Articles – Page 35

In Memoriam: Chuck Near, An Extraordinary Engineer and Engineering Manager

August 14, 2023

The man sitting across the desk from me had come to Case Western Reserve University in the winter of early 1975 to recruit new engineering graduates for Hewlett-Packard. The university had recently acquired an HP 9830A desktop computer and 9866A thermal page printer. These two products transformed my computer experience. Instead of feeding punched cards into a card reader/line printer and waiting for the printer to spit out several greenbar pages telling you that the Univac 1108 across the street from the computer department building had detected a syntax error in your second card and aborted your run, … Read More → "In Memoriam: Chuck Near, An Extraordinary Engineer and Engineering Manager"

Want to Reduce Your Data Center AI Inferencing Infrastructure Costs by 10X?

by Max Maxfield

August 10, 2023

I just had something of an epiphany.* What pops into your mind when you are exposed to the term “extreme edge”? Assuming you are of a technical nature, I’d wager the first thing you consider is the “things” portion of the internet of things (IoT). That is, the smart connected sensors and actuators that sit at the interface between the network and the real world. My epiphany, such as it was, is that another way of looking at the extreme edge is from the perspective of those entities in the real world that interface with the … Read More → "Want to Reduce Your Data Center AI Inferencing Infrastructure Costs by 10X?"

What Is Time, What Time Is It, and Why Do We Care?

by Max Maxfield

August 8, 2023

I’ve made mention of this before, but it bears repeating; when I was a little lad growing up in England, it seemed to me that, as soon as two or more adults huddled together, they had only three main topics of conversation. They started with the weather—how it was today, how this compared to the past 50 years, and what we might expect in the coming decades. Then they moved on to health—discussing their various ailments, trying to outdo each other, and—if we were unlucky—comparing scars from previous operations. Finally, they came … Read More → "What Is Time, What Time Is It, and Why Do We Care?"

The Microcontroller that Just Won’t Die

by Steven Leibson

August 7, 2023

Movie history is replete with heroes and villains that refuse to die, despite grievous bodily harm. Here are a few quotes from various movies to help you remember these characters:

“How many times do I have to kill you, boy?” – Jafar to Aladdin, Aladdin, 1992

“Why can’t you just die?” – Two-Face to Batman, Batman Forever, 1995

“Why can’t you be a good boy and just die?” – Janus to James Bond, Goldeneye, 1995

Embedded Security for MCUs at the Edge

by Max Maxfield

August 3, 2023

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s getting to be a scary world out there, cybersecurity speaking. I’m not an angry man, but this makes me want to gnash my teeth and rend my garb. When I was in my early-20s (sometime in the previous century), a small group of us visited a friend who lived in a village near the south coast of England.

One day, we went for a walk, during which a member of our party needed to use the restroom. … Read More → "Embedded Security for MCUs at the Edge"

Do You Long Nostalgically for Retro Tech? Part 2: Film and Nixie Tubes

by Steven Leibson

August 2, 2023

Of course, retro-tech nostalgia is not limited to sound reproduction, which I discussed earlier in Part 1 of this article series, so let’s now talk about retro photography nostalgia. For 30 years, I shot photos with an SLR (single-lens reflex) camera using film, starting in 1972. I’ve shot Kodak Kodachrome and Ektachrome slide film, Kodacolor and Kodacolor II print film, Fujicolor print film, Ilford black-and-white film, and assorted film stock from Agfa. So, I’ve taken a lot of photographs using film. … Read More →

Do You Long Nostalgically for Retro Tech? Part 1: Audio cassettes, LPs, and Vacuum Tubes

by Steven Leibson

July 31, 2023

One of the many things that have happened to me as I age is that the tech toys of my youth are now coming back into vogue. A recent PBS NewsHour segment on the “revival” of Philips audio cassettes triggered this article. In that PBS NewsHour segment, Stephanie Sy discussed the growing use of audio cassettes by the underground music scene. Independent music artists distribute their music on cassette because it’s a convenient music distribution medium. Sy interviewed a Los Angeles artist that goes by the name Miral, whose 2019 music project sold out its first run – … Read More → "Do You Long Nostalgically for Retro Tech? Part 1: Audio cassettes, LPs, and Vacuum Tubes"

Are You Ready for the Chiplet Age?

by Max Maxfield

July 27, 2023

As is usually the case, I’m astonished and astounded by the leaps in technology that are occurring all around me. Things are now moving so fast that there will probably be yet another mindboggling development before I’ve finished this column (so I’d better write it as quickly as I can).

The generation of electronics engineers that came before your humble narrator (as you know, I pride myself on my humility) were obliged to work their magic with discrete transistors. I was fortunate to come up in the time of “jellybean” … Read More → "Are You Ready for the Chiplet Age?"

MEMS Oscillators Address Precision Timing Problems

by Max Maxfield

July 25, 2023

Everywhere I turn these days I discover more instances of the need for precision timing. I’m also learning about various amazingly clever solutions engineers have come up with to address some exceedingly complicated problems.

Consider packet-based networks, for example. Let’s suppose you have a master clock somewhere. How would you set about ensuring that any lowly remote nodes have the correct time (i.e., the same time as the master clock) simply by sending packets back and forth across the network? Before you answer, may I remind you … Read More → "MEMS Oscillators Address Precision Timing Problems"

Meet the CAN Invader – How Can Automotive Ethernet Curb Car Theft?

by Steven Leibson

July 24, 2023

There’s a car-theft gang in Atlanta that’s stealing late model, high-end Toyota and Lexus vehicles by hacking the cars’ CAN (car area network) Bus. Apparently, this type of car theft originated in Japan, where criminal hackers have developed a device called a CAN Invader that can shut off the vehicle’s immobilizer, unlock the car’s doors, and start the car once the thief physically hacks into the vehicle’s CAN Bus. Apparently, gaining physical access is distressingly easy. Toyota and Lexus vehicles have a vulnerable node near the driver-side front wheel well. By unclipping … Read More → "Meet the CAN Invader – How Can Automotive Ethernet Curb Car Theft?"