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Details: Published: Tuesday, 14 July 2020 00:04; Hits: 2249

Biology:

This section deals with Biology, which is basically study of all forms of life. The first place to start learning about life is our own human body.

We'll learn about Human body as well as about forms of life. A good deal will be spent on human cells, as they are the power house and the building blocks of human body.

Then we'll learn about all human parts.

We'll also briefly cover other forms of life.

MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) => MCAT is a standardized test administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). This is to get into a medical school when graduating from a 4 year College. Students take it in their Junior or Senior year of college. The topics covered in MCAT are in general advanced concepts in Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc and are a good starting point for anyone wanting to get into details, and not just superficial knowledge.

Khan Academy (KA) MCAT link => https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat

Biology AP Course: Full AP Biology course taught in High Schools is again very nicely covered on Khan Academy. It has a lot of overlap with topics under MCAT, but the AP course is more basic than MCAT course. High Schools also offer "Biology Honors" which is more basic than AP course, and I would recommend to do AP Biology instead of Honors Biology to get better understanding.

KA AP Biology link=> https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology

I've also included notes from Biology High School Course. This is a Honors Biology course, so the material is much more basic.

Basics of Life => talks about very basic concepts: Unit 1 => Chemistry of Life
1. Human body is mostly composed of C,H and O (carbohydrates). oxygen=65%, carbon=20%, hydrogen=10%, Nitrogen=3% (by weight). In earth's crust, 50% is oxygen, 25% is silicon, with miniscule amounts of C, H and N. So, basically our body is made up of same elements that are found in earth's crust. It's just that the molecules they form from these are different in living beings, than what is there in non living things.
2. Water is a polar molecule (with oxygen being slightly -ve charged, and hyrdogen being slightly +ve charged). So, water causes ionic compounds or polar solutes to dissociate by breaking their bonds. Most chemical reactions in our body takes place in the watery environment in our cells.
Biomolecules => These are biological molecules, or molecules that make life. Khan Academy video on biomolecules => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5VA6YrqTNs
1. Organic compounds are carbon containing compounds. A monomer is small such unit of compound, while polymer are many such units/molecules connected together. Macro molecules (macro means large) are even larger polymers made up of more parts. Biomolecules are the macromolecules of these organic compounds and are the ones that eventually make cells of living things. Biomolecules are divided into 4 groups and all 4 are required in all living organisms.
  1. Carbohydrates (carbs) => They contain C,H,O. There is 1 carbon atom for every water molecule (H2O). So, formula is C_n(H2O)_n or C_nH_2nO_n. This composition gives carbohydrates their name: they are made up of carbon (carbo-) plus water (-hydrate). Carbs are used by mitochondria in cells to generate immediate energy or can be stored for later use. Carbohydrate chains come in different lengths, and biologically important carbohydrates belong to three categories: monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. Saccharides are sugar (CHO in ring form). Momo, di and poly refer to 1, 2 or many of such rings connected to each other. All saccharides end in -ose meaning sugar.
    1. Monosaccharides (mono- = “one”; sacchar- = “sugar”) are simple sugars, the most common of which is glucose. Monosaccharides typically contain three to seven carbon atoms.
      1. Common monosaccharide: One important monosaccharide is glucose, a six-carbon sugar with the formula C₆H₁₂O₆. Other common monosaccharides include galactose (which forms part of lactose, the sugar found in milk) and fructose (found in fruit). All 3 are the simplest forms of carbs, and are isomers. Glucose and galactose are stereoisomers of each other (differing only in 3D orientation), while Fructose is a structural isomer of glucose and galactose, meaning that its atoms are actually bonded together in a different order. Glucose is broken down into H₂O and CO₂ by taking O₂ as additional input, and generating energy in the process (in form of ATP). All other forms of carbs will need to be broken down into glucose before it can be used by cell to generate energy.
    2. Disaccharides (di- = “two”) form when two monosaccharides join together via a dehydration reaction (see below). In this process, the hydroxyl group of one monosaccharide combines with the hydrogen of another, releasing a molecule of water and forming a covalent bond known as a glycosidic linkage.
      1. Common disaccharides: include lactose, maltose, and sucrose. Lactose is a disaccharide consisting of glucose and galactose and is found naturally in milk. Many people can't digest lactose as adults, resulting in lactose intolerance (which you or your friends may be all too familiar with). Maltose, or malt sugar, is a disaccharide made up of two glucose molecules. The most common disaccharide is sucrose (table sugar), which is made of glucose and fructose.
    3. Polysaccharide (poly- = “many” is a long chain of monosaccharides linked by glycosidic bonds. Polysaccharides are used for storing energy as well as for providing structure
      1. Common polysaccharides: Starch, glycogen, cellulose, and chitin are some major examples of polysaccharides important in living organisms.
        
