Streamlining chip design

In the same way that computing power moved from mainframes to the desktop in the 1980s, it’s now moving from the desktop to handheld devices. But that’s putting new demands on chip designers. Because handhelds are battery powered, energy conservation is at a premium, and many routine tasks that would be handled by software in a PC are instead delegated to special-purpose processors that do just one thing very efficiently. At the same time, handhelds are now so versatile that not everything can be hardwired: Some functions have to be left to software.

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