Articles – Page 4

Is Jeff Goldblum Hollywood’s go-to person for an on-screen engineer?

September 11, 2024

Actor Jeff Goldblum recently appeared as a guest host for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! TV show. Kimmel was on vacation. As part of his first-night monologue, Goldblum played piano (he’s an accomplished jazz pianist) and sang a song with references to several of the movies that he’s appeared in over the last four decades. While he was singing, I realized that Goldblum’s comedic and acting talents have been go-to material for Hollywood when it needs a quirky engineer or scientist. Goldblum can spout technical bafflegab with authentic fluency, and some of the … Read More → "Is Jeff Goldblum Hollywood’s go-to person for an on-screen engineer?"

The Moon Needs Its Own Time Zone. Relativity Says It Also Needs Its Own Clocks

by Steven Leibson

September 9, 2024

A CNN article written by Jackie Wattles and titled “Why scientists say we need to send clocks to the moon — soon” grabbed my attention and quickly sent me down several rabbit holes that involved some ideas in physics that I knew but had not internalized. First, the moon needs its own timekeeping system because it sits in a different spacetime gravity well. The moon’s gravity is roughly one sixth that of the Earth’s so time flows faster on the moon – … Read More → "The Moon Needs Its Own Time Zone. Relativity Says It Also Needs Its Own Clocks"

No Slacking! Put Your Sem;colons to Work [Exclamation Mark Goes Here]

by Max Maxfield

September 5, 2024

I’m still chafing under the impositions imposed by the punctuation police. I speak of those who don the undergarments of authority and stride the corridors of power. Those despicable despots who dictate I can no longer terminate the titles to my columns with exclamation marks, all the time muttering inscrutable incantations to their SEO gods. Fortunately, I’m not bitter. … Read More →

There’s More Than One Way to Become an Engineer (Part 2)

by Max Maxfield

September 3, 2024

As we discussed in the initial installment of this 2-part extravaganza, some people pursue a predictable path on their way to engineer-hood (where “-hood” comes from the Middle English “-hode,” which itself comes from the Old English “-hād,” meaning “state of being”). Others, like your humble narrator, end up taking a more circuitous route, which may involve Lady Luck finagling the dice in their favor (I owe her one).

In Part 1, we focused on my story, but it’s … Read More → "There’s More Than One Way to Become an Engineer (Part 2)"

Apple’s iPhone 15 debunks the “full-line” semiconductor supplier myth

by Steven Leibson

September 2, 2024

From time to time, I’ll get a presentation from a company announcing a new product, usually a new chip, that includes a statement like this:

“We’re the only semiconductor maker with a full line of FPGAs, from the smallest, most cost-efficient devices to the most advanced, leading-edge devices.”

or this:

“We’re the only full-line semiconductor supplier, offering everything from diodes to the most advanced processors and FPGAs.”

Perhaps these companies are channeling Walter Brennan, who often said “No … Read More → "Apple’s iPhone 15 debunks the “full-line” semiconductor supplier myth"

There’s More Than One Way to Become an Engineer (Part 1)

by Max Maxfield

August 29, 2024

I was born in 1957. If you are on the younger side of things, I bet you’re thinking something along the lines of, “Wow! That’s AGES ago!” You’re right. It is. That’s why it’s taken me such a long time to get from then to now (I took the scenic route).

Along my rambling (some may say “bumbling”) journey through life, I’ve met people who desired to be engineers but who feel they messed up and “dropped the ball” in one way or another. First, … Read More → "There’s More Than One Way to Become an Engineer (Part 1)"

The Past, Present, and Future of Electronics as a Hobby

by Steven Leibson

August 25, 2024

My recent article about language drift in electronics over the past half century or so (see “Old Electronics Terms Show Language Drift Over the Decades”) seems to have generated a lot of interest, so let’s take another time-traveling walk through the same time period, and let’s focus on how young people might get interested in electronics. I’m going to use my own experience and compare it with today’s opportunities. Some things have changed; some things have stayed the same; and … Read More → "The Past, Present, and Future of Electronics as a Hobby"

GOWIN’s “Golly Gosh” Low-Cost High-Performance FPGAs

by Max Maxfield

August 22, 2024

I remember when the first FPGA waved a cheery hello to the world back in 1985. (I know I’ve talked about this before, but there are always new members to the EE Journal Community who weren’t around when many of the technologies we now take for granted originally appeared on the scene.) This little scamp was the Xilinx XC2064, which boasted an 8×8=64 array of configurable logic block (CLB) “islands,” each containing two 3-input look-up tables (LUTs), all presented in a “sea” of programmable interconnect.

Just to make things fun and interesting, users … Read More → "GOWIN’s “Golly Gosh” Low-Cost High-Performance FPGAs"

Silvaco’s Fab Technology Co-Optimization (FTCO): From Atoms to Systems

by Max Maxfield

August 20, 2024

I was just taking a trip down memory lane, remembering how things used to be when I was but a lad. Since the dawn of time, all the way through to the end of the 1960s, for example, electronic circuit diagrams (schematics) were captured by hand using pencil and paper. Similarly, circuit layouts at both the board and silicon chip level were largely handcrafted.

It wasn’t until the early 1970s that companies like Calma, ComputerVision, and Applicon started to create special computer programs that helped people in the drafting department transfer hand-drawn … Read More → "Silvaco’s Fab Technology Co-Optimization (FTCO): From Atoms to Systems"

Microchip unveils PIC64 family of RISC-V multicore processor chips for Earth and for space

by Steven Leibson

August 19, 2024

Literally the day after writing the article about the Microchip PolarFire SoC Discovery Kit based on the company’s PolarFire SoC FPGA, Microchip gave me a preview of two closely related products. The new products, announced last month, are the company’s PIC64GX microcontroller and a development board for this microcontroller called the PIC64GX Curiosity Kit. The PolarFire SoC Discovery Kit discussed in my previous article is based on Microchip’s PolarFire SoC FPGA, which melds the software programmability of five 64-bit RISC-V processors with a fair-sized chunk of FPGA fabric. (See “Read More → "Microchip unveils PIC64 family of RISC-V multicore processor chips for Earth and for space"