Author's Latest Posts


Aftermarket Autonomous Vehicle Race Heats Up


It’s not just car companies that are racing to build self-driving vehicles. An entire ecosystem is sprouting up around retrofitting existing vehicles with autonomous technology, despite the fact that the technology, infrastructure, regulatory and insurance issues are still not fully formed. Uber already is using self-driving taxis, accompanied by a human driver, in Pittsburgh, Pa. And many... » read more

System Bits: Oct. 4


Light deflection through fog In a development that could lead to computer vision systems that work in fog or drizzle, which have been a major obstacle to self-driving cars, MIT researchers have developed a technique for recovering visual information from light that has scattered because of interactions with the environment — such as passing through human tissue. This technology — called... » read more

Heterogeneous System Challenges Grow


As more types of processors are added into SoCs—CPUs, GPUs, DSPs and accelerators, each running a different OS—there is a growing challenge to make sure these compute elements interact properly with their neighbors. Adding to the problem is this mix of processors and accelerators varies widely between different markets and applications. In mobile there are CPUs, GPUs, video and crypto pr... » read more

Rethinking Verification For Cars


As the amount of electronic content in a car increases, so does the number of questions about how to improve reliability of those systems. Unlike an [getkc id="76" kc_name="IoT"] device, which is expected last a couple of years, automotive electronics fall into a class of safety-critical devices. There are standards for verifying these devices, new test methodologies, and there is far mo... » read more

System Bits: Sept. 27


Memory management scheme accommodates commercial chips In an improvement to a memory management scheme presented last year in which MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory researchers unveiled what they said was a fundamentally new way of managing memory on computer chips — one that would use circuit space much more efficiently as chips continue to comprise more and more... » read more

System Bits: Sept. 20


Improving Torque Sensing In an advance that could bring new types of sensors and studies in quantum mechanics, Purdue University researchers have levitated a tiny nanodiamond particle with a laser in a vacuum chamber, using the technique for the first time to detect and measure its torsional vibration. The team said the experiment represents a nanoscale version of the torsion balance used i... » read more

System Bits: Sept. 13


Big data programming language MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers this week are presenting a new programming language, called Milk, that lets application developers manage memory more efficiently in programs that deal with scattered data points in large data sets. The researchers reminded that in today’s computer chips, memory management is base... » read more

Controlling Heat


Modeling on-chip thermal characteristics and chip-package interactions is becoming much more critical for advanced designs, but how to get there isn't always clear. Every chip, based on its target application, has a thermal design power (TDP) target. This is the typical power it can consume without overreaching the acceptable thermal limits in its intended environment. But in order to rate t... » read more

Accuracy, Waveforms, And Power


The entire topic of power analysis, estimation, and exploration never ceases to amaze me given that opinions on how to approach this are so varied. It is that diversity of opinions that makes it that much more intriguing. I’ve been particularly interested in how I now regularly hear that users are increasingly interested in taking activity from simulation and emulation and using that to dr... » read more

Power Options And Issues


In the quest to get SoC power right as early as possible in the design flow, it still holds true that the biggest impact occurs at the beginning of the project, with diminished results as a design progresses through the flow toward tapeout. [getentity id="22186" e_name="ARM's"] big.LITTLE architecture has gained a lot of traction here, prompting MediaTek to introduce its Tri-Gear big.Medium.... » read more

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