http://www.drdobbs.com//author/6820 Dr. Dobb's Copyright 2012, United Business Media. en-us http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/starts-with-a-v/240156894 VHDL (or VHSIC Hardware Description Language — VHSIC stands for Very High Speed Integrated Circuit) is a language that resembles Ada. Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:56:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/leonardos-code/240156256 If you know me at all, you know I have an ongoing love/hate relationship with Arduino. Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:17:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/paper-to-fpga/240155922 I'm wrapping up CARDIAC by moving the Verilog implementation, vtach, over to a real FPGA board. Sun, 02 Jun 2013 21:48:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/cardiac-to-fpga/240155599 Why put a 35-year-old paper computer into an FPGA? Sun, 26 May 2013 19:03:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/expanding-vtach/240155198 The last few weeks, I've been building vtach — a Verilog implementation of CARDIAC, the old paper-based demonstration computer from Bell Labs. Sun, 19 May 2013 22:49:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/troubleshooting-verilog/240154701 I want to squash a bug as a way to show how you "debug" Verilog hardware designs (or, at least, one way to do so) Sun, 12 May 2013 15:31:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/the-cpu-crawl/240154406 I want to talk a bit more about Verilog and how it is different from simply writing something using software. Tue, 07 May 2013 21:00:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/the-heart-of-a-cpu/240153772 A paper computer is certainly novel, and the spreadsheet version lets students get familiar with the architecture without having to write on cardboard. I wanted to go further, though. Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:47:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/cpu-design-on-paper/240153480 FPGAs are great for experimenting with CPU designs. Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:57:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/more-conversions/240152937 Many processors now have built in analog I/O and that certainly makes things easier. But it is still worthwhile to understand how at least some of these devices work. Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:45:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/roll-your-own-analog-input/240152547 Modern computers are inherently digital devices. However, we live in a decidedly analog world, so many systems (including systems on a chip) have methods to generate and read different analog quantities. Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:35:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/making-contacts/240152060 Many designs that aren't reliable blame relays when, in fact, they should blame the poor choice of relays instead. Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:42:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/the-mortal-relay-coil/240151583 Relays aren't (and shouldn't be) as ubiquitous as they once were, but there are still a few reasons you might need to put a relay in a modern circuit. Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:56:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/relay-race/240150962 New technologies may make older things less common, but sometimes the old things fill a niche that the new technologies can't replace. Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:22:00 -0400 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/arms-in-the-clouds/240150440 Would you use a cloud-based IDE? Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:30:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/serial-sockets/240149514 It might be nice if you could treat a serial port like a network socket. Then you could use a wide range of tools to access it. Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:04:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/write-once-communicate-nowhere/240149018 I can't decide if I love Java or hate it. Thu, 21 Feb 2013 04:47:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/marking-time/240148309 The Arduino code I showed last time had an odd statement in it. Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:36:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/non-pavlovian-triggers/240147899 I've been playing with an inexpensive logic analyzer and some open source software to drive it lately. Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:32:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/rocking-with-sigrok/240147198 Last time, I talked about my inconvenient logic analyzers; this time, I'll tell you more about my quest for convenience. Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:59:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/logic-analyzers/240146756 I have always had a fascination with logic analyzers. I have bought and used many over the years. Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:05:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/cost-of-non-compliance/240146346 I've mentioned how a former boss decided that it would save the company big bucks if we just required people not to make bugs in hardware and software. While it is hard to argue against that point, it is equally hard to figure out how you'd actually make that happen. Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:49:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/new-years-resolution-no-more-bugs/240145857 Someone once told me that my job (and all my colleagues) should be eventually eliminated because they were an unnecessary expense. Instead, he said, it would be cheaper to never have any failures. Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:39:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/strong-arm-tactics/240145394 The end of the year is always a good time to catch up on major projects. This year I finally got around to working out how to program a particular ARM board from Linux. Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:19:00 -0500 http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/two-bits-four-bits-thirty-two-bits/240145172 Will you continue to use 8-bit CPUs in the next few years? What will it take for you to move over to 32-bit? Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:12:00 -0500