Editors' Blog

Securing the core

A Franco-German announcement brings improved security to SoCs for the IoT

Following Jim Turley’s report on Arm and ARC adding security to their small processor cores, and Bryon Moyer’s on-going series on IoT security, comes news of more core security for the IoT.

Cortus, the French based 32-bit core IP company has signed a deal with Cellnetrix, a German based company specialising in software security for embedded devices, which will see the CellSIM secure embedded operating system running on Cortus APS processor cores. Cortus’ cores are in sensors, communications and security applications, the … Read More → "Securing the core"

Through-The-Looking-Glass Security

by Amelia Dalton

Buckle up folks, because we’re about to take a ride through the looking glass, where computations can happen in an obscure way sure to confuse unauthorized snoops, until we arrive at an answer and can pop back through the glass into our normal world.

It’s become a truism that using hardware for security is best. But what if that’s not an option? Doing calculations and … Read More → "Through-The-Looking-Glass Security"

Toyota Unintended Acceleration

by Kevin Morris

The Toyota Unintended Acceleration case has seen a lot of discussion, but much of it is, to put it mildly, not terribly well informed. Last week at the UK’s High Integrity Software conference (look at the slides here http://his-2015.co.uk/slides ) I heard an authoritative speaker. Prof. Philip Koopman is regularly asked to act as an expert witness on behalf of people claiming against Toyota, and acted as such in the Bookout/Schwarz trial in 2013 when a jury decided that that defects in Toyota’s … Read More → "Toyota Unintended Acceleration"

What shape do you want your Pi?

by Bryon Moyer

Raspberry Pi has been one of those events that leave you breathless. You will recall that the board was designed as a teaching aid, to get people interested in building systems. However, according to the Raspberry Pi Foundation a fair number of the over seven million boards that have been sold have been used in commercial projects. The feed-back they are getting is that while the standard board is great for getting prototypes up and working, for volume productions, for volume production, there was a need for a more flexible approach.

To meet this Element 14 is now … Read More → "What shape do you want your Pi?"

Sensory Listens to Your Voice

by Bryon Moyer

Today we’ve put up a piece on designing audio subsystems, but there’s more news than that in the audio world. If you read our earlier piece on QuickLogic’s EOS device, and if you were paying attention to details, you might recall a quick mention of a company called Sensory that had partnered with QuickLogic for audio algorithms. Sensory subsequently released a product called TrulyHandsFree, … Read More → "Sensory Listens to Your Voice"

Four weeks of argument over a second

by Bryon Moyer

Today (November 2^nd) the International Telecommunication Union’s World Radiocommunication Conference meets in Geneva. It will run until the 27^th and, apparently, during much of that time, there will be bitter arguments about the leap second. As we discussed in Just a Second https://www.eejournal.com/archives/articles/20150924-justasecond/ a few weeks ago, now that we measure the second using atomic frequencies, it is clear that the earth doesn’ … Read More → "Four weeks of argument over a second"

Golgi Connects via Web APIs

by Jim Turley

You may recall a discussion about Golgi’s role in the Internet of Things (IoT) this last summer. In effect, it served to enable device makers to leverage phones as remote controls, providing the cloud-based go-between that completed the connection.

While that might seem like limited functionality, what it reinforced for me is that, despite all the easy drawings about what the IoT should look like, actual implementation was coming rather more slowly – step by step. So getting devices connected by … Read More → "Golgi Connects via Web APIs"

An Opening for MEMS PDKs

by Kevin Morris

Coventor recently announced the latest release of MEMS+, their MEMS EDA/CAD tool, and the timing was tough because it came just after I had an article involving process design kits (PDKs). And amongst the things that the latest MEMS+ release brings is movement towards MEMS PDKs (MPDKs).

MEMS devices are, of course, notorious for evading any attempts … Read More → "An Opening for MEMS PDKs"

Yet Another Way to Sense Magnetic Fields

by Kevin Morris

Seems we have so many ways of detecting the magnetic fields around us! And now we have yet another.

Some years back we covered a small company called Crocus, a maker of MRAM technology. Their MRAM cell consisted of two magnetic layers: a “pinned” reference layer and a programmable layer. The idea was that, when the layers are aligned, the tunneling resistance through the combined layers and a thin layer of dielectric between them was different from when they were anti-aligned.</ … Read More → "Yet Another Way to Sense Magnetic Fields"

Icon Labs Remaps from Servers to Edge Nodes

by Kevin Morris

We’ve discussed Icon Labs’ Floodgate offering before – even in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT). So when they subsequently announced a Floodgate Security Manager for the IoT, I had to wonder how that was different from the Floodgate stuff they already had. A quick conversation with Icon Labs’ Alan Grau helped clarify the sitch.

The Floodgate suite we talked about before, even in the context of the IoT, is a full-up IT-oriented package running on servers. So … Read More → "Icon Labs Remaps from Servers to Edge Nodes"