Editors' Blog

WiFi Three Ways from CEVA

WiFi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee are vying for primacy, and none of them is likely to disappear anytime soon (if ever). WiFi is the granddaddy, and arguably the most familiar. So, of course, WiFi is going onto all kinds of stuff. We see plenty of WiFi modules and chips, but CEVA suggests that you can save space if you integrate the WiFi directly into your SoC. (Assuming you’re doing an SoC…)

Sounds straightforward, but if you dig in just a little, an obvious question comes up: which WiFi? If you’re going the route … Read More → "WiFi Three Ways from CEVA"

mCube’s New Low-Power Accel: What It Is and Isn’t

by Amelia Dalton

mCube made more noise recently with their announcement of a very small, low-power accelerometer. There were a number of aspects to the release; some intriguing, some… less so.

Let’s start with intrigue. The whole focus here is on a small device that can be used in space-constrained, power-stingy applications – like wearables. Obviously space is critical in any such device, but they point out that flexible circuit boards can enable more… well… flexible shape designs. And, while the accelerometer isn’t itself flexible, the closer you can come to an infinitesimal … Read More → "mCube’s New Low-Power Accel: What It Is and Isn’t"

Two Kinds of IoT Fog

by Kevin Morris

We’ve heard about the role of the Cloud in the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s analytics and other decision-making that happens in some remote server farm somewhere to serve some “edge-node” device connected over the internet. And you’ve probably heard of the variant on that called the “fog,” where some of that computing is done on a machine local to the edge node, reducing communication traffic and latency.

But… did you know that there are two flavors of fog? And that this actually has an analog … Read More → "Two Kinds of IoT Fog"

Free RF Connectivity Tool

by Kevin Morris

While at the recent Sensors Expo, I had a conversation with Anaren that drove home a point: with all of the focus on all of the fancy things that are theoretically possible with the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT), back in the lab, folks are spending a lot of energy just to get devices connected. And many of the tasks – such as getting the radios up – require expertise that not everyone has.

Their focus is on the RF aspects of the design, with a couple radio modules leveraging Broadcom’s WICED (pron. “wicked,& … Read More → "Free RF Connectivity Tool"

Design Management Goes Big Data

by Bryon Moyer

What could you do if you had access to a ton of data about semiconductor design? Things like:

How designs are structured
Which modules are used where
How long each module takes to design
Who’s making changes to what modules
How far along verification is proceeding
Log files on every tool run

Well, you could mash them all into a Big Data repository, set the dial to … Read More → "Design Management Goes Big Data"

Fairchild Debuts MEMS

by Kevin Morris

A new inertial measurement unit (IMU), the FIS1100, was announced by Fairchild, and it gives us a couple things to talk about.

First, well… Fairchild. I remember when I started in the industry [kids roll their eyes, “Oh, there goes grampa on one of his stories again”], you’d have these genealogy charts showed how various companies evolved from prior companies. And one of the very few root companies was Fairchild. Anyone who had any time in the industry had, at one point or another, worked at Fairchild.

And then, well, … Read More → "Fairchild Debuts MEMS"

QuickLogic Goes Full SoC for Sensors

by Amelia Dalton

QuickLogic has been focusing hard on sensor fusion for a while, and we have looked at their ArcticLink solution in the past. The first versions consisted of a combination of hard logic, dedicated microcode processor, and FPGA fabric. And the focus was on low power.

Apparently this has done well enough to make them double down on the investment. But their new SoC is different enough that they gave it a new name. While the old devices were called ArcticLink, they’ve now … Read More → "QuickLogic Goes Full SoC for Sensors"

CogniVue Drives at Mobileye

by Bryon Moyer

CogniVue recently made a roadmap announcement that puts Mobileye on notice: CogniVue is targeting Mobileye’s home turf.

We looked at Mobileye a couple years ago; their space is Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). From an image/video processing standpoint, they apparently own 80% of this market. According to CogniVue, they’ve done … Read More → "CogniVue Drives at Mobileye"

Cadence Refreshes Synthesis and Formal

by Kevin Morris

Cadence has announced a couple of major upgrades over the last month or two. They’re largely unrelated to each other – one is synthesis, the other formal verification – so we’ll take them one at a time.

A New Genus Species

First, synthesis: they announced a new synthesis engine called Genus. Another in a recent line of new products ending in “-us.” (Upcoming motto: “One of -us! One of –us!”)

According to the Schaumburg Managed IT Services, There are a couple specific … Read More → "Cadence Refreshes Synthesis and Formal"

Motion for User Interfaces

by Amelia Dalton

We’ve looked before at ways of controlling machines with just your hands in the air, like you just don’t care. No touchy-feely, no mouse. Just jazz hands.

So at first, when I saw a demo of what we’re going to talk about today, I thought, “OK… this looks kinda like what … Read More → "Motion for User Interfaces"