IoT Debugging Crosses The Hardware-Software Divide


By Paul Hill and Gordon MacNee Debugging is an important part of embedded design; one that necessarily crosses the hardware/software divide. At a system level, the functionality of an embedded design is increasingly defined by firmware, so avoiding bugs requires engineers with specific disciplines to work closely together during the design phase of a project. It can also mean resisting the u... » read more

Inside The New Non-Volatile Memories


The search continues for new non-volatile memories (NVMs) to challenge the existing incumbents, but before any technology can be accepted, it must be proven reliable. “Everyone is searching for a universal memory,” says TongSwan Pang, Fujitsu senior marketing manager. "Different technologies have different reliability challenges, and not all of them may be able to operate in automotive g... » read more

Choosing The Right Level Of Programmability


Designers prefer to design in flexibility. The reasons are legion and mostly obvious: you may not know today how a chip will be used tomorrow – best to delay setting anything in concrete until you are sure how it is going to be used. You may not fully understand the design until it is nearing completion, and premature optimization can leave you in a difficult situation. And there are more pra... » read more

An Increasingly Complicated Relationship With Memory


The relationship between a processor and its memory used to be quite simple, but in modern SoCs there are multiple heterogeneous processors and accelerators, each needing a different means of accessing memory for maximum efficiency. Compromises are being made in order to preserve the unified programming model of the past, but the pressures are increasing for some fundamental changes. It does... » read more

The Cost Of Programmability


Nothing comes for free, and that is certainly true for the programmable elements in an SoC. But without them we are left with very specific devices that can only be used for one fixed application and cannot be updated. Few complex devices are created that do not have many layers of programmability, but the sizing of those capabilities is becoming more important than in the past. There are... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools The United States is mulling over new trade export restrictions for U.S. fab equipment to China, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. “Recent press reports suggest the U.S. Department of Commerce is exploring additional measures to limit Huawei's access to U.S. semiconductor capital equipment (SPE) by requiring chip manufacturing plants globally to procure license... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


AI The European Union put out a white paper about artificial intelligence. The United States Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios criticized the EU stance on Thursday as clumsy. "We found, what they actually put out yesterday, really, I think, in some ways clumsily attempts to bucket AI-powered technologies as either ‘high-risk’ or ‘not high-risk,’” he said, according to a news ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Dialog Semiconductor will acquire Adesto Technologies for $12.55 per share in cash, or for approximately $500 million enterprise value. Founded in 2006 and based in Santa Clara, CA, Adesto provides application-specific semiconductors, embedded systems, and specialty memory for IoT and industrial IoT applications. “This acquisition substantially enhances our position in the Industrial IoT mark... » read more

SAR ADCs For Machine-To-Machine Connections


In our previous blog about the importance of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), we focused on the various architectures that are in common usage for the Industrial Internet of Things. In particular, we looked at which architecture was best for low-latency, low-power and high-precision applications, with each option having various advantages and disadvantages. When we looked at the applicati... » read more

Opening Up An NVM Evaluation Kit


From toys to smartphones and even mail-order reptiles (a practice which we don’t endorse), unboxing videos are an effective and entertaining way to learn more about a product. According to a recent analysis by Shorr Packaging Corp., toys are the most watched unboxing category, followed closely by smartphones and computers. In addition to providing important product details, an unboxing v... » read more

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