Large devices allow you to stuff a whole system into the FPGA, but debugging these complex systems with limited visibility – and a one-day turnaround for synthesis plus place and route – can consume weeks of your precious time.

Hardware/software co-verification has been successfully applied to complex ASIC designs for years. Now available to FPGA designers, this technology brings together the debug productivity of both a logic simulator and a software debugger. Co-verification enables you to remove synthesis and place and route from the design iteration loop, while yielding performance gains 1,000 times faster than logic simulation.</ … Read More → "The Case for Hardware/Software Co-Verification"

Deep in the system designer’s psyche, the traditional truths of FPGA are fused with non-volatile, metal-to-metal connections. FPGAs are expensive. FPGAs consume too much power. FPGAs and battery-powered consumer devices are complete non-starters.

QuickLogic should guard their secret carefully – the one about their new PolarPro being an FPGA family. When designers of portable media players are looking for a device that can significantly increase the battery life of their next-generation units, FPGAs will likely be the last place they think to look. After all, FPGAs burn power like toasters. FPGAs are expensive. Nobody in his … Read More → "Chillin’ with QuickLogic"

It seems reasonable enough on the surface. There is a pile of work to be done, and one of the project manager’s duties is to analyze that pile into something more manageable – usually a schedule with a resource plan and budget. The well-meaning project manager looks to the wisdom of conventional project planning for guidance in calming the chaos. After all, project management is not a new science. For decades, (if not millennia), techniques for taming the complexity of large collaborative projects such as construction have been well understood. If we just pretend our embedded software … Read More → "Tyranny of the Metaphor"

Since my first car was among the least expensive available when I made my purchase, I thought I would see what innovations are available today in that class. The lowest-priced sedan in the United States (according to my non-scientific web search) is the 2006 Chevrolet Aveo, with a starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price under $10,000. It has safety features including front and side airbags. I also learned that you can, in fact, still buy a car without power windows and power door locks, but an AM/FM stereo and air conditioning are included as standard features. Not bad. More than … Read More → "Baby, You Can Drive My Car"