Circuit Cellar Ink 145
August 2002

Table of Contents

4 Jennifer Huber	HTML Task Manager The More Things Change...
8 John Gorsky	HTML New Product News MicroC/OS-II highly-portable RTOS from Micrium, Inc. DBF77 ICEPIC emulation daughter board from OKW Electronics 56K90 56K embedded Socket Modem from Micromint, Inc. QuikWave EM3018B digital sound system from Electech Electronics MPC920, MPC425, and MPC205 PC/104 I/O cards from Micro/sys, Inc. VSBC-8e extended-temperature-range SBC from VersaLogic Corp.
11	Reader I/O Letters to the Editor
11 David Tweed	HTML Test Your EQ
12 George Novacek	Are You Grounded? In previous issues, George helped us develop sound EMC, ESD, and transient control designs. This month, he wants to make sure our designs are grounded. In this article, he talks about several pragmatic and nontheoretical grounding and bonding methods.
20 Tom Napier	Embedded Smarts Fix Analog Flaws Broad-minded engineers tend to think outside the box when they're trying to fix flaws in their designs. Tom draws on his understanding of analog and digital design, numerical processing, and embedded firmware to cope with the nonlinearity of analog components.
26 Aubrey Kagan	HTML Driving the NKK Smartswitch Part 2: Graphics and Text Whether your message is one of workplace safety or world peace, the long nights of brooding over ways to tell the world are over. Now that you're comfortable with the interface to drive the Smartswitch, Aubrey will show you how to display your ideas as text and graphics. Download: kagan145.zip
30 Ed Nisley	Above the Ground Plane PC Audio Bits What's so hard about building a trouble-free audio system? All you need is a stock PC, good software, and decent digital data and high-resolution converters, right? Not necessarily. Ed shows you what the datasheets cannot as he notes what happens when bits meet hardware.
36 Frantisek Bachleda	Digital Ignition System Building Without a Distributor Tinkering with cars can be an expensive hobby. But upgrades don't always have to cost a fortune. In this article, Frantisek shows you a cost-effective way to build a digital distributorless ignition system that will boost your car's overall performance and power. Download: bachleda145.zip
44 Jeff Bachiochi	RISCy Business Part 1: RISC Projects by Cornell Students Jeff is heading back to college. In this article, he walks you through several projects that Cornell University students entered in the Atmel Design 2001 contest. So, grab a pen and pad and get ready for a lecture on the RISCy business of digital system design.
52 Neil Cherry	HTML The Open-Source HCS Project It's been a while, so now it's time to set the record straight. Despite the rumors, the HCS II project is not dead. In fact, HCS has been licensed and is now an open-source project. In this article, Neil brings us up to speed on the HCS II project’s past, present, and exciting future.
56 Chris Cantrell	The OO CarolBot Don't learn from your mistakes; avoid making them instead. Chris is an advocate of foresight rather than hindsight. In this article, he will show you how to use object-oriented programming techniques to build modules that can be reused in future robot designs. Download: chriscantrell145.zip
62 Noel Rios	The AT89C51/52 Flash Memory Programmers When faced with a plethora of applications to design, it's essential to have a versatile microcontroller in hand. Noel knows just what you're looking for: the AT89C51/52 micro-controllers. To get you started, he'll describe his inexpensive microcontroller programmer. Download: rios145.zip
Embedded PC 70 Fred Eady	Applied PCs Building a Modular Programming Platform, Part 2: Building the PCB Fred still doesn't have the PIC18F xxxparts he's been waiting for, but that doesn't mean he has lost sight of his goal to develop a low-cost '18Fxxx programmer. This month, he shows you how to design an MPP PCB and challenges you to start your own MPP project.
76 Jeff Bachiochi	From the Bench SmartMedia File Storage, Part 3: Reading a File Jeff has explained the basic circuitry and how to navigate within the DOS FAT file structure. Now, he'll demonstrate how to read SmartMedia files and implement ECC routines to verify the integrity of your data.
80 Tom Cantrell	Silicon Update FPGA News Flash After two decades at the top of the FPGA world, Xilinx and Altera may soon find customer loyalty shifting in another direction. Tom explains that Actel is on the verge of sparking a flash memory revolution.
94	Advertiser's Index / September Preview
96 Steve Ciarcia	HTML, HTML Priority Interrupt Upgrade or Die

FTP Directory for INK 145
Follow this link to order a copy of INK 145
<<< Ink 144	Ink 146 >>>
Main Index	Author Index