Embedded system controllers use a host of serial data buses to communicate with other devices and sensors. Troubleshooting these buses has always been problematic. Going from an oscilloscope trace to a decoded message can be a cruel experience. Many designers resort to ‘bit counting’ in order to see the content of a serial data stream […]

As part of a three-year test campaign, ESA engineers are trying to evaluate the risk of abandoned satellites with disastrous battery reactions exploding in orbit. For the “abuse” testing, engineers forced space batteries past the brink of destruction, “through overheating, overcharging, short circuits, and even by shooting them with bullets,” according to the ESA. The […]

User expectations are calling for faster computers and handheld devices. Keeping these faster processors operating efficiently required lowering supply voltages. So, where in the past, 5 V supply buses operated with ±5 percent tolerance today’s low voltage processors require a much smaller tolerances on the order of ±1 percent. So, a 1.1 V bus has […]

With the USB4 specification set to become official later this year, developers are gearing up to develop compatible hardware and software. Test equipment supplier Teledyne LeCroy has announced and demonstrated the first protocol analyzer program for testing USB4 and Thunderbolt™ 3—a stanadard with the same maximum 40 Gbps speed. The convergence of the underlying Thunderbolt […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) serve as the fuel source for new semiconductor architectures, and as a result, the two also leave a new string of verification and development challenges in their wake. With advanced algorithms and neural network systems, test architectures will have to find a way to keep up. For some insight […]

Chile’s Atacama Desert often serves as a testbed for robotic rovers bound for Mars, since it closely mimics the Martian environment. While at the site, trial rovers recently posted some exciting results—they were able to recover subsurface samples, which could greatly aid missions looking for signs of life on Mars. “We have shown that a […]

Until the last few years, the primary in-vehicle communications system was the controller area network (CAN) bus, which facilitates transmission of control traffic between electronic or engine control units (ECUs) within the vehicle at maximum bus speeds up to 1 Mbps. To keep up with the significant increase in data, CAN has undergone protocol modifications […]

RBD Instruments Inc. announced that it has released a new version of its 9103 USB Picoammeter which incorporates faster reads per second with 5000 DC volts of isolation to chassis ground. Increasing the DC voltage isolation from chassis ground to 5000 volts (5kV) opens up new possibilities for researchers such as direct DC current measurement […]

An international team of researchers discovered that the Galápagos’ volcanoes get their fuel from a source that’s 1,200 mi deep within the ocean. Known as a “mantle plume,” this narrow conduit sends hot rock to the surface. Although mantle plumes came onto scientists’ radar in the 1970s, they have escaped detailed seismic imaging, since their […]