The Internet of Everything is coming. The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions. Very many electronics devices needs to be designed for this in mind. The Internet of Things (IoT) will evolve into the Web of Things, increasing the coordination between things in the real world and their counterparts on the Web. Gartner suggests that the “the smart machine era will be the most disruptive in the history of IT.” Intelligent systems and assistive devices will advance smart healthcare.
Software-defined anything (SDx) is coming more into use. It means that many proprietary systems are being replaced with commonly available standard computer hardware and software running in them.
PC market: ABANDON HOPE all ye who enter here. Vendor consolidation ‘inevitable’. Even Intel had to finally admit this that the Wintel grip which has served it and Microsoft so well over the past decades is waning, with Android and iOS coming to the fore through smartphones and tabs. The market conversion to tablets means that consumers and businesses are sweating existing PC assets longer. Tablets to Make Up Half of 2014 PC Market.
The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Electronics Kits article mentions that many older engineers first became interested in electronics through hobbies in their youth—assembling kits, participating in amateur radio, or engaging in other experiments. The 1970s and 1980s were great times for electronics hobbyists. But whenever it seems that there’s nothing left for the hobbyist, a new motif arises. The Raspberry Pi has become a best seller, as has a similar experimental board, the Arduino microcontroller. A great number of sensors, actuators, cameras, and the like have quickly become available for both. Innovative applications abound in such domains as home automation and robotics. So it seems that now there is much greater capacity for creativity in hobby electronics then there ever was.
E-Waste: Lack of Info Plagues Efforts to Reduce E-Waste article tells that creation of trade codes is necessary to track used electronics products according to a recent study concerning the waste from growing quantities of used electronics devices—including TVs, mobile phones and computers. High levels of electronic waste are being sent to Africa and Asia under false pretenses.” StEP estimates worldwide e-waste to increase by 33 percent from 50 million tons in 2012 to 65 million tons by 2017. China and the U.S. lead the world as top producers of e-waste. America produces about 65 pounds of e-waste per person every year. There will be aims to reduce the waste, for example project like standardizing mobile phone chargers and laptop power supplies.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
History of GaN-on-diamond technology
http://www.edn.com/design/wireless-networking/4435899/History-of-GaN-on-Diamond-Technology
Although GaN RF transistors have demonstrated significantly improved solid-state device performance, they are not fulfilling their full potential due to thermal limitations. To address this weakness, an effort was begun in 2003 to develop a diamond substrate for GaN with much higher thermal conductivity.
The main reason for the move to diamond is because it has the highest thermal conductivity, up to 2000 W/mK, of any commercial material at room temperature. This article provides a brief history of the development of the GaN-on-diamond technology that deposits diamond to within hundreds of nanometers of the GaN channel. The article also discusses the current status of the GaN-on-diamond technology, as demonstrated by different players and closes with a brief description of remaining challenges and the future road map for the technology.
Why GaN-on-Diamond?
GaN is an important wide bandgap material with high electron mobility that enables switching and RF power applications to operate at higher voltages, lower leakage currents, and higher frequencies than Si or SiC [1]. However, GaN devices are often ultimately not limited by the material’s electronic properties but by its ability to dissipate heat through its substrate.
Conclusion
GaN-on-diamond offers a new wafer platform for extreme power density RF devices such as high electron mobility transistors (HEMTS).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sensors for Wearables Market to Double in 2015
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324363&
Market analysis and forecast organization IHS thinks that Apple’s Watch, will stimulate and set a standard for fitness and health monitoring features on wearable electronics devices.
As a result the market sensors in wearable electronics is set to double in 2015, in terms of units shipped. This will likely benefit STMicroelectronics NV (Geneva, Switzerland), the market leader in sensors for wearables, IHS said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEs Explore Life After CMOS
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324347&
Moore’s Law is not dead, but it has clearly reached old age, and no fundamental technology has emerged to replace it. Whatever comes next is likely to challenge old assumptions both for technologists and society at large.
That was one of the conclusions from an IEEE symposium here here exploring the 20-year technology horizon. The discussions examined some of the ways engineers need to take responsibility to represent the capabilities and limits of technology to a world that depends on it but often fails to understand it.
Technology is “getting more complicated as we go, and the public is not catching on to this,” said Robert Colwell, a consultant and former processor architect at Intel.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel, IBM Dueling 14nm FinFETS
IEDM reveals diametrically opposed approaches
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324343&
Every digital semiconductor manufacturer and foundry in the world is trying to build 3D FinFETS that rival Intel, which is so far leading the pack by several years. Hot on Intel’s heels is IBM, which just signed a deal to turn its fabs over to GlobalFoundries (which has already licensed Samsung’s FinFET process that, according to Rick Doherty, research director of The Envisioneering Group, told EE Times stems from early IBM/GlobalFoundaries discussions). TSMC, AMD, Freescale, and others claim to be hot on Intel’s and IBM’s trail, but have yet to prove it.
With that background, the “dueling technologies” session over FinFET designs being held at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM, December 15 until December 17, 2014, in San Francisco) looks to be a knock-down, drag-out fight.
“The IEEE’s use of the phrase ‘dueling technologies’ is right!”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Moving Towards Requirements-Driven Verification & Test
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324352&
Due to the rising complexity, time-to-market demands, and variability involved in building requirements of critical hardware and software systems, it is absolutely essential to have a robust requirements sign-off capability. It’s particularly applicable for systems where the financial cost of failure is significant, when systems are safety-critical, or where there is a high security factor.
Current industry practice: “Mind the Gap”
Even though a wide array of tools is available for analysing source code and testing executable code, there are no tools that automatically track the results of tests as they apply to requirements.
Current common practice in requirements tracing stops at test definition, leaving unattended the need to ensure that requirements have tests defined against them and that these tests have successfully completed. This creates a gap between the requirements capture tools available and the features available in the wide array of test-only products.
To ensure companies produce a correct product in a timely manner there is a clearly identified need for an approach and a tool that can address the key issues in requirements engineering and ensure requirements traceability through the complete data flow.
Typical factors that can cause issues are requirement interpretation may change through the data flow, link to proofs of implementation/results is currently manual, visibility of requirements through the entire tree is complex and communication across domains (pre-silicon, post-silicon, FPGA, boards, firmware, software, and system) is complex.
The requirements-driven approach
The Requirements-Driven Verification and Test (RDVT) methodology enables project progress to be analyzed and managed by accumulating data on the status of verification and test metrics over the duration of the project and automatically relating these back to the specified requirements. In this way every functional requirement can be mapped to a proof of implementation. Additionally, any verification and test activity not relating to a requirement can be identified and questioned.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Big Data & IoT Incite Complexity in Semi Industry
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324361&
Twenty years ago, a group of top-notch researchers led by Dr. Chenming Hu and Dr. Ping K. Ko at the University of California, Berkeley, invented a physics-based, accurate, scalable, robust, and predictive Mosfet Spice model called BSIM3. This compact model was used for circuit simulation and CMOS technology development and later became the first international industry-standard compact model.
