Articles – Page 70

June 7, 2021

It was the best of DRAM access times, it was the worst of DRAM access times…

Do hybrid devices combine the best of two technologies, or the worst? Is a Toyota Prius a great leap forward, or just a small gas-powered car lugging around a heavy battery in its trunk? Peanut butter and chocolate, or floor wax and dessert topping?

How about DRAM volatility combined with flash memory’s block-erase cycles – a good combo or a terrible idea? Let’s complicate the decision. What … Read More → "Dynamic Flash the Next Big Thing?"

Are We Ready for Human Brain-Scale AI?

by Max Maxfield

June 3, 2021

My poor old noggin is currently full of ideas ricocheting around like corn kernels in an over-enthusiastic popcorn machine. As a tempting teaser, are you aware that: “Tachyum is enabling human brain-scale AI and advancing the entire world to a greener era by delivering the world’s first universal processor”? If not, then I will be delighted to expound, explicate, and elucidate, but first…

I’m currently gnashing my teeth and rending my garb because I just missed the chance to commemorate my one millionth birthday. I did celebrate my … Read More → "Are We Ready for Human Brain-Scale AI?"

We Interrupt This Program…

Intel and AMD Contemplate Different Replacements for x86 Interrupt Handling

by Jim Turley

June 2, 2021

At some point, the house of cards begins to topple over. It’s no secret that the x86 processor architecture is almost aged enough to collect a pension. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a creaking old bit of wheezing ironmongery that, had the gods of microprocessor architecture been more generous, would have been smote into oblivion long ago.

Intel and AMD have done an amazing job keeping the old girl running for all these decades, but the strain is beginning to tell. Programming x86 … Read More → "We Interrupt This Program…"

Prophesee Image Chip Is Motion Sensitive

Unusual Image Sensor Sees Things in a Different Light

by Jim Turley

May 31, 2021

Security cameras and image sensors are pretty stupid, as we’ve explained before. Yet they’re important for a range of applications that have nothing to do with taking selfies at the beach. We use cameras for inspection, for security, for quality control, for medical diagnosis, and for about a hundred other things.

If you’ve ever dealt with image sensors, you know they’re simple in concept but … Read More → "Prophesee Image Chip Is Motion Sensitive"

Aspinity’s Awesome Analog Artificial Neural Networks (AANNs)

by Max Maxfield

May 27, 2021

I’m a digital logic designer by trade. In an ever-changing and increasingly unreliable world, I find the certainty of Boolean equations to be extremely reassuring. You know where you are with a Karnaugh map, you can trust a De Morgan transformation, and you can gratify your desire for single-bit transitions with a Gray code. By comparison, I find the wibbly-wobbly nature of analog electronics to be somewhat disconcerting, which is unfortunate because there’s so much of it about these days.

One of the funny things is that “analog” … Read More → "Aspinity’s Awesome Analog Artificial Neural Networks (AANNs)"

ARM Announces Names and Claims

Upcoming CPU, GPU Cores Have Names, but No Technical Details

by Jim Turley

May 26, 2021

In its latest gender reveal party, ARM today announced the names of its next generation of IP cores and… not much else. There weren’t even any fireworks, drunkenness, injuries, or YouTube-worthy stunts.

The company did roll out two new buzz phrases, though: “total compute” and “purpose-built compute,” by which it means there’s a processor, coprocessor, GPU, or system bus for every conceivable purpose. It’s a reminder that you can pretty much build anything you want using naught but IP cores licensed from the British/Japanese/maybe American … Read More → "ARM Announces Names and Claims"

AIStorm Makes AI Sensors Cheap & Easy

Startup Embeds Logic Underneath Image Sensor Chips

by Jim Turley

May 24, 2021

Sometimes it’s the little things. Call it small and cute, cheap and cheerful, wee and wonderful, sometimes the inexpensive entry-level products can be the most interesting. So it is with this week’s company.

Business guru Clayton Christensen used the example of Honda motorcycles to illustrate his now-famous thesis of “disruptive innovation.” Back in the 1970s, American motorcycles were big, heavy, fast, and expensive. Honda didn’t make anything close to that. Its Super Cub was tiny and underpowered, practically a toy. So, Honda decided to sell it through … Read More → "AIStorm Makes AI Sensors Cheap & Easy"

Spectacular Spintronics (Mechanical Electronics)

by Max Maxfield

May 20, 2021

I’m currently so excited I can hardly speak (I can barely even manage a squeak) because today saw the launch of the Spintronics Kickstarter — an event for which I’ve been waiting in dread anticipation for weeks. As we will discuss, Spintronics is a new game suitable for ages 8 to 80+ in which players build mechanical equivalents of electrical and electronic circuits to solve puzzles.

When I was young and foolish — more foolish even than today — I thought that electrical and electronics were the only engineering domains worth talking about, … Read More → "Spectacular Spintronics (Mechanical Electronics)"

Ampere Ups the ARM Ante

Company Tees Up Next Generation of ARM-Based Server Chips

by Jim Turley

May 19, 2021

They say there’s no such thing as “the cloud.” It’s just somebody else’s computer. That’s true, but it doesn’t mean that their computer is the same as your computer. Today, most cloud datacenter servers are x86 machines just like your desktop PC except bigger and farther away. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

Silicon Valley company Ampere Computing thinks that cloud datacenters really should … Read More → "Ampere Ups the ARM Ante"

Lattice Powers-up Industry 4.0

Introduces Automate Solution Stack

by Kevin Morris

May 18, 2021

Lattice Semiconductor has hit their stride, smoothly executing the strategy they laid out a couple of years ago. In the wake of a failed acquisition, the company turned the page, re-focused, and set a course to make their FPGA technology accessible to a broad range of engineering teams designing high-value applications. It’s a solid strategy – bundling their devices with full-stack solutions including hardware, hardware and software IP, software design and customization tools, reference designs, and design services – everything a typical team would need to quickly get an FPGA-based solution up and running, even with no … Read More → "Lattice Powers-up Industry 4.0"