OK, so you’re in a giant mall, you want to find a store that sells gloves and you want to know how to get there. Or you’re in a supermarket and you need some obscure item, say capers, that doesn’t really fall under any of the main headings they post over the aisles. If you’re like most of us, certainly like me, this can be a frustrating experience.… Read More
Dynamic Spectrum Allocation to Help Crowded IoT Airwaves
Radio frequency bandwidth has become a precious commodity, with communications companies paying top dollar for prized pieces of the spectrum. However, many radio bands are not often used efficiently. Many existing radio protocols exchange data on a fixed pair of frequencies, tying up those frequencies for other users. When… Read More
The IoT will meet 5G soon, but not with the old SIM cards
By now you have probably realized that 5G is a lot more than an incremental change from previous 3G and 4G cellular technology. For instance, 5G will be used to connect our phones in completely new ways, such as with microcells in urban areas using mm-wavelength signals. 5G will also include two low power protocols that are intended… Read More
Compute at the Edge
At first glance, this seems like a ho-hum topic- just use whatever Arm or RISC-V solution you need – but think again. We’re now expecting to push an awful lot of functionality into these edge devices. Our imaginations don’t care about power, performance and cost; everything should be possible so let’s keep adding cool features.… Read More
Using ML to Build Efficient Low Power Platforms for Augmented Vision
We are all pretty familiar with augmented reality, where real world images are overlaid with computer generated images, graphics and even audio. Of course, our first exposure to augmented reality might have been images of heads up displays in fighter jets or perhaps in the movie The Terminator. Augmented reality is moving rapidly… Read More
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Talks About Enabling Development of 5G ICs
5G is in the news again. Sprint has mounted a legal challenge against ATT, claiming that ATT is misleading people into believing that they already are offering 5G. While ATT is about to start testing of 5G, they have also sent out updates that causes customer phones to display 5GE when they are still on 4G LTE systems. The truth is that… Read More
McKinsey Mangles Micromobility
Micromobility – characterized by shared bicycles, scooters and other wheeled devices – was all the rage in 2018 and that enthusiasm has carried over into 2019 – if McKinsey is to be believed. McKinsey published a white paper last week touting the glories of micromobility and a potential market of $300B-$500B by 2030.… Read More
How Apple Became a Force in the Semiconductor Industry
From our book “Mobile Unleashed”, this is the semiconductor history of Apple computer:
Observed in hindsight after the iPhone, the distant struggles of Apple in 1997 seem strange, almost hard to fathom. Had it not been for the shrewd investment in ARM, Apple may have lacked the cash needed to survive its crisis. However,… Read More
Accuracy of In-Chip Monitoring for Thermal Guard-banding
I remember working at Intel and viewing my first SPICE netlist for a DRAM chip, because there was this temperature statement with a number after it, so being a new college graduate I asked lots of questions, like, “What is that temperature value?”
My co-worker answered, “Oh, that’s the estimated junction… Read More
Webinar: Turnkey Bluetooth True Wireless Stereo Earbuds and Speakers
When we were first introduced to earbuds, in-ear speakers connected through thin wires to your phone (and earlier portable music devices), they seemed pretty convenient for private entertainment at work, while walking, exercising, doing almost anything. Until we started to realize those long dangly wires weren’t ideal. They’d… Read More