Mentor Blogs

When I first heard the term “Smart Energy”, I confess that I had no idea what it meant. For a while, a precise definition seemed to elude me, as people would talk about smart meters and the Smart Grid, but not actually say what smart energy was. It is now a little clearer. Smart Energy is really a catch-all term for a bunch of technology associated with energy efficiency primarily in a … Read More

Nucleus, smart meter, SEP 2.0, smart energy

  It used to be relatively easy to drive into a large city and find a place to park, but as with so many things, that was then and this is now. It’s much harder now to find a place to park, but on the other hand, help is available now that wasn’t there back in the day. At least three parking software companies – Best Parking, ParkMe, and Parkopedia – were exhibiting at Telematics Detroit earlier … Read More

Audi Connect, Best Parking, Audi, Telematics Detroit, ParkMe, Parkopedia

Andrew Patterson hosted a webinar that was very popular recently on the options for making use of Android in IVI systems. This includes porting Android to run directly on an SoC as the sole operating system, running Android in conjunction with another operating system such as Linux with use of a hypervisor, or making use of Android via a Linux Container. As a follow-up Ned, one of experts on Linux … Read More

Automotive, GENIVI, Android, Linux, linux container, Infotainment, IVI

Hi there Boundary Scan has been available for well over 15 years now and it has continued to evolve over that time as the initial IEEE standard 1149 has been updated to cover more than just digital devices. Although for most printed circuit designs full testing through 4 or 5 connections is not possible a significant number of designs have some number of components on them that support the Boundary … Read More

ICT, Flying Probe, testability, vPlan, boundary scan, process, Design For Test, programming, data preparation

Please take a look at the new PADS website at http://www.mentor.com/pcb/pads/overview/.  There is some cool, new stuff here: Virtual Labs, Online Chat, new video snippets, and much more! I would also like to invite you to sign up and attend a new webinar I’ll be giving June 27 and 28: Five Ways to “Start Smarter” with PADS.  The quick overview of the webinar: “Struggling to get your products designed … Read More

One of the great things about software, compared with hardware, is the ease with which it may be changed and updated. The big downside of software is also the ease with which it can be changed. This ease can make software developers lazy, as they know that they can always fix things later. This is a sharp contrast to chip developers who are fearful of errors, as an ASIC respin is both time consuming … Read More

DFU, Device Firmware Upgrade, USB, Nucleus

If you’re familiar with the “Transformers” franchise (movies, toys, games, et al) you may be pleased to know that “Transformers 4,” directed once again by Michael Bay, is scheduled for release in late June next year, and a featured player – the semi trailer truck Optimus Prime – has a link to Mentor Graphics. Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, previously based on a Peterbilt Model 379, … Read More

Transformers, Michael Bay, Western Star, Camaro SS, Corvette C7 Stingray, Bugatti Grand Sport Vitesse, Mark Wahlberg, Mentor Graphics, Daimler Trucks North America, Lamborghini Aventador

The latest 2013.05 release of Sourcery CodeBench has several new enhancements, one of which is the availability of the compile cache feature (currently available on Linux hosts). Some of you may already be familiar with the “ccache” utility that is available in the open-source community and can be used along with gcc. The Mentor Embedded team has made improvements upon this utility also making it available … Read More

ccache, CEIP, binutils, GCC, compile cache, compiler

It is official: SystemVision 5.10 is finished and available for download from SupportNet. Even though this release took a bit longer than normal to complete, I believe the wait is worth it. Key among the new features are the following: Schematic symbol toolbar: Prior to SystemVision 5.10, placing symbols in a schematic required opening either SystemVision’s Search/Place Symbols dialog or DxDataBook … Read More

multi-physics

Autorouting is a nasty word to many designers.  Many would not be caught dead doing anything other than interactively routing the complete design.  Their reasoning may be sound – but dated.  Past generation routers would run a long time, only to leave a design with blocked channels, too many vias, traces that looped around the board, not to mention poor, if any, adherence to high-speed rules.  They … Read More

I recently posted about using printf() for debugging – or, rather, I suggested a few good alternatives, which make more sense to embedded developers. Most debugging/tracing technologies involve adding some code to the target system, which might make some developers uncomfortable. Surely the code being debugged is no longer the same as you plan to ship? Broadly speaking, this is really a manifestation … Read More

Debugging, ashling, Trace, non-intrusive debug

Lots of good things coming – very soon!  Check this video snippet out! Jim … Read More

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to let you know that we just posted the PDF of the latest, Texas-Sized, DAC edition of Verification Horizons on the Verification Academy. In addition to my Editor’s Note, in which I liken what we do as verification engineers to my set-building experiences in local theatre groups, and brag about my daughter, you’ll find these fine articles: Interviewing a Verification Engineer  … Read More

Verification Academy, DAC

Hi there A couple of versions ago Valor MSS released a new interface to the Juki IS software. Here we created the best solution for Juki machines through the new ISS XML file that Juki developed. The reason that this solution is the best on the market is because we can use our unique auto-generation capability to create Juki specific part data from existing MSS vShapes, VPL content or by reading all … Read More

Enhancement, data preparation, Juki, approved vendor list, programming, vPlan, BOM, process, AVL, bill of materials

  The global market for automotive electronics is set to climb to $240 billion in 2020, up more than 50 percent from $157 billion in 2010, according to the new report from IMS Research, “The World Market for Automotive OEM Electronic Systems – 2013 Edition.” “The massive growth of automotive electronics in the space of a decade reflects the field’s rising importance to the car industry at large, … Read More

Automotive Electronics, electronic stability control (ESC), advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), Infotainment, tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), head up display (HUD), IHS Automotive