Phoenix Fast Food Restaurants Second Worst in Nation

HealthInspections.com has a list of the worst fast-food cities in the U.S. for food safety. Guess what? Phoenix ranks second in the nation.

America's big names in fast food have big problems with food safety. A review of nearly 7,000 health inspection reports revealed thousands of violations and plenty of horror stories.

The Cities -- Here's how the cities rank for dirty fast food. Orlando topped the list.

          1. Orlando          7. Manhattan
          2. Phoenix          8. Virginia Beach     
          3. Denver           9. Kansas City
          4. Miami           10. Sacramento
          5. Houston         11. Philadelphia
          6. Raleigh         12. Columbus

Maybe I'll stick to the Microchip cafeteria a little more often... Get all the juicy (yuck) details at HealthInspections.com

EETimes.com Analyzes the 32-bit MCU Market

The landscape is changing in the high-end, 32-bit microcontroller market.

PA Semi is out of the mix. Marvell, Microchip and others are in. And Freescale, Renesas and others are expanding their efforts in the sector.

It's no wonder that the new vendors are jumping into the market. For example, Microchip Technology Inc. is "doing well" with its new entry in the 32-bit MCU market, said Steve Sanghi, chairman, president and chief executive of the chip maker, based in Chandler, Ariz.

Read the full article at eetimes.com

Microchip Again Recognized for Leadership and Innovation

Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP), a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced that it has been recognized by the following U.S. and international publications for product and organizational leadership.

"As the worldwide leader in 8-bit microcontrollers and the only company to support all of its 8-, 16- and 32-bit MCUs with a singular integrated development environment, our greatest reward is that design engineers prefer Microchip for their embedded designs," said Steve Sanghi, Microchip's president and CEO. "We are extremely honored to be recognized for the technology and business excellence that our global customer base and long-term investors have come to expect."

Microchip was named a finalist in the "Large Company of the Year" category of EE Times' fourth Annual Creativity in Electronics, or ACE, Awards. Companies are selected by the ACE judges for demonstrating leadership and innovation, and shaping the world in which we live with the electronics industry's most dynamic business practices and breakthrough technologies.

The editors of EDN Magazine selected Microchip's Graphics Software Library--a free application designed for adding graphics displays to embedded designs based on the Company's 16- and 32-bit PIC(R) microcontrollers--as a finalist in the Software category of their 2007 EDN Innovation Awards. Every year EDN Innovation recognizes the most unique, state-of-the-art electronics products.

Portable Design chose the PIC32 as a winner in the "Processors ICs" category for the magazine's "2008 Editor's Choice Awards." With these annual awards, the magazine recognizes innovative electronic components that make possible the design of leading-edge portable products.

"Every year Portable Design singles out for recognition those new products that we consider to be the most innovative, choosing from among the thousands of product releases that cross our desks," said John Donovan, Portable Design's editor-in-chief. "This year has seen an outpouring of highly creative, and some potentially disruptive, products."

Microchip's dsPIC33F digital signal controllers were selected by the editors of the EN-Genius Network as a recipient of their 2007 "Product of the Year" awards in the "Best Value in Embedded DSP" category, from among the hundreds of products they reviewed in 2007. The editors believe that the products selected will make significant bottom-line numbers for the companies involved, because of their strong technical merit, design innovation and marketability.

Microchip also received recent honors from several leading international electronics publications. Germany's E&E Magazine selected the PIC18F97J60 8-bit Ethernet microcontrollers for their "E&E Best Product Guide 2007," in the "Microcontroller & Processors" category. Finalist products were those that received the most clicks from readers on the E&E Web site, from October 2006-September 2007. Following the publication of the top 10 products from each category in a special supplement, winners were selected through reader votes.

Electronic Design & Application World--Nikkei Electronics China honored Microchip with two awards at the recent Green Power Forum in Beijing. The MCP140X MOSFET drivers won the "Best Application Award in Power Components," and Microchip's MCP73811/2 charge-management controllers won the "Best Application Award in Battery."

