The hottest Microcontrollers Substack posts right now

The Chip Letter had 75 posts, over 500,000 views, and gained over 7,000 new subscribers in 2023.
Highlighted posts included the story of Erlang at WhatsApp, the disappearance of minicomputers, and a celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Integrated Circuit.
2024 will bring posts on the history of microcontrollers, Moore's Law, the Motorola 6800, '8-bit', GPUs, TPUs, and more, with a 20% discount available for new annual subscriptions.

Digital circuits often require digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters to interface with the physical world.
For digital-to-analog conversion, architectures like binary-weighted DACs and R-2R DACs are commonly used, but the latter addresses practical issues with resistor values.
Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) can be complex, involving methods like flash ADCs and slope-based ADCs, which use principles like comparison, integration, and sigma-delta modulation for accurate voltage readings.

Driving a 2.8" 240x320 IPS panel with a Microchip SAM S70 Cortex-M7 MCU can be surprisingly simple.
The steps to set up the ST7789 display controller involve minimal and straightforward commands like hardware reset and configuration for color mode.
Generating image data for the display in 16 bpp RGB565 color mode is achievable through tools like ImageMagick.

Building a one-bit computer with an ALU is possible and can simplify circuitry.
Relays are well-suited for building digital logic due to their binary operation and signal amplification.
Implementing arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division using relays is feasible but requires thoughtful circuit design.

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DMA controllers on microcontrollers like Cortex-M7 allow for memory transfers without CPU involvement.
Building a "bit-vending machine" with DMA can streamline communication protocols for displays or other devices.
Using DMA with hardware sync signals like PIODCCLK or PWM can enable precise, fast data transfers in digital circuits.

Hardware communication involves protocols like I2C, UART, and SPI for connecting microcontrollers with peripherals.
In I2C communication, there are master and slave devices, and the correct implementation details are crucial for success.
Consulting the manufacturer's datasheet is essential for troubleshooting hardware issues, despite guidance from tools like ChatGPT.

SimulIDE is a real-time electronic circuit simulator for hobbyists and students.
The simulator requires the installation of Arduino IDE and libraries for custom functions.
SimulIDE's UI can be clunky, but it offers real-time monitor features for checking register contents.