tag: Freescale

Making Too Much Noise
By Ed Sperling - 07 Oct, 2010 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling For the better part of a decade talk about signal integrity in mixed-signal designs has been noticeably absent. That’s about to change. Prior to the adoption of a 130nm process, many semiconductor companies actually went on record saying they were considering abandoning plans to ever put analog and digital on the same chip because the noise on digital would interrupt signal... » read more

Where’s The Multicore Software?
By Ed Sperling - 23 Sep, 2010 - Comments: 0

By David Lammers Multicore processors are being readied for embedded applications but software developers will need to get prepared if they expect to wring the maximum benefits from them. Rob Oshana, director of software R&D at Freescale Semiconductor’s networking and multimedia group, said software developers increasingly are asking if their code will easily port to multicore CPUs. �... » read more

Moving To Open-Source Software
By Ann Mutschler - 23 Sep, 2010 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler With the typical cost of software accounting for 40% to 60% of an SoC, semiconductor OEMs are under more pressure than ever to meet margins. As a result, they are drawing on their ecosystem partners to provide a more complete foundation including hardware, software, FPGA prototypes, verification IP and virtual models, as well as an increasing demand for open source so... » read more

The Long And Painful Path To Power Optimization
By Ed Sperling - 11 Mar, 2010 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling Think about any mobile Internet device today. Batteries typically last all day, applications shut down with ease, and the number of things it can do has reached the point where many people typically carry one device on the road rather than multiple devices they used to lug around several years ago. Perhaps even more astounding is the price drop on these devices. A basic cell ... » read more

Virtualization In Your Hand
By Ed Sperling - 11 Mar, 2010 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling The addition of multiple cores inside of computers has created an enormous opportunity for virtualization. Instead of running one operating system or one application, a single server or multicore PC can run multiple virtualized OSes on a single machine at the same time. From the standpoint of energy efficiency, this has been a huge gain in data centers and the corporate ent... » read more

Remaking The Design Landscape
By Ed Sperling - 28 Jan, 2010 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling Every now and then a new trend comes along in the semiconductor design world, often because an old tool doesn’t work well anymore or because a new one is achieving critical mass. Lithography moved to immersion when the wavelength couldn’t be refracted far enough anymore. Designers at the advanced end of Moore’s Law began using tools like high-level synthesis and Transa... » read more

The Ins And Outs Of Power Conversion
By Ed Sperling - 10 Dec, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Cheryl Ajluni Power conversion is a general term that refers to a system or device producing an output that is different than its input. It can assume many forms—everything from an inverter to an isolated power supply, uninterruptable power supply (UPS), or AC/DC converter. Power conversion, like low-power design, is fairly commonplace these days. Nevertheless, recent advances in digital ... » read more

End User Report: Things To Do With Multicore
By Ed Sperling - 24 Sep, 2009 - Comments: 0

System-Level Design sat down with Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s networking and multimedia, to talk about changes in the communications sector and how that’s affecting design. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. By Ed Sperling SLD: Where does multicore fit into the Freescale world? Lisa Su: The difference between us and an AMD and Intel ... » read more

Lines Blur Between Processor And Microcontroller
By Ed Sperling - 13 May, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling Big changes are happening in the microcontroller market. That statement alone should give pause for most design engineers and raise their level of skepticism. In the past, microcontrollers were a steady business but not exactly an interesting one. That was before the big push toward “green” and the 65nm process node. And it was before vendors began adding logic and more fun... » read more

Moore’s Law Splinters
By Ed Sperling - 28 Apr, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling Moore’s Law continues progressing at a rate of one node every two years or so, but the number of companies that are adhering to that schedule is becoming much harder to pinpoint. Even the nodes themselves are becoming fuzzy. While Intel is looking at 32nm as the next node after 45nm, TSMC is looking at 28nm as the next node after 40nm. And there are likely to be extensions wi... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2024 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy