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60% of members solder almost daily. their sparetime. based projectsin work on MCU- 89% of members 01010111 01101001 01110010 01100101 01101100 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100101 01100011 01110100 01101001 01110110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110111 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101110 01100001 01100111 01100101 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01110111 01101111 00100000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01101100 01101001 01100011 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01101001 01110100 01101001 01110110 01100101 01101100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01101101 01110000 01100001 01100011 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101000 01101001 01110000 00100000 01110011 01100001 01101100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100100 01110101 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101110 01100101 01111000 01110100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100011 01100001 01100100 01100101 00101110 00100000 45% of members believe molybdenite or grapheme will replace silicon as the conductor of choice. || Q&A: Embedded Today

other, for improving energy efficiency of Two names pop up in my mind. computing. There are lots of interesting One is Feynman, as I just quoted him opportunities and challenges. For ex- in a question above. He is categorized ample, we can put DRAM and proces- as a physicist rather than an engineer sor cores in the same chip using 3-D but the boundaries between the two stacking technology to cut down the are rather thin when it comes to ex- “memory bottleneck.” Or we can stack perimental work. I read Feynman’s Six more functionality into a 3-D stacked Easy Pieces in my freshmen year in col- chip while keeping the individual chip lege, which inspired me to learn how area small, which is better for achieving things work and build things myself to Ayse Kivilcim Coskun higher yield in manufacturing. However, solve problems. 3-D stacking brings many challenges, The second name I want to men- Assistant Professor | Boston University | including higher temperatures on chips, tion is Grace Hopper. She was a female Boston, MA, USA lack of mature design and validation scientist/engineer at a time when there tools, and technology challenges. My were even fewer women in engineering. Tell us about your research. research goal is to explore these op- I admire her courage, many scientific My main research area is energy- portunities and challenges for designing contributions, and I like the fact that efficient computing. I work in the gen- methods that can utilize 3-D stacking she popularized the term “debugging” eral area of computer engineering, with for getting higher performance out of (which was motivated by removing an specific focus on embedded systems, our chips at a lower energy cost. actual moth from a computer system). computer architecture, design automa- tion, and software. What’s the best engineering- What are your goals for 2013? related advice you’ve received or My research group is working on What do you say when a non-en- given? reducing energy consumption of com- gineer asks: “What is a microcon- I think Feynman’s quote, “For a suc- puters—or, in other words, improving troller? Is it the chip in my PC?” cessful technology, reality must take “energy efficiency”—through jointly A microcontroller is a chip that is precedence over public relations, for optimizing the hardware and the soft- designed to perform a small, restricted nature cannot be fooled” (from Space ware. We will continue innovating in set of tasks. Some examples would be Shuttle Challenger Inquiry), is one of this area, and I hope we will demon- a chip that controls the settings of a mi- the best pieces of engineering advice. strate improvements in computing crowave oven, a chip that controls an We often see some products or ideas clusters as well as in small embedded automated gate in a parking lot, or a out there that may be well-market- devices. AKC chip that controls the ABS in a car. The ed, but they really do not have the chip in your PC is called a microproces- robustness, quality, or functionality Ayse’s Preferences sor. In contrast to performing a small that should be there. In the long run, set of specific tasks, a microprocessor though, I do believe better technology, 1. Print magazine or digital? Print is able to run a large set of “general- better design, and ideas win as we can- 2. Laptop or desktop? Laptop purpose” tasks. Your PC, for example, not change the rules of physics or, in 3. iOS or Android? Android can run web applications, text editing other words, “fool nature.” 4. Analog or digital? Digital tools, videos, and many other tasks. 5. Dealing with hardware issues or Do you have a go-to MCU? software bugs? While researching, I fo- Do you think “8 bits dead”? Not really. My selection of products cus more on HW issues (such as crafting Lots of application domains are mak- varies depending on the projects, and a new architecture). In daily-life comput- ing use of 32-/64-bit processors today, I try to diversify my choices a bit while ing, I more commonly deal with SW bugs. and 32-/62-bit processors dominate the experimenting with new ideas. 6. IE, Chrome, Firefox, or Other? Firefox. market. Still, I don’t think 8-bit is dead. 7. Starting a project or finishing it? Starting! Small battery-operated embedded de- What was the best course, lecture, 8. QWERTY keypad or touch screen? vices such as wireless sensors typically or webinar you’ve attended? Both! need long battery life, which motivates I have attended a lot of great talks, 9. Flash drive or cloud? Cloud using smaller, lower-power controller hard to select one. A non-technical 10. Webinars or onsite lectures? Lectures chips where possible. We see a growing talk that pops up in my mind: I really number of sensory devices in many di- liked Berkeley Professor David Patter- verse fields (environmental monitoring, son’s talk on “How to Have a Bad Ca- medical devices, smart buildings, etc.), reer in Research/Academia.” I attended which again motivates using small, low- it while I was switching from being a cost controllers for simple tasks. PhD student to a professor. It really gave a lot of good insight and it was What are you currently working fun! I recommend it to all graduate stu- on? dents. The slides are on the web (www. One of my main projects is using cs.berkeley.edu/~pattrsn/). 3-D stacking technology, where mul- tiple chips are stacked on top of each Your favorite engineering pioneer?

97 CIRCUIT CELLAR® / 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE / circuitcellar.com || Q&A: Embedded Today

nent requirements. I like the USB pro- gramming and debug connection. My projects are usually software heavy, and I like having eight CPU cores at my disposal.

Tell us about the best event or course webinar you’ve attended. I took my daughter to the Parallax Expo this year. It was a great father/ daughter nerd trip to Rocklin, CA. We toured the Parallax building, and we soldered together in the hands-on tent. It was great to finally see the birthplace of all those BASIC stamps and Propeller chips on my bench.

