[Technology Report] Harness Today's DSPs: Propel Tomorrow's Designs
Designers always crave greater computational throughput in their DSP application s. More throughput equals richer DSP functionality, whether it's performing more exacting calculations to deliver better filtering or imaging or handling multiple tasks...
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Dave Bursky
[Leapfrog: First Look] Eclipse: Write Once, Run Everywhere Platform
Sun's initial shot at Java on the desktop didn't fare well. Nonetheless, some notable Java desktop applications, such as Sun's StarOffice, have seen success. Initial criticisms of Java applications being too slow are long gone. Even with better...
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William Wong
[Ideas For Design] Handy Circuit Simplifies Frequency-Ratio Measurement
In many instrumentation systems, the ratio of two frequencies has more significance than the two individual frequencies. One such application is the ratiometric capacitive sensor. In this case, two frequencies, F1 and F2, are generated inversely...
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M.S. Nagaraj
[Editorial] A Gift Of Hobby Electronics Inspires Future Engineers
I got an e-mail recently from Forrest Mims, author of most of Radio Shack's electronics project books—over 7.5 million served! Despite those bestseller-like figures, Mims reports that the hobby electronics market is so slow that Radio Shack has...
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Mark David
[Pease Porridge] Bob's Mailbox
Dear Bob: Bob Widlar was a good friend. He was one of the few people I've known with a photographic memory. I was employed at National throughout the '70s, where we were designing a chip that would use an on-chip-substrate reverse-bias...
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Bob Pease
[TechView: The Industry] A Complex Task: Real And Imaginary Robots Honored
The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the premier robotics research centers, recently established the Robot Hall of Fame to honor landmark achievements in robotics technology and the increasing contributions of robots...
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William Wong
[TechView: The Industry] PC OEMs Reshaping Consumer Electronics Market
Since their inception, PCs have been a disruptive product, sweeping away the old order and ushering in revolutionary changes in information technology (IT). But now, PC OEMs have their sights set on an area beyond IT, toward consumer electronics....
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Jay Srivatsa
[TechView: Communications] VoIP Gateway Resides On A Single Chip
VoIP telephony is coming soon to your cable or DSL line. To help, Texas Instruments' TNETV1060 system-on-a-chip (SoC) VoIP gateway solution addresses the requirements of residential and small-office/home-office (SOHO) gateways. The chip...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Digital] ISSCC Preview
It's time to put in for your travel budget to attend the 2004 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, Feb. 15-19 at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel. Next year's ISSCC will be one of the largest to date, with 204 papers, three plenary...
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Dave Bursky
[TechView: Digital] Budget-Priced DSPs Deliver Studio-Quality Audio
Offering enough processing throughput to deliver studio-quality audio at consumer prices, four enhanced SHARC DSPs from Analog Devices integrate more peripheral support than previous devices. To support the processor, the company has developed...
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Dave Bursky
[TechView: EDA] Technology Generates RTL From ANSI C Algorithms
Central to many highly integrated devices are communication standards, image formats, and other functions with existing reference ANSI C algorithms. It can be difficult for RTL designers to optimize those algorithms for a given implementation....
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David Maliniak
[TechView: EDA] Physical Synthesis Arrives For FPGAs
FPGA complexity is exploding, and RTL synthesis is running out of steam. With its Precision Physical Synthesis tool, Mentor Graphics melds the best of both RTL and physical synthesis. The result is shorter design-iteration times and more predictable...
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David Maliniak
[TechView: EDA] ESL-To-RTL Flow Leans On Abstraction Adaptation
EDA power users moving toward SystemC for architectural exploration must still make the leap to RTL for a cohesive flow. Offering a true mixed-abstraction approach to ESL (electronic system level) design, SpiraTech's Cohesive tools provide a full...
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David Maliniak
[TechScope] Unique Supercomputer Studies Ocean Currents
Imagine the computing power of 512 processors working in tandem. That's the resource now available at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Based on the Linux operating system, this facility's 512-processor SGI Altix single-system...
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Richard Gawel
[TechScope] Keyless Entry Doesn't Even Need Your Hands
Nobody likes fumbling for car keys while carrying an armload of groceries. Even a pushbutton clicker can be inconvenient when it's buried in a pocket or purse. Yet the hands-free VML S system from ELA Innovation spares drivers these annoyances by...
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Richard Gawel
[TechScope] Study Skids With SAFE Dragsled
Skids occur in all kinds of hazardous situations, from cars on icy roads to loading trucks on greasy floors. Designers have to account for skid potential in their vehicles, but testing requires them to fill tires halfway with concrete and pull them...
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Richard Gawel
[Basics Of Design] Miniature Packaging Sponsored by: PHILIPS SEMICONDUCTORS
The packaging of electronic devices is an evolving art driven by the requirements of smaller, lighter, portable, battery-powered products, such as cell phones, PDAs, notebook computers, CD-ROM players, and so forth...
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Gene Heftman
