Electronics Weekly articles from October 2008

Electronics Weekly archives from October 2008

Is 802.11n Wi-Fi's best kept secret?(Features)
October 15, 2008... Handheld profile promises to bring the advantages of 802.11n to mobile devices, writes Raj Gawera Much has been made of the need for the upcoming IEEE 802.11n wireless technology standard in desktop computing. It looks like the...

Products.
October 15, 2008... NXP Semiconductors claims its latest 100MHz microcontroller is the fastest MCU based on the ARM Cortex-M3 processor. Typically, Cortex-M3 microcontrollers from leading suppliers STMicroelectronics and Luminary Micro run at or below 50MHz,...

Products.
October 15, 2008... 15oct08e2vprocessor.jpg E2v has announced availability of two dual-core integrated processors. The PC8641D and the PC8572 are extended-reliability versions of the MPC8641D and MPC8572 from Freescale Semiconductor. The result of an...

Products.
October 15, 2008... xxxXxxxXxxxxxxxxxxxxx MIPS Technologies has announced what it claims is the industry's first 45nm controller + PHY HDMI core intellectual property (IP). "Following our launch earlier this year of the world's first HDMI IP cores in...

Use an LM317 as a 0 to 3V adjustable regulator.(Features)
October 15, 2008... You can get more from a three-terminal adjustable regulator, writes Vladimir Rentyuk Most engineers know that they can use an inexpensive, three-terminal adjustable regulator, such as Fairchild Semiconductor's LM317, as an adjustable...

Implementing electronic display with point and click software.(Features)
October 15, 2008... System designers are adding display functionality to products previously considered unsuitable, writes Pete Hayes With the advent of electronic paper displays, system designers can consider adding display functionality to products which...

Laser fusion plant gets pulses racing.(News)
October 15, 2008... Planned High Power Laser Energy Research (HiPER) facility will bring pulsed fusion power stations a step closer Europe is on track to build a huge laser fusion facility that will be a step on the road to fusion-based power stations in the...

News.
October 15, 2008... 15oct08Q5philgee.jpg Phil Gee, v-p sales for EMEA at component distributor Nu Horizons sees challanges and opportunites for suppliers in these days of financial uncertainty and European manufacturing coming back into vogue 1) How would...

Features.
October 15, 2008... 15oct08design1.pdf Use an LM317 as 0 to 3V adjustable regulator By Vladimir Rentyuk Most engineers know that they can use an inexpensive, three-terminal adjustable regulator, such as Fairchild Semiconductor's LM317, as an...

News.
October 15, 2008... Many switch-mode power supplies use kick-start circuits to initialise their offline operation. These circuits may be simple resistors, such as International Rectifier's IRIS4015, or more complicated arrangements with bipolar transistors or...

Fine resolution for rotary encoder chip.(Features)
October 15, 2008... A magnetic encoder chip with impressive angle resolution is aimed at automotive applications, reports Steve Bush Austriamicrosystems has introduced a contactless magnetic rotary encoder IC with an impressive angle measurement resolution for...

Pitfalls and patches in adding wireless.(Features)
October 15, 2008... With the explosion of wireless across a wide range of products, Tim Fergus looks at some of the design challenges The benefits of adding wireless functionality to products has never been so compelling. While in the past wireless capability...

Features.
October 15, 2008... Rapid improvements in high-brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs) are increasing opportunities for human-centred engineering (HCE) to improve environments for people at work, at home and at leisure. Directing and distributing the emitted light is vitally...

Design considerations in using a transimpedance amplifier.(Features)
October 15, 2008... Maithil Pachchigar looks at implementing a current-to-voltage converter using a voltage feedback amplifier Many applications use a photodiode to produce a current output based on exposure to light and a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) -...

News.
October 15, 2008... Recession? Depression? Nonsense, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The chances of a depression are "nearly nil", and global GDP growth is expected to be 3.9% this year. Growth of 3.9% is not a recession. But, to listen to...

Features.
October 15, 2008... Is 802.11n Wi-Fi's best kept secret? By Raj Gawera Much has been made of the need for the upcoming IEEE802.11n wireless technology standard in desktop computing. It looks like the bandwidth demands of modern computing could outstrip...

ADC enables multi-channel sensors without buffers.(Features)
October 15, 2008... Steve Logan and Mike Mayes explain the beneifts of using a delta sigma ADC to measure environmental parameters in analogue designs As analogue designs increase in complexity, designers are using multiple sensors to measure environmental...

Features.
October 15, 2008... 15oct08displayfig1.jpg 15oct08displayfig2.jpg Implementing an electronic paper display using point and click software By Pete Hayes With the advent of electronic paper displays, system designers can now consider adding...

News.
October 15, 2008... Avnet's [pounds sterling]42.2m takeover bid for Newbury-based component distributor Abacus indicates that business consolidation is still needed in a distribution market facing the twin pressures of falling prices and the loss of manufacturing...

