In this case, MIPS Technologies.
Based on original academic research done at Stanford from 1981, MIPS was formed in 1984 and until the 1990's was influential as a supplier of CPU chips for a variety of manufacturers, including such names as SGI, Siemens/Nixdorf, Olivetti and many others. Since then MIPS has also been licensing architectures and core designs which became prominent in the set top box, cable modem and router arena. They never made it into the Smartphone/PDA market, long dominated by Intel and ARM.
And now we see yet more advances from ARM, newer cores such as the Cortex-A15 and promised improvements this year and next seem to set the field for an even greater market penetration by ARM.
So I really do wonder, where will MIPS go now?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Its not easy keeping a blog!
And I am sure a lot of you know that. Between work and family how should I find the time to say things here. Well, I keep finding notes of all sorts of ideas around my desk, so maybe I should just post some of those!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
The goalposts keep moving!
The microprocessor has been with us for some time now, on my radar since 1974 with the release in April 1974 of the Intel 8080 which I first applied only a few months later. So I grew up and was 'educated' before the microprocessor. In those early days the choices were minimal, Motorola introduced the 6800 a little later in 1974. Despite protestations to the contrary that one or the other had some great technical or architectural merit it was really a matter of religion which path you followed. You could make a choice then being comfortable that it would hold good for a few years.
More recently the same religious fervour is evidenced by the proponents for the Freescale (formerly Motorola) 6800/6802/6809 ancestored chips versus Microchips PIC and Atmels much newer 'C' code optimised AVR and megaAVR. Each has its benefits, but logic defies any choice other than the one that I like!
But now the game has a completely new set of rules. ARM, of Cambridge UK, has turned the world upside recently with the introduction of the Cortex-M3 IP core. In a very carefully staged collaboration with Luminary (now part of TI) we saw the introduction of the Luminary Stellaris parts - the first M3's. Now everybody is on the band-wagon! Atmel (ATSAM3 is Cortex M3 based), TI through the acquisition of Luminary, NXP with the LPC17xx series, ST Microelectronics STM32, Toshiba and a new Norwegian startup - Energy Micro. All good viable companies, and don't count Energy Micro out, although only 2 years old they have some well experienced talent from Chipcon (now part of TI) and Atmel.
So now we don't get each manufacturer offering us a new architecture - we get them offering us different customisations and peripheral mixes all based on the same CPU core and interconnection fabric.
Oy vay!
More recently the same religious fervour is evidenced by the proponents for the Freescale (formerly Motorola) 6800/6802/6809 ancestored chips versus Microchips PIC and Atmels much newer 'C' code optimised AVR and megaAVR. Each has its benefits, but logic defies any choice other than the one that I like!
But now the game has a completely new set of rules. ARM, of Cambridge UK, has turned the world upside recently with the introduction of the Cortex-M3 IP core. In a very carefully staged collaboration with Luminary (now part of TI) we saw the introduction of the Luminary Stellaris parts - the first M3's. Now everybody is on the band-wagon! Atmel (ATSAM3 is Cortex M3 based), TI through the acquisition of Luminary, NXP with the LPC17xx series, ST Microelectronics STM32, Toshiba and a new Norwegian startup - Energy Micro. All good viable companies, and don't count Energy Micro out, although only 2 years old they have some well experienced talent from Chipcon (now part of TI) and Atmel.
So now we don't get each manufacturer offering us a new architecture - we get them offering us different customisations and peripheral mixes all based on the same CPU core and interconnection fabric.
Oy vay!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
So so so long!
Has it really been that long? Have I really been that busy! In a word, yes. My current major project has taken enormous amounts of time and effort over the last 6 months or more, so anything else has been sidelined. Those out there who know me will understand just what has been going on.
ENGINEERs and the recession.
Of course for many of us the last 12 months or so have been a tough time. Many jobs have been lost and new openings not always easy to identify. Fortunately I was not amongst the job losers, in fact my employer didn't shed any jobs, the factory and admin staff went onto Jobshare (work 4 days a week paid and then get one day of EI) but the professional staff were presented with a nice 10% salary cut "for the duration". The duration turned out to be April to October. But at the same time we were asked to work harder than ever, during this period I worked a number of weekends and I still haven't had my "summer" vacation. At the same time we are asked to be our most productive many of our employers also cut back on capital investment and even on things like software tools. In an era when engineering salaries are under attack by everyone from transit operators (say a streetcar or subway driver) to local librarians we are being asked to take more responsibility and work work longer hours as many in society are heading the exact opposite direction.
For many years it was the skilled tradespeople and the factory workers who need to work a second job to make ends meet. To that list we can now add engineers. More and more of the engineers I speak to are seeking "contract" work to gain the extra income they need. Of course, this doesn't help the situation of the contract designers already out there does it. It will be interesting to see how the situation of the engineer plays out over the next year or two.
ENGINEERs and the recession.
Of course for many of us the last 12 months or so have been a tough time. Many jobs have been lost and new openings not always easy to identify. Fortunately I was not amongst the job losers, in fact my employer didn't shed any jobs, the factory and admin staff went onto Jobshare (work 4 days a week paid and then get one day of EI) but the professional staff were presented with a nice 10% salary cut "for the duration". The duration turned out to be April to October. But at the same time we were asked to work harder than ever, during this period I worked a number of weekends and I still haven't had my "summer" vacation. At the same time we are asked to be our most productive many of our employers also cut back on capital investment and even on things like software tools. In an era when engineering salaries are under attack by everyone from transit operators (say a streetcar or subway driver) to local librarians we are being asked to take more responsibility and work work longer hours as many in society are heading the exact opposite direction.