With the industry mainstream expected to stay at 28nm for a little longer, leading foundries are expanding their existing technologies to have more varieties of technology offerings. One recent example is the announcement from TSMC about its ultra-low technology platforms at 0.13µm, 90nm, 55nm, 40nm, 28nm, and 16nm, for use in IoT and wearable device applications. Also, new structures are emerging; in particular, the 3D FinFET structure for the 16/14nm node is the one that gets the most attention being rolled out to leading-edge designs, and ultra-thin FDSOI is viewed as a promising alternative to FinFET for sub-20nm solutions.
Moving to 7nm and beyond, there will more potential solutions explored by different players, including new materials such as Germanium, III-V, and carbon, along with new structures such as gate-all-around (GAA) and nanotubes.
The continuous scaling down of semiconductor devices and the use of new materials, new structures, and new process techniques all push devices to smaller sizes that can operate faster with significantly low power consumption. Ultimately, chip designers may deploy more intelligent ways of developing chips, such as neuromorphic or the quantum computing direction. A recent IBM announcement signaled its investment of additional $3 billion in next five years on future computer chips at 7nm and beyond.
We can use the 3V (Variety, Velocity, and Volume) model of big data to illustrate a semiconductor industry trend. As discussed above, we have the technological varieties for future semiconductor chips, which gives us the first V.
we can use the second V — Velocity — to explain the ultimate goal of all these technological efforts; i.e., realizing much faster performance with much smaller size and lower power consumption
And, obviously, we see the third V in the semiconductor industry — Volume. IC chips are now everywhere in everyone’s daily life. Driven by IoT needs and the growing big data trend, IC volume will grow ever greater, and the data amount it carries will reach an uncountable number. Such a trend can be grouped in the traditional big data category.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Core, ARM SoCs Debut
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324346&
A handful of embedded SoCs, cores, and buses will debut at this week’s Linley Tech Processor Conference where talks will cover the waterfront from carrier networks to the Internet of Things.
The rollout of LTE gave a boost last year to slowly growing embedded markets where Intel’s x86 is the leading architecture, followed by the PowerPC. But multiple vendors are migrating to ARM-based SoCs, chipping away at PowerPC and MIPS-based designs, says Jag Bolaria, a senior analyst at Linley Group.
For example, Freescale added to its Layerscape family of embedded processors a new midrange ARM-based member, the QorIQ LS1043A. The chip, sampling early next year, uses four Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.5 GHz to deliver more than 16,000 CoreMarks at 6 W.
Freescale provides network virtualization software for the chip, which targets branch office and industrial routers and control plane processors. Marvell will compete for sockets in similar systems with its first network search co-processor, the Questflo 98TX1100, sampling now.
Questflo can handle up to 2.4 billion searches per second and 8 million flow entries. It executes one search per clock at a fixed low latency while running at 25 W.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Week: Power Management ICs on the Move
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324367&
The power management IC market will grow at a CAGR of 7.87% between now and 2018, according to a recent report on the global power management semiconductor IC market. The report – which is based on “an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts” – notes that a major driver of the power management IC market is the rapid adoption of smartphones in emerging markets.
However, the cyclic nature of the semiconductor industry – and dependency on the growth in the automotive, communication, computing, and consumer electronics sectors – is seen as a serious challenge curtailing the global market growth of power management semiconductor ICs. Among the companies featured in the report are Intersil, Linear Technology, Texas Instruments, Micrel, ON Semiconductor, Maxim Integrated, and Power Integrations. For more, see “Global Power Management Semiconductor IC Market 2014-2018.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Highly Accurate Proximity Sensor
http://www.eeweb.com/news/highly-accurate-proximity-sensor
STMicroelectronics introduces a new highly accurate optical range-finding module based on FlightSense™ Time-of-Flight technology that offers designers superior distance-measurement capability. FlightSense™ provides accurate distance sensing by measuring the time for emitted light to reflect back from the target, whereas conventional sensors can only report reflected signal levels and not absolute distance. ST’s FlightSense™ technology brings unique advantages versus conventional infrared sensors; measuring longer ranges that are independent of the target reflectivity, at high frame rate and low power.
ST’s VL6180X module combines FlightSense™ proximity sensing with an ambient-light sensor (ALS) and supports basic gesture recognition
Global electronics giant LG utilizes the FlightSense™ technology to assist the laser auto-focus performance of its G3 smartphone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Health Startups Are Unfit, Says MD
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324360&
Forget all those crowd-funded startups promoting wearable health and fitness products, says Gregory Kovacs, a serial entrepreneur with degrees in electrical engineering and medicine. The big opportunities belong to major players who can create broad ecosystems around what ultimately will become FDA-approved devices, the Stanford professor said.
“There are many opportunities in consumer health but there is no startup model that has the scope and scale it will take — this won’t be a Kickstarter project,” said Kovacs who has co-founded two medtech startups. “The major medtech companies are all looking at this area carefully, but the people who build mobile devices have the most to lose, so I am hoping for joint ventures between medtech and consumer companies,” he said.
Today’s products “create awful data without validation” in part because many measure from the wrist which is a relatively poor area to choose.
He lampooned the health startup market as “a ridiculous space.”
“These startups are built to sell their companies not products,” Kovacs said. “They think a Google or Apple will buy them” whatever they do, he said, predicting “financial carnage” in the sector.
The good news is “There is a huge opportunity to make money here” for larger companies with resources which take a smart approach to products.
Kovacs provided a wealth of tips to design teams pursing this space, including:
Measure meaningful physiological parameters
Make accurate measurements
Suggest beneficial behavior changes
Fit into the flow of a user’s life
Be designed to look good
Monetize products through data analysis, not hardware
Although it’s possible to find or invent proprietary sensors that provide product differentiation, general algorithms, not sensors, are the key to success.
Specifically, he said smartphones can make intelligent inferences by combining information about a user’s movements, location, and calendar, such as a meeting with a boss. “If you have a heart rate of 180 beats/minute while running that’s great, but if you have it at 3am while in bed that’s horrible,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Big Data & IoT Incite Complexity in Semi Industry
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324361&
Twenty years ago, a group of top-notch researchers led by Dr. Chenming Hu and Dr. Ping K. Ko at the University of California, Berkeley, invented a physics-based, accurate, scalable, robust, and predictive Mosfet Spice model called BSIM3. This compact model was used for circuit simulation and CMOS technology development and later became the first international industry-standard compact model.
