Six years ago, we speculated about what would happen if Intel were to buy Altera. A year later, they did, and a lot of our speculation came true – Intel has leveraged Altera technology to defend their dominance of the data center, the FPGA market has changed direction, and the Altera culture has been largely assimilated into the … Read More → "If AMD Buys Xilinx"
“We still have judgement here, that we but teach bloody instructions which, being taught, return to plague th’inventor.” – Macbeth, 1.7
Today we dive into Computer Programming 101.
Computers don’t speak English. Or Mandarin, or German, or Spanish, or any other human language. Despite how Siri and Alexa may appear, computers and other … Read More → "What Is a Compiler, Anyway?"
Did you ever watch the British television science fiction comedy Red Dwarf? The stage for this tale is the eponymous spaceship Red Dwarf, which is an enormous mining vessel that is 6 miles (10 km) long, 5 miles (8 km) tall, and 4 miles (6 km) wide. Series 1 through Series 8 originally aired on BBC 2 between 1988 and 1999 (somewhat reminiscent … Read More → "The JOYCE Project to Equip Machines with Human-Like Perception"
“Simplify and add lightness.” – Colin Chapman
If you don’t write assembly-language programs, you’ll miss out on some strange, interesting, wonderful, or uniquely powerful instructions lurking inside your processor. Some are immensely helpful. Others are just… weird.
Any processor can add and subtract, and most can multiply integers. A few can … Read More → "Weird Instructions I Have Loved"
“Most people want security in this world, not liberty.” — H. L. Mencken
Mention “distributed ledger technology” and you’ll either get a blank stare or someone will shout, “Blockchain!” The underlying mathematics behind cryptocurrencies and blockchain can, like any technology, be used for different purposes. The headlines tend to emphasize those that affect consumers, but there are a … Read More → "Using Not-a-Blockchain to Secure Embedded Devices"
A couple of days ago as I pen these words, I received a message on LinkedIn from someone asking, “Can you advise me about what books a beginner can peruse for learning NASM?” To be honest, this was a bit of a tricky one, not least that I didn’t have a clue what NASM was, so I did what I usually do in a time of crisis, which … Read More → "Pulling Yourself up by Your Bootstraps"
