IQ Magazine

The Smart Approach to Designing with the ARM Architecture

Volume 8, Number 3, 2009

Introduction:
The Power Struggle: From Outer Space to Inner Peace

British aviation engineer Frank Whittle had tested a working jet engine two years before, but it was Germany’s Hans von Ohain who put the first jet plane in the air 70 years ago this summer. A scant 20 years later, a soviet rocket with enough power to burst through the earth’s atmosphere crashes Luna 2, a Soviet probe, into the moon, becoming the first spacecraft to reach the lunar surface. Not to be outdone by this theatrical demonstration of power, American President John F. Kennedy makes his famous “We choose to go to the moon” speech, and 10 years after that, the United States landed the first men on the moon.
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Silicon On Insulator (SOI)

(Pages 7-16)

For over a decade, SOI (Silicon on Insulator) has offered many of the savviest designers a powerful tool with which to balance power efficiency and performance. Now, limiting power consumption has taken center stage for the entire industry. This special IQ section, reprinted from Advanced Substrate News, exemplifies what some of the leaders have to say about the tools, services and products that leverage the green side of SOI.

The articles in this section include:

SOI and the Greening of Electronics

By André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, Chair, SOI Industry Consortium
The SOI Industry Consortium has now launched the “SOI: Simply Greener” campaign. Over the next few months, we’ll be reaching out to the industry and the press with this message.
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Energy-Efficient SoC Design Can Make a Difference

By Remy Pottier, Head of SOI Marketing and Business Development, ARM
It is often the simple actions that make the largest impact when it comes to conserving our natural resources and limiting the negative impact of human interaction on our planet.
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Rooted in Green

By Dr. Jocelyne Wasselin, VP Business Development, Soitec
For those of us in the SOI community, being “green” has always been an integral part of our agenda.
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Celebrating Over a Decade of Green

An Interview with Advanced Substrate News (ASN)
Advanced Substrate News: 10 years ago this spring, NXP (then Philips), announced its EZ-HV SOI technology for applications in the 60 to 650V range.
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Low Power Design: Fast & Green

By Karen Bartleson, Sr. Director Community Marketing, Synopsys Inc.
Speed and area used to be the primary factors considered by chip designers. Performance requirements were established, and the power consumption required to achieve them was just another detail.
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IBM & SOI: Delivering on Customer Priorities

By Dr. Raj Singh, Senior Technical Staff Member & Communications Architect, IBM Microelectronics Division
Initiatives for a smarter and greener planet are creating ubiquitous demand for higher intelligence, integration and performance at the lowest possible power. New regulations, such as Energy Star, are being contemplated for many industries.
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mbed: Rapid Prototyping for Microcontrollers

By Simon Ford, ARM
(Pages 17-21)

Microcontrollers are a solution looking for a problem, and that solution is getting impressive; lots of performance, lots of peripherals, and a price-point that opens them up to a host of new opportunities. However, the problem in exploiting these opportunities is exactly that; what is the problem?

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Breaking Flash Barriers: Debugging Embedded Microcontroller Applications

By Dirk Akemann, SEGGER Microcontroller

(Pages 22-25)

Today the number of programmers in the world is measured in the millions and yet they are still spending a good part of their life finding errors in their programs.
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It’s All About Models!

By Frank Shirrmeister, Synopsys

(Pages 26-31)

Once a chip development project has started, project managers are asked almost immediately to provide early representations of the chip development for various purposes, such as:
• Marketing needs material and basic documentation to interact with early adopters.
• Software developers would like executable representations of the design under development to start porting operating systems, which port existing software and develop new code.
• Hardware developers would also like executable specifications to validate that their implementations are correct.
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Traffic Management for Optimizing Media-Intensive SoCs

By Tim Mace, ARM
(Page 32-37)

Customers now expect a user experience whether in the home or on the move just like they have on their PCs and laptops - but better. This is driving the need for dedicated graphics and video hardware in next generation SoC designs to support an intuitive, more graphically enhanced user interface and personal entertainment experience.
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Multi-OS Deployment in Multicore Systems

By Syed Gilani and Dan Driscoll, Mentor Graphics

(Pages 38-41)

Multicore is becoming increasingly popular in today's embedded systems. In order to circumvent the physical limitations of silicon design, stacking up multiple homogenous or heterogeneous processors is often a preferred approach. This is particularly true for many convergent devices with media-rich graphics, always on functionality, multi-band connectivity, and extensive processing requirements such as car "infotainment" systems or portable medical devices.
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Collaborating for System-on-Chip Design Success at 32/28nm

By Ana Hunter, Samsung, and John Chilton, Synopsys
(Page 42-45)

To design a chip at 32/28nm and below, companies have to bring together the right silicon technology, IP, tools and methodology. Ana Hunter, foundry vice president of Samsung Semiconductor Inc, and John Chilton, senior vice president of marketing and strategic development at Synopsys Inc., explain how the collaboration between ARM, the Common Platform™ alliance and Synopsys, delivers a proven solution for all design teams tackling projects at this process node.
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Helicopter Cockpit Audio Communications

By Paul Nickelsberg, Orchid Technologies
(Page 46-47)

Three point seven-five inches wide.Two point five-0 inches high. Four point five-0 inches deep. These are the physical dimensions in inches of the now obsolete helicopter cockpit audio communications system that Orchid Technologies recently redesigned.
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Home Has Never Been So Connected

By Jan Howells, ARM
(Page 48-49)

Toshiba Europe GmbH debuted an ARM Powered home multimedia tablet designed to serve as a communication and infotainment center for the home. Journe Touch lets house mates browse the internet and download digital content at a touch - anywhere in the house and whenever it is wanted as the device boots instantaneously.
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