News.
October 15, 2008... 15oct08KentPolice.jpg Kent Police have tested in extreme conditions a body worn video wireless system, which was first used by Avon & Somerset Police foot patrols at the Glastonbury Festival. The system developed by Reveal Media and Domo,...

News.
October 15, 2008... Future Technology Devices International, the Glasgow developer of USB ICs, is looking for engineers. CEO Fred Dart said he has ideas for new projects which he cannot implement without recruiting more people. The company has revenues of $20m. It...

News.
October 15, 2008... Renesas Technology is hoping to change the economics of motor control design by extending the use of fast interrupt microcontrollers to general purpose motor control and inverter design. Typically, designers are looking for microcontrollers...

Can chip firms invest their way out of a crisis?(News)
October 15, 2008... As the economy tightens, many large manufacturers see R&D spend as crucial to remaining competitive Will semiconductor companies see the financial crisis as a time to retreat into their corporate shells, or rather a time to take the longer...

News.
October 15, 2008... Belgian researchers claim to have made the first functional optical links that can be embedded in a flexible substrate. This could lead to new types of pressure sensor being used as a form of "artificial skin". "The links include optical...

Products.
October 15, 2008... xxxXxxxXxxxxxxxxxxxxx MIPS Technologies has announced what it claims is the industry's first 45nm controller + PHY HDMI core intellectual property (IP). "Following our launch earlier this year of the world's first HDMI IP cores in...

Microcontroller inputs parallel data using one pin.(News)
October 22, 2008... Clever use of pulses of various time constants allows a microcontroller to input a slowly changing serial pulse stream using a single I/O pin, writes Rex Niven Inputting multiple bits of information using a single entry pin of a...

3GHz multicore chip stays compatible.(News)
October 22, 2008... Texas Instruments' TMS320C6474 three-core die remains code-compatible with its single-core C64+ devices Texas Instruments has integrated three TMS320C64x+ DSP cores each running at 1GHz on one die to create a 3GHz multicore processor which...

Heard about the MEMS-based artificial cochlea?(Features)
October 22, 2008... Robert Cravotta looks at a device modelled on the workings of a human ear The cochlea is the portion of the inner ear that senses sound vibrations and converts them into electrical signals that the auditory system can interpret. It is an...

Measuring benefits of audio capacitors.(Features)
October 22, 2008... Paul Dodds looks at the potential of a recently developed method to define the quality of an audio capacitor There has long been a debate in the audio industry about the effect of passive components on the quality of sound reproduced by...

Solder charge - the alternative to BGA.(Features)
October 22, 2008... To meet demands of the growing high-density mezzanine connector market, connector manufacturers have reinvented the wheel. Here Herbert Endres from Molex introduces a new solder charge method Traditional methods of applying solder for...

All about surface mount ferrites.(Features)
October 22, 2008... You may be surprised to learn that ferrite bead performance in any power-filtering application can vary by more than a factor of 10, depending on the magnitude of dc current passing through the part during operation, writes Lee Hill ...

Features.
October 22, 2008... In space exploration, hardware has been designed for human servicing. Space walks are planned for most of the assembly programs for the International Space Station, they are common in general maintenance duties, and they are a key contingency...

Nasa robots rely on UK interconnect technology.(Features)
October 22, 2008... Graham Cunningham discusses the design considerations behind Robonaut In space exploration, hardware has been designed for human servicing. Space walks are planned for most of the assembly programs for the International Space Station, they...

The best in the South-West.(Features)
October 22, 2008... Chip design companies are keen to utilise the expertise of designers in the Bristol area From RF power system design to parallel processor arrays, a group of the UK's most promising chip design companies demonstrate the range of...

News.
October 22, 2008... AUK group is claiming a new energy conversion efficiency record for thermo-photovoltaic cells as part of a project between the University of Oxford, CIP Technologies and Wafer Technology. The research project has delivered first-generation...

News.
October 22, 2008... Frontier Silicon has halved the power required for DAB decoding with the introduction of its Venice 7 module. A hardware and software drop-in replacement for its Venice 5 product, the latest version uses a new baseband IC, Kino3, made on a...

News.
October 22, 2008... Atmel, Cisco and the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS) claim to have developed one of the world's smallest open source IPv6-ready protocol stacks, to give a wider range of low-power devices an internet protocol address. Open...

News.
October 22, 2008... Aresearch lab in the Netherlands is claiming a record for a CMOS-compatible micromachined piezoelectric energy harvester. "It delivers an output power of 60[micro]W at 2g, sufficient to drive simple wireless sensors that intermittently...

News.
October 22, 2008... Dutch lithography equipment maker ASML has revealed a wafer handling stage for "double patterning", one route to 32nm chip production and beyond. "Thanks to a new concept and materials, the wafer stage is considerably lighter than previous...

Ilika helps NXP with phase change.(News)
October 22, 2008... Southampton firm tests materials to overcome the limitations of traditional floating gate flash memory UK start-up Ilika is working with NXP Semiconductors on phase change memory. Ilika has a technology for evaluating suitable materials...

