Hi Craig,

>I see there is an article in Radio Electronics magazine in the classified
>section
>selling information to 'construct and program smart cards w/pic 16C84'.

Stay away from them; they're generally rip-offs.  What I found was the guys
selling them ("vendor" is really too polite a term) had designed them for
their own use and saw selling the frames and hardware as a way to make a
quick buck.

They do not provide software or any kind of technical information other than
how the programmers are wired.  If they have come up with a way to break the
cards, they won't tell you about the interface protocols or algorithms used.

>I've always been intigued by this and would like information, and not for
>the dubious
>nature, but for the intellectual challenge.

I looked into it for the dubious reasons  :)

<SNIP Craig's sorted past>
>Also if anyone has any information on MP2/3 decoding with the PIC, would you
>please
>pass it my way.  I'd like to build some portable thingy to play em.  Perhaps
>just small
>snippets of audio, played from static or dynamic ram.  Put it in your
>grandma's pillow
>sort of thing.......

The satellite cards have nothing to do with the MPEG decoding; all they do
is take the bit stream from the incoming signal and indicate to the receiver
whether or not the picture can be displayed.

I have a copy of the MPEG specs and the PIC is not capable of real time
decoding.  We (Celestica) have built satellite receivers and the decoding
was first done by a DSP and then a custom ASIC.

For PIC audio, has anybody done anything more substantial than my "TuneMkr"?

myke

This week in myke's Book Room: "The Night Crew" by John Sandford

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