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If you're a seasoned or aspiring inventor, you should be concerned about the current attack that large patent-intensive corporations are making on our venerable patent system, which has effectively protected the intellectual property of inventors for more than two centuries. Indeed, the so-called Patent Reform Act proposes major changes to the law governing how patents are obtained and enforced. Ironically, these changes are being promoted by the most powerful and...

High-performance computing (HPC) users are looking for platforms that deliver performance at a reasonable cost and within the confines of space and cooling available to them. A consistent software platform helps too. Silicon Graphics targets these users with its InfiniBand-based SGI Altix ICE (integrated compute environment). The SGI Alitx ICE packs up to four individual rack units (IRUs) in a standard rack to deliver up to 6 TFLOPS of performance via 512 cores...

Insistence on enforcing the existing export control policy can only damage the interests of the American high-tech industry without improving national security. This is because the U.S. is no longer the sole source of much high technology. If other nations won't follow the U.S. on restricting exports to China, then the policy can't be effective. Unilateral control by the U.S. only shackles American high-tech firms from being able to compete in China. In 2000, China's market...

Single-chip solutions built with standard microcontrollers have been a boon to system designers who can access a wide selection of features, performance, and pricing. Unfortunately, to get the resources not found on standard parts, you need multiple chips. The usual alternative is a custom-built solution, but expertise and upfront costs often stifle this idea before it starts. FPGAs typically are viewed as the solution to achieve this level of customization. In many cases, it's...

Even as Congress debates immigration reform and Homeland Security looks to erect a virtual fence on our southern border, the populace of the U.S. is inexorably changing. More than 12% of our residents are foreign-born, the highest percentage in nearly 100 years. Latin American culture in particular is favoring the mainstream culture, fueling growth in many local economies around the country. Latinos are also making their mark in engineering. I recently visited the University...

The 8-bit Intel 8080 was the central component of a multiprocessor system called the Hypercube back in the 1970s. The theory was that multiple processors could tackle large problems using parallel processing. Massively parallel processing architectures like Connection Machines' CM5 also came and went as single-core processors continued to track Moore's Law in terms of performance (see the figure). Unfortunately, it now seems that...

The Propeller chip (see "Eight 32-Bit Cores Take Flight In Multiprocessor Microcontroller" at www.electronicdesign.com, ED Online 12235) has found a home in the $59 24-pin SpinStamp Microcontroller module from Parallax. It is the same form factor as the Basic Stamp. The Propeller packs eight 32-bit processors. Each has32 kbytes of RAM and 32 kbytes of ROM. They' reprogrammed using the Spin programming language. This 3.3-V part contains its own voltage-regulator accepting...

Microchip is pushing small (6 by 6 mm) digital signal controller (DSC) chips out the door to tackle intelligent sensor applications. The 40 MIPS dsPIC33FJ12GP family is compatible with its larger brethren but pares down memory to 12 kbytes of flash and 1 kbyte of RAM. The 18- and 28-pin packages start at $1.99. The DSCs also have a 10-channel analog-to-digital-converter (ADC) with a 10-bit or12-bit mode. The 10-bit mode-enables simultaneous sampling that can eliminate the lag time...

Is the end near for Moore's Law? Semiconductors are getting harder to scale due to thinner and closer wires that are getting hotter with higher impedances. Yet researchers are using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to get around these limits. James Jiam-Qiang Lu, associate professor of physics and electrical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, believes 3D wafer technology and the use of CNTs for interconnects will help semiconductor development maintain its ...

Raytheon developed its MONARCH (Morphable Networked MicroArchitecture) architecture and chip under a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) polymorphous computing architecture contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (see the figure). It is designed to outperform existing quad-core processors by a factor of 10 in environments that MONARCH was specifically designed for—in this case, processing large...

Bob: An induction motor pulls nameplate current at nam-plate rpm. If it is being used as a generator, the slip is opposite what is experienced when the device is used as a motor, but rated power is produced at about the same absolute slip. If connection is made between the mains and motor/generator at any speed between rated motor full-load rpm and synchronous speed plus rated slip, the current must be equal to or less than nameplate current. The service factor rating even...

Once you’ve got an idea, how long does it take to turn that idea into a product? That depends on a large number of factors, including the developer’s expertise. Starting from scratch is always an option. Alternatively, building on a broader base can shorten delivery schedules, increase functionality, and possibly reduce end-product costs. Enter the reference design. Vendors deliver reference designs to highlight their chips, modules, software, or...

Even today, many airports still rely on grainy, analog video surveillance. “Why is 60-year-old analog technology that is not up to the standards needed in the post-9/11 world still being used predominantly, instead of digital technology, which is the standard in just about every other arena?” asks Peter McKee, international director of marketing for Mobotix, which manufactures digital network cameras. Analog closed-circuit television (CCTV)...

Picture a husband and wife back in the good old days before digital technology. The wife would ask the husband to get her something at the mall. The husband would grumble but go off on his quest, possibly getting lost on the way there and probably getting lost once inside the mall, sacrificing precious time watching sports on TV. Of course, he could have asked for directions, but that probably didn't happen. Though those days are long gone, this scenario will play out even...

While the scientific community has moved toward a consensus on global warming, some Electronic Design readers remain dubious. I know this because each time I've written something on the subject, I've gotten an e-mail earful from the skeptics. Perhaps this is because as engineers, 90% certainty isn't good enough. You want absolute proofs of cause and effect. Personally, I believe Al Gore. But talking about the former vice president to his detractors is like waving a...

This November, Mike Montemerlo's Volkswagen Passat wagon will drive a 60-mile trek through an urban landscape located somewhere in the western U.S. But Montemerlo won't be sitting behind the wheel, nor will anyone else. That's because Montemerlo's Passat happens to be a special robot model, custom-developed by the Stanford University Racing Team (...

Where would the electronics industry be today without consumer electronics (CE) and wireless technology? Shawn G. DuBravac, staff economist for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), has the answer. He says that the CE sector accounts for 40% of the electronics industry. "This includes components, including semiconductors, as well as finished products," he says. By some estimates, DuBravac says the CE sector accounts for more than half of all semiconductor sales...

It may seem ironic that today's most advanced chips are designed for what some might say is our most trivial of pursuits—gaming (see "Games Flourish In A Parallel Universe,"). Yet video games exert a powerful force, not only in the world of electronic design, but also on the psyches of our younger generations. I'm a bit too old to be much of a gamer. Growing up, I could only...

The industry enjoyed some financial relief when Luminary Micro announced its ARM Cortex M3 platforms priced under $1 (see "32-Bit ARM MCU Hits One-Dollar Mark"). Now, the company's latest efforts double that core's 25-MHz speed and extend the peripheral set with additional analog and pulse-width modulator (PWM) features. The Stellaris LM3S6xx and LM3S8xx push the...

Over the last decade, spintronic technology has found its way into consumer electronics, used in devices like cell phones, hard drives, and RAM. Now, researchers at the University of Delaware have opened a door to making spintronics even more ubiquitous. They've demonstrated how to control electron spin in silicon, today's semiconductor of choice (...