Looking at the needs, decide whether it can be done simply. It requires substantial investment of time, money, and effort to put together a reliable microcontroller-based system. The advantages are small overheads when upgrading the system with small changes. It also helps to keep the inventory to a relatively small number of components.

Possible alternatives are:

1. A dedicated digital circuit,
2. A digital circuit based on a PLD (programmable logic device),
3. An application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) based implementation.

The above-mentioned alternatives to microprocessors are quite similar and differ in only the implementation. A dedicated digital circuit might use discrete ICs for the various logic functions (AND, OR, XOR, etc.) while a digital circuit based on a PLD would be more compact given the programmable nature of a PLD. A PLD contains an array of various logic function blocks, the user selects the required functionality, and the interconnection between these functional blocks at the design level, thereby achieving a more integrated and compact solution. A PLD has a substantial amount of hardware, of which only a fraction gets utilized in average applications. The ASIC solution is like a PLD except that it is an optimized implementation.

Figure 1.1 is the circuit diagram for implementing an hypothetical logic equation using individual digital ICs. These logic gates, as seen in Figure 1.1, are available in various logic families (TTL, CMOS, etc.). The figure illustrates the IC numbers for the TTL family. To implement this equation, we need 3 ICs with about 57 percent utilization (the 7404 IC has 6 gates and we have used 3 of them, while the 7408 and 7432 has 4 gates each, of which we have used 5 gates—8 gates in all out of 14 available gates, i.e., a utilization factor of .57). The same equation is now implemented using a PLD (such as 16L8).

Figure 1.2 illustrates the internals of a PLD implementation. Each intersection in the AND array represents an AND gate, while each intersection in the OR array represents an OR gate. For this solution, we only need 1 IC. The PLD in Figure 1.2 has about 150 gates, of which we have used only about 12, representing a mere 8 percent utilization! (The actual 16L8 if used for this circuit has more hardware than seen in Figure 1.2.) A PLD-based circuit is also more power-consuming than a comparable ASIC circuit, which is due to the redundant hardware on the PLD chip.

In contrast, a microprocessor-based (in fact an Atmel AVR processor-based) circuit is illustrated in Figure 1.3. It is as small as the PLD-based circuit, and in terms of power consumption, is better than a PLD circuit. In terms of speed, the PLD will perform much faster than a processor. Of course, for the microprocessor circuit to work correctly, it must be programmed correctly. The program to implement our logic equation is discussed in a later chapter.

While we are trying to portray the microprocessor circuit in a positive light, it is worthwhile to be able to remember the relative merits and demerits of each implementation. It is not that the microprocessor is the solution to all problems. Sometimes you need to use a PLD in conjunction with a processor, and sometimes a PLD alone is required. One such implementation of a processor and a PLD working together is the subject of a later.

• The Swedish Association of Copyright, a discussion forum. While such an affiliation may seem harmless, other members of the organization include Henrik Ponten, Monique Wadsted, and Peter Danowsky — three key representatives in the entertainment industry’s case against Pirate Bay.
• The Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, an organization devoted to implementing stronger copyright laws. Norstrom sits on the board.
• .SE, The Internet Infrastructure Foundation, another harmless-sounding affiliation with another questionable allegiance: Monique Wadsted is also a member of this group that oversees the .se name domain and handles domain disputes.

Peter Althin, the lawyer who represents Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde, told The Local that in setting up this case, several lay judges were thrown out due to conflicts of interest. That Norstrom somehow sneaked past this deletion process raised suspicion and anger in the defense team. Norstrom claims that his decision was not colored by his associations. “My view has been that these activities do not constitute a conflict of interest”, he told Sveriges Radio. It’s evident that Judge Norstrom has strong ties to the pro-copyright lobby. I think he should have stepped down from the case in the beginning. That he didn’t shows a serious perversion of justice. Last Friday, Pirate Bay was sacked with a bill for 30 million Swedish kronor (US$3.6 million) and a one-year prison sentence for the Pirate Bay Four: Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom.

