HDMI-1.3 Specification

Been reading up on the release of version 1.3 of the HDMI standard. HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. Seen many comments on the major changes and how it renders the previous versions obsolete ~ HDMI 1.3 is backward compatible.

The High-Definition Multimedia Interface is provided for transmitting digital television audio visual
signals from DVD players, set-top boxes and other audio-visual sources to television sets,
projectors and other video displays. HDMI can carry high quality multi-channel audio data and can carry all standard and high definition consumer electronics video formats. HDMI can also carry control and status information in both directions.

I checked each of my Digital Audio/Video Receivers, both made by Sony. I have an STR-DE485 which is a 5-to-1 system, and a STR-DE995 7-to-1 system. Neither of these 'control centers' have an HDMI port. And I was worried I had an earlier version than 1.3. Both of these units are still 'like new', what now I need this HDMI interface? Component review; I like both AV systems.

I didn't bother checking the HD TV because I wouldn't mind changing that out for a larger one. Same for the DVD players, I'll change them out for a newer Blu-Ray, or the other one when things calm down in the DVD wars.

XML Site Map

I noticed over the last month of adding pages [about 28 new pages] that Google has not cached any of them. Normally I except a month delay without up-loading a site-map, but I'd been adding those new pages to the"what new blog" ~ blogger, run by Google.

Hmm, Google should be out there spidering those pages as I up-date them, not sure why they are not showing up.

I also noticed that GSiteCrawler reports the same number of links as last month [Nov 8]. Not sure what the crap it's checking ~ I hit the re-crawl button. This will be a hit on the server bandwidth. The program now reports a 239K file instead of a 236k file, like before. Also 1603 URL's now instead of 1563 URL's ~ you always have to run it twice, or the program stats aren't updated? It forced me to run the program a second time ......

Althought you can find all the new pages by a product search, by going deeper into the icon tree, they do not show up in a search. Of course the internal site search and external Google search are the same. So even if you perform a local site search, the page will not show up until Google has spidered the page ~ that's not so good.

Google now reports that 1603 URL's have been submitted via the xml sitemap

Declining PC Interface Buses

Following the previous post on the decline of the RS232 bus, I checked the other common PC buses found on computers. Because the article contains a number of graphics I up-loaded it to Google base as a holder for the pictures, the text is duplicated below. Simply mouse over the pictures to see the search trends: Interface Bus Search Terms.

The attached files show the search trends for a number of PC interface buses. The graphs show the number of searches on the terms indicated, all were common PC buses over the last decade.

The SCSI bus shows a large decline in search traffic. SCSI was always an expensive interface to implement and really used mostly by high-end or enterprise users. So it's understandable that when Serial SCSI [SAS] came out users would quickly migrate to using the faster SAS bus.

The RS232 bus used as the main serial interface on the PC for years, is now being left off new computer systems in favor of the USB port. There are a number of reasons to drop the RS232 interface, the size of the 9-pin D connector is just one reason, speed is another.

The term Printer Port also shows a decline in searchs. Printer Port is a generic term used to describe the connector located either on the printer or a PC. A Printer Port may refer to a Centronics interface, IEEE-1284 interface or another other interface used on a printer. However; now that USB and Ethernet connections are showing up on printers it's safe to assume that the searches are being done using those terms.

The Centronics printer port was used on computers almost from the beginning of the PC age. However in the mid 90's the centronics bus started to be replaced by the IEEE-1284 interface which happen to be a better well define standard. By 2005, the IEEE1284 was being left off printers in favor of an Ethernet and/or a USB port.

The PCI bus still exists on PC Motherboards, but is slowing being replaced by the newer faster PCI Express bus [PCIe]. But the decline of PCI has been slower than other interface standards due to the slow implementation of boards using the 1x PCIe interface. While the 16x PCIe slot started to replace the AGP expansion slot by the very first year of release. Note the large increase in searches for the term PCIe.

The AGP interface seems to be hanging on in the PC upgrade market. Not sure how many motherboards are still shipping with an AGP interface.

The Firewire interface doesn't seem to be popular any longer.

The ISA bus [ATbus] also is showing a decline, but not as great as expected. The ISA bus was rendered obsolete by the PCI bus years ago. It could be that as long as industrial legacy computers continue to function they don't require replacement.

