Archives: Articles
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A History of Early Microcontrollers, Part 1: Calculator Chips Came First
Gary Boone, who worked in the Texas Instruments (TI) MOS Department, devised the first chip that can be called a microcontroller because he was becoming…
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Will X9 Spider Computer Systems Power the US Army in 2030?
A couple of weeks ago as I pen these words, I heard that the folks from General Micro Systems had taken home three “Best of…
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In Memoriam: Dave Cochran, an Engineer’s Engineer
Sadly, my friend Dave Cochran passed away on October 7. You’ve likely never heard of Dave Cochran, but if you ever owned a scientific calculator,…
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DARPA Funds Space Lasers to Bring Non-Sectarian Internet Communications to Outer Space
Have you noticed that low-Earth orbit (LEO) is getting crowded? Several companies are developing globe-spanning satellite networks to provide Internet access to every square inch…
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O-M-Gosh, I’ve Been Zeked! (Part 3)
As you may recall from my previous “O-M-Gosh, I’ve Been Zeked!” columns, 11-year-old Zeke is on a mission to talk to the astronauts and cosmonauts…
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How Long Until We See Whales in Classrooms?
Do you remember all the hoopla about the company Magic Leap a few years ago? I’m trying to remind myself of the timeline. The company…
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Looming Crypto Crisis Rides In With Quantum Computing
It seems, increasingly, like writing technology articles is becoming nothing more than covering a long list of unfolding crises. The crisis du jour is the…
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Meet UVVM: The World’s #1 VHDL Verification Methodology
I’m happy (albeit puzzled) to tell you that things seem to be getting better with respect to verifying FPGA, ASIC, and system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The…
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FPGA Saves the World (Sort of), Part 2
On September 26 of this year, the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft slammed into the moonlet/asteroid Dimorphos and vaporized itself into an expanding plume…
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FPGA Saves the World (Sort of)
On Sept. 26, 2022, at 7:14 pm EDT, NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft slammed into an asteroid moonlet called Dimorphos, which orbits around…