Some embedded applications are much tougher, however. There are cases when we need to deliver copious amounts of computing power while remaining off the grid. Last week, at Supercomputing 2005 in Seattle, there was ample evidence of just such compute power gone mad. Gigantic racks of powerful processors pumped piles of data through blazing fast networks and onto enormous storage farms. The feel of the place was about as far from “embedded” as you can get, unless your idea of embedding somehow involves giant air-conditioners and 3-phase power.

Behind the huge storage clouds, teraflop racks, and … Read More → "Supercomputing To Go"

For over four decades, progress in processing power has ridden the crest of a massive breaker called Moore’s Law. We needed only to position our processing boards along the line of travel at the right time, and our software was continuously accelerated with almost no additional intervention from us. In fact, from a performance perspective, software technology itself has often gone backward – squandering seemingly abundant processing resources in exchange for faster development times and higher levels of programming abstraction.

Today, however, Moore’s Law may be finally washing up. Even though physics may … Read More → "Changing Waves"

Large devices allow you to stuff a whole system into the FPGA, but debugging these complex systems with limited visibility – and a one-day turnaround for synthesis plus place and route – can consume weeks of your precious time.

Hardware/software co-verification has been successfully applied to complex ASIC designs for years. Now available to FPGA designers, this technology brings together the debug productivity of both a logic simulator and a software debugger. Co-verification enables you to remove synthesis and place and route from the design iteration loop, while yielding performance gains 1,000 times faster than logic simulation.</ … Read More → "The Case for Hardware/Software Co-Verification"

Deep in the system designer’s psyche, the traditional truths of FPGA are fused with non-volatile, metal-to-metal connections. FPGAs are expensive. FPGAs consume too much power. FPGAs and battery-powered consumer devices are complete non-starters.

QuickLogic should guard their secret carefully – the one about their new PolarPro being an FPGA family. When designers of portable media players are looking for a device that can significantly increase the battery life of their next-generation units, FPGAs will likely be the last place they think to look. After all, FPGAs burn power like toasters. FPGAs are expensive. Nobody in his … Read More → "Chillin’ with QuickLogic"

It seems reasonable enough on the surface. There is a pile of work to be done, and one of the project manager’s duties is to analyze that pile into something more manageable – usually a schedule with a resource plan and budget. The well-meaning project manager looks to the wisdom of conventional project planning for guidance in calming the chaos. After all, project management is not a new science. For decades, (if not millennia), techniques for taming the complexity of large collaborative projects such as construction have been well understood. If we just pretend our embedded software … Read More → "Tyranny of the Metaphor"