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
Networks-on-chip (NoCs) are very configurable, arguably the most configurable piece of IP that you can put on a chip. The only thing that comes close are highly configurable extensible VLIW processors such as those from Tensilica (Cadence), ARC (Synopsys) and CEVA but Sonics would argue their NoCs are even more flexible. But … Read More
There were a number of trends discernible at CES this year, one of the big ones being wearables, especially in the medical and fitness areas. I wear a FitBit Flex and I have, but rarely wear, a Pebble Watch that links to my iPhone. I would say that at this point they are promising but are more gimmicks than truly useful. My Fitbit measures… Read More
SoCs face a lot of issues related to security and the Network-on-Chip (NoC) is in a good position to facilitate system-wide services. SoCs are now so complex that one of the challenges is to make sure that the chip does what it is meant to do and doesn’t do what it isn’t meant to do. Just as in software, security used to be … Read More
If it has escaped your notice that power management on SoCs is important then you need to get out more. Increasingly, the complexity of the interconnect between the various processors, memories, offload processors, devices, interfaces and other blocks means that the best way to implement it is to use a network on chip (NoC). But… Read More
Arteris finally announced this morning, as rumored, that Qualcomm is acquiring “certain technology assets” and hired personnel formerly employed by Arteris. The financial terms were not disclosed.
I talked to Charlie Janac, the CEO, today. The first thing I asked him is why such a convoluted deal, I’ve never… Read More
Is it really a surprise if Qualcomm, the undisputed leader of Application Processor (AP) and BaseBand (BB) IC for wireless mobile, already one of the Arteris investors (with ARM, Synopsys, Docomo Capital and a bunch of VC), eventually acquires the best NoC IP technology (the technology, the engineering team and the rights, but… Read More
I don’t remember seeing an open letter from one EDA or IP company to another until today. Sonics have published an open letter to Charlie Janac, the CEO of Arteris. What seems to have happened is that Arteris have sold their assets to Qualcomm and the development team (which is based in France) and several AEs are already Qualcomm… Read More
We still don’t know the precise status about a potential acquisition of Arteris by Qualcomm, and I prefer not to comment a rumor and wait for the official announcement, if any. But I would like to comment … a comment about this rumor, recently made by Sonics. This comment has taken the form of an Open Letter, from “Grant Pierce, CEO of… Read More
I just read this very interesting article posted by Kurt Shuler from Arteris, describing the “History of SoC Interconnect Fabric” and explaining why the SC industry needs an advanced approach, named the “fourth phase of the Interconnect Fabric history” in the article. Kurt’s point of view is that in the past the SoC interconnect… Read More
