EDN articles from February 2003

EDN archives from February 2003

Crackdown? (leading edge).(Letter to the Editor)
February 6, 2003... "It's not a game at all. It's like having crack houses in the neighborhood. Either the police do something about it, or the neighbors will. Somebody will get hurt." Barry Shein, president of The World, a small Internet-service...

Breaker gives switch-mode supplies special attention. (leading edge).(E-T-A Circuit Breakers ESS20)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... UNLIKE COMMONLY USED fuses and circuit breakers, the ESS20 electronic breaker from E-T-A Circuit Breakers is compatible with 24V-dc switch-mode supplies. Conventional circuit-protection devices, whether slow or fast thermal or magnetic devices,...

$49 modem connects embedded devices. (leading edge).(Radicom Research 240IM-T-LP)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... Radicom Research has introduced a 2400-bps modem for set-top boxes, point-of-sale terminals, ATMs, and other embedded-system applications that require fast connections, minimized power consumption, and low-cost data communications. The model...

Chip resistor provides sensing opportunity. (leading edge).(from Bourns)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... The CRL series of low-value chip resistors from Bourns provides compactness and resistance, suitable for current-sensing applications in tight designs. In 0603- to 2512-size packages, these 1%-tolerance resistors come in values of 0.01 to...

1.5-GHz bit-error-rate tester also quickly captures eye diagrams. (leading edge).(Synthesys Research BitAlzyer1500 )
February 6, 2003... THE 1.5-GHz BITALYZER1500 from Synthesys Research includes a proprietary sampling technology that allows the bit-error-rate tester to also create and display images of complete colorized eye diagrams, such as those normally displayed by a...

Dilbert. (leading edge).
February 6, 2003... WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A "TOWN HALL" MEETING TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION. BUT IT'S NOT IN AN ACTUAL TOWN HALL. AND I'LL HAVE QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE, SO IT'S NOT A MEETING PEP SE. WHO DO WE GIVE OUR QUESTIONS TO? I THINK YOU'LL FIND THAT...

Leading edge.(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... * A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 80% of Internet users find spam "very annoying," and 74% favor making mass spamming illegal. * According to a study by Gartner, 78% of respondents claimed that they found pop-up ads "very...

UV LED aids crimescene investigations and more. (leading edge).(from LEDtronics)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... A family of UV-emitting LEDs from LEDtronics targets applications such as forensic equipment, ID-card checking, gem appraisal, and biological and pharmaceutical instrumentation and calibration systems. Depending on the model, these LEDs produce...

Scopes offer top-of-the-line memory and computation for one-third to three-fifths of top-of-the-line prices. (leading edge).(LeCroy WavePro 7000 series)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... NOT EVERYONE NEEDS a 6-GHz-bandwidth scope, but more and more users need the deep memory, responsiveness, and advanced waveform-analysis capabilities of the top-of-the-line units (see "The scopes trial," EDN, this issue, pg 44). For those who...

$1850 function synthesizer does everything a $4500 unit does--if 20-MHz waveforms are fast enough for you. (leading edge).(Agilent Technologies 33220A)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... THE FRONT PANEL OF AGILENT'S new $1850 33220A waveform generator looks just like that of the company's $4500 33250A, and the controls work in the same intuitive manner--even including the bit-mapped display, which can depict the output...

Read all about it with your own content processor. (leading edge).(from Tarari)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... YOU CAN ARGUE both sides of the privacy issue, especially when it comes to Internet traffic. Some believe that, given proper guidelines, certain institutions should snoop, whereas others believe that the right to privacy is more important than...

Chips, core expand storage-interface options. (leading edge).(from Vitesse Semiconductor and PalmChip)
February 6, 2003... MULTIPLE PRESENTERS at last month's Storage Visions Conference in Las Vegas praised the Serial ATA interface's potential for dramatically reducing the cost of enterprise-hard-disk storage. To date, hard-drive manufacturers have created an...

Clock-jitter propagation. (signal integrity).
February 6, 2003... HERE'S A HIGH-PERFORMANCE racing game. Imagine you are drafting at 100 mph, just inches behind the next driver on a long, straight section of interstate highway. It's your job to follow (track) the movements of the other vehicle as precisely as...

Wright's rights. (on the verge).(Industry Overview)(Column)
February 6, 2003... THE MUSIC AND FILM INDUSTRIES' zealous protection of digital content continues to baffle and offend me. Don't misunderstand: As I've repeatedly stated in CommVerge, I don't endorse illegal copying of music, movies, or other protected works. But...

Getting our hands dirty. (edn.comment).(Editorial)
February 6, 2003... THIS ISSUE'S COVER STORY continues the ongoing EDN tradition of "hands-on" features. Senior Technical Editor Dan Strassberg (along with Martin Rowe at fellow Reed Business publication Test & Measurement World) organized a comparison between...

Chemical-sensing dust is nothing to sneeze at. (Sightings: the outlook for new technology).(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... CURRENT TESTS for biological and chemical substances are too cumbersome and slow to soothe our post-9/11 fears. But researchers at the University of California--San Diego have developed a "smart dust" that can quickly detect thousands of...

Do I hear a nanowatt? (Sightings: the outlook for new technology).(Jet Propulsion Laboratory research)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... RESEARCHERS at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (www.jpl.nasa.gov) have designed and demonstrated a photonic microwave receiver whose sensitivity is orders of magnitude greater than that of other devices. The team fabricated a 2.4-mm-radius...

Magnetic sensor has attractive qualities. (Sightings: the outlook for new technology).(developed by NVE Corp. )(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... A SENSOR FEATURING HIGH SENSITIVITY, compactness, and low power consumption promises to bring magnetic-sensing technology into applications in which it is now impractical. Developed by NVE Corp (www.nve.com) under the auspices of the Air Force...

For movie pirates, a jab in the electronic eye. (Sightings: (Sightings: the outlook for new technology).(Cinea's technology)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... START-UP CINEA (www.cinea.com) is working to make sure that digital-movie projection pleases only cinema fans--not camcorder-toting pirates. Surreptitious recording of today's analog films results in poor-quality copies because camcorders pick...

Signal to noise: calculating the high-resolution-audio reality-to-hype ratio: is high-resolution audio a "sound" investment, or will it bring your next design to a crashing halt in the market? Part 1. (how it works).
February 6, 2003... MUSIC LABELS AND EQUIPMENT suppliers hope that high-resolution-audio formats, such as DVD-Audio and SACD (Super Audio CD), will be the latest in a string of mostly successful upgrade "pitches" (Reference 1). Beginning with the 78-rpm record and...

The scopes trial: does LeCroy owe its big win to Tektronix's 11th-hour pullout? You be the judge in EDN's hands-on, 6-GHz shoot-out. (hands-on project)(Cover Story).(LeCroy's Wavemaster 8600A and Tektronix's TDS 6604 )(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 6, 2003... THE PLANS FOR A HANDS-ON SHOOT-OUT between what were then the world's only two 6-GHz-bandwidth real-time-sampling digital oscilloscopes--Tektronix's TDS 6604 (Figure 1) and LeCroy's Wavemaster 8600A (Figure 2)--began to take shape in mid-August...

The X-modules: 10-Gbps fiber-optic ports are shrinking, but the hype meisters aren't. A trio of front-panel, hot-pluggable, transponder MSAs bring new opportunities for I/O designers who don't buy vague claims that try to take the place of documentation and performance measurements. (design feature).
February 6, 2003... LITTLE PAYS TRIBUTE to the success of distributed computing so much as the evolutionary path of I/O technologies. With the notable exception of the portable sector, in which power users' expectations rise as dependably as--and at a somewhat...

Budget analysis ensures good radio-receiver-link performance: by understanding your receiver-signal-processing chain, you can provide the necessary level of performance. (design feature).
February 6, 2003... LINK-BUDGET ANALYSIS in radio-receiver design determines whether the noise and distortion performance of the system meets the design specifications. The analysis attempts to cascade the specifications of the components in the receiver chain to...

