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Searching The Net for EE Information
Just Got Easier!
By: Jason McDonald
Something very powerful is happening to electronic design information on the Net: it's becoming searchable! From your World Wide Web browser, you can now key in a few words, hit "search," and presto - the Web site returns a hit list of applicable resources in seconds! This article focuses on the best starting points to searchable sites useful for electronic design information. To benefit, you must have a World Wide Web browser, and a connection to the Internet. Simply type in the Uniform Resource Locator (such as http://www.search.com), and go! If you're new to the Net, useful overviews are Rice University's search report at http://riceinfo.rice.edu/Internet/ and the Electronics Search FAQ at http://www.eg3.com/srcnet.htm..
SEARCH THE CHIP COMPANIES
Semiconductor manufacturers now publish most of their data sheets, new product specifications, and other useful design information on their World Wide Web sites. The most innovative companies now offer search capabilities. These can range from simply entering a specific part number to retrieve its datasheet to searching for useful information by keywords such as 68HC11 or real-time. AMD, for example, has recently initiated their impressive Thunderstone search engine at http://www.amd.com/search.html. Not to be outdone, Intel offers both a search engine (at http://www-cs.intel.com/search.htm) and a customizable Web interface. The latter means that you can customize Intel's site to display only the information you want.
Motorola has yet to make its semiconductor Web sites fully searchable (you can search only the Motorola corporate Web site), but the semiconductor giant does offer search capability for its data library. The data library search site is at http://design-net.com/cgi-bin/dlsrch, and allows you to identify Motorola data sheets or design information. Motorola's Master Selection Guide is also searchable at http://motserv.indirect.com/cgi-bin/msg.
Like Intel, Texas Instruments offers a customizable Web interface (meaning you can customize the TI site to display only information useful to you). Texas Instruments also has search capability at http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/search.htm. An all-in-one interface to numerous semiconductor search sites is EE Hunter at http://www.cera2.com/hunter.htm. EE Hunter unifies a number of companies, such as Texas Instruments, Motorola, and Analog Devices, which allows you to easily toggle between them and quickly identify useful information.
SEARCH NON-COMMERCIAL EE WEB SITES
Even non-commercial Web sites now offer search capability. Don't miss the impressive ADA IC web site at http://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us/AdaIC/. There you can find everything you ever wanted to know about the Ada language and related topics, in seconds. Norway's excellent contribution to Internet design information - FTP Search - is at http://ftpsearch.unit.no/. FTP Search is the fastest way to scan the Net for downloadable source code or files by entering key words like 68HC11 or 8051. Looking for an 8051 compiler? Search no more - log on to the Free Compilers search engine at http://cuiwww.unige.ch/cgi-bin/freecomp and quickly locate your prey.
Looking for shareware? Perhaps you need a Windows 95 add-on, or a converter from HTML to ASCII for your company's Web site. The searchable Shareware.Com is at http://www.shareware.com and is an outgrowth of the Virtual Software Library. Indiana University operates the Unified Computer Science Technical library, searchable at http://www.cs.indiana.edu/cstr/search. There, you can locate computer- or EE-related technical reports, though most are highly academic. CERA Research maintains a comprehensive list of searchable non-commercial sites at http://www.cera2.com/micro.htm.
SEARCH THE WORLD WIDE WEB
As any design engineer who surfs the net will tell you, finding the Web sites of even major vendors like Hitachi Semiconductor can be difficult. Who would think of http://www.halsp.hitachi.com? Fortunately, major search engines now make finding them easier than ever! One of the most popular is Alta Vista, underwritten by Digital Electronics Corporation at http://altavista.digital.com. On Alta Vista, use the symbols "+" or "-" to tighten your searches for exact matches. Enter "+embedded +microcontroller," for example, to identify Web sites having both embedded and microcontroller in their text. Lycos is a great alternative, at http://www.lycos.com, though not as fast as Alta Vista.
Even Yahoo - formerly only a subject-tree of resources - now provides a limited search capability at http://www.yahoo.com. There, you can almost have the best of both worlds: first, select a category-specific area such as http://www.yahoo.com/Computers/Hardware/Microprocessors/ to browse for MPU-related information. Then, search the subarea by entering terms in the blank field at the top (such as 68K). Or, go up a level and search all of Yahoo. Across the Net, at AT&T, don't miss the innovative new service called PHOAKS (People Helping One Another Know Stuff) at http://weblab.research.att.com/phoaks/. Phoaks sifts through postings to USENET discussion groups, and tabulates the most popular Web sites for a particular group such as sci.electronics.components, or comp.realtime. It's a great way to identify which sites your EE peers find hot!
SEARCH USENET
USENET discussion groups, such as sci.electronics.design, can be a wonderful yet frustrating way to obtain electronics design information. The problem is the high volume of "noise" on groups such as comp.dsp, comp.arch.embedded, or sci.electronics.cad. The solution? Use a USENET search engine, such as Dejanews at http://www.dejanews.com. Dejanews will sift through postings based on key words, allow you to read postings, and you can even respond to postings of interest. Other free search services for USENET are Alta Vista (simply select "USENET"), Infoseek (http://www.infoseek.com), or Excite (http://www.excite.com). In most cases, you can restrict your search to a specific group such as comp.dsp or sci.electronics.design.
AUTHOR PROFILE
Jason McDonald is an Internet and Web consultant, working in Fremont, California. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and has written for numerous trade magazines. He can be reached by email jasonm@violet.berkeley.edu or at Tel. 510-713-9493.
Send an email to Jason McDonald
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