Nixie reference in Atmel AVR application note AVR205

[Nick]

Just saw this:

http://www.atmel.com/Images/doc8365.pdf

Bit of fun!

Nick

[GastonP]

Nice catch, Nick

   The real fun is that there is no reference at all to that figure 1-1... either the writer is a nixie-fan or he got very distracted at the time of editing the article...

Gaston

[threeneurons]

Clearly a nixie fan. That document is about a freq counter app, using an AVR uC. The nixie counter photo, is pure window dressing that has minimal relationship with the document. Old counters, like the one in the picture, did the logic control using discrete chips, hardwired into state sequencers. I bet he owns at least one nixie clock. Probably built it himself, and designed it, too. If he used an AVR chip, he could possibly have entered in his time sheet, and got paid for it. 

[Nick]

Interestingly (or not, depends on your view), the image used is actually lifted from the Wikimedia Nixie page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixie_tube - the image is a no-copyright one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NixieFrequencyCounter.jpg by Eric Barbour, senior editor of Vacuum Tube Alley magazine and a contributor to many other tube (valve) mags.

Nick

[GastonP]

While we are at it... what made those instruments really interesting were the (in)famous prescalers. Usually ECL technology dividers by 10. In those years 5V technology (TTL, and later Schottky TTL) didn't fit the bill for 100 MHz counting...

Sad to say that there were very few of those instruments around here so the opportunities to lay hands on a surplus one are nil to me.

However I used one in my university days. From there I remember the nixies, and prior to that, from a huge calculator a friend of my uncle bought for his shoe factory accounting people.

[threeneurons]

When I was in school, late 70's-early 80's, I was working as a tech. One time they had me build a universal counter, around an Intersil chip. It worked upto 10MHz, but sadly had a LED display. They wanted to go upto 100MHz, and I did add an ECL chip. It initially was run of a cheap 10MHz xtal osc. The boss later modified it, and added an oven enclosed oscillator, and then calibrated it using a LORAN receiver, to 1ppm. Engineers ... never satisfied ... always have to keep tinkering ...