October 28, 2004 Magazine Archive

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ISSUE DATE: OCTOBER 28, 2004

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MEMS, PCB team-design tool, Simulation vs. silicon, Single op-amp peak detector

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October 28, 2004 - In This Issue

[Engineering Feature]
MEMS: Size Does Matter
They're increasingly finding their way into consumer, industrial, medical, automotive, and computer applications. Plus, we can't overlook their march into the instrumentation, military, and scientific sectors. It's obviously clear that... — Roger Allan

[Leapfrog: Industry First]
PCB Team-Design Tool Eliminates Partitions, Yet Spurs Concurrency
Whether separated by cube walls or continents, a PCB design-infrastructure tool enables team members to work simultaneously and collaboratively. Two trends dominate the world of printed-circuit-board (PCB) designers these days. One... — David Maliniak

[Design View / Design Solution]
Simulation Vs. Silicon: Avoid Costly Mistakes With Accurate Models
When first-pass silicon arrives back from the foundry, accurate simulation models are critical to first-time success. Of course, we all prefer to avoid expensive learning experiences. So every designer's ultimate goal is to hear the response... — Jerry Twomey

[Ideas For Design]
Single Op-Amp Peak Detector Features Signal Accumulation
Figure 1 demonstrates a one-way switched-capacitor gain stage circuit, performing a voltage gain of AO = C1/C2 only during the decreasing trail of the input signal Vi (with VJ... — Massimo Gottardi

[Ideas For Design]
Resistor And Transistor Synchronize Flashing LEDs
The ubiquitous LED continues to expand frontiers and applications with a plethora of sizes, colors, and output lumens. Flashing LEDs that incorporate internal electronics for oscillation offer embedded applications the advantage of size.... — Robert Most

[Ideas For Design]
White LED Voltage Booster Uses 555 Timer IC
This voltage-booster circuit for driving one or more white LEDs uses a 555 timer as its main element (see the figure). The timer, IC1, functions as a resettable astable multivibrator where R1, R2, and C2 are... — Anthony H. Smith

[Ideas For Design]
Handy Circuit Options Boost Output Of Capacitive Supplies
Capacitive supplies are very attractive for applications that don't require isolation from the mains supply. Simple, inexpensive, lightweight, and reliable, they run cool and don't generate interference. However, they suffer from a significant... — Louis Vlemincq

[Ideas For Design]
Bridge-Power Supplies Pack 22 2700-F Ultracaps
Bridge-power units for telcos, data centers, and hospitals supply power for the brief interval between failure of the mains supply and the time that full backup power is available from fuel cells or generators. Traditionally, these have been... — Don Tuite

[Ideas For Design]
Module Enables Energy-Efficient Switching Power Supplies
The LNK302 from Power Integra- tions is an alternative to capacitive droppers and linear transformers in home appliance and industrial control applications. Like other members of the LinkSwitch TN family, the LNK302 lets designers create... — Don Tuite

[Ideas For Design]
Parallel LED Driver Hits 93% Peak Efficiency
The FAN5607 constant-current parallel LED driver from Fairchild Semiconductor provides analog and/or pulse-width-modulation brightness control for LCD backlighting in ultra-portable applications. It uses a three-mode charge pump and achieves 93%... — Don Tuite

[Ideas For Design]
Converters Reach 1000-W/in.3 Densities And 95% Efficiency
The NAT and NAS series of 12- and 20-A converters from NetPower Technologies achieve power densities up to 1000 W/in.3 with up to 95% efficiency. The NAT (in a single-inline package form factor) and NAS (in a surface-mount form factor) are available... — Don Tuite

[Ideas For Design]
Quad Delta-Sigma Modulator Directly Connects To Transducers
For motor control and industrial process control, Texas Instruments' ADS1204 quad delta-sigma modulator enables direct connection to transducers or low-level signals. — Don Tuite

[Ideas For Design]
Step-Up Converters Protect Displays From Runaway Output
LCD and organic-LED displays for handheld portable equipment sometimes have problems with runaway outputs from high-voltage boost converters damaging displays. — Don Tuite

