ANNOUNCEMENTS

CURRENT FEATURE ARTICLES

Enigmatic EDA
DAC Highlights Dilemma
Flying Embedded Technology
When Business and Pleasure Overlap
Cranking up the MIPS
Introducing the 74K
William Shockley
Dick Selwood reviews "Broken Genius"
LeanPath Weighs In
Choosing Between Open-source and Commercial OS
It Isn’t Easy Being Green
Weee Review RoHS Basics
When Software Flies
Doing DO-178B

Enigmatic EDA
DAC Highlights Dilemma

The world of embedded electronics exists on the bounty of Moore’s Law.  Every two years, our canvas doubles in size, and the creations we can conceive seem to square in complexity.  As embedded systems engineers, we live in an odd universe where “status quo” involves a steady forty-year exponential growth curve.  Such an extraordinary trend has a way of creating its own distorted reality.

This week, the annual Design Automation Conference is in session in San Diego, California.  This is the 44th annual conference, which means that DAC has been with us approximately as long as Moore’s Law.  Ironically, while the process of fabricating chips has steadily improved, doubling the number of gates we have about every two years, the electronic design automation (EDA) world sees this equation from the other side.  Every two years, they have to deliver software that can somehow double our productivity as electronic designers.  Otherwise, the first thing to fall behind the curve on Moore’s Law will be us.

EDA has long shown this challenge with a log graph showing two lines: the upper line is the exponentially increasing number of gates available on our silicon platforms, and the lower line is the not-quite-so-exponential growth in our ability to put those gates to some use.  The part between those lines - labeled “the gap” - is the driving force behind technology advancement in the EDA industry. [more]