EDN Asia articles from May 2008

EDN Asia archives from May 2008

SW: strategic for design differentiation.(ednasia comment)
May 1, 2008... A designer often asks himself: Where can he best make the differentiation? In hardware or software? When the designer talks about a differentiating architecture, what exactly does he mean in terms of hardware and software? For a typical OEM...

High performance data converters cut power by 30%.(INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS)
May 1, 2008... A family of 10- and 12-bit, eight-channel (octal) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) features what's said to be the industry's lowest power consumption and smallest size. These data converters enable...

Top density FPGA features 340K logic elements.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... Altera Corporation's Stratix III EP3SL340 is said to be the industry's highest density FPGA. A member of the company's 65nm Stratix III family, the device features 340K logic elements (LEs), supports DDR3 memory with interface speeds in excess...

Advanced Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR silicon.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... Atheros Communications has produced working silicon on an advanced single chip Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR design for high-performance mobile and embedded wireless products using Azuro's PowerCentric. Atheros' design was already clock gated using...

National Instruments targets high-volume applications.(pulse)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Integrating hardware that includes an embedded real-time processor and a reconfigurable FPGA, National Instruments' cRIO-9072 and cRIO-9074 CompactRIO systems target high-volume industrial applications. The systems extend NI's FPGA-based...

USB-bridge controller supports multilevel-cell NAND Flash.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... Last year, Cypress Semiconductor announced the West Bridge family of chips that primarily add high-speed-USB support to products such as mobile handsets. Full-speed transfers between handset memory and the USB interface, with no assistance from...

Ultra-small, single-chip HSPA multimedia solution.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... NXP Semiconductors has launched a feature-packed, ultra-small, singlecore, dual-mode Nexperia Cellular Multimedia Baseband PNX6712 for HSPA and EDGE. Based on 65nm process technology, it offers manufacturers advanced on-chip multimedia...

ARM targets NFC smart cards with Cortex variant.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... With its SC100 SecurCore processor IP (intellectual property), ARM believes that it has the largest share of the approximately 50 million-unit-per-year market for secure smart-card processors. ARM licenses the IP to 12 silicon vendors, and SIM...

TDK's first automotive clamp filter.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... EMC countermeasures for onboard automotive electronic components have become crucial as the use of electronic control grows in conjunction with the adoption of increasingly advanced functions and the use of electronic equipment for more...

LCD controller serves multiple monitors.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... The DVS-1600 interface controller from Digital View addresses a variety of TFT (thin-film-transistor)-LCD-monitor applications with support for multiple input connectors, video protocols, and LCD panels. The board's port architecture provides...

Talus QDRC corrects design rule violations during implementation.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... Magma Design Automation's Talus QDRC is a physical design verification product that improves productivity and time to market for 65- and 45/40nm designs by identifying and correcting design rule violations during implementation. Unlike...

High performance RF tuner for mobile TV reception in automotive applications.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... The OmniTune TUA6045 is an advanced RF tuner IC requiring a minimum supply voltage of only 3.3V without compromise to its RF performance. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Operating at only 3.3V compared to the traditional 5V corresponds to a...

IBM millimeter-wave wireless technology inches toward commercialization.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... IBM and Taiwan-based fabless chip maker MediaTek recently announced an agreement to develop chip sets based on IBM Labs" 60GHz mmWave wireless technology. Prototype mmWave chips that IBM unveiled in early 2006 achieved throughput of 630Mbps...

ICs address speedy Ethernet devices' need for EMI, ESD protection.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... The Ethernet communication standard is morphing into 10/100/1000Mbps versions and gaining inherent power-delivery capability in POE (power-over-Ethernet) designs. System designers are responding with feature-packed products, such as VOIP...

Chip platform simplifies custom laser development.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... Intense Ltd has announced the Power Core 808, a family of very high brightness, single emitter laser engine chips that are easily customized to a wide variety of optics applications. The Power Core is considered to be the most flexible laser...

Maxwell/Lishen alliance could offer ideal energy/power profile for hybrid vehicles.(pulse)
May 1, 2008... One of the challenges of designing with conventional lithium-ion batteries for HEVs (hybrid-electric vehicles) is that the energy-centric--rather than power-centric--batteries store a lot of energy but are slow to charge and discharge. The...

