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High-End FPGA Showdown – Part 3

In part 1 of this series, we looked at new high-end FPGA families from Xilinx, Intel, and Achronix and discussed their underlying semiconductor processes, the type and amount of programmable logic LUT fabric, the type and amount of DSP/arithmetic resources and their applicability to AI inference acceleration tasks, the claimed TOPS/FLOPS performance capabilities, and on-chip interconnect such as FPGA routing resources and networks-on-chip (NOCs). In part 2, we looked at memory architectures, in-package integration architecture, and high-speed serial … Read More → "High-End FPGA Showdown – Part 3"

Windows Rediscovers the 1970s

“It’s like déjà vu all over again.” – Yogi Berra 

Dude, this is so trippy. It’s like a flashback to the 1970s. Where’s my TTY Model 33

Remember dumb terminals and mainframe computers? Dial-up access and flaky modem connections? Remember when you had limited access to the university’s timesharing computer and a finite number of minutes … Read More → "Windows Rediscovers the 1970s"

SoCs for ML Inference

The upshot: Trained AI models have to be adapted for specific inference implementations. New inference hardware was presented at Hot Chips by Intel, Xilinx, and Nvidia, and Mipsology has yet another inference option.

This week we bring the natural follow-on to the machine-learning (ML) training piece of a couple of weeks ago: ML Inference. We talked about the overall process before; here we pick up with … Read More → "SoCs for ML Inference"

Achronix and BittWare Accelerate Your Socks Off!

Well, the hot news on the street this week -- if you live on a street where people are scampering around performing hardware acceleration on their algorithms -- is that those clever guys and gals at Achronix , who announced their state-of-the-art 7nm Speedster 7t FPGAs a couple of months ago, have teamed up with the creative chaps and chappesses at BittWare (a Molex Company), who just announced their VectorPath S7t-VG6 accelerator card. … Read More → "Achronix and BittWare Accelerate Your Socks Off!"

Renesas Goes Mainstream

“You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.” – Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Renesas is a big company. As a big company, they make lots of different products, chief among them microcontrollers. By some accounts, Renesas is the biggest MCU maker of them all. And yet, most Renesas MCUs seem at bit… odd. 

Renesas is like Apple in a sense, in that they do things their own way. The company … Read More → "Renesas Goes Mainstream"

Lattice CrossLinkPlus

Three decades ago – at the dawn of programmable logic technology – programmable logic devices such as CPLDs and FPGAs were primarily used for “glue logic.” That is, they could connect just about any digital thing to any other digital thing, regardless of the interface or protocol. In simple terms, FPGAs were digital duct tape. 

Those times are long gone, however, with today’s fancy feature-packed devices brimming with memories and multipliers and processors and AI engines, design teams are using FPGAs as full-fledged systems-on-chip (or -in-package). But one of the key … Read More → "Lattice CrossLinkPlus"

Longer Wavelengths for Safer Ranging

The upshot: new NIL/SWIL sensing technology from Artilux uses longer-wavelength light, making ToF measurements safer and more accurate.

Cameras flatten us all. We can see what we’re looking at, but there are two limitations: everything is squished into 2D, so that our noses are in the same plane as the front of our ears; and we can’t tell how far away – or how big – something is without other contextual clues (like using a penny for reference). We can solve this using 3D imaging. Lidar is … Read More → "Longer Wavelengths for Safer Ranging"

To the Stars with Microchip’s New RT PolarFire FPGAs

The hot news on the street — if you live on a street where people build satellites and space probes for a hobby — is that those little scamps at Microchip Technology have just announced their new radiation-tolerant (RT) PolarFire FPGA, which they proudly proclaim, “…is optimized to meet the most demanding requirements in spacecraft payload systems’ high-speed data paths with the lowest possible power consumption and heat generation.”

These little rascals (the FPGAs, not the guys and gals at Microchip) … Read More → "To the Stars with Microchip’s New RT PolarFire FPGAs"

Wind River Modernizes VxWorks

“This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! …Bereft of life, he rests in peace!” – Mr. Praline

Years ago, a General Motors executive from Detroit told a roomful of press and analysts that “the median age of a Cadillac buyer increases by one year every year.” In other words, their customer base was dying. Only septuagenarians bought Cadillacs, and younger buyers weren’t stepping up to replace them. Unless the company did something drastic, the brand, like its customers, would eventually check out, buy the farm, … Read More → "Wind River Modernizes VxWorks"

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Apr 2, 2026
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