Electronic Design articles from May 2004

Electronic Design archives from May 2004

Getting the lead out.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)(Intel to begin shipping lead-free technology)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... Consumer electronics contribute a significant portion of the lead found in landfills, potentially contaminating drinking water supplies and having other toxic effects on the environment. Intel will eliminate about 95% of the lead used in its...

NCSP releases four-point plan to secure cyberspace.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... As hackers get smarter, software security professionals must enhance their methods to stay one step ahead. Fortunately, they don't have to work alone. The National Cyber Security Partnership released a report that recommends four key steps in...

Solar cells get a thicker skin.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... Outer space can be a pretty tough environment, calling for just as tough solar cells. Hybrid Plastics, Auburn University, and Entech Inc. have teamed under a NASA Glenn Research Center program to develop protective coatings for next-generation...

PlanetEE.com.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
May 10, 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...

Magazines.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
May 10, 2004... Access the Web sites of four leading publications in the EOEM community: Electronic Design EE Product News Microwaves & RF Wireless Systems Design

E-Newsletters.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
May 10, 2004... Sign up for some the industry's best e-newsletters focusing on EE design news, products, tips, and strategies: Electronic Design UPDATE EEPN Products of the Week EDA Alert Wireless Systems Design UPDATE Microwaves & RF...

Automation can neutralize the lure of going offshore: outsourcing is a topic on everyone's mind. Even at a recent IBM media day that focused on software, attendees raised the question of whether IBM's products are easing the way for outsourcing.(Editorial)(Editorial)
May 10, 2004... In response, IBM's vice president, Steve Mills, allowed that IBM's middleware (software that parses and standardizes data for inter-application integration) does facilitate the "virtualization" of the business process, which can facilitate...

What's all this cruise control stuff, anyhow?(Pease Porridge)
May 10, 2004... This circuit has to go in my car, be reasonably compact and neat, and have trim pots that are usable when driving--not by a screwdriver. So it took a while for me to find the time to lay it out right and make it easy to control. Yes, one...

Moore versus Murphy: how 90 nm affects innovation.(POV: point of view)
May 10, 2004... The semiconductor industry is just now recovering from its worst economic downturn in its history. Yet, companies will scarcely have a chance to catch their breaths before facing a new "crisis of complexity" at 90 nm. This crisis could be a far...

Future engineers brace for battle of the robots.(Robotics)
May 10, 2004... What happens when you throw together a motor, sensors, shafts, bearings, and a multichannel radio control system containing a 12-V battery power supply with a team of high-school students? Fun, learning, and competition. That's the premise...

High-performance 14-bit DAC zips along at 1.2 Gsamples/s.(Techview: analog & power)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... The AD9736 14-bit, 0.18-[micro]m CMOS current-output digital-to-analog converter (DAC) breaks the 1-Gsample/s barrier with a 1.2-Gsample/s rate at a 316-MHz output. And, it does so without compromising performance and at a low power dissipation...

24-bit IC delivers total, precision data acquisition.(Techview: analog & power)
May 10, 2004... BY INTEGRATING ANALOG AND DIGITAL CORES on the same piece of silicon, the Burr-Brown Division of Texas Instruments created a low-cost and high-performance precision data-acquisition system-on-a-chip. The MSC1200 delivers performance levels for...

Web-ready UPS system fits applications to 800 kVA.(Techview: analog & power)
May 10, 2004... True digital power quality (DPQ) for enterprise applications in models from 555 to 800 kVA can be achieved with the EPS8000 uninterruptible-power-supply (UPS) system from MGE. Combined with MGE's data-grade input filter, the system's DPQ...

"10 Gbits/s over UTP? Gimme a break!".(TechView: communications)(Editorial)
May 10, 2004... That's basically what I said to Ron Cates, vice president of marketing at SolarFlare Communications, when he announced that his company had successfully demonstrated 10 Gbits/s over CAT5e UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cable. With all that...

Comm techniques yield all-digital high-power audio amp.(TechView: communications)
May 10, 2004... VIRTUALLY EVERY ELECTRONIC PRODUCT today is digital, including products in the once all-analog domain of communications. Audio power amplification is about the last thing to be digitized. And thanks to communications techniques, D2Audio has...

Silicon-germanium amplifiers boost 3G WCDMA and 802.11a radios.(TechView: communications)
May 10, 2004... Making an integrated power amplifier for microwave radio has never been easy. In the past, most manufacturers settled on gallium-arsenide (GaAs) amplifiers to wring out the most performance. But their high cost keeps the bill of materials (BOM)...

Standardized D Cell ultracapacitor promises lower costs.(TechView: components & test)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... Ultracapacitor technology steps forward with the D Cell Boostcap (DCAP series). Based on industry-standard D cell battery dimensions, it is 61.5 mm long and has an outside diameter of 33 mm, as per the EN60086-2 and EN60285 battery standards....

Light-to-frequency converter offers high sensitivity, low noise.(TechView: components & test)
May 10, 2004... ABLE TO SENSE ULTRA-LOW LIGHT LEVELS UNDETECTABLE by most silicon-based sensors, the TAOS TSL237R light-to-frequency converter with a 5,000,000:1 dynamic range combines enhanced sensitivity with low dark-signal levels. This device senses...

12-bit PCI digitizer cards make data acquisition affordable.(TechView: components & test)
May 10, 2004... Low-cost data acquisition is now available from two new two-channel ATS1250/1220 12-bit PCI digitizer cards at 50/20 Msamples/s. Priced at $1795 and $1295, respectively, the cards include 128 kbytes per channel. Larger versions are available up...

Instruction-set extensions let CPU accelerate key operations.(TechView: digital)(Stretch Inc)
May 10, 2004... By integrating configurable logic into the datapath of a high-performance processor, designers at Stretch Inc. have crafted a CPU that combines a fixed instruction set and a way to create highly optimized custom instructions in hardware. ...

Native PCI-Express boosts graphics bandwidth.(TechView: digital)
May 10, 2004... The GammaChrome high-performance 3D graphics accelerators from S3 Graphics incorporate a 16-channel native PCI-Express host interface that delivers an aggregate data transfer rate of 8 Gbytes/s between the host system and the graphics...

Full-system modeling tool behaves like an emulator.(TechView: EDA)
May 10, 2004... All too often within the SoC world, system design isn't exactly... system design. Software and hardware design often come together too late to overcome problems. But some tools help meld the two earlier in the cycle. Tenison EDA's newly...

The first 65-NM X architecture text chip has been produced at Applied Material's Maydan Technology Center in Sunnyvale, Calif.(EDA News)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... THE FIRST 65-NM X ARCHITECTURE has been produced at Applied Material's Maydan Technology Center in Sunnyvale, Calif. Applied Materials leveraged its wafer fabrication equipment and design tools and expertise from Cadence. The X architecture...

Startup elevates SoC synthesis.(TechView: EDA)
May 10, 2004... For some SoC hardware designers, the use of algorithmic expression to define a system In behavioral terms may enable faster simulation. But it also can obscure significant details, such as how much pipelining is contained within the system. ...

[+ or -] 1[degrees]C remote diode temperature sensors with PWM fan control and 5 GPIOs.(Featured products)(Advertisement)
May 10, 2004... The LM63/64 are remote diode temperature sensors with PWM fan control. The LM63 is a remote diode temperature sensor with integrated fan control. Both devices accurately measure their own temperature and the temperature of a diode-connected...

Low-voltage, 45 MHz, rail-to-rail output operational amplifiers with shutdown option.(Featured products)(Advertisement)
May 10, 2004... The LMV116 (single) rail-to-rail output voltage feedback amplifiers offer high speed (45 MHz), and low-voltage operation (2.7V) in addition to micro-power shutdown capability (LMV118). Output voltage range extends to within 20 mV of either...

Protecting your system with silicon temperature sensors.(Design ideas)
May 10, 2004... Two facts in building electronic systems force system designers to think more about the temperature budget. One chief driver is that cost and size of the PCB and enclosures have to be reduced, resulting in less air flow to cool...

Dual and single 12-bit, 66 Msps, 450 MHz input bandwidth A/D converters.(New products)(Advertisement)
May 10, 2004... The ADC12DL066 (dual) and the ADC12L066 (monolithic) are low-power CMOS ADCs capable of converting analog input signals into 12-bit digital words at 66 Megasamples per second (Msps), minimum. These ADCs use a differential, pipeline architecture...

150 mA ultra-low quiescent current LDO regulator with delayed reset output.(New products)(Advertisement)
May 10, 2004... The LM9076 is a 5V, [+ or -] 2%, 150 mA logic-controlled voltage regulator. The regulator features an active low delayed reset output flag which can be used to reset a microprocessor system at turn-ON and in the event that the regulator input...

