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


Untangling snags earlier and reducing area by 10%

Untangling snags earlier and reducing area by 10%
by Don Dingee on 01-30-2014 at 6:00 pm

The over 20 years of experience behind Synopsys Design Compiler is getting a new look for 2014, and we had a few minutes with Priti Vijayvargiya, director of product marketing for RTL synthesis, to explore what’s in the latest version of the synthesis tool.

Previewed today, Synopsys Design Compiler 2013.12 continues to target … Read More


If requirements ask for it, it had better be there

If requirements ask for it, it had better be there
by Don Dingee on 01-29-2014 at 8:00 pm

Engineers are known for their attention to detail and precision in thinking, but sometimes still struggle during compliance audits. This is especially true the longer a list of requirements becomes, especially unstructured lists kept in spreadsheets and on Post-It notes.

It gets even more complicated, because in defense circles… Read More


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