Electronic Design articles from February 2004

Electronic Design archives from February 2004

Flexible sensor analyzes natural gas pipelines.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
February 2, 2004... All 1.2 million miles of natural gas pipelines that crisscross the United States are subject to corrosion caused by condensation, pressure, and other factors. Unfortunately, integrity examinations require excavation, sandblasting, and manual...

Iraq enters the wireless age.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
February 2, 2004... Many phone calls made today in post-war Iraq require a computer with a microphone and a modem, and these calls can cost up to $4.00 a minute. Iraqis can look for relief, though, thanks to a wireless "plan" from VoEx International LLC and...

The future of data storage: plastic.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
February 2, 2004... The next generation of memory storage is almost here--and it's smaller, simpler, and made from common plastic. Using a polymer material known as PEDOT, which is clear and conducts electricity, engineers at Princeton University and...

PlanetEE.com: the global resource for electronics engineers.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
February 2, 2004... Aimed at electronics engineers and engineering managers worldwide, PlanetEE serves as a gateway to the individual Web sites of the highly respected engineering publications and specifier's tools of Penton Media's Electronics Group. NEW:...

Near-Field Communications opens vision of E-commerce: I've got a new vision for eradicating the seam-bursting array of IDs that jams my wallet, and it comes in the form of the ubiquitous wireless communicator that you already can't leave home without--the cell phone.(Editorial)(Editorial)
February 2, 2004... Like some 70 million fellow Americans, I have a few smart-chip enabled cards in my wallet. Still, I can't say I've actually taken advantage of this embedded processing power. Instead of a single card partitioned with multiple accounts and...

What's all this noise gain stuff, anyhow?(Pease Porridge)
February 2, 2004... On my recent seminar tour, I asked about 4000 engineers, "How many of you use noise gain?" About 2% of the people held up their hands. Sigh. Noise gain is often not very important or critical. That is one of the reasons why op amps are so...

Accelerating the design cycle in a converging world.(POV: point of view)
February 2, 2004... The headline is so common: "Design Engineers Face Increased Time-To-Market Pressures." Whenever I see such a headline, I smile. Is there ever enough time, budget, or staff to develop a new design and meet all of the project's expectations?...

Wireless Interfaces.
February 2, 2004... Wireless Proliferation Pushes Design Choices Wireless interfaces are fast becoming the norm for almost every handheld electronic system, from games to cell phones, and from PDAs to instruments. The wireless interface employed depends on the...

Entertainment technologies take center stage at CES.(Consumer Electronics Show)
February 2, 2004... Entertainment has gone high-tech. Huge plasma flat-panel displays, 55-in. LCD screens, rotating disk drives no wider than a thumbnail, and advanced dual-layer DVD disks storing over 8 Gbytes were just a few of the developments on display at...

Active-clamp PWM controller boosts efficiency, power density.(Analog & Power)
February 2, 2004... Crafted from National Semiconductor's analog bipolar-CMOS-DMOS process, the LM5025 is a 100-V pulse-width-modulation (PWM) controller for forward converters. Yet its integration of the active-clamp/reset technique, which is used in distributed...

3-Msample/s 16-bit SAR ADC sports 1-LSB accuracy.(Hot Product)
February 2, 2004... HIGH-SPEED 16-BIT successive-approximation-register (SAR) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs)are available, but many of them sacrifice integral and differential linearity (INL and DNL) to achieve high speeds. However, Analog Devices' AD7621...

Low noise, wide dynamic range define 14-bit, 125-Msample/s ADC.(Analog & Power)
February 2, 2004... Featuring more than half the power dissipation of other available 14-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), Texas Instruments' ADS5500 125-Msample/s ADC maintains high performance with resolution higher than any comparable device. Also, its...

Smart antenna chip extends Wi-Fi range, speed, and reliability.(Communications)
February 2, 2004... The key to microwave radio performance is a good antenna. While designers usually take the antenna for granted or see it as a necessary evil, it really is a major system component. Today, designers are paying more attention to what has often...

Dual log converter makes optical power monitoring easier than ever.(Communications)
February 2, 2004... Many optical data-transmission systems require accurate measurement of the light output at different parts of the systems. Some of these systems need light power as a feedback signal to optimize system performance. The hard part is accurately...

New books for 2004 cultivate continuing education.(Communications)
February 2, 2004... While the communications/networking field continues to churn, some technical publishers have been working hard to keep up with the changes. These recent books provide an excellent and current look at the industry. In the wireless arena,...

