Electronic Design articles from December 2008

Electronic Design archives from December 2008

What's happening@electronicdesign.com.
December 1, 2008... If you couldn't make it over to Munich for electronica 2008-with its 14 halls and 3000 exhibitors--Electronic Design has you covered. Check out our exclusive page full of product announcements, session reports, and interviews with key players...

As 2008 comes to a close, we salute the industry's best.(Editorial)
December 1, 2008... Selecting the best OEM products and technologies of the year can be a daunting task, given the wealth of innovations that this industry produces. But a few always stick out in an editor's mind, somehow making their way to the top of the list....

FPGA improves basestation design: frequently asked questions.(design FAQs)(field-programmable gate array)
December 1, 2008... What are some of the challenges facing basestation designers today? The five biggest are the numerous wireless standards that must be accommodated, increased and complex frequency assignments, increased operating efficiency, capital...

2008 analog prologue: innovation in all directions.(analog)
December 1, 2008... When I report on new products, I usually avoid claims that chips are "so many percent" better in some way than their competitors. That's because specs-manship is a constant game of leapfrog. Sometimes a focus on specs can lead to an awkward...

Wi-Fi chips stand out in a sea of wireless products.(communications)
December 1, 2008... Most of the ICs we cover in Electronic Design are new products that really have something to offer. With hundreds of new chips announced annually, it's a challenge to identify those that push the speed, power, and size boundaries or have unique...

Diverse component trio represents this year's best.(components)
December 1, 2008... The components market always seems to be in a state of accommodation, creating products to support every other sector's designs. Whether it's a power source that fits an oddly shaped printed-circuit board (PCB) or a motor that can deliver...

Top FPGAs excel while best chips simplify design.(digital)
December 1, 2008... For design flexibility, FPGAs are unsurpassed. But they have typically suffered performance or power penalties to achieve that distinction. Now, those penalties exist no more. This year's best FPGAs can take a leading role in high-volume and...

In EDA, a year of mergers, failed and otherwise.(eda)
December 1, 2008... For the EDA industry, 2008 was dominated not so much by technology breakthroughs but rather by corporate intrigue. Cadence Design Systems' attempt to take over Mentor Graphics had the electronics industry at large holding its collective breath...

USB thinks inside the box.(embedded)
December 1, 2008... USB is the de facto peripheral interconnect outside the box. Inside, though, it's been a different story. This year, USB has been internalized with a range of products and platforms becoming more popular. My two choices for "best" reflects this...

Low stored charge separates diode from the pack.(power)
December 1, 2008... In an idealized diode, no reverse current flows from cathode to anode when the device is reverse-biased. However, with real-world diodes, large amounts of stored charge can flow from the cathode--back through the anode--before the diode enters...

Best scope merges style, substance.(test & measurement)(LeCroy)
December 1, 2008... If looks were the only criterion for choosing the best test instrument of the year, the LeCroy WavePro 7 Zi oscilloscope line would win hands down. Its 15.3-in. WXGA LCD touchscreen can display all sorts of useful data simultaneously (see the...

Robotics move from industry to space to elder care.(HALL OF FAME)
December 1, 2008... Retirement isn't coming easy to 83-year-old Joseph Engelberger, widely known as the Father of Robotics. "There's a lot that can still be done," he says wistfully, despite already accomplishing so much in the robotic field. In fact, Engelberger...

RAM innovator took a new career--and education--by the Horns.(HALL OF FAME)(random-access magnetic-core memory)
December 1, 2008... His pioneering work in digital computer technology gave the world reliable random-access magnetic-core memory that revolutionized computer speed and power. Nevertheless, Jay Forrester says his work today is "much more important." ...

Family need leads to a better hearing aid and a new industry.(HALL OF FAME)
December 1, 2008... George Frye was happily working at Tektronix on high-speed sampling oscilloscopes in 1970 when his hearing-impaired mom needed some help. "Her old Zenith hearing aid was getting a little cranky, " said Frye. She took him up on an offer to build...

From sneaking into computer labs to sneaking out Java.(HALL OF FAME)
December 1, 2008... James Gosling, inventor of the Java programming language and the virtual machine, skipped many of his high school math and physics classes. His teachers knew it, but they still gave him A's. That's because, said Gosling, they knew why he was...