For many years it was the skilled tradespeople and the factory workers who need to work a second job to make ends meet. To that list we can now add engineers. More and more of the engineers I speak to are seeking "contract" work to gain the extra income they need. Of course, this doesn't help the situation of the contract designers already out there does it. It will be interesting to see how the situation of the engineer plays out over the next year or two.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Life has been busy
Life tends to deal all sorts of interesting cards to us. In the last six months I suppose the economic crisis has consumed most of us, especially those trying to hold onto our jobs! So it has been some time since I wrote anything here, but now I can remedy that neglect.
Altera/NIOS-II
Seems to have been a major focus of my work for much of the past two years. I now have four successful designs under my belt, one is in production, one is going into production now with a third to be in production in the next month or two. The fourth may never see the light of day - that will depend on the speed of another major development project I am working on.
LEDuino
My baby! This is our take on the extremely successful Arduino project. Several volume orders for special applications have consumed a huge amount of time and effort. About Octoboer 2008 we built a large batch of the revision B board which has been very successful. Finally we have had time to implement some CAN bus code for the thing and code for DCC is under way. If you want to know more, keep a watch on this page for more details.
Altera/NIOS-II
Seems to have been a major focus of my work for much of the past two years. I now have four successful designs under my belt, one is in production, one is going into production now with a third to be in production in the next month or two. The fourth may never see the light of day - that will depend on the speed of another major development project I am working on.
LEDuino
My baby! This is our take on the extremely successful Arduino project. Several volume orders for special applications have consumed a huge amount of time and effort. About Octoboer 2008 we built a large batch of the revision B board which has been very successful. Finally we have had time to implement some CAN bus code for the thing and code for DCC is under way. If you want to know more, keep a watch on this page for more details.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Fairchild changes sampling policy
After 39 years as a happy Fairchild customer, having even been a franchised distributor at one stage, I went to their website today after mentioning a new I2C buffer from them. I am not sure when I last needed samples from them but it wasn't recently so I haven't been abusing the system. That didn't matter, my application has been REJECTED and I find that Canada is now in Europe because I had to contact EUROPE sales office.
Sorry Fairchild, after 39 loyal years you just blew it. Sadly the company that fostered such talent as Bob Widlar, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce and Frederico Faggin seems to have some sort of problems with North American designers.
Sorry Fairchild, after 39 loyal years you just blew it. Sadly the company that fostered such talent as Bob Widlar, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce and Frederico Faggin seems to have some sort of problems with North American designers.
I2C alive and well!
For many years I2C - the "Inter Integrated circuit Communications" bus has been a staple part of my design diet. For many years Philips/NXP, Analog Devices and TI have provided a nice array of general purpose parts and many specialised devices came with I2C interface.
All went along nicely and quietly for years. But just recently things have changed! Everybody seems to be getting onto the bandwagon. First, the PC world was blessed with SMbus - based on I2C and then we are off. Now there are several new control/supervisory standards based on I2C, ( PMbus for power management, IPMB for chassis management) and with NXP introducing high speed extensions it has all come back into play!
SO how do we make it all work? For starters the old I2C with soft pull-ups just doesn't cut it anymore, the P82B715 and P82B96 from NXP are fine, but they are getting dated and are not as flexible as we might need. SO new things were needed, a search uncovered that Linear Technology had introduced some new parts that offer us some more. And just today I found out that Fairchild have entered the race with this device.
But nothing really satisfied hte needs I had until a colleague pointed out Hendon Semiconductor. Hendon, I thought? Now I know a couple of Hendons, and I was a little surprised when I found that this Hendon is the one in Australia. Then it dawned on me. For many years Philips had run a very successful hybrid plant at Hendon - and this has morphed into Hendon Semiconductor. And their specialty? I2C and bus buffers! In fact they have a range of about 10 parts either announced or upcoming which will provide a match for many applications. A visit to their specialist site at busbuffer.com is well worth a few minutes.
DISCLAIMER: I have no ties with Hendon other than being a very happy user. Their US office have been very helpful and if you look carefully you will see my LEDuino product uses the IES5501.
All went along nicely and quietly for years. But just recently things have changed! Everybody seems to be getting onto the bandwagon. First, the PC world was blessed with SMbus - based on I2C and then we are off. Now there are several new control/supervisory standards based on I2C, ( PMbus for power management, IPMB for chassis management) and with NXP introducing high speed extensions it has all come back into play!
SO how do we make it all work? For starters the old I2C with soft pull-ups just doesn't cut it anymore, the P82B715 and P82B96 from NXP are fine, but they are getting dated and are not as flexible as we might need. SO new things were needed, a search uncovered that Linear Technology had introduced some new parts that offer us some more. And just today I found out that Fairchild have entered the race with this device.
But nothing really satisfied hte needs I had until a colleague pointed out Hendon Semiconductor. Hendon, I thought? Now I know a couple of Hendons, and I was a little surprised when I found that this Hendon is the one in Australia. Then it dawned on me. For many years Philips had run a very successful hybrid plant at Hendon - and this has morphed into Hendon Semiconductor. And their specialty? I2C and bus buffers! In fact they have a range of about 10 parts either announced or upcoming which will provide a match for many applications. A visit to their specialist site at busbuffer.com is well worth a few minutes.
DISCLAIMER: I have no ties with Hendon other than being a very happy user. Their US office have been very helpful and if you look carefully you will see my LEDuino product uses the IES5501.
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