Platforms, Standards, Methodologies Conquer Design Challenges


We in the electronics design world always have spent a lot of time wringing our hands (will we ever get to design below 1 micron??) And while the problems are not imagined—they’re often soberingly real—we tend to plow through them, or, when necessary around them. Today, amid increasing complexity and risk, we’re leveraging platforms, standards and new methodologies to slay these d... » read more

Do We Need A “Glue” Engineer?


Design and verification are so complex today and fraught with market risk that it keeps managers awake and sweating at night. So much of design is carved up in IP blocks and subsystems, each with their own verification issues and methodologies. To manage the complexity the design is partitioned, and so too are the teams. But as software verification becomes more crucial to system-design succ... » read more

Choosing The Right Systems Design Path


I’m a cheap bastard, usually given to self-abnegation when it comes to buying material goods for myself. But I broke down and bought a runner’s watch late last year because I wanted to change up my exercise routine to run the same distances, only faster. I quickly decided against going all in and getting a GPS watch. At this point in the arc of electronics-design technology, it’s hard ... » read more

Three Must-Watch Electronics Trends in 2014


It’s halfway through January, and I think we’ve exhausted our “2014 Forecast” posts for the year. Still, it’s helpful to consider what lies ahead when all we have under our belts at this point is CES 2014 (and that event was clearly underwhelming as a technology bellwether). I propose three areas to watch closely in 2014, based on ploughed ground from some excellent industry observ... » read more

Low-Power Crisis = Danger & Opportunity


If you’re a student of these things, you’ve no doubt heard that in Japanese, the word “crisis” is divided equally into “danger” and opportunity.” The biggest opportunity for electronics designers is also their biggest challenge: power management. Ask anyone today and they’ll tell you that minding and managing power consumption and leakage is a big concern. How big? At DAC... » read more

Why Does That App Make My Phone Hot?


By Adam Sherer Popular Mechanics examined this topic in 2011, focusing mostly on packaging and other physical conditions. “Poor signal, intense workload and battery charging” were quoted, but the verification engineer knows the part of that list that was glossed over—intense workload. The author of that article waved away that aspect, saying the operating system usually can handle the so... » read more

More Efficient Things


By Qi Wang There are many angles to consider when it comes to efficiency and the Internet of Things (IoT). At the architectural level, the IoT system consists of connected things, the networks and the cloud servers for massive data processing. Efficient data storage and servers means lower power consumption, which will result in millions of dollars in savings. For the connected things thems... » read more

Life In A Connected World


By Qi Wang At this year’s DA, we heard a lot of discussions on the Internet of Things. Gregg Lowe, CEO of Freescale, said in his keynote speech that by 2020 there will be 50 billion connected devices. Considering there are an estimated 4 billion devices in the world now, mostly unconnected, this represents huge growth potential for the semiconductor industry because each device will have at ... » read more

Power-Up Low-Power Verification


By Adam Sherer When facing low-power verification in the SoC world, everyone could use a few power-ups just like Nintendo’s little plumber, Mario. Sure, Mario could run and jump through a lot of terrain, but when he hit some new challenges he could rely on some new tools and techniques to get him through. Completing your first SoC with a single power control module (PCM) and domain is lik... » read more

CPF 2.0 Voltage Regulator And Analog Ports


By Luke Lang CPF 2.0 was released more than a year and half ago, yet the majority of the designs are still done with CPF 1.1. This is one of those good news/bad news situations. The good news is that CPF 1.1 is perfectly adequate for majority of the LP designs. The bad news is that designers may not be aware of the new CPF 2.0 features that could be quite useful. This month, we will take a loo... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →