against two different giants is a whole ‘nother ballgame. What works against one opponent may not work against the other – and giants tend to be big and heavy. You don’t want to get squished between them.

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Sensor Chemistry

by Bryon Moyer

April 23, 2012

Chemistry – at least at the high-school level – can be fun stuff. You’ve got these fundamental entities called atoms that can come together in many ways to build molecules, which constitute the stuff of life (and non-life). At this simplistic level, there’s nothing smaller than an atom, and atomic behaviors, as depicted in the periodic table, determine which combinations work well and which work, well, not at all.

Movea has picked up on this theme to organize the elements of their sensor fusion offering (not to be confused with nuclear fusion – but then again, I guess … Read More → "Sensor Chemistry"

SCR based on-chip ESD protection for LNA’s in 40nm CMOS

by Bryon Moyer

April 19, 2012

The number of wireless enabled systems is very diverse and steadily growing. System makers include wireless functions into mature applications like fixed-line telephones and TV’s, increase the wireless features in mobile phones with support of multiple standards and come up with new device types that thrive on being always wirelessly connected for the newest content [1]. Further, also the transport, security, medical and payment sectors are quickly switching to wireless interfaces for improved user experience. Intelligent wireless bus, subway and train tickets replace the paper versions. Expensive equipment or resources in general are traced back thanks to RFID … Read More → "SCR based on-chip ESD protection for LNA’s in 40nm CMOS"

Move Over, R2-D2 Is Driving

Self-driving Cars Get Government Approval for Public Roads

by Jim Turley

April 18, 2012

What a long strange trip it’s going to be.

The State of Nevada has just given official approval for autonomous self-driving cars. As if visiting Nevada wasn’t enough of a gamble, now you’ve got to dodge robot-controlled vehicles on public roads.

It’s not all Jetsons and jetpacks just yet, though. Nevada’s Department of Motor Vehicles has approved only the public testing of cars, so you and I can’t buy robo-cop cars and go badassing around the desert just yet. The first car to get approval is a modified VW … Read More → "Move Over, R2-D2 Is Driving"

New Dimension in Chips

What 3D ICs Mean for the FPGA Industry

by Kevin Morris

April 17, 2012

3D is one of the hottest buzzwords these days. Every marketeer worth his salt is trying to find a way for the next “new thing” to be plausibly labeled as “3D.” 3D is cool. We see it in movies. The bad guys jump right out from the screen. 3D is real, vibrant, and immersive. 2D is, well, flat and boring.

When Tabula introduced their time-multiplexed FPGA fabric a few years ago, they proudly raised the 3D flag. Ahem, OK, so their chips aren’t EXACTLY 3D. Not in the physical sense. But, if you imagine the routing … Read More → "New Dimension in Chips"

The End of Seeing Is Believing

by Bryon Moyer

April 16, 2012

IC patterning is becoming harder and harder to visualize. And I mean that quite literally. When you glaze pottery, you apply some chemical that likely looks nothing like the final outcome, trusting that, in the heat of the kiln, the necessary alchemy will render the proper final color. Even though you couldn’t see that ahead of time. Likewise, with some upcoming silicon technologies, you will no longer be able to visualize IC patterning by looking at masks.

Mask design used to be literal. You took this material called rubylith and cut out the geometries needed … Read More → "The End of Seeing Is Believing"

System Management

by Bryon Moyer

April 16, 2012

Semiconductor devices are prone to failure even after they have been tested, packaged and shipped by the semiconductor vendor. The main factors that contribute to device failure in a system are electrically, environmentally and mechanically induced failures. Because mechanical failures are almost impossible to mitigate at the electrical or electronic design stage the following discussion focuses on electrical and environmental stresses.

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Divide (and Conquer) by Zero

ARM’s Cortex-M0+ Proves Less Is More, More or Less

by Jim Turley

April 11, 2012

Just when you think ARM can’t sink any lower, they do this.

I mean that in a good way. ARM – effectively the world’s largest microprocessor company – has come out with yet another variation on its ubiquitous CPU architectural theme. This time it’s called the Cortex-M0+ because, well, M0 was already taken.

Yes, the company has officially run out of numbers.

The em-zero-plus is a lot like the em-zero, of course, but different. It’s got a plus sign in its name, for one. And it’s … Read More → "Divide (and Conquer) by Zero"

Envisioning the Future

Embedded Vision Lunges Forward

by Kevin Morris

April 10, 2012

Last summer, we published an article welcoming the Embedded Vision Alliance to the world. With the incredible processing power available today – particularly when you consider the massive acceleration possibilities with devices like FPGAs and GPUs – real embedded vision becomes a realistic possibility. Making that possibility into reality, however, is an enormous task, requiring collaboration from dozens of companies and academia.

When we talk about embedded vision, we’re not talking about just bolting a camera onto your embedded system. Devices that simply capture, … Read More → "Envisioning the Future"