Mentor cuts multicore CPU design closure time.(News)
October 22, 2008... Mentor Graphics claims to be able to dramatically reduce design closure times for multicore CPU designs with its latest place-and-route design software tool. Mentor said the tool addresses a fundamental problem with multicore designs....

Jean Anne BoothLuminary Micro.(News)
October 22, 2008... Jean Anne Booth, chief marketing officer at Luminary Micro, the supplier of 32-bit microcontrollers based on the ARM Cortex-M3 processor core, talks about the 32-bit MCU market, the impact of open source and the beauty of the ARM Cortex-M3...

Products.
October 29, 2008... Silicon mic uses CMOS/MEMS membrane technology Wolfson Microelectronics has introduced silicon microphones based on its proprietary CMOS/MEMS membrane technology. The WM7110E and WM7120E MEMS silicon microphones will deliver a...

Products.
October 29, 2008... Single chip AM FM receiver IC cuts cost of pick and place Silicon Labs has brought out a single chip AM/FM radio receiver CMOS IC which claims to reduce the peripheral component count by 40 to 60 per cent, thereby significantly reducing the...

News.
October 29, 2008... What are the challenges facing UK-based manufacturers? UK manufacturers need to constantly keep their business models under review to ensure they remain competitive. Providing that they do this successfully, there is the opportunity to...

News.
October 29, 2008... UK start-up sets sights on FPGA applications Bristol-based Silicon Basis is targeting digital TV demodulator ICs with its programmable silicon fabric Aprogrammable silicon fabric that is designed to be the basis of system-on-chip (SoC)...

Dr Ebrahim BushehriLime Microsystems.(News)
October 29, 2008... Dr Ebrahim Bushehri, CEO of Lime Microsystems, talks to EW about the lack of high-tech skills and how to encourage students into electronics design Describe in one sentence the company business model. Lime Microsystems is a fabless...

Analogue approach eliminates noise.(News)
October 29, 2008... Precision analogue beats digital in speed, noise, simplicity and ease of implementation, says Paul Antonucci From time to time, I read that analogue is on the way out, and everything should be digital. Recently, I was involved in a design...

Taking another view on sequential computing.(Features)
October 29, 2008... Running sequential programs on multicore processors is virtually impossible - it's far better to adopt a concurrent approach, Professor David May tells David Manners Programming general purpose multicore processors is generally regarded as...

Features.
October 29, 2008... 29oct08synopsysTABLE Table 1. The new LPM mode for USB 2.0 29oct08synopsysFIG1 Figure 1. Current mode driver (left) and voltage mode driver (right) Figure 1. Current mode driver (left) and voltage mode driver (right) ...

Features.
October 29, 2008... 29oct08TedTewkesbury.jpg Ted Tewkesbury, who's been CEO of IDT for five months, can sum up where he is taking the semiconductor company in four words: "Digitally intensive mixed-signal." What does that mean? "Most mixed-signal is...

Improved stability paves way for commercial organic cells.(Features)
October 29, 2008... Researchers claim the operational lifetime of heterojunction organic solar cells can be increased by stabilising the nanomorphology of the active layer, although efficiency still needs to be improved, writes Steve Bush Belgium-based...

Features.
October 29, 2008... 29oct08MarkusBrehler.jpg Wireless communications is finding its niche in building engineering, writes Markus Brehler, CEO of EnOcean The phenomenal growth in energy harvesting wireless technology in applications from building...

News.
October 29, 2008... Movidia, a Dublin-based company developing mobile video processors specifically for social networking applications such as Facebook on mobile phones, has secured over $14m in series A funding. Movidia is developing a low power video...

News.
October 29, 2008... Antenna maker Antenova has secured $6.5m to fund expansion in export markets. According to CEO Greg McCray: "So much of our business is now coming from North America and Asia that we need to grow closer to our customers in America, China,...

News.
October 29, 2008... 29oct08e2v.jpg e2v has added to its range of high reliability system-on-chip devices based on the Freescale e600 Power core including dual-core high performance chips. "The e600 Power Architecture is already massively used in image...

News.
October 29, 2008... 29oct08Liquavista.jpg An early electrowetting display. Pale and dark fish are pixels that are off and on respectively. Thin flexible video displays based on novel technology are the subject of a [pounds sterling]12m...

Fujitsu Labse_SSRq low-standby HEMT turns off without negative gate bias.(News)
October 29, 2008... Structure of transistor achieves output of more than 100W but enables power to be cut when in standby mode Fujitsu Laboratories has invented a HEMT (high electron mobility transistor) that turns off without a negative gate bias, allowing...

News.
October 29, 2008... David Manners Linear Technology has completed the re-focusing of the company, begun in 2006, which has seen the semiconductor supplier de-emphasise mobile phone and consumer ICs, in favour of industrial, automotive and military/aerospace...

News.
October 29, 2008... WiFi set to boost Bluetooth data rates 802.11 wireless technology could provide a simple way to increase the speed of Bluetooth, at least in the short term Bluetooth is used in half of all mobile phones, but if the short-range wireless...