Microcontrollers (MCUs) have a few display options available. A Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) is a common, low-cost option that uses a backlight made of either cold-cathode fluorescent tubes (CCFL) or light emitting Diodes (LEDs). The term “LED display” actually refers to an LCD display with LED backlighting, and thus is the same thing as an […]
FAQ
GPUs: Not just for graphics anymore
Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are special processors that can rapidly process repetitive computations. GPUs were originally designed for rendering performance-hungry display graphics to take excess load off of CPUs. GPUs can be characterized by extremely fast computing power, especially in repetitive computations. Within the past decade, GPUs are increasingly used in applications that require […]
RISC architecture and instruction architecture
RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computer and is a type of architectural processor design strategy. “Architecture” refers to the way a processor is planned and built and can refer to either the hardware or the software that is closest to the silicon on which it runs. An Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) specifies the basic […]
Documenting code: use this when you just don’t know what to write
Documenting code is something most people dislike doing. By the time you are done with writing, debugging, testing, fixing and re-testing, you are so sick of it that you just don’t want to look at it anymore. But most of us have already been on the other side of the code: a recipient of some […]
Metal Oxide Field Effect Transistor: What is RDS(on)?
RDS(on) stands for “drain-source on resistance,” or the total resistance between the drain and source in a Metal Oxide Field Effect Transistor, or MOSFET when the MOSFET is “on.” RDS(on) is the basis for a maximum current rating of the MOSFET and is also associated with current loss. All things being equal, the lower the […]
RF cable and RF wireless transmission
What is RF? RF stands for “Radio Frequency” and has become a catch-all term for certain wired communications and a large (spectral) range of wirelessly transmitted waves. It’s easy to find wireless RF modules for microcontroller development kits and other design-ready products, but where does RF cable fit in? What does Ethernet have to do […]
Modulating 5G
The IoT will make heavy use of fifth-generation mobile networks that use a yet-to-be-determined modulation scheme. Here are the major contenders. LEE TESCHLER | EXECUTIVE EDITOR Fifth-generation mobile networks, abbreviated 5G, will form the telecommunications standards for the internet of things. Planners say 5G will have a higher capacity than the current 4G equipment partly […]
Supervisory IC vs. RC circuit: delaying MCU start-up until supply voltage is good
Engineers use external microcontroller (MCU) supervisory circuits as a fail-safe to ensure that their systems operate in a safe manner when unforeseen, unpredictable events occur when their systems are sent out “into the wild,” that is, when their systems are no longer in a controlled environment. (Here, we will consider microprocessors and central processing units […]
Watchdog Timer: what is it?
In the world of microcontrollers (MCUs), sometimes things go wrong. If a program goes haywire or into an infinite loop, it needs a way to check and see if things are still running. In “the old days,” the Windows operating system would occasionally crash (experience a fatal error) and put up what was called the […]
Overview of embedded systems
An embedded system is much more than a computer, because they often must have a real time response and several constraints to work within a given system that is tailored by industry and function. Real-time operation requires a response to input within microseconds. Delays in responding, termed latency, are often unacceptable, especially in real-time systems. […]
