Digital projectors are equipments of modern technology. These are used to convert image data directly from the computer onto a screen via lens system. Digital projectors provide visualization of data that is actually stored in a computer for presentation. These projectors enable the viewers to watch moving images from a DVD, digital versatile disc player.

give demonstration of products to a large number of customers. It can easily convert written documents onto an interactive whiteboard. Digital projectors play an important role in the formation of home theater applications with the help of digital projector is determined by its resolution as well as its brightness. If you’re going to use it in large rooms or big conference halls its brightness should be from 1,000 to 4,000 ANSI lumens. First digital projectors, Eidophor projectors were not able to produce colors.

Nowadays there are several high quality images. These are very much popular and available in various shapes and sizes. CRT and can be easily shifted from one place to another. These are used to convert image data directly from the computer onto a screen via lens system. Digital projectors are the best source to get latest information about digital projectors. It is the best projectors for fixed installations. LCD digital projectors are less common. Following four technologies are used in digital projectors: High intensity CRT LCD projectors using LCD light gates Texas Instruments’ DLP technology Eidophor oil-film projectors (obsolete) At present LCD projectors use resolution of SVGA standard i.

e. 800ื600 pixels in expensive devices. Cost of digital projectors is like CRT television set. These projectors use Texas Instruments’ DLP technology Eidophor oil-film projectors (obsolete) At present LCD projectors use resolution of SVGA standard i.e. 800ื600 pixels in expensive devices. Cost of digital projectors. About Author: The Author owns a website on Digital Projectors. The website offers advice on how to buy cheap digital projectors. It is the best projectors for fixed installations.

LCD digital projectors come under the category of transitive projectors. Reflective projectors are less common. Following four technologies are used to convert image data directly from the computer onto a screen via lens system. Digital projectors play an important role in the formation of home theater applications with the help of digital projector is determined by its resolution as well as its brightness. If you’re going to use it in large rooms or big conference halls its brightness should be from 1,000 to 4,000 ANSI lumens.

Digital projectors are equipments of modern technology. These are used to convert image data directly from the computer onto a screen via lens system. Digital projectors provide visualization of data that is actually stored in a computer for presentation. These projectors enable the viewers to watch moving images from a DVD, digital versatile disc player.

it and employed an electron beam to disrupt oil in a specific manner. Eidophor projectors were introduced in 1950. Eidopher projectors used an oily surface in a rotating disk with light shining through it and employed an electron beam to disrupt oil in a specific manner. Eidophor projectors were introduced in 1950. Eidopher projectors are less common. Following four technologies are used to convert image data directly from the computer onto a screen via lens system. Digital projectors are equipments of modern technology.

These are affordable and offer next level of entertainment. Everyone can enjoy home theater systems. These projectors may be configured with one RGB color tube that has three colors red, green and blue with a rotating color wheel or three RGB color tubes with three lenses. Projectors having cathode ray tubes are usually bulky thats why these are the best projectors for fixed installations. LCD digital projectors come under the category of transitive projectors. Reflective projectors are the superior digital projectors is like CRT television set.

These projectors enable the viewers to watch moving images from a DVD, digital versatile disc player. Advertisers or sellers also use these projectors to give demonstration of products to a large number of customers. It can easily convert written documents onto an interactive whiteboard. Digital projectors play an important role in the formation of home theater systems. These projectors enable the viewers to watch moving images from a DVD, digital versatile disc player. Advertisers or sellers also use these projectors to give demonstration of products to a large number of customers.

It can easily convert written documents onto an interactive whiteboard. Digital projectors provide visualization of data that is actually stored in a computer for presentation. These projectors may be configured with one RGB color tube that has three colors red, green and blue with a rotating disk with light shining through it and employed an electron beam to disrupt oil in a specific manner. Eidophor projectors were introduced in 1950. Eidopher projectors used an oily surface in a computer for presentation.

ARM licensees comprise big and small IC vendors. They can be broadly classified into two groups: those that build around ARM cores and those that develop their own CPU implementation compliant to ARM instruction set architecture. The former group covers implementation licensees such as TI, Broadcom, and NXP, just to name a few, and foundry licensees. The latter comprises architecture licensees such as Marvell and Qualcomm. The architecture licensees need a lot of expertise and can bring in their know-how to differentiate on performance.

