Frank Riemenschneider

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank Riemenschneider (born June 30, 1965 in Hanover ) is editor-in-chief of the specialist magazines 'Elektronik', 'Elektronik Automotive' and 'Elektronik NEO' and also a microelectronics analyst, technology conference organizer and non-fiction author on computer topics.

author

Parallel to his studies in electrical engineering at the University of Hanover wrote Riemenschneider between 1980 and 1990 in the era of Commodore computers eight books on programming the Commodore 64 and Amiga , one of which in particular in & Market Technik Verlag published C64 / C128: Everything About machine language and Amiga: programming in machine language to standard works for assembler programming of the Commodore computers.

Riemenschneider published the fastest algorithms developed for these computers for the creation of high-resolution graphics that worked up to 400 × faster than the methods proposed by the manufacturer.

As an author for computer magazines, he developed the fastest accelerators published for the Commodore 64 and the VC1541 floppy for data transfer between computer and floppy. The floppy disk copying program “Master-Copy Plus” (Issue 2/89; pages 28, 30–33), published in the computer magazine 64'er , was the first and only software that was able to copy a floppy disk in 55 seconds using the standard serial bus without the use of any additional hardware . Six months after the publication of “Master-Copy Plus” a version “Master-Copy Parallel” followed, which made a disk copy in under 20 seconds with the help of a parallel bus cable. This is the fastest time ever on a Commodore 64.

The algorithms used in both programs for data transfer between computer and floppy were then also used in professional products. After the Amiga was published , Riemenschneider also wrote articles for the Amiga magazine .

job

After completing his studies (Dipl.-Ing.) And working in industry, Riemenschneider switched to the trade journal Elektronik in July 2007 , where he was responsible for the resort microelectronics. His regular, technically in-depth analyzes of the z. B. Cortex-A processors from ARM used in smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices , the Atom processors from Intel and microcontrollers , especially with processor cores of the ARM Cortex-M and Renesas Electronics RX types . In September 2015, Riemenschneider took over the management of the trade magazine 'DESIGN & ELEKTRONIK', which has been growing steadily ever since and has doubled the editorial staff in just 18 months. In-depth technical analyzes of microelectronic components are sold to all relevant industrial customers. Riemenschneider is also a member of the Steering Committee and organizer of the 'Embedded World' conference in Nuremberg, which takes place every year at the same time as the trade fair of the same name and which had around 2,100 participants in 2018.

Analysis of the iPhone processor Apple A6

Block diagram of Apple's Swift microarchitecture, as presented on July 9, 2013 at the ARM Systems Development Conference.

A lecture on the Apple A6 processor used in the iPhone 5 , which Riemenschneider gave on July 9, 2013 at the ARM developer conference in Munich organized by ARM and WEKA Fachmedien GmbH , attracted a lot of attention . Since Apple itself had not published any information about this, Riemenschneider hacked an iPhone 5 by jailbreaking in order to be able to download and run specially developed apps on it. From the results, Riemenschneider drew conclusions about the micro -architecture of the A6 named by Apple Swift , e.g. B. on the number of instruction decoders, the number and type of execution units and the length of the pipeline. The block diagram presented by Swift in his lecture (see Apple A6 # microarchitecture and illustration) is the only publication of this kind to date. During his lecture, however, Riemenschneider had to admit that it would be impossible without Apple to work with details such as B. determine the size of buffers for dynamic branch prediction.

Analysis of the iPhone processor Apple A7

Block diagram of Apple's 64-bit Cyclone micro-architecture

On March 31, 2014, Riemenschneider was the first journalist to ever publish an analysis of the Apple A7 processor used in the iPhone 5S . Since Apple had only released little information about this, Riemenschneider hacked an iPhone 5S by jailbreaking in order to be able to download and run specially developed apps on it. From the results, Riemenschneider drew conclusions about the microarchitecture of the A7 named by Apple Cyclone , e.g. B. on the number of instruction decoders, the number and type of execution units and the length of the pipeline. The block diagram presented by Cyclone (see Apple A7 # microarchitecture and illustration) is the only publication of its kind to date.

Forecast of the iPhone processor Apple A8

On September 1, 2014, 9 days before the official launch of the iPhone 6 , Riemenschneider published a detailed forecast of the Apple A8 processor used, as well as the wireless chips, memory and chip production. In doing so, Riemenschneider met exactly the CPU, GPU, chip production, modem, WiFi, transceiver, NFC chip and NAND memory used. Only in the die size (112 instead of 89 mm²), the number of transistors (2 billion instead of 1.3 billion) and the CPU clock frequency (1.6 instead of 1.4 GHz) was Riemenschneider wrong. Compared to other German-speaking media that z. Some of them predicted clock frequencies of 2 GHz and more, the predicted deviation was, however, comparatively small.

Private

Riemenschneider lives in Munich.

Works

  • Implementation of integrated management systems . Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-8244-0566-0 .
  • Maximum warp. The special issue for OS / 2 newcomers . AWi-Inside-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Trostberg 1994, DNB  94425036X .
  • OS / 2, version 2, Workplace Shell . te-wi, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-89362-290-X .
  • HP95LX Palmtop PC . Markt-und-Technik, Haar near Munich 1991, ISBN 3-87791-250-8 .
  • Portfolio programming practice . Markt-und-Technik, Haar near Munich 1991, ISBN 3-87791-020-3 .
  • Debugging made easy - TurboDebugger in Pascal and Assembler . Markt-und-Technik, Haar near Munich 1990, ISBN 3-89090-302-9 .
  • Amiga - programming in machine language . Markt-und-Technik, Haar near Munich 1989, ISBN 3-89090-712-1 .
  • C64 / C128: Everything about machine language . Markt-und-Technik, Haar near Munich 1988, ISBN 3-89090-571-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 64'er Magazin 02/1989, Application of the Month, Die Kopiermaschine - Master Copy Plus, page 30
  2. ^ Conference for ARM system development.
  3. ↑ Apple's “Cyclone” CPU architecture revealed. Report to Elektroniknet.de from March 31, 2014.
  4. ↑ Our forecast for Apple's A8 chip in the iPhone 6. Report at Elektroniknet.de from September 1, 2014.
  5. ↑ These are the chips in the new iPhone 6 Plus. Report to Elektroniknet.de from September 19, 2014.
  6. ↑ The photo proves: Apple-A8 with GPU PowerVR GX6650. Report to Elektroniknet.de from September 10, 2014.
  7. ↑ Apple iPhone 6: are these the technical data? Report at www.cnet.de from September 9, 2014.
  8. ↑ iPhone 6: Apple A8 SoC with 2.0 to 2.6 GHz, but still only as a dual core? Report at www.pcgameshardware.de from July 12, 2014.
  9. ↑ Report: These are the key data of the Apple A8 SoC for the iPhone 6. Report at www.maclife.de from July 11, 2014.
  10. ↑ How good will the iPhone 6 be? Report at www.focus.de from September 9, 2014.
  11. ↑ Rumors roundup: More battery capacity for the "iPhone 6", A8 chip with 2 GHz and no sapphire glass. Report at www.heise.de from August 7, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Riemenschneider, Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German editor and non-fiction author
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover