[Technology Report] Digital ICs: Overview
The onslaught of digital technology, bolstered by advances in process technology, lithography, metallization, and packaging, is now yielding circuits that are faster and more complex than ever before. Take, for instance, the 64-bit microprocessors...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: Memory
Depending on the system application, the dominant memory type will change as system requirements change. The memory market is generally split into three main product types: DRAMs, SRAMs, and nonvolatile devices. For the most part, memory manufacturers...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: Microprocessors & Microcontrollers
Maturing architectures and the adoption of new technologies will mark the year for microprocessors (MPUs) and microcontrollers (MCUs). The 64-bit microprocessor market for servers is consolidating to a few processors, but the embedded market remains...
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William Wong
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: Programmable Logic
Although the ASIC headlines the marquee as a system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are pushing hard to grab that spotlight. A fast turnaround capability, coupled with the ability to modify the design should system...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: Standard Logic
ASICs and field-programmable/reprogrammable logic circuits have absorbed most of the "commodity," or "standard" logic elements—gates, flip-flops, decoders, registers, etc. But there's still a strong demand for certain classes of commodity,...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: ASICs
True systems on silicon are now a reality thanks to advances made in process technology. This includes chips containing millions of gates, megabits of memory, and mixed-signal circuitry at designers' fingertips. But designing and fabricating such...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: Digital Signal Processing
Awakening to a CD-player/clock radio. Chatting on a cell phone. Listening to an MP3 player. Watching a DVD-based movie on a widescreen TV. It's hard to go a day without coming in contact with at least two or three devices that contain some form of...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Analog/Mixed-Signal: Overview
Last year was supposed to ring in the "Recovery" after the worst year in semiconductor history, yet everyone is still holding their breath for the economy to revive. Most analysts have reported that semiconductor sales grew a meager 1% in 2002, but...
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Tets Maniwa
[Technology Report] Analog/Mixed-Signal: Analog-To-Digital Converters
The analog-to-digital converter (ADC) segment is closely aligned with the overall drive to perform as much signal processing in the digital domain. The drivers and trends are similar to the pressures that affect the logic areas. Converters are moving...
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Tets Maniwa
[Technology Report] Analog/Mixed-Signal: Digital-To-Analog Converters
Like their analog-to-digital converter (ADC) counterparts, digital-to-analog converters (DACs) are moving toward higher speeds and resolutions at a lower operating power. The primary drivers are higher speed, greater resolution, and lower power....
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Tets Maniwa
[Technology Report] Analog/Mixed-Signal: Amplifiers
As basic building blocks, the equally ubiquitous amplifier and comparator can be designed into a host of circuits. The wide range of amplifier functions and large number of variants within each category indicate the high degree of specialization in...
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Tets Maniwa
[Technology Report] Analog/Mixed-Signal: More
Amplifiers and data converters dominate the analog and mixed-signal markets, but lots of other functions are crucial within this industry segment. Space constraints prevent addressing all of them, so we'll focus on two of the fastest growing areas: RF...
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Tets Maniwa
[Technology Report] Components/ Interconnects/ Packaging: Overview
Slow but steady is the hallmark of progress in the three foundation technologies of components, interconnects, and packaging. At first glance, to the untrained eye, advances in these areas seem mundane and obvious. But the facts are that size is...
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Roger Allan
, et al.
[Technology Report] Components/ Interconnects/ Packaging: Components
Size reductions in capacitors and inductors will enhance their value in power-conversion designs as newer chemistries and magnetics designs prove their worth. For supercapacitors and other components, cost reductions will drive the newer technologies...
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David G. Morrison
[Technology Report] Power: Overview
Growing demands for current in advanced system designs continues to drive power-supply development. Much of the progress in this direction can be traced to gains made in power-conversion technology, thanks in large part to improvements in power ICs...
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David G. Morrison
[Technology Report] Power: Power Semiconductors
Demands for low-voltage, high-current supplies in ever smaller form factors continue to fan the flames of innovation in power MOSFET technology. Recent progress made by semiconductor manufacturers in reducing the on-resistance and gate charge of their...
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David G. Morrison
[Technology Report] Power: Power Management ICs
A number of challenges lie ahead in the power-management arena. Most daunting may be those revolving around powering next-generation microprocessors. These CPUs will require voltage regulators that can supply extremely high peak currents at sub-1-V...
