EDN articles from April 2006

EDN archives from April 2006

Auxiliary power extends PoE applications.(DESIGN/idea)(Power-over-Ethernet)
April 13, 2006... Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) has found utility in hundreds of applications from Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony and wireless routers to security equipment. Many PoE applications employ auxiliary power sources, typically an AC "wall...

Power-over-Ethernet PD controller with auxiliary power interface.(Featured Products)(LM5071 power interface port and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) controller)(Brief article)
April 13, 2006... The LM5071 power interface port and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) controller provides a complete integrated solution for Powered Devices (PD) that connect into Power-over-Ethernet (POE) systems. The LM5071 is specifically designed for the PD...

Single-chip Power-over-Ethernet device for higher-power PoE applications.(Featured Products)
April 13, 2006... The LM5072 Powered Device (PD) interface and Pulse-Width-Modulation (PWM) controller provides a complete power solution, fully compliant to IEEE 802.3af, for the PD connecting into the Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) system. This controller...

DP83848 PHYTER 10/100 single-port physical layer device.(Featured Products)(transceivers)(Brief article)
April 13, 2006... The PHYTER[R] family of transceivers addresses the quality, reliability and cost requirements of embedded developers networking their devices for the home, industrial, and environments requiring an extreme temperature range. In addition to key...

Integrated Power-over-Ethernet PD interface and PWM controller.(Featured Products)(LM5070 power interface port and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)integrated Controller)(Brief article)
April 13, 2006... The LM5070 power interface port and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)integrated Controller provides a complete solution for Powered Devices (PD) that connect into Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) systems. The LM5070 integrates an 80V, 400 mA line...

Serving you: the EDN mission.(EDN.COMMENT)
April 13, 2006... I recently read several hundred comments from EDN readers that we gathered as part of one of our numerous research projects. The comments convinced me that I should share some things about how and why we do things at EDN and highlight some...

CPU module extends product life span.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
April 13, 2006... With a mezzanine concept that updates the CPU instead of the I/O, General Micro Systems claims that its latest VMEbus-based single-board computer virtually eliminates processor obsolescence. The V265 Condor's 4X4-in. processor module enables...

High-end and economy FPGAs target communications.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
April 13, 2006... Apparently unafraid of going toe to toe with Xilinx (www.xilinx. com) and Altera (www.altera.com) in the high-end-SRAM-based-FPGA market, Lattice Semiconductor has announced a high-performance FPGA targeting the high-speed-communications and...

MEMS-based oscillator threatens quartz; resonator could move on-chip.(pulse)
April 13, 2006... Few electronic components have stood the test of time better than the quartz-crystal oscillator or resonator. But researchers continue to search for a quartz replacement because the components don't scale downward sizewise--at least relative to...

From the vault.(pulse)
April 13, 2006... Electronics occupies a unique engineering niche. Next year's jets won't fly twice as high or use half as much fuel, and, except for the pinstriping, next year's cars won't differ markedly from this year's... Today, just 40 years after the...

Dilbert.(pulse)(Cartoon)
April 13, 2006... THE COMPANY REQUIRES ME TO GIVE FAILING PERFORMANCE REVIEWS TO 20% OF MY STAFF. THERE ARE FOUR OF YOU, SO THAT WORKS OUT TO... 80% OF A PERSON. WALLY, YOUR CALF MUSCLES AND ANKLES ARE PERFORMING WELL, BUT THE REST OF "YOU IS MONKEY...

Device combines signal and power isolation.(pulse)(ADuM524X isoPower family )(Brief article)
April 13, 2006... Building on its iCoupler technology, which includes chip-scale microtransformers directly in the chip substrate, Analog Devices is offering what it claims is the first device to combine signal and power isolation in the same chip. The ADuM524X...

Feedback loop.(pulse)
April 13, 2006... "Datapath issues may be the biggest challenge facing chip designers today and in the future. Validation and lithography simulation simply take too much time on current platforms." Jim McKibben in EDN's Feedback Loop at...

