Solving the Big Secret
Synopsys Attacks SEUs in FPGAs
A few years ago, one FPGA vendor, Actel, was quietly shouting in the corner. “Hey! Single event upsets (SEUs) are a big problem for FPGAs!”
The other FPGA companies replied with a thoughtful technical analysis of the situation: “Hey, Actel - SHUT UP!”
OK, maybe that’s not exactly the way it went down, but the idea is basically right. You see, Actel’s history is in super-high-reliability FPGAs for use in space. Up in space, there are lots of tiny particles flying around with a lot of energy. When one of those particles hits a vulnerable part of an IC (like a storage element of some kind), it can flip the bit from one to zero or zero to one. As your razor-sharp digital design mind might be telling you right now, this is really bad.
Surgical Superpowers
Intuitive Surgical brings Robots into the Operating Room
While I’ve never done a survey of engineering superhero preferences, I’d have to guess (based on empirical evidence) that Batman is near the top of the favorites list. It stands to reason. In a field of characters whose unlikely powers stem from various mixtures of laboratory accident, supernatural activity, and pure suspension of disbelief, Batman stands out as a normal human being whose crime-fighting capabilities were boosted purely through the magic of engineering.
Bringing the Good News from Leuven
It is strange sitting indoors on a grey wet day in Belgium -- and Belgium does pretty good grey and wet in October -- listening to people talking about photovoltaic cells. But then imec, in Leuven, Belgium, is a pretty strange place.
When Bryon wrote about imec earlier this year, he commented that, even with the steady stream of press releases, it was difficult to get a handle on what the organisation actually does.
Lessons from Fukushima
In August a group of experts on risk, safety engineering, and related matters looked at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station disaster to see what broader lessons could be learned. Before we start reviewing some of the broader topics that arose in the workshop, please look at the exam paper below.
Examination: Safety and Systems
Your exam starts now. Please answer all the questions in this paper in a way that will satisfy any party with any interest, legitimate or otherwise, and that, in ten years, twenty years or fifty years, will not leave room for you to be blamed if your answer subsequently proves to be wrong. Remember, people’s lives and property will depend on your answer.
A Maze of Twisty Little Passages
An Attempt at Understanding the Basics of DO-254
We recently invoked the fear of slipshod software programming as we attempted to slog through the maze of safety-critical standards facing software engineers.
But guess what: programmers aren’t the only ones capable of turning out shoddy goods. Hardware engineers can, also. But, unlike the software world, the focus in the hardware world seems to be more squarely on one standard: DO-254.
DO-254 appears to have much in common (other than origin) with DO-178. So much so, in fact, that I found a DO-254 blog site with FAQs that appeared to be copied verbatim from a set of DO-178 FAQs, with a sloppy job of search-and-replace that left such odd statements as “avionics systems are comprised of both hardware and hardware.”
Certifiable Software
Trying to Make Sense of the Dizzying Number of Language and Coding Standards
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
That car you’re driving? There’s probably a bug in the control software that could, at any moment, introduce you to that big rig over there at 70 mph. Oh, that would be 140-mph closing speed. Woohoo!
The power grid that’s supplying the juice to the computer you’re reading this on? (Or supplied it yesterday if you’re on battery power, wise guy?) Don’t count on it when the going gets rough… Someone has assuredly planted electronic time bombs that will kill the current to your refrigerator right before you’ll need that cold beer at 2:01 AM when the liquor store has just closed.
Revenge of the Bride of Moore’s Law Strikes Back II
Atmel’s SAM9 Microcontrollers Just Keep Getting Better, Cheaper
Pop quiz: what has a 32-bit processor, runs Android or Linux, and comes with a high-speed DRAM interface, options for an LCD and touch screen, NAND flash with error correction, connection to a camera, dual CAN bus interfaces, a V.90 modem, and high-speed USB?
Is it a new tablet computer? The latest smart phone? A laptop PC?
HAL's Eye In the Sky
How Embedded Vision is Becoming Reality
In this week's Fish Fry, Amelia heads out into the world of machine vision. She interviews Jeff Bier (founder of The Embedded Vision Alliance) about the future of machine vision and how he sees it evolving over the next decade.
Not Your Mom’s Embedded Design
Atmel’s Newest Advancements in Touchscreen Technology and Memory made from Jello
In this week's Fish Fry, Amelia investigates some new developments in embedded design. She interviews Sherif Hanna (Product Marketing Manager at Atmel) about the future of human-machine interfaces and how he thinks touchscreen capabilities help the embedded design community. Amelia also digs into the details of a new Jello-like memory being created by North Carolina State University and how it may not only change what memory is made of, but also where it can be implemented.
Amelia gives away a STK600 Wireless Development Kit courtesy of Atmel, but you will have to listen to find out how to win.
Power to See
[Editor’s note: this is the fifth in a series of articles derived from a session at this year’s ISSCC that focused on sensors and energy harvesting. The prior article dealt with a high-voltage current sensor. For more details, you are referred to the ISSCC proceedings.]
Most of us don’t know what it’s like not to be able to see clearly, even if with the aid of eyewear. Now, you might say that, for the great majority of us, we actually experience a certain blindness everyday: we can’t see an imminent apocalypse the way a select few can. (OK, perhaps fewer than was thought a week ago.) But that’s not the same thing.