EDN Asia articles from June 2006

EDN Asia archives from June 2006

Driving towards codesign.(ednasia comment)
June 1, 2006... The chip-package-board codesign is emerging as a strong challenge for design engineers. ITRS has of late been calling for developing and improving codesign. The chip and package designs have traditionally been two separate phenomena. This...

Video crosspoint switch with high level integration.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... Intersil's ISL59532 32X32 video crosspoint switch integrates the four separate 16x16 crosspoint switches currently used, to create a 32X32 matrix (or two 32X16 switches). To further reduce board space and costs, the ISL59532 has an integrated...

Low-cost, low-power XBee family for wireless.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... MaxStream has created three different XBee development kits to meet the diverse needs of OEMs and systems integrators. The XBee Professional Developer's Kit targets developers looking to maximize the forthcoming mesh networking capabilities of...

DaVinci technology for digital still cameras.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... Giving digital still camera (DSC) manufacturers the benefits of full software programmability with the performance of hard-wired solutions, Texas Instruments has optimized its DaVinci technology for the DSC market. The technology includes a...

1.8V dual & quad op amps in DFN packages.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... Linear Technology's LT6001 and LT6002 are said to be the industry's first 1.8V dual and quad operational amplifiers that come in a tiny DFN package. These micropower devices draw only 13uA per amplifier and have excellent performance...

Test accelerates next-gen RapidIO products to market.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... Tundra Semiconductor has launched its RapidIO Interoperability Lab (RIOLAB) for interoperability and specification compliance testing. Aimed at accelerating the realization of a test facility that will provide the RapidIO community with formal...

High-performance 128Mbit serial Flash.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... STMicroelectronics' 128Mbit serial Flash device, the M25P128, is intended principally for code storage in a broad range of high performance, cost sensitive, computer and consumer applications. The device complements ST's existing code storage...

RF MESFET bias controllers for point-to-point communications.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... These controllers set and control bias conditions for dual MESFET power devices found in point-to-point communication and other microwave base stations. The MAX11014 integrates closed-loop drain-current control for class A MESFET amplifier...

Active RFID tag for harsh supply chain environments.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... Savi Technology has released a new low-profile version of its active, data rich RFID tag for military and commercial container shipments in particularly harsh supply chain operating environments. Called the Savi Tag ST-656, the ISO container...

NI intros SignalExpress Tektronix Edition.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... National Instruments has announced the NI SignalExpress Tektronix Edition, an interactive PC-based measurement software for design and test engineers who need to quickly acquire, analyze and document measurements on the benchtop without...

XPhase control IC increases multi-phase converter efficiency.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... International Rectifier has expanded the IR XPhase family of scalable multi-phase converter chip set devices with the IR3084 and IR3084U XPhase Control ICs. The new Control ICs are designed to be used with the company's existing IR3086A Phase...

Offset-free data acquisition ICs for automotive apps.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... Austriamicrosystems' AS8500/AS8501 family of high-precision sensor interfaces are capable of collecting a wide variety of measurements that can be displayed in the form of voltage or resistance values in good resolution and quality. Featuring a...

Current monitor enables true short circuit monitoring.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... Zetex Semiconductors has launched the ZXCT1051 current monitor which, with a wide common mode sense range of 0V to within 2V of the supply voltage applied, enables true short circuit current monitoring. Powered via a dedicated supply pin, the...

Micrel's high performance power management IC.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
June 1, 2006... Micrel's MIC2800 is an efficient, flexible power management IC that provides three output voltages and a power on reset in a 3X3mm MLF-16 package. Ideal for cellphones, Smart phones, PDAs, cameras, portable media players, wireless LAN cards and...

Handset-technology advances dominate Barcelona confab.(GLOBAL DESIGNER)
June 1, 2006... The mobile handset continues to drive the global high-tech industry, and the adoption and enabling of new features, such as multimedia, typically happen first outside North America. The industry gathered Feb 13 through 16 at the 3GSM World...

Figuring out the no-cost route.
June 1, 2006... Last month, EDN Asia dissected a $20-on-clearance (previously $50) USB audio peripheral. This month, we continue our fiscally focused analysis with ABS's NW-203-RT $0-afterrebate 802.11g- and four-port switch-inclusive router. What's inside the...

