Electronic Design articles from February 2002

Electronic Design archives from February 2002

Ray Weiss: In Memoriam.(Editorial)
February 4, 2002... BRILLIANT. OPINIONATED. GIFTED. INTENSE. ANAlytical. Intuitive. Ray Weiss embodied all of these qualities and more. He was a man of contradictions, viewpoints, and honesty. Encountering Ray was a life-altering experience. You would be so...

Building People and Killing Bureaucracy. (Editorial).(Editorial)
February 4, 2002... They called him "Neutron Jack." They said he'd never tame the massive bureaucracy and turn GE into a world-class competitor. But they were wrong. Today, Jack Welch, the retired president and CEO of GE, is considered the CEO of CEOs. Now, under...

10 Years Ago. (Flashback).(Editorial)
February 4, 2002... FEBRUARY 6, 1992 WHEN THE DOORS SWING OPEN AT THE LONG Beach Convention Center for this year's Buscon '92 West show, Feb. 4-6, attendees will encounter a technical program and exhibits with a wide range of computer technology subjects. One...

25 Years Ago. (Flashback).(Editorial)
February 4, 2002... FEBRUARY 1, 1977 LOGIC ANALYZERS ARE A MOVING TARGET. IN an industry known for fast product turnover, they're among the speediest and the youngest. The problem of selecting an appropriate analyzer, therefore, is essentially one of keeping...

40 Years Ago. (Flashback).(Editorial)
February 4, 2002... FEBRUARY 1, 1962 THESE SOLID-STATE MICROWAVE AMPLIFIERS OPERATE AT CENTER frequencies from 2.5 to 7 Gc. The noise figure is 5 db or less. The units can be adapted for waveguide operation through the use of a coaxial-to-waveguide...

OLED innovation boosts Display brightness. (Forefront).(eMagin Corp's Laterally Structured High Resolution Multicolor Organic Electroluminescence Display Device wins patent)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Display manufacturer eMagin Corp. of Hopewell Junction, N.Y, has received a U.S. patent for a new OLED design. The patent, "Laterally Structured High Resolution Multicolor Organic Electroluminescence Display Device," pertains to an OLED...

Wireless show takes Aim at Systems. (Forefront).(Wireless Systems Design Conference and Expo)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... The newly dubbed Wireless Systems Design Conference and Expo has expanded to systems-level wireless issues. As the Wireless/Portable Symposium, the annual event was known as a cell-phone show. But this year's eight technical tracks range from...

Open-Source Repositories Open for Business. (Forefront).(SourceForge 3.0 Enterprise Edition from VA Linux Systems)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... Open-source projects now have an alternative to SourceForge.net for management. The competition is coming from Savannah, a site and collaborative software development platform based on SourceForge 2.0. VA Linux Systems, the owner of...

6-GHz Digital Scope Speeds Comm System Debugging. (Product Features).(Tektronix's TDS6604 electronic test device)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... Using silicon-germanium technology, the TDS6604 digital storage oscilloscope offers designers debugging high-speed systems a 6-GHz bandwidth and a 20-Msample/s rate. It will help enable the transition from a wide parallel bus architecture to a...

Mid-range digital scopes boast deep memories, fast response. (Product Features).(Agilent Technologies' 54830B, 54831B, and 54832B electronic test devices)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... A family of mid-range digital oscilloscopes features deep acquisition memories and very fast response time. Agilent Technologies is aiming the new members of the Infiniium line at R&D applications in the communications, defense, and...

Open-Source DBMS supports high availability. (Product Features).(Berkeley DB from Sleepycat Software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... Developers requiring high performance and high availability need look no further than Berkeley DB 4.0, an open-source database management system (DBMS) from Sleepycat Software. It includes high-availability, single-master replication, and...

IC Merges 24-Bit DAC with configurable DSP. (Product Features).(Analog Devices' SigmaDSP)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... Analog Devices' latest line of digital audio processors economically eases the migration of audio processing from analog to digital. SigmaDSP ICs combine a high-performance 24-bit [delta]-[sigma] DAC with a configurable DSP engine on the same...