The impact of BSIM3 — along with later BSIM family models, including BSIM4, BSIMSOI, and BSIM-CMG — cannot be overstated. It has been used by the semiconductor industry over the last 20 years, along with continuous technology innovations and process scaling down to follow Moore’s Law, from 0.25µm to 20nm, and 16/14nm FinFET and beyond. Model standardization is one of the main drivers enabling the maturity and success of the foundry-fabless business model. Standard BSIM models permitted foundries to provide accurate representation of nano-scale device characteristics efficiently handled by circuit simulation tools in big chip designs with millions or even billions of transistors.
With the industry mainstream expected to stay at 28nm for a little longer, leading foundries are expanding their existing technologies to have more varieties of technology offerings
Moving to 7nm and beyond, there will more potential solutions explored by different players, including new materials such as Germanium, III-V, and carbon, along with new structures such as gate-all-around (GAA) and nanotubes.
The continuous scaling down of semiconductor devices and the use of new materials, new structures, and new process techniques all push devices to smaller sizes that can operate faster with significantly low power consumption
Looking back, the past 20 years of the semiconductor industry is a history of technology scaling down, making nanoscale devices and gigascale chips possible. Moving forward, semiconductor industry trends can be predicted by the 3V model of big data — making even smaller devices to achieve performance (Velocity), enabling more varieties of technology offerings to address big data trends and IoT needs (Variety), and being able to handle gigascale designs and volume IC chip operations (Volume).
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s 5-Year Plan Revealed
Analyst gives inside scoop on China’s future
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324373&
The year 2016 will be the Year of the Monkey in China, as well as the first year of the country’s 13th Five-Year Plan, this one spanning 2016 to 2021. The air is already abuzz with what those long-term goals will be and, perhaps more importantly, how the Chinese plan to finish off the five-year plan spanning from 2011 (the Year of the Rabbit) to 2015 (the Year of the Goat).
The Chinese government has designated five technology goals as top priorities to finish off the Year of the Goat and get the Year of the Monkey off to a intelligent start. And China has dedicated the funding and the economic pressure to accomplish those goals, according to IDC.
“The Chinese government is doing a number of things to promote e-commerse in China,” Kitty Fok, managing director of IDC China, said in a company video posted on YouTube (shown below). “The first thing they have done is create a program called Broadband China the goal of which is to increase broadband access to everyone in the country — with a goal of covering 95 percent of cities whereas today its only 45%.”
Kitty Fok sharing her views of the Chinese government’s strategy to advance the semiconductor industry in China with nationwide broadband and smartphones using local branded components.
However, according to Fok, the purpose is not just to increase the volume of locally manufactured smartphones — the goal there is 1 billion by 2017.
“The second thing,” according to Fok, “is to promote local semiconductor industry with the goal of building local brand CPUs and applications processors.”
“The Chinese government is already investigating the royalty programs at Qualcomm,” she said, assumably prompting Qualcomm to partner with China’s SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation). “Intel has partnered with Rockchip. This is the first time ever that Intel has partnered with a Chinese semiconductor company. Intel will supply their APU [and] express modem to Rockchip. Then Rockchip can design their own silicon.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung turns off lights on LEDs worldwide – except in South Korea
Not the bright future Sammy was imagining
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/27/samsung_scales_back_leds_to_korea/
Samsung has decided to stop pushing its light emitting diode business outside of South Korea, despite reckoning it would be a growth area a few years ago.
Like Philips, Sammy has realised that LED is not, after all, where it’s at, and it will be shutting the unit down overseas.
Philips recently announced it would be spinning off the majority of its lighting business, which has been around for over a hundred years, into a separate company. The firm is only hanging onto large, complex lighting systems, spinning LEDs off after a price war in the sector left profit margins looking a bit slim.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lucio Lanza to Receive EDA Honor
Phil Kaufman award recognizes excellence and vision
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324390&
Startups have always been the driving force in Silicon Valley, and Lucio Lanza has inspired innumerable electronic design automation (EDA) and intellectual property (IP) startups for decades. One secret he has seeded the industry with since the 1980s is, namely, how to succeed.
It’s about sharing. “The only way you will win big,” he tells EE Times, “is if you have a strategic advantage. So you should help other people, because a strategic advantage is one thing you can talk about to your competitors that they can do nothing about.”
Build it and they will come?
Even though chip and system makers are not demanding design-for-inspection and design-for-security today, that does not mean these are the wrong things to work on. What innovators have to do first is show something is possible, then the demand shows up on its own.
“If you start showing that you can do it, then demand shows up. Demand does not show up in a vacuum. Demand shows up when people know it is possible. That’s when the positive feedback shows up, when you demonstrate a new area of design capability — of design automation. People will look at this new possibility and say to themselves, wow, if I had that I could do this.”
However, EDA is not the solution to everything.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Are Today’s Designs Bound by the Constraints of Yesteryear?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1324388&
Are there instances of the way in which we design things today being bound by the constraints of yesteryear?
These days, of course, we are used to having access to high-speed, high-resolution printers coupled with software programs that aid in laying everything out “just so.” The days of meter manufacturers using rub-on lettering have long gone, and we are no longer constrained by their limitations, so why do some manufacturers continue to omit ‘+’ symbols? Is it just a matter of taste, or is it a case of “We’ve always done it this way?”
In turn, this led me to ponder whether there are other instances of the way in which we design things today being bound by constraints of yesteryear that are no longer of any consequence. Can you think of any such cases?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Implementing FPGA Design with the OpenCL Standard
http://www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp-01173-opencl.pdf
Utilizing the Khronos Group’s OpenCL™ standard on an FPGA may offer significantly higher performance and at much lower power than is available today
from hardware architectures such as CPUs, graphics processing units (GPUs), and digital signal processing (DSP) units. In addition, an FPGA-based heterogeneous system (CPU + FPGA) using the OpenCL standard has a significant time-to-market advantage compared to traditional FPGA development using lower level hardware description languages (HDLs) such as Verilog or VHDL
OpenCL applications consist of two parts. The OpenCL host program is a pure software routine written in standard C/C++ that runs on any sort of microprocessor.
That processor may be, for example, an embedded soft processor in an FPGA, a hard ARM processor, or an external x86 processor
At a certain point during the execution of this host software routine, there is likely to be a function that is computationally expensive and can benefit from the highly parallel acceleration on a more parallel device: a CPU, GPU, FPGA, etc. This function to be accelerated is referred to as an OpenCL kernel. These kernels are written in standard C; however, they are annotated with constructs to specify parallelism and memory hierarchy.
Unlike CPUs and GPUs, where parallel threads can be executed on different cores, FPGAs offer a different strategy. Kernel functions can be transformed into dedicated and deeply pipelined hardware circuits that are inherently multithreaded using the concept of pipeline parallelism.
The most important concept behind the Open CL-to-FPGA compiler is the notion of pipeline parallelism.