[Ideas For Design]
Just For You
Welcome to the first of many "Analog and Power Ideas for Design." The feature will return next month. If the reader response is positive, the plan is to publish this section 13 times in 2005. A&P IFD is the launch of something new and... — Don Tuite

[Ideas For Design]
Resistive Programming Allows Choice Of Downconverted Voltages
Astec Power's 75-W APC18 surface-mount point-of-load (POL) dc-dc converters... — Don Tuite

[Editorial]
I Was Where Woz Was: Location-Aware Computing
I met Steve Wozniak after he spoke at last month's MIT Emerging Technologies conference. Standing on the stage, trying to jockey my way among the pack wanting to greet "Woz," I was torn between wanting to talk to this luminary of... — Mark David

[POV: Point Of View]
Catching The FPGA Productivity Wave
The research community and the EDA industry have a huge opportunity! There is a large and growing EDA tools market for highly complex and high-performance FPGAs sitting in their backyard. But, EDA vendors have completely overlooked... — Salil Raje

[Pease Porridge]
Bob's Mailbox
In my last column, I promised to tell you how we fixed the "selective-fit" problem with the K2-XA op amp.* Let's take care of that before we get to this month's letters. The "final solution" for the K2-XA was to add a transistor to the circuit... — Bob Pease

[TechView: The Industry]
Security Is No Secret At ESC Boston
Whom do you trust? Without secure hardware, the answer is nobody. That's why security was a hot topic at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in Boston last month. Most developers are becoming aware of the need for security and... — William Wong

[TechView: Analog & Power]
Into The Niche: Fabless Firm Unveils Trio Of Exclusive Products
Fabless companies have a great opportunity to develop truly unique niche products. Wolfson Microelectronics is taking that opportunity. Most new digital still cameras can record short full-motion segments with sound. The DSP core in... — Don Tuite

[TechView: Analog & Power]
Simultaneously Sampling 14-Bit ADCs Double Channel Count, Halve Footprint
Sampling eight 14-bit channels simultaneously at 2 Msamples/s (263 ksamples/s per channel), Maxim's MAX1316, MAX1320, and MAX1324 squeeze twice as many channels as competing devices into half the package footprint (49 mm2 versus 100... — Don Tuite

[TechView: Analog & Power]
Versatile Bricks Ratchet Up Power Density
Targeting 27-V wireless basestations, space-critical telecom applications, and general 24-V industrial electronics systems, the 24-V input Typhoon brick converters provide power density in excess of 106 W/in.3 at up to 91% efficiency.... — Don Tuite

[TechView: Communications]
Blazing-Fast Transceivers Swap Fiber For Copper In Short-Range Apps
Data centers typically use fiber-optic cabling to achieve fast data rates in applications that tie servers, routers, and other networking equipment together over short distances. Now, it's possible to interconnect these elements with lower-cost... — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
One-Chip Solution Brings TCP/IP To 2.5G, 3G Cell Phones
Newer 2.5G and 3G cell phones are packet-based, so they can readily access the Internet if they're given TCP/IP capability. To develop such a cell phone, you can buy or download a TCP/IP stack to use on your selected internal processor. Also, you... — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Embedded]
Reconfigurable Backplane Eases Process-Control Design
Is there a way to simplify the construction of rugged, embedded industrial systems? National Instruments hopes to answer that question with its CompactRIO architecture. The core of this module-based system is a backplane implemented via FPGA. It... — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
Find Rhapsody In The Tough Path From C To UML
The benefits of UML (Universal Modeling Language) are renowned, but migrating from C to UML can be daunting. I-Logix's Rhapsody in C targets embedded C developers, especially those working on 8- and 16-bit microprocessor-based... — William Wong

[TechView: Embedded]
VxWorks Gets Eclipsed
VXWorks developers have another option when it comes to open-source development tools. MCC Systems' Right Tool for VxWorks and its sibling, Right Tool for Linux, are based on Eclipse 3.0, the open-source integrated development environment.... — William Wong

[TechView: Components & Test]
Real-Time Digital Storage Scope Hits 13-GHz Bandwidth Milestone
Is 13 unlucky? Not so, says Agilent, when it comes to the Infiniium DSO8000 series digital storage oscilloscope (DSO). The DSO is a real-time, four-channel, 13-GHz-bandwidth measurement system that achieves a maximum sampling rate of 40 Gsamples/s.... — Roger Allan

