An FPGA is like an older gate array, but the metal interconnections between the gate array logic elements are replaced by SRAM fabric that is infinitely flexible and doesn’t wear out. This fabric allows you to use the same FPGA to implement a myriad of digital circuits. Explore FPGAs and how to address their challenges like reprogramming the SRAM every time you power up.
Mentoring high school students through innovative and educational mentor-based programs like FIRST enables Cardinal Peak engineers to inspire the STEM workers of tomorrow.
You’ll find that a lot of engineers like to tinker. In addition to the projects we work on for clients or employers, a lot of us like to put our skills to the test when it comes to our own homes, too. In my case, I wanted to try my hand at creating a home…
I had the pleasure of attending a few segments of Boulder Startup Week, a weeklong event just down the road from Cardinal Peak dedicated to helping startups become successful. Startup Week brings innovators, entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors together to talk about how startups can create the right culture, find funding, bring a product to market,…
Texas Instruments DaVinci™ series offers a range of processors optimized for digital video processing. Although not appropriate for broadcast video, they are well suited for a number of other video applications. TI offers evaluation modules (EVMs), software development kits (SDKs) and reference DVR design kits (RDKs) that allow a company to jumpstart its development effort.…
We’ve had the pleasure to work with Texas Instruments’ high-end video processor families (DM8168 and DM8148) over the past few years on a number of different projects. These are highly integrated Systems-on-Chip (SoC) that contain many independent subsystems such as an ARM Cortex CPU, a DSP, video compression/decompression engines, a 3D graphics accelerator, and a…
My last post suggested ways to reduce parts costs in a low-to-mid volume product. This post explores ways to keep development costs low while still creating a cost-effective product. You can?t escape the fact that it takes money to create a low cost product. It is estimated that the first version of the iPhone had…
I take it as a given that when a client approaches us with a new embedded product idea, they will require a very demanding set of features and a minimal price tag. The ?minimal price tag? part always applies to the development effort required. For products with a hardware component, it also applies to the…