Latest Digital ICs Articles and Videos

NAND Flash is, without a doubt, the cheapest way to store a ton of bits in one place. It's also one of the most…

NAND Flash is, without a doubt, the cheapest way to store a ton of bits in one place. It's also one of the most aggravating memory mediums to work with: bits wear out, errors pop up, and data gets lost. Why deal with all the hassle of managing your memory manually? Instead, use an eMMC!

This article will show you one way of making an accurate clock by using the Real Time Clock IC DS1307. The time will be…

This article will show you one way of making an accurate clock by using the Real Time Clock IC DS1307. The time will be shown on a LCD display.

MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is a popular low-overhead messaging protocol used by many IoT devices to communicate. This…

MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is a popular low-overhead messaging protocol used by many IoT devices to communicate. This tutorial will show the user how to to set up a basic MQTT network using Python on his or her computer and an ESP8266 running the NodeMCU firmware.

Adding variable speed control and battery monitoring to a Power Wheels truck!

Adding variable speed control and battery monitoring to a Power Wheels truck!

Examining Moore's Law in its 50th Year and how the initial premise may be approaching exhaustion, but the spirit of this…

Examining Moore's Law in its 50th Year and how the initial premise may be approaching exhaustion, but the spirit of this observation continues.

Part 1 in the “How to Make an EFM8-Based Sound Synthesizer” series, which will design a sound synthesizer that can…

Part 1 in the “How to Make an EFM8-Based Sound Synthesizer” series, which will design a sound synthesizer that can play standard musical notes. We will accomplish this using a low-cost, small-form-factor EFM8 microcontroller in conjunction with a few external components and a speaker.

I hear about it all the time: planned obsolescence. People can't believe that their computer parts are already breaking…

I hear about it all the time: planned obsolescence. People can't believe that their computer parts are already breaking and their iPhone started to slow down just days before the next generation of the phone was released. Your TV seems to be programmed to have bugs whenever the manufacturing company wants to push a new product. Companies break their own products to get you to buy more of the same product: light bulbs, phones, batteries, cars, microwaves, computer screens, and even your car key transponder will all stop operating eventually. Either the marketing team or the designers wanted it that way, right?

This article walks through SCADA systems used to automate various power systems used in numerous industries. It also…

This article walks through SCADA systems used to automate various power systems used in numerous industries. It also details what the system is made up of, how they optimize performance in large-scale systems, and how these systems still poses a threat to a company's vulnerability to data and resources.

Learn how to set up the Wunderbar platform to begin building your own IoT apps. This will demonstrate the "Can't Touch…

Learn how to set up the Wunderbar platform to begin building your own IoT apps. This will demonstrate the "Can't Touch This" and "Tell Me When" demo applications to measure WunderBar sensors and perform actions based on them. Some of the major bugs are discussed.

Getting started with PSoC®, the Programmable-System-on-Chip by Cypress Semiconductor for developing and testing embedded systems.

Getting started with PSoC®, the Programmable-System-on-Chip by Cypress Semiconductor for developing and testing embedded systems.

This article will go into a bit of the background of FSK and demonstrate writing a simulator in Python.

This article will go into a bit of the background of FSK and demonstrate writing a simulator in Python.

Beaglebone Black is the most recent incarnation of the Beaglebone open source hardware platform. For less than $50, the…

Beaglebone Black is the most recent incarnation of the Beaglebone open source hardware platform. For less than $50, the board includes Ethernet, graphics processing, 4Gb of nonvolatile storage, and ports supporting USB, HDMI, and Beaglebone's custom I/O add-ons, called "capes". Here's how to run some simple commands to toggle digital I/O on the board!

A look at some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in the semiconductor industry.

A look at some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in the semiconductor industry.

Operational amplifiers are a cornerstone of EE design. Get your first taste of this topic through a few simple circuit exercises!

Operational amplifiers are a cornerstone of EE design. Get your first taste of this topic through a few simple circuit exercises!

We've all been there - you've spent hours and hours trying to get that sketch working, but somehow, you're not reacting…

We've all been there - you've spent hours and hours trying to get that sketch working, but somehow, you're not reacting well to time critical events in your system. Maybe it's a wireless peripheral indicating when a packet is ready. Maybe it's an external Flash device signaling when data is ready to be read out. Maybe it's as simple as a button push that you need to react quickly to! But, try as you might, it seems the best way to see these sort of events is to just digitalRead() that pin over and over in your main loop() function until something interesting happens. ...or is it?

Part 2 in the "How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor" Series. Our smart ambient light monitor will need to digitize and…

Part 2 in the "How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor" Series. Our smart ambient light monitor will need to digitize and analyze signals from an optical detector, so it is time to explore the EFM8’s integrated analog-to-digital conversion functionality.

Multiplexing was developed in the early 1870s, but it’s become much more applicable to digital telecommunications in…

Multiplexing was developed in the early 1870s, but it’s become much more applicable to digital telecommunications in the late 20th century. Today, frequency division multiplexing (FDM), time division multiplexing (TDM), and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) have become an extremely important asset to telecommunication processes and has greatly improved the way that we transmit and receive independent signals over AM and FM radio, telephone lines, and optical fibers.

The new Ics are based on inductive sensing technology, eliminating current Hall-effect sensors currently used.

The new Ics are based on inductive sensing technology, eliminating current Hall-effect sensors currently used.

Intel and Micron have teamed up to produce the first new type of memory created in over 25 years. The non-volatile memory…

Intel and Micron have teamed up to produce the first new type of memory created in over 25 years. The non-volatile memory has speeds up to 1,000 times faster than NAND.