ReadyBoost Compatiblity with Windows 7

ReadyBoost is a procedure for using a USB flash drive to augment system memory in a windows PC. ReadyBoost started with the introduction of Windows XP, and continues with Windows Vista and now Windows 7.

I've already written a Google Knol on a basic introduction to ReadyBoost on Vista so this posting really relates to Windows 7. Read more on the USB Interface, part of an Engineering Web Site.

Basically ReadyBoost allows a user to plug in a USB thumb drive [or other flash memory card] into a USB slot and set that USB drive to act like available system memory [boosting main memory]. I did try using ReadyBoost with Windows Vista on my previous computer but never really noticed any change. However three weeks ago I purchased a new computer, which I'd like to check out.

The new PC is a Dell Studio XPS8100, with an Intel Core i7-870 processor running at 2.93GHz, using
8GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory and 8MB cache. Like any personal computer the Dell uses revision 2.0 of the USB standard. Although there are 3.0 USB flash drives, there do not seem to be any computers supporting revision 3.0 of the USB spec yet.

Anyway I figured I would investigate how Windows 7 handles ReadyBoost. First off I see that Windows 7 does support ReadyBoost, but recommends adding a flash drive having a minimum of twice the system memory [16GBytes in my case].

Doing a quick check at one retailer I find that a 16GB USB thumb drive costs from $22.99 to 79.99. By comparison four 4GB DDR3 memory sticks [16GB] cost $290. So the main memory might be costing more than 3 times that of the same size thumb drive, but it's also operating much faster than the USB drive. So USB and ReadyBoost are a quick and cheap fix to enhance system operation. It doesn't matter, I don't need to purchase more memory for a PC I just received, but I would like to see how ReadyBoost works. I only use 24% of the PCs memory now anyway [indicated by some gadget on the desktop].

The price range variation in thumb drives brings in the next issue Windows 7 had with USB drives. Microsoft indicates that ReadyBoost will only work with "Fast" flash memory, and will not function with "Slow" flash memory. The help file goes on to say that some flash memory devices may contain a combination of both. So USB thumb drives using slow flash memory will not work at all, while 'faster' USB drives may not be able to use all their available memory [the 'slow' portion]. The definition or difference between fast flash memory and slow flash memory alludes me. The difference between fast and slow may explain the wide range in prices between USB drives; that being $29.99 is slow memory and $79.99 fast memory.

Most of the USB drives I just looked at did not indicate any transfer speed, although I do list them from one particular manufacturer below. Having no transfer speed data, and no knowledge of what a 'fast' transfer speed is anyway, indicates that I should only purchase a USB thumb drive that indicates that it is ReadyBoost compatible and maybe even Windows 7 compatible [in case this fast/slow issue is new to Windows 7].

Of the four different 16GB thumb drives available from one particular store, only one indicates that it supports ReadyBoost. Others do indicate that they perform fast transfers but it seems more of a comparison to USB version 1 than any indication of true transfer speed. Looks like I'll be ordering a 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive from PNY in the next few days to test out ReadyBoost.

USB 2.0 Transfer Speeds:
Read Speeds; 10MB/sec., 24MB/sec., 25MB/sec., 30MB/sec.
Write Speeds; 5MB/sec, 8MB/sec., 10MB/sec., 20MB/sec. 

Note that the USB standard does use terms like Slow-speed, Full-speed and High-speed, but how many people read a technical specification? Regardless, how do the terms used in the USB spec relate to fast and slow used by Microsoft?

I'll up-date the post when I receive the new thumb drive, lets hope I don't lose it at the rate I'm losing all my other thumb drives.

What Video Card Should I get

As of 2010 there are currently 4 major video interfaces used on either computers, PC monitors, televisions or both. The oldest is the VGA interface which started to appear on PCs in 1987.

The VGA interface has been upgraded a number of times and is now called the SVGA interface, although everyone still uses the generic term VGA to describe the interface [see note]. Even with its age and the fact that its the only analog interface left on a PC, it can still be found on the latest monitors and TVs for compatibility.


The search trend below tells the story, search interest in the term VGA [orange] has only dropped off slightly in the last 6 years. Now, there is no way to tell because the data is normalized, but the drop represents a large reduction in the number of searches.

