Electronic Design articles from May 2005

Electronic Design archives from May 2005

A closer look at video signals.(WHAT'S HAPPENING @ elecdesign.com: Keeping the EE community connected)
May 12, 2005... Nowadays there are numerous standards for the digital video signals widely used in such products as game players and cell phones. Tough design questions arise, however, because those digital signals must be dealt with in an analog domain. Get...

Get the lowdown on IP.(WHAT'S HAPPENING @ elecdesign.com: Keeping the EE community connected)
May 12, 2005... Do you have an innovative concept for an invention that you would like to build your business around? Then you must take several key steps to protect your intellectual property (IP). Brad Thomas, founder and president of ip help IIc, provides...

Time for Smalltalk?(EiED Online)
May 12, 2005... Smalltalk was one of the first object-oriented programming (OOP) languages, and it brought an interactive development environment to the masses. It had a host of target audiences, from children to robotics. And, there is still a very act we...

eBook: RoHS compliance.(WHAT'S UP?)
May 12, 2005... The European Union, as well as Japan and China, are about to restrict the use of environmentally hazardous materials in electronic components and systems through the Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. This will have a huge...

Polling.(WHAT'S HAPPENING @ elecdesign.com: Keeping the EE community connected)(Linux)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2005... Are you currently using the Linux operating system on your PC or server? 36% Yes, my computer currently runs Linux 24% I'm experimenting with it 31% No, but I'm thinking about it 9% I would...

What's cool.(WHAT'S HAPPENING @ elecdesign.com: Keeping the EE community connected)
May 12, 2005... From the Top 20 Articles on ED Online: 1 What's All This "Woman Scientist" Stuff, Anyhow? ED Online 10055 2 Yes, Engineering Is A Woman's Job ED Online 10117 3 Basic Circuit Supplies Stepper-Motor Timing ED Online 5842 4 EiED...

Real-time Motion-e capture makes dance a digital art.(EDITORIAL)(Editorial)
May 12, 2005... As many of you know first hand, integrating the digital and analog realms is a real work of art! It's also, literally, a new art form. I had a chance to experience the premiere of Motion-e, a dance/motion-capture fusion. Motion-e uses real-time...

What's all this nap stuff, anyhow?(PEASE PORRIDGE)(Column)
May 12, 2005... I like to sleep. I like to wake up. But I don't like to wake up at 1:40 a.m. and not be able to get back to sleep for a few hours. Two o'clock, 3, 4... and this lying in bed is not restful. Finally I may get back to sleep at 5 and when I wake...

Math still matters in electronic design.(POV: POINT OF VIEW)
May 12, 2005... In a world full of automated design tools, do we need to worry about the mathematical details in our models? As engineers, the notion of "doing the math" often conjures anxious memories of pulling "all-nighters" at university, solving...

Land of the rising sun--and technologies--hosts VLSI symposia.(TechView)
May 12, 2005... The IEEE 2005 Symposium on VLSI Technology will celebrate its 25th anniversary June 14-16 in Kyoto, Japan. But don't let its age fool you. This conference will highlight cutting-edge CMOS front-end to back-end processes that use features...

Dc-dc converters to reach $7.8 billion in 2008.(TechView)
May 12, 2005... If you're looking for a powerful market, check out dc-dc converters. According to a study by Venture Development Corp., the global merchant market for dc-dc devices tallied $5.5 billion in 2004. On top of that, the field is going to hit $7.8...

Industry barometer.(TechView)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2005... INDUSTRY BAROMETER What is your personal outlook for design projects in the next quarter? Q1 2005 Q4 2004 Concerned about slow down/ layoffs 43% 28% Fewer...

Fast 14- & 16-bit ADCs for comm & instrument apps.(TechView: ANALOG & POWER)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 12, 2005... The multicarrier, multimode receivers in next-generation cellular infrastructure equipment will need analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with higher spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This is to help deal with...

