Articles – Page 75

February 23, 2021

To no one’s great surprise, companies around the world are quietly raising objections to Nvidia’s proposed takeover of ARM. When elephants dance, someone’s likely to get stepped on.

Back in September, Nvidia offered to buy ARM for the eye-watering sum of $40 billion, making it one of the largest acquisitions in history. But nothing that big happens without repercussions, and, as we predicted back then, some customers … Read More → "Competitors Squawk at ARM/Nvidia Merger"

What Programming Languages Are In Demand?

Years of Job Listings Show Some Trends for Hiring Coders

by Jim Turley

February 22, 2021

“Kid, when I was your age, we programmed computers by hand using ones and zeroes. And some days we ran out of zeroes.” Okay, boomer, but today’s programming languages are a wee bit more advanced now. So advanced that it’s tricky to know which language(s) to learn or how useful they’ll be. Will C# expertise get me a job? Is it worth learning Perl? Should I hone my ninja Java skills or switch to Python?

Organic Printed Electronics for the 21st Century!

by Max Maxfield

February 18, 2021

What do you think about when you hear the phrase “printed electronics”? To be honest, if you’d asked me yesterday, I would have probably waffled on about using printing techniques to implement components like capacitors, resistors, and inductors on hybrid substrates, multi-chip-modules (MCMs), and some specialized forms of printed circuit boards (PCBs), but I was just talking with Dr. Florian Ullrich from InnovationLab, and he has opened my eyes to a whole new world of … Read More → "Organic Printed Electronics for the 21st Century!"

USB & HDMI: Who’s In Charge Here?

Confusion Reigns Among All the Options and Upgrades

by Jim Turley

February 17, 2021

USB is one of the success stories in the saga of technical standards, and one of the few that lives up to its name. It truly is universal. But that’s about to go out the window.

It started off so well, too. If the funny rectangular plug fit, it worked. It was way better than the assortment of connectors we used to have on our PCs, and the even bigger assortment of device drivers that used to go with … Read More → "USB & HDMI: Who’s In Charge Here?"

Apple M1 vs. Intel Core i7: The Benchmark Wars Continue

Picking a Winner Depends on Who You’re Backing

by Jim Turley

February 15, 2021

Which chip is faster: Apple’s M1 or Intel’s Core i7? The new or the old? ARM or x86? The mobile gadgets company or the major microprocessor maker?

Spoiler alert! It’s a trick question – a Rorschach test. You’ll see what you want to see in the benchmark results, and what you take out of the scores is, as Yoda says, “only what you take with you.”

Computer benchmarking, like auto racing, has been around ever since they made the second one. … Read More → "Apple M1 vs. Intel Core i7: The Benchmark Wars Continue"

Securing Artificial Intelligence Before It Secures Us!

by Max Maxfield

February 11, 2021

Since I spend an inordinate and unfortunate amount of time worrying about the possibility of a forthcoming artificial intelligence (AI) apocalypse, I was delighted to hear that the folks at ETSI have plunged into the fray with regard to establishing the world’s first standardization initiative dedicated toward securing AI. We will return to ETSI’s initiative shortly, but first…

To be honest, things are now happening so fast with regard to AI that it’s starting to make my head spin (see also Read More → "Securing Artificial Intelligence Before It Secures Us!"

When Is the Chip Supply Coming Back?

Supply Shortages in Semiconductors Hurt Automakers and Others

by Jim Turley

February 10, 2021

If your new car doesn’t come with the radio you wanted, blame Japan. Or Korea. Or the United States, UK, Brazil, The Netherlands, Taiwan, France, or (like Monty Python) the Belgians. It’s all their fault.

Your shiny new “German” car will include assemblies and components from all over the world. Indeed, there’s really no such thing as an American car or Japanese car or – heaven help us – Italian car anymore. They’re all global, with Read More → "When Is the Chip Supply Coming Back?"

Radar Sensors on a Chip

It Sees You When You’re Sleeping, It Knows When You’re Awake…

by Jim Turley

February 8, 2021

Radar predates me by quite a bit. The word conjures up black-and-white images of WWII bombers, huge ground arrays, and stickers warning you not to stand too close to the equipment lest you get cooked.

Well, you can ignore that last part. In fact, you’ll want to stand in front of today’s modern radar. You may not have a choice, in fact. Radar just ain’t what it used to be. It’s now tiny, affordable, and actually improvesRead More → "Radar Sensors on a Chip"

Securing RISC-V-Based Systems

by Max Maxfield

February 4, 2021

In just a moment we are going to cogitate and ruminate over the question of how to secure our RISC-V-based systems, but first…

Deep in the mists of time in that awesome decade we used to call the 1970s, although I was in my teens and many exciting things were occurring to capture my attention, I still remember my excitement when 8-bit microprocessors began to arrive on the scene. This started in November 1972 with the Intel 8008, which was essentially an 8-bit version of the 4-bit 4004. Containing approximately 3,300 transistors, the 8008 was the first microprocessor to be supported by … Read More → "Securing RISC-V-Based Systems"

How To Implement Virtual Memory, Part 4

Cut and Paste Code to Set Up Your x86 MMU

by Jim Turley

February 3, 2021

Fiddly little bit-twiddling. Nobody likes it, but if you’re writing boot ROMs, device drivers, or low-level system functions, you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and do it. That’s especially true when you’re tweaking your processor’s MMU to create and enable virtual memory, paging, or protections. To make life easier, we herewith present Little Chunks o’ Code to help with that.

Most of what we’ve discussed so far applies to most any processor, but today’s code snippets are obviously x86-specific. The same … Read More → "How To Implement Virtual Memory, Part 4"