Electronic Design articles from April 2005

Electronic Design archives from April 2005

Memory options for mobile systems.(What's happening @ elecdesign.com: keeping the EE community conncected)
April 14, 2005... Free Webcast on April 21 at 2:00 pm ET The demand for mobile devices to store increasing amounts of data has made memory selection key to a successful design. Editor-at-Large Dave Bursky joins three experts from Samsung Semiconductor to...

"Sound off".(What's happening @ elecdesign.com: keeping the EE community conncected)(Letter to the Editor)
April 14, 2005... "I've been a bit perplexed about job demand for analog engineers (being one myself)... I consider myself to be a pretty darned good engineer with a good blend of experience, smarts, and cleverness. I rarely see a job description that matches...

ColdFire: Hot Linux, Quick Quadros.(EiED Online)
April 14, 2005... Embedded/Systems/Software Editor Bill Wong spotlights the 66-MHz MCF5282 microcontroller, based on Freescale's ColdFire architecture, which hearkens back to the Motorola 68000. Advising readers not to overlook ColdFire when checking out 32-bit...

Check it out!!(What's happening @ elecdesign.com: keeping the EE community conncected)
April 14, 2005... Great news! Our Electronic Design UPDATE e-mail newsletter has gone weekly! electronic Desing UPDATE now delivers late-breaking news, opinions from industry experts, and timely technology stories rihgt to yur desk-topeach week. Subscribe today...

What's up?(What's happening @ elecdesign.com: keeping the EE community conncected)
April 14, 2005... Web Exclusive: Protecting Soft IP Much of the important intellectual property is software, but it can be hard to protect. Embedded/Systems/software Editor Bill Wong explores what's being done to guard both programs and content. ED...

Polling.(What's happening @ elecdesign.com: keeping the EE community conncected)(Brief Article)
April 14, 2005... What's your favorite portable electronic device? Cell phone 36% Personal digital assistant (PDA) 11% mart phone or PDA with e-mail capability 11% iPod or other MP3 player ...

what's cool.(What's happening @ elecdesign.com: keeping the EE community conncected)
April 14, 2005... From the Top 20 Articles on ED Online: 1 Turn Down The Heat. Please! ED Online 9853 2 Measure Relative Humidity With A PIC MCU ED Online 9808 3 what's All This Power Stuff, Anyhow? ED Online 9790 4 Zero-Voltage...

Adidas designs a winner with "smart" running shoes.(Editorial)(Editorial)
April 14, 2005... I'm not a runner, and I typically wouldn't consider spending $250 on sports shoes. But I found myself at the mall yesterday in the hopes of testing out the new adidas_1 "smart" shoes. After three years in the laboratory, Adidas officially...

What's all this "woman scientist" stuff, anyhow?(Pease Porridge)(Column)
April 14, 2005... After the president of Harvard, Dr. Lawrence Summers, got in hot water for questioning why so many women may not have the aptitudes for science, now it is my turn to put in my two-cents worth. The aptitude of women to be good at science, or...

Features drive supply complexity in handhelds.(POV: Point Of View)
April 14, 2005... Today's convergent devices--handhelds and smartphones--are surprisingly complex. They consist of one or more RF power amplifiers (PAs) and receivers, a digital baseband processor and microprocessor host, electronic memory, a high-resolution...

IEEE cites outsourcing as wages drop and U.S. loses 221,000 jobs.(TechView)
April 14, 2005... The number of U.S. technical workers fell 221,000 in six major engineering and computer job classifications from 2000 to 2004, says the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Meanwhile, the IEEE reports the first drop...

R2-D2, where are you? Try Indianapolis.(Scope: electronics at work and at play)
April 14, 2005... From April 21 to 24, sci-fi fans and EEs alike will descend on the Indianapolis Convention Center for Star Wars Celebration III. And more than a few robots should be joining them. The members of the R2-D2 Builders, an international group of...

Scalable vector signal processor IP takes on HD video--and high-end audio.(Digital)
April 14, 2005... Processing high-quality video and audio data streams in real time requires plenty of compute horsepower. To meet that throughput demand, OnDemand's Vector Signal Processor (VSP) core offers a scalable, synthesizable compute engine that handles...

Optical reference design and chip set melt away time-consuming tasks.(Communications)
April 14, 2005... Thanks to a multisource agreement, the XFP pluggable optical transceiver module lets designers pack more standardized transceivers on a line card. This small-form-factor design targets 9.95- to 11.1-Gbit/s operation and is protocol-agnostic....