Active ORing gains traction.(TechView: ANALOG & POWER)
May 12, 2005... The first active-OR controller was introduced last year. Now there are two, and the price has been squeezed down so a controller and MOSFET cost about the same as passive ORing with Schottkys. It has been customary to use multiple ac-dc...

Test live or recorded compressed video faster.(TechView: TEST & MEASUREMENT)
May 12, 2005... Video compression standards are becoming more complex, even as time-to-market pressures increase. An answer to this dilemma is the MTS400 series Compressed Video Test System, which lets users automatically monitor, analyze, and debug both live...

Built-in processor makes source-measure units speedsters.(TechView: TEST & MEASUREMENT)
May 12, 2005... THE SERIES 2600 SYSTEM SOURCEMETER INSTRUMENTS are modular, scalable devices for building automatic test equipment (ATE) systems and making precision dc, pulse, and low-frequency ac source-measure tests. Developed by Keithley Instruments, the...

Flexibility is key in vector network generator/BER analyzer.(TechView: TEST & MEASUREMENT)
May 12, 2005... As wireless system standards proliferate, test equipment must become more flexible. The MG3700A vector network generator fills the bill by incorporating a fast baseband arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) with a large signal memory, as well as a...

Digital PLL cuts the jitter in Sonet/SDH networks.(TechView: COMMUNICATIONS)
May 12, 2005... The ballooning amount of Sonet/SDH optical network applications made Silicon Laboratories quick to act. Its Si5318 clock multiplier, targeted at 0C-48/STM-16 speed-level systems (2.488 Gbits/s), should also find use in systems that employ...

Clock generation gets redundancy and reduced skew.(TechView: COMMUNICATIONS)
May 12, 2005... As clock speeds increase with each generation, it gets tougher to produce a clean clock that can be distributed with minimum skew to multiple circuits. But Exar's Intelligent Dynamic Clock Switch (IDCS) line of clock-driver ICs makes clock...

Revamped CPU family delivers topnotch throughput.(TechView: DIGITAL)
May 12, 2005... Aspate of recent CPU releases from Advanced Micro Devices offers designers higher-performance options for servers, workstations, and portable systems. The Opteron model 248 HE from AMD keeps the power drain to just 55 W while running at...

Flash-based FPGAS keep costs down, performance high.(TechView: DIGITAL)
May 12, 2005... HOW DO YOU GET LOW-COST NONVOLATILE BUT RECONFIGURABLE FPGAs based on a 0.13-[micro] m flash process? Easy. Lattice Semiconductor used the programmable-logic fabric developed for its EC family of SRAM-based FPGAs to craft the LatticeXP...

Yield-modeling platform readies ICS for tapeout.(TechView: EDA)
May 12, 2005... IC yields are becoming much more limited by process technology than by the IC designs themselves. And with each process generation, optimal yields have fallen progressively lower. Some experts expect that, without intervention, yields at 65 nm...

A node-highlighting function.(EDA ROUNDUP)
May 12, 2005... A NODE-HIGHLIGHTING FUNCTION is among the new features in L-Edit v11.1, Tanner EDA's analog/mixed signal design platform. This function lets users display all of the geometry connected to a node in a circuit layout, regardless of hierarchy....

Transistor-level debugging.(EDA ROUNDUP)
May 12, 2005... TRANSISTOR-LEVEL DEBUGGING is made easier in the Cadence Virtuoso schematic-editor environment by a product from Concept Engineering. An option to Concept's SpiceVision Pro, the product automatically generates schematic fragments--critical...

Equivalence checker handles sequential logic.(TechView: EDA)
May 12, 2005... For electronic system-level (ESL) methodologies to come to fruition, designers need to be able to nimbly move between levels of abstraction, especially when it comes to sequential logic. Design is done on a continuum that ranges from...

Frequently asked questions: light sensors.(DESIGN FAQs)
May 12, 2005... What are the most common types of light sensors? Two of the most common light sensors are phototransistors and positive-intrinsic-negative (pin) photodiodes. Both generate signals that vary with ambient incident light levels and are most...

