Open Source Processors: Fact Or Fiction?


Open source processors are rapidly gaining mindshare, fueled in part by early successes of RISC-V, but that interest frequently is accompanied by misinformation based on wishful thinking and a lack of understanding about what exactly open source entails. Nearly every recent conference has some mention of RISC-V in particular, and open source processors in general, whether that includes keyno... » read more

SLAM And DSP Implementation


With the introduction of simultaneous localization and mapping technology, or SLAM, there comes a need for more sophisticated DSPs to handle the required computations. To address this need, Cadence has introduced the Tensilica Vision Q7 DSP to handle the requirements of SLAM, including high performance, low power, and with an ease of development that engineers can leverage to design new and exc... » read more

The Cost Of Accuracy


How accurate does a system need to be, and what are you willing to pay for that accuracy? There are many sources of inaccuracy throughout the development flow of electronic systems, most of which involve complex tradeoffs. Inaccuracy leaves an impact on your design in ways you are not even aware of, hidden by best practices or guard-banding. EDA tools also inject some inaccuracy. As the i... » read more

Reducing Latency, Power, and Gate Count with Floating-Point FMA


Today’s digital signal processing applications such as radar, echo cancellation, and image processing are demanding more dynamic range and computation accuracy. Floating-point arithmetic units offer better precision, higher dynamic range, and shorter development cycles when compared with fixed-point arithmetic units. Minimizing the design’s time to market is more important than ever. Algori... » read more

Supporting CPUs Plus FPGAs (Part 3)


While it has been possible to pair a CPU and FPGA for quite some time, two things have changed recently. First, the industry has reduced the latency of the connection between them and second, we now appear to have the killer app for this combination. Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss these changes and the state of the tool chain to support this combination, with Kent Orthner, system... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Resources AT&T Partner Exchange is providing new Internet of Things resources to its value-added resellers and other channel partners. They include the AT&T IoT Starter Kit, an IoT Readiness Assessment tool, and “A Channel Executive’s Guide to IoT.” The new tools work with the AT&T Control Center, the IoT platform the carrier introduced in 2016. Deals Tech Data is working with Propel... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


M&A ARM Holdings this week announced the acquisition of two firms, Mistbase and NextG-Com, to help bring narrowband Internet of Things technology to its chip designs. In addition, the company announced the development of ARM Cordio-N radios to reduce the complexity of adopting cellular IoT connectivity. Meanwhile, Blu Wireless Technology of the U.K. reported that ARM made an equity investment ... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Consortia Optimal+ said this week that it has joined the Industrial Internet Consortium. “The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will have a tremendous impact on industries worldwide. The application of smart manufacturing, combined with the collection and analysis of in-use/field stage data, will deliver powerful insights to brand owners and enable them to achieve dramatic improvements in... » read more

What’s New In Connected Autos


Connected cars and the Internet of Things go together like peanut butter and jelly. But realizing the future of autonomous vehicles will demand close attention to be paid to cybersecurity, functional-safety standards, and other critical factors. [getkc id="76" kc_name="IoT"] will advance the era of self-driving cars, which currently is dominated by Tesla Motors. At the same time, it will cha... » read more

The Battle To Embed The FPGA


There have been many attempts to embed an [gettech id="31071" comment="FPGA"] into chips in the past, but the market has failed to materialize—or the solutions have failed to inspire. An early example was [getentity id="22924" comment="Triscend"], founded in 1997 and acquired by [getentity id="22839" e_name="Xilinx"] in 2004. It integrated a CPU—which varied from an [getentity id="22186" co... » read more

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