High-resolution-disc formats fight each other: with blue-laser competitors Blu-ray and HD DVD both gearing up for high-volume production, a clear picture of the format winner hasn't yet emerged. Red-laser formats remain credible alternatives in some applications, but both usage-rights restrictions and display-and-vision limitations put all their futures in doubt.(Cover story)
June 1, 2006... Notable progress and pending production plans of the vigorously competing Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD camps were, in many observers' eyes, the key story of January's CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and therefore warranted an update of a topic EDN...

EPIC updates stretch stackable systems: two new board-level standards offer PC/104 designers more real estate, a link to fabric technology, and continued compatibility with legacy hardware.(design feature)
June 1, 2006... Since its introduction in 1992, PC/104 has been one of the most popular embedded-system architectures, because of its size, rugged construction, and PC compatibility, and due to the huge array of off-the-shelf components available to...

Interfacing electronics to people: electronic embedded systems continue to find their way into more medical systems.(design feature)
June 1, 2006... AS electronic embedded systems are finding their way into and replacing more mechanical-control systems, it might reasonable to expect to sec them finding their way into organic systems, such as the human body. Indeed, electronic embedded...

"FPGA has become an intrinsic part of design methodology".(Interview)
June 1, 2006... Despite the proliferation of custom ASICs, FPGAs continue to register robust growth. Sandeep Vij, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Xilinx Inc., provides insights into new trends influencing the growth of programmable logic device in an...

Ensuring serial protocol signal integrity with FPGAs and embedded transceivers.(special report)
June 1, 2006... Today's high-end field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) with embedded transceivers support a variety of widely accepted serial protocol standards, including Gigabit Ethernet, PCI Express, XAUI and Serial Rapid IO. Maintaining signal integrity...

Op amp can source or sink current.(design ideas)
June 1, 2006... When you design for electronics applications, such as sensor or amplifier bias supplies or special waveform generators, a controlled constant-current source or sink circuit can serve as a useful building block. These circuits exhibit high...

Single switch selects one of three signals.(design ideas)
June 1, 2006... This Design Idea shows how you can use a single-pole momentary-contact switch to select one of three signal sources by scrolling through three output states. The circuit in Figure 1 comprises commonly available components from the CD4000...

Microprocessor's single-interrupt input processes multiple external interrupts.(design ideas)
June 1, 2006... On the lower end of the performance spectrum, many widely available and inexpensive microcontrollers pay for their small pc-board footprints by omitting functions. For example, most low- end processors provide only one external-interrupt input...

Thermal considerations matter for Class D amplifiers.(design ideas)
June 1, 2006... A class D amplifier provides better efficiency and thermal performance than a comparable Class AB amplifier, but implementing a Class D amplifier still requires attention to good electrical- and thermal-design practices. Most engineers use a...

LVDS serializer/deserializer in space-saving package.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The SN65LV1023A serializer and SN65LV1224B deserializer comprise a 10-bit SerDes chipset designed to transmit and receive serial data over LVDS differential backplanes at an equivalent parallel word clock rate from 10 to 66MHz. This corresponds...

PIN diodes in low-cost, lead free SOD-323 package.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The SOD-323 PIN diode series, the Avago HSMP-389Z, is optimized for RF switching applications where low insertion loss, low series resistance at low current, and low capacitance are required. Suitable for low-distortion and low-current...

Battery charger supports AC adapter/USB charges.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The AAT3685 is q single-cell lithium-ion/polymer battery charger IC capable of operating from either an AC line adapter or USB port output. Supports constant charge currents up to 1A. Designed to regulate battery charge voltage and current for...

Charger controller charges any size capacitor.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The LT3750 is a flyback controller designed to rapidly charge large capacitors to voltages as high as 1,000V. It drives an external high current N-Channel MOSFET and can charge a 100uF capacitor to 300V in less than 300ms making it ideal for...

32-bit MCU/DSP core offers better performance.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The AVR32 is a 32-bit embedded CPU architecture with DSP extensions. it extends the battery life of portable, handheld multimedia products such as portable video players, MP3 players and mobile phones. Early testing gauge the core's performance...

USB controller with 26MHz SPI interface.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The MAX3421E USB host and peripheral controller has an SPI interface. It integrates digital logic and analog circuitry to implement a full-speed (12Mbps) USB host or peripheral control compliant to the USB specification 2.0. The device also...

Voltage supervisors improve system reliability.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The ISL88011-ISL88015 family offers fixed and/or adjustable voltage monitoring with all the functions for critical monitoring, including power-on reset control, customizable supply voltage supervision, watchdog timer capability and manual...