Simple solutions for eye-pleasing displays.(PRODUCT Q&As)(Advertisement)
May 12, 2005... Are PIN photodiodes suitable for accurate and low-cost automatic brightness control applications? The latest series of visible light sensors from Microsemi--the LX1970[TM], LX1971[TM], and LX1972[TM]--represents a new class of IC detectors...

Accelerometer offers economical low-G sensing: designed for consumer portable handhelds, this tri-axis device gets low in all the right places: footprint, cost, and power dissipation.(LEAPFROG: FIRST LOOK: PUTTING NEW TECHNOLOGY IN PERSPECTIVE)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 12, 2005... Portable handheld consumer electronics have proven successful market-wise for microelectromechanical-system (MEMS) sensors. This is particularly true for sensing low levels of gravity and protecting data in devices that fall and crash on the...

Applying instrumentation amplifiers effectively--the importance of an input ground return.(LEADING inside: A series of engineering insights by Analog Devices)(Advertisement)
May 12, 2005... One of the most common application problems that arises when using in-amp circuits is failure to provide a dc return path for the in-amp's input bias currents. This usually happens when the in-amp's inputs are capacitively coupled. The input...

Tag it! From the feed lot to the parking lot--is this the year of RFID?(ENGINEERING FEATURE: RADIO-FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION)(Cover Story)
May 12, 2005... Can we finally say that RFID is coming into its own? After decades of being tagged as "emerging," RFID is now generating lots of press. Driving its widespread adoption is a combination of technological developments and fresh new standards. ...

Advances give LEDs/OLEDs that extra twinkle: technology leaps in materials, packaging, thermal management, and processing push LED and OLED applications into unchartered territories.(TECHNOLOGY REPORT: LEDs/OLEDs)
May 12, 2005... Light-emitting diode (LED) technology is on a tear. Higher brightness levels, higher efficiencies, longer lifetimes, and decreasing costs have spun out from a barrage of advances in heat dissipation, packaging, and processing. LEDs made...

Single-chip networking.(EMBEDDED IN ELECTRONIC DESIGN)
May 12, 2005... Cutting the bill of materials (BOM) usually means trimming the number of chips and components. One may be "the loneliest number," but a single-chip solution is the goal of most designers--especially when it comes to networking. To that...

FPGA module networks soft processors.(EMBEDDED NEWS)
May 12, 2005... Compact networking packages are no longer limited to single-chip Ethernet-based MCUs, with the release of Memec's line of FPGA-based mini-modules. The 30- by 65.5-mm modules sport a Xilinx Virtex-4 with on-chip PowerPC cores or a Spartan-3 FPGA...

Single-chip network MCU handles java/DSP chores.(EMBEDDED NEWS)
May 12, 2005... The 177-MHz NS9360 MCU targets compact network applications. Digi's chip is based on the ARM 926EJ-S, the most powerful ARM-based processor core with DSP support. The core also has ARM Jazelle Java hardware acceleration. Standard interfaces...

Graphical toolkit offers Fast MCU customization.(NEWS: EMBEDDED IN ELECTRONIC DESIGN)
May 12, 2005... Graphical system design and simulation lean toward the expensive realm of high end tools like the MathWorks' Matlab or Unified Model Language (UML). Cypress Semiconductor's PSoC Express graphical design system targets the low end with its...

Tiny ARM packs a punch.(NEWS: EMBEDDED IN ELECTRONIC DESIGN)
May 12, 2005... At only 5 mm on a side (25 [mm.sup.2]), the extremely small wafer-level, chip-size package (WCSP) houses a 32-bit microcontroller. The plastic WCSP is robust enough to handle standard surface-mount processing. Using a layer of copper evenly...

Partition Hybrid Linux/RTOS-based systems.(DESIGN VIEW: Software)
May 12, 2005... Partitioning a multiprocessor system poses a challenge to embedded-systems architectural designers. This is particularly true in complex multifaceted systems that must provide both "hard" time-critical functionality and large-scale...