        Starch: is the stored form of sugars in plants and is made up of a mixture of two polysaccharides, amylose and amylopectin (both polymers of glucose). Plants are able to synthesize glucose using light energy gathered in photosynthesis, and the excess glucose, beyond the plant’s immediate energy needs, is stored as starch in different plant parts, including roots and seeds. The starch in the seeds provides food for the embryo as it germinates and can also serve as a food source for humans and animals, who will break it down into glucose monomers using digestive enzymes. Starch usually has a branched structure.
        
        Glycogen: is the storage form of glucose in humans and other vertebrates (as opposed to Starch which is stored energy in plants). Like starch, glycogen is a polymer of glucose monomers. Glycogen is usually stored in liver and muscle cells. Whenever blood glucose levels decrease, glycogen is broken down via hydrolysis to release glucose monomers that cells can absorb and use.
        
        Cellulose, is the structural form of glucose and is a major component of plant cell walls, which are rigid structures that enclose the cells (and help make lettuce and other veggies crunchy). Wood and paper are mostly made of cellulose, and cellulose itself is made up of unbranched chains of glucose monomers linked by glycosidic bonds (straight rigid structure). The β glycosidic linkages in cellulose can't be broken by human digestive enzymes, so humans are not able to digest cellulose. (That’s not to say that cellulose isn’t found in our diets, it just passes through us as undigested, insoluble fiber.) However, some herbivores, such as cows, koalas, buffalos, and horses, have specialized microbes that help them process cellulose. Cellulose is the most abundant organic material on earth (as it's found in all plants), and still we can't digest it !!
        