Highly accurate dynamic gain equalizer controls optical power precisely: Based on Grating Light-Valve technology, this versatile MEMS product provides speed, accuracy, and reliability advantages to communication system designers. (Cover Story).(Silicon Light Machines 2200)(Cover Story)(Evaluation)
February 4, 2002... An optical dynamic-gain equalizer (DGE) for dense wave-division multiplexing (DWDM) communication systems sets unprecedented performance levels for precision, dynamic range, and reliability. This product, essentially a seamless one-dimensional...

Communications & Digital: Developments in communications chips lead the way to new standards of performance. (ISSCC 2002 Report - In Print).
February 4, 2002... Though many segments of the electronics industry have slowed, designers bank on the availability of new technologies and leading-edge chips to stimulate the development of faster computers, better communications systems, and much more. With...

Analog & Mixed Signal: New architectures push ADCs to higher speeds and resolutions, as they tap mainstream CMOS. (ISSCC 2002 Report - In Print).
February 4, 2002... A greater need for faster and better data converters continues to motivate designers. To keep pace with the demands of emerging applications, data-converter developers continue to innovate newer architectures and clever circuit techniques, as...

Use FFTs to Time Align Asynchronous Waveforms: A basic Fourier transform identity coupled with an iterative convergence algorithm provides a powerful method to align band-limited signals. (Design Application).(Technical)
February 4, 2002... Recently, I wrote automated test software for a multichannel data-acquisition system that I had designed, where sampled waveform accuracy and repeatability were very important. The input waveforms pass through anti-alias filtering, gain, and...

Successful SoCs.
February 4, 2002... What makes a successful system-on-a-chip (SoC)? The processor. What makes a successful software architecture? Development software. Without it, an operating system (OS) and application software just won't exist. Few SoC CPU architectures...

ARMing Linux. (Hot Products).(Hard Hat Linux 2.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... Hard Hat Linux 2.0 adds ARM7 and ARM9 support to a long list of supported architectures. Board support packages are included for the CM72OT and CM92OT evaluation boards.

Java processor looks like SRAM. (Hot Products).(Nazomi Technologies' new JAl 08 Universal Java Accelerator chip)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... Add Java acceleration by placing Nazomi's new JAl 08 Universal Java Accelerator chip between the host processor and memory. The chip provides transparent access to memory that's not related to Java applications, allowing host applications and...

8-Bit Web Server. (Hot Products).(Zilog has released its $799 eZ80 processor)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... Zilog has released its $799 eZ80 Web server development kit. It includes Webbased clients and servers for a range of services such as HTTP and SMTP. The accompanying evaluation board includes 1-Mbyte SRAM, 1-Mbyte flash memory, and a 10BaseT...

ARM. (Embedded: Hardware Directory).
February 4, 2002... The ARM architecture covers a range of 32-bit processor cores. It can be combined with the ARM Jazelle Java accelerator or third-party Java coprocessors to pump up Java application execution speeds. ARM's low-power operation and Java support...

PowerPC. (Embedded: Hardware Directory).(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... The PowerPC architecture spans 64- and 32-bit processors, but the former are standalone processors for servers and workstations. The 32-bit cores are found in embedded applications, including custom SoC designs and off-the-shelf SoC chips. The...

MIPS. (Embedded: Hardware Directory).
February 4, 2002... The MIPS architecture delivers 32-and 64-bit processing, depending on the core chosen. The 64-bit architecture is a superset of the 32-bit architecture. Originally targeted at workstations and servers, MIPS processor cores are almost...

ARCtangent. (Embedded: Hardware Directory).(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... System-on-a-chip (SoC) processor cores are configurable, but the extent of changes possible by an SoC designer varies significantly. Fixed processor cores like ARM, MIPS, and PowerPC tend to limit the changes that can be made to the basic...

