More Ears for Better Sound
Akustica Complements Digital Single-Chip with Analog Two-Chip
Let’s say you’re going to a rock concert that you know is being recorded for a live album. OK, live CD. No, never mind, a live MP3. (Who needs all those highs and lows anyway?) Of course you know that the instruments will be miked. And not just with one big-ol’ sensitive mike; each instrument (well, the ones that aren’t direct plug-in, anyway) and voice will have its own mike allowing the channels to be mixed and balanced both at the show and afterwards in post-production.
Ready, Set, Embed!
This week's Fish Fry is all about embedded design - from microcontrollers to tools. We examine why the death of 8-bit MCUs might not be so close at hand and what the new l-Jet in-circuit debugging probe is all about. Then, it's off to some truly strange "News You May Have Missed" where we see how Nintendo is teaming up with Toyota to make driving more like a video game.
Also this week, I have a brand new nerdy giveaway (a TI MSP-EXP430FR5739 Experimenter Board) courtesy of Mouser to throw your way, but you'll have to tune in to find out how to win.
Sensing 3D
FPGAs and The Next Generation of Cameras
Not much could be cooler than 3D video using FPGAs, right? Yeah, that's what I thought too, so in this week's Fish Fry, I chat with Niladri Roy of Lattice Semiconductor about some of the coolest video-related FPGA applications out there right now. Lattice is using FPGAs in some pretty creative ways in their new camera development kits, so if you're into video technology, you'll want to check out this week's interview. Ready... Goggles on... Go!
Sensor Chemistry
Chemistry – at least at the high-school level – can be fun stuff. You’ve got these fundamental entities called atoms that can come together in many ways to build molecules, which constitute the stuff of life (and non-life). At this simplistic level, there’s nothing smaller than an atom, and atomic behaviors, as depicted in the periodic table, determine which combinations work well and which work, well, not at all.
An App With Your Map?
Motoring Down the Highway May Change Forever
For years, as technology has burgeoned, it has looked to traditional use models as a reference point. The idea is to keep things the way people are used to doing them, only improving them with technology. But with new gadgets and devices that provide entirely new ways of going about their business, the tables are turning.
In fact, none other than the auto industry – about as stolid and traditional as you can get – is taking its lead from new, innovative technology models. It promises to revolutionize how people buy and equip their cars, with each person driving a vehicle that is unmistakably them.
Getting All GUI
“It’s the interface, stupid” could be the key to successful designs
As kids we’re taught “don’t judge a book by its cover” and that “appearances can be deceiving.”
But we also learn that “beauty is only skin deep” and that “you get only one chance to make a good first impression.” With all these dueling aphorisms, what are we supposed to believe?
With embedded design and development, outward appearances and first impressions do matter – a lot. More and more, the outwardly visible parts of your product will determine its success. In fact, a lot of today’s products are successful purely because of their outward appearances, in spite of what’s under the hood.
The Three Laws of Robotics
Embedded Developers Could Learn a Lot from Asimov
In Isaac Asimov’s wonderful books, he creates the Three Laws of Robotics. (He later added a zeroth law, but we’ll skip over that for now.) You probably already know them by heart, but the first law for all robots was, “never injure a human or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm.” It was the cybernetic equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath: “First, do no harm.”
The Second Law was, “always obey orders, unless it conflicts with the First Law.” Okay, pretty straightforward, that one.
Pay No Attention to The Man Behind the Curtain
The Gritty PR Underbelly of CES
In this week’s Fish Fry (brought you to by Altera), I investigate some of the not so fabulous behind-the-scenes action that happens in the ramp up for the Consumer Electronics Show. I check out a curious press release retraction, why headphone maker Klipsch is gunning for counterfeiters in China, and how HzO will save the world’s electronics...one nano-scale skin at a time.
Signals and Swats
The Promise and Limitations of Gesture and Motion Technology
You can almost imagine an I Love Lucy caper. Lucy and Ricky are trying to catch someone in the act of something nefarious. They dress up in fake private-eye clothes with a PI hat, turned up collar (pre-bro), and a fake moustache for her. They’re on opposite sides of the room in stealth mode, with only hand gestures to communicate. They’ve worked out an intricate set of signals, including “right hand to the nose means we go in 3…2…1…” and “left hand to the nose means something’s not right; hold off.”
Moore for the Masses
Programmable Logic in Consumer Products?
Programmable logic devices such as FPGAs are bigger beneficiaries of Moore’s law than perhaps any other class of semiconductor device. One could, of course, argue that memories deserve that title. However, memories are at the opposite end of the spectrum from FPGAs on sustainable price margins - with memories being far on the commodity side, and FPGAs carrying extraordinary margins due to the vendors’ deadlock on tool, IP, and design technology.