[Engineering Feature] The Laptop Tug Of War: Speed Versus Battery Life
Last month, key players revealed their latest laptop developments at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Not to be outdone, Apple followed the show with some startling announcements of its own. What's the underlying trend developing from this flurry of activity? Simply, these laptops will boast performance far beyond their predecessors. For starters, Intel used CES to debut its Centrino Core Duo mobile technology platform for thin and light notebook PCs. You may have...
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Don Tuite
[Technology Report] It's Evolution, Not Revolution, For PCB Tools
When it comes to pc-board (PCB) design, change isn't necessarily radical. Though IC design tools must keep pace with fast technological changes, tools for the PCB designer tend to embrace change in a more evolutionary style. That's not to say the PCB designer's world is peaceful and calm. Thanks to innovations such as multigigabit serial data-streaming technologies like serializers/deserializers (SERDES), PCB designers face extremely difficult signal-integrity challenges. If their...
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David Maliniak
[Leapfrog: Industry First] A New Player In The 32-Bit Procesor Field
Atmel took a turn away from the pack when it designed its 8-bit AVR. Now, the company is bucking the trend toward the 32-bit ARM architecture with its AVR32 processor architecture. Needless to say, ARM and its partners don't have the 32-bit market sewn up by any means. In fact, a range of popular 32-bit microprocessors is available, including three families from Freescale alone. The competition should be healthy. Still, the AVR32 melds system design components like DSP and...
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William Wong
[Design View / Design Solution] Implement Ethernet Over WAN Connectivity
Undoubtedly, Ethernet has become the technology of choice for wide-area network (WAN) connectivity for both the enterprise and the carrier. The reasons behind this are a convergence of business requirements for higher data-connectivity rates and flexible services, plus the availability of new data-transport technology. But enterprises and carriers must account for a number of factors before implementing Ethernet over Transport. A variety of Ethernet services potentially is in the...
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Steve Gorshe
[Ideas For Design] Make A Frequency Mixer With Op Amps
Frequency mixers are often implemented using a diode bridge or a Gilbert cell. Both types of mixers use a local oscillator (LO) to flip the polarity of the radio-frequency (RF) input. When the LO is positive, the RF input passes to the intermediate-frequency (IF) output without being reversed. When the LO is negative, the RF input is reversed as it passes to the IF output. So, the LO "flips" the polarity of the RF signal. This has the effect of multiplying by +1 or 1 (neglecting losses)....
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Robert Schell
[Editorial] Motorola Apprentice Contest Fuels Visions Of "Seamless Mobility"
While it may not have gained the high profile of Donald Trump's or Martha Stewart's The Apprentice contests, Motorola's Motofwrd competition offers the electronics world's equivalent. Its grand prize is an internship with Motorola CTO Padmasree Warrior, plus a $10,000 cash scholarship, a Bluetooth-enhanced BMW, and a $1500 stash of Motorola goodies. The debut contest drew more than 500 entrants from 225 universities. Contestants shared their visions, via...
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Mark David
[POV: Point Of View] Graphical Design Holds The Key To Boosting Productivity
To be successful in today's global economy, new products must reach the market faster than ever before, forcing a compression of the design cycle. At the same time, silicon gate costs continue to decline as densities increase. So, heterogeneous devices with multiple processors and FPGAs are becoming more common, resulting in design with greater complexity and longer development cycles. For years, designers have hoped that approaching product design from a more...
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Jeff Kodosky
[Pease Porridge] What's All This Crampon Stuff, Anyhow?
Back in February 1955, when I was just 14, I snowshoed with Professor John A. Williams, "Alpine Fred" Torrey, and a group of Explorer Scouts up to Crag Cabin at the 4200-ft level on Mt. Adams in New Hampshire. I was strong enough to carry a little extra weight, so they volunteered me to carry some crampons—a set of spikes for climbing on ice and hard-packed snow. I carried them, though I had no idea what they were good for. After we ascended up to 4400...
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Bob Pease
[TechView: The Industry] An Ethernet Alliance? It's About Time!
Ethernet, that ubiquitous local-area networking (LAN) technology, has been around for 33 years. Yet there has never been an organization devoted to its promotion, success, and expansion—until now. The Ethernet Alliance (EA) will help member companies increase the acceptance and reduce the time-to-market of Ethernet products. Its objectives include the acceleration of the development and marketing of new Ethernet products. It also will define new technologies and...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: The Industry] Nano Batteries Power Artifical Retinas
Artificial eyesight isn't science fiction anymore. Research institutions are developing electronic retinas that replace rods and cones damaged by diseases like age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. But achieving resolution that rivals healthy eyesight isn't the only challenge. These nano-devices require power as well. So, the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year, $6.5 million grant to a host of organizations to...
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Richard Gawel
[TechView: Analog & Power] Multiple-Battery Charger IC Tackles Larger Portable Products
Larger portables need lots of power, and Maxim's MAX8730 is up to the job. This precision constant-current,-constant-voltage charger IC charges three or four lithium-ion cells in series at charge currents greater than 3.5 A. It also can charge nickel-metal-hydride and nickel-cadmium cells. The device can be hardwired or controlled by a microprocessor to set the charging current or