The office is dark, but the work goes on

Posted on by Jay Adams

Well, 2020 has certainly thrown the world into chaos. Here in Pennsylvania, all “non-essential” businesses have been asked to close or work remotely during the Covid19 pandemic. This makes it difficult for our employees to physically access our state of the art lab; however, we are fully able to support our customers’ ongoing needs.

Foresys has always utilized secure VPN access for our employees, but beyond that, our office is nearly fully managed remotely. All of our compute servers are managed as virtual machines using VMWares Vcenter platform, where we can monitor, backup, restore, clone, and upgrade our virtual servers all remotely. Our labs are outfitted with remote KVMs and remote power switches that allow us to power-cycle and access nearly all of our clients’ prototypes for validation. Conveniently, several of our projects involve multi-camera processing, which enables us to “see” our lab from many different angles. Even, our IP phones are remotely managed. We were already making full use of Microsoft Teams for web conferences, so keeping in touch with clients was easy too.

We utilize monitoring software that continuously checks all of our critical systems, ensuring that we are alerted of any issue with our network-connected equipment. Power monitoring software monitors the utility power and will shut-down our systems if an extended outage occurs, and will properly bring up the systems when the power is restored.

The point is that we were already prepared for this unpredictable event. We lost no ground on our ongoing customer projects. While we can’t control how this might affect our industry, we can and do remain fully ready to support all of our clients.

Stay well!

I think I am seeing Double

Posted on by Jay Adams

Or perhaps I’m seeing many, many more than double…

“Parallel Reality” is here. Did you catch this article from Geekwire? This article describes a breakthrough technology from one of our more interesting clients, Misapplied Sciences. They are pioneers in “Parallel Reality” technology. They have demonstrated a display technology that allows different observers to look at the same display and yet see entirely different content – without goggles. Watching their products in action is truly mind-blowing. Its been a privilege to work with their team to bring this paradigm-shifting product to light.  I can’t wait to see the new applications that these products will enable. Congratulations Misapplied Sciences!

FPGAs are driving cars

Posted on by Jay Adams

I told you so

OK, well maybe in not exactly in those words.  Back in 2013, I penned a blog post that asked a rhetorical question “Who would want to connect a camera to an FPGA?”.  My answer was “wait 10 years and see”.  Well, one answer is coming a little sooner than that.  Less than 5 years later, you may have noticed that some automobile manufacturers are putting autonomous vehicles on the road.  These cars have lots of cameras to collect live images from the world around them.  Most of these cameras are high resolution MIPI-CSI2 cameras and they need to run at a respectable frame rate.  How do they aggregate and process all this information?  Hmmm.  What device could stream that much information and process it real-time…?  Yes, FPGAs can and they do it very well.

Since I feel like asking rhetorical questions, what design services company has the experience to integrate the hardware design, FPGA Design, and software design needed to work with technology like this?  Of course its Foresys.  We’ve done it many times and we can help you do the same.

Foresys can see right through you

Posted on by Jay Adams

Foresys can see right through you.

Well, technically we help your doctor see through you.  Philips Medical has some amazing new technology in its new Vereos Digital PET/CT System and Foresys is proud to say that we have been an important resource for Philips to rely on for expert design services.  While I do not look forward to needing the use of this advanced technology, if it happens that I do, I hope that my doctor has access to one of these…

Dock that MacBook!

Posted on by Jay Adams

When you think of Apple and Docking, you should think of Hengedocks.  Foresys helped design the electronics for their latest product.

Foresys created the electronics, which included Intel’s Thunderbolt  interface.  Foresys is licensed by Intel to develop with the Thunderbolt interface.  If you are looking for a partner to develop high speed interfaces, like Thunderbolt, contact Foresys.

Not all radars point to the sky

Posted on by Jay Adams

Not all radars point to the sky. Not when you are US Radar. They make state-of-the-art Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) . Instead of searching for airplanes or thunderstorms in the sky, US Radar designs equipment that can peer through solid ground to reveal what is hidden beneath.  There are many applications.  Foresys was fortunate to be chosen to help them create their flagship product. There is some fascinating technology that is employed to make that industry leading product.

FPGAs, image sensors, and cameras

Posted on by Jay Adams

Cameras are everywhere.  I can remember when I thought to myself: “Who would ever want a camera in a cell phone?” I had the narrow view of my use of a camera – given my bulky SLR with a lens as big as my forearm.  A cell phone could never come close to that quality so I would never use it.

Just over 10 years have passed and clearly – things have changed.

Cell phone picture quality is still nowhere near my 10lb camera setup, but its darn good. But the key is that my cell phone is always with me. I take MANY more pictures on my cell phone than I do with my SLR.  I also take pictures of things I would have never dreamed of (product serial numbers, business cards, things I need to remember to buy, automatically checking the price of something by taking a picture of the barcode, etc…). I use the camera all the time.

What does this have to do with Foresys and our Expert Design Services? I’ll get to the point. FPGAs are outstanding low-power data processing wonders and they are well suited to connect to nearly any device. Foresys has already shown how well sensors can connect to FPGAs via the various interfaces, such as cameralink and MIPI.

Who would want to connect a camera to an FPGA?  Wait 10 years and see.

Foresys Becomes a Member of the Altera Design Services Network

Posted on by Jay Adams

Foresys has become a member of the newly formed Altera Design Services Network.

From Altera’s press release:

“The Design Services Network evolved out of Altera’s existing Certified Design Center (CDC) and Altera Consultants Alliance Program (ACAP) which collectively had 144 members in 33 countries. By combining these programs into a single program, Altera customers can more easily identify and engage with design service providers based on their specific project needs. Further, the program gives members streamlined access to Altera tools, IP, development kits and product knowledge to offer customers more efficient support. The program is expanding globally to provide customers with more timely and local design support for a range of services from feasibility studies and device selection to architecture development and system-level product design.

Each DSN member goes through a qualification process to ensure they have experience designing with Altera products, tools and IP, as well as differentiated application or technology expertise before they are invited to join the program. For complete information about the Design Services Program”