        Chitin: is similar to cellulose in that the chains are long rigid structure. They are found in animal's shells/wings, exoskeleton of insects, etc to provide rigidity.
  2. Lipids (Fats) => They also contain C,H,O, (similar to carbs) but end up creating different compounds. They may sometimes contain P. Lipids are not strictly macromolecules as they are not polymers, and are much smaller than other 3 biomolecules. Lipids are nonpolar and so insoluble in water. Lipds are long term energy source, which are stored in body. Ex: Triglyceride. Cell membranes are made of lipids. Lipids create waxy covering for moisture retention. Lipids also provide insulation to keep body warm. Lipids don't have true monomers, and instead are long chains of C and H. They mainly use Fatty acid and glycerol to form long chains.
    1. Fatty Acids: These are long chain of C and H. They can be considered as a base unit which attach to others. Fatty acids can be of 2 types depending on carbon bond.
      1. Saturated Fatty acid: Carbon atoms with single bonds b/w them (single covalent bond with each other) form a straight chain and are called Saturated,
      2. Unsaturated Fatty acid: Carbon atoms with double bonds b/w them causes a bend anyhwere there is a double bond and are called unsaturated. Double bonds have a bend, so they can't be nicely stacked on top of each other. That is why saturated fat (like butter) are solid at room temp as they have saturated carbon bonds, while unsaturated fat (like oil) is liquid at room temp.
    2. Triglyceride. It's a lipid which is long term energy source for animals. It's formed by dehydration synthesis of 1 glycerol with 3 fatty acids. Glycerol has formula C₃H₈O₃.
    3. Phospholipd: It is used to make cell membrane. It consists of 2 fatty acids, 1 glycerol and 1 Phosphate group (PO₄ -ve) . Each phospholipd molecule has a head (made of Phosphate) and 2 tails (made of fatty acids). Heads have Phosphate group and so are hydrophilic (water loving as polar). Tails are hydrophobic (water hating as fatty acids are non polar). The 2 tails are different = one is saturated forming straight chain, while other is unsaturated forming bent chain. These helps the structure to be flexible. These phospholipid molecules go together in pair with the tails connecting to each other and the heads exposed (one to the outside of cell and other to the inside of cell, both have watery environment so this helps as the heads are hydrophilic). This is called phospholipd Bilayer. The bent structure of one of the tails keeps membrane fluid and flexible. More details under cells section.
    4. Steroid lipid: Chloesterol is a steroid lipd. Steroid hormones regulate functions in body (ex: testosterone)
  3. Proteins => They contain N in addition to C,H,O. They sometimes contain S too. Proteins provide structural support. They build up bones, muscles, hairs, nails, etc. They are also present in cell membrane as Transport proteins. Simplest unit of proteins are amino acids, which is a monomer.
    1. Amino Acids (monomer): In amino acids, there's always a central carbon attached to hydrogen, which is called alpha carbon. On the left of this we have an amine group (NH₂), while to the right, we have an carboxyl group (COOH). Another carbon group attached to the bottom of alpha carbon is different for different amino aids, and is called R-group. There are 20 essential amino acids that our body needs. Glycine is the simplest Amino Acid and has just a single H in the R group.
    2. Polypeptides (polymer): These amino acids are stitched together to form proteins by forming bonds called as peptide bonds. The polymers formed are called polypeptides. These bonds are formed by "Dehydraton synthesis" and involves removal of H from NH₂ and OH from COOH. There are 4 layers of structures that proteins may have:
      1. Primary: The linear structure formed by stitching of amino acids is called Primary structure. It may contain 100's of diff amino acids stitched together. It's NOT a functional protein, as it needs to be folded into a definite structure to become a functional protein. Exception: insulin (it regulates blood sugar). Even though Primary st don't form protein, insulin is an exception
      2. Secondary: Primary st folds into helices (spiral structure) and is called a secondary structure. The spiral structure comes due to Hydrogen bonds formed between different amino acids (between H of NH₂ and O of C=O,OH), which helps it get that shape and maintain it.There are 2 possible st here => The alpha helix and the beta pleated sheet.
      3. Tertiary: 3 of these secondary structure combine together to form tertiary structure, which becomes a functional Protein. Lots of interactions happen to make this Functional protein. It has more bonds than just H bonds to give this 3D shape of protein.
      4. Quarternary: If a protein has more than 1 polypeptide chain, the way they are arranged is it's quarternary st. In collagen, we have 3 of these polypeptide chains combine, while in hemoglobin, we have 4 of the secondary structure combine to form a Quarternary protein.
    3. Enzymes: These are proteins that help speed up metabolic reactions. Enzymes lower the activation energy needed for any reaction. Enzymes end in -ase, ex: lipase. Enzymes don't get used up. They act on the substrate only if the substrate fits the active site of enzyme perfectly. Active site s the area of an enzyme that binds to the substrate during the reaction. Each enzyme's active site has a shape that is specific to only that type of substrate, so that that enzyme can only act on that substrate and nothing else. This is like a key-lock mechanism, where there is only 1 key for a given lock, where enzyme is the lock and substrate is the key. There may be multiple active sites in a given enzyme, meaning it can act on multiple substrates, but each site is specific to only 1 type of substrate.
      1. Enzymes can either break substrate into parts (catabolic reaction), or it can make substrate combine into another molecule (anabolic reaction).
      2. Enzymes can both activate or inhibit a reaction. We saw how key-lock mechanism allows enzymes to speed up reaction for a given substrate. However, we may also have an antibiotic or another substrate bind to an active site so that the shape of the active site is altered. Then the original substrate on which this enzyme was supposed to act on, can no longer fit on the active site, and hence can no longer react. This inhibits the enzyme from working properly, and is called competitive inhibition. There may also be non competitive inhibition, where the new substrate binds to other active site on the enzyme, w/o interfering with the original active site (ex: cyanide poison)
      3. Denature is the changing of shape of active site of enzyme due to temperature, or pH of medium. This may cause the substrate to no longer fit in the active site, thus rendering the enzyme useless. This change is permanent. At a temperature of 40 degrees and a pH of 8, enzymes are most effective.
    4. Antibodies: Antibodies are proteins produced by immune system to neutralize foreign invaders as viruses. Antigens which are themselves proteins are an integral part of any virus. Virus use these antigens to attach to cell. Antibodies prevent this from happening by attaching to antigens, so that they are blocked and can't attach to cell anymore.
    5. Peptide hormones: are hormones made of proteins which act on the surface of target cells to send msg around the body. Ex: insulin.
  4. Nucleic acids => They contain P in addition to C,H,O, N. They are the most important ones as they instruct what happens inside our cells, and pass that hereditary info to offsprings, They are considered most fundamental macromolecules to life. These were first observed in Nucleus of cells, and are acidic in nature, that's where the name comes from. Khan academy link (intro to nucleic acids) => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI4v7v8AdfI
    1. Nucleotides (monomer): Building blocks of Nucleic acids are called Nucleotides. It consists of a 5 carbon sugar (pentose sugar) ring in the center, with a phosphate on the left and a nitrogenous base (NB) on the right. for:
    2. RNA (Ribonucleic acid): RNA molecules were the ones that evolved first and were unstable. The Phosphate group in one nucleotide attaches to carbon ring of another forming long chains. There are 4 kinds of NB that we have for RNA.
      1. Guanine (G):
      2. Adinine (A)
      3. Cytosine (C)
      4. Uracil (U):
    3. DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid): DNA molecules eveolved from RNA molecules. They formed by combining 2 strands of RNA molecules via hydrogen bonds. This provided them stability. G always bonded with C via 3 hydrogen bonds, while A always bonded with T via 2 hydrogen bonds
      1. Guanine (G):
      2. Adinine (A)
      3. Cytosine (C)
      4. Thymine (T)
2. 2 kinds of chemical reactions => make larger chains from smaller chains or vice versa
  1. Dehydration Synthesis => here smaller units attach to form bigger units. It is also called condensation reaction. It generally requires energy (think of as building something like a house from bricks requires energy). Dehydration synthesis is where H and OH bonds at the ends of shorter polymer attach to each other releasing H2O and combining to form a larger polymer.
  2. Hydrolysis => here a larger polymer breaks into smaller polymers. -lysis means breaking, while hydro is water, so breaking by water is hdrolysis. It's exactly reverse of Synthesis, where it needs H₂O to form H and OH bonds at the ends of smaller polymer, and thus separates them. This process generally releases energy.

