A data-centric economy is evolving. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 debuted with 8 GB RAM and one terabyte (TB) of storage (purchasing a 512 GB SD card bumps it to 1 TB). The price tag is well over $1,000, so the rest of us will have to buy 1 TB of cloud storage from Google […]
Teardown: Inside bouncing LED balls
We cut one of these balls apart so you needn’t destroy yours to get a look at its internals. If you’ve ever attended a trade show, you might have seen a booth give-away item that consisted of a see-through bouncing ball with a flashing LED or two inside and sometimes a noise maker. When you […]
Programming AVR microcontrollers and Arduinos using the Arduino ISP
All microcontrollers (MCUs) require some sort of mechanism to program them, even if they only get programmed once. Typically, program code is written on a host computer, then it is compiled or translated, and object (machine-readable) code is downloaded to the MCU (“the target”) from the PC (“the host”) using a cable (usually USB or […]
Low cost, low latency PCIe ideal for sharing resources
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is more than just a high-speed serial bus that’s widely used in computers. PCIe is also found in some embedded systems and is a cost-effective, high performance, reliable, low-latency, and low power bus that can rapidly transfer data directly between PCIe-connected devices. PCIe-connected devices are typically CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, PCIe-connected […]
Why clean PCBs matter, Part 2
The article Why Clean PCBs Matter, Part 1, covers the effects that a dirty Printed Circuit Board can have on electronics, especially those supporting high-frequency signals or sensitive analog components. Keeping a PCB clean begins in assembly when components are preferably soldered to the PCB in a clean environment. Of great importance is the type […]
Why clean PCBs matter, Part 1
Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are essential in modern electronics. Dust and other contaminants are more important to watch out for than ever. As components get smaller, the relative size of contaminants is larger, heat is more of an issue with densely packed circuits on modern ICs, and devices operating at high frequencies (~1 GHz and […]
Choosing a switched mode power supply for your electronics prototype
Even if you never plan to go beyond one prototype, you still need to wean your board off the bench top power supply. However, choosing a permanent power supply for your electronics design is more than just a simple exercise in determining the operating voltage, maximum current, and form factor. Mouser Electronics has over 43,000 […]
Teardown: Inside the PlayStation 4 game box
We take a look at the venerable Sony game box with an eye toward power handling and architecture. Chances are that if you’re a gamer, you’re experiencing your video games on a Sony PlayStation 4. To date, over 75 million PlayStation 4 boxes have sold. The closest competitor is the Xbox One (36.03 million) and […]
An Open Source RTOS for IoT
An operating system (OS) is software that supports essential computer functions by managing software and hardware in a computer system. An embedded OS is typically tailored for a specific system and is usually as small as is necessary to do its job. You can find OSes in smartphones, routers, smart watches, game consoles, Alexa/Google Home, […]
SSDs: secure erase or sanitize?
When you’re done with a data storage drive, it’s nice to make sure that all of the data is scrubbed from it. A drive that’s returned, repurposed, or discarded can have personal or confidential data on it. Discarded drives have been found with everything from financial and medical data, email, and even pornography on them. […]
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