Electronic Design articles from July 2003

Electronic Design archives from July 2003

Electronic Design metes out its own justice to convicted murderer. (Editorial).
July 7, 2003... We appreciate loyalty in our readers, but we do expect you to follow certain rules. The Associated Press recently released a story about an imprisoned convicted double-murderer, Steven Jacob, who also happens to be a demanding -- and litigious...

What's all this goodbye stuff, anyhow? (Pease Porridge).
July 7, 2003... Okay, friends, recently I was hit by unpleasant surprises: Three of my good old friends died. One got badly injured in a car crash and never recovered. Lung cancer struck another - quite unfair because he never smoked. The third was fighting...

A noisy system can trump a quiet dc-dc converter. (POV: Point of View).
July 7, 2003... A common misconception in the industry is that if all the components designed into a system pass different agency standards for radiated, conducted, and common-mode noise, then the system will also pass the required noise standards. Wrong! This...

Transistor promises dense, fast 30-nm ICs: maintain device performance at 30 nm by surrounding the source-drain region of a transistor with three gates. (The Industry: Digital).(from Intel)
July 7, 2003... Researchers at many companies have pro posed a host of different transistor structures that can deliver high performance as dimensions shrink to 60 nm and below. At June's Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits in Kyoto, Japan, Intel Corp....

Communications. (Hot Product).(Fujitsu Microelectronics America MB82DBS02163C and '04163C)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * Taking aim at mobile applications, a pair of fast-cycle DRAMs developed by Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc. enables digital-camera video data streaming for 3G cellular phones. The MB82DBS02163C and '04163C, which come in 32- and 64-Mbit...

Flywheel power system beefs up reliability for UPSs: DC voltage source not only extends UPS battery life by handling short-term disturbances, it also functions as a standalone backup power source. (TechView: Analog & Power).(Pentadyne Power VSS-120)
July 7, 2003... A backup power source that can complement or in some instances replace conventional battery-backed uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) is possible thanks to a novel flywheel power system. When used with a battery-backed UPS, Pentadyne's...

Integrated Power-over-LAN controller meets IEEE standard. (Hot Product).(Maxim Integrated Products MAX5922 )(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... The MAX5922 is a fully integrated single-port 48-V power switch that fully complies with the IEEE 802.3af standard for Power-over-Ethernet (PoE, also known as Power over Local-Area Network, or LAN) systems. Designed specifically for use in...

The ceiling has been raised on output current capability for quarter bricks. (Breaking News).(Atesyn Technologies Typhoon series)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... The ceiling has been raised on output current capability for quarter bricks. With its latest additions to the Typhoon series, Atesyn Technologies offers BOA of output at 1.8 V or 100 A at 1.2 V. The 0.3-in, high, open-frame dc-dc converters'...

Transceiver chip shrinks cell-phone size, design time: going from three chips to one, a new transceiver IC lops away enough components to shrink pc-board space up to 75%. (TechViews: Communications).(Silicon Laboratories Si4206)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... The Si4206 Aero I GSM/GPRS transceiver(TX) integrates all radio functions into a single package, except for the input surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) filters, output power amplifiers, and the antenna switch (seethe figure). As a result, this...

Fully integrated controller-monitor for laser drivers is a first. (Hot Product).(Dallas Semiconductor DS1859)
July 7, 2003... SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS used in fiber-optic transmission systems are expensive and. temperamental and require special driving circuitry. Those drivers typically use feedback from one or more monitored quantities to ensure optimum performance. ...

LCDs boast digitizer tablet and built-in image capture: TFT polysilicon LCD panels address the needs of tablet PCs, PDAs, palmtops, and notebook computers. (TechView: Components & Test).(Toshiba America Electric Components LTD121KAOS)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... At the recent Society for Information Displays Conference, Toshiba America Electronic Components announced that it is expanding its line of Kangaroo LCD modules for tablet PCs with a 12.1-in. thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD, the LTD121KAOS. ...

Resistive LCD panels improve sunlight readability. (Hot Product).(Fujitsu Components America's Fujitsu FED554)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... New four-and seven-wire resistive circularly polarized touch panels use transmissive LCDs to eliminate over 60% of reflected ambient light while maintaining 79% luminance transmissivity. The FID-554 series from Fujitsu Components America is...

