ETJ

Q: When is a disk drive not a disk drive? A: When it becomes your next memory chip.

We’ve seen how flash memory chips are steadily replacing hard disk drives in MP3 players, laptop computers, and all sorts of embedded systems. Now, in a weird reversal of technology fortunes, disk-drive technology is moving into nonvolatile memory chips.

In military parlance, an Osprey is a propeller-driven airplane that takes off and lands vertically, like a helicopter. The Osprey tilts its wings 90 degrees, the props pull it straight up, and the wings flip back again for conventional flight. Clever engineering, but a bit ungainly to look at.

Over in the less dangerous but equally contentious microprocessor world, ARM has also hatched its own Osprey, this one officially named the ARM Cortex-A9. The new A9 will be capable of 2-GHz clock rates, an unheard-of speed for an ARM core. The previous-generation A8 was barely able to make 1 GHz (see Embedded Technology Journal, July 28, 2009, “Better, Stronger, Faster), and even that required some silicon sleight of hand from Intrinsity. At 2 GHz, the new A9 becomes the most potent weapon from the ARM’s dealer.

Within a week, Intel and Freescale both announced new high-end embedded processors. They’re both packed with multicore processors, DRAM controllers, and PCI Express interfaces. But, for all their similarities, they couldn’t be more different.

In this corner, we have Freescale’s new P1022, the sixth member of the QorIQ family. And in this corner, we have “Jasper Forest,” a mostly new family of chips from Intel. Both are more power-efficient than their predecessors, though, in one case, that’s not saying much. And both are well-supported with software and development tools.

Did you hear the one about Microsoft and the patent lawyers? They have to stop selling Microsoft Word!

No, seriously. Last week a judge found Microsoft guilty of patent infringement and ordered the company to stop selling Microsoft Word. Can we even imagine a world without Word anymore?

I think this case presents something of a Rorschach test for nerds. (Rorschach tests are those ink blots you’re supposed to describe to the psychologist. Everyone sees something different.) Some people jump up and down and clap their hands on hearing the news, shouting “yippee” and gloating unwholesomely that Microsoft has lost a patent-infringement case. Hooray for the little guy. Stick it to The Man, etc.

“The coldest winter I saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco,” quipped Mark Twain. It’s good to know some things never change. The City by the Bay (or simply “The City” to those within driving distance) didn’t disappoint, as the comforting midsummer fog enshrouded nerds from near and far. Grab an Irish coffee and hop aboard the cable car; it must be time for the 46th annual Design Automation Conference.

San Francisco is practically an island, surrounded on three sides by water, so when it’s baking hot elsewhere in California, the low atmospheric pressure draws moisture over the top of San Francisco and, like Brigadoon, it disappears from view. Only the tips of the Golden Gate Bridge peek through the fog, like orange traffic cones guiding visitors across the bay.

If you're into fast 32-bit processors, Samsung is announcing a new ARM-based chip that runs at 1 GHz. That in itself is interesting, but what’s more remarkable is how the chip got so fast.

ARM-based processors are generally known for their small size and power efficiency, not their speed. That Samsung was able to make its ARM A8 device run at 1 GHz is something of a milestone.

It’s also remarkable because Samsung didn’t actually make its chip run at 1 GHz. Instead, it farmed out the design work to Texas-based Intrinsity, and it’s Intrinsity that deserves a lot of the credit for breaking the 1000-MHz barrier. Yes, you read that right: an Asian company outsourced the work to Americans.