Articles – Page 23

A Brief History of PCBs: Where did printed circuit boards come from?

July 3, 2024

While writing my recent 8-part EDA history (listed below), I became acutely aware that most of the effort devoted to EDA tool development has been aimed at IC design. A much smaller level of effort was devoted to developing printed circuit board (PCB) tools. The reason is simple, I think. IC design tools sell for far more money. While IC design tools cost upwards of six and seven figures for the most complex tools, PCB design tools sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars. Never mind that the market for PCB design tools is two or three … Read More → "A Brief History of PCBs: Where did printed circuit boards come from?"

Lynn Conway, 1938-2024: The Computer Architect Who Helped to Revolutionize Digital IC Design

by Steven Leibson

July 1, 2024

Lynn Conway is best known for her collaboration with Carver Mead that resulted in the Mead-Conway design methodology for VLSI chip design, which triggered a renaissance in IC development and spurred the growth of commercial EDA. While working on IBM’s Advanced Computer System (ACS) project in the 1960s, Conway conceived of Dynamic Instruction Scheduling (DIS), one of the fundamental innovations needed for out-of-order (OOO) instruction execution by superscalar processors, which is now commonly implemented in all high-end microprocessors. She joined the Department of Engineering’s faculty at the University of Michigan in 1985 as a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Associate Dean of Engineering and retired in 1998, taking the title of Professor Emerita. … Read More →

Who Invented the Johnson Decade Counter (and Why)?

by Max Maxfield

June 27, 2024

I love digital logic. I love solving digital logic conundrums. And I especially love discovering interesting and unusual ways of doing things while also learning more about the people who came up with these ideas in the first place. Take Gray codes, for example. These were named after Frank Gray, who was a physicist and researcher at Bell Labs.

The Gray code, or reflected binary code (RBC), which first appeared in a 1953 patent, is a binary numeral system that is often used in electronics, but that also has many applications in mathematics. Consider … Read More → "Who Invented the Johnson Decade Counter (and Why)?"

O-M-G! 100 More Captivating Columns

by Max Maxfield

June 25, 2024

I simply cannot believe that I recently penned and posted my three hundredth column here at EEJournal. I think my columns average out at around 1,500 words apiece, which means we are talking about (pause while I launch my calculator app) 450,000 words!

The really sad thing is that when I was 16 years old circa 1973, my dear old mom did everything but beg me to do two things: (1) Learn to touch type and (b) Learn to use Read More → "O-M-G! 100 More Captivating Columns"

Will PCMO bring the magic to memristor memory?

by Steven Leibson

June 24, 2024

Memory has always been a fundamental challenge for the design of digital computers. The quest for the perfect digital storage medium started as soon as digital computers started to appear in the 1940s. Punched cards and paper tape, used in the design of ENIAC in 1945, were clearly too slow and limited. The first fully electronic memory relied on cathode-ray technology in the form of Williams-Kilburn tubes, which were used in the design of the Manchester Baby computer in 1948. These tubes stored a mere handful of bits using phosphor persistence as the storage medium. This technology was borrowed … Read More → "Will PCMO bring the magic to memristor memory?"

University Degrees in Generative AI Prompt Engineering (Mind Blown!)

by Max Maxfield

June 20, 2024

I rarely publish press releases. To be honest, I rarely even read them. Every now and then, however, something piques my interest enough for me to slide my orbs over it. In this case, what I just read caused my ears to flap in excitement and made my eyebrows stand at attention.

Before I share this mindboggling news, let me set the scene a little. Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the “Big Three” science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein … Read More → "University Degrees in Generative AI Prompt Engineering (Mind Blown!)"

Gordon Bell, 1934-2024: Grandmaster of Computer Architecture, Wizard of VAX, Inventor of the UART, Founder of the Computer History Museum

by Steven Leibson

June 17, 2024

Gordon Bell may have worn badge number 80 at Digital Equipment Corp (DEC), but he had a profound influence on the development of minicomputers, including the groundbreaking DEC VAX 11/780 superminicomputer. He became a grandmaster of computer architecture and collected the flotsam, jetsam, and ephemera of computing’s history, preserving the early history computers that few others would take the time or make the effort to collect. His collection became the seed for the Computer History Museum, which he helped turn into a reality with his wife, Gwen.

Bell was born in the small farming … Read More → "Gordon Bell, 1934-2024: Grandmaster of Computer Architecture, Wizard of VAX, Inventor of the UART, Founder of the Computer History Museum"

Bota Systems Gives Robots the Sense of Touch

by Max Maxfield

June 13, 2024

Let’s commence this column by performing a simple thought experiment. Suppose I were to give you a bolt and associated nut and tell you to hold one in each hand. Now suppose I were to tell you to screw the nut onto the bolt. In this case, your primary sensory apparatus would be your eyes, but other sensory modalities would also come into play.

For example, visualize bringing your hands together until the nut contacts the bolt, starting to rotate the nut clockwise, realizing that it’s requiring more … Read More → "Bota Systems Gives Robots the Sense of Touch"

The First ICs on the Moon – The Apollo Guidance Computer, Part 2

by Steven Leibson

June 12, 2024

Part 1 of this article discussed the Fairchild resistor-transistor logic (RTL) NOR gate ICs used in the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) for NASA’s manned lunar program in the 1960s. Ultimately, NASA ordered one million ICs – so many that Fairchild alone was not able to fulfill the orders, so NASA ordered parts from Motorola Semiconductor, Philco, Texas Instruments, Transitron, and Westinghouse. The AGC Block I computers used Fairchild’s original Type G 3-input NOR gate. The AGC’s design required 4100 of these NOR gates. By the time the AGC Block II computer was designed, Fairchild had upped its … Read More → "The First ICs on the Moon – The Apollo Guidance Computer, Part 2"

Ceva-Waves Links Multi-Protocol Wireless Connectivity IP

by Max Maxfield

June 11, 2024

I’m afraid that (what I laughingly refer to as) my mind is wandering (as is its wont). It knows it’s supposed to write about multi-protocol wireless IP, but it’s been beguiled by thoughts of headphones equipped with the latest and greatest in 3D spatial audio boasting state-of-the-art headtracking resulting in a new level of immersive experience.

What the heck. Let’s start with the headphones and see where they lead us (I know you’re surprised). The history of headphones is interesting. For example, have you ever … Read More → "Ceva-Waves Links Multi-Protocol Wireless Connectivity IP"