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(Of course, he's talking about the board versus the general employee base.) "Choosing a Board of Directors based on race and gender is a lousy way to run a company. Cypress will never do it. Furthermore, we will never be pressured into it, because bowing to well-meaning, special-interest groups is an immoral way to run a company, given all the people it would hurt. We simply cannot allow arbitrary rules to be forced on us by organizations that lack business expertise. I would rather be labeled as a person who is unkind to religious groups than as a coward who harms his employees and investors by mindlessly following high-sounding, but false, standards of right and wrong." More here: http://www.cypress.com/documen...

You'd use it to connect your Raspberry Pi to an Arduino

The idea of connecting an RPI to an arduino is just bafflingly dumb. If you need raw pincount that bad, just use a beaglebone. The arduino simply adds another unnecessary layer of complexity. For almost every *normal* I2C use case, The RPI I2C works just fine. I2C was never intended for connecting two micro controllers together, so no one should be surprised when it doesn’t work well. Connecting two micro controllers together is going to be trouble whenever one is significantly faster than the other. SPI is better suited for that, but you'd better have DMA to handle the incoming data. The arduino just isn't going to cut it. At the end of the day if you're trying to do anything more complex than turning a light on and off, the arduino isn't the right tool for the job.

If you really want pincount, get one of these They are vastly more capable than the arduino and can connect to the RPI by USB. These are fully featured micro-controllers with on board everything. They might even be fast enough for you to skip the PI...

Long, but worth the read:

http://www.cypress.com/?rID=34...

tl;dr: A CEO tells a nun in great detail that requiring the board reflect a greater makeup of diversity for its own sake is "immoral".

A choice quotation from the letter follows:

"A search [for board members] based on these criteria usually yields a male who is 50-plus years old, has a Masters degree in an engineering science, and has moved up the managerial ladder to the top spot in one or more corporations. Unfortunately, there are currently few minorities and almost no women who chose to be engineering graduate students 30 years ago. (That picture will be dramatically different in 10 years, due to the greater diversification of graduate students in the '80s.) Bluntly stated, a "woman's view" on how to run our semiconductor company does not help us, unless that woman has an advanced technical degree and experience as a CEO. I do realize there are other industries in which the last statement does not hold true. We would quickly embrace the opportunity to include any woman or minority person who could help us as a director, because we pursue talent -- and we don't care in what package that talent comes."

Have a look at the cypress PSOC family. The chips combine an ARM and an 8051 microcontroller with a pile of ad dsp and other special purpose logic as well as a modest ammount of programmable digital and analog resources.

The software is windows only, which is major (but not killer) downside for me. I've only played with one for a couple hours, but it was enough for me to want to try them out for a few things around the house, when I find the time.

The Cypress EZ-USB FX2LP ( http://www.cypress.com/?id=193 ) is a nice example of the 8051 still doing its job. If you want something more specific I suggest using Farnell to find one that suits your needs, they allow you to sort on 8051 and 8052 designs.

And VHDL for anything else than hardware synthesis is indeed something only a lunatic would use. But for building up systems it is a common choice in academic settings. Verilog isn't near as predictable as VHDL, and SystemC hardware synthesis is rather problematic.

I have a set of these from Home Depot. The warranty is a real PITA to comply with because you have to show a receipt (original or copy). The problem is that Home Depot uses thermal paper for their receipts. The thermal paper will lose its legibility very likely before the six years are up, especially if you store the receipts anywhere that is warmer than room temperature. So you have to make a scan or xerographic copy of the receipts, then file them somewhere you will remember 1-6 years from now (which is why I prefer scans). The fine print in the warranty also says that they assume you don't use the bulb for more than three hours per day. How anyone can determine compliance with that term I have no clue. I wonder if they have an inexpensive circuit on that PCB that logs the running time of each bulb, as a teardown reveals a Cypress Semiconductor CY8CLED04 microprocessor with more than enough muscle to keep a running meter, provided some non-volatile memory.

Cypress has configurable analogue chips: http://www.cypress.com/?id=1353

Nice. I like the block diagram of programmable gain op amps (hopefully high performance / low noise?) and A/D D/A systems, but it really cries out for a nice set of fast sample and hold units. Imagine an array of programmable op amps at the inputs dynamically feeding fast S/H and comparator units, while switching the fancy A/D in and out of the S/H as needed.... kind of a dynamic analog processor rather than static designs. Interesting. Also with enough functional units on chip, you could survive damage, if A/D unit #3 blew out either in use or broke from the factory, theoretically smart enough software would work around it...

