Articles – Page 29

The Case of One Dead Digital Multimeter

January 8, 2024

There’s no more fundamental piece of test gear for electrical engineers than a multimeter. I own a bunch, starting with my Micronta 22-150 analog multimeter with a mirrored scale, which I bought from Radio Shack in my high school days back in the 1970s. Miraculously, that meter still works. I’ve got at least five Cen-Tech 3½-digit Digital Multimeters that Harbor Freight used to give away for free with a coupon. (That’s about what they’re worth.) These meters are slow and have relatively low resolution, but they’re fine for monitoring multiple power supply … Read More → "The Case of One Dead Digital Multimeter"

Photo-Realistic Renderings for Next-Gen Engineering Applications

by Max Maxfield

January 4, 2024

I was just introduced to the HOOPS Luminate SDK from the folks at Tech Soft 3D, which caused a cascade of cogitations to commence careening around my poor old noggin…

I’m not a big player of computer games, if the truth be told, but I do … Read More → "Photo-Realistic Renderings for Next-Gen Engineering Applications"

Don Lancaster: The Electronics Industry Lost Another Pioneer Last Year

by Steven Leibson

January 3, 2024

The industry lost yet another pioneer last year, and his passing seems to have been largely unheralded. Don Lancaster was a prolific writer whose books and articles going back to the 1960s taught generations of electronics hobbyists and budding engineers how to use analog and digital integrated circuits, how to program early 8-bit microprocessors – particularly the MOS Technology 6502, how to use Adobe’s PosScript page description language as a programming language like a virtuoso, and how to become a technology entrepreneur. Lancaster published more than 1800 technical articles in various magazines and some 35 technical books. He was a … Read More → "Don Lancaster: The Electronics Industry Lost Another Pioneer Last Year"

Want to Create Silicon Chips? Want Them Fast? Want them Cheap?

by Max Maxfield

December 28, 2023

I’m currently contemplating an unusual annual technical conference. This affair is invitation only. Attendance is limited to 100 people give-or-take. In addition to the leading computer chip architects from companies like Intel and AMD, it’s also common to rub shoulders with pioneers of technology spanning everything from computing to electric vehicles to deep space exploration. This conference, whose name I may not speak, is held at a facility in a location I may not reveal, but I fear I’ve said too much.

I’m sure you’ve heard … Read More → "Want to Create Silicon Chips? Want Them Fast? Want them Cheap?"

How Will We Feed 8 Billion People? With AI’s Help, of Course

by Steven Leibson

December 27, 2023

The Earth now needs to feed 8 billion people… every single day. The only way to meet this almost unimaginable demand for food is to continuously improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and cost basis of growing and delivering that food. That is the agriculture industry’s biggest challenge in the 21st century. Increasingly, agriculture is relying on artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver those gains.

John Deere is one of the leaders in applying AI to agriculture. The company has been supplying farmers with a hands-free driving option for its tractors for 20 years. Building on that … Read More → "How Will We Feed 8 Billion People? With AI’s Help, of Course"

AI-Based Cybersecurity for Next-Generation Data Center Servers

by Max Maxfield

December 26, 2023

Sometimes I envy the creators of early, unconnected computers. They could happily spend their days working on the fun stuff—both hardware and software—without worrying about bad actors, nefarious fellows, and naughty nation states trying to break in and steal their data or, worse, encrypting said data and then ransoming it.

These days, I pity the folks in charge of data centers involving tens of thousands of servers connected to each other and to the outside world. Take a moment to think about your own data. If ransomware somehow infiltrated its way … Read More → "AI-Based Cybersecurity for Next-Generation Data Center Servers"

Is This the Next Level of Machine Vision for Autonomous Driving?

by Max Maxfield

December 21, 2023

Earlier this year I penned a column explaining how Ambarella’s next-generation AI vision processors were targeting edge applications. The focus of that column was the CV72S System-on-Chip (SoC) device, which presents Ambarella’s state-of-the-art technology at a size and cost point that fits the IoT market in general and the security/surveillance market in particular.

To be honest, I fear I may have dropped the ball. I was so focused on Embedded Edge and IoT applications that I … Read More → "Is This the Next Level of Machine Vision for Autonomous Driving?"

An Electrifying Discovery: Wondom’s $12 Internal UPS for Small System Designs

by Steven Leibson

December 18, 2023

This article isn’t about a new product. It’s just new to me. The product is Wondom’s BCPB2, a charger, battery management system (BMS), and battery holder for three 18650 lithium-ion cells. I discovered this product while considering ways to repair the battery subsystem in a Keithley 197 Microvoltmeter made around 1991 that I recently bought on eBay. The original battery in this 30-year-old product is a 12V pack made from NiCd cells. That pack took one charge and then died, so I disconnected the battery pack but left the charging board in place. The microvoltmeter works fine … Read More → "An Electrifying Discovery: Wondom’s $12 Internal UPS for Small System Designs"

Using AI-Enabled Robots to Automate What Cannot Be Automated

by Max Maxfield

December 14, 2023

I’m a lucky man. I have very few regrets in my life. Sometimes I look back and think I would have enjoyed employing my skills in different industries, but then I realize I would have missed out on all the cool things I’ve done on the path I ended up taking. I like to think of my journey through life as my being a time traveler taking the scenic route.

But what if I were to clone myself? If I could leave my clone doing what I do now, that would … Read More → "Using AI-Enabled Robots to Automate What Cannot Be Automated"

ST announces Edge AI Suite for Arm Cortex-M microcontrollers, sensors, and so on

by Steven Leibson

December 13, 2023

ST has just formally announced the Edge AI Suite, a development tool set for its line of STM32 microcontrollers based on the Arm Cortex-M processor core, Arm-based Stellar automotive microcontrollers, and associated smart sensors. The Edge AI Studio is free to use when generating code for ST’s microcontrollers. ST’s NanoEdge AI Studio, one of the tools within the Edge AI Suite, can be licensed for use with Cortex-M microcontrollers offered by other semiconductor vendors. The Edge AI Suite and its associated libraries are not designed to implement large language models (LLMs) or for replicating cloud-based … Read More → "ST announces Edge AI Suite for Arm Cortex-M microcontrollers, sensors, and so on"