Articles – Page 54

Using ML to Mine Design Data to Speed and Improve SoC Designs

June 16, 2022

On the one hand, I’m tremendously excited and enthused by all of the amazing things I’m currently hearing regarding deployments of enterprise-level artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL). But (and there’s always a “but”)…

Actually, before we hurl ourselves headfirst into the fray with gusto and abandon, someone asked me earlier today to explain the differences between AI, ML, and DL. Well, in a crunchy nutshell, AI refers to any technology that enables machines to simulate (some say “mimic”) human behaviors and decision-making … Read More → "Using ML to Mine Design Data to Speed and Improve SoC Designs"

Building a Computer, Should You Inadvertently Travel Back in Time (Part 2)

by Max Maxfield

June 14, 2022

In my previous column, I commenced the task of cogitating and ruminating on what I might do to put food on the table if I inadvertently wandered into a timeslip and found myself transported back to the late 1930s or early 1940s. Just to increase the fun and frivolity, I pondered the possibility that this slippery timeslip also transported me into a parallel dimension in which computer science remained rooted in the analog domain.</ … Read More → "Building a Computer, Should You Inadvertently Travel Back in Time (Part 2)"

Ray Holt and the CADC – The World’s First Military Digital Flight Computer

by Steven Leibson

June 13, 2022

Ray Holt was a most unlikely candidate to develop a microprocessor chip set for the US Navy’s new F-14 variable-wing fighter jet. From an early age, Holt was a lackluster student, fully committed to a planned career as a professional baseball player. In 1962, as a senior at Dominguez High School in Compton, California, career counselors advised him not to go into engineering because he exhibited low mechanical aptitude. As a result, Holt ended up majoring in forestry at the University of Idaho. That move followed a year of working at a garbage dump after an … Read More → "Ray Holt and the CADC – The World’s First Military Digital Flight Computer"

Building a Computer, Should You Inadvertently Travel Back in Time (Part 1)

by Max Maxfield

June 9, 2022

I sometimes wonder if I spend too much time reading science fiction books. Similarly for watching science fiction films and TV series in general and Doctor Who in particular. The reason I say this is that I do tend to spend more time than is good for me thinking about what I would do if I inadvertently wandered into a timeslip and found myself transported back to the late 1930s or early 1940s, for example. The problems would only be exacerbated if this slip also transported me into a parallel dimension – such as one that never … Read More → "Building a Computer, Should You Inadvertently Travel Back in Time (Part 1)"

Is the Chip Shortage Getting Better? When and How Will it End?

by Steven Leibson

June 8, 2022

Once upon a time, cigarette manufacturer Benson and Hedges introduced a 100mm tobacco cigarette. Not to be outdone, the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company created the Chesterfield 101, marketing it as a “silly millimeter longer.” You can still find the TV ad from the late 1960s on YouTube. Both tobacco products were nothing but marketing stunts, of course. It was the same old chopped tobacco, laced with additives and wrapped in paper, but the cigarette makers chose to give their products a story that was somehow connected with millimeters of length. In semiconductor manufacturing, millimeters mean something … Read More → "Is the Chip Shortage Getting Better? When and How Will it End?"

Building Robots? Need a Place to Start? Try This FPGA-based SOM with Apps from AMD/Xilinx

by Steven Leibson

June 6, 2022

Robots have captured our imagination ever since Czech writer Karel Čapek coined the word in his play titled “R.U.R” (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti or Rossum's Universal Robots), which he wrote in 1920. The play premiered the following year, and even in that first appearance, things didn’t go well for people. Eventually, Rossum’s robots revolted and wiped out the human race, which set an oft-repeated precedent for the next century’s worth of robot stories. … Read More →

The Latest and Greatest in Secure Control FPGAs and FPGA-Based ORAN Solutions

by Max Maxfield

June 2, 2022

I just turned 65 years old this past weekend. I find this fact hard to believe. Where did the time go? I don’t remember the 1980s at all (I must have had a bad beer). One of the cool things about growing older (there aren’t many, so you have to make the most out of what you can get) is that you’ve had the chance to perceive, peruse, and ponder a few things along the way.

For example, I got to see the very first episode of Doctor … Read More → "The Latest and Greatest in Secure Control FPGAs and FPGA-Based ORAN Solutions"

I Come to Bury the Internet, and to Praise It, Part 3

by Steven Leibson

June 1, 2022

The first two parts of this article dealt with getting new Internet service from TDS Telecom at my new home near St. George, Utah. It took a few days for a technician to come out and install 50 feet of coaxial cable from the utility pedestal located at the corner of my property to the house and then to install and provision the cable modem. In about an hour and a half, I had Internet. However, the technician was not able to use the pre-buried conduit for the outside cable run, so he had to run the coax along the … Read More → "I Come to Bury the Internet, and to Praise It, Part 3"

Whom Do You Trust?

by Max Maxfield

May 31, 2022

I love all of the cool things that today’s incredible technologies make available to us. Take the internet, for example. I think it’s fair to say that I avail myself of the awesome access it provides to information from dawn to dusk. Even when I’m relaxing in the evening watching a program on the television, I’ll be using my trusty iPad Pro to look up information on actors, locations, unfamiliar words… all sorts of things.

I remember when I commenced my career in the early 1980s. … Read More → "Whom Do You Trust?"

I Come to Bury the Internet, and to Praise It, Part 2

by Steven Leibson

May 30, 2022

Six days after getting my new Internet service in Ivins, Utah, I managed to kill my Internet connection. I did it by unplugging the cable modem’s power brick and plugging it into a surge protected power strip. The cable modem refused to boot after that. So, instead of writing about my adventures with a powerline modem as promised in the first part of this article, I’m now writing about the events surrounding the restoration of my Internet service after my cable modem died.

How do I know the … Read More → "I Come to Bury the Internet, and to Praise It, Part 2"