Introduction  (Page 2/2)

If you are still reading, you are probably waiting for me to provide the secret as to how this can happen on your team. Unfortunately, I don’t know. For just as the team “jelled,” it fell apart – rather mysteriously in both cases. But while we were jelling, we did have a few common traits:

• A leader emerged whom everyone was willing to follow. Notice I said leader and not manager. There is a difference between the two.
• A cheerleader emerged – someone who was around to encourage, excite and give credit to the individuals on the team and the team itself.
• No one was left sitting. Everyone was engaged and working toward the goal.
• We all liked each other.

Let me tie this all together. TI wants to be part of your team, but we don’t want to be the leader, cheerleader or lazy member. We want to do whatever we can to make your senior project experience one that you can be proud of, where you will remember TI as an extended member that made the whole project fun. We want you to be ready to have TI as an extended member on your next project – the first one at whichever company you join after graduation.

This leads me to explain how can you get the most out of TI as an extended team member.

Purpose of this book

Use this book as a reference to pick the best TI parts for your project. As you will see later, TI has more than 40,000 components that you could use in your project. Narrowing that number down to one or two (or nine or 10) parts will be daunting. We hope to simplify that task by giving you some hints and shortcuts in this collection of topics to help you get what you need.

How to interact with Texas Instruments

Before we get to the quick overviews of each of our component families, let me introduce you to TI. Although we are generally known as the “calculator company,” and that division is a small part of TI, our major business is integrated circuits. As I said earlier, we have more than 40,000 components in our catalog. That is where we can become a valuable member of your team.

There are many ways to get TI to join your project team:

• Use our components.
• Use our many application reports and white papers.
• Use our technical support.
• Use our evaluation modules (EVMs) to prototype.

But before I tell you about all of the resources we have available to you, let me give you the URL for the university program at Texas Instruments: http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/university_program/ti_university_program.page .

This is a great place to start if you're just getting to know us. Now here are some resources that will help you with your senior project.

Use our components. http://www.ti.com/ is the best place to start your interaction with us. From this URL, you can find all you need to know about every product TI makes available. You can even get free samples shipped to you (if you don’t already have them in your senior projects lab). We have just about everything you will need for your project. And if we don’t have it, our partner Digi-Key will certainly have it ( http://www.digikey.com/ ).

Use our many application reports and white papers. At http://www.ti.com/ , you will find a tab for Applications. Here you will find a gold mine of application material. From the Applications page, look for your area of interest, and from there click the Application Notes tab.

Use our technical support. We have several ways for you to get technical support. Here are a few:

• Technical support line: You can find local support no matter where you are in the world or what language you are most comfortable using at http://www-k.ext.ti.com/sc/technical-support/product-information-centers.htm?DCMP=TIHomeTracking&HQS=Other+OT+home_d_contact .

• E2E Community: This not only connects you to TI’s top applications engineers, but to others like you who have used our parts and may have already solved the same problem you are facing. Give it a try at http://e2e.ti.com/ .

Videos that might be helpful:

• www.ti.com/universityvideos .
• TI's YouTube channel .

Use our evaluation modules to prototype. We have EVMs for virtually all of our embeddeed processors. They also include the analog and other interface circuits that work best with the processors. You will find TI EVMs by clicking Tools and Software at http://www.ti.com/ .

In fact, you can find many sources of available software by clicking Tools and Software at http://www.ti.com/ .

Engibous Prize entry requirements

One way that we recognize the effort that you and your team have put into your senior project is with the Engibous Prize. It is named after Tom Engibous, our now-retired president and CEO. Engibous spent his career at TI, starting as a design engineer in our analog circuit business unit. He was promoted from there to a management role, finally becoming president and CEO in the late 1990s until his retirement in the mid-2000s. We are very proud of him and his career at TI, so we designated this prize in his honor to recognize top senior design projects.

Eligibility for entry is relatively simple:

• You must have used at least three TI analog components, or one of TI’s digital components plus two analog components.
• You must have completed the project with a working prototype.
• You must submit a project report to TI discussing the problem, solution and results, and include a list of TI components and how they were used.

There is a chapter in this book that goes into further detail about how to write an Engibous Prize entry.

With that, I will offer a biased hint: It is okay to use more than three TI devices. With more than 40,000 parts available to you, you should be able to find more than three that fit your needs.

Book organization

It's time to get started picking the best TI parts for your project. Here is a quick list of chapters:

• Analog:
  • Amplifiers.
  • Data converters.
  • Power management.
  • Wireless conductivity.
  • System components.
  • Interface components.
• Embedded processors:
  • MSP430™ ULP microcontrollers.
  • TMS320C2000™ microcontrollers.
  • ARM M3/M4 microcontrollers.
  • DSP and ARM microprocessors.
• Writing the project summary.

Each chapter will cover three topics:

• Technical overview.
• How to read the data sheet.
• How to pick the right part.

The last chapter will discuss the Engibous Prize in more detail. It will also introduce you to Tom Engibous and his career at TI and provide the official rules.