Logic analyzer is a very useful tool for embedded system debugging. In many embedded-system magazines and on Web sites you’ll see advertisements for instrument “boxes” or pods that connect to a PC through a USB port. These devices capture digital and analogue signals that a host PC displays in a standard scope or logic-analyzer format. →
Mass Production of 450mm Wafers Bumped Back Again: 2018 article mentions that probably one of the most interesting presentations at HOPE9, “Indistinguishable From Magic: Manufacturing Modern Computer Chips,” covered modern semiconductor fabrication. It tells why these things are cool. View the video of the presentation from YouTube to see it yourself: Integrated circuit design is →
Community driven, Design Ideas have always resonated deeply with EDN magazine’s audience (including me), with their inspired, hands-on, practical, and useful circuit-design contributions. Readers’ Choice: Vote for your favorite Design Ideas article tells that to highlight those contributions magazine has collected the most-clicked-on Design Ideas published since January 2011. They want the readers to tell →
Power factor correction devices: Can they really reduce your electricity bill? article tells that so-called “Power Saver Devices” (known by different names) are nothing but Power Factor Correction (PFC) devices that would connect to the mains and improve power factor measured by your electricity meter. The so-called “Power Saving” device may be useful for industrial →
30 years of DSP: From a child’s toy to 4G and beyond article tells that this year, as TI celebrates its 30th year in the DSP market, that long-ago question has been answered many times over. Without DSP and the advances it has enabled in audio, graphics, and multimedia processing, there would be no digital →
Do you remember diode-transistor logic? Diode–transistor logic (DTL) was the direct ancestor of transistor–transistor logic. You could easily do OR and AND functions with diodes, and then use transistor for amplifying and implementing NOT function. Perform the XOR/XNOR function with a diode bridge and a transistor article shows you discrete DTL-like circuits that use an →
NASA’s expensive Mars exploration Curiosity rover is finally doing what it was created to do: rove. Following a successful wheel test, the probe moved forward. Photo Gallery: Curiosity Rover Makes First Tracks on Mars article tells that Curiosity beamed back some incredible images of its tracks, which tell scientists that the soil is firm, great →
Every summer we get thunderstorms, with the accompanying lightning. Last summer one ADSL modem and computer Ethernet interface I was using was destroyed by lighting. So I decided that an article on ADSL overvoltage protection would be a good idea. It took some time to get this article ready, but here it is. ADSL overvoltage →
A class-D amplifier or switching amplifier is an electronic amplifier where all power devices (usually MOSFETs) are operated as binary switches. They are either fully on or fully off. The term “class D” is sometimes misunderstood as meaning a “digital” amplifier. While some class D amps may indeed be controlled by digital circuits, the class →
Is electronics heading to be less and less hackable? DIY site iFixit has been keeping tabs on the tech world whilst providing handy self-repair guides for popular electronics. Now the site maintainers have seen trend that electronics products seem to become intentionally harder and harder to fix in recent years. The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, →