Disturbances in the AI Force

Disturbances in the AI Force
by Bernard Murphy on 01-03-2019 at 7:00 am

In the normal evolution of specialized hardware IP functions, initial implementations start in academic research or R&D in big semiconductor companies, motivating new ventures specializing in functions of that type, who then either build critical mass to make it as a chip or IP supplier (such as Mobileye – intially)… Read More


Ampere: More on Arm-Based Servers

Ampere: More on Arm-Based Servers
by Bernard Murphy on 12-19-2018 at 7:00 am

Since I talked recently about AWS adding access to Arm-based server instances in their cloud offering, I thought it would be interesting to look further into other Arm-based server solutions. I had a meeting with Ampere Computing at Arm TechCon. They offer server devices and are worth closer examination as a player in this game.… Read More


Big Data Analytics in Early Power Planning

Big Data Analytics in Early Power Planning
by Bernard Murphy on 12-13-2018 at 7:00 am

ANSYS recently hosted a webinar talking about how they used the big-data analytics available in RedHawk-SC to do early power grid planning with static analytics, providing better coverage than would have been possible through pure simulation-based approaches. The paradox here is that late-stage analysis of voltage drops … Read More


ARM Answers Server Doubts

ARM Answers Server Doubts
by Bernard Murphy on 12-07-2018 at 7:00 am

At ARM TechCon this year, the company announced the Neoverse brand targeted to infrastructure, contrasting with the Cortex brand we are familiar with for edge devices such as smartphones and IoT devices. Cortex was already used in infrastructure, in networking, base stations and the like but Neoverse splits the infrastructure… Read More


Imperas and RISC-V

Imperas and RISC-V
by Bernard Murphy on 12-06-2018 at 7:00 am

I met Imperas at TechCon this year because I wanted to become a bit more knowledgeable about virtual modeling. That led me to become more interested in RISC-V and a talk given by Krste Asanovic of UCB and SiFive. My takeaway surprised me. I had thought this was an open-source David versus proprietary Goliaths (Intel and ARM) battle… Read More


Webinar: Turnkey Bluetooth True Wireless Stereo Earbuds and Speakers

Webinar: Turnkey Bluetooth True Wireless Stereo Earbuds and Speakers
by Bernard Murphy on 12-01-2018 at 7:00 am

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


On-Chip Networks at the Bleeding Edge of ML

On-Chip Networks at the Bleeding Edge of ML
by Bernard Murphy on 11-29-2018 at 7:00 am

I wrote a while back about some of the more exotic architectures for machine learning (ML), especially for neural net (NN) training in the data center but also in some edge applications. In less hairy applications, we’re used to seeing CPU-based NNs at the low end, GPUs most commonly (and most widely known) in data centers as the workhorse… Read More


Dover Microsystems Spins New Approach to Security

Dover Microsystems Spins New Approach to Security
by Bernard Murphy on 11-22-2018 at 7:00 am

One of the companies I met at ARM TechCon was Dover Microsystems who offer a product in embedded security. You might ask why we need yet another security solution. Surely we’re overloaded with security options from ARM and many others in the forms of TEEs, secure boots, secure enclaves and so on? Why do we need more? Because defending… Read More


NXP Strengthens Security, Broadens ML Application at the Edge

NXP Strengthens Security, Broadens ML Application at the Edge
by Bernard Murphy on 11-15-2018 at 7:00 am

Security and machine learning (ML) are among the hottest areas in tech, especially for the IoT. The need for higher security is, or should be, blindingly obvious at this point. We struggle to fend off daily attacks even in our mainstream compute and networking environment. How defenseless will we be when we have billions of devices… Read More


Webinar: NVIDIA Talks High Quality Metrics in Power Integrity Signoff

Webinar: NVIDIA Talks High Quality Metrics in Power Integrity Signoff
by Bernard Murphy on 11-09-2018 at 12:00 pm

There’s a familiar saying that you can’t improve what you can’t measure. Taking that one step further, the more improvement you want, the more accurately you have to measure. This become pretty important when you’re building huge designs in advanced technologies. Margins are a lot tighter all round and use-cases are massively… Read More