Finally, Germany's ELEKTRONIK magazine named Microchip's PIC32 32-bit microcontroller family one of its "Best Products of the Year" in the "Active Components" category. The PIC32 was nominated by ELEKTRONIK's editorial staff and elected by its readership, receiving 8,000 reader votes in all.

The original press release is available on InvestorCalendar.com

Apple Adding Tactile Feedback to iPhone? [Rumor]

An anonymous Apple employee says company executives are in talks with Immersion Corporation to license its haptic technology for use in the iPhone, according to a report at Palluxo.

[Via cnet.com]

Yet Another Grand Theft Auto IV Review

This time it's from 1up.com and it scores an A+.

IGN Posts First Web Review of Grand Theft Auto IV, Perfect 10

PIC Microcontrollers on Instructables.com

I just recently read an article about instructables.com. I browsed the site for only a few minutes, but I noticed that they have several PIC Microcontroller related entries. Has anyone from the Microchip web forums contributed projects to the site? I'll have to find some time this weekend to look at some of the projects.

Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others. The seeds of Instructables germinated at the MIT Media Lab as the future founders of Squid Labs built places to share their projects and help others.

MPLAB C Compiler for PIC32 MCUs v1.02 now available for download

Microchip PIC32 users will be happy to know that version 1.02 of the MPLAB C Compiler for PIC32 MCUs (aka MPLAB C32) is now available for download. There's some new devices supported and a few bug fixes. Read the release notes for further details. Get it while it's hot. http://www.microchip.com/c32

Toyota Matrix Xbox Guitar Hero III All-Nighter

Xbox, Toyota, and Peavey have teamed up to bring you the coolest prizes in the history of Xbox.com for the upcoming All-Nighter: Crafted from a real-wood, life-size Peavey guitar and modified for play with guitar-based music video games, this custom Peavey AG RiffMaster guitar controller features the sleek finish, dimensions and feel of a real Peavey guitar to provide a truly authentic music video game experience. For more details about one-of-a-kind Peavey AG RiffMaster guitar game controllers, check them out online at Peavey.com.

For contest details, visit xbox.com

Microchip Offers Integration's EZLink(TM) Development Kit for Sub-GHz Wireless Networking

Microchip Technology Inc., (NASDAQ:MCHP) a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced the availability of Integration Associates' EZLink(TM) Development Kit (Microchip part # TDKEZ915) for $240 on the www.microchipdirect.com e-commerce Web site. This kit augments the wireless products offered by Microchip, by providing wireless customers an option for easy sub-GHz RF modem development. The EZLink radio module contains an onboard PIC18F2520 8-bit Flash microcontroller and Integration's IA4421 EZRadio(R) transceiver.

The EZLink Development Kit provides a complete, ready-to-use RF module solution through the industry-leading EZRadio technology. A single-chip, low-power solution, the IA4421 is a 434, 868 and 915 MHz multi-channel, Frequency-Shift Keying (FSK) transceiver that is designed to provide the industry's lowest radio BOM by using only one external component -- a crystal. The IA4421 is ideal for low-power, high-performance wireless applications such as toys, consumer electronics, automotive and building security. Additionally, the kit's two EZLink radio modules are populated with Microchip's PIC18F2520 8-bit microcontrollers, providing customers with a high-performance and low-cost whole product wireless solution.

Read the full press release at investorcalendar.com

Reviews of Grand Theft Auto IV starting to come in

The highly anticipated next entry in the Grand Theft Auto video game series is just around the corner. Set to be released on April 29, the game is expected to be the biggest blockbuster of the year. Reviews are just starting to trickle in. According to metacritic.com, Official Xbox Magazine UK gave the game a perfect 100/100. They called it "Utterly stunning in every respect". [May 2008, p.79]

Video and screenshots of Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS

The Bitbag has fresh video and screenshots of the upcoming Nintendo DS version of the wildly popular Guitar Hero game from Activision. Check it out over at The Bitbag.

TechInsights Teams With Microchip Technology and Digi-Key to Launch the Microchip PIC32 Design Challenge

TechInsights announced today the launch of the Microchip PIC32 Design Challenge (http://www.myPIC32.com), a year-long contest and community sponsored by Microchip Technology Inc. and Digi-Key Corporation.