Simple power supply suits VoIP/PoE applications.(DESIGN BRIEFS: Innovative Designs from Readers)
May 12, 2005... Designing a power supply that meets the demands of Power over Ethernet (POE) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications can be challenging. The low component-count power supply depicted in the figure meets these specifications without...

Single supply yields 0- To 5-V Ramp.(DESIGN BRIEFS)
May 12, 2005... Using standard circuits and no auxiliary voltage generators (such as charge pumps or inductive dc-dc converters), it's difficult to build a precision, rail-to-rail ramp generator that operates on a single supply and resets to a well-defined...

New Multicap 8 schematic capture.(Product Alert)
May 12, 2005... Electronics Workbench announces Multicap 8 enhanced schematic capture. The new Multicap reduces schematic creation time and adds support for complex designs. Innovations such as modeless operation and auto-connect passives save time and...

Bud industries enclosure design tips handbook.(Product Alert)
May 12, 2005... This indispensable enclosure how-to reference guide summarizes important issues for packaging electronic systems and products, such as cooling, interconnects, finishes, typical dimensions and commonly used standards. For additional...

Boost power efficiency in 48V networking, telecommunications and high-end computing systems with new 100V and 40V DirectFET[TM] MOSFETs and full-bridge controller IC.(Product Alert)
May 12, 2005... International Rectifier's new DirectFET[TM] MOSFET and controller IC chip set enhances system-level performance in wide range, universal telecommunications input (36V to 75V) and 48V fixed input systems is designed for isolated or non-isolated...

MM5 Series modular power supply provides up to 1200W of power in a small footprint.(Product Alert)
May 12, 2005... The MM5 Series modular power system provides industry leading 8.7 watts of power per cubic inch of power density at very high efficiency of 80-87% at full load. The 5-slot MM5 Series provides 900/1200W output power in a compact package (2.5" x...

One-stop shopping simplifies Li-ion battery-system design.(POWER)
May 12, 2005... * The modular Intelligent Battery and Power System (IBPS) battery packs simplify the design of products that are powered by high-density lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. The modules control the charge and discharge cycles of an array of...

DAP software suits real-time apps with high channel counts.(TEST & MEASUREMENT)
May 12, 2005... * Version 1.5 of DAPstudio, the Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) Measurement Studio software, is especially useful for engineers who develop data-acquisition and control systems with a real-time component and with a high channel count. The...

IBA-based power solutions demand system-level protection.(ANALOG & POWER)
May 12, 2005... In many computing and communication applications, the intermediate bus architecture (IBA) with nonisolated point-of-load (niPOL) converters continues to displace conventional distributed and centralized power solutions. Key drivers of this...

What's happening @ elecdesign.com: keeping the EE community connected.
May 26, 2005... What To See At DAC Watch our free Design Automation Conference Showcast on Friday, June 10 at 2:00 p.m., ET. Top EDA industry analyst Gary Smith debuts his annual list of the hottest tools and technologies. Take a virtual tour of the...

Engineers help raise the bar for Homeland Security.(Editorial)
May 26, 2005... The U.S. government is spending billions to replace or alter much of the antiterrorism technology installed since Sept. 11, 2001, The New York Times has reported. A review of agency documents and interviews with government officials and...

Bob's mailbox.(PEASE PORRIDGE)(Column)
May 26, 2005... Dear Bob: I have an odd problem. Early British cars used an electromechanical vibrating regulator to supply -10 V to the gas gauge from the 12- to 14-V battery ("positive ground"). The current demand is low, probably 1 A would do. I have been,...

Java sounds the death knell for C++.(POV: POINT OF VIEW)
May 26, 2005... Since its release in 1983, C++ has gained a large following. In its time, C++ represented a natural upgrade path for projects that started with C but needed to migrate to a more disciplined language with improved abstraction and better...

