Editors' Blog

New Nanoimprint from EVG

With all the delicacy involved in the advanced lithography techniques we use for patterning exquisitely small features onto wafers, occasionally we come back to a brute-force approach: nanoimprint lithography (NIL). Instead of painstakingly exposing patterns onto a photoresist, we simply press a patterned die (PS this is the kind of die whose plural is “dies,” not the singulated silicon bits whose plural is “dice”) into a bed of moosh to create a pattern as if making an old-school vinyl record. Harden … Read More → "New Nanoimprint from EVG"

IoT Standards: a oneM2M Follow-UP

by Amelia Dalton

A couple months ago I did a survey of Internet of Things (IoT) standards – or, more accurately, activities moving in the direction of standards, since it’s kind of early days yet.

And in it, I was a bit harsh with one standard… oneM2M. I found it dense and somewhat hard to penetrate, with language that didn’t seem clear or well-explained. The status at the time – and currently (for a bit longer) was as a candidate release, … Read More → "IoT Standards: a oneM2M Follow-UP"

Multicore Task-Management Standard Implemented

by Kevin Morris

In spring of last year, we described a new standard from the Multicore Association for use in managing tasks on multicore embedded systems. Called MTAPI, it abstracts away details of exactly where a particular task might run at any given time, allowing for fixed or real-time binding to a core or hardware accelerator.

Well, standards … Read More → "Multicore Task-Management Standard Implemented"

Verdi: Not Just for Debug Anymore

by Dick Selwood

There’s a bit of repositioning going on in EDA-land. It involves Synopsys’s popular Verdi tool, acquired through the SpringSoft purchase. Conceived as a flexible debug tool, it also has an open scripting environment that gives engineers access to data in the fast signal database (FSDB) file. With that capability, folks have been bolting analysis utilities onto Verdi for a while on an ad hoc basis.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed at Synopsys, and they’re now in the process of repositioning Verdi: it’s not just for debug anymore. While … Read More → "Verdi: Not Just for Debug Anymore"

Two Weeks of MEMS and Sensors

by Kevin Morris

The last couple weeks have involved two events with sensors center-stage. The MEMS Executive Congress is a confab of executives from the MEMS industry (and some non-MEMS companies), put on by the MEMS Industry Group (MIG). It’s been around for years.

TSensors, by contrast, started last year as a push by MEMS luminary Janusz Bryzek to identify … Read More → "Two Weeks of MEMS and Sensors"

Wireless Power: Making Actual Product

by Kevin Morris

Things have been a bit quiet on the wireless power front, but occasionally I’ll become aware of a new player and will dig in to find out how they work. In particular, given that there are now two main competing resonant (e-field) charging standards, it’s interesting to … Read More → "Wireless Power: Making Actual Product"

A Dev Board with Both Touch and Gestures

by Kevin Morris

How do people want to interact with their machines? Some of us are most productive with mouse and keyboard (although I keep seeing presentations complaining that we’ve had them for too long – as if we need to get rid of them even if they’re the best tool for some jobs).

Touch has obviously taken over a large number of systems, and for many things, it’s simpler and more obvious (never mind that trying to make it be everything for everyone doesn’t work…). Most importantly, it’s … Read More → "A Dev Board with Both Touch and Gestures"

Express Logic’s X-Ware Platform

by Jim Turley

The Internet of Things (IoT) is all about platforms. Exactly what constitutes a “platform” is unobvious and left to the reader, however. In some cases, they’re so obscure that you have to pull teeth to find out what the platform actually contains.

Many of the platforms are about the connection between Things and the Cloud (and the Phone). But Express Logic recently introduced their X-Ware Platform, targeted at IoT applications, and its focus is on basic Thing OS and middleware: all of the pieces that allow a Thing to communicate, take on peripherals, … Read More → "Express Logic’s X-Ware Platform"

If This Is a Conference, then It Must Be November

by Amelia Dalton

November would appear to be Conference Month.

Of course, no one has conferences in the summer. Oh, wait! Semicon West does! OK, well, most folks assume no one is home during summer, so they wait until fall. Can’t do December because of the holidays… September, well, everyone is getting back from summer… October? Yeah, a few sprinkled here and there. And then there’s November.

Conferences … Read More → "If This Is a Conference, then It Must Be November"

Elliptic Labs’ 3rd Gesture Dimension

by Bryon Moyer

Some time back we briefly introduced Elliptic Labs’ ultrasound-based gesture technology. They’ve added a new… layer to it, shall we say, so we’ll dig in a bit deeper here.

This technology is partially predicated on the fact that Knowles microphones, which are currently dominant, can sense part of the ultrasonic range. That means you don’t necessarily need a separate microphone to include an ultrasound gesture … Read More → "Elliptic Labs’ 3rd Gesture Dimension"