Editors' Blog

AMD Pulls the Plug on SeaMicro

One-third of a billion dollars doesn’t go as far as it used to. AMD acquired SeaMicro in 2012 for $334 million, hoping to jump into the hot (at the time) market for “microservers,” machines that use a lot of small microprocessors instead of just a few big ones. Now, AMD has killed off the entire product line and reassigned the staff.

SeaMicro wasn’t one of the many ARM-based server startups. Instead, it used small x86 processors to make its microservers, an obvious selling point for AMD. Nevertheless, AMD is moving forward with its ARM-based server chips, including … Read More → "AMD Pulls the Plug on SeaMicro"

Getting Onto the IoT

by Jim Turley

Today we talk IoT enablement. Two sources with different goals.

The first one is a platform called iChipNet from ConnectOne (we’ve seen their modules before). And it’s brought to you by a concern for interoperability, which they see as a big barrier to IoT adoption.

When we think “interop,” often we think about hardware compatibility – sensors from different sources working with hubs and brokers and what not, humming away like a well-tuned orchestra. But … Read More → "Getting Onto the IoT"

For the reason’s posted under “I

by Kevin Morris

For the reason’s posted under “Intel Plus Altera
What Would it Mean?” … Intel simply doesn’t need Altera, or Xilinx IP.

Everything that is important they will need to engineer themselves anyway, and that isn’t very much. A co-processor FPGA fabric is a very very different beast than today’s Altera and Xilinx FPGA’s.

Done right, and Intel will redefine computing … and implemented from XEON’s to Atom SOC offerings, so that Xilinx and Altera will spend the next decade playing catchup. Game over.

And with it, new important … Read More → "For the reason’s posted under “I"

Optimizing at the Cellphone Antenna

by Kevin Morris

So you run across an announcement from Imec that they’ve presented a circuit at ISSCC that involves tuning to match changing antenna impedances in cell phones. And if you’ve been hanging out in the same places I have, you might have the following reaction: “Hey, this is what some MEMS guys are doing as well! Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Turns out it’s not quite that simple. I’d feel like it was just another day of me discovering yet another knowledge gap, but I wasn’t the only one conflating two concepts. Conversations with Cavendish … Read More → "Optimizing at the Cellphone Antenna"

Intel Altera Deal Off?

by Kevin Morris

Multiple financial news sources are reporting today that talks between Intel and Altera have ended. According to multiple sources, Altera declined Intel’s offer and the two companies have ended negotiations.

For the rest of the FPGA industry, this may be a bit of a disappointment. Other FPGA vendors we’ve talked with were optimistic that an Intel takeover of Altera would be good for the other FPGA players – altering and narrowing Altera’s focus, creating uncertainty among Altera’s existing customers, and disrupting the company’s existing development projects. Now, apparently, they’ll have to continue … Read More → "Intel Altera Deal Off?"

Switching Power Supplies Revamped

by Bryon Moyer

A big change is coming to a power supply near you.

At least, that’s what Semitrex is promising with their new TRONIUM family of power supply systems on a chip (PSSoCs). They’re doing some things differently, resulting in lower-power – and, in particular, lower-“vampire”-power – bricks.

The first difference is that they’re going capacitive; there’s no transformer. How do they handle breakdown issues? By using a … Read More → "Switching Power Supplies Revamped"

Hi Bryon, Your readers should be

by Bryon Moyer

Hi Bryon, Your readers should be aware that multiple customers are using Mentor Calibre in the physical verification and extraction portions of their MEMS designs. To that point, there is a white paper authored by Mentor and Freescale on how Freescale uses Calibre in their MEMS designs(http://go.mentor.com/3yxal).

When it comes to DRC, there are some unique aspects of MEMS, not the least of which is the need to accurately handle curves. This is quite different than verification of ICs, which use rectilinear shapes, or so-called Manhattan topology, and can really throw DRC … Read More → "Hi Bryon, Your readers should be"

Requirements Modeling and Simulation

by Kevin Morris

So you’re working on a design… Are you sure you’re building what was intended? Yes, you’re building what they asked for… or, at least, what you think they asked for, but is that what they wanted?

Requirements can be dicey; they’re based on natural language, which, as we know all too well, is subject to interpretation. According to Argosim, many companies have institutionalized … Read More → "Requirements Modeling and Simulation"

Tanner to Join Mentor: Outsider Gets a Crew

by Jim Turley

Way back in 2009, we took a look at Tanner – an EDA company marching to its own beat. They always seemed – and continue to seem – apart from the pack. We talk about the Big 3 in EDA – Synopsys, Cadence, and Mentor – and lots of little startups. Back then, there were a few other medium-sized companies & … Read More → "Tanner to Join Mentor: Outsider Gets a Crew"

Intel Buying Altera? We Totally Called It.

by Jim Turley

Rumors abound today that Intel is in negotiations to buy Altera – a deal that could be worth over ten billion. If so, it would be the largest acquisition in Intel’s history.

We have no confirmation from either company that such a deal is in play, but we did a pretty thorough analysis of the situation last June in this article:

https://www.eejournal.com/archives/articles/20140624-intel/

What do you think?

… Read More →