3-Channel 25W audio power amplifier with mute and standby for consumer electronics.(New products)(Advertisement)
May 10, 2004... The LM4782 Overture[R] completes the LM478x product line as a three-channel audio amplifier capable of typically delivering 25W per channel of continuous average output power into an 8 load (with less than 0.5% THD+N from 20 Hz to 20 kHz). The...

Trimmable analog IP blocks come fully armed with power management: innovative laser-trimming technology for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi SoCs brings total on-chip power management.(Leapfrog: first look)
May 10, 2004... A new weapon in the arsenal for designers of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (802.11) system-on-a-chip (SoC) ICs provides low-cost, ultra-accurate trimming of nearly all power-management circuits. By leveraging its know-how in accurately laser-trimming...

An easier path to RTL for DSP algorithms.(Leapfrog: first look)
May 10, 2004... Why are so many designers turning to FPGA implementation for DSP designs? Considering the price/performance ratio for today's high-end FPGAs, not to mention the large numbers of DSP blocks and multipliers already included on these devices, it's...

Outsourcing: how safe is your job?(Cover story: engineering feature)
May 10, 2004... DECISIONS TO SHIP HIGH-TECH JOBS OFFSHORE HAVE BECOME MORE THE NORM IN EXECUTIVE BOARDROOMS ACROSS THE U.S. The ensuing fallout is telling: The unemployment rate for American EEs reached an all-time high of 6.2% in 2003 versus 4.2% in 2002-a...

If it goes away, it may not return.(Embedded In Electronic Design)
May 10, 2004... System developers are well aware of how hard it is to find a needle in a haystack, which is why tracing tools have become so important. Catching the symptom of a problem is often done best via a trace tool. Hardware trace features were first...

VME Bus Analyzer board plugs in the Bus.(News)
May 10, 2004... VMetro's Vanguard VME Bus Analyzer includes a 2-Msample trace buffer and a 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet interface. The analyzer supports VME, VME64, 2eVME, and 2eSST. A multilevel trace viewer is part of the software package. It handles state and...

x86 MB fits in tight spots.(News)
May 10, 2004... The EPIA N-Series Nano-ITX motherboard series measures only 12 cm on a side. It's powered by a 1-GHz VIA Eden-N processor with a VT8237 South Bridge that supports Serial ATA, Parallel ATA-133, USB 2.0, on-board local-area network (LAN), and...

Emulator delivers TriCore MMU debug support.(News)
May 10, 2004... The Tanto for TriCore with MMU support from HITex Development Tools handles the latest TC11xx and TC19xx MCUs from Infineon Technologies. The Tanto TriCore system consists of the universal Tanto Base module and a TriCore-specific Port Link...

EPIC fills PC/104 board gap: SBC form factor finds a happy medium between PC/104 and EBX.(SBC Series)
May 10, 2004... PC/104 is too small and EBX is too big, but the new EPIC (Embedded Platform for Industrial Computing) is just right, or so says the founding group of five vendors that includes Ampro, Micro/sys, Octagon, VersaLogic, and WinSystems. EPIC...

EPIC is ready for networking.(Epic Boards)
May 10, 2004... The ReadyBoard 550 and 700 target both ends of the performance spectrum, each with a pair of 10/100BaseT Ethernet ports. The 550 supports a 300-MHz to 1-GHz Eden processor. The 700 handles up to a 933-MHz Pentium III. Both support 1 Gbyte of...

EPIC goes global.(EPIC Boards)
May 10, 2004... Support for GPS or Global Positioning System, wireless, and analog data acquisition can be found in the SBC4495. It has a 14-bit, eight-channel analog-to-digital converter and digital-to- analog converter. The on-board GPS can synchronize...

Flashy choices for EPIC storage.(EPIC Boards)
May 10, 2004... WinSystems' SBC-C3 is powered by a Via Eden 733-MHz P3-compatible processor. It features four serial ports, 10/100BaseT Ethernet, USB 2.0, 3D video with LVDS support, 24 parallel I/0 lines, AC'97 audio, floppy, EIDE, and PS/2 keyboard and mouse...

EPIC For Mil spec spots.(EPIC Boards)
May 10, 2004... Designed for rugged environments, Octagon Systems' XE-800 operates over a -40[degrees]C to 75[degrees]C temperature range. It employs a low-power, 300-MHz AMD Geode GX1 CPU with up to 256 Mbytes of SDRAM. Peripheral support includes two IDEs,...

