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ABC of electronics terms

(To find chips for distinct functions, see the functional pages.)

M

Macintosh based software

local MacIntosh based Compilers
local MacIntosh based Linux part 1
local MacIntosh based Linux part 2
local MacIntosh based PCB software
www.periph.com/ Very up to date Mac* cross assembler. Supports many processors.

Magnetic terms

www.coiltronics.com/magnetic_terms.html At Coiltronics

MCU

(Micro* Controller Unit)

A MCU is a MPU combined with peripherals that is supposed to be embedded into some product.

A traditional MPU only has a processor inside and is meant to be combined with bus chips and peripheral chips to form a computer.

A MCU has a simple processor and a lot of on-chip system glue and peripherals.

Why? It's because MCU's are meant to be used in appliances like microwave ovens, washing machines, toys and whetever. In these applications cost is very important and the more parts that are already included into the MCU save part costs, PCB size costs and debugging costs.

For building a serious computer the MPU will have to be state of the art and has no spare room for peripherals so they are added in seperate chips.

Of course there are always cross-over products. Some heavy applications used a real MPU and some PC's like the Philips' 'Yes:' and Tandy/RadioShack's first PC's used the 80186 or 80188 which are actually MCU's. MPU's are also sometimes used embedded in products.

See also:
local MCU compendium FAQ in text
www.esacademy.com/automation/faq/primer/ MCU Primer FAQ
rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/sci.answers/microcontroller-faq/primer MCU Primer FAQ in text
www.esacademy.com/myacademy/classdescription.php?classid=4 example for what a microcontroller is versus a microprocessor

Books:
title order at Amazon USA price indication
Art of Designing Embedded Systems, the ISBN: 0750698691 $40
Art of Programming Embedded Systems, the ISBN: 0122748808 $90
C Programming for Embedded Systems ISBN: 1929629044 $25
Debugging Embedded Microprocessor Systems ISBN: 0750699906 $30
Embedded Microprocessor Systems: Real World Design ISBN: 075067234X $35
Embedded Software Primer, an ISBN: 020161569X $40
Embedded Systems Building Blocks : Complete and Ready-To-Use Modules in C ISBN: 0879306041 $50
Embedded Systems Design ISBN: 0750632372 $50
Handbook of Microcontrollers ISBN: 0079137164 $45
Microcontroller Idea Book, the ISBN: 0965081907 $32
Programming Embedded Systems in C and C ++ ISBN: 1565923545 $24

Measurement

Where Manufacturer
www.hp.com/ Hewlett-Packard

Medical Design

www.medicaldesignonline.com/ Medical Design (by VerticalNet)

Melody chips

Chips that generate tunes consisting of separate tones.

local Melody chips

See also Sound, Sound Card and Voice.

Memory Testing

When you distrust your memory or want to check your memory when starting up a system.

local Memory tests
www.esacademy.com/faq/docs/memtest/ Article: Software based memory testing

Testing Semiconductor Memories - Theory and Practice

A.J. van de Goor
1991
John Wiley and Sons, 605 Third Avenue, New York, NR 10158-0012
ISBN: 0471925861
This book contains all of the standard testing methods and analysistechniques for testing memory.

Microengineering

Making very small machines out of silicon

www.c2v.nl/ Formerly the MEMS* services of Alcatel Optronics Netherlands
www.nanocomputer.org/ Dream Team - Nano* SuperComputer
www.mcnc.org/ MEMS* Technology Applications Center
www.dbanks.demon.co.uk/ueng/ Microengineering intro
www.physikinstrumente.com/ Physik Instrumente (PI) Piezo- and Nanopositioning Technology Homepage
www.lucifer.com/~sean/Nano.html Sean Morgan's Nanotechnology Pages
www.industrycommunity.com/myforum/winston_sun/ Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems Forum: MEMS* in general. Discussions about polysilicon sensors, actuators, and microstructures. bulk and surface micromachining technologies. fabrication process. physical principles.

