NeTV2 Tech Details Live

November 1st, 2016

Alphamax LLC now has details of the NeTV2 live, including links to preliminary schematics and PCB source files.

The key features of NeTV2 include:

  • mPCIE v2.0 (5Gbps x1 lane) add-in card format
  • Support for full 1080p60 video
  • Artix-7 FPGA
  • FPGA “hack port” breaking out 3x spare GTP transceiver pairs
  • 512 MB of DDR3-800 @ 32-bit wide memory for frame buffering

I adopted an add-in card format to allow end users to pick the cost/performance trade-off that suited their application the best. Some users require only a text overlay (NeTV’s original design scenario); but others wanted to blend HD video and 3D graphics, which would require a substantially more powerful and expensive CPU. An add-in card allows users to plug into anything from an economical $60 all-in-one, to a fully loaded gaming machine. The kosagi forum has an open thread for NeTV2 discussion.

As noted previously, we are currently seeking legal clarity on the suite of planned features for the product, including highly requested features such as alpha blending which require access to the descrambled video stream.

Name that Ware, October 2016

October 31st, 2016

The Ware for October 2016 is shown below:

I like this one because not only is it exquisitely engineered, it’s also aesthetically pleasing.

Sorry for the relative radio silence on the blog — been very heads down the past couple months grinding through several major projects, including my latest book, “The Hardware Hacker”, which is on-track to hit shelves in a couple of months!

Winner, Name that Ware September 2016

October 31st, 2016

The ware for September 2016 is a ColorVision Sypder-series monitor color calibrator.

Congrats to North-X for naming the ware, email me for your prize!

Name that Ware, September 2016

September 25th, 2016

The Ware for September 2016 is shown below.

Thanks to J. Peterson for sharing this ware!

Winner, Name that Ware August 2016

September 25th, 2016

After reading through the extensive comments on August’s ware, I’m not convinced anyone has conclusively identified the ware. I did crack a grin at atomicthumbs’ suggestion that this was a “mainboard from a Mrs. Butterworth’s Syrup of Things sensor platform”, but I think I’ll give the prize (please email me to claim it) once again to Christian Vogel for his thoughtful analysis of the circuitry, and possibly correct guess that this might be an old school laser barcode scanner.

The ware is difficult to evaluate due to the lack of a key component — whatever it is that mounts into the pin sockets and interacts with the coil or transformer near the hole in the center of the circuit board. My feeling is the placement of that magnetic device is not accidental.

A little bit of poking around revealed this short Youtube video which purports to demonstrate an old-school laser barcode mechanism. Significantly, it has a coil of similar shape and orientation to that of this ware, as well as three trimpots, although that could be a coincidence. Either way, thanks everyone for the entertaining and thoughtful comments!