Real-time spectrum analyzers target leading-edge RF apps.(Components & Test)
February 2, 2004... According to their manufacturer, the RSA 2200A and 3300A series real-time spectrum analyzers are the first complete measurement packages for complex RF signals. These Tektronix series target engineers developing cutting-edge RF technologies,...

Low-cost digital audio equalizer automatically adjusts conference calls.(Components & Test)
February 2, 2004... USING A SOPHISTICATED DSP-BASED APPROACH, the OctiVox Clear Call module corrects the audio level on all incoming calls in an office conference-call setup, no matter how many parties are on the line. This low-cost 6- by 4-in. unit from Octiv...

High-performance JTAG controller supports both USB and LANs.(Components & Test)
February 2, 2004... The NetUSB-1149.1/E high-performance, Intelligent boundary-scan JTAG controller can be connected either to a user's PC via the high-speed USB 2.0 or a 10/100BaseT Ethernet local-area network (LAN) Interface. Devised by Corelis, the controller...

Memory controller pumps up DRAM system data rates.(Digital)
February 2, 2004... Avoiding the need to change the native memory interface, a novel controller and buffering scheme pushes data-transfer rates for standard SDRAMs to 3.2 Gbits/s/pin and up to 12.8 Gbits/s/pin for first-generation double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAMs. A...

DRAM-o-Rama 2004: speed, density advances kickstart the new year.(Digital)
February 2, 2004... LOOK FOR FASTER MEMORIES with greater capacity this year, thanks to advances from Toshiba Corp., Rambus Inc., and Elpida Memory Inc. First samples of a 512-Mbit high-performance DRAM sporting the new extreme-data-rate (XDR) interface are...

SoC cuts costs for inkjet fax machines.(Digital)
February 2, 2004... The PI-301 single-chip controller trims the cost of electronic subsystems in inkjet fax machines by 30% to 50% by replacing an assortment of controllers and memory components. This Agere Systems system-on-a-chip (SoC) combines as many as eight...

SoC debug environment opens system-level view.(EDA)
February 2, 2004... dmaliniak@penton.com Complex system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs with multiple embedded processors and IP blocks present difficult debug challenges. First Silicon Solutions' (FS2) Multi-Core Embedded Debug (MED) system extends the JTAG...

Doubling the performance.(Breaking News)
February 2, 2004... DOUBLING THE PERFORMANCE of the previous release, Version 6.2 of Active-HDL is an integrated, Windows-based HDL design and simulation environment. Behavioral, gate-level, and timing simulation performance benefit from up to a twofold speed...

The blast create synthesis tool.(Breaking News)
February 2, 2004... THE BLAST CREATE SYNTHESIS TOOL from Magma has been validated by IBM Microelectronics to show a high degree of correlation with IBM's Einstimer static timing tool. As a result, IBM is now accepting design data from Blast Create for ASIC...

Design-rule checker sports foundry compatibility.(EDA)
February 2, 2004... ADVANCES IN DESIGN CHECKING CAPABILITY, including foundry-compatible design-rule checking (DRC) and background DRC, are among the features of HIPer Verify, the first tool In a line of IC layout and verification software. With HiPer Verify,...

Power-management chip takes charge in handhelds: taking its power from either an ac adapter, USB port, or battery, this IC performs power-source selection, power delivery, battery charging, and other functions for popular single-cell Li-ion devices.(Electronic Design Exclusive)
February 2, 2004... Offering the longest runtimes among the popular rechargeable chemistries, single-cell lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries can be found in many handheld devices. But multiple charging sources, multiple supply voltages within the product, demands for...

Cognex brings In-Sight to machine vision: machine-vision technology continues to reinvent the production process, and In-Sight systems put it within everyone's reach.(Cover feature: success story)(Cover Story)
February 2, 2004... Chances are, many items that you use every day are made with the help of a machine-vision system. Whether it's a razor, soda cans, light bulbs, or the diaper on your baby, machine-vision technology is at the heart of that product's fabrication....

Gigabit-per-second serial buses put testing to the test: soaring chip clock rates outpace the ability of conventional T&M instruments.(Technology report: serial buses for test)
February 2, 2004... Demands unleashed by high-speed multigigabit-per-second serial buses continually push the test-and-measurement (T&M) equipment envelope. Some of the latest equipment to enter the fray are real-time oscilloscopes, sampling oscilloscopes, digital...

