We looked today at Netlogic’s NETL7 “knowledge-based processors” (KBPs). But the KBP category contains more than just this family: it also contains one called Sahasra.

But the Sahasra products aren’t just more of the same of what’s in NETL7. NETL7 deals with packets all the way to the application layer (layer 7) in the OSI stack. That’s the essence of deep packet inspection (DPI): you’re not just looking at various enclosing headers, you& … Read More → "The Other KBP"

Quantum3D recently announced some new ruggedized computers. Ruggedness seemed to be a hot topic some years ago (remember Grid?), but you don’t hear so much about it these days. The Quantum3D boxes are aimed squarely (if not exclusively) at military.

I got a chance to talk to them a bit at ESC some months ago. They described their casing as “a big heat sink”: they rely on conductive cooling, not convective, or air, cooling. The machine inside averages to the power of a laptop, but they have models ranging from netbook-class … Read More → "A Hunk of Metal that Computes"

Almost a year ago we took a look at smart grid technology. One of the obvious things that emerged when looking at how smart grids are evolving is the fact that it’s very fractured: each country or region has its own way of doing things. There may well be overlap, but that’s not necessarily due to strategic collaboration; sometimes it just happens.

So it was with interest that I saw that CEVA announced approval by the Israeli Chief Scientist (who knew that countries … Read More → "More smart grid standardization work"

This is unbelievable.. doesn’t the VP of Engineering at IC Manage have something better to do than troll around competitor websites buying up domains and posting lies and disinformation? Just plain sleaze.. why would anyone do business with a company like this?

We recently took a look at multicore software automation, and one of the efforts in play was the generation of so-called “recipes” for helping parallelize a program. The idea is that a tool from Vector Fabrics helps you decide how to parallelize a sequential program, and then you get a set of instructions that tell you how to transform your program into a parallel version.

Typically this is done by inserting pthread or OpenMP constructs. But Vector Fabrics recently announced a new … Read More → "Multicore with GPUs"

Thomas Jefferson must be rolling in his grave.

Google wants to spend $12.5 billion to acquire the part of Motorola that still makes cell phones, but it’s really Moto’s patents, not its hardware, that is the real attraction. How important are the patents? During the official announcement, Google CEO Larry Page used the words “defend” and protect” several times, but never once mentioned “innovation,” “enabling,” or invention.” In short, Moto’s portfolio of 17,000 patents (with another 7,000 pending) will be used to build a defensive moat around the company.

How broken is that? Patents that … Read More → "Google’s $12.5 Billion Moat Monster"