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ISSUE DATE: MARCH 29, 2004 OPTIONS
Success Story: The BlackBerry, Programmable-gain amplifiers, Embedded Linux, Powering today's processors

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March 29, 2004 - In This Issue

[Success Story]
The BlackBerry Reaps The Fruits Of Innovation
What's one of the recipes to success in electronic products? To start, take an identifiable market with a clear need. Then, mix in a good portion of creativity, a unique innovative approach, and some fresh new intellectual property. Next, roll out a...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[Technology Report]
Take The PGA Tour Through Analog-Digital Interfacing
Lying at designers' fingertips is an ever-widening range of programmable-gain amplifiers (PGAs) to handle the interface between real-world analog outputs of sensors/transducers in data-acquisition systems and the digital world of signal processing....  — Roger Allan

[Leapfrog: First Look]
Latest Linux Kernel Is A One-Stop Solution
Linux 2.6 seriously impacts the system and embedded spaces with a wide range of improvements at both ends of the spectrum. It eliminates the need for various Linux configurations, providing an incredible upgrade path within a single architecture. As...  — William Wong

[Leapfrog: First Look]
"Arm"-ing Analog Microcontrollers
Standard Arm-based products are quickly becoming the standard for midrange microcontrollers (MCUs). Analog Devices' ADuC702x family puts these products in the middle of analog space. It's not surprising, given Analog's previous endeavors with its...  — William Wong

[Design View / Design Solution]
Learn "The Rules Of The Game" For Powering Today's Processors
Rapidly evolving processors consistently challenge power-supply designers to solve complex power-delivery issues for desktops, workstations, and servers. In fact, powering the microprocessor presents the most difficult power solution in...  — Ron Berthiaume

[Ideas For Design]
Semi-Precision Current Limiter Handles High-Power Loads
Implementing a current limit with a ground-referred load often requires a power transistor, a high-side current-sense resistor, and some form of level shifting to get the current-sense signal referred to a convenient potential, usually ground. The...  — Anthony H. Smith

[Ideas For Design]
Simple Buck-Boost Converter Shines In USB Applications
In USB applications, a constant 5 V is often required. But according to the USB standard, the input voltage can vary from 4.5 to 5.25 V. So converters must be used to stabilize the voltage. However, widely available buck (step-down) or boost (step-up)...  — Liu Yang

[POV: Point Of View]
In Entertainment Networks, 1394 Is The Right Choice
Today's electronics industry is populated with excellent standards for just about any design task. The engineering community has done a terrific job of creating these standards, and engineers should use the best of the bunch for their...  — James Snider

[Editorial]
Homeland Security Spending "Sniffs Out" New Tech Tools
Say what you will about deficit spending for Homeland Security. If nothing else, many of the programs should be money well spent when it comes to helping create American engineering jobs. This week, my local newspaper ran an item about how our county...  — Mark David

[Pease Porridge]
What's All This Analog PowerPoint Stuff, Anyhow?
Those of you who have attended my lectures know that I usually say, "Some companies—such as Oracle and Teradyne—have outlawed PowerPoint. When PowerPoint is outlawed, only outlaws will have PowerPoint." Then I point out that I am the Analog...  — Bob Pease

[TechView: The Industry]
Embedded Linux Makes Strange Bedfellows
A new open-source product is on the horizon. Wind River will partner with Red Hat to develop an embedded Linux based on Red Hat's workstation. Other Wind River products like Wind Power will augment the new embedded Linux. Wind River's other...  — William Wong

[TechView: The Industry]
Designers Must Look At Multiple Metrics To Pick The Best Core Silicon
Designers make few choices more important than selecting which chip or chips will perform the basic functions that define their systems' functionality. These chips, the "core silicon" of the system, can be any one of a variety of different types of...  — Jordan Selburn

[TechView: Analog & Power]
ICs Bring Temperature/Voltage Management To A Host Of Applications
Computer and embedded systems with temperature- and voltage-management issues can look to a trio of intelligent ICs from Standard Microsystems Corp. Targeting workstations, servers, and other multifan embedded applications, the ECM6W201...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Analog & Power]
Integrated LDO Regulator Suits High-End Audio Portables
From an input supply of 3 to 5.5 V, the CM3702 integrated charge pump and linear low-dropout (LDO) regulator delivers 5 V to the analog input of a system's audio codec. The device, targeting high-quality audio applications, integrates a charge pump...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Analog & Power]
Analog Front-End IC Presents Total Motor-Control Solution
High throughput and simultaneous sampling for multi-axis positioning, motion control, and robotics come via the ADS7869 IC, a complete analog front end for motor-control applications. This Texas Instruments device integrates three 12-bit, 1-Msample/s...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Embedded]
A Tiny 8051 With An 8-Channel, 24-Bit ADC Plus Other Neat Stuff
The mailbag is getting a little full. So, let's open it up and take a quick look at a some of the more interesting items in there. First is Silicon Laboratories' C8051-F350. This 5- by 5-mm chip packs a single-cycle 8051 with a...  — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
Automatic Test Generation Drives UML Development
Rhapsody's automatic test generator now handles test-case generation for Unified Modeling Language (UML) development. Extensive, documented testing is key for safety-critical applications like DO-178B-compliant products. The Automatic Test...  — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
Tool Speeds TI DSC Application Development
The embedded target for TI C2000 digital signal controllers (DSCs) features automatic code generation and peripheral programming support from the MathWorks. The $4000 Embedded Target for TI C2000 is integrated with the MathWorks' Matlab, along with...  — William Wong

