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Artificial cochlea: an example of structural processing
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor -- 10/2/2008
A MEMS-based artificial cochlea mimics the real thing in form and function. |
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Studying the second-generation Apple iPod Touch
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor -- 9/30/2008
A dissection reveals the inner workings of the touchscreen-driven iPod, including some thus-far-inactive functionality. Bluetooth and FM reception, anyone? |
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Prying apart a portable audio player
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor -- 9/4/2008
A look inside Sandisk's Sansa M250 reveals platform minded design decisions, surprising flash-memory choices, and potential hacks. |
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Revisiting electronic ink
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor -- 8/7/2008
Prying Eyes: Electronic ink has changed in the seven years since we last took a look at it. |
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Way, way off the grid: Powering the Phoenix Mars lander
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor, 7/10/2008
An inside look at the power-generation, -regulation, and -delivery system for the Phoenix Mars lander. |
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Low-cost snapshots: Dismembering a diminutive digicam
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 6/12/2008
Prying Eyes queries the contents of a sub-$10 keychain camera. |
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The Tesla Roadster: Sporty and electric
By Paul Rako, Technical Editor, 5/14/2008
A modern electric sports car presents a unique design challenge. |
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You can punch out and manufacture this cell-phone reference design
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 4/17/2008
Prying Eyes examines an ultra-low-cost cell-phone reference design. |
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SanDisk V-Mate video-memory-card recorder
By Warren Webb, Technical Editor, 3/20/2008
Prying Eyes looks inside a product that translates video from set-top boxes into memory cards for mobile use. |
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TV peripheral encompasses superset processor
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 2/21/2008
Prying Eyes looks inside the Delkin eFilm Picturevision, which enables the playback of audio, still-image, and video files on a variety of memory-card formats. |
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The Dimage X50 digital camera
By Paul Rako, Technical Editor, 1/21/2008
Like autos and most other consumer appliances, this camera is obviously designed from the outside in. See how the engineers dealt with having to fit everything into a predefined space. |
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Microfuel cell enables ubiquitous computing
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor, 12/14/2007
Prying Eyes examines a fuel-cell-based power pack for handheld devices, such as cell phones and MP3 players. |
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Plugging hardware-based compression into a server
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 11/22/2007
Prying Eyes gets an early look at a forthcoming PCIe-based hardware accelerator for the open-source GNU-zip algorithm. |
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Perusing a universal remote
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 10/25/2007
Universal remote controls tackle the difficult problem of mimicking the myriad command signals that electronic-device manufacturers employ. |
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Video surveillance: It’s all about computing power
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 9/27/2007
Explore a reference design for concentrating video from a cluster of cameras. |
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A digital picture frame is worth 1000 words
By Warren Webb, Technical Editor, 8/2/2007
Many camera owners are adopting DPFs (digital picture frames) to sequentially display a large number of images and as a replacement for traditional photo albums. Prying Eyes looks at the inner workings of the Westinghouse DPF-0561. |
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Eviscerating the Xbox 360 Elite
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 7/19/2007
In late April, Microsoft refreshed its nearly 1½-year-old Xbox 360 product line with the high-end Elite variant, touting an upgraded-capacity 120-Gbyte HDD and a Version 1.2 HDMI port. When you crack open the Elite’s sleek black case, what—if any—alterations to the initial console design do you discover beyond the HDMI augmentation? |
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Breaking up: diagnosing a dropped phone
By Paul Rako, Technical Editor, 6/7/2007
An accident provides Prying Eyes with an opportunity to examine the engineering inside a 2.4-GHz cordless phone, revealing a clean modern design and careful attention to RF and EMI issues. |
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Hybrids mark the end of the stinky city bus
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor, 5/10/2007
Prying Eyes looks inside a hybrid gas-electric bus powered by 288 ultracapacitors. |
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Exploring the foundation under smartphones
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 4/12/2007
The next generation of smartphones will rely on unprecedented integration to deliver their features at the lowest possible bill-of-materials cost. Prying Eyes examines a smartphone reference design board. |
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Rummage through a Roomba: Sensor-packed vacuum robot attracts hacks
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 3/15/2007
This autonomous robot packs a series of sensors and motors to not only vacuum homes the world over, but also double as a robotic platform for would-be developers. |
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See inside a cereal surprise: Dissecting the Xbox Mini electronic games
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 2/15/2007
Freebie handheld electronic games—included in cereal boxes—pack in a lot of engineering ingenuity. |
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Seeking the secrets of a satellite receiver
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 1/18/2007
DirecTV set-top-box design focuses on modularity for the mass market. |
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Under the hood of hybrid vehicles
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 1/4/2007
Energy- and emission-efficient automobiles are increasingly relying on both combustion engines and electric motors for power. |
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Piecing together a Pocket PC
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 11/23/2006
A deeply cycled, defunct battery provided a good excuse to crack open a classic: Compaq/HP's popular late-2001 iPaq 3835. What did Compaq squeeze inside the 5.29×3.12×0.65-in., 6.4-oz form factor, and what did it omit? |
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Mini-NAS: an unfinished masterpiece?