The DVI connector is the second oldest video interface. The DVI was introduced in 1990 as a replacement to the analog VGA interface and was capable of both analog or digital operation. However the introduction of HDMI made the adaption fall off in the last few years. In fact the organization that developed the DVI specification disbanded in 2006. The graph shows a drop in DVI interest [Red], falling at about the same rate as the VGA interface. But at this point I think every body knows what a VGA interface is, its been twenty years.


The two interfaces showing an increase in searches are the HDMI output and the DisplayPort interface. From the graph, interest in HDMI appears to be growing faster the disinterest in DVI or VGA; but that make sense with so many fielded systems using either VGA or HDMI. The large spikes represent increased searches, probably due to news articles or new products being introduced.


The blue line down at the bottom of the graph represents Google searches for the term DisplayPort. It may appear that there is no interest in the new DisplayPort video interface, but that is only when compared to the vast number of searches being conducted for the other video card types. If you happen to zoom in, or re-normalize the graph with out the other video interfaces than the increase becomes apparent [shown below].

 Interest in Displayport has doubled over the last few years, up four fold from its release date.

Many times when a interface standard is released it takes another year before products begin to hit the market. In the case of a video standard you need at least two different manufacturers producing products; one selling a video card and a different manufacturer selling a computer monitor. Then there's the issue of demand; a company making PC monitors may not want to go to the expense of designing a new interface when the mating interface is not yet available on a video card. So in some cases it may take a few years for a new video standard to take hold.

For example DisplayPort may have been released in 2007, but video cards with a DisplayPort interface may not have appear until 2008 followed sometime later by computer monitors.

Anyway the best video monitor interface to use is DisplayPort, or HDMI on a TV. They're both digital interfaces, but HDMI is more common than DisplayPort.

Note; The search trend for the term VGA shows a dramatic drop in search usage from 2004 to 2007 and a steady decline onward. But when compared to the term SVGA, SVGA does not even register on the same graph. In other words the term VGA is being searched for 20 to 25 times more than the term SVGA.

In general I keep my PC for around two years and the monitors for about four years. The two AOC 2436 monitors I'm currently using [AOC 2436-vh review] has both a HDMI and VGA interfaces. So they don't have the newest DisplayPort interface or the out-dated DVI interface, but a good  mix of both analog and digital connectors. My Dell SX8100 computer uses an ATI Radeon HD 5770 video card with dual-link DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI outputs. Note the lack of a VGA interface
.

AOC 2436vh LCD Monitor Review

I purchased a new Dell PC a few weeks ago which I don't want to review for a few more days. However I do want to review the AOC monitor I purchase at the same time. The AOC was a seperate purchased that did not come with the Dell.

The AOC monitor is a 24 inch wide screen, longer than wider. It seems like a nice display but the problem I have with it is the display size. Currently I have almost a 1 inch black border around the display which means I really have a 22 inch monitor and not a 24 inch which I purchased. A blank border as in no information is displayed, so is unusable.

I've tried using the soft keys on the display to correct the display problem, but either the monitor will not fill in the display or I can't figure out the correct key sequence.

AOC has a video [animated] help sequence showing the bottom sequence for a similar monitor, but I just couldn't follow it. To get to the soft screen buttons I need, I have to turn other functions off [I think]. But if I can't figure how to change the screen size in 20 minutes, than my opinion is they got it wrong. For what ever reason the AOC site does not have any help files out under the 2436vh selection.

Now I could have wrote a review out at Best Buy, maybe to help some one else thinking about buying this monitor, but I didn't want to create an account. Or I didn't want tons of e-mail from Best Buy for the rest of my life. There was a comment in their reviews section that mentioned the softkeys, but it was only one out of 5 reviews. There are also a few requests for help out on the web with the same border issue, but as usually there are no answers, just more comments.

I would not recommend buying the AOC 2436vh because I can't figure out how to adjust the screen size. If an electrical engineer can't figure out how to adjust the screen size I wouldn't expect a normal PC user to solve the problem either.