The creation of designs for FPGAs using an OpenCL description offers several advantages in comparison to traditional methodologies based on HDL design.
Development for software-programmable devices typically follows the flow of conceiving an idea, coding the algorithm in a high-level language such as C, and then using an automatic compiler to create the instruction stream.
This approach can be contrasted with traditional FPGA-based design methodologies.
Here, much of the burden is placed on the designer to create cycle-by-cycle descriptions of hardware that are used to implement their algorithm. The traditional flow involves the creation of datapaths, state machines to control those datapaths, connecting to low-level IP cores using system level tools (e.g., SOPC Builder, Platform Studio), and handling the timing closure problems since external interfaces impose fixed constraints that must be met. The goal of an OpenCL compiler is to perform all of these steps automatically for the designers, allowing them to focus on defining their algorithm rather than focusing on the tedious details of hardware design.
One of the most important benchmarks in financial markets is the computation of option prices via the Monte Carlo Black-Scholes method.
Utilizing an OpenCL framework developed for Altera® FPGAs produces excellent benchmark results
Utilizing the OpenCL standard on an FPGA may offer significantly higher performance and at much lower power than is available today from hardware architectures (CPU, GPUs, etc). In addition, an FPGA-based heterogeneous system (CPU + FPGA) using the OpenCL standard has a significant time-to-market advantage compared to traditional FPGA development using lower level hardware description languages (HDLs) such as Verilog or VHDL.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Make Flexible PCBs with Your 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/28/make-flexible-pcbs-with-your-3d-printer/
The last few years have seen great strides in budget printed circuit board manufacturing. These days you can have boards made in a week for only a few dollars a square inch. Flexible PCBs still tend to be rather expensive though. [Mikey77] is changing that by making flex circuits at home with his 3D printer. [Mikey77] utilized one of the properties of Ninjaflex Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE) filament – it sticks to bare copper!
The TPE filament acts as an etch resist, similar to methods using laser printer toner. For a substrate, [Mikey77] lists 3 options:
.004″ thick “Scissor cut” copper clad board from Electronics Goldmine
.002″ thick pure copper polyester taffeta fabric from lessEMF.com
<.001″ Pyralux material from Adafruit, which is one of the materials used to make professional flex PCBs.
Make Flexible Circuit Boards Using A 3D Printer
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Flexible-Circuit-Boards-Using-A-3D-Printer/
You can etch flexible circuit boards using a 3d printer. They can be made of very thin copper clad board material or even conductive fabric.
Standard copper clad circuit board material (FR4) of any thickness, can also be etched using this method.
PLA, Nylon, ABS and most common filaments used for 3d printing do not stick to copper well enough to lay down a pattern that can be etched to create a circuit board. A fairly new elastomeric rubber filament is now available that sticks quite well to copper. It is called Ninjaflex. In fact, it sticks quite well to almost anything including acrylic, blue painters tape, and glass.
A circuit board pattern can be drawn in a free program like 123D Design and then extruded to a thin thickness and saved as an STL file. It can then be printed on top of a thin copper clad board or plated conductive fabric: step 1 pic. It can then be etched in the standard way with a Ferric Chloride solution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside a $125 Million Silicon Startup
Persuasive CEO meets passionate CTO
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324403&
A microprocessor startup that raises $125 million is a rare desert flower in Silicon Valley these days. The founders of Soft Machines shared some of the story of how they survived seven years through a historic recession and the hurdles that still stand between the company and its first revenue.
“He believed I could build a company, and I believed he could develop an architecture, so we left,” Lingareddy said.
The two saw Intel hit the power wall with its Pentium 4 that failed to hit its 6GHz and 10GHz speed targets. In the shift to multicore architectures that followed, Lingareddy and Abdallah thought they could plant their new company.
By 2010, Soft Machines already had a small team of engineers placed in Russia. On a visit to the office, Lingareddy was contacted by the then-new Rusnano group, which wanted to invest in his startup.
Along the way, Soft Machines has hired Silicon Valley veterans as advisers: John Mashey, formerly of Silicon Graphics; Wirt from Intel; and Ross Smith, a co-founder of 3Dfx, an early graphics pioneer. “I supported myself with a very strong board and advisers. This is my first time as CEO, and I am the weakest link.”
Abdallah demonstrated a 28nm dual-core version of his virtual core approach at the Linley Processor Conference here. The 300-400MHz prototype chip ran 32-bit ARM software at performance levels that suggest its technology could provide a leap over current approaches. It looked impressive and could be the gist of a first product.
The startup aimed for 10x improvements but on average expects to deliver still respectable 4x gains. The good news is its technology could be applied to a broad range of chips, from IoT and mobile SoCs to server processors.
Moving from a prototype to a product also requires a major step in sophistication and validation of the technology. “We did simulations of four cores, so this is mostly logistics.” Eight-core versions are also possible.
Specifically, the Soft Machines technology involves a so-called global front end (GFE), a new processor element that breaks single-threaded software into smaller operations such as fetches and loads. It feeds those operations into a virtual pipeline, dynamically constructed from the physical resources of an underlying multicore processor based on the workload’s needs.
The operating system and higher-level software do not need to know how the code is being dissected into virtual threads, he said. An intermediate software layer below the operating system and hypervisor turns software into the company’s own so-called VISC instructions. Thus, Soft Machines could apply its technology to any processor — ARM, MIPS, Power, or x86.
To make the approach work, the physical cores need some new communications and synchronization logic. “It’s another level of microarchitectural detail, but it’s not horrible to implement.”
The proof of that pudding won’t be ready until at least 2015
Tomi Engdahl says:
Some Memories Never Die
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324412&
All good things must come to an end, and that includes memory components.
In an era where memory is rapidly evolving to keep up with the performance requirements, the idea that there’s still life for older memory might seem odd, but as Jim Handy, principal analyst with Objective Analysis, tells me, there are a number of industries employing equipment with significantly long life spans that have specific memory requirements, including the telecommunications industry.
This where is a company such as a Alliance Memory steps in. The San Carlos, Calif.-based company is a fabless semiconductor company that focuses on manufacturing legacy SRAM, DRAM, and SDRAM ICS, and it is always looking to expand its portfolio to support customers that EOL memories.
Most recently, Alliance Memory announced it would extend the life of several EOL products from Micron, including three 512M SDRAM devices that Micron discontinued, including both the commercial and industrial temperature 32M x 16 MT48LC32M16A2P-75:C and commercial temperature 64M x 8 MT48LC64M8A2P-75:C. In addition to the part numbers, the company will also offer Alliance-marked 512M SDRAMs manufactured by Micron, which will be 100% identical to the Micron parts.
