PCMCIA Cards Accelerate Ford's Racing Program

EDN - 05/19/1995 - page 24

By: John Murray, American Microsystems, Inc.

"Ford Motor Company's Indy car and Formula One programs now employ a novel system that is helping them fine-tune the performance of their cars' electronic applications. This system, the Formula Data Logger 32, consists of a single-board computer (SBC) that uses a Forth microprocessor, the SC32 from Silicon Composers of Mountain View, CA, which was developed at the Applied Physics Lab of The Johns Hopkins University. The system fits the entire CPU, I/O, and control and communication hardware into a dual-PCMCIA-sized enclosure that takes up very little space, requires minimal power, and adds little weight. In addition, two PCMCIA slots house the SBC's program and data storage subsystem."

Simple Ethernet by Ken Merk

From: Circuit Cellar - October 2007 (Issue 207) - page 40

"You can use a picoFlash SBC with an Ethernet controller to send embedded Ethernet packets between master and slave nodes. The easy-to-use system make writing software and debugging a cinch."

Download PC/TCP Packet Driver Specification Document

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Glory Days Revisited

From: Embedded Systems Design - 05/2006 - page 64

0x10 Years Ago

"Forth as a Launch Vehicle" by Jack Woehr - May 1990

Contrary to popular belief, Forth is not just a programming language, it is also a programmable operating system. In recent years, such use has fallen below the event horizon as far as desktop computers are concerned. But in the relm of embedded control, Forth still serves as an amiable host to complied language programs.

...

If you are looking for a straightforward, inexpensive method of providing roll-your-own system services and powerful, on-board debugging capabilities for your compiled program, using a Forth system as your development platform may be just the answer you're looking for.

Designing Embedded Hardware, Second Edition - $45

Author: John Catsoulis

Publisher: O'Reilly

"Designing Embedded Hardware steers a course between those books dedicated to writing code for particular microprocessors, and those that stress the philosophy of embedded system design without providing any practical information. Loaded with real examples, this book also provides a roadmap to the pitfalls and traps to avoid. If you want to build your own embedded system, or tweak an existing one, this invaluable book gives you the understanding and practical skills you need."

Table of Contents

3. Forth/Open Firmware

Introducing Forth

String Words

Stack Manipulation

Creating New Words

Comments

if ... else

Loops

Data Structures

Interacting with Hardware and Memory

Forth Programming Guidelines

Circuit Cellar - April 2006 - page 12

Monitor and Control with Text Messaging - Ken Merk

Ken remotely monitors and controls mobile equipment with his cell phone. Essential information and commands move back and forth between his phone and the equipment in the form of text messages. Text messages make the system convenient and easy to use.

Software download

Circuit Cellar - March 2004 - page 38

Wireless Vehicle Tracking: Part 2: Forth-Based Speech Synthesis - Ken Merk

Last month, Ken showed you how he designed a GPS-based wireless vehicle tracking system. Now he’s back with information on the code that’s required for speech synthesis. He closes with a detailed description of how he took the system for a test drive in his Ford Windstar.

Software download

Circuit Cellar - February 2004 - page 20

Wireless Vehicle Tracking: Part 1: System Basics - Ken Merk

Ken developed a GPS-based wireless tracking system in an effort to help an electrical contractor keep tabs on the whereabouts of his mobile power generators. In the first part of this series, Ken describes the hardware components and how to mount them on a PCB.

Software download

Circuit Cellar - January 2002 - page 50

Extensibility for Small Embedded Sytems - Brad Eckert

Using a dialect of Forth, Brad shows us how to combine run-time compilation and immediate execution of add-on firmware in order to make an embedded system extensible. New hardware introduces itself to the original firmware making the upgrade process much easier.

Circuit Cellar Online - July 1999

Building An Electrostatic and Magnetic Pulse Monitor - Richard W. Fergus

"Sferics is an abbreviation for "atmospheric electromagnetic radiation" and is the subject of a severe-weather-monitoring project that I’ve been involved with for nearly 40 years. The monitoring techniques have progressed from an omnidirectional pulse counter to detailed measurement of pulse shape and relative timing with the appropriate data-analysis procedures. The results from each monitoring system dictated the requirements for the next step. This project has been a tedious journey because each step generally required one or more yearly seasons to determine the relevant factors for the next step."

Article in PDF

SFERICS website