Date:  Mon, 14 May 2007 21:31:26 +0800
From: Daniel Wiltse <dlwiltse_at_gmail.com>
To: Randall L Geiger <rlgeiger_at_iastate.edu>, Morris Chang <morris_at_iastate.edu>
Subject: Taipei
Parts/Attachments:
  1 OK 41 lines Text
2 Shown 15 lines Text
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It is still going really well here in Taiwan.  I just got done having
coffee with some of the professors on campus.  I went over there to
give them some copies of my final report for my first project.  The
internship has been going great.  I started on March 1st.  My first
project dealt with the integration of a FPGA to redesign the digital
part of the charger/discharger circuit for a lithium ion battery.  If
I can send you a copy of my final project I will.  I need to ask
however.  I'm sure that you would be interested to know what I have
been doing for my internship through the study abroad.  They also
wanted me to study how to do power consumption reports and timing
reports for Xilinx since they have not spent that much time with it. 
They also wanted me to study code coverage using ModelSim.  This means
I have been giving presentations left and right.
 
I know that everyone enjoys me at the company.  Just to inform you, I
have a position in the Central Research Institute (CRI) section for
Tatung Company.  I have definitely worked hard and have given good
results.  The project was great.  It gave me a chance to go through
the whole design process.  I started with the project proposal,
learning the tools, studying the FPGA, integrating the design, testing
the design, reports, and presentations.
 
My next project will be to replace the 8051 (MCU) with MicroBlaze or
PicoBlaze code to replace the micro-controller by using the FPGA as
well.  The entire circuit consists of a A/D and D/A circuit board. 
Some portions of this board will have to redesigned.  So I will gain
knowledge in PCB redesign using an AutoCad program.  The GUI that is
used uses Visual Basic.  I will also gain knowledge in that as well.
 
My project has been really interesting, and I believe, due to the
courses I have taken at ISU, that they have prepared me quite well for
this.  My project manager/boss (Wen Gou-Lin) was surprised with
progress that I have made.  I finished the first project about 3/4
month ahead of schedule.  I am looking forward to the next project.  I
will also give a presentation to the students on campus that shows an
example of a design process.  I believe that will be interesting for
the students.
 
That summarizes what I have been doing on my internship.  If there are
any questions that you would like to ask me, please send an email and
I will reply as soon as possible.
 
Daniel Wiltse