[Technology Report] Spectrum Analyzers Answer Call For Speed
The easiest way to envision a spectrum analyzer is to begin with an oscilloscope that plots magnitude versus time. Then swap frequency for time—and voilà—a spectrum analyzer! A gross simplification perhaps, but no one...
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Stephen Grossman
[Design Application] PCI Scales New Heights With Switch-Fabric Interconnects
PCI and CompactPCI (cPCI) technology and systems are pervasive across a wide range of applications. But as these applications evolve, the limitations of both technologies are surfacing. At the same time, the investment in them can't be written off....
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Tim Miller
[Ideas For Design] Improve Voltage Readings By Doubling A DVM's Scale
The ubiquitous, and now inexpensive, 1999-digit digital panel meter or digital voltage meter (DVM) module is a very useful addition to the range of test and display gear currently available. It's accurate, robust, and easily scaled for ranges from...
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David Ponting
[Editorial] Are We Paying Too High A Price For Free Services?
The Internet and World Wide Web offer a plethora of free services to all. In many areas, this has brought about extremely positive change by providing access to everything from music and art to a wealth of resources from general facts to specific...
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Dave Bursky
[Pease Porridge] What's All This Shunt Stuff, Anyhow?
We often think of Ohm's Law as V = I × R. That's not really Ohm's law, but we'll use that relationship today to measure V = I × R for some large currents. Specifically, I need to design a good 1-mΩ shunt to sense 15 A. Yes, you...
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Bob Pease
[Editor's Notebook] Web-Based Design Tools Bear Fruit For Engineers
It's Friday morning. You've just been asked to come up with a prototype of an almost, but not quite standard, Utopia multiplexer by Tuesday afternoon. You frantically call around to distributors, but no one can deliver the configuration you're...
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David Maliniak
[Celebrating 50 Years] Industry Milestones/Flashback
Flashback > 10 Years Ago MAY 1, 1992 This year's 14th Annual IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC)... is one of the biggest to date. Some 30 technical sessions, with over 170 papers, cover...
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Staff
[Celebrating 50 Years] Four Killers Are On The Loose
BE ON YOUR GUARD. THESE KILLERS ARE ARMED AND DANGEROUS. They will impact your system designs for the foreseeable future. But if you are prepared to deal with them and harness their power, your new designs will blow away your competition. We...
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Staff
[Forefront] Fuel Cells For Handhelds Showing Promise
Fuel-cell technology for handhelds continues to advance. Mechanical Technology of Albany, N.Y., has improved its methanol-powered fuel cell, meant to power convergence devices like combination cell phone/PDAs. An existing convergence device, which is...
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David G. Morrison
[Forefront] Eighth-Brick DC-DC Converters Are Becoming The Rage
With rising demands for higher power density, power-supply vendors are introducing dc-dc converters in a new format—the eighth-brick. With a typical footprint of 2.28 by 0.78 in., it's about 40% smaller than standard quarter-bricks. Eighth-bricks...
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David G. Morrison
[Forefront] 8-GHz Logic Analyzers Feature Connectorless Probing
Offering an industry-leading 8-GHz timing acquisition rate, the TLA7Axx logic analyzer modules feature advanced connectorless probes. Users can obtain analog and digital measurements (both timing and state) through a single one of these probes. The...
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Lisa Fakhry
[Forefront] Framework Speeds DSP Development
DSP development has gotten easier with Texas Instruments' new framework-based design system. Part of the Code Composer Studio, it's compatible with TI's eXpressDSP architecture. Two frameworks are available. The Compact framework is designed...
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William Wong
[Forefront] Verification Environment Helps With FPGA/SoC Prototypes
Verification has become the bane of the ASIC designer's existence. It consumes from 30% to as much as 70% of total design time. And no one wants to blow $500,000 or more on a mask set that proves worthless. One answer to the problem is FPGA...
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David Maliniak
[Forefront] CORBA Fault Tolerance Done Transparently
Continuous system availability requires fault-tolerant software, not just hardware. That's what Eternal Systems' FT/ORB v2.0 transparent software does to support CORBA-based embedded applications. FT/ORB sits between the CORBA ORB support...
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William Wong
[Forefront] White LED Drivers Target Handheld Devices
Models in a series of six white-LED drivers are optimized to run off of battery sources like lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells. They include two switched-capacitor constant-current drivers (LM2794/2795), two switched-capacitor constant-voltage drivers...
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David G. Morrison