RFID and 802 marriage targets asset-tracking systems.(pulse)
April 13, 2006... Most RFID target applications to date have relied on relatively short-range links between the ID tag and the reader. Officials at start-up G2 Microsystems believe that the short-range approach is wrong for many applications. The company claims...

August Capital's Andy Rappaport on innovation.(VOICES)
April 13, 2006... An engineer turned entrepreneur and then venture capitalist, Andy Rappaport also did a stint as a senior editor for EDN, following ASIC technology in the early '80s. Rappaport's career has mandated that he be a keen judge of innovation, so,...

Flesh-conduction microphone targets mobile phones.(GLOBAL DESIGNER)
April 13, 2006... Mitsumi Electric Co and Asahi Kasei Corp have jointly developed a flesh-conduction vibration sensor with high sensitivity for voice input mobile phones. Mitsum demonstrated a microphone of mobile phones as an application at is private snow....

Web sites offer verification help.(GLOBAL DESIGNER)
April 13, 2006... At last month's Design Automation and Test Conference in Munich, Germany, Cadence released three Web sites to help customers create new verification methodologies or optimize established ones. Part of the company's Plan-to-Closure Web site, the...

Dual-mode platform for mobile phone takes advantage of global expansion.(pulse)
April 13, 2006... Renesas Technology plans to develop the SH-Mobile G Series, an integrated platform with software and dual-mode application processors, for 3G mobile phones. The company expects to complete the joint project with NTT Docomo (www.nttdocomo.com),...

Transmitting from space: a discarded Russian Orlan space suit serves one last mission to increase awareness of the international space program.(PRYING EYES)
April 13, 2006... On Feb 3, 2006, the crew of Expedition 12 released the SuitSat-1 into orbit around the Earth. SuitSat-1 is a Russian Orlan space suit that had reached the end of its life, but the cosmonauts added a radio transmitter and sensors to measure...

Tackle noise from three perspectives.(BAKER'S BEST)
April 13, 2006... You've got noise in your circuit? Where do you look to find it? What source do you consider as the culprit? You can assign your noise to three fundamental categories, each with its own set of noise-reduction methods: device noise, emitted (or...

The envelop please!(EDN's 2005 Innovator/Innovation Program winners)
April 13, 2006... Each year, EDN's Innovation Awards honor outstanding engineering professionals and products. Our Innovator of the Year award recognizes an electronics engineer or engineering team for innovation in product design or technical leadership. The...

Simple networks will free many sensors from wires: with a suitable protocol, such as ZigBee, sensors that don't have a lot to say or hear needn't consume much energy to keep in touch. Sometimes, an alkaline cell can provide all the power they need for as long as a decade.(Cover story)
April 13, 2006... The folks at the ZigBee Alliance, the industry organization driving ZigBee WPAN (wireless-personal-area-networking) technology, mean it when they say that they've learned valuable lessons from the miscues of the proponents of another such...

Power-management techniques for multimedia mobile phones: Asia and other markets are racing to launch digital TV and streaming video and music in hand-held formats. These technologies bring benefits, but designers still face the constraints of incorporating multimedia functions in small form factors in the face of increasing battery life.(ON SEMICONDUCTOR)
April 13, 2006... Now that Asia and other markets race to deploy portable-media technology in the form of multimedia phones, designers must take a step back and consider power-management issues for these handheld devices (see sidebar "Asia looks to multimedia as...

Flatten DAC frequency response: equalizing techniques can cope with the nonflat frequency response of a DAC.(MAXIM INTEGRATED PRODUCTS)(digital-to-analog converter design)
April 13, 2006... In a generic example, a DAC samples a digital baseband signal (Figure 1). The DAC's frequency response is not flat; it attenuates the analog output at higher frequencies. At 80% of [f.sub.NYQUIST], for instance ([f.sub.NYQUIST] = [f.sub.S]/2),...

