Editors' Blog

Calling all Conspirators!

I wrote a feature article on conspiracy theories among engineers.

What if, instead of “paranoid,” those engineers are really just “perceptive”? Conspiracies like these folks are suspecting would obviously require a large number of excellent engineers to perpetrate. No meaningful black helicopter operation could ever get off the ground without some good solid engineering behind it.

So, how about it conspiracy engineers… are you out there? Are you retired? Have you left the fold? Talk to us!

Fighting Fire with Fire?

by Kevin Morris

Microscopy doesn’t get much attention in the general tech press (although we’re used to seeing really cool pictures taken by scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), whether they’re FinFET cross-sections or nematodes up close).

But in a wafer production line, you need inspection to identify, for example, whether a mask has a defect that could cause yield loss. You can see such defects using different light wavelengths, but the folks at Lawrence Berkeley have remarked that the wavelength makes a big difference in … Read More → "Fighting Fire with Fire?"

ARM’s Top Three Cellular Trends

by Bryon Moyer

At ARM’s recent TechCon event, I heard from James Bruce, their lead mobile strategist, who gave his views on the three trends he sees underway on the mobile front.

The first is the continued evolution of the smartphone; no surprise there. These are the machines that are expected to replace your laptop someday. At around $600, they’ll focus on features and performance. (And, addressing my kvetch comment following Jim’s article at the end of that link, yes, evidently docking stations are being … Read More → "ARM’s Top Three Cellular Trends"

Another PCB Tool Refresh

by Bryon Moyer

Our feature this week talks about Zuken’s PCB tool redesign, and out of left field came another announcement of yet another PCB tool that has had a major facelift: Intercept’s Pantheon 7.

Much of what they describe as being new in the tool conforms to much of what you would expect from a modern interface (not to minimize the amount of work to bring a new GUI to fruition – and, harder yet, test it on all platforms).

So naturally I wondered whether … Read More → "Another PCB Tool Refresh"

Not All Logic Stages Need to Be Equal

by Bryon Moyer

I had a conversation with Cadence at ARM TechCon, and one of the things they’re talking about is what they call clock/data co-optimization as an alternative to traditional synchronous logic optimization.

Typically, designers work hard to make sure each logic stage in the overall logic pipeline can be implemented in the time required before the next clock arrives. Some stages have more logic than others, and you have to spend more time on those ones to get the speed right.

Meanwhile, someone spends a lot of effort synthesizing a clock tree that& … Read More → "Not All Logic Stages Need to Be Equal"

RyanAir, a low cost Ireland base

by Bryon Moyer

RyanAir, a low cost Ireland based airline, notorious for charging for anything they can, was rumoured to be thinking of installing pay toilets on their planes. They denied it but we conspiracy threorists feel they may have been just grabbing more publicity. Damn – they did it again.

… Read More →

A New Conference Fee Coming Your Way?

by Bryon Moyer

Go to any conference, and everything is sponsored. Lunch is sponsored. The coffee is sponsored. The Wifi is sponsored. The salad fork is sponsored (and the sponsor gets upset if you don’t know which one is the salad fork). Like banks, conference producers have found increasing ways of getting companies to offset the cost of doing business while giving them visibility in exchange. (OK, banks don’t give anything in exchange, they just take more money when they want it, so that’s probably an uncharitable comparison. Sorry guys….)

But today I … Read More → "A New Conference Fee Coming Your Way?"

MEMS Everywhere

by Bryon Moyer

With all the sensors showing up in our phones (at the very least), MEMS is seeing their own hockey-stick in play. At the MEMS Executive Congress, a panel of MEMS users hosted by Movea gave a taste of where these things will be going – and we’re talking much more than cell phones. These are products that are basically available now – although the word “affluent” came up more than once, suggesting that there may be some trickling down required before … Read More → "MEMS Everywhere"

“Collaboration” Has a New Nuance

by Bryon Moyer

You hear it everywhere you go. Press releases crow about it. People dedicate entire press briefings to congratulating themselves on it. Heck, entire conferences are built around it. And what is this concept that captures so many breathless brain cycles?

Collaboration.

“Oh boy, lookit, Mom: we’re working together!”

Seems an obvious thing; businesses have always had to cooperate. No business can completely go it alone (even if they sometimes act like they think they can).

I was in another such briefing just the other day, listening to … Read More → "“Collaboration” Has a New Nuance"

Power Contributors

by Kevin Morris

At the recent Si2 conference, there was an interesting presentation by IBM’s David Hathaway on what is hoped to be a better way of approaching power modeling at the technology level.

He said that power modeling can be approached differently from delay modeling. With delay, there are numerous effects that combine in complex, non-linear ways, and so a full characterization of each cell is necessary. But with power, because interpolation is risky, many more points are needed, making full characterization a really time-consuming chore.

The good news, he proposed, is that the elements … Read More → "Power Contributors"