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Five seconds on google, first hit is a worldwide tuner chips from Silicon Labs for ATSC/QAM, DVB-T2/C2/T/C, ISDB-T/C, DTMB

http://www.silabs.com/products...

Even in the last days of analogue there was no such thing as an NTSC only tuner chip. They all did PAL as well. Anyway none of the chips on that web page do ATSC and or NTSC only.

The lower frequency cell phone bands have the same problem with antenna size and efficiency with the added complication of also being used for transmission. The same solution involving active tuning applies to integrated FM broadcast band antennas:

http://www.silabs.com/Support%...

Wire loop length can be as short as 10 centimeters:

http://www.silabs.com/Support%...

I noticed a couple years ago that switching capacitor tuning solutions were showing up for cell phone handsets that use the lower frequency cell phone bands which recently became available.

The lower frequency cell phone bands have the same problem with antenna size and efficiency with the added complication of also being used for transmission. The same solution involving active tuning applies to integrated FM broadcast band antennas:

http://www.silabs.com/Support%...

Wire loop length can be as short as 10 centimeters:

http://www.silabs.com/Support%...

I noticed a couple years ago that switching capacitor tuning solutions were showing up for cell phone handsets that use the lower frequency cell phone bands which recently became available.

Here you go - a 8051 FFT application note and implementation http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/an142.pdf [silabs.com]

Just because I can run FFT on a large abacus, does not mean that anyone should.

Yes, and you also have DTMF decoding "on a chip" if you want it. But most "fast" 8-bit microcontrollers can handle the Goertzel Algorithm just fine.

And those chips are obsolete now because microcontrollers caught up with them, and can do more in less space/cost/consumed current. This is not the case with DSP.

You can just as well run it on vacuum tubes or relays, however there are no real-world applications for that -- and the same applies for 8-bit microcontrollers.

Here you go - a 8051 FFT application note and implementation http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/an142.pdf

DTMF is specifically designed to be easy to decode with the worst possible limitations on a decoder. Claiming that it makes a microcontroller capable of DSP would be like saying that a lightbulb can be used to calculate exponents because it can produce a close approximation of a black body radiation spectrum.

Yes, and you also have DTMF decoding "on a chip" if you want it. But most "fast" 8-bit microcontrollers can handle the Goertzel Algorithm just fine.

hi, it's phill from MAKE - we cover and celebrate what *makers* are doing, over 50,000 sales of arduinos means a lot of people are doing projects and sharing them.

that said, we do feature articles on basic stamp and we had a huge article on the parallax propeller chip, picaxe, you name it. it's more about what folks are making more than a chip.

if you don't like arduino because it's simple and there's "nothing to it" that's likely the reason it's so popular and it's good to see so many people from all walks of life and skill sets getting in to electronics.

Actually, for $99 (or less, depending on which micro you want to use) you can get a Silicon Labs kit. And that kit comes with a JTAG dongle for program download and in-circuit debug.

One might argue whether the ATMega is better or worse than the SiLabs 8051 variants.

But please tell me why the Arduino developer did NOT bring the debugWire out to a header. The chip has fine in-circuit debug capability but if you can't attach your debug adapter to it, it's of no use. Well, I suppose a Maker could hack the board and glue a header to it.

Then again, the Atmel JTAGICE costs another $299 while the SiLabs JTAG interface is included with the kit, or you can buy it for $35.

So, really, I'm glad a lot of folks are getting into microcontrollers, but Arduino isn't the only game in town, and I think that the SiLabs kits, with the debug interface, make it easier to actually learn.

I like the little 8051 chips from Silicon Labs http://www.silabs.com./ A good variety of diffrent 8051 chips with various perpherials. Dev kits for only $100 comes with an eval Keil C compiler but you can download SDCC http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/ that will integrate with the IDE.

came in to work and gave us one of these a couple months ago.

Last I looked, USB development kits with any chance of helping you succeed right away were about $2000. If you wanted to make a USB device that supplied some simple information, e.g. temperature probe? the light is on --or not--, how would you go about it?

Look again: Silicon Labs

Of course if you want to sell your USB device you need to get your own Vendor ID from the USB-IF.

Last I looked, USB development kits with any chance of helping you succeed right away were about $2000. If you wanted to make a USB device that supplied some simple information, e.g. temperature probe? the light is on --or not--, how would you go about it?

Look again: Silicon Labs

Of course if you want to sell your USB device you need to get your own Vendor ID from the USB-IF.

Verizon and their same-sex bed partner Q....... are those that keeps us 6-8 years behind Europe & Co. as far as cellphone technologies for the masses. It's prety sad they gets away with it, you can kiss Flarion and other good technology pioneers goodbye too. They live of their lawyers, unfortunately like many http://www.silabs.com/public/documents/pr_doc/prod ucts/Wireless/en/axiomcasedraftFINAL.pdf does these days. they had a good technology given to them - the serve the system with an iron fist and old fashioned flawed chips.

Zigbee was motivated largely by a need for simplicity and low power in comparison to Bluetooth. But it still looks like a fair bit of work to implement the software stack - not likely to fit comfortably in a tiny micro with only a KB or two of flash. The module linked to from the summary looks like it would take away this problem, but it's huge compared to the hardware I'd want to use it with. I'm hoping this will shrink down to chip size soon, like some of the hardware USB bridge chips that are available now.

There's another interesting new protocol around that is even simpler called ANT. It's proprietary and the only implementation I know of at the moment is the Nordic nRF24AP1 chip, but there's full data available on the thisisant web site. It's so simple that I was able to read and understand the protocol document in one sitting. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some of these because they look perfect for home made hardware - they're tiny (5mm x 5mm), will work with cheap 8 bit micro's, and the software won't be too complicated.