[Leapfrog: First Look] Latest Nios CPU Targets 32-Bit Control Needs
A second-generation implementation of the Altera Nios processor architecture boosts the embeddable CPU core to a full 32-bit implementation. The company enhanced this core to implement many more custom instructions than its predecessor. These custom...
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Dave Bursky
[Leapfrog: First Look] Mini Low-g Accelerometers Sport Five Functions
Consumer, computer, automotive, industrial, medical, and scientific applications are all potential fits for a broad range of low-cost and low-g dual-axis MEMS sensors introduced by Freescale Semiconductor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola Inc....
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Roger Allan
[Ideas For Design] Low-Cost Audio Delay Line Uses 1-Bit ADC
The concept of an audio delay line is simple. The voice or music to be delayed is analog-to-digital converted and fed into a shift register or any digital delay or storage medium. The delayed (or playback) digital signal is fed into a...
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Jim Walker
[Editorial] Analog Means Never Having To Say "You're Obsolete"
One of the amazing things about the world of analog is the huge depth of product lines offered by the market's leading manufacturers. Just as noteworthy, product obsolescence issues are real and important, as outlined in Ron Schneiderman's cover...
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Mark David
[POV: Point Of View] Tiny PGAs Pay Off Big In Data-Acquisition Systems
Too often, even though we have a great analog circuit design, the system specification changes before the product goes into production. Programmable-gain amplifiers (PGAs) can provide the adjustability needed to deal with such last-minute changes....
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Erik Soule
[Pease Porridge] What's All This Theme Park Stuff, Anyhow?
My colleague Jon Carroll wrote a story a while back when he was in India. An Indian friend of his said, "Isn't it wonderful? Read here in this newspaper! There's going to be a new theme park that this businessman is going to develop, right here in...
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Bob Pease
[TechView: The Industry] Code Morphing Deivers Security Features Fast
New firmware for Transmeta's Efficeon x86-compatible processor provides improved system security that's compatible with the forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 from Microsoft. Known as Execution Protection, the feature is integral virus protection....
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William Wong
[TechView: Analog & Power] Ultra-Compact DAC Packs A Performance Punch
The AD5641 NANODAC is the first in a family of very small digital-to-analog converters (DACs) with high-performance features despite their small package size. Available in a compact 2- by 2.2-mm SC-70 package that consumes 70% less pc-board real...
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Roger Allan
[TechView: Communications] Voice Chips Reinvent Telephony Architecture
Existing plain-old-telephone-service/public-switched-telephone-network systems are patchworks of hardware designed for centralized circuit-switch functionality and four to 16 channels. But the industry is slowly changing to packet-centric systems that...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Communications] Single-Chip Tuner Implements TV Anywhere
Imagine watching TV just about anywhere—on your laptop, your PDA, or even your cell phone. All you need is a device with a screen and the XC3028 TV tuner chip. Xceive's RF-to-baseband receiver conforms to all worldwide analog and digital TV...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Digital] Physical Synthesis Tool Boosts FPGA Performance By 20%
In a deal with Magma Design Automation, QuickLogic has added PALACE, the Magma physical synthesis tool for programmable logic devices, to the QuickWorks tool suite for its mWatt Eclipse II and Eclipse FPGA products. PALACE also will support the...
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Dave Bursky
[TechView: Digital] DDR Memory-Interface Core Eases DRAM Controller Design
Although known for its proprietary and high-performance memory interfaces, most notably the RDRAM and more recently the XDR, Rambus Corp. has decided to go mainstream. The company has used its high-speed design expertise to create a memory-interface...
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Dave Bursky
[TechView: EDA] Tool Generates RTL Code From Untimed C++
The complexity of compute-intensive applications is driving the move to system design at the algorithmic level. With the release of the Catapult C synthesis tool, Mentor Graphics now offers the core foundation for a C-based design flow. By...
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David Maliniak
[TechView: EDA] Physical Design Synthesis Steps Up To Nanometer Designs
As 90-nm design starts ramp up, so does the productivity gap in IC implementation. Most of today's tools have very long runtimes that pose obstacles to achieving acceptable quality of results for the largest 90-nm designs. Sierra Design Automation's...
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David Maliniak
[TechView: EDA] Silicon-Versus-Layout Tool Confirms RET Closure
Nanometer designs require new approaches to silicon-to-layout verification (SVL). Widespread use of resolution enhancement technology (RET) techniques has led to far greater silicon complexity. Synopsys' latest enhancements to its SiVL tool enable...
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David Maliniak
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Java Garbage And Other Myths
C still is the top embedded development language, while C++ and Java are catching up. Are you worried that trying these object-oriented platforms will poison the water, cause object-code bloat, and slow execution to a crawl? If you believe these...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Safe, Mission-Critical Java
General availability will be later in the year, but Aonix's JRTK will make the company's real-time Java support compatible with mission-critical standards coming from the Open Group. JRTK is based on JRaven, a safety-critical system based on the Aonix...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Critical Java
Under the auspices of the Open Group, Java is taking a turn for the worst--solving the worst programming problems, that is. The Safety Critical Java and Mission Critical Java standard efforts are under way. These specs are based on the Real Time...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Quad Flash Fills VME SCSI Slot
The E-Disk VME from BitMicro Networks packs up to four 2.5-in. flash memory drives into a 6U VME slot. The board can handle up to 5000 operations/s with a burst read/write rate of up to 20 Mbytes/s and a sustained random read/write rate of up to 18...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] AMC Processor Handles ATCA
The AM7501 Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) from Artesyn Technologies is based on a 1.6-GHz Pentium M with a 400-MHz, 3.2-Gbyte/s front-side bus and up to 2 Gbytes of ECC SDRAM. It has two Gigabit Ethernet channels, up to 128 Mbytes of flash memory, a...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] PowerPC Powers PMC
Force Computers puts one or two PowerPC 750GX processors on its PowerPMC-275 PrPMC PCI mezzanine card (PMC). The card has up to 1-Gbyte of DDR SDRAM, 64-Mbyte flash, dual serial interfaces, and a pair of Gbit Ethernet interfaces. It costs...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Putting POSIX In The Kernel
Accelerated Technology has added Nucleus POSIX to its line of real-time operating-system (RTOS) products. POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface for UNIX) support makes it much easier to migrate POSIX-based applications to Nucleus. POSIX...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] New Tools Spur DSC Development
The dsPIC digital signal controller (DSC) from Microchip Technology targets a wide range of DSP and general embedded applications, from motor control to audio processing to power-supply management. Its architecture supports C and the latest crop of...
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William Wong
[TechScope] Research Agreement Puts New Spin On Electronics
The industry is getting closer to the limits of transistor technology. That's why IBM's Almaden Research Center and Stanford University have teamed up in the advanced research and creation of high-performance, low-power spintronics. This effort will...
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Richard Gawel
[TechScope] A Library On Your Laptop
Shakespeare's drama. Plato's philosophy. Darwin's science. Michelangelo's art. Keats' poetry. But you don't need to scour a bookstore to find the works of the world's great thinkers. According to an exclusive three-year agreement with Vital Source...
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Richard Gawel
[TechScope] Tough Memory Stick Takes On The Elements
Rugged situations require durable memory solutions. Military and emergency personnel as well as extreme athletes can carry vital data in the FM-10 Pro USB 2.0 memory stick drive from Freecom Technologies. This robust device completely resists water...
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Richard Gawel
[Basics Of Design] Battery Power Management Sponsored by: NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
Battery-based systems cover a multitude of applications ranging from cell phones to Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), games, and medical instruments. These systems require effective power management to optimize equipment size and battery...
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Sam Davis