Cypress has configurable analogue chips: http://www.cypress.com/?id=1353

Slapping an fpga and highspeed ADC onto a custom PCB is easy enough, you can get such things from knjn prebuilt, but you really need gigabit ethernet or faster to do software processing on significant bandwidth and those sorts of interfaces tend to need five and six layer PCBs which aren't DIY and jack up the price. Perhaps the USB3 interfaces will be more hobby friendly. You still need a software controlled wideband receiver too, maybe heathkit will step up on that one.

All in all, the USRP is reasonable, though its been getting more expensive due to more features, and NI buying them might be involved too, NI doesn't tend to make cheap stuff.

Cypress already announced EZ-USB 3, if its anything like FX2LP implementing solutions will be a breeze
http://www.cypress.com/?rID=51181

You ask a great question, but it seems to be two questions:

1) Should you upgrade your skills to programming applications with one of the popular smartphone OSes?

2) Which OS?

To the first, the overwhelming answer is ABSOLUTELY YES. I recently ( AUgust 30) wrote on my blog for embedded microcontroller designers my own feelings on this subject: why someone designing/programming in an unrelated field should learn to develop iPhone apps (PSoC Design Methods and Madness).

My answer to the second question is choose iOS and learn to program for iPhone. The main reason for is that I believe Apple has the bar-setting tools and they reinforce learning how to develop great applications. For instance, in the interface tool there are automatic guides that support laying out buttons so they are well-placed: not too close to edge or each other and not too small.

The disadvantage of iOS is that to distribute apps you need to pass the review board and get them into the app store. This is not, in my mind a disadvantage. It means that there are a set of minimal requirements that need to be met before distributing an app, and that when you get an app yourself off the app store these requirements have been met. And if you can get friends who trust you to let you disposition their iPhone or iPod Touch for testing, then you can load your app on their device before it gets in the app store.

Actually, I'm not talking about the embedded space. I'm talking about programming on x86 CPUs; the Cypress .NET API I was discussing was the API for communicating with the device from the host computer.

http://www.cypress.com/?rID=34870

This could really spoil the image of Microsoft. http://www.cypress.com/

That is good news... http://www.cypress.com/

I think this article is really interesting.... http://www.cypress.com/

You might try looking at the Cypress PSoC. It offers a small RISC-y micro coupled with an array of analog and digital blocks that can be configured for your application. They're low power, available in small packages, and are very cheap. Apple has even started using them as a single-chip solution for their new touch wheel controller.

There are some programmable mixed signal devices avaliable now. Off the top of my head I can think of the PSoC Mixed-Signal Array from Cypress. I'm sure there are others that could be found with some searching.

The multi-touch tablet is only a matter of time. Below is a link to a pdf on Cypress's capacitive switch array technology (think iPod wheel or other MP3 player sliders).

Capacitive Key Scan

All they need to do is make such array's transparent and they can turn a touchscreen into a keyboard or other interactive device.

Crap, am I the only one still using "WirelessUSB"?*

* a more correct description would be "wireless serial port"; it does not actually implement any USB stuff.

• comp.arch.fpga Google archive of Usenet groups, where people interested in FPGA hang out.
• Opencores A set of free IP cores that can be implemented in FPGAs
• Comprehensive tutorial on FPGA
• A comprehensive list of FPGA CPUs
• A good FPGA tools overview
• FPGAworld news, jobs, forums, demos etc.(http://www.fpgaworld.com)
• FPGA Basics by Ray Andraka
• Fpga4Fun various fpga projects
• FPGA Boards
• AP100 PCI Platform FPGA Development Board
• Information about signal processing on FPGA by RF Engines
• FPGA manufacturers
  • Xilinx Xilinx has traditionally been the FPGA leader. Their general philosophy is to provide all the features possible, at the cost of extra complexity.
  • Altera Altera is the second FPGA heavyweight. Their philosophy is to provide the features that most people want while keeping their devices easy to use.
  • Lattice Lattice's focus is on low-cost, feature-optimized FPGAs and non-volatile, flash-based FPGAs.
  • Actel (http://www.actel.com/) and QuickLogic have antifuse (programmable-only-once) products.
  • Cypress
  • Atmel
  • Debian FPGA.

