He holds the joystick with a light, experienced grip – his eyes fixed on the screen.  His hands are steady as his viewpoint skims through a rotating object resembling a cityscape with strange buildings and vast networks of roads interconnecting them.  He then dives below the surface, moving through the layers of the virtual world, flying past cylinders that look like giant elevator shafts bridging the levels.  He slows as he comes to the area he’s interested in. 

There, he spots a problem.  A buried via is dangerously near a … Read More → "Altium Goes 3D"

Introduction:

Most FPGA designs today rely on an HDL based description of their design. HDL synthesis is probably the single most important software flow step when it comes to defining the performance of a design.  Synthesis links the conceptual description of the logic functions needed for the design to their actual physical architecture elements in the underlying device.  This step cannot be underestimated.  Synthesis is performed prior to chip placement as an entirely separate step, hence these technology dependent optimizations are computed without knowledge of actual chip … Read More → "Physical Synthesis Flows for FPGA Designs"

Now that it is officially OK to use FPGAs in battery-powered devices, we’re seeing two groups of designers converging on the low-power FPGA design topic.  First, there are those who have been working on low-power and portable applications for years and are just now taking on FPGAs for the first time.  Second, there are those who have been doing FPGAs for years, but have never needed to perform power-conscious design because their FPGA designs were always run from small dedicated nuclear power facilities.  While both of these groups are learning new techniques, the thing … Read More → "Designing Down Power"

As I sit at my desk, there are six LCD displays within one meter of my chair: cell phone, desk phone, thermometer, calculator, laptop and external monitor.  Not all devices with LCD displays need much intelligence to display information, such as my desk phone, but the number of systems that display complex graphics and video continues to increase.

Declining display prices and rising user expectations for additional product features and functionality fuel this growth.  Companies in the transportation, automotive, information, automation, medical, industrial and consumer markets use displays in a vast array of products.

“No, but this one is really important.”

We editors are endlessly bombarded by battalions of bulldozing PR professionals trying to cleverly coax us into crafting a sentence or two on each and every sniffle of product evolution that emanates from their esteemed engineering organizations.  “This one is important,” they will say.  “Our new 2.4.3.5.21b driver version is vastly improved over 2.4.3.5.21a.  You’ll probably want to do a three-article series just on the switch from absolute to relative memory addressing…”

Right.

So, … Read More → "MicroBlazing Away"

Louis walked the last flight of stairs to the roof with his gear in tow.  Sebastian followed him and helped check the rigging.  Louis got his bearings on the edge of the roof while Sebastian checked the wind one last time.  The tell-tale strand of yarn on the handheld wind meter streamed backward and up as the LCD read the velocity.  The perfect time was… Now!  Louis pushed off and smoothly transitioned into his freefall form while pulling the release for the parachute.  As his body raced toward the terminal velocity of 55 … Read More → "FPGA BASE Jump"