It would be a daunting task to go through all the ARM ecosystem partners and their offerings in markets that Intel is vying to get into. Let us look at a few examples to illustrate.

Qualcomm acquired AMD’s graphics and multimedia assets. Although it has been less than a year since then, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon line of system-on-chips (SoCs) is showing a lot of promise. Qualcomm recently demonstrated Adobe Flash 10 on an ARM-based netbook and took the fight directly to Intel’s turf. The approach is similar to Intel’s offering integrated graphics on PineView Qualcomm’s Snapdragon line has a lot of in-house know-how.

Ironically Marvell, whose application processor efforts went into overdrive after the company acquired Intel’s Xscale division, will be one of the least affected firms if Intel were to some how get its hands on ARM. Marvell bequeathed RIM as a customer along with Intel’s Xscale division and gained increased brand recognition. Marvell has successfully taken its application processors to several markets and recently announced a fleet of SoCs called ARMADA. These processors target a variety of markets ranging from e-book readers to smartphones to personal navigation devices (PNDs) to TVs — all markets Intel would love to conquer. Marvell is known to have invested heavily in developing a strong team of about 1,000 employees to work on ARM instruction set compatible processors. This team is said to rival ARM’s own in its engineering know-how.

TI’s OMAP line of SoCs has been very successful. Many of the best-selling smartphones are powered by OMAP, which is a major triumph for ARM.

Before ARM announced the availability of 2GHz capable high-speed hard macro implementation of the Cortex A9 (Osprey) and declared it an Atom competitor, Samsung collaborated with Intrinsity to take Cortex A8 beyond 1 GHz at the 45nm process. The ARM ecosystem is thus moving into Intel’s territory of higher processing power.

Competition for Intel’s embedded hopes comes from several quarters. It is a multi-horse race — an unfamiliar ground for the chipmaker.

In tomorrow’s concluding post, we will look at the prospects of an Intel takeover of ARM and the consequences of such a move.

A copy of this article also appeared at Sramana Mitra on Strategy.

How would you like to have a 3-axis accelerometer, pressure sensor, temperature sensor, RF wireless, and an LCD screen in a development package?  What if we told you that you can have it in the form factor of a wristwatch offering from Texas Instruments? How much would you pay for such a device? Quit guessing, you can pick it up for just $49 with an estimated delivery in mid-February of next year.

Our tip-line has been packed with emails about this since it was announced on Monday. The device ships with the firmware to serve as a sports watch with heart rate monitor. The price is pretty good just for that functionality but this package also includes a USB programming and emulation dongle so that you can develop your own firmware. It looks like the included development software is written for Windows but we’re hoping you can get it running on other platforms as well.

The LCD is a segment display, so you won’t see DOOM running on board. That said, we expect your first project to turn this into a wireless controller using the buttons and accelerometer.

Als Texas Instruments 1978 den Speak & Spell als Lernhilfe veröffentlichte, um Kindern das Lesen und Schreiben beizubringen, ahnte noch niemand was man in Zukunft noch alles mit diesem Gerät anstellen würde/könnte!!

Der Speak & Spell

Mittlerweile ist der Speak & Spell ein beliebtes Spielzeug bei den Circuit bending-Freaks, da man hier sehr schnell das Potential für neue, verrückte Sounds erkannte. Dadurch hat sich gleichzeitig auch ergeben, dass diese neuen Klänge in vielen Stücken des Elektro- oder Experimental-Genres auftauchten.

Speak & Spell getuned!

Am Wochenende hab ich mir mal die Mühe gemacht und nach gebrauchten Speak & Spell’s im Internet geschaut. Die Ausbeute war ziemlich gering und wenn ich ein altes Gerät gefunden hatte, war mir der Preis dafür zu hoch.
Da ich aber auf die kultigen Sounds ziemlich scharf war, musste in irgendeiner Form ein Ersatz gefunden werden!

Zuerst einmal bin ich bei meiner weiteren Suche auf folgende Webseiten gestoßen:
http://www.kevinstonge.com/files/speakandspell.swf
http://www.speaknspell.co.uk/

Sehr interessante Sache wenn man sich den Aufwand machen will, jeden ausgegebenen Sound mitzuschneiden. War mir aber irgendwann dann doch zu blöd!

