Built to last: LTSI, Yocto, and embedded Linux

Built to last: LTSI, Yocto, and embedded Linux
by Don Dingee on 09-06-2012 at 8:30 pm

The open source types say it all the time: open is better when it comes to operating systems. If you’re building something like a server or a phone, with either a flexible configuration or a limited lifetime, an open source operating system like Linux can put a project way ahead.

Linux has always started with a kernel distribution,… Read More


Smart mobile SoCs: Made in China

Smart mobile SoCs: Made in China
by Don Dingee on 08-29-2012 at 2:00 pm

One of the comments to previous installments of this series was that there isn’t much left for the merchant suppliers of smart mobile SoCs, considering Apple and Samsung have majority share and design their own parts. The theory is this makes it hard for many suppliers to continue investing at the resource levels needed to bring … Read More


IP Wanna Go Fast, Core Wanna Not Rollover

IP Wanna Go Fast, Core Wanna Not Rollover
by Don Dingee on 08-23-2012 at 8:15 pm

At a dinner table a couple years ago, someone quietly shared their biggest worry in EDA. Not 2GHz, or quad core. Not 20nm, or 450mm. Not power, or timing closure. Call it The Rollover. It’s turned out to be the right worry.

Best brains spent inordinate hours designing and verifying a big, hairy, heavy breathing processor core to do … Read More


Ex ante: disclose IP before, not after standardization

Ex ante: disclose IP before, not after standardization
by Don Dingee on 08-17-2012 at 3:46 pm

Many of the audience here are involved in standards bodies and specification development, so the news from the Apple v. Samsung on the invocation of ex ante in today’s testimony is useful.

I worked with VITA, the folks behind the VME family of board-level embedded technology, on their ex ante policy several years ago, and … Read More


40 Billion Smaller Things On The Clock

40 Billion Smaller Things On The Clock
by Don Dingee on 08-15-2012 at 8:00 pm

Big processors get all the love, it seems. It’s natural, since they are highly complex beasts and need a lot of care and feeding in the EDA and fab cycle. But the law of large numbers is starting to shift energy in the direction of optimizing microcontrollers.

I mulled the math in my head for a while. In a world with 7 billion people and … Read More


While you’re reading the SoC manual

While you’re reading the SoC manual
by Don Dingee on 08-09-2012 at 8:30 pm

There was a day, not too long ago, when a software developer could be intimate with a processor through understanding its register set. Before coding, developers would reach for a manual, digging through pages and pages of 1s and 0s with defined functions to find how to gain control over the processor and its capability. One bit set… Read More


Smart mobile SoCs: Intel

Smart mobile SoCs: Intel
by Don Dingee on 05-16-2012 at 3:59 pm

Talk about an unusual position. Intel finds themselves very much currently outside when it comes to mobile SoCs for phones and tablets. After several attempts at soul-searching and a true understanding of the term “low-power” (not meaning 3W, but instead < 1W), they finally have a part – in the form of “Medfield”, aka the Atom… Read More


Smart mobile SoCs: NVIDIA

Smart mobile SoCs: NVIDIA
by Don Dingee on 05-02-2012 at 4:16 pm

When the name synonymous with personal computer graphics decided to turn their engineering talent toward the mobile business, heads turned. NVIDIA has rather quickly gained a foothold in tablets by squeezing four high performance processing cores, twelve graphics cores, and more onto a Tegra 3.… Read More


Smart mobile SoCs: Apple

Smart mobile SoCs: Apple
by Don Dingee on 04-29-2012 at 9:00 pm

Apple sells devices. Lots of them. Their success is due to many things related to design and tech religion, and an important part is the SoC inside those devices which creates the experience people want. The official Apple information on their parts is minimal. Their SoCs have been dissected with more fervor than Roswell aliens.… Read More


Smart mobile SoCs: Texas Instruments

Smart mobile SoCs: Texas Instruments
by Don Dingee on 04-24-2012 at 9:00 pm

TI has parlayed its heritage in digital signal processing and long-term relationships with mobile device makers into a leadership position in mobile SoCs. They boast a relatively huge portfolio of design wins thanks to being the launch platform for Android 4.0. On the horizon, the next generation OMAP 5 could change the entire… Read More