Actually it seems I was wrong, now their website is working and they still have affordable USB kits: http://www.cypress.com/

Unfortunately for the lawyers who attacked us, Cypress has one of the fighting 4 percent CEOs, not one of the 96 percent capitulating CEOs. On my way to work one morning, I traveled behind a beat-up pickup truck, which apparently belonged to an NRA member. The bumper sticker stated, "They will take my gun away from me when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers."

Shortly after I arrived at work, the inevitable offer to settle came through. The plaintiffs indicated that they had the memo that would do us in, but that they were generously prepared to negotiate. I sent my response back through our lawyers: "The plaintiffs will get their first nickel out of me when they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers." I refused even to meet with the class-action lawyers, whom I consider to be a low-life form, somewhere below pond scum.

I recommend reading most anything on his home page. You won't agree with all of it, but he gets you to think, and you have to admire his spirit.

Unfortunately for the lawyers who attacked us, Cypress has one of the fighting 4 percent CEOs, not one of the 96 percent capitulating CEOs. On my way to work one morning, I traveled behind a beat-up pickup truck, which apparently belonged to an NRA member. The bumper sticker stated, "They will take my gun away from me when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers."

Shortly after I arrived at work, the inevitable offer to settle came through. The plaintiffs indicated that they had the memo that would do us in, but that they were generously prepared to negotiate. I sent my response back through our lawyers: "The plaintiffs will get their first nickel out of me when they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers." I refused even to meet with the class-action lawyers, whom I consider to be a low-life form, somewhere below pond scum.

I recommend reading most anything on his home page. You won't agree with all of it, but he gets you to think, and you have to admire his spirit.

An lcd

A remote control

Anything from M-Audio! - MIDI interface, keyboard, a (real) audio interface...

microcontroller --> endless possibilities....

flash drive, or a flash card reader

usb drive enclosure - harddrive, CD-R...

I cant wait for MRAM solid state disks. Non-volatile fast, dense...etc

Has all the makings of a great future hard drive replacement.

Small sizes of it are already available, at least on paper.

Datasheets here.

MRAM uses spintronics to store data. Its supposed to be very fast (dram speeds), dense, and not too expensive.

Oh did I mention non-volatile ?

This isnt some fancy technology thats going to maybe apear in ten years.

There are preliminary datasheets out now right here.

I cant wait to change my hdd over to this stuff (welll, that may be years away ;)

Here is some more info about wireless USB. Everyone needs to understand that WiFi and Bluetooth are meant for totally different applications. We need to discuss Bluetooth vs. wireless USB. Wireless USB is cheap, and is essentially a drop in to make current USB devices wireless. It's simple and it works.

Okay, I will have to assume you are not an employee of Cypress Semiconductor, trying to create a "buzz" on the Internet about the new product family. Cypress Semiconductor created such technology and currently touts it under WirelessUSB brand. Granted, I don't think there's a consumer device using WirelessUSB just yet, but Cypress is currently selling the chips and chipsets to the OEMs. The prices are quite good, by the way, if you're involved with embedded devices or home automation products.

The WirelessUSB specs from Cypress Web site - "..The wireless connectivity is transparent to the designer at the operating system level (no drivers needed), as the WirelessUSB system acts as a USB HID class device..."

ZDNet on WirelessUSB

Naturally, Google

Okay, I will have to assume you are not an employee of Cypress Semiconductor, trying to create a "buzz" on the Internet about the new product family. Cypress Semiconductor created such technology and currently touts it under WirelessUSB brand. Granted, I don't think there's a consumer device using WirelessUSB just yet, but Cypress is currently selling the chips and chipsets to the OEMs. The prices are quite good, by the way, if you're involved with embedded devices or home automation products.

The WirelessUSB specs from Cypress Web site - "..The wireless connectivity is transparent to the designer at the operating system level (no drivers needed), as the WirelessUSB system acts as a USB HID class device..."

ZDNet on WirelessUSB

Naturally, Google

"Now, 802.11 may be cheap, but I think it'll be a few years yet before I have an 802.11 mouse."

