2007

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Embedded Processor Wars

December 19, 2007 |

Posted in Opinion, Processors, Software Development, Tools

For a while there, it seemed as though DSP processors and general-purpose processors (GPPs) were morphing into one another. In an effort to provide better DSP performance, general-purpose processors (GPPs) were incorporating increasingly powerful DSP-oriented features. Meanwhile, as digital

December 19, 2007 |

Posted in Benchmarks, Case Studies

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Smaller fabless chip vendors face an uphill battle: to beat out larger rivals, they must attract the attention of potential customers, prove the advantages of their products, and demonstrate that they will be reliable, long-term partners. One such company recently used BDTI Benchmarks to

December 19, 2007 |

Posted in Audio, Processors, Video

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Dolby , based in San Francisco, CA, has acquired audio compression specialist Coding Technologies . Dolby is well-known for its AC-3 audio compression algorithm (also known as Dolby Digital), used worldwide in cinema sound and more recently accepted for audio for digital television in North

December 19, 2007 |

Posted in Processors, Software Development, Tools

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Last month, Microchip announced a new 32-bit microcontroller chip family, the PIC32. With this family, Microchip—a long-time player in 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers—is going after the 32-bit microcontroller market, and making a big change in architecture. Unlike

December 06, 2007 |

Posted in Benchmarks, Processors, Software Development, Tools

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In 2004, ARM announced its newest generation of licensable cores, called the “Cortex” family. Cortex cores span a wide range of performance levels, with Cortex M-series cores at the low end, Cortex R-series cores providing mid-range performance, and the Cortex A-series

November 14, 2007 |

Posted in Case Studies, Technical Marketing

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The best way to ensure that a presentation is effective is to test it with a knowledgeable, critical, and responsive audience. A test audience can also help ensure that the content is correct, relevant, and appropriate for the intended audience. Just as important, a test audience can help

November 14, 2007 |

Posted in Automotive, Opinion

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Do you ever look at a piece of hardware and wonder, “Why, oh why, did they build it like that?” This is what I’m thinking as I look at my 2001 Volkswagen Passat, a car that is now completely dysfunctional because of an unfortunate (yet easily foreseen) intersection of

November 14, 2007 |

Posted in Processors

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Back in 2005, Qualcomm announced that it had licensed the ARMv7 instruction set architecture and was working with ARM to create its own high-performance core based on that architecture. The new core was dubbed “Scorpion,” and at the time it was announced, Qualcomm didn’t

November 14, 2007 |

Posted in Audio, Processors

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Avnera has released a set of application-specific standard product (ASSP) chips aimed at the audio market. Avnera’s chips, implemented in CMOS, transmit and receive stereo audio (close to CD quality) over the 2.4 GHz wireless ISM band assigned internationally for industrial,

October 17, 2007 |

Posted in Opinion

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When I was a kid, 10,000 lines of code was considered a decent-sized application. Now, it seems, we’re on the verge of seeing applications with 10,000 threads . Or at least, that’s what graphics chip maker Nvidia is envisioning. Nvidia recently announced the Tesla product family,

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2007