Single-ended or differential? That is the question: new active-probe architectures make multigigahertz signal-integrity measurements easier and more accurate but only for those who understand how the probes work and the trade-offs among the topologies. (design feature).
February 6, 2003... TRADITIONALLY, USERS of high-bandwidth oscilloscopes and active probes could choose between single-ended and differential probes. To measure single-ended signals (voltages referenced to ground); you used single-ended probes. To measure...

Oscillating output improves system security. (design ideas).
February 6, 2003... MANY ELECTRONIC-CONTROL systems have digital outputs that use transistors. One method of improving the security in these outputs is to use an oscillating signal to represent a logic-high state instead of a fixed voltage level (Figure 1). This...

Polarity protector outperforms Schottky diodes. (design ideas).(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... THE POLARITY-PROTECTION circuit in Figure 1 is a high-performance alternative to the usual series diode (often Schottky). The circuit incurs a much lower voltage drop than even the best Schottky diode. The circuit uses MOSFET devices because of...

Circuit offers improved active rectification. (design ideas).
February 6, 2003... RECTIFIERS CONVERT ac signals to dc. You can combine a diode and a load resistor to create a half-wave rectifier, provided that the amplitude of the ac source is much larger than the forward drop of the diode (typically 0.6V). Unfortunately,...

Build an adjustable high-frequency notch filter. (design ideas).
February 6, 2003... ALTHOUGH YOU CAN obtain universal, resistor-programmable switched-capacitor filters that are configurable as notch filters, most cannot operate at bandwidths higher than 100 kHz. Further, the typically 16- to 20-pin packages do not include a...

Bootstrapping allows single-rail op amp to provide 0V output. (design ideas).(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... MANY SINGLE-SUPPLY-POWERED applications require amplifier-out-puts swings within 1 mV--or even submillivolts--of ground. Amplifier-output-saturation limitations normally precludes such operations. Figure's 1's power-supply bootstrapping scheme...

Filter allows comparison of noisy signals. (design ideas).(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... WHEN YOU NEED to compare the dc level of a noisy signal with a reference for further processing, the output of the comparator changes in a chaotic way when the dc level approaches that of the reference. You have a choice of two classic...

Photoflash capacitor charger has fast efficient charging and low-battery drain--Design Note 303. (Design Notes: Advertisement).
February 6, 2003... Introduction The LT[R]3420 is designed to charge large-valued capacitors--such as those used for the strobe flashes of digital and film cameras--to high voltages. These photoflash, or strobe, capacitors range in value from a hundred...

Transmitter measures pressures as low as 0.15 psi. (Sensors & Transducers).(Sensor-technics CTU7000 series )(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... Targeting noncorrosive air and dry gases, the CTU7000 series of pressure transmitters covers measurement ranges of 0 to 0.15 psi through 0 to 100 psi with a typical nonlinearity of 0.2%. The devices provide outputs of 0.5 to 4.5V, 1 to 6V, 0 to...

UL-approved LVDTs work in hazardous locations. (Sensors & Transducers).(Macro Sensors HLR 750 series )(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... The HLR 750 series of ac-operated LVDTs carries a UL/ULC rating for continuous operation in Class 1, Division 2, Groups A, B, C, and D and Class 1, Zone 2, Group IIC hazardous locations. Constructed entirely of stainless steel and targeting...

Position sensor boasts small operating envelope. (Sensors & Transducers).(MTS Systems LD4 )(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... With a complete installed height of just 28.5 mm, the compact LD4 position sensor easily mounts inside an actuator cylinder endcap. The sensor's design also allows you to install and maintain the sensor without disassembling the complete...

Accelerometer offers 0-Hz operation. (Sensors & Transducers).(Sensotec Model JTF )(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... Available in flat-pack, boltmount, and stud-mount versions, the Model JTF accelerometer works over 0 to 2400 Hz with measurement ranges of [+ or -] 5 to [+ or -] 500g peak. Nonlinearity is [+ or -] 1% full scale. The device operates over -40 to...

PMC digital/analog framegrabber. (Embedded Systems).(DY 4 Systems PMC-724)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... * Handles OpenLDI and FlatLink digital formats, as well as NTSC, PAL, RS-170, and S-video analog formats * Includes an onboard FPGA for accommodating custom digital video formats * PMC-724, from $3360 DY 4 Systems Inc,...