Books

title order at Amazon USA price indication
Art of Microelectronic Systems ISBN: 1568810318 $50
Materials Science of Microelectromechanical Systems (Mems*) Devices ISBN: 1558994521 $85
Microrobotic Manipulation: Design and Control Methodologies ISBN: 9810241518 $44
Silicon Micromachining ISBN: 052159054X $105

See also

See also Microsystems (second next item) and Nanotechnology.

Microprocessor

www.howstuffworks.com/microprocessor.htm How it works

Microsystems

Microsystems are mechanical devices produced on silicon using normal wafer fabrication techniques i.e. lithography, etch etc.
These should be the devices created by Microengineering, I would think...
They are made for example by PB Technik of Switzerland, who produce wafers that are supplied to manufacturers. They don't have a WWW site yet, email John Dunn <ajdunn@email.msn.com> for more details.

Microwave

Wave with a wavelenght of about a micro* meter (?).
They are being used in microwave ovens and for cellular phones.

www.eumw.com/ Conference in Germany
www.merrimacind.com/ Merrimac Industries
www.geocities.com/jordan30bg RF and microwave design by Jordan Strundjev

Microwire

Serial in-device communication methods.

See Microwire.

MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

local MIDI for the 6811
local MIDI for the PIC
crystal.apana.org.au/ghansper/MidiAxis.html MIDI interface

See also: Musical instrument.

MIL-STD-1750

Very expensive military processor, prices starting at $5000!
Pure 16 bit processor (ad+da) but very reliable and radiation hardend etc...

local More
ftp.fta-berlin.de/pub/crossgcc/1750gals Free assembler, linker and simulator
www.cputech.com/milstd.htm Press releases and data from CPU tTechnology

MIL-STD-883

www.dscc.dla.mil/Programs/MilSpec/listdocs.asp?BasicDoc=MIL-STD-883 The Defense Supply Center Columbus (DSCC) maintains this standard.

See also JAN qualified. 

Date:    19990727
From:    Ian King
To:      misc@pisa.rockefeller.edu
Subject: Re: Leftover RTX2000 Chips

At 10:45 pm 7/25/99 -0400, you wrote:

Ian King wrote:
The reason a DSP chip is unlikely to replace the RTX2010RH in space applications is that the cost of certification is astronomical. If they ever do I can guarantee you you won't be ably to buy one for $10!

What certification might that be?

Derrick Shearer

You can't just package up your dies into ceramic packages and sell them as Rad-tol. Xilinx mentions the XQ4000X Series Certified to MIL-PRF-38535 Appendix A QML. rk.gsfc.nasa.gov/fpgas.htm gives more information about NASA requirements.

An example of Rad-tol fpga costs is from Actel. Per piece pricing in 50-unit volume for MIL-STD-883 Class B devices in the 208-pin package is A54SX16 - $1,040 and A54SX32 - $1,872. In the same volume, the 208-pin package RadTolerant devices are RT54SX16 - $1,530 and RT54SX32 - $2,600

Ian

www.actel.com/whatsnew/RadTol.html - More info at Actel

MIPS

Mega* Instructions Per Second

By cynics also called: 'Most Ignorable Parameter for Speed'
This is a unit to express Processor Speed in.
When you know what you're looking at it's a nice indication of processor speed, but it's indeed not a term like miles per hour that even laymen can use.

local BogoMips comparison between processors

MISC

Minimal Instruction Set Computing

local More on this site
www.forthchip.com/ Site by Richard S. Westmoreland
www.ultratechnology.com/ Maker of the F21 microprocessor
local See also

Miscellaneous

Where Manufacturer
www.iijnet.or.jp/murata/ Murata
www.raytheon.com/ Raytheon

Mitsumi CD-ROM interface

The early CD-ROM players had their own interface cards: Mitsumi, Panasonic and Sony. Later sound cards integrated all those busses and still later the IDE interface was used.
The Mitsumi CD-ROM interface

See also ATAPI and IDE.

