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thanks for pointing this device... the datasheet will go in my library, to accompany the ones for the SDI stuff
digikey will soon see my money sent their way...

Three instances of a 62Msps A/D converter like the National ADC12L063 wouldbe sufficient to sample component video inputs. Feed these to an FPGA that sits on a 64-bit PCI or PCI-X card, and you have yourself a nice uncompressed HDTV capture card. For more enterprising (and cost sensitive) HW hackers, the ultimate geeky solution would be to use a Gigabit Ethernet PHY as a A/D front ent.

AMD has its Geode family purchased from some other company.

Cheap opamps used in highend amplifiers and by hobbyists have a THD of 0.02%

Question for the Kernel coders, what perctage of drivers are reverse engineered?? 60-70%

The percentage would be near 0% if not 0%. Plenty of hardware manufacturers have released open or open-enough programming specifications for their hardware. Intel, AMD and National Semiconductor are a few examples.

For example, here are the programming specifications for my network card, a Netgear FA312 - DP83815 10 100 Mb s Integrated PCI Ethernet Media Access Controller and Physical Layer (MacPhyter)

Companies like NVidia and ATi are the exception, not the rule.

Question for the Kernel coders, what perctage of drivers are reverse engineered?? 60-70%

The percentage would be near 0% if not 0%. Plenty of hardware manufacturers have released open or open-enough programming specifications for their hardware. Intel, AMD and National Semiconductor are a few examples.

For example, here are the programming specifications for my network card, a Netgear FA312 - DP83815 10 100 Mb s Integrated PCI Ethernet Media Access Controller and Physical Layer (MacPhyter)

Companies like NVidia and ATi are the exception, not the rule.

when I got a patent on them for my corporate employer in the 70's using all discrete parts - no IC's. It's pretty easy today to build a small one with relatively few parts, but you have to look out for the noise that they produce. Here's a link to an application note for one that would work in this case: LM2575 ap note (warning, 26 page pdf) I still like linear regulators for a lot of applications unless efficiency is paramount.

"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

The milliamp rating of the part bears no direct relationship to the need for heatsinking. The heatsink requirements are related to the amount of power that the regulator IC needs to dissipate to stay within rated operating temperature limits. The power dissipation is given by Pd=(Vin-Vout)*I. Where I is the current drawn through the regulator. For example, in this case being discussed, the voltage drop is roughly 5 volts across the IC and if the current was 1 amp, then the power being dissipated would be 5 watts. Given, from the data sheet, that the junction to ambient thermal resistance is 50 degrees C per watt, the junction temp rise above ambient for 5 watts would be 250 degrees C which is far in excess of the junction maximum operating temp of 125 degrees C. So in that example a heatsink, which reduces the junction to ambient thermal resistance, is clearly a necessity. See LM317 data sheet

Don't feel bad, though, it's a common misconception that has caused a lot of burned fingers. You are right that the heatsink can't hurt, even if not required, since lower temperatures are ralated to lower MTBF (Mean TIme Between Failures.)

"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

It is... and in some countries it is 50hz. The switching power supply has four really big transistors and they switch at about 60-80kHz. Each time the transistors switch on or off, they don't care where in the cycle of input power they are. They turn on for just a few micro seconds, then turn off. The power supply gets what ever power it gets in this time frame. The "chopper" which is the heart and soul of the power supply has that "on" interval constantly changing to keep the power level constant. If you really want to know about these things search for "lm3524" that is one of the very basic switching regulator chips. National Semiconductor has good application notes. I used to have an equipment "babysitting" job, and browsed application notes all day.

Here's something I did to help visually monitor my CPU temperature (and it doesn't require any software). You could extend it to monitor the temperature of any part that tends to overheat.

Grab yourself a basic comparator such as the LM339 and a temperature sensor such as the LM135. Make a circuit that compares the temperature sensor's voltage to a pre-defined threshold, and lights the LED if the temperature rises too much. The 'Typical Application' section of each datasheet pretty much shows you exactly how to wire up the parts.

You can put this circuit in your computer's case (run it off a spare +5 voltage connector) and use a spare LED you find, like the Turbo light ;)

Here's something I did to help visually monitor my CPU temperature (and it doesn't require any software). You could extend it to monitor the temperature of any part that tends to overheat.