It will be more like never. I have a feeling what may be more widely implemented is Wireless USB. It is perfect for keyboards, mice, and anything else that is already USB. Plus it's very low power consumption and low latency, so I wouldn't be surprised if it is standard on next generation game consoles too. This product recently came out and I have seen prototypes of converted peripherals, not to mention this little news blurb.

• lower cost (simpler = less silicon; $3.50/unit. That is the wireless and the little CPU to run your keyboard, mouse, game controller, or interface to your larger device.)
  
• lower latency (low enough for FPS games. 8ms, up to 20ms with 7 devices. Human reaction time is something like 50ms.)
  
• higher speed (217kbps)
  
• standard software (everything is still USB to your computer)
  

• How does it get along with 802.11[bg]? They are in the same band, both frequency hop.
  
• Cell phone companies do not move quickly. Will they consider a cheaper alternative to bluetooth?
  
• Is the product on track? Their press release is from November. There is a suspicious lack of information on the Cypress site. Their projected milestone was Q1'03, so they still have time.

As above, but with links, done with HTML Kit, a free HTML editor:

Here are a few articles written by/about TJ Rodgers (Cypress' CEO) and/or about Cypress:

On Jesse Jackson (towards the bottom): http://www.reasonvsracism.com/essay_race_century.h tm
http://www.cypress.com/aboutus/press_release.cfm?o bjectID=00268C54-86B3-4E6C-978C016CEF39A32A

Regarding affirmative action (to a Nun, no less):
http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/summer96/0241.htm l

On Second Harvest Food Bank:
http://www.cypress.com/aboutus/press_release.cfm?o bjectID=F2451423-D66F-438C-BB283FC6673CACC0

Solar Power:
http://www.cypress.com/aboutus/press_release.cfm?o bjectID=A571C5CC-0870-447C-993E7DE2BC4E8A02

He also had an interesting piece in the May 20th USA Today regarding frivilous lawsuits, but I can't find a link to it anywhere.

As above, but with links, done with HTML Kit, a free HTML editor:

Here are a few articles written by/about TJ Rodgers (Cypress' CEO) and/or about Cypress:

On Jesse Jackson (towards the bottom): http://www.reasonvsracism.com/essay_race_century.h tm
http://www.cypress.com/aboutus/press_release.cfm?o bjectID=00268C54-86B3-4E6C-978C016CEF39A32A

Regarding affirmative action (to a Nun, no less):
http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/summer96/0241.htm l

On Second Harvest Food Bank:
http://www.cypress.com/aboutus/press_release.cfm?o bjectID=F2451423-D66F-438C-BB283FC6673CACC0

Solar Power:
http://www.cypress.com/aboutus/press_release.cfm?o bjectID=A571C5CC-0870-447C-993E7DE2BC4E8A02

He also had an interesting piece in the May 20th USA Today regarding frivilous lawsuits, but I can't find a link to it anywhere.

As above, but with links, done with HTML Kit, a free HTML editor:

Here are a few articles written by/about TJ Rodgers (Cypress' CEO) and/or about Cypress:

On Jesse Jackson (towards the bottom): http://www.reasonvsracism.com/essay_race_century.h tm
http://www.cypress.com/aboutus/press_release.cfm?o bjectID=00268C54-86B3-4E6C-978C016CEF39A32A

Regarding affirmative action (to a Nun, no less):
http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/summer96/0241.htm l

On Second Harvest Food Bank:
http://www.cypress.com/aboutus/press_release.cfm?o bjectID=F2451423-D66F-438C-BB283FC6673CACC0

Solar Power:
http://www.cypress.com/aboutus/press_release.cfm?o bjectID=A571C5CC-0870-447C-993E7DE2BC4E8A02

He also had an interesting piece in the May 20th USA Today regarding frivilous lawsuits, but I can't find a link to it anywhere.

Cypress have a number of different USB 1.1 and 2.0 solutions that work extremely well. They have the SX series and FX series. The SX series is very simple to use, as it is essentially a fifo that an external processor can control. The FX series is a flexible io device with a 8051 that controls it. You might look into either of these as a way to develop your product. They have dev kits for $500 or so (I don't remember the exact price). The kits come with development software and a demo driver.

