When dealing with errors in firmware, one encounters formal explanations of concepts like "undefined behavior," "storage duration," "variable lifetime," "initialization," and "dereferencing", whether scrolling Stack Overflow, arguing with your LLM of choice, or studying C standards at university, or discussing over an implementation detail with a colleague. These concepts are presented theoretically, rigorously, as abstract … Continue reading Exploiting C undefined behavior to blink an LED
So far, I’ve documented the original FPGA-based project and the framework used to turn it into an actual Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), along with its functional description in Part 1. In Part 2, I covered a few key design considerations I learnt as a beginner when transitioning from FPGA to ASIC, specifically related to … Continue reading RGBW Controller ASIC Part 3 – Design for silicon, colour space conversion algorithm and final block diagram
In the previous article, I shared the initial steps toward creating an amateurial ASIC design. I had a concept for a colour generator, which I first prototyped directly on an FPGA. I also introduced some of the platforms and companies that make ASIC fabrication more accessible by allowing multiple users to share a single production … Continue reading RGBW Controller ASIC, Part 2 – Design for silicon, clock and reset considerations
I initially had an idea to implement an RGBW LED color controller in hardware, but I only had access to an FPGA along with free tools (though not necessarily open-source). Later, while participating in the ETHZ Summer School in Zurich, I discovered how it's possible, even for individual contributors, to affordably create an IC. At … Continue reading RGBW Controller ASIC, part 1 – An FPGA design forged into an ASIC
In the last PWM discussion, we devised how is composed the average current, specially when the PWM frequency is faster than it should be, making the period duration comparable with the rise and fall slopes duration of the current. The results were packed up in 2 equations to summarize what is the best choice for … Continue reading Dimming LEDs (part 3/3) – The overlooked boundaries
ALEA 