tag: MCU

How To Test IoT Devices
By Mark LaPedus - 11 Dec, 2014 - Comments: 0

At a recent event, test experts said the IC industry needs a new paradigm in testing chips for the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] (IoT). The message was fairly simple to interpret. Existing automatic test equipment (ATE) is well suited to test today’s digital, analog, and mixed-signal chips, though it may be ill-equipped or too expensive to test IoT-based devices. But wha... » read more

One-On-One: Mike Muller
By Ed Sperling - 08 Oct, 2014 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down with [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"] CTO Mike Muller, who first coined the term 'dark silicon,' to talk about what's changing, why the company is focusing so heavily on software and security in addition to power, and how the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] will change design and vice versa. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. S... » read more

Architecting For Efficiency
By Ann Mutschler - 10 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 0

By definition, to be efficient is to perform or function in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort; having and using requisite knowledge, skill, and industry. As this relates to SoC design today, achieving the highest level of efficiency is a challenge with many dimensions. Efficiency comes in multiple ways. “One dimension would be power consumption,” said Oz Le... » read more

The New Face Of MCUs
By Ann Mutschler - 10 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 0

For years, the humble microcontroller was known as the workhorse of white goods and other embedded applications that required some amount of processing, but not as much as a microprocessor would provide. Much has changed since then. Today’s MCUs are the star components in fast-growing and increasingly sophisticated application areas such as automotive, smartphones and the Internet of Thing... » read more

On-Chip MCUs Excel At Power Management
By Ann Mutschler - 10 Oct, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler When it comes to supplying power to an SoC, there is an increasing trend to make it more intelligent—how to control it more accurately, how it is monitored and how it communicates with different aspects of the chip. Traditional power supply models with analog supplies have less of this control, so a number of engineering teams are considering the use of on-chip m... » read more

Mixing Custom And Standard Parts
By Ed Sperling - 08 Aug, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling The amount of third-party and re-used IP content in an SoC is on the rise, but once a decision to buy vs. make has been made it doesn’t always stay that way. In fact, chipmakers are swinging the pendulum back and forth across a variety of chips, building IP themselves, standardizing on another vendor’s IP, then sometimes rolling it back the other way. The reasons are usua... » read more

Trading Off Power And Performance
By Ann Mutschler - 11 Jul, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler There is no shortage of opinions when it comes to the topic of performance and power tradeoffs. From abstracting the task from engineers to process considerations, engineering teams have a number of tools and approaches at their disposal to make the optimal design choices for their application. Take the MCU application space for instance. Ken Dwyer, director of app... » read more

Four Factors Driving Processor Choices
By Ed Sperling - 12 Jul, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling Choosing processors for an SoC, a system-in-package, or even a complete system is becoming much more difficult, and the challenge is growing as demands on performance, power, area and time to market continue to increase. There are many reasons why this is becoming more difficult—and some designs will require more tradeoffs than others, depending upon IP re-use or a particul... » read more

Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

  • Standards/Organizations

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2026 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy