标签: logic

Well, it seems that there are ripples in the force, as it were, because lately I have been inundated with friends pointing me to this BBC article and this column in The Register ("Biting the hand that feeds IT"). These pieces tell the tale of one James Newman, who is building a computer in the family room of his bungalow in Cambridge, England.     "So what?" you say, "Anyone can build a computer using off-the-shelf boards and modules." Well yes, but that's not what James is doing. Instead, he's creating a 45-foot (14 meter) monster that will eventually weigh about half a tonne out of individual transistors. You don’t really get a sense of the scale of this thing until you see James standing next to one of his panels (the final machine is expected to consist of seven panels).     This is definitely a work of love, because James has been working on it for three years and has already spent £20,000. This means that, once again, Britain is leading the world with regard to creating extremely large, painfully slow, and excruciatingly expensive computing technology. I tell you, it makes me proud to be British!   Some people may think all of this is a tad excessive, but I know where James is coming from. One of my own "back burner" projects is to construct a 4-bit processor as a collection of glass-fronted, wall-mounted wooden cabinets where each cabinet boasts a different implementation technology: relays, vacuum tubes, transistors, TTL integrated circuits, magnetic logic, pneumatic logic, and so forth.   But that will have to wait until I've finished my current projects, including my Inamorata Prognostication Engine and my Vetinari Clock . How about you? Are you working on any fun and interesting projects? If so, please share them with the rest of us.

My friend Sven Andersson in Sweden sent me an email several days ago. Sven is busy working on his Zynq Design From Scratch blog series. He informed me that he's already posted Part 43 , in which he talks about debugging his designs using various techniques, including simulation and virtual on-chip logic analyzers.   This is of particular interest to me because Sven devotes a large portion of this blog to the LogiScope logic analyzer from Oscium.   Oscium's LogiScope logic analyzer for iPods, iPhones, and iPads.   This little beauty transforms your iPod, iPhone, or iPad into a 16-channel 100MHz logic analyzer. "The LogiScope logic analyzer is very easy to set up and use," Sven wrote in his blog.   I'm so glad he likes it, because l love mine. It's the perfect complement to my iMSO-204 mixed-signal oscilloscope , which also comes from Oscium.   Oscium's iMSO-204 mixed-signal oscilloscope for iPods, iPhones, and iPads.   If you are planning on designing with a Zynq, or if you are interested in using your iPad as a logic analyzer, Sven's blog is the place to go.