Auto-Track[TM] feature simplifies simultaneous power supply voltage sequencing.
February 2, 2004... Auto-Track is a unique feature of the new PTH series of power modules from the Plug-in Power Solutions product family from Texas Instruments. The feature was designed to simplify the amount of external circuitry required to configure these...

Homegrown expertise.(Special Editorial Feature)
February 2, 2004... A friend of mine had a recent run-in with Intuit's Quicken tech support. The harrowing details can be found in any forum post or discussion about tech support outsourcing. It starts with a problem like "The program fails after I do a backup"...

StarFabric links conduction-cooled CPUs.(Special Editorial Feature)
February 2, 2004... Add StarFabric to a dual-processor, conduction-cooled single-board computer and you get a powerful system linked by a 400-Mbyte/s switch fabric. The Rhino DX from Synergy Microsystems includes one or two 1.3-GHz 7455 PowerPC processors with...

Linux targets TI DSP.(Special Editorial Feature)
February 2, 2004... MediaLinux DSP from Softier builds on Texas Instruments' DSP/BIOS kernel to support the TI TMS320C6000 fixed-point family of DSPs. The MediaLinux DSP Development Kit is integrated with TI's eXpressDSP tool chain. MediaLinux supports...

C Tool targets FPGA design.(Special Editorial Feature)
February 2, 2004... The CoDeveloper Tool Suite Is designed to ease a software developer's job of creating an FPGA-based solution. Impulse Accelerated Technologies' collection of C-based libraries, tools, and compilers takes a hardware system definition written in...

Embedding Serial ATA: the migration from parallel to serial is here. Serial ATA (SATA) and its cousin, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), promise smaller, faster, more reliable drives with features that system and embedded designers can really use.(Serial Bus Series)
February 2, 2004... It has become the norm to replace parallel interfaces throughout system design. PCI Express will push PCI and PCI-X out the door, so it's no surprise that SATA and SAS will do the same to parallel ATA and SCSI. The wave of SATA 1 drives and...

RTOS combines with toolset.(News)
February 2, 2004... Take one compact real-time operating system. Mix thoroughly with a C/C++ toolset, and you get RTXC Quadros RTOS for the IAR Systems ARM Embedded Workbench. It includes a plug-in for the IAR C-SPY JTAG debugger, C/C++ compiler, assembler,...

PMC packs pair of processors.(News)
February 2, 2004... The PmPPC2750, developed by Artesyn Communication Products, hosts a pair of 800-MHz IBM PowerPC PPC750FX processors with their own 512 kbytes of L2 cache. The PCI mezzanine card (PMC) comes with a Marvell Discovery GT-64260B PCI bridge equipped...

DSP gains real-time kernel, tools.(News)
February 2, 2004... Motorola's MSC8102 digital signal processor is now supported by OSEck from Enea Embedded Technology. OSEck and Enea's Illuminator diagnostic tool is integrated with Metrowerks' CodeWarrior Development Studio. OSEck uses Enea's link handler,...

Optimizing 64-bit Linux compiler.(News)
February 2, 2004... The PathScale Compiler Suite includes C, C++, and Fortran 9X compilers for the 32- and 64-bit AMD64 architecture. Developed by PathScale Inc., the suite is compatible with the GNU gcc/g++ toolchain. It takes a balanced approach with integer and...

Pentium III drives CompactPCI SBC.(News)
February 2, 2004... The 6U ZT 5551 uses a low-power, 1-GHz Pentium III processor to round out Performance Technologies' CompactPCI single-board-computer (SBC) collection. The ZT 5551 supports up to 2 Gbytes of PC-133 SDRAM with error-correction coding, 16-Mbyte...

Compact MB powers personal servers.(News)
February 2, 2004... Via Technologies' EPIA CL motherboard (MB)is found at the center of Niveus Media's compact servers. The Mini-ITX motherboard is based on Via's 266-MHz C3 Eden processor. A pair of Ethernet ports and six USB ports suit it for personal...

Choose the right multiprocessor for your embedded system.(Design view: embedded)
February 2, 2004... Cost is king in many embedded-system designs. To reduce costs, designers will typically call upon a single microprocessor to run the whole show, figuring that fewer parts mean lower cost. But splitting up the task among multiple processors can...

Simple off-line power supply minimizes cost.(Design briefs: innovative designs from readers)
February 2, 2004... Off-line applications that don't require isolation can take advantage of the circuit shown in Figure 1. It offers a very simple and inexpensive solution for supplying a regulated low-power dc output voltage. This circuit requires only a TL431...

