Hardware designers are a proud and detail-oriented group that takes great personal pride in the product of its efforts. Many engineers are drawn to hardware design—rather than, say, software work—to give their detail-oriented nature room to thrive. As early as their first freshman lab exercises, budding hardware designers learn that a software bug can easily be fixed by editing a text file and recompiling (though admittedly those who learned during the punch-card era may disagree with this attitude). But a hardware design error can be far more costly to one’s social schedule. A … Read More → "Incremental Synthesis"

The faithful are easy. An FPGA company rolls out a new line and the bragging begins: “More LUTs, increased Fmax, Shorter PnR runs, faster MGTs!” 

The faithful are impressed: “Yes! Tell us more! Have you increased the LUT width? Added more FF’s to your LEs? Diversified your mix of hardened IP blocks? Increased the BRAM ratio? ” 

(The Faithful talk like that most of the time – all acrimoniously acronymic, feasting in their insider insight, devouring the minutiae with reckless abandon, disdainfully dismissing the unwashed masses.)

The rest of the world, however, … Read More → "Preaching to the Choir"

Image format conversion is commonly implemented within various broadcast infrastructure systems such as servers, switchers, head-end encoders, and specialty studio displays.

At the basic level, the need for image format conversion is driven by the multitude of input image formats that must be converted to high definition (HD) or a different resolution before being stored, encoded, or displayed.

The broadcast infrastructure … Read More → "Building ‘Image Format Conversion’ Designs for Broadcast Systems"

Imagine seeing the following copy in a modern ad: “The new BMW 5-series sedan outperforms the horse and buggy in every important way. Your family will travel farther in a day and arrive less fatigued thanks to our superior cruising speed, climate-controlled cabin, and luxurious upholstery. It’s so much easier to use as well – no more hitching up the team before you start, and no more watering, feeding, and grooming at the end of the day. You just turn the key and drive away. Simple as that. So, before you snap up that new stallion you’ve been … Read More → "Kicking a Dead Horse"