“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” – Mark Twain
When we last checked up on GreenWaves, the French company had just launched its very first chip, the GAP8 processor. They’ve kept busy in the intervening two years by working on its successor, the GAP9. And it’s a big update.
The concept is still the same. Build a low-cost, low-power processor for … Read More → "GAP9 for ML at the Edge"
“While the camera does not express the soul, perhaps a photograph can!” – Ansel Adams
Highway signs flicker. We just don’t notice it.
This was one of the takeaways from a long discussion about camera sensors for automotive applications. Cars have cameras in them now, some outward facing and some inward facing. They’re used for different purposes (more on that in a moment), but the outward-facing ones have a slew of problems to deal with that I’d never considered. One … Read More → "Automotive Cameras Avoid the Pedestrian"
When I was a student at university, in those dim and distant days we used to call the 1970s, my degree in Control Engineering involved two periods out in industry. I think they call this a co-op course in the USA. We used to refer to this sort of thing as a “sandwich course” in the UK. Some programs were known as “thin sandwiches” because they featured multiple cycles of six weeks at college followed by six weeks in the real world. My course was of the “thick sandwich” variety, in which we spent a year … Read More → "You’re Not My Type!"
“Set goals but be flexible.” — Clemantine Wamariya
How flexible is flexible? Marketing people describe their products as “robust and flexible.” Then there are flexible pricing models, flexible shipment schedules, flexible deployments, and flexible morals.
But what if the processor, memory, and the rest of circuitry were all literally flexible – what if they could fold, crease, and bend around corners?
It seems like the perfect solution for tightly packed consumer items like smartphones, cameras, tablets, laptops, and … Read More → "Alternate Roads to Flexible Electronics"
“Anything that keeps me off balance is vital.” – Brie Larson
The dictionary defines haptics as “the use of technology that stimulates the senses of touch and motion, especially… the sensations that would be felt by a user interacting directly with physical objects.” Me, I think of it as the buzzing from my cellphone.
A vibrating phone or pager was probably everyone’s first introduction to haptics, and it’s still the most common usage. But there’s a lot more you can … Read More → "Hap, Hap, Haptics 101"
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in my Why, Hello FPGA and AI — How Nice to See You Together! column, on May 20th I gave my What the FAQ is an FPGA? presentation at the Read More → "Meandering Musings on Metastability"
“And now for something completely different.” – John Cleese
In its latest bid for world domination, ARM has announced two new high-end Cortex processor designs. One is a nice, but unremarkable, tweak on the current Cortex-A77 core. The other is something different: an unabashed speed freak that drops any pretense of power efficiency in pursuit of performance. Say hello to the Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1, respectively.
ARM long ago developed a reputation for making power-efficient processors that struck a balance between performance output and … Read More → "ARM Cortex-X1 Launches High-Performance Line"
“An item on your Steam wishlist is on sale!”
They’re toying with my affections. Or affecting my toys. Either way.
We don’t buy software anymore, we license it. The distinction may be abstruse legal hair-splitting to most people, but it has a real effect on what we can and can’t do with our own purchases. Take computer games, for example.
Back in the day, you’d run to GameStop or CompUSA, buy a … Read More → "Renting vs. Buying Software"
I don’t know about you, but I’m becoming a mite frustrated with the current state of affairs regarding COVID-19. My brother and I have just been obliged to cancel our mother’s 90th birthday celebrations, which were to be held in July 2020 in England (we’ve been planning and purchasing all sorts of things, like a party tent for my little bro’s back garden). I’m going to have to do something about the plane ticket I booked late last year to attend the festivities. Suffice it to say that, whilst understanding the … Read More → "Using MEMS to Thrash COVID-19"
“You can never be too rich or too thin.” – Wallis Simpson
In keeping with this week’s theme of glorified wires, I spoke with a man who designs them for a living. Naturally, he doesn’t see his job that way. To be honest, neither do I, now that we’ve talked about everything that goes into it. Even wires are becoming more interesting.
The gentleman in question is Read More → "The Interconnect Arms Race"