Easing the modeling of lossy lines: simple measurements and straightforward techniques not only can often obviate the need for expensive simulation tools, but also can provide a more intuitive feel for network behavior.
April 13, 2006... With common data rates quickly entering the gigabit-per-second domain, frequency-dependent losses in interconnects--cables and pc-board traces--are quickly becoming major obstacles to further speed increases. Thus, you can no longer ignore...

Multiprocessor architectures tackle tough processing demands; optimize power and performance with a multiprocessor SOC approach.
April 13, 2006... High-performance applications, such as multifunction intrusion-detection and firewall-security functions in enterprises and high-speed protocol processing in wireless and storage networks, including PPP (Point-to-Point protocol), iSCSI, and TCP...

CPLD automatically powers itself off.(design ideas: READERS SOLVE DESIGN PROBLEMS)
April 13, 2006... Most of today's CPLDs (complex programmable-logic devices) feature reduced-power operating modes, but, when the system is not in use, a complete shutdown that conserves battery power remains the ultimate power-reduction goal of many designers....

Amplifier removes common-mode noise on RGB differential-video-transmission line.(design ideas: READERS SOLVE DESIGN PROBLEMS)(Red-Green-Blue (color model based on additive color primaries) )
April 13, 2006... Comprising four twisted pairs within a durable external sheath, Category 5 network cable offers a common and cost-effective choice for transmitting component-video signals. Three of the pairs can carry RGB video signals, and the fourth pair...

Use a switching-regulator controller to generate fast pulses.(design ideas: READERS SOLVE DESIGN PROBLEMS)(LTC3803 constant-frequency flyback controller)
April 13, 2006... A source of pulses with fast-rising edges that approximate the step function can help you perform many useful laboratory measurements, including characterization of coaxial cables' rise times and location of cable faults using...

Shift registers and resistors deliver multiphase sine waves.(design ideas: READERS SOLVE DESIGN PROBLEMS)
April 13, 2006... Sine waves with fixed phase relationships find application in communications equipment, instrumentation, and power sources. Although you can use any of several traditional analog techniques to generate basic sine-wave signals, this Design Idea...

Discrete device provides 3.2-Gbps Ethernet operation.(CIRCUIT PROTECTION)
April 13, 2006... Using silicon technology, the DVIULC6-4SC6 allows DVI (digital-visual-interface), HDMI (high-definition-multimedia), USB 2.0, and Ethernet interfaces to operate at 3.2 Gbps with 15-kV ESD protection. This application-specific discrete device...

Lightning arresters are rugged and waterproof.(CIRCUIT PROTECTION)
April 13, 2006... Operating at 12.5-GHz frequencies, the gas-discharge-tube-type SurgeGuard PTC-Sax-SAF-20 lightning arrester includes SMA connectors. Using a nickel-over-brass construction, a gold-center conductor, and gold contacts makes the series rugged and...

LVDS buffer has ESD protection.(CIRCUIT PROTECTION)(low-voltage-differential-signaling)(Brief article)
April 13, 2006... Featuring an on-chip termination for maximum signal integrity, the 800-Mbps, quad-LVDS (low-voltage-differential-signaling) DS90LV804 buffer has 15 kV of ESD protection. The four-channel buffer delivers LVDS signals across cables and backplanes...

EMI-filter arrays integrate ESD-protection diodes.(CIRCUIT PROTECTION)
April 13, 2006... These EMI-filter arrays incorporate ESD-protection diodes, attenuating unwanted signals by 30 dB over the 900-MHz to 2.3-GHz frequency range, with 30 to 100[OMEGA] line-resistance values. The devices come in small, leadless, plastic LLP75-6A,...

Two-line protection device meets IEC standards.(CIRCUIT PROTECTION)(Brief article)
April 13, 2006... Targeting ADSL and WAN (wide-area-networking) equipment, the two-line secondary Rclamp 7002M protection device has a 10-pF I/O-to-ground capacitance. A 1-kW surge capability allows for shielding of sensitive circuits in central-office or...

