Amelia Dalton

Touchscreen Response

November 21, 2013

My whimsical piece regarding an airplane touchscreen caught the eye of Touch International. They make touchscreens for airplanes and cars and other high-rel applications; they’ve been doing this for a long time. (I honestly don’t know if they made the screen I was whacking on.)

We met at the Interactive Technology Summit (erstwhile Touch Gesture Motion). It was interesting to contrast our discussion with some of the other things that I was hearing at the show. Touch Int’ … Read More → "Touchscreen Response"

And the Handoff Goes To…

by Amelia Dalton

November 14, 2013

When you think semiconductors, who comes to mind? Intel? What about back before Intel’s heyday? IBM? Fairchild? The baton got passed in the 80s, and Intel has managed to hang onto it. But not every company can hold on, and even those that do can’t take it for granted forever.

Friendster was once all the thing. Then, after some thrash, MySpace became the thing. Then it was handed off to Facebook. There are still those waiting to see how long before there’s yet another social media handoff.

With phones, … Read More → "And the Handoff Goes To…"

Marking Up Your Two Cents

by Amelia Dalton

November 13, 2013

We have already looked at some of the touch technology presented at last month’s Interactive Technology Summit. But the same touch and stylus overview presented by Ricoh’s John Barrus addressed another issue: markup.

Much of the touch technology is targeted at large format screens, including interactive whiteboards. But the key to many such devices is interactivity: multiple people in multiple places contributing to the content of the board. Doing that apparently isn’t easy using existing products: he noted that … Read More → "Marking Up Your Two Cents"

Simpler MEMS Models for ASIC Designers

by Amelia Dalton

October 31, 2013

Some time back, we took a look at the library of mechanical elements in Coventor’s MEMS+ tool for building MEMS device models. In the “be careful what you wish for” category, making it easier to connect elements into models meant that engineers started connecting more elements into models, and the models got bigger.

Big models can stress a tool out, resulting in slow results and resource starvation.

Well, they’ve just released version 4 of MEMS+, which … Read More → "Simpler MEMS Models for ASIC Designers"

Programmable SoCs?

by Amelia Dalton

October 28, 2013

The scene: a top-secret conference room in the West of England.

Present: a group of high-powered technical guys.

Topic: The next stage in project X

We are now shipping quantities of project X. The press are going to start asking where we go next

We will soon be able to announce that Sony is using an 8 core device in their new headphone amplifier.

That’s good

And we are going to give away 2500 startKits and then sell more for only $14.99.</ … Read More → "Programmable SoCs?"

LinkedIn’s Man in the Middle?

by Amelia Dalton

October 25, 2013

LinkedIn has just introduced a new phone app called Intro that helps provide information to you about LinkedIn members when they send you email. That info is added to the email itself. Or something like that.

Now… before I go much further, I have to admit (to anyone that hasn’t already seen this obvious point in some of my earlier stuff) that I still hold to quaint notions about privacy and keeping control over my own things and any statements or messages ascribed to me. When I tried to install the Facebook app on … Read More → "LinkedIn’s Man in the Middle?"

Breker Supplements Simulation

by Amelia Dalton

October 17, 2013

We’ve talked about Breker’s C-level test generation tools a couple of times in the past. But the context for that discussion was simulation – the tests were run in the virtual domain.

But not all validation happens there. There are several scenarios where hardware platforms contribute to the verification plan. Emulators are one good example, where programmable hardware elements implement newly-designed logic so that extensive testing that might be too slow for simulation – in particular, running software – can … Read More → "Breker Supplements Simulation"

Intel to Close Fab, Lay Off 700

by Amelia Dalton

September 13, 2013

Intel is closing its Hudson, Mass. fab and will lay off all 700 employees, according to the Boston Globe. Intel first acquired the Hudson fab when it acquired Digital Semiconductor (part of DEC at that time) back in 1998. At the time, Digital Semiconductor was making the amazing StrongARM chip, the fastest ARM-based microprocessor of its day, by a wide margin. After the acquisition, many of StrongARM’s designers fled to PA Semi, which was later acquired by Apple. Thus, many of the … Read More → "Intel to Close Fab, Lay Off 700"

New Synopsys DFT Offerings

by Amelia Dalton

September 12, 2013

It’s ITC time, and this is when many of the EDA and test folks roll out their new stuff. True to this pattern, Synopsys has announced two new offerings, one of which allows faster SoC testing, the other allowing faster design of the test infrastructure in an SoC.

The first is a rather significant upgrade to their design-for-test (DFT) offering. Called DFTMAX Ultra, it’s a from-the-ground-up revamp of their test compression technology. It addresses compression, test speed, and the number of test pins.

They’ve completely redone their compressions scheme, … Read More → "New Synopsys DFT Offerings"

Stable Video, Easier Development

by Amelia Dalton

August 29, 2013

There are times when a shaky video can be just the thing. Imagine: where would the Blair Witch Project have been without it? What would an entire generation of hipsters do without the ability to shake (ironically) their video? How are happening new producers supposed to attract new audiences without being able to make their video look shoddy and unprofessional? Did you know that Shakes media specialises in corporate video production for your business?

But, aside from those times, shaky video is not so good. In fact, for … Read More → "Stable Video, Easier Development"