In general, Bagby said Alliance Memory is always looking to expand its portfolio of memory products that include EOLed products from major vendors, although he noted that those vendors have shrunk significantly over the years with Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix being the main players.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM Cortex-M7: Abundance of Memory or Not Enough?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324411&
There’s no question that the ARM Cortex-M7 — with its robust memory and processing power — extends the capabilities of the microcontroller in ways that would have been unimaginable even a few years ago. Significant is the fact that the processor is positioned to become a core building block in the Internet of Things (IoT).
To wit, ST Micro’s STM32 F7 won best-of-show at ARM TechCon in September. It’s the first 32-bit MCU family to feature the ARM Cortex-M7 core and has 320KB of SRAM and 1024KB of flash. Atmel’s Cortex-M7 parts, not yet announced, are expected to have on the order of 384KB of SRAM and 2MBs of flash. That’s ten times more than for the typical MCU.
But, whether the Cortex-M7 has the necessary resources to “get the job done” depends an awful lot on who you ask. What is telling in itself: the giant hairball of decisions and trade-offs in hardware, software, and systems that today’s embedded developers say they wrestle with in a design space that seems almost unconstrained at times.
“For developers coming from Windows, Linux, IOS, Web service programming, and business logic programming, the Cortex-M7 is constraining and stifling. But, for the developer who has worked on 8051, any 8-bit micro, or Cortex-M0 through M3 parts, will view the Cortex-M7 as absolutely massive,” said Matt Liberty, founder of Jetperch LLC, which provides DSP and embedded software consulting services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Developing a Pill That Would Detect Cancer and Other Diseases
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/google-developing-pill-detect-cancer-diseases/
Google is attempting to develop a pill that would send microscopic particles into the bloodstream in an effort to identify cancers, imminent heart attacks, and other diseases.
Andrew Conrad, the head of life sciences inside the company’s Google X research lab, revealed the project on Tuesday morning at a conference here in Southern California. According to Conrad, the company is fashioning nanoparticles—particles about one billionth of a meter in width—that combine a magnetic material with antibodies or proteins that can attach to and detect other molecules inside the body. The idea is that patients will swallow a pill that contains these particles, and after they enter the bloodstream—attempting to identify molecules that would indicate certain health problems—a wearable device could use their magnetic cores to gather them back together and read what they’ve found.
“Because the core of these particles is magnetic, you can call them somewhere,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Battery Progress Reality Check: Good & Bad News
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324428&
A balanced assessment of battery tech shows solid progress is being made but no real breakthroughs are imminent.
The article made two points:
1. There have been significant advances in the last few years that have made many products practical, including smart phones and battery-powered tools. (The author cites specific examples.) Although each advance may have been modest in itself, they do add up to a genuine and substantial increase in performance metrics.
2. The much-vaunted “breakthrough” that everyone wants, hopes for, or claims they are “this close” to, just isn’t in sight. When you step back and look at the bigger picture, there’s certainly been progress, but it has been in incremental layers, not major leaps. The breakthrough to allow practical batteries that are much, much lighter in weight, denser in capacity, and lower in cost (hopefully, all at the same time) is not just around the corner. It seems that we are bombarded with researchers claiming that they on the path for the breakthrough, but that hasn’t materialized when you peel back the hype.
The supposed imminent “quantum leaps” (a very misused phrase) are really just modest advances of varying degrees, not game changers or “paradigm shifts,” to use another cliché.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Prints World’s Best Inverter
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324418&
Three-dimensional printers were once a toy, then a curiosity, and now they’ve become a serious prototyping tool. Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) in Knoxville, Tenn., firmly believes that 3D printers will eventually become assembly-line manufacturing tools, and it’s building a portfolio of intellectual property (IP) to have them ready when that time comes.
“We are hoping that in just a few years from now someone will come up with a way to mass produce 3D printer designs,”
“I want to be the first to do this — a first-ever kind of deal,” Chinthavali told us. “Eventually we want to put the specs you want into our CAD file and print out an entire inverter for you.”
ORNL claims that its design would be impossible to manufacture in any other way, as a result of its using complex geometry to increase power density and reduce weight — packing a 30-kilowatt inverter into the palm of your hand.
“Some of the parts on the interior of the inverter are not manufacturable by any other means,” Chinthavali told us. “This inverter combines germanium semiconductors with silicon carbide — that is what makes it different.”
His group is also experimenting with DC-to-DC converters. Its overall vision is to print inverters and other devices 100% — which would mean printing the semiconductors, too, “which is not there yet, so we are going to continue to integrate as needed,” Chinthavali told us.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Freescale CEO: ‘IoT Isn’t Just Buzz’
Big bet on connected devices, accident-free cars
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324423&
Freescale, during the first three quarters of 2014, increased its overall revenues by 14%.
“Microcontrollers are up 19%, Digital Networking is up 23%, Auto Microcontrollers are up 15%, Analog and Sensors is up 11%, and RF is up 52%.” The company’s revenues were $1.21 billion, 2% ahead of quarter two and 12% above the third quarter of last year.
The storied semiconductor company, once described as an “intensive care” patient, appears to have re-discovered its groove — steadily, if not spectacularly.
EE Times: You believe IoT is more than just a buzz word. You say Freescale is better positioned to mine the growing IoT market. How so?
Gregg Lowe: When you look at the IoT market, there are three important pieces. First is energy efficiency, second, scalability and third, security.
Energy efficiency is important for every connected device. Whether it is a wearable or handheld device, it needs to consume less power. IoT needs to scale from small to larger devices — like a monitoring device that goes inside the backbone of the Internet.
But most important to IoT is strong security. If 25 billion devices are going to be connected, suggested by some in the next few years, they’re creating that many opportunities for hackers to cause trouble. Security is the key.
EE Times: So, how do those three attributes translate to your product portfolio?
Lowe: We have the industry’s lowest power MCUs, which are a part of our Kinetis family of 32-bit MCUs, addressing energy efficiency.
Our microcontrollers scale from relatively low cost, 50-cent MCUs to multi-core high-end processors.
As for security, although it may not be obvious, Freescale has long experience in developing encryption engines for network processors. It fits nicely into the security piece of the IoT market.
In essence, with our large product portfolio, we’re covering an end-to-end IoT market, starting from the core of the network to the edges.
EE Times: IoT means a lot of things to a lot of people. In which segment are you seeing bigger growth?
Lowe: IoT can be medical devices, or it can be connected cars. At Freescale, in mining the IoT market, we’re not picking end products to win.
