For the second year in a row, I'm sponsoring the Open Hardware Summit. Since most of my company's products are now open, it seems appropriate to be assisting this conference. Check out the list of other sponsors here and show them some love.

I corresponded with Fabrizio Tappero yesterday and he tells me that hardcopy versions of Free Range VHDL will be available in a couple of weeks. As I wrote previously, this introductory VHDL book is open-source and freely available on the net. Naturally, the authors received a lot of feedback from readers which they used to spiff-up the text before rolling the printing presses.

I got word last week from Kevin Gunn and the rest of the selection committee that my application for a booth at the Raleigh Maker Faire was accepted. So come out to the NC State Fairgrounds on June 16th and see me and a bunch of other (more) interesting people!

I always wondered why things take so long. Now I know.

For the past month, I was working on a Python version of the XSTOOLs software. I wanted an easy route to cross-platform capabilities for Windows, linux and OSX, and interpreted Python provides that. And not needing a compiler makes it easier for my customers to modify the software for their systems.

Well, I published chapter 6 of "FPGAs?! Now What?" back on Aug 30, 2011. And today I'm finally delivering chapter 7 with all the personal anticipation usually associated with the end to a bout of constipation.

By now, everyone else has given their New Year's greetings. But the first workday is the beginning of the real New Year. And my resolution is to shut up and solve problems.

My sister is big into creating Christmas traditions. Last year she decided that we should each make a Christmas ornament for the tree each year. So this year I decided to make an electronic ornament. Here's the PCB:

To start the PCB design, I found a Christmas tree drawing using Google Images, translated it into a BMP file, imported that into Eagle, and used it for the silkscreen and to draw the board outline.

I got the prototype PCBs for the next version of the XuLA Board from @laen's service a few weeks ago. Here's the front and back of the bare board:

I woke up famous this morning: my interview was online. Thanks to EEWeb for providing the opportunity and the venue. (Make sure to scroll to the bottom for a list of interviews with other engineers almost as fascinating as me.)

A new VHDL textbook was released a few days ago. *Yawn*, right? There's like a hundred of those on Amazon already.

But the good thing about this one is that it covers the basics of using VHDL in a concise and attractive 129 pages. It goes over the syntax and semantics of the language and illustrates behavioral and structural description styles with an emphasis on synthesis. But you don't have to take my word that this book is good - you can download Free Range VHDL for free!