Triple-play broadband by DSL a no go? CO Chip set says not so.(Communications)
April 14, 2005... The broadband triple play via DSL isn't practical, but it is possible. That said, the Pharos chip set from Centillium Communications streamlines ADSL performance to bring voice, video, and data over the existing plain-old-telephone-service...

PFC controller slashes external parts count.(Analog & Power)
April 14, 2005... Power-supply designers tend to use discontinuous current mode (DCM) for power-factor correction (PFC) for power levels below 200 to 250 W. For higher power levels, they use continuous conduction mode (CCM). Although DCM is simpler to implement,...

PoE Tester identifies PSE type.(Analog & Power)
April 14, 2005... IT administrators and system intrgators and Installers can use Power Dsine's Power over Ethernet (POE) Tester to find out if these jacks are hot. PoE Testers connected to an RJ-45 outlet check for the presence of electrical power. They also...

Exercise and analyze your ASI chip-set designs.(Test & Measurement)
April 14, 2005... The Advanced Switching Interconnect (ASI) switched-fabric interconnect standard links computer components such as CPU and I/O nodes in multiple topologies. Now, engineers working on ASI chip sets have the support needed to comprehensively...

Compact scopes maintain fast acquisition rates in four-channel operation.(Test & Measurement)
April 14, 2005... The latest series of four-channel digital oscilloscopes from Yokogawa includes 1.0- and 1.5-GHz bandwidth models with powerful new acquisition, display, and analysis capabilities. The signalXplorer DL9000 series scopes come in a compact,...

Digitizer features flexible resolution.(Test & Measurement)
April 14, 2005... A universal measurement device for dynamic measurements can be found with the PXI-5922 flexible-resolution digitizer. It's part of the National Instruments modular instruments series. Used with NI LabView 7.1, it can function as an ac...

Predictability comes to an IC implementation flow.(EDA)
April 14, 2005... In the summer of 2001, Atrenta arrived on the scene with tools based on what the company calls "predictive analysis" technology, which used rule checking to produce cleaner RTL. Atrenta now envisions a much more ambitious scope, embodied in its...

Low-power design techniques drop 90-nm consumption.(EDA )
April 14, 2005... Power management is fast becoming one of the most critical design constraints in the world of IC designers. New 90-nm processes deliver greater silicon performance and integration, but battery technology hasn't kept up. To compensate, new...

First Serial RapidIO switch arrives; switch fabrics need switch chips--let the melee begin.(Leapfrog: first look: putting new technology in perspective)
April 14, 2005... The steadfast wait for Serial RapidIO to move into high gear is over. Enter the Tsi586i from Tundra Semiconductor. The switch can be configured with 4x or 1x ports, and it will handle up to eight 4x ports and 16 1x ports or any mix in between....

Audio DSP perks up sound-quality perception.(Leapfrog: first look: putting new technology in perspective)
April 14, 2005... Perfecting the art of audio challenges the best of design engineers. Some help in that process may be in store with the SigmaDSP multichannel 28-bit audio processor. Developed by Analog Devices, the AD1940 chip performs equalization, multiband...

IP that fits: choosing the right IP will make or break your design ... and deadline.(Engineering feature: intellectual property)(Cover Story)
April 14, 2005... INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP) IS ESSENTIAL IN SYSTEM AND SYSTEM-ON-A-CHIP (SoC) DESIGN. It reduces design time, in turn accelerating time-to-market. This is particularly true in the SoC market, where IP is now the most valuable aspect of just...

Get in the spirit of IP reuse.(Engineering Feature: intellectual property)(systems on a chip)
April 14, 2005... Anyone embarking on an SoC design knows that the job involves stitching together relatively large blocks of IP. That may sound like a relatively easy task, but anyone in-the-know will tell you it's not. Integrating IP unleashes a host of...

DRAM advances splinter to meet many system needs; designers can choose from different strengths of SDRAM, RDRAM, DDR1/2, GDDR, and XDR to fit specific applications.(Technology report: DRAMs)
April 14, 2005... During its 30-plus years, the venerable dynamic RAM has undergone a series of facelifts to boost density and performance. And the nipping and tucking isn't over, with system designers demanding more performance and bits per chip. The DRAM...

AdvancedTCA in a small package.(Special editorial feature embedded in electronic design)
April 14, 2005... AdvancedTCA brings a host of new, high-performance switch fabrics into the communications market. But, it's designed for big racks with lots of cards. It comes as no surprise that a smaller version is in the works, namely MicroTCA, which uses...