TV peripheral encompasses superset processor.(prying eyes)
May 1, 2008... In September 2002, Delkin (www.delkin.com) introduced its eFilm Picturevision, which enables the playback of audio, still-image, and video files on a variety of memory-card formats. The price was then $159; by April 2004, the price was down to...

Tightened power-efficiency regulations force power supplies to keep up.(Cover story)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Both voluntary and mandatory power-regulation standards have forced manufacturers to meet minimum power-efficiency standards or risk losing customers--and, sometimes, markets. New versions of standards and new...

Robots on the march: Part II: evolving robotic-development platforms primarily focus on how to jump-start developers, but they also provide much-needed mechanisms to reuse the software components from one robotic project to another.(design feature)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The line between toys, games, and "real-world" applications is blurring. Technologies that originally found use in serious real-world applications continue to find their way into the much-larger-volume...

Mobile television: strong, weak, or zero reception? On-the-go TV is here; some contend that it's been here for a while. Meanwhile, the number of "third-screen" options is rapidly expanding--from gear that fits into your palm to an LCD in the back seat of your car. But is anyone watching? If not, what will it take for them to tune in?(design feature)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I am a firm believer in the theory that science fiction not only forecasts, but also shapes the future. Those of us who grew up watching The Jetsons may well remember the scenes of the family watching video on...

Fully integrated hall effect motor driver for brushless DC vibration motor applications.(design feature)
May 1, 2008... Most vibration motors consist of a small electrical motor that drives an unbalanced weight, as shown in Figure 1. The motors are direct current (DC) brush or brushless motors, and are configured in two basic varieties: coin (or flat) and...

Design an RTD interface with a spreadsheet.(design ideas)
May 1, 2008... RTDs (resistance-temperature detectors) are the preferred sensor choices for designs requiring precision. Although RTDs are approximately linear over the limited temperature range of 0 to 100[degrees]C, these sensors exhibit a slight but...

Isolated supply powers DVM module.(design ideas)
May 1, 2008... Low-cost DVM (digital-voltmeter) modules are economical and can significantly reduce design time for instrumentation. Yet, these modules also involve a significant number of design challenges. For example, their inputs are not isolated from the...

Fuel gauge ICs simplify power management design.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Here are two battery fuel gauge devices with integrated low-dropout regulators (LDOs) for smart phones, mobile Internet devices and media players with embedded or removable batteries. The bq27510 system-side battery...

36V, 2A([I.sub.OUT]), 500kHz step-down DC/DC converter.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
May 1, 2008... The LT1912 is a 2A, 36V step-down switching regulator packaged in a 3x3mm DFN (or MSOP-10E). Its 3.6 to 36V input voltage range makes it ideal for load dump and cold-crank conditions found in automotive applications. Its 3.2A internal switch...

Video decoder has 3-DNTSC/ PAL comb filter.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
May 1, 2008... Combining a 12-bit 3-D comb filtering with 1080p-high-definition and 150-Msample/see sampling rate. The ADV7802 video decoder provides 4:4:4 sampling throughout the processing pipeline. including support for RBG SCART (Syndicat Francais des...

Constant-current LED driver targets automotive lighting.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
May 1, 2008... Operating over typical automotive battery and temperature ranges, the automotive-grade, high-brightness A6260 constant-current LED-driver IC provides a 6 to 40V input-voltage range. Users can adjust linear constant-current output to deliver...

Battery-charger IC monitors internal die temperature.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
May 1, 2008... Suiting single- and dual cell applications, the AAT3663 1A linear-battery-charger ICs charge two lithium-ion cells. Operating from an AC adapter or a USB port, the device monitors the internal die temperature and gradually steps down the charge...

High performance SiGe mixer.(SEMICONDUCTORS)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The MAX2029 is a high performance. fully integrated, 815 to 1000MHz SiGe passive mixer. Designed specifically for 2.5G/3G wireless-infrastructure applications, it delivers a good combination of linearity, noise...

Graphics card provides 100% h.264 video-decoding offload.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 512Mbyte XLR8 GeForce 8800 GTS (gigatexel shader) PCIe (PCI Express) 2.0 graphics card claims a 100% offload of H.264 video decoding from the processor. Features include 128 stream processors clocking at...