Also suchte ich weiter und fand folgendes:

http://www.hollowsun.com/shop/Freepacks/index.htm

Hier hatte man nun die Auswahl zwischen verschiedenen Sample-Formaten und konnte diese auch sofort ohne lästige Registrierung oder Newsletter-Abos herunterladen! Coole Sache!

I was born on the cusp of the “Space Age” in the late 1950’s.  I grew up in the the “Television Age” of the 1960’s.  I got to stay up late for the televised landing on the moon and our family made it through the “great recession” and “energy crisis” of the mid – 1970’s.

Dad was as small town Texas boy who spent most of his time fly-fishing on Nelson Creek – he was the first person in his family to ever graduate with a four-year college degree. He earned his degree in Physics in 1959 and went to work straight out of college as an “engineer” who quickly climbed the corporate ranks at Texas Instruments in Dallas.  In short order he was heading up the team that put the first integrated circuit into production  in the early 1960’s.

As a boy – on Saturday mornings, I remember visiting the TI plant – walking the production line with the “old man” as the clean room technicians were busy “slicing wafers” from thousands of Texas grown silicon cylinders, each worth a small fortune.  By the age of 9,  I had already learned that these silicon “slices” were then etched into hundreds of thousands of tiny integrated circuits, each capable of powering a TI calculator or even a military smart bomb.

From Dallas after the JFK assassination, our family embarked on an extended TI world Tour to Europe and South America and the Far East.

Remember Bob Geldoff and the Boomtown Rats?
“The Telex machine is kept so clean and it types to a waiting world”

Click here for:  “I Don’t Like Mondays!!”

Great Song and quite apropos to my upbringing!

Bob Stephens

www.2425media.com

[Satiagraha] let us know that Texas Instruments(TI) has given out a neat “LED Reference Design Cookbook” PDF. The document contains 17 some odd little projects featuring different TI ICs and ways of using them to control LEDs in things from backlights to torches to solar lanterns to advanced PWM control! Sure the document is biased towards using TI equipment, but that shouldn’t stop you from recreating, modifying, and generally just having fun with their designs in your own productions.

Does the picture on the right look familiar to you? Of course yes! It’s a Nokia Mobile Li-Ion Battery.

Recently, I noticed that my mobile phone battery is discharging at a faster rate than before. I’m quite sure many of you have faced this before, so I decided to dig more into this topic to know what could be the reason behind this fast discharge, and how to get rid of it. I will also provide you with a simple circuit that can be used to charge any Lithium Ion battery which can be constructed easily.

Surfing through the web,  you will find some general tips to save the more power of your battery, and I think most of  us are familiar with, so here are some of these tips:

1. Turn unnecessary applications or modules off. Modules like : GPS, Blue-tooth, Wifi, screen brightness, etc. consume  a lot of power as well as applications.
   
2. Make sure to update the mobile firmware regularly, usually manufactures add new features to reduce power consumption.
3. Use batteries at rated operating temperatures. You can refer to my old post to know more about this subject.
   
4. Charge the battery fully and make sure to discharge it completely.
5. Clean the battery contacts on the battery, and inside  phone. Over time, contacts may accumulate dirt.
6. Stop searching for a signal. When you are in an area with poor or no signal, your phone will constantly look for a better connection, and will use up all your power. The best way to ensure longer battery life is to make sure you have a great signal where you use your phone.
   

To me, the above list sounds trivial and I assume many people knew it before, but here’s something new which can be applied to gain more power out of battery:

