When I wrote my post yesterday referring to the debacle surrounding the NMRA and the NMRAnet process I had in the back of my mind that this had been going on for a long time, what I had forgotten was that I posted on the same broken process back in April of 2008, close to three whole years ago. In that post I referred to the process that had been going off the rails routinely for the previous 12 months. Which means this debacle must have been going on for about 4 years now!
Insane.....
And we still can't get a sensible word out of the NMRA process.
During that time an amazing group of people have developed the bulk of a standard series and protocol family known as OpenLCB. Their work and their efforts in the NMRAnet working group have formed the basis of the S9.x.1 standard proposal which has been butchered by the amateurs I referred to yesterday. As a part of that effort I find the last minute unsupported modifications outside of the working group process to be an abomination.
How much longer does it have to go on?
Or maybe it needs to come to a stop now, and like the DCC working group before it, fade into oblivion. Since June of 2009 the DCC community has been split in two. A US based manufacturers group which only admits established large scale commercial DCC manufacturers to its discussions, and a European group which insists that all its meetings will be in Europe and business conducted in German. If the NMRAnet working group persists, then I wonder how long it will be before we come to the same impasse?
In the meantime maybe the "OpenLCB" group on Yahoo groups is a good place for anybody wnating to know what an LCB (Layout Control Bus) really looks like.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
When amateurs dabble
When amateurs dabble in technology we see all sorts of things happen. Some are amazingly good, the Arduino would be an example of that. From small beginnings a group of hackers and hobbyists have changed the face of microprocessor learning and development. A true paradigm shift.
But for the last few months I have spent many hours working to try and bring some sanity to the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) standards discussion over a model railway layout control mechanism they want to sponsor called NMRAnet.
The development of the scheme was to be co-operative, but never open. However in the end the brother of the Standards Manager for the organisation left the co-operative discussion and took no further part in the working group established by volunteers to develop the scheme. This same former member of the working group then had his brother modify the documents submitted by the working group to include his own favoured changes. Sadly they were generally ill-considered and had the backing of nobody in the working group.
So now we stand at an impasse, two versions of the documents will be put to the board of directors. We wonder which will survive, the original which is sound, rigorous and based on ISO and other standards, or the modified, crippled version, which removes several of the most basic safeguards to the reliability of the network.
Who knows, buyt in teh past it seems tat no matter how ill advised the changes unilaterally proposed by the Standards Manager they have been accepted. Lets hope the NMRA Board of Directors changes their minds this time.
But for the last few months I have spent many hours working to try and bring some sanity to the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) standards discussion over a model railway layout control mechanism they want to sponsor called NMRAnet.
The development of the scheme was to be co-operative, but never open. However in the end the brother of the Standards Manager for the organisation left the co-operative discussion and took no further part in the working group established by volunteers to develop the scheme. This same former member of the working group then had his brother modify the documents submitted by the working group to include his own favoured changes. Sadly they were generally ill-considered and had the backing of nobody in the working group.
So now we stand at an impasse, two versions of the documents will be put to the board of directors. We wonder which will survive, the original which is sound, rigorous and based on ISO and other standards, or the modified, crippled version, which removes several of the most basic safeguards to the reliability of the network.
Who knows, buyt in teh past it seems tat no matter how ill advised the changes unilaterally proposed by the Standards Manager they have been accepted. Lets hope the NMRA Board of Directors changes their minds this time.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Whatever happened to.....
In this case, MIPS Technologies.
Based on original academic research done at Stanford from 1981, MIPS was formed in 1984 and until the 1990's was influential as a supplier of CPU chips for a variety of manufacturers, including such names as SGI, Siemens/Nixdorf, Olivetti and many others. Since then MIPS has also been licensing architectures and core designs which became prominent in the set top box, cable modem and router arena. They never made it into the Smartphone/PDA market, long dominated by Intel and ARM.
And now we see yet more advances from ARM, newer cores such as the Cortex-A15 and promised improvements this year and next seem to set the field for an even greater market penetration by ARM.
So I really do wonder, where will MIPS go now?
Based on original academic research done at Stanford from 1981, MIPS was formed in 1984 and until the 1990's was influential as a supplier of CPU chips for a variety of manufacturers, including such names as SGI, Siemens/Nixdorf, Olivetti and many others. Since then MIPS has also been licensing architectures and core designs which became prominent in the set top box, cable modem and router arena. They never made it into the Smartphone/PDA market, long dominated by Intel and ARM.
And now we see yet more advances from ARM, newer cores such as the Cortex-A15 and promised improvements this year and next seem to set the field for an even greater market penetration by ARM.
So I really do wonder, where will MIPS go now?
Its not easy keeping a blog!
And I am sure a lot of you know that. Between work and family how should I find the time to say things here. Well, I keep finding notes of all sorts of ideas around my desk, so maybe I should just post some of those!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
The goalposts keep moving!
The microprocessor has been with us for some time now, on my radar since 1974 with the release in April 1974 of the Intel 8080 which I first applied only a few months later. So I grew up and was 'educated' before the microprocessor. In those early days the choices were minimal, Motorola introduced the 6800 a little later in 1974. Despite protestations to the contrary that one or the other had some great technical or architectural merit it was really a matter of religion which path you followed. You could make a choice then being comfortable that it would hold good for a few years.
More recently the same religious fervour is evidenced by the proponents for the Freescale (formerly Motorola) 6800/6802/6809 ancestored chips versus Microchips PIC and Atmels much newer 'C' code optimised AVR and megaAVR. Each has its benefits, but logic defies any choice other than the one that I like!