William创造了一个词： 职力 （F）.   F=ma  m是你的 职场质量 ； a就是你职场成功的 加速度 。而你的职场质量（m）又和你的行业、企业、职位、运气、能力、技能、老板、同事等正相关。   在m一定的情况下，你会发现“职力”强大的人，其在职场的 鲜有 “匀速运动”，经过大马力长时间的平缓期之后（因为职场也有“ 阻力 ”啊），他往往能嗖嗖地加速上升，越来越顺。之前提到的看看近来任命的高管，往往有这个特点。   这就是“职场·第二定律”。   ---------------------- 1 意法半导体任命Jean Marc Chery为公司COO 2014-04-30 EEWORLD 意法半导体宣布任命Jean Marc Chery为公司COO，此前Chery一直担任意法半导体执行副总裁兼嵌入式处理解决方案总经理。 Chery既要负责嵌入式业务，同时也要负责意法半导体的制造及封测相关业务，同时其还要继续担任意法半导体企业战略委员会副主席。     ---------------------- 2 亚马逊欲开发自家服务器芯片 或基于ARM架构 2014-04-30 搜狐IT 亚马逊计划兴建自己的芯片设计中心以满足AWS云计算服务的需求，而亚马逊自主设计的服务器芯片可能会采用ARM架构。亚马逊已经雇佣了曾经就职于去年关闭的ARM服务器初创企业Calxeda的数名芯片工程师，其中包括原Calxeda首席技术官。 自主设计的芯片的确能在软硬件配套等方面带来种种好处，但是投资这一领域也堪称一场豪赌，需要投入数以亿美元计的巨额资金。     ---------------------- 3 Cirrus Logic拟收购三星供应商Wolfson 2014-4-30 电子工程专辑 美国苹果公司的手机芯片供应商Cirrus Logic表示，已同意作价2.91亿英镑（4.89亿美元），收购三星电子晶片供应商Wolfson Microelectronics，以加强无线射频部门。 Wolfson在音讯技术创新上战果辉煌，拥有广泛的音讯产品，以及一流的客户名单，这次收购将强化Cirrus Logic核心技术。     ---------------------- 4 三大运营商拟组建“国家基站公司” 预计3个月后挂牌 2014-5-03 同花顺 工信部回应证实，三大运营商确实正在研究共同组建“负责统筹建设通信铁塔设施”的一家新公司,“国家铁塔公司”。铁塔公司成立后，三大运营商将不再自建基站，而是租用国家基站公司的基站，有利于加强基础网络资源的共建共享，降低网络建设与运营成本。 到今年年底，中国4G基站数量可能会由目前的近30万座增至多达100万座。     ---------------------- 5 澜起科技生产禁售芯片长达4年 广电总局点名通知 2014-5-04 中国IC网 国家新闻出版广电总局科技司通知，要求澜起科技停止生产销售明令禁止的直播卫星信道芯片。这也是广电总局第三次对澜起科技进行点名通知。澜起科技没有取得二代卫星信道标准授权，其所生产、销售的直播卫星信道芯片也属于违规行为，利用其外资背景通过境外生产、境内销售的方式规避国内监管，大规模生产、销售支持一代中星九号接收机的解调解码芯片，并通过垄断的方式操纵芯片价格，非法赚取高额利润。 非法中星九号一代接收机的月产量高达800万到1000万台，现在的月产量平均也有500万台。     ---------------------- 6 联发科9月量产64位八核LTE芯片MT6752 2014-4-29 元器件交易网 联发科总经理谢清江表示，联发科首颗兼具64位元、4G LTE的SoC将于9月量产，终端产品年底前上市。 联发科去年成功突破高通防线，旗下智能型手机芯片获得索尼、LG、宏达电等品牌大厂采用，联发科内部已将今年营运重心放在下半年Google的64位元Android新平台上。     ---------------------- 7 华星光电第三期面板项目落户武汉 总投资达160亿元 2014.04.30 家电网 华星光电第6代低温多晶硅显示面板项目并非TCL集团的内配项目，其量产的高端中小尺寸平板显示器的解析度都在350甚至400以上，三星、苹果、联想在内的终端制造商均是公司潜在的目标客户群。华星光电与湖北省科技投资集团签约，双方各出资35亿元成立武汉华星光电项目，项目总投资160亿元。 2013年华星光电保持满产满销，销售面板及模组2162万片，实现销售收入155.3亿元，净利22.6亿元，全球TV面板市场份额9%。     ---------------------- 8 美商艾科嘉67.52亿收购F-IML 被指捡便宜 2014-4-29 元器件交易网 美商艾科嘉宣布收购类比IC厂F-IML，创下国外厂商并购国内F公司（William注：F股是国外付台上市股票）的首例，但此次并购案艾科嘉仅花了67.52亿元，就买下受到苹果青睐的P-Gamma芯片供应商，IML在P-Gama技术独树一格，产品多次获得苹果平板计算机iPad采用，且公司目前帐上现金超过40亿元。 IML原本规划于下半年开始推出应用于LED照明的驱动IC新产品，且有多款针对穿戴式、行动装置的产品正在进行开发。     ---------------------- 9 ParkerVision 再告高通补上宏达电 2014-05-04 新浪科技 去年与高通在1.73亿美元专利侵权官司获得胜诉的无线晶片开发商ParkerVision Inc.再度控告高通，并增加客户之一的宏达电。 这起新诉讼涉及行动装置将讯息传送回手机信号塔的专利。     ---------------------- 10 MaxLinear和ST加速多通道超高清HEVC卫星机顶盒和网关部署 2014-4-29 ChinaAET MaxLinear 和横跨多重电子应用领域、全球领先的半导体供应商意法发布一款参考设计平台，以加快全球收费卫视运营商部署下一代超高清机顶盒和网关。 2015年，支持4K电视内容将是卫视运营商的首要任务，该参考平台将在网关市场确立最高性能和最低功耗的标杆。我们的FSC调谐器和意法半导体的高性能4K/HEVC系统芯片让这个参考设计成为先行OEM厂商的理想选择。      