IEEE salutes the hard-disk drive with a Milestone award.(TechView)
May 26, 2005... Consider the tiny hard-disk drive in your portable music player--not bad for a technology that's about to turn forty. The Magnetic Disk Heritage Center and the IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section agrees, and they're saluting the technology with a...

Density breakthrough makes hard drives more suitable for consumer applications.(TechView)(Brief Article)
May 26, 2005... Today's hard-disk drives (HDDs) face a technical chasm known as the superparamagnetic limit, tying them to maximum densities of 130 to 160 Gbits/in. (2) Beyond that, the magnetic energy holding the bits in place becomes equal to the disk...

Robots roll in Indianapolis.(Scope: Electronics at Work and at Play)
May 26, 2005... The droids came out to play at Star Wars Celebration 3, as the R2-D2 Builders Club showed off working models of R2-D2 from the Star Wars films at the Indianapolis Convention Center in April. While building a working R2-D2 isn't easy, the...

Custom lithium battery packs ease OEMs' safety anxieties.(TechView: ANALOG & POWER)
May 26, 2005... Lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries are nearly ubiquitous in portable applications. While catastrophic failures are rare, they can hurt people, grab headlines, and even put OEMs who use the batteries out of business. The SecuraPack line...

Electronic circuit breaker senses [R.sub.DS(ON)] voltage drops, eliminating sense resistor.(TechView: ANALOG & POWER)
May 26, 2005... Electronic circuit breakers typically rely on the drop across an external resistor to sense overcurrents. Instead, Linear Technology's LTC4213 senses the drop across the on-resistance ([R.sub.DS(ON)]) in the external MOSFET that provides power...

No-memory jukebox-LED driver begs for creative applications.(TechView: ANALOG & POWER)
May 26, 2005... Colored LEDS can flash in time with music, line-audio, and ringtones in cellular telephones with the LM4970 and very few external components. What can you do with a chip that mixes three audio inputs, filters that audio into three...

Dual-core CPUs raise the system-throughput bar.(TechView: DIGITAL)
May 26, 2005... High-performance servers and other high-throughput systems (such as those used by high-end gamers) can look forward to Advanced Micro Devices' and Intel's performance-boosting, dual-core processor families. In addition to their throughput...

Enhanced core plus new features equals video-optimized DSP.(TechView: DIGITAL)(Texas Instruments C6455; digital signal processor)(Brief Article)
May 26, 2005... Improved execution efficiency and code storage density--thanks to an enhanced instruction-set architecture--catapults the TMS320C6455 DSP to a 20% average throughput upgrade over its predecessor, the C6415 DSP. The greater performance ushers in...

Incremental compilation comes to FPGA design.(TechView: EDA)
May 26, 2005... Today's FPGAs are large--really large. The largest are closing in on 200,000 logic elements and include features like memories, analog phase-locked loops, transceivers, and more. Yet that complexity cuts two ways. It lets FPGAs compete with...

Predictive verification finds bugs earlier.(TechView: EDA)(Atrenta's 1Team: Verify; electronic design automation)(Brief Article)
May 26, 2005... Assertion-based verification has arrived, and tool flows are emerging to take more advantage of assertions early in the design process. An apt example is Atrenta's 1Team:Verify, which brings the benefits of assertion-based verification to RTL...

A circuit-extraction process.(EDA ROUNDUP)(electronic design automation)(Taeus International )(Brief Article)
May 26, 2005... A CIRCUIT-EXTRACTION PROCESS developed by Taeus International aids in reverse-engineering ICs to investigate potential patent infringements. The technique involves using a microscope and camera to photograph sections of an IC die. in the past,...

Electromechanical pc-board design.(EDA ROUNDUP)
May 26, 2005... ELECTROMECHANICAL PC-BOARD DESIGN is made easier by version 2.2 of FLO/PCB, an enhanced pc-board tool. FLO/PCB now features automatic Manhattan distance calculation and constraint management. This allows first-order signal-integrity...

