Blog Post
What is an FPGA and How Does It Work?
A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is a gate array where static random-access memories (SRAM) based fabric replaces metal interconnections between logic elements. It’s infinitely flexible and doesn’t wear out. Our engineer addresses key FPGA programming challenges, like how to avoid reprogramming the SRAM every time you power up.
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Blog Post
Negative Zero
My wife brings up the following story any time she wants to make the point that I’m pedantic: When one of my daughters was in second grade, her math teacher told the class that any number divided by zero was one. I dashed off an impassioned email to the teacher, insisting that the result had…
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Blog Post
Sometimes, Noise Helps
I’ve been working on a fun problem lately that involves estimating a scalar parameter from a set of repeated observations. It turns out that in certain circumstances, the presence of noise in the system can actually make the estimate more accurate, which is a little counterintuitive and also kind of cool. In my case, I…
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Blog Post
Why Sample Size and Random Sampling Matters
Recently we tweeted an interesting article on big data, from the Financial Times. The author’s key point is that sampling bias and sampling error are possible even with large data sets. As illustration, the author discusses a classic case where the Literary Digest incorrectly predicted that Alf Landon would beat FDR in the 1936 election….
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Blog Post
Choosing the Correct Video Sampling Format
We’re a little late in posting this, but I wrote a blog entry for EDN last week that discusses how to choose the correct video sampling format. An excerpt: To process signals digitally, they must first be sampled and quantized. Sampling refers to measuring the light intensity at discrete space-time points, while quantization is the…
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