Details: Published: Sunday, 12 July 2020 14:43; Hits: 878

DFT: Design for Testatbility

Any chip that is fabricated is going to have some defects during fabrication, which will cause some of the transistors or wires on the chip to not function properly. This may cause the chip to fail. One way to check if the chip manufactured is good or not, is to run thru the same functional patterns on the chip pins that the chip is going to go thru when it's in operation.

For small chips this method may work, but for large chips, it's practically not feasible for 2 reasons. First, there may be billions of such possible patterns on chip pins that we may have to aplly, which is time prohibitive. Secondly, it may still not find out all bad devices or bad connections in chip, since those patterns may not target 100% of the chip devices.

Without having 100% check to test each and every transistor and each and every connection, we can never be sure if the chip being shipped is 100% functional or not. This is where DFT comes. DFT simply means adding extra logic on chip so as to allow us to test the whole chip. DFT is a broad field by itself, an you will usually see thousands of job postings just for DFT engineers.

In this section, we will go thru the basics of DFT,

Details: Published: Saturday, 20 June 2020 05:12; Hits: 934

ECO Flow in Synopsys Design Compiler (DC):

ECO can be done by using Synopsys DC to manually add/remove cells or wires by using DC cmds.

DC cmds for ECO:

In all of below cmds, we need to set current design using "current_design" cmd before running any of below cmds, since these cmds work on current design.

1. create_cell => Creates leaf or hierarchical cells in the current design or its subdesigns. The created cells are unplaced. To place them use "set_cell_location" cmd. cell can be removed by using cmd remove_cell.

ex: create_cell {mid1/cell1} my_lib/AND2 => creates a cell named cell1 under the subdesign corresponding to the mid1 cell. This new cell references lib cell my_lib/AND2. Ports on the reference determine the name, number, and direction of pins on the new cell. The actual reference library cell to be used is determined by the current link library settings (i.e not necessarily from my_lib). Reference cell is needed unless we are using "-logic 0" or "-logic 1" which specifies cell is logic0 or logic1 cell (tie-off cells).

