New Device May Revolutionize Computer Memory

Traditionally, there are two types of computer memory devices. Slow memory devices are used in persistent data storage technologies such as flash drives. They allow us to save information for extended periods of time, and are therefore called nonvolatile devices. Fast memory devices allow our computers to operate quickly, but aren’t able to save data when the computers are turned off. The necessity for a constant source of power makes them volatile devices.

But now a research team from NC State has developed a single “unified” device that can perform both volatile and nonvolatile memory operation and may be used in the main memory.


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Happy New Years to All

Hope Everyone made it through the night safe. Anybody got any New Years resolutions? I know that I want to write more for the blog and share some cool projects that I'll be building. Going to be sending my MOTU back to the factory next week to get fixed so hopefully some more noise music to come as well as higher quality audio on youtube videos, especally now that I know how to use Logic with movies. Well I think that is it catch you all later!

MastersFromTheirDay.com #4 - Sherlock's Daughter - "Out In The Cold" - ...

These Masters From Their Day are amazing its great to be able to see inside of running studios.  I know I am a total gear geek.

How mobile handset SNR requirements impact audio performance

The mobile phone market continues to evolve from primarily voice communications devices to sophisticated organizational and entertainment “appliances.” With the arrival of smartphones, users enjoy feature-rich portability, such as an integrated MP3 players, video playback, video and still picture cameras, blue-tooth, and GPS--all with a touch screen interface.

Additionally, operating systems with true multitasking have arrived with seemingly limitless applications, resulting in a powerful handheld tool. The smartphone is truly a unique example of engineering innovation that is changing people’s lives.

Along with this functionality, smartphone users expect high performance. This article addresses a key area of handset performance:, the mobile phone's audio playback, specifically the MP3-player audio output to headphones or earbuds.
Via EETimes

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Broke 1000 views

Just broke 1000 views for this month alone thanks to everyone for stoping by and checking out the blog!

Point Contact PNP

This is from Tube Time Its a point contact PNP Transistor made form a diode. 
"My friend Jeri Ellsworth recently figured out how to make a point contact transistor by cracking open a germanium diode. It looked pretty straightforward so (deviating from this blog’s usual content) I took a crack at it myself:"



"The original diode contact serves as the emitter connection. The base is the chip of germanium that is visible in the bottom part of the diode (with the stripe). The collector is a piece of phosphor bronze wire I pulled off the end of a guitar string. I sharpened it to a point with a Dremel sanding wheel and soldered it to a piece of bare wire to make it easier to handle.


The fine-pitched screws are used to maneuver the wires into contact with the block of germanium.
The germanium base is actually n-doped. To create the collector junction, you have to create p-doped regions. One crude way to do this is to apply a burst of current across the reverse-biased junction (positive voltage to base, negative voltage to collector). I don’t know if the mechanism is thermal or electrical, but phosphorus from the phosphor bronze wire gets carried into the germanium, creating the p-type region. For this experiment I used about 200V on a 10uF capacitor, and I discharged it into the junction through a 1K resistor. Jeri originally used something like 20V but I read in a paper several hundred volts were usually used for this purpose.


Jeri used an oscillator circuit to test her transistor, but I got lazy and just put it in a simple inverting amplifier circuit. At first the transistor didn’t work (output was in phase with the input) but after some tweaking of the wires, the output finally went 180 degrees out of phase. This is an absolutely terrible transistor, and the gain is really too low to consider this a transistor."



Check out the site for more cool stuff!

Broke 2000

Thanks everyone for stoping by.

1,003

Just broke 1000 page views thanks to every one that has been stoping by!

Benjolin Light Synth

This was made by Casper Electronics

"The sound in this video is all made using one my custom built synth that 
you can read about it here.


The synth is made up of two complex analog oscillator/modulator/filter circuits, 
a light control circuit and a modified BOSS RSD 10 sample/echo module.
I've started playing with a cool feature of the RSD 10 which is that it can
use external oscillators to control the playback rate of the echo and an
external clock to trigger the echo repeats. I'm using a sequenced oscillator
to melodically modulate the pitch of the echo of the other oscillators and
I'm using the sequence clock to trigger the echo. its a cool sounding
effect that gives a relatively normal sequence a bunch of cool quirks to
play with."