Computers--a revolutionary medium for boosting human thought.(HALL OF FAME)
December 1, 2008... The printing press was one of the most influential inventions in human history. Could universal personal computing and worldwide networking be just as significant to human thought? In the 1960s, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)...

In AI, robotics, and any field, stand alone to stand apart.(HALL OF FAME)
December 1, 2008... If you want to make a difference, don't follow the crowd, Marvin Minsky advises today's students. Don't go into the most popular field. "That could be a disaster. When I started to work on artificial neural networks, only four other researchers...

Automotive imaging ICs keep an "Eye" on the road.(automotive)
December 1, 2008... In the quest to make driving more enjoyable and safer, designers are relying on the most advanced video sensors and processors for greater driver assistance and comfort (see "Semi ICs Drive Auto Safety And Control Innovation," Electronic...

Multicore mania sweeps through computer design.(computers)
December 1, 2008... Today's computers are going multicore where performance matters. Whether it's for a desktop or server, more cores are showing up in the compute engine and graphics rendering, providing users with everything from more lifelike video to solutions...

Networking invigorates the home multimedia blitz.(consumer)(briefs)
December 1, 2008... The continually morphing home-entertainment arena has turned to local-area networks (LANs) to tie things together. This year we chose three products, two fixed and one portable, as the first or best in their categories. One of the...

Industrial's best devices save space in new designs.(industrial)
December 1, 2008... Representing this year's best in the industrial category are an eight-channel, digital-input serializer from Texas Instruments and a six-degree-of-freedom (DoF) inertial sensor from Analog Devices. Both devices bring advanced functionality to...

Pressure--sensor system is a mini medical marvel.(medical)
December 1, 2008... The medical industry needed an implantable pressure-sensing system that had to meet very harsh requirements. Its must-haves included ultra-miniature size, wireless operation, the lowest power consumption for battery operation, precision low...

Military systems bolstered by building-block breakthroughs.(military)
December 1, 2008... Technological advances lead to tactical advantages. That's why investments in electronic technology for military applications traditionally run high. Yet those investments can often yield useful breakthroughs as well as dramatic improvements in...

MeMS inclinometer spawns wide application range.(leapfrog)
December 1, 2008... When Analog Devices introduced its ADIS16209 dual-axis MEMS inclinometer and accelerometer as part of its iMEMS family late last year for industrial applications ("Tiny Dual-Axis MEMS Inclinometer Simplifies Industrial Measurements," Nov. 15,...

New way to use Kirchoff's law simplifies circuit analysis.(ideas for design)
December 1, 2008... I was surprised to see an Idea for Design on basic circuit analysis as the most popular IFD of the year. With so much of electronic design being digital and software-related, it's refreshing to see some designers still use the fundamentals for...

Two AA cells power class D amp to produce huge audio volume.(ideas for design)(audio amplifiers)
December 1, 2008... This year's runner-up for the Best Idea for Design illustrates a significant trend. Years ago, typical analog IFDs might have involved a couple of 2N107 bipolars and a fistful of resistors and capacitors. More recently, the transistors would...

What's all this "adjustable slew rate" Stuff, Anyhow?(pease porridge)
December 1, 2008... The other day, a guy wrote in requesting help. "How can I make an amplifier with adjustable positive and negative slew rates?" he asked. I instantly replied, "Easily," and I drew this up. As soon as I got to work, I scanned and sent him the...

What's happening@electronicdesign.com.(briefs)
December 11, 2008... Lab Bench Online ED Online 20189: USB Makes A Move Inside The Box [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bill Wong, Embedded/Systems/Software Editor USB is ubiquitous, but it's usually used to connect boxes like PCs and laptops to other...

Hunkering down for the holidays and beyond?(editorial)
December 11, 2008... In a tough economy, there's always the question of how people will spend their money and time, especially during the holidays. Some folks will "cocoon," meaning they'll stay home and hunker down in front of the TV or PC for fun and order out or...