ex: create_cell eco121_inv [get_lib_cells */INV1_LVT] => creates leaf cell named "eco121_inv" which references INV1_LVT

2. create_net => Creates nets in the current design or its subdesign.

ex: create_net {eco121_net1 eco121_net2} => creates these 2 nets. By default, it creates signal net. To create power or ground net, use option -power or -ground

3. create_port => Creates ports in the current design or its subdesign. Default direction for port is "in" or input port (possible values are in, out, inout)

ex: create_port -direction "out" {A1 A2 A3 A4} => creates 4 o/p ports

4. disconnect_net => it breaks the connections between a net or a net instance and its pins or ports. The net, pins, and ports are not removed.

ex: disconnect_net NET0 [get_pins U1/A] => Disconnectes net 'NET0' from pin 'U1/A'.

ex: disconnect_net MY_NET_1 -all => -all option causes all pins and ports connected to this net to be disconnected.

5. connect_net => Connects the specified net to the specified pins or ports. There are 2 rules for connect_net cmd to work:

Connection can't be done across hierarchical bdry. The net can be at any level of hierarchy (by providing full hier of the net) but the pins or ports must be at the same level.Since ports are only at top level, that implies that to connect to ports, your net has to be at top level.
You can't connect net to a pin/port that is already connected. I believe this is because the net will get connected to another net with different name, i.e same net with 2 different names. You should first disconnect existing net from the pin/port, and then connect to your new net. NOTE: A net can be connected to many pins or ports; however, you cannot connect a pin or port to more than one net.

syntax: connect_net <net_name> <pins_or_ports_list>

ex: connect_net [get_net net_eco1] [get_pin eco1_and_gate/A*] => connects net to i/p pins (A1 and A2) of and gate

6. connect_pin => Connects pins or ports at any level of hierarchy. This cmd can punch thru ports automatically across hier (make new ports and nets in submodules if needed), so useful since "connect_pin" cmd doesn't allow the pin or port to be at different hier. New nets are created to make connections. Name of new net is name of connecting port or new name is generated.

NOTE: This cmd is avilable in DC, but NOT in PT.

ex: connect_pin -from [get_pins U1/Z] -to [get_pins mid1/bot1/U3/A] => connects specified pins.

ex: connect_pin -from [get_pins U1/Z] -to [get_pins mod1/U2/A] -port_name mod1_port1 => creates a port named mod1_port1 on "mod1" module, and connects the o/p and i/p pins they this port

ECO flow:

Above 6 cmds used extensively during ECO process. To view and make sure that all connections are as intended, we can use following cmds to help us view connections:

Finding all connections on a net => To display pins and ports on a net, use either the all_connected or get_nets -of $net command. This is needed when doing connect/disconnect nets for an eco, as many times it's not easy to see all the places the net is connected to. So, connect/disconnect cmds may leave nets in incorrect state. "report_net -connections" and "report_cell -connections" are also useful cmds to view connections.

Finding pins/nets of objects => Sometimes, we may not want to put exact net name connected to pin of a gate in eco script, as name of that net may be prone to change from netlist to netlist. Also, sometimes it may just be too time consuming trying to find net name connected to some cell by tracing the netlist. In such cases, it's easier to use get_net cmd with -of_objects option, i.e "get_net -of_objects mod1/cell1/A1". This will give the net name correctly all the times, so can be used in eco.tcl script below, instead of using "get_net mod1/net1".

Below is a sample of cmds that can be added to a tcl file to be sourced in DC.

ex: eco.tcl: Adds an inverter to flop i/p

current_design mod1
create_cell eco_inv_I0 [get_lib_cells */INV_D1]
create_net eco_net1_bar

connect_net [get_net -of [get_pin my_reg/D]] [get_pin eco_inv_I0/A] #connect net from i/p pin of flop to i/p pin of new inverter

disconnect_net [get_net -of [get_pin my_reg/D]] [get_pin my_reg/D]      #now disconnect net from i/p pin of flop. Thus D pin to net connection is broken. This disconnect needs to come to come after connect cmd above, order can't be reversed.
connect_net      [get_net eco_net1_bar]         [get_pin eco_inv_I0/Y]        #connect o/p pin of new inverter to new net
connect_net      [get_net eco_net1_bar]         [get_pin my_reg/D]            #now connect this new net to i/p pin of flop

Details: Published: Friday, 19 June 2020 03:39; Hits: 2132

ECO = Engineering Change Order

ECO is a common term used in Engineering. It refers to documentation process for any design changes made to an existing design to fix a bug. These design changes are usually small, so we make localized changes and document these. It's used in vlsi a lot, since early chips mostly have design bugs, which can only be fixed by making changes to the design. The issue is identified, fix proposed, then it's implemented and new design released. This is all documented as an ECO.

