Opinion

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response―Unleashing Mobile Multimedia Applications

January 22, 2012 |

Smartphones and tablets are becoming ubiquitous. According to DIGITIMES Research, global smartphone shipments reached 464 million in 2011 . And 63 million tablets were shipped in 2011 , according to IDC. That's over half a billion devices sold in one year, and few

December 20, 2011 |

Posted in Opinion, Processors

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Last week, Freescale announced that senior vice president Lisa Su would be leaving the company for other opportunities. Shortly thereafter, AMD announced that Su would be joining AMD effective the end of this year as senior vice president and general manager of global business

December 19, 2011 |

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By now, I’m sure you've read that mobile data demand is growing quite rapidly . It's no surprise, really: We're increasingly reliant on our mobile devices—be they laptops, netbooks, tablets, or smartphones. And the things we do with these devices increasingly

November 17, 2011 |

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I’m frequently amazed by people who can take whatever random material happens to be in good supply and make something useful out of it. Consider this clever gentleman , for example, who made a solar water heater from beer bottles. These days, thanks to continuing advances in chip

October 17, 2011 |

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In a recent consulting assignment, my colleagues and I at BDTI evaluated a semiconductor manufacturer's new-product introduction presentation and provided recommendations for improving it. One of our key recommendations was to include data supporting major claims regarding the new

September 13, 2011 |

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A colleague recently told me that his young child, having been raised on iPhones and iPads, was amazed to find that the screen on his dad’s laptop did not respond to touch. His story reminded me of that wonderful scene in the movie Star Trek IV , where Scotty tries to use a computer by

August 22, 2011 |

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Last month I wrote about some of the ways in which trade show booths often fail to engage trade show visitors . This month I'd like to turn to a related subject: product demos. Demos can be an extremely powerful tool. They can also be annoying, frustrating distractions. After sitting

July 27, 2011 |

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I recently spent a day at the Design Automation Conference (DAC)—an event that has been a mainstay of the EDA industry for many years. One of the interesting things about the exhibit floor at DAC is that you always find a mixture of new companies—often with interesting new

May 18, 2011 |

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Over the past few years, the use of open source software in embedded systems has become mainstream. In part, this is due the sheer necessity: Systems just keep getting more complex, incorporating more and more functionality, but design teams aren’t getting larger, and

March 30, 2011 |

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I was recently reminded of a very old joke―old enough that I remember hearing it from my dad when I was a kid: There were two grocers, Smith and Jones, on the same street. Smith had a sign in his window, "Avocados, 20 pence a pound". A woman goes in and asks for some.

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