October 13, 2003 Magazine Archive

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ISSUE DATE: OCTOBER 13, 2003

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Continuing education, High-speed coax backplane connector, PoE power controller ICs, About UML 2.0, Embedded in ED

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October 13, 2003 - In This Issue

[Engineering Feature]
To Step Up Your Career, You’ve Got To Keep Learning
If you're not involved in some form of continuing education, then you are doomed to suffer the consequences of ignorance, peer contempt, technological obsolescence, and eventual obscurity—and then you retire. Well, okay, maybe it's not that... — Louis E. Frenzel

[Technology Report]
Power-Over-Ethernet Chips Give LANs A New Outlet
If you've grown accustomed to viewing the familiar LAN connector as a data port, think again. That RJ-45 jack makes a great power outlet. At least that's the message being promoted these days by Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) proponents. They want... — David G. Morrison

[Leapfrog: Industry First]
Coax Backplane Connector Handles Rates To 40 Gbits/s
Copper backplane interconnects, struggling to meet the needs of high-speed backplane communications, are presently stuck at about 10 Gbits/s. In fact, most systems work at just 3 Gbits/s. To go any higher requires more complex and costly optical... — Roger Allan

[Design View / Design Solution]
UML 2.0 Incrementally Improves Scalability And Architecture
There’s much hoopla about the upcoming UML 2.0 specification, even though it’s many months away from being released in its final form. Conflicting reports from a number of sources have confused users, and many of them are raising valid concerns... — Bruce Powel Douglass

[Ideas For Design]
Simple Volt-Second Clamp Prevents Transformer Saturation
Single-transistor forward converters are popular in higher-power isolated power supplies because they feature low parts count and component stress. On the downside, careful attention must be given to transformer reset to prevent saturation and... — Kurk Mathews

[Ideas For Design]
Basic Circuit Supplies Stepper-Motor Timing
The fundamental circuit shown in Figure 1 generates timing for a two-phase stepper motor from an oscillator, as well as a direction (forward or reverse) signal. Figure... — K.V. Madanagopal

[Editorial]
Realities Of Iraq Limit Military Electronics Market
Despite a rising chorus questioning our country's long-range strategies in Iraq, last month's third-annual Military Electronics Show seemed likely to be one place where I'd find virtually unanimous support for the war and subsequent efforts to... — Mark David

[POV: Point Of View]
For Analog Circuitry, Smaller Isn't Always Better
For 30 years, electronics engineers have come to expect that the main path to "smaller, faster, and cheaper" products is semiconductor integration. Also, greater integration has been enabled by the move to finer lithographies. There are signs,... — John Hussey

[Pease Porridge]
What's All This Credit Card Stuff, Anyhow?
While I was cruising up the A30 from Penzance to London, I stopped to buy 28 liters of petrol (about £20). I pumped the gas and tried to pay. "Your credit card is not valid." Oh, jolly. How about my backup credit card? "That's not working... — Bob Pease

[TechView: The Industry]
Micro Fuel Cells Target Battery Replacement In Handhelds
The need to regularly recharge batteries in portables with terminals may become a thing of the past. An STMicroelectronics-led project aims to create micro fuel cells, which are small enough to fit inside a mobile handset. Such cells will generate... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: The Industry]
Europe Moves To Standardize Digital TV Receivers
Europe has taken a step toward consolidating its multiple cable receiver standards in one common specification. The European Information, Communications, and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Association (EICTA) has started working with major... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Analog & Power]
Power Supplies Deliver Isolation, Low Noise To PoE
IEEE802.3af Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) applications distribute a 48-V dc bus over CAT5 unshielded twisted-pair cabling to power voice-over-IP phones, WLAN access points, and other applications requiring 13 W or less per device. To generate that dc... — David G. Morrison

[TechView: Analog & Power]
RF Chips Improve Power-Amp Linearity And Efficiency
The MAX2009 and MAX2010 rf predistorter ICs provide AM-AM and AM-PM distortion correction to counteract the gain and phase compression of LDMOS power amplifiers. These chips offer fully independent controls for both gain and phase expansion in a 5-... — David G. Morrison

[TechView: Communications]
Wi-Fi Chip Set Doubles Wireless Range Yet Saves Power
Transmission range for most standard Wi-Fi modems rarely extends beyond 100 meters in closed quarters or 300 meters in line-of-sight (LOS). However, in a recent LOS test, Atheros' fourth-generation 802.11 chip set with the company eXtended Range... — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
First PXI System Emerges For RF/Wireless Testing
Aeroflex's new PXI 3000 series RF test system is a flexible, modular pre-lab test system designed for mobile phone and general-purpose wireless testing. It has four key test modules that plug into a PXI-based frame. PXI, of course, is a derivative... — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
DAA Modem Chip Set Squashes Cost, Space, And Power Consumption
Silicon Labs' third-generation silicon DAA (direct access arrangement) modem chip set is aimed directly at embedded modem applications. Among the anticipated applications are point-of-sale (POS) terminals, set-top boxes, digital video recorders, and... — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Digital]
Graphics Processor Brings Mutlimedia And Video Capture To Handhelds
With cell phones, PDAs, and other portable devices being asked to do more, whether it's playing multimedia files or capturing images, the system's CPU simply can't handle the task alone. Designers at Emblaze Semiconductor agreed, so they came up... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Digital]
Hot Product: Surroundsound Codec
Packing two analog-to-digital and six digital-to-analog channels, the CS42406 surroundsound codec simplifies system design by providing single-ended inputs and outputs. Developed by Cirrus Logic Inc., the codec offers high-quality 24-bit... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Digital]
Development Kit Takes The Bite Out Of Digital Media Application Creation
Developing digital media applications can be daunting, which is why Texas Instruments came up with a new digital media development kit. It's equipped with a 600-MHz TMS320DM642 DSP chip on the evaluation board and all the peripheral functions needed... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: EDA]
Methodology Expedites Route To SoC Testbenches
By encapsulating verification best practices and combining them with large productivity gains, Verisity's System Verification Methodology (sVM) can help overcome a lack of verification expertise. The methodology builds on Verisity's e... — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
Cadence, CoWare Ally To Drive ESL Design
With the lofty goal of creating a new level of design abstraction, Cadence Design Systems and CoWare will jointly pursue an electronic-system-level (ESL) design methodology. The vendors' strategic alliance is intended to mend the methodology rift... — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
Mixed-Signal Simulator Speaks Verilog-AMS
Designers today find themselves adding more and more analog and mixed-signal content to their creations. And at nanometer geometries and gigabit speeds, digital circuits begin to look more analog than digital. It all adds up to enormous verification... — David Maliniak

