https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/optoelectronics/chip-hall-of-fame-texas-instruments-digital-micromirror-device Today movie projectors based on this digital light-processing technology—or DLP, as TI branded it—are used in thousands of theaters. It’s also integral to rear-projection TVs, office projectors, and tiny projectors for cellphones. →
https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/chip-hall-of-fame-acorn-computers-arm1-processor Unsatified with the processors then available on the market, the Acorn engineers decided to make the leap to creating their own 32-bit microprocessor. ARM1 was released in 1985. They called it the Acorn RISC Machine, or ARM. In 1990, Acorn spun off its ARM division, and the ARM architecture went on to become the dominant →
https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/devices/chip-hall-of-fame-intersil-icl8038-waveform-generator Intersil’s ICL8038 integrated circuit was designed to meet the need for a convenient way to obtain a precise waveform, capable of simultaneously generating sine, square, and sawtooth waveforms with only a few supporting external components. After some time 8038 became a major hit. I remember that IC because I used it for my first function generator I →
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/the-practicing-instrumentation-engineer/4418080/Shields-are-your-friend–except-when-?utm_content=buffer6cce1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer Engineers just love to put shields on circuits, mostly as a defensive measure against signals on the outside getting into and disturbing our circuits, but they also keep signals inside from getting out and this really makes the folks responsible for EMI compliance happy. So what could go wrong? Well 10 years ago, not →
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4458585/How-to-pre-test-your-product-s-antenna?utm_content=bufferf9cb7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer Your wireless product’s end-to-end success dictates that your customers will rely on your antennas to perform well in their system. Most hardware and software is thoughtfully tested before sale or deployment, but why are so many antennas ignored? There is no reason to defer or ignore your antenna evaluation; help is available. This article →
http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/chip-hall-of-fame The stories of the greatest and most influential microchips in history—and the people who built them. →
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_connector A banana connector is a single-wire (one conductor) electrical connector used for joining wires to equipment. The term 4 mm connector is also used, especially in Europe,because the pin’s diameter is nominally 4 millimetres (0.16 in).The pin has one or more lengthwise springs that bulge outwards slightly, giving the appearance of a banana. The original plug consists of a cylindrical metal pin about 20 millimetres (0.79 in) long.However other →
I need power supplies for different eletronics circuits. I decided to get some cheap switch mode power supply modules 5Pcs Mini DC Adjustable Power Supply Buck Module Step Down Module (available also as single unit). The ideas was to try to use them instead of power wasting traditional linear regulators. 5Pcs Mini DC Adjustable Power →
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/design/bespoke-processors-cheap-lowpower-chips-that-only-do-whats-needed This article tells about interesting approach to processor design: Starting with a Texas Instruments openMSP430, they produced bespoke designs. “Our approach was to figure out all the hardware that an application is guaranteed not to use irrespective of the input,” says Kumar. What’s left is “a union, or superset, of all possible paths that data →
http://www.edn.com/design/led/4442091/LED-current-regulator-has-low-dropout?utm_content=buffer1967d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer This article has an intetesting LED current regulator circuit idea built using transistors. The voltage drop on the current sensing resistor r is less than 40mV. The nominal LED current here is 7.2 mA at 9V. Increasing to 20V causes a current change of +15%, giving a dynamic resistance of about 10kΩ. →