[TechView: Components & Test]
Metal-Matrix Composite Delivers Advanced Thermal Management
Engineers can now tailor their thermal-management, packaging, and interconnection needs with a low-cost, metal-matrix composite material made of aluminum, silicon, and carbon (AlSiC). The material's isotropic thermal coefficient of expansion... — Roger Allan

[TechView: Digital]
Network Service Processor Manages Control Plane, Data Traffic
By combining the functions of a control-plane processor and a network processor, the Octeon processor can take on data traffic at rates of up to 10 Gbits/s. Developed by Cavium Networks, this processor performs content, security,... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Digital]
Low-Power Multimedia Engine Makes Portables Purr
Ever-more demanding audio, video, and image applications in portable systems—including H.264 encoding and decoding at VGA resolution with 30 frames/s—can look to the CEVA-X 1200 low-power core for answers. Developed by CEVA... — Dave Bursky

[TechView: EDA]
DSP Development Flow Evolves To Next Level
It's been common for DSP application developers to begin with a Matlab representation of their software. The problem has been the tough ride from algorithm to implementation. — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
Eighth-Generation Accelerator/Emulator Takes On 256 Mgates
More capacity in a smaller box—that sums up the Incisive Palladium II, Cadence's eighth-generation hardware acceleration/emulation system. — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
EDA Roundup
Physical synthesis for Fujitsu's AccelArray structured ASICs is the goal of a joint development and marketing pact between Fujitsu and Synplicity. — David Maliniak

[TechScope]
Handheld Game Platform Packs Wireless Power
The Nintendo DS could turn into one of the hottest toys this holiday season. Its dual-screen feature offers multiple perspectives. Touch input is available through a stylus. And, voice recognition will let players simply tell their characters... — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
Algorithm Creates Room-Wide Audio Sweet Spots
Typical home-theater systems produce "sweet spots," places where the audio sounds perfect. Usually this is right in the middle of the room, so people sitting off to the side don't get the full listening experience. But Audyssey Laboratories'... — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
X Prize Foundation Launches Annual Space Competition
The commercial space race didn't end earlier this month when SpaceShipOne broke the atmosphere for the second time in less than a week. In fact, it's just beginning. The X Prize Foundation announced that it will launch an annual event known as... — Richard Gawel

[Basics Of Design]
LVDS For Bus Signaling
Sponsored by: NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
Because of its low-power and low-noise characteristics, the low-voltage differential-signaling (LVDS) standard technology is an important candidate for the physical layer in high-speed data-serializing schemes. It provides more than twice the noise... — Don Tuite

[Design FAQs]
Data Converters For Cell-Phone Basestation Design
Sponsored by: ANALOG DEVICES
Cell-phone basestations are regularly updated to expand system capacity as well as implement new standards and data services. Complete replacement of equipment is too expensive, so most carriers look to vendors for system upgrades. Soon, many... — Louis E. Frenzel

[Quick Facts]
Make Acceleration/Emulation Work For You
Sponsored by: CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS
Check RTL Up Front HDL analysis tools perform design-style checks and can be configured to automatically check your RTL for acceleration/emulation compliance. In addition to simple checks, such as verifying that your... — David Maliniak

[New Products]

• Component Specifier: Optoelectronics — Richard Gawel

• Embedded: Triple-Processor Blade Server Plugs Into cPSB Slot — William Wong

• Embedded: Rugged SBC Matches Up With Industrial Applications — William Wong

• Embedded: PC/104 SBCs Get The Network Boot — William Wong

• Embedded: Royalty-Free RTOS Does DSPs — William Wong

• Embedded: Variety Of RTOSs Hosts Embedded Database — William Wong

• Embedded: SBC Targets Foce XXI Battle Command, Brigade-and-Below — William Wong

• Embedded: System-On-Module Packs Pentium M Processor — William Wong

• Embedded: Motor Control Comes In A Kit — William Wong

• Embedded: Wireless Station Links Serial Devices — William Wong

• Embedded: Mobile Platform Sports IX425 — William Wong

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