I'm using
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium.
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5770, with 1 GB GDDR5 video memory [HDMI connection]
Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080 [which is recommended], Landscape

I also have another 18 inch monitor connected to the same video card [at a different resolution], but that shouldn't matter. I plan to replace the 18" also but not with an AOC monitor. I'm glad I only purchased one monitor with the computer. Maybe next week I'll go out and get a replacement monitor, after I do a bit more research. Also see Companies making PC Monitors.

At least I got a blog post out of this. I'll append an up-date when I get the next monitor. I'll look around for a factory reset also.

About three hours after I wrote this post I changed the monitor resolution and the display filled the screen. Now I had tried that before but only the next lower resolution which the monitor indicated was not support, while this last time I took it down one more notch. Two hours after I got the screen resolution right I received an e-mail from AOC asking if I had tried to reduce the screen resolution, which is good because I had only posted a question to their support a few hour before. Regardless, I still don't like how they do their soft screen controls.

So the reason why the 2436vh hdmi does not fill screen is because of the computer resolution setting. I'm using HDMI for this monitor, and all the seach phrases I've seen include the term HDMI [including searches finding this page].

The monitor defaults to the highest resolution the display will handle, which in turn leads to dead-space around the visible display. The highest resolution is 1920 x 1080. However the Resolution I'm using now is 1680 x 1050, but I'm also using a screen with an aspect ratio of 16:9. So I can't tell if it's a monitor issue, an aspect ratio issue or an HDMI issue.

Digital Living Network Alliance Products

I mentioned this DLNA certified BluRay player yesterday, thinking I might need it. I'm sure I would like to have DLNA but that may be years away. Because except for the BluRay player which I haven't even purchased yet no other gear that I have is compatible and I see no need to change any thing out until they break. Wireless stuff would be nice but I don't really think I would ever use any of it. I gave away the spare PC I had connected to the HDTV because I never used it, that was wireless too, but not to the TV. I assume the BluRay player would be called a Digital Media Player [DMP].

I would like a new PC but I've been waiting to figure out what they were going to do with USB 3.0 and for PCI-Express 3.0 to be released So I'm about a year away from getting a new PC, but maybe I don't need one [New PC Posting 4/23/10]. The Digital Living Network Alliance indicates that I would need a DLNA certified Network Attached Storage [NAS] device, which I could get instead of a new PC (I guess). I'm not really sure why I would need a network drive when a DLNA certified PC should work, I assume. I'm not really sure if a NAS is the same as a DMS [Digital Media Server] [HDD Vendors].

So the 2 year old 47" flat screen I just blogged about the other day does not appear to be compatible. The 53" or 57" floor model out in the front room has to be 10 years old and the 37" CRT in the back room is even older so this whole idea of caring about DLNA is out the window. I could be years away from getting a new TV.

So it would appear this blog posting is pointless, unless it helps someone like me to understand that unless their buying a whole new system DLNA is just not required.

DVD Player No Disk

I just tried out my KLH 221 DVD player after years of having the thing sitting in my closet. The company is either called KLK Audio or KLH Audio Systems, but I'm not sure of the correct name. Any way I haven't used the thing for about 5 years, and I have no idea when I purchased the player. I had the DVD player setup in a back room that I never used, so it never got a lot of play time, but it was working several years ago.

I tried 3 or 4 DVDs in it yesterday but each time the LCD screen would just display 'No disk', which I assume means it could not read the DVD. However now that I'm thinking about it I don't recall the thing even spinning up. I tried rebooting a few times by pulling the plug but nothing seemed to work. Maybe I'll try it out one more time. Now I did try a quick web search for the model KLH 221, but I couldn't find much or a manual. Most of the web posting were just 'trash' sites with the same re-posts over and over. It could be that this DVD player is almost ten years old, I think it was the first one I ever purchased. Could it be because the CMOS battery went bad and the player no longer remembers how to work, maybe I need some reset code? Oh the remote was still working, that was a surprise.

I do have another DVD player in the front room that I've wanted to replace with a BluRay player. So I guess it's time for a new BluRay for the front room and moving that DVD player into the back room, replacing the one that no longer works. I would have rather purchased a new BluRay in my own time and not because some other system failed. I already have a BluRay in my office, and I may just re-purchase another new Sony BluRay player. I like Sony gear for the front room because that would match the other Sony gear and should work with the Sony remote I use out there.