Power packed EPIC for high-end applications.(EPIC Boards)
May 10, 2004... VersaLogic's Cobra fills the tiny SBC with lots of memory and processing power. A 1-Mbyte level 2 cache and 2 Gbytes of double-data-rate SODIMMs are integrated in the Cobra, which features a 1.6-GHz Pentium M. It has 32 digital lines, and the...

Modules deliver smart memory: two diverse memory modules integrate flash into new environments.(Embedded Memory Series)
May 10, 2004... Flash memory is the dominant nonvolatile storage for embedded applications. Often, though, it's simply a bank of memory that requires a custom interface providing only storage support. PQI and M-Systems offer two very different intelligent...

PC/104 SBC gets analog data.(News)
May 10, 2004... The Athena HRC104 PC/104 single-beard computer (SBC) from Diamond Systems couples a low-power, 660-MHz Via Eden x86-compatible processor with a data-acquisition controller that sports a 16-channel, 16-bit analog-to-digital converter and...

Toolset targets StarCore TC1130.(News)
May 10, 2004... Toolset support for Infineon's new TC1130 StarCore-based, 32-bit MCU comes by way of Altium's Tasking TriCore VX-toolset. Included is the Embedded Development Environment (EDE), CrossView Pro debugger, assembler, and the Tasking C/C++/EC++...

MCU bridges USB and Ethernet.(News)
May 10, 2004... The 77.4-MHz 32-bit LH79524 and 16/32-bit LH79525 ARM720T-based microcontrollers (MCUs) represent Sharp Microelectronics' latest BlueStreak systems-on-a-chip. The flash-based MCUs support a touchscreen controller and a programmable LCD...

Software speeds layer 4 dynamic Ethernet switches.(News)
May 10, 2004... Soup-to-nuts functionality for dynamic stacking Ethernet switches supporting layers 2, 3, and 4+ comes via LVL7 Systems' FastPath 4000 platform, it supports single IP address management for an entire switch stack. FastPath 4000 incorporates...

Connect PCI Express subsystems with advanced switching fabrics.(Software)
May 10, 2004... Current parallel backplane technologies are rapidly being replaced with advanced serial-I/O-based solutions. Two such open standards include PCI Express Base and Advanced Switching (AS). These new technologies recognize the prevalence and...

RFI-free ringer generator works off single 5-V supply.(Innovative Designs from Readers)
May 10, 2004... A simple yet effective circuit to generate a POTS-compatible ringing voltage can be made from National Semiconductor's LM4871 audio-amplifier IC and a dozen passive components (see the figure). This circuit delivers 1 W of sinewave output at...

D-type flip-flop synchronizes multiplexer data.(Innovative Designs From Readers)
May 10, 2004... Multiplexers are widely used in communication systems to convert parallel signals into serial signals. The multiplexer takes a high-frequency clock as the system input clock (Clk_in) that's synchronized with the serial output data. A...

Connectors and sockets.(Component Specifier)(Buyers Guide)
May 10, 2004... CONNECTORS AND SOCKETS ED Online 7972 TYPE/Model Features CONNECTORS ELASTOMERIC Gold STAX elastomeric connectors for board-to- Gold STAX ...

UL-approved shoulder feedthrough capacitors withstand 250 V ac.(... Components)
May 10, 2004... The 2470-500/501 all-ceramic shoulder feedthrough capacitors offer high, direct withstanding voltages at 25[degrees]C of 2121 V dc (500) and 1500 V ac (-501) and are Uk-approved They're designed to withstand up to 250 V ac at 85[degrees]C with...

Dual-rate VCXO replaces two VCXOs for SONET/SDH uses.(... Components)
May 10, 2004... Typically, two VCXOs are needed to switch from an operating frequency to a forward-error-correction rate. Now it can be done in one step with the 7311Q 622.08-MHz series of dual-rate voltage-controlled crystal oscillators (VCXOs) for SONET and...

Button-sized capacitor fits into coin-sized 2325 battery holder.(... Components)
May 10, 2004... A new tantalum hybrid capacitor fits conveniently in a standard coin-sized 2325 single-cell battery holder. Rated at 1800 [micro]F (50 V), it features a diameter of 2.5 mm and weighs only 8 g. It's made by combining a sintered-pellet positive...

