It happens from time to time. Some well-meaning high-tech company notices that they’ve got some pretty cool design tool technology and says to themselves, “Hey, we’ve got some cool design tool technology. Let’s jump into the EDA market!” These are fateful thoughts, however – best pushed aside. In practical terms, they are akin to “Hey, I’ve got myself a pretty cool racing bike – I think I’ll compete in the Tour de France!” Sometimes, though, a company that, perhaps, developed some nice tools for their own internal use, feels just too tempted and takes that … Read More → "Connecting the Camps"

FPGAs fall into two distinct camps – high-performance and low-cost. For several years, the rules and conventions of these strata have been established and followed by FPGA companies. Low-cost or value-based FPGAs are designed with cost as the first priority. Every spare feature is thrown overboard in order to minimize die size and production cost, leading to the lowest possible price-per-LUT for a given amount of programmable fabric. High-end FPGAs, on the other hand, spare no expense in offering the maximum performance and the richest feature sets.

The silicon selection rules for FPGA designers have been, therefore, … Read More → "Lattice Breaks the Rules"

History of the Spreadsheet

In 1979, a young Harvard Business School graduate student envisioned a new methodology to effectively organize and process large amounts of data through variations of parameters to yield an exact what-if analysis of numerical models, utilizing something called a personal computer. The young graduate student, Dan Bricklin, created VisiCalc™, the first killer app for the nascent personal computer industry of the early 1980’s. Today millions of users depend on the progeny of VisiCalc, the most popular being Microsoft Excel™. Financial, scientific, … Read More → "Accelerating RTL Analysis & Creation with Spreadsheets"

The race is on. Both competitors push pedals deliberately as the brakeless bikes start moving on the highly banked oval of the velodrome. Suddenly, before they have completed a second lap, the leader pulls his bike up the slope and comes almost to a stop, trying to lure his competitor into passing him on the inside. The duel that ensues is ironically typical of two-competitor sports like sprint cycling. Each cyclist strategically maneuvers his bike to try to gain the advantageous position – just behind the other in the aerodynamic wake. Sometimes, one of the cyclists will “track … Read More → "IP to Go"

His son graduates from Junior High next week – blank it out… His wife’s car needs the oil changed – blank it out… His mother sounded tired when she called last week – blank it out… He tries to empty his conscious of all the noise, the clutter, and the dreary detail of his daily life. He blanks his mind and visualizes himself as if he were watching his own actions from a short distance away. He fast forwards several seconds into the future. He sees himself address the ball and begin the back swing. … Read More → "Spartan-3 Goes Golfing"