Ruggedized single-board computer. (Embedded Systems).(Vista Controls PPC G4D)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... * Furnishes dual PowerPC 7455 CPUs running in excess of 1 GHz and a user-programmable 600,000-gate FPGA * Comes in air- and conduction-cooled versions operating over -40 to + 75[degrees]C * PPC G4D, from $7500 Vista Controls Corp,...

6U CompactPCI computer board. (Embedded Systems).(SBS Technologies C5C)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... * Powered by two low-voltage Pentium III processors running at 800 or 933 MHz * Provides two independent PCI buses, dual independent Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, and conduction cooling * C5C, from $15,600 SBS Technologies Inc,...

Dual-processor server boards. (Embedded Systems).(Force Computers FES-4204 and FES-4203/533)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... * Employ dual Intel Xeon processors and 533-MHz Intel E7501 (FES-4204) or ServerWorks GC-LE533 (FES-4203/533) chip sets * Come with as much as 12 Gbytes of DDR SDRAM and as many as four Gigabit Ethernet ports * FES-4204, from $899;...

PCI half-length I/0 card. (Embedded Systems).(Acces I/O Products PCI-IDIO- 16)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... * Supplies 16 optoisolated digital inputs and 16 solid-state FET outputs * Accommodates ac or dc source inputs of 2.5 to 50V * PCI-IDIO- 16, $309 Acces I/O Products, 1-858-550-9559, www.accesioproducts.com No. 349

PC/104 serial adapter. (Embedded Systems).(Sealevel Systems SIO. 104 + 2)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... * Provides two RS-232/422/485 serial ports, each individually configurable * Operates at standard PC data rates with a top speed of 460.8 kbps * SIO. 104 + 2, $169 (small quantities) Sealevel Systems Inc, 1-864-843-4343,...

Eight-port serial I/0 board. (Embedded Systems).(Thales Computers PMC-SIO)(Brief Article)
February 6, 2003... * Supports a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous protocols on one PMC module * Provides both front and rear I/O * PMC-SIO, from $595 Thales Computers Corp, 1-800-848-2330, www.thalescomputers.com No. 351

Who you gonna call? Google. (leading edge).
February 20, 2003... "And who dials 411 anymore, when it's cheaper and faster and you don't have to explain to some headset-wearer in Terre Haute how to spell Worcester?" --Neil Swidey, "A nation of voyeurs," The Boston Globe Magazine, Feb 3, 2005

Switched fabric eliminates CPU-bus bottlenecks. (leading edge).(General Micro Systems C269 Equinox)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... THE NEW C269 Equinox from General Micro Systems is a hot-swappable industrial CompactPCI CPU board based on Intel's new Xeon-LP Pentium IV processor. Featuring dual 3-GHz Xeon-LP CPUs, the C269 includes ServerWorks' new Hub-Link controller,...

DSP-based wireless analyzer targets 2.5 and 3G networks. (leading edge).(Tektronix WCA200A series)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING you've read about the death of telecommunications and wireless communications. In many parts of the world--especially China--the wireless industry is not merely alive and well, but also thriving, in part because of the...

Differential scope probe delivers 6-GHz bandwidth to the screen. (leading edge).(LeCroy's WaveLink)(Hardware Review)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 20, 2003... WITH DIGITAL SCOPES that offer 6-GHz bandwidth suddenly almost commonplace and with industry participants now recognizing differential signaling as all but essential for sending multigigahertz signals across pc boards and backplanes, you...

Dilbert. (leading edge).
February 20, 2003... TOUR OF ACCOUNTING OVER HERE WE HAVE OUR RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR. NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE ARE YOU SURE THAT'S RANDOM? THAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH RANDOMNESS YOU CAN NEVER BE SURE [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Leading edge.(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... * According to a recent study by Telephia Inc and pollsters Harris Interactive, the use of short-messaging service among US cell-phone owners grew from 12 to 20% last year.