The main interface between PC motherboards and Hard Disk Drives [HDD] use to be the IDE [ATA] interface; however most newer models shipped are now using the Serial ATA bus [SATA]. Serial ATA is much faster than normal ATA. Note the increase for the term SATA

The old Floppy Drive is also in decline. With the low cost of USB thumb drives there is no longer a need for a floppy disk drive. Many new computer systems no longer ship with a floppy drive. But you can always purchase an external Floppy drive, normally with a USB interface to the computer.

So, all these buses were common terms just a few years ago, but don't even exist on most new personal computers shipped today.

The demise of RS232

Back in Dec 05 I posted a blog about the future of RS232. I Indicated that RS232 was basically obsolete. Early this year some one commented on that post with their disagreement and rational.

Of course I was referring to the commercial usage of RS232, there are just to many legacy systems deployed for the military to drop RS232. However, I still don't think new systems should use an RS232 interface. RS232 is specified to drive 10 meters while USB only travels out to 4 meters, but you could use a hub to extend the USB cable. For longer distances without a hub I'd recommend using RS422, or RS485.

Still most computers are not shipping with a RS232 connector on the rear panel any longer. This post shows one style of the newer version of a motherboard I/O panel. I think Dell computers dropped the RS232 interface last year, while Apple dropped it 3 years ago. Users always have the option of adding an expansion card to there computer to add RS232 capability.

Any how, the graphic is google search history for the term RS232. The original post follows:

.... The picture shown above depicts the back panel I/O found on some newer mother boards. Comparing that picture with the one at the bottom of this post and the difference becomes obvious. The RS-232 and IEEE-1284 connectors have been replaced by a heat sink. The video interface has also been removed.

It makes perfect sense to remove the RS232 interface and the other two connectors from the back of computers. The video interface is normally found on the video card, so the 15-pin D-sub connector is not required. Many video cards ship with a DVI and VGA connector, so why have another one the mother board. The 25-pin parallel port connector is out dated. Many new printers ship with an Ethernet port which is much faster then the IEEE-1284 interface bus. With over 6 USB ports to handle any required peripheral, and 2 circular DINs to accommodate a keyboard and mouse the RS-232 interface is just not required.

When you add all this up, the benefit to removing these out-dated interfaces translate to higher speed peripheral connections, reduced cost by eliminating 3 large connectors, and the better use of the motherboard back panel.

In the three different mother boards I looked at the free space was taken up by a heat sink and fan. Both used to vent heat from the chip set ICs

The Apple computers removed the RS232 bus and IEEE-1284 [Printer Port] bus some time ago. The RS232 interface is dead and should not be used for new designs. The IEEE-1284 interface is dead. The 15-pin VGA interface is dead on the newer mother boards. These interfaces should start to disappear next year ...

Anonymous said...

I disagree. While RS232 may be dying in the consumer world, it is found everywhere in industry, even in new designs. I bought a laptop three weeks ago, and one of the primary factors in deciding what to buy was having an onboard serial port so I wouldn't have to carry around an often unreliable USB to serial adapter. RS232, and especially RS485 and RS422, while possibly not even on the radar anymore in the consumer world, are guaranteed to be alive and kicking in commercial/industrial/military applications for years to come. Sure, it makes sense to save the space on a piece of crap off the shelf computer from Emachines... but doing so means you're effectively cutting out a segment of the market. The same applies for 1284, though admittedly to a lesser extent. I watched a company buy 17 new computers for employees who each had their own printer at their desks without checking if the computers came with 1284 ports. They ended up buying 17 USB to parallel adapters because it made more sense than throwing away all the older printers that still work great. Sure, it works... but that's just annoying. Let's never take anything out of Apple's playbook. If people want a Mac, they'll buy one, and they'll be so preoccupied with the things Apple tells them they can do on it that they can't think of the things Apple won't let them do.

Web Site Maintenance

The server for interfacebus.com provides two statistics generators or counters; one is AWSTATS, and the other is Webalizer.

Webalizer has a chart that shows the top 30 files being downloaded - or taking up the most bandwidth. A few weeks ago I moved a jpeg off this server to another server I use [server bandwidth post], saving 700MB/month. That particular pic no longer shows up in the top 30 list, reducing the strain on my server.

Now I'm looking at some of the other files in that same chart. I optimized a few css files and few html files. The css files are relatively small, but get download regardless of the page being displayed. One html page in particular for example: AWG Wire Chart was 42,116 bytes. Now that page has been optimized down to 27,388 bytes ~ by removing non-text related spaces in the HTML code. That's a saving of 14,728 bytes per download. Not including web spiders, that page was viewed 13,211 times over the last 30 days ~ That's a reduction of 194,561,608 bytes!

