Locked on FPGA design brand recognition

Locked on FPGA design brand recognition
by Don Dingee on 02-28-2014 at 3:30 pm

Back in the days where computing was dominated by a few big (and now mostly dearly departed) names, there was a saying: “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” The relative safety of immediate brand recognition, especially among non-technical upper management, dissuaded many users from recommending or even seeking out other … Read More


SmartConnect goes five by five for the IoT

SmartConnect goes five by five for the IoT
by Don Dingee on 02-27-2014 at 8:45 pm

OK, enough with octa-core mobile monstrosities for now. Let’s shift gears to Embedded World 2014 and the lower end of the spectrum, one that will make up the vast majority of devices on the Internet of Things: tiny, low power microcontrollers with integrated wireless connectivity.

There still seems to be some stigma about putting… Read More


IoT: the sum of all technology opportunities

IoT: the sum of all technology opportunities
by Don Dingee on 02-26-2014 at 5:00 pm

There was a time not that long ago, before smartphones arrived on the scene, where Mentor Embedded Nucleus RTOS was dominant in non-Nokia feature phones – Mentor is part of the “Billion Unit Mobile Club”. Since then, Mentor has been searching to recreate that type of success, and like so many other software firms, they are now aiming… Read More


Skate to where the mobile puck is headed, Intel

Skate to where the mobile puck is headed, Intel
by Don Dingee on 02-24-2014 at 5:00 pm

Mobile World Congress 2014 has already showcased two very different mobile SoC machines in high gear. After watching one big US moment and Canada otherwise dominate everything involving ice and a stick at the Sochi Olympics, I’m reaching into the Wayne Gretzky pile of quotes for a metaphor to examine Intel’s move – and why they are… Read More


More things on the DSP frontier at MWC14

More things on the DSP frontier at MWC14
by Don Dingee on 02-23-2014 at 12:00 pm

With a well-chronicled share inside cellular baseband interfaces for mobile devices, one might think that is the entire CEVA story, especially going into Mobile World Congress 2014 this week. MWC is still a phone show, but is becoming more and more about the Internet of Things and wearables, and CEVA and its ecosystem are showing… Read More


6 reasons Synopsys covets C/C++ static analysis

6 reasons Synopsys covets C/C++ static analysis
by Don Dingee on 02-20-2014 at 5:00 pm

By now, you’ve probably seen the news on Synopsys acquiring Coverity, and a few thoughts from our own Paul McLellan and Daniel Payne in commentary, who I respect deeply – and I’m guessing there are many like them out there in the EDA community scratching their heads a little or a lot at this. I’m not from corporate, but I am here… Read More


Smart cards hard for the US to figure out?

Smart cards hard for the US to figure out?
by Don Dingee on 02-18-2014 at 3:30 pm

Every once in a while, I just scratch my head and wonder just what in the wide, wide world of tech is going on. More than ever, it seems the big barriers to adoption aren’t a lack of technology – instead, barriers come from a system that staunchly defends the old way of doing things, even when the participants are battered, broken, and … Read More


ISO 26262 driving away from mobile SoCs

ISO 26262 driving away from mobile SoCs
by Don Dingee on 02-13-2014 at 10:00 pm

Connected cars may be starting to resemble overgrown phones in many ways, but there are critical differences now leading processor teams in a different direction away from the ubiquitous mobile SoC architecture – in turn causing designers to reevaluate interconnect strategies.

The modern car has evolved into a microcontroller… Read More


ASTC and the new midrange ARM Mali-T720 GPU

ASTC and the new midrange ARM Mali-T720 GPU
by Don Dingee on 02-11-2014 at 3:00 pm

When we last visited texture compression technology for OpenGL ES on mobile GPUs, we mentioned Squish image quality results in passing, but weren’t able to explore a key technology at the top of the results. With today’s introduction of the ARM Mali-T720 GPU IP, let’s look at the texture compression technology inside: Adaptive… Read More


Intel Quark awakening from stasis on a yet-to-be-named planet

Intel Quark awakening from stasis on a yet-to-be-named planet
by Don Dingee on 02-05-2014 at 3:00 pm

We know the science fiction plot device from its numerous uses: in order to survive a journey of bazillions of miles across galaxies into the unknown future, astronauts are placed into cryogenic stasis. Literally frozen in time, the idea is they exit a lengthy suspension without aging, ready to go to work immediately on revival … Read More