Favorite engineering pioneer? Federico Faggin was founder and Christopher Cantrell CEO of Zilog. He designed the very first Senior Software Developer | Avocent commercially available microprocessor. Division, Emerson Network Power | He was the architect for the Z80 pro- cessor, which was the first CPU I ever Huntsville, AL, USA talked with in its native language.

What is your area of interest? What’s the most interesting MCU- My expertise is object-oriented (OO) based project you’ve seen in the programming and application software last 5 years? development. But my hobby life keeps I love projects where people have me active in microcontroller hardware built their own MCUs from scratch— and embedded programming. often using amazing technology (like Harry Porter’s computer built from hun- How do you define the word dreds of electromechanical relays). The “microcontroller”? most creative MCU I’ve seen to date is A microcontroller is an inexpen- the 16-bit computer built using torches sive computer-on-a-chip that controls and redstone dust wires in the game David L. Jones physical devices. The main CPU chip in Minecraft. Engineer | Professional Engineering your PC is bigger, faster, more power- Blogger (EEVblog.com) | Sydney, ful, and much more expensive. Then, Your engineering goals for 2013? when they scratch their head, I go get I want to focus on web-client tech- Australia my breadboard with the flashing LED nologies in 2013. I am going to learn and point to the Arduino chip. AJAX and the HTML5 “canvas” for inter- What interests you? active 2-D graphics applications. And I I have an affinity for test equipment. Do you think “8 bits dead”? am also going to learn programming for Reviewing, tearing down, and designing Never! Long live the retro arcade the Android tablets. CC them. Most of my published electronics games and console games of the early project designs have been some form 1980s! So much of that old 8-bit soft- chrisopher’s Preferences of test equipment. I guess the affinity ware now has new life inside emula- stems from way back when it was very tors. My latest Circuit Cellar project was 1. Print magazine or digital? Print popular (and still is in some areas) to a Z80 (8-bit) emulator running on the 2. Laptop or desktop? I prefer the dual 23 build your own test equipment. I grew Propeller microcontroller that plays the monitors of my desktop. up with the electronics magazines, and original 8-bit Space Invaders. 3. iOS or Android? Android a good lot of those projects were test 4. Analog or digital? Digital equipment. What are you working on? 5. Dealing with hardware issues or soft- I am writing a book, C++ From the ware bugs? Software Do you think “8 bits is dead”? Fire Hose, based on my experiences 6. IE, Chrome, Firefox, or Other? Chrome No. Fact is, the sales figures do not teaching fast-paced, short duration 7. Starting a project or finishing it? The back up that assertion in any way. The continuing education classes. If it goes excitement of starting. chip industry almost always comes well I plan to write a series of “Fire 8. QWERTY keypad or touch screen? down to price, and it’s basic physics Hose” books covering the other class The tactile feedback of a keyboard/ that you will always be able to produce topics I teach. keypad more 8-bit micros per wafer than 32- or 9. Flash drive or cloud? Flash drive 16-bit micros. The cheaper chip will al- Do you have a go-to MCU? 10. Webinars or onsite lectures? Onsite ways win out for the simpler tasks. Not I lean heavily on the Parallax Pro- to mention that engineers by their very peller chip. I like the simple 40-pin DIP nature are frugal, and will want to use footprint and the low support compo- a more optimized 8-bit micro for those

98 CIRCUIT CELLAR® / 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE / circuitcellar.com || Q&A: Embedded Today

simpler tasks. The simple tasks aren’t David’s Preferences Nowadays, this includes analog, digital, going away, regardless of the hype over embedded controllers, and a smatter- the “Internet of things”! 1. Print magazine or digital? Depends on ing of everything else. my mood. Currently leaning toward digital What are you working on? content. How do you define the word “mi- A crowd-source-funded Open Source 2. Laptop or desktop? Laptop. The ability crocontroller”? Hardware USB power supply. It is a USB to unplug and move if needed is invalu- An embedded computer is a com- rechargeable and controllable pocket able. puter you don’t see. These are every- lab power supply, for those small on- 3. iOS or Android? Android. Apple makes where: in your TV, DVD player, pocket the-go do anywhere low project proj- closed products, screw that. phone, microwave, refrigerator, and ects where being tied to a bench supply 4. Analog or digital? You can’t have digital a half dozen or so in your car. They’re is a real pain. without analog. But you can have analog ridiculously cheap and incredibly pow- without digital. I do prefer the certainty of erful and flexible. So, from a manufac- What’s the best piece of engineer- a digital system though. turer’s point of view: You can put in a ing advice you received or given? 5. Dealing with hardware issues or soft- nickel and get a dollar song. The chip Never assume something in a de- ware bugs? Hardware is messy. You gen- in your PC is an “embedded computer sign, *always* check. Because Murphy erally can’t fix that sitting on a beanbag. on steroids.” will get you every time, even on those 6. IE, Chrome, Firefox, or Other? Chrome simple things you are 99% sure about. 7. Starting a project or finishing it? Start- Do you think “8 bits is dead”? Your mobile phone makes an ex- ing. Like most engineers, I rarely finish 8 bits will be around for a long, long cellent “RF crap tester” for your lat- projects. Finishing projects requires time. It’s way too useful and powerful est project. Make a call and move the tedious work, and that sucks. and economical to be obsolete soon. phone over the board to see if there are 8. QWERTY keypad or touch screen? Real There are loads of applications, old and any RFI vulnerabilities. keys, please. new, that can be addressed with 8 bits. 9. Flash drive or cloud? Cloud is handy, And don’t forget that embedded com- Tell us about your favorite project. but sneakernet rules. The bandwidth ain’t puters are evolving in two directions— My uWatch scientific calculator there yet for video content. larger and smaller. The six-pin devices watch. It was an exercise in producing 10. Webinars or onsite lectures? I hate in the SOT-23 package are hard to see. something entirely using off-the-shelf the webinar format, with a passion. If Power requirements are getting so low parts that you always thought would it’s a presentation, either give it to a real that they’re almost gone. The limiting require custom parts. audience, or just produce a video and size factor is now the battery. They upload. Not some half-arsed webinar don’t make them small enough! But ca- What was the first programming concept! pacitor technology is rapidly increasing. language you learned? What lan- guages do you know now? What are you working on? Solder was my first (and favorite) My current project is a general-pur- programming language! I got a solder- pose, professional product development ing iron before I ever got a computer. platform. I got tired of doing the same Like many, BASIC was my first com- thing again and again in the product puter language, being brought up in development cycle. This approach in- the early home computer era. I know C, corporates reusable software modules Pascal, and various assembler dialects. as well as reusable hardware. Since the basic hardware is fixed, the software is Favorite engineering pioneer? also fixed. This can greatly decrease Edison. He just hacked stuff until he the development time. A new instru- found something that worked. It’s not ment can be created with just one ad- elegant engineering, but there is room ditional plug-in application board. The in the engineering world for both ele- first product is a DDS sweep generator gance and brute force. and should be published in an upcom- ing issue of Elektor. The next product in What’s the best MCU-based proj- the works is a microohmmeter. (Yes, it ect you’ve seen in the last 5 years? measures millionths of ohms.) The recent SpiNNaker chip project is pretty cool. It’s hard to beat using a What’s the best engineering ad- million ARM micro cores to simulate 1 vice you’ve given or received? billion neurons in the brain. “Write so you can’t be misunder- GERARD C. A. Fonte stood” came from an English class way What was the most important EE Principal Engineer | The PAK En- back when. Communication in engi- concept you learned in 2012? neering is critical. Engineers are al- The same concept keeps demon- gineers | Columnist, Elektor | East ways writing, always sharing ideas and strating itself year after year. Those Amherst, NY, USA thoughts. who do the hard yards to make or do “If you cannot—in the long run—tell something will be rewarded. What is your area of interest? everyone what you have been doing, Instrumentation, aka Test/Measure- you’re doing has been worthless.”—Er- Your engineering goals for 2013? ment. If you can build test equipment, win Schrodinger Actually finish some projects.DLJ then anything else is a piece of cake. My own tip is: “It’s only impossible

