TI says its MSPM0 is the world’s most teeny, tiny 32-bit microcontroller. It’s smaller than a grain of white rice and costs 16 cents.

Today, I want to discuss the incredible shrinking microcontroller. Early microcontroller vendors packaged their offerings in 40-pin DIPs. They were physically small for what you got then, but huge now. These microcontrollers shared several common features: a lame and very proprietary 4- or 8-bit processor architecture designed more to fit on the die than to deliver much performance, a trivial amount of RAM (64 bytes, 128 bytes if you … Read More → "TI says its MSPM0 is the world’s most teeny, tiny 32-bit microcontroller. It’s smaller than a grain of white rice and costs 16 cents."

Programmable PMICs and Cutting Edge Power Management with AnDAPT

This week my podcast guest is Giovanni Garcea, President of AnDAPT. Giovanni and I discuss the details of AnDAPT’s field programmable PMIC and how engineers can take advantage of AnDAPT’s programmable power solution that it designed with AI called PMIC.AI. Also this week, I check out a new fluid battery that can take any shape developed by researchers at Linköping University. … Read More → "Programmable PMICs and Cutting Edge Power Management with AnDAPT"

Only the Most Epic Embedded Online Conference Ever!

The value of online (virtual) conferences is increasing in leaps and bounds as travel becomes more problematic and time is increasingly at a premium. Some of these events “stand proud in the crowd,” as it were. Allow me to expound, elucidate, and explicate. 

When it comes to embedded space (where no one can hear you scream), the virtual extravaganza on … Read More → "Only the Most Epic Embedded Online Conference Ever!"

Microchip’s new $30 debugger fulfills Jack Ganssle’s prophecy from 30 years ago

Microchip didn’t become a leading microcontroller vendor by accident. The company built its PIC microcontroller business from nothing to significant market share over two decades by cultivating developers, starting with college undergraduates. The company did this by offering a broad product line, inexpensive tools, and plenty of support. Microchip’s latest offering, a programming and debugging tool that sells for less than $30, continues that winning strategy.</ … Read More → "Microchip’s new $30 debugger fulfills Jack Ganssle’s prophecy from 30 years ago"

Concurrent Technologies Ushers In the Next Generation of Mission-Critical Applications

My podcast guests this week are longtime friend of the show Nigel Forrester and Victoria Middleton from Concurrent Technologies. Nigel, Victoria and I chat about the importance of rigorous testing in mission-critical systems, the details of Concurrent’s mission-critical embedded computing solutions, and how Concurrent can help engineers determine what Intel processor board is … Read More → "Concurrent Technologies Ushers In the Next Generation of Mission-Critical Applications"

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featured chalk talk

Industrial Internet of Things
Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and CUI Inc.
In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Bruce Rose from CUI Inc explore power supply design concerns associated with IIoT applications. They investigate the roles that thermal conduction and convection play in these power supplies and the benefits that CUI Inc. power supplies bring to these kinds of designs.
Aug 16, 2024
50,950 views
discussion
Posted on Apr 15 at 1:41pm by Max Maxfield
I must admit that this one left me confused -- it was hard to pin anything down -- on the one hand, it's claimed that various groups in the US government are using this technology, which is impressive until you start to think about who we have forming the US ...
Posted on Apr 15 at 1:07pm by jackganssle
The Basic compiler referred to in this article was called MTBasic (for Multitasking Basic). Rather like the HP Basic Steve mentioned, when you entered a line of code it was tokenized and stored. After hitting "Run" the code was compiled to machine code. It was a one-pass compiler (for speed) ...
Posted on Apr 15 at 6:02am by Steven Leibson
Thanks traneusee. After doing some online research, I'm not clear how Dartmouth BASIC was compiled. In some explanations, it appears to work like the tokenized interpreters we implemented at HP in the 1970s for HP BASIC and HPL, where the typed line of code was immediately tokenized into calls to ...
Posted on Apr 14 at 5:41pm by traneusee
Thanks for this article. Dartmouth Time Sharing System DTSS BASIC compiler worked the same way as Jack's 1982 Basic compiler.
Posted on Apr 11 at 1:47pm by JohnSanders
Proof of Achievement of the First Artificial General Intelligence... I have read most of this paper. It is somewhat Niaive and I am surprised at its supposedly high profile. Based on defining notional requirements for AGI it defines hence "proves" its requirements. Requirements tend to come from the business cases, ...
Posted on Apr 9 at 4:49pm by Steven Leibson
Glad you liked it Max. You don't need to wait for the holidays. Download the three files now. They're free.
Posted on Apr 9 at 1:36pm by Max Maxfield
Thanks so much for this column Steve -- I've added this book to my Christmas Wish List -- Max
Posted on Apr 9 at 12:39pm by Steven Leibson
Thanks Ray. I'm glad you liked the article. It was a fun one to write. --Steve
Posted on Apr 9 at 8:51am by zajacik7
Steve, Nice read. Soo much technology and little time to write about it all. Keep up the good work. Ray
Posted on Apr 2 at 6:47am by Max Maxfield
Hi Steve, when I read "Max’s ability to waffle on defies description (although I’ve just described it)" I laughed out loud. Thanks so much for this review.
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Using NXP’s FRDM Ecosystem to Break Down ML Complexity
In this episode of Chalk Talk, Michael Pontikes from NXP and Amelia Dalton explore the details of the FRDM ecosystem from NXP. They explore the scalability component of this ecosystem, the details of the FRDM i.MX 93 Development Board and how the machine learning software and tools of this ecosystem will streamline and simplify your next machine learning enhanced design.
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SparkFun Digi X-ON Kit for LoRaWAN®
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ROHM Current Sense Amplifiers
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nRF54L Series SoCs
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Simplifying Position Control with Advanced Stepper Motor Driver
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