Macroware Technology
Welcome Portlet
Welcome to Macroware Technology Blog.
The purposes of this engineering blog:
- Share knowledge
- Learn
- Have fun
- Document what I was doing / thinking
Search Box
Category List
Private Area
Mailing List
Monthly Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
Engineering Education
Engineering Organizations
Conferences
Professional Career Networking Groups
Engineering References
Electronics Hobby
Trade Publications
September 2008
Sudoku Algorithm
Thursday, 18 September 2008 9:18 A GMT-06
Sudoku is a puzzle that requires human reasoning and logic to solve. These puzzles can also be solved by computers using similar logic techniques and brute force trying of different combinations. There is not currently an efficient algori
Category: Puzzles
Software and EMC
Wednesday, 17 September 2008 9:04 A GMT-06
I know of two excellent articles describing the impact of software on EMC. The main impacts are related to making the design robust and resiliant to electromagnetic disturbances to make sure the product can pass susceptibility tests. Both
Category: Digital System Architecture
History of Ethernet
Tuesday, 16 September 2008 9:02 A GMT-06
Ethernet is the ubiquitous network that connects our computers together, and is also rapidly finding many new areas of application. There was a really good article in EDN Magazine a few years ago describing the history and Evolution of Ethernet
Category: Digital System Architecture
IBIS 5.0 Specification Release
Tuesday, 16 September 2008 8:31 A GMT-06
The IBIS 5.0 specification was ratified on August 28, 2008. This is exciting because the specification now contains support for algorithmic modeling which allows for behavioral model description of multi-gigabit serial transceivers including pr
Category: High Speed Digital Design
EMC and Safety Training and References
Monday, 15 September 2008 9:24 A GMT-06
There was an article in Conformity magazine last January containing information about many different training and information references about EMC and saftey compliance [1]. The article contained descriptions of public and private seminars, onl
Category: High Speed Digital Design
Low Labor Cost Hardware Design
Sunday, 14 September 2008 10:33 P GMT-06
As I sit here in a hotel room in Penang, Malaysia, on a trip to train engineers in signal integrity design, I'm reminded of an article in a recent EE Times magazine about board design trends in India [1]. The article claims that there will
Category: Engineering Profession
XMOS Programmable Multicore Chip
Sunday, 14 September 2008 8:59 A GMT-06
Last year around this time, I wrote an article about a new chip from XMOS Semiconductor that promised to provide a multicore processor chip with highly configurable IO so that it could perform in many hardware applications. They had announced p
Category: Digital System Architecture
PCI Express Analyzer
Sunday, 14 September 2008 3:09 A GMT-06
I saw an add in Test & Measurement World a while ago for a PCI Express Analyzer from Vmetro. The product is called Vanguard Express Analyzer. It is available in x1, x4, and x8 lane versions. According to the datasheet, the analy
Category: Digital System Architecture
Comments/Trackback (1-0)
Using Mathcad for Signal Integrity Design
Thursday, 11 September 2008 10:14 A GMT-06
I have been a Mathcad user since high school and I love the tool. Starting in April 2008, there was a three part series of articles in Printed Circuit Design & Fab magazine by Dr. Abe Riazi about using Mathcad for signal integrity analysis
Category: High Speed Digital Design
TomTom One Product Teardown
Thursday, 11 September 2008 9:55 A GMT-06
The hand held consumer GPS is one of the coolest devices to come out in recent years. I was excited to see a teardown analysis by iSupply of the street navigating GPS that I own, the TomTom One in a recent issue of Electronic Products Magazine
Category: Digital System Architecture
Simulation vs. Measurement
Thursday, 11 September 2008 9:36 A GMT-06
In high speed digital design both simulation and measurment are very important. Simulations are needed to help make design trade offs at the system implementation level, but they aren't meaningful if they don't match with reality.
Category: High Speed Digital Design
Build your own Channel Analysis Tool?
Thursday, 11 September 2008 9:23 A GMT-06
The current design process for designing with multi-gigabit serial links is not very robust for system level engineers. Basically it consists of creating loss budgets, performing transmission channel bandwidth simulations, and possibly doing so
Category: High Speed Digital Design