4 ms·
I'm considering anything that runs firmware. I wouldn't consider e.g. a regulator with configurable voltage via resistor divider to count. I would consider a s
by ianhowson 8y ago
I'm considering anything that runs firmware. I wouldn't consider e.g. a regulator with configurable voltage via resistor divider to count.
I would consider a switchmode PSU where the main switch FET is driven by a microcontroller running firmware (they can then have an I2C/SPI input to allow programmable voltage control). There are probably dozens of these in any modern computer.
- TimTheTinker 8y agoI once knew a hardware engineer who worked on a team designing cutting-edge equipment. His mantra was “just use a PIC chip”. He had all sorts of war stories about other engineers coming to him with power regulator designs they just couldn’t get right. He’d often add a PIC chip or two and have the firmware dev write a few routines in C. Problem solved. PIC chips are small, they are everywhere, they are very useful for adding complex, software-defined behavior (including DSP) at the circuit component level, and they are full general-purpose CPUs with onboard RAM and programmable ROM.
- rcxdude 8y agoSprinkling a ton of micros around a board can create a small nightmare for the software developers though, just working out what version of the firmware is running on each chip on the board can become a painful task. (if the software is 'simple enough', this may not be a problem, but it does tend to grow...)
- ianhowson 8y agoOften you're unaware that these things contain firmware. They're just sold as e.g. 'bluetooth controller', but internally, there's a largish processor, a chunk of RAM and firmware in ROM mask. The firmware versioning is implicit in the chip revision. (Of course, this just moves the problem around; it's not uncommon for a chip revision to break software elsewhere in the system.)