Looking Back to the Future
By Lynn Reed

Now that 2013 is almost over, it is time to review our New Year’s Resolutions that were so bravely released last January.  Product Development and Sales..

Medical Devices Extended
By Lynn Reed

A large amount of our business is replacing obsolete processors in medical devices.  We are happy for the business, but one can ask why so many medical customers want older....

Microcontrollers with Flash Memories
By Lynn Reed

Many of the microcontrollers that Tekmos makes originally used OTP (one time programmable) EPROM for program storage. EPROM is an older and specialized process, and we.... 

A Stopped Clock is Always Right Twice a Day
By Lynn Reed

I haven't written much lately about our 68020 reverse engineering, because I haven't made a lot of progress.  We had created a Verilog netlist, but the chip..

Alternative Packages
By Lynn Reed

One of the biggest challenges we face in the replacement of obsolete parts is replacing the obsolete packages.  We can re-create designs and implement them in new technologies...

Developing Programmers
By Lynn Reed

Many of the microcontrollers that Tekmos makes were originally OTP parts that contained EPROM.  The EPROM process is not available in our fabs, so we replace the EPROM with...

FPGA Conversions
By Lynn Reed

An FPGA conversion consists of creating an ASIC from the same design files that were used to make an FPGA.  Customers do this to either replace an FPGA that has been..

High Temperature Testing
By Lynn Reed

We recently had a requirement to test some parts at 150C.  In order to do that, we use a temperature forcing probe.  This is a washing machine size box with an arm that holds a....

Jumping Through Hoops
By Lynn Reed

A normal gate array prototype cycle takes about 8 weeks.  There is a week to make masks, 3 weeks for wafer processing, another 2 weeks for assembly, a week for test and bake.....

Protecting Your IP
By Lynn Reed

Circuits built out of standard products are inherently insecure, because anyone can purchase the components.  There are protection bits for software but these can be........

Tekmos ESD Approach
By Lynn Reed

Do you remember seeing the three wise monkey statues, see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil? Did the idea in an odd way seem to make sense to you? While the origin of....

Tekmos Talks High Temperature Labels
By Lynn Reed

About half of our micro shipments are user programmable.  Unfortunately, our different technology means that for the most part, we are not supported by commercial program....