2008 was a year of plenty for processing and storage.(the lab bench)
December 11, 2008... The economy may not be growing, but processing power and storage continue to climb. For example, the lab got a little crowded with the arrival of Intel's software development platform (see the figure). Inside this massive rack-mount system are...

The industry migrates to 48-V input dc-dc conversion.(power design)
December 11, 2008... In my previous column ("Applications Drive Component Power Designs," Sept. 11, 2008, p. 18, ED Online 19486), I contended that the application drives the selection of a specific power component--or it even forces the creation of a custom...

Processors automatically shut down to save power.(techview)
December 11, 2008... The multicore Opteron processors in AMD's "Shanghai" line are designed for performance, but their new Smart Fetch technology can also save power. A core can detect when a thread becomes idle. After a programmable delay, the core flushes its L1...

Online poll.(techview)
December 11, 2008... What gadget do you hope to get this holiday season? A smart phone (iPhone, G1, etc.) 8% A flatscreen TV 21% A GPS system 6% A game console (X-box, Wii, etc.) 8% A laptop or notebook ...

Fluorescent ballast ICs demonstrate clever dimming design.(techview)
December 11, 2008... International Rectifier has two new control ICs for dimming compact and tube-type fluorescents. Most designers won't ever see them, though, because they go into the bases of compact bulbs or into lighting fixtures. Still, they're interesting to...

Direct conversion creates pull for continuous-time sigma-delta.(techview)(Analog Devices)
December 11, 2008... It's curious how a nascent trend can unleash a breakthrough technology with far-reaching effects. The case at hand involves an evolving movement toward the commoditization of basestations that tends to favor direct-conversion receivers,...

Good things come in round packages.(techview)(Microchip Technology Inc.)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Lots of PIC programmers will want to get their hands on the MPLAB ICD 3 from Microchip (see the figure). It uses the faster USB 2.0 interface to improve chip programming times by a factor of 15. The higher-speed interface also moves data to and...

The connected home remains stuck on pause: product advances continue to roll in, yet it's the potential standards convergence that may finally turn the tide for well-managed, consistent home multimedia delivery.(feature)(Cover story)
December 11, 2008... Multimedia nirvana is coming to the home... hopefully sometime in our lifetime. A flood of HDTVs, set-top boxes, home-theater PCs, and universal remotes (I have six, by the way) has poured into the market, yet getting them to play together is...

The field of energy harvesting begins to ripen: case histories show how the pieces of the energy-harvesting puzzle fit together.(technology report)
December 11, 2008... One cannot talk about energy harvesters without discussing wireless mesh networks, sensor batteries (particularly thin-film batteries), and supercapacitors--along with concepts of power management--nearly in the same breath. Harvesting is a...

The RTOS motto: on time and on budget: scheduling and resource allocation are the dominant factors in determining what real-time operating system fits best.(engineering essentials)(real-time operating systems)
December 11, 2008... Real-time operating systems (RTOSs) tend to be a checkbox item for many embedded projects. But is an RTOS always necessary? The answer is application-specific, so understanding what one will deliver is key to determining whether it becomes a...

Reap the rewards of intelligent, configurable power management: a closed-loop control subsystem, whether implemented with discrete components or a mixed-signal ASIC or FPGA, offers performance and cost advantages.(design solution)
December 11, 2008... Traditionally, system designers addressed increasing price sensitivity and demands for feature-rich products by using ASICs, CPUs, dedicated microcontrollers, and memory ICs for desired product features. This hikes both the demand for power and...

Micro-structured transducer accurately measures pressure.(ideas for design)
December 11, 2008... Today's micro- and nano-structured sensors boast excellent linearity, resolution, and wide measurement ranges. As a result, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are playing an increasing role in many more applications. This design describes a...

Tame switching supply noise while maintaining efficiency.(ideas for design)
December 11, 2008... A number of situations could benefit from the high efficiency of a switched power supply, save for the supply's intrinsically high noise level. For example, an optical communications application using a large number of laser diodes could employ...

Controller maps auto's electric drive voltage to existing thermal fuel gauge.(ideas for design)
December 11, 2008... While converting an older Volkswagen to electric power, we wanted to display the battery voltage on the existing fuel gauge. The gauge used an electromechanical regulator to resistively control the heating of a bi-metallic thermal strip. The...