Oracle Corp [NASDAQ:ORCL] plans to enter the computer hardware market by buying Sun Microsystems Inc [NASDAQ:JAVA] for more than $7 billion, swooping in after Sun’s talks with IBM [NYSE:IBM] fell apart. The announcement on Monday surprised many Oracle watchers, who believed the company can boost profitability at Sun’s software businesses but were unsure if it can be as successful with Sun’s hardware unit amid stiff competition against IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and new entrant Cisco Systems Inc. “It’s an out-of-the-box, left-field type of a deal because Oracle is buying a predominantly hardware business,” said Jefferies & Co analyst Ross MacMillan. “The push-pull of the deal is the uncertainty of the hardware business with the earnings accretion of the software business.”

Oracle will pay $9.50 a share for Sun, which values the high-end server and software maker at about $7.06 billion, based on 743 million shares outstanding as of the end of its second fiscal quarter on December 28, according to Sun. Sun had previously rejected IBM’s offer to pay up to $9.40 a share, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Shares of Sun jumped 35.7 percent to $9.08 in morning Nasdaq trading, while Oracle shares fell 3.7 percent to $18.36. Shares of IBM, which did not immediately return calls for comment, fell 1.8 percent to $99.49 on the NYSE. Oracle President Safra Catz said on a conference call that Oracle intends to make the hardware division profitable. Sun’s top-selling products are high-end servers and storage equipment.

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) – Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) is unlikely to face serious antitrust objections as it moves to enter the computer hardware market by buying Sun Microsystems Inc (JAVA.O) for more than $7 billion, antitrust experts said.

They did not anticipate that federal regulators would be troubled by the deal since Oracle primarily focuses on database and business oriented software and Sun sells mainly high-end servers.

“Far from competing, the products of Sun are largely complementary with Oracle’s products. Indeed, Oracle software is frequently installed on Sun servers,” said Beau Buffier, an antitrust lawyer with law firm Shearman and Sterling LLP.

“Of course, Sun has some important software, such as Java and its Solaris operating system, but in these key areas there really is no meaningful competition with Oracle,” Buffier said.

Oracle’s database and related software already work closely with Sun’s Java software and Solaris operating system.

International Business Machines (IBM.N) may have abandoned its bid to buy Sun partially because of perceived antitrust concerns, according to a research note from Stifel Nicolaus.

Sun previously rejected IBM’s offer to pay up to $9.40 a share, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Oracle will pay $9.50 a share for Sun.

“We believe an Oracle-Sun deal faces significantly fewer obstacles in the antitrust review than an IBM-Sun deal would have, particularly as it does not raise the issues regarding consolidation in the server and storage markets that would have been problematic for a deal with IBM,” the research note said.

Thomas Morgan of the George Washington University Law School pointed to the U.S. Justice Department’s unsuccessful challenge to Oracle’s purchase of software rival PeopleSoft in 2004 as a reason that regulators would be unlikely to oppose this less controversial deal.

“On that precedent, the acquisition of a hardware company is likely to be even less of a problem,” he said. “It looks like the kind of thing that is likely to go through.”

But Morgan also raised the possibility that President Barack Obama’s administration might use the case to prove its determination to be a tougher antitrust enforcer than the Bush administration was.

“This case is likely to be a test at least of the early attitude of the Obama administration,” said Morgan. “One might expect to see, or one might watch to see, if this is a place that the new Justice Department leadership would choose to at least try their stuff.”

The deal would make Oracle the world’s fourth-largest maker of servers, with the No. 2 slot in the high-end of the market, which was worth about $17 billion last year. Oracle is already the world’s No 2 maker of business software after IBM.

The U.S. Senate on Monday evening approved the nomination of former Federal Trade Commission member Christine Varney to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

Source: Reuters

A Charplex Applet by Alexander Brevig

http://hosting.alexanderbrevig.com/arduino/help/charlieplex

Thank you Alexander Brevig

Joining the Intel Atom’s first birthday party are two new family members: the Z550 at 2 GHz and the Z515 at 1.2 GHz.

The Z550 is the fastest Atom yet, thanks to its clock speed. Feature-wise, it’s the same as the rest of Atom family with Hyper-threading being the main trick along with the thrifty under-3-watt power envelope.