[TechView: Communications]
Nova Wireless Engine Boils Down Complex Handset Design
As the typical cell phone tacks on high-speed Internet access, digital cameras, and other multimedia functions, its design gets more difficult. A solution may be on its way in the Nova Wireless Engine. This complete yet flexible GSM/GPRS reference...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
DSP Chips Say To Radio: "Let's Get Digital"
Broadcast radio is going digital. Two of the last holdouts in the digital revolution, AM and FM radio, will get a digital mode thanks to a series of chips developed by Texas Instruments. Such digital radio conforms to the new HD Radio...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
Low-Cost Wireless Transceiver Fits Short-Range Point-To-Point Applications
ZigBee, Bluetooth, WirelessUSB, and the new ultra-wideband devices are formidable technologies, but they're overkill for many wireless needs. For simpler point-to-point wireless applications, designers can turn to the AMIS-52100 wireless transceiver....  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Digital]
High-Density CPLDs Deliver More Gates At Half The Cost
By revamping the internal architecture of its complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), Altera developed a CPLD family that offers four times the gate count of its predecessor. The MAX II family also delivers those gates at half the cost and only...  — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Digital]
SERDES Transceivers Hit 6.25 And 10 Gbits/s
Backplane serializer/deserializer (SERDES) transceivers offering 6.25- and 10-Gbit/s data-transfer rates now come from PMC-Sierra Inc. and Accelerant Networks Inc., respectively. PMC's PM8359 QuadPHY 6G chip complies with the Optical Internetworking...  — Dave Bursky

[TechView: EDA]
First Steps Taken On Road To C Synthesis
Following on the heels of its technology announcement late in 2003, Synfora is now shipping PICO Express, its algorithm-to-tapeout tool that synthesizes C algorithms into Verilog RTL. With the tool's release comes more information on the technology...  — David Maliniak

[TechScope]
Robot Receptionist Offers Detailed Directions... And Good Gossip
Valerie, the new receptionist at Newell-Simon Hall at Carnegie Mellon University, likes to chat with friends on the phone, has had her share of dating troubles, and hopes to be a lounge singer someday. She's also a robot. Researchers at the...  — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
Fiber-Optic Robot Sub To Explore Deepest Terrain
Fiber optics are lighting the way to the darkest depths of the ocean. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Va., are building a battery-powered robot that can explore terrain up to 36,000 feet underwater. The...  — Richard Gawel

[Basics Of Design]
Working With Analog/Mixed Signals
Sponsored by: NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
Signal conditioning often consists of converting an analog signal from a sensor in the physical world into a digital signal that can be used for data collection, controlling a process, performing calculations, producing display readouts, and other...  — Gene Heftman

[New Products]

• Digital ICs/DSP: 90-nm Process Yields Small, Low-Cost 64-Mbit Flash Memories  — Dave Bursky

• Digital ICs/DSP: HDMI Receiver Handles Dual Video Streams And Multichannel Audio  — Dave Bursky

• Digital ICs/DSP: Communications Processor Boosts IPsec Throughput To 70 Mbits/s  — Dave Bursky

• Digital ICs/DSP: 3D Graphics Engine Lets Handhelds Crank Out 1 Million Polygons/s  — Dave Bursky

• Embedded: VME SBC Brings Plenty Of Front And Rear I/O  — William Wong

• Embedded: Boards Build AdvancedTCA System  — William Wong

• Embedded: FPGAs Linked Via Race++  — William Wong

• Embedded: PCI Frame Grabber Captures Up To Three Images Simultaneously  — William Wong

• Embedded: Linux Goes On TI's Digital Media DSP/CPU  — William Wong

• Embedded: Air-Cooled CompactPCI SBC Serves Up Dual Gbit Ethernet Links  — William Wong

• Components: Tri-Color Bright LED Dies Come In Low-Profile SMT Packages  — William Wong

• Components: Power-Supply Decoupling Capacitor Takes Performance Up A Notch  — William Wong

• Components: HCMOS Oscillator Drops Phase Noise Floor Down To -162 dBc/Hz  — William Wong

• Component Specifier: Circuit Protection  — Lisa Maliniak





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