Gig Economy

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Gig economy refers to the way many people work in the internet age. Instead of a more traditional system where a worker works full time for only one employer, some workers choose to enter the gig economy for the flexibility, freedom and personal fulfillment it provides them.

In a gig economy, temporary, flexible jobs are commonplace and companies tend toward hiring independent contractors and freelancers instead of full time employees. A gig economy undermines the traditional economy of full time workers who rarely change positions and instead focus on a lifetime career.
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How to design a clock divide-by-3 circuit with 50% duty cycle?

Engineering , 0 Comments

3This content is from the following blog:
vlsiwizard.blogspot.com/2008/01/design-clock-divide-by-3-circuit-with.html

The basic insight was to notice that if you are doing a divide by 3 and want to keep the duty cycle at 50% you have to use the falling edge of the clock as well.

The trick is how to come up with a minimal design, implementing as little as possible flip-flops, logic and guaranteeing glitch free divided clock.
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Common FPGA interview questions

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fpgaI compiled some of the common FPGA interview questions I encountered over the years while seeking digital design positions:

1. FIFO depth calculation

How do you calculate the depth of the FIFO you need?

Fifo depth calculation:
Write clk freq – Fw
Read clk freq – Fr
Writing burst size: B
Idle clk cycle # for reading side – I

Fifo depth = B – B * Fr/(Fw*I)

Another approach (example with actual numbers): More

Is SDN a threat to large network equipment manufacturers?

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is_sdn_a_threatI think the short answer is yes. Cisco and others have developed strategies to deal with this threat, but fundamentally, the main idea under SDN and the promises it holds are incompatible with the existing platforms of these large network equipment providers, and their existing business models.

By decoupling the control plane and the data plane in the complex networking equipment, SDN (Software Defined Networking) makes it possible to simplify the design and development of computer networking hardware. It moves the complex control plane decisions to a remote server, and leaves only the physical layer and a limited layer 2 functionality in the networking hardware itself. It embodies all the recent trends in the computer industry such as the open source software development and cloud computing. Moving the control plane to a remote server is similar to the idea behind cloud computing, and the OpenFlow and OpenStack software that are widely used in the SDN networking equipment are open source software, which means anyone can use them to develop their own flavor of a network switch.
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Designing Interfaces

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designing_interfacesThe most important part of a digital system design is the interfaces. Each piece in the system, whether it is a device purchased from a vendor, or a re-used design clip that consists of multiple devices and their interconnects, or a programmable device such as an FPGA will probably be okay on their own. But what makes it a system is the interconnect of all these pieces. And that is where things go wrong.

There are various aspects of interface design. Let’s look at them one by one.

IO Technology

Designer needs to make sure that the IO driver and receiver technologies are compatible between two sides. For differential signalling, there are various IO technologies available, such as LVDS, LVPECL, CML, HSCL, etc to name a few. More

Hiring Consultants

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handshake isolated on business background
handshake isolated on business background

There are many things people should be aware of when hiring consultants for technical work.

First and the foremost, the most important thing about the technical consultant is their technical abilities of course. You shouldn’t have any doubt in your mind that the person can handle the job. Electrical and computer engineering is a vast field. There are many sub fields that fall under the general field of “electrical and computer engineering”, and nobody can be an expert in all of them. So the person’s background, education and experience should be taken into account to make sure they can handle your project. But, they do not have to be someone who has done something exactly like your project in the past. They just need to be someone with a background that prepares them for your project.
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