Frost & Sullivan reveals that North American automotive revenues for fractional-horsepower electric motors could reach $2.17 billion in 2009. (Market News).(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
July 7, 2003... * An analysis from Frost & Sullivan reveals that North American automotive revenues for fractional-horsepower electric motors could reach $2.17 billion in 2009, up from last year's $2.01 billion figure. "Besides power mirrors, door locks,...

Venture Development Corp. forecasts that shipments of electronic pressure sensors and transducers in the U.S. will increase from $1.282 billion last year to $1.508 billion in 2007. (Market News).
July 7, 2003... * A three-volume study from Venture Development Corp. forecasts that shipments of electronic pressure sensors and transducers in the U.S. will increase from $1.282 billion last year to $1.508 billion in 2007 for a compound annual growth rate of...

VLIW processor core simplifies complex math: this VLIW DSP engine executes more in parallel to deliver single-cycle execution of floating-point complex arithmetic computations. (TechView: Digital).(Atmel mAgic DSP )
July 7, 2003... The easiest way to get more performance from a DSP engine is to crank up the speed. But between process and architectural limitations, clock speeds can only go up so far. As the circuits run faster, they consume more power, significantly...

MIPS RISC architecture known as Topaz (24K) promises higher throughput and reduced operating power. (Breaking News).(from MIPS Technologies)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * A next-generation synthesizable MIPS RISC architecture known as Topaz (24K) promises higher throughput and reduced operating power. Developed by MIPS Technologies, the processor care can scale to features below 0.13 [micro]m while maintaining...

Online knowledge database comes to tool users' aid: you got EDA questions? Mentor Graphics' growing online compendium of data on its tools has answers, sometimes in 15 seconds or less. (TechView: EDA).(SupportNet KnowledgeBase)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... Electronic Design Automation Editor dmaliniak@penton.com Customer service is critical in many businesses, but its importance in EDA is even greater. Engineers work around the clock in sites all over the world. No EDA vendor has...

OpenAccess application programming interface and database has seen another successful port. (EDA Tool Update).(Cadence Design Systems' Virtuoso Chip Editor)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... The OpenAccess application programming interface and database has seen another successful port. Cadence's Virtuoso Chip Editor chip finisher, which takes ICs through the final stage of design implementation, exploits the OpenAccess Interface to...

Verisity and 0-In Design Automation are collaborating to report Integrated verification coverage metrics to their customers. (EDA Tool Update).(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... Verisity and 0-In Design Automation are collaborating to report Integrated verification coverage metrics to their customers. The coverage information available in Verisity's Specman Eilte test-bench automation tool will include both native...

"Sugar" sweetens system-level verification flow. (Hot Product).
July 7, 2003... IT'S SHAPING UP AS THE SUMMER of assertion-based verification. Summit Design has debuted an assertion-based flow linking the Property Specification Language (formerly IBM's Sugar 2.0) with its Visual Elite functional modeling and verification...

Graphics engines soup up handhelds: new generations of handheld devices demand higher-performance graphics to deliver video and provide more interactive games. (Leapfrog: First Look).
July 7, 2003... The latest cell phones and PDAs are very video-centric. When not being used as communication or information appliances, they provide entertainment. Previously, most chip sets designed for use in cell phones or PDAs included a basic 2D graphics...

With graphics engines like these powering handhelds, expect to be better informed and entertained than ever before. (Industry First: Graphics Engines for Handhelds).(NeoMagic MQ9000 ,MQ9100 and 9150)
July 7, 2003... NeoMagic (www.neomagic.com) crafted ARM-based solutions that deliver feature-rich system solutions that tightly integrate the processor and graphics. A trio of MediaQ chips gives designers a choice of features based around an ARM 922T RISC...

Nonvolatile memory: more than a flash in the pan; advances in nonvolatile storage technology will bring higher densities, faster operation, and higher endurance levels. (Cover Feature: Technology Report).(Cover Story)
July 7, 2003... FLASH MEMORY, THE DOMINANT technology for nonvolatile storage, has constantly improved over the last 20 years, with still further enhancements expected over the next decade. But emerging nonvolatile technologies promise to deliver higher...