Multiprocessing keeps compact motherboard cool.(TechView: EMBEDDED)(Via EPIA DP-310 Mini-ITX)(Brief Article)
May 26, 2005... There are many ways to keep a system cool. Adding a water-cooled refrigeration unit is one way. Another method is to reduce the amount of heat, but this can be difficult without sacrificing performance. Via Technologies attacks the latter...

Hard-drive family goes low (cost) or high (performance).(TechView: EMBEDDED)
May 26, 2005... The Momentus Line of 2.5-in. hard disks from Seagate delivers a range of options. At the high end, the Momentus 7200.1 is a 7200-rpm disk with up to 100-Mbyte capacities. It targets small-form-factor PCs, lap tops, and non-mission-critical...

Product pair tackles system virtualization.(NEW PRODUCTS)
May 26, 2005... Accenia's DoubleWide Design and Virtio's Virtual Platform bring a software implementation to developers when hardware is unavailable due to a new system design or a limited supply of hardware. DoubleWide Design software targets high-end...

USB DSP board simplifies data acquisition.(NEW PRODUCTS)
May 26, 2005... The DT9841E board contains a USB 2.0 interface, a Texas Instruments TMS320-C6713 DSP, and a pair of 24-bit delta-sigma analog-to-digital converters with built-in anti-aliasing filters. Developed by Data Translation, the system can sustain a...

Wireless UART chip set goes frequency hopping in the ISM bands.(TechView: WIRELESS)
May 26, 2005... Most engineers aren't wireless wizards. But with virtually every electronic product going wireless, engineers need faster, easier ways to meet the challenge. To help solve the problem, Texas Instruments came up with the Dolphin chip set. The...

Single-chip tuner puts FM broadcast radio just about anywhere.(TechView: WIRELESS)(Brief Article)
May 26, 2005... Despite its age, low-tech image, and mounting competition with satellite systems, FM radio still has an enormous following. It remains a major purveyor of music for car and home stereos. With Silicon Laboratories' one-IC radio tuners, engineers...

Linear mixer blends high performance and speedy basestation design.(TechView: WIRELESS)
May 26, 2005... Fewer applications are more critical and demanding than a cell-phone basestation receiver that gets bombarded with lots of signals, from the weak to the overwhelming. Coming to the rescue is Linear Technology's LT5527 RF mixer, an active...

Frequently asked questions: dual-output, non-isolated dc-dc converter ICs.(POWER DESIGN FAQs)
May 26, 2005... What are the available dual-output converter topologies? Dual-output, non-isolated dc-dc converter ICs include switch-mode, low-dropout (LDO), LDO plus switch-mode, and charge pump types. These ICs are non-isolated converters because there...

LM2716 dual (step-up and step-down) PWM DC-DC converter.(Product Q&As)(Brief Article)(Advertisement)
May 26, 2005... The LM2716 houses two PWM dc-dc converters. One is a buck (stepdown) converter with a fixed output voltage and a 1.8-A, 0.16-[ohm] internal MOSFET switch. The second is a boost (step-up) converter with up to 20-V adjustable output and a 3.6-A,...

LM2717 dual (step-up and step-down) PWM DC-DC converter.(Product Q&As)(Advertisement)
May 26, 2005... The LM2717 contains two PWM dc-dc buck (step-down) converters. One converter generates a fixed 3.3 V with a 2.2-A, 0.16-[ohm] internal MOSFET switch. The other converter produces an adjustable output voltage with a 3-A, 0.16-[ohm] internal...

Chip gets to the heart of ultrasound designs: with this CW Doppler IC, designers can be rid of analog delay lines and crosspoint switches in devices that locate arterial blockages.(LEAPFROG: FIRST LOOK: PUTTING NEW TECHNOLOGY IN PERSPECTIVE)
May 26, 2005... Continuous-wave (CW) Doppler ultrasound diagnostic systems involve many pairs of transducers. One member of each pair transmits a continuous sinewave. The other receives echoes. A CW ultrasound diagnostic device works by performing spectral...