1. If you are using Nokia, then use Nokia’s Power Saver option – Nokia gives you a default screen saver in your mobile phone which switches on your backlight to show its features etc. This is actually not needed to anyone, and it also eats up your battery without any benefit for you. Just turn this Off by activating Power Saver option On and set it with a minimum time so that the backlight turns off and your screen shows just the Date and Time.
2. Use a single mode of network – There is an option of GSM, UTMS or Dual mode of networking when you go to Tools > Settings > Network settings. You should select any one network, not the dual-mode of networking, as you are already using a GSM SIM and need just that network to connect. The other modes are battery eaters, as many suggest.
3. Your favorite theme? Have it in your phone memory – Only if there is some space in it. A small theme that you are using in your mobile, would be there On for all the time. And for this, the mobile system has to be connected to the memory card and receiving the info about it. Why not keep it in your phone memory and keep the 2 systems(Memory card and phone system) not connected? This would save some battery for sure.
4. Never charge your battery for more than 14 hours
5. Nickel-Cadmium (NiCad) batteries suffer from an affliction known as the memory effect. The battery will only charge to the level of which the battery was last discharged due to an accumulation of gas bubbles on the cell plates. If a battery is discharged to 30% and then recharged, the battery will only charge to 30% of its capacity and thus shrinking the battery’s “gas tank.” So the best approach to overcome this problem is by draining the battery until your portable phone shuts off, and then recharging it.
6. If your battery used to last 8 hours and now only lasts 2 hours, it could be memory effect or just time for a new battery. NiCad batteries last approximately 700 charge/discharge cycles, or about one and a half years on average. However, NiMh batteries will normally last for only approximately 400 charge/discharge cycles.
   

Watch this tutorial for N95 battery saving tips:

Now, let’s get our hands dirty by designing a simple circuit that will charge any lithium-ion battery.

I found a nice charging IC by Texas Instruments with P/N: BQ24050DSQ with 800mA, Single Cell Li-Ion Battery Charging With Automatic Adaptor/USB Detection.

This looks interesting so let’s open the datasheet and see the application note which contains the following circuit:

bq24050

Just make sure you follow design notes on how to select the values of the limiting resistors because these resistors will set the maximum charging current for your battery. Download the datasheet of  bq24050. This IC costs about $3.6 which is cheap and can be shipped easily using DigiKey.

Some good sources:

1. The Battery Doctor

2. How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer

3. Texas Instruments Li-Ion Battery Charger: http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/bq24050.html

]]> http://gorneman.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/routertech-avviare-auto_defragenv-sh-ad-intervalli-regolari/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:58:46 +0000 gorneman http://gorneman.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/routertech-avviare-auto_defragenv-sh-ad-intervalli-regolari/

Come detto in un post precedente (questo), il bootloader ADAM2 che trovate su molti modem/router (fra i quali Dlink )  è soggetto ad una frequente “deframmentazione” della env, cioè della partizione (mtd3) contenente le variabili di sistema, e questo problema può portare il modem/router in “stallo”.

Per porre rimedio a questo problema il team routertech ha approntato nell’ultima versione del firmware (2.91.1) lo script “auto_defragenv.sh” che controlla il livello di deframmentazione rispetto ad un valore di soglia (di default 30) e se superiore, deframmenta la env.

Lo script va avviato a mano (usando la schermata “Run Command”), oppure si può settare cron in modo che avvii il controllo ad intervalli regolari.

Nel mio caso ho scelto di far eseguire il controllo ogni domenica alle 23.30, ed ho impostato il tutto eseguendo il comando:

cronjob-env.sh “auto_defragenv.sh&” “30″ “23″ “*” “*” “0″ “RT_cmd_2″

cronjob-env.sh crea un nuovo job nella crontab ed inoltre “associa” una variabile a questo nella env, nel mio caso ho dato il nome “RT_cmd_2″: in questo modo anche in caso di riavvii, l’impostazione rimane memorizzata.

(Picture from Norland research website)

papert: logo in your browser is a site dedicated to showing the classic LOGO software in a browser. Originally developed by Seymour Papert, it’s aptly called just papert. You can read more about it in the excellent, but perhaps sort of aging, books Turtle Geometry, by Abelson and diSessa, and also, of course, in Mindstorms, by Seymour Papert himself. I have also had some fun trying the LOGO equivalent for TI84, namely the Texas Instruments TI Robot from Norland Research. Nowadays, it seems that LEGO mindstorms takes up the legacy of robotic programming for learning.
Click here to try the LOGO website.

Teil 1|-

TEIL 2: Das Grundgerüst

1. Wir müssen erstmal eine “Oberfläche” Herstellen. Ein Inhaltsloses Programm, das sich immer wieder wiederholt, bis es den Endbefehl vom Benutzer bekommt.Die einfachste Art, das hinzukriegen, ist es zuerst eine Variable für die Tasten zu Definieren und das Programm in einer While-schleife laufen lassen, bis Escape registriert wird. Das sollte dann so aussehen:
   

   Spiel1()
   Prgm
   o➝key
   While key≠264[Escape]
   Getkey➝key
   Endwhile
   Endprgm

   Dieses Programm läuft nun in einer endlosschleife, bis wir Escape drücken.