I see a few reviews that the newer BluRays are loading the disk faster, it's about time. I also see some that have DLNA capability, I guess I want that. I'll have to look around for a few more days.


Just in case the chart in the previous post is a bit busy or hard to read I show the same data a different way. It should be a little easier to see that the site is still doing better than any previous year, but down these last few months because that's the mid-year trend. Of course the visits are way down, but I've always found that the higher the hits the bigger the drops. Maybe one more month before hits start to increase again. Click the image for a larger view of the data.

Mezzanine Buses

There are a great many Mezzanine buses, some more out-dated than others. Mezzanine cards are small form factor boards that reside as a daughter card on a VME or cPCI mother-board to name a few interfaces. Mezzanine cards to not directly interface to the main system backplane as does VME for example. Most of the Mezzanine interface on this site are represented by two separate pages; one page carries the particular board manufacturers and another page covers the description of the electrical interface and mechanical form factor.

The oldest of the current Mezzanine board formats on the market is the IP Card or Industry Pack I/O Modules. Basically a non-intelligent board format used in a number of systems, a bit dated at this point in time, but there are still Companies Producing IP Modules. Page views are almost down to zero for this board format, which seems odd as it was an I/O based module.

The M-Module which is just as old still receives a few page views, but there doesn't appear to be much support in Producing M-Module Cards.

The mezzanine board format that replaced the IP board was the PMC format, or PCI Mezzanine Card. The PMC board added a controller but still allowed for any required I/O, previously handled by the IP card. So there are still many Companies Producing PMC Boards. A variant of the PMC interface is the PMC-X format. Both of these board standards used the PCI bus as the electrical interface, so really they are somewhat out dated [PCI Card Manufacturers].

The follow-on to the PMC standard was the PPMC interface, or Processor PMC format. There are a few companies that Produce PPMC Boards which were true processor based cards, on a PCI bus. Another related was board format is the PTMC Interface, or Telcom PMC standard [still using the PCI electrical interface].

These are all open standards so the board specifications could be used on any carrier card, but some interfaces were designed specifically for the VME bus, others for the cPCI Interface, and still others for the AdvancedTCA Interface. The AMC Mezzanine card was designed to interface to the new ATCA standard, being relatively new there is a small but growing number of Companies Producing AMC Boards.

Additional mezzanine boards include FMC,  and XMC standards.

AMDs 6-Core Processor

Did I just read an article saying AMD would come out with a new six-core processor for a mere $200. I think it may be time to up-grade my PC and get a new one. What; I'll have to upgrade to the new MS OS, what ever that is. I'll have to go out and find out what people are saying about OS7 [Windows 7]

Windows 7

-- Improved performance with multi-core processors
-- Improved boot performance
-- Does not yet support USB 3.0 [available with SP1 late 2010]
Desktop
-- No USB 3.0 support yet [that I found]
-- PCI Express 3.0 not yet been released [later this year]
-- Serial ATA revision 3.0 [no products found yet]
-- DDR3  [mainstream support]
Ok I guess this blog posting is pointless. I would like the 6-core processor, but not at any cost. My office applications wouldn't even really see any advantage any way. But more importantly I find no support for USB 3.0 or Serial ATA version 3.0. I also don't want Windows 7 before the first service pack.

So why purchase a PC that will be out-of-date 6 months after I get it. By next year all USB drives will be USB 3.0. I'm not sure if I would wait for PCIe 3.0 support, I'd be waiting another year. So no new PC for me this year, I'd just end up giving it away 6 months later.

I did note that the AMD3 socket processor style is out. ~
Six core AMD Processors; Phenom II X6 1055T and Phenom II X6 1090T

Test Equipment Manufacturers

Just at random I figured I would check how the small section of Test Equipment Manufacturers was doing. The page count, or the number of pages in the section has been stable for a while. The last addition was Thermal Test Chambers added back in Feb 2008. Before that the Frequency Counter page was added in Nov. 2007. All the other pages predate those additions and never showed up in the other blog...

