Category Archives: Chips

MSPism: Nordic 2.4 + MSP/MSP mini battery board

Brian shared a MSP + ISM radio design with onboard battery. It was designed to work with this module. It uses  MSP430G2553 mcu in conjunction with the Nordic nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz transceiver chip. The design also incorporates headers compatible with Digi XBee radio and a CR1225 battery holder.Tthe programing of the chip can be done from the […]

Chips in space, a look inside ARISSat-1

Joe Desbonnet tipped us to a series of articles about the design of the ARISSat-1 amateur satellite recently ‘launched’ (actually just flung out the door) from the ISS: Many of you are curious about what’s inside ARISSat-1. In the next two to three blog posts, I’ll introduce you to each of the subsystems. Following that, […]

Flashrom 0.9.4 released

Mattias inform us of the release of flashrom 0.9.4, which works with the Bus Pirate : Flashrom is a utility for reading, writing, erasing and verifying flash ROM chips. Flashrom is designed to flash BIOS/EFI/coreboot/firmware/optionROM images on mainboards, network/graphics/storage controller cards, and various programmer devices. It can do so without any special boot procedures and from your normal […]

TS1001 low power, low voltage op-amp review

We have been experimenting with the Touchstone semi TS1001 ultra-low power, low voltage op-amp demo board, and the results are in. For our tests, the board inverting op-amp circuit was powered by a solar cell from a calculator with two 0.5v zener in series. The total supply was about 950mV, well below the operating range […]

A tale of two op-amps: A Hitch-Hikers guide to op-amp specs

A few weeks ago we covered the Touchstone Semi TS1001 ultra low-power and low-voltage op-amp. Ultrasounder commented: Looking at the datasheet, the key [specs] reveal a very lousy, CMOS input-output opamp which is not speced for anything beyond audio. The GBW is 4KHz which means that the max frequency this thing can reliably amplify without […]

Cooking with Jeri: making chips at home – parts 1 and 2

Not content with making simple transistors at home, Jeri has moved up to making integrated circuits in her homelab. In Part 1 of this process she demonstrates how to cleave wafers, remove native oxide, test the dopant type with a hot probe test and loading the furnace. UPDATE: Part 2 of this video is now […]

Freescale’s MC13260 two-way radio chip

Freescale’s MC13260 System-on-chip two-way radio is one chip to watch for. Now in the “introduction pending” stage and highlighted in this video from the recent FTF 2011 conference, it promises to be a one chip analog/digital radio solution. Preliminary design specs show RF coverage from 60-960 MHz, comprehensive digital radio mode coverage including DMR, dPMR, […]

Interfacing the TMP006 IR temperature sensor with the Bus Pirate

Joe wrote an article on using the Bus Pirate to interface with the TI TMP006 non-contact temperature sensor covered earlier. This article explains how to interface the Texas Instruments TMP006 non-contact IR temperature sensor evaluation module (TMP006EVM) to a Linux computer using the Bus Pirate from Dangerous Prototypes. A small Java program has been written […]

The US wants YOU to help verify chip integrity

The US government’s intelligence community research arm, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency or IARPA, is responsible for verifying the integrity of chips procured by the government and destined for mission critical national security applications. They are well aware that foreign suppliers can adulterate the supply of mission critical chips in various ways, including designing […]

Microchip announces new 16-bit PIC® MCUs & dsPIC® DSCs

Microchip Technology Inc. today announced a new series of 16-bit PIC® microcontrollers (MCUs) and dsPIC® Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs) that bring advanced control to cost-sensitive general-purpose and motor-control designs. The general-purpose dsPIC33FJ16 “GP” devices include a Real-Time Clock/Calendar and up to 21 general-purpose output pins, making them ideal for driving intelligent sensors. The dsPIC33FJ16 and […]

Breaking copy protection in MCUs: then and now

When you decide to copy protect the firmware on your MCU, how effective are efforts such as setting a lock bit or enabling chip erase modes? Sergei P. Skorobogatov’s article provides an overview of the methods he’s tried against MCUs from various manufacturers. He outlines both invasive and non-invasive techniques such as chip depackaging, microprobing […]