New Forces For Consolidation


For the past five-plus decades, the overriding effect of Moore’s Law was to put more circuits on a single piece of silicon. While that’s still the case, the addition of multiple cores since 90nm also has meant more functions can be added to that chip, which creates a whole new business equation for makers of complex devices like smart phones. Instead of creating individual chips, a single... » read more

Low-Power Architectures Go Mainstream


By Pallab Chatterjee Until recently, low power engineering has been defined by the automated use of EDA tools in the design flow to help cut back on peak dynamic power. The new generation of mobile and video products has forced a change in that methodology. There are two other fast rising architectural approaches. The first is multicore, which is prevalent in new product introductions fr... » read more

Following The WLAN Alphabet To Lower Power


By Cheryl Ajluni The quest for low power in electronic devices is one that shows no sign of abating any time soon. Pressure for it comes from many different sources, such as the continual drive to pack more functionality into ever smaller, mobile electronic devices. To try and maintain a decent battery life for today’s power-hungry “road-warriors,” engineers have to reduce power con... » read more

Who’s In Control Now?


By Ed Sperling Power is shifting across the design industry in multiple ways and sometimes across multiple continents, driven by complexity and cost pressures and entirely new forms of competition. On one side of the equation, foundries are dictating more of what goes on up front in the design cycle. Design for manufacturing is a prerequisite at 45nm and below, and they’re the ones dictatin... » read more

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