PC/104-plus card requires no crossover cables.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
May 1, 2008... The 4171 stackable PC/104-plus card combines a 100BaseT Ethernet MAC (media-access controller) with a nine-port switch. Supporting auto negotiation, the eight Ethernet ports allow connections with half- and full-duplex, 10BaseT and 100BaseT...

Multimedia reader and writer ExpressCard.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
May 1, 2008... The 21-in-1 Multimedia Memory Card Reader & Writer ExpressCard/34 is a Simply Fast solution for moving files between electronic devices' memory cards and notebook computer's hard drive, with no cables required. This device works with the most...

VIA intros pc3500 mainboard.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
May 1, 2008... The VIA pc3500 is an addition to the energy efficient VIA pc-1 Mainboard line, and is based on the VIA CN896 digital media IGP chipset, certified by Microsoft for Windows Vista Basic. It features the VIA Chrome9 HC IGP with a DirectX 9.0 3D...

VME/VXS board with PowerPC, FPGA and multiple high-speed gigabit serial interfaces.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
May 1, 2008... Model 4207 is a high-performance digital signal processing and data-acquisition system. Building upon the company's previous processor board designs, the board employs Freescale's MPC8641D Dual Core PowerPC AltiVec Processor and a Xilinx...

Interface module connects 15 addressable SEI devices.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
May 1, 2008... The SEI-USB is an interface module that connects US Digital's SEI compatible devices to a standard USB 1.1/2.0 port. The SEI (Serial Encoder Interface) bus is a simple, quick and convenient network that connects up to 15 addressable SEI devices...

Controller board for 64x64 port optical switch.(BOARDS, CARDS & MODULES)
May 1, 2008... The board fabricated by Endicott Interconnect Technologies is a controller board for a 64x64 port, high-performance optical switch designed by IBM Zurich Research Lab. This is one of the most complex designs developed, and is a core component...

Sharp compatible 5.7" diagonal 320xRGBx240 (QVGA) TFT-LCD.(DISPLAYS)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This Sharp compatible OSD322403-7UFLWE a 5.7" diagonal 320xRGBx240 (QVGA) TFT-LCD is intended for the industrial control and mobile computing market. However, it is also suited for other applications that require a...

AccuSync 3-Series desktop LCDs.(DISPLAYS)
May 1, 2008... Five 3-Series monitors have been added to the AccuSync display family. Replacing the Acct, Sync 2-Series, the 3-Series product line, which includes 17- and 19-inch standard screen sizes, features a better cabinet design, improved brightness of...

Installation-ready, energy efficient LED lighting power solutions.(DISPLAYS)
May 1, 2008... Astrodyne Corporation has added the 30W (PLN30) and the 60W (PLN60) PLN Series to its line of installation-ready, LED power solutions. Using the latest PFC topology this Series provides high efficiency up to 86%, class C harmonic levels for the...

70" optically bonded TFT monitor.(DISPLAYS)
May 1, 2008... Global Display Solutions (GDS), in association with Distec GmbH, has launched what's said to be the world's first 70" TFT display monitor for the out-of-home (OOH) digital signage market. Using GDS's proprietary G-BOND optical bonding process,...

Multi-display unit for advertising.(DISPLAYS)
May 1, 2008... Vitrine, a plug-and-play digital signage solution, is an elegant stand-alone or wall-mounted multi-display unit with up to six TFT LCDs for indoor advertising or customer information. It offers a slim, sleek, cost-efficient solution for any...

OLED display compatible to OSRAM 2.7" "Calgary".(DISPLAYS)
May 1, 2008... This small-molecule OLED display is compatible in size and format to the OSRAM 2.7" "Calgary" model. It features an overall panel size of 73.00x41.86x 7.00mm, and the same 30-pin interface using the Solomon Systech SSD1325 driver IC. The...

High powered 830nm Opnext laser diodes.(DISPLAYS)
May 1, 2008... The Opnext HL8337MG and HL8338MG are ideal as light sources for industrial and medical sensor applications and as a light source for various other types of optical equipment such as distance meters, barcode scanners and high resolution CTP....