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I think you see movement to higher end processes even in non-high end stuff.

There are lower-end[1] and higher-end[2] microcontrollers moving to more advanced processes. And due to the unique manufacturing requirements of those(building flash memory on chip), only a few companies can manufacture those.And this especially true since micro-controllers don't make that much money for fab owners.

You see the same story in medium-performance-asic's, fpga's, memories ,etc.

In the end, even when you don't have to move to newer(and rarer) manufacturing processes , it give you better prices, lower power and more capabilities. So it tends to happen.

[1]infeneon manufactures cortex-m0 on 65nm.32-bit , price: 0.25euro-1.25euro. Included for example a math co-processor for better motor control. [2]Renesas manufactures higher end microcontrollers on 40nm and working on 28nm. [3]Marvell does 55nm microcontroller with large ram, which it targets to internet controlled home appliances.

We know from studies done around 2003 done by peter provonost that if doctors follow certain checklists while doing an IV(if i recall correctly), reduce the complication rate from 12% to 0%.

Using checklists is still not a common practice among doctors.

What do doctors gain by not using checklists ? freedom, less boredom, maybe feeling of status. Is that the reason ? dunno.

Here's a story from atul gawande that has a similar point. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_...

As far as i can tell , atul is a pretty serious health care journalist so him posting this story tells me it's probably not PR.

It's relevant to the discussion regarding living social's recent hack.

>> what if you want to make backups?

One can design a special hardware, with a port for just comparing passwords and a port for copying. A Hacker would need physical access to copy the database.

>> Load balancing

Could be part of the design.Say card in a box, with internal physical connection inside the box for copying.

I think only the teensy and due strive to be fully arduino compatible(to be able to run sketches exactly the same as arduino, versus offering similar looking API).

the new beaglebone(esp. the new one) has two more advantages over the raspberry pi which haven't been mentioned:

1.It can run single precision floating point at 16-24 times faster than the raspberry pi.

2.It has two fast(200MHZ) microcontrollers inside called PRU. Those are great when you want to have stuff running fast , with precise timing. They only work in assembler though.

I think a compiler for them would be useful for the maker crowd.

The teensy 3 is an arduino clone with the cortex-m4.

Maybe there are some guys at reddir: /r/electronics or /r/ece that do high density pcb's and arm.

Cool !.

Maybe 3D isn't ready yet, but at least 2.5D integration is already in the market in FPGA's , and there's some claims from some companies[1] that it's ready for market for low cost applications.

[1]http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-products/electronic-produ...

Isn't it the wrong direction to go? With the price of memory chips about $1 per 265Mbyte, and technologies of integrating multiple chips with tons of connections and speed(2.5D and 3D integration) closing by, what's the point in offering 128MB at a price hike of $50 ?

It's 22nm finfet. The finfet is equivalent to a 0.5/1 generation advantage in power or speed.

Microcontrollers currently supported by uClinux cost >$5.

One interesting option to reduce the cost is to use a new microcontroller , the psoc 4(starting $1, 32 bit) which includes programmable logic, which might enable implementing the dram interface in hardware and to achieve good memory performance.

This guy used such a service and tells about it in his blog.

http://www.reddit.com/r/ECE/comments/1cfuk3/making_55_of_som...

It might not make sense for sony to make one device that would replace many, with most money for the software going to other people. This is a classic innovator's dillema.

Also they did build the first ebook reader, but they lost to the kindle. Since the ereader is mostly about building ecosystems, maybe the same would have happened to them with app stores ?

Maybe developing games and robots , in past didn't require good english, but today, in many industries you have to have good english in order to develop software since a lot of code will come from other places around the globe(whether it's open source, or commercial libraries).

The japanese are pretty weak in english in general.

After reading about the risk in the work of a chemist , i wonder: what prevents automation for safety becoming common place?

Ashray, do the new middle class(programmers for example, people who came from poverty) behave any differently ? Is there a growing new middle class ?

A good place to start is http://codemontage.com/ - the site has links to a few serious nonprofit project(open source) who could use help.

Also look at it's resource link, some of the links like random hacks of kindness are interesting.

I wonder if we'll see a counter measure by cable companies: offer google to run their tv ads and build them set top boxesand share profits, while google stops this broadband stuff ? That would be interesting.

You're right , but that's a pretty difficult and expensive solution.

The more practical solution for now is 2.5D stacking - stacking all the un-packaged chips on silicon/glass die instead of a pcb. That's already being used in some fpga and communications equipment.

But 2.5d is still pretty expensive and complex. Not yet ready for low cost stuff.

This is brilliant.

One problem with today's chip manufacturing tech is if you want to build system with multiple manufacturing technologies(digital/RAM/Flash/Analog) it increases your price by much because you have to package each part(which also limits your designs), test it and assemble it on a relatively large pcb. So in order to save money, you manufacture everything using the same un-optimal process.

So this is why microcontrollers like the arduino have relatively low memory.

Now if you could easily and cheaply assemble miniature electronic components - suddenly you get the optimal composition of your circuit, by picking an matching low cost components.

So you want to make an arduino cpu with megabytes of ram and flash ? now that's possible and very cheap(probably in the cents). Even something like microcontroller that could run linux and python would seem possible.

Can't wait to see it deployed.

I would add: Khosla, who pushed green tech as a VC and with his private money.

ratan TATA , who pushed the low cost indian car , which is a sort of science fiction in his culture.

Idan ofer , who invested in "better place" the electric car company with the swappable batteries.

And BTW , i'm sure bezos see full e-commerce(including groceries and fashio and furniture) as a science fiction.

What's missing is the return on investment data.If it's good , the $11B number would be an advantage: a good investment at a huge scale, something many companies are looking for.

They can flash a single ROM image, create a random password on the device , and just by adding a led , they communicate said password to a mobile app, when needed.

Another interesting internet of things module: " The RS9113 M2MCombo supports dual-band 802.11n and dual-mode BT 4.0 in addition to Zigbee. Redpine (San Jose, Calif.) will ship the device before June in a variety of module form factors at a cost of $6 in 100,000-unit quantities."[1]

Hopefully it will also get into a shield form factor, at a reasonable price, since it seems ideal to trying all kinds of things out.

[1]http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4406270/Redpine-devi...

Plura Processing pays affiliates up to $2.60 per full month of computing time provided(when they have customers).

I don't think it competes well with advertising.

This tl;dr totally misses the point of the article about a new innovative incubator model. Read the article , it's interesting.

In the spec they talk about 8-links each is 16 bit(or lanes in their jargon) , which comes out to 128 bit (or 256 bit - there are some configurations where input and output bits are on different pins).

The 1.0 spec is at:

hybridmemorycube.org/files/SiteDownloads/HMC_​Specification_1_​0.pdf