I looked into this over this past summer. The thing about scopes is that they don't need a high *sustained* transfer rate, just a high burst rate. If you've ever looked at one of the new-fangled Tektronix LCD multi-GHz digital scopes it'll be apparent that it updates the displayed data only a few times a second. Besides which, the LCD only updates at like 60 to 100 Hz. So if you're acquiring at 100 MHz for a 1000 pixel wide screen it works out to 10 microseconds per screenful. If you update the screen at 10 Hz, i.e. about as fast as your eye can keep up, 99.99% of the incoming data never gets displayed.

So it seems like you'd have much better luck doing a parallel port scope if you could buffer the high-speed (e.g. 100 MHz) data stream, say with a fast 2Kx8 FIFO or an n-bit synchronous counter hooked up to a dual-port SRAM. The computer can then read the data out at its leisure through a parallel port interface. Doing simple I/O programming on the parallel port I think you get much better than the 10 kHz needed for 10 Hz refresh @ 1000 samples per screen. And you'd never worry about stupid Windoze timing making you lose samples.

IMNSHO the FIFO you'd need is pretty deep as FIFOs go; such a deep FIFO will be a few dozen dollars, and I think DPSRAMs can be had cheaper. 8-bit ADC chips are can easily go up to like 100 MHz for not too much money. Keep in mind though that this is *per channel*. You can always get wider memory for multiple channels, which should be cheaper than getting multiple IC's. And you'd need glue logic. IIRC the external glue logic in my design came out to like 20 high-speed 74xx family IC's. Or you can just put them all on a PAL. (proximity to a good EE lab with PAL burning hardware and expertise would be a plus) With a decent investment of like $100 and lots of time you should get a parallel-port scope with max speeds of several 10s of MHz at least. Try doing that with a POS ISA card and software-generated timing!

BTW get the high-bandwidth breadboard and zero-propagation-time components at your nearest physics warehouse, where you'd normally go to get massless string and frictionless pulleys :)

I looked into this over this past summer. The thing about scopes is that they don't need a high *sustained* transfer rate, just a high burst rate. If you've ever looked at one of the new-fangled Tektronix LCD multi-GHz digital scopes it'll be apparent that it updates the displayed data only a few times a second. Besides which, the LCD only updates at like 60 to 100 Hz. So if you're acquiring at 100 MHz for a 1000 pixel wide screen it works out to 10 microseconds per screenful. If you update the screen at 10 Hz, i.e. about as fast as your eye can keep up, 99.99% of the incoming data never gets displayed.

So it seems like you'd have much better luck doing a parallel port scope if you could buffer the high-speed (e.g. 100 MHz) data stream, say with a fast 2Kx8 FIFO or an n-bit synchronous counter hooked up to a dual-port SRAM. The computer can then read the data out at its leisure through a parallel port interface. Doing simple I/O programming on the parallel port I think you get much better than the 10 kHz needed for 10 Hz refresh @ 1000 samples per screen. And you'd never worry about stupid Windoze timing making you lose samples.

IMNSHO the FIFO you'd need is pretty deep as FIFOs go; such a deep FIFO will be a few dozen dollars, and I think DPSRAMs can be had cheaper. 8-bit ADC chips are can easily go up to like 100 MHz for not too much money. Keep in mind though that this is *per channel*. You can always get wider memory for multiple channels, which should be cheaper than getting multiple IC's. And you'd need glue logic. IIRC the external glue logic in my design came out to like 20 high-speed 74xx family IC's. Or you can just put them all on a PAL. (proximity to a good EE lab with PAL burning hardware and expertise would be a plus) With a decent investment of like $100 and lots of time you should get a parallel-port scope with max speeds of several 10s of MHz at least. Try doing that with a POS ISA card and software-generated timing!

BTW get the high-bandwidth breadboard and zero-propagation-time components at your nearest physics warehouse, where you'd normally go to get massless string and frictionless pulleys :)

Didn't think so.

You might want to read "System Design Considerations When Using Cypress CMOS Circuits" at Cypress and bone up on your transmission line theory.

It's old (1996) but still worth reading the response of outspoken Cypress Semi CEO T.J. Rodgers to The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia after they criticized the company for lack of minority representation on its board. Here is the link.