Compliant programmable x8 PCI express IP core.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... This compliant x1, x4 and x8 lane LogiCORE PCI Express IP Core ("PCIe IP Core") is targeted at telecom, networking, storage and video applications. Its programmability and reconfigurability enables systems designers to build fully compliant and...

Fast, feature-rich MCU.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... This microcontroller family features more on-chip Flash and new peripherals including USB2.0 OTG and 10/100-Mbps Ethernet MAC. The 16bit, 75MHz eCOG1X offers 45MIPS-processing performance representing a threefold increase on current eCOG...

Microcontroller with 2ARM cores for time-critical industrial applications.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The DCIC9907 contains two ARM 946E cores, two CAN channels, two 10/100Mbit Ethernet MACs with HW extension for real-time protocols, and a versatile motion control logic capability, specifically designed for time-critical and other industrial...

600mA dc/dc converters for portable electronics.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The NCP1521 and NCP1522 600mA dc/dc step-down converters are optimized for portable applications powered from one cell Li-ion or three cell Alkaline/NiCd/NiMH batteries. The devices include integrated soft-start, cycle-by-cycle current...

Low-power, delta-sigma A/D converter family.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... An addition to the company's low-power, high-resolution delta-sigma A/D converter family, the MCP3550 is a 22-bit device in an 8-pin MSOP package (3.1x3.1x1.18mm). It offers low-current operation of 120 microamperes, typical. It rejects noise...

High power broadband amplifiers.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The MAAPGM0074-DIE, MAAPGM-0076-DIE, MAAPGM0077-DIE and MAAPGM0078-DIE can be used in various applications including communications and military electronic systems. With power levels up to 16W, they are targeted at multi-octave GaAs MMICs...

Single-chip level translators for mobile phone cards.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... Two 6-bit level translators--available in 3x3mm [micro]TFBGA25 package--are intended for interfacing the 1.8 or 2.5V signals of mobile phones and other products with the nominal 3.3V levels used by plug-in memory cards. The ST6G3238E includes...

DSP boosts performance and bandwidth.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
June 1, 2006... The TMS320C6455 DSP evaluation module (EVM) and the TMS320C6455 DSP starter kit (DSK) come with a Serial RapidIO (sRIO) bus interface. The C6455 DSP boosts performance and I/O bandwidth in high-end and multichannel applications, sRIO eliminates...

Low cost solution for feature rich entertainment centers.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
June 1, 2006... The RadioScape RS200VE module is a low cost solution for creating inexpensive, feature-rich entertainment centers. It provides DAB (digital audio broadcast) and FM reception, CD transport control, user interface and display drivers in a single...

Industrial grade 4GByte CompactFlash cards.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
June 1, 2006... These industrial grade Compact-Flash cards, in densities from 256MByte to 4Gbyte, are targeted at high-reliability applications. Compliant to CFA standard 2.1, the WEDC W7NCF series card family is constructed with Samsung NAND SLC Flash memory...

Module solution for EDGE.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
June 1, 2006... The complete POLARIS 2 TOTAL RADIO Module solution comprises a cellular transceiver module and a cellular transmit module for handsets operating on the GSM/GPRS and GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks. The performance, size and cost advantages of the Module...

Complete RF front-end module for 802.11n products.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
June 1, 2006... The SE2545A10 integrates two full dual-band transmit/receive chains, providing manufacturers with a fully tested solution that simplifies design, and features the integration and efficiency required to support wireless multimedia services...

TVM264 high def AVC video encoder solution.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
June 1, 2006... The TVM264 video encoder--the ClairityHD board--enables broadcast OEMs to accelerate time to market by using a complete, easy-to-use and cost-effective HD H.264 video encoding solution. Easily integrated with off-the-shelf or proprietary audio,...

STB offers high definition IPTV.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
June 1, 2006... The 1020HD STB is said to be the world's first H.264 A V C (advance video codec) video on demand and IPTV set top box (STB) and PC player capable of very high definition (HD) signal formats with 1080 vertical pixels by 1920 horizontal pixels....

Smaller multimode handset RF design modules.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
June 1, 2006... Three highly-integrated wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) modules that reduce the RF front end complexity of (3G) wireless phones now place more critical functions in a smaller phone board footprint than previously. This helps...