Finding the right solution. (Special Editorial Feature: Embedded in Electronic Design).
July 7, 2003... Write once with no bugs. That's every programmer's dream. Unfortunately, it doesn't usually work in practice. Fixing a problem requires finding the problem, then applying an appropriate fix. In many cases, there's more than one solution....

Test tools target popular PCI Express. (Special Editorial Feature: Embedded in Electronic Design).(Agilent Technologies E2960)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... PCI Express developers now have a suite of test tools available from Agilent. The E2960 series handles PCI Express x1 through x8 channels, with the channels running at 2.5 Gbits/s. The tools include a Protocol Analyzer, a Protocol Exerciser,...

JTAG emulator pushes past 3-Mbyte/s code download. (Special Editorial Feature: Embedded in Electronic Design).(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... Developers of MIPS-based products can take advantage of the new Turbo System. The PCI-1149.1/Turbo System can handle a sustained test clock frequency of 80 MHz. That translates to more than 3 Mbytes/s of throughput for a tenfold improvement...

Next Nexus delivers debug data: an optional pin can cut transfer overhead for higher data-transfer rates. (Debugging Series: Embedded in Electronic Design).
July 7, 2003... The Nexus 5001 Forum enhanced its IEEE ISTO 5001-1999 debug specification with an upward-compatible implementation that provides higher throughput and increased efficiency. The 2003 revision incorporates new connector specifications, especially...

Life-Cycle portal eases product development. (News: Embedded in Electronic Design).(I-Logix's iNotion 2.0 )(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... Keeping track of product development is more than just tracking a schedule with a project-management application. The development cycle generates thousands or even millions of artifacts, from meeting notes to application source code. I-Logix's...

Modules pack system into mezzanine slot. (News: Embedded in Electronic Design).(Men Micro Embedded System Modules)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... Men Micro is delivering systems on a new platform it calls Embedded System Modules (ESMs). ESMs plug into mezzanine card slots, providing single-board-computing (SBC) power in a small space. Boards can usually support multiple ESMs. Men Micro...

Software simulation blasts bugs in network hardware designs. (Design View: Electronic Design Automation).
July 7, 2003... Conventional hardware debugging techniques can't keep up with today's complex network products. As a result, design bugs remain unseen until system hardware is prototyped. Fortunately, designers have a better alternative: using software...

Latching current sink responds to narrow trigger pulses. (Design Briefs: Innovative Designs from Readers).
July 7, 2003... The thyristor or silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) provides a convenient latching mechanism for switching power to a load. However, once the thyristor is triggered into conduction, it supplies no means of controlling the current flow, which is...

Single-Pin MCU gets three colors from two-color LED. (Design Briefs: Innovative Designs from Readers).
July 7, 2003... There's a need in many applications to indicate more than two states from a single LED. One obvious solution is to employ an LED with more than two colors. But such LEDs require more than one control pin to produce these colors. The simple...

New step-down charge pumps are tiny, efficient and very low noise--design note 310. (Design Notes: Advertisement).(Linear Technology LTC3251)(Advertisement)
July 7, 2003... Introduction Inductorless charge pump DC/DC converters are popular in space-constrained applications with 10mA to 500mA load currents. Such converters are available in small packages, operate with very low quiescent current and require...

10GE transceiver delivers top speed over 25-m copper link. (New Products: Communications).(Mysticom MY3124 XAUI-to-XAUI )
July 7, 2003... * The MY3124 XAUI-to-XAUI (10 Gigabit Attachment Unit Interfaces) bus retiming transceiver implements 10-Gbit/s Ethernet (10GE) over a copper link. Typical applications include stackable switches, chassis-to-chassis, and switch-to-server system...

Fully integrated fiber-optic receiver delivers high sensitivity. (New Products: Communications).(Zarlink Semiconductor ZL60011)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * An indium-gallium-arsenide PIN photodiode, a silicon-germanium transimpedance amplifier (TIA), a limiting amplifier, and a photo current monitor circuit are all packed into the ZL60011 fiber-optical transceiver. The single-chip transceiver...

Tiny dual-band microwave antenna is in tune with WLAN equipment. (New Products: Communications).(NTK Technologies MAC2450A5362AAE)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * Antennas have become increasingly important in the wireless world, with more and more products embedding wireless capability for convenience and portability. Designers crave an extremely small antenna with good response in all directions, a...