99 CIRCUIT CELLAR® / 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE / circuitcellar.com || Q&A: Embedded Today

if you believe it is.” One of the most PIC16F887. I also like Microchip in gen- difficult things to overcome is social eral. They’re both big-user- and small- inertia. There are always so many user-friendly. people who say: “You can’t do that be- cause…” Don’t let others tell you what What was the best course, lecture, you can’t do, because human creativ- or webinar you attended? ity is unbounded. All of technology is The course I best remember was a built over the rubble of the naysayers. physiological psychology course taught by Dr. Laurence Rust using the Socratic Tell us about your favorite project. Method. We dissected a book written by I think my most interesting and an “expert” in the field and found that successful project (not necessarily my there were quite a few errors, some favorite) was the one about 15 years of which were significant. This course ago that involved precisely measuring showed me how to think independently. Joe Benge the internal temperature of a horse. It made me realize that if something Professor of Technical & Professional I was called in because the system in seems wrong, regardless of the source, place simply wasn’t working and couldn’t then it might very well be wrong. And Communications | Camosun College | be manufactured. The system consist- lastly, it gave me the self-confidence Victoria, BC, Canada ed if a small analog sensor board (with (perhaps arrogance) to be willing to about 25 parts and two trimmers) and challenge convention. Clear thinking What is your of expertise? small RF transmitter board (with about and logical reasoning are no match for English professor. I teach Technical 35 parts). These were potted together dogma. This leads to the saying: “Do and Professional Communications to and inserted into the animal. (Talk about you believe, or do you understand? If engineering students (techies). I’m the embedded systems!) The two trimmer you believe, you let the word-givers guy who made submission of articles resistors had to be set at the operating have power over you. If you under- to Circuit Cellar a course option in the temperature (about 99°F) in an oven. stand, no one is your master.” graduate technical writing course. Naturally, when the system was potted, these trimmers changed their values Favorite engineering pioneer? What is a microcontroller? unpredictably. And to top it off, the bat- My favorite engineer is Leonardo Da This is a question that English teach- tery drain was way too much and the RF Vinci. I think he would agree with me ers don’t usually get, but if I did, I’ve range was way too little. that engineering is an art form. GF been around engineers long enough I replaced the analog sensor board that I could probably answer. My an- with a Microchip Technology PIC16LC54, gerard’s Preferences swer would address the confusion be- a Linear Technology LTC1285 12-bit A/D tween the microcontroller and the mi- converter, and a BetaTherm precision 1. Print magazine or digital? Definitely print. croprocessor. The one in your PC would thermistor. I only needed to add two re- 2. Laptop or desktop? I use a desktop much be the latter, not the former. Not bad for sistors, a 32-kHz watch crystal and three more often, but a laptop is fine. an English teacher, eh? (I’m Canadian.) capacitors to complete the sensor board. 3. iOS or Android? N/A With just nine parts, no trimmers, the 4. Analog or digital? A signal is a signal, What are you working on? ability to test at room temperature, no whether it’s analog or digital. My current engineering mission is changes when potting, a reduction of 5. Dealing with hardware issues or soft- ongoing and never stops. I am con- the board by 50%, and a cost reduc- ware bugs? Dealing with zeros and ones is stantly working on my teaching style tion, my client was very happy. the same task whether it’s in hardware, firm- and technique so as to provide orga- But wait! There’s more! I spend con- ware, or software. nized and flexible learning plans for the siderable time educating myself on RF 6. IE, Chrome, Firefox, or Other? N/A communications (writing and present- oscillators and was able to replace the 7. Starting a project or finishing it? I like fin- ing) aspect of students’ projects. complicated ninth overtone 150-MHz ishing a project so I can start on the next one. I am always trying to improve my RF oscillator with a simple one-tran- 8. QWERTY keypad or touch screen? This awareness of students’ academic and sistor third overtone 50-MHz oscillator. all depends on the application. personal needs, and to have an ap- (Changing the receiver frequency was 9. Flash drive or cloud? Flash drive. Just proachable, friendly, nonthreatening, not a problem.) I used a 74VHC04 digi- wait for the first virus to hit the cloud and and effective teaching style. tal inverter chip as an RF amplifier. The panic the whole industry. result was about 12 parts, RF range in- 10. Webinars or lectures? Lectures. Do you have any tips or advice creased from about 10′ to 150′, greatly that engineers, students, and reduced battery drain, PCB size reduc- techies? tion by 50%, reduced cost and predict- How about the best advice I can give able/correctable potting changes. This to engineering graduates? When you was a clear example of “KISS.” get your first engineering job, remem- ber that it may not meet your dream How often do you solder? expectations—not every engineering I’m always soldering. In fact, I keep job is perfect. Be patient and vie for a [soldering] gun under my pillow— cool projects that might come up in fu- just in case. ture contracts.