SPICE simulation tool suite.(EDA)
June 1, 2006... The ICAP/4 8.x.11 Build 2641 analog, mixed-signal and mixed systems SPICE simulation tool suite is an 11th-generation ICAP/4 software that comes with a host of customer-driven features to its former Build 2450, released in February, 2005. The...

Improved software application for USB Flash drives.(EDA)
June 1, 2006... The Carry it Easy 2.0 is an all in one application that combines useful functions needed by modern mobile users. The application can partition most USB Flash drives into a private and a public area. The private area will be password protected...

GENESYS 2005 RF and microwave design software.(EDA)
June 1, 2006... The GENESYS 2005 includes a time-domain simulator, frequency planner. mixer synthesis tool and revamped user interface that help speed circuit simulation and wireless communications design. This single, integrated electronic design automation...

HSDPA models in 3GPP library advance verification of 3G wireless modems.(EDA)
June 1, 2006... With the high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) models in 3GPP library wireless system, designers can reduce their specification risk by up to 70%. HSDPA delivers high data rates according to the transmission conditions by using adaptive...

Online design tool for operational amplifiers.(EDA)
June 1, 2006... Intersil has announced a free, interactive, Web-based tool for selecting and simulating devices from Intersil's operational amplifier portfolio. Based on input and output specifications provided by the user. the iSim for operational amplifiers...

Unified design eliminates integration barriers.(EDA)
June 1, 2006... The Altium Designer 6.0 is a complete electronic product development system that integrates board- and FPGA-level system design, embedded software development for FPGA-based and discrete processors and PCB layout, editing and manufacturing...

Tool eases planning and scheduling tasks.(EDA)
June 1, 2006... An optimization software, ILOG CPLEX 10 is designed to help businesses find answers to their most difficult problems, including meeting demands for complex planning and scheduling with speed and accuracy. Features include a "Conflict Refiner"...

DesignWare mobile storage IP features CE-ATA support.(EDA)
June 1, 2006... DesignWare Mobile Storage Host Controller IP is configurable to support the CE-ATA, secure digital (SD), and multi-media card (MMC) specifications, which enables designers to choose the appropriate feature set they need from a single IP core....

Digital potentiometers offer low-voltage op, small package.(PASSIVES)
June 1, 2006... The MCP4011--MCP4014 are a family of low-power, low-voltage, 6-bit digital potentiometers that are available in small 5- and 6-pin SOT-23 and 2X3mm DFN packages. Features include integral non-linearity (IND of 1/2 LSB (max), differential...

Serial attached SCSI right-angle connectors.(PASSIVES)
June 1, 2006... These right angle SAS receptacles are 29-position, right angle receptacle connectors for attaching serial attached SCSI (SAS) hard disk drives (HDDs) to processor blades, storage blades, mezzanine cards, or embedded system boards in data,...

Cable plug offers flexibility.(PASSIVES)
June 1, 2006... This cable-mounted plug based on the multi-beam XL line of modular power/signal connectors terminates up to 8 AWG, 600V wire, carries kip to 45A on a single contact and satisfies hot-swap and cable I/O applications. Users now have the design...

Currents sense resistors rated for 3 to 5W.(PASSIVES)
June 1, 2006... The OARS-XP Series are surface mount current sense resistors with extended power ratings. These open-air, flameproof devices have a form factor that provides compliant terminations to better handle TCE (thermal coefficient of expansion)...

Aluminum capacitors with 2,000 hours lifetime at +85[degrees]C.(PASSIVES)
June 1, 2006... This series of aluminum electrolytic capacitors has a capacitance range from 68 to 820F for mains-side filter-buffer applications, a [+ or-]20% tolerance, and 2,000 hours useful lifetime rating at +85[degrees]C. The BCcomponents 093 PMG-SI...

High-speed mezzanine connectors.(PASSIVES)
June 1, 2006... The AirMax VS product offering now includes mezzanine connectors to complement the company's shieldless high-speed backplane connector family. With stack heights ranging from 12.5 to 30mm in a variety of circuit counts, they accommodate the...

Crossbow connectors for orthogonal architectures.(PASSIVES)
June 1, 2006... TheCrossbow connector platform, featuring Crossbow Matrix for orthogonal midplane architectures, and Crossbow 2ram+ for standard backplane configurations exhibits less than 0.6% crosstalk at 50ps and 25db below transmission across the entire...