3540 results found, displaying items 41 - 60

Computer-on-module boards often delegate expansion to a custom carrier board. Diamond Systems takes a different approach by including PC/104-Plus expansion on its Atom-based ETX Pluto, which is built around a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom ETX module with a 945GSE chipset (see the figure). The ETX Pluto handles up to 2 Gbytes of small-outline dual-inline memory-module (SODIMM) DDR2. Its high-resolution...

Texas Instruments is highlighting the applicability of its low-power TMS- 320VC5505 DSP to medical products with a trio of medical development kits (MDKs), including digital-stethoscope, electrocardiogram (ECG) meter, and pulse-oximeter analog front-end (AFE) boards. These boards, which plug into a TMS320VC5505 DSP evaluation module (EVM), are designed to streamline the development of portable medical devices. Each kit includes software design...

XMOS recently released its singlecore version of its quad-core XS-G4, the XS1-L1. The XS1-L1 core is the same XS-G4 (see “Match Multicore With Multiprogramming”). It handles eight hardware-based threads that can be activated by the 64 peripheral I/O pins that have a 10-ns timing resolution. This allows highlevel peripheral interfaces, such as serial ports, to be...

Many state-of-the-art embedded systems use “platform” FPGAs such as Xilinx Virtex 4/5 class devices or Altera Stratix III/IV class devices. Until recently, it wasn’t possible to deploy keyed applications in these devices, where keys are unique to each device. Although these FPGAs do have bitstream decryption keys— whether battery-backed or fuse-based—that can be chosen by the user to be unique to each device, these keys can’t be accessed from an FPGA’s...

Semiconductor companies have been working for years to develop a fully integrated TV tuner, and some progress has been made. Yet even the most recent designs have their disadvantages. Many only just meet the various test standards, while others require more than a few external components to do the job. The Si2170 from Silicon Laboratories, though, is the first silicon TV tuner to exceed the performance of traditional discrete TV tuners. It ...

There are lots of short-range wireless technologies for implementing wireless data applications, like 802.11 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 802.15.4 ZigBee, and Ultra-Wideband (UWB). Even cellular technology can serve non-voice applications. But there are times when you don’t need the complexity of the protocol, the high speed, the networking options, or the cost. You may only need a direct point-to-point link or at most a simple star network. You may...

Freescale Semiconductor’s MCF51CN ColdFire V1 microcontroller tops the company’s Tower System development boards (see the figure). The $99 kit delivers a complete development package including a copy of the Freescale MQX real-time operating system. The tower consists of a pair of “elevator” boards with four inexpensive PCI Express connectors. These connectors are found on almost every new...

Need to get a project done quickly? Modules can save time and money, especially when you’re working with wireless technologies. They often provide a family of solutions for upgrading a system with a single platform. Modules can be tiny but pack a punch. The Gumstix Overo Fireo puts more on a gumstick-size circuit board than many larger systems (Fig. 1). It includes a 600-MHz OMAP 3530...

IIt’s been a rocky year, with unprecedented layoffs and even company closures. Few employees, from executives down to entry-level engineers, feel secure in their jobs. But some companies did see success in 2008, as indicated by our annual survey of the Top 50 Employers in Electronic Design. For the sake of objectivity, our survey focused on available financial data of publicly traded companies. Our calculations drew from numbers like employee growth, sales...

My latest prototype is a four-month project to turn a pack of pachysandra into grass. Taking the organic route, I mowed down the pachysandra and ivy, cleared off the mess, layered on newspapers and cardboard, added some shredded paper and leaves, and topped it with a hefty layer of Earthmate compost, about 6 yards worth. This should kill everything while creating a good base to plant grass. It’s a process that many have used over the years, so...

As many designers familiar with military and aerospace applications know, VME has been the predominant form factor for more than 25 years. Because of its adaptability, ease of maintenance, and ruggedness, among other benefits, VME positioned itself extremely well against competing architectures years ago. Even today, in the face of upcoming VPX/VXS products, VME will have a significant role to play in the future of military and aerospace applications. ...

Across the embedded landscape, the design credo has become “more cores.” However, challenges remain when it comes to the software side. Some hardware architectures can deliver dozens of cores, while others hit thousands of cores. Unfortunately, applications don’t always port easily across different architectures. For the low end of the embedded space, single-core solutions will remain. It’s still possible to move up the power and performance curve by moving to...

I’m becoming more forgetful these days— or rather my e-mail is (Fig. 1). Like many of you, I work for a company that limits the lifetime of e-mail. At first, this seems reasonable. It saves space, even though hard-disk prices per terabyte are falling faster than a fully populated NAS box. It’s also a great way to eliminate evidence. This policy has some unintended consequences, though, for...

The CMOx nonvolatile memory technology from Unity Semiconductor targets storage-class memory applications. CMOx is based on new materials in the semiconductor process called conductive metal oxides that use the movement of ionic charge carriers to store information. With 64-Gbit chip capacity on the horizon, it looks to be a challenger to NAND flash. The technology employs a multi-layer, multi-level cell (MLC) approach that gives...

In the classic board game Battleship, an adversary arranges a fleet of tiny, plastic combat vessels on a grid that’s hidden from view. After an analogous fleet is set up on a separate grid, the objective is to guess the locations of the opponent’s boats. Likewise, the opponent’s goal is to divine the whereabouts of your miniature ships. The game proceeds with ...

You don’t need to wave a magic wand to capitalize on the hordes of mobile devices that are on the market these days. They’ve become bright spots in a wobbly consumer electronics industry as buyers look for new bargains. In many instances, the cutting edge, such as the iPhone and Kindle, still carries a premium price. But the potential of lower-cost alternatives as well as the functionality provided by these new platforms is driving interest. ...

Aremote-controlled landing craft approaches a beach and deploys its robotic cohorts, including a helicopter. The helicopter flies inland and deposits a set of tracked robots that split up to reconnoiter. They use laser designators to highlight targets for incoming robot fighter planes that will launch missiles as part of a coordinated attack. This futuristic scenario is years away, not decades. Odds are good that if you step on a battlefield, a...

Rising healthcare costs, a stretched-thin number of medical providers, longer life expectancies, and a growing number of elderly and disabled patients are transforming the face of medical care. Decentralization—moving healthcare away from medical facilities and into the patient’s home—is fast becoming the new model. In 2008, Medicaid spending for long-term care cost $99.5 billion, according the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

It’s not in stores yet, but Freescale Semiconductor hopes its silicon crystal approach to flash memory will address the scaling issues that can be found with current approaches. The continuing demand for nonvolatile storage will likely mean this technology will be employed sooner than later. The floating-gate approach to NOR flash implementations is vulnerable to extrinsic reliability fallout as scaling increases. Likewise, the processing ...

Is it time to think outside the box or just give it a shake? Movement- or gesture-oriented input isn’t new. Try shaking a cell phone like Apple’s iPhone. Matched with the right application, like a game, juggling the phone may produce the effect you want. Then again, it may not. These little tricks are brought to you by accelerometers. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology has made these devices small and inexpensive. They’re used to shut down...

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