Editors' Blog

MIPS Gets a New Home

Hey, wanna buy a CPU company? You’re too late, because MIPS Technologies was just sold for $60 million in cash. If that’s more than you have in your pocket, it’s still a tiny sum for a company that helped pioneer the idea of RISC processors. Once the deal goes through, the MIPS processor familiy will belong to Imagination Technologies, the same IP company that offers PowerVR graphics, HelloSoft code, Ensigma network IP, and other doodads for SoC developers. Now MIPS becomes the jewel in Imagination’s crown.

Interestingly, Imagination gets only 82 of MIPS’s collection … Read More → "MIPS Gets a New Home"

Higher-Density Solid-State Battery Technology

by Kevin Morris

Last year we took a look at Infinite Power Solutions (IPS), one of a couple of companies that have commercialized a solid-state lithium ion battery technology licensed from Oak Ridge Labs. Their current offering (pun intended) focuses on thin, flexible cells. But they have just announced a new technology, and at this point, it’s only a technology; they haven’t released any information on how it will be productized (and they may still be figuring that out).

The upshot is what … Read More → "Higher-Density Solid-State Battery Technology"

Using Formal to Help Simulation

by Jim Turley

While simulation is the granddaddy of verification, there are thorny problems that simulation doesn’t handle well, and formal analysis has gradually come of age over the years to attack those problems. So the two technologies end up working side by side on different issues to complete the verification plan.

While that is still largely true, Mentor has added a feature to their Questa verification platform to allow the formal part to help the simulation part. The formal part can help determine the simulation coverage; the feature is called CoverCheck.

The formal analysis engine … Read More → "Using Formal to Help Simulation"

AMD and Other Peoples’ Technology

by Jim Turley

Today is all about acronyms: AMD, ARM, ATI, GloFo, and OPT. Haven’t heard of that last one? I just coined it, as “other peoples’ technology.” As in, AMD’s upcoming server chips won’t have a lot of AMD’s technology in them.

AMD announced today that it was becoming a full-fledged ARM licensee, with plans to make 64-bit ARM-based server chips by 2014. AMD isn’t giving up on x86; the company will offer both ARM- and x86-based server chips and let the customer decide which is better. Both flavors will include the on-chip network … Read More → "AMD and Other Peoples’ Technology"

Hardware Security in the Cloud

by Kevin Morris

Some time back, we covered “physically unclonable functions,” or PUFs. These are techniques for deriving a key from the random characteristics of a specific piece of hardware, making it unique to that hardware and therefore unclonable by others. One of the companies covered was Intrinsic ID.

Intrinsic ID has now taken a step to make what is otherwise a low-level wonky technology available at the consumer and corporate level. They have created a cloud portal where data can be stored securely, … Read More → "Hardware Security in the Cloud"

And the Ecosystem Starts

by Kevin Morris

In today’s discussion of the move to 450-mm wafers, we looked at one of the first pieces of equipment that will initiate the entire development cascade necessary for handling these new behemoths. That’s what makes a wafer change so different from other transitions.

When we move from one silicon node to another, we typically have to replace a few pieces of equipment in the line, add some more for any new steps, and maybe swap out some parts of an … Read More → "And the Ecosystem Starts"

Towards One Less Antenna?

by Bryon Moyer

Right at the beginning of this last year, we took a look at WiSpry; they make a MEMS-based tuning product for dynamically adjusting the antenna matching characteristics dynamically as things change. Things like grabbing the phone in the natural (but wrong) place. Not that that would ever happen; I’m sure such phones would always “just work.” But… just in case…

Such capabilities sound great in theory, but WiSpry recently ran an actual test – one that can& … Read More → "Towards One Less Antenna?"

What’s New at 20 nm

by Bryon Moyer

We talked in a separate piece today about Synopsys’s multi-source clock synthesis technology, but that was only one of several pieces of new technology in their new package. Among other parts of the release were the following non-trivial items:

Double patterning: it’s real now. It’s not used for every layer, just the bottom few layers. But it’s no longer something that will come someday: it’s here.
In the past, metal was … Read More → "What’s New at 20 nm"

Being Ahead Puts You Further Ahead

by Bryon Moyer

We love the underdog. David slays Goliath. All of that. And we love the myth that hard work and a better idea will always win. When we win, we take credit for deserving the win due to our hard work. (We tend not to credit any accompanying luck or support from others or the existence of infrastructure for any of our success.)

So if that’s the case, then anyone should be able to knock us off our pedestal with yet harder work and a yet better idea, right? Well, not in real life. If any … Read More → "Being Ahead Puts You Further Ahead"

A Standard for Standards

by Bryon Moyer

Ever wanted to create your own embedded-sysems standard? If you’ve spent any time at all participating in standard-setting organization’s meetings, you know that’s going to be a tough chore. The process is slow, the players have conflicting agendas, and the process can be tedious.

But there’s a new group here to help. The Standards Group for Embedded TEchnologies (SGET, www.sget.org) is a sort of meta-group of embedded companies that work together to submit their proposals to the larger standards bodies. By joining SGET, you … Read More → "A Standard for Standards"