Do you have a go-to MCU? Tell us about your favorite project. I like Microchip Technology’s My favorite project as a technical-

100 CIRCUIT CELLAR® / 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE / circuitcellar.com || Q&A: Embedded Today

writing instructor for engineers is an my hero always. time more and less than the chip in ongoing one. It is the inclusion for your PC. It consists of a simple pro- every graduating electronics-engi- Any goals for 2013? cessing core (as compared to the one neering project group of the option of I just hope I never get tired of the in your PC), nonvolatile on-chip mem- preparing an article for publishing in jolt and the rush I get from joining my ory. But the most interesting aspects Circuit Cellar magazine. My students students as they take a project and see of a microcontroller are its ability to have submitted many articles over the it through its entire journey from start talk to a whole variety of peripherals. past 10 years, and several have been to finish—from concept/specification, to The chips that are in your PC are S0Cs published. What a great start for a proposal, to design, to build, to test, to and are designed to do just one thing student’s career to be published in the document to presentation, and hope- and do it well—computation. They do most prestigious journal in their field! fully to acceptance and to publishing in have some interesting features, such Circuit Cellar. JB as graphics processing cores, security Know any programming lan- cores, on chip memory in the form of guages? joe’s Preferences large volatile caches, large process- HTML. Not bad for an English ing cores. However, they are also teacher. I actually had to learn HTML 1. Print magazine or digital? Digital very power hungry (as compared to for a Department of National Defense 2. Laptop or desktop? Desktop, but I’m a microcontroller), can usually talk to (DND) class. Designing and building a about to make the change. a very small number of peripherals, website was actually on the curricu- 3. iOS or Android? Which one is the rotary and contain only volatile memory— lum for their Technical Writing course phone? SRAM, though there has been some at the time. I am familiar with C, 4. Analog or digital? Digital interesting research on exploiting C++, Assembly, and I know that Java 5. Dealing with hardware issues or nonvolatile memories in conventional is very difficult to learn and master. software bugs? Doesn’t matter to me; microprocessors. Microcontrollers on My Computer Systems Tech students either way, I just call one of my electronics the other hand are usually designed tell me this is the one course in their students. for low-power embedded computation program that has the highest failure 6. IE, Chrome, Firefox, or Other? Firefox and thus contain support for talking rate. 7. Starting a project or finishing it? to a variety of peripherals through Starting interfaces such as ADCs, DACs, PWM Who is you favorite engineering 8. QWERTY keypad or touch screen? signal generation, timers, I2C, USART, pioneer? QWERTY and GPIO, which the chip in your PC My dad, Ralph Benge. He was an 9. Flash drive or cloud? would need help from additional chips aeronautical design engineer who Flash drive to do. worked in the aviation industry in Brit- 10. Webinars or onsite lectures? Onsite ain before coming to Canada in 1953. Do you think “8 bits is dead”? He was a pioneer as he owned his With the growth of Moore’s law, own aircraft company and designed the cost of the silicon on a die keeps aircraft for the war effort. reducing. This makes it more efficient He came to Canada to work for and cost effective to do more compu- Avro Aircraft in Toronto. He worked tation, and for this one reason 8 bits on the Avro Arrow and on a special are likely to go out of common us- project for the United States army. The age. In addition, the growth of cheap, Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a del- open-source platforms—such as the ta-winged interceptor aircraft,designed Arduino—means that the development and built by Avro Sircraft Limited (Can- environment and knowledge resources ada) in Toronto, Ontario. Considered on these platforms make development to be both an advanced technical and a lot easier. aerodynamic achievement for the Ca- nadian aviation industry, the CF-105 What are you currently working on? held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at I am currently working on a secu- altitudes exceeding 50,000′ (15,000 m). rity coprocessor that provides security This aircraft was so advanced for its features to a processing core being time that, had the program not been Marc Vaz monitored, and prevents malicious cancelled, this aircraft would still be Master’s Student, ECE | Cornell software attacks. As a hobby project, I competitive in today’s market. am working on a couple of PIC-based As a kid, I was involved in this University | Ithaca, NY, USA projects such as ad hoc networked dream job as much as my father. I flood sensors. still remember having the Arrow test What are your areas of expertise? pilot, Jan Zurakowski, over for dinner My areas of expertise are in Computer What’s the best piece of engineering on several occasions. This plane was Architecture, FPGA-based design, and advice you’ve received or given? all the rage back in the fifties, and programming. I am also interested in the Incremental design. This is some- it was such a rush to tell my school field of education—how to make it more thing that my professor advises and friends that my father was a big part effective and relevant to the needs of to- I’ve found it really makes life a whole of it. I also loved the part where I day, low-cost grass roots innovation. lot easier. Always design in an incre- got to tell my friends that we had the mental fashion, along with testing, Avro Arrow test pilot over for dinner. Define the word “microcontroller.” making incremental developments and My dad was my hero then and will be Well, a microcontroller is at the same testing them. This way you won’t spend