If there are connected tennis shoes, we want to be a part of it. It there are monitoring devices for the elderly, we want a piece of that market, too. If someone is building an automatic dog feeder, we want that. We don’t want to choose. We want to be everywhere.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Power Semicondutor Package
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/ixys/new-power-semicondutor-package/
A new package for power semiconductors has been developed: Power semiconductor chips are soldered onto a DCB ceramic substrate together with a lead frame with up to five pins. Subsequently molding compound covers chips and DCB. This packaging method combines the technologies of module and discrete assembly. Thus the resulting component provides a combination of the characteristics of both families of devices
The new package will be named ISOPLUS I4-Pac
It consists of a ceramic substrate with copper layers bonded onto its top and bottom side. The bottom copper, used to transfer the operational power dissipation to the heatsink, is visible in the package’s bottom
The ceramic isolates it from the top copper layer, which may be structured corresponding to a pointed circuit board as visible in Figure 2. The top copper carries the chips, whose upper side is wire, bonded towards the DCB pattern and the pins. To provide electrical and mechanical protection, this subassembly is transfer molded, thus creating the typical black plastic package.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analog Devices’ integrated transceiver for next-generation software defined radio (SDR)
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4424048/Analog-Devices–integrated-transceiver-for-next-generation-software-defined-radio–SDR-
Analog Devices, Inc. introduced a next-gen solution for software defined radio (SDR) applications. Designed to enable programmable radio applications that operate over a wide range of modulation schemes and network specifications such as defense electronics, instrumentation equipment and communications infrastructure, the new AD9361 RF Agile Transceiver achieves, what ADI claims is, best-in-class performance, high integration, wideband operation and flexibility. The IC is supported by a wide range of design resources to expedite time to market including a software design kit and FPGA mezzanine card (FMC) to rapidly develop software defined radio solutions.
Analog Devices combined the AD9361, with a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA, USB 3.0 interface and comprehensive software support, to create one of the industry’s easiest-to-use and most flexible software-defined radio solutions.
The AD-FMCOMMS2-EBZ-FMC board provides designers with a rapid prototyping environment that supports multiple communications protocols, including most licensed and unlicensed bands.
Operating over a frequency range of 70 MHz to 6 GHz, the device is a complete radio design that combines multiple functions in a single chip. The RF agile transceivers integrate an RF front end, flexible mixed-signal baseband section, frequency synthesizers, two analog-to-digital converters and two direct conversion receivers to simplify design and reduce bill of material cost. The device supports channel bandwidth from less than 200 kHz to 56 MHz, and is highly programmable, offering the widest dynamic range available in the market today.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Simpler superconducting promised by nanowire device
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/tech-edge/4436439/Nanowire-device-promises-simpler-superconducting?elq=86a5fe3fe668409daa2f1e71b45af093&elqCampaignId=19905
MIT researchers have developed a circuit design that could make simple superconducting devices with zero electrical resistance much cheaper to manufacture, and which would be 50 to 100 times as energy efficient as today’s chips. Even though the circuits’ speed probably would not top that of today’s chips, they could solve the problem of reading out the results of calculations performed with Josephson junctions.
The MIT researchers – Adam McCaughan, a graduate student in electrical engineering, and his adviser, professor of electrical engineering and computer science Karl Berggren – call their device the nanocryotron, after the cryotron, an experimental computing circuit developed in the 1950s by MIT professor Dudley Buck
“The superconducting-electronics community has seen a lot of new devices come and go, without any development beyond basic characterization,” said McCaughan. “But in our paper published in Nano Letters, we have already applied our device to applications that will be highly relevant to future work in superconducting computing and quantum communications.”
Superconducting circuits are used in light detectors that can register the arrival of a single light particle, or photon; that’s one of the applications in which the researchers tested the nanocryotron. McCaughan also wired together several of the circuits to produce a fundamental digital-arithmetic component called a half-adder.
Berggren’s lab focuses on superconducting circuits made from niobium nitride, which has the relatively high operating temperature of 16 Kelvin, or minus 257°C. That is achievable with liquid helium, which, in a superconducting chip, would probably circulate through a system of pipes inside an insulated housing, like Freon in a refrigerator.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sensor stickies aren’t a toy story
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/sensor-ee-perception/4418289/Sensor-stickies-aren-t-a-toy-story
The sensors have three layers: a highly integrated MEMS sensor, antenna, and power generation/storage. So far, the power layer will be made from a thin, flexible, organic semiconductor nanofiber. To date, 80% of the power can be harnessed from the nanofiber and the plan is a full 100%.
The deployed sensor becomes a part of a wireless communications network and can measure CO2, temperature, infrared light, dust, and more, and data is transmitted from the sensor to a CPU. Targeted applications so far are factories, schools, office buildings, and medical.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GSM is lost, Qualcomm wins
Cell Phone IC business has taken place in the last year or two a lot of time. From nearly a dozen manufacturers we have come to a handful of companies in which Qualcomm is right in his class.
Renesas Mobile, Broadcom, Ericsson and STMicroelectronics have given up, and next year Nvidia will stop the development of modems.
Qualcomm’s position will be strengthened as a consequence of the GSM begins to quietly disappear from the market.
LTE chipsets Qualcomm’s market share of over 90 per cent. The challenge at the moment really only Taiwanese Mediatek, which has managed to increase its market share in 3G circles and is becoming increasingly LTE area.
According to Linley Group’s mobile chipsets were sold last year to 35.7 billion dollars, or about 28 billion euros. The sum will increase to 44.9 billion dollars, or just over EUR 35 billion in 2018.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2000:gsm-katoaa-qualcomm-voittaa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Japan’s MegaChips to Buy MEMS Timing Leader SiTime
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324434&
If you haven’t heard of Japan’s MegaChips Corp., you’d better watch out. Japan’s fast-growing fabless chip company may come knocking on your door, just as it did to SiTime Corp., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based MEMS and analog fabless vendor.
The two companies announced on Tuesday, October 28, a definitive agreement under which Osaka-based MegaChips will acquire SiTime, a leader in the MEMS timing market for $200 million in cash.
The deal marks the largest acquisition of a venture-backed semiconductor company in 2014, according to SiTime.
MegaChips, founded in 1990, have been steadily gaining reputation as a rising star in Japan, especially over the last several years.
The rise of MegaChips marks a sharp contrast to many leading Japanese integrated device manufacturers who have struggled with the transition to fab-lite operations as they’ve lost momentum through poorly executed consolidations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UMC Takes Bigger Slice of 28nm Business
Stands pat on capex
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324437&
UMC, the world’s third-largest chip foundry, said Wednesday, Oct. 29, that it has grabbed a larger piece of the 28 nanometer business that is dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC). UMC reiterated its capital expenditure for this year at about $1.3 billion.
UMC said that 28 nm products accounted for 3% of its foundry revenue during the third quarter this year, up from 1% during the previous quarter.
Twenty-eight nanometer has been the sweet spot for foundry leader TSMC for nearly two years, virtually the sole supplier in that technology node to customers such as Qualcomm and Apple in communications products including smartphones and tablets. During the third-quarter this year, 28 nm accounted for 34% of TSMC’s total wafer revenues, while 20 nm reached 9%.