The goal of the design challenge is to foster a social community where designers can build, test and display their embedded 32-bit designs to peers with blogs, videos and forums by using the Microchip's PIC32 Starter Kit, an easy to use, all-in-one, PIC32-based module. The challenge is organized in four phases -- Paper Design, Hardware Design, Software Design and Final Prototype. Each phase has its own deadline and eliminates a certain number of contestants.

The design challenge's interactive community is made up of registered members who rate each of the contestant's designs according to established design criteria. Three industry expert judges as well as member peers will vote each week to see which contestants move to the next phase.

In addition, each week, members will be eligible for prizes that exceed $100,000 based on their community participation and activity. The grand winner will receive a home theater system valued at $8,000, which will be awarded at the Embedded Systems Conference San Jose on April 1, 2009 in Silicon Valley.

"This design challenge is a great opportunity for engineers to show their expertise in 32-bit design. And the social aspect of peers rating, voting and even collaborating on the best designs will make it even more exciting," said Richard Nass, Editor in Chief of Embedded Systems Design and Judge.

Terry West, PIC32 Marketing Manager at Microchip, agrees. "With over $100,000 in prizes, the Microchip PIC32 Design Challenge is more than just a design contest -- it is a unique opportunity for the design community to see some of the world's best engineers push the limits of creativity and skill to participate in leading-edge 32-bit designs using Microchip's new PIC32 microcontroller."

"We are very excited for the opportunity to partner with Microchip and TechInsights as the exclusive distributor on the MyPIC32 Design Contest," added Tony Harris, Vice President of E-Commerce at Digi-Key. "As a provider of the industry's preeminent Website for design engineers, OEMs and purchasers, Digi-Key adds a great solution to the design contest. We look forward to driving traffic for our contest partners, and, as always, efficiently and expeditiously delivering product into the hands of the engineering community."

For contest rules, eligibility requirements and to register, visit http://www.myPIC32.com.

The full press release is here.

Microchip Adds New Low-Cost 32-bit USB On-The-Go PIC32 Microcontroller; Brings Seven to Volume Production

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced that, with the addition of a new low-cost family member with integrated USB 2.0 On-The-Go (OTG) functionality—and by bringing the first seven general-purpose members to volume production—the PIC32 family now provides customers with 12 options to solve their growing requirements for more performance, more memory and advanced USB OTG connectivity. Additionally, Microchip now offers 37 USB PIC® microcontrollers in 8-, 16- and 32-bit varieties, from a 28-pin PIC18 to a 100-pin, 80 MHz PIC32. While the PIC32 family brings more performance and memory to embedded designers, it maintains pin, peripheral and software compatibility with Microchip’s 16-bit microcontroller and DSC families. To further ease migration and protect tool investments, Microchip’s is the only complete portfolio of 8-, 16- and 32-bit devices to be supported by a single Integrated Development Environment—the free MPLAB® IDE.

Read the full press release.

Microchip Technology Debuts World’s Lowest Power Large-memory 16-bit USB Microcontroller Family; Only 16-bit MCU With OTG

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced the 12-member PIC24FJ256GB1 microcontroller (MCU) family, which is the lowest power (100 nA standby current) large-memory (up to 256 KB Flash and 16 KB RAM) 16-bit USB microcontroller family in the world. As the only 16-bit microcontroller family with integrated USB 2.0 device, embedded-host, dual-role and On-the-Go (OTG) functionality, the PIC24FJ256GB1 makes it cost effective and easy to add advanced USB features to embedded designs. Additionally, the integrated Charge Time Measurement Unit (CTMU) peripheral— along with the royalty-free mTouch™ Sensing Solution software development kit—enables designers to add a capacitive-touch user interface without any external components. When combined with Microchip’s free Graphics Software Library, engineers have access to a complete, USB-enabled and cost-effective user interface solution.

Read the full press release.

AotS Reviews Sony OLED Digital TV

Sony's set is tiny and expensive, but OLED is the future of displays.