Xtensa. (Embedded: Hardware Directory).(Tensilica's CAD software)
February 4, 2002... Complete processor design flexibility has its chores. In particular, toolsets and operating systems must be created, or developers will have to create them on their own. Tensilica's design tool Xtensa takes this into account when designers...

Composite instrumentation amp extends CMRR frequency range 10x. (Ideas for Design).
February 4, 2002... Instrumentation amplifiers are the building blocks commonly used in industrial, medical, and military systems. The primary benefit of such a component is its ability to reject common-mode signals while amplifying a differential-input signal....

Negative Resistance Nulls Potentiometer's Wiper Resistance. (Ideas for Design).
February 4, 2002... While almost always called "potentiometers" (which are technically defined as three-terminal variable voltage dividers), many "pots" actually end up being used as variable resistors (rheostats) instead. When used as a variable resistor, all...

High-efficiency inverter drives compact fluorescent lamps. (Ideas for Design).
February 4, 2002... The inverter circuit shown is designed to drive a 7-W, four-pin compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) from a 12-V dc power supply. The main features of this inverter circuit include direct-drive capability, preheat for improved startup, high...

What's all this Ripple Rejection Stuff, Anyhow? (Part 1). (Pease Porridge).(Technical)
February 4, 2002... Recently, I helped a guy who needed low output ripple on a power supply. His 1000-V output required low, submillivolt ripple. I designed a couple of circuits for him. Details soon. To make sure that I wasn't missing any tricks, I looked up a...

Low-ESR tantulum chip capacitors provide high ripple current. (New Products - Filters/Components).(Editorial)
February 4, 2002... The TPS Series III tantulum chip capacitors feature superior electrical characteristics. These devices offer low ESR and a wide voltage range. They also provide excellent stability and high reliability at a low cost. The capacitors utilize...

Phase line filters cut weight by up to 50%. (New Products - Filters/Components).(Editorial)
February 4, 2002... The RP300 family of phase power line filters meets all international and domestic safety and conductive requirements. Weighing up to 50% less than competitive models, these filters conform to industry-standard footprints. With a universal input...

Ceramic chip inductor offers a 0.33-mm maximum Profile. (New Products - Filters/Components).(Editorial)
February 4, 2002... The LLV0603FB nonpolarity, multilayer ceramic chip inductor features an EIA-standard 0201 footprint (0.6 by 0.3 mm). It also offers a low profile of only 0.33mm maximum. Manufactured with a proprietary ceramic material and process, these...

Solid niobium capacitors equal tantulum's performance. (New Products - Filters/Components).(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... A line of solid capacitors that utilize niobium as the anode material is now available. Lower in density than tantulum, this material lowers the weight of the components in which it is used. Niobium is also more economical to use as a capacitor...

One-dimensional PSD detects incident light angles. (New Products - Filters/Components).
February 4, 2002... The S8158 circular one-dimensional position sensitive detector (PSD) detects incident light angles whose origin point is the center of the active area. This device precisely detects incident light angles through circular PSD terminals that...

Metal alloy strip resistor functions for low-resistance current sensing. (New Products - Filters/Components).
February 4, 2002... The CSS series ultra-low resistance surface-mount metal strip resistor handles up to 45 A of current at 1 W. It exhibits extremely low inductance and low TCRs. Offered in a two-terminal design and a four-terminal Kelvin design, it has a...

Step-down control transformer saves space and weight. (New Products - Filters/Components).
February 4, 2002... A line of standard and custom-designed toroidal step-down control transformers offers an improved alternative to the conventional stacked lamination type. Their efficient core construction makes them considerably smaller and lighter while...

Combo chip targets all 12- and 5-V disk-drive applications. (New Products - Power).
February 4, 2002... The L7250 voice coil and spindle motor-drive combo is designed to allow a single device to be used across a broad range of disk-drive applications. Based on a flexible digital architecture, this chip operates on 12- or 5-V supplies. This...

