Author's Latest Posts


DRAM Remains The Status Quo


By Frank Ferro No one will argue that the “post-PC” era is here. Tablet shipments are expected to pass laptops by the end of this year, and desktops by the end of 2015. Add-in the nearly 1 billion smartphones shipment projected for 2013, and you would think that the DRAM industry would take notice of this volume. DRAM manufacturers do care about this segment of the market, but this fact... » read more

Wearing My Computer


By Frank Ferro I have been in a friendly debate with my colleagues (to remain nameless) for some time now about the future of ‘wearable devices.’ The most recent examples are the new Google glasses and the latest incarnation of the smart watch. I’m not a fan of either. I am trying to keep an open mind, however, because my natural inclination is not to overtly wear electronics. I could ne... » read more

Life After Smartphones


By Frank Ferro Don’t let the title confuse you. Smartphones are not going away anytime soon. In fact this year’s smartphone shipments have exceeded feature phones for the first time, with a total of 216 million units in Q1, according to IDC, and the overall mobile phone market is expected to grow 4.3% in 2013. This volume represents an increase in smartphone sales of 42% from Q1 2012. ... » read more

Multicore: Is More Better?


By Frank Ferro Two cores are better than one, right? It reminds me of those AT&T commercials where they ask the kids, “Who thinks two is better than one?” And of course the kids all yell, two! In another version of the commercial they ask; “What’s better, doing two things at once or just one?” And again they all yell, two! Well, this is a good summary or of last week’s Multicor... » read more

The Power Treadmill


By Frank Ferro The recent purchase of an LTE smart phone has me back on my power management soapbox. I upgraded my phone about a month ago to the newest version (staying with the same manufacturer as my previous device) and to my dismay, although it wasn’t completely unexpected, the battery life was actually shorter. I did not do a ‘scientific’ comparison, but following the same daily us... » read more

The Business Of Things


By Frank Ferro The Internet of things (IOT) will create $14 trillion dollars in business opportunities according to Cisco. Unless you are a government accumulating debt, most of us think that’s a big number—and a big opportunity. The much quoted “50 billion connected devices to the Internet by 2020” forecast is the impetus driving companies in all parts of the ecosystem including infra... » read more

Power Management: Throwing Down The Gauntlet


By Frank Ferro The recent burst of articles challenging smart phone battery life has me asking the question, “Are we ready to turn the corner on power consumption?” About two years ago I was bemoaning the fact that we are willing to live with a smart phone that gets only one day of battery life (Powering Forward or Moon Walking). As of today, nothing has changed. We still need to charge th... » read more

The CES Effect


By Frank Ferro CES draws a lot of attention. Everyone wants to be first to see the latest and greatest consumer products. If you don’t mind squeezing through the crowd, you can glimpse the startling picture quality of an OLED TV. Never mind viewing the quality of a 4K Ultra HDTV, at CES you can skip a generation and see what an 85” 8K UHDTV looks like. Talk about resolution! You also can e... » read more

The Network Is The SoC…


By Frank Ferro SoC design continues to challenge semiconductor and system companies in their pursuit to create a better user experience for a wide range of products. Given this, I was pleasantly surprised to see that two of the “Ten technologies that will change the world in 2013,” according to EETimes (December 2012 issue) were SoC-related. One is virtual SoC prototypes and the other i... » read more

Coherently Incoherent: Dealing With Complexity


By Frank Ferro I was a bit frustrated this weekend after installing a digital light timer—yes a light timer. As an engineer this should be no big deal, and for the most part, I installed it without shocking myself or other major problems. This timer had all the bells and whistles. It knows about time zones, adjusts daily for dawn and dusk. It even adjusts for daylight savings time. The probl... » read more

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