Grab yourself a basic comparator such as the LM339 and a temperature sensor such as the LM135. Make a circuit that compares the temperature sensor's voltage to a pre-defined threshold, and lights the LED if the temperature rises too much. The 'Typical Application' section of each datasheet pretty much shows you exactly how to wire up the parts.

You can put this circuit in your computer's case (run it off a spare +5 voltage connector) and use a spare LED you find, like the Turbo light ;)

The SPOT watches will have: a 28 MHz ARM7 processor, 64KB ROM, 48KB RAM, and a 12Kb/sec radio downlink.

You could just wait until someone hacks this to run their own code. It runs a scaled-down version of Microsoft's Common Language Runtime (CLR) environment.

It's true that the sensors are generally hanging on the ISA bus, except for the CPU temperature sensor, which is now generally built into the CPU, as it is on my Athlon XP. On my mainboard it is built into the ITE 8712 SuperI/O chip, which provides all legacy I/O on my system. There are of course PCI SuperI/O chips out there. (The linked chip, the Nominal Semidestructor PC87393, has 16 general purpose I/O pins, which could be used for monitoring.)

Dill said, however, that the design of a voter-verified paper system is not a trivial undertaking and that the usability and security aspects of such a feature need to be thought through carefully so companies design systems under standards that meet both these criteria.

Yes, trivial. Done. Completed. In use nationwide in Brazil.

Actually I would recommend thin-clients instead of a full PC, even an Apple. The idea even works if you want just a Windows solution. Throw in one of these on the backend, and a school is set.

Add to this the fact that the apparent next Prime Minister is one of the most independently wealthy people in Canada. Kinda hard to bribe someone like that.
It is interesting to note that Canada is one of the most over governed countries in the world. We have a population similar to California. (31+ Million Canada 35 Million California) We have 24 Senators, 4 for each province.California has 2.
More political numbers and facts on Canada

Maybe you should try those ones. Weve been using those in Brazil for almost a a decade. Software code can be evaluated by independent institutions, and as far as I know it does not run Win32. Last elections the whole country used voting machines (no manual votes) And weve got the result (>100,000,000 in few hours).

Ok, the SIO chip that handles the serial, parallel, floppy, keyboard, mouse, and game port costs a whopping $2.20. You are not going to get all of your stupid USB adapters for under $2.20, moron.

National Semiconductor and Unisys (two American companies) made a really good electronic voting system for Brazil, they've been using them since 1996. It has a tamper resistant paper trail, so it is completely auditable, unlike most of the systems described in the article. From what I've heard, the machines work quite well, and people are happy with them. (Please, if someone has actually voted with these, share your experiences)

I fail to see how having a paper trail with electronic voting is "dreaming", it strikes me more as "required", particularly if we want to consider our government democratic.

Whether you think it's a NIC card or not depends on whether you think NIC stands for network-interface-card or network-interface-controller.

Hardware people often think the latter, e.g. this
product sheet from Natsemi.

Matt

Okay, maybe a few basic hardware References, HI-LED, Breadboard, and Chip Products links would help.

Reference - AtariArchives Electronic Computer Projects
Reference - Electronic Circuit Guidebook Sensors
Reference - Robot Building For Beginners
Global Specialties Breadboards
Eductional Kits USA including LED kits
High Intensity (HI) LED Source Discrete LEDs, LED Panel Mount Lamps, Based LED Lamps, SMT LEDs, PCB LEDs
RF Digital Corporation HI-LED White Red Yellow Blue Green
National Semiconductor Chip Products Catalog National Semiconductor Products
PMC-Sierra Chip Products Product Directory
R.T.Nollet, Chip Products, Australia

There you go; it should be enough to get you started on the hardware. Others that are far better at software can help with some of the required programming resources. If you can afford an old logic analyzer (maybe 8/16-pin, at surplus stores) for the I/O buses they can help you optimize your code. Years ago, (when I did) I would have used, an appropriate Hex/Machine code to do a small project like this. If you and a couple colleagues/friends succeed at this level ... the lessons you teach yourselves and experience obtained will be significant ... not many universities teach at this "wide-concept" "Master-O-None, Jack-O-All" level anymore. Very few Geeks under 40 years old (I believe) would be able to do what you are thinking about even less if they have a college degree that pushed them into a "high pay/viz" specialty at a young fragile age.