The Z515, while slower at a top speed of 1.2 GHz, is a little more clever with the new Intel Burst Performance Technology which will run the chip at slower speeds (with lessened power demands) until the demand is there for full throttle.

Intel didn’t immediately reveal pricing for either chip, but expect the Z550 to be in the more expensive netbooks and nettops, while the Z515 will likely only be found in smaller mobile Internet devices.

In the 80s and during the recessions in the past, even though we suffered from the effects of the period, we also saw pronounced periods where technology and innovation. In fact, inventors and innovative entrepreneurs should be smiling. That timeworn proverb about “an ill wind that blows no good” truly applies in an economic downturn. No doubt, in garages across the country, innovators are hard at work and electronics hobbyist and dabblers are busy over their soldering irons as opportunity bangs on the doors. But it is a very different call that they will be answering, and to take up the opportunity, we need to step back and take a hard look at the current environment.

The companies are all desperate for great ideas to boost their bottom lines, but they are most interested in products that can rapidly and inexpensively dovetail into their current manufacturing patterns and existing plant and equipment. This is not the time for major capital investment, retooling and expansion. They also seek products that will easily sell in cash poor (or at the very least lessened and conservative) developed markets. No, there is no surplus cash for huge promotions and ad campaigns. We will see a trend by these companies to use marketing techniques that only cost should leads and sales arise, and will try and spend less accordingly.

The buyers’ needs and priorities have changed in a very marked way, as well. Household budgets are tightening and people are looking for cost-cutting innovations and affordable escapes or distractions from their own private depression. Gone are the investments in large ticket items, the family car will have to last a few more years, the new house and associated mortgage put on hold. We will see a noted domestic trend toward Internet shopping. In times like this, the family is more likely to gather around clever board games and inexpensive video games, and the manufacturers will need to realise that these much cheaper alternatives will supplant high-cost entertainment systems. Companies such as Sony and Microsoft may see that the return on the lost cost of manufacture of the PlayStation and the Xbox may take a little while longer.

Let us hope that like the trends of the past, economy-altering and enduring innovations will emerged from the workbenches of small business entrepreneurs and independent inventors rather than from huge bloated R&D budgets which have been the trend for the past decade. In good times and bad, the independent innovator and small business entrepreneurs and I for one hope that they’ll do it again.

The FTDI FT232RL SMD package

Lets look at the FTDI series of components for USB Interfacing. The CP210X devices are perfect for generalpurpose USB to RS-232 conversions. When it comes to the Arduino, AVR and PIC hardware platforms, the FTDI FT232R USB UART IC is a better fit. Like the Silicon Laboratories USB interface ICs, the FT232R is a single chip solution that encapsulates the USB protocol. The main feature of the FT232R is that it integrates the USB termination resistors, the clock, the crystal, and configuration EEPROM all into one convient package. It can support data rates between 300 bps and 3 Mbps, internally, there is an internal 256 byte receive buffer and 128 byte transmit buffer to ensure that the flow of data remains uninterrupted. The FT232R is also considered a “drop-in” replacement for the industry standard RS-232 conversion ICs and is suitable for use with the RS-232, RS-485, and RS-422 protocols.

Lets examine this chip by its functional groups. Figure 1, a diagram of the pin-outs of the chips will serve as a guide to this task.