The CanBus page was reduced 5k bytes for a savings of 49,385,000 bytes per month!
The DVI Bus page was reduced by 4k for a reduction of 311,520,000 bytes per month!
The USB Interface was reduced by 3k for a reduction of 229,560,000 bytes per month!
Final savings in server bandwidth = 785,026,608 bytes per months.
Add that to the jpeg moving off the server and you end up with a reduction of bytes served by 1.5GB of data.... Plus faster down loads.

I assume the extra spaces were brought in when the pages was upgraded to XHTML. Anyway, next month I should see a new group of pages in the top 30 list from the page counter.

Engineering Dictionary

I took a look at how a section of the web site was doing, in this case the Electronic Dictionary section.

Here are the page views by month:




Jan: 8,254
Feb: 8,046
Mar: 8,814
Apr: 8,584
May: 7,974
Jun: 7,183
Jul: 6,707
Aug: 7,427
Sep: 9,270
Oct: 11,269

I can't tell yet if the increase in page impressions is due to adding additional pages to that section, or what. This month has 5,914 page views so far from about 279 different pages. I didn't take the time to look up how many pages made of the Glossaries section in previous months.

Update [9/23/09]; I'm not really sure what I'm counting here? There is a very small section that uses the term 'dictionary' in the address but that only amounts to a few web pages. A much larger section using the term 'glossary' in the web address is out there, but those pages do not add up to the numbers listed above either [as in Engineering Glossary].

So I no longer know what these numbers represent, maybe the addition of all the different dictionary sections? I really don't know! lets disregard this posting from now on........ Editor

Oh, the graphic is copied from the Dictionary of Capacitor Terms..

Super Bright LED diodes-

Ever see those traffic signs that use dozens of LEDs instead of an incandescent bulb. Well you should expect to see them more and more. As of Jan 2006 the government imposed a maximum wattage the traffic signal could use, 17 watts, which is much less that a comparable 130 watt incandescent lamp. Many of the traffic signals were traded out years ago

These Bright LED modules cost more than there incandescent counterparts, but also last ten years instead of the two years for incandescent's.

Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
Any traffic signal module or pedestrian module manufactured on or after January 1, 2006, shall meet both of the following requirements:
(a) Have a nominal wattage no greater than: [only higher wattage for 74C is shown]
12" Red Ball ........................................... 17 watts
8" Red Ball ............................................. 13 watts
12" Red Arrow ...................................... 12 watts
12" Green Ball ....................................... 17 watts
8" Green Ball ......................................... 13 watts
12" Green Arrow .................................. 12 watts
Combination Walking Man/Hand ...... 16 watts
Walking Man ......................................... 12 watts
Orange Hand ......................................... 16 watts
(b) Be installed with compatible, electrically connected signal control interface devices and conflict monitoring systems.

Pedestrian module means a light signal used to convey movement information to pedestrians.
Traffic signal module means a standard 8-inch (200 mm) or 12-inch (300 mm) traffic signal indication that—
(1) Consists of a light source, a lens, and all other parts necessary for operation; and
(2) Communicates movement messages to drivers through red, amber, and green colors.

LED light sources for traffic signals offer significant energy savings over incandescent lamps. LED signals also last much longer than incandescent signals (7 to 10 years instead of 2 years) and fail less frequently. The additional benefit is the reduced power consumption (10 to 22 Watts) for LED bulbs compared to the typical energy consumption of incandescent bulb (135 Watts); the savings from the low energy use of LED signals can be 80% to 93% and will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

... If all of the three million traffic signals in the United States were converted to LEDs, some three billion kilowatt-hours of electricity would be saved annually ..... Electricity is generated by coal or nuclear plants, so oil imports aren't effected.

You can also find these bright LEDs in flash lights and in normal 'light bulb' configurations [Edison Screw Base]. However many still insist that fluorescent bulbs provide a better alternative to an incandescent bulb. The amount of light given off and it's relative color are two reasons why a Super Bright LED lamp does not fit well in some in-door light applications. LED bulbs also cost more to operate than fluorescent bulbs.

FeedBurner Subscribers

Feedburner is the feed used so that a newsreader can be used to view this blog.