But now the game has a completely new set of rules. ARM, of Cambridge UK, has turned the world upside recently with the introduction of the Cortex-M3 IP core. In a very carefully staged collaboration with Luminary (now part of TI) we saw the introduction of the Luminary Stellaris parts - the first M3's. Now everybody is on the band-wagon! Atmel (ATSAM3 is Cortex M3 based), TI through the acquisition of Luminary, NXP with the LPC17xx series, ST Microelectronics STM32, Toshiba and a new Norwegian startup - Energy Micro. All good viable companies, and don't count Energy Micro out, although only 2 years old they have some well experienced talent from Chipcon (now part of TI) and Atmel.
So now we don't get each manufacturer offering us a new architecture - we get them offering us different customisations and peripheral mixes all based on the same CPU core and interconnection fabric.
Oy vay!
More recently the same religious fervour is evidenced by the proponents for the Freescale (formerly Motorola) 6800/6802/6809 ancestored chips versus Microchips PIC and Atmels much newer 'C' code optimised AVR and megaAVR. Each has its benefits, but logic defies any choice other than the one that I like!
But now the game has a completely new set of rules. ARM, of Cambridge UK, has turned the world upside recently with the introduction of the Cortex-M3 IP core. In a very carefully staged collaboration with Luminary (now part of TI) we saw the introduction of the Luminary Stellaris parts - the first M3's. Now everybody is on the band-wagon! Atmel (ATSAM3 is Cortex M3 based), TI through the acquisition of Luminary, NXP with the LPC17xx series, ST Microelectronics STM32, Toshiba and a new Norwegian startup - Energy Micro. All good viable companies, and don't count Energy Micro out, although only 2 years old they have some well experienced talent from Chipcon (now part of TI) and Atmel.
So now we don't get each manufacturer offering us a new architecture - we get them offering us different customisations and peripheral mixes all based on the same CPU core and interconnection fabric.
Oy vay!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
So so so long!
Has it really been that long? Have I really been that busy! In a word, yes. My current major project has taken enormous amounts of time and effort over the last 6 months or more, so anything else has been sidelined. Those out there who know me will understand just what has been going on.
ENGINEERs and the recession.
Of course for many of us the last 12 months or so have been a tough time. Many jobs have been lost and new openings not always easy to identify. Fortunately I was not amongst the job losers, in fact my employer didn't shed any jobs, the factory and admin staff went onto Jobshare (work 4 days a week paid and then get one day of EI) but the professional staff were presented with a nice 10% salary cut "for the duration". The duration turned out to be April to October. But at the same time we were asked to work harder than ever, during this period I worked a number of weekends and I still haven't had my "summer" vacation. At the same time we are asked to be our most productive many of our employers also cut back on capital investment and even on things like software tools. In an era when engineering salaries are under attack by everyone from transit operators (say a streetcar or subway driver) to local librarians we are being asked to take more responsibility and work work longer hours as many in society are heading the exact opposite direction.
For many years it was the skilled tradespeople and the factory workers who need to work a second job to make ends meet. To that list we can now add engineers. More and more of the engineers I speak to are seeking "contract" work to gain the extra income they need. Of course, this doesn't help the situation of the contract designers already out there does it. It will be interesting to see how the situation of the engineer plays out over the next year or two.
ENGINEERs and the recession.
Of course for many of us the last 12 months or so have been a tough time. Many jobs have been lost and new openings not always easy to identify. Fortunately I was not amongst the job losers, in fact my employer didn't shed any jobs, the factory and admin staff went onto Jobshare (work 4 days a week paid and then get one day of EI) but the professional staff were presented with a nice 10% salary cut "for the duration". The duration turned out to be April to October. But at the same time we were asked to work harder than ever, during this period I worked a number of weekends and I still haven't had my "summer" vacation. At the same time we are asked to be our most productive many of our employers also cut back on capital investment and even on things like software tools. In an era when engineering salaries are under attack by everyone from transit operators (say a streetcar or subway driver) to local librarians we are being asked to take more responsibility and work work longer hours as many in society are heading the exact opposite direction.
For many years it was the skilled tradespeople and the factory workers who need to work a second job to make ends meet. To that list we can now add engineers. More and more of the engineers I speak to are seeking "contract" work to gain the extra income they need. Of course, this doesn't help the situation of the contract designers already out there does it. It will be interesting to see how the situation of the engineer plays out over the next year or two.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Life has been busy
Life tends to deal all sorts of interesting cards to us. In the last six months I suppose the economic crisis has consumed most of us, especially those trying to hold onto our jobs! So it has been some time since I wrote anything here, but now I can remedy that neglect.
Altera/NIOS-II
Seems to have been a major focus of my work for much of the past two years. I now have four successful designs under my belt, one is in production, one is going into production now with a third to be in production in the next month or two. The fourth may never see the light of day - that will depend on the speed of another major development project I am working on.
LEDuino
My baby! This is our take on the extremely successful Arduino project. Several volume orders for special applications have consumed a huge amount of time and effort. About Octoboer 2008 we built a large batch of the revision B board which has been very successful. Finally we have had time to implement some CAN bus code for the thing and code for DCC is under way. If you want to know more, keep a watch on this page for more details.
Altera/NIOS-II
Seems to have been a major focus of my work for much of the past two years. I now have four successful designs under my belt, one is in production, one is going into production now with a third to be in production in the next month or two. The fourth may never see the light of day - that will depend on the speed of another major development project I am working on.
LEDuino
My baby! This is our take on the extremely successful Arduino project. Several volume orders for special applications have consumed a huge amount of time and effort. About Octoboer 2008 we built a large batch of the revision B board which has been very successful. Finally we have had time to implement some CAN bus code for the thing and code for DCC is under way. If you want to know more, keep a watch on this page for more details.
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