Features

• Single chip USB to asynchronous serial data transfer interface.
• Entire USB protocol handled on the chip – No USB-specific firmware programming required.
• UART interface support for 7 or 8 data bits, 1 or 2 stop bits and odd/even/mark/space/no parity.
• Fully assisted hardware or X-On / X-Off software handshaking.
• Data transfer rates from 300 baud to 3 Megabaud (RS422 / RS485 and at TTL levels) and 300 baud to 1 Megabaud (RS232).
• FTDI’s royalty-free VCP and D2XX drivers eliminate the requirement for USB driver development in most cases.
• In-built support for event characters and line break condition.
• New USB FTDIChip-ID™ feature.
• New con?gurable CBUS I/O pins.
• Auto transmit buffer control for RS485 applications.
• Transmit and receive LED drive signals.
• New 48MHz, 24MHz,12MHz, and 6MHz clock output signal Options for driving external MCU or FPGA.
• FIFO receive and transmit buffers for high data throughput.
• Adjustable receive buffer timeout.
• Synchronous and asynchronous bit bang mode interface options with RD# and WR# strobes.
• New CBUS bit bang mode option.
• Integrated 1024 Byte internal EEPROM for storing USB VID, PID, serial number and product description strings, and CBUS I/O con?guration.
• Device supplied preprogrammed with unique USB serial number.
• Support for USB suspend and resume.
• Support for bus powered, self powered, and high- power bus powered USB con?gurations.
• Integrated 3.3V level converter for USB I/O.
• Integrated level converter on UART and CBUS for interfacing to 5V – 1.8V Logic.
• True 5V / 3.3V / 2.8V / 1.8V CMOS drive output and TTL input.
• High I/O pin output drive option.
• Integrated USB resistors.
• Integrated power-on-reset circuit.
• Fully integrated clock – no external crystal, oscillator, or resonator required.
• Fully integrated AVCC supply ?ltering – No separate AVCC pin and no external R-C ?lter required.
• UART signal inversion option.
• USB bulk transfer mode.
• 3.3V to 5.25V Single Supply Operation.
• Low operating and USB suspend current.
• Low USB bandwidth consumption.
• UHCI / OHCI / EHCI host controller compatible
• USB 2.0 Full Speed compatible.
• -40°C to 85°C extended operating temperature range.

The USB Signals

To begin with, pins 15 and 16 form the USB interface to the FT232R USB UART. The USBDP (USB Data Signal Plus) input is supported by an internal series and pullup resistor pair. The same configuration holds true for the USBDM (USB Data Signal Minus) pin with the exception of the pullup resistor. Basically, that is all there is to a USB host side interface… Just your power supply lines (+5v and ground), DataSignalPlus and DataSignalMinus.

	Pin	Name	Cable color	Description
The USB A & B Connectors...	1	VCC	Red	+5 VDC
	2	D-	White	Data -
	3	D+	Green	Data +
	4	GND	Black	Ground

The Power Pins

The FT232R pin 4 is used to determine the output drive levels of the UART interface and the CBUSx pins. When the FT232R is used in a USB bus powered circuit, we can tie the VCCIO pin to the 3V3OUT pin to drive the outputs at +3.3 volt levels. Otherwise, tying the VCCIO pin to VCC (+5.0 VDC) will result in an output drive level of +5 volts. This IC can also be persuaded to drive its outputs as low as +1.8 volts by supplying the VCCIO pin from an external regulated supply. The only rule that must be followed for the low voltage external reference supply is that it is obtained from a regulator that is fed from the original VCC bulk supply. The voltage on the 3V3OUT pin is a product of the FT232R’s integrated LDO (Low DropOut) regulator. In addition to supplying a reference for the VCCIO pin, the LDO regulator is there to provide +3.3 volts to the USB transceiver module and feed the USBDP pullup resistor. If the current requirement is kept below 50 mA, you can use the 3V3OUT voltage to power external circuitry. We must supply at least +4.0 volts to the VCC pin to utilize the UART IC’s internal clock generator. This requirement is easily met by feeding the VCC pin from the USB interface’s VBUS signal.

The UART Interface and the CBUS group

The UART interface signals are defined as follows:

In most cases, we only employ the services of TXD, RXD, and DTR signals.

There are five configurable CBUS I/O lines (CBUS0- CBUS4). The I/O function of each CBUS line is configured using the IC’s internal EEPROM. The CBUS0 and CBUS1 can be configured as the transmit and receive LED drive lines, CBUS4 can be used to indicate that the FT232R is in its SLEEP condition, which is analogous to a USB SUSPEND state. Any of the CBUS I/O pins can be configured as the active-low transmit enable line (TXDEN) in an RS-485 application. The same is true for power control. All of the CBUS I/O lines have the option of being configured as PWREN (Power Enable) pins. In the PWREN mode, the selected CBUS pin is used to drive an external P-channel MOSFET switch. It is recommended that devices requiring high current levels be switched using the PWREN signal and associated circuitry.

