April 13, 2021 -- There are a bewildering number of choices when designing with an MCU. It can be a challenge to find one with exactly what your design requires - form factor, cost, power consumption, performance, features, and ease-of-use. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Brad Rex of Renesas about the small-but-powerful Renesas RA family - a flexible and scalable collection of MCUs that may be exactly what your next project needs. More information about Renesas Electronics RA Family Arm® Cortex® Microcontrollers: https://bit.ly/3mKByCX

April 12, 2021 -- Acceleration is becoming a critical technology for today’s data-intensive world. Conventional processors cannot keep up with the demands of AI and other performance-intensive workloads, and engineering teams are looking to acceleration technologies for leverage against the deluge of data. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Tom Spencer of Achronix about the current revolution in acceleration technology, and about specific solutions from Achronix that take advantage of leading-edge FPGAs, design IP, and even plug-and-play accelerator cards to address a wide range of challenges. More information:

April 12, 2021 -- One a design goes to tape-out, the real challenges begin. Teams find themselves drowning in data from design-process-test during production ramp-up, and have to cope with data from numerous sources in different formats in the manufacturing test supply chain. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mark Laird of Synopsys in part three of our series on the Silicon LifeCycle Management (SLM) platform, discussing how Yield Explorer and SiliconDash give valuable insight to engineering and manufacturing teams. Click here for more information about the Synopsys Silicon Lifecycle Management Platform: https://bit.ly/3sb4KE9

March 23, 2021 -- Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) design brings a new level of demands to the engineering team, particularly in areas like thermal performance, reliability, and scalability. And, packaging has a key role to play. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Joel Boone of Phoenix Contact about challenges and solutions in IIoT design packaging. More information about Phoenix Contact ICS 50 Enclosure System: https://bit.ly/398fLiQ More information about Phoenix Contact ICS Modular Housing Systems: https://bit.ly/3fqetDM

March 19, 2021 -- In-chip monitoring can significantly alter the lifecycle management landscape. By taking advantage of modern techniques, today’s more complex designs can be optimized even after they are deployed. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Stephen Crosher of Synopsys about silicon lifecycle management and how to take full advantage of the optimization opportunities available for scalability, reliability, and much more. More information about In-chip monitoring and sensing: https://bit.ly/3r3VIrO Watch the first episode in this series: https://bit.ly/2Q2EDlg

February 25, 2021 -- Wouldn’t it be great if we could keep on analyzing our IC designs once they are in the field? After all, simulation and lab measurements can never tell the whole story of how devices will behave in real-world use. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Randy Fish of Synopsys about gaining better insight into IC designs through the use of embedded monitors and sensors, and how we can enable a range of new optimizations throughout the lifecycle of our designs.

February 16, 2021 -- LED lighting is revolutionizing lighting design. Engineers now need to consider a host of issues such as power consumption, spectrum, form factor, and reliability. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Peter Swift from Amphenol ICC about the latest in LED lighting technology, and solutions for indoor and outdoor applications. More information about Amphenol Commercial Lighting Solutions: https://bit.ly/2N2LJoZ

February 8, 2021 -- Today’s dense, complex designs can be extremely challenging from an EMI perspective. Re-designs of PCBs to eliminate problems can be expensive and time consuming, and a manufacturing solution can be preferable. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Chris Burket of TDX about Flexield noise suppression sheets, which may be just what your design needs to get EMI under control. More information about TDK Flexield Noise Suppression Sheets: https://bit.ly/2N5LOYx

February 1, 2021 -- For truly high-performance systems, liquid immersion cooling is often the best solution. But, jumping into immersion cooling requires careful consideration of elements such as connectors. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Brian Niehoff of Samtec about connector solutions for immersion-cooled applications. More information about Samtec Immersion Cooling Solutions: http://bit.ly/3rcHg1a More information about about Engineered Fluids: http://bit.ly/3oFk7CO More information about Suber: http://bit.ly/36tBosn Read the Samtec blog called "Connectors for Immersion Cooling": http://bit.ly/3pywgLf

January 27, 2021 -- Physical verification of IC designs at today’s advanced process nodes requires an immense amount of processing power. But, getting your design and verification tools to take full advantage of the compute resources available can be a challenge. In this Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Manoz Palaparthi of Synopsys about dramatically improving the performance of your physical verification process. Watch the first episode in this series: Accelerating Physical Verification Productivity: http://bit.ly/2MuwLau More information about Physical Verification using IC Validator: https://bit.ly/36iGO9J

January 26, 2021 -- New advances in PCIe demand new connectors, and the challenge of maintaining signal integrity has only gotten tougher. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Matthew Burns of Samtec about why PCIe isn’t just for PCs, what PCIe over fiber looks like, and how Samtec’s team of signal integrity experts can help with your next PCIe design. More information about PCI Express® Solutions from Samtec: http://bit.ly/3aaaKWR

January 19, 2021 -- Cabling and connectors for RF design are critical to performance. And, in the world of microwave and millimeter-wave design, choosing the right interconnect for your frequency band is key to signal integrity. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Matthew Burns of Samtec about what you need to know to choose the right interconnect solution for your next RF design. More information about Samtec Precision RF Connectors & Cable Assemblies: https://bit.ly/3isd92y