What we think of as a “baseband processor” for cellular networks is often comprised of multiple cores. Anecdotes suggest to handle the different signal processing requirements for 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, some SoC designs use three different DSPs plus a control processor such as an ARM core. That’s nuts. What is the point of having… Read More
Curbing Soaring Power Demand Through Foundation IPPower has become a very hot (ha-ha) topic.…Read More
2026 Outlook with Badru Agarwala of Rise Design Automation (RDA)Badru Agarwala is the CEO and Co-Founder of…Read More
2026 Outlook with Cristian Amitroaie, Founder and CEO of AMIQ EDACristian Amitroaie is the Founder and CEO of…Read More
Pushing the Packed SIMD Extension Over the Line: An Update on the Progress of Key RISC-V ExtensionThe rapid growth of signal processing workloads in…Read More
2026 Outlook with Richard Hegberg of Caspia TechnologiesTell us a little bit about yourself and…Read More
Tesla’s Secret Weapon!
Some CEO’s make things look easy and appear to enjoy their work. CEO’s like Richard Branson and Warren Buffet come to mind. These are guys that clearly enjoy what they are doing and, as a result, make everything they do look effortless and fun.
Tesla’s Chairman and CEO, Elon Musk, is another one of these types. There is an impishness… Read More
FinFETs, Power Integrity and Chip/Package Co-design
FinFETs have brought a lot of good things to design – higher performance, higher density and lower leakage power – promising to extend Moore’s law for a least a while longer. But inevitably with new advances come new challenges, especially around optimizing for power integrity in these designs.
One of these challenges is… Read More
Internet of Things- Keeping the Best Things First
The growth of the Internet of Things and embedded and wearable devices—will have widespread and beneficial effects by 2025. In all of these exponentially-growing technologies — artificial intelligence, robotics, nanomaterials, biotech, bioinformatics, quantum computing, Internet of everything — these … Read More
Exploring USB Type-C DRP to USB Type-C DFP connection using USB C-Thru
In a USB Type-C environment configuration process between a DRP and a DFP is as follows:
- DRP to DFP attach/detach detection
- Plug orientation detection
- Initial DRP to DFP and power relationship detection
- USB Type-C VBus current detection and usage
A Real Engineering Challenge – Artificial Red Blood Cells
When you’re thinking about “what can we do next”, you can think big or you can think small – very, very small. Robert Freitas at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) has such an idea – artificial red blood cells (RBCs). These would be nano-machines which could augment the oxygen and carbon dioxide carrying capacity of … Read More
The (not so) Easy Life of an SOC Design Integrator
How can large SOC projects effectively integrate sub blocks and IP into a stable version for release or internal development? The person responsible for integrating SOC sub blocks into a validated configuration for release has a difficult task. Usually there are many sub-blocks, each undergoing their own development. There… Read More
IoT implementation and Challenges!
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items which are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. Implementing this concept is not an easy task by any measure for many reasons… Read More
DDR4 is a complex interface to verify — assistance needed!
The design of parallel interfaces is supposed to be (comparatively) easy — e.g., follow a few printed circuit board routing guidelines; pay attention to data/clock/strobe signal lengths and shielding; ensure good current return paths (avoid discontinuities); match the terminating resistances to the PCB trace impedance;… Read More
NHTSA and Google’s War on Drivers
Google and the National Highway Traffic Safety Admnistration (NHTSA) have recently joined forces in a battle against drivers. It is an unusual alliance and one with significant implications for the future of automotive safety in the U.S. and globally.
That alliance was manifest this week in a letter sent by NHTSA to Chris Urmson… Read More
AI Bubble?