EDN articles from January 2007

EDN archives from January 2007

Connecting systems to displays: What we got here is failure to communicate.
January 4, 2007... by Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor Continuous technological evolution is the inevitable consequence of vendors' desires to sustain revenue and profit at healthy levels. When that product progression results in regressive experiences...

Timing is everything in SOC design.
January 4, 2007... by Ron Wilson, Executive Editor Despite good tools, successful timing closure is still a matter of methodology and attention. It is a recurring nightmare. The SOC (system-on-chip) design has gone smoothly from day one. RTL...

Extend low-output-voltage switching regulator's input range.(Linear Technology Corp. introduces LT1936 (IC1) semiconductor switches)
January 4, 2007... Hua (Walker) Bai, Linear Technology, Milpitas, CA Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville Internal operating voltages in electronic devices continue to decrease, but input-source voltages don't change. As the difference between...

Automatic latch-off circuit saves batteries.
January 4, 2007... Kieran O'Malley, On Semiconductor, West Kingston, RI Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville Although rechargeable batteries offer many advantages, they can suffer damage and shortened service lives if they're fully drained of...

Switching regulator reduces motor brake's power consumption.
January 4, 2007... Alain Minoz, Elekta Instrument AB, Stockholm, Sweden Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville For safety reasons, a motor that drives a safety-critical electromechanical assembly often includes an electromagnetic brake on its drive...

Analog divider uses few components.(analog computation in integrated circuit collection)
January 4, 2007... David Cripe, Chatham, IL Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville Although microprocessors may offer more-precise calculations, there's still room for analog-computation techniques in a designer's circuit collection. As a case in...

Foggy crystal ball yields 2007 wishes.
January 4, 2007... by Maury Wright, Editor in Chief Well, 2007 has arrived, along with the New Year's resolutions and the ever-present pundit technology predictions. Unfortunately, my crystal ball is a bit foggy when it comes to such things as wireless...

Under the hood of hybrid vehicles.
January 4, 2007... by Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor Energy- and emission-efficient automobiles are increasingly relying on both combustion engines and electric motors for power. The term "hybrid automobile" has held a number of meanings. An early use...

Two-way street.(measurement of voltage build up using aggregate-voltage waveform)
January 4, 2007... by Howard Johnson, PhD Suppose that I gave you a highway-traffic monitor that reports total traffic density on a section of roadway but does not provide separate figures for eastbound and westbound traffic. Obviously, this sensor reveals...

User-friendly model simplifies Spice op-amp simulation.
January 4, 2007... by Ray Kendall, Intuitive Research and Technology Corp A new macromodel based on data-sheet parameters allows easy model creation for new amplifiers. Spice users can run into two types of problems with op-amp models: They need a model...

High-speed modular logic analyzers capture as many as 512M samples.
January 4, 2007... by Dan Strassberg Agilent Technologies has expanded its logic-analyzer line with a new modular mainframe; two new modules, including one that provides four times the memory of the deepest memory logic-analyzer modules available from any...

Processor lowers cost of Gigabit Ethernet.
January 4, 2007... by Robert Cravotta Freescale's MPC8313E PowerQuicc II Pro processor delivers Gigabit Ethernet with integrated security-encryption blocks for as low as $15 (10,000). It includes a dual 10-, 100-, 1000-Gbps Ethernet MAC...

EPIC computer expands communications options.(EPIC Design Technology Inc. introduces SBC4670 single-board computers)(Brief article)
January 4, 2007... by Warren Webb Targeting remote-terminal, data-logging, and protocol-conversion applications, Micro/sys recently introduced the SBC4670 single-board computer, which combines a low-power PX270 ARM ( www.arm.com ) processor with standard...

ESL market adds an enterprise player.
January 4, 2007... by Michael Santarini Cadence Design Systems Inc is making an enterprise-level play in the ESL (electronic-system-level)-software market by adding features to its Enterprise Manager environment, its Incisive Enterprise Simulator, and its...

Dummy-fill-synthesis tool has smarts.
January 4, 2007... by Michael Santarini Blaze DFM is following up its mid-2006 release of its Blaze MO gate-CD biasing/leakage-control tool with an intelligent dummy-fill-"synthesis" tool. The tool addresses the problems that IC foundries encounter when...

WiQuest adds video support to Wireless USB.
January 4, 2007... by Maury Wright For months now, rarely a week has passed when one Wireless USB player or another hasn't touted a chip compatible with the specifications that the WiMedia Alliance ( www.wimedia.com ) has shepherded. Based on UWB...

Point-and-see picture transfer requires no setup, employs IrDA.(from Sharp Microelectronics Group)
January 4, 2007... by Graham Prophet, EDN Europe As a long-term supplier of transceivers to the IrDA (Infrared Data Association) market, Sharp Microelectronics is promoting the IrSimple "special case" of that standard for sending pictures from camera phones...

Powering SOCs with integrated approaches.(system on chip)
January 4, 2007... by Chitra Giridhar, EDN Asia A typical portable electronic device, such as a mobile phone or an MP3 player, comprises a variety of chips--many of which need different power-supply voltages. For instance, USB OTG (on the go) needs a 5V...

Scope.(Consumer Electronics Show)
January 4, 2007... Edited by Ron Wilson Looking Ahead Ron Wilson To ISSCC 2007 The premier annual conference for chip designs is undoubtedly the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (Feb 11 to 15) in San Francisco. The conference...

Testing our reliance on testing.
January 4, 2007... by Bob Mason, Schneider Electric/Square D In the late 1980s, my company was in the market for its first CAE (computer-aided-engineering) system. Because we did a lot of mixed-signal design, we were particularly interested in being able to...

