Minimizing Power Consumption In Next-Generation Mobile Devices


By Cheryl Ajluni Today’s consumers continually demand ever more efficient and reliable means of mobile communication. At the same time, the wireless industry is evolving toward higher data rates and capacities. Both of these trends present a wealth of opportunity for innovative system engineers looking to design the next generation of mobile communication devices. They also pose some inter... » read more

On, Off and Mostly Off


<p>By Ed Sperling</p> <p>System-on-chip architecture has always been about getting the most performance out of a device, and the basic premise is that when you turn on a device it is always on.</p> <p>That approach has been challenged over the past few years with a fundamental shift toward more of the design being in the ‘off’ position. Aside from reversi... » read more

Writing Application Software Directly To The Metal


By Ed Sperling How necessary is an operating system? That question would have been considered superfluous a decade ago, possibly even blasphemous and career-limiting. But it now is beginning to surface in low-power discussions, particularly in compute-intensive applications where performance and power are both critical. General-purpose operating systems constantly call on the processor fo... » read more

Verifying Low-Power IP And Designs


By Ed Sperling Verification has always been the time-consuming part of designs. Even at 120nm and above, where power wasn’t much of an issue, verification accounted for an estimated 70 percent of the non-recurring engineering expense in a chip. Since then, the tools to automate design have become more effective, but the complexity of designs has grown by leaps and bounds beyond those tools.... » read more

Low-Power Standards War


To the uninitiated, establishing a technology standard may seem straightforward. In reality, the process is mired with technical and political issues as evidenced by the ongoing battle for a de facto low-power design standard between the Unified Power Format (UPF) and the Common Power Format (CPF).   Currently, UPF is with the IEEE for final ratification as P1801, set for vote this month, ... » read more

Plumbing 101: Current Leakage And What to Do About It


By Brian Fuller Rising demand for mobile products and the march of Moore’s Law have created conditions for a perfect storm that threatens to swamp electronics designs and the market growth those designs target. The catalyst for that storm is leakage, which worsens the smaller devices become. Even in an “off” state, systems can leak like poorly insulated houses. But as the nation think... » read more

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