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ules such as GPS, Compass, Ultrasonic Distance Sensor, Altimeter, XBee, etc. Healthcare-related electronics projects and amateur ham radio are also of interest. And above all, I enjoy docu- a lot of time bug fixing and testing later. is more community participation and menting these projects for others via excitement associated with hardware video, podcast, and text through Toy- Tell us about your favorite project. development. maker Television (http://tymkrs.com/)! The Air Driano project was the final project for the first ECE5760 course What was the most important What is a microcontroller? (FPGA-based design) at Cornell. The EE-related lesson you learned in I still feel like I am a bit of a non- basic premise was a virtual musical 2012? engineer myself, but if my nursing instrument. A camera was used to Moore’s law has its limits. MV coworkers ask, the easiest way for feed input to the DE2 board (Cyclone2 them to understand it is if I say it’s FPGA). Within the frame of the cam- Marc’s Preferences like a “mini computer” that allows era was a green strip of paper that you to do cool things like make LEDs represented the playing surface. The 1. Print magazine or digital? Print blink and even attach modules that algorithm on the FPGA at real time 2. Laptop or desktop? Laptop allow you to get information from the detected the playing surface and de- 3. iOS or Android? Android because prog- world such as the temperature, al- tected the presence of a finger. This ress needs freedom and choice. titude, GPS coordinates, and more! information was then provided to a 4. Analog or digital? Digital because noise module that used the Karplus Strong is a fundamental aspect of nature. Do you think “8 bits is dead”? algorithm to synthesize a note of the 5. Dealing with hardware issues or soft- I personally think it’s more alive now frequency corresponding to the key ware bugs? Dealing with bugs that are than ever. If we’re talking about “old- that had been pressed. My involve- the result of misunderstanding the way school” 8-bit processing, many engi- ment was in high-level design for the that software runs on hardware. neers I know spend a vast amount of finger detection scheme and some 6. IE, Chrome, or Firefox? Chrome time creating modern emulations of old debug support. I implemented a ver- 7. Starting a project or finishing it? computer processors such as the Z80, sion of the Karplus Strong algorithm Finishing it, for the satisfaction of ac- 6502, or systems such as the C64, in hardware, with some optimizations complishment Vic20, Ti99, Timex Sinclair, etc. Also, such as using strings (memory arrays 8. QWERTY keypad or touch screen? 8-bit music and graphics have also here simulate the behavior of a way on Touch screen for everyday use and key- gained a great deal of popularity in a string) of slightly different lengths for pad for gaming. even mainstream media A software richer notes, clocking the memory at 9. Flash drive or cloud? Cloud engineer friend put it nicely: “Besides a higher clock speed compared to the 10. Webinars or lectures? Webinars. the design principle of ‘knowing your rest of the system to minimize delays, needs,’ there is also a retro renaissance designing an input impact waveform, going on—the hacker community—gets and a low-pass filter that ensures the giddy over the thought of doing the notes sounded like the notes of a pia- most with the least.” And if I want to be no. For ease of use the playing surface, technical, everything digital still pretty along with virtual keys was displayed much runs off of 8 bits, if en masse. on a VGA display also showing finger detection. The system maxed out at What are you currently working on? the ability to play 16 simultaneous For the past year, I’ve been working keys beyond which we would run out from the ground up on all of the knowl- of M4K blocks that were used as dis- edge required to create my own finished tributed SRAM. project involving original software to original hardware. It’s my relatively in- What was the best course, lec- significant, but loved, LED heart project ture, or webinar you experienced? that stemmed from a Halloween proj- The lecture by Mark Hill at Google ect. When finished, it willbe able to be about Amdahl’s law in the multicore worn as well as demonstrate 13 differ- area really gave a good description of ent heart rhythms. It’s currently sitting where computing technology is head- in KiCad waiting trace routing, which ing and the difficulties along the way. will require more research on my end!

Favorite engineering pioneer? Rebecca (Addie) Yang What’s the best piece of engineering Jon von Neumann, because like Tes- Co-Host, Toymaker Television | advice you’ve received or given? la, he has made a very large number of Cardiovascular Surgery Nurse | “It is okay to ask questions.” And: contributions in a number of fields, all “Addie, if it’s not your code, it’s your related to mathematics though. Rochester, MN, USA wiring.” To others just starting out, I say: What’s the best MCU-based What is your main area of interest? “When you understand what you’re project you’ve seen in the last 5 My primary interest lies in the use studying, re-document your knowledge years? of the Parallax Propeller microcontroller in a manner you understand best.” The Arduino project. What’s needed on projects incorporating sensor mod- For example, when I was first study-

