Atmel Licenses Mali and Security from ARM

Atmel Licenses Mali and Security from ARM
by Paul McLellan on 07-24-2014 at 7:01 am

Atmel (and ARM) announced yesterday that Atmel has licensed a portfolio of ARM IP for devices that require video, image and display capabilities. This portfolio includes Cortex-A7 (a 32-bit core), Mali-V500 (a video accelerator), Mali-DP500 (a display processor) and TrustZone technology (security technology). These can… Read More


Thread is why Nest has extra 802.15.4 goodies

Thread is why Nest has extra 802.15.4 goodies
by Don Dingee on 07-15-2014 at 4:00 pm

From last week: “Chipmakers can’t afford to wait on the sidelines, hoping their standard fare gets picked up and fits in with one of these [#IoT]teams.” This week, it’s ARM, Freescale, and Silicon Labs joining with Google and others on Thread. Yet another consortium? A lot more to this story.… Read More


From ARM7 to such a Large CPU cores Port-Folio

From ARM7 to such a Large CPU cores Port-Folio
by Eric Esteve on 07-08-2014 at 3:13 am

I have heard about ARM processor for the very first time in 1990, when I was interviewed by ES2 Design Center manager before being hired to subcontract an ASIC design for ES2. I don’t know why, but I remember very well that he told me about two of the ES2 partners: ARM as a processor IP core provider and TSMC as a Foundry partner if, by chance,… Read More


Atmel SMART

Atmel SMART
by Paul McLellan on 06-09-2014 at 6:00 pm

I talked last week about the internet of things (IoT) panel I attended at DAC. One thing that is clear is that IoT is not really a market on its own, but nonetheless the fact that billions of edge-node devices are going to be connected to the internet is a real trend. One company that takes IoT very seriously is Atmel, since they have an … Read More


Virtual Prototype Collaboration

Virtual Prototype Collaboration
by Daniel Payne on 05-20-2014 at 9:01 am

The concept and use of virtual prototypes continues to grow each year in electronics design, mostly because it really does shorten product development cycles by allowing software engineers to start early debug and fix errors prior to production. Other useful benefits to virtual prototyping include software optimization, … Read More


Atmel and the Arduino Zero

Atmel and the Arduino Zero
by Paul McLellan on 05-15-2014 at 7:00 am

As I wrote about last month, this weekend is the Maker Faire in San Mateo. If you are interested in the cutting edge of what people are getting up to outside of the corporate world, this is the place to go. You will see stuff that you will not hear about for a year or two when it finally goes mainstream.

Increasingly, there is a lot of electronics… Read More


Is the Chief IoT Barrier Privacy?

Is the Chief IoT Barrier Privacy?
by Daniel Nenni on 05-11-2014 at 9:00 am

The World Affairs Council event, The Internet of Things: Global Implications of Merging the Physical and Digital Worlds, was hosted by Cadence last week. One thing I can tell you is that Cadence sure does know how to throw a party! They had me at free food and beer but the topic was also of great interest since my next project will involve… Read More


I’d give my right ARM to be ambidextrous

I’d give my right ARM to be ambidextrous
by Don Dingee on 05-09-2014 at 8:00 am

Baseball loves a good switch hitter – from Frisch to Mantle to Rose to Murray to Jones, they are a rare and valuable commodity. AMD is calling on ambidexterity for its processors in 2015 and beyond, this week tipping plans for 20nm “Project SkyBridge” parts in either ARM or X86 with a common footprint. What remains to be seen is where… Read More


Intel is Still Missing Mobile!

Intel is Still Missing Mobile!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-07-2014 at 9:00 am

Paul McLellan was on assignment in Hong Kong last week so I attended the Linley Mobile Conference and was not surprised Intel did not present. During the networking sessions I asked more than a dozen people why and the answers were pretty focused on “Intel still does not play well with others” and “Intel’s current mobile offerings… Read More


Hardware/Software Debug

Hardware/Software Debug
by Paul McLellan on 05-04-2014 at 10:59 pm

One of the big challenges with modern SoCs is that they have a complex software component as well as the hardware itself being complex. Some aspects of the hardware can be debugged independently of the software and vice versa, but often it is not immediately clear whether the source of a problem is hardware, software or some interaction… Read More