The graphic shows which reader is used as the news reader. Most use Firefox [50%], which is interesting because, most people that visit the web site use Internet Explorer [69.47%].

Feedburner is just another way to get the word out about the blog

Xenu's Link Sleuth

I ran Xenu today checking for bad links. Here is part of the full report:

ok	5758 URLs	99.21%
user skip	1 URLs	0.02%
no such host	11 URLs	0.19%
not found	8 URLs	0.14%
no info to return	1 URLs	0.02%
server error	2 URLs	0.03%
no connection	9 URLs	0.16%
no object data	1 URLs	0.02%
forbidden request	7 URLs	0.12%
timeout	4 URLs	0.07%
the resource is no longer available	1 URLs	0.02%
auth required	1 URLs	0.02%
Total	5804 URLs	100.00%

Memory size boards

I added a few pages tonight. One new page included DIMM form factors, or DDR II card sizes. In addition to that page, a number of pages were also added which may be found at the site's new up-dates page.

Because of the dozen new pages over the last few weeks, Google was informed with a new up-loaded site map. GSiteCrawler reported 1202 pages to be crawled, with 1562 pages included in the site map.

I also removed a few Linkshare banners. I'd received an e-mail indicating an ad campaign had come to an end ~ didn't know if that ment the banners would go away or what, so I just removed the banners. This site is not making any money from Linkshare any way, so no harm done.

Norton Anti-Virus Review

I use Norton on one of my computers to work as anti virus software.

There are defiantly two things I don't like about Norton Anti-virus.

First, the computer takes forever to boot up. Norton always wants to down load it's latest virus definition each time I turn the computer on ~ well sometimes I would like to get some work done. I run only high-end computers, and I would always like to have the most up-to-date software. But I would sometime like to sit down and use the computer.

Second; many times norton upgrades it self, it wants a re-boot. Well I'm five minutes into working on the computer after waiting 5 minutes for the boot up time. Than I get a message, Norton want to upgrade ~ well ok. When you say yes to the up-date, you get re-booted. I canceled out buy hitting the 'x' on the window, not saying yes, but the system still started to reboot.

Who thinks this crap up? Maybe it time to look around for another software package.

AWSTATS

Not much going on, just normal site up-dates.

I did start a new blog to handle site updates, to indicate when new pages are added. It's another blogger site called serial interface buses. I had been using a blog out on windows live called interfacebus.com updates. I'm not sure if I'll keep updating the MS site or not.

The chart shows data collected from AWSTATS.

Unique Visitor:
A unique visitor is a host that has made at least 1 hit on 1 page of your web site during the current period shown by the report. If this host make several visits during this period, it is counted only once. The period shown by default is the current month. Average = 138,158
Visits:
Number of visits made by all visitors.
Think "session" here, say a unique IP accesses a page, and then requests three others without an hour between any of the requests, all of the "pages" are included in the visit, therefore you should expect multiple pages per visit and multiple visits per unique visitor. Average = 198,380
Pages:
The number of "pages" logged. HTML files. Average = 344,807

Server Bandwidth

I took a look at webalizer, one of the counters located on the server.

I notice that the header pic used for the Dictionary section and Alphabetic Manufacturers sections of the web site used 738949 kBytes or 756,683,776 bytes! The jpg is a 112 kbyte graphic. So I loaded the graphic up to Google pages and changed the CSS file controlling those sections to grab the file from Google pages and not from my server. That should save my server from down loading 700 MBytes each month.

The Dictionary section had 9,941 page impressions, and the Manufacturers section had 1,860 page impressions last month. I think the How-To Design an Equipment Chassis section also used that format, another 1,158 impressions. Any other section that used the same CSS file will automatically switch over.

I also change this blog template so that the icons shown at the bottom of these pages come from Google Pages and not from my server.

The server provides 50 GBytes of bandwidth, and the site only uses about 15 GBytes, so there was no danger of being fined for exceeding the bandwidth limit. However what this does is take the strain of the server, so files are coming in from two different servers making the page show up faster ~ assuming both servers are working correctly.

I also changed the HTML code on each of the main Dictionary sub-sections so they grab there navigation icons from Google, there are several sections covering different topics.

Site Visits

October's data is in:
146,700 Unique visitors
219,642 Total visits
350,920 Viewed pages
2,981,629 Hits

I'm not really sure what the difference is between Hits and Page views ..
Total unique visits for the year: 1,381,584

Page views are twice this number, see the Nov 4 post.