iLux Live Transcoder Increases channel count by 400% per RU and reduces power 85% per channel

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to the Senate Commerce Committee of the Low Power Protection Act, the following statement can be attributed to NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt:

Washington, D.C. -- In response to congressional passage of the Low Power Protection Act, which provides eligible low power television stations a long-overdue opportunity to obtain interference protections, the following can be attributed to NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt:

Washington, D.C. -- In response to President Joe Biden signing into law the Low Power Protection Act, which provides eligible low power television stations a long-overdue opportunity to obtain interference protections, the following can be attributed to NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt:

Beyond the buzz, what impact is IoT having in the real world? How is it changing enterprise IT? A panel of experts shares their experience and insight.

Low power protocol for wide area wireless networks

Cadence's Digital Front-End Design Team first introduced the concept of a Rapid Adoption Kit (RAK) , self-guided and learn-by-doing training material, over two and a half years ago, helping its users across the globe deploy new products and flows. These...(read more)

Archives, Room Use Only - TK6550.G47 1910

A barrel shifter uses a sign magnitude to 2's complement converter to generate decoder signals for its cascaded multiplexer selectors. The sign input receives the shift direction and the magnitude input receives the shift amount. The sign magnitude to 2's complement converter computes an output result as a 2's complement of the shift amount using the shift direction as a sign input, assigns a first portion (most significant bit half) of the output result to a first decoder signal, and assigns a second portion (least significant bit half) of the output result to a second decoder signal. This encoding scheme allows the decoder circuits to be relatively simple, for example, 3-to-8 decoders for an implementation adapted to shift a 64-bit operand value rather than the 4-to-9 decoder required in a conventional barrel shifter, leading to faster operation, less area, and reduced power consumption.

In a mobile device, a bone conduction or vibration sensor is used to detect the user's speech and the resulting output is used as the source for a low power Voice Trigger (VT) circuit that can activate the Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) of the host device. This invention is applicable to mobile devices such as wearable computers with head mounted displays, mobile phones and wireless headsets and headphones which use speech recognition for the entering of input commands and control. The speech sensor can be a bone conduction microphone used to detect sound vibrations in the skull, or a vibration sensor, used to detect sound pressure vibrations from the user's speech. This VT circuit can be independent of any audio components of the host device and can therefore be designed to consume ultra-low power. Hence, this VT circuit can be active when the host device is in a sleeping state and can be used to wake the host device on detection of speech from the user. This VT circuit will be resistant to outside noise and react solely to the user's voice.

A microlaser system includes an optical source, a microlaser, an actuator switch, and a photovoltaic power source. The microlaser, which includes a control element, is optically pumped by at least a portion of light emitted by the optical source. The actuator switch is configured to be activated by a triggering event. Furthermore, the photovoltaic power source is coupled in a series connection with the actuator switch and the control element, the series connection configured to connect the photovoltaic power source to the control element of the microlaser when the actuator switch is activated by the triggering event.

A transceiver includes a transmitter and receiver that form a series current path between two power-supply nodes. Powering both the transmitter and receiver with the same supply current saves power. The transmitter functions as a resistive load for the receiver, and thus performs useful work with power that would otherwise be dissipated as waste heat.

A method of controlling an integrated circuit chip including first and second clock sources, the first clock source being more thermally stable and having a higher power consumption, the integrated circuit chip being operable in a first mode in which the first clock source is inactive and the second clock source active and in a second mode in which the first and second clock sources are active, the method including operating the integrated circuit chip in the first mode; taking a measurement indicative of temperature; if the measurement indicates that the temperature is outside of a temperature band: activating the first clock source so as to operate the integrated circuit chip in the second mode; recalibrating the second clock source against the first clock source; and following the recalibration, deactivating the first clock source so as to return the integrated circuit chip to the first mode.

During the development of Low Power Mode (LPM) (also known as L2 Mode) for DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) systems, it has become apparent that one of the most important issues is the impact on deployed legacy DSL systems. Legacy DSL systems are not capable of operating in the presence of large changes in crosstalk noise from neighbouring lines entering and exiting LPMs. For example, prior LPM methods at least do not assure that legacy lines will be protected to guarantee that no retrains will occur. These and other issues are addressed herein.

An optical circuit includes solid state photonics. The optical circuit includes a phased array of solid state waveguides that perform beamsteering on an optical signal. The optical circuit includes a modulator to modulate a bit sequence onto the carrier frequency of the optical signal, and the beamsteered signal includes the modulated bit sequence. The optical circuit includes a photodetector to detect a reflection of the beamsteered optical signal. The optical circuit autocorrelates the reflection signal with the bit sequence to generate a processed signal.

Here we conclude the blog series and highlight the results of Mediatek 's use of Cadence Perspec™ System Verifier for their SoC level verification. In case you missed it, Part 1 of the blog is here , and Part 2 of the blog is here . One of their key...(read more)

In this week’s Whiteboard Wednesdays video, Dave Apte discusses how to create the lowest power design possible by using architectural exploration and Cadence’s Stratus HLS solution....

