June 29, 2009

• Microsoft Shows Natal to TV Audiences
  Microsoft shows on TV the Natal sensor, a terrific idea that, once deployed, will change the way people play video games. The TV demos show that the sensor and its software are still far from ready for prime time.
  
  
• Editorial: Tough Times Bring Change
  Whether the Great Recession is entirely to blame or not, we're witnessing many changes in the semiconductor industry. This editorial considers recent events at Intel, Wind River, RMI, Sun Microsystems, NEC Electronics, Renesas, Texas Instruments, Luminary Micro, MetaRAM, SiCortex, ARC International, and MIPS Technologies.
  

June 22, 2009

• PCB/FPGA Codesign Opens System Future
  Cadence's rule-aware automatic FPGA System Planner reassigns FPGA pinout to reduce PCB layers and development time.
  
  

June 15, 2009

• Microsoft Announces Natal
  A first look at Microsoft's Project Natal, announced at E3, allows Xbox 360 players to control the game without any devices to hold in their hands or special sensors attached to their bodies or placed under their feet.
  
  

June 8, 2009

• EEMBC's Dhrystone Killer
  EEMBC's new CoreMark is a quick-and-dirty benchmarking program intended primarily for embedded processors. It's free, portable, easy to use, and yields a single score that's easy to grasp. Can it finally retire the ancient Dhrystone benchmark?
  
  

May 26, 2009

• Why Apple Feels Chipper
  Why would Apple design custom chips? A recent Wall Street Journal article alarmed critics, but Apple has good reasons for hiring more chip designers. Apple is a consumer-electronics company, not just a computer company, and custom SoCs are crucial to Apple's strategy.
  
  
• Editorial: Are Configurable Cores General-Purpose Architectures?
  Are configurable, extensible cores general-purpose architectures, and, for that matter, what is a general-purpose architecture? The answer may point to architectures yet to come.
  
  

May 18, 2009

• Book Review: Analog Circuits
  Analog Circuits is one of the books that may help those of us that want to understand the trade-offs that system designers should make in implementing a successful embedded product employing analog and digital cores.
  
  

May 11, 2009

• Itty-Bitty 32-Bitters
  The world's smallest 32-bit processor cores are competing to displace 8- and 16-bit processors and microcontrollers. This report compares the ARM Cortex-M0, Cambridge Consultants XAP5a, Cortus APS3, and Tensilica Diamond Standard 106Micro.
  
  

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