In early 1975, I had a technician post at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), before starting grad school in the fall. I had taken an extra semester to get bachelor's degrees in EE and physics at MIT, and wanted a low-key position to recuperate. A friend worked in the oceanographic instrumentation department at WHOI and had just lost his technician at a critical time in the department's efforts. The department was deploying ocean current-tracking floats using acoustic signals for ranging. The floats would send out chirps at precise times. More moans than a chirp, they swept from 250Hz to 251.5Hz over 80 seconds, and were detected using auto-correlating receivers. Signals in this frequency range propagate long distances in the Sound Fixing and Ranging (SOFAR) underwater acoustic channel. Multiple listening stations would time the arrival of the tones and track the floats at ranges over 1,000km. In addition to the SOFAR floats, one big project was a portable listening station called KAREN (Keyboard and Reader Experimental Network), named after our secretary. She had bemoaned the fact that she never got to go to all the exotic places the engineers scientists did, so the least we could do was take her namesake with us. KAREN was a mix of analogue and early CMOS logic ICs, with a paper-tape reader and strip chart recorder. Everything fit into a small metal suitcase for travel. I had spent the spring assembling and testing it, so I was reasonably familiar with its inner workings, even though I hadn't designed any of the actual circuitry. To test KAREN, someone needed to go to Grand Turk, a 1 x 6-mile island 850 miles southwest of Bermuda. Grand Turk was largely defoliated in the 1700s to make it hot and dry for sea salt production. While sea salt was no longer a big seller, the hot and dry climate remained. There was a US Navy base on the north end of the island, and WHOI had a hydrophone array there. You need a security clearance to get on the base, but the usual fellow's wife was expecting a baby. Fortunately, I had worked as a tech for a defence contractor while in school and had a clearance. They loaded me up with KAREN, a freshly minted passport (my first), and a Sony Tektronix portable oscilloscope, then off I went. I was more than a bit nervous about the responsibility I had been entrusted with, but I wasn't about to admit it. I took an early flight to Grand Turk after a night at a Miami airport hotel. The terminal was quiet, and I remember the security guy running the new X-ray machine inviting me to come around and look at the innards of the 'scope. I landed at Grand Turk and got the last of the two (!) rental cars on the island—a weathered '64 Mustang convertible. I checked in at the hotel, and managed to drive on the left side of the road out to the Navy base without mishap. WHOI's listening station was on a remote corner of the base, a few yards back from the beach, in a tiny shed with an anemic air conditioner. I hooked KAREN up to the hydrophone array, but it refused to go through the start-up process. I didn't know if it had been damaged en route, or if something else was out of whack. I was scheduled to report in to WHOI. I drove back to town to call, which a process in itself. You went to the cable and wireless office and waited until it had a free line to the mainland. To save on pricey long-distance charges, the people there would call a military base in Florida, who patched the call to Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, who could then make a local call to WHOI. I reported my findings and we agreed to confer in four hours. I would open up the box and start chasing signals, while they poured over the design documents to see if they could guess what was going on. I drove back to the shed, fired up the 'scope and started working through the schematics, scribbling timing diagrams as I went. Nothing appeared physically damaged. I found a spot where the edge of a logic signal had shifted just enough that it wasn't getting clocked into a register correctly, probably due to the heat. The catch was: How to fix it? There were no suitable unused gates, and I had no spare logic ICs. A quick search of the shed produced a soldering iron, a few basic tools, and in the bottom of a small drawer, a handful of mixed resistors and a few diodes. With a background in analogue design, I don't recall if I had ever heard of a diode AND gate before, but I poked around and found four logic signals that could be combined to solve the timing problem. I rigged up my AND gate and everything worked perfectly! After a few tests, it was time to report back to WHOI. I returned to the cable and wireless office and waited for the call to go through. The designer had actually managed to deduce where the problem might be, and knowing what my limited resources were, had come up with the same fix! I was more than a little proud (and extremely relieved) to report that I had beaten him to it. Testing with a SOFAR float lowered off a boat in Bermuda was delayed for a few days due to weather there, so I headed back to the hotel. The bar turned out to be the local watering hole, with a cast of characters right out of a James Bond novel. I ordered a gin tonic while they cajoled me into a round of darts, and later introduced me to a game called liar's dice. But that's another story... Doug White has worked at various research labs on a wide range of analogue, RF, and microwave circuits from VLF to W-band. After being informed, "Analogue is dead," by a digital engineering professor at M.I.T., he's managed to stay employed as a dinosaur since graduating in 1978. He submitted this article as part of Frankenstein's Fix, a design contest hosted by EE Times (US).  

Wow. I thought I was alone with my meandering musings about not much at all, but it seems I am a proud member of a large group of... of... of what? That is indeed the question. As you may recall, this started with a discussion of the interesting words used to refer to groups of animals, such as a raft of auks, a bloat of hippopotamuses, and a wisdom of wombats. This led to a search for equivalent words for collections of electronic components, such as a race of relays, a gyre of MEMS, a mirror of current sources, a conundrum of FPGAs, a sampling of ADCs, and a congregation of cores. We had some suggestions that weren't related to electronic components per se but certainly struck a chord with me, including a brag of benchmarks, a fail of forecasts, and a hail of hype. All this led us to wonder about appropriate collective nouns for groups in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions, such as control engineers, embedded designers, civil engineers, mechanical designers, system architects, verification engineers—the list goes on. Actually, we don't have to restrict ourselves to STEM-related professions. Karen Field came up with a blight of bean counters, a requisition of accountants, a ka-ching of salespeople, and a dilbert of managers. In this vein, EE Times member Randa11 suggested a tedium of bores, which I thought was rather clever.   A bizarre of quantum physicists. David Ashton shared an assembly of embedded designers, a construction of civil engineers, a leverage of mechanical designers, a virtuality of system architects, a truthfulness of verification engineers, and (my personal favourite) a wunch of bankers. Member Betajet offered a hackerty of software developers, a busking of free software developers (should that be a busking of open-source software developers?) and a sillygism of digital logic designers. To make sure we're all tap dancing to the same drumbeat here (my father was a member of a troupe of tap dancers), a syllogism is a logical argument in which the conclusion is inferred from two or more premises. A sillygism (a portmanteau combining the words "silly" and "syllogism") is a sequence of statements that appear logical but produce nonsense. Betajet also told us that "horripilation" is another name for goose bumps or goose flesh, but he didn't take this any further. I'm still trying to work out how to drop this rascal into conversation somewhere. How about "a horripilation of hardware designers"? For myself, a proud member of the engineering profession, might I suggest an enterprise of engineers? How about you? Do you have a cornucopia of capriciously cunning suggestions to share with the rest of us? If so, please post them as comments below.