Flash memory anticipates architecture transformation. (leading edge).
February 20, 2003... TODAY'S DOMINANT MEMORY architecture in cell phones and PDAs includes NOR flash memory for code storage and direct execution, along with DRAM or SRAM for data storage. M-Systems points out, though, that, as mobile electronics' functions...

Hardware accelerator targets cosimulation. (leading edge).
February 20, 2003... Emulation and Verification Engineering has introduced a hardware accelerator targeting the cosimulation market. ZeBu, (Zero Bugs), a PCI card, interfaces with a software simulator using hardware, firmware, and software layers. The interface...

Audio acquires the "write" touch. (leading edge).(Wolfson Microelectronics WM9712L)
February 20, 2003... WOLFSON Microelectronic's $6.64 (1000) WM9712L builds on the foundations of its WM9705 forerunner, which you can find in the latest generation of Dell (www.dell. com) and Toshiba (www. toshiba.com) Pocket PCs. This power-stingy combination of...

Filtering? Before or after? (bakers' best).
February 20, 2003... HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED a lowpass or highpass filter in your circuit and wondered where you should place it in the signal path? Before the introduction of controllers and processors, engineers used analog circuits to implement all filters. With...

Are single- and dual-supply op amps interchangeable? (analog angle).
February 20, 2003... AS THEIR NAMES SUGGEST, single-supply op amps aim to operate with one power supply, and their dual counterparts aim to operate with two power supplies. The application-circuit equations for both types of op amps are identical, so engineers...

Thank you. (edn.comment).(Editorial)
February 20, 2003... I CONFESS. I've historically viewed all of us in the engineering world in a somewhat less enthusiastic light than those working in the health-care industry, such as my wife. Certainly, someone has to design all the equipment used in hospitals,...

Signal to noise: calculating the high-resolution-audio reality-to-hype ratio: is high-resolution audio a "sound" investment, or will it bring your next design to a crashing halt in the market? Last time, large sample sizes made their pitch. This time, high sample rates step up to the microphone. (how it works).
February 20, 2003... PART 1 OF THIS ARTICLE series discussed the theoretical benefits of high-resolution audio's large sample sizes and the degree to which the limitations of real-life equipment, recording studios, and listening environments constrain those...

Powering portable devices: alternatives to linear regulators in step-down conversion.(National Semiconductor LM2788)
February 20, 2003... Highlights * High-efficiency Baseband Power at 2.0V, 1.8V, and 1.5V Output * 120 mA Output Current Capable * 35 [micro]A Typical Supply Current * No Inductors Required In portable products such as PDAs and laptop...

Fast track: newcomer iSCSI promises to enable the SAN market in ways incumbent fiber channel can't. .(Cover Story)
February 20, 2003... AT A GLANCE * Internet SCSI encapsulates SCSI packets, allowing block transfers over TCP/IP. * Leveraging Ethernet infrastructure is the foundation of the iSCSI proposition. * TOEs (TCP/IP offload engines) are necessary to reduce...

Digital Darwinism: discrete logic evolves to evade extinction: contradicting the relentless integration momentum of moore's law, discrete-logic devices continue to adapt and thrive. What's behind their longevity, and why might you want keep them in mind for your next design? (design feature).
February 20, 2003... I SPENT MUCH OF MY FIRST TWO YEARS as an engineer poring over a set of thick, yellow Texas Instruments data books. My peers and I constructed our system designs from discrete-logic building blocks: single, dual, quad, and octal gates; counters...

New step-down charge pumps: tiny, efficient and very low noise. (Power Solutions: Advertisement).
February 20, 2003... Inductorless charge pump DC/DC converters are popular in space-constrained applications which require load currents from 10mA to 500mA. Such converters are available in small packages, operate with very low quiescent current and require minimal...

80V linear regulator is micropower. (Power Solutions: Advertisement).
February 20, 2003... Industrial, automotive and telecom These applications pose tough design challenges due to harsh operating environments and large voltage transients on already high (12V to 48V) rails. Some switching power supplies are robust enough to...