Flat-panel display monitors target kiosk/industrial applications.(... Components)
May 10, 2004... A novel family of off-the-shelf standard flat-panel display monitors has its sights set on space-constrained applications like kiosks, process control, industrial automation, human-machine interfaces, security monitoring, and clean-room...

Sensor system performs accurate 2D measurements in a single procedure.(... Components)
May 10, 2004... * The Z500 laser-measurement sensor is unusual in that it combines a wide-beam laser (4 to 45 mm in width, depending on the model) with a 2D charge-coupled capacitor to conduct highly accurate 2D measurements in a single procedure. It uses a...

Low-voltage PECL clocks deliver frequencies from 77 to 330 MHz.(... Components)
May 10, 2004... * Available in crystal oscillator (CCPD-033/034) and voltage-controlled crystal-oscillator (CVPD-034) configurations, a series of low-voltage PECL clock generators offers clock frequencies ranging from 77 to 330 MHz. The outputs, which are...

Crystals and oscillators meet TI's 1394b FireWire specification.(... Components)
May 10, 2004... * A range of new crystals and crystal oscillators supports Texas Instruments' 1394b FireWire products, such as the TI TSB41BA3 device. The crystals and crystal oscillators have a fundamental frequency of 49.152 MHz and operate at 1.8 V. They...

Dual-axis MEMS accelerometers in tiny cases suit consumer uses.(... Components)
May 10, 2004... * The ADXL320/321 family of +0.5-g iMEMS accelerometers are dual-axis units housed in thin 4- by 4- by 1.45-mm plastic lead-frame chip-scale packages (LFCSPs). Featuring signal-conditioned outputs, the devices are aimed at demanding consumer...

Evaluation kit eases analysis of protocol acceleration performance.(... Communications)
May 10, 2004... * Quick and easy evaluation of SuperHBA protocol accelerator functionality and performance is possible thanks to the SuperHBA evaluation kit. As a result, it's simpler to integrate the entire family of accelerators. Included in the kit is a...

Telephone/telecom test kit offers cords for all situations.(... Communications)
May 10, 2004... * Whenever testing a telecommunications system, the right cord never seems to be at hand. To alleviate that problem, a new test kit provides a selection of 13 test lead cords for all standard telephone systems, data- and voice-transmission test...

Sound-source ICs give phones cd-quality ring tone audio.(... Communications)
May 10, 2004... * By reproducing sounds in 64 tones at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, two sound-source ICs bring true acoustics to cellular-phone ring tones. The BU8709KN and BU8899GU sound-source ICs use a PCM sound generator to deliver a murtilayered sonic...

Protocol accelerator gives a boost to network performance.(... Communications)
May 10, 2004... * Seamless access to iSCSI storage at gigabit speeds is the moniker of the DPA1400 accelerator. The DirectPath evaluation kit combines the DPA-1400 accelerator, drivers, and software tools to run the PCI-X card through its paces. Based on the...

On-The-Go USB 2.0 core delivers master and slave capabilities.(... Communications)
May 10, 2004... * Implementing the On-the-Go supplement to the USB 2.0 specification, the USB OTG core features a USB port that can serve as either a master or a slave when connected to another USB device. The core includes special hardware to handle the host...

Network access solution combines IP router, VPN, firewall, and more.(... Communications)
May 10, 2004... * An all-in-one platform combines a 24-port, managed Ethernet switch with a full-featured IP access router (with a modular wide-area network interface), a stateful inspection firewall, and optional VPN and dial backup capabilities. The NetVanta...

Audio/touch-panel codec spares power but not functions.(... Communications)
May 10, 2004... * The WM9713L, a dual codec for mobile communications applications, includes a voice codec to manage phone conversations in addition to a touch-panel codec. The device can control a four-or five-wire touch-screen panel. It provides on-chip...

SPI bridge processors link PCI/PCI-X with SPI3 Or SPI4.2.(... Communications)
May 10, 2004... * The Golden Gate family of serial peripheral interface bridge processors provides a means to connect PCI and PCI-X buses to the SPI3 and SPI4.2 high-speed serial network interfaces. The processors offer rich packet manipulation capabilities in...

