Articles – Page 3

AMD’s x86 CPU and FPGA tango on Sapphire Technology’s Embedded+ PC motherboard

March 6, 2024

What could possibly be interesting about a new PC motherboard? New x86 CPU? Yawn. Fancy new cooling fan with blue LEDs? Oh puh-leeze! Integrated FPGA for hardware I/O and computational acceleration with system-level software standardization and API calls? Tell me more. AMD has announced a new PC motherboard architecture for embedded PC applications, which it calls the Embedded+ integrated computing platform. From a hardware perspective, the Embedded+ platform architecture drops an FPGA onto a PC motherboard, connects the FPGA to the x86 CPU via PCIe, and routes the I/O pins from the FPGA to a … Read More → "AMD’s x86 CPU and FPGA tango on Sapphire Technology’s Embedded+ PC motherboard"

Look At Something, Ask a Question, Hear an Answer: Welcome to the Future

by Max Maxfield

March 5, 2024

A few days ago, I was introduced to a tempting taste of the future that had me squirming in my seat in excitement and anticipation. You know what it’s like when you are ambling your way through the world without a thought in your head (at least, that’s the way I usually do it). And then something catches your eye that sparks a cascade of questions. Rather than take a picture or make notes for future follow-up, suppose you could simply articulate your questions aloud and immediately hear the answers tickling your ears. Well, … Read More → "Look At Something, Ask a Question, Hear an Answer: Welcome to the Future"

FPGA maker Intel PSG spins out of Intel and adopts old name: Altera

by Steven Leibson

March 4, 2024

A Fable:

Once upon a time, in the incredibly wealthy Kingdom of Silicon, there lived a scrappy company named Duchess Altera, who shared the Duchy of FPGAs with an archrival named Duchess Xilinx. For more than three decades, Duchess Altera and Duchess Xilinx battled for control of the Duchy of FPGAs. Then, Duchess Altera forged an alliance with Archduke Intel, who ruled the much larger and much richer Grand Duchy of Microprocessors. Sometime later, Duchess Xilinx joined the House of Zen, which competed with Archduke Intel in the Grand Duchy … Read More → "FPGA maker Intel PSG spins out of Intel and adopts old name: Altera"

Rise of the Robots (Well, Robot Arms)

by Max Maxfield

February 29, 2024

Way back in the mists of time when I was a young lad circa the middle of the last century, towards the end of the previous millennium, one of the things that drove my ambitions to become an engineer was my desire to work with robots. … Read More →

Tiny FPGA in Microchip’s latest PIC16 microcontroller adds real-time speed, sells for less than 50 cents

by Steven Leibson

February 26, 2024

Microchip now offers a Flash-based microcontroller with an integrated programmable-logic block for less than half a dollar in volume. The nine members of the Microchip PIC16F13145 family (the ‘113, ‘114, ‘115, ‘123, ‘124, ‘125, ‘143, ‘144, and ‘145) sport the same 8-bit RISC microprocessor architecture as other members of the 16F family, but they also incorporate a new programmable-logic block called a Configurable Logic Block (CLB). … Read More →

AMFitzgerald and MEMS Infinity to Rule the PZT MEMS World

by Max Maxfield

February 22, 2024

Generally speaking, I tend not to be interested in business-related announcements like strategic partnerships. I can’t tell you how many over-excited emails I’ve received informing me of something vague, fluffy, and wishy-washy along the lines of two companies planning to sign a memorandum of understanding that they may or may not collaborate to investigate the possibility that… by which time my eyes have glazed over and I’m drooling and gibbering (two actions that aren’t as easy to perform simultaneously as you might think).

Of course, there’ … Read More → "AMFitzgerald and MEMS Infinity to Rule the PZT MEMS World"

First Text-to-Speech, Then Text-to-Image, Now Text-to-3D-Animation

by Max Maxfield

February 20, 2024

After seeing what I’ve just seen, you can consider (what I laughingly call) my mind to be well and truly blown. My poor old noggin is now full of ideas, each one triggering a cascade of considerations. Some of these meandering musings may even be germane to what I’m about to reveal. As usual, of course, we will all have to weed through my rambling waffling and make our own decisions as to what is relevant… or not… as the case might be.

When I was a kid, the height of … Read More → "First Text-to-Speech, Then Text-to-Image, Now Text-to-3D-Animation"

Will 2024 Really Be Intel’s Year to Retake the Lead in Semiconductor Process Technology?

by Steven Leibson

February 19, 2024

Way, way back in my high school senior English class, I learned about the six critical components of a news story: who, what, when, where, why, and extent (5WE). Today’s story focuses on Intel’s expansive plans to retake the lead in the never-ending semiconductor race and primarily covers four of these critical story components: what, when, who, and why. Intel has announced that it plans to catch and then overtake the acknowledged current semiconductor process leader, TSMC, either in 2024 or 2025. This is definitely a reach goal, because Intel slipped its planned schedule when introducing both … Read More → "Will 2024 Really Be Intel’s Year to Retake the Lead in Semiconductor Process Technology?"

Can Isotopically Pure Silicon Chips Switch 1,000X Faster?

by Max Maxfield

February 15, 2024

I was just introduced to a company that has developed an affordable, clean, efficient way to separate out the isotopes of elements, including silicon and uranium. It was the potential for an isotopically pure form of silicon for use in both regular silicon chips and quantum computers that made my eyes open wide.

I’m constantly amazed by all the things I don’t know. Hmmm. On reflection that’s incorrect, because I don’t know what I don’t know (see also Read More → "Can Isotopically Pure Silicon Chips Switch 1,000X Faster?"

Seagate’s 30Tbyte Exos Hard Drive Writes Large

by Steven Leibson

February 14, 2024

Thirty Terabytes. These two words don’t ordinarily go together to describe the capacity of a hard drive, but Seagate has just introduced a 3½-inch hard drive family – called the Exos Mozaic 3+ – with a maximum capacity of 30 Tbytes. These drives store more than 3 Tbytes per platter. Contrast this 30Tbyte drive with my first hard drive, a Seagate ST-225, which I bought in 1985 for a home-built IBM PC clone. The ST-225 was a half-height, 5¼-inch, 20Mbyte hard drive with an MFM interface. It required an external hard-drive controller board. At 30Tbytes, the largest Exos Mozaic 3+ drive has more … Read More → "Seagate’s 30Tbyte Exos Hard Drive Writes Large"