Click to view this week's ad screen

ISSUE DATE: FEBRUARY 16, 2004 OPTIONS
Favorite design tools, POL power-management system, High-end CPUs, Debugging clock-timing problems


• Get a FREE Subscription
• Renew Subscription
• Reprints/Licensing
• Advertiser Index
• Submit Article Ideas

 

Browse Archived Articles By: Issue | Author | Department | Topic

February 16, 2004 - In This Issue

[Engineering Feature]
Designers Pick EDA Favorites: Tools To Get It Right–Fast!
When it comes to tools, every craftsman has his or her favorites. Cabinetmakers might single out their wood planes or stonecutters their chisels. And certain tools are essential to craftsmen—they'd be lost without them. In these times of...  — David Maliniak

[Technology Report]
64-Bit Processors Promise Power-Packed Solutions
Smaller transistors and larger die sizes are radically changing the way 64-bit processors are implemented and where they're found. This holds true particularly for high-performance server and desktop computing, but also for embedded applications...  — William Wong

[Leapfrog: Industry First]
Integrated Digital POL Power-Management System Simplifies Design, Cuts Costs
Power systems are becoming more complex. To satisfy different circuit power-supply voltage and current needs, more and more point-of-load (POL) regulators and dc-dc converters are crowding pc boards—to the point where they're becoming...  — Roger Allan

[Design View / Design Solution]
It Takes A Super Sleuth To Really Debug Clock-Timing Problems
Today's digital-based systems anchor their reliability and performance on the integrity of their clocking systems. Due to the wide-reaching effect these signals have on system performance, it's paramount that problems be located and corrected. Like...  — Craig McKelvey

[Ideas For Design]
Bypass Switch Speeds Up Data Through Daisy Or JTAG Chain
A daisy chain consisting of multiple devices can be quite cumbersome to control, especially when the only device that needs updating is the last one in the chain. Each device in the chain must be written to, resulting in a slow update rate. It's...  — Catherine Redmond

[Ideas For Design]
Drive A Relay Using A 1-Wire Addressable Switch
The 1-Wire Net, or MicroLAN (by Maxim-Dallas), is a simple way to connect slow devices (such as sensors, relay drivers, switches, and so on) using simple components. These components contain the 1-Wire protocol handler, some type of interface to the...  — Giovanni Romeo

[Editorial]
Electronics At Airports Depend On Security Staff
I tried to check my irritation the other day at Newark International Airport when I had my all-in-one key-fob tool confiscated from my key ring. It had been on my key ring for years and through security screenings dozens of times, but because I was...  — Mark David

[POV: Point Of View]
Op Amps Play Major Role In New Digital Technology
The advent of the worldwide Web and expansive, new video displays that significantly magnify artifacts, smearing, and color imbalance has created a daunting challenge for amplifier developers. They must achieve near-zero signal degradation during...  — Sameer Vuyyuru

[Pease Porridge]
Bob's Mailbox
Hi Bob: A coworker in Denmark informs me that Bang & Olufsen forbids transistors to drive capacitive loads without some form of series impedance. ("A foolish consistency is the Hobgoblin of small minds." /rap) This came about due...  — Bob Pease

[TechView: The Industry]
Lithium AAAs Really Keep On Going
Laying claim to the title of world's longest lasting AAA battery, the e2 series of lithium-based AAAs offers up to 160 more hours of paging messages or 400 more flashes from your camera, according to the Energizer Division of Eveready Battery Co....  — Dave Bursky

[TechView: The Industry]
Success Depends On The Right MCP Partner
MultiChip Packages (MCPs)are taking mobile handsets by storm and entering other handheld markets, too. The impetus is the need to strike an increasingly delicate balance between rising memory density and smaller size, decreased power consumption,...  — Betsy Van Hees