10A relays use low-power-consumption coils.(CIRCUIT PROTECTION)
April 13, 2006... The G5LB and G5LB-25 series of single-pole, power-pc-board relays switch 10A at 120 to 250V ac and 8A at 30V dc and can switch digital signals. Peripherals include a 360-mW power-consumption coil, a 200,000-operation electrical life, and a...

DVD-recorder chip sets integrate PVR and set-top-box functions.(INTEGRATED CIRCUITS)
April 13, 2006... Adding onto the vendor's line of DVD-recorder devices, the Activa 220 and 230 processors include set-top-box functions. The 220 SOC (system-on-chip) features a high-speed IDE interface providing PVR (personal-video-recorder) functions for...

Single-chip microphone features a PDM output.(INTEGRATED CIRCUITS)
April 13, 2006... Based on CMOS MEMS (microelectromechanical-systems) technology, the AKU2000 single-chip microphone integrates an acoustic transducer, an output amplifier, and a fourth-order sigma-delta modulator. For output, the microphone uses a PDM...

Analog-volume-control IC has 5 and 9V options.(INTEGRATED CIRCUITS)
April 13, 2006... The CS3318 analog-volume-control IC provides a 127-dB dynamic range, with a 118-dB adjustable range and negligible distortion. Supporting eight channels of audio, the device operates from a 9V power supply. The pin-compatible CS3308 IC is...

USB host features 26-MHz SPI.(INTEGRATED CIRCUITS)
April 13, 2006... Featuring a 26-MHz SPI (serial peripheral interface), the MAX3421E USB host and peripheral controller add USB-host capabilities to any microprocessor. Features include a -40 to +85[degrees]C temperature range, a 5x5mm footprint, and...

Advanced video processor supports DVR and MP3 players.(INTEGRATED CIRCUITS)
April 13, 2006... The Sil 8200 advanced video processor features dual video/ image-processing pipelines and integrated DVR (digital-video-recorder) and MP3-player support. The device includes a RISC processor, an IDE hard-disk controller supporting DVR...

MPEG-video-processor family integrates conditional access.(INTEGRATED CIRCUITS)(MPEG-video-processor X-Code 2100 )(Brief article)
April 13, 2006... The MPEG-video-processor X-Code 2100 family of digital/analog-video processors uses PCI Express x1 and PCI v2.3 interfaces, allowing compressed and uncompressed video data over the main bus. Series features include single- and dual-stream...

Audio player tackled search all by itself.(reality check: YESTERDAY'S HYPE MEETS TODAY'S REALITY)
April 13, 2006... At the 2001 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. Voyetra Turtle Beach unveiled the Audiotron digital-audio network appliance. In some respects, the Audiotron is woefully obsolete compared with today's digital media adapters, it doesn't...

Online only.(EDN online contents)
April 27, 2006... Check out these online-exclusive articles: End of memory relationship may impact handsets M-Systems and Samsung's parting of ways may have huge implications for high-end cell phones. * www.edn.com/article/CA6324003 MEMS-based...

Readers' choice.(online electronic periodicals)(Brief article)
April 27, 2006... A selection of recent articles receiving high traffic on www.edn.com. EDN announces winners of 16th Annual Innovation Awards EDN announced the winners of its 16th Annual Innovation Awards at a ceremony April 3. ...

EDN's 2006 digital signal processing directory.(EDN online contents)(Directory)
April 27, 2006... * www.edn.com/dspdirectory If you think Robert Cravotta's annual directory of DSP devices and cores is impressive in print (pg 54), you ain't seen nothin' yet. Go to www.edn.com/ dspdirectory for the megasized online version--an...

"Device-software optimization": another meaningless term in a crowded jargon field?(terminology of device software optimization)
April 27, 2006... I'm just back from the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San Jose, CA. This show was once a small, educational conference primarily for engineers working with board-level products and real-time operating systems. It has now become one of the...

