Author's Latest Posts


Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 13


Core-to-core communication Most research featured in the Power/Performance Bits has far-off applications, but a team from North Carolina State University and Intel developed something that could be brought into practice today: a way to accelerate core-to-core communication. Many important workloads incur significant core-to-core communication and are affected significantly by the costs, i... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


M&A Intel will acquire Movidius, adding the company's low-power vision processing unit to its growing computer vision efforts that include a depth-sensing camera and machine learning projects. At the same time, Intel is shedding cybersecurity unit McAfee (acquired in 2011 for $7.7 billion and re-named Intel Security in 2014). Intel will retain a 49% stake in the business with the 51% rem... » read more

Blog Review: Sept. 7


In a video, Cadence's Kishore Kasamsetty contends that one-size-fits-all DDR PHY no longer works and looks into the unique requirements of different application segments. Synopsys' Eric Huang gives a brief overview of the five components required for USB certification. Mentor's Andrew Macleod presents a way Apple Cars could rake in revenue beyond the vehicle itself. When it comes to hi... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 6


Carbon nanotube transistors outperform silicon University of Wisconsin-Madison materials engineers created carbon nanotube transistors that outperform silicon transistors, improving the current 1.9 times. The new transistors are particularly promising for wireless communications technologies that require a lot of current flowing across a relatively small area. "This achievement has been a... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Memory Nantero licensed its technology for non-volatile RAM using carbon nanotubes (NRAM) to Fujitsu Semiconductor and Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor, which plan to conduct joint development towards releasing a product based on 55-nm process technology. Fujitsu Semiconductor plans to develop an NRAM-embedded custom LSI product by the end of 2018. IP Flex Logix completed design of a family o... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 31


Mentor's Harry Foster presents the 2016 Wilson Research Group Functional Verification Study, beginning with trends in FPGA design and an investigation into the verification effort it takes. Synopsys' Viral Sharma warns that while AMBA AXI exclusive access may look simple at first glance, the possibility of different scenarios and combinations poses a challenge. Cadence's Paul McLellan loo... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 30


Scalable data center chip Princeton University researchers designed a new scalable chip specifically for data centers and massive computing systems. The team believes the chip, called Piton, can substantially increase processing speed while slashing energy needs. The chip architecture is scalable; designs can be built that go from a dozen cores to several thousand. Also, the architecture ... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


M&A The FTC has given the go-ahead to ON Semiconductor's acquisition of Fairchild Semiconductor. As part of the requirements, ON Semiconductor had to divest its planar insulated gate bipolar transistor business, which will be sold to Littelfuse. (Littelfuse will also pick up the transient voltage suppression diode and switching thyristor product lines for a combined $104 million in cash.... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 24


Cadence's Christine Young relates a talk by IEEE president-elect Karen Bartleson, who stresses the need for technologists and policy makers to work together to shape the future of the Internet. In his latest video, Mentor's Colin Walls muses about creeping elegance in embedded software development. Synopsys' Michael Posner considers whether USB Type-C should replace the 3.5mm headphone ja... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 23


Connecting implanted devices University of Washington researchers developed a new method for communication between devices such as brain implants, contact lenses, credit cards and smaller wearable electronics with other devices such as smartphones and watches. Using only reflections, an interscatter system requires no specialized equipment, relying solely on mobile devices to generate Wi-... » read more

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