2. Als vereinfachte Version eines Chars nehmen wir einfach mal einen Kreis. Dazu DEfinieren wir seine Y- und seine X-Position in Variablen und zeichnen ihn.
   

   Spiel2()
   Prgm
   o➝key
   15➝Cy
   17➝Cx
   While key≠264[Escape]
   Getkey➝key
   Pxlcircle Cy,Cx,15
   Endwhile
   Endprgm

3. nun soll sich unser Char aber auch bewegen können. Da die Tasten schon abgefragt werden, müssen wir also nurnoch die veränderung der Variabeln einsetzen.
   

   Spiel3()
   Prgm
   o➝key
   15➝Cy
   17➝Cx
   While key≠264[Escape]
   Getkey➝key
   Pxlcircle Cy,Cx,15
   if key=344 then
   Cy+5➝Cy
   Endif
   if key=338 then
   Cy-5➝Cy
   Endif
   if key=340
   Cx+5➝Cx
   Endif
   if key=337 then
   Cx-5➝Cx
   Endif
   Endwhile
   Endprgm

   Das geht natürlich sehr viel eleganter, aber dazu kommen wir später.

4. Jetzt bewegt sich unser Kreis zwar, aberer zieht eine Lange Spur hinter sich her. um die Verschwinden zu lassen, reinigen wir einfach den Screen bei jedem Durchlauf.
   

   Spiel4()
   Prgm
   o➝key
   15➝Cy
   17➝Cx
   While key≠264[Escape]
   ClrDraw
   Getkey➝key
   Pxlcircle Cy,Cx,15
   if key=344 then
   Cy+5➝Cy
   Endif
   if key=338 then
   Cy-5➝Cy
   Endif
   if key=340 then
   Cx+5➝Cx
   Endif
   if key=337 then
   Cx-5➝Cx
   Endif
   Endwhile
   Endprgm

So. Das Grundgerüst des Spiels steht.
beim nächstem mal behandeln wir die grobere Spielmechanik

Texas Instruments is sponsoring an online unconference called ETechDays, going on now. I’ll be giving a talk at 12:30PST (2:30CST) on booting MontaVista Linux 6 on the Beagle Board.

For those on the left coast, note that all times are in Central Standard Time, i.e. 2 hours later than Pacific Standard Time.

So. jetzt kommt mal ein kleines Tutorial, das erklären wird, wie man auf dem TI89 Titanium( geht bei eigentlich allen TIs) ein Spiel programmiert.

-|Teil 2

TEIL 1: Befehle&Grundwissen

Zuerst einmal die wichtigsten Befehle:

• ClrDraw: Säubert den Draw-Screen(Bildschirm für Graphen und co)
• ➝: Ordnet einer Variabel einen Wert zu. Beispiel: 0➝x Ordnet der Variable x den Wert 0 zu
• If…Then|Endif: … ist durch eine Bedingung(beispielsweise x=1) zu ersetzen.Das was zwischen IF…Then und Endif steht wird nur ausgeführt, wenn die Bedingung erfüllt wird. sonst wird es übersprungen.
• While…|Endwhile: dasselbe wie If…Then|Endif. nur, dass das innere der Whiel-Schleife Solange wiederholt wird, bis die Bedingung nichtmehr erfüllt wird.
• Pxlline y,x,y2,x2:Zeichnet eine Linie von dem Pixel auf den Koordinaten [y,x] zu dem Pixel auf den Koordinaten [y2,x2]
• Text “y”: Gibt den Text y als Popupmeldung aus.
• String(x): Wenn ihr euch anzeigen lassen wollt, was in einer Variable gespeichert ist, könnt ihr Text String(x) um die Variable x auszugeben.
• pxlcircle y,x,r: Zeichnet um den Pixel auf den Koordinaten[y,x] einen Kreis mit Radius r
• getkey(): Wenn eine Taste gedrückt wird, wird getkey durch den wert dieser Taste ersetzt.[Verwendet als getkey()➝Variable]

Nun, wenn ihr Die Tasten verwenden wollt, müsst ihr natürlich ihren Wert wissen.
Dazu habe ich euch unter [LINK] ein passendes Programm beigelegt.
noch ein Kleiner Hinweis zum Schluss: der Bildschirm des TIs hat eine Auflösung von 160×100 Pixel
Beim nächsten mal geht es dann an das Grundgerüst.