The Miscellaneous Group

There’s not much to say about this set of pins as most of them are not connected in our hardware design. Our design ties the active-low RESET input to VCC with a 100K pullup resistor. Otherwise, the TEST pin is grounded as per the datasheet and the OSCO and OSCI pins are left unconnected.

To use an FT232R circuit consists of two tasks. First is the task of hardware design. There are a number of hardware configurations that the IC can assume. Since we’re designing around a USB interface, it is probable that we will want to eliminate the need for an external regulated power supply. All we need is a trio of capacitors (C1-C3) and the ferrite bead (FB1) are mounted to suppress EMI. The ferrite bead helps reduce the noise that is radiated down the USB cable. The power supply source (VCC) for the entire design is taken from the USB VBUS interface pin. Capacitors C4 and C5 are acting as power supply filter capacitors. Extracting power from the VBUS line is fine as long as we don’t exceed 500 mA of total drain and keep initial connection current drain less than 100 mA. You may also need to create a way by which you can select the FT232R’s output drive voltage, while all of the UART interface signals can be terminated to a set of solder pads, or a pin header.

As usual, a little bit of eye candy does not go astray, and you can use a bi-colour LED to indicate data transmit and receive. Of course if your design is to be burried in a anonymous block of plastic, you can ommit the data transmit and receive LEDs. The UART interface to the ZBasic module consists of only three lines. This interface is easily realized due to the FT232R’s ability to morph the polarity of its UART interface.

Once you have the hardware part figured out and configured/built, we can access the internal configuration EEPROM of the FT232R. Following the assembly of the USB interface, the next step is to load up the FTDI PC driver for the IC. You can download this from the FTDI site. Once you get the FT232R driver loaded, I suggest forcing the COM port setting for the USB interface to a specific COM port (I use COM2). To do this with Windows XP, right-click on My Computer, select Manage, and Device Manager. For instance, after connecting my laptop to the prototype board, the FT232R driver initialized with a COM9 serial port interface. I highlighted the COM5 declaration as shown in Screenshot 1 and right-clicked on it. That took me to a menu containing Properties, which I clicked on. Once in the COM5 Properties window, I selected the Port Settings tab and clicked the Advanced button. At this point, select COM2 and proceed. Back out and perform all of the steps again beginning with right-clicking on My Computer. You should now have COM2 assigned in the Computer Management window. With the USB hardware checked out, the FT232R driver loaded, and the desired COM port dialed in, we can download an application called MProg from the FTDI website. The MProg application runs on your PC and provides a view into the FT232R USB UART IC’s configuration EEPROM. The first time I ran MProg, I opted to load the Default.ept file. After loading that configuration, I transferred from Program Mode to Edit Mode and modified the default template to meet the my requirements. MProg gives us the opportunity to alter the polarity of the UART signals and the functionality of the CBUS I/O lines. To push this configuration into the FT232R we simply save this group of settings and re-enter Program Mode.

And simply speaking, that is all there is to it, you can connect your USB UART to any MCU based circuit to which you need to connect a PC for data communications or programming.

• Data Sheet
• Web Site

It is however refreshing to see that the Vatican has backed down on this stance on the Pope’s rejection of condoms as a means of preventing Aids. Is this a very rare admission of papal fallibility? In any case I feel the Church’s influence over social and religious opinion and morality will assist in at least lessening its condemnation on the use of contraception (condoms) as a way of preventing and lessening the spread of STDs and especially HIV and AIDs.

Original TimeOnLine Article Here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5934912.ece

However, if your Magsafe(tm) power pack dies, you are left with no option but to either search eBay for a second-hand functional unit, order a replacement from Apple, or use a universal power supply. Unfortunately, most of these power supplies use a variety of solutions that as sometime less than ideal. Sometimes the bulky nature of the adapter/socket assembly causes the connectors to fall out, causing you to leave in the morning with a flat battery. And other times, they just seem ugly and less than ideal.

So to solve this, Mooner, DIYed the cable from his defective power supply and connected to a Kensington universal power supply… Have a look at his work, I admire the quality in which it is executed.

Link: http://www.timesight.com/KensingtonMagSafe.html