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 10/26/2006
D-Link's DSM-604H Central Home Drive was, as its name implied, one of the first NAS (network-attached-storage) devices that targeted home and SOHO (small-office/home-office) users. Its compact chassis befitted D-Link's stated long-term ambition to append the NAS function to a router. |
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PC-centric architecture speeds HD-DVD to market
By Maury Wright, Editor in Chief, 9/28/2006
A 2.5-GHz Pentium 4 and standard Intel core logic mean that the HD-A1 could essentially function as a PC. In fact, the system employs the Linux operating system. The standardized design may have reduced time to market, but it also resulted in a sluggish user interface relative to most consumer products. |
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Tiny computer holds embedded treasure
By Warren Webb, Technical Editor, 9/1/2006
The Waysmall series from Gumstix offers designers a line of Linux-based computer systems that easily fit into the palm of your hand. Housed in an 83×36×15-mm plastic case, these miniature systems provide XScale processing power along with an MMC (MultiMedia Card) slot, two serial ports, one USB client port, a power interface, and general-purpose I/O pins. |
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Wireless USB in a dongle
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 8/3/2006
A dongle that turns a USB port into a wireless base station has to exploit the greatest possible level of integration. |
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MP3 disassembly: tech for thrifty tune-toters
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 7/6/2006
Prying Eyes looks inside a low-end digital-audio player. |
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Dropped call: breaking down a broken cell phone
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 6/8/2006
Split in two and abandoned by the roadside, a cell phone gives up its miniaturization secrets. |
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NDAS undressed: dissecting a NAS substitute
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 5/11/2006
Ximeta's NDAS (network-direct-attached-storage) NetDisks sell for less than "pure" NAS (network-attached-storage) drives. To do so, they shift some of the processing burden to the PCs that connect to them. What's inside the enclosure, and how does the parts list differ from what you'd find in a fuller-featured alternative? |
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Transmitting from space
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 4/13/2006
A discarded Russian Orlan space suit serves one last mission to increase awareness of the international space program. |
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Figuring out the no-cost route
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 3/16/2006
Last month, EDN dissected a $20-on-clearance (previously $50) USB audio peripheral. This month, we continue our fiscally focused analyses by tearing into ABS's NW-203-RT, a wireless router that recently sold for $0 after rebate. What's inside the purple-tinted plastic, and is ABS turning a profit at $20? |
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Sonic surprises
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 2/16/2006
Late August 2005 brought a killer deal from Philips' online store: a PSC805 Aurilium 5.1-channel external sound processor at 60% off its previous $50 asking price. What do $20 plus sales tax and free shipping translate to in terms of included hardware? If you rely on the company's DSP heritage and the product's documentation, it's not what you might think. |
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Thinking different
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 12/16/2005
With the Mac Mini, Apple squeezes substantial computing horsepower into a diminutive form factor. |
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Driverless vehicles take on the desert
By Maury Wright, Editor in Chief, 11/21/2005
The Darpa Grand Challenge—not since the fabled transcontinental races of a century ago have so many engineers, professors, students, corporate teams, and garage tinkerers been drawn to so daunting a task. On the surface, it seems, well ... impossible. Once the race starts, the design teams can do nothing. |
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Network delivery
By Maury Wright, Editor at Large, 10/27/2005
Windows-driven low-power PC-like design delivers video over the Internet, but content will gate success. |
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Powering to the heavens
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 9/29/2005
How does a liquid-propulsion rocket engine convert liquid mass into enough force for a spacecraft to attain escape velocity? |
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Cheap shot
By Maury Wright, Editor at Large, 8/4/2005
An SOC makes a one-time-use video camera feasible. Will consumers embrace the minimalist feature set? |
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Contactless traveling
By Maury Wright, Editor at Large, 7/7/2005
Electronic passports embed contactless chip technology to streamline passage through customs and significantly hinder counterfeiters. |
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In the game?
By Maury Wright, Editor at Large, 6/9/2005
The latest version of the venerable Game Boy, the Nintendo DS, hit the shelves last December and promptly became a best seller, even as Sony planned the March debut of its PSP (PlayStation Portable). The DS broke new ground with dual color screens, touchscreen capability, and wireless connectivity, all in a sleek clamshell design. |