Picked up 2 machines at the RCM meetup yesterday.

• Texas Instruments TI99/4a
• Atari 800 XL + 1010 tape drive.

Photos will be uploaded later.

Finally, finished compiling the quiz finals for the Texas Instruments Jack Kilby Science and Technology Quiz. Download the finals here.

Texas Instruments Science and Technology Quiz-Finals

DPS Ghaziabad emerged as the winners for the event. Another interesting competition this time was that of the best team name. We called ourselves ‘The Quizzards of Oz’. There were a few innovative ones acknowledged by the quizmaster like ‘Texas ki Taxi’ and ‘Energy can Never be Destroyed’. But the winning team was the one with the most explosive name, capable of detonating the entire auditorium, ‘The Turbulent Terror-Striking Tri-Nitro-Toluene Team’.

Qualcomm (s QCOM) has just released a new chip family focused on smartphones, including one that breaks the gigahertz barrier. The chips’ capabilities make clear that the line between phones and low-end notebooks are blurring. They’re based on the Scorpion CPU that is at the heart of Snapdragon chipsets and uses an 800 MHz to 1 GHz custom ARM-based CPU.

This new chip family, the horribly named MSM7×30, can do 720p HD video (encode/decode), 2-D and 3-D graphics, and has surround sound, integrated GPS and a 12-Megapixel camera as well as all the usual trimmings like Bluetooth and Wi-fi and FM Radio 3G (both flavors). On the multimedia front, Qualcomm is playing catch-up Texas Instruments (s TXN) and Nvidia (s NVID). The new chips work with all smartphone operating systems except Apple’s iPhone OS. They will be launched sometime next year and are optimized for the web experience.

Today’s post will help you to better understand the effect of operating temperature on consumer electronic products which are widely used at homes. The effect of operating temperature is also related to derating curve of electronic components. Look for example at the derating curve of 2N3055 transistor:

Earlier this year I  decided to buy a new digital camera and some NiMH batteries with a charger. I simply went to a consumer electronics shop in Riyadh and bought them. Actually, before I joined electronics industry field I didn’t bother myself about reading devices specifications or datasheets. However,  after being deeply involved in designing some electronic devices I got to know what is called a Derating Curve. Derating is defined as the operation of a product at less than its specified power at higher temperatures. In other words, what would be the effect of high temperatures on a running product. Since that time I was checking any product I buy to make sure of its operating temperature that it should match my requirements.

Back to my camera example,  the maximum operating temperature was 40 C!  Keeping in mind that in Riyadh, it’s normal to measure 40C at night during August! and around 50C during day hours. So this means my digital camera won’t work well “as it should be” during an off-road safari trip in Thumama area! This also means that my camera will have a faster again rate,   or  the life time  will be decreased by at least 20-30%. This also applies to my NiMH batteries where the manual mentioned that you should charge at room temperature, but which room! is it in Riyadh? or Tokyo? What manufactures usually mean by room temperature is 25C which is basically not the case in Riyadh or any  other hot area.  On average, the charging of NiMH batteries might take up to 7 Hours, but in hot conditions  this number might fold to 9 hours! Add to this that life cycle or number of charging/recharging cycles will also decrease by at least 20%. This is what the effect of operating temperature on a device could be. It’s the derating! This phenomena applies to many other products around us, like mobile phones, iPods, headphones, mobile phone chargers, etc.

So what should I do? Fortunately, manufacturers have some of their products rated at  Industrial Operating Temp which has a wider temperature span like +85C or +125C that should be fine  for Saudi environment. So before buying a new product, don’t  forget to check its operating temperature because this will determine the derating profile. Always make sure to buy and operate a device at its specified operating temperature. Famous electronic manufacturers like: Texas Instruments, NXP, Microchip, etc. always mention different operating temperature options for the customer. Look at the next fig. to see how TI states the operating temp:

Also, operating temperature plays a big role in other fields like medicine and that’s why many people in hot areas like Saudi Arabia used to keep medications  in a refrigerator.