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David G. Morrison
[Technology Report] Power: DC-DC Converters
Distributed power architectures, like those used in telecom and networking applications, have traditionally relied on isolated dc-dc converters (bricks) to generate the various supply voltages required on pc boards. But over time, the number of supply...
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David G. Morrison
[Technology Report] Power: Power Supplies
It's a given that power-supply development always moves toward higher power density, or in the case of low-voltage supplies, higher current density. Naturally, this trend favors the development of more-efficient switching power-supply architectures...
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David G. Morrison
[Technology Report] Communications /Networking: Overview
Everything is a network. Think about it. We deal with networks of many types on a daily basis. Our electronic networks are the telephone system, cable TV, and of course, the Internet. This is not to mention the many WANs, MANs, LANs, and...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Technology Report] Communications: Cell Phones
The cell-phone business finally topped the PC business in semiconductor purchases, making it one of the largest—if not the largest—segment within the semiconductor arena. Yet the cell-phone market has flattened over the past two years. Just...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Technology Report] Communications: Wireless Networks
Wireless is booming, and we're not just talking cell phones. Wireless local-area networks (WLANs), personal-area networks (PANs), and special wireless applications are seeing excellent growth, riding against the grain of the past two down...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Technology Report] Communications: Optical
It looks like it's going to be another down year for optical, so the angst continues. In fact, some say that the decline will continue through 2004, with a return to growth in the following years. The field of fiber optics grew to unexpected...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Technology Report] EDA: Overview
Dramatically shifting sands in the design world await engineers, particularly those involved with ASICs or customer-owned tooling (COT) ICs. Nanometer design is becoming reality, but its ultimate success hinges on the development of a very different...
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David Maliniak
[Technology Report] EDA: Design & Verification
The design challenges implied by systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) are overwhelming. Yet, the design work is less and less of the overall battle. Verifying that you've designed what you intended has become the greater hurdle. This process will take...
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David Maliniak
[Technology Report] EDA: Prototyping & Implementation
At 100 nm and below, designers of ASICs and SoCs find themselves facing a Gordian knot of physical roadblocks to implementation. In 2003 and for the foreseeable future, silicon virtual prototyping will become an essential technique for driving...
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David Maliniak
[Technology Report] Embedded/ Software/ Systems: Overview
Embedded Developers are a Conservative Lot, and with good reason. An embedded system that has to last five years is a short run. Systems must go out the door well tested, which typically means using hardware and software with a track record. That's...
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William Wong
[Technology Report] Embedded: Hardware
When is it best to incorporate many of the new technologies that will be available? That will be the pervading question this year within the embedded hardware industry. Unfortunately, many technologies, such as switch-fabric backplanes, require a...
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William Wong
[Technology Report] Embedded: Software
Java and C# line up for battle atop J2EE and .Net. C/C++ is here to stay. In many ways, it's like last year when it comes to embedded software. The bulk of all development for servers, desktops, DSPs, and MCUs will be in C/C++. C/C++ tools are...
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William Wong
[Technology Report] Test & Measurement: Overview
ADVANCES IN TEST AND MEASUREMENT EQUIPMENT and IC devices keep marching on in lock-step with each other—one can't do without the other. Look into a just-developed piece of test gear, and you're bound to find devices made on the latest process...
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Roger Allan
[Technology Report] Test & Measurement: Logic, Bus, Protocol Analyzers
Logic analyzers continue to make strides in performance and ease of use, with bandwidths now topping out at 8 GHz (125-ps timing). Some, like Tektronix's TLA7Axx family, are the first to offer such a wide bandwidth simultaneously with state...
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Roger Allan
[Technology Report] Test & Measurement: Oscilloscopes
Real-time measurement bandwidths for today's oscilloscopes have leapt to 6 GHz. Now these scopes complement design-automation tools through various interfaces, allowing for an interchange between "real" and "virtual" worlds. This also makes it...
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Roger Allan
[Editorial] Fresh Starts Herald A Promising Year For Both Of Us
Electronic Design ushers in this new year by unfurling a new look, as we embark on our second half-century of covering the electronics industry. We are as excited as ever by what the future holds. Just as 2003 represents fresh business...
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Dave Bursky
[Pease Porridge] What's All This K2-W Stuff, Anyhow?
The K2-W was not the first modern general-purpose operational amplifier. Loebe Julie's 1942 amplifier came earlier and had some real advantages. But the Julie amplifier didn't offer much gain, even after adding positive feedback. It didn't have much...
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Bob Pease
