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| Jeff Bier's Impulse Response: Compilers Can Erase Architectural Advantages |
By Jeff Bier, 2/16/2010
Back in the early 1990’s, compilers for DSP processors were pretty lame. Even if a compiler generated code that was functionally correct (which, sadly, wasn’t always the case) the code was usually far from efficient. At the time, this wasn’t a big deal: DSP applications were still fairly small (in terms of lines of code), and DSP processor architectures weren’t nearly as complex as they are today. A reasonably skilled DSP software engineer could optimize an application by hand, sometimes entirely in assembly language, without using a compiler at all.
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| Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Small Processor Companies Have it Tough—But Not Impossible |
By Jeff Bier, 1/20/2010
It’s a tough world out there for small processor companies. It’s tough to attract new customers, and tough to support the ones you manage to get. A key challenge is the trend towards customers consolidating their purchasing: many system companies prefer to use fewer unique processors in their systems, for both business and technical reasons. From a business standpoint, using fewer different processors (and thus, using fewer vendors) can help streamline procurement and provide negotiating leverage with suppliers. And from a technical standpoint, using fewer different processors can simplify development and facilitate re-use of software and know-how.
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| Jeff Bier's Impulse Response—NVIDIA GPUs Turn Up the Heat |
By Jeff Bier, 12/16/2009
In October of 2007, I wrote a column called “When Worlds Collide,” which was about NVIDIA’s emerging strategy of offering “general-purpose GPUs.” At the time, I thought it was interesting that NVIDIA had begun to move beyond graphics applications to target “high-performance computing” (HPC) applications like financial and seismic analysis, thus competing with processors outside of the GPU space. I also observed that the ubiquity of GPUs in PCs would likely help NVIDIA gain traction in non-GPU applications.
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| Jeff Bier's Impulse Response—A Pain in the Procurement |
By Jeff Bier, 11/18/2009
In the last decade most companies in the electronics industry have invested significant efforts in streamlining their design, testing, and manufacturing processes. Time-to-market pressures are intensifying; engineers and technical support staff often work overtime to meet product deadlines. But there’s one task that is still typically slower than molasses in winter—and that’s procurement.
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| Jeff Bier's Impulse Response—Creative Tools Key to DSP on MCUs |
By Jeff Bier, 10/21/2009
The beauty of digital signal processing is that it enables people to convert available processing power into cool new features, better performance, and lower power in their products. There are countless examples, including MP3 players, wireless communications of all kinds, medical imaging, and voice recognition.
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| Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—X86 Muscles Into Embedded Multicore |
By Jeff Bier, 9/23/2009
In 2004 my friend Nick Tredennick wrote an interesting article in which he made the case that the x86 architecture would ultimately dominate embedded applications. At the time, I thought Nick’s argument was slightly loopy. But I have to admit that I’m having second thoughts. These second thoughts have almost nothing to do with any snazzy new chips introduced by Intel, and everything to do with software development for multicore processors.
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| Jeff Bier's Impulse Response—Avoiding Accidental Stealth Mode |
By Jeff Bier, 6/17/2009
Recently I realized that I hadn’t heard a peep out of a certain embedded processor vendor in quite some time. Usually my colleagues and I at BDTI hear from processor vendors on a regular basis for new product briefings, but it had been almost a year since we’d heard anything from this particular vendor. The lack of communication made me wonder – what are they up to? Are they still developing new products? I called one of my contacts there to see if I could get a pulse. It was hard to get a direct answer, but what it boiled down to is this: the company had been spooked by the economic downturn and the associated revenue drop, and had decided to pull in its horns and cut its promotional activities to near zero.
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| Jeff Bier's Impulse Response—The Getting-the-Box Experience |
By Jeff Bier, 5/20/2009
Whenever I talk to chip and tool vendors about the ease-of-use of their products, they invariably brag about how much time they’ve invested in ensuring a good “out-of-the-box experience.” What they mean is that, when a customer first starts using one of their products (say, a development kit), the customer finds it easy to get the tool up and running. This is important, and it’s hard to do well. We here at BDTI often run into glitches in this area: things like missing files, documentation that’s out of sync with the software or hardware, bugs in the install program, etc. But, worthy topic though it is, the typical out-of-the-box experience is not the subject of today’s rant.
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