Mesh Networking Grows For ICs


Mesh networks were invented to create rich interaction among groups of almost-unrelated peers, but now they are showing up in everything from advanced chip packages to IoT networks. The flexibility of a many-to-many peer-connection model made the mesh approach a favorite for two-dimensional network-on-a-chip topologies, to the point where they began to supplant data-bus connections during th... » read more

Spark Microsystems: LP On-Chip Radios


Spark Microsystems is taking aim at on-chip radios that continue to be the primary source of battery drain, even in power-conserving designs like Bluetooth Low Energy. "If you wear AirPods, something like 80% of the power is going to power the radio, not the sound. That's not the most efficient approach." according to Frederic Nabki, co-founder of Spark Microsystems, and a former professor o... » read more

Bluetooth Smart: Doing (A Lot) More With Less


By Charles Dittmer and Prithi Ramakrishnan I was really struck by Ann Steffora Mutschler's piece last month (Running Out Of Energy?). She notes that by 2040, the energy required for computing is expected to surpass the estimated world's energy production. That's a problem. One factor could be the rise of IoT applications. Billions of devices will be deployed in the next decade, and we ... » read more

Wearable Devices: A Limitless Future


Today, there are many wearable systems across industries including medical and health care, safety, smartwatches, smart goggles and glasses, smart shoes and clothing — even smart pet trackers! So why is there such a proliferation of devices, even though many of these portable/embedded devices have been around for decades? There are a few key technical trends enabling these devices. F... » read more

Nymi: Wearable Authentication


If you had one device that could log into all your electronics automatically, allowing you to make electronic payments more securely based on your heart beat rhythms, would you use it? That's the question a startup named Nymi is asking—and a lot of other companies are watching. The company began its life in 2011 using a biometric electrocardiogram developed at the University of Toronto. ... » read more

BLE For The IoT


Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) is one of the emerging disruptive technologies for the IoT. Also referred to as Bluetooth low-power and Bluetooth smart, as the Bluetooth SIG is calling it, this technology will enable the next level of IoT vertical devices, such as medical devices, home automation, retail, wearables, and much more. For consumers, it comes down to the Internet of Your Things (Io... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 3


Mentor's Robin Bornoff zeroes in on some of the biggest and most frustrating causes of energy loss—the ones that have nothing to do with the intended task. In electronics, it's a question of how much power is consumed pushing around electrons and photons. Cadence's Richard Goering follows a panel discussion about whether we're really making progress in low-power design, where the challeng... » read more

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