The San Marcos river is a spring fed river that starts in downtown San Marcos. The water is cold and clear. A Texas experience is to get an inner tube and float down the river for a mile. At that point, there was an old dam on the river that the city turned into three spillways and created a water park adjacent to the Rio Vista city park. It is perfect for a company outing. We planned ahead, and some of us arrived early to reserve park space, and erect our tent. The tent came in handy, because it rained for an hour right after we set it up. Leaving behind a cook, the rest of us went to the drop-off point, rented tubes, and floated down the river. The rain had stopped, so it was quite nice on the river. The rain had also kept others away, so the river was not crowded. When we reached the water park, we caught a shuttle back upstream and did it again. Spending two hours floating down a river while stuck in an inner tube is actually tiring. Planning ahead, we had set up a lunch with hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, macaroni and cheese, chips, dips, and brownies. With a menu like that, there was no problem in getting everyone off the river and over to the tent. We ate until no one could walk. Or swim. Then we folded the tent, and called it a day. We did not get any river pictures, but we did get one of lunch.
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Tekmos' Blog
Tekmos' Blog
The concept behind a Unify SiP (System in a Package) is to stack die within a package using a Tekmos ASIC to include additional functionality and resolve testing and interconnect issues. Because this is a new approach to high density circuits, many are unaware of the details. This requires us to explain it through brochures and other marketing material.
Tekmos New SIP Business Card
The first step is to create a drawing that shows how everything fits together. We normally allow our outside artists considerable leeway in how they do our graphics. But in this case, we had to get it to be technically right. We asked our artist to draw a 4 chip Unify SiP, with our ASIC, a processor that was attached via flip-chip, an RF chip, and topped off with a MEMS. You can see the completed artwork below. We are going to use the artwork in a Unify brochure, on a business card sized brochure with a real chip for reference, and on our trade show booth.
Normally, images are drawn, which makes them hard to modify. We also asked our designer to create this image using 3-D Adobe software. This allowed us to make multiple changes in how the die were stacked and the relative sizes of the die. And it leaves the door open to future efforts to animate the drawing so that we can show how the die go together. We plan for the animation to be in the form of an animated GIF for the web, an animated PowerPoint slide, and perhaps a short video. And that's the background on our new Unify artwork.
Tekmos celebrated its year end get together at the Texas Land & Cattle Restaurant with a very tall Christmas tree looming over the festivities. There was a full house of Tekmos team members along with their families enjoying choices of smoked sirloin, prime rib, Cesar salads with lime cilantro dressing, creamed spinach, salmon, and barbecue shrimp. Lynn Reed wore his traditional Christmas tie and a Santa hat. Carole Reed is saluted for organizing a smooth celebratory event. The only hitch was that very large Christmas tree of which no one had control.
The Zilker Tree is located in Zilker Park just around the corner from the restaurant where Tekmos employees and family gathered. Every year the tree is lit for the holiday season and every year 400,000 plus people drive, walk, and bicycle to walk under, twirl and photograph themselves at the Zilker Tree as well as stroll through the Trail of Lights that winds through the park.
The Zilker tree stands 155 feet tall and is composed of 39 streamers, each holding 81 multicolored, 25-watt bulbs - totaling 3,309 lights. At the top of the tree, a double star measures 10 feet from point to point. The double star displays 150 frosted bulbs. This unique spiral pattern of lights was created by City of Austin electricians. At its circumference, the tree measures 380 feet. The diameter is 120 feet. The base of the tree is made up of 19 utility poles, each 14 feet tall, arranged in a circle around the Moonlight Tower.
On December 10, 1967, the first tree was lighted by Mayor Pro Tem Mrs. Emma Long. In subsequent years this honor has been awarded to the young winner of a city-wide tree coloring contest.
While the traffic slowed the arrival and departure to the Tekmos party, it also brought the spirit of the season to make the year end gathering memorable.
When it comes to reasons for Tekmos Team Members to gather for good food and celebration, they can always be invented, but this event was for our nation’s birth, the 4th of July, and a 3 day weekend. Every holiday Tekmos staff have a “potluck dinner” where each brings a favorite dish or, if one is culinary challenged, bring chips, corn on the cob or a store bought banana cream cake. Everyone is expected to pitch in.
On the menu for this 4th of July BBQ were hamburgers, bratwurst, corn on the cob, homemade potato salad by Alison, deviled eggs by Lynn, and celebratory mozzarella and cherry tomato hors d’oeuvre by Carole, hot artichoke spinach dip with grilled pita bread by Leslie, cole slaw by Zeta, and homemade apple pie by Jon’s son, Ryan.
Food specialties were shared from favorite family traditions and recipes. The designated Tekmos griller is Phil, Tekmos’ all around machine guru. Phil’s family owned a steak house so it was only natural that he would take Bison burger and hamburger to make specialty burgers. An added bonus is that Bison is a very lean meat and healthier. They were cooked to perfection.
The piece de resistance of the 4th of July Barbecue was Jon’s son, Ryan’s homemade apple pie, a recipe passed down from his great grandmother. The apple pies were served with fresh whipped cream, not from the container.
The 4th of July annual celebration of the founding of our nation is often celebrated with fireworks, picnics, barbecues, and favorite summertime dishes of hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and apple pie. You can’t get more American than that.