When we need to fix a vlsi design, we basically insert/delete gates or change wires. This alters the mask for metal layers or base layers. ECO is the process of minimizing those changes in mask, so that we don't make too many changes to mask set. If we have to make too many changes, then there's no benefit of doing an ECO. In such cases, we should start design from step 1 instead of marking changes as ECO.

The initial design for any project is named as 1p0 or A0 design. We release the mask set for this to fab, and get the fabricated chip. If the chip comes back with bugs, we try to find out if those bugs can be fixed by just changing metal masks (instead of changing base layer mask too). If we can fix bugs by just changing metal masks, it's less costly both in terms of time and money. This new design with only metal mask changes is usually called as 1p1, 1p2 or A1, A2 etc. However, if the changes are more complex, we may need to make changes to base layer masks too. This new design with base layer mask changes are usually called 2p0, 2p1 or B0, C0, etc. Thus A, B, C refers to major design changes involving base mask, while B1, B2, B3 etc refer to minor design changes involving metal mask only.

If the change can be done by changing metal layers only, then it's called "metal eco", while if it involves base mask changes, then it's called "all layer eco". so, "metal eco" are minor revisions as B1, B2, etc, while "all layer eco" are major revision as A0, B0, C0, etc.

ECO type: pre-mask vs post-mask: ECO can be of 2 types based on when the change is made in design:

1. pre-mask => premask is when mask isn't ready yet, i.e for making very small changes while the design is still not taped out. Here, no masks have been ordered. So we can make any change we want. However, we do not want to run the entire design from step 1, since we may have fixed a lot of issues manually in the design, and ripping the whole design to fix some minor issues is prohibitive in terms of cost and time. So, we put the design in pre-mask eco mode, which says that the changes will be localized to affected areas only, so do not disrupt the whole design. Keep changes as small as possible. Here we can change both metal layer as well as base layer. So we are allowed to make complex design changes here, as we have the flexibility to change any gate or wire. We use the term pre-mask to mean that base layer changes are allowed in design. So, an "all layer eco" is basically called pre-mask eco, even though mask may have already been released.

2. postmask => postmask is for making changes after the mask has been released. We find out late that their is a bug in design. In such cases, we make metal mask and/or base layer mask changes. We need base layer mask changes when the changes are extensive and more complex. These get classified as pre-mask eco, even though they are post-mask. However, if the changes are small and can be implemented by changing metal layers only, we call it "metal eco". This is what is usually referred to as "post mask". For postmask eco, spare cells are used (as it's metal only), while for premask, new cells are added or existing cells modified.

ECO type: Functional vs Non-Functional: ECO can be of 2 types based on what kind of change is involved:

1. Functional ECO: change the functionality of the design. i.e when an and gate is added to some logic path, that is a Functional ECO.

2. Non-Functional ECO: does NOT change the functionality of the design, but deal with timing, design rule or signal integrity. i.e when a wire is moved to make extra spacing, it's a Non-Functional ECO.

Both Synopsys and Cadence tools support ECO flow, so that changes can be easily made from within the tools.

For Cadence, Conformal tool is usually used for making ECO, while for Synopsys, Design Compiler (DC) tool is used.

Details: Published: Wednesday, 17 June 2020 05:08; Hits: 2433

Movies, Shows and TV channels

This section deals with Indian movies, shows, channels that you can avail of in USA. It also lists American shows, channels, movies that may be worth your time.To watch American movies/shows is really easy as too many options are available (listed below). Watching Indian movies/shows is little bit of work and costs a bit more.