So which page is doing the worst so far this year; LXI Test Equipment. Now I just saw an article, from last year, about how LXI was growing but I can't tell from the hits I'm getting. Also because I always update a page I blog about, a new manufacturer was added, which seem to be pushing LXI-VXI. It was my impression that LXI was competing with the HPIB interface. The difference being small, but HPIB gear is normally stand-alone equipment and VXI cards embedded in a chassis.
After that the page covering Thermal Image Manufacturers did the worst.
The rest of the pages in the section are listed below.
Spectrum Analyzer Manufacturers.
RF Power Meter Manufacturers.
OTDR Manufacturers.
Cable Tester Manufacturers.
Protocol Analyzer Manufacturers.
Used Test Gear.

While getting these links off the site I did notice that the page on Cable Testers has no page rank, not sure what is wrong here. The Cable Test page received more hits than five other pages in the section [which is not saying much] over the last 30 days. I see in Webmaster tools that no other external page links to it, that would effect the page rank.
Looking at last years data, these three pages did not even receive 1 visit per day [less then 365 page hits]:
LXI Test Gear, Thermal Chambers, and Frequency Counters......

The Demise of CableCard

Back in December the FCC came out with a media release indicating that CableCard was having only limited success. Other web sites change the phrase 'limited success' to 'total failure' of the CableCard approach pushed by the FCC. In fact back in September of last year the Consumer Electronics Association [CEA] went to the FCC complaining that it didn't appear that CableCard was doing anything for competition. So it seems that CableCard will have a very short life, what two years. Really zero years, I don't have any gear that uses a CableCard and have never even seen one.

One word about why I'm blogging about CableCard, and then I'll move on to re-posting two previous blog entries on the issue [with more back-ground information].

Checking last years analytics data I found that three of the four pages covering CableCard have received less than a dozen page views each for the year. I would expect a few more page views than that for a released standard, so I took notice and wondered why that was.
Here are the three CableCard pages and their visits [they differ only in pin-outs]:
S-Mode CableCard.  14 visits.
M-Mode CableCard.  13 visits.
CEA-679-Mode CableCard.  11 visits.

Blog Posting [10/5/06 CableCard]:    
CableCARD from what I have found so far is a 16-bit PC Card in a PCMCIA format. CableCARD was designed to replace the cable box from the cable company; any company could produce a CableCARD from the standard so you were not locked into renting from the cable company. This was the FCC.

CableCARD appears as a PCMCIA slot on the back of HDTV sets.

Any how version 1.0 came out last year [2005] from I understand and has a few draw backs. Information only flows one-way with CableCARD. So with CableCARD you are not able to use Pay-per-view because the card only receives signals from the cable company it does not send information out to them. Seems like a lot of people are already waiting for CableCARD 2.0 to come out to address the short comings of version 1.0.

So CableCARD from a hardware view is just another implementation of the PCMCIA card. Why they used the out-dated PC Card interface escapes me.

Blog Posting [8/27/07 CableCard]:  

I was out looking at Digital TV's on-line, up-dating the web sites listing for CableCard. This is a PCMCIA slot and PCMCIA card, a tuner card that can be inserted into a slot in the TV to replace a cable set-top box. Some TV descriptions indicate the term CableCard, while others indicate Digital Cable Ready [see below]. I was only able to find a few HDTV units from Hitachi which came with a CableCard slot. I see a few from Sony too. The CableCard allows the user to plug cable directly into a TV set without the need for a set-top box [STB]. CableCard slots may also be found on Digital Video Recorders [DVR]

Version 1 of CableCard was 'one-way' only so with out the cable decoder box things like 'pay-per-view' was unavailable. Version 2 released in June of this year should be fixing this problem [I have not yet reviewed it]. As of July 07 according to an FCC ruling; cable companies now have to supply set-top boxes that come with a removable CableCard. The ruling may bring CableCard back from the dead.

As far as PCs with a CableCard slot ~ forget it [for now]. CableCard interfaces are only available on Windows Vista machines and only with new OEM PC purchases. So you can't go to a store and purchase an up-grade to add CableCard, it has to be bundled with a new PC. Here's a quote;

"AMD's Digital Cable Tuner will only be available from PC manufacturers, and then only with a new Vista PC. There are no plans for support on Windows XP, nor are there any plans to sell the Digital Cable Tuner as a standalone product. "CableLabs has to know about every single system manufactured," ..... "They require full encryption and content protection, which means it's bound to Windows Media Center." HP has one: Digital Tuner-equipped m8010y.

