Tekmos' Blog

Tekmos is streamlining sample ordering with our website online form inquiries.

Our marketing team has begun the process to place Tekmos standard parts in an online inquiry system that customers will be able to purchase samples of parts to qualify for their systems, and request quantities of 100 parts for smaller orders.

We will start with the 80C51 microprocessor family and will add the Flash Memory parts upon completion of the data base creation for the 80C51 microprocessors. The price for each part will be visible to customers that visit our website. There will be an “Order Now” icon that a customer can go to, find the part they are looking for, advise whether the purchase is for samples, or if already qualified, and purchase a quantity of 100 by filling in the form that will be sent to Tekmos Customer Service Department at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We have decided to do this to make it easier for our customers to order samples as well as for customers who require a smaller quantity. Larger quantity purchases are available through our distributors and sales reps, and at the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. link provided on our website. Members of our sales team always respond to customers within a 24 hour period to provide a quote and to assist with purchases.

Last month, Tekmos sent a representative to the annual meeting of the Space Parts Working Group. This is a meeting of government users of satellites, companies that make satellites, and component manufacturers that make parts for satellites. The meeting was for two days, and consisted of presentations from government users and the component manufacturers. It also presented a lot of networking opportunities.

Tekmos sells several products into the aerospace market. We are also working on upgrading our quality system from ISO9001 up to AS9100, which is now being required by some of our customers. After that, the next step is changing our products to offer an even higher level of reliability. And the first stage of that process is to determine what are the limits with current parts. And that is why we were at the Space Parts Working Group.

So, what did we learn? Being space related, radiation damage was a big topic. The higher the orbit, the greater the damage. As a subset of radiation, heavy ions are an increasing concern. Heavy ions are also a problem with the aviation market, and have been identified as a cause of commercial aviation engine failure in at least one instance. Another issue was bond wire integrity, as a result of corrosion, thermal cycle, and vibration during launch. And as with all semiconductor users, there were concerns about obsolescence and counterfeiting. These are all areas that will be addressed as we develop the next generation of Tekmos products.

Tekmos has announced the qualification and release of two of our microcontrollers, the TK68HC711D3 and TK68HC11D0. The micros were originally made at our provider Plessey Semiconductor. Plessey closed their 0.35u fab, and the designs were transferred to the X-Fab foundry located in Dresden, Germany. Originally each design had its own mask set. This reflected the fact that the parts were designed at separate times. When the designs were transferred to Dresden, the designs were merged onto a common substrate die. The new die was designed to support an optional Flash memory, which could be enabled through bond options.

There are no changes to the operation of either circuit, and each chip remains a drop-in replacement for the original NXP parts.

Having a drop-in replacement for parts has shown to be a very cost effective way to extend the life of products when the original component manufacturer discontinues a part. The availability of a drop-in replacement part eliminates the need to make the tough decision whether to redesign a printed circuit board or discontinue a product.

Tekmos continues to be the "go to" supplier when there are problems finding obsolete parts or when additional parts are needed after the date for EOL (End of Life) purchase has passed. Tekmos makes a variety of microcontrollers, microprocessors, and other miscellaneous standard products to satisfy these needs. Tekmos also continues to make custom ASIC replacement parts.

Customers are aware that buying from Tekmos ensures pin for pin, drop-in replacements that can be counted on to work in their applications, without worry about the quality of parts purchased on the grey market.

An FPGA conversion consists of implementing an FPGA based design in an ASIC. There can be multiple reasons for doing this, such as reliability, power dissipation, or obsolescence. But the main reason is cost. ASICs will typically cost much less than an FPGA.

ASICs also have a NRE associated with them. So to realize any cost savings, the ASIC volume must be high enough so that the cumulative unit cost savings exceeds the NRE charges.

There is a time value of money. In order to justify an FPGA conversion, the volume should be high enough so that the breakeven point occurs within 6 to 9 months. Here is an example. Assume that the FPGA costs $40 each, and the ASIC costs $5 each. That is a savings of $35 per part. A typical FPGA to ASIC NRE will be on the order of $49,000. That puts the breakeven point at 1400 units. The conversion is economically justified with a 2,000 unit annual volume. The breakeven volume changes with the technology used in the ASIC, the cost of the FPGA, and the package type.

The breakeven point has also changed with time. Back in the mid-90s, the breakeven point was frequently below 1000 units. At the time, there were a number of companies providing FPGA conversion services. Companies such as AMIS, Chip Express, and Orbit Semiconductor. Many of the Japanese companies also offered the service, including NEC, Toshiba, KLSI, and Fujitsu. The FPGA companies successfully fought back by a combination of using more advanced technology nodes, and including large amounts of RAM. The presence of the RAM prevented the ASIC companies from offering the same circuit while using an older technology. The increased use of lower supply voltages also worked against the ASIC companies, since their older technologies did not operate as well when using reduced supplies. By 2005, the FPGA conversion business was gone, along with most of the ASIC suppliers.

Semiconductors are a highly dynamic business, and by 2012, the economics of FPGA conversion had changed again. The mask costs have dropped, and those fabs that allow Multi-Level Masks (MLMs) have seen the mask cost drop by another 75%. The power supplies have stabilized between 1 and 1.2 volts. And while the FPGA technologies can provide more RAM, many applications do not need the extra RAM. As a result, FPGA conversion breakeven points have dropped to the point where conversions are again economical at the 1000 to 2000 unit range.

When trying to pin down a precise meaning for the term IoT (Internet of Things), it quickly becomes clear that the acronym has many meanings. This article will partially answer the question. At first, IoT meant things that communicate over the internet. But it was about things, not people reading materials that were designed to be read or listened to over the internet. The term has evolved to mean anything that is connected to the internet. It has seen usage to include any sophisticated electronic device, connected to the internet or not. I personally think this later, all-encompassing meaning renders the term useless. The most useful meaning, although not precise, may be to denote the wide range of electronics that communicate over the internet.

Some terminology that can be useful is labeling sub-groups of IoT products. The first is the CIoT, The Consumer Internet of Things. This is the area where everyday people directly interface with IoT products. It includes all the home products, such as control of home lighting, heating, safety, and monitoring. The CIoT also includes wearables, such as monitoring one's vital signs, tracking exercise, a device to locate car keys, and watching a personalized TV attached to one's glasses. It includes answering one's door remotely, monitoring children and pets, and lighting systems and sound systems.

Another sub-group is the MIoT, the Machine Internet of Things. This term usually refers to older remote control of machines, such as oil wells, monitoring and controlling traffic, signaling trains and rail switching. It is primarily using the internet to communicate between machines that were previously direct wired or connected with dedicated rf links.

Another sub-group is the IIot, the Industrial Internet of Things. This usually refers to industrial applications such as precision control of lathes, industrial robots, process monitoring, process control, industrial data analytics, employee monitoring, plant security, and employee safety. Yet another sub-group is the MIoT, the Mobile Internet of Things, primarily related to vehicles, which may not actually use the internet. Often, some type of rf link is used since data must travel between mobile devices. It includes self-driving cars and trucks. It can include large engine control and sensor communications that may not actually use the internet, such as display of tire pressure while the vehicle is moving. It includes many on board communications systems such as DVD players, radios and on board phone systems. It includes driver warning systems such as drifting out of lane warning and adaptive cruise control.

Still another sub-group is MIot the Medical Internet of Things which includes medical devices like the remote monitoring of a patient's heart, home measurement of sleep disorders, the control of diffusion pumps, and the pendant used when a person needs to summon medical assistance when alone.