Articles – Page 74

March 15, 2021

Everything has unintended consequences. A small change to your software ripples downstream and creates new bugs. Changing a simple capacitor causes that regulator over there to fail. VPNs (virtual private networks) were originally created to allow access to your work computer while on the road but have since become the preferred way to sidestep copyright police or geo-shift your video streams.

Nowhere are unintended consequences more consequential than in the patent system. Patents mostly work as intended, inasmuch as they … Read More → "Patent Trolls and Unintended Consequences"

FPGA-Based Arduino Clones on Steroids

by Max Maxfield

March 11, 2021

Every now and then, someone comes up with an idea that makes me think, “Wow, that’s a great concept, why didn’t I think of that?” This was the case a couple of years ago when I was introduced to Jason Pecor from Alorium Technology. In turn, Jason introduced me to their XLR8 (“Accelerate”), which is a drop-in … Read More → "FPGA-Based Arduino Clones on Steroids"

Hardware IP Cuts Memory Size, Bandwidth, and Power

Startup ZeroPoint Compresses Memory on the Fly

by Jim Turley

March 10, 2021

Memory. What’cha gonna do with it, amirite? It’s too slow, too expensive, it takes up too much space on your board, and the supply is more volatile than a honey badger on acid. But every system needs memory, and the more processors you have, the more memory you need. Too bad there isn’t a way to, y’know, somehow make half of those problems go away.

Wish granted. A Gothenburg Sweden–based startup called Read More → "Hardware IP Cuts Memory Size, Bandwidth, and Power"

Wait, What? MIPS Becomes RISC-V

Classic CPU Company Exits Bankruptcy, Throws in the Towel

by Jim Turley

March 8, 2021

What a long, strange trip it’s been. MIPS Technologies no longer designs MIPS processors. Instead, it’s joined the RISC-V camp, abandoning its eponymous architecture for one that has strong historical and technical ties. The move apparently heralds the end of the road for MIPS as a CPU family, and a further (slight) diminution in the variety of processors available. It’s the final arc of an architecture.

MIPS as a company has passed through a lot of hands, most recently as part of Read More → "Wait, What? MIPS Becomes RISC-V"

Mechatronics Meets No-Code Voice AI

by Max Maxfield

March 4, 2021

I’m currently running around in ever-decreasing circles shouting, “Don’t Panic!” because I’m trying to spin too many plates and juggle too many balls and I was never trained to spin and can’t juggle. Hmmm, now that I come to think about it, that’s not strictly true because I once read a book on the art of juggling and — as a result — I can juggle nine fine china plates, but only for a very short period of time.

The term mechatronics refers to an interdisciplinary branch … Read More → "Mechatronics Meets No-Code Voice AI"

QuickLogic Opens Up FPGA Design

Open Source Tools Break with Convention

by Kevin Morris

March 3, 2021

The walled fortress is a time honored tradition in the FPGA business. Since the beginning of FPGA time, vendors of programmable logic silicon have kept a tight grip on the tool chains that are used to program their devices. If you want to do anything with a vendor’s chips, you need the vendor’s tools and the vendor’s rules. The only exceptions have been close partnerships between FPGA companies and EDA companies to provide key bits of technology that the vendor either couldn’t or didn’t feel like developing internally.

RISC-V Fast Tracks Simpler Extensions

More Hope for Erstwhile CPU Designers

by Jim Turley

March 2, 2021

One of the charming aspects of RISC-V is that it’s so… flexible. As an open-source processor specification, absolutely anyone can use it, modify it, and commercialize it. There are no licensing fees, no rules, and no compatibility test. It’s the Wild West of processors. Up to a point.

If you want to call your processor RISC-V, however, you have to follow the rules. The name “RISC-V” is trademarked, and there are also trademarked variations, subsets, profiles, and extensions … Read More → "RISC-V Fast Tracks Simpler Extensions"

Gemini-1 Spreads Millions of Processors Into RAM

GSI Technology Chip is Good for Accelerating Search Algorithms

by Jim Turley

March 1, 2021

It’s the computer equivalent of the proverb, “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.” If the data won’t come to your processor fast enough, send the processor out into the data.

That’s the idea behind GSI Technology’s first processor, called Gemini-1Read More → "Gemini-1 Spreads Millions of Processors Into RAM"

Recreating Retro-Futuristic 21-Segment Victorian Displays

by Max Maxfield

February 25, 2021

I’m a big fan of having hobby projects. In addition to taking one’s mind off the toils, troubles, and tribulations of the world, I think that having a new “thing” that you want to do is the best way to set about learning how to do it.

Take adding a new programming language to your repertoire as an example. One way to do this is to wade through the language reference manual (yawn). Another approach is to come up with some algorithm or task you wish to code … Read More → "Recreating Retro-Futuristic 21-Segment Victorian Displays"

Redefining Xilinx?

Data Center Announcements Show Strategy Shift

by Kevin Morris

February 24, 2021

Xilinx made a batch of announcements this week aimed at the data center. The company rolled out a new line of programmable network 100Gb/s SmartNIC interface cards, a “SmartWorld AI” video analytics solution, an algorithmic trading framework, and (finally) the Xilinx App Store. Taken together, they make good on Xilinx’s long-term “data center first” strategy. And, viewed on a more macro scale, they represent the execution of a strategy to dramatically grow the FPGA market.

As data rates have skyrocketed, increasing amounts of CPU power have been consumed … Read More → "Redefining Xilinx?"