OldHawk777

Reality is a self-induced hallucination.

easy, just hook 4 of the data pins rrom a parallel port to one of these
16 line decoders and that will give you control of 16 relays. add a second chip to the next 4 pins, and control 32. Once you have it set up, just write the value you want represented (ie, to turn on the first device, write out a 1, second device 2, third device 4, etc etc) out to the port.

I've been looking to power my laptop in the car (or on a plane), and my laptop charger is rated at 20V output@2A. So the basic trick is to boost the ~12V output up to 20V.

Here's the advice I was given to build my own (slightly modified) based on my output needs.

The key is to find a National Semiconductor LM2587T-ADJ. The "T" signifies through hole as opposed to "S" in surface mount. [...] The LM2588T-ADJ, which is a 7-pin device, would be OK too (has extra features we would not need). The total package could fit on a 3"x3" board space with heat sinks. You could go to National's website and check out this device. If you sign up for their "Webench" simulation tool, you can see your circuit on line. If you do, enter 11Vmin and 16Vmax as input voltage. The thermo simulation tool indicated that there could be hot spots on the IC as high as 100 degC at max load -- heat sink [required] for sure. You can probably come up with everything else.

Yes, it uses the standard FM radio band, but it uses the unutilized parts of each channel, so it's compatible with analog FM broadcasts. The FCC approved this tech last October, and a radio consortium (iBiquity) has developed the tech. News article link. The receiver chip is manufactured by National Semiconductor. It will be a nation-wide service, since it requires cooperation from the FM broadcasters, so Clear Channel et. al. are involved (I think they are large backers of iBiquity.) This also means there'll be some sort of monthly service charge.

FYI, the Microsoft watch will have a 28-MHz ARM9 processor, 512 kbytes of ROM and 384 kbytes of RAM.

They have it already. National Semicondictor's Geode chipset is everything.. FPU,GPU all you need is some RAM..
http://www.national.com/appinfo/solutions/0,2062,3 96,00.html

This will (very easily, somewhat efficiently, and with with great accuracy) convert to all those voltages except 20V. A DC-DC step-up convertor (I don't know a part number off the top of my head, sorry) will do that for you.

Using that IC is a _very_ easy way to get started in an electronics hobby. Try it... :-)

It's also interesting that they are doing this in New York. I thought all chip manufacturing was done overseas, where labor is cheaper. Perhaps IBM is getting some sort of government subsidy for creating American jobs. Or maybe New York has a good supply of chipmakers already, so they can find more skilled workers.

i2c-pport docs
lm_sensors lm75 module docs
lm75 datasheet from national

Why not build a sync extractor its only a few components:

http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM1881.html

Analog computing DOES have a lot of uses, but it needs vacuum tubes about as much as bicycles need wood.

These (LM741) do the job in an all-solid state way (you can, of course, use any op-amp you desire). Connect them with 4066's and you have your reprogrammable analog computer. Better yet, this can be built on an IC, and programmed just like an FPGA. In fact, Lattice and a few others make chips just like this.

Analog computers are terrific for mathematic problems where an exact numerical answer is not as important as getting a good answer quickly. It really is too bad that they've fallen out of favor as of late.

Wow! You are so correct! One could construct this such that either a normal powersupply (one you connect to the wall) OR a battery based power source (wired into the original supply as you state) could power the thing. You could also quite easily build a regulator circut and employ the use of some switchers and or linear devices (free samples at National Semiconductor) to provide all your voltages from 12 or 24V. Not bad.... Just put as many battery packs in there as you can fit/cary and wire them in parallel! Construct a charger circuit that tops off the batteries whenever you're plugged into the wall! ... bingo!

Yes you are very correct. 12vDC->120vAC then back again, all within the same box - bad. 12vDC -> directly to the board, with some regulators to produce your +-5v, etc. - good.

