Author's Latest Posts


Where The Rubber Hits The Road: Implementing Machine Learning On Silicon


Machine learning (ML) is everywhere these days. The common thread between advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) vision applications in our cars and the voice (and now facial) recognition applications in our phones is that ML algorithms are doing the heavy lifting, or more accurately, the inferencing. In fact, neural networks (NN) can even be used in application spaces such as file compressi... » read more

The 5G Design Dilemma


Nothing says low power and high performance like an emerging wireless standard that promises to increase link bandwidth, latency, and overall capacity by orders of magnitude while also reducing power. That emerging standard, of course, is 5G. With the number of devices that are projected to use 5G, it’s no surprise that 5G is a strategic initiative for many companies. This explains why des... » read more

What Does “Low Power Optimization” Mean To You?


As I was researching some new low power capabilities, I asked this question of nearly every designer I met: “How important is low power optimization?” It turns out that it’s a pretty useless question because of course it’s important to just about everyone. After all, reducing power improves reliability and reduces design costs. And for chips destined for certain applications, such as mo... » read more

What’s The Real Benefit Of High-Level Synthesis?


Once upon a time, “behavioral synthesis,” the precursor to high-level synthesis, hung its hat on design productivity as its sole value. By that, I mean, if a behavioral synthesis tool provides a high enough productivity benefit, designers or design managers will boil the ocean to move to it. There was little methodology around it. In fact, even the design entry language was unfamiliar. Yes,... » read more