December 16, 2004 Magazine Archive

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ISSUE DATE: DECEMBER 16, 2004

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Solar cogeneration, Secure wireless systems, Improved display stability

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December 16, 2004 - In This Issue

[Engineering Feature]
Bright Outlook For Solar Power Cogeneration
Solar power, specifically the kind that runs lights and television sets and keeps the milk in the refrigerator cold, has undergone a resurgence in the U.S. since 2000. That's when the IEEE released a standard—IEEE 929-2000, Recommended... — Don Tuite

[Leapfrog: First Look]
DDS V1.0 Standardizes Publish/Subscribe
The people at the Object Management Group (OMG) have been busy churning out a new standard for real-time publish-subscribe network middleware, called the Data Distribution Service (DDS). OMG is the organization responsible for such standards as... — William Wong

[Design View / Design Solution]
Wireless Systems Are Great—If They're Secure
In the fall of 2002, an employee of a Norwegian newspaper was watching TV when his brand new computer suddenly came out of sleep mode and started beeping as if text was being typed on his keyboard. When he started his word processor, he discovered... — Karl H. Torvmark

[Ideas For Design]
Code Improves Display Stability For DC Signals With Large Ripple
Sometimes, dc signals from physical parameters (temperature, current, voltage, etc.) may show a little variation in time caused by electromagnetic interference, or even by its own nature. For example, in dc power plants, even high-frequency... — Jorge M. Briseno

[Ideas For Design]
Stored Energy In Relay Coil Boosts Op-Amp Supply Voltage
The circuit shown in the figure uses stored energy in the multiplexer relay coil to boost the power-supply voltage from 3.3 to 5.1 V. This extra voltage enhances the amplifier's ability to produce a larger output voltage suitable for interfacing... — Akash Tiwari

[POV: Point Of View]
Truly Open Tools Can Add Value To Eclipse Framework
The Eclipse framework creates both opportunities and design challenges for vendors of integrated software development tools. The open-source nature and extensive built-in capabilities of the Eclipse framework force vendors to evaluate how they... — Mike McCullough

[Editorial]
Santa's Sleigh To Be Filled With Best-In-Class Devices
My kids are doing their part to support the electronics industry this Christmas. Visions of semiconductors will dance in their heads in anticipation of whether they'll get all the portable wizardry on their wish lists: iPods,... — Mark David

[Pease Porridge]
Bob's Mailbox
Dear Bob: It was with initial interest (eyes resting on the large-font title), then mounting dismay that I engaged in the misfortune of reading your article "What's All This Input Impedance Stuff, Anyhow?"* Being familiar with the... — Bob Pease

[TechView: The Industry]
Firefox: A Browser For Embedded Applications
Unless you've been ignoring the Internet, you're probably aware of Firefox 1.0. This open-source Web browser has garnered a significant following--though not a following that severely impacts the reigning king, Microsoft's Internet Explorer.... — William Wong

[TechView: The Industry]
OLEDs Vs. LEDs: Dual Screens Duel For Attention
The rising popularity of dual-screen, clamshell-design mobile phones has prompted developers to find ways to combine the hardware associated with the subdisplay and the main display. For instance, it's already possible for the two displays to share... — Kimberly Allen

[TechView: Analog & Power]
I2C-Programmable DC-DC Converter Chip Gives Handhelds A Hand
When I ask companies about design-ins, most bring up the worldwide lack of qualified power-supply designers. The need grows more acute as the number of rails in new products, particularly in battery-powered consumer products, increases. One... — Don Tuite

[TechView: Analog & Power]
GPS Front-End Chip Shaves Power, BOM Costs
positioning system (GPS) RF front-end downconverter eliminates the need for costly surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) and bulky discrete IF filters. It also consumes extremely low power--as little as 41 mW at 2.4 V. Maxim's MAX2745 integrates a... — Don Tuite

[TechView: Analog & Power]
Expect A Rush Of New Designs With Arrival Of VoIP Codec
According to Juniper Research, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) will account for over 12% of all telephony revenues by 2009 as it evolves from a replacement service for the public switch telephone network to a new converged service for home and... — Don Tuite

[TechView: Communications]
Framer/Concentrator Streamlines Sonet Line-Card Design
Though the financial health of telecom carriers is on the mend, their budgetary charts reveal continued cost-conscious operations. They'd rather not replace whole racks or modules to cope with the ever-growing capacity needs for internetworking.... — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
48-Port 1GE Switch Plus PHY Trim Switch And Router Cost And Power
One-Gigabit Ethernet (1GE) local-area networks (LANs) are now migrating to the edge of the network where small-office/home-office and consumers are connecting. Agere Systems' ET4K family of 1GE switch chips supports this trend. The... — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Embedded]
16-Bit RISC MCU Attacks DSP And LCD Chores
Needing less than 250 mA/MIPS, the 16-bit MAXQ2000 microcontroller is certain to find its way into portable, low-power applications. The chip's Harvard architectural design incorporates DSP-style instructions so it can use a hardware multiplier... — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
Static Analysis Tool Locates Errors In Java Applications
Get it right the first time and cut support costs--that's how Klocwork's inForce for Java helps reduce errors during Java development. The tool scans Java source code for a range of errors, such as resource leaks, null pointers, and... — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
Embedded News
VXS Switchless Backplane Ideal For Early Developers The five-slot VXS backplane complies with the new VITA 41.0 switched backplane specification and the VITA 38 specification for System Management. It doesn't... — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
ZigBee Development Kit Comes With Free Stack
ZigBee is finally becoming reality, or so it seems with the arrival of development kits like the PICDEM Z 2.4 GHz Demonstration Kit crafted by Microchip Technology. This low-cost tool provides a pair of peer-to-peer nodes. These are... — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
Eclipse Essentially Gives A Lift To 16-Bit MCUs Toolset
Based on Eclipse 3.0, the code composer essentials toolset from Texas Instruments targets the company's low-power, MSP430 16-bit microcontroller product line. This set uses the Eclipse CDT (C/C++ Development Tool), but it employs a Texas... — William Wong

