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capacitors. [Editor’s note – see our article on the ‘capacitor plague’ in the May 2003 issue, starting on page 8] I suspect that penny-pinching using cheaper non-­ Japanese capacitors put this particular manufacturer out of business when their warranty claims exceeded their new sales. I was also scrapping a lot of old CRT monitors that I had in my shed. I did not find a single monitor with even one bad electrolytic capacitor in it. However, I salvaged very few capacitors from the monitors, as most were 85°C types; I only bothered to salvage 105°C ones. I got lucky with one monitor, which had several Rubicon capacitors in it. Wrecking this old ‘junk’ has the benefit of making a few dollars from the scrap metals. Depending on the construction, monitors can contain up to $5 worth of copper, aluminium and steel. Some yield much less scrap, some more. One particular monitor weighed 24kg and had 4kg of steel in it. The most valuable metal is what they call burnt copper wire, which is the enamelled copper wire from the yoke and degaussing coil. Insulated copper wire is the next most valuable, with aluminium following. Steel is the least valuable. So it has been worth cleaning out my shed and getting rid of the old ‘junk’, making a few dollars in the process. Bruce Pierson, Dundathu, Qld. An easy way to switch Ethernet on and off On page 101 of the July 2024 issue, D. S. of Maryborough, Qld asked for a method to ‘switch’ a network cable on and off to restrict his son’s internet use. My simple solution, instead of switching eight data lines, is to use a cheap network switch/hub powered by a DC supply. The ideal choice is a model like the TP-Link TL-SG108E or similar (with an external DC plugpack). Simply switching the power to the network switch/hub causes all the physically connected network ports to disconnect. It’s a very simple, reliable method of switching Ethernet connections on/off. It can also be used for switching multiple access points on/off with a physical switch, which can be a key switch for security. As the reader mentioned, he could build a timer with an Arduino Uno board, but why go to that trouble? Simply buy a plug-in mains electronic timer switch and set the on/ off times – problem solved! SC Brett Neale, Bertram, WA. PRODUCT SHOWCASE Introducing the PIC64 Microchip’s 64-bit PIC64 family supports applications that require both real-time and application class processing. PIC64GX MPUs, the first of the new product line to be released, enable intelligent edge designs for industrial, automotive, communications, IoT, aerospace and defense. The intelligent edge often requires 64-bit heterogenous compute solutions with asymmetric processing to run Linux, real-time OSes and bare metal in a single processor cluster with secure boot capabilities. Microchip’s PIC64GX family includes a 64-bit RISC-V quad-core processor with asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) and deterministic latencies. It is the first RISC-V multi-core solution that is AMP capable for mixed-criticality systems. It is designed with a Linux-capable CPU cluster, fifth microcontroller class monitor and 2MB of flexible L2 Cache running at 625MHz. The PIC64GX family is pin-­ compatible with Microchip’s PolarFire SoC FPGA devices, offering a large amount of flexibility in the development of embedded solutions. Additionally, the 64-bit portfolio leverages Microchip’s easy-to-use ecosystem of tools and supporting software, including a host of powerful processes to help configure, Microchip Technology Australia Suite 32, 41 Rawson Street, Epping NSW 2121 Phone: (02) 9868 6733 www.microchip.com 12 Silicon Chip develop, debug and qualify embedded designs. The PIC64 High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (PIC64-HPSC) family is also being launched as part of Microchip’s first wave of 64-bit offerings. The space-grade, 64-bit multi-core RISC-V MPUs are designed to increase compute performance by more than 100 times while delivering unprecedented radiation and fault tolerance for aerospace and defence applications. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced in August 2 0 2 2 t h at i t h a d selected Microchip to develop HPSC processors as part of its ongoing commercial partnership efforts. The PIC64-HPSC family represents a new era of autonomous space computing for NASA-JPL and the broader defence and commercial aerospace industry. Microchip is now the only embedded solutions provider actively developing a full spectrum of 8-, 16-, 32- and 64-bit MCUs and MPUs. Future PIC64 families will include devices based Australia's electronics magazine on RISC-V or ARM architectures; embedded designers will be able to take advantage of Microchip’s end-to-end solutions for faster design, debug and verification and a reduced time to market. To learn more, visit the Microchip 64-bit web page: www.microchip.com/en-us/ products/microprocessors/64-bit-mpus The PIC64GX Curiosity Kit is now available for early adopters. Production versions of the Curiosity Kit and PIC64GX1000 parts are due for release by September 2024. siliconchip.com.au