Articles – Page 73

April 6, 2021

It’s not a bug, it’s a feature, if you publish it in the manual, right? AMD has taken a “white hat” approach to a possible security risk in its newest Zen 3 processors by publishing a white paper that describes the problem. Although there’s no known exploit in the field, AMD appears to be heading off any problems by detailing how, when, and where the problem might occur, and what … Read More → "AMD Details Potential Ryzen Attack Vector"

ARMv9: Fashionably Late

Latest Update to ARM Architecture Aids Security, AI, Performance

by Jim Turley

April 3, 2021

Silicon Valley is like Milan. One is the US center of high tech, the other is the fashion capital of Italy. The Valley has its product rollouts and Milan has its runway shows. Both are glamorous, slick, professionally produced events designed to generate excitement but tell you almost nothing about the actual product. They’re teases; entertainment for the press corps documenting the industry’s every move.

So it was that last week nearly a hundred of my colleagues and I assembled – virtually, of course – to witness the carefully choreographed … Read More → "ARMv9: Fashionably Late"

Want to Learn AI? But Where to Go?

by Max Maxfield

April 1, 2021

I once worked for a large computer manufacturer that considered itself to be a “big cheese” in its headquarters’ hometown. For some reason, the folks who donned the undergarments of authority and strode the corridors of power decided to have a blitz on the local media channels — including newspapers, radio, and television — to remind the hoi polloi as to who we were and what we did. At the end of this campaign, the bigwigs (those sporting the biggest wigs) sponsored a survey and were chagrined to discover that — when questioned — the vast majority of local residents … Read More → "Want to Learn AI? But Where to Go?"

Micron Bails, Intel Does Optane Alone

Nonvolatile 3D XPoint Memory has Been Slow to Take Off

by Jim Turley

March 31, 2021

There are a lot of ways to do nonvolatile memory. I mean, a lot of ways. There’s flash memory, of course, but also magneto-resistive memory, phase-change memories, resistive RAM, ROMs, PROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, ferroelectric memories, holographic memories, battery-backed SRAM, spinning hard disks, floppy disks, knots on a piece of string… You get the idea.

Very few of these interesting and innovative technologies ever succeed in the market. The high failure rate isn’t because the technologies don’t work. … Read More → "Micron Bails, Intel Does Optane Alone"

Heresy and Horror Ahead at Intel

New CEO Pat Gelsinger Aims to Set Intel on an Unaccustomed Path

by Jim Turley

March 29, 2021

As the helmsman of the Ever Given, ~~currently~~ recently stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, can attest, turning a massive ship is no easy task. And there’s no bigger vessel in our industry than the S.S. $INTC, otherwise known as Intel Corporation.

Intel is probably the only semiconductor company in the world that … Read More → "Heresy and Horror Ahead at Intel"

Cyber-Security’s So-So Soup; Cyber-Resiliency Rocks!

by Max Maxfield

March 24, 2021

In my previous column — Yay! Finally! A Way to Secure the Supply Chain! — we considered a cunning concept from the crafty chaps and chapesses at Lattice Semiconductor. As you may recall, the idea is to use the Lattice SupplyGuard service to pre-load MachXO3D or Read More → "Cyber-Security’s So-So Soup; Cyber-Resiliency Rocks!"

Cameras, License Plates, and You

Automated License Plate Readers Spur Privacy Concerns

by Jim Turley

March 22, 2021

So, there I was, fiddling around with networked cameras again, when I discovered that it’s really easy to read car license plates. So easy, in fact, that a lot of people are worried about the side effects. It’s another case where technology has outstripped public will.

Cameras are really stupid, which you already knew. They have no idea what they’re looking at, and they have no concept of depth perception. … Read More → "Cameras, License Plates, and You"

Yay! Finally! A Way to Secure the Supply Chain!

by Max Maxfield

March 18, 2021

I was brought up by my parents to have a suite of core values, including the fact that it was wrong to tell porky pies and that it would be despicable beyond words to pilfer, pinch, or purloin anything from anyone. Shortly after I graduated from university, soon after I moved to commence my first job at International Computers Limited (ICL) in Manchester, England, I was burgled. The callous swine took the only thing I owned that was worth anything — a brand-new rubber-handled hammer that I’d purchased out of my first pay-packet. … Read More →

What Is Your Invention Worth?

Latest Qualcomm Lawsuit Calls IP Values into Question

by Jim Turley

March 17, 2021

How much can you charge for your product?

Anything you want, right? You can set the price arbitrarily high or low, and let your customers decide if it’s reasonable. That’s how capitalism works.

Well, yes, sort of… That’s how an idealized, textbook version of capitalism works, but that’s not how it’s implemented in practice. In modern industrialized societies, there are certain limits placed on how you price, market, and sell your products. For example, you can’t charge different … Read More → "What Is Your Invention Worth?"

Xilinx Back in the Cost-Optimized Game

Launches New, Competitive Devices

by Kevin Morris

March 16, 2021

If you’d asked me a year ago (or two, or three) what I thought about Xilinx’s cost-optimized device offering, I’d have told you that I firmly believed that the company had given up on the low-cost FPGA and programmable logic market, leaving it to other, more eager competitors like Lattice Semiconductor and Microsemi/Microchip. Intel (formerly Altera) had been maintaining parity with Xilinx on low-cost abandonment, with both companies offering the same basic devices they’ve had for several years, not really putting any marketing or visible engineering energy into that market, and … Read More → "Xilinx Back in the Cost-Optimized Game"