102 CIRCUIT CELLAR® / 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE / circuitcellar.com || Q&A: Embedded Today

ing capacitors, I thought of the dielec- the personal knowledge of the system tric as Gandalf standing between two that is required for someone to actually metal plates. Still do. If you have the create these emulations speaks of the time, put your knowledge up in a blog detail orientation of the creator. I love as documentation of your own prog- that these makers not only have the ress and resource for other learners. knowledge, but use it to make it acces- sible to others. Tell us about your favorite project and the main parts you used. What are your engineering-related I’ve been busy collating information goals for 2013? on a number of sensors and modules I have created many different proto- and learning how to interface them with types in 2012, but I’d like to take those a Parallax Propeller microcontroller, and prototypes and turn them into actual then making them work wirelessly with PCBs and finished projects. I am also XBees. So far, in documenting these hoping to start on a project to create projects, more “practical” projects various medical sensors in a DIY or fin- have come about, such as a DIY wire- ished fashion. RY Tom Kibalo less security system, zombie distractor, Principal Engineer | President, and hopefully a fish tank...fish...tank... REBECCA’s Preferences KibaCorp | Annapolis, MD, USA in coming days. But this project is a personal favorite because it involves 1. Print magazine or digital? Print: It’s What is your field or topic of ex- so many different types of modules, easier to read! pertise/interest? utilizing my first learned programming 2. Laptop or desktop? Laptop: As long as it My strongest field of interest is em- language, and making the modules has the right software, I can still get work bedded design and I have been active useful by making them work wirelessly. done and it’s mobile. in this field since 1976. I worked for the 3. iOS or Android? Android: Open first time with the Intel 8080 in a lab What was the first programming 4. Analog or digital? Analog: I’ve been told instrumentation system. language you learned? What lan- digital is really fast and boring analog, and guages do you know now? I started out learning analog anyway. What is your current occupation? Spin for the Parallax Propeller micro- 5. Dealing with hardware issues or soft- I work as a Principal Engineer in a controller is the first, and so far, the only. ware bugs? *Collective groan* Is neither large defense company. In addition to an answer? Software. this, I also run an independent elec- How often do you solder? 6. IE, Chrome, Firefox, or Other? Chrome tronics company called KibaCorp, which I’d say monthly. Most of my projects 7. Starting a project or finishing it? is primarily involved in educational/ end up on prototyping breadboards. Finishing it! hobbyist market with microcontroller 8. QWERTY keypad or touch screen? products, software, and kits. Finally, I Do you have a go-to MCU? QWERTY teach in the evening as an adjunct facil- Parallax Propeller chip! 9. Flash drive or cloud? Flash drive, I’m ity member in a local community col- still amazed at the 1-GB ones, remember lege electrical engineering department. Who is your favorite engineering when 5 MB was a big deal? pioneer? 10. Webinars or onsite lectures? Onsite. What do you say when a non- I’d go for Nikola Tesla. I think “fa- I’m a bit old-school when it comes to engineer asks: “What is a micro- vorite” might be the wrong way to de- lectures, and it’s nice to show up as a controller?” scribe him, but certainly most thought- form of respect for the time someone put A microcontroller is a specialized, provoking. When I was first learning into their talk. integrated chip that performs similar about electronics, my partner Whisker functions to a PC. Its operation, how- mentioned his theories and some of ever, is tailored for a single dedicated the accomplishments he had achieved. task compared to a PC typically used for Even compared to modern-day discus- many general-purpose tasks. Microcon- sions, I feel his ideas on wireless trans- troller performance is limited to the on mission of power are still brilliant and chip physical resources. The PC, in con- novel. I don’t know enough theory to trast, is composed of many high-perfor- be able to debate one way or the other, mance integrated circuits and auxiliary but I imagine that proper execution of hardware (high-capacity hard drive, it would be absolutely revolutionary. high-resolution LCDs, keyboard, etc.) and is better suited for general-purpose What’s the best MCU-based proj- tasks. In closing, the microcontroller is ect you’ve seen in the last 5 years? a small computer, the size and unit cost I think any of the MCU-based emu- gives it thousands of advantages in ap- lations of old computer processors/sys- plications where a PC wouldn’t be prac- tems—such as the z80 or C64—have tical: appliances, instrumentation, au- been the most impressive. That MCUs tomobiles, cell phone, hand-held, etc. are capable now of emulating systems that used to be entire consoles is in and Is “8 bits dead”? of itself an amazing indication of how New 32-/16-bit machines are offer- far we’ve come technologically. And ing greater MIPS, memory size, and