[[ Click on the title to access the full blog on the Cadence Community site. ]]

All engineers can enhance their mixed-signal low-power structural verification productivity by learning while doing with a PIEA RAK (Power Intent Export Assistant Rapid Adoption Kit). They can verify the mixed-signal chip by a generating macromodel for their analog block automatically, and run it through Conformal Low Power (CLP) to perform a low power structural check.  

The power structure integrity of a mixed-signal, low-power block is verified via Conformal Low Power integrated into the Virtuoso Schematic Editor Power Intent Export Assistant (VSE-PIEA). Here is the flow.

Applying the flow iteratively from lower to higher levels can verify the power structure.

Cadence customers can learn more in a Rapid Adoption Kit (RAK) titled IC 6.1.5 Virtuoso Schematic Editor XL PIEA, Conformal Low Power: Mixed-Signal Low Power Structural Verification.

• To read the overview presentation, click on following link: PIEA Overview
• To download this PIEA RAK click on following link: PIEA RAK Download

The RAK includes Rapid Adoption Kit with demo design (instructions are provided on how to setup the user environment). It Introduces the Power Intent Export Assistant (PIEA) feature that has been implemented in the Virtuoso IC615 release.  The power intent extracted is then verified by calling Conformal Low Power (CLP) inside the Virtuoso environment.

• Last Update: 11/15/2012.
• Validated with IC 6.1.5 and CLP 11.1

The RAK uses a sample test case to go through PIEA + CLP flow as follows:

• Setup for PIEA
• Perform power intent extraction
• CPF Import: It is recommended to Import macro CPF, as oppose to designing CPF for sub-blocks. If you choose to import design CPF files please make sure the design CPF file has power domain information for all the top level boundary ports
• Generate macro CPF and design CPF
• Perform low power verification by running CLP

It is also recommended to go through older RAKs as prerequisites.

• Conformal Low Power, RTL Compiler and Incisive: Low Power Verification for Beginners
• Conformal Low Power: CPF Macro Models
• Conformal Low Power and RTL Compiler: Low Power Verification for Advanced Users

To access all these RAKs, visit our RAK Home Page to access Synthesis, Test and Verification flow

Note: To access above docs, use your Cadence credentials to logon to the Cadence Online Support (COS) web site. Cadence Online Support website https://support.cadence.com/ is your 24/7 partner for getting help and resolving issues related to Cadence software. If you are signed up for e-mail notifications, you can receive new solutions, Application Notes (Technical Papers), Videos, Manuals, and more.

You can send us your feedback by adding a comment below or using the feedback box on Cadence Online Support.

Sumeet Aggarwal

I noticed some very interesting news last week, widely reported in the technical press, and you can find the source press release here. In a nutshell, the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC) has formed a group to look at benchmarks for ultra low power microcontrollers. Initially chaired by Horst Diewald, chief architect of MSP430^TM microcontrollers at Texas Instruments, the group's line-up is an impressive "who's who" of the microcontroller space, including Analog Devices, ARM, Atmel, Cypress, Energy Micro, Freescale, Fujitsu, Microchip, Renesas, Silicon Labs, STMicro, and TI.

As the press release explains, unlike usual processor benchmark suites which focus on performance, the ULP benchmark will focus on measuring the energy consumed by microcontrollers running various computational workloads over an extended time period. The benchmarking methodology will allow the microcontrollers to enter into their idle or sleep modes during the majority of time when they are not executing code, thereby simulating a real-world environment where products must support battery life measured in months, years, and even decades.

Processor performance benchmarks seem to be as widely criticized as EPA fuel consumption figures for cars - and the criticism is somewhat related. There is a suspicion that manufacturers can tune the performance for better test results, rather than better real-world performance. On the face of it, the task to produce meaningful ultra low power benchmarks seems even more fraught with difficulties. For a start, there is a vast range of possible energy profiles - different ways that computing is spread over time - and a plethora of low power design techniques available to optimize the system for the set of profiles that particular embedded system is likely to experience. Furthermore, you could argue that, compared with performance in a computer system, energy consumption in an ultra low power embedded system has less to do with the controller itself and more to do with other parts of the system like the memories and mixed-signal real-world interfaces.

EEMBC cites that common methods to gauge energy efficiency are lacking in growth applications such as portable medical devices, security systems, building automation, smart metering, and also applications using energy harvesting devices. At Cadence, we are seeing huge growth in these areas which, along with intelligence being introduced into all kinds of previously "dumb" appliances, is becoming known as the "Internet of Things." Despite the difficulties, with which the parties involved are all deeply familiar, I applaud this initiative. While it may be difficult to get to apples-to-apples comparisons for energy consumption in these applications, most of the time today we don't even know where the grocery store is. If the EEMBC effort at least gets us to the produce department, we're going to be better off.

Pete Hardee 

Antenna matching in IoT and low power devices