Ok, so I've gotten into this geocaching thing lately, and while working on a cache to be hidden in about 60 feet of water off the coast, it occured to me that a blinking LED might make it easier for divers to spot. No problem, whip up a blinker circuit with an LM3909 and a super-bright green LED and we're set. But what about power? Sure, four D-cells would let it run for close to a decade, but where's the fun in that? The undersea environment is quite dynamic, and there's got to be some power down there that can be harnessed. What I need are some ideas on how to do that.

We keep seeing stories here about tidal power, and that's cool, but I don't see how it can be done without a column rising all the way to the surface. So here are the ideas I've got right now. Keep in mind that the device will probably be housed in a length of 4-inch PVC or ABS pipe, and it needs about 0.5 ma at 1.5 volts:

• Surge power. Put a couple of funnels back-to-back with a CPU cooling fan-sized turbine and generator in the middle, and run the output through a rectifier and capacitor. But how reliable will those moving parts be after years underwater?
• Self-winding watch concept. Float the thing tethered to the bottom and install some sort of pendulum inside with a magnet on it, moving through a coil. The moving parts are protected, but will it be enough power?
• Yank the chain. Again, tether it, but use the varying tension on the tether to drive a dynamo of some sort.
• Nukes. Anyone got a spare radioisotope thermoelectric generator? Any idea how many smoke detectors I'd need to cannibalize to get enough Americium-241?
• Magnetohydrodynamic generator. Like the surge power thing, but using the flow of cunductive seawater through a magnetic field to generate a current. I have no idea how much power this would generate, if any, or how to deal with ion accumulation at the electrodes.

The generator need not fit inside the 4-inch cache tube, but it shouldn't be huge, either. It needs to be practical to build, and not terribly expensive. Above all it's got to be reliable and enduring. Any ideas?

For +12 and -12, it uses LM2587, another switching regulator, then steps the -12 down to -5. This seems like overkill to me; the efficiency gained isn't worth the extra parts.

For +12, I would use an LM1084 (powered from the car battery), which doesn't have the effeciency of a switching regulator, but doesn't require any inductors.

For -5 and -12, I would use 2 ICL662s (powered from +5 and +12, respectively), which will only supply 300mW each, but that's all we need for negative supplies.

The "typical application"s of the ICL662 and LM1084 should work fine; check out the datasheets.
National Semiconductor (LM ics)
Maxim-IC (MAX and ICL ics)

(BTW, last time I checked, coilcraft doesn't give away samples for the inductors that the website references)

yeah I know the cpu is a Geode Semiconductor or something

A quick Google search reveals some more information about this device's National Semiconductor Geode (an x86 clone):

• Geode family
• Geode GX1 CPU specs
• Geode GX2 CPU specs

Or just some type of CPU?

When MHz is used to describe an otherwise unnamed aspect of a computing device, it is generally assumed that the frequency values denote the frequency of either the CPU clock or the device's radio band.

yeah I know the cpu is a Geode Semiconductor or something

A quick Google search reveals some more information about this device's National Semiconductor Geode (an x86 clone):

• Geode family
• Geode GX1 CPU specs
• Geode GX2 CPU specs

Or just some type of CPU?

When MHz is used to describe an otherwise unnamed aspect of a computing device, it is generally assumed that the frequency values denote the frequency of either the CPU clock or the device's radio band.

yeah I know the cpu is a Geode Semiconductor or something

A quick Google search reveals some more information about this device's National Semiconductor Geode (an x86 clone):

• Geode family
• Geode GX1 CPU specs
• Geode GX2 CPU specs

Or just some type of CPU?

When MHz is used to describe an otherwise unnamed aspect of a computing device, it is generally assumed that the frequency values denote the frequency of either the CPU clock or the device's radio band.

>Tube amps are not designed to produce even harmonics,

Yet you say they do produce even harmonics, even if it isn't intentional. And as other tube-lovers here have said, this is why they like their tube amps. So the answer is simple: Design solid state amps to sound like tube amps.

>Speaking of which - tube amplification is naturally very flat. This is not true of solid-state amplification.

Agreed. That's why there's circuits to compensate...

>solid-state amps require a much higher number of sub-circuits which are used as feedback to adjust the ultimate flatness over the frequency range of the amp. Tube amps don't need this kind of coersive adjustment to the signal, and so are much simpler circuits.

