A song of optimization and reuse

A song of optimization and reuse
by Don Dingee on 07-01-2014 at 10:00 am

If you hang around engineers for any time at all, the word optimization is bound to come up. The very definition of engineer is to contrive or devise a solution. With that anointing, most engineers are beholden to the idea that their job is creating, synthesizing, and perfecting a solution specifically for the needs of a unique situation.… Read More


Wearables at Linley Mobile: Diverging views

Wearables at Linley Mobile: Diverging views
by Daniel Nenni on 05-08-2014 at 11:30 pm

The Linley Mobile Conference last week initiated a lot of discussion about emerging technologies and markets, especially wearables. Jessica Lipsky’s EE Times article captured some of the sentiments in her article, “Wearables Need Tailored SoCs.” But the conference covered a lot more ground than wearables, including mobile… 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


Kurt Shuler: Arteris Presentation at EDPS 2014

Kurt Shuler: Arteris Presentation at EDPS 2014
by Daniel Nenni on 04-30-2014 at 9:00 am

The Electronic Design Process Symposium is an annual workshop run by the IEEE Computer Society of Silicon Valley and the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation. I presented there because it’s devoid of product marketing pitches, and is two days of discussion on technical and process issues in SoC design. My slides are here:… Read More


Sensor clusters at edge call for NoCs nearby

Sensor clusters at edge call for NoCs nearby
by Don Dingee on 04-17-2014 at 6:30 pm

In his recent blog on EETimes, Kurt Shuler of Arteris took a whimsical look at the hype surrounding the IoT, questioning the overall absence of practicality and a seemingly misplaced focus on use cases at the expense of a coherent architecture. I don’t think it is all that bleak, but when it comes to architecture, Kurt is right, and… Read More


The (re)making of Arteris, 1-2-3

The (re)making of Arteris, 1-2-3
by Don Dingee on 03-06-2014 at 6:00 pm

Success in a business with extended design-in cycles may look easy. In reality, there is a delicate balance between many factors. Some come to mind immediately: developing and releasing a good product in the first place; winning and keeping the right customers, not too few or too many; balancing investment between support and … Read More


ISO 26262 driving away from mobile SoCs

ISO 26262 driving away from mobile SoCs
by Don Dingee on 02-13-2014 at 10:00 pm

Connected cars may be starting to resemble overgrown phones in many ways, but there are critical differences now leading processor teams in a different direction away from the ubiquitous mobile SoC architecture – in turn causing designers to reevaluate interconnect strategies.

The modern car has evolved into a microcontroller… Read More


Compositions allow NoCs to connect easier

Compositions allow NoCs to connect easier
by Don Dingee on 01-27-2014 at 6:00 pm

I blame it on Henry Ford, William Levitt, and the NY State Board of Regents, among others. We went through a phase with this irresistible urge to stamp out blocks of sameness, creating mass produced clones of everything from cars to houses to students.

Thank goodness, that’s pretty much over. The thinking of simplifying system design… Read More


Taming The Interconnect In Real World For SoCs

Taming The Interconnect In Real World For SoCs
by Pawan Fangaria on 12-13-2013 at 1:30 pm

Interconnect plays a significant role in the semiconductor design of a SoC; if not architected and handled well, it can lead to an overdesigned SoC impacting on its power, performance and area. Since a SoC generally contains multiple IPs requiring different data paths to satisfy varying latency and performance cycles, it has … Read More


Interface Protocols, USB3, PCI Express, MIPI, DDRn… the winner and losers in 2013

Interface Protocols, USB3, PCI Express, MIPI, DDRn… the winner and losers in 2013
by Eric Esteve on 11-19-2013 at 11:57 am

How to best forecast a specific protocol adoption? One option is to look at the various IP sales, it will give you a good idea of the number of SoC or IC offering this feature on the market in the next 12 months. Once again, if you wait for the IP sale to have reached a maximum, it will be too late, so you have to monitor the IP sales dynamic when… Read More