Get a dual programmable LED flasher "for free".(Design briefs: innovative designs from readers)(Brief Article)
February 2, 2004... There are many ways to design LED flashers using transistors, op amps, 555 timers, or even relays. And specialized ICs exist for driving LEDs, such as the LX1990... 93 from Microsemi Integrated Products. But all of these approaches need extra...

High efficiency ThinSOT white LED driver features internal switch and Schottky Diode--Design Note 325.
February 2, 2004... Introduction The LT[R]3465 white LED driver is ideal for backlight circuits in small, battery-powered portable devices--such as cellular phones, PDAs and digital cameras. The LT3465 includes important features such as automatic soft-start...

Sensors/transducers.(New Products)(Illustration)
February 2, 2004... Component Specifier SENSORS/TRANSDUCERS ED Online 7259 TYPE/Model Features SENSORS ULTRASONIC High-frequency unit with 220-kHz bandwidth ([+ or -] MA200D1 20 kHz);...

Battery-charger output ups utility of ac-dc switching supply.(... Analog & Power)
February 2, 2004... * With output power from 55 to 155 W and active power-factor correction, the AD 55/155 enclosed switching power supplies provide the ancillary benefit of an extra battery-charger output for support/UPS external functions. Each model accepts...

Two-channel, 14-bit ADC samples simultaneously At 3 Msamples/s.(... Analog & Power)
February 2, 2004... * The 14-bit LTC1407A and 12-bit LTC1407 3-Msample/s analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) have two simultaneous inputs. The two conversion results are delivered sequentially to DSP serial ports through a three-wire serial peripheral interface....

Low-dropout regulator consumes just 23 [micron]A in portable systems.(... Analog & Power)
February 2, 2004... * Designed to operate in a single-supply mode or a more efficient dual-supply mode, the MIC5238 micropower low-dropout (LDO) regulator consumes as little as 23 [micron]A of bias current while supplying up to 150 mA of output current. The...

Dual logarithmic converter watches optical-network power.(... Analog & Power)
February 2, 2004... * Offering the functionality of two discrete converters on one chip, the ADL5310 dual logarithmic converter gives designers of optical communications systems an alternative to multiple devices. The ADL5310 operates from a single supply of as...

Dual-output PWM controller touts integrated LDO controller.(... Analog & Power)
February 2, 2004... * Thanks to an integrated low-dropout (LDO) controller, the IRU3073 dual-output synchronous pulse-width modulation (PWM) controller enables a second output voltage using a single external MOSFET. Both low- and high-side drivers can be biased...

Schottky rectifiers provide high current density.(... Analog & Power)
February 2, 2004... * A series of Schottky rectifiers, housed in SMA, SMB, and SMC packages, can handle higher currents in less space than competitive devices. The SMA-packaged device handles 2 A or 3 A compared with the industry-standard value of 1 A. Likewise,...

White-LED drivers' analog dimming results in reduced output noise.(... Analog & Power)
February 2, 2004... * The option of an integrated true analog dimming mode in a pair of white-LED drivers offers a noise-free alternative to pulsed dimming control. The ZXLD1100 (six-pin SC70 package) and ZXLD1101 (SOT-23-5 package)inductive boost converters can...

SMA pc-board connectors fit standard surface-mount process.(Interconnections & Packaging)
February 2, 2004... * Each model in a new line of SMA surface-mount connectors can be directly soldered to a pc board using a conventional reflow surface-mount process. Available in a flange size of 6.35 [mm.sup.2], they feature brass/steel bodies with gold or...

Panel light pipes use dual-lens design to enhance display intensity.(Interconnections & Packaging)
February 2, 2004... * The PLP5 series 5-mm panel light pipes feature a new diffused-dome dual-lens design that improves lighting intensity for use with surface-mounted or through-hole LEDs. The lens geometry at the base of the light pipe creates a concave...

Retractile extension cords glow in the dark for better safety.(Interconnections & Packaging)
February 2, 2004... * Applications where safety is critical can take advantage of a new group of electrical retractile extension cords. Designed with a glow-in-the dark material, they can glow up to eight hours after one hour of exposure to light. Also, they...

