Author's Latest Posts


System Bits: July 12


Simplifying sensor network interactions Given that the IoT consists of millions of sensing devices in buildings, vehicles and elsewhere that deliver reams of data online, and involves so many different kinds of data, sources and communication modes that its myriad information streams can be onerous to acquire and process, scientists at Georgia Tech Research Institute have developed a flexible,... » read more

Safety, Security In Autonomous Vehicles


As the buzz, excitement, anticipation and development around autonomous vehicles continues, so do the lessons. Last week, Tesla reported that the NHTSA was opening a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot during a recent fatal crash that occurred in a Tesla Model S — the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Tesla’s Autopilot was activated. The crash... » read more

Grappling With Auto Security


It’s a changed world under the hood of automobiles today, as vehicles become increasingly connected to infrastructure and each other. But that connectedness also is creating new security risks. Growing complexity is one piece of the problem. There are upwards of 80 electronic control units (ECUs) and more than 100 million lines of code in an average vehicle. On top of that, there are m... » read more

GPUs Power Ahead


GPUs, long a sideshow for CPUs, are suddenly the rising stars of the processor world. They are a first choice in everything from artificial intelligence systems to automotive ADAS applications and deep learning systems powered by [getkc id="261" kc_name="convolutional neural network"]. And they are still the mainstays of high-performance computing, gaming and scientific computation, to name ... » read more

System Bits: July 5


Computer vision for automated data collection Stanford University researchers have developed a computer vision system that automates the collection of data about the elements in buildings in order to streamline the remodeling or refurbishment of existing buildings, which can be fraught with delays and cost overruns due to hidden problems. Renovation projects live and die by the quality of i... » read more

Electrical-Mechanical Tool Flow Revisited


For many years, the design tool industry has entertained the idea of combining both electrical and mechanical design into a single user experience, with a single database as a foundation. Major tool vendors, at least on the electrical side, have taken the matter seriously and confirm that activities towards a single flow have been considered, particularly as the [getkc id="7" kc_name="EDA"] ... » read more

System Bits: June 28


Deep-learning-based virtual reality tool Given that future systems which enable people to interact with virtual environments will require computers to interpret the human hand’s nearly endless variety and complexity of changing motions and joint angles, Purdue University researchers have created a convolutional neural network-based system that is capable of deep learning. [caption id="att... » read more

System Bits: June 21


Faster running parallel programs, one-tenth the code MIT researchers reminded that computer chips have stopped getting faster and that for the past 10 years, performance improvements have come from the addition of cores. In theory, they said, a program on a 64-core machine would be 64 times as fast as it would be on a single-core machine but it rarely works out that way. Most computer programs... » read more

Simulation To Protect Us


I hate to say I told you so, but, I told you so. Back in 2011, I wrote this article, Cell Phone Radiation: Taboo Topic, Interesting Science, and have since kept my eyes open for proof of what I’ve feared for some time now: that our bodies may be adversely affected by the radiation emitted by everything from the myriad electronic devices we carry close to our heads and bodies to WiFi hotspo... » read more

Big Data Meets Chip Design


The amount of data being handled in chip design is growing significantly at each new node, prompting chipmakers to begin using some of the same concepts, technologies and algorithms used in data centers at companies such as Google, Facebook and GE. While the total data sizes in chip design are still relatively small compared with cloud operations—terabytes per year versus petabytes and exa... » read more

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