Graduating, TDR prototype, lab move, and a conference talk

So, it's been a busy couple of months and I haven't had time to post anything. Here's a few quick updates:

I successfully defended my Ph.D thesis few weeks ago and will be graduating next weekend. You can download the thesis and browse the code if you're so inclined. I plan to continue developing the project in my spare time and using it as the basis for future embedded gadgets so expect more posts on it over the coming months.

The TDR board came in and I assembled the first prototype. It had a few bugs (which I'll detail in a future post) but after reworking them all of the major subsystems seem functional and I'm working on the firmware. Expect another post over the summer once I've made more progress.

TDR prototype during bring-up.
This was my improvised jig for holding probes on small test points.

Now that I'm done with school I'm moving across the country in a week to start work at my new job. My lab is currently living in 125 cardboard boxes weighing just shy of 1900 pounds. (This doesn't count my desktop computer and monitors, test equipment, microscope bench, or the servers and rack as they're all still in use and being packed up over the next few days.) The lab will be totally down for 1-2 months.

The current state of my lab

Finally, I will be speaking on CPLD reverse engineering at REcon this June. The topic of the talk is the XC2C32A, which my regular readers may remember from a previous post. I'll be describing the reverse engineering process, how far I got, and showcasing bitstreams generated by my toolchain running on actual silicon. If any you are going, by all means introduce yourself :)