Software Before Hardware?


The emphasis on battery life in wearable electronics, including always-on sensors, and the cost of powering and cooling racks of servers inside of data centers, are beginning to impact the formula for designing systems. Power is now a critical design element, but it's also one of the most stubborn to tackle. While ASICs, SoCs and FPGAs all have focused on being able to efficiently run softwa... » read more

Using Real Names On The Internet


Using the Internet isn't an option anymore. It's the primary medium for commercial, informational and personal communication. And increasingly, even the devices we purchase will make connections to and from the home base, regardless of whether we think that's a good idea. So now the debate begins to gain steam about whether people should be required to use their real names when registering f... » read more

Real Countries Have Fabs


Persistent rumblings about the sale of IBM’s semiconductor unit might have seemed absurd a couple decades ago—before IBM sold off its PC unit to Lenovo and lost the gaming chip business to AMD’s x86 chips—but no one is scoffing at the possibility these days. The reality is that IBM will never reach the volume necessary to be the No. 1 or No. 2 player in its segment. It’s not even i... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 8


How do you choose an embedded operating system—and do you even need one? Mentor’s Colin Walls looks at the options, and the reason why there are no simple answers. Cadence’s Richard Goering has evidence that Facebook is gaining in popularity for engineer. He’s not the first person to recognize this shift, but the big unanswered questions are, ‘What’s the average age of those use... » read more

Industry-Shaking Changes Ahead


I’ve been closely following the increasing power of system OEMs (such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft) over players in the semiconductor industry with an eye toward understanding how this will affect others in the semi value chain. However, I haven’t paid as much attention to the root causes of why these changes are occurring. McKinsey & Company has provided our industry food f... » read more

Low Power Everywhere


By Kiran Vittal School is over for my kids and the summer holidays are here. We are planning to make minor modifications to our home, which includes installation of recessed lights. LED light bulbs are all over the place in home appliance stores and they claim 85% savings in energy costs with a life span of 50,000 hours. The cost of these LED bulbs is five to six times the cost of your average... » read more

Low Power Drives New Architectures


By Pallab Chatterjee Power became the driving discussion at several major events last month. The global cries for energy reduction, which have been mainstream since the early 1970s on the political level, have now moved to being real economic realities for component and systems suppliers. Chipmakers are finding that lower power makes good economic sense—lower cost of packaging, lower cost... » read more

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