IP providers need to evaluate several complex engineering problems when addressing customer requirements – perhaps the most intricate challenge is the degree of IP configurabilityavailable to satisfy unique customer applications. … Read More
New Architectures for Automotive Intelligence
My first car was a used 1971 Volvo 142 and probably did not contain more than a handful of transistors. I used to joke that it could easily survive the EMP from a nuclear explosion. Now, of course, cars contain dozens or more processors, DSP’s and other chips containing millions of transistors. It’s widely expected that the number … Read More
Processing Power Driving Practicality of Machine Learning
Despite their recent rise to prominence, the fundamentals of AI, specifically neural networks and deep learning, were established as far back as the late 50’s and early 60’s. The first neural network, the Perceptron, had a single layer and was good certain types of recognition. However, the Perceptron was unable to learn how to… Read More
The hierarchical architecture of an embedded FPGA
The most powerful approach to managing the complexity of current SoC hardware is the identification of hierarchical instances with which to assemble the design. The development of the hierarchical design representation requires judicious assessment of the component definitions. The goals for clock distribution, power … Read More
Increased Processing Power Moves to Edge
Recently there has been a lot of buzz about 5G networks. Aside from the talk about it possibly being nationalized, 5G will be a lot different than its predecessors. Rather than a single data link in a predetermined band, 5G will consist of a web of connections all working together to support existing types of data traffic and many new… Read More
Adapting an embedded FPGA for Aerospace Applications
The IC industry is commonly divided into different market segments – consumer, mobile, industrial, commercial, medical, automotive, and aerospace. A key differentiation among these segments is the characterization and reliability qualification strategy for the fabrication process and design circuitry. For each segment,… Read More
Moving from FPGA’s to Embedded FPGA Fabric – How it’s Done
Buying IP is just a little bit more complicated than buying a pair of shoes. A lot of IP is configurable and requires attention to various design and configuration parameters. We live in an age where commercial soft IP is used pretty often in designs, so people have developed increasing comfort in the process that is required to achieve… Read More
The lofty rise of the lowly FPGA
FPGA programmable logic has served in many capacities since it was introduced back in the early 80’s. Recently, with designers looking for innovative ways to boost system performance, FPGA’s have moved front and center. This initiative has taken on new urgency with the slowing down of process node based performance gains. The… Read More
"The Year of the eFPGA" 2017 Recap
This past January, I had postulated that 2017 would be the “Year of the Embedded FPGA”, as a compelling IP offering for many SoC designs (link). As the year draws to a close, I thought it would be interesting to see how that prediction turned out.
The criteria that would be appropriate metrics include: increasing capital investment;… Read More
DesignShare is all About Enabling Design Wins!
One of the barriers to silicon success has always been design costs, especially if you are an emerging company or targeting an emerging market such as IoT. Today design start costs are dominated by IP which is paid at the start of the project and that is after costly IP evaluations and other IP verification and integration challenges.… Read More
The Data Crisis is Unfolding – Are We Ready?