Articles – Page 13

“H” is for Heathkits and Hams: Part 2 – The 1960s

February 5, 2025

Part 2 of this article series covers a period of explosive growth for the Heath Company as its amateur radio equipment kits captured a larger and larger share of the market. This article series is based on a presentation by Chas Gilmore (W8IAI), a life-long Ham who joined the Heath Company in 1966 as a design engineer and worked at the Heath Company for more than two decades, eventually becoming EVP and General Manager.

Chas Gilmore: In 1962, the Heath Company transitioned to a new era. Schlumberger, the oil field testing company, acquired … Read More → "“H” is for Heathkits and Hams: Part 2 – The 1960s"

Predictions for Multi-Die System Designs in 2025

by Max Maxfield

February 4, 2025

There’s a famous saying along the lines of, “Predicting things is difficult, especially about the future.” This quote has been attributed to many people, including Mark Twain, Niels Bohr, and Yogi Berra. In Yogi’s case, however, it’s usually phrased as, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

I know that when I staggered into the current millennium, buoyed by the Y2K celebrations, I would never have predicted the current surge into multi-die system space (where no one can hear you scream).

“H” is for Heathkits and Hams: Part 1 – Early Days through the 1950s

by Steven Leibson

February 3, 2025

Late last year, I published a 6-part article series that recounted the history of the Heath Company and its world-famous Heathkits. The series was based on an interview with Chas Gilmore, who joined the Heath Company in 1966 as a design engineer and worked at the Heath Company for more than two decades, eventually becoming VP of product development, marketing, and sales and finally EVP and General Manager. After that initial article series ran, I received several requests for more in-depth information about Heathkits for amateur radio enthusiasts. Hams, your wish is my command.

Rust Rules! (Programming Language-Wise)

by Max Maxfield

January 30, 2025

Have you heard tell of the Rust programming language and how it is growing to be a serious contender in embedded space (where no one can hear you scream)? If not, then make yourself comfortable, “O my Best Beloved,” and I shall babble, blabber, and blather on this topic, as is my wont, but first…

If you are a non-programmer (or even if you are a programmer, now that I come to think about it), when you hear the word “rust” spoken in a conversation, your knee-jerk reaction is probably to think about … Read More → "Rust Rules! (Programming Language-Wise)"

In Memoriam: James Boddie, DSP Pioneer

by Steven Leibson

January 29, 2025

Starting with the development of the world’s first single-chip DSP, the Bell Labs DSP1, Jim Boddie devoted his long career to expanding the world of digital signal processing. His early work in developing signal-processing algorithms on minicomputers with attached array processors led him to cutting-edge signal-processing research at Bell Labs. That work resulted in the development of the DSP1, which AT&T successfully deployed in the 5ESS electronic switch. After the DSP1 project, Boddie held a variety of positions at Bell Labs, AT&T Microelectronics, Lucent Technologies, Agere Systems, and finally StarCore, where he … Read More → "In Memoriam: James Boddie, DSP Pioneer"

The First Annual FPGA Awards – the Fibbies – celebrating 40 years of FPGAs

by Steven Leibson

January 27, 2025

Welcome to the first ever (perhaps only) annual FPGA awards – the Fibbies. This year, 2025, marks the 40^th year of the FPGA’s appearance in the electronics industry, when Xilinx introduced its first FPGA, the XC2064. The Fibbie awards celebrate actual and dubious achievements in the FPGA market during 2024. I got the idea for these awards after seeing a video for the top ten something or others on YouTube. The people, companies and products in the world of FPGAs certainly deserve some attention, and some awards, so let’s see what we … Read More → "The First Annual FPGA Awards – the Fibbies – celebrating 40 years of FPGAs"

Autonomous Trucks are Trucking Our Way!

by Max Maxfield

January 23, 2025

On the one hand, the overly enthusiastic predictions for fully autonomous automobiles have, thus far, fallen somewhat behind schedule (sad face). On the other hand, it now looks like we will see fully autonomous trucks barreling down our interstate highways circa 2027 (happy face).

The idea of autonomous automobiles has been around for longer than most people might think. For example, the concept of self-driving cars was showcased at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York as part of General Motors’ “Futurama” exhibit. This vision included automated highways and predicted autonomous cars “within the … Read More → "Autonomous Trucks are Trucking Our Way!"

Lattice Semiconductor’s Nexus 2 platform brings significant performance benefits to low-end FPGAs

by Steven Leibson

January 22, 2025

While Altera and AMD continue to hammer away at the higher end of the FPGA spectrum – for example, see “AMD ups the ante in the RF-enabled FPGA poker game with the Versal RF family” – Lattice Semiconductor’s recent introduction of the Nexus 2 FPGA platform reconfirms the company’s commitment to smaller FPGA devices. Although the Nexus 2 platform employs a fairly advanced 16nm process node, FPGAs based on Lattice’s Nexus 2 platform will have fewer than 200K logic cells, which is relatively small these days. Instead of going for … Read More → "Lattice Semiconductor’s Nexus 2 platform brings significant performance benefits to low-end FPGAs"

The Rise of the Robots (Cobots)

by Max Maxfield

January 21, 2025

Until relatively recently, robots have been kept in cages. This isn’t to stop them from getting out (although I have a niggling notion that day may come)—rather, to prevent humans from getting in. I’m thinking of honking big industrial robots in facilities like automobile factories.

While members of this class of robots are awesomely good at what they do (picking up an object weighing hundreds of pounds and waving it around as though it were as light as a feather, for example), most of them are as dumb as a … Read More → "The Rise of the Robots (Cobots)"

Measuring Picovolts and Femtoamps

by Max Maxfield

January 16, 2025

I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t know as much about the topic of test and measurement (T&M) as perhaps I should. My only excuse is that there’s so much to learn and I am a bear of little brain (and my little bear brain is pretty much full).

There are lots of things I’ve not done in my life. One of them is to build my own digital multimeter (DMM) comprising a voltmeter (to measure voltage), an ammeter (to measure current), and an ohmmeter (to measure … Read More → "Measuring Picovolts and Femtoamps"