Comparing DAC architectures.(digital to analog converters)
January 18, 2007... by Bonnie Baker Entry-level engineers know ADC topologies so well that during interviews, most job seekers can draw and explain fundamental block diagrams. The same situation does not hold true for DAC topologies. In this case, applicants...

Seeking the secrets of a satellite receiver.
January 18, 2007... by Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor DirecTV set-to-box design focuses on modularity for the mass market. Rendered redundant by the acquisition of a more advanced unit, a DirecTV D11-100 satellite-set-top box gets the Prying Eyes...

Beyond Spice.
January 18, 2007... by Paul Rako, Technical Editor Field-solver software can predict the behavior of circuits that operate at speeds and densities beyond the capabilities of Spice to properly model. Whether you are trying to verify signal integrity or...

Model behavior: creating embedded-software short cuts.
January 18, 2007... by Warren Webb, Technical Editor As embedded-system teams race to bring new products to market, designers are evaluating model-based development tools to deal with escalating software complexity. Embedded systems traditionally have...

Scope.
January 18, 2007... Edited by Ron Wilson Looking Ahead To analog versus digital at APEC 2007 The 22nd annual APEC (Applied Power Electronics Conference, www.apec-conf.org/ ) kicks off at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, CA, on Feb 25. Billed as the...

EDA Consortium: the Market Statistics Service.
January 18, 2007... by Robert Gardner, Executive Director, EDAC Editor's note: In two 2006 columns, EDN Senior Editor Mike Santarini took EDAC (Electronic Design Automation Consortium) to task for changes in how they report market numbers (...

Software tests compliance with eight popular protocols.
January 18, 2007... by Dan Strassberg LeCroy Corp's Windows-based QualiPHY, a hardware and software serial-data-compliance-test application, works with any of the company's 2-GHz or higher bandwidth real-time or sampling digital oscilloscopes and protocol...

Low-cost, high-I/O-count FPGAs target display market.(field programmable gate arrays )(Xilinx Inc.)
January 18, 2007... by Michael Santarini In an attempt to nab sockets in the market for low-cost, high-volume video displays, Xilinx has released an I/O-heavy version of its 90-nm Spartan-3 FPGAs. Before this release, Xilinx introduced a high-gate- and...

Data-acquisition module features USB interface.(Sealevel Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
January 18, 2007... by Warren Webb Targeting test, security, and industrial-control applications, Sealevel Systems recently announced the first in a family of USB-compatible data-acquisition and -control modules. The SeaDAC MIO-26 includes 16 single-ended...

IEEE 802.11n wireless-LAN market remains in conflict as draft-n battle looms.
January 18, 2007... by Maury Wright Does the IEEE 802.11n wireless-LAN spec even matter? Yes, we could use faster wireless-LAN technology and better range. The speed mainly matters for video delivery, although a higher maximum bandwidth also means that an...

Practical book helps developers apply USB-interfaced mass-storage devices.(USB Mass Storage: Designing and Programming Devices and Embedded Hosts)(Book review)
January 18, 2007... by Dan Strassberg In technical writing, clarity is the name of the game. As someone who writes technical prose, I greatly admire Jan Axelson; she knows better than almost anybody else how to write clearly and how to explain complex...

Model-based DFM platform emerges.(design for manufacturing)(Clear Shape Technologies)
January 18, 2007... by Michael Santarini EDA start-up Clear Shape Technologies, the worst-kept secret in the DFM (design-for-manufacturing) market, in November formally announced itself and its two DFM tools. In 2003, industry veterans Atul Sharan, Yao-Ting...

Cherokee International: Where in the world are design and manufacturing?(Interview)
January 18, 2007... by Margery Conner When electronic-hardware companies perform research on where to build manufacturing facilities, they must consider more than just which country has the cheapest labor rates. In this brave new world of electronics design...

One man's trash ...(semiconductor companies' disposal of surplus equipment)(Column)
January 18, 2007... by Marty McGrath, McGrath Technical Services I took a consulting job with a major semiconductor-equipment-manufacturing company. There, I built various test fixtures using surplus VMEbus-card cages that the company had in the warehouse....

Agile software empowers wireless-sensor networks.
January 18, 2007... by PJ Tanzillo, National Instruments Applications for wireless networks can range from home automation to large-scale environmental monitoring. With the freedom these wireless approaches offer, you can network the tundra as easily as the...

A logical approach to NVM integration in SOC design.
January 18, 2007... by Ann De Vries and Yanjun Ma, Impinj SOC designers have several options for integrating NVM (nonvolatile memory) into their designs, so it's wise to weigh the availability and numerous trade-offs before jumping headfirst into integrating...

Microcontroller drives logarithmic/linear dot/bar 20-LED display.
January 18, 2007... Dhananjay V Gadre and Anurag Chugh, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville Available for more than 20 years, National Semiconductor's ( www.national.com ) venerable LM3914...

Optical feedback extends white LEDs' operating life.
January 18, 2007... Bjoy Santos, Intersil Corp, Milpitas, CA Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville Regardless of its color, an LED's light output varies as a function of forward current and ambient temperature. As Figure 1 shows, an LED's light...

Sequencer controls power supplies' turn-on and turn-off order.
January 18, 2007... Eric Schlaepfer, Maxim Integrated Products Inc, Sunnyvale, CA Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville When a design based on multiple point-of-load dc/dc converters requires a specific power-supply-start-up sequence, wiring each...

Use dual op amp in an instrumentation amp.
January 18, 2007... Jerald Graeme, Burr-Brown Corp, Tucson, AZ Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville Editor's note: Here's an oldie but goodie. EDN editors regularly field requests for copies of articles that predate our online archives (...