tag: low power

Heterogeneous Multi-Core Headaches
By Ed Sperling - 28 Jan, 2016 - Comments: 4

Cache coherency is becoming more pervasive—and more problematic—as the number of heterogeneous cores used in designs continues to rise. Cache coherency is an extension of caching, which has been around since the 1970s. The notion of a cache has a long history of being utilized to speed up a computer's main memory without adding expensive new components. Cache coherency's introduction coi... » read more

Three Steps To Complete Power-Aware Debug
By Ellie Burns - 28 Jan, 2016 - Comments: 0

In previous blogs, we’ve talked about UPF and the successive refinement low power flow developed by ARM and Mentor Graphics (you can find these here.) In this blog we’d like to walk through some typical debugging scenarios our customers face in their low power designs. So I’ve asked two of our low power debug experts, Gabriel Chidolue and Mark Handover, to join me to make sure you get ... » read more

Rethinking Memory
By Ed Sperling - 16 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 3

Getting data in and out of memory is as important as the speed and efficiency of a processor, but for years design teams managed to skirt the issue because it was quicker, easier and less expensive to boost processor clock frequencies with a brute-force approach. That worked well enough prior to 90nm, and adding more cores at lower clock speeds filled the gap starting at 65nm. After that, th... » read more

The Human Bottleneck
By Ed Sperling - 10 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

The history of semiconductor technology can be neatly summed up as a race to eliminate the next bottleneck. This is often done one process node at a time across an increasingly complex ecosystem. And it usually involves a high level of frustration, because the biggest problems stem from areas where engineering teams generally can't do anything about them. Concerns over the years have ranged ... » read more

How To Choose A Processor
By Ann Mutschler - 10 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Choosing a processor might seem straightforward at first glance, but like many engineering challenges it's harder than it looks. When is a CPU better than a GPU, MCU, DSP or other type of processor? And for what design—or part of a design? For decades, the CPU has been the default choice. “It is deliberately designed to be pretty efficient at all tasks, is straightforward to program, ... » read more

Chasing After Phantom Power
By Brian Bailey - 10 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 1

A lot of effort is being invested in power reduction techniques for mobile devices, where battery life is an important buying decision and power can translate into heat that can make a device uncomfortable to use. But are people willing to pay more for a device that consumes less power if it's plugged into a wall? And even if they are concerned about the power drawn during operation, what ab... » read more

What Goes Wrong With IP
By Ed Sperling - 10 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about the future of IP with Rob Aitken, R&D fellow at [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"]; Mike Gianfagna, vice president of marketing at [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]; Judd Heape, vice president of product applications at Apical; and Bernard Murphy, an independent industry consultant. What follows are excerpts of that discussion, which... » read more

Remove The Bus From Your Embedded System
By Rich Collins - 10 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

For many years, the 8-bit microcontroller has been the workhorse of embedded systems. Design teams favor the size and power benefits that a tightly coupled processor, such as the 8051 microcontroller, brings to their designs. The compact and ultra-low power 8-bit architecture improves battery life and reduces bill-of-material costs. However, embedded systems increasingly require higher perfo... » read more

Addressing Modern Bottlenecks With Smart Data Acceleration
By Steven Woo - 10 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Over the past 30 years, the relentless progression of Moore’s Law has driven dramatic improvements in transistor counts and ultimately in processor performance. CPU performance was often the primary factor in determining overall system performance, leading us to believe that better CPUs led to better system performance. But, as processors have become more powerful, other subsystems have not k... » read more

2016 And Beyond
By Krishna Balachandran - 10 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Greek mythology and Roman history are replete with soothsayers, some of whom got it right and others wrong. Cassandra was cursed that her predictions wouldn’t be believed, even though she predicted the Trojan horse. Caesar’s soothsayer predicted the demise of Julius Caesar during the Ides of March, which Caesar himself was skeptical about, but indeed he was murdered before the Ides passed. ... » read more

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