In the opener to this series, I alluded to a company designing their own approach, and it goes way beyond the graphics core in their solution. Qualcomm is unique in a holistic approach to a smart mobile device with their vertically integrated chipset, the Snapdragon S4.… Read More
Author: Don Dingee
The best graphics chip is the one seen the most
If I say “graphics chip”, most techies will say NVIDIA or AMD. But in the new post-PC world , neither of these players holds the key to the future. One that does is a little company making 43 cents on every latest version iPad and iPhone. Another is designing their own approach. Should you care what graphics is in your phone?… Read More
No, gosh darn it, I said the NFC is near!
Getting a feature to take off in today’s smartphone market is tricky. It requires a combination of hardware support, OS support, app integration, and maybe most importantly carrier adoption. Ideas that seem ready technologically, like NFC, get stopped in their tracks by silly things like the William J. LePetomaine Thruway… Read More
FPGAs connect users over TV whitespace
New embedded computing standards always take a while to get traction, and a burning question for innovators is what to do in the period between concept and acceptance. Sometimes, new ideas come when commercial silicon changes direction.… Read More
Does 14nm magically put Intel back on the lead smartphone lap?
I’ve often wanted to publish a book with nothing but photos of police cars, so that people wouldn’t have to slow down and gawk at them when they have someone pulled over on the side of the freeway. Intel roadmaps seem to have the same effect on people. No matter what is on them, even if there’s nothing really new, they… Read More
Will the last 8051 please turn out the lights?
The words no engineer or supply chain professional wants to hear: end-of-life. It’s a reality of the semiconductor business, however – even the cheapest parts reach the point, eventually, where producing and selling them becomes inefficient. Is it reasonable that a microcontroller architecture outlive the people… Read More
DARPA looking for new base stations in new BYOD game
BYOD – bring your own device – has swept enterprises like a firestorm as CEOs wonder why they can’t use their shiny new iPad on the corporate network, and send their IT guys and gals off to make it happen. Under the right conditions and informed use, BYOD can be a productivity boom and not mess security and privacy up too badly for many … Read More
Powering the Platforms: ARM’s 2012 Approach
A client turned me on to a great new book, “The Age of the Platform” by Phil Simon. It’s about how Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have radically transformed the landscape. For me, it’s not just social networking – it’s social computing, changing how things are designed.
I’m borrowing this right from Phil’s… Read More
Will 50% of New High Performance Computing (HPC) Chip Designs be Multi-Die in 2025?