20-MHz MCU comes in short eight-pin housing.(Embedded News)
April 14, 2005... Yes, that tiny eight-pin package in the middle of the development board photo is the smallest Z8 Encore! XP available to date. The tiny 20-MHz processor includes a 5.53-MHz on-chip oscillator and up to 4 kbytes for flash and 128 bytes of...

Platform blends Windows XP and VxWorks.(Embedded News)
April 14, 2005... VxWin 3.0.1 adds support for the Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 2. This package from Kuka Controls allows Wind River's VxWorks real-time operating system to coexist with Windows XP Embedded on a single processor. With it, VxWorks applications...

Modules, Mezzanine cards for fast delivery.(Processor Series)
April 14, 2005... System complexity is growing while time-to-market times are shrinking. A designer can cope by taking advantage of someone else's work. Buying a complete system and adding software is one approach, but most embedded solutions require more...

Video compression PCI/PMC packs a punch.(News)
April 14, 2005... Thanks to JPEG 2000 support, the Orion dual-channel video compression/decompression board can handle full-flame encoding of standard 625-line PAL or 525-line NTSC composite video. Developed by Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, the...

CompactPCI SBC optimized for real-time applications.(News)
April 14, 2005... The Eurocom 258 CompactPCI single-board computer (SBC)integrates a low-power, 1.6-GHz Pentium M processor. Designed by American Eltec, the board has a 10/100 and a 1-Gbit Ethernet controller. The Intel 855GME chip set supports up to 1556 by...

Software promotes easy-to-use boundary scan.(News)
April 14, 2005... Bringing up a new board is always a challenge, especially with hard-to-probe surface-mount components. Macraigor's J-Scan boundary-scan software simplifies this job via its diagnostic tool. At $1895, it's significantly less expensive than more...

PC/104 board packs GPS and cell modem.(News)
April 14, 2005... The PCM-GPS from WinSystems corn bines a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and a cellular modem on a single PC/104 module. The Trimble GPS interface provides position, velocity, and time information. The multiband modem supports GSM/GPRS...

MCU targets ultra-low-power apps.(News)
April 14, 2005... Featuring 256 bytes of RAM, the 16-bit MSP430F42x0 series microcontrollers (MCUs) from Texas Instruments typically draw 1.1 uA in real-time clock standby mode and 300 uA in active mode. Flash programming of the 32-kbyte memory only requires 2.5...

... Power.(New Products)
April 14, 2005... First AdvancedTCA Power Modules Hit The Street * One sign that AdvancedTCA, the telecom industry's open standard for equipment manufacturers, is gaining traction is the announcement of the first power-input module for AdvancedTCA boards....

Adaptive radios abet wireless connectivity.(Design view: communications)
April 14, 2005... Today, wireless communication relies on numerous independent devices, each employing its own protocols and operating within a fixed segment of the frequency spectrum. Because these devices can't communicate with each other, they have...

Single transistor cuts LDO noise by 46 dB.(Design Briefs: innovative designs from readers)
April 14, 2005... Some of the many low-dropout (LDO) regulators supplying voltage regulation for electronic systems are designed for low noise. For example, the IC in Figure 1 achieves an RMS noise voltage of about 115 [micro]V by itself. However, some...

Telephone line-feed detector meets FCC regulations.(Design briefs: innovative designs from readers)(Brief Article)
April 14, 2005... According to FCC regulations, a telephone line in the on-hook state must not be dc loaded by less than 5 M[ohm] of resistance up to 100 V. Also, it must be galvanically isolated from the local ground. In the case of a standard dc line-feed of...

Universal amplifiers: high performance analog solutions from Linear technology: outstanding AC performance with extremely low power.(Advertisement)
April 14, 2005... Ever wished to simplify inventory by using a single chip to perform multiple functions? How about an integrated yet simple, flexible device that minimizes your bill of materials, board space, and development time... while increasing analog...

Simulate lithium batteries with A NiMH cell.(Analog & Power)
April 14, 2005... Lithium-based batteries are becoming standard in portable equipment. They have desirable characteristics, but lead times may be long unless you have a preferred-customer status with the battery manager. A backup alternative is desirable,...

APEC 2005 report.(Analog & Power)(Brief Article)
April 14, 2005... The twentieth annual Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exhibition took place in Austin, Texas, last month. It was the most bustling conference I've seen since the days of the dotcom bubble. Conference Chair Jason Lai says total...

