Articles – Page 77

January 11, 2021

Some security weaknesses would be hilarious if they weren’t so serious. And one man and his crack research team have found dozens of surprising ways to crack seemingly impenetrable computers. You’ve got to give them points for originality.

There are a lot of ways to secure a computer, depending on what you’re trying to prevent. Do you want to keep secure information inside? Do you want to prevent outside malware from getting in? Do you want to limit access to only the right people? The list goes … Read More → "Hacking a Secure Air-Gapped Computer"

An AI Storm is Coming as Analog AI Surfaces in Sensors

by Max Maxfield

January 7, 2021

I worry that when writing these columns, I sometimes start by meandering my way off into the weeds, cogitating and ruminating on “this and that” before eventually bringing the story back home. So, on the basis that “a change is as good as a rest,” as the old English proverb goes, let’s do things a little differently this time.

Take a look at the image below. What do you see in addition to the penny piece? What I see is a Read More → "An AI Storm is Coming as Analog AI Surfaces in Sensors"

Neuromorphic Revolution

Will Neuromorphic Architectures Replace Moore’s Law?

by Kevin Morris

January 6, 2021

According to tech folklore, Carver Mead actually coined the term “Moore’s Law” – some ten years or so after the publication of Gordon Moore’s landmark 1965 Electronics Magazine article “Cramming More Components Onto Integrated Circuits.” For the next five and a half decades, the world was reshaped by the self-fulfilling prophecy outlined in that article. Namely, that every two years or so, semiconductor companies would be able to double the number of transistors that could be fabricated on a single semiconductor chip.

That biennial doubling of transistors led most noticeably … Read More → "Neuromorphic Revolution"

Security Flaw Afflicts Intel x86 Boot ROMs

CVE-2020-8705 Undermines Intel’s Boot Guard Security

by Jim Turley

January 4, 2021

Another year, another Intel bug.

What makes this bug interesting is that it’s so crafty. It’s fun to see what loopholes hardware and software can discover all by themselves. If you’re a homeowner, you know that water is amazingly devious. It can intrude anywhere, including moving uphill, through tiny holes, and along porous surfaces. Stopping leaks – or finding bugs – feels like a never-ending chore.

In this case, an Intel bug fix introduced a new bug. Ironic? Sure, but, to be fair, … Read More → "Security Flaw Afflicts Intel x86 Boot ROMs"

Decapitating Malware with Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) Technology

by Max Maxfield

December 31, 2020

As you may imagine, I receive an eye-watering number of emails each and every day. To give you an idea as to the size of the problem: as I pen these words, this is my first day back at work following a four-day break for the Christmas Holiday weekend. I got up at 6:00 a.m. this morning and came straight to my office. I ate lunch at my desk. It turned 3:30 p.m. a few minutes ago. I’ve only now finished wading through the emails that came in over the weekend and just now started writing this column.</ … Read More → "Decapitating Malware with Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) Technology"

Contractually Obligated Year-End Article

Evidence That 2020 Wasn’t Entirely a Waste of Time

by Jim Turley

December 30, 2020

“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are for.” – Grace Hopper

You’re probably not reading this article. You’ve got better things to do. But if your browser does somehow accidentally send you here, I’d like to point out that 2020 was, in fact, a fairly decent year as far as electronic engineering technology goes.

Electronics now account for 40% of the cost of a new car, according to research firm Read More → "Contractually Obligated Year-End Article"

Esperanto AI Chip Exploits Thousands of Minions

Just Like Real Life, the Little Guys Do All the Work

by Jim Turley

December 28, 2020

“The sad thing about artificial intelligence is that it lacks artifice and therefore intelligence.” – Jean Baudrillard

It’s turtles all the way down. That’s the takeaway from a deep dive into Esperanto’s upcoming AI chip, melodically named ET-SoC-1. It’s organized as layer upon layer of processor cores, memory blocks, and mesh networks as far as the eye can see. This thing scales better than a tuna.

Esperanto Technologies</ … Read More → "Esperanto AI Chip Exploits Thousands of Minions"

Say Hello to Deep Vision’s Polymorphic Dataflow Architecture

by Max Maxfield

December 24, 2020

Over the years (actually, decades, now I come to think about it), I’ve seen a lot of great silicon chip architectures and technologies pop up like hopeful contenders in a semiconductor Whack-A-Mole competition, only to fail because their developers focused on the hardware side of things and largely relegated the software — in the form of design, analysis, and verification tools — to be “something we’ll definitely get around to sorting out later.”

Of course, these companies did eventually cobble some low-level software tools together, something sufficient to allow them … Read More → "Say Hello to Deep Vision’s Polymorphic Dataflow Architecture"

Tiny Firm Makes Super-Fast RISC-V

Micro Magic says It’s Made the World’s Fastest and Most Efficient RISC-V

by Jim Turley

December 23, 2020

“Racing makes heroin addiction seem like a faint craving for something salty.” — Peter Egan

What do a tiny 10-person engineering firm and zillion-employee Apple have in common? Not much, really, except that both have recently designed new microprocessors that combine high performance with low power consumption. Let’s see… fast CPU, licensed RISC architecture, low-power design rules… I think I’m detecting a pattern here.

The tiny firm in question is < … Read More → "Tiny Firm Makes Super-Fast RISC-V"

Lattice Launches Mach-NX

System Control Meets Industrial-Strength Security

by Kevin Morris

December 22, 2020

Pop Quiz – which FPGA company has sold the most devices?

Nope, wrong. Guess again.

And… wrong again. Neither Xilinx nor Altera/Intel, despite hovering around 80% combined FPGA market share for the last couple of decades, has shipped the most FPGA devices. That distinction goes to Lattice Semiconductor, and not by a small margin. The reason, of course, is that, in recent years, Lattice has focused on the mid-range and low-end segment of the market, while the better-known programmable logic companies have struggled for supremacy … Read More → "Lattice Launches Mach-NX"