MEP EP #166: Ken and Chip Gracey of Parallax Inc

Ken and Chip Gracey of Parallax Inc

Ken Gracey

Leader and CEO of ParallaxUC Davis alumni who lives and breathes Parallax products and has done so around the worldAll about family, working smart, having fun, mountaineering, and riding his unicycle

Chip Gracey

Parallax founder. He had his first major introduction to programming and electronics when he was 13 years old with the Timex Sinclair computerAfter graduating high school, he and his techy friend from the 7th grade started Parallax at their homes in 1987Chip designed the first low-cost tools for the PIC microcontrollersLed to the development of the first BASIC Stamp module released in 1993

The Parallax Story

Starting ProductsApple IIgs memory cardsEEPROM emulators for microcontroller developmentPIC ToolsBasic StampSX chipPropellerParallax Prop 2What makes it special compared to other microcontrollers?P2 VS P1?Feature SetProgramming Languages?What does it take to design semiconductors?Software packagesSimulationWhat document package do you send to the fabricator?Process Size?What is automated and what is done by hand?Testing and validationESD?FCC/CEWhen can people get there hands on one?Community around the companyParallax ForumBeta Testing?Best story of the Parallax Adventure so far?

Announcements!

KiCon 2019 is a user conference for the popular open source CAD program KiCad. Happening April 26th and 27th 2019 in Chicago IL, this is the first and largest gathering of hardware developers using KiCad. Talks at the conference will span hardware design, revision control, scripting, manufacturing considerations, proper library management and getting  started developing the underlying tools. All announced talks have been listed on the conference site.

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