Articles – Page 530

April 28, 2009

If a bug exists in a design and nobody notices, it is still a bug?

This question is more than just a play on the more familiar sylvan conundrum. And its answer is actually more nuanced than you might think. It transcends what would appear to be a simplistic peaceful Zen interlude to an otherwise hectic design schedule. Its subtlety keys off of what is meant by the word “notices.”

There are two ways in which a bug could be noticed. The one that matters, the most important one, the one … Read More → "More Than A Zen Thing"

How Many Different Ways Can You Be Positive?

by Dick Selwood

April 28, 2009

One of the interesting things about the current economic situation (crisis, downturn, reset – put your chosen word in here) is how different companies all say that while the situation is difficult for everyone else, it isn’t really troubling them because…

And at the Globalpress conference in March, there were a lot of good reasons being touted about why a particular speaker’s company was going to survive, thrive, be ready for the recovery. (And add your own chosen word in here too.).

One good reason came from Tanner EDA. The company supplies analog, … Read More → "How Many Different Ways Can You Be Positive?"

Chef’s Menu

Xilinx 11.1 Offers the Tools You Actually Need

by Kevin Morris

April 28, 2009

For many of us, ordering the exact FPGA tools that we need to do our job has been frustrating at times:

“We’d like to start with some spring rolls, please.”

“Yes sir, and who are they for?”

“We’d like to share them. They come six to an order, right?”

“Yes sir, they do, but you may not share. Each person has to order their own.”

“Ah, well, (winks) I’ll have the six spring … Read More → "Chef’s Menu"

Network Hardware & Internet Communities

by Jim Turley

April 21, 2009

MontaVista and QNX Open Up Open-Source

Open-source software development is all about community. “Crowd sourcing” of content and talent is all the rage these days, and various social media have made it easier to collaborate with people you’ve never met. Little wonder, then, that software companies have opened their virtual doors to all comers.

A case in point is MontaVista, a long-time supporter of open-source Linux, especially for embedded systems. The company has launched Meld, … Read More → "Network Hardware & Internet Communities"

Programmers Appreciate a Good Stack

by Jim Turley

April 21, 2009

Stack size is a matter of personal preference. Most programmers like large, well-endowed stacks that stretch the memory fabric to nearly overflowing. Others like to squeeze in smaller but perfectly formed ones with no wasted space. Whatever your predilection, handling an appropriately sized stack is usually done by feel instead of by the numbers. But that’s about to change.

Measuring stack size is the tricky part. It can be hard to get your arms around the problem. Most of us will just eyeball a passing stack and declare it too big, too small, or just … Read More → "Programmers Appreciate a Good Stack"

Bringing it Together – Some of It Anyway

Synopsys Announces Lynx and Discovery

by Bryon Moyer

April 21, 2009

The EDA world is rife with point solutions. No sooner might you think it’s time to stitch together a unified flow when some new requirement of some new technology makes some new point tool necessary for effective design.

And so it goes; an IC design environment might have a dozen or two (or more) tools that must be invoked at one time or another. It’s not a flow, it’s more like an artist’s palette, with all the capabilities laid out in a more or less unstructured … Read More → "Bringing it Together – Some of It Anyway"

Altium Goes for the Masses

Breaking the EDA Mold... Again

by Kevin Morris

April 21, 2009

This week, Altium is introducing a new model for the purchase of electronic design tools, in an attempt to create a grass-roots revolution that will change the nature of the electronic design automation (EDA) market. For the past several years, Altium has been marching to a different drummer – focusing on an integrated desktop design tool suite that spans the gamut of electronic design from system-level specification to board and package layout and verification to FPGA design and to embedded software development and debug. We characterize this approach as the “Microsoft Office” of EDA – bundling together key … Read More → "Altium Goes for the Masses"

Selecting the Ideal FPGA Vendor for Military Programs

by Jim Turley

April 15, 2009

Evaluating Competing Criteria

Developing a system design for government projects typically requires a defense contractor to evaluate and make system decisions based on documents such as a request for proposal (RFP), statement of work (SOW), and concept of operations (CONOP) as shown in Figure 1. From these documents, a contractor must assess system alternatives while maximizing the customer’s expected system goals, objectives, and capabilities. As with any complex design, there may be competing goals and objectives, … Read More → "Selecting the Ideal FPGA Vendor for Military Programs"

Implementing a Multirate Uncompressed Video Interface for Broadcast Applications

by Jim Turley

April 15, 2009

Introduction

The emergence of the high-definition (HD) 1080p video standard has presented some formidable design challenges for broadcast system engineers. While HD broadcasting now is established as the de facto standard for video broadcast around the world, new production equipment still must be able to handle the legacy of standard-definition (SD) and 1080i interfaces. This puts equipment manufacturers under pressure to build a cost-effective video interface solution that can handle multi-rate video. High-speed FPGA ICs, design tools, … Read More → "Implementing a Multirate Uncompressed Video Interface for Broadcast Applications"

But What Does It Mean?

Tagging, Indexing, and Querying Behaviors in RTL Designs

by Bryon Moyer

April 14, 2009

We’ve all been there before. We get handed a design that someone else did, most likely someone that’s no longer around, no longer accessible. Into our laps it falls, warts and all. Only, it’s hard to tell which behaviors in the design are warts and which are wants. It might have been C code (possibly the most broadly available means of obscuring intent ever devised), it might have been a PERL script (ok, also obscure, but attempted only by the cognoscenti), perhaps RTL, an Excel spreadsheet, or whatever. Bottom line, we’ve … Read More → "But What Does It Mean?"