Capacitive sensors squeeze versatile touch into tight quarters.(in electronic design)
December 11, 2008... Probably the greatest demand for highly feature-ridden touchscreens comes from the portable market, with the iPhone and similar communications products as ripe examples. But while it's one thing to integrate a simple touchscreen accepting...

Use GDTs for surge protection in broadband digital comm.(in electronic design)
December 11, 2008... Gas discharge tubes (GDTs) have evolved to a level of providing very reliable and effective surge protection in telecommunications systems and equipment, safeguarding against lightning and power-fault conditions. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Ac-dc supplies mind the budget.(POWER SOURCES)(MicroPower Direct)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Described by Micropower Direct as low-cost components, the encapsulated, chassis-mount MPM-15CM series 15-W switching power supplies provide a universal ac input, full safety approvals, and robust filtering. Nine standard models offer regulated...

Compact dc-dc converters deliver up to 20 W.(POWER SOURCES)
December 11, 2008... In compact metal cases measuring 2 by 1.6 by 0.41 in., the F2000ERW series dc-dc converters deliver up to 20 W of output power from 2:1 inputs of 9 to 18 V dc, 18 to 36 V dc, or 36 to 75 V dc. The components provide single outputs of 3.3, 5,...

Sixteenth-brick converter provides 330 W.(POWER SOURCES)
December 11, 2008... Completing the power-train conversion to processor and memory loads in high-voltage dc distribution data centers, the VIB0002TFJ sixteenth-brick bus converter module delivers more than 4 kV of isolated power up to 330 W for downstream loads. In...

Ac-dc power bricks deliver 1 KW.(POWER SOURCES)(TDK-Lambda)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Expanding the PFE series of ac-dc power bricks, the PFE1000F modules provide an output power up to 1008 W. The components combine rectification, power-factor correction (PFC), dc-to-dc isolation, and low-voltage conversion functions into a...

Ac-dc modules offer many options.(POWER SOURCES)(PowerGate LLC)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Consisting of 62 models, the TMP series ac-dc power modules offer 3.3 to 48 V dc of single, dual, and triple outputs in 7-, 10-, 15-, and 30-W packages. The fully encapsulated modules are available in either PCB-mount (printed-circuit board)...

3-W white LEDs enhance lighting apps.(DISPLAYS)
December 11, 2008... Expanding the Moonstone family of LEDs for solid-state lighting apps, the 3-W cool-white ASMT-Mx20 and warm-white ASMT-Mx22 low-profile, surface-mount LEDs can be driven at high currents with a typical light output of 145 lumens. Both LEDs...

Engineering Kit illustrates configuration options for led lighting.(DISPLAYS)
December 11, 2008... With the Osram Opto Semiconductors LED Engineering Kit, designers can test LEDs with various accessories and applications. The kit also provides practical information about LED lighting. It includes an Osram Ostar high-power LED and components...

LEDs improve flash photography.(DISPLAYS)
December 11, 2008... The latest generation Ceramos and Oslux LED flash products are twice as bright as their predecessors, according to Osram Opto Semiconductors. The brightest LED without a lens for flash photography is the Ceramos, with its clear encapsulation....

LED panels boast many firsts.(COMPONENTS)
December 11, 2008... With the lofty ambition of creating a next-generation display technology that renders existing alternatives obsolete, the Cobra range of LED video displays lays claim to eight industry firsts. First up is what Element Labs calls a revolutionary...

Oval LEDs crank up the brightness.(COMPONENTS)
December 11, 2008... Groomed for billboard and other signage applications, Cree's next-generation, high-brightness 4- and 5-mm oval LEDs feature optically matched radiation patterns in blue, green, and red. Available in a wide range of intensities and colors, the...

Mailbag.(pease porridge)(Letter to the editor)
December 11, 2008... BOB, I read your article "What's All This Analog Engineering Stuff, Anyhow?" (Oct. 2, p. 18, ED Online 19754) I totally agree that the need for trained analog engineers is not going away. (I am not so interested in training, but in...