From the Editor

It’s PowerPC’s 20th birthday and to celebrate we’re looking back through the photo album to relive some of the architecture’s hits and misses. From its humble beginnings, PowerPC has grown to be one of the most popular 32-bit embedded processor families around, and the future looks even brighter. Come along as we take a trip down dual-ported memory lane.

We've extended the deadline for the final Journal Forum Posting competitionPost something creative and you could walk away with the final $500 amazon.com gift certificate! 

Thanks as always for reading. We encourage you to share your thoughts in the new easier-to-use comments area right below the articles; don't be shy. Or you can get a lively discussion going on our FORUMS.

Jim Turley - Editor, Embedded Technology Journal


Industry News

July 30, 2010

Xilinx Showcases End Market Solutions Based on LabVIEW FPGA at NIWeek 2010

July 29, 2010

Gresham offer CompactPCI Power Supplies on Short Lead Times

Wolfson announces ultra low power audio hub solution for portable digital audio applications

ADLINK Technology Introduces Full-size PICMG® 1.3 SHB Supporting Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3 Processors and Q57 Express Chipset

LPI Launches Enterprise-level "Virtualization" Exam

July 28, 2010

Virage Logic Continues to Broaden Semiconductor IP Offering with New Portfolio of SoC Infrastructure Solutions

Virage Logic's New ARC® Sound AS221BD Dual-Core Processor Targets Blu-ray Audio

2 GB RAM on compact Qseven modules

Virage Logic Expands Semiconductor IP Portfolio with Silicon-Proven SiANA™ Analog IP Offering

USB Compatible High Efficiency Power Manager and Charger for 1-Cell Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries

July 27, 2010

3D Design Software Speeds Response Time For RF Connector Specialist

Vishay Siliconix Releases Industry's Smallest and Thinnest N-Channel Chipscale Power MOSFET With 0.64-mm Sq. Area

Wolfson’s world-leading audio devices selected for LG mobile phones

QuickLogic Announces Innovative Framebuffer Solution to Extend Battery Life of Consumer Devices

Actel Announces New FlashPro4 Programmer

Feature Articles

PowerPC: Twenty Years of Progress

by Jim Turley

They say power corrupts, but nobody told embedded-systems designers. The PowerPC processor family turns 20 years old this year, and it’s come a very long way from its beginnings in the first Power Macintosh in 1990. Today’s PowerPC has done a 180-degree turnaround: it’s no longer in Macs or any other desktop computers, but it’s going strong in embedded applications, especially networking and consumer electronics. PowerPCs are found in everything from spacecraft to Cisco routers to Ford and Jaguar engines to video games, including the “big three” of PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii.

Depending on how you count, PowerPC is the third most popular 32-bit embedded processor family, after ARM and MIPS. ARM seems to get all the glory, while MIPS and PowerPC mostly keep under the radar. Interestingly, all three were originally designed for computer systems, not embedded applications, yet it’s in embedded products that they’ve been most successful. There are no ARM- or MIPS-based computers anymore (unless you count tablets or netbooks), yet PowerPC processors still drive record-breaking supercomputers. Of all the RISC architectures, PowerPC has stayed truest to its roots, and it offers the broadest spectrum of performance from top to bottom.  Read More

Faster than Reality

by Bryon Moyer


Stroke Me Gently

by Dick Selwood


Windows on Embedded

by Dick Selwood


Communicating Through Touch

by Dick Selwood



PowerPC Architecture

Jim Turley looked back at twenty years of PowerPC progress. (click here)

What do you think?
Posted on 07/29/10 at 1:27 PM
by: kevin

At present mostly analog sensors

At present mostly analog sensors are used today. Calibration of sensors is very critical since they are mapped to physical entities in real-world conditions, any sensor error can create dramatically wrong results. As Jim mentioned processing of sensor dat...
Posted on 07/21/10 at 1:14 PM
by: Kanaka Varanasi

Low-Power ARM

Jim Turley talked about cool, low-power ARM processors from Energy Micro (click here). What do you think?
Posted on 07/20/10 at 4:59 PM
by: kevin

New Whitepaper - Platform Software Optimization for Multi-Core Architecture Processors

Hello Everyone,

Transitioning from single core to multi-core can certainly be a difficult design challenge. If you are looking to move on over to multi-core in your next design, you should check out this new [url=http://www.techfocusmedia.net/embedded...
Posted on 07/20/10 at 1:08 PM
by: amelia

Login   |   Don't have an account? Register now »

FaceBook_32x32.png  Twitter_32x32.png  Feed_32x32.png  

subscribe to our weekly newsletter



Privacy Policy | Archived Issues

On Demand

Pushing The Envelope in FPGA Design Using PlanAhead (CHALK TALK)

Want to have the best FPGA designs on the block? You have to push the technology to stay competitive. Join Amelia Dalton as she talks with Greg Daughtry of Xilinx in this Chalk Talk about pushing the envelope in FPGA design.

Shinhan Bank Projects 524% ROI in 6 Years and 43% Reduction in ATM Downtime via Embedded Intel® vPro™ Technology (WHITE PAPER and ROI STUDY)

Shinhan Bank headquartered in South Korea, has implemented the Intel® Core™2 processor with vPro™ technology as an embedded controller in their automated teller machines (ATMs). Embedded Intel® vPro™ technology allows better remote updates, patching, reimaging, and problem resolution of the machines. This paper details results of a Shinan ROI study that shows a projected break-even point in year 2, savings of over $608,000 across 6 years, and a positive ROI of 524 percent in year 6.3.

16-bit Performance for an 8-bit Price: TI’s MSP430 Microcontroller Value Line (PRODUCT BULLETIN)

The ultra-low power MSP430™ microcontroller Value Line offers superior 16-bit MCU performance and industry leading ultra-low power consumption for cost sensitive applications that have traditionally depended on low cost 8-bit microcontrollers. Starting at 25 cents (in 100K volumes), the MSP430G2xx Value Series ensures 8-bit developers no longer need to sacrifice performance, power efficiency or scalability because of price.

EasyPath-6 FPGAs Deliver Lowest Total Product Cost in Six Weeks (CHALK TALK)

Confused about FPGA cost reduction? There are easy options for even the most sophisticated FPGAs. Join Amelia Dalton and Shekhar of Xilinx in this Chalk Talk about cost-reducing your Virtex FPGA design with EasyPath.

Lowering Total System Power Using Xilinx FPGAs (CHALK TALK)

In this webcast, Chalk Talk host Amelia Dalton talks with Jameel Hussein of Xilinx about optimizing system-level power with FPGAs, and features and tools that simplify low-power design with Xilinx FPGAs.

Optimized FIR Filter Implementation Using SSE Instructions (WHITE PAPER)

Intel® software products take advantage of the performance potential of the Intel® Atom™ processor. When compiler technologies or optimized off-the-shelf libraries are not sufficient to meet extreme performance requirements, hand-optimized routines are justified to maximize performance. This paper describes step-by-step development of an ultra-fast impulse response (FIR) filter for digital signal processing using Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) and other Intel Atom processor features.