Tomi Engdahl says:
World’s fastest transistor – terahertz limit broken
US Department of Defense DARPA-laboratories have developed the world’s first amplifier circuit, which operates more than terahertz frequency. The semiconductor technology development for Northrop Grumman resulting from the work of transistors are among the highest in the world. Northrop amplifier increases the signal strength of 10 dB @ 1 THz and 9 dB @ 1.03 THz.
In these projects, Grumman was previously demoed 670 GHz and 850 GHz receiver circuit in 2010 and 2012. The terahertz transistor is an important milestone, because even 10 years ago, most thought that the terahertz transistor would not even be possible.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2009:maailman-nopein-transistori-terahertsin-raja-rikki&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
RS Components has started selling PIC32MZ Microchip micro-controllers.
PIC32MZ drivers optional performance recorded as 330 MIPS.
All in all, the product family has 24 different versions.
PIC32MZ controllers can be found in the 28 mega-sample AD-converter.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2008:tehokas-32-bittinen-tihealla-koodilla&catid=60&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oscilloscope exceeded the magic limit of one hundred gigahertz
Teledyne (currently owned by LeCroy) has launched an oscilloscope in order to explore a hundred gigahertz signals. TeledyneLeCroy is demoed 100 GHz scope in the past on several occasions.
Labmaster 10-100Zi Module is the first commercial device, which makes the 100 GHz real (works with Labmaster 10 scope). 10-100Zi modules have four channels. Developer is available to operate either four 36 GHz channel or one 100 GHz. Many devices can be linked to the same system.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2006:skooppi-ylitti-sadan-gigahertsin-haamurajan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip Deal Provides a Ray of Hope for Silicon Startups
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/10/31/chip-deal-provides-a-ray-of-hope-for-silicon-startups/
Venture capitalists have a well-known aversion to putting money in chip startups. The fear is frequently traced to the heavy cost of developing products plus the dodgy prospect that investors will make any money.
A company called SiTime has emerged as an exception. MegaChips, a publicly held chip maker in Japan, this week announced it will buy the Silicon Valley startup for $200 million in cash.
“It’s a real lesson,” says Rajesh Vashist, SiTime’s CEO. “If you have the right market and find the right team, you can still have a very good outcome in good old silicon.”
SiTime’s silicon fits a special niche. The company developed an alternative way to generate the timing pulses that help coordinate activity in most electronic devices.
Most components that handle such clock functions use quartz crystals to generate the necessary vibrations, a technology that is roughly 75 years old. SiTime’s two founders, while working at the German company Bosch, came up with another approach that was the basis for creating the startup in 2005.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China Plans To Build a Domestic Robotics Industry
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/11/03/1749226/china-plans-to-build-a-domestic-robotics-industry
China is eyeing a bigger role in robotics
http://www.itworld.com/article/2842125/china-is-eyeing-a-bigger-role-in-robotics.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
The semiconductor industry goes faster than ever
SIA ie the Semiconductor Industry Association has announced the third-quarter figures. On the basis of the field going harder than ever before. 87 billion dollars, 69.5 billion in net sales is a new record.
The semiconductor market has now grown seven months in a row. The growth of highly uniform distribution of the different product areas, but the most rapid increase has been in DRAM and analog circuits.
Source: http://www.elektroniikkalehti.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2019:puolijohdealalla-menee-kovempaa-kuin-koskaan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Radiometrix Launches Dynamically Reprogrammable RF Module
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324455&
Have you considered how programmable RF devices might enhance the products that you design?
The NTX2B is a transmitter module supplied by Radiometrix, a well-established UK supplier of RF modules. It features user-programmable custom frequencies on the unlicensed 433MHz and 458MHz bands used in Europe, and has factory-set channel spacing of 12.5kHz, 20kHz, and 25kHz.
Configuration of the transmit frequency is achieved over an SPI serial bus by an on-board microcontroller that, in turn, programs a fractional N synthesizer. The data rate that is transmitted is 9. kbps, and is suitable for applications such as EPOS equipment, industrial telemetry and telecommand, high-end security, and vehicle data up/download, among others. The 10mW transmit output power should provide a useful range of up to 0.6 miles (1km) for line of sight for these applications when it is paired with the NRX2B receiver. The modular architecture greatly simplifies the design-in process for the products as there are only three signal pins and four supply pins to connect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The World’s First Field-Programmable RF Chip
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1320986
Introducing the world’s first field-programmable radio frequency integrated circuit: Open your mind to new programmable capabilities.
Today, my topic covers an entirely different type of programmable device, which is referred to as a field-programmable radio frequency (FPRF) chip. But first, let’s start with a very quick look at the traditional field-programmable gate array (FPGA) concept.
The FPRF chip is fabricated in the US for a UK company called Lime Microsystems. The part number is LMS6002D, but Lime coined the acronym FPRF because it captures the essense of the product.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The camera shows the magnetic field 3D image
Fraunhofer Institute researchers have developed a camera that allows the magnetic field lines can display real-time 3D. Magnetic fields by measuring the camera also reveals the rapidly if the magnet is not working properly.
According to researchers, the camera should not think of a camera, but the magnetic field as consisting disk. The device at the heart of Fraunhofer’s own laboratories developed HallinOne sensor, which measures the effects of the Hall fields.
The sensor is capable of sensing the magnetic field of the three axes. It can be used, for example, a rotary movement and its speed of rotation, the degree of divergence of objects and the position of the magnetic field.
The camera draws a line magnetic fields visible in the image. In fact, the 3D sensor has a size of 0.1 x 0.1 millimeters, which allows a very accurate point measurements.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2023:kamera-nayttaa-magneettikentan-3d-kuvana&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
DRAMs integrate Error Correcting Code
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4436899/DRAMs-integrate-Error-Correcting-Code
DRAM manufacturer Intelligent Memory has come up with what the company claims is a revolutionary new JEDEC compliant DRAM memory IC that brings server-grade reliability to any application at board-level.
DRAM soft errors can cause your smart phone touch screen not to respond, Wi-Fi routers to quit, or in car navigation to suddenly stop and re-boot. On HDD or SSD drives, which use DRAM as a cache or write-buffer, memory bit-flips can be the root-cause for corrupted files or directory-entries. In the world of high powered servers, these failures are guarded against with some form of error correction coding, otherwise known as ECC is built into the processors that populate the servers.
To store the additional bits required for the parity-information, the processor requires special server memory modules with a wider data-bus having a 72-bits width where 64 bits are for the data, and 8 bits accommodate the parity information. The server processor and memory combination works to correct any errors, seen or unseen, without service interruption.
Unfortunately, the majority of industrial electronics use CPUs, FPGAs and controllers that have no ECC capabilities, explains the company in a statement. Additionally, small form factor devices do not have enough physical board-space to accommodate the vast amount of DRAM memory components required for the wider bit-widths used in ECC.