Up to 34V input and micropower operation step-down DC-DC converter. (Power Solutions: Advertisement).
February 20, 2003... The LT1934 is a micropower step-down DC/DC converter with an internal 400mA power switch, packaged in a low profile (1mm) ThinSOT[TM]. With its wide input range of 3.2V to 34V, the LT1934 can regulate a wide variety of power sources, from...

Very low drop out (VLDO[TM]) 150mA micropower linear regulator in ThinSOT package has very low output noise. (Power Solutions: Advertisement).(Linear Technology LTC1844)
February 20, 2003... Linear Technology's new LTC1844 is a very low dropout (VLDO) micropower linear regulator which can deliver up to 150mA of continuous output current from a ThinSOT package. The LTC1844 is the first VLDO that can operate from input voltage as low...

Practical design for transferring signals between clock domains: a simple circuit addresses the errors and limitations of asynchronous design. (design feature).
February 20, 2003... WITH THE INCREASING INTEGRATION of multiple systems on single SOCs (systems on chip) or boards, multiple clock frequencies in single digital designs have become common. Because of the asynchronous nature of these designs, passing data or...

All SPI-4s are not created equal: Phase 2 of the System Packet Interface-4 is emerging as the new telecommunications and networking standard, but claiming compliance doesn't necessarily mean being compliant. (design feature).
February 20, 2003... THE OIF (OPTICAL INTERNETWORKING FORUM) developed Phase 2 of the SPI (System Packet Interface)-4 to ensure interoperability among essential networking-system components. It is emerging as an important integration standard in telecommunications...

Build a precision deadband circuit. (design ideas).
February 20, 2003... DEADBAND CIRCUITS find applications in servo-control systems. A precision current source and a half-wave inverting rectifier form a positive deadband circuit (Figure 1). The REF01, I[C.sub.1], is a precision 10V voltage reference. It forms a...

DDS and converter form signal generator. (design ideas).
February 20, 2003... MANY APPLICATIONS require low-frequency signal generators that can deliver high-performance, high-resolution signals. This Design Idea presents a circuit that generates frequencies of 0 to 1 MHz. Sinusoidal, triangular, and square-wave outputs...

48-inputx16-output crosspoint IC eliminates the need for multiplexer amps. (design ideas).(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... CROSSPOINT SWITCHES are ideal for use in video-security systems, which accept multiple camera inputs while providing playback and multiple loop-through to multiple monitors. To provide video loop-through or monitor outputs, these systems often...

Transmission line tests 1-kW device using only 100W. (design ideas).
February 20, 2003... A 13.56-MHz, ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical)-band RF-measurement device had the test requirement of a 50-hour, 1-kW burn-in. The device under test needed to be simultaneously stressed at an RF potential and RF current equivalent to 1...

4MHz monolithic synchronous step-down regulators bring high efficiency to space-sensitive applications--Design Note 304. (Design Notes: Advertisement).
February 20, 2003... Introduction The LTC[R]3411 and LTC3412 provide compact and efficient power supply solutions for portable electronics such as cell phones, PDAs and notebook computers. These two monolithic, synchronous step-down regulators provide DC/DC...

Monster debut: video games unleashed: will online play drive broadband uptake? (commverge).
February 20, 2003... RACE. ATTACK. SMASH. DUNK. BLAST. TACKLE. STOMP. DESTROY. BLOW UP. KILL. WIN. In the virtual worlds summoned into existence by video-game consoles, players young and not-so-young alike thrill to these activities. And contrary to the...

The games begin: online play gets off to an impressive start. (Inside the Digital Den).(Microsoft's Xbox Live)(Hardware Review)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 20, 2003... THE QUESTION OF THE DAY lately is invariably related to the tech economy. And too often the person I'm conversing with laments the lack of a killer application to drive our economy to health. Well, I've never bought the concept that a single...

LED display indicates time and temperature. (Optoelectronics/displays).(Lumex's LDP-A566RI )(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... The LDP-A566RI packs five 0.56-in.-high numeric characters, plus decimal points, colons, and a degree symbol, into a 44-pin DIP for front-panel applications requiring a display of both time and temperature. Typical operating current is 10 mA,...