Use throwaway camera parts for a high-voltage flash unit.(Analog & Power)
April 14, 2005... Parts of a throwaway camera's flash unit can be salvaged to build a 280-V capacitor charger for a flash unit that uses six or nine batteries (see the figure). Camera shops usually will give them away for free. The flash capacitor, output...

Yes, engineering is a woman's job.
April 28, 2005... In our April 14 issue, Electronic Design columnist Bob Pease wrote that women naturally have a lower aptitude for science and engineering (Ell Online 10055). Now read the other side of the story. Jill Tietjen, professional engineer and member...

"Sound off".(Letter to the Editor)
April 28, 2005... "I too wonder (and sometimes fear) what the future holds in terms of waste product from the myriad electronics we just toss in the trash every day. Disposable cell phones?! Give me a break! In a world where I hear of companies designing...

Polling.(webcasts)(Brief Article)
April 28, 2005... Do you think webcast are a Valuable means of information delivery? Yes, absolutely 45% Sometimes, depends on the format 17% No, they're a waste of time 25% I've never seen a webcast 13% ...

ZigBee kit.(EiED Online)
April 28, 2005... Need to start developing ZigBee applications now? Consider Freescale's MC13191/92 developer's starter kit. Embedded/Systems/ Software Editor William Wong takes a hands-on look at this kit, which includes a pair of reference design boards, an...

Archived webcast: maximize system mobility by selecting the best memory options.(WHAT'S UP?)(Brief Article)
April 28, 2005... Mobile systems depend on both volatile and nonvolatile memory to store ever-increasing amounts and types of data. But choosing the best memory for your next design can be a confusing, time consuming proposition if you don't know how to sort...

What's cool.
April 28, 2005... From the top 20 articles on ED Online: 1 Add An RS-232 Output To Any PIC Microprocessor ED Online 6402 2 Build A Board In-House Without The Mess ED Online 9984 3 Software Linearization Of An RTD...

Biometric identification: how safe are your fingers?(EDITORIAL)(Editorial)
April 28, 2005... It's probably due to the briefings I've had on fingerprint scanning. I doubt any of you are wondering if there will be a bizarre biometric twist to the mystery of the severed fingertip that turned up in a bowl of Wendy's chili this month....

Bob's mailbox.(PEASE PORRIDGE)(LEDs)
April 28, 2005... Hi Bob: I see more and more uses of LEDs in place of incandescent lamps every day. However, many of our engineering brethren are not looking at the big picture with these. It would appear that they are not considering the devastating...

"The law of two" governs interconnect architectures.(POV: POINT OF VIEW)
April 28, 2005... Although we in this society complain about lack of choice, we really like simple options--Coke vs. Pepsi, metric vs. English, paper vs. plastic. Having only two options makes life simple. That's why only two teams play in the Super Bowl and...

Magnetically sensitive compound yields superconductivity at higher temps.(TechView)
April 28, 2005... A long-sought goal, room-temperature superconductors, may be a step closer to reality thanks to joint research by University of California scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and researcher Yunkyu Bang of Chonnam...

IC suppliers must add "lower power" to the "smaller, faster, cheaper" mantra.(TechView)
April 28, 2005... "Smaller, faster, cheaper" has been the traditional IC market refrain. But recently, the tune has changed. Today's chips are adequately small and fast for many electronic systems, even though they may never be cheap enough for purchasing...

Shape-shifting pyramid robot may eventually move on mars.(Scope: Electronics at Work and at Play)
April 28, 2005... It's bigger than a breadbox now, but NASA would like to turn its TETwalker shape-shifting robot into a swarm of nanobots. Hordes of these nanobots will form "autonomous nanotechnology swarms" (ANTS). That day is well in the future, but for now,...

"Think different" about PS topologies with ultra-low on-resistance MOSFETs.(TechView: ANALOG & POWER)
April 28, 2005... The CoolMOS CS--eight years in the making. Back in 1997, Infineon (then Siemens) introduced a technology for manufacturing power MOSFETs with 190-m[ohm] conduction losses in T0220 packaging. Then in 2000, the company improved the process and...

Doubled-density design: a 48-port PoE midspan.(TechView: ANALOG & POWER)
April 28, 2005... Thanks to a novel layout, the 6548 Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) midspan can accommodate 48 ports in a 1U high, 19-in. rack assembly. That represents twice the density of any other midspan (see the figure). Developed by PowerDsine, the 6548...