Digital Cable Ready [DCR], this attribute describes a TV that incorporates a CableCARD slot to facilitate the reception of one-way digital cable content (which may include analog, digital, high-definition and/or premium programming) without the need for a set-top box. A CableCARD is typically provided for a nominal monthly fee by the cable provider. Sets may also use the term Digital Cable Turner.

So the CableCard standard was released in 2005, with only a few products available by 2007, crushed in 2009 and I assume no longer supported in any new product by 2010 [never being used by anybody]. However it is still mandated by the FCC, so they would have to change their rules.....

New Page Generation and Page Views

Figured I would look back over the year and check how a few of the new pages were doing. Most of these relate to Equipment Chassis stuff. There were many other new pages started over this last year, but these all relate to the same topic.

These numbers are really low, but that could just mean the topics will not bring in any traffic. So it might seem nice to generate a new page to bring in some traffic, just don't get your hopes up.

Cable Harness, Aug 16 2009, 220 page views
Equipment Cable Runs, Aug, 11 2009,  385 page views
 Equipment Rack Grounding, July 31 2009, 277 page views
Chassis Cable Retractors, May 21 2009, 145 page views 
Chassis Power Modules,  April 29 2009, 523 page views
Chassis Wire Selection,  April 29 2009, 286 page views
EPIC Express Cards, Jan 6 2009, 72 page views.

The numbers don't look so great, maybe one or two page views a day. The EPIC card has issues with just being new on the market, if there are any products at all.

Oh, so far interfacebus has 4,017,965 page views this year [regardless of these new pages].
SEO recommendation; keep generating new pages. Even if the new pages don't generate many new page views, you still may bring in new site visitors [which may come back].
Graphic; Chassis panel mount push button.

Proprietary Embedded Board Formats

I just happened to be checking a few of the COTS Board Manufacturer pages today. I noticed that the few pages I picked to update, at random, were receiving almost no incoming visits. It only took a few minutes before I realized that the three board formats I had updated were all proprietary standards. Really proprietary board formats, because I don't know that any board standard was ever released ~ other than a detailed data sheet so the board could be designed into an embedded system.

So I opened the STX Board Format page to do a routine update, or just to check to see it was up-to-date. Anyway I also opened site analytics to see how the page was doing for visits. That  board format receives almost no visitors, then I started to wonder why that was. That's when I noticed that the format was proprietary in nature.

There really is no reason for someone to visit my site for a board format that is only produced by one or two individual companies, unless they don't realize the standard is proprietary. So I can understand why the incoming visits to that page are so low. However; on the positive side, by listing the standard on the site the information is there to review if it ever comes up in conversation. That is, I don't have to claim ignorance, within minutes I know what the STX board is just by pulling up the page.

I figured I would then check a few other proprietary board standards, like E2Brain. Same story with this industrial format, except that this page received even lower page views by 30%. I pulled up the PISA board standard next. Now to my surprise the PISA format was getting 3x the page views even though I figured this format was obsolete. The PISA slot format is based on a modified PCAT slot connector, which by definition implies obsolesce because the industry moved onto PCI many years ago.

I don't have a point here, other then to indicate that some pages will never do well on the web, but they still deserve a place on interfacebus to insure the topic is covered; Industrial Embedded Board Formats.
I did make sure that the page clearly indicated that the board formats were proprietary......

Graphic; Single Board Computer [SBC]. Public Domain.

USB 3.0 Specification

Looks like the new USB standard is due out soon. Other than the transfer rate (4.8 Gbit/s, 600 MB/s) and some data about the new connectors I have not found any other data on the specification yet.

USB 3.0 products are not due out until at least 2009, so you still have awhile.

Update; so there are a few products starting to be introduced now, as of 9/09. Of course my PC will not take advantage of of 3.0 USB device and I don't have any planes on getting a new PC this year either.

So;
Description of USB 2.0.
Description of USB 3.0.

Military Robots

Ever notice the growing number of robotic systems that are coming out of the military. There appears to be a 2001 law pushing the number of un-manned systems. Guess that's why DARPA was running that unmanned vehicle contest every year.