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
When You Have A Debugger, Everything Looks Like A Breakpoint
I'm always amazed at how little time some developers take to learn about debugging techniques and tools. While I agree that good planning and design, along with smart compilers, can reduce the number of bugs in a program, it doesn't eliminate them.... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
PCI Express Is A-Comin'
PCI Express moves into the real world as more companies such as NEC Electronics deliver real products like the x8 PCI-X Bridge and Switch. These chips are based on NEC's 0.15-µm process technology. The cores are also available in custom chips.... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
2.6 Kernel Works Its Way Into Embedded Linux
The long-awaited 2.6 Linux kernel is finally available for embedded systems. The latest incarnation of BlueCat Linux from LynuxWorks plans to use the new kernel. The 2.6 kernel is preemptible, providing reduced interrupt latency. It also supports... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Custom 8051 Fits FPGA
Finding the right 8-bit MCU is easy when you can choose the configuration. Actel's Core8051 approach starts with a single-cycle processor core. Creating the rest of the system is a matter of adding devices, such as a 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet interface... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
News Clips
100MIPS 8051 Gets Two-Cycle 16x16 MAC. The C8051F120 single-cycle 8051 MCU includes a two-cycle 16x16 multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit, making it the fastest 8-bit MCU around. The chip has 128 kbytes of flash memory... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
DSL Chip Set Cuts DSLAM TCO
Texas Instruments' AC7 DSL chip set runs less than $10 per port and consumes less than 750 mW. Integrated memory helps keep parts count down to 23 per port. The AC7 splits DSLAM functions into a 16-port transceiver and a 2-port analog front end... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
SBC Mixes Old With New
The SVME/DMV-182 single-board computer combines the popular MIL-STD-1553B interface with a Gigabit Ethernet interface, yet it still has enough space for two 64-bit 66/133-MHz PCI-X-compatible PMC mezzanine modules. The 1553B interface has... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Acquisition Boards Do 200 Msamples/s
The 6U CompactPCI DC436 and DC438 from Acqiris have dual 12-bit ADC channels that handle sample rates up to 200 and 100 Msamples/s, respectively. They have a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of up to 62 dB and a spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) of more... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Access The Internet With AT Commands
The CO710AG is the latest iChip Internet controller that employs Connect One's AT+i command set. The command set is an extension of the popular AT modem command set. This simple, serial interface allows devices to access a network using dial-up... — William Wong

[TechScope]
Startup Develops Prototype Hologram Projector
It's no longer science fiction. We're one step closer to holograms. IO2 Technology has completed a working prototype called the Heliodisplay, which can project TV, video, and computer images into thin air. About the size of a breadbox,... — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
Pocket Translator Speaks 10 Languages
Next time you're abroad, keep your translator right in your pocket. The Lingo Pacifica Talk 10 can translate in any direction between 10 different languages, spelling words out phonetically for easy pronunciation when necessary. Its database... — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
System Jams Unwanted Camera Phone Pictures
Camera phones are great for sending snapshots of the kids to grandma. But they also could be used for more sinister purposes. That's why audio IP licensing firm Sensaura and Internet and mobile technology developer Iceberg Systems have teamed up to... — Richard Gawel

[Basics Of Design]
Analog-To-Digital Converters
Sponsored by: ANALOG DEVICES
Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) translate analog signals -- real-world signals like temperature, pressure, voltage, current, distance, or light intensity -- into a digital representation of that signal. This digital representation can then be... — David G. Morrison

[New Products]

• RF Crystal Oscillator Suppresses Jitter, Phase Noise — Roger Allan

• Miniature SMD Saw Filters Suite Mobile Phone Applications — Roger Allan

• Cost-Conscious PID Controllers Aim At Brushed DC Motors — Roger Allan

• Coded Switches Fashioned In Tape-And-Reel — Roger Allan

• Infrared LEDs Produce Highly Collimated Outputs — Roger Allan

• LabView Software Plug-In Lets Sensors Communicate Smartly — Roger Allan

• RJ45 Connector Modules Facilitate Power Over Ethernet — Louis E. Frenzel

• 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet Transceiver Uses CMOS For Low Power — Louis E. Frenzel

• Gigabit Ethernet Transceiver Pushes 10 Gbits Over Copper — Louis E. Frenzel

• Transceiver Brings High Signal Integrity To 10GE, Fibre Channel — Louis E. Frenzel

• Precision Rate Control And QoS Hallmarks Of Fast Ethernet Switches — Louis E. Frenzel

• Controller-Area-Network IC Beefs Up Data Throughput — Lisa Maliniak

• Single-Chip Audio Subsystem Supports Voice And Digital Audio — Lisa Maliniak

• 4-MHz Step-Down DC-DC Converters Deliver 500-mA With 90% Efficiency — Lisa Maliniak

• 10GE Switch Promotes Cost-Efficient Scalable Enterprise Switches — Louis E. Frenzel

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