Svelte battery converter/charger snuggles into Bluetooth accessories.(TechView: ANALOG & POWER)
April 28, 2005... Imagine designing a converter/ charger with an integrated power FET for lithium-ion or lithium-polymer cells in Bluetooth headsets and accessories. Then, try making it work from either an ac adapter or USB cable without user intervention. Next,...

Full-throttle PowerQUICC engine revs up communication systems.(TechView: DIGITAL)
April 28, 2005... Sporting a souped-up communications engine and control processor, the latest PowerQUICC II communications Processor--Freescale Semiconductor's MPC8360E--delivers nearly four times the performance of previous-generation PowerQUICC II devices....

DDR2 DRAM tops out at 800 Mbits/s.(TechView: DIGITAL)
April 28, 2005... DDR2 SDRAMs reached a new speed plateau with Elpida Memory's 800-Mbit/s version for a 256-Mbit device. The monolithic DDR2 DRAM comes with either an 8- or 16- bit data bus, both of which target DDR2 unbuffered dual-inline memory modules...

IC implementation suite builds in signoff analysis.(TechView: EDA)
April 28, 2005... Bearing the fruits of an 18-month initiative, Magma Design Automation has rolled out its next-generation IC implementation suite. Magma's 2005.03 release includes new products and enhancements to Blast Create, Blast Fusion, Blast Noise, Blast...

Version 6.0.(EDA ROUNDUP)
April 28, 2005... VERSION 6.0 of Nassda's HSIMplus improves dc convergence, transient analysis speed, and modeling accuracy. The Hanex 6.0 circuit-level analysis tool covers more design types and supports silicon-on-insulator devices. The Critic timing analyzer...

Design of enclosure front panels.(EDA ROUNDUP)
April 28, 2005... DESIGN OF ENCLOSURE FRONT PANELS is easier than ever with Saelig's FrontDesigner, a $79.95 Windows tool. The tool has a slew of drawing functions and handles rotation, stretching, mirroring, drilling, milling, and more. An integrated scale...

System simulator runs software backward.(TechView: EDA)
April 28, 2005... Systems consist of two primary elements: hardware and software. An increasing percentage of most electronic systems is implemented in software. Rather than waiting for hardware prototypes before beginning debug of the system software, many...

Real-time Java, CORBA ORB perk up at ESC 2005.(TechView: EMBEDDED)
April 28, 2005... Java remains a hot topic, as evidenced by the goings-on at last month's Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San Francisco. Real-time Java performance is improving to the point where it matches applications written in C. Sun and Aonix offered...

1-GHz CPU power PC/104 SBC.(NEW PRODUCTS)
April 28, 2005... The CoreModule 550 is a low-cost, low-power PC/104-form-factor single-board computer (SBC). Designers have a range of processor choices, from 300 MHz to 1 GHz, via Eden ESP 3000. The board features a 10/100BaseT Ethernet port, dual serial...

Kit pumps up ARM9 developers.(NEW PRODUCTS)
April 28, 2005... Now available is a development kit for Atmel's low-cost, high-performance AT91 family of ARM9-based microcontrollers (MCUs). Features like atomic bit manipulation and deterministic execution augment the MCU architecture. The 30-MHz MCU contains...

Commercial WiMAX silicon hastens broadband wireless.(TechView: WIRELESS)
April 28, 2005... WiMAX is the commercial name for equipment that meets the IEEE's 802.16 standard for wireless broadband. With the standard now in place, lots of development activity now targets the equipment and services for this forthcoming broadband...

GPS/Bluetooth solution makes location and navigation apps A snap.(WIRELESS)
April 28, 2005... Consumers on-the-go demand global positioning system (GPS) functionality in multiple products. However, getting GPS into portable and wireless devices can be a tricky process. RF Micro Devices' RF8900 helps overcome the hassle by combining a...

MIMO chip set is well "received" in wireless LANs.(TechView: WIRELESS)
April 28, 2005... When it comes to boosting the range and data rate of wireless devices, there's a new player in town. MIMO, or multiple-input/ multiple-output, uses multiple antennas and receivers to achieve the benefits of spatial diversity (see "Smarter...

Frequently asked questions: high-voltage, two-phase gate driver ICs.(POWER DESIGN FAQs)
April 28, 2005... What is a tow-phase driver IC? A two-phase gate driver IC is a power amplifier that produces two high-current gate drives for either a synchronous buck or half-bridge totem-pole MOSFET configuration (see the figure). The two-phase driver...

