Starting with this new AddOhms TutorialCast series, we are taking a look at Electronics Basics. The first topic is on the differences between Voltage, Current, and Power. The twist on this explanation is that we are not using the usual “electricity is like water” analogy engineers seem to love. Instead, we just use plain language to explain the difference between these concepts.
The lead hardware designer of both the original ARM core and the BBC Micro Computer, Professor Steve Furber, is leading an effort to simulate the human brain with ARM cores. Custom chips with 18 cores each will be used. Check out the story at Electronics Weekly for more information: One million ARM cores to simulate brain at Manche`ster – 7/8/2011 – Electronics Weekly.
These days it is pretty rare to see a press release from a semiconductor company touting 5V TTL capabilities. Diodes is upgrading their 5V TTL logic as reported by Electronics Weekly. While the 5V operating will easily appeal to hobbyist, the package sizes may not. They are not through-hole components. However, the 74ACHT series will provide you surface mount solutions for AND, NAND, OR, NOR, XOR, Inverter, and Schmitt trigger glue logic.
Diodes can be found at www.diodes.com.
Apple’s latest magic trick was upgrading their previous A4 chip into a dual core variant, the A5. This chip powers the recently announced iPad 2 and is likely to be in the upcoming summer release of the iPhone 5 (4s?) The folks at Chipworks have done some reverse engineering (which may be using actual magic) to see what the inside of the A5 looks like… all 2.9Million gates of it.
Coming Q3 of 2011, ST-Micro will begin selling a Single-Chip GPS IC called the Teseo II. It has an ARM core integrated into it, which should help reduce the time it takes to get a fix, and simplify integration into any hardware project.
Pricing is set at $6 in volumes of 500k, so for hobby work it may be a cost/time trade-off.
ST selling single-chip GPS IC. – 1/27/2011 – Electronics Weekly.