LIDAR system design for automotive/ industrial/military applications.(Light Detection And Ranging)
April 27, 2006... LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging)systems using the same principle as RADAR are developed for a wide range of locating, ranging, and profiling applications. Such a system consists of a laser capable of transmitting light (pulsed or continuous)...

One modular system does many probing stations' work.(precision modular station)
April 27, 2006... In developing its M150 measurement platform, Cascade Microtech's objective was to produce a precision modular station that users could quickly, easily, and economically reconfigure to navigate and probe such devices as ICs, small pc boards,...

Micro fuel cells may find niche applications.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
April 27, 2006... Most projections of the potential market for MFCs (micro fuel cells) assume that the cells will serve as replacements for lithium-ion-battery packs and their chargers for the huge consumer-laptop and cell-phone markets. However, the extremely...

Power-conversion IC enables average parts to provide above-average power.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
April 27, 2006... Some applications have peak-power requirements that significantly differ from their average-power requirements. Printers are a prime example: The system need for power is much higher when the paper-feed motor and components are running,...

Dilbert.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)(Cartoon)
April 27, 2006... A PRESTIGIOUS WINDOW-FACING CUBICLE HAS JUST BECOME AVAILABLE. IT'LL BE A PERFECT PLACE TO STORE ALL OF THE PRINTER PAPER I BOUGHT SO I COULD WIN A FREE TRIP FROM THE PAPER VENDOR. AND MAYBE THE SUNLIGHT b JILL BLEACH OUT THE VISIBLE...

Multifunction board eases controller design.(industry equipment)(Brief article)
April 27, 2006... New multifunction PCI boards from Omega Engineering provide 1-MHz, multifunction, synchronous I/O for high-performance measurement-and-control applications. The OMB-Daqboard-3000 series boards feature a 16-bit, 1-MHz ADC; 16 analog-input...

From the vault.(computers exceeding people)(Brief article)
April 27, 2006... "In 1978, the number of computers produced in the United States exceeded the number of people already born. And microcomputer chips already outnumber people in this country. Unfortunately, many of our current machines appear to complicate our...

Microcontroller vendors further encroach on SOCs.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
April 27, 2006... As the markets for handheld and automotive media players expand, vendors of high-end microcontrollers are smelling opportunity that in the past might have gone automatically to OEM-designed SOCs (systems on chips). A recent case in point is the...

Far-sighted researchers envision autofocus eyeglasses.(RESEARCH UPDATE)
April 27, 2006... Scientists from the University of Arizona and the Georgia Institute of Technology are working to eliminate traditional bifocals by developing eyeglasses that can automatically refocus. The lenses in the team's prototype feature liquid-crystal...

Scientists promise interplanetary broadband.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
April 27, 2006... Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a light detector that they claim could drastically increase the data rate of communications between spacecraft and earthbound receivers. The device detects extremely low...

Feedback loop.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
April 27, 2006... "Datapath issue may be the biggest challenge facing chip designers today and in the future. Validation and lithography simulation simply take too much time on current platforms." Jim McKibben on EDN's Feedback Loop at www.edn.com/...

Phase-change material assumes custom shapes.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
April 27, 2006... A new phase change material allows engineers to Customize its placement for thermal-management applications. Honeywell Electronic Materials has introduced a phase-change material that engineers can apply using a printing process, making it...

Next-generation Bluetooth finds a niche.(GLOBAL DESIGNER)
April 27, 2006... Is Bluetooth dead in the water? Not if you believe ABI Research (www.abiresearch. com), which predicts that vendors will ship more than 500 million Bluetooth radios this year. In a study entitled "Bluetooth: The Global Outlook," the consulting...

Large-area-TFT-LCD-panel industry enjoys brisk sales.(liquid crystal displays)(Brief article)
April 27, 2006... MIC (Market Intelligence Center), part of the Institute of Information Industry and Taiwan's IT industry-research and consulting company, reports that, in the fourth quarter of 2005, owing to end-market demand growth and enhancement in the...