[TechView: Analog & Power]
1U Programmable DC Supply Promises Performance, Power, Price
Automatic-test-equipment (ATE) applications can take advantage of the N6700 1U (rack unit) multiple-output programmable dc power supplies' high-end processing speeds, auto-ranging output, and measurement capabilities. These Agilent Technologies...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Analog & Power]
Low-Distortion 2.5-GHz Op Amp Squelches Noise
Using its BiComm-III complementary bipolar silicon-germanium process, Texas Instruments rolled out the THS4304 2.5-GHz (unity gain bandwidth) wideband voltage-feedback op amp with total harmonic distortion of −70 dBc (at 32 MHz, 2 V p-p into a...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Analog & Power]
High-Current Quad Output Regulator Protects Large TFT Panels
Optimal protection for large thin-film-transistor (TFT) flat-panel displays (FPDs), 22 in. in diameter and larger, is now a possibility with the LT1493. Linear Technology's high-current quad output adjustable switching regulator features an input...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Communications]
1-GHz Cable-Box Tuner Satisfies HDTV, VOD Bandwidth Demands
The MT2121 single-chip TV tuner from Microtune pushes past the 860-MHz threshold by offering full 1-GHz bandwidth. With this tuning range, it's ready for new bandwidth-hungry consumer-electronics applications like HDTV, video-on-demand (VOD), and...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
Engineers Wanted To Improve Technology Education
I'm looking for a few good engineers—especially engineers who work with technicians. The National Science Foundation is funding a project to update and improve electronics courses and textbooks in community and technology college courses, and...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
EtherCAT Makes Ethernet Purr Over Sonet/SDH
With ethernet's line speeds reaching 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbits/s, network engineers now have to make Ethernet local-area networks (LANs) compatible with the entrenched Sonet/SDH technology found in most metro networks. It isn't easy to transport...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
Dual-Port SRAM Accelerates Smart-Phone Development
Today's cell phones seem to do it all. Yet to meet these multimedia needs, handset manufacturers have to balance faster processors, more memory, and support circuitry against power demands. Specifically designed for cell phones, Integrated Device...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Embedded]
Multicore Embedded Debug Coordinates Multiple Tools
Debugging multicore projects isn't easy, but proper system design can significantly improve debugging capabilities and speed. Performance is critical given the large amounts of data moving within a multicore chip. So, advanced on-chip...  — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
Embedded News Clips
2U Chassis Comes With Three-Slot VME64X And CompactPCI Backplane Options. The 2U Type 39 horizontal chassis from Elma Electronics can handle four-slot and now three-slot backplanes. The latter leave more space for internal devices and cabling. The...  — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
FPGA Module Sports PowerPC
Operating as a standalone device or as part of a PC/104 system, MenMicro's EM04N embedded module handles a 400-MHz MPC8245 Kahlua II PowerPC and a 250-kgate Altera Cyclone FPGA. These devices are well suited for control and other environments...  — William Wong

[TechView: Components & Test]
Four-Port RF Component Analyzer Whisks Away With 5-ms/Point Sweep
Unleashing a 5-ms/point sweep speed, Advantest America's R3860A 20-GHz RF component analyzer targets RF hybrid modules and multiport devices. It's equipped with four receiver ports, and its 125-dB dynamic range at 8 GHz suits it for evaluating...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Components & Test]
Cost-Conscious Network Analyzers Get Lean And Stay Mean
Designed for production-line applications at significantly lower prices than Agilent Technologies' flagship 871x and 872x ENA and PNA series, the company's ENA-L and PNA-L network analyzers provide the basic capabilities needed to characterize...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Components & Test]
Wireless-LAN Analysis Software Covers All 802.11 Variations
The WCA11G Signal Analysis software package from Tektronix speeds up design and validation of 802.11a, b, and g wireless local-area networks (WLANs). It automates key measurements, interprets erratic or incomplete data, and delivers multidomain...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Digital]
Configurable Logic Solutions Wed FPGA Flexibility With ASIC Efficiency
An ASIC's or FPGA's ability to meet an application's demands comes down to a complex tradeoff between performance, density, time-to-market, and cost. Yet Leopard Logic combines FPGA flexibility with ASIC efficiency to do just that. Its Gladiator...  — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Digital]
HyperTransport Releases I/O Link 2.0
The HyperTransport Consortium has released version 2.0 of the specification defining new enhancements to the HyperTransport I/O Link interface. The 2.0 release defines three new speed levels and a new mapping to PCI Express, an emerging I/O...  — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Digital]
Singapore Chip Developers Make A Splash At CES
Two chip suppliers from Singapore caught my attention at last month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Winedge & Wireless Pte Ltd. Ultra51, a RISC-based 8051 system-on-a-chip, offers 12 times the throughput of a legacy...  — Dave Bursky

[TechView: EDA]
SoC Co-Verification Suite Takes The Crown For Speed
Hardware/software co-design is one of the frontiers of leading-edge system-on-a-chip (SoC) design. Adveda's flagship Miss Univers co-verification product targets this aspect of the design process by performing combined hardware/software...  — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
C-Based Design Suite Includes Synthesis To FPGAs
Designers continue to explore algorithmic design, which lends itself well to experimentation with FPGAs as the implementation vehicle. Version 3.0 of the DK Design Suite extends functionality to include synthesis of complex C-based algorithms...  — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
EDA Breaking News: Two New Versions Of NSpice
Two new versions of NSpice are now available from Apache Design Solutions. NSpice-PI (for power integrity) simulates extracted power-ground mesh circuits and other circuits containing a large number of linear elements. NSpice-UBS (ultrawide...  — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
EDA Breaking News: PSL/Sugar Support
Support for Accellera's PSL/Sugar and for assertion-based verification in general has been added to Verific Design Automation's Verilog and VHDL front-end software products. All of Verific's HDL component software packages, which now include a...  — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
EDA Breaking News: Encounter Digital IC Design Platform
Users of Cadence's Encounter digital IC design platform will now be able to run key elements of the platform on AMD64-processor-based systems running 64-bit Linux. The move offers users higher capacity and speed required to implement complex...  — David Maliniak

