Author's Latest Posts


Mainstreaming


By Kurt Shuler Gartner analyst Jim Tully’s assessment that network on chip (NoC) technology will be “mainstream” in two to five years is an acknowledgement of the technical and commercial success NoC interconnect IP has had in the consumer electronics system on chip (SoC) market over the last couple of years. As reported by EE Times, Gartner’s latest “Hype Cycle for Semiconductors... » read more

Next Up: Touchless Screens


By Kurt Shuler Gesture Recognition Qualcomm’s announcement this Monday that it has acquired assets from gesture recognition technology pioneer GestureTek makes it official: Gesture recognition based on video camera technology will be in phones sooner than we think. [caption id="attachment_7583" align="alignnone" width="716"] Source: TI and YouTube[/caption] Video-based gesture recognit... » read more

Our STBs Really Suck (Power)


By Kurt Shuler For all the work our industry does to implement sophisticated power management and conservation features in our chips and software, I was dismayed (and a little appalled) to read Saturday’s New York Times article, “Atop TV Sets, a Power Drain That Runs Nonstop.” Our industry’s dirty little secret is out, with help from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and... » read more

The Trouble With Tradeshows


By Kurt Shuler There’s no doubt about it—industry tradeshow attendance is shrinking. If you don’t believe me, just look at the trends for a well-known tradeshow in the semiconductor industry, the Design Automation Conference. I’m not picking on any one show. I’m choosing DAC because I could find audited attendance numbers online for this show. Most other semiconductor industry trades... » read more

IP Subsystems Are Nothing New


By Kurt Shuler I’ve been hearing the term “IP subsystem” lately, and it seems to be the latest newfangled buzz word in the SoC semiconductor and IP industry, second only to “virtualization.” Much of the context for this growing interest in IP subsystems has been inspired from the work of Rich Wawrzyniak in his Semico Research report, “IP Subsystems: The Next IP Market Paradigm - Oc... » read more

Interchip Connectivity


By Kurt Shuler There has been a lot of confusion about the different standards for interchip connectivity, with many hardware developers of consumer electronics and mobile computing systems-on-chip wondering what to use. As an interconnect IP provider, I struggle with this every day when working with our customers. I wrote this article to share what I have learned. Why interchip connectivit... » read more

Semiconductor M&A?


Last week a friend of mine was giddy with joy as he exclaimed, “Semi M&A is back!” It seems Qualcomm’s acquisition of Atheros and Intel’s acquisition of Silicon Hive somehow changed the chemical makeup of his brain, transforming him from an eternal semiconductor market pessimist to a born-again optimist. Being someone who lives and dies by data, my initial response was, “Let’s s... » read more

Missing The Point


By Kurt Shuler A couple months ago a professor researching in my company’s technology space asked me, “Why doesn’t industry use our research?” I thought for a few seconds, then looked him in the eye: “Because much of it is off target.” My friend was taken aback for a second, but to his credit he wanted to know why I thought that. I explained that I recently read an articl... » read more

Is An FPGA IP Business Model Finally Possible?


By Kurt Shuler The IP-SoC conference panel, “IPs on FPGA: Strategy and Vision,” was a learning experience for me. Coming from the software and silicon/ASIC/ASSP worlds, I thought I had a pretty comprehensive view of all the various IP licensing models and their technical implementations. But I learned something new that makes me feel positive about the FPGA’s abilities to finally offer a... » read more

Behind The Standards


By Kurt Shuler As engineers, we view transaction protocols as simply a language to be able to communicate information from one block of system-on-chip (SoC) IP to another block. However, if you look at transaction protocols from an economics framework you see there's much more to it. With the past interconnect fabrics dominated by crossbars and hierarchal busses, the choice of the IP transacti... » read more

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