Articles – Page 38

Grammar for Professionals, e.g. vs. i.e. All Becomes Clear

July 6, 2023

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, one of my backburner hobby projects is writing a book called “Wroting Inglish: The Essential Guide to Writing English for Anyone Who Doesn’t Want to be Thought a Dingbat.”

When I commenced work on this project, the audience I had in mind was primarily my peeps (engineers). More recently, however, since I’ve found myself correcting communications from members of multiple occupations, including lawyers, I’ve decided to target professionals in general.

Now, you might argue … Read More → "Grammar for Professionals, e.g. vs. i.e. All Becomes Clear"

With 18.5 million logic cells, AMD’s Versal VP1902 Premium Adaptive SoC becomes “World’s Largest FPGA”

by Steven Leibson

July 5, 2023

In the relatively narrow world of FPGA-based prototyping and emulation, bigger FPGAs are always better. Always. With its 18.5 million logic cells, AMD’s Versal VP1902 Premium Adaptive SoC has just taken the “World’s Largest FPGA” title by more than doubling the capacity of AMD’s previous extra-large offering, the Virtex UltraScale+ VU19P FPGA with 8.5 million logic cells. The VP1902 SoC is also many millions of logic cells larger than any competitive programmable-logic device. Samples of the VP1902 SoC are scheduled to be available in Q3 of this year, and volume manufacturing is scheduled for the … Read More → "With 18.5 million logic cells, AMD’s Versal VP1902 Premium Adaptive SoC becomes “World’s Largest FPGA”"

Steve Sanghi’s new “Up And To The Right” book chronicles Microchip’s journey from nearly bankrupt to Top-20 semiconductor maker

by Steven Leibson

July 3, 2023

Although he did not know it at the time, when Steve Sanghi left Wafer Scale Integration (WSI) to join Microchip in April 1990, he had jumped from the frying pan directly into the fire. Nine months prior, Sanghi had looked at Microchip’s status in the hopes of justifying a merger between ailing WSI and Microchip. At that point, Microchip had $10 million remaining from a Series A funding round and looked to be heading up. However, the merger didn’t happen, and WSI continued to spiral downward. After WSI’s CEO, VP of technology, VP of sales, and … Read More → "Steve Sanghi’s new “Up And To The Right” book chronicles Microchip’s journey from nearly bankrupt to Top-20 semiconductor maker"

Want a Database Tailormade for Edge Computing?

by Max Maxfield

June 29, 2023

We are constantly being informed about computationally intensive tasks moving out to the edge, like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), for example. Sad to relate, one supporting capability required by many of these applications that doesn’t receive as much attention and discussion as it should is the topic of databases. Specifically, databases tailormade for deployment on the edge in microprocessor units (MPUs), microcontroller units (MCUs), electronic control units (ECUs), and so forth. Fortunately, I have you covered…

As I’ve mentioned on occasion, I’m very lucky because—in addition … Read More → "Want a Database Tailormade for Edge Computing?"

Axiado Develops Swiss Army Knife for Platform Security

by Steven Leibson

June 28, 2023

How much system security is too much? By the way, that’s a rhetorical question. No matter how much security you put into a system’s design, if the protected data is valuable enough or if bad actors just think the data’s valuable enough, they will try to steal it, corrupt it, or counterfeit it. Processor vendors spend an increasing amount of time and devote a growing number of design resources to develop new security schemes for their processors.

For example, AMD offers a variety of security features in its various Ryzen … Read More → "Axiado Develops Swiss Army Knife for Platform Security"

Say Howdy to High Fidelity Software-Defined Sensing for the 21st Century

by Max Maxfield

June 27, 2023

There are many things I don’t know much (if anything) about. So many, in fact, that I could write a book about them… or not, as the case might be. An example of one of the things I know very little about would be touchscreens, which makes it somewhat paradoxical that these little scamps are to be the topic of this column. Well, not touchscreens per se, but rather the sensing technology that lurks behind, within, or in front of them (for some reason, the thought “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” just … Read More → "Say Howdy to High Fidelity Software-Defined Sensing for the 21st Century"

Intel and Movellus Develop Different Fixes For IC Voltage Droop

by Steven Leibson

June 26, 2023

Two presentations during the same week from Intel and Movellus highlighted radically different approaches to solving voltage droop, a problem that increasingly plagues SoC designs as device geometries continue marching down the Moore’s Law curve. Intel, being a manufacturing-centric company, has developed a backside power distribution network (PDN) for its Intel 20A and 18A process nodes. Meanwhile, IP vendor Movellus has developed an extension to its digital, synthesizable clock-network IP, which allows a chip manufactured using any semiconductor process node from any foundry to sense power droop and automatically tune the on-chip clock network to eke … Read More → "Intel and Movellus Develop Different Fixes For IC Voltage Droop"

AI-Augmented Earbuds That Read Your Mind!

by Max Maxfield

June 22, 2023

I was 16 or so years old when I built my first brainwave amplifier circa 1973. This was prior to the widespread availability of microcontrollers. As far as I know, it was also before anyone had even coined the term DSP (digital signal processing), because—to the best of my knowledge—all signal processing at that time was ASP (analog signal processing), which was performed using analog components and techniques.

My humble brainwave amplifier artifact required a cornucopia of electrodes to be clamped around my cranium, buffered with conductive paste, and connected to my noggin … Read More → "AI-Augmented Earbuds That Read Your Mind!"

Hot Chips 2023 takes place on August 27-29, returning as a live/virtual hybrid event

by Steven Leibson

June 19, 2023

Microprocessor vendors have used a number of industry events to reveal technical details of their latest creations, but the Hot Chips conference in Silicon Valley remains the premiere venue for such disclosures. Hot Chips 2023 will be held August 27 to 29 in Dinkelspiel Auditorium on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California. That’s right, after a 2-year hiatus, Hot Chips is again a live and in-person event, but the organizers are keeping the virtual attendance format as well, so you need not journey to Stanford to watch the presentations. However, if you want to launch those barbed … Read More → "Hot Chips 2023 takes place on August 27-29, returning as a live/virtual hybrid event"

The End of the Beginning of the End of Civilization as We Know It (Part 2)?

by Max Maxfield

June 15, 2023

I think my dear old dad sometimes wished he’d been born in the American Wild West circa the 1850s. When I was a kid in England in the 1960s, we both used to love watching the American “Cowboys and Indians” programs on TV. Even now, almost 60 years later, the names of these westerns still trip off my tongue: Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Bat Masterson, Maverick, Bonanza, The Lone Ranger, The Rifleman, The Virginian, The Life and Legend … Read More → "The End of the Beginning of the End of Civilization as We Know It (Part 2)?"