[TechView: Components & Test]
15-Mbaud Highly Integrated Optocouplers Suit Many Applications
According to their manufacturer, the ACSL-600 family from Agilent Technologies represents the industry's first 3.3-V, 15-Mbaud multichannel and bi-directional digital logic-gate optocouplers. "The 15 Mbauds is the industry's highest rate for a... — Roger Allan

[TechView: Components & Test]
Mini Temperature-Sensor ICs Accurately Monitor Seven Channels
Precise sensing and monitoring of a single temperature or two with an IC is a nice achievement. But doing so for up to seven channels represents a breakthrough. That's just the case with the MAX-6697 and MAX6698 sensors, which measure 8.5 by 8.5... — Roger Allan

[TechView: Digital]
Flexible Interconnect Acts As A "Bus Tuner" For Wireless-Bound SoCs
Physical structures, advanced protocols, and extensive power-management capabilities all merge together on the SonicsMX. Developed by Sonics in conjunction with Texas Instruments, this suite of intellectual property and tools targets the design of... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Digital]
Ferroelectric RAMs Pack Megabit Capacity
A pair of ferroelectric RAMs (FRAMs), the MB85R1001 and 1002, offer 1-Mbit storage capacity. Developed by Fujitsu Microelectronics, these FRAMs feature high-speed read and write operations (100 and 250 ns, respectively), low power consumption, and... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Digital]
Swap Out Pricey Buffer Solutions With Denser, Faster Dual-Port And FIFO Memories
Higher density and faster memories were added to IDT's multiport and first-in/first-out (FIFO) families. The dual-port family now features a 36-Mbit synchronous dual-port device that IDT says offers the industry's highest density. The chip... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: EDA]
Get More Productive With Test-Enhanced PC-Board Tools
Productivity is paramount for pc-board designers. The process of schematic capture and entry for a modern multilayer board can mean many thousands of mouse clicks. Electronics Workbench's Multisim 8 pc-board design and simulation... — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
SystemC Anchors IC Implementation Flow
The promise of SystemC, a design language that has often been touted as an answer to the burgeoning complexity of systems-on-a-chip (SoCs), is only as good as the path from algorithm to tapeout. CoWare and Forte Design are doing their part to... — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
EDA Roundup
A low-power SoC design collaboration between ARM, Artisan Components, National Semiconductor, Synopsys, and UMC culminated in a comprehensive technology demonstration for the ARM926EJ-S processor. The combined power-saving capabilities of the... — David Maliniak

[TechScope]
Time-Shifting RadioShark Surfs The Airwaves
Now that time-shift recording is popular for television, the medium is making some waves in radio. Once added to your PC or Mac, the radioShark can be programmed to record any AM or FM radio broadcast. Also, listeners can use it to "pause" live... — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
Small Solution Uses Big Money To Fight Cancer
Backed by two collaborative research grants totaling $10 million, Georgia Tech and Emory University will plunge into developing cancer-fighting nanotechnology. A $7.1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute will be used to integrate... — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
Super Challenges Ahead For The World's Top Supercomputers
They're the fastest in the world--supercomputers, that is. Top500.org has released its biannual list of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers. IBM's BlueGene L beta System took the number one slot with a 70.72-Tflop/s Linpack benchmark performance.... — Richard Gawel

[Design FAQs]
Ethernet MAC And PHY
Sponsored by: FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR
How do you implement a single-chip Ethernet microcontroller? The trick is to incorporate the microcontroller, Ethernet MAC, and PHY on a single chip, thereby eliminating most external components. This enables the MAC and PHY to be... — William Wong

[New Products]

• Components: Plastic Caps Push Performance Of Optical Emitters/Photodiodes — Roger Allan

• Components: Fan-Speed Controller Combines AC-To-DC Power With Control/Alarm — Roger Allan

• Components: Low-ESR Aluminum Capacitors Can Take The Heat — Roger Allan

• Components: High-Efficiency White LED Drivers Suit Small Module Backlighting — Roger Allan

• Component Specifier: Filters/Oscillators — Richard Gawel

• Components: SMT Three-Terminal Capacitor Sports Low ESL Characteristics — Roger Allan

• Components: Power Components Come In Discrete TO-220AB Packages — Roger Allan

• Components: Advanced Capacitors Deliver Nonburning Performance — Roger Allan

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