Many of the robotic systems seem redundant, but I guess most are low production run test beds. The flying robots seem to be the most numerous being developed.
The military even has a road-map on development; it's a large pdf file [the link no longer works]. A number of systems are all ready deployed, with hundreds of robots operating in the field. Wow, flight hours for Unmanned Aerial Systems was 160,000 hours in 2006.

Most of the systems appear to be unarmed, so far....

Operating Fuses using AC or DC Voltages

I was reading one of the usenet groups the other day, and came across a posting I replied to. The poster was asking about available voltage ranges for fuses {AC voltages}, as he could not find the [absolute] correct voltage rating for a fuse. My reply was basically a quote right off the page for Manufacturers of Fuses.

"The voltage rating of the fuse does not indicate the operational voltage of the fuse. The voltage rating determines the maximum voltage that will not jump the gap between the elements after the fuse has already blown. So the fuse will operate at the rated voltage and any voltage below the rating. "

Someone replied back indicating that in fact I was not correct and that;

".. DC is a more severe condition. ... You should not use an AC rated fuse in a DC circuit. ..."

Followed by another poster who had this to say;

"The AC/DC differential tends to be glossed over a lot .... . One way this shows up as physical difference in AGC style fuses is that DC rated fuses are often ceramic rather than glass, presumably to contain the arc."

I took note of that reply and turned to the internet to research the issue. I came across a site that seem to indicate the same thing I was saying. In the mean time others replied as well. I posted the quote I found on the internet and also a quote from a US Military Standard.

"... once the fuse has opened, any voltage less than the voltage rating of the fuse will not be able to "jump" the gap of the fuse. Because of the way the voltage rating is used, it is a maximum rms voltage value. ..."

MIL-PRF-23419: Fuse selection: The following steps should apply in the selection of a fuse for any application: Step 1: Select a fuse with a voltage rating equal to or in excess of the circuit voltage.

Ya know, if it's good for the government. In fact the third section of MIL-PRF-23419 indicates this:

1.2.1.3 Voltage rating. The voltage rating is the maximum dc or ac root mean square (rms) voltage for which a fuse is designed (see 3.1). The voltage rating is identified by a numerical value followed by the letter "V".

In fact if one of the "/" documents are referenced you'll find that the maximum voltage rating provided does not indicate AC or DC values, just 125 V [MIL-PRF-23419/H].

It appears that the newsgroup thread has ended [at least until the week end], but I kept looking into the voltage issue. I came across data that I intend to add to a new page covering the Difference between AC & DC Fuses. Because of this blog entry, generating that new page, up-dating the sitemap, and adding a new page to the What's new Blog; the new page is just a copy of a per existing page with a new page address. I should get some data out there within 12 to 24 hours.

Caution; always check the IEC, NEC or any other standards body that regulates Fuses. Never rely on the web for information when it comes to personal safety.

New COTS Board Format

Ruggedized Enhanced Design Implementation [REDI]:

A new VME card format is out for release aimed at the new VPX and VXS VME card standards [EURO Card]. The new REDI standard adds much more than just a mechanical standard defined in the IEEE-1101 mechanical standard. The new REDI specification changes much from the old IEEE1101 spec and now tries to handle water cooled devices as well; in addition, to air cooled and conduction cooled boards.

What garbed my eye was the new card formats, really the same 3U/6U sizes, would now handle up to 500 watts. What? how big is my power supply now. The largest power supply I could purchase was 750 watts, now I have to provide 500 watts per slot. The only REDI backplane I've seen appears to be four slots or 2000 watts. How much does a 2000W power supply weigh, I assume it's a switching power supply.

Very few companies are producing VPX boards or VXS boards which are both still new card specifications. In addition, to date, both the VPX cards and VXS cards seems to comply with the older IEEE1101 standard and not the new VITA48 standard [which is yet to be released?].

Note: To make this blog post add a new web page, and add it to the sitemap I had to cut a corner. The two new pages that cover REDI or IEEE1101 listings are copies of another page, with additional notes ~ they are not ready to be released yet. But, no one should be able to find them other than from this blog listing. Also my main computer has begun malfunctioning, forcing me to my backup system.

