Of course, it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that I hope that you spend each and every day with your nose pressed firmly against your computer screen eagerly awaiting the next fantastic column to appear on All Programmable Planet. And even if you can’t do that, the least I expect is that you come back to visit at least once a day.
Having said this, I fully understand that work does have an annoying habit of getting in the way of the fun stuff, which makes it so easy to miss something really interesting. Thus, for your delectation and delight, below please find a brief roundup of some of the fantastic columns that were posted on All Programmable Planet last week:
Ask Max: FPGAs With Processor Cores
In this Ask Max column, we consider implementing soft and hard processor cores in FPGAs, all in addition to traditional programmable fabric, of course.
Is the 8051 MCU Still in the Game?
Jacek Hanke considers the evolution of the 8051 MCU, from its simple beginnings with a maximum clock speed of 12MHz, to today's IP cores that can be implemented in FPGAs or ASICs and that can run at up to 300MHz.
It All Started More Than 40 Years Ago...
After more than 40 years in the electronics industry, Sven Anderson has a lot of interesting stories to tell.
Ask Adam VHDL: Sensitivity Lists & Simulation
If you are new to the VHDL hardware description language (HDL) and want to know things like the difference between a signal and a variable, then read on…
World's First Heterogeneous 3D FPGA
The new Virtex-7 H580T is heterogeneous in nature, because it contains two FPGA dice along with a separate die boasting 8 x 28.05 Gbit/s transceivers.
What's Next? The Next Step
Are the FPGA manufacturers going to win the market by putting MCUs on their devices? Alternatively, will the MCU guys add some programmable fabric to offer customers much wider application coverage and better-utilized devices?
Ask Max: Look Out for Lookup Tables!
In this "Ask Max" column, we peer deeper inside the FPGA's programmable fabric to discover just how the lookup tables perform their magic.
All Programmable Planet Crossword #1
All of the answers to the clues in this crossword can be found in the previous week’s columns on All Programmable Planet (Monday, May 21, through Friday, May 25).
Why Use the 8-Bit PicoBlaze Soft Processor Core?
Xilinx has a free 8-bit soft processor core called the PicoBlaze, but what is the PicoBlaze? And can anything that's free really be any good?
Mind the FPGA Gap
The name, "field-programmable gate array," has outlived its usefulness, because modern devices can do so much more than their ancestors. Is it time for a new appellation?
Discovering FPGAs: Opening the Package
Microcontroller expert Duane Benson learns all about FPGAs using a Xilinx Spartan-6-based development board. In this issue he opens the development board package.
Ask Max: ASICs vs. ASSPs vs. SoCs vs. FPGAs
Is an SoC an ASIC, or vice versa? What's the difference between an ASIC and an ASSP? Should a high-end FPGA be classed as a form of SoC?
Out of all of the columns above, which would you say were your favorites, and what were the things you most liked about them?
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