100-V, two-phase gate drivers for fast switching MOSFETs.(PRODUCT Q&As)(Brief Article)
April 28, 2005... Four new 100-V power MOSFET gate drivers (listed in the table below) are now in National Semiconductor's two-phase gate-driver family. These ICs combine high peak current capability, fast rise and fall times, and closely matched propagation...

Mini Ethernet chip contends in low-end networking space: with SPI, an Ethernet controller easily interfaces to 8-bit microcontrollers.(LEAPFROG: FIRST LOOK: PUTTING NEW TECHNOLOGY IN PERSPECTIVE)
April 28, 2005... Connectivity keeps moving down the food chain. TCP/IP stacks for 8- and 16-bit MCUs are readily available. Yet interfacing an Ethernet controller to one of these compact MCUs has been an exercise in creativity. Most Ethernet controllers...

ADCs digitize capacitance and impedance directly: these monolithic devices simplify measurement-system design in applications ranging from automotive to medical.(LEAPFROG: FIRST LOOK: PUTTING NEW TECHNOLOGY IN PERSPECTIVE)(analog-to-digital converters)
April 28, 2005... Changes in capacitance, or in a complex impedance, are the input for many control applications. For example, capacitive sensing measures gas pressure and liquid volume. It's also used in proximity and humidity detectors. Impedance sensing is...

Patents: cuffing innovation? Patent claims are threatening what have been accepted as royalty-free standards.(ENGINEERING FEATURE: PATENT ISSUES)
April 28, 2005... Whose technology is it anyway? A growing number of patent disputes and cross-licensing agreements has muddied the waters. But few designers question the value of protecting their intellectual property (IP). Ask IBM, which collected an...

IBM tops U.S. patent list--again.(ENGINEERING FEATURE: PATENT ISSUES)(Brief Article)
April 28, 2005... IBM received more U.S. patents in 2004 than any other private-sector organization for the twelfth consecutive year, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (see the table). The USPTO's preliminary list shows that IBM received...

PCI Express design: a lesson in techno-shock: start the coffee. Embedded designers are in for the long haul when it comes to implementing PCI Express, but the rewards are worth it.(TECHNOLOGY REPORT: PCI EXPRESS)
April 28, 2005... Parallel PCI and PCI-X, hampered by its wide bus that makes layout difficult, no longer is the speed champ. Winning with a technical knockout of performance and new chips is... PCI Express. But will dealing with this high-speed serial...

Mobile storage: chips served with hard-disk salsa: tiny hard disks and massive flash memory devices give designers a spicy array of storage choices.(TECHNOLOGY REPORT: MOBILE STORAGE)
April 28, 2005... "WE WANT MORE STORAGE!" IT'S THE hue and cry heard from designers of portable devices. Flash memory and compact hard drives help meet that need with ever-larger capacities. Flash memory is the low-power winner, but hard drives have the edge...

Dual monolithic ideal diode manages multiple power inputs: design note 356.(DESIGN NOTES)(Advertisement)
April 28, 2005... Introduction The LTC[R]4413 dual monolithic ideal diode helps reduce the size and improve the performance and reliability of handheld battery-operated devices. The LTC4413 is a single-chip solution that can automatically select between and...

Measure capacitive sensors with a sigma-delta modulator.(DESIGN VIEW: Analog)
April 28, 2005... Capacitive sensors supply high accuracy at relatively low cost. But systems designers attempting to use them have been forced to first convert the capacitance to a voltage, then convert the voltage into the digital domain using a precision...

Precision programmable current sources use digital pots.(DESIGN BRIEFS: Innovative Designs from Readers)
April 28, 2005... The circuit that's shown in Figure 1 implements a programmable 0- to 20-mA precision current source. The REF192 low-headroom 2.5-V voltage reference (U1) can source up to 30 mA. An AD5280 digital potentiometer (U2) controls the voltage-divider...

Op amp and two JFETs form a voltage-controlled amplifier.(DESIGN BRIEFS: Innovative Designs from Readers)
April 28, 2005... A simple linear voltage-controlled amplifier can be constructed with one op amp and two JFETs (see the figure). The amplifier can achieve an 80-dB dynamic control range with less than [+ or -] 0.2% linearity error for 0 V [less than or equal...

Fans/heatsinks/coolers.(Component Specifier)(Buyers Guide)
April 28, 2005... FANS/HEATING/COLLERS ED Online 10181 TYPE/Model Features FANS PC COOLING FANS TriCool line of fans for cooling PCs; TriCool line feature three-speed switch to...