Locking-screw options simplify connector board mating.(Interconnections & Packaging)
February 2, 2004... * Locking-screw options make the QTS-RA/QSS-RA series 0.635-mm pitch high-speed interfaces more flexible. These interfaces will find homes on mating boards in perpendicular and coplanar applications. This pitch size is available for parallel...

Enclosures and connectors designed for the ExpressCard bus.(Interconnections & Packaging)
February 2, 2004... * The ExpressCard specification, defined by PCMCIA as the next-generation PC card that's smaller and faster than current PCMCIA cards, has made two cards available: the ExpressCard 34 (about one-half the size of a standard PCMCIA card) and the...

Low-profile VRM connector suits 1U server appplications.(Interconnections & Packaging)
February 2, 2004... * The iCool low-profile VRM connector enables the use of vertical voltage-regulator modules (VRMs) in 1U servers, both VRM 10.0 and 10.2 types. It also fits small-form-factor PCs and workstations. The connector handles up to 130 A in 4.0-in....

Ferrite-chip-bead array houses four beads in one package.(Interconnections & Packaging)
February 2, 2004... * The PMA series of surface-mount multilayer ferrite-chip-bead arrays features four ferrite beads in a single package measuring just 3.2 by 1.6 by 0.9 mm, allowing the handling of four separate lines simultaneously. The arrays especially suit...

CMOS 20-bit bus switches replace TTL equivalents.(... Digital ICs/DSP)
February 2, 2004... * A set of four high-speed CMOS 20-bit bus switches provides pin-compatible equivalents to existing transistor-transistor-level (TTL) parts. These switches are designed for use in applications such as PCI hot-card insertion and voltage level...

Chip set simplifies HDTV and set-top-box design.(... Digital ICs/DSP)
February 2, 2004... * The high-definition television (HDTV) and set-top-box (STB) markets have a new high-performance two-chip set at their disposal. The S5H2010 MPEG-2 decoder and S3C2800 digital TV CPU offer a cost-competitive solution, enabling consumer...

High-speed serial EEPROMs deliver data at 10 MHz.(... Digital ICs/DSP)
February 2, 2004... * A pair of high-speed serial EEPROMs offers storage capacities of 8 and 16 kbits (the 25XX080A/B and 25XX160A/B, respectively). The memories, with data-transfer speeds of 10 MHz, can be had in two supply-range options--1.8 to 5.5 V or 2.5 to...

Dean wins presidential race.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and play)
February 16, 2004... No, we're not talking about the Democratic primaries. John W. Steadman, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of South Alabama, has assumed the presidency of IEEE-USA. He served as the organization's president elect in 2003....

Rugged server packs a portable punch.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and play)
February 16, 2004... Servers don't have to be delicate. The GMII-102 portable server computers from Acme Portable Machines are designed for harsh field conditions and rugged travel. These lunchbox-style devices squeeze 2.0- or 3.0-GHz Pentium 4 processors, eight...

Bluetooth dons the blues.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and play)
February 16, 2004... Bluetooth now wears a badge. Thanks to this advanced short-range radio technology, PVP Communications' Motor One Wireless Motor Kit can cut the cords that connect a police officer to his motorcycle's radio, increasing safety, performance, and...

PlanetEE.com.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and play)
February 16, 2004... THE GLOBAL RESOURCE FOR ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS Aimed at electronics engineers and engineering managers worldwide, PlanetEE serves as a gateway to the individual Web sites of the highly respected engineering publications and specifier's tools...

Powering the communications infrastructure.
February 16, 2004... The delivery of dc voltages and currents to ICs in modern communications systems is turning traditional power-supply design into a new art form, driven by the need for greater bandwidth, faster data rates, tighter security, upgradability,...

Airport electronic security fails without the right staff.(Editorial)(Editorial)
February 16, 2004... I tried to check my irritation the other day at Newark International Airport when I had my all-in-one key-fob tool confiscated from my key ring. It had been on my key ring for years and through security screenings dozens of times, but because I...

Bob's mailbox.(Pease Porridge)
February 16, 2004... Hi Bob: A coworker in Denmark informs me that Bang & Olufsen forbids transistors to drive capacitive loads without some form of series impedance. ("A foolish consistency is the Hobgoblin of small minds." /rap) This came about due to my use of...

Op amps play major role in new digital technology.(POV: Point Of View)
February 16, 2004... The advent of the worldwide Web and expansive, new video displays that significantly magnify artifacts, smearing, and color imbalance has created a daunting challenge for amplifier developers. They must achieve near-zero signal degradation...

