Author's Latest Posts


Blog Review: Dec. 24


Jeff Ravencraft, the President and COO of USB-IF, sat down for a video interview with Cadence's Jacek Duda to discuss the the role of the organization and what's in the works for USB. Check out the second part, too. Have all the avenues been exhausted in the search for greater layout productivity? Synopsys' Graham Etchells sees no revolutionary technology in the area since CALMA, but highlig... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 23


GaN building blocks A team of engineers from Cornell University, the University of Notre Dame, and the semiconductor company IQE created gallium nitride (GaN) power diodes capable of serving as the building blocks for future GaN power switches. In spite of having many desirable features as a material, GaN is notorious for its defects and reliability issues. So the team zeroed in on device... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Tools, IP, & IoT Mentor Graphics updated its general purpose computational fluid dynamics product, adding improved mesh handling, an enhanced transient solver, a robust EDA interface, and an interface to Abaqus Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software for stress analysis. Arasan uncorked MIPI DSI v1.3 controller IP with support for Display Stream Compression, Sub links, Deskew, and Chec... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 16


Power from nuclear fusion just made the leap from sci-fi to the real world in this week's top five engineering tech picks by Ansys' Bill Vandermark. Plus, stacking chips tall, helping gunshot victims survive, and a shoe just for you. A world without paralysis? Rambus' Aharon Etengoff takes a look at one research group's latest advancement, a brain implant that allowed a paralyzed man to bypa... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 15


Biologically powered chip Columbia Engineering researchers powered an integrated circuit from adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of life. They achieved this by integrating a conventional solid-state CMOS integrated circuit with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane containing ATP-powered ion pumps, opening the door to creating entirely new artificial systems that contain both b... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Mergers & Acquisitions Zuken acquired one of its USA resellers, electrical applications provider Caetek. The company also developed software for harness manufacturers that integrated with Zuken's electrical wiring, control systems and fluid engineering toolset. The NXP-Freescale merger is, at last, official. The largest revenue source for the combined company will be automotive, proje... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 9


From spring-loaded knees to modular planes to a two-seater drone, there's a new world of transportation in this week's top engineering and technology picks from Ansys' Justin Nescott. As for disappearing worlds, check out the sun-like star getting eaten by a black hole. Cadence's Paul McLellan takes a look back at archaic terminology and even older standards, with a brief history of Calma to... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 8


Reducing transistor switching power One of the great challenges in electronics has been to reduce power consumption during transistor switching operation. However, engineers at University of California, Santa Barbara, and Rice University demonstrated a new transistor that switches at only 0.1 volts and reduces power dissipation by over 90% compared to state-of-the-art MOSFETs. "The steepn... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Tools Cadence uncorked the next generation of its custom design platform optimized for advanced 10nm FinFET designs. Features include multi-patterning and color-aware layout, electrically aware design, and module generator (ModGen)-based device array flow. Deals San'an IC will provide Mentor Graphics' design rule decks to its customers to help verify that their mobile and wireless gall... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 2


To celebrate ARM's 25th birthday, Neil Cooper teamed up with the Science Museum in London to feature 25 people or objects that were pivotal to the creation of modern technology. This week: James Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz. Ansys' Bill Vandermark delves deep into the oceans with energy-storing balloons and up to the sky on a diamond thread in his top technology and engineering articles ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →