Gary Stringham
- Filter by
- Categories
- Tags
- Authors
- Show all
- All
- Aeronautics
- Agriculture
- Automotive
- Best Practices
- Cities
- Embedded Systems
- Energy
- Environment
- Law Enforcement
- Litigation
- Medicine
- Military
- Principles
- Technology
- Work
- All
- 3-D printing
- 3D printing
- A380
- Abort
- Accellera
- Afterthought
- Agriculture
- Airbus
- Aircraft
- Airplanes
- Albert Einstein
- Ambassadors
- Apollo
- app
- Apple
- apps
- Archaeology
- Arduino
- artificial intelligence
- Assembly
- ATMs
- Automobiles
- Autonomous car test case
- Autonomous cars
- Autonomous chairs
- Autonomous trucks
- Balance
- Biometrics
- Bit assignments
- Bit types
- Bitwise
- Block ID
- Block version
- blood pressure
- Blueprint
- Book
- Brain
- Brainstorming
- Bridge
- Buffers
- Byte swap
- C
- cancer
- Captain Chesley Sullenberger
- Captain Sully
- Cash
- Chip ID
- Chip version
- cockroaches
- Code
- Coding
- Cold War
- Collaboration
- Comments
- communication
- Compatibility
- Computer programming
- Computers
- Consultant
- Consulting
- Contingencies
- Controlled development
- Copyright
- Countdown counters
- Countdown timers
- Counters
- Countup counters
- CPU
- CRC
- Credit cards
- crops
- cryptography
- csrCompiler
- CSS
- Current measurement
- Cyberbullying
- Danielle Sacks
- Deaths
- Debug code
- Debug code causing failures
- Debug hooks
- Debugging tricks
- Delay
- detection
- Device Drivers
- DMA
- doctor
- Doctors
- Documentation
- Dones
- Driverless cars
- Drones
- Edge-triggered interrupts
- education
- electrodes
- Embedded
- Embedded software
- Embedded systems
- Enable
- Endianness
- energy
- Engineering
- Environment
- ethics
- Executable code
- Expert
- Expert witness
- Extension cable
- Extra logic
- FAA
- Fake news
- farms
- Fast Company
- Firearms
- Firmware
- Food
- Football
- Forensics
- fraud
- Freeway
- Future
- Gadi Amit
- Geniuses
- GPS
- Green
- Green programming
- Growth
- Guns
- Halt
- Hard reset
- Hardware
- Hardware/firmware
- Hardware/Firmware Interface Design
- health
- Healthcare
- HIPPA
- Holograms
- Hooks
- Hoover Dam
- Horizontal expert
- HP 12C
- HTML
- hydroelectricity
- I/O Signals
- I2C
- Impacts
- Infringement
- Initial design
- Injuries
- Innovations
- insurance
- Intangible benefits
- Intellectual property
- Internet of Things
- Internet security
- Interrupt module
- Interrupts
- Inventions
- IoT
- IP Litigation
- iPhone
- JavaScript
- Jet Blue
- Kids
- language
- LaserJet
- Late changes
- Level-triggered interrupts
- Lighting
- Litigation
- Mars Climate Orbiter
- Masks
- Medical
- medicine
- microcontrollers
- Military
- Movie
- Native Languages
- Networking
- Nissan
- Organizational barriers
- Oscilloscope
- Palm Zire
- Paper shredder
- Parity
- Patent
- Patents
- Phone
- Plagiarism
- Planning ahead
- Platform-specific code
- Police
- Polling
- pollution
- Prevention
- Principles
- Printer
- Printers
- Printing
- Product specific
- Product support
- Programming
- pyramids
- Quality programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Read modify write
- Register design tools
- Registers
- Research Disclosure
- Resets
- Reverse assembly
- Road construction
- Robat
- robots
- Robust code
- Safety
- Safety net
- Safety-critical
- Security
- Self configuration
- Self-driving cars
- Sensor
- Sensors
- Signoffs
- Simulations
- Simulators
- Smart home
- Smart technology
- Smartwatch
- Soccer
- Software
- Software IP
- Software program
- Software programming
- Solar power
- Source code
- Specifications
- SpectaReg
- Spiderman
- Standards
- stress
- Sully
- Superblock
- Supersuit
- Surgery
- Switch
- Technology
- Teens
- Tesla
- Tesla Autopilot
- Test hooks
- Testing
- Timers
- Trade secrets
- translation
- Uber
- US Airways 1549
- USB cable
- USB extension cable
- UVM
- Verification
- Vertical expert
- Virtual reality
- Visibility
- Voltage drop
- Watch
- weeds
- Windows programmers
- Youth
December 31, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at December 31, 2008
Categories
In the last article, I stated “I see no benefit to level-triggered interrupts. … If you believe otherwise, let me know…” and you did. First, a clarification: Your responses let me know that my use of the term “interrupt module” was the source of some confusion about last month’s article. […]
Do you like it?
November 29, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at November 29, 2008
Categories
Inside each block in a chip is an interrupt module that monitors signals from multiple interrupt sources within the block. These interrupt sources can be from state machines, counters, combinatorial logic, external signals, or other such sources. When an interrupt source asserts, it triggers the interrupt module to latch the […]
Do you like it?
October 31, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at October 31, 2008
Categories
Many blocks have input and output signals connected to pins or other blocks on the chip. As needed, associated firmware will control or read the levels of those I/O signals either directly or indirectly. Some of those I/O signals are optional and whether or not they’re used in a given […]
Do you like it?
September 30, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at September 30, 2008
Categories
In one of the chapters for my forthcoming best practices book, I discuss the importance of informal collaboration between hardware and firmware engineers. When an engineer on one team has a problem, there should be very little, if any, organizational barriers to prevent going directly to a member of the […]
Do you like it?
August 30, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at August 30, 2008
Categories
Since the last issue, I had an interesting email discussion regarding resets with one of my readers, Jay Dowling. Jay comes from a background of designing safety-critical devices for use in harsh environments and has a different perspective on resets. During our discussion, Jay brought up a useful distinction between […]
Do you like it?
July 31, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at July 31, 2008
Categories
A few years ago in my search for hardware/firmware best practices, I came across a series of “Firmware Friendly” articles written by David Fechser of LSI Logic. (See Related Links on my website.) In one of his articles, “Firmware-friendly reset design,” Fechser discusses three levels of hardware reset. The following […]
Do you like it?
June 30, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at June 30, 2008
Categories
We have all dealt with the pain of inaccurate and out-of-date register information. Registers and bits are modified in hardware but the documents are not updated. Documents are updated but firmware is not changed. Or typos are introduced along the way. Failure to catch these problems typically results in hours […]
Do you like it?
May 31, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at May 31, 2008
Categories
While adding an I2C communication bus to an embedded power supply for a client, I recently reviewed the datasheet for an I2C bus switch, a PCA9546A by NXP. This particular switch allows one or more downstream I2C buses to be switched into one upstream I2C bus. The PCA9546A switch is […]
Do you like it?
March 31, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at March 31, 2008
Categories
Last month’s newsletter discussed some best practices for documenting register layouts, illustrating key points with a sample register diagram. One reader, Joel Saks, noted that my register diagram did not clearly indicate whether the bits were read/write bits or read-only bits. Joel makes an excellent point and also exposes one […]
Do you like it?
February 28, 2008
Published by Gary Stringham at February 28, 2008
Categories
Much of firmware development focuses on interfacing with registers. Documentation plays a key role in this effort since engineers must refer to it constantly to look up register and bit details. In particular, engineers need to generate or decode hex numbers, where the value of each bit must be clearly […]
Do you like it?