A few students have asked me to provide some recent technology articles related to the material we discuss in class. I will attempt to provide these materials when I can. If you find any other good web sites, please send me the URLs.

• Tom's Hardware Memory Tutorial - discusses different types of RAM
  • http://www5.tomshardware.com/mainboard/98q4/981024/index.html
• Ars Technica - discusses SRAM and DRAM
  • http://arstechnica.com/paedia/r/ram_guide/ram_guide.part1-1.html
  • http://arstechnica.com/paedia/r/ram_guide/ram_guide.part2-1.html
• Descriptions of various memory and memory terminology
  • http://whatis.techtarget.com
• Application Notes on various memory, including Page Mode Flash and Burst Mode Flash
  • http://www.amd.com (Flash, EPROM)
  • http://www.microchip.com (EEPROM)
  • http://www.fairchildsemi.com (EEPROM, EPROM)
  • http://www.atmel.com (EPROM, Flash, EEPROM)
  • http://www.intel.com (Flash)
  • http://www.chips.ibm.com (DDR SDRAM)
  • http://www.rambus.com (Rambus, Direct RDRAM, DRDRAM)
  • http://www.motorola.com/semiconductor/ (MRAM)
  • http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/storage.html (MRAM, Atomic Resolution Storage)
  • http://www.atmos-semi.com (Embedded DRAM, EDRAM, SoC)
  • http://iram.cs.berkley.edu (IRAM, IRAM class notes and DRAM overview)
• DRAM Suppliers:
  • Samsung, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, Hyundai, LG Semicon, Oki, Hynix, Micron
• If you do your own searches for memory, here are some keywords to use:
  • EPROM, EEPROM, NVRAM, RAM, SRAM, DRAM, SDRAM, DDR, DRDRAM, Rambus, RDRAM, MRAM, MagRAM, cache, Flash, EDO, FPM, EDRAM, ECC, chipkill

• Motorola Application Note AN1016 Infrared Sensing and Data Transmission Fundamentals: PDF (~738KB)
• AN1016 Source PDF at ONSEMI
  • http://www.onsemi.com/pub
• Vishay IR Information (IR Transmission and Remote Control Data Formats)
  • http://www.vishay.com (Search for IR Transmission)
  • IR Data Formats PDF

• USB Central (USB Complete Book Companion Web Site)
  • http://www.lvr.com/usb.htm
• USB Design By Example Book Companion Web Site
  • http://www.usb-by-example.com (good book for beginners)
• USB Design Documents and Developer Information
  • http://www.usb.org (See DEVELOPERS section for specifications, etc.)
• Cypress EZ-USB Data Sheets and Application Notes
  • http://www.cypress.com (Browse Products, choose 'USB Full-Speed')

Some manufacturers of data converters include:

• Maxim
• Texas Instruments (merged with Burr-Brown)
• Burr-Brown (part of TI)
• National Semiconductor
• Analog Devices
• Intersil (Harris)
• Cirrus Logic (data converters sold under the brand name Crystal)

• Intersil Application Note AN9741 Basic DACs for Electronic Engineers: PDF
• Intersil Application Note AN9845 Understanding Current Output Digital to Analog Converters: PDF
• Texas Instruments Application Report SLAA013 Understanding Data Converters: PDF
• Intersil Application Note AN016 Selecting A/D Converters: PDF
• Intersil Application Note AN017 The Integrating A/D Converter (ICL7135): PDF
• Intersil Application Note AN018 Do's and Don'ts of Applying A/D Converters: PDF
• Intersil Application Note AN9504 A Brief Introduction to Sigma Delta Conversion: PDF
• Intersil Application Note AN9789 Audio Quality Measurement Primer: PDF
• How one-bit DACs work:
  • http://www.howstuffworks.com/question620.htm
• How Delta-Sigma (one-bit) DACs work:
  • http://www.ee.washington.edu/conselec/CE/kuhn/onebit/primer.htm

Note: When searching for motor information on the web, useful keywords include: motor, stepper, stepping, motion control, PWM, H-bridge, motor driver, DC motor, robot, servo.

• Detailed tutorial on stepping motors (lots of information):
  • http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/step/
• Another overview of stepping motors:
  • http://www.ams2000.com/stepping101.html
• Determining stepping motor sequences:
  • http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/stepper/others/
• Detailed application notes about stepper motors (formerly Ericsson application notes, now New Radio Japan Co.):
  • http://www.njr.co.jp/e05/ee.htm
• Detailed application notes about stepper motors (formerly Ericsson application notes, now New Radio Japan Co.):
  • http://www.njr.co.jp/e05/ee.htm
• Motorola - Motor Operation Principles - Visual tutorial on motors (site has graphics/animation showing commutation) and application notes:
  • http://www.freescale.com/files/microcontrollers/doc/train_ref_material/MOTORTUT.html
• STMicroelectronics/SGS Thomson Motor Drivers and Application Notes:
  • http://us.st.com/stonline/index.shtml
  • http://us.st.com/stonline/books/toc/index.htm (see Industrial section)
• ON Semiconductor - Motor Drivers and Application Notes:
  • http://www.onsemiconductor.com (see MC3479 stepper motor driver, etc.)
• TI - Semiconductors and Application Notes:
  • http://www.ti.com (search for motor and/or Unitrode UC3770B)
• Agilent Technologies - Motor Drivers, Optical (Quadrature) Encoders, Codewheels and Application Notes:
  • http://www.semiconductor.agilent.com
• Microchip/Telcom-Semi - MOSFET drivers, PWM controllers, fan controllers:
  • http://www.telcom-semi.com (now owned by Microchip Technology)
  • http://www.telcom-semi.com/products/appnotes.htm
• Analog Devices - DSP motor control
  • http://www.analogdevices.com
• Futaba - R/C and Servo Motors
  • http://www.futaba.com

• Seagate
  • http://www.seagate.com (disk drives and technology)
• Maxtor
  • http://www.maxtor.com (disk drives and technology)
• Hitachi (bought IBM Storage Technology in 2002)
  • http://www.hgst.com (microdrives, hard disk drives and technology)
• Western Digital
  • http://www.westerndigital.com (disk drives and technology)
• SmartDisk
  • http://www.smartdisk.com/products_HD.asp (external USB and IEEE 1394 disk drives)

• Vishay Capacitor Information
  • http://www.vishay.com/products/capacitors/main.html
• Kemet Capacitor Information
  • http://www.kemet.com
• National Application Note AN-991 (pp. 40-45):
  • http://www.national.com/apnotes
• Analog Devices - Capacitance and Capacitors (Ask The Applications Engineer - 21):
  • http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/Anniversary/21.html

NOTE: The application note included in the zip file below which shows how to connect a Compact Flash card to an 8051 has an error. The interfacing diagram shows an interchange of A0 and A1 when connecting it to the Compact Flash, but the hardware only works correctly when the CPU A0 and A1 are connected in the normal manner to A0 and A1 of the Compact Flash.

• Application Notes and Connector PCB Gerber Files: ZIP (~717KB)

• CAN Bus Overview Presentation: PDF (~708KB)
• http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_CAN.html

• Cirrus Logic
  • http://www.cirrus.com (various ICs, Crystal LAN CS8900A LAN Controller)

• WWW Consortium (W3C) Home
  • http://www.w3c.org
• HTML 4.01 Reference
  • http://www.w3c.org/TR/html4/
• HTML Validator
  • http://validator.w3.org
  • Validate Linden's Home Page