There has certainly been no scarcity of wireless industry sensationalism over emerging 4G technologies, but today's post on The Register - LTE set to spank WiMAX takes it into a new realm. Perhaps it has something to do with the British sense of humor on this cheeky IT-related website, but since the author is based in San Francisco you can form your own conclusion on the source of the S&M analogy.
These type of sensational headlines do nothing but detract from any objective discussion of the changing wireless landscape, and how it will enhance consumer experiences. The facts are that WiMax is becoming available now in several U.S. markets, with Clearwire's launch in Baltimore, Portland and Atlanta. LTE will be here a year or two later. Great! Both technologies hold the promise of significantly faster than DSL speeds, for fixed and mobile applications. Personally, I can't wait to break the restraints of my sluggish, sub-Mbps AT&T DSL... and I live in the heart of silicon valley! (Couldn't resist throwing in my own S&M pun there). :-)
WiMax will be Sprint/Clearwire's 4G platform, and LTE will be the platform for ATT, Verizon et al. WiMax should continue to get faster as it moves to IEEE 802.16m, while the (yet-to-launch in the U.S.) LTE eventually moves to LTE-advanced. What's the problem?
Anyone with any inkling of the history of the wireless industry knows better than to ever expect a single global standard. Competition is always good, and there's no need to characterize it as "make or break". As technology advances, we all win.
-Mike
These type of sensational headlines do nothing but detract from any objective discussion of the changing wireless landscape, and how it will enhance consumer experiences. The facts are that WiMax is becoming available now in several U.S. markets, with Clearwire's launch in Baltimore, Portland and Atlanta. LTE will be here a year or two later. Great! Both technologies hold the promise of significantly faster than DSL speeds, for fixed and mobile applications. Personally, I can't wait to break the restraints of my sluggish, sub-Mbps AT&T DSL... and I live in the heart of silicon valley! (Couldn't resist throwing in my own S&M pun there). :-)
WiMax will be Sprint/Clearwire's 4G platform, and LTE will be the platform for ATT, Verizon et al. WiMax should continue to get faster as it moves to IEEE 802.16m, while the (yet-to-launch in the U.S.) LTE eventually moves to LTE-advanced. What's the problem?
Anyone with any inkling of the history of the wireless industry knows better than to ever expect a single global standard. Competition is always good, and there's no need to characterize it as "make or break". As technology advances, we all win.
-Mike
The program for this year's Design Automation Conference in San Francisco was published this week, including several interesting sessions on analog/mixed-signal design. On Tuesday July 28, at 2:30pm, there will be a Pavilion panel discussion on the topic "Will Interoperable PDKs Fly in a Stodgy Analog World?". (Excuse me... exactly what is stodgy about analog?). The session was organized by Synopsys, and it is very interesting to see that a representative from Cadence will be on the panel, given that they have referred to interoperable PDKs as the "lowest common denominator" for pcell design.
In any case, here is the description published for the bipolar DAC panel:
After the bipolar disorders are accounted for... also on Wednesday July 29, at 4:30pm, there is a panel on "Guess, Solder, Measure, Repeat – How Do I Get My Mixed-Signal Chip Right?", jointly organized by Cadence and Synopsys.
This panel discusses one of my favorite topics: "the state of affairs in analog-mixed signal verification". (One can assume this has nothing to do with who is sleeping with whom. Hey, this is stodgy AMS... right?).
-Mike
On Wednesday July 29, at 3:00pm, another Pavilion panel has the topic "The AMS Revival: Bipolar Thinking?". Hmm, first analog is stodgy... and now we're bipolar? Hey, what's up with that? You've got to be careful with casting aspersions to mental disorders these days. The politically-correct crowd has gotten all over the Psycho Donuts shop here in silicon valley recently. (Don't they know there's no such thing as bad publicity?)
Will Interoperable PDKs Fly in a Stodgy Analog World?Speakers:Ed Lechner - Synopsys, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Bill Heiser - Cadence Design Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA
Tom Quan - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., San Jose, CA
In any case, here is the description published for the bipolar DAC panel:
The AMS Revival: Bipolar Thinking?
Experts from semiconductor, EDA and ESL debate the essentials of mixed-signal/software co-design and what is needed in ESL to bring AMS on-board. They will discuss bridging the gap between AMS and digital design, improving AMS designer productivity, design methodologies, and AMS features in HDLs and SystemC.
Oh how I love the smell of solder in the morning! Sorry.. I drifted off there for a moment. (Apologies to Francis Ford Coppola).Speakers:Martin Barnasconi - NXP Semiconductors, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Mike Woodward - The MathWorks, Inc., Natick, MA
David Smith - Synopsys, Inc., Hillsboro, OR
After the bipolar disorders are accounted for... also on Wednesday July 29, at 4:30pm, there is a panel on "Guess, Solder, Measure, Repeat – How Do I Get My Mixed-Signal Chip Right?", jointly organized by Cadence and Synopsys.
This panel discusses one of my favorite topics: "the state of affairs in analog-mixed signal verification". (One can assume this has nothing to do with who is sleeping with whom. Hey, this is stodgy AMS... right?).
Guess, Solder, Measure, Repeat – How Do I Get My Mixed-Signal Chip Right?There is more on AMS in the DAC technical sessions, which you can check out on the DAC website. I know many of the panelists participating in these sessions, so I expect to see some very interesting discussions.Speakers:Georges Gielen - Katholieke Univ., Leuven, Belgium
Martin O'Leary - Cadence Design Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA
Eric Grimme - Intel Corp., Hillsboro, OR
Sandeep Tare - Texas Instruments, Inc., Dallas, TX
Warren Wong - Synopsys, Inc., Mountain View, CA
-Mike