N-channel MOSFET offers smaller die size. (New Products - Power).
February 4, 2002... The FDS6694 is the first device in the new generation of PowerTrench n-channel MOSFETs. It delivers comparable overall efficiency in dc-dc converter applications to that of leading competitive devices while achieving a substantial reduction in...

P-channel MOSFETs feature ESD protection in a leadless package. (New Products - Power).
February 4, 2002... Members of the ChipFET Power MOSFET series occupy a footprint measuring 3.05 by 1.80 mm. The p-channel devices are ESD-protected in leadless packages. The ChipFETs, designed to minimize conduction losses, feature low on-resistance. ...

Switcher IC family provides surface-mount package option. (New Products - Power).
February 4, 2002... The TOPSwitch-GX product line now offers a new surface-mount package option. The high-power switcher IC family offers power ratings up to 82 W. The new devices are offered in the standard TO-263 surface-mount package, also known as the D2PAK....

300-V ultra-fast diodes reduce power losses by 18%. (New Products - Power).
February 4, 2002... Four 300-V ultra-fast diodes have been added to a family of fast-recovery diodes (FREDs). This line now includes 8-A (8ETH03), 15-A (15ETH03), and 30-A (30EPH03, 30CPH03) devices optimized for 48-V switch-mode power-supply (SMPS) systems for...

10/100 Ethernet card Suits high-density CompactPCI applications. (New Products - Embedded Systems).(SBS Technologies CP3-Quad100TX)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... The CP3-Quad100TX is a full hot-swap capable, 64-bit, 66-MHz 10/100 Ethernet card. It suits 3U CompactPCI computing applications with zero tolerance for system downtime. This board provides four independent, high-performance 10BaseT/100BaseTX...

Next-Generation server supports one or two Pentium III processors. (New Products - Embedded Systems).
February 4, 2002... The RS1240 dual CPU server is based on the Intel Server Board SCB2 and Server Chassis SR1200. This server supports one or two Pentium III processors with 512-kbyte cache, optional ATA100 RAID controller or dual Ultra160 SCSI, dual 10/100...

Reader Polls.
February 4, 2002... Most of us remember our college days fondly. We were young, our chosen career beckoned us, and the world was at our feet. But we may not regard as warmly the mandatory curriculum required to earn our degree. What's your opinion of those...

SoC Cores. (Embedded: Hardware Directory).(Buyers Guide)
February 4, 2002... SoC Cores ARM Company ARM Ltd. Type 32-bit RISC Processor family ARM7, ARM9, ARM10, StrongARM Java support Jazelle (version 5TEJ), third- party coprocessor...

SoC Configurable Cores. (Embedded: Hardware Directory).(Tensilica Xtensia and ARC Cores ARCtangent)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... SoC Configurable Cores ARCtangent Company ARC Cores Type 32-bit RISC Processor family ARCtangent-A4, ARCtangent-A5 Java support Third party GPR/FPR Variable/none Address...

Will virtual presence replace the handshake? (Editorial).
February 18, 2002... As an editor, I participate in numerous meetings during an average week. Many are in-person meetings in an office, at a convenient hotel, or on the exhibit floor of a trade conference. But today, a growing number of them are "remote"...

10 years ago. (Flashback).
February 18, 2002... FEBRUARY 20, 1992 FROM EARLY ON, COMPUTERS HAVE DRIVEN DIGItal-to-analog converters (DACs), generating random analog waveforms from lookup table memories. While system designers could procure general-purpose DACs with 8 to 16 bits of...

25 years ago. (Flashback).
February 18, 2002... FEBRUARY 15, 1977 YOU CAN DESIGN RELIABLE, LOW-COST LINEAR SYSTEMS WITH IC Amplifiers--if you can find out just how well the ICs perform. A dependable design requires dependable specs. But data sheets often lead off with shaky claims....

40 years ago. (Flashback).
February 18, 2002... FEBRUARY 15, 1962 WITHIN FIVE TO 10 YEARS, THE HIGH-DENSITY (STACKED OR cordwood) approach to miniaturization won't become obsolete. Nor will the thin-film approach be used to the exclusion of the solid-circuit approach, or vice versa....

