Test, debug, and validation of CXL memory expanders

Part 2 of this series covered the user-space tooling stack—cxl, ndctl, daxctl, numactl, lspci, and setpci—and walked the boot path from power-on through DRAM training, DVSEC and HDM reporting, decode programming, CDAT delivery, ACPI table…

USB-C’s lingering incompatibilities and other complexities, part 2: Splitter issues

Yours truly can’t try to do the splits without ending up in the hospital, and suspects many of you would find the maneuver equally complicated-to-impossible…as does, it turns out, USB. In last week’s initial post in this series, I discussed…

Rad-hard GaN converters: Design insights for space hardware

The aerospace industry is undergoing a profound power architecture shift. For decades, radiation-hardened (rad-hard) silicon MOSFETs were the undisputed workhorses of spaceborne DC-DC converters. However, as modern satellite payloads demand…

Rapidus, Cadence partner on agentic SoC AI

Rapidus and Cadence are collaborating to advance agentic AI for advanced SoC design and accelerate design turnaround time. The effort integrates the Cadence InnoStack AI Super Agent with the Rapidus AI-Agentic Design Solution (Raads), combining…

Fan driver delivers smooth motor control

Melexis has expanded its MLX90412 family of single-coil fan drivers with a device that provides smoother motor control for higher-power fans. Optimized for the cooling requirements of data center infrastructure, AI workstation GPUs, industrial…

FPGA SDK enables sparse AI models

Version 3.0 of Microchip’s VectorBlox Accelerator SDK simplifies FPGA-based AI implementation by supporting sparse neural networks. Available free of charge, the VectorBlox SDK and associated CoreVectorBlox IP form an integrated toolchain…

Low-power RTC simplifies embedded timekeeping

The RTC 27 Click board from Mikroe provides ultra-low-power timekeeping with alarm, watchdog, and timestamp functions. Based on the mikroBUS add-on board socket standard, it integrates the NXP PCF8525 nano-power CMOS real-time clock and calendar…

AI assistant optimizes inference pipelines

Voyager Wingman from Axelera AI is an AI-powered assistant that works with the Voyager Toolkit to accelerate AI application development. It enables developers to interact with the Voyager SDK and Axelera’s documentation using natural language…

Current converter performs purely on paltry phantom power

Convert a 4-20 mA signal to 0-20mA and deliver it to a grounded load with no additional power supply needed. Recently, EDN kindly published a design of mine for a micropower 4-20 to 0-20mA current loop converter. Shortly thereafter, in the grand…

Enterprise AI: Reshaping AI processor architectures

For the past decade, the artificial intelligence landscape followed a remarkably simple recipe: if you wanted better AI, you built larger models, fed them more data, and added more GPUs. The formula worked, and it worked spectacularly. Every…

Missing sense: Why physical AI can see everything and feel nothing

Reach into your pocket and find your keys without looking. You just did something no robot can reliably do. You couldn’t see into your pocket, yet your fingers sorted keys from coins and lint, registered the weight and the cut edges, and closed…

Simple, compact circuit conveniently controls devices and systems

This easy-to-build PWM source is a handy testing tool for hobbyists, technicians, engineers and other RC-based device developers. I work at a university where I’m charged with designing and developing all manner of circuits and systems for…