With its Integrated Error Correcting (ECC) DRAM components available in DDR1, DDR2, DDR3, and LPDDR, Intelligent Memory presents a solution to make any application as reliable as a server. The drop-in replacement DRAM ICs perform the ECC error correction within the DRAM chip itself, independent of the processor driving the application.
For more information, visit the Intelligent Memory ECC DRAM page.
http://www.intelligentmemory.com/ECC-DRAM/DDR1/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Design for test boot camp, part 1: Scan test
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/test-voices/4436513/Design-for-Test-Boot-Camp–Part-1–Scan-Test?elq=dd982d024b1f45b3958310219999aa0e&elqCampaignId=20024
What is IC Test?
Digital ICs are tested after manufacturing by placing them into ATE (automated test equipment) and applying combinations of logic values (so-called test patterns) to the inputs and measuring the response on the outputs. In the early days, engineers would create test patterns by simulating the operational modes of the DUT (device under test). As logic devices become more complex, this approach became untenable—it simply took too much time and effort to create and validate the tests, it was too hard to determine test coverage, and the tests took too long to run. Manufacturers need an automated way to create fast and efficient test patterns, while maintaining high test quality and circuit coverage.
Scan Test: Today’s Standard for ICs
The industry moved to a DFT approach, meaning that the device itself was modified during design to make it easier to test. The approach that ended up dominating IC test is called structural, or “scan,” test because it involves scanning test patterns into internal circuits within the DUT. To enable this, the design’s flip-flops are modified to let them function as stimulus and observation points, or “scan cells” during test.
Tomi Engdahl says:
USB battery charging rev. 1.2: Important role of charger detectors
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4436819/2/USB-battery-charging-rev–1-2–Important-role-of-charger-detectors
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm: Chinese patent licensees still aren’t playing fair
Chipmaker lowers guidance for 2015 as China thumbs nose
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/06/qualcomm_2014_q4_fy_earnings/
Qualcomm finished its 2014 fiscal year showing strong profit growth, but it cautioned investors that its ongoing disputes with Chinese customers and regulators could affect its results in the coming year.
The mobile chipmaker’s revenues for the fourth quarter were $6.69bn, up 3 per cent from the year-ago period. Unfortunately, however, that sum fell short of analysts’ expectations by almost 5 per cent, leaving investors none too pleased.
The company’s earnings, on the other hand, were right in line with the Wall Street moneymen’s prognostications, at $1.31 per diluted share.
As in the previous quarter, the chipmaker said that it believes certain of its Chinese patent licensees are underreporting the number of devices they shipped incorporating Qualcomm’s tech. Qualcomm thinks its licensees shipped around 1.3 billion devices in the quarter, but it only expects its customers to report sales of between 1.04 billion and 1.13 billion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Enzymes Make Electricity From Jet Fuel Without Ignition
http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/11/06/0442210/enzymes-make-electricity-from-jet-fuel-without-ignition
University of Utah engineers say they’ve developed the first room-temperature fuel cell that uses enzymes to help jet fuel produce electricity without needing to ignite the fuel. These new fuel cells can be used to power portable electronics, off-grid power and sensors.
Enzymes make electricity from jet fuel without ignition
Read more at http://scienceblog.com/75168/enzyme-makes-electricity-jet-fuel-without-ignition/#ETJOluY0YCzm4QVk.99
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Wall Focuses Scattered RF Signal
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324497&
Through the use of a passive array of tunable microwave mirrors, researchers from Langevin Institute found a way to focus a scattered and seemingly chaotic RF signal towards a receiver (for example, your cell phone). In a paper titled “Shaping Complex Microwave Fields in Reverberating Media With Binary Tunable Metasurfaces,” professors Mathias Fink and Geoffroy Lerosey from the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI) at ParisTech disclose an experiment that boosts signal reception tenfold.
The researchers rely on what they describe as electronically tunable metasurfaces, in effect, spatial microwave modulators implemented as rectangular copper reflectors etched from a PCB substrate, each combined with a parasitic strip controlled through a pin diode.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Economic Level Digital Oscilloscope
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/rigol_technologies/economic-level-digital-oscilloscope/
The MSO1104Z-S is a mixed signal oscilloscope that belongs to RIGOL’s MSO1000Z Series. This instrument has a 100 MHz bandwidth and features 4 analog channels that has sample a rate of up to 250MSa/s when all the channels are utilized. The oscilloscope also has a standard maximum memory depth of 12 Mpts and can capture waveforms up to 30,000 wfms/s.
Tomi Engdahl says:
When your MSO needs help: understand when a logic analyser can really add value to your MSO
http://www.edn-europe.com/en/when-your-mso-needs-help-understand-when-a-logic-analyser-can-really-add-value-to-your-mso.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10005149&vID=209#.VFs-vslsUik
Mixed-Signal Oscilloscopes (MSO) have become everyone’s ‘Engineering Swiss Army Knife’: why would you need an additional logic analyser? In fact this could be the only instrument that most electronic engineers will ever have to (or want to?) use for 90% of their lab time. But does this mean that you will not need a logic analyser (LA)? Read on…
Tomi Engdahl says:
High-speed data acquisition for portable applications
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4436895/High-speed-data-acquisition-for-portable-applications?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141106&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141106&elq=c709950993f34ee98f6b9230e47519eb&elqCampaignId=20013
The USB-1210 from Adlink Technology is a four-channel data acquisition module that connects external analog sensors with an USB interface and thus with a PC that can store, process and visualize the results. Combining a simultaneous sample rate of 2 Msps with the simplicity and universal applicability of the USB port, the device is ideal for applications with portable ultrasound and optical sensors.
Each of the four channels is equipped with a separate ADC which features a high dynamic range of -100 dB THD and an ENOB value of 14.3 bits. The measurements can be synchronized to scrutinize time-critical processes. An onboard FIFO with a depth of 256 MS buffers up to 16 seconds of data at maximum recording speed of 2 Msps, preventing data loss caused by slow CPU response.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power op amp handles voltage levels up to 2500 V
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4436739/Power-op-amp-handles-voltage-levels-up-to-2500-V?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141106&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141106&elq=c709950993f34ee98f6b9230e47519eb&elqCampaignId=20013
Apex Microtechnology has expanded its portfolio of high-voltage operational amplifiers with the PA99, an off-the-shelf, single-package 2500-V power amp that addresses the demand for high-voltage operation required by power-supply and test-equipment manufacturers.
The PA99 furnishes output current of at least 20 mA continuous and up to 50 mA peak when the device is operated within its safe operating area.
PA99 can achieve slew rates of 25-35 V/µs.
The PA99 is fully capable of sourcing and sinking current and can be used to drive resistive, inductive, and capacitive loads or any combination thereof.