Mobile phone

Also called a cell phone (in the USA) or portable phone.

www.worldofcellularsecrets.com/
www.worldofcellularsecrets.com/news.htm

Modem

Modulator (and) demodulator

Used to send computer data over an analogue connection like a telephone line.

Information:
local Modem chips
local More
www.v90.com/ the V.90 standard
www.k56flex.com/ the K56Flex standard
www.ece.wpi.edu/courses/ee535/hwk98/hwk4cd98/edmundom/edmundom.htm 56k course for students
www.zoomtel.com/ More about the Hayes command set
www.howstuffworks.com/modem.htm How modems work
modems.rosenet.net/ On Rosenet.net
www.phoaks.com/comp/dcom/modems/ Resources for news:comp.dcom.modems
www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Hardware/Peripherals/Modems/ At Yahoo
www.unitronic.de/Hersteller/conexant/Modem/Data%20Sheet%27s/md218r2-RP56D-RP336D-RP144D.pdf RP56D/SP ROCKWELL data sheet

Manufacturers:
Modem (not modem chip) makers
Where Manufacturer
www.att.com/ AT&T
www.computerline.nl/ Computerline (Victory)
www.conexant.com Conexant, used to be Rockwell
www.dynalink.com/ Dynalink
www.hayes.com/ Hayes
www.hayes.co.uk/ Hayes Europe
www.icp.nl/ ICP
www.landis.nl/ Landis (Hayes and Microcom)
www.lucent.com/ Lucent, used to be AT&T
www.microcom.com Microcom
www.multitech.com/ Multitech
www.pctel.com/ PCTel (sells softmodem software it seems)
www.philips.com/ Philips
www.rockwell.com/ Rockwell, now called Conexant
www.teletronix.be/ Allied Data Technologies, TRON, Tornado, Trident
www.tron.nl/ Tron Netherlands
www.usr.com/ US Robotics (bought by 3Com)

Cermetek makes FCC approved, ready-to-use modem modules.

Monitor

See Video.

Monitor and Debugger

NoICE (use a search engine!) Remote debugger for 6502, 6809, 6811, 80196, 8051, 8096, TMS370, Z8, Z80

Moore, Gordon

Gordon Moore was the founder of Intel, who formulated the 'Law of Moore' which says that the capacity and speed of semiconductors will double every constant amount of time. For the number of transistors on a microchip it doubles about every 18 months since 1965.

www.sciam.com/interview/moore/092297moore1.html Article from Scientific American

MOSFET

www.americanmicrosemi.com/tutorials/mosfets.htm

Motherboard

The main printed circuit board (PCB) in a PC.

Mother board makers:
www.abit.com.tw/ Abit
www.ami.com/ AMI (Amercian Megatrends, Inc.)
www.aopen.com/ Aopen
www.asus.com/ ASUS
www.biostar.com.tw/corepage.htm Biostar
www.chaintech.com.tw/ Chaintech
www.ecs.com.tw/ ECS
www.epox.com/ EPoX
www.fic.com.tw/, www.fica.com/ FIC
www.gigabyte.com.tw/, www.giga-byte.com/ Gigabyte
channel.intel.com/business/ibp/boards/ Intel
www.msi.com.tw/, www.msicomputer.com/ MSI* (Micro* Star, Inc.?)
www.pcchips.com/ PC Chips (BIOS reference: #S286-6181-101590-K8)
www.qdi.ca/ QDI Computer Canada
www.qdigrp.com/ QDI Computer Group
www.qdius.com/ QDI Computer USA
www.spacewalker.com/ Shuttle
www.supermicro.com/ Supermicro
www.transcend.com.tw/English/ Transcend, Korea in English
www.transcend.com.tw/ Transcend, Korea in Chinese
www.transcend.nl/ Transcend, Netherlands in English
www.tyan.com/ Tyan