I want to make cool rhythmic like this, some day soon it will happen!

Apex Electronics

I got the chance to Apex Electronics today, I was stupid and forgot my camera at home. So, here is two images taken by Mighty Ohm. Going to build some cool tube boost with NOS tube sockets I got.


Flickr

Circuit Skills: Perfboard Prototyping, sponsored by Jameco Electronics

This is from Collin Cunningham he has some really cool stuff on his page at Make. 

When you think "DIY electronics," one of the first images that likely comes to mind is of parts and wire soldered to a standard piece of perforated circuit board -- and that makes sense. Perfboard is widely used because it's so versatile. Essentially, it's just a grid of potential solder-point connections. You can trim it down to just the size you need, or leave extra space for future enhancements, or revisions, if need be.

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414 In the Bird House

414 In the Bird House
Originally uploaded by asobernewt

My friend Paul and I discovered that when recording drums live if you want the most compressed industrial sounding drums without having to do any post production work this is how you do it. AKG 414 in figure 8 in a can of sorts, I forget what this one was for originally. Thin metal works best and different cans have different notes to themselves; Also larger openings in the can work better.

HP 132A Dual Beam oscilloscope

60's HP Scope

DSCN4030
Originally uploaded by asobernewt

Took some pictures of my scope today and gas some fun editing them

Came across this while looking at photos on Flicker. Its a CGS65: Dual Tube VCA Built by Granular Matter. He has some great stuff at his blog well worth checking out.

"Pictured here are two Ken Stone CGS65 Tube VCA/Timbral Gate circuit boards. Both will be mounted behind one Eurorack format panel to reduce the build cost."

A Bleak Future Ahead?

A Helium Shortage? 

Emily Jenkins

There are two kinds of stable helium. You know the first one: It puts lift in birthday balloons, Thanksgiving Day parades, the Goodyear blimp.

The federal government first identified helium as a strategic resource in the 1920s; in 1960 Uncle Sam began socking it away in earnest. Thirty-two billion cubic feet of the gas are bunkered underground in Cliffside, a field of porous rock near Amarillo. But now the government is getting out of the helium business, and it's selling the stockpile to all comers.

Full Article

Rare Earth in BlackBerry to Prius Underscores Alarm Over Supply

Bloomberg

Rare-earth elements help give BlackBerrys their buzz, Toyota Priuses their battery power, and computer hard drives their spin.

The rare earths, a group of 17 metals including neodymium, lanthanum, cerium and europium, also have industrial and national-security uses, such as in petroleum refining, fiber- optics transmission, and military radar and missile-guidance systems.

China’s 72 percent reduction in export quotas for the second half of this year, which it announced in July, and the customs delays since then are driving up prices. U.S. Representative Edward Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, asked the Obama administration on Oct. 21 to report on China’s export restrictions and ramifications for the military and U.S. clean- energy producers.

Full Article

High Voltage Cable Inspection

This video is absolutely amazing in my opinion. First, because what this guy does on a daily basis is just amazing. Second the video is shot well.

Why is NASA audio so bad?

I came across this on the EETimes

Why is NASA audio so bad?

Rich Pell

8/25/2010 11:19 AM EDT

We're all familiar with the noisy, "squelchy"-sounding audio that seems to characterize voice communications between astronauts and mission control during NASA space missions. Most of us don't give it a second thought, but a poster over at diyAudio wonders why does the audio have to be so bad?

He has a point. Given today's technology - or even 1970's or 80's technology - and the relatively low requirements for reproducing good quality audio, what's the excuse for the poor audio quality heard on low-earth orbit operations like the International Space Station and shuttle missions?

Full Article

Germanium Fuzz Face

Man I wish I had some more fee time from school to build beautiful projects like this one! Its a germanum Fuzz Face by Moregeometrico

Noise Ensemble

This is so cool its a "PT2399-based fuzz that modulates itself with its own audio signal!" From pickletowers

Here is a link to the Fourm Posts on DIYstompboxes.com http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=87493.0