Articles – Page 248

November 24, 2011

LDRA issued a press release sometime back on their work with the Mathworks; I addressed the overall topic at the time, but there was something else that caught my eye.

In the press release was the statement, “The LDRA tool suite provides full code coverage whether statement, branch or decision, linear code sequence and jump (LCSAJ), or modified condition/decision coverage (MC/DC) of code created from Simulink models and hand-written … Read More → "Are You Covered?"

Help! Help!

Xilinx Premieres Premier

by Kevin Morris

November 22, 2011

In the years we’ve been covering FPGAs, the technology and the market have been expanding in all dimensions. The devices themselves have grown exponentially bigger, faster, more capable, and more complex. The number and variety of applications have expanded too – with new application areas annexed into the FPGA arena on a regular basis. FPGAs have branched out from simple glue logic to complex system-on-chip integration devices in a wide gamut of markets and systems.

The tools for FPGA design have followed suit, with incredible pressure for tool developers to provide both increased automation and … Read More → "Help! Help!"

Arria V FPGA Sneak Peek: Transceiver Operation at 6.325 Gbps and 10.3125 Gbps

by Jim Turley

November 22, 2011

When you want it all, Arria^® V devices provide the balance of cost and performance while delivering the lowest total power. Watch this exciting hardware demonstration of the Arria V FPGA’s transceiver running at 6.375 Gbps and 10.3125 Gbps.

Watch this 9-minute video to:

See the Arria V FPGA’s transceiver in action at 6.375 Gbps and 10.3125 Gbps
Learn … Read More → "Arria V FPGA Sneak Peek: Transceiver Operation at 6.325 Gbps and 10.3125 Gbps"

Low-Power Servers: Opportunity or Oxymoron?

New ARM-Based Server Chips Change the Data-Warehouse Landscape

by Jim Turley

November 21, 2011

You knew it had to be about ARM. Everything today is about ARM. So it’s no big surprise that ARM is elbowing its way into the formerly sacrosanct halls of server farms. You know, those big echoing hallways filled with racks upon racks of server blades, all humming along as they power the Matrix—er, the Internet.

Server racks have traditionally been the domain of big, burly, he-man microprocessors from the likes of Intel, Sun, or IBM. Only the beefiest, most power-mad processors need apply. “This is man’s work, sonny, and … Read More → "Low-Power Servers: Opportunity or Oxymoron?"

That Old Rock and Roll

Universal Audio Engineers Create Old Sounds with New Tools

by Bryon Moyer

November 21, 2011

The 50s and 60s were an amazing time for popular music. Everything felt fresh, everyone wanted to try new things, and – best of all – the people that funded these ventures were willing to take risks and nurture innovation. It was a democracy that held that, if you had the skills and wanted to work hard, you could take a reasonable stab at the music business. It was indeed a business, but, importantly, it was about music, and the people in the business were, by and large, musicians.

Many of the creations from that time survive … Read More → "That Old Rock and Roll"

The Annoying Valley

by Bryon Moyer

November 17, 2011

Want to save a few bucks on insurance? If you let Progressive track your driving, you can get a discount.

If you’re Japanese, want to be part of a healthier society? By tracking your activities, your company can help meet the national goal of improving health.

Sound like Big Brother? Does it creep you out?

These days, maybe. (OK, I’m going to exclude the terminally self-obsessed tweeters who volunteer their every breath to anyone who will listen… they’ll never read this past 140 characters anyway.)

… Read More → "The Annoying Valley"

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Atomic Clocks for the (Almost) Everyday Embedded Designer

by Jim Turley

November 16, 2011

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.” – Albert Einstein

Have you noticed how you can measure distance by time but you don’t ever measure time by distance? If you ask someone in Los Angeles how far away Anaheim is, they’ll tell you “about an hour,” but if you ask how long until lunch, they won’t say “ … Read More → "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"

Mitrionics Re-Emerges in HPC/Supercomputing Markets with New Ownership

by Amelia Dalton

November 16, 2011

Lund, Sweden, November 15, 2011 – Mitrionics AB, developer of the Mitrion Virtual Processor and the Mitrion Software Acceleration Platform for FPGA-based reconfigurable computing, today announced its re-emergence in the HPC and supercomputing markets. After a one-year hiatus, the full transfer of the Mitrionics’ intellectual property to new ownership has been completed. A new company has been formed, named “Mitrionics AB”, in accordance with the purchased rights. The Mitrionics company name and all other intellectual properties, including the Mitrion Virtual Processor, the Mitrion Software Development Kit, all software source code, patents, trademarks, … Read More → "Mitrionics Re-Emerges in HPC/Supercomputing Markets with New Ownership"

Implementing FPGA Design with the OpenCL Standard (REVISED)

by Jim Turley

November 15, 2011

Utilizing the Khronos Group’s OpenCL™ standard on an FPGA may offer significantly higher performance and at much lower power than is available today from hardware architectures such as CPUs, graphics processing units (GPUs), and digital signal processing (DSP) units. In addition, an FPGA-based heterogeneous system (CPU + FPGA) using the OpenCL standard has a significant time-to-market advantage compared to traditional FPGA development using lower level hardware description languages (HDLs) such as Verilog or VHDL.

… Read More →

Implementing FPGA Design with OpenCL – A Future Look

by Jim Turley

November 15, 2011

Are you using FPGAs to accelerate your system? Altera is exploring a new technology for FPGAs that will provide exciting and significant productivity gains for your high-performance systems. Watch this webcast to find out about Altera’s Open Computing Language (OpenCL™) program for FPGAs.

In this 15-minute webcast you’ll learn about:

The market drivers and embedded technology enablers
The benefits of using FPGAs … Read More → "Implementing FPGA Design with OpenCL – A Future Look"