[Technology Report] Top Ten Introduction: Predictions For Next Year And Beyond
TO KICK OFF OUR ANNIVERSARY YEAR, WE HAVE completely restructured our annual Technology Forecast issue. The new format emphasizes scope of coverage to inform you of as many important technology trends and impending events as possible. We intentionally...
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Staff
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: Introduction/Memory
Digital Brings More Memory, Gates, Speed THE ABILITY TO PROCESS DATA IN THE DIGITAL domain has opened many new opportunities and application areas. Starting with diode-transistor logic (DTL) circuits in the '50s, to the...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: Reprogrammable Logic
Reprogrammable Logic: From Standard Logic Replacement To Unique Solutions PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC IS THE UBIQUITOUS and versatile building block that virtually all digital systems rely on. Nowadays, it comes in several...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: Standard Logic
Commodity Logic: The Jellybeans Of The Digital World THE VARIETY OF TRANSISTORS BORN IN THE '50s FORESHADOWED the logic industry of the '60s and '70s. As transistors entered the digital world by forming discrete...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: ASICs
From Gates To Megagates, ASICs Flourish BY THE LATE '60s, CHIP MAKERS SUCH AS FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR, Motorola, and Texas Instruments (www.fairchildsemi.com, www.motorola.com, www.ti.com) were creating hundreds of logic...
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Dave Bursky
[Technology Report] Digital ICs: DSP
Harnessing The Power Of DSPs BEFORE SEMICONDUCTOR BUILDING BLOCKS OR SINGLE-CHIP solutions came on the scene, digital signal processing (DSP) problems, primarily in the military arena, were solved using DEC minicomputers and...
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Ashok Bindra
, et al.
[Technology Report] More Analog/Mixed-Signal ICs
Reconfigurable ICs Ease Analog Design ALTHOUGH FIELD programmability and in-system reconfigurability have pervaded analog applications, they remain in their adolescence. The future looks promising, with the product...
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Ashok Bindra
[Technology Report] Components: Circuit Protection & Sensors
Circuit-Protection Components Scale Down Size, Speed Up Performance JUST LIKE WITH OTHER PASSIVES, THE GROWTH of portable applications has created a need for smaller circuit-protection components. Both overvoltage and...
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Roger Allan
, et al.
[Technology Report] More Components
LEDs are poised for a breakthrough in notebook backlighting. The increasing efficiency of white LEDs is positioning them to replace cold-cathode fluorescents (CCFLs) in backlighting LCD flat-panel displays for TVs and monitors this year. Thanks...
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David G. Morrison
[Technology Report] Power: Introduction/Power Semiconductors
Smarter Devices Spur Savvy Supply Design OVER THE YEARS, ADVANCES IN POWER semiconductors, especially discrete power transistors and power control ICs, have played a crucial role in the development of power supplies....
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Ashok Bindra
, et al.
[Technology Report] Power: Power-Management ICs
Power Management In A Gigahertz World POWER SUPPLIES HAVE EVOLVED significantly over the last 50 years. But a major "step function" transition occurred with the introduction of the first monolithic bipolar pulse-width...
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Ashok Bindra
, et al.
[Technology Report] Power: DC-DC Converters
Low Voltages Challenge DC-DC Supplies FALLING SUPPLY voltages and rising currents have greatly enhanced the value of stepdown dc-dc converters. As voltages migrate to 1 V and possibly lower, I*R losses make it...
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Ashok Bindra
, et al.
[Technology Report] Power: Power Supplies
System Needs Will Demand Greater Attention To Power IN THE PAST, POWER-SUPPLY SELECTION WAS OFTEN TREATED AS AN afterthought in system design. But that approach is becoming increasingly dangerous in this era of short...
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Ashok Bindra
, et al.
[Technology Report] Communications: Introduction/Optical
Optical And Wireless Lead The Way COMMUNICATE. THAT'S WHAT HUMANS DO. WE still predominantly communicate face-to-face and in print, but electronics has made it possible to communicate faster, more conveniently, and...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Technology Report] Communications: Wireless
Wireless Technologies Portend The Future WE ARE WELL ON OUR WAY TO A WIDELY wireless world. In fact, is there anything electronic today that isn't wireless? When we say wireless, of course, we're talking about...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Technology Report] Communications: Bluetooth
Bluetooth Is Here To Stay, Despite The Pundits' Reservations BLUETOOTH WAS PROBABLY THE MOST OVER-HYPED communications technology last year. The pundits ripped it apart until prospective users began to doubt its...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Technology Report] Test & Measurement: Oscilloscopes
Oscilloscopes Ramp Up WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, THE physics teacher brought out the Dumont oscilloscope whenever it came time to discuss electricity. I don't recall its model number, and the demise of Dumont is...
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Stephen Grossman
[Technology Report] Electronic Design Automation
EDA Tools Try To Keep Up With The Silicon IT NOT ONLY APPEARS AS IF THE DESIGN WORLD IS at last ready to embrace system-on-chip (SoC) design methodologies, but that the electronic design automation (EDA) industry is...
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David Maliniak
[Technology Report] Embedded Software
In Search Of Standards IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY, PRICE, AND performance drive today's embedded software development market. Frameworks and standards-based libraries make programmers more productive in an era of rising...
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William Wong
[Technology Report] Computer Boards
Buses Dominate Board Architecture PCI IS DEAD. LONG LIVE PCI, PCIX, COMPACTPCI, and so on. Of course, the emerging plethora of high-speed serial buses is looking to make mincemeat out of standardized parallel bus...
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William Wong
[Ideas For Design] Inductance-Substitution Circuit Uses Variable Coils
When prototyping RF circuits, computer simulation or de-sign programs can potentially yield the wrong component values. These errors are caused by the omission of capacitances or inductances originating from the board layout or other considerations....
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Dana Romero
[Pease Porridge] What's All This Analog Computing Stuff, Anyhow? (Part 1)
I first joined George A. Philbrick Researches back in 1961, when Philbrick was doing some of the advanced analog computing stuff in the industry. (Note: for you young kids who weren't around then, I will explain everything later.) At that...
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Bob Pease
[Celebrating 50 Years] A Celebration, 50 Years In The Making
IF YOU'RE LIKE MOST ORDINARY FOLKS, YOU PROBABLY don't wake up each day thinking about the impact your profession has on society in general. But as one of the 145,000 design engineers and engineering managers receiving this magazine, you're a part of...
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Thomas Morgan
[Celebrating 50 Years] Be Part Of Our Year-Long Party
IT SIMPLY CANNOT BE TRUE! How can Electronic Design be 50 years old? We feel like we're still only 25! We're a vibrant magazine covering a vibrant industry. There must be a mistake; we demand a recount! Okay, Electronic Design will, in fact,...
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Lucinda Mattera
[Celebrating 50 Years] Design Through The Decades
FIFTY YEARS AGO, Electronic Design MAGAZINE was born. Since then, we have witnessed the growth of the electronics industry and provided our readers with the necessary information to make informed design decisions. As we celebrate our golden...
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Roger Allan
[Celebrating 50 Years] Reader Polls/Flashback
READER POLLS<>HALL OF FAME This page will appear in every issue as part of our year-long celebration of Electronic Design's 50th anniversary. It is here we will print the results of your responses to our Web-site...
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Staff