Light pipes maximize light transmission in tight spaces. (Optoelectronics/displays).(Bivar's VLPR)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... Vertical-mount light pipes in the VLPR series employ a rectangular lens configured for flush or side-view panel insertion. Compatible with Bivar's SM series of surface-mount LEDs, the light pipes' narrow profile and small footprint enable...

Surface-mount LED is super-thin. (Optoelectronics/displays).(Stanley Electric Sales of America's PY1114CK)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... You can use the PY1114CK surface-mount LED to backlight cell-phone keypads and other switches where space is critical. The GaP yellow-green LED measures just 0.4 mm thick and comes with a milky white lens. Luminous intensity is typically 5.6...

Energy-efficient LED cluster lamps replace incandescent bulbs. (Optoelectronics/displays).(Ledtronics' TrackLEDs)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... TrackLEDs offer a choice of 12, 24, or 42 5-mm InGaAIP and SiC/GaN LEDs in a standard MR16 bi-pin base, boasting a power draw of just 0.8 to 4W and an LED operating life of 11 years. You can use TrackLEDs as direct incandescent replacements to...

Two-line LCD module produces easy-to-read characters. (Optoelectronics/displays).(AZ Displays' ACM4002E)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... Offered with or without LED backlighting, the ACM4002E displays two 40-character lines within a package size of 182x33.5 mm. Characters measure 5.55x3.2 mm for optimum viewing in point-of-sale terminals, test equipment, and similar...

Digital dc ammeters. (Test & Measurement).(Datel's DCA-20PC )(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... * Provide built-in shunts for measuring dc current over six ranges from 0 to 200 [micro]A through 0 to 20A * Employ 3 1/2-digit ADCs with red, green, or blue LED displays * DCA-20PC series, $33 (500) Datel Inc, 1-508-339-3000,...

Handheld pH meter. (Test & Measurement).(B&K Precision's 760)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... * Performs pH and millivolt measurements using a 9V-battery power source * Provides temperature compensation for pH measurements of 0 to 100[degrees]C * Model 760, $149 B&K Precision, 1-714-921-9095, www. bkprecision.com No. 356

PCI/ISA instrumentation chassis. (Test & Measurement).(Geotest-Marvin Test Systems' GT7700B)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... * Furnishes four PCI or CompactPCI slots, plus eight ISA slots * Comes with an embedded Pentium-based controller and two power supplies * GT7700B, from $6295 Geotest-Marvin Test Systems, 1-949-263-2222, www.geotestinc.com No. 357

12-bit digitizer. (Test & Measurement).(Acqiris USA's DC440)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... * Operates as fast as 400M samples/sec, storing as much as 4M points in waveform memory * Provides fully buffered input, gain from 250 mV to 10V full-scale, and offset of as much as [+ or -] 10V * DC440, from $13,990 Acqiris USA,...

Programmable bar-graph controller. (Test & Measurement).(Otek' HI-Q119)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... * Comes with one or two tricolor bar graphs and one or two four-digit displays, plus math functions * Replaces any 6-in. bar graph without changing panel cutouts or mounting * HI-Q119, from $795 Otek Corp, 1-520-748-7900,...

Voltage/continuity tester. (Test & Measurement).(Extech Instruments' ET34)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... * Detects ac/dc voltage at 12, 24, 120, 208, 240, 277, and 480V * Provides automatic ac/dc LED indication and dc polarity * Model ET34, $39 Extech Instruments Corp, 1-781-890-7440, www.extech.com No. 361

Thermocouple acquisition system. (Test & Measurement).(IOtech's DaqTemp)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... * Provides seven or 14 thermocouple input channels with built-in cold-junction compensation, plus seven differential voltage input channels * Comprises a PCI board, cable, and screw-terminal signal-conditioning pod * DaqTemp series,...

Power-system-design site. (Electronic Design Automation).(International Rectifier's myPower Online Design Center)(Brief Article)
February 20, 2003... * Provides a free simulation tool combined with overnight design-kit fulfillment * Targets dc/dc-converter applications in the range of 20 to 80A, 200 to 1000 kHz, and 1.1 to 1.85[V.sub.OUT] * myPower Online Design Center, access is...