by Jon Wilder Time after time I see beginners try to get started in embedded electronics, only to be overwhelmed and not know where to start. Some even make the mistake of trying to write their own code without first gaining a thorough understanding of the microcontroller/microprocessor they’re working with, the programming language they’re working […]
Industry Experts
Spread Spectrum Clocks
Digital clocks are everywhere. In fact there are too many clocks around. If you do a quick sweep with a spectrum analyzer, then as well as the frequencies you might expect to see – local TV and radio stations, cellphones and WiFi signals – you will find all sorts of other spurious signals from the […]
IXYS Announces Digital Inrush Current Controller Reference Design
IXYS Corporation (NASDAQ: IXYS), a manufacturer of power semiconductors and ICs for energy efficiency, power management, medical, transportation and consumer applications, announced the release of a reference design that makes use of Zilog’s 8-bit Z8F3281 microcontroller – Digital Inrush Current Controller. With efficiency as high as 99.5 percent and the input operating voltages ranging from […]
IoT from the ground up: MCUs and connectivity building blocks
In the emerging world of the Internet of Things (IoT), the tiny MCU is becoming the mighty MCU. But why and how does a device that has been around for decades figure into the ultra-low-power, connected, and still-unrealized world of the Internet of Things? And why is IoT connectivity any different from the connectivity we […]
PIC Microcontrollers for Safety Critical Applications
by Chris Francis Microchip recently announced some microcontrollers for “safety critical applications”. I was interested to see what the difference was and how they might compare with other manufacturers’ microcontrollers aimed at similar applications. The first thing I found out was that there don’t seem to be many microcontrollers aimed at safety critical applications. The […]
Comparison of the Cypress PSoC 1, 3, 4 and 5LP
By Chris Francis The first generation Cypress PSoC “Programmable System-on-Chip” – PSoC 1 – was the first programmable analog system that was general purpose, flexible and with usable performance in my opinion. Various other companies attempts at programmable analog prior to that were either too restricted, slow or relied solely on switched capacitor analog blocks. […]
Microchip PIC Microcontroller Configurable Logic Cells (CLC)
By Chris Francis Some of the newer Microchip PIC microcontrollers feature “configurable logic cells” or CLC. What are they and how useful are they? They appear in a small selection of the PIC devices and are a programmable combination of gates and latches that can be combined to produce an output. Rather than being a […]
Clock Startup in Low Power Microcontroller Design
Using a low power microcontroller and making it “sleep” as much as possible is a common power reduction technique as they can be woken by either an internal or external clock, or by an internal or external event. Taking the PIC 8 bit XLP devices as an example (the so called nanoWatt devices), they have […]
