Power has become a key design consideration for SoCs in pretty much any application. We’ve looked at some ways of reducing power in past articles, largely at a high level. We continue here with a specific look at some techniques that can be identified by a new tool from Sequence called PowerArtist. This tool takes ten specific steps to identify ways to reduce power, although only a couple of them are automatically implemented. Most of them may take some engineering evaluation to decide whether to implement, and, if so, exactly how to do them, so those techniques … Read More → "Ten- Step Program"

Twelve Bar Blues is structured improvisation.  A standard twelve-measure chord progression repeats tirelessly, and the experienced blues musician lays his soul over this monotonous harmonic structure like a fine linen drapery.  Aart de Geus, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Synopsys, the world’s second largest electronic design automation (EDA) company, is also an accomplished blues guitarist.

Blues in C
I (C) Measures 1-4:

The tonic orients the ear, providing a firm foundation of reference.  In traditional blues, it is repeated for the first four bars of the sequence, setting up “home base” … Read More → "Three Chords and the Truth"

Back when I was a product engineer working on bipolar PALs (oops – I mean, PAL® devices), one of my main activities was figuring out what was wrong. That was most of the job of a product engineer: fix what’s broken. You don’t spend any time working on the stuff that’s working, you work on what isn’t working. Assuming it’s a chip that’s wrong, the process would typically start with a trip into the testing area to put a part on the tester and … Read More → "Avoiding Failure Analysis Paralysis"

It’s 4th and goal, 0:15 to go in the last quarter. The ball is snapped, the quarterback steps back, finds his receiver, and throws. Seeing the play develop, the defender runs to cover the receiver. They both jump in an aerial pas de deux; the ball dances elusively into the air, spins tantalizingly near outstretched fingertips, and falls harmlessly to the ground. While the defender gyrates around in a rather improbable new display of exultation that he hopes will sweep the nation, the receiver cries interference and looks to the referees for justice. The referees … Read More → "Almost Instant Replay"