Author's Latest Posts

A Low-Power Riddle

By Synopsys - 11 Apr, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin I’m thinking of a mobile electronic device, introduced in 2012, at the high end of its market segment, eventually to be named “Product of the Year” for 2012. But it wasn’t introduced without the usual flurry of energy-efficiency related problems, with initial complaints such as, “the product worked well, but the battery drained way too fast, even when it was turned off!�... » read more

There Can Be Only One

By Synopsys - 14 Mar, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin The tagline of the 1986 fantasy film “Highlander” implies that, at least in some instances, we eventually will arrive at a single, best solution for our problems. In the case of low-power design, the most obvious application of the phrase is in the standardization of low power intent formats, where the Unified Power Format (UPF) and the Common Power Format (CPF) have been lock... » read more

Big Rocks First

By Synopsys - 14 Feb, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin Up on the wall in the hallway by the printer at my office, there’s an article by a management consultant entitled, “PUT THE BIG ROCKS IN FIRST!” It describes the demonstration that has been conducted and described many times by many consultants and motivational speakers over the years. Starting with an empty bucket, place large rocks in the bucket until it is full. Repeat by... » read more

CES 2013: Signs Of Things To Come

By Synopsys - 17 Jan, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin It’s always fun to see the latest gadgets introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show, held last week in Las Vegas. This year, two in particular stuck in my mind. First, in what is clearly still a fledgling industry (not necessarily for technology reasons), Audi demonstrated its self-driving car, with the added twist that you could “call” your car. It remotely started up, ma... » read more

Watch Out For The Cliff

By Synopsys - 06 Dec, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin (to be sung to the tune of “George of the Jungle”) Along with superstorms, a still-limping economy, and people launching missiles and mortars at each other, the headline news of the day continues to include the impending "fiscal cliff." This is a completely artificial event that we created for ourselves more than 10 years ago, and it has been on our calendar ever since. It's ... » read more

iPad Mini: The iPad On A diet

By Synopsys - 08 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin The iPad mini was unveiled last month, but just hit the stores on Nov. 2. Early reviews have been quite positive—good performance, quality build, excellent battery life. There’s just one problem (besides the price)—the non-retina display. Even with a 1024 x 768 display (the same resolution as the original iPad and iPad 2), it seems we’ve gone “retina display” mad, and ... » read more

iPhone 5 – Verizon has a hit!

By Synopsys - 11 Oct, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin My iPhone 5 was delivered to my door as promised on Sept. 21. The UPS guy had a truck full of them, and seemed quite happy to be getting so much attention as he was making his rounds. As with every other iPhone, I carefully unboxed it with some anticipation, but somehow I felt like there was less excitement this time around. After 5 years of iPhone mania, was the luster starti... » read more

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