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I have received a number of e-mails this week from readers who think I have been unfair in my criticisms of TI’s TVP515* digital video encoders (the company calls them decoders, and perhaps we’d all be better off just to call them composite video ADCs). Most of the messages missed the central issue that I was raising: there was no direct criticism of the parts themselves. Indeed the data sheet leaves too many questions over performance than it answers. How do you measure the quoted differential gain and differential phase in digital component signals, for example?What I was criticizing was the misuse of video terminology. Not understanding the difference between baseband composite video standards and transmission standards is, to me, totally unforgivable for an engineer working in the video space. I have a little more forgiveness for the inability to recognize the difference between dc restoration and a clamp – but only with some difficulty…Having been involved with video since, basic...

In 1965, Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, declared what has become known as Moore’s Law – that the number of transistors that can be constructed in an IC would double every eighteen months. He later amended that to two years, so only us oldies remember the original postulation. The Law is postulated on the assumption that feature sizes in semiconductors will get smaller and smaller.His corrected Law has roughly remained accurate for four decades - which is a huge span of time in the history of electronics - but in the past couple of years it has been increasingly posited that time was running out for validity. And now that old name in modern electronics, IBM, may have found a way of keeping Moore honest for a while longer.At their New Almaden facility (you’ve probably flown over it many a time in that left turn to final to runway 30L at San José International Airport (excuse me, Norman Y Mineta San José International Airport), IBM has apparently made a breakthrough that allow...

GM’s grossly-overstated claim of 230 miles per gallon for its Chevy Volt PHEV  is one of several recent incidents that highlight the pressing need for some sort of standardized fuel efficiency rating method that allows a meaningful comparison between conventional, electric, PHEV, and alternate-fuel vehicles. While the 230 mpg claim may be vaguely true according to some weasel-worded criteria that only look at the gasoline the Volt burns on a 40 mile trip and assumes the battery power it uses is free (and has no environmental impact), it does not reflect the real cost of driving the car, let alone its cost to the planet. Yet GM’s gaffe is only the latest example of exaggerated mileage claims routinely being made for cars like Nissan’s Leaf  and Raser Technologies’  so-called 100 mpg Hummer. What’s needed is a metric that captures more than the cost of the fuel that powers a car and actually looks at the all the resources involved with producing and delivering the di...

The Federal government is recycling: in prisons. I'm not talking about ex-convict recidivism here; I'm talking about electronics recycling. Did you know the Department of Justice runs an electronics waste program in a number of Federal prisons?%IMG_right_full_885%Unicor, a government contractor run by Federal Prison Industries, handles the work. FPI, founded back in 1934, makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year doing electronics recycling in prisons.While this may seem like a good thing when you consider the mountains of toxic waste created by cast-off consumer electronics (over 100,000 PCs are discarded every day), the Unicor e-waste recycling program is under fire from prison guards and staff. And prisoners.Tons Of ToxinsInmates involved in recovering a variety of precious metals and materials are exposed to lead, arsenic, selenium, beryllium, cadmium, mercury, and hexavalent chromium. They’re also exposed to trichloroethylene, PCBs, dioxins, and PVC plastics. These hazardous materials include ca...

I would imagine there are few readers who do not understand by now my attitude to long-term use of cellular phones. Most probably also understand my vexation at seeing drivers use their phones while moving. Even on short drives here on Vancouver Island, it is not at all unusual to see a vehicle that is clearly out of control (particularly when turning corners) with the driver on a phone call. When the vehicle is sporting an ‘N’ (novice) tag it makes it rather scary.My own somewhat inconsequential contribution to making this situation safer is that I have literally hung up on people when I realize that the person talking to me on a phone call is driving.There are many places in the world now where using a hand-held device while operating a vehicle is against the law. It is particularly expensive in the UK, for example, to be caught even eating an apple while driving let alone using a mobile. In Canada, the most populous Province, Ontario - plus Quebec, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia - all have compl...

Given the rapidity of advancing technology, especially the incredible gate counts of today's ASICs and FPGAs, it's a wonder working engineers can keep up (that's where EN-Genius.net helps). I thought of this recently when performing some CMOS logic troubleshooting.%IMG_left_full_874%The circuitry I encountered was very outdated, but it worked, faithfully fulfilling the application requirements it was originally designed for. A large packaging panel housed a number of logic daughterboards. One such board was built with lots of 4000 Series and 7400 Series TTL logic. These ICs converted analog discriminator outputs into logic levels that were ultimately used to drive process control loops and indicators.Out To Pasture?Now, lest you laugh at what most certainly was antiquated electronics, remember this: the customer was happy with the system's reliable operation, and had used it successfully for nearly ten years. A number of these boards were in place and operating daily, so his organization only had long range p...

Back in April when I first wrote about my project to add LED lighting to Felix, my trusty Honda Helix scooter (see Felix’ Photonic Bling), it looked like I’d be done by early May. Of course, like nearly every project, it took a bit longer than expected and it was early June before all the body panels were back on the bike and we took our first quantum well-augmented night ride. Besides simply trying to find a few hours where I wasn’t writing stories for the web site or taking care of my domestic obligations, there were a few small technical issues I had to deal with to build an automotive-grade lighting harness and properly integrate it with the vehicle.My original intent was to use the inexpensive trailer hitch light connectors as the pluggable interfaces between the main lighting harness and each body panel but I opted to invest a few more dollars in more rugged and very waterproof Delco-style connectors. At first I was reluctant to spend $10 apiece for them at the local auto parts store b...