Author's Latest Posts

Building An Efficient, Tightly-Coupled Embedded System Using An Extensible Processor
By Synopsys - 11 Jun, 2014 - Comments: 0

The increasing demand for better filtering and processing capabilities of the processor within embedded systems results in a trend to shift from 8-bit microcontroller tightly coupled embedded systems towards 32-bit processor bus-based embedded systems. As a consequence, the power, performance and area (PPA) ratio of these systems also shifts in favor of performance at the cost of power and area... » read more

Using Virtual Prototypes To Address The Growing Software Complexity In Automotive
By Synopsys - 21 May, 2014 - Comments: 0

The software content is growing steadily across multiple applications and the automotive market is no exception to this. In fact the amount of electronics and software in cars is transforming the way we perceive the value of a car. With this steady increase in software also comes the need to handle the amount and the complexity of all these different software stacks. And unlike other applicatio... » read more

MacBook Air 2013: Power Efficient To The Core(s)
By Synopsys - 11 Jul, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin Last month, we looked at the initial announcement at WWDC of the latest MacBook Air laptops. These new machines are physically nearly identical to their predecessors, boast negligible performance improvements (and even performance degradation in some instances), cost about the same, and yet in my view are perhaps the most revolutionary products since the MacBook Air line was reinv... » read more

Apple’s Big Breakthrough
By Synopsys - 13 Jun, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin For literally years now, we’ve talked about and measured energy consumption as smartphones have morphed from primarily communications devices (voice), to the world’s most widespread computing platform, and back again to a communications focus. But this time it’s data communications, and voice calls are just a small subset. Smartphones themselves, once the defining standar... » read more

Does My Phone Dream?
By Synopsys - 09 May, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Cary Chin Starting with my commentary on the Tesla Model S last month (poor standby time before software update), I was thinking about how common a problem standby power is these days. Nearly all of our recently introduced smartphones have had similar problems (iPhone 5, Nexus 4, Galaxy S4, Lumia 900) running on virtually all operating systems (iOS 6.x, Android 4.2.x, Windows Phone 8). All ... » read more

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

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