Articles – Page 267

Upstairs Downstairs

April 25, 2011

Navigating Amsterdam’s picturesque waterways can be a chill way to see the town (weather permitting… sometimes the chill can be a bit too literal). Many of the buildings running alongside date far back (or are made to look like they do), with features not likely to be found in a modern suburban home.

One that sticks out in particular (literally) is a beam that juts out from the peak of the roof. It extends several feet beyond the roofline, towards the street, and it has a pulley towards the end. It almost looks ornamental, … Read More → "Upstairs Downstairs"

Smart Braces

by Bryon Moyer

April 21, 2011

[Editor’s note: this is the second in a series of articles derived from a session at this year’s ISSCC that focused on sensors and energy harvesting. The prior article dealt with wind sensors. For more details you are referred to the ISSCC proceedings.]

Nobody likes braces. They look funny, they limit what you can eat, and, worst of all, they can hurt. And they’re expensive.

While it looks like braces are simply a line of brackets … Read More → "Smart Braces"

Benefits and Tradeoffs of EDA in the Clouds

by Bryon Moyer

April 21, 2011

Only a few weeks after Motorola® launched the Xoom^TM, Apple® launched the iPad 2^TM. These technological marvels, like their predecessors, illustrate several fundamental challenges that all design engineers face today: designs are getting more complex, and competition more fierce. As a result, the verification effort required to validate these designs is growing exponentially while the schedules are shrinking. Consequently, design engineers’ jobs are getting much harder.

Companies must dramatically grow their capital investments for IT infrastructure to support this exploding demand for verification. This is costly, time consuming, … Read More → "Benefits and Tradeoffs of EDA in the Clouds"

From Concept to Code

Mathworks Bridges a Critical Gap

by Kevin Morris

April 20, 2011

Math is beautiful.

It is likely that mathematics is the closest thing we have to Pure Truth. Math has no moods, no bias, no political leanings, and no religious convictions. Math is a wonderful set of self-consistent rules that pays homage to nobody and expects nothing in return.

Math is also a cold, hard arbiter – with neither soul nor compassion. Math has no friends, lovers, allies, or enemies. Math is distant and dispassionate. Math has no morals and Math owes no debts.

Math goes wrong, however, when … Read More → "From Concept to Code"

You Got It

They Want It

by Jim Turley

April 19, 2011

Security is an arms race. The good guys come up with new ways to hide data and the bad guys eventually find ways to break in anyway. You update your security; they update their attacks. In true arms race fashion, both sides spend a lot of time and energy to stay right where they are.

And, like a grimmer sort of arms race, civilians can wind up among the casualties. In our case, engineers are learning that they need to include security features in their products whether they like it or not. Seemingly innocuous products like … Read More → "You Got It"

Reaching for the Cloud

Synopsys, Cadence Take Different Approaches to Cloud Computing

by Bryon Moyer

April 18, 2011

For once, those clouds on the horizon aren’t harbingers of doom. At least, we don’t think so.

In fact, they’re almost tantalizing. Everyone is looking at them, fantasizing that that’s where they want to be. At least, we think so.

If you’ve ever watched a squirrel come and take something from your hand, you’ve seen that skittish, cautious approach, ready to bolt at any second, then snatching the food and running. Well, that’s kind of the feel you sometimes get about … Read More → "Reaching for the Cloud"

Connecting the Dots

Siloti Helps Reveal the Picture

by Bryon Moyer

April 14, 2011

Dot-to-dots are a fundamental part of American kiddie culture. Maybe it’s universal; I don’t want to speak to things I know nothing about… (much). But at least here in the US, it’s a typical child’s pastime (or homework busywork to placate parents that don’t want their children wasting their time playing): a piece of paper has a few strategically-placed numbered dots. You fill in the missing information by supplying the path between the dots; the result should reveal an image that wasn’t evident at the start.</ … Read More → "Connecting the Dots"

Exposing your Multicores

by Dick Selwood

April 13, 2011

I am writing while a carpenter is putting up some shelves. When he arrived, in addition to bringing in a huge pile of fresh timber, he also brought in an array of tools. I suspect he is a tool junky, but he does have, for example, a wonderful array of screwdrivers of different sizes, shapes and lengths. He chooses the right screw for the task and then matches the screwdriver to the screw.

We now have the opportunity to do the same thing with processing cores. Instead of forcing a standard architecture to carry out a range … Read More → "Exposing your Multicores"

Shanghaied in Sydney

If You Dig a Hole Through the Bottom of the EDA Market - Do You Wind Up in China?

by Kevin Morris

April 12, 2011

No one has ever made the mistake of calling Altium “timid.” As long as they’ve been in business, the company co-founded by Nick Martin has been making bold and controversial moves. This week, Altium’s announcement that their company headquarters would be moving from Sydney, Australia to Shanghai, China is no exception.

In the beginning, the company provided the alterna-tool for designers who wanted to do their own PCB layout but didn’t have big corporate budgets. ProTel made a name for themselves in low-cost desktop PCB design.& … Read More → "Shanghaied in Sydney"

Does the EDA Business Have a Future?

by Dick Selwood

April 11, 2011

The late and very greatly missed Douglas Adams once wrote:

1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;

2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;

3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it& … Read More → "Does the EDA Business Have a Future?"