Scalable processors add fuel to network data rates: able to handle packets and threads, two network processor families scale to meet network needs.(LEAPFROG: FIRST LOOK: PUTTING NEW TECHNOLOGY IN PERSPECTIVE)
May 26, 2005... By providing intelligent packet processing and rapidly processing more network threads, two network processor families reduce the cost and complexity of line cards and other network infrastructure systems. Raza Microelectronics' Orion and XLR...

Distributors evolve beyond the "component store" tag: the days of just "order and ship" are long gone. Distributors' value-added services make them a trusted partner in the design process.(ENGINEERING FEATURE: DISTRIBUTORS)(Cover Story)
May 26, 2005... Designers know where to turn when they need parts. Distributors have provided the nuts and bolts of OEM designs for decades. But now, it's not just about supplying parts. Today's distributors also offer value-added services that smooth the path...

DAC unleashes a torrent of tools and methodologies: system-level design tools, verification, and power analysis lead the pack at the 42nd Design Automation Conference.(SHOW PREVIEW: DESIGN AUTOMATION CONFERENCE)
May 26, 2005... As it assembles for this year's 42nd Design Automation Conference in Anaheim (June 13-17, www.dac.com), the EDA industry finds itself at a crossroads. Disparaged by some as out of touch with designers' needs and falling down in attempts to lead...

Robustly recover data across multiple data-comm standards: multibyte framing in deserializing devices solves real system problems not defined in the standards for which they claim compliance.(DESIGN SOLUTION: Networking)
May 26, 2005... A system engineer's worst nightmare: transmitting a misinterpretation of data in a large block of serial data. If it doesn't corrupt the entire data stream, it forces the transmitting system to resend that entire block of data just to rectify...

High speed dual ADCs for basestation applications.(High Speed Communications: High Performance Analog Solutions from Linear Technology)
May 26, 2005... Advances in high speed ADCs directly translate to performance improvements in both the receive (Rx) and transmit (Tx) paths of third generation (3G) basestations such as WCDMA, TD-SCDMA and UMTS. Along with the increasing need for low power...

Capturing and characterizing high frequency signals 5 GHz to 100 GHz.(Brief Article)
May 26, 2005... Presented by Dr. Michael Lauterbach View this event at http://www.elecdesign.com/lecroy Recent advances in sampling technology, the use of memory, and other fields allow much faster and more accurate measurements of fast pulses and of...

Measure current on positive-grounded systems.(DESIGN BRIEFS: Innovative Designs from Readers)
May 26, 2005... In telecom power systems, the positive rail is usually grounded. This forces designers to place a shunt resistor on the system's negative rail to measure current. Yet there are other ways to sense the system's current. Some methods even...

LED indicates current magnitude.(DESIGN BRIEFS: Innovative Designs from Readers)
May 26, 2005... The LED in this circuit glows in proportion to the load current (see the figure). It was designed as a very compact substitute for an ammeter in the 12-V supply line of some astronomy equipment. The equipment includes low-power heating elements...

Component specifier: the latest notable components at a glance.(NEW PRODUCTS)(Buyers Guide)
May 26, 2005... INTERCONNECTS TYPE/Model Features LOW-PROFILE Low-profile connector for server, storage, and CONNECTOR networking applications; 10-mm slot pitch; Aptera excellent transmission...

Transmux and mapping chip trims cost per port for voice/data service.(COMMUNICATIONS)
May 26, 2005... * The PM8318 (TEMAP 168) stakes its claim as the industry's highest-density, trans-multiplexing (transmux), PDH mapper solution. Trans-multiplexing provides the interworking between legacy and next-generation networks by bridging T1/E1 traffic...

Gigabit Ethernet controllers pack integrated TPM security functions.(COMMUNICATIONS)
May 26, 2005... * The BCM5752 and BCM5752M NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet controller chips incorporate integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 functionality. Designed for enterprise desktop and mobile PCs, respectively, the controllers allow PC OEMs to offer...