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peripheral count then 8-bit to address tional ground station and seven remote higher end consumer markets. These microwave stations. markets are driven by an application In all, there were a total of 14 micro- base that is more interested in high controllers in this tech control system. resolution color graphics, high speed All microcontrollers had to communi- computation with configurable DSP cate and report status. The collective and internet/wireless connectivity. This system status was presented on de- tion. In my experience, Microchip of- marked difference does not mean the mand to any operator at any one of fers a great training experience with 8-bit microcontroller is dead. The view the ground stations. Each ground sta- their week long Master’s Conference of the microcontroller market in strict tion had a CRT terminal for operator in Scottsdale, AZ, every year around terms of data bus width, whether it is 8, entry and system status. There was August. This has been going on for 16, or 32 bits, is overly simplistic. The a built-in “pecking order” for priority over 10 years and has collected a large reality in the microcontroller markets control across the three ground sta- following. It is a chance to do a lot of is that there is no such thing as “one tions. The system was designed and hands-on activities and to meet and size fits all” when it comes to microcon- implemented during the early era of the discuss your programs/ideas with the trollers. first manufactured PCs and because of company engineering experts. To pick Eight-bit MCUs are typically used at cost constraints (PCs cost about $5,000 a single training series, I recommend lower clock-frequencies and computa- at the time) all the ground electronics this conference, it is very rewarding. I tion for thousands of applications, such used off-the shelf industrial COTS cards personally gathered hands-on experi- as microwaves, toasters, smoke detec- (STD-BUS and Z-80). ence and working knowledge with TCP/ tors, toothbrushes, PC fan controllers, Software was written in assembly IP stacks, Wi-Fi, USB, DSP-based motor battery chargers, lighting, metering, and BASIC. Microwave repeaters were applications, touch control, high-reso- where MIPS, memory size is not criti- used, but because of environmental lution color graphics display, and voice cal. New innovations in 8-bit MCUs are conditions, custom designed RCA 1802 compression to name a few areas. focusing on reducing power, physical CMOS PCB boards were used. The 1802 size, and cost, and introducing greater was low power and had high reliabil- Who is you favorite engineering programmability using discrete logic ity. 1802 software was written using pioneer? and analog bocks. These evolutionary Assembly. The ground stations Z-80s My personal favorite is Claude E. trends expand 8 bits in its application communicated directly with each other Shannon (American electronics engi- base in new and more exciting ways. using HDLC. Ground stations at either neer and mathematician, 1916–2001). end of the microwave link listened in His work was on information theory set What engineering project are you on the reported status of the remote fundamental limits on signal-processing currently working on or planning? 1802s. They polled on a continuous operations, such as compressing data, I am currently working on the con- basis by one of the ground stations. In and on reliably storing and communi- trol, monitoring, and data distribution event of failure or timeout, the other cating data. Applications of his infor- system for a wireless sensor network ground station automatically assumed mation theory include lossless data involving low-end RF 802.15 modules. polling responsibility. The 1802 used a compression (e.g., ZIP files), lossy data The modules allow for remote analog/ 110-bps FSK communications link with compression (e.g., MP3s and JPGs), and digital sensing, and the objective is to its own custom protocol for its reporting channel coding (e.g., for DSL). The im- provide a simple and flexible API that is and control. pact of Shannon’s work has been crucial scalable and easily configurable by us- to the invention of the compact disc, ers. The system will use the PIC32 MCU Your first programming language? the feasibility of mobile phones, the and graphics screen. This will serve as a I first used Fortran 77 as an un- development of the Internet, and nu- base for sensor management/configu- dergraduate in electrical engineering. merous other fields. He is also credited ration, sensor data collections, and time The world did not have PCs in the late with founding both digital computer and tagging and data distribution. This base 1960s and early 1970s. The experience digital circuit design theory in 1937. As will log sensor data onto an SD card, was so painful, I decided to pursue a a 21-year-old Master’s student at MIT, and then distribute this data with either profession as a hardware analog/digi- he wrote a thesis demonstrating that USB or Wi-Fi. tal designer engineer and avoid soft- electrical application of Boolean algebra I’m also working on another micro- ware all together. As microprocessors that could construct and resolve any controller “how-to” book. This time it’s were introduced, I gained experience in logical, numerical relationship. Finally, for the Microchip PIC32. 8080/8085 assembly. Things have very he worked with Nyquist on the Nyquist– much evolved since then, and software Shannon sampling theorem that is fun- Tell us about your favorite design has become a large part of my design damental to telecommunications and project. efforts. signal processing. My favorite project was a distributed tech control for a medium-size com- Do you have a “go to” MCU? What’s the best MCU project munications system built in the early My “go-to” is Microchip Technology. you’ve seen in the last five years? 1980s. This system was my first com- There is enough variety in the family to The best MCU project I have seen plex multiprocessor design, and I func- accommodate just about any applica- in the last five years was the develop- tioned as lead microprocessor design tion. engineer and systems co-architect. The tech control had to facilitate monitoring What was the best course, lecture, and control of two end-to-end satellite or webinar you’ve experienced? ground stations, along with an addi- That is a very interesting ques-

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ment of a proof-of-concept Pico satellite analog domain. prototype by a colleague. The proto- type was slightly larger than a softball What is your current occupation? and configured as a small octagon us- Full-time as a Senior Staff engineer ing 8-bit Microchip Technology PIC18 at STMicroelectronics. I am working microcontrollers internally networked on the development of new integrated within the structure. Each PIC18 was circuits for hard disk and solid-state positioned on a side and had its own drives. pinhole camera for picture and video viewing form ground. The system What do you say when a non-en- had its own internal guidance system gineer asks: “What is a microcon- and remote command and control. It troller? Is it the chip in my PC?” was originally proposed as a means of Not quite right. A microcontroller is checking the space shuttle tile system. a single chip containing, besides the It never made it that far, but it did have Vincent Himpe CPU core itself, some working memory, a program storage memory, and some successful trails over a several-day pe- Senior Staff Engineer | riod in low-earth orbit (communicating peripherals like serial ports, A/D and pictures of the company facility from STMicroelectronics | San Jose, CA, USA D/A, and other interfaces. It’s more space). The last discussions I heard like a small computer integrated on were to equip it with its own ION pro- What is your area of interest? one chip. They run without operating pulsion engines. Mixed-signal electronics with a systems and stay hidden in various ap- focus on digitally driven analog sys- plications performing a fixed program. What are your goals for 2013? tems. A mixture of FPGA/CPU and They do not load programs dynamically Green power: I need to address MCU applications with a strong consideration of power consumption/usage and al- ternative power sources. There is now an evolving number of techniques for reducing power-consumption, leverag- ing the power management modes now Subscribe Now! offered with most MCUs. In addition, careful consideration of what active circuitry is required outside the MCU will also yield power savings. Finally, to consider possibilities of harvesting al- ternative power sources as part of the application if feasible. Greater sensitivity to cyber security: I want to understand vulnerabilities, the security alternatives, and the authenti- cation and cryptographic frameworks at my disposal. I will then use this infor- mation to guide the informed decisions necessary during the design/implemen- tation process. TK

tom’s Preferences

1. Print magazine or digital? Print 2. Laptop or desktop? Laptop 3. iOS or Android? Android 4. Analog or digital? Digital 5. Dealing with hardware issues or soft- Subscribe now to the leading computer applications magazine ware bugs? Software 6. IE, Chrome, Firefox, or Other? Chrome specializing in embedded systems and design! 7. Starting a project or finishing it? Starting 8. QWERTY keypad or touch screen? 12 issues Touch screen per year for just 9. Flash drive or cloud? Flash drive Print OR Digital: $50 : : Combo (Print + Digital): $85 10. Webinars or onsite lectures? Onsite