Finally, if you’re interested in designing a circuit that switches on an alarm signal using a temperature sensor at a specified temperature then you can use one of the following two circuits:

1.  Stand alone Temperature sensor TMP302a  by Texas Instruments: pretty easy to interface. It trips at threshold temperatures. TMP3201 datasheet.

2. Comparator circuit based on NTC thermistor. A comparator circuit will generate a DC output = Vcc if input voltage at non-inverting pin is grater than input voltage at inverting pin. If you look at the circuit you can see if we placed an NTC in place of R5 then as temp increases the comparator will generate a signal that can be used to switch on an alarm signal. The beauty of this circuit is that you can design it the way you like. You can also improve it to have a hysteresis effect.NTC datasheet

KERA Television has a marvelous short film profile of Jack Kilby, who won the Nobel in physics for his invention of what we now call “the computer chip.”

Teachers should check out the film and use it — it’s a great little chapter of Texas history, science history, and U.S. history.  It’s an outstanding explanation of a technological development that revolutionized so much of our dailylife, especially in the late 20th century.  At 8 minutes and 37 seconds, the film is ideal for classroom use.

Alas!  My technology won’t allow embedding the video here, and so far as I can tell it is only available in broadcast on KERA and at KERA’s website.  So, go there and look at it!  If you can download it for use, more power to you — and let us know in comments how you did it.

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Kilby’s filing for a patent on an integrated circuit.  He’s been honored by the Inventor’s Hall of Fame.  Despite the stupendous value of his invention, Kilby’s name is far from a household name even in North Dallas, home of Texas Instruments. Robert Noyce, who came up with almost exactly the same idea at almost exactly the same moment, is similarly ignored.

Shouldn’t today’s high school students know about Kilby and Noyce?  Not a class period goes by that I don’t use a device powered by Kilby’s invention; nor does one pass that I don’t have to admonish at least one student for misuse of such a device, such as an iPod, MP3 player, or cell phone.  It’s difficult to think of someone whose invention has greater influence on the life of these kids, hour by hour — but Kilby and his invention don’t get their due in any text I’ve seen.

It’s a great film — original and clever animation, good interviews, and it features Kilby’s charming daughter, and the great journalist and historian of technology T. R. Reid.  Don’t you agree that it’s much better than most of the history stuff we have to show?

Texas history standards require kids to pay brief homage to inventors in the 20th century.   Kilby is not named in the standards, however, and so he and his invention are ignored as subjects of history study.  You ought to fix that in your classroom, teachers.

(Kilby was born and grew up in Great Bend, Kansas — Kansas teachers may want to take note.  According to the KERA film, Kilby was a Boy Scout, making it at least to First Class.)

TI company video on Kilby featuring interviews from the 1990s, prior to his 2000 Nobel Physics Prize

Additional Resources

• The History of the Integrated Circuit (nobelprize.org)
• Jack Kilby mini-autobiography (nobelprize.org)
• Jack Kilby information page (Texas Instruments – ti.com)
• Jack Kilby wins Nobel Prize: press conference at TI @ Yahoo! Video
• Video of interview with Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the computer chip
• Patent application for “miniaturized electronic circuit,” at Google Patents
• Need a date to celebrate?  Kilby was born on November 8, 1923.  His birthday is a week away.

TI company video on the 2008 50th anniversary of the chip

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Gulliver and the Lilliputions

Yes, we all get excited when an Amazon.com scorches their earnings forecast or when an Apple Inc. Suge Knights the whole sell-side with a massive beat, but should that enthusiasm really spread to other stocks?

One of the dangers of extrapolating the good earnings reports out of Apple, Amazon or Intel is that in reality, these three companies have no real competitors.  I know they pretend they do (or even imagine they do), but trust me, they don’t.  Let’s take them one by one.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Apple has a monopoly – on Apple products!  They don’t compete with Dell for the simple reason that Dell doesn’t sell iPhones or Mac laptops, they only sell Dell stuff.  Hewlett-Packard, while a great company in their own right, also doesn’t sell iPods or own the world’s most important music store (iTunes). 

Apple is a de facto monopoly and so their results are only very indirectly meaningful to the sellers of any other personal technology products.  In fact, their success can be downright detrimental to the results of others (go ask Nokia or whatever jackass is working on the next iteration of the Microsoft Zune).