Frans van Houten: convergence culmination.(VOICES)(Interview)
April 27, 2006... We at EDN believe that convergence is more about merged media in the data stream than about devices that take on a multitude of tasks. Frans van Houten, president and chief executive officer of Philips Semiconductors, sees convergence...

The planar IC: revolution underestimated.(MILESTONE THAT MATTERED)
April 27, 2006... Born in the labs of Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments in the 1958 time frame, the planar IC finally emerged in 1960; Fairchild shipped it in March 1991. Robert Noyce, the co-founder of Fairchild, and Jack Kilby, an engineer at Texas...

Micrologic elements being developed.(FROM THE VAULT)
April 27, 2006... MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.--High-speed, low-power digital computer logic building blocks are under development at Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. To be available early next year, the family of solid-state micrologic elements will handle all the...

Terminator III.(effects of receiver capacitance)
April 27, 2006... My last column showed how the capacitance of a receiver loads an end-termination resistor, preventing the termination from doing its job. I used an isolation resistor (Figure 1), to partially decouple the effects of receiver capacitance from...

Media center: serving video to screens large and small: how ably can a PC serve as the center of the home-entertainment universe?(personal computers)
April 27, 2006... Riches await the companies that develop a product that gains wide acceptance as the nerve center of the modern connected home. Players ranging from PC makers to consumer-electronics giants to service providers are all seeking the magic formula...

Crossing borders: the 2006 EDN Digital Signal Processing Directory: are you trying to keep track of the constant changes in the world of digital-signal-processing offerings? Are your processing needs overlapping? The 2006 directory can help.( Digital Signal Processing Directory)(Directory)
April 27, 2006... WELCOME TO THE 2006 EDN DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING DIRECTORY. The subtle name change of the directory denotes a subtle but important shift from identifying just software-programmable-processor devices and core offerings to a more inclusive...

EDN hands-on project: double take: reassessing x86 CPUs in embedded-system applications: dual-core processors and dual-processor setups are now on the options list for embedded-system developers. Should you incorporate them, instead of a traditional single-core, single-CPU configuration, in your next design? The answer is more complicated than you might think.
April 27, 2006... Designing an embedded system based on PC-industry building blocks is like dancing with the devil. The chips and subsystems, including add-in cards, hard-disk drives, optical drives, and power supplies, are low-cost and abundant, thanks to the...

Keys to simulation acceleration and emulation success: for better or for worse, the engineering community, the press, and the EDA vendors themselves have incorrectly classified the world of simulation acceleration and emulation into two camps: FPGAs and ASICs.(field programmable gate array )
April 27, 2006... According to industry pundits, FPGAs take forever to compile and have internal timing problems. ASICs, on the other hand, are power-hungry and require longer development time. When it comes to choosing an emulation system, the underlying...

Pick the right inductor construction for a desktop-CPU voltage regulator: choosing the best inductor construction for desktop-CPU voltage regulators requires a good understanding of inductors and regulators.(central processing units)
April 27, 2006... Until recently, cost and the ability of a part to function in an application have driven the choice of inductors in desktop-computing systems' processor-voltage regulators. Designers have not been greatly concerned with component size,...

Thermal considerations matter for Class D amplifiers.(design ideas: READERS SOLVE DESIGN PROBLEMS)
April 27, 2006... A Class D amplifier provides better efficiency and thermal performance than a comparable Class AB amplifier, but implementing a Class D amplifier still requires attention to good electrical- and thermal-design practices. Most engineers use a...

Microcontroller simplifies battery-state-of-charge measurement.(design ideas: READERS SOLVE DESIGN PROBLEMS)
April 27, 2006... A system that receives its power from a renewable-energy source, such as a photovoltaic panel or a wind-driven generator, typically accumulates power in a rechargeable battery and delivers it to a load. Often, both processes occur...

