So British! with Mike MULLER (ARM CTO & Founder) at SAME Conference

So British! with Mike MULLER (ARM CTO & Founder) at SAME Conference
by Eric Esteve on 10-04-2012 at 5:36 am

SAME conference has started with Joel Huloux, Chairman of the MIPI Alliance, who gave a high level introduction about MIPI, rather business than technology oriented, talking to Marketing/Management audience. Extracting the main points from his presentation:

  • More than 30 specifications have been issued (Important remark:
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Samsung going vertical Qualcomm cry CEVA laugh

Samsung going vertical Qualcomm cry CEVA laugh
by Eric Esteve on 09-27-2012 at 11:09 am

These last days have been full of Apple related stories; maybe it’s time to discuss a new topic? Like for example Samsung, direct competitor for Apple in the smartphone market, and take a look at the company move toward more vertical integration. Everybody working in the SC industry knows that Samsung is ranked #2 behind Intel, even… Read More


SAME 2012 Conference on October 2-3 in Sophia is coming soon!

SAME 2012 Conference on October 2-3 in Sophia is coming soon!
by Eric Esteve on 09-24-2012 at 11:01 am

This is the 15[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary for the SAME Conference, dedicated to innovation on Microelectronics. Sophia-Antipolis is not only close to Mediterranean sea, but also at the heart of Telecom valley in south of France, with Texas Instruments design center dedicated to Application Processor design (OMAP), Cadence… Read More


Virtual Prototype your SoC including Arteris FlexNoC and optimize architecture using CPAK from Carbon

Virtual Prototype your SoC including Arteris FlexNoC and optimize architecture using CPAK from Carbon
by Eric Esteve on 09-21-2012 at 7:37 am

I have talked about Virtual Prototyping a SoC including FlexNoC Network on Chip IP from Arteris by using Carbon Design Systems set of tools in a previous post. A blog, posted on Carbon’ web, is clearly explaining the process to follow to optimize a fabric (FlexNoC) successively using the different tools from Carbon. Bill Neifert,… Read More


High Speed PHY Interfacing with SSIC, UFS or PCI express in Smartphone, Media tablet and Ultrabook at Lower Power

High Speed PHY Interfacing with SSIC, UFS or PCI express in Smartphone, Media tablet and Ultrabook at Lower Power
by Eric Esteve on 09-19-2012 at 10:54 am

We have recently commented the announcement from MIPI Alliance and PCI-SIG, allowing PCI Express to be used in martphone, Media tablet and Ultrabook, while keeping decent power consumption, compatible with these mobile devices. The secret sauce is in the High Speed SerDes function selected to interface with these high data Read More


PCI express WILL be used in Smartphone and Media Tablet… opening infinity of new opportunities

PCI express WILL be used in Smartphone and Media Tablet… opening infinity of new opportunities
by Eric Esteve on 09-18-2012 at 12:24 pm

Looking at the various Interface protocols like HDMI, SuperSpeed USB, Universal Flash Storage (UFS) or even SATA integrated in Application Processor for smartphone and media tablet, one extremely powerful Interface protocol, already in use in electronic systems from various market segments from PC, PC Peripherals, Networking,… Read More


Cadence September News: strong IP and VIP focus

Cadence September News: strong IP and VIP focus
by Eric Esteve on 09-14-2012 at 4:25 am

There are three articles on the front page, in the September release of Cadence newsletter, all of them are dedicated to either IP (DDR4), VIP (NVM express VIP being used at Samsung) or Martin Lund. You can read Martin’s interview here and/or take a look at what I write about him this summer. This strong focus on IP, and in fact on Interface… Read More


Interface IP (USB, PCIe, SATA, HDMI, MIPI, DDRn,…) Survey : the Introduction

Interface IP (USB, PCIe, SATA, HDMI, MIPI, DDRn,…) Survey : the Introduction
by Eric Esteve on 09-11-2012 at 10:00 am

The need to exchange larger and larger amount of data from system to the external world, or internally into an application, has pushed for the standardization of interconnect protocol. This allows interconnecting different Integrated Circuits (IC) coming from different vendors. Some protocols have been defined to best fit… Read More


A brief history of Interface IP, the 4th version of IPNEST Survey

A brief history of Interface IP, the 4th version of IPNEST Survey
by Eric Esteve on 09-07-2012 at 5:17 am

The industry is moving extremely fast to change the “old” way to interconnect devices using parallel bus, to the most efficient approach based on High Speed Serial Interconnect (HSSI) protocols. The use of HSSI has become the preferred solution compared with the use of parallel busses for new products developed … Read More


Wireless Application: DSP IP core is dominant

Wireless Application: DSP IP core is dominant
by Eric Esteve on 09-06-2012 at 5:32 am

If we look back in the early 90’s, when the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) standard was just an emerging technology, the main innovation was the move from Analog to the Digital Processing of the Signal (DSP), allowing to make unlimited manipulation to an Analog signal, once digitized by the means of a converter (ADC).… Read More