Engineering articles

At a high level, JPEG is a lossy image compression technique. What you may not realize is that achieving this required a fascinating blend of human perception, elegant signal processing, and clever engineering prowess.

Let's begin with a visual challenge: What are the colors of the tiles marked as A and B in the image?

Despite continuous improvements, processors haven't had industry shifting advancements for a long time. Yes, transistors are smaller, chips have gotten faster, and performance has increased hundredfold, but we're starting to see diminishing returns... learn what 3D integration, FPGAs, and near memory computing are all about.

In this third installment we explore how the physics of how transistors work, how their individual components are built in silicon, and how they are connected to create useful circuits and chips. How do you transform a pile of sand into an advanced processor? Let's find out.

Now that we know how processors work at a high level, it's time to dig inside to understand how the internal components are designed. In part 2 we'll discuss transistors, logic gates, power and clock delivery, design synthesis, and verification.