Amelia's Weekly Fish Fry

Best Little Podcast In Texas

Hello from the Lone Star State! Fish Fry is on the road this week, coming to you from beautiful Austin, Texas, "The Live Music Capital of The World". Nothing says Texas like a little digital signal processing, so we're going to chat live with Pierrick Vulliez (CTO and Founder - 4DSP) about FMCs, DSP, FPGAs, and a whole lot more. Wait, what am I doing in Austin while the Consumer Electronics Show is going on in Las Vegas? Never fear, we'll have a live report from Bryon Moyer, our reporter on the scene at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. I've got a surprise for ya'll, but you'll need to tune to find out what it is.

Breaking The Law

MEMS is everywhere. From your smartphone to your television to that gesture controlled game system that I didn’t get for Christmas. In honor of the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas next week, we’re talking about innovation in the MEMS marketplace. This week my first guests are Alissa Fitzgerald (AMFitzgerald) and Peter Himes (Silex). We’re gonna get down to brass tacks about MEMS and how you can get your next MEMS design up and running. Keeping with the MEMS theme, my second guest this week is Tom Flynn (Coventor). Tom and I talk about the tricky dance of EDA tools for MEMS designs. It's complicated, but Tom will show you the steps. Also this week, I’m giving everyone another chance to enter to win a Zedboard courtesy of Xilinx but you’ll have to listen to find out how you can win.

The Security Puzzle

There is no such thing as a zero security risk. No matter what you build and how you build it, there will be bad guys lurking at the door, trying to get in. This week my guest is Paul Kocher (Cryptography Research Inc.) and we're looking at the trends in security in WiFi-enabled designs and discussing how you can solve the puzzling security problems in your next design.

Also this week, I check out the new Pi Store and give everyone the chance to win a Zedboard courtesy of Xilinx.

EDA Crystal Ball

It's the slow decline of December. We’re wrapping up our projects, toiling away in expense reports, and lining up our ducks for 2013. Speaking of lining up ducks, we’re looking into the future this week - the future of EDA. Where in the heck is the tool market headed next year? How will recent major mergers and acquisitions affect the design tool landscape? My guest is Mike Gianfagna from Atrenta and we’re gonna talk about all of this and more. Also this week, I unveil the four mathametical equations for the perfect christmas tree, check out a new line of some seriously fancy-schmancy USB drives from Polish company Zana Design (64GB and it's made from a metorite?!), and give everyone another chance to win a copy of “FRAM for Dummies”.

It's A Semi Party!

We're having ourselves a grand ol' semiconductor party this week. Granted it may not be as fun as those corporate holiday get togethers that happen around this time of year, when Norma in accounting wears a lampshade on her head, and you slip that white elephant gift you "won" under the desk of your unsuspecting cube mate, but we're gonna have some serious fun nonetheless. This week my guest is Harrison Beasley (Technical Working Groups Manager - Global Semiconductor Alliance) and we're gonna lay down some serious chat about the past, present, and future of the semiconductor industry. Also this week I unveil my choice for Amelia's geeky stocking stuffer and announce a brand new nerdy giveaway.

Their Eyes Are Watching You

They’re watching you. They know if you’ve been bad or good. They know whether you really need that cashmere sweater at Macys. A new form of seeing eye mannequins may be coming to a storefront near you and you may never know they are there. In this week’s Fish Fry, we’re checking out some technological enahnced mannequins from Italian company Almax, while trying to decipher where exactly on the creep-o-meter this new product lies. Also this week, I interview ProPlus Design Systems executive Chairman Zhihong Lui about modeling tools, what their NanoYield solution is all about, and why his favorite tunes to play on the accordion  Russian. I have a brand new nerdy giveaway to throw your way this week, but you’ll have to listen to find out what it is and how to win.

Gesturing For Control

In honor of Black Friday, Fish Fry is storming the gates and grabbing all the embedded designs we can get our grubby little hands on. OK, not really. We're going to wait just one more year to buy that new touchscreen embedded design, because by then, touch might have already been taken right out of the equation. Yep, we’re talking about gesture control this week. My guest is Fanie Duvenhage (Director of Human Machine Interface Division at Microchip Technology). Fanie and I are going to explore what this new 3D gesture controller is all about, why this GestIC chip is different (and cooler) than current camera-based gesture recognition interfaces out there, and how you can get your hands on a GestIC development kit so you can start designing with one. Also this week, I give everyone one more chance to win a Spartan-6 LX9 Microboard courtesy of Xilinx.Also this week, I give everyone one more chance to win a Spartan-6 LX9 Microboards courtesy of Xilinx.

Making Waves (and Dust)

Have you ever had a project that you wanted to take out in the back 40 and smash to smithereens? No matter what you try, what route you take, what deadline you extend, it just ain’t working out right. Sometimes smashing your design to pieces is a good thing and makes you see that, in fact, something remarkable was sitting there the whole time and you just couldn’t see it the right way. In this week’s Fish Fry we’re checking out how a research team at Rice University smashed their silicon film design and, in the process, may have discovered a huge battery technology breakthrough. We’re also checking out the newest Raspberry Pi camera module released by RS Components and chatting with Mark Winters (Senior Director of the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE and Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE) about the trends in MEMS in medical and consumer devices, and what the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE and the Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE are all about. Also this week, I announce my plans for December 8th and give away one more (this is your last chance!) Spartan-6 LX9 Microboards courtesy of Xilinx.

MEMS the Word

Did you know that there are now more connected devices than people in the world? One of the biggest motivating factors pushing innovative development in these connected devices is MEMS. This week we're checking out all the nerdy goodness that the 2012 MEMS Executive Congress has to offer. I chat with a couple of the winners of the MEMS Technology Showcase about how their new products are launching an era of "MEMS Inside the Machine". I also talk with Benedetto Vigna (STMicroelectronics) about the trends in MEMS-enabled designs, where STMicroelectronics fits into the MEMS ecosystem, and where in the world you'll find the best skiing. Also this week, I review "Stuff You May Have Missed" (MEMS Executive Congress Edition) and give everyone another chance to win an LX9 Spartan-6 MicroBoard courtesy of Xilinx.

14 Nanometers and Counting

The next process node is coming faster and faster with every passing press release. This week we’re taking a closer look at the brand new 14nm test chip rolled out by Cadence, ARM, and IBM, and we’re looking into the new nanotube memory technology being developed by IMEC and Nantero. Speaking of breaking new ground, my guest this week is Brad Quinton (Tektronix) and we’re going to chat about the most recent developments in FPGA Prototyping, what Brad sees as the biggest problems for FPGA prototyping today, and why embedded instrumentation can be more effective than physical instruments. Also this week, I dig into Amelia’s Mailbag and give everyone the chance to win an LX9 Spartan-6 MicroBoard courtesy of Xilinx.