category: What Were They Thinking

category: IoT, Security & Automotive

The End Of Automated Patent Trolls?
By Brian Bailey - 27 Feb, 2014 - Comments: 2

I have written several articles and blogs recently about the [getkc id="16" comment="patent"] system, and readers of What Were They Thinking know that I like to poke fun at patents that never should have been issued because they are obvious, silly or would never actually be able to work. There are patents that cover using a laser pointer to play with a cat, to water a Christmas tree or to creat... » read more

Fixing The Patent System
By Brian Bailey - 31 Jan, 2014 - Comments: 7

Yesterday I published an article that looked at the state of the [getkc id="16" comment="patent"] system in the U.S. and the changes that may happen when the Supreme Court hears the case of Alice Corp. and CLS Bank International. A ruling from the Supreme Court may serve to clarify the bounds of what is and is not patentable when it comes to areas such as business methods, financial systems and... » read more

Establishing The Calendar
By Brian Bailey - 20 Jan, 2014 - Comments: 3

Back in the dawn of time, when man settled down, stopped being a nomad and wanted to plant crops, it became important to be able to measure time. When was the right time to plant crops and to harvest? When could the rains be expected to come? When would the first frost come? It was no longer good enough to trust doing the happy rain dance or to pray to some gods. It was better to know and under... » read more

Joe Costello To Get Back Into EDA?
By Brian Bailey - 31 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 3

While other writers in this world rely on gossip, there is a lot more that can come from hard work and paying attention. Perhaps one of the most famous and charismatic people from the EDA world is [getperson id="11147" p_name="Joe Costello"] – former CEO of [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"] and still missed by many. Until recently he was CEO of a company called Orb Networks, a streamin... » read more

Patenting The Holidays
By Brian Bailey - 19 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

It happens every year — a new batch of [getkc id="16" kc_name="patents"] related to Christmas ornaments, things to rotate trees, or festive light controllers. Activity really did slow down this year with only six new [getkc id="98" kc_name="utility patents"] and five [getkc id="99" kc_name="design patents"] containing the word Christmas in their title, and a further two utility patents wit... » read more

Flawed Research?
By Brian Bailey - 09 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Soft errors were first talked about a long time ago and [getkc id="22" kc_name="memories"], which are the most susceptible to this type of error due to their finer geometries and tighter packing, have long included protection from such errors. But the scare has proven to be larger than the real problem. However, as geometries shrink, we are again hearing about the potential problems. Researc... » read more

Coming Up With The Wrong Formal Answer
By Brian Bailey - 21 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

It was a surreal moment. I was sitting in a conference room in Portland listening to a panel session about [getkc id="33" kc_name="formal"] methods. The topic was discussing the fact that there is insufficient education at the undergraduate level in formal methods and algorithmic approaches to verification. You can read about the panel here. In the question and answer session, a point was ma... » read more

Recycling Electronic Components As Fishing Lures
By Brian Bailey - 08 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

I have a regular search set up to help me find interesting and relevant [getkc id="16" comment="patent"] and patent applications within our industry and most of the time they are serious patents. Many come from the large EDA and semiconductor companies, systems houses and some from small startups attempting to protect their nascent technology. But one came up on my search today that was a litt... » read more

A Nobel Prize For Modeling And Simulation
By Brian Bailey - 24 Oct, 2013 - Comments: 0

This year, a Nobel Prize has been awarded for devising a computer model and simulation process. Bloomberg, which interviewed Marinda Wu by phone, said: “The models let us slow down…and let us look at them one piece at a time.” This enables them to optimize things. At this point you may be thinking one of three things. Either 1) I don’t remember that prize being awarded or, 2) at last ED... » read more

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