Compositions allow NoCs to connect easier

Compositions allow NoCs to connect easier
by Don Dingee on 01-27-2014 at 6:00 pm

I blame it on Henry Ford, William Levitt, and the NY State Board of Regents, among others. We went through a phase with this irresistible urge to stamp out blocks of sameness, creating mass produced clones of everything from cars to houses to students.

Thank goodness, that’s pretty much over. The thinking of simplifying system design… Read More


Stop TDDB from getting through peanut butter

Stop TDDB from getting through peanut butter
by Don Dingee on 01-24-2014 at 6:00 pm

There are a few dozen causes of semiconductor failure. Most can be lumped into one of three categories: material defects, process or workmanship issues, or environmental or operational overstress. Even when all those causes are carefully mitigated, one factor is limiting reliability more as geometries shrink – and it… Read More


Rekeying the IoT with eMTP

Rekeying the IoT with eMTP
by Don Dingee on 01-22-2014 at 4:10 pm

For non-volatile storage in IoT devices, there is technology designed to be reprogrammed many times, and technology designed to be programmed once. The many times mode is for application code, while the once mode is for keying and calibration parameters. We are about to enter the IoT rekeying zone, in between these two extremes.… Read More


DSPs converging on software defined everything

DSPs converging on software defined everything
by Don Dingee on 01-21-2014 at 5:00 pm

In our fascination where architecture meets the ideas of Fourier, Nyquist, Reed, Shannon, and others, we almost missed the shift – most digital signal processing isn’t happening on a big piece of silicon called a DSP anymore.

It didn’t start out that way. General purpose CPUs, which can do almost anything given enough code, time,… Read More


Things to do in Denver when you’re 64-bit

Things to do in Denver when you’re 64-bit
by Don Dingee on 01-14-2014 at 4:45 pm

When Apple announced last September their A7 chip had gone 64-bit, the congregation immediately swooned, but analysts reacted skeptically: “So what? Phones don’t need more memory, and there are no 64-bit apps.” Even pundits miss once in a while, and now the topic is how the chip industry is headed for 64-bit.… Read More


Curved touchscreens

Curved touchscreens
by Don Dingee on 01-10-2014 at 5:00 pm

CES 2014 was the modern technology equivalent of the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, proving beyond any shadow of doubt displays no longer can be thought of as only flat. While the massive curved 105-inch TVs shown by LG and Samsung drew many gawkers, the implications of curved touch displays are even wider.… Read More


Somebody at the NSA has a sense of humor

Somebody at the NSA has a sense of humor
by Don Dingee on 01-02-2014 at 6:30 pm

We have to go way back in the annals of entertainment history to find the origin of the word “Jeep”, not just a term of endearment hung on a WWII utility vehicle. Pictured is Eugene the Jeep, a mystical creature belonging to the 4th Dimension, who first appeared to torment Popeye the Sailor in 1936.… Read More


2014: Keep calm, and program gates

2014: Keep calm, and program gates
by Don Dingee on 12-30-2013 at 4:00 pm

I was tempted to call this piece “if you’re not using an FPGA, you’re doing it wrong,” but that didn’t quite capture the whole picture. Social memes aside, the FPGA as we know it is undergoing a serious transformation into a full blown SoC, and 2014 is the year that will usher in one of the biggest changes in the history of embedded design.… Read More


Raised on radio: RPUs target autos and wearables

Raised on radio: RPUs target autos and wearables
by Don Dingee on 12-29-2013 at 9:00 pm

We’ve become familiar with Imagination Technologies as a leading provider of IP for mobile GPUs, and within the last year the acquisition of the MIPS architecture has established them further in NPU and SoC circles. Their latest move targets an IP solution more in line with their heritage.

Imagination, way before becoming famous… Read More


Patterns looking inside, not just between, logic cells

Patterns looking inside, not just between, logic cells
by Don Dingee on 12-27-2013 at 5:00 pm

Traditional logic testing relies on blasting pattern after pattern at the inputs, trying to exercise combinations to shake faults out of logic and hopefully have them manifested at an observable pin, be it a test point or a final output stage. It’s a remarkably inefficient process with a lot of randomness and luck involved.

Getting… Read More