Twiddling Thumbs

Sent emails to all your past customers letting them know that if they need you, you're available?

Maybe it's time to start your own semiconductor company -- figure out what's missing from the TinyLogic lineup (a decent 3-state phase comparator would be my first choice), make it, and sell it.

I've toyed with that idea. ...Jim Thompson

During High School years, I had a night time job delivering Pizzas. During really slow periods, we got creative. A look at the previous month's orders gave phone numbers and addresses.

We'd call the numbers to confirm a non existent order. These calls triggered an impulse to buy in about forty percent of the people called. Apologies were given to all for the 'mix up' in the receipt boxes.

It's not something I'm particularly proud of having done....the need for disposable cash made it happen. Am I going to Hell with all the Monsanto executives?

mike

I want a low-skew true/complement buffer or gate.

I have the opposite problem, so much work I can't see straight. Mostly new projects from old customers, but some new ones too. It's astonishing how much business you can get from a few important people who like you.

I just hired two kids, one male MSEE from around here, one female BSEE who recently graduated from a college in Mexico. Both are smart and nice and seem to have really good analog instincts, but training them of course takes more time than doing things myself; it's an investment.

Well-designed XOR's do that... particularly ECL/PECL. ...Jim Thompson

Training today's crop of engineering graduates analog is quite a challenge. ...Jim Thompson

Time to start writing that book we were talking about a few years back.

No time like the present.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I thought I'd wait until 85 >:-} ...Jim Thompson

Lazy slob. I started in 1994, and sent it off to the publishers in 1998.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

...snip...

I've toyed with that idea. ...Jim Thompson

There is a REAL demand for FAST turn around miniaturization to create a first-time=operating ASIC, in small volume.

How to do.

Take a look at David Lam's compnany, Multibeam, a direct write - no mask opeartion using e-beam. Say hello from me when you're there.

What I'm saying is combine the ability to create ANYTHING you want per wafer without investing in a mask, with your ability to design the ASIC so it works the first time thru, and seems there's a niche market.

If you cn't do the ASIC design, because of high demand, at least create the tools [sequence] to enable others to do such.

So, two NANDs makes a R/S flop; you just want one already wired up? A 74LVC74 datasheet says skew is under a nanosecond (not all datasheets are so forthcoming).

Low-skew differential output is useful combined with other logic; maybe one could find uses for a '555 variant? Accurate Schmitt trigger input/differential output sounds useful. It'd fit an eight-pin package fine if you left the discharge pin out...

Here's one function that oughta be on a chip: AC-in and precision rectify, output proportional to difference of AC (average of absolute value) from a threshold voltage setting. You'd use it to generate an AC amplitude error signal for a feedback loop. If you want to be elaborate, you could sample/hold the DC result at zero crossings upward, so the output is stable for the full cycle, updating only on subsequent zero crossings from the filtered-absolute-value.

Alas, I've got lots of project ideas. Funding, not so much.