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With Intel poised to release computer chips with a clock speed of 2 GHz this quarter, some analysts say business PC users will have access to more computing power than […]

Respect For Embedded Microprocessors: This one, at least, seems like it will come true. In the past weeks, analysts and industry executives have used terms like "correction," and "downturn," while […]

First Gateway announced that its sales dropped 30% compared to last year during the crucial Thanksgiving weekend, leading to lowered profit expectations for the quarter. Then Intel, citing cancellations of […]

The POWER3 processor is a high-performance microprocessor which excels at technical computing. Designed by IBM and deployed in various IBM RS/6000[R] systems, the superscalar RISC POWER3 processor boasts many advanced features which give it exceptional performance on challenging applications from the workstation to the supercomputer level. In this paper, we describe the microarchitectural features of the POWER3 processor, particularly those which are unique or significant to the performance of the chip, such as the data prefetch engine, nonblocking and interleaved data cache, and dual multiply-add-fused floating-point execution units. Additionally, the performance of specific instruction sequences and kernels is described to quantify and further illuminate the performance attributes of the POWER3 processor.

One of the most critical choices facing embedded system designers is the choice of microprocessor (MPU). There are two divergent trends in the embedded MPU market today and the designer […]

Underwater a year ago, the chip industry is in the swim again. And PLD manufacturers are one group of chip makers with a particularly impressive kick. Murray Disman, who puts […]

Kanata, Ontario, Canada-System-on-a-chip technology enables high- performance, high-bandwidth solutions that were unthinkable only a few short years ago. The ability to combine microprocessor, logic and memory on a single chip […]

The need for composite flexible fiber reinforced pipe (FFRP) becomes more critical as the industry moves out to 3,000 m (9,842 ft) water depths. Earlier generations of fiberglass reinforced plastic [...]

ONE OF ALICE AND BILL'S main jobs writing 'The Hard Edge' is to soundly ring the warning bell whenever a new technology trend comes along. Today's Trend Gone Wrong serves […]

George Gilder, in his book Microcosm: the Quantum Revolution in Economics and Technology, believes that the US economic system, based on free enterprise, makes it possible for imaginative entrepreneurs to make technological contributions. Gilder believes that US technological expertise is essential to US economic health and that the position of the US as an information producer is its strength. Gilder feels that other countries can do the physical work of developing products and, in effect, subsidize the US economy with with cheap commodities. In the area of random access memory chips, foreign producers are now welded to an expensive and inflexible position of producing a commodity at a loss while US information technology manufacturers use the subsidy provided by cheap chips to pour more resources into research and development., George Gilder Essays the Electron FATE, CHANCE, A WILLINGNESS TO take risks. The quote is from George Gilder's Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution in Economics and Technology (Simon & Schuster; $19.95). [...]

The next leap in computer performance may come from letting computer processors reconfigure themselves to operate more efficiently. Such a computer would be equipped with FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays). Computer [...]