Reader polls. (Celebrating 50 Years of Technology).
February 18, 2002... With this poll, we're getting down to what really matters. Sure, we all loved soda and those sweet fruit-flavored drinks as kids. On occasion, we probably also all overindulged in stronger fare (hiccup) during our salad days. But what do we...

Fuel Cells may beat batteries for backup. (Forefront).
February 18, 2002... A fuel-cell technology by Metallic Power, Carlsbad, Calif., promises a more economical, space-saving approach to power. The company recently demonstrated a 2.5-kW/3-kVA backup power source based on a zinc-air fuel-cell system. This...

MEMS technology moves into more applications. (Forefront).
February 18, 2002... Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology is branching out into new applications. MEMS makers are actively integrating their large analog devices with front-end and back-end digital circuitry to offer higher levels of system integration...

3-nm wires grown in the lab. (Forefront).
February 18, 2002... Chemists like Professor Charles Lieber of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., may provide the answers about hot to build very small computing devices. His group has developed a process where catalysts in an alcohol solution grow nanowires at...

Test-compression technology makes the most of semiconductor testers. (News on Technology, R&D, Products, and Business).
February 18, 2002... Testing can represent as much as half the cost of semiconductor device manufacture. To reduce that, Mentor Graphics' TestKompress uses a new compression technology that lets designers cut the amount of ATE memory and time needed to test ASICs,...

Testbench automation tool provides tight links to Verilog simulation. (News on Technology, R&D, Products, and Business).(VERA 5.0)(Product Announcement)
February 18, 2002... Faster runtime performance real-time access to built-in Verilog simulation coverage metrics, and a unified graphical environment for waveform analysis are all promised by version 5.0 of the VERA testbench automation tool. It also sports tight...

Software lets SoC tester use EDA design, simulation files. (News on Technology, R&D, Products, and Business).(SmarTest PG )(Product Announcement)
February 18, 2002... The SmarTest PG software for the Agilent 93000 system-on-a-chip (SoG) test system makes the tester "design ready" so it can accept EDA-generated design and simulation files. The software replaces the complex array of scripts and tools normally...

Physical IC implementation tool arrives in production-hardened version. (News on Technology, R&D, Products, and Business).(Dolphin 2.0)(Product Announcement)
February 18, 2002... Version 2.0 of Monterey Design's Dolphin physical IC implementation system has everything designers need to complete IC implementation in a single tool. The result is a significantly simpler design flow. Dolphin 2.0 offers more than 30 new...

Hardware-based IP speeds up processor multitasking: Multitasking manager eliminates task-switch overhead to boost processor performance by an order of magnitude. (Cover Story).
February 18, 2002... Today's high-performance processors spend a significant portion of their processing time switching from task to task, often executing hundreds of instructions each time. In a PC, that frequently involves a multimedia task, such as viewing an...

3G cell phones: still to come; Economic, technological, and regulatory issues must be resolved for further progress. (Special Report).(Technical)
February 18, 2002... Disraeli said, "Everything comes if a man will only wait." Well, 3G cell phones still aren't here, and certainly not due to a lack of effort. Handset and basestation manufacturers and carriers are struggling with a variety of cost, technical,...

Switched fabrics optimize communications backplane: the appropriate topology, chassis design, and cooling management yield scalable high-performance systems. (Design Application).(Technical)
February 18, 2002... If you're like a lot of design engineers, you want to design a high-performance communications system that's scalable, supports "five-nines" high availability (HA), and is low in cost--and you need to start now. You've seen the switched-fabric...

Pre-warped drive signal reduces actuator hysteresis error. (Ideas for Design).
February 18, 2002... Many displacement transducers exhibit hysteresis in their response to drive signals. To observe this behavior, drive the actuator with a triangle wave while measuring the actuator response with a linear position transducer. Then, display the...