Indian Movies/Shows: One of the first things, Indian look for in USA is watching Indian shows and movies. You can watch almost all Indian channels (i.e StarPlus, Zee, Sony, etc) here is USA, via a lot of companies. Below are some options:

1. Dish network (www.dishnetwork.com): This used to be the only provider of Indian channels for a long time. They provide you service via satellite (so you need an antenna on the rooftop). Their service is good. However they are expensive and cost you around $50/month. Definitely avoid it. I had been a dish network customer for 15 years, but recently ditched it, as there are a lot of low cost providers available. You can always call them, and tell them that you are cancelling service. To keep you they will offer you a lower price, but even with that, they are definitely expensive.

2. Sling (www.sling.com/international/desi-tv/hindi): This company is very popular, and provides Indian channels via your internet connection (streaming service). Service is good and I've never seen any interruption. It's also expensive at $60/month for Hindi gold package, which includes all channels. However, they allow you to watch on 3 TV simultaneously, so 3 people can share the same account, and bill will drop down to $20/month for each user. You need a roku player to connect to your tv depending on how old your tv is (if your tv isn't smart and hence has no wifi adapter on it + no sling app on it, then you need roku player, which can be had for $30 or less). You may not need a roku player if you have a TV which is smart (i.e which allows you to download different apps as sling, etc). Generally TVs since 2015 may not need roku player.

3. IPTV Providers: There are lot of IPTV providers whose concept is same as sling TV, but they offer you services at fraction of price. They usually cost < $300 for 5 year subscription. Comes out to $5/month, which is the cheapest streaming that you can get. There are 100's of them tageting indian customers. They have bunch of Indian movies, shows, series.They also have all channels as ZEE, Sony, Star. They also have English shows, movies. in their video section (most of them 1080p), with new ones being added weekly. So, you can watch almost all high quality Indian movies for no extra charge. The amount of content is huge. Tough all of these IPTV providers advertise their content as being superior to other, I believe they all come from same source, so their content and quality is mostly similar. Some provide their own Boxes (i.e Streaming box similar to Amazon Fire stick) or will ask you to install an app, thru which you connect to their services. Boxes provide better experience as they automatically connect. The ones with app may sometimes not connect at all. Below are few popular ones that I've tried. Always go for 5 year plan, as they are the cheapest. If you ask them, they will gladly give you 6 months extra for free.

boxiptv (www.boxiptv.xyz): They charge $270 for 5 year subscription. Comes out to $5/month, which is the one of the cheapest. They provide you both options => one with box and one without. The one w/o box costs $220 for 5 years. They allow you to stream on only 1 device with one box. For the non-box option, I'm not sure.They charge you in canadian dollars, so depending on your credit card, there may be a currency conversion fee (so use a credit card, which doesn't charge you any conversion fee). Their service is good, and interface for finding movies, shows etc was also pretty intuitive. I had them for 5 years. The only issue I found was that the streaming was laggy, and would get stuck every minute. After some investigation, it turned out that the streaming box provided by them doesn't have good pickup for routers placed at more than 10 ft apart. So, once I placed the router very close to their streaming box, I never had any lagging issue. Or even better, if you have ethernet port close by, connect the box to the ethernet port directly using a ethernet cable. That gets rid of most of the lagging issues.
Rahuliptv (https://www.rahuliptv.com/): They are app based (no box). You have to download 3rd party app "IPTV Smarters Pro" and it may not be free depending on the device. Their downlaod may also be convoluted, as the app doesn't appear for direct install. You have to download "Downloader" app, and then download some files to get the app. So you are really at the mercy of some unknown 3rd party app. Their prices are the lowest with 5 year plan for $225. I've tried their for a few months, and looks good. They allow to stream on up to 2 devices which is convenient. However, they have no customer service number or no o
1. UPDATE 02/20/2025:
towniptv (https://www.towniptve.com/): NOTE: the webaddr has a e in end i. it's "towniptve". I haven't tried this service, but looks very similar to boxiptv. They charge $340 for 5 years, which is more expensive than boxiptv. But it never hurts to ask them to match.
Misc: I keep getting phone calls from bunch of iptv providers for Indian channels. I don't know how they get my number, but they all have similar prices and hard to know whom to trust. Because once you pay the money, there's no way to recover that. They all use third party payment processors who charge extra 3% for processing. So, always use a "Chase Credit card", as Chase will cover you even after 1st 3 months. And always go for short term contract, even though it may be more expensive. These iptv providers may disappear any time.