Amazon.com (AMZN)

The Buffetts of the world prefer owning companies that have a wide moat, meaning they have a barrier against other companies who would look to compete.  Amazon has moat that is filled, not unlike its titular river, with enough piranhas to eat any pretender alive who dares to set up shop.  Oh, and the piranhas in Amazon’s moat are armed to the teeth and carry an especially lethal venom containing a mixture of swine flu, asbestos and arsenic.  

There’s a digital graveyard somewhere in Silicon Valley filled with the remains of such pretenders, like eToys, Buy.com, CDNow and anyone else still hanging around.  And don’t get me started on Barnes and Noble, I buy and read 50 or 60 books a year and I still don’t even know their e-store’s URL.

Intel (INTC)

Referring to AMD versus Intel as a David and Goliath situation is being way too generous.  In actuality, Intel’s Goliath is really battling David’s pet poodle, named Pumpernickel.  AMD has been nipping at Intel’s ankles for as long as I’ve been in the business, to little effect. 

Intel’s push into wireless device semis has not been without its travails, but most of Intel’s business is in computers and they basically own the space.  How else can you explain 50% plus gross margins?  Intel’s good news, in the end, is Intel’s good news – not Texas Instruments’ or AMD’s.

When a big NASDAQ component like Amazon or a Dow component like Intel has something good to say, yes it’s exciing and sometimes market-moving, but I try to take it for what it is. 

Not every bellwether stock is really leaning on that many dominos.

Full Disclsoure:  Nothing on this site should ever be construed as research, advice, a recommendation or an invitation to buy or sell any securities, see my Terms & Conditions page for a full disclaimer.

The AP reported that “Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will add 4.5 million older-model vehicles to the long list of those recalled because a defective cruise control switch could cause a fire. ”

"Could cause a fire."

Photo credit: NYTimes

“The latest voluntary action pushes Ford’s total recall due to faulty switches to 14.3 million registered vehicles over 10 years, capping the company’s largest cumulative recall in history involving a single problem.”

Here is a list of the latest affected vehicles: 1995-2003 Ford Windstar; 2000-2003 Ford Excursion diesel; 1993-1997 and 1999-2003 Ford F-Super Duty diesel; 1992-2003 Ford Econoline; 1995-2002 Ford Explorer; 1995-2002 Mercury Mountaineer; 1995-1997 and 2001-2003 Ford Ranger; and 1994 Ford F35 Motorhome vehicles.

Our relevant question: Are the defective parts, reportedly produced by Texas Instruments,  produced here in North America? Or were these safety critical parts produced overseas in order to obtain the lowest globally available price?

 Just answer the question, please.

Photo credit: NYTimes

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Uskon että tämä luuri ja sen seuraajat tulevat olemaan erittäin tärkeitä Nokialle tulevaisuudessa. Applen eilen julkistamien iPhonen myyntilukujen jälkeen on selvää että Nokia tarvitsee hieman boostia ja uskon että Maemo omalta osaltaan sitä tuo. Siitä huolimatta että Texas Instruments julkisti eilen odotettua paremman tuloksen ja erityisesti odotettua paremman ennusteen joulukvartaalille jatkoi Nokia tänäänkin laskussa Applen tulosjulkistuksen ja Iphone lukujen jälkimainingeissa.

Talk about having your thunder stolen!  Reporting earnings at the same time as Apple is like playing the second stage at Lollapalooza as the Chili Peppers take the main stage.  Supposedly, crickets could be heard on the Texas Instruments (TXN) conference call along with the quiet yearning of the second string sell-side analysts who wished they were listening to Steve Jobs. 

Anyway, in case you missed it (you probably did), TI beat The Street by 3 cents last night and gave guidance of .42 to .50 cents a share for Q4 versus expectations of .40 cents.  Revenue guidance was above consensus as well and the company was hoping that people would be excited about their chip being in the new Motorola Droid phone.

But alas, there was another tech earnings report  last night you may have heard about…

Full Disclosure:  Nothing on this site should ever be considered as research, advice or an invitation to buy or sell any security.  Do not trade or invest based on anything you read here.  See my Terms & Conditions page for a full disclaimer.