Case Studies

Case Study: Chip Vendors, Walk a Mile in Your Customers’ Shoes

Let’s face it: Applications are getting more complicated.  Chips are getting more complicated.  And engineering teams are generally getting smaller, not larger.  As a result, it’s incumbent on chip vendors to provide robust, easy-to-use development kits.  Design engineers rely on these kits to quickly evaluate chips and prototype key portions of their systems. Clearly chip manufacturers recognize that development kits are important, and there are hundreds available.  But the quality of Read more...

Case Study: Choosing the Right Benchmarks for the Job

As embedded processors and applications become increasingly complex, good benchmarks are more important than ever.  System designers need good benchmarks to judge whether a processor will meet the needs of their applications, and to make accurate comparisons among processors.  Processor developers need good benchmarks to assess how their processors stack up against the competition—and to prove their processors’ capabilities to customers. But what exactly comprises a good benchmark? One Read more...

Case Study: Create Space for New Features by Squeezing Code

Semiconductor memory is increasing in capacity and becoming more cost-effective all the time. Yet, plenty of deeply embedded applications still exist for which every spare byte of RAM or flash memory is a precious commodity, especially those leveraging on-SoC storage versus discrete components. Tack on a performance-constrained DSP, intentionally speed-hampered to minimize power consumption, and a limited-capacity battery coupled with a multi-day or -week operating life expectation, and you've Read more...

Case Study: Strong Development Tools Boost Processor Competitiveness By Providing Access to Advanced Features

Today's SoCs typically include a variety of specialized co-processors and accelerators. In some cases, the chip supplier provides its customers with the ability to program these specialized engines. In other cases, the chip company does all of the programming, and provides API-level interfaces for application developers. Although lack of access can be frustrating to application developers, providing complete access to a chip's capabilities isn't necessarily the optimum course of action at a Read more...

Case Study: Choose Your Desert Island Companion Wisely

Remember that childhood game where you try to decide which famous person—or which book, or whatever—you’d like to have with you, if you were to be stranded on a desert island? Well, choosing a processor is kind of like that.  Except, with a processor, it’s not a game.  Once you’ve chosen a processor, and designed your hardware and software around that processor, it becomes very expensive—and very time-consuming—to switch to another processor.  So, you’re likely to be stuck with whatever choice Read more...

Case Study: Reliable Benchmark Results Lead to Good Design Decisions

To paraphrase business guru Peter Drucker, "If you can't measure it, you can't design it."  In the world of embedding processing, processor developers and users alike rely on benchmarks to measure and assess the capabilities of embedded processors on their target applications.  Benchmark results enable processor developers to understand where they stand in relation to their design targets and their competitors.  And in order to build competitive product and get to market quickly, system and Read more...

Case Study: Maximizing DSP Software Performance on ARM Processors

A decade ago, ARM processors were mainly found in cell phones, disk drives, and few other specialized applications.  These days, they seem to be everywhere, from microcontrollers to tablet PCs.  During this same time period, digital signal processing (DSP) tasks—such as multimedia and communications functions—have also become increasingly common in a wide range of systems.  Given these two trends, it’s no surprise that there’s been a big uptick in products using ARM processors to implement Read more...

Case Study: Getting More Functionality from Existing Chips

These days, few system design teams can afford the expense and time of developing a custom chip tailored to their specific needs.  Therefore, most system designers are forced to rely on off-the-shelf chips that are a less-than-perfect fit for their needs.  And even teams that are able to design their own chips must minimize the frequency of doing so, given the costs of creating a new chip. For these reasons, embedded system designers often find themselves needing to shoehorn new functionality Read more...

Case Study: Choosing the Right Algorithms—and Avoiding the Wrong Ones

While processors tend to grab the headlines, algorithms are the real essence of digital signal processing.  Algorithms are what enable the incredible innovations we see in fields ranging from medical imaging to wireless communications to computer vision.  And, algorithms are becoming even more important over time, as better processors enable more sophisticated algorithms to be implemented at acceptable price points.  For system designers looking for ways to differentiate their products, better Read more...

Case Study: Developing Attention-Getting Demos

Your company just developed the most powerful chip ever.  Your job: to get customers interested in using it in their system designs.  Challenging?  You bet.  As fantastic as its capabilities may be, your little slab of black plastic looks pretty much just like those of your competitors.  Yes, the numbers on your brochure look great.  But, let’s face it, they’re just numbers on paper.  How exciting can they be?    To capture customers’ attention and engage their imaginations, what you really Read more...