Articles – Page 537

The March of IDEs

September 2, 2008

Debugging is not popularly viewed as an opportunity for personal growth and enlightenment. Surveys show that embedded programmers hate debugging more than any other task. Perhaps not coincidentally, the same surveys show that most programmers spend more time debugging code than they did writing it.

So what’s a poor embedded developer to do? Debugging tools are clearly important, given the amount of quality time that talented and well-paid programmers are going to spend using them. Any gains in debug efficiency pay off in reduced frustration, quicker product development, and the all-important “time to market& … Read More → "The March of IDEs"

Using VMM, DPI, and TCL to Leverage Verification and Enable Early Testing, Emulation, and Validation

The Details

by Bryon Moyer

August 26, 2008

Let’s face it. Some designers refuse to learn a new language. Or, the prospect of learning object-oriented programming makes some people break out in hives. Or, the old way is still just fine. Or, there’s not enough time in the schedule to get everyone trained. Or, there’s no budget for training.

Whatever the case may be, you find yourself at the beginning of a project, and there are not enough people to do the verification work needed. Most designers have learned TCL scripting … Read More → "Using VMM, DPI, and TCL to Leverage Verification and Enable Early Testing, Emulation, and Validation"

TCL Drives C Drives SystemVerilog

An Overview

by Bryon Moyer

August 26, 2008

Judging by advertising and datasheets and other promotional materials, verification is pretty much a simple, clear-cut, well-solved problem. Actually, that’s not quite true. Judging by any of those docs, verification was a complex, obtuse, poorly-solved problem until we released our last product, after which it’s become simple, clear-cut, and well-solved. Yeah, that’s more like it.

Of course, experience or any candid conversation reveals otherwise. Many tools and techniques have been developed over the last few years to address the burgeoning verification burden, but they remain … Read More → "TCL Drives C Drives SystemVerilog"

Modelling: not just for big boys?

by Dick Selwood

August 26, 2008

Years ago, when I worked in PR, I used to visit a telecoms company every few weeks, with a colleague. (PR agency people always seem to travel to clients in pairs – I have never understood why.) The visits were usually to be briefed on a new product or a new release, and the briefings were conducted by engineers. On the way, we used to make small bets on how long it would be before the briefing engineer got up and started using the white-board: it was rarely more than five minutes into the meeting. Now, when on the … Read More → "Modelling: not just for big boys?"

Buzzword Bob

Taming the Team Tyrant

by Kevin Morris

August 26, 2008

8:59 AM – Buzzword Bob calmly climbs aboard his ergonomically efficient office throne. His was special-ordered – not the standard-issue sort of desk chair found in all the other engineers’ cubicles. He flicks on his flat-screen monitor (wouldn’t dream of leaving it on sucking power all night) and types his 10-character password to log on. Bob was the first in the department to have a flat-screen. Since he was sure he was sensitive to something about the CRTs, he had early-adopted the LCD screen when it first hit the market (at a premium price, of course). When … Read More → "Buzzword Bob"

A New Analog Golden Age?

by Bryon Moyer

August 19, 2008

Of course analog engineers themselves had a different view. Increasingly they saw EDA tools bring automation to digital circuit design, particularly in layout. They, on the other hand, still had to design by hand and by intellect, since they were dealing with much more complex issues than a stream of zeroes and ones, highs and lows. And, unlike for digital, there was only a handful of universities providing training in analog technologies.

Sometime at the end of the twentieth century, things started to change. Suddenly analog and mixed signal started getting above itself. Handheld consumer devices, like … Read More → "A New Analog Golden Age?"

Flash Flood

We Never Thought...

by Kevin Morris

August 19, 2008

Flash was great for storing small amounts of data. It was even pretty cool when we could pop a small card into our early digital cameras and save our low-res images with reasonable speed and security. It was expensive, but we were willing to pay the big premium because it could uniquely solve the non-volatile storage problem for certain classes of mobile devices. Flash seemed like a novelty, though, and those of us that knew all the evil quirks and kluges under the hood held a healthy respect for the potential of the technology to bite … Read More → "Flash Flood"

My IP

Brain for Rent

by Kevin Morris

August 19, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, one of our sister publications – Embedded Technology Journal – ran a controversial article called “Let’s Abolish All Patents.” The article made the case that patents (at least in their present incarnation) inhibit progress, stifle innovation, and – in the wrong hands – serve almost the opposite of their intended purpose.

Most of us in engineering have been through the process at least once – meeting with the folks in the nice suits as they speak somewhat condescendingly about our responsibilities as the creators of technology to protect the bank accounts … Read More → "My IP"

A Better Flytrap

DDR3 Controllers Hit the Market for SoCs and FPGAs

by Bryon Moyer

August 12, 2008

That DDR memories work at all seems like a miracle. I mean, it’s like someone woke up one morning and said, “Hmmm…. You know, high-speed serial interconnect has complicated timing when you try to align a bunch of lanes… there HAS to be a way to take those concepts and make it even trickier to design.”

Here you’re taking a bank of memories and sending them data and address and clock and command and DQS signals, and all in “eye-diagram” territory. Skews and … Read More → "A Better Flytrap"

Energy: It’s Not Your Average Power

by Dick Selwood

August 12, 2008

Energy. You read about it in the newspapers, hear about it from political pundits, and pay for it every month in gas, electric, and fuel bills. Airlines and automakers blame their financial woes on energy costs, and developing nations try to become energy-independent. There’s a lot of energy spent on, well, energy.

The same is true of electronic design. The energy consumption of a chip, system, or assembly is a big deal to many engineers. Handheld systems need to balance performance and features against current drain and battery life. At the opposite extreme, the designers … Read More → "Energy: It’s Not Your Average Power"