I'll fix this post over the week end and expand to the posting via comments. The new pages will also be updated this week end, and will link the VPX description to the REDI page and the VME description to the IEEE1101 specification page.

Related links: Equipment Chassis Manufacturers.

USB Drive adds Permeate Memory to a Computer

I added one of my older USB thumb drives to my computer to add more memory to the computer system. Yes you can plug in a USB stick into a USB slot and tell the computer to add that memory to the system memory. The USB Thumb Drive is only a 512MB device, but it's a spare stick so why not increase the computer memory for free. The PC is a Velocity Micro with 2GB of DDR2 memory, via two 1GB memory modules. More about the current PC used to run the web site... Oh, I run MS VISTA.

When you plug in the USB stick a pop-up window will give you the option at adding into system memory, but may not. I tried this with a 1GB Geek Squad drive but did not see the option to add it into system memory. Once I looked at the drive I figured that because it seemed to be configured as a CD drive it would not let me. Remember many USB sticks are setup to read and lock the data so you can pull it out at any time. With USB system memory, you want it to read/write as fast as possible. So you may need to reformat the USB drive to see the option to add the drive into system memory.

So I should be able to add more data as a comment in a few days....

Web Pages Losing Page Rank

I'm still out checking some of these low producing pages. I've added comments to some of the previous posting, so you may need to click the title to see the added comment.

Any way I'm finding pages that were added to the site a year ago that are not showing a page rank. I know it could be a google issue, but I don't want to take that chance. A few examples of pages that appear to have lost their page rank [all from the How to Design an Equipment Chassis]:

Environmental Alarm Manufacturers,
Temperature Alarm Manufacturers,
Chassis/Card Slot Keying,

Why would the page rank revert back to a 'gray bar', err zero page rank?

Three Apple NuBus pages are also getting low page views, of course the bus has been obsolete for 10 years:
Update: 9-29-2011 the Nubus pages were all combined into one page.

Also XDR2 Memory Modules....

So once you get a page rank, you could lose it, but why?
The graphic shows that only 10 pages out of the 42 pages in the How to Design an Equipment Chassis get most of the traffic.

HDTV Spectrum

Here is the new spectrum allocation for the 700MHz band. The one you may be reading about in the news, being bid on by Google and others for an estimated 15 billion dollars. Google is interested in the 'C' band and is willing to pay 4.2 billion dollars.

The digital switch narrows the spectrum needs of broadcast TV. All the stations that now use channel 2 through channel 69 for analog signals will broadcast their digital signals in the spectrum space now used by channel 2 through channel 51. Most stations will keep their original station number. The switch over from analog to digital happen in 2009.

This blog post shows the older frequency spectrum. This web page show the new DTV Channels and their frequency bands.

Remember TV stations had to switch to digital transmissions, but are not obligated to transmit in High Definition. They can use their entire band to transmit in High Definition or just transmit in normal digital and run two or three different programs at the same time.

Relating topics;
High Definition Television Technologies, just a few terms.

Velocity Micro Desktop Computer

Order a new computer today from Bestbuy. The Velocity Micro - ProMagix Q6600. The Q6600 contains a quad core Intel processor, an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS graphic card and 2GB of DDR2 memory, and or course Windows Vista.

The Quad processor is clocked at 2.4GHz, but the ad does not display which DDR2 memory [Speed Grades] is used and I didn't see the system listed on the Velocity Micro web site.

The Video card comes with 1 S-Video port, and 2 DVI-ports ~ I use dual monitors so I need both DVI interfaces.

The system has 2 Firewire interfaces and 6 USB interfaces, and a built-in media reader.

Of course the Hard Disk Drive [HDD] is Serial ATA [SATA], but it does not indicate which specification version.

Spare expansion slots include 1 PCI slot, 1 PCIe x1, and 1 PCIe x16 slot. So I can still add another video card, a digital tuner card, and a 7-to-1 digital audio card.

I purchased this system from Best Buy so I could just drive over and pick it up. However my first issue is that my order did not make it off anyones desk. I came home to a call saying I have to confirm the order..... what's up with that.

I never used the HP system purchased last year from Bestbuy, I didn't see any speed improvment so it just sat around and collected dust ~ until I gave it away a few weeks ago.

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.