SVFIG
Next Meeting:
Saturday, August 25th

at
Cogswell College
1175 Bordeaux Dr.
Rooms 197A and 197B
Sunnyvale, CA  94089


If you would like to have meeting announcements e-mailed to you, send the message Subscribe SVFIG Meeting Agenda to: George Perry

Wireless Internet access is anticipated (though not guaranteed) at Cogswell, so bring your wi-fi enabled laptop.

Security

When attending SVFIG meetings, please be aware that Cogswell College now locks its doors on weekends. To facilitate entry to the building, there will be an SVFIG member stationed at the door from 9:45am to 10:15am to admit recognized SVFIG meeting attendees. If you are attending an SVFIG meeting for the first time, please bring along a printout of this agenda to identify your interest in Forth and gain admission. If you arrive after 10:15am, there will be a telephone number posted for you to call to alert someone of your presence at the door. The front door will also be checked at intervals of 20 to 30 minutes to accommodate those without cellphones.

Do not under any circumstances let any strangers enter Cogswell. Those who are authorized admittance have key-cards.

Final August Meeting Agenda


  • 09:45 --- Coffee and a chat

  • 10:15 --- Floating Point Mandelbrot Computation Revisited - CH Ting
    "I will show the Mandelbrot plots done with integer math and with floating point math using the Floating Point Unit in the Intel processor. I am learning HTML, and will do the presentation in HTML. Mandelbrot plots are great for the background of HTML webpages. I have also learned how to add background music to the webpages."

  • Noon --- Lunch
    Some folks bring their lunch, some folks go to Togos.

  • 13:00 --- Introductions, announcements, rumors, random access

  • 13:15 --- Interesting Items - Volume 8 - Dave Jaffe
    Dave will continue his survey of interesting newly-introduced microcontrollers, I/O peripherals, sensors, products, and gadgets that can provide useful and unique capabilities to Forth embedded systems. If anyone has come across anything that fits this category, pass them along to him for inclusion in his presentation.

  • 13:30 --- Audible Computing - Masa Kasahara
    What would happen if we only relied on our hearing when using a computer? Masa will discuss his project that uses Forth to provide an audible interface to a minimal computer, just a motherboard with firmware. He'll describe his thinking and his goals and solicit advice from the group.

  • 13:55 --- Break

  • 14:15 --- Two-Stack Design from CPU Class - John Rible
    "I'll describe the architecture of the SP2 and its "hardware threaded code." It's a 16-bit, two-stack, design following Chuck's uP21 family of chips. Coded in Verilog, it's meant for inclusion in FPGA projects. Bill Muench worked with me to write an eForth compiler for it."

  • 15:45 --- Think of something for next month
    This means you!

  • 16:00 --- Adjourn


How you can help SVFIG:

  • Bring your speaker and topic suggestions to every meeting!
  • Your input for November's Forth Day is always welcomed.

Coming to SVFIG in the future (hopefully):

  • WAV file and Soundcard I/O Software using Win32Forth - Andy Korsak
    This software was written for amateur radio applications. Andy has suggested that it might be useful to look at his code in advance of his talk. Contributions to this work-in-progress would be welcomed. You can download and view his sound card software on the Win32Forth group (membership required), or here.

Please register your interest for these topics:

  • Viewing of Analog by Design shows hosted by Bob Pease - list of shows
  • The world's second Babbage Engine is coming to town. Maybe we can have a meeting at the Computer History Museum to have a look.
  • Review and discussion of recent postings on news:comp.lang.forth
  • Review and discussion of interesting Forth projects and many files at the Yahoo Win32Forth Group

Off the table:

  • There has been a lack of interest for a presentation by a representative from Gumstix.
  • There has been no success in contacting the author of Propeller Forth - written locally by Cliff L. Biffle
  • A tour of TechShop in Menlo Park is not planned at this time. If you would like to visit the facility, please make your own arrangements. Check out their talks, events, and instructional classes.

If you have anything you'd like to talk about in August,
please contact Kevin Appert.

Meeting Notes