Embedded Systems Design, February 2006

February 1, 2006

VOL. 19 NO. 2 February 2006 Table of Contents

Understanding elliptic-curve cryptography by Rob Lambert Cryptography is important in more ways than one. Even the density of the encrypted data can be as important as its security. See how this encryption scheme serves both needs. Program flash memory with parallel flash loaders and CPLDs by Theresa Vu Flash memory chips are common, but loading them up with code or data is still a trick. This how-to article shows you how FPGA chips can accelerate flash loading. Choosing hardware IP by Rick Mosher Designing your own chip is hard enough without having to worry about your third-party IP supply. This guide helps ASIC and ASSP designers through the minefield of evaluating and selecting hardware IP for their important projects. Improve your root-mean calculations by Brian Neunaber With Newton's help and a few improvements, real-time digital systems can find root-means efficiently. Break Points A call for modern compilers by Jack G. Ganssle Why aren't programming tools as good as word processors? Surely code developers deserve better than this. #include Maybe we're all crazy by Jim Turley Design for the worst customer you can imagine and listen carefully to the marketing folks. In embedded systems, the best engineered design does not always win.