Signal Processing DesignLine Blog
How a felt-tipped pen saved the Apollo 11 mission
Patrick Mannion
7/20/2009 8:53 AM EDT
Buzz Aldrin wasn't the first to "McGuyver" a solution to a difficult problem, but his use of a felt-tip pen to activate a broken circuit breaker to enable the Eagle to blast off from the moon surely ranks as one of the most dramatic.
post comment
2 comments
last comment
cheech
my name is Larry and i was working for a pen company by the name of duro pen in Brooklyn ny. we ...
Hey Red, is space exploration worth it?
Patrick Mannion
6/25/2009 3:21 PM EDT
Hearing Buzz Aldrin talk at a book signing last night did little to relieve the nagging concern that there may be better ways to invest in our future than space exploration.
post comment
8 comments
last comment
MButts
Robots in space! Not people. Look at how proud we all are and how involved we feel with Spirit and ...
ADI launches online processor community help site
Patrick Mannion
6/15/2009 11:02 AM EDT
Analog Devices' digital signal processing group has jumped into the vendor-driven engineering community fray with an online community center where designers can get answers to their technical questions either from ADI specialists or their peers.
post comment
1 comment
last comment
kinggazza
1 year behind TI's DSP forums http://community.ti.com/ Welcome to the online DSP community
Patrick Mannion
5/26/2009 11:43 AM EDT
I don't want to read too much into this, as it's part of the natural way of things given recent processing trends, but this job opening does did stop me in my tracks: Intel Ireland seeking senior DSP software developer.
post comment
Can Star Trek really be revisited?
Patrick Mannion
5/8/2009 5:22 PM EDT
This weekend we go back to the future with the launch of a reinvigorated Star Trek. By all accounts it has most of not all of the elements of the original, amplified by special effects. But can we really go back?
post comment
1 comment
last comment
Walter Greene
Just another tool of marketing... A package designed to allow a whole new world of Trek that does ...
Patrick Mannion
5/1/2009 7:58 AM EDT
For high-end audio it's typically been a choice between Freescale's Symphony, Cirrus Logic's lineup, TI's C6000 or ADI's TigerSharc, but with the OMAP and Blackfin processors getting faster, might they also now be encroaching upon that space and becoming viable options?
post comment
2 comments
last comment
wyonghao
I've posted on the thread, thanks for help. I am not hardware engineer, so correct me if I was ...
OMAP or Blackfin: Which do you prefer?
Patrick Mannion
4/23/2009 11:42 PM EDT
For years the two excellent architectures from two great companies have vied for your attention. You've looked at them, evaluated them, used them and even (though rarely) crossed back and forth between them. What's your verdict?
post comment
Engineers are political lightweights
Patrick Mannion
4/15/2009 1:43 PM EDT
The general response to any political commentary in a technical outlet is that politics should be kept out of engineering. As one reader put it, engineering is his 'refuge' from the political fray. Amen to that! But not so fast... We're shooting ourselves in the foot!
post comment
Patrick Mannion
4/14/2009 9:42 AM EDT
After all the research, development, marketing and debates, Bluetooth was successful. But only as a mobile headset cable replacement. So, is that it?
post comment
1 comment
last comment
Jon Adams
Good day, Patrick - It's always fun to talk about Bluetooth. I remember fondly the Mathias/Marino ...
Jonah Probell
4/13/2009 9:11 AM EDT
Notebook computers, with Intel x86 processors, can run for a few hours on a battery charge while mobile phones, with ARM processor based chips, operate for a few days. Despite what ARM might like us to believe, this has little to do with the processor in each machine. The difference between a few hours and a few days is a factor of about 24. The difference in area between the 3 inch display of a handset and the 15 inch display of a notebook computer is a similar factor of about 25. This is no coincidence.
post comment