Even the "Times" crossword could become a doddle!

If, like the author, you are a crossword puzzle fan, you will have frequently found yourself stuck on words where you have a few letters but no ideas. A dictionary is of little use if you do not have the letters at the beginning of the word. The Crossword Solver was created to help out, while demonstrating how easy it is for a PIC to index large memory devices quickly and efficiently. The Crossword Solver stores a large dictionary – over 57,000 words – in a small flash memory i.c. Using a simple keypad you can enter the letters you do know for a word and the Crossword Solver will scan the dictionary and display all the words that match.

It’s very fast, taking only a few milliseconds to find each word. Another feature is the anagram solver – type in the letters of the anagram, and the Crossword Solver will display all the words that use combinations of those letters. The results can be surprising – “Elvis” for example gives “Evils Lives”!

The device is handheld and battery powered. It uses an efficient 3V to 5V converter which enables the device to operate from two AAA cells (3V), giving over 100 hours of continuous use.