Blog Review: Aug. 14

By Ed Sperling
Synopsys’ Eric Huang unveils the fastest USB ever. The seat belt is extra.

Mentor’s Nazita Saye sees the light—well, at least a refracted version of it—through the lens of a plastic bottle. This one is a real energy saver for the money, even if you have to forfeit the recycling fee. Check out the link.

Cadence’s Brian Fuller takes a sledgehammer to the semiconductor memory wall, only to find there’s a CPU wall behind it. This is like finding out there were two Berlin Walls. The good news is there are still some tunnels.

Semico Research’s Tony Massimini predicts that MEMS sensors and actuators will become a staple for the Internet of Things. The ramp-up forecasts are well into the double digits.

Synopsys’ Richard Solomon looks at the fallout of the old SATA standards versus the new one that connects to PCIe. The trouble is that with backward compatibility, many vendors have to support both.

Mentor’s Harry Foster introduces part nine of his epic functional verification study. The subject for this week: testbench methodology and class library adoption.

Cadence’s Richard Goering looks at competing memory standards, which were discussed at a Memcon panel. The surprise is that DDRx is the default winner—at least for now.

Mentor’s Colin Walls looks at future battery and memory technology—and the dearth of information about resistive RAM as a flash replacement.

Synopsys’ Mick Posner uncorks his latest installment on hybrid prototyping. One size does not fit all.