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105 CIRCUIT CELLAR® / 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE / circuitcellar.com || Q&A: Embedded Today

like a desktop computer does. Turn trusted to a compiler. Code ending up in them on and off they go. ROM for chips that ship 1 million parts per day need serious testing. vincent’s Preferences Do you think “8 bits is dead”? Why or why not? How often do you solder? Daily, 1. Print magazine or digital? Print. For the Nope. Eight bits isn’t dead. Even 4 weekly, monthly, never? simple fact you can read it anywhere, bits isn’t dead. Plenty of car radios and Daily. Any electronics engineer in- even outside in the sun while floating in microwaves still run on 4-bit Toshiba or volved in product design needs to know the pool. I need to see the first waterproof, Hitachi processors. The number of bits how to do this. Of course, swapping sunlight-readable color e-book reader. doesn’t matter. It’s what you do with a BGA is a bit of a specialty, but you (Note: Color. e-paper just doesn’t cut the it. If you are into running a full-blown must be capable of assembling a board mustard for me.) bloated system with an OS to blink an with 50-odd parts and test your idea. 2. Laptop or desktop? Desktop. Serious LED, you may need a 32-bit machine Same for swapping out a chip or some CAD software requires horsepower, al- with all the bells and whistles, but you resistors. You can’t live off of paper and though I do have an i7-based laptop that can do the same with a 4 bitter. Plen- simulations. The proof of the pudding is is as fast as my desktop if I need to work ty of 8 bitters around with a diverse in the eating, and for electronics, that on location. But nothing beats the screen spread of peripherals. They’re cheap means: get that hot poker out. real estate of a dual- or triple-monitor and get the job done. desktop driven by a workstation-grade Do you have a “go-to” MCU? graphics card. Altium Designer, ProEngi- What engineering project are you Not really. 8051 cores are still a bit neer, Rhino, and Solidworks simply are so currently working on or planning? of a main staple because of the diver- much more enjoyable than on a cramped Hobby-wise I’m making a gas ana- sity in manufacturers and peripheral little screen where all you do is endlessly lyzer for scuba diving that goes beyond mix. Now being replaced by the Cortex shuffle windows. the normal oxygen analysis. I got a few core-based machines. I don’t like sin- 3. iOS or Android? Neither. Both stink. iOS “pet” projects, one of which is a cus- gle-source cores. In these times that’s is so closed that it is annoying not to be tomizable processor core to run in an a bit troublesome... One particular CPU able to do certain things the way you FPGA. I like is the 8051F120 from Silabs. That want. Android is so open that there are is an 8051 on steroids. My next work- too many ways to do the same thing. Do you have an engineering or horse is the STM32F family of cortex 4. Analog or digital? Both. One can’t live programming tip that you think based machines. without the other. Besides, digital is just others will find immediately useful a level-constrained version of analog. and applicable? What was the best course, lecture, Today’s high-speed buses like PCI-x, Trust, but verify your sources. Vari- or webinar you experienced? SATA, DisplayPort are digital in nature, but ables won’t, and constants aren’t. Bob Pease on YouTube. The EMC if you don’t understand analog, you won’t When it comes to EMC and signal in- course taught by Mark Montrose at be able to make a PCB to carry these fast tegrity, there is only one right answer: UCSC. signals. It all depends. 5. Dealing with hardware issues or soft- Who are your favorite engineering ware bugs? Dealing with software bugs Tell us about your favorite project. pioneers? using hardware. Get me a decent scope That would be the gas analyzer with Bob Pease, Jim Williams, Bob Wid- and a logic analyzer and/or JTAG probe. an STM32 cortex M3 core with plenty lar, and Richard Feynman. Why? Be- The days of debugging software by add- of on-board flash. TFT display, touch cause they knew their stuff, did their ing printf statements are a thing of the screen, various sensors (oxygen, car- own thing, were always ready to Stone Age. Give me a debugging environ- bon monoxide, temperature, pres- help, and didn’t care about what any- ment where I can place breakpoints and sure, and humidity), several buses and body thought about them. They went trace the source on the hardware at full transport links (ZigBee, bluetooth for straight for it, calling the things as throttle. That is actually something I look the printer), I2C for the analog frontend they saw them. at first when picking a CPU: How good is and signal conditioning. Instrumenta- the debugger? tion amps, chopper stabilized op-amps, What’s the best MCU-based proj- 6. IE, Chrome, Firefox, or Other? For a reference sources. Plenty of cool stuff. ect you’ve seen in the last 5 years? long time Opera. Since IE9 came out, Boxee Box. It just works, and it’s that one. What was the first programming great. Low power, small, smart remote. 7. Starting a project or finishing it? The language you learned? What lan- Driven by an Atom CPU. vacation between projects guages do you know now? 8. QWERTY keypad or touchscreen? 6800 assembly. Followed by 6809 What was the most important EE- Keyboard, mouse, and Space Navigator. assembly, and then I discovered Har- related concept, tip, or lesson you 9. Flash drive or cloud? In-home NAS with vard architectures in the 8051 and I learned in 2012? redundancy and network connectivity. never looked back. Basic on the PC. If something doesn’t work right, see Accessible from the web. De-duplicated The PC code I write is mainly of the if it’s plugged in properly. There are so between two physical machines and with run-once type and Visual Basic serves many bad connections out there. an off-site backup. I’m in the data storage the purpose right there. Quick to devel- business. I know what can go wrong. op, easy to debug, and interactive. On What are your engineering-related Duplicate copies mean no safety! microcontrollers, I use either PL/M, C, goals for 2013? 10. Webinars or onsite lectures? Both or often bare metal assembly. Some of Low power, lower power, and even the stuff I do professionally cannot be lower power. VH ||

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