I haven't found a cheap source of watching Indian movies. boxiptv above has bunch of Indian movies, which you can definitely watch if you get their service. So far, netflix and amazon prime also offer limited movies, but they cost more. You will be surprised to know that youtube has lots of "Full Length Indian movies" with good quality, which are absolutely free to watch.

4. Large Streaming Companies:
You will hear a lot of marketing material on how everyone needs a netflix and amazon streaming services. There are also Disney, HBO, and many others that offer their original content. All of them are very expensive (costing >$100/yr). All of them have very limited selection of Indian movies/shows. IPTV providers provide a lot of their content, so if you go with IPTV providers, you have no reason to get netflix, etc.

Netflix (www.netflix.com): They have a huge selection of American movies, and about 500 or so Indian movies. Though their selection of Indian movies is not that great, they have their own produced Indian shows, documentaries, etc which are quite good. It costs around $15/month to watch on 2 TV simultaneously. So, if 2 people share it, the cost would be $8/month. You can buy discounted netflix giftcards once in a while from Bestbuy, Walgreens, etc at 20% off. Then apply those to your account and you could save 20% or more on your bills. Since netflix goes month to month, and they have free monthly trial, you might want to get netflix free trial every year, watch all the movies/shows for free, and repeat the same next year. Really no need to pay $200/year for it.
Amazon (www.amazon.com): If you are amazon prime member, amazon movies is included in your subscription at no extra cost. They have even limited selection than netflix, but may be worth it for free. I would n't go and pay for this service, as you can find all the content of amazon on other subscription service (i.e on youtube, iptv, etc)

American Movies/shows: American channels (i.e ABC, FOX, etc) can be watched directly on TV by having an HD Antenna. Or also via apps if you have smart TV. They show a lot of Hollywood movies, shows, news, etc. American movies can also be watched via netlix or amazon. However, none of the latest release are available. For that you will have to go to a movie theatre. If you can wait a little longer (usually a month or two), you can watch them on DVDs.

1. redbox (www.redbox.com): They have stand alone redbox kisok outside/inside major grocery stores (kroger, walmart, etc), drug stores (walgreens, CVS, etc) and many other places. Most of the times they have coupon code for free rental. If you have Tmobile Tuesday app (by being a customer of T-mobile cellular services), about once a month, they send you such code. Also, if you sign up for their emails on their website, they will send you such codes. From time to time, you can find such codes on slickdeals.net (just search for redbox). I have never paid a single cent for renting movies on redbox, and have already watched 100 or so movies via them. Be careful with the return of the DVD though. You have until 9pm (local time) next day to return a DVD. If you miss that deadline, you have to pay next day rental which is expensive at $2/day. That is where Redbox makes most of the money.

2. Libraries: All local libraries in USA are free to join. They have huge selection of movies. If you are in one of the big cities or suburbs, you can get almost any popular movie which is more than 6 months old. They also keep a decent selection of Indian movies. This is your cheapest source for watching free movies.

3. Misc: Netflix, amazon, HBOMax, and many other streaming services provide a lot of movies and shows for a fixed monthly price. They make their own movies and shows and show it only on their platform to subscribers who pay for thier service. They charge monthly subscription fee of $10-$15 per month. However, there is no annual contarct, so you can get out at any time. What I do is to cancel the service after a couple of months, when I'm done watching all their good shows/movies. Then after a year or so, you may join again, if you see they have gotten any new shows/movies that are of interest to you. One word of caution is that these companies keep on removing their popular shows/movies from their services every month, and the one of the reason may be to force people to stay with the service long term. More info about these is in "Other Movies and shows" subsection.

Movie Websites:

Below are some of the best resources for finding everything about the movies:

IMDB: IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) is the most comprehensive website for finding details on any movie. If you need to look for any movie mentioned below, search it on imdb and match it with year and director as there are usually multiple movies with the same name. You should be able to find both Hollywood and Bollywood movies here.

Wikipedia is other very good resource for almost anything.

Rotten Tomatoes: This website has gotten very popular recently as it relies on people's vote and critic's vote to get the rating.

More categories under entertainment show popular bollywood and hollywood movies. I've also listed cheap theaters available around USA.I'll add more sections as I find more material.

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