For a more complete list: www.motherboards.org/

See also:
www.motherboards.org/ Motherboard HomeWorld
www.motherboards.com/ Motherboard seller
iceberg.pchomeworld.com/cgi-win/MoBotGen/MoBot.asp Largest motherboard database on the Web
www.matrix-bios.nl/ BIOS and chipset information by Alle Metzlar
developer.intel.com/design/motherbd/ Intel
developer.intel.com/design/quality/mb/ Intel

Motor

A device that converts energy in motion.

local Manufacturers
www.esacademy.com/myacademy/classdescription.php?classid=17 Online training: Motor Control using PWM
Servo Motor Servo motor
Stepper Motor Stepper motor

Mouse

local Mouse specs
www.linux.com/howto/mini/3-Button-Mouse.html Linux HOWTO

PC Mouse Systems

Serial UART: 1200 baud*, data=8, start=1, parity=none
Mouse Protocol of Transmission

byte bit: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
1 sync* 1 0 0 0 0 L M R 0=depressed button
2 dX x7 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0 bit 7 -> 0=pos, 1=neg
3 dY y7 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
4 dX' x7 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
5 dY' y7 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0

Notes:

Microsoft Mouse

Serial UART: 1200 baud*, data=7, stop=1, parity=none
Mouse Protocol of Transmission (normal mode)

byte bit: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
1 sync* 0 1 L R y7 y6 x7 x6 1=depressed button
2 dX 0 0 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0 MSB-> 0=pos,1=neg
3 dY 0 0 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0

Notes:

MP3

A dedicated DSP to decode the MP3 sound format is the MAS3507D from ITT.

MPEG

Video compression method.

MPEG Chip Manufacturers

MPU

Microprocessor unit, also called microprocessor, processor or CPU.
It's a single chip (=monolithic) CPU.
In earlier days CPU's were complete PCB's with a whole range of (for example) Am2900 bit slice chips.

local More information per MPU family
ftp.funet.fi/pub/microprocs/ Microprocessors

Books

title order at Amazon USA price indication
Surviving the Design of Microprocessor and Multimicroprocessor Systems ISBN: 0471357286 $105
Towards the Virtual Microprocessor ISBN: 0471956066 $125

Multibus

Old bus by Intel, later adopted as IEEE standard. Still in use in the industry it seems.

local About the Multibus by Mark Sokos

Multi Tasking

An operating system is called multi tasking when it can run two or more programs at the same time. Unix is a good example of such an OS, but OS's like MS Windows are slowly catching up. To run several tasks with each task fully separated from each other the computer needs to have a serious Memory Management Unit (MMU*), which is in the mean time common in serious processors The first Intel PC processor to have such an inbuild MMU* was the 80286 and it was indeed possible to run SCO/Unix (then still called Xenix for trademark reasons) on it.
Multi threading is a relatively new term and means that a single program can split itself and run twice, but the resources like data memory keep being shared. Each process has it's own stack though and the code is ran independently of the other process. When a conventional Unix task splits itself using a fork() system call both resulting processes have their own data space and generally communicate via a pipe. They share all opened files, but only one of them is supposed to stay using each of them.
With embedded controller processes the term multitasking is used more lightly and total task seperation is not required. Generally it's also just multi threading. Because one programmer generally writes all the programs he can insure that all code behaves well and pre emptive task switching (task switching without the concent of the running task) is not necessary. Handling an interrupt is already a primitive form of multitasking which happens asynchronously to the normal process, but it's not a real separated thread, because it doesn't have it's own stack. It's more like a randomly executed subroutine.
It's not really difficult to implement a simple task switching mechanism under these soft circumstances, but whenever the situation gets more complicated you may want to use an existing multi tasking system. There are a lot of commercial ones but also some free ones, like the MCX system that you can download from Motorola's site.

Musical instrument

ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~meburns/e-muzak.html Michael Everett Burns

See also: MIDI.

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