Editors' Blog

To be, or not to be – an FPGA?

A few years ago, we shined light on the fact that FPGAs were stealthily appearing in places where they were not announced. Namely, both Altera and Lattice semiconductor sell devices that are ostensibly CPLDs, but whose inner workings are most certainly FPGA. It turns out that the latest process geometries are more friendly to the FPGA architecture than to the classic CPLD architecture, and for people accustomed to using CPLDs, there is really no reason they need to know that an FPGA is hiding under the cap.

More recently, Xilinx introduced their Zynq family … Read More → "To be, or not to be – an FPGA?"

A Company Reunion?

by Kevin Morris

Back in 1982, I joined a smallish company that had gotten their start in memories, but had subsequently been the first company to build a strong commercial business in programmable logic. The company was Monolithic Memories, or MMI. Yes, others like Signetics had been to market with PLAs before, but the difference was the combination of the simpler, faster, cheaper PAL architecture along with – critically – PALASM, the first PLD design software that could take Boolean descriptions and figure out which fuses to blow. And yes, we’re talking bipolar technology, TiW fuses. The two guys credited with … Read More → "A Company Reunion?"

Closing the Thermal Loop

by Laura Domela

It’s impossible to design an SoC today without good simulation models. Emphasis on “good.” We’ve always simulated, but, back when mask sets cost less than the GDP of a small country, the actual silicon was the true test of whether the design worked.

Of course, using real silicon to iterate the design was never the goal, but the only way to get good models is to test them against actual silicon – it’s that closed loop that gives you confidence in the model. But that means running a lot … Read More → "Closing the Thermal Loop"

Intelligent Devices Lack Social Graces

by Bryon Moyer

My bathroom scales clearly knew it was my birthday – the display that shows my age and other stats when I step on had advanced by one. Other than that, it had no comment other than to inform me that my body fat percentage had risen by 0.1% since yesterday. Thanks scales, that’s what I was hoping to hear.

Siri was next. I had high hopes for her, as I felt we’d developed something of a connection over the past month or so. She keeps my calendar, sets up meetings, and even jokes … Read More → "Intelligent Devices Lack Social Graces"

Protecode Takes on Security

by Amelia Dalton

Protecode issued a new release of their tools the other day, and in this release they appear to have stepped beyond a strict focus on licensing: now they’re looking at security issues as well.

There are other companies with thorough analysis programs that focus on security and safety, so I wondered whether Protecode was either trying to duplicate those tools and methods or perhaps was partnering with one of them.

Turns out it’s neither of those two choices. … Read More → "Protecode Takes on Security"

Magma People and Products

by Amelia Dalton

At the time I commented on the announced Synopsys/Magma merger the other day, I had received no comment on the fate of products and people as the companies combine operations. Synopsys’s Yvette Huygen subsequently reminded me that, technically, the two companies have to operate as independent entities until the merger is complete – sometime in calendar Q2 2012. So they’re not supposed to act like it’s a done deal until in fact the deal is done – it could technically … Read More → "Magma People and Products"

Modern Dead Reckoning

by Amelia Dalton

VTI Technologies recently announced a project they worked on with Tampere University of Technology in Finland to improve navigation for both cars and pedestrians in environments where GPS may not be reliable. This can particularly be the case in dense urban settings where the GPS signal may be blocked or too distorted to be useful. With the growth in location-based services, even if you may not care what your exact position is, someone else does. Without … Read More → "Modern Dead Reckoning"

And Then There Were Three

by Amelia Dalton

Back before the turn of the century, a brash new company called Magma came onto the scene. This was a time when chip design involved a series of complicated tools, each of which required an exporting of the result of one tool and an importing of those results into the next tool. Magma’s claim to fame was the single database, with each tool providing a different view into and operations on that database.

Implicit in such a strategy is a goal of being all things to all customers. No non-Magma point tools would work with … Read More → "And Then There Were Three"

Conditioning Sensor Signals

by Amelia Dalton

Some time back, ZMDI made an announcement about a sensor conditioner they had released. A couple things gave me cause for pause as I looked it over. First was the description of a one-pass calibration process as being unique. The other was the fact that a major component of the advanced sensors you may see presented at conferences, examples of which we covered in a sensor article series earlier this year, is the associated circuitry required … Read More → "Conditioning Sensor Signals"

BoardView Becomes SystemNav

by Dick Selwood

Almost two years ago we looked at Magma’s newly-announced BoardView. The idea was to simplify the border crossing between chip and board when tracing signals and tracking down issues.

Magma has now announced the new-and-updated version of this tool, which they’re now calling SystemNav. They’ve essentially increased the reach of the tool to include 3D packages and multi-chip modules as well as chips and boards. But they also say that they’ve fundamentally beefed up the platform to handle more … Read More → "BoardView Becomes SystemNav"