Multichip NOR flash module packs 64 Mbytes of configurable storage.(... Digital ICS/DSP)
May 10, 2004... * Housed in a 13- by 22-mm, 159-contact, plastic BGA package, the W78M4V-XSBX flash-memory component provides 64 Mbytes of storage. That storage can be configured as either 8 Mwords by 64 bits, two banks of 8 Mwords by 32 bits, or four banks of...

Flash-memory family delivers densities from 16 to 256 Mbits.(... Digital ICS/DSP)
May 10, 2004... * The complete Spansion S29AL/GLxxxM flash-memory family was developed, manufactured, and produced entirely by FASL LLC. All chips in the family are based on the MirrorBit memory-cell technology employed by Advanced Micro Devices in its...

High-density DDR memory DIMMs bring up to 4 Gbytes At 266 MHz.(... Digital ICS/DSP)
May 10, 2004... * A family of high-density memory DIMMs based on DDR memories comes with capacities of 1, 2, and 4 Gbytes, all with a speed grade of 266 MHz. The modules are based on a 2-in.-high format that allows the use of standard DDR DRAMs by using...

Power supply keeps the bubbles going.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
May 24, 2004... Sure, that hot tub with the built-in stereo system and surroundsound speakers is great after a long day at the workstation. But how does this slice of paradise get its power? Try the R1005. This single 12-V output power supply from Radius Power...

The Internet wants you!(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
May 24, 2004... Don't sit there and complain about bottlenecks on the Internet. Do something about them! Georgia Tech's NETI@home project needs volunteers. Typically, industry experts and academicians measure performance from data taken at routers...

PlanetEE.com.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
May 24, 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...

Diamonds are a superconductor's best friend.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
May 24, 2004... Researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences and Los Alamos National Laboratory lay claim to the discovery of superconductivity at ultracold temperatures in cubic diamond. This development could lead to a new generation of diamond-based...

USB connectivity lays broad foundation for growth.(Editorial)(Editorial)
May 24, 2004... It seemed like a flashback to the days of "irrational exuberance" when I attended the Nasdaq opening ceremonies in Times Square recently. Perhaps it was the palpable hype surrounding the imminent Google IPO or the seemingly unstoppable flow of...

Bob's mailbox.(Pease Porridge)(Letter to the Editor)
May 24, 2004... Dear Bob: I really enjoyed your piece (and your articles in general) on Analog PowerPoint. * It gave me a chuckle and reminded me of my own experience. I was invited to speak at the TAPR conference about CIRCAD (a CAD program). Before I could...

Design for manufacturing must move up in the IC flow.(POV: point of view)
May 24, 2004... As long as there has been a semiconductor industry, each new generation of chips has been characterized by a drive for finer features. This drive has brought increased integration, enhanced functionality, density-improving optimizations, and...

Full-system simulator creates virtual test labs.(Electronic Design Automation)
May 24, 2004... Designers usually consider simulation at the functional-block level, and more in the context of system-on-a-or ASIC design. But large companies are beginning to find value in a new generation of full-system simulators that "virtualize" entire...

Sorting out Wi-Fi standards in Broadband modems.(Wireless Communications)
May 24, 2004... It's well on its way to conquering mobile PCs. It already has made significant noise in the markets for mobile handsets and desktop and handheld computers. So, what's next for Wi-Fi? Cable/ADSL modems represent a new frontier for the wildly...

Power-management ICs enhance OLEDs, white LED backlighting.(Analog & Power)
May 24, 2004... An organic LED (OLED) dc-dc converter IC and a white LED charge pump enhance OLEDs and white LED backlighting while providing flexible power control and efficiency. Developed by Texas Instruments, the TS65130 OLED driver boasts adjustable...

Efficient PWM controller IC bound for notebook computers.(Analog & Power)
May 24, 2004... Designers of notebooks and other battery-powered applications on the hunt for ways to simplify design, reduce component count, and lower overall cost should look at a novel pulse-width-modulated (PWM) controller. Among other features, the...

Broad IP provider adds free mixed-signal/analog portfolio.(Analog & Power)
May 24, 2004... Known as a provider of digital IP blocks, Artisan Components now offers a portfolio of mixed-signal and analog intellectual-property (IP) blocks within its Access Library Program. The new IP blocks are available to designers free of charge....

Platform simplifies hands-free kits for cell phones.(Communications)
May 24, 2004... When you're on the road, think twice before you make or take that call. Already, 43 states restrict the use of cell phones while driving. Over 90% of Europe and dozens of other countries have even more severe restrictions, including complete...