Lithium AAAs really keep on going.(Power)
February 16, 2004... Laying claim to the title of world's longest lasting AAA battery, the e2 series of lithium-based AAAs offers up to 160 more hours of paging messages or 400 more flashes from your camera, according to the Energizer Division of Eveready Battery...

Success depends on the right MCP partner.(Digital)
February 16, 2004... MULTICHIP PACKAGES (MCPs) are taking mobile handsets by storm and entering other handheld markets, too. The impetus is the need to strike an increasingly delicate balance between rising memory density and smaller size, decreased power...

1U programmable DC supply promises performance, power, price.(Analog & Power)
February 16, 2004... Automatic-test-equipment (ATE) applications can Lake advantage of the N6700 1U (rack unit) multiple-output programmable dc power supplies' high-end processing speeds, auto-ranging output, and measurement capabilities. These Agilent Technologies...

Low-distortion 2.5-GHz op amp squelches noise.(Analog & Power)
February 16, 2004... Using Its BiComm-III complementary bipolar silicon-germanium process, Texas Instruments roiled out the THS4304 2.5-GHz (unity gain bandwidth) wideband voltage-feedbaak op amp with total harmonic distortion of -70 dBc (at 32MHz. 2 V p-p into a...

High-current quad output regulator protects large TFT panels.(Hot Product)
February 16, 2004... OPTIMAL PROTECTION for large thin-film-transistor (TFT) flat-panel displays (FPDs), 22 in. in diameter and larger, is now a possibility with the LT1493. Linear Technology's high-current quad output adjustable switching regulator features an...

1-GHz cable-box tuner satisfies HDTV, VOD bandwidth demands.(Communications)
February 16, 2004... The MT2121 single-chip TV tuner from Microtune pushes past the 860-MHz threshold by offering full 1-GHz bandwidth. With this tuning range, it's ready for new bandwidth-hungry consumer-electronics applications like HDTV, video-on-demand (VOD),...

Engineers wanted to improve technology education.(Communications)
February 16, 2004... I'm looking for a few good engineers--especially engineers who work with technicians. The National Science Foundation is funding a project to update and Improve electronics courses and textbooks In community and technology college courses, and...

EtherCAT makes ethernet purr over Sonet/SDH.(Communications)
February 16, 2004... WITH ETHERNET'S LINE SPEEDS reaching 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbits/s, network engineers now have to make Ethernet local-area networks (LANs) compatible with the entrenched Sonet/SDH technology found in most metro networks, it isn't easy to transport...

Dual-port SRAM accelerates smart-phone development.(Communications)
February 16, 2004... CAMERAS. GAMES. WEB BROWSING. E-MAIL. Today's cell phones seem to do it all. Yet to meet these multimedia needs, handset manufacturers have to balance faster processors, more memory, and support circuitry against power demands. Specifically...

Four-port RF component analyzer whisks away with 5-ms/point sweep.(Components & Test)
February 16, 2004... Unleashing a 5-ms/point sweep speed, Advantest America's R3860A 20-GHz RF component analyzer targets RF hybrid modules and multiport devices. It's equipped with four receiver ports, and its 125-dB dynamic range at 8 GHz suits it for evaluating...

Cost-conscious network analyzers get lean and stay mean.(Components & Test)
February 16, 2004... DESIGNED FOR PRODUCTION-LINE applications at significantly lower prices than Agilent Technologies' flagship 871x and 872x ENA and PNA series, the company's ENA-L and PNA-L network analyzers provide the basic capabilities needed to characterize...

Wireless-LAN analysis software covers all 802.11 variations.(Components & Test)
February 16, 2004... The WCA11G Signal Analysis software package from Tektronix speeds up design and validation of 802.11a, b, and g wireless local area networks (WLANs). It automates key measurements, interprets erratic or incomplete data, and delivers multidomain...

Configurable logic solutions wed FPGA flexibility with ASIC efficiency.(Digital)
February 16, 2004... An ASIC's or FPGA's ability to meet an application's demands comes own to a complex tradeoff between performance, density, time-to-market, and cost. Yet Leopard Logic combines FPGA flexibility with ASIC efficiency to do just that. Its Gladiator...

Hypertransport releases I/O link 2.0.(Digital)
February 16, 2004... The HyperTransport Consortium has released version 2.0 of the specification defining new enhancements to the HyperTransport I/O Link interface. The 2.0 release defines three new speed levels and a new mapping to PCI Express, an emerging I/0...