Low-cost digital thermometer uses single-chip microcontroller. (Ideas for Design).(Texas Instruments MSP430F412)(Product Announcement)
February 18, 2002... In many applications, the ability to read and display temperature is either desirable or an absolute requirement. Some of these applications include temperature probes, thermostats, CPU monitors, and process-control equipment. The figure...

Detect loop-reverse battery conditions on a telephone line. (Ideas for Design).
February 18, 2002... Equipment connected to the public switched-telephone network (PSTN) sometimes needs to detect polarity reversals of the battery feed. One common application is the Direct-Inward-Dialing (DID) service that uses what is termed as "loop-reverse...

Bob's mailbox. (Pease Porridge).
February 18, 2002... Dear Bob: I had a good laugh at your recent dialog with Allan Hurst (ELECTRONIC DESIGN, Dec. 17, 2001, p. 25) on the subject of speaker wires. Allan was right when he said that the Hi-Fi trade is now 100 times worse than it was in those...

Strap device protects li-ion battery packs. (Circuit Protection).
February 18, 2002... The VLP270 PolySwitch polymeric positive temperature coefficient (PPTC) resettable strap device offers approximately 37% lower resistance than a comparably sized PolySwitch VTP device. Typical resistance is 15 m[ohm] at 25[degrees]C. The VLP270...

Low-profile hook-on EMI gaskets suit bidirectional applications. (Circuit Protection).
February 18, 2002... A new line of low-profile, copper beryllum EMI shielding is designed for low-profile, bidirectional applications, such as rack-mounted linecards in telecommunications equipment. The gaskets offer high shielding effectiveness in situations where...

Transient voltage suppressors use multilayer varistor technology. (Circuit Protection).(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... The TransGuard series of bidirectional transient voltage suppressors now includes the dual-element 0405 MultiGuard multilayer ceramic transient voltage suppression array. This line of surface-mount chips offers the equivalent of two separate...

SMT fuse withstands lightning surges specified in FCC 47 Part 68. (Circuit Protection).
February 18, 2002... The SMP surface-mount, power-cross protection fuse was developed to ensure compliance with the Power Cross test requirements specified by UL 1950/60950 and Bellcore/Telecordia GR1089 for tip and ring protection. The device further withstands...

Surge suppressor products protect high-voltage SLICs. (Circuit Protection).
February 18, 2002... A line of overvoltage thyristor integrated surge-protector (TISP) telecom products expands customer choices. The new range of gated surge suppressors meets international standards and can help assure compliance for high-voltage SLICs capable of...

Thermal circuit protectors feature six termination options. (Circuit Protection).
February 18, 2002... The CLB and CMB series of thermal circuit protectors offer a reliable, cost-effective solution for circuit-protection requirements. With six termination options, the devices offer three actuator and button color choices. Various hardware and...

Module grants access to components throughout design process. (Electronic Design Automation).(Supplier Access)
February 18, 2002... Customers can use the Supplier Access module to give supply chain partners a direct window to relevant product information throughout the development process. Once customers have centralized their product information in the secure, Web-native...

Open SoC DSP platforms include customizable DSP cores. (Electronic Design Automation).
February 18, 2002... A line of complete SoC DSP platforms includes a variety of customizable, programmable DSP cores and highly optimized application-specific coprocessors. The platforms also feature a comprehensive software development environment to port...

Product enhances design and simulation of mixed-mode circuits. (Electronic Design Automation).(B2 Spice A/D 4.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 18, 2002... B2 Spice A/D Version 4 lets you design and simulate analog, digital, and mixed-mode circuits. The simulation engine is based on Berkeley Spice and includes many extensions from XSpice. It features 17 types of simulations, including RF, Fourier,...

Design Library aids communications product and RF system designers. (Electronic Design Automation).
February 18, 2002... The 1xEV-DO Design Library provides a design and verification environment for communications product and RF system designers involved in 1xEV product generation. Based on TIA IS-2000 standards, the library enables the generation of complex 1xEV...