Ken posted an article taking a closer look at Intel 8087 chip: Intel introduced the 8087 chip in 1980 to improve floating-point performance on the 8086 and 8088 processors, and it was used with the original IBM PC. Since early microprocessors operated only on integers, arithmetic with floating-point numbers was slow and transcendental operations such […]
Tag Archives: chips
Bus Pirate “Ultra”: using ADS7042 12bit Analog to Digital Converter from the FPGA
Beginning with Bus Pirate “Ultra” prototype v1d, all analog measurements are handled by the FPGA using an external serial Analog to Digital Converter chip. This lets us pipeline ADC measurements into the command queue so that bus interactions can be done with very precise timing. We’ll be using Texas Instruments’ series of tiny ADCs with […]
Demystifying hardware security with the Bus Pirate
Alain Iamburg over at FishNet Security writes: Welcome to Part III of this series on hardware security. In Part II we explored passive data captures of EEPROM read operations over the SPI bus. In this installment, we will be looking at techniques for actively probing and communicating with such chips. Memory chips can contain interesting data. […]
Troubleshooting damaged chips
Steve at Big Mess o’ Wires writes: The most common failure I’ve seen is something I call “burnout”, and has affected about 4% of the units. After anywhere from one minute to a few hours of working normally, the Floppy Emu stops functioning, and both the 3.3V regulator and the CPLD become hot to the […]
1341 chips being given away for free
Vinicius.jlantunes over at the 430h forum is giving away his 1341 strong chip collection. He asks that interested parties pay for the shipping. I don’t like seeing all this stuff laying around, not being put to good use. So I will donate most of the items if anyone is interested – you would only need […]
LTC4370: current-sharing controller with reverse current blocking
Here is an interesting part from Linear Technology, it’s the LTC4370 current-sharing controller, with reverse current blocking. Basically it allows you to tie two power supplies in parallel, without the fear that one will source more current than the other. It also has built in protection that prevents the current from flowing into the supplies. […]
Counterfeit parts found on P-8 Poseidon’s ice detection system
Uwe wrote to us about the counterfeit chips used in US Military hardware. It turns out that the ice detection system on a Boeing P-8 Poseidon was defective. The suspected culprits are used, and refurbished parts that were sold as new. remember the stories about ATmega328 fakes/duds about 2 years ago … when Seeed and […]
Reddit’s nicechips community
Kelvin wrote to us about the new “nicechips” community available at Reddit. They collect links to data sheets of components they find interesting. Via the contact form.
Hacking hardware chips
Ever wonder what’s inside an unassuming black microchip? octal tipped us to the FlyLogic Engineering blog with illustrated chip internals. Via the forum.
Free practice chips for surface mount soldering
New in the free PCB drawer: SMD chips for practice. Sjaak put four huge bags of assorted TQFP, SOIC, and other chips for soldering practice in the free PCB drawer. Add a note to your next order and we’ll top up the envelope with a handful of chips.
Trivia: CPLD on a PDIP?
Atmel produces what are believed to be the only CPLD devices sold in PDIP form: the ATF2500C and ATF750C . These devices are priced at between $5 and $8 at Digikey and Mouser. Programming hardware and software is available from Atmel. Atmel provides free design software known as WinCUPL, which mainly supports programming in the […]
PROTOTYPE: xQFP protoboard with SOIC, SSOP, 0805 footprints
Today we’re super excited to announce a new QFP prototype board for SMD parts, the newest addition to our Dangerous Protoboard collection. This giant protoboard has a xQFP breakout footprint, along with a score of other pads for SMD parts. Great for getting started with a new microcontroller. Dangerous Protoboard: xQFP. Prototype board for working […]
Christmas music on the Picaxe
If you need a quick source of canned Christmas music in a project, don’t forget the Picaxe line of microcontrollers from Revolution Education. All Picaxe “M” chips have three Christmas tunes preprogrammed and playable using the PLAY command: Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!