Mentor Blogs

Technology is moving at an accelerated pace. Processor development yields novel architectures, greater power, and faster speeds; and, all the while, technology companies and device manufacturers are vying to be the one with the “next best thing.” I have been in the mil/aero industry more than a decade and have always been on top of the latest and greatest; it’s a geek’s hobby after all. However, there … Read More

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At the heart of most mil/aero electronics—and arguably the most important component of current electronics systems is the processor. Virtually all mil/aero electronics take advantage of processors of one sort or another, whether x86, powerPC, RISC, FPGA, 32-bit, or 64-bit. Many different types of processing devices are employed by the modern warfighter, in fact. Today’s soldier, fed up with being made … Read More

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Processors are rapidly advancing the state of the art in the commercial world, and the mil/aero community is anxious to reap the benefits of the technology. Moore’s Law, which states that the number of transistors placed on an integrated circuit will double every two years, has taken on a slightly different look and feel as we are reach the physical limits of transistor density in a single core. We … Read More

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The mil/aero community is beginning to turn to current bleeding-edge computing technology, and move away from lengthy design cycles that result in fielding technology that is often four to five, or even 10 years, behind the commercial curve. The network-centric battlefield—in which the right information is delivered to the right person at the right time—is starting to take shape, and it requires secure, … Read More

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Welcome to part two of my four-part (part one) ESC 2010 blog series. Today’s topic: shifts in the industry. One of the biggest trends I observed at the show was the start of a paradigm shift in the evolution of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software companies and their products. EDA software companies have traditionally provided the software tools and services to create modern day semiconductors, … Read More

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Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) 2010 has come and gone, but not before revealing new technologies, exciting shifts in the industry, and current trends in the embedded community. This annual conference—held in San Jose, California at the McEnery Convention Center—attracts many thousands of attendees ranging from executives and investment bankers to engineers and product mangers—plus, one famous theoretical … Read More

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