This doesn't necessarialy lead to a better sound, and since solid state components are so much more cheaper than tube components its like comparing the cost of soil to gold, I don't see where you're going with this.

Also, with DSPs (there's that word again!) you can avoid this hodge-podge of separate circuits and build most of it into a few ICs and some output transistors.

>So, there are really no technical arguements against tube amps.

I don't necessarialy disagree. I am saying that solid state is:

- More reliable
- More consistent
- Cheaper
- Easier to mass produce

The first couple of points are actually technical points, so perhaps I do disagree.

Are tubes more reliable than transistors? Is the quality they provide more consistent?

If not, then, if solid state can reproduce the effects of a tube amp, then solid state is better.

>Some get more listener fatigue when listening to odd harmonics, and thus prefer tube amps. Why should you care about that?

Well, partly because this is slashdot where stuff gets discussed, and partly because I like to find out why people want to spend more on tube amps. I can believe that a tube amp provides distortion that improves the sound to the ear, but I'm still unconvinced that the distortion cannot be accurately reproduced by solid state circuits.

If it can, I'd just like to know why people with tube amps prefer their amps over the solid state equivalent. Its perplexing. Other than the visual aspect I can't see the benefit.

>It's a lot easier to design a bad solid-state amp.

This is sort-of true. While yes, the original designs are very hard to come up with, once these have been integrated you'd be surprised how easy it is to build an amp.

The 4 pin LM12 comes to mind. Complex on the inside, dead easy outside.

>There exist some really good solid-state amps. There also exist some really good tube amps. Not sure why you insist on investing your ego in arguing against that latter indisputable fact.

Its pretty simple: Because when someone says "Transistors just don't cut it when it comes to high-end equipment like that." they are wrong and need correcting.

Your comment agrees that they are wrong -- you just said there's really good solid-state amps out there.

>Let me guess, you think that diesel cars are stupid too - primarily because you own something else!

Nahh, diesel is great. The engines can work underwater! With the latest enhacenments it gives gasoline a run for its money.

I'd think diesel was stupid if the best it could do was power a 70's wagovan when gasoline can do so much more. But since it has been improved, then yeah, diesel is fine. They could do with fixing the stench most of the diesel cars round here output, though.

However, tubes have been far surpassed by solid state technology. Except for CRTs... LCDs and their equivalents are very quickly catching up, though.

Here are the Geode specs... "Speeds offered up to 266 MHz"

However, the thing that they do not mention in the announcement is that Bell Labs continues to have problems with the chemical bonds between molecules decaying quickly on these transistors. It is similar to the problems that plague engineers of DNA processors, another cutting-edge-but-hopelessly-broken technology. In fact, despite all of these new achievements that promise to revolutionize the industry, silicon is still king and will be king for many years to come.

-CT

A little bit of everything, It has a integrated 32bit X86 compatible with MMX support(but how fast is it?? the pdf @ national.com(the sc1200 one) says it runs up to 266mhz), named GX1. GX1 has a integrated : 2D graphics controller, a 64Bit DRAM interface, PCI controller.

Besides the GX1, the SC1200 features: a integrated videoprocessor(blending/overlaying, scaling, filtering, TV encoding) , a IDE interface (ATA33 though), CCIR-656 video input port(kinda cool), USB, Power management, IO contr(IR, parallel, serial), audio features, and a clock!

Check this info out:

SC1200

GX1

A little bit of everything, It has a integrated 32bit X86 compatible with MMX support(but how fast is it?? the pdf @ national.com(the sc1200 one) says it runs up to 266mhz), named GX1. GX1 has a integrated : 2D graphics controller, a 64Bit DRAM interface, PCI controller.

Besides the GX1, the SC1200 features: a integrated videoprocessor(blending/overlaying, scaling, filtering, TV encoding) , a IDE interface (ATA33 though), CCIR-656 video input port(kinda cool), USB, Power management, IO contr(IR, parallel, serial), audio features, and a clock!

Check this info out:

SC1200

GX1

(This ripped mercilessly from the above URL.)

