Hidden underflow in BF16 divider in mixed-precision FP designs
Floating-point computations dominate the landscape of all AI/ML compute but also in automotive, avionics and healthcare. While performance and compute errors dominated the landscape of floating-point design and verification, power optimizations…
Implementing a DAC: The battle of the PWMs
Ones and zeroes: are clustered or spread out bits better? “It depends,” is the answer. Well, at least sorta.
In the Comments section of a recent Design Idea for a DAC (Reference 1), one reader expressed a full-throated preference for an…
CoWoS, wafer-scale and CoWoP: Why AI packaging bottleneck is moving
Advanced AI systems are forcing the semiconductor industry to rethink the boundary between silicon, package, board, power delivery, memory, cooling, and manufacturing. For several years, the dominant discussion has centered on advanced packaging…
Dissecting an active Ethernet splitter
Need just one more network port than you’ve currently got available (often: none)? A splitter can do the trick; just spend a few extra bucks to make sure you’ve made the right pick.
I’ll begin this teardown with an analogy. Imagine you’re…
EAS tags: The invisible backbone of retail security
In the world of retail, security is not always about cameras or guards; it’s often about technology you barely notice. Electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags are a prime example: small, lightweight devices that quietly safeguard billions…
Stress analysis
Sometimes, getting true stress levels can be tricky because things happen that are sneaky.
Stress analysis is often required to confirm that a designed product will perform properly in hazardous environments. Rather than trying to ascertain…
Qualcomm powers next-gen XR with Reality Elite
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Reality Elite spatial computing processor delivers 48 TOPS of AI performance for video-see-through (VST) headsets and tethered optical-see-through (OST) glasses. The processor can run large vision models (LVMs) and large…
Simulator emulates quantum hardware behavior
D-Wave Quantum has announced a gate-model quantum computing simulator for error-aware programming and algorithm development. The cloud-based simulator provides tools for modeling quantum processor behavior, error detection, and real-time control.…
Handheld receiver captures wideband RF signals
The R&S PR300 portable monitoring receiver provides 125 MHz of real-time bandwidth and a scanning speed of more than 500 GHz/s. It is designed for field-based spectrum monitoring, interference hunting, high-speed signal detection, and direction…
LiDAR module generates high-resolution depth maps
A 3D direct ToF LiDAR module, the VL53L9CX from STMicroelectronics offers 2.3k-zone resolution for low-compute edge AI systems. This compact all-in-one module integrates a SPAD array, post-processing SoC, two VCSELs, a BCD VCSEL driver, infrared…
Windows APO delivers customizable spatial audio
Ceva’s RealSpace Elevate is a Microsoft-certified Windows Audio Processing Object (APO) that enables spatial audio for PC gaming headsets. Unlike OS-level solutions that offer limited differentiation or branded third-party applications that…
Google’s Pixel 10: Upgrading smartphones again
Just because generational device improvements aren’t in-your-face obvious doesn’t mean they aren’t sooner-or-later still tangibly impactful.
As mentioned last week, one of the perks that accompanied my recent personal-cellular-line transition…