[TechScope]
Dean Wins Presidential Race
No, we're not talking about the Democratic primaries. John W. Steadman, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of South Alabama, has assumed the presidency of IEEE-USA. He served as the organization's president elect in 2003. During...  — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
Rugged Server Packs A Portable Punch
Servers don't have to be delicate. The GMII-102 portable server computers from Acme Portable Machines are designed for harsh field conditions and rugged travel. These lunchbox-style devices squeeze 2.0- or 3.0-GHz Pentium 4 processors, eight...  — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
Bluetooth Dons The Blues
Bluetooth now wears a badge. Thanks to this advanced short-range radio technology, PVP Communications' Motor One Wireless Motor Kit can cut the cords that connect a police officer to his motorcycle's radio, increasing safety, performance, and...  — Richard Gawel

[I Design]
Hank Wallace
My brother gave me a Heathkit shortwave receiver for Christmas when I was 11. He taught me to solder that afternoon and I worked on it for hours on end. What a rush it was when the filaments lit up and Spanish came pouring out of the speaker as we...  — Hank Wallace

[Basics Of Design]
High-Voltage DC-DC Conversion
Sponsored by: NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
The delivery of dc voltages and currents to ICs in modern communications systems is turning traditional power-supply design into a new art form, driven by the need for greater bandwidth, faster data rates, tighter security, upgradability, larger...  — Gene Heftman

[New Products]

• Communications: Blue Laser Driver Extends DVD Write Speed  — Louis E. Frenzel

• Communications: Sphere-Based Power Detector Measures Light Output Power  — Louis E. Frenzel

• Communications: CWDM Optical Transceivers Boost Sonet/SDH Bandwidth  — Louis E. Frenzel

• Communications: Dual USB UART/FIFO Chip Serves Up Flexible I/O  — Louis E. Frenzel

• Communications: Step-Down Regulator Rings In For CDMA Cell Phones  — Louis E. Frenzel

• Communications: 210-MSPS ADC + 2 FPGAs = Board For High-End Communications  — Louis E. Frenzel

• Communications: Tiny 115-kbit/s IR Transceiver Angles For Short-Range Wireless  — Louis E. Frenzel

• Analog & Power: 75-W Quarter-Brick Converter Boasts High Thermal Performance  — Lisa Maliniak

• Analog & Power: Single-Output AC-DC Supplies Attain High-Level Power Density  — Lisa Maliniak

• Analog & Power: 6-V Lead-Acid Battery Serves High Discharge-Rate Requirements  — Louis E. Frenzel

• Analog & Power: 40-W DC-DC Converter Modules Accept Wide Input Range  — Lisa Maliniak

• Analog & Power: Self-Protected MOSFET Switches Carry Integrated Power Transistor  — Lisa Maliniak

• Analog & Power: 16 A Is All That's Needed For Step-Down DC-DC Controller  — Lisa Maliniak

• Analog & Power: Linear Lithium-Ion Charger IC Eliminates Three Discrete Parts  — Lisa Maliniak

• Components: Harsh Environments Not A Problem With These Absolute Encoders  — Roger Allan

• Components: Configurable PLCs Come In Small Form Factors  — Roger Allan

• Components: Compact Audio Receivers Produce Big Sound  — Roger Allan

• Components: 1-GHz Hybrid Coupler Offers A Performance Alternative To Ceramics  — Roger Allan

• Components: Condensor Microphones Come Pre-Polarized  — Roger Allan

• Component Specifier: Motors/Motor Control  — Lisa Maliniak





PartFinder

Find real-time pricing, stock status, same-day/next-day shipping options and more. Brought to you by Digi-Key. Go to PartFinder.    
GlobalSpec

PART SEARCH :
Powered by: GlobalSpec - The Engineering Search Engine
Sponsored Links
Electronic Design Europe Electronic Design China EEPN Power Electronics Auto Electronics Microwaves & RF
Mobile Dev & Design Schematics Find Power Products Military Electronics EE Events Related Resources



Planet EE Network | Contact Us | Editorial Calendar | Media Kit | Submit Articles | Headlines | Subscribe
Advanced Search | Help | Site Map | E-mail Webmaster
Copyright © 2009 Penton Media, Inc., All rights reserved. Privacy