Switching regulator efficiently controls white-LED current.(design ideas: READERS SOLVE DESIGN PROBLEMS)
April 27, 2006... A few years ago, manufacturers specified their white, but dim, LEDs for a maximum forward-current rating of 20 mA. Today's white LEDs deliver more light and thus must operate at ever-higher bias currents. Maintaining control of an LED's bias...

Programmed reference oscillator generates nonstandard clock frequencies.(design ideas: READERS SOLVE DESIGN PROBLEMS)
April 27, 2006... Although manufacturers offer crystal and ceramic resonators and packaged oscillators for many frequencies, nonstandard frequencies may not be readily available. When a unique integrator application required a 2021-Hz fixed-frequency clock, the...

SOIC-to-DIP adapter is ROHS-compliant.(reduction-of-hazardous-substances)(Small-Outline Integrated Circuit)(Brief article)
April 27, 2006... This ROHS (reduction-of-hazardous-substances)-complaint version of the SOIC-to-DIP Correct-A-Chip adapter provides an easy method of upgrading to an SOIC without changing the pc-board layout. Accepting SOIC D or SOIC L packages on the top, the...

Connector family suits orthogonal architectures.(CONNECTORS)
April 27, 2006... Targeting orthogonal-midplane configurations, the Crossbow Matrix differential connector has a 25-Gbps data rate. The differential pairs on each side of the midplane share vias, allowing for benefits associated with orthogonal-midplane...

High-power distribution system allows customizable bus-bar length.(low-voltage drop-louver contacts in a bus bar)(Brief article)
April 27, 2006... Using blind-mate, high-power-distribution technology, the PowerRail uses low-voltage drop-louver contacts in a bus bar, providing customizable bus-bar length, power input, and mating connections for a quick-disconnect power bus. Available in...

Cable connector suits panel applications.(CONNECTORS)
April 27, 2006... Targeting panel applications, including BTS (base-transmission stations), the Slim I/O cable-connector system provides power- and signal-I/O capability for short, and long-reach cable. The device supports applications with 3.125 -Gbps data...

Optical-coplanar interconnect features hermaphroditic design.(CONNECTORS)
April 27, 2006... The MTP-CPI optical-coplanar interconnect increases maintenance flexibility and decreases service interruptions by allowing replacement of front cards without disrupting cabling at the rear of the chassis. Meeting Advanced TCA Zone 3...

Power modules increase current-carrying capacity.(Ermet power modules)(Brief article)
April 27, 2006... New contact material allows the Ermet power modules to handle 18A currents at 20[degrees]C, and new power connectors reduce warming at comparable amperages. Premating contacts make it possible to hot-swap these modules in various applications....

RAID controllers target high-capacity servers.(COMPUTERS & PERIPHERALS)
April 27, 2006... The 16-port, SATA 3-Gbps SuperTrak EX16350 and EX16300 controllers provide RAID 6 fault tolerance. PCI-E and PCI-X host-bus interfaces suit the controllers for high-capacity-storage applications, including disk-to-disk backup,...

Device adds three screens to desktops and laptops.(COMPUTERS & PERIPHERALS)
April 27, 2006... The TripleHead2Go external box targets workstation and gaming systems. The device adds three screens to desktops and laptops as large as 19 in., with a combined resolution of 3840x1024 pixels. The TripleHead2Go costs $299. Matrox Graphics...

Affordable dual-monitor adapter uses USB 2.0 connection.(Universal serial bus)(Brief article)
April 27, 2006... Using a USB 2.0-to-SVGA adapter, the SEE2 TRI-UV100 allows for the connection of an additional monitor, LCD, or projector. The dual-monitor connector supports resolutions as high as 1280x1024 pixels. The device can also add a third monitor to...

Desktop autoloader offers removable backup.(COMPUTERS & PERIPHERALS)
April 27, 2006... The desktop Rev Loader 280 provides access to 280 Gbytes of storage or 560 Gbytes of compressed storage and manages eight removable, 35-Gbyte Rev disks. Connecting through a USB 2.0 interlace, the device also comes with a license for CA...