April 2011

The Lighter Side of Lattice: Houston, We Have a Pickle

If you enjoyed the original Lattice MachXO2 "viral video" on YouTube in 2010, check out the latest Lattice-produced video. In this new Power Manager II video a special 7-segment "organic" LED display counts down and launches a "pickle" rocket into space. It's not surprising that when you mix a great product like Power Manager II with a light-hearted video, the response is going to be win-win from an engineering audience.

In a recent EE Times Blog by Clive Maxfield, the write-up went as follows:

"This latest video offering from Lattice pertains to their Power Manager II chips. The video starts off with an uncomfortable-looking, geeky-engineer-type, who is stumbling and mumbling his words and super-obviously reading from a teleprompter." Then, suddenly, the ShamWow look-alike guy leaps in and takes over. Next we see a Power Manager II device controlling a bunch of OLED-like Pickles arranged to form a 7- segment display and counting down... and then we see a Pickle being launched into space (ish) and hear the classic line 'Houston, we have a pickle.' I love this sort of thing. It's clever. It's low-budget. It makes you want to do something like this yourself. It it reminds you that Lattice have some very clever programmable mixed-signal power management devices. And, most of all, it keeps me amused, which is - after all - why everyone else is here... isn't it?"

Lot's of fun. Get the details of the Power Manager II product family on the Lattice website!