• 32-bit x86 processor, up to 266 MHz, with MMX instruction set support
• Memory controller with 64-bit SDRAM interface
• 2D graphics accelerator
• TV controller with hardware video accelerator
• CCIR-656 video input port with direct video for full screen display
• PC AT functionality
• PCI bus controller
• IDE interface
• USB, three ports, OpenHCI 1.0 compliant
• Audio, AC97/AMC97 2.0 compliant
• Virtual System Architecture (VSA&#153) support
• Power management, ACPI 1.0 compliant
• EBGA package

• 32-bit x86, up to 266 MHz, with MMX compatible instruction set support
• 16 KB unified L1 cache
• Integrated Floating Point Unit (FPU)
• Re-entrant SMM enhanced for VSA

It's got IDE support, PCI, serial and parallel, video capture. Quite an impressive device. I wonder if once the Linux4tv guys get a distribution for it, whether it would be possible to buy a few and create a low-cost parallel processing array. Of course, I haven't seen a price on it yet...

Thanks for the info on the TiVO GPLed code, maroberts.

They seem pretty set on using the SC1200 semi, but never really say why...I mean, there are a lot of chips to choose from, and I would be interested to know why the SC1200 is the one to use. Oh...okay. I get it: National Semiconductor is one of the sponsors.

But that's not bad, though. Personally I've had good experiences ordering parts from National. I wonder, when they get this done, could you choose to get the schematics and parts lists and build it yourself? Or maybe just get the printed circuit boards and key components as a kit?

I read something yesterday that said that TiVo (http://www.tivo.com) used GPLed code in their set-top system, and released the source code to the public. I am looking around on their site right now and haven't found it yet, but I would think that Linux4tv would be silly not to try to use it, if possible.

Their web site doesn't give a whole heck of a lot of information on it, but I'll give them some slack, seeing as it only launched "officially" twelve minutes ago.

I like the .TV TLD, though. Wonder if it was a bargain or if they had to pay a premium? And why the heck do you have to register to download?

I just don't pay for garbage web content. Sites like slashdot are just a waste of bandwith for the most part. They rarely provide any new and/or useful information.

On the flip side I do pay for access to assorted electronics databook and publication sites as well as buy a lot of books. For instance the IEEE page is worth the money. The Intel Developer site is worth paying for as is the National Semiconductor site but they are free because these sites make their money selling the product. The techical documentation is an aid in use.

There is another type of site that makes money on the internet. Its the type of site that provides a REAL service. These are sites like REALTOR.com, bill payer services, job search services, dating services, etc that work well on the web.

The problem with the web is this pay for bandwith scheme that is kicking everyone in the butt. Take internet radio for instance. You could be part of a band co-op and try to put your music on the web. If your site becomes popular though you could potentially be paying a whole crapload to serve the content. With IPv6 you only pay for a miniscule amount of bandwith required to send a single stream which gets broken up by the multicast routers. Sites like slashdot which are dynamic couldn't benifit from this because they try to tailor their views for every user. A nice idea, but completly useless when you compare the cost of running a site that doesn't provide a useful service and the tons of bandwith required to give ever user a unique experience. Slashdot could provide 99% of the user experience with just static content that could be cached in web caches.

Here's a couple:

There are many others under development.

Here's a couple:

There are many others under development.

That would save a LOT of power in a hurry. Of course, it requires a better investment in networking; managed switches rather than hubs, a nice fast server, and someone competent to set it all up.

This solution is heavily dependent on the way you intend to use these machines, but should be considered.

If decent, but not killer, CPU power is needed, consider these: http://www.national.com/appinfo/thinclient/. Shameless plug alert: these are what the company I work for makes.

Other companies have no warranty clauses on physical products (National Semiconductor comes to mind) and seem to get away with their products being used where "they don't belong" (they have no-liability mil-spec chips, for example), so, just make sure your heart monitor is labelled "for educational purposes only". ;-)

But, IANAL, blah blah blah.

National can produce chips for other companies. Right now they are producing the Cyrix line of processors for Via Technologies.

If you think this is cool, you might also like this miniature all-in-one PC. It uses the ~1 watt (read: convection cooled) MediaGX from National Semiconductor (originally by Cyrix). It doesn't have as much computational muscle as the Espresso, but there are a lot of applications that don't need a 400-500MHz Celeron (i.e. a router/firewall/mini house server). Plus this one comes with built in 10/100BaseT.