Point-of-load dc-dc converters generate 10 to 15 A in SIP or SMD. (New Products: Analog & Power).(Celestica Volant)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * The Volant series of non-isolated dc-dc point-of-load converters delivers 10 or 15 A of output in SIP-style packaging and 15 A in a surface-mount package. The SIP format measures 2.0 by 0.327 by 0.50 in., while the surface-mount style...

14-bit DAC packs 16 channels in chip-scale package. (New Products: Analog & Power).(Analog Devices AD5390)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * The AD5390, a 16-channel, 14-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC), comes in a 9- by 9-mm 64-lead LFCSP. Able to operate from a single 5-V supply, it contains a low-drift reference. Also available are 12-bit (AD5391) and eight-channel...

Highly integrated audio amplifiers are a sound upgrade for portables. (New Products: Analog & Power).(Maxim integrated Products MAX9765/9766/9767 )(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * Optimized for portable applications, the MAX9765/9766/9767 audio amplifiers integrate a 750-mW bridge-tied-load speaker amplifier, a stereo headphone amplifier, mic preamps, and input multiplexing in 5-by 5-mm 32-pin QFN packages. Operating...

16-bit DAC squeezes eight channels into SO-8 footprint. (New Products: Analog & Power).(Linear Technology LTC2600 )(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * The LTC2600 octal 16-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) comes in a 16-pin narrow SSOP that occupies the same amount of board space as an SO-8. Also available in 12- and 14-bit versions, the DAC specifies a DNL of [+ or -]1 LSB max. Current...

16-bit delta-sigma ADC boosts speed to 5 Msamples/s. (New Products: Analog & Power).(Texas Instruments ADS1605)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * A 5-Msample/s conversion rate, an 88-dB SNR, and a 1O1-dB SFDR are attainable with the ADS1605 16-bit delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC). In addition, THD is -99 dB, and input bandwidth is 2.45 MHz. Packaged in a 64-lead TQFP, the...

BGA-style bus converter delivers 200 W for intermediate voltage bus. (New Products: Analog & Power).(Vicor B048K120T20 )(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * Vicor released the first family of dc-dc converter products based on its V*I Chip, a BGA-style power component. Intended for use in intermediate voltage bus architectures, this family of bus converter modules (BCMs) consists of 48- to 12-V...

Single chip handles voice recording and playback. (New Products: Digital ICs/DSP).(Winbond Electronics ISD5108 ChipCorder)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * The ISD5108 ChipCorder, which holds from four to eight minutes of voice recording, can easily be embedded into a host of products. The chip's user-selectable sampling rate ranges from 4 to 8 kHz, so designers can trade off sound quality and...

USB transceiver trims board space thanks to micro-leadframe. (New Products: Digital Ics/DSP).(Fairchild Semiconductor International USB1T11ABQ)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * Almost 84% smaller than comparable TSSOP or SOIC packages, the USB1T11ABQ USB transceiver comes in a micro-leadframe package. The micro-leadframe considerably reduces the amount of board space needed by the USB interface. As a result,...

Pressure-sensing pad takes real-time measurements. (New Products: Components).(Sensor Products Tactilus)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * The Tactilus electronic tactile force and pressure sensing pad lets engineers monitor precisely (within [+ or -]%), in real time, how force is dispersed between two contacting or mating surfaces while the event occurs. Pressures measured...

High-Performance light guides lower backlighting costs. (New Products: Components).( Global Lighting Technolgies MicroLens)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * Portable and handheld devices can now take advantage of the high-performance, low-cost MicroLens family of light guides. For color cell phones, there's an assembly with a 30- by 22-by 0.8-mm output display area. Output luminance is 3000...

Get the latest open-source development platform now. (New Products: Embedded).(Eclipse 2.1)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * Version 2.1 of the Eclipse open-source, integrated development environment (IDE) is available as a free download. It includes a number of improvements in the text editor and a new graphical build editor. The debugger now shows threads holding...

uClinux supports ColdFire MCF5282 and more. (New Products: Embedded).(Brief Article)
July 7, 2003... * Developers using Motorola's ColdFire MCF5282 have another operating system alternative with SnapGear's open-source uClinux. Based on the 2.4 Linux kernel, this version supports the MCF5282's 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet multiply-accumulate. Another...

Fiber to the home will push the pace of convergence. (Editorial).
July 21, 2003... While there has been much talk about the convergence of voice, data, and video applications, the reality is that very few service providers have delivered this "triple play" of signals into the home in a unified fashion. All that is set to...

Bob's mailbox. (Pease Porridge).
July 21, 2003... Dear Bob: My first car was a 1955 secondhand Cadillac DeVille convertible; tube radio, automatic station seeker, service every 1000 miles, total life 100,000 miles (Swiss miles, up the mountains), end of life due to multiple mechanical...

Turn the weee challenge into a fresh opportunity. (Pov: Point of View).(waste from electric and electronic equipment )(Column)
July 21, 2003... Since its inception, the idea of sustainable development has sparked heated debates over corporations' responsibility for the waste their products produce. Recently, the European Union (EU) directed that by 2007, European OEMs will be fully...

WLAN chips target client applications: seven fully encrypted Wi-Fi chips offering broad frequency range for worldwide usage generate 90-Mbit/s TCP/IP throughput. (Communications).(Atheros Communications' AR5002X, AR5002G and AR5002A )
July 21, 2003... The rollout of 802.11 wireless local-area network (WLAN) chips continues at a frantic pace as semiconductor companies compete for an ever-expanding market. Atheros Communications joins this throng by announcing its third generation of...

POL converters make tracking a breeze. (Power).(Texas Instruments' PTHxx point-of-load converters)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... THE PTHXX SERIES OF PLUG-IN POWER MODULES incorporate Auto-Track sequencing technology, which allows multiple modules to be powered up and down in sequence without external circuitry. Through this technology from Texas Instruments, the modules...

Integrated design platform simplifies motion control: a development system and mixed-signal chip set bring together tools and hardware for variable-speed motion-control systems. (TechView: Analog & Power).(International Rectifier's iMotion)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... A design platform for variable-speed motion-control systems integrates the related digital, analog, and power technologies to simplify and speed up system design. It also can optimize system performance and reduce design costs. Called iMotion,...

Power-management Ics target multiple supplies and USB OTG. (TechView: Analog & Power).(Summit Microelectronics SMM665 and Advanced Technologies AAT3125)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... The SMM665 power-supply controller from Summit Microelectronics monitors, margins, and sequences up to six voltage supplies at 0.3 to 5.5 V. This chip performs both on and off sequencing of supplies, such as those generated by bricks and other...

Dielectric antenna solves tough integration problems: a novel helical design, consisting of a helical loop on a ceramic dielectric, reduces the near field and eliminates the need for a ground plane. (TechView: Communications).(Sarantel GeoHelix)
July 21, 2003... One nagging problem with microwave antennas in cell phones and other products is that the user's presence seriously affects them. Bringing the antenna nearthe user detunes it. Also, a huge portion of the radiated or received energy is lost in...

White House initiates spectrum-management study. (Regulations Report).
July 21, 2003... THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FREQUENCY SPECTRUM is like all other natural resources--there's only so much of it. That's all the more reason to use what we have efficiently and cleverly. The management of spectrum falls to the Federal Communications...

Minuscule absolute encoder cuts assembly time in half: this high-speed plug-and-play device, which comes in five resolution options, shaves industrial-automation system costs by 40%. (TechView: Components & Test).(Agilent Technologies AEAS-7000 )(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... A novel absolute encoder module that comes in 12- and 16-bit versions uses a modular approach to reduce the number of assembly steps from as many as eight down to just four (see the figure). Agilent Technologies says that its AEAS-7000 is the...

LCD ToolKIT offers a quick fix to display design. (TechView: Components & Test).(Optrex America LCD ToolKIT)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... The LCD ToolKIT delivers a convenient solution for accelerating LCD flat-panel display design. Developed by Optrex America, it contains an LCD panel, a thin-film transistor controller board with an onscreen display, a backlighting inverter...

Analysis Software a boon to power measurement. (TechView: Components & Test).(LeCroy's PMA2 POWERMEASURE Analysis Software)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... THE PMA2 POWERMEASURE Analysis Software crafted by LeCroy brings the analysis capability, customization, and ease of use of the company's X-Stream technology to power-measurement applications. Designed for use with the WavePro 7000 series and...

Hardwired FPGA option shrinks chip size and cost: dubbed HardCopy, these hardwired versions of Altera's Stratix FPGAs double the performance of the SRAM FPGAs and shave 30% from the chip cost. (TechView: Digital).
July 21, 2003... The large chip areas consumed by high-density FPGAs tend to make the devices rather costly for volume production. As chip size grows, performance likely decreases because wire lengths and parasitic capacitances increase as well. By creating a...

MIPS-family 64-bit CPUs hit Gigahertz clock speeds. (TechView: Digital).(PMC-Sierra RM9220 and 9224)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... TAKING TWO PATHS TO DELIVER high-performance 64-bit MIPS-compatible processors, PMC-Sierra Inc. has extended its RM9000 series of 1-GHz highly-integrated processors. The RM9220 and 9224 contain dual processor cores, three 10/100/1000 Ethernet...

Toshiba Corp. (Breaking News).(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... A NEW SELF-ALIGNED GATE structure used in a NAND-based flash memory allows designers at Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk Corp. to craft NAND flash-memory chips with capacities of up to 4 Gbits. The gate's ability to self-align to the active area of...

SystemVerilog support leads debuggers' upgrades: database upgrades, clock-tree and timing debug features, and support for assertion-driven debugging have all been added to Novas' debug systems. (TechView: EDA).(Novas Software's Debussy and Verdi )(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... In the latest versions of its Debussy and Verdi debugging systems, Novas Software includes support for SystemVerilog, making them among the first debug systems to support the emerging standard. The debuggers will work with SystemVerilog in...

Accellera gives nod to standards. (Standards Report).
July 21, 2003... REACHING A SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE, Accellera's board and technical committee members approved four new standards for language-based design verification. Key EDA vendors have already gotten behind the standards as Accellera prepares for the next...

Configurable IP Cores for PCI Express Technology. (EDA Update).(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... CONFIGURABLE IP CORES FOR PCI EXPRESS TECHNOLOGY are now available through Denali Software. Denali will directly sell and support application-specific configurations of the IBM-developed core through its own channels along with its existing...

The IEEE's Design Automation Standards Committee (DASC). (EDA Update).(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... THE IEEE's DESIGN AUTOMATION STANDARDS COMMITTEE (DASC) has approved a project to use Verisity's e verification language as a basis for standardization. The IEEE Standards Association assigned the number 1647 to the project. The e language...

RTOS runs soft RISC on system-on-a-programmable-chip. (TechView: Embedded).(Altera's Nios Development Kit)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... The Nios RISC architecture morphs into version 3 with the latest release of Altera's Nios Development Kit. The kit includes Altera's Stratix high-density FPGA. Kits are also available for other FPGA product lines and include all of the...

Java jumps ahead with RAD. (Embedded Software).
July 21, 2003... RAVE, SDKs, AND NEW TECHNOLOGY permeated the Sun One Conference In San Francisco this year. Project Rave was one of the new technologies displayed. Based on the JavaServer Faces technology, drag-and-drop layout of user interfaces and component...

A new C compiler and IDE. (Software News Clips).(Rabbit Semiconductor's Dynamic C Premier 8.0)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... A New C Compiler And IDE speed 8-bit application development. Version 8 of Rabbit Semiconductor's Dynamic C Premier development environment incorporates new features like syntax highlighting in the editor, an improved debugger interface, and...

WebSphere meets Embedded Linux. (Software News Clips).(IBM's WebSphere Studio Device Developer for MontaVista Linux)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... WebSphere Meets Embedded Linux with the release of WebSphere Studio Device Developer (WSDD) for MontaVista Linux. The WSDD from IBM (www.ibm.com) is based on Eclipse (www.eclipse.org). WSDD incorporates the WebSphere Micro Environment and a...

More free tools for the 8051 Web server. (Software News Clips).(from Dallas Semiconductor)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... More Free Tools For The 8051 Web Server have been released by Dallas Semiconductor for its DS80C400 networked microcontroller. The tools, which can be used with C or Java, include Ethernet TCP/IP IPv4 and IPv6 support, memory management, file...

New mini-card form factor embeds PCI express: spec release opens door for laptops, embedded systems to exploit PCI Express mini-card products. (Leapfrog: First Look).(PCI Express Mini Card Electromechanical Specification Revision 1.0)
July 21, 2003... Getting on PCI Express just got a little easier for laptops and embedded devices with the release of PCI Express Mini Card Electromechanical Specification Revision 1.0. This compact platform targets standard devices like 802.llx wireless...

High-performance 10-Gbit ethernet switch knocks price down: squeezing together a dozen 10-Gbit/s ports plus a memory-based switch fabric, a single-chip Ethernet switch squashes per-port costs by a factor of 100. (Leapfrog: First Look).(Fujitsu MB7Q-3050BYL )
July 21, 2003... As desktop platforms migrate to Gigabit Ethernet to improve the data bandwidth, servers and network backbones must move to 10 Gbits/s to avoid bottlenecks that disrupt data flow. However, 10-Gbit Ethernet switches have been pretty expensive,...

Flat-panel displays: poised to take over large and small screens. (Cover Feature: Technology Report).(Cover Story)
July 21, 2003... A look at the numbers shows elevated performance levels and lower costs for several on-the-rise display technologies, pointing them toward mass-market applications like large-screen and projection TVs and digital cameras. LOOK AROUND...

Take advantage of all that USB on-the-go has to offer. (Design View: Networking).
July 21, 2003... Until very recently, no common interface existed between handheld devices and PC peripherals. Then, this past January, Sony released the CLIE personal digital assistant with Universal Serial Bus On-The-Go (USB OTG) functionality. Developed...

Dual output supply powers FPGAs from 3.3V and 5V inputs. (Design Notes: Advertisement).(Advertisement)
July 21, 2003... Design Note 311 Introduction FPGAs often require multiple power supplies: one for the core voltage (usually 1.8V, but sometimes as low as 1.2V) and at least one more for the I/O circuitry (often 2.5V). The available input supply is...

L-C transformer cuts cost and size, adds low-pass filtering. (Design Briefs: Innovative Designs from Readers).
July 21, 2003... L-C equivalents of microwave quarter-wave transformers provide cost savings, miniaturization, and supplementary low-pass filtering. Typically, these transformers have been synthesized directly with published design tables. (1,2) But the circuit...

Analog pink-noise source drives earphones or speakers. (Design Briefs: Innovative Designs from Readers).
July 21, 2003... Acoustic white noise is useful as a masking sound to improve privacy in offices, or as a soothing sound field to help concentration and sleep. It has also been said to aid in therapy for people suffering from tinnitus (ringing in the ears)....

Power management: high performance analog solutions from linear technology. (Advertisement).(Linear Technology LTC4054)(Advertisement)
July 21, 2003... Complete Monolithic 800mA Linear Li-Ion Battery Charger Fits in ThinSOT Package The LTC [R] 4054 is a single-cell linear Li-Ion battery charger with onboard charge termination circuitry and power transistor housed in a 5-lead, 1mm high...

Low-cost tester targets 200-pin SO-DIMM DDR memories. (New Products: Test & Measurement).(from Innoventions)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... * A new low-price converter allows for affordable testing of new 200-pin double-data-rate (DDR) small-outline, dual-Inline memory modules (SODIMMs). The converter works with the company's Ramcheck Plus and Ramcheck DDR Only memory testers. The...

Connectoriess logic analyzer probes reduce capacitive loading by 80%. (New Products: Test & Measurement).(Agilent Technologies E5394A)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... * The E5394A soft-touch connectorless touch probes offer very low electrical loading for the company's logic analyzers. They require no adapter and reduce capacitive loading by 80% compared with other connectorless solutions. Each probe's...

Powerful microwave synthesizer offers intuitive user interface. (New Products: Test & Measurement).(Giga-Tronics 2400 series)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... * The 2400 series microwave synthesizer features a simplified yet robust and innovative user interface, It limits the front-panel interface to the control of basic parameters to reduce the total number of soft screens, buttons, and menu layers...

Novel instrument measures environmental electrocompatibllity. (New Products: Test & Measurement).(Rohde & Schwarz TS-EMF)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2003... * Small enough to fit into a knapsack, the TSEMF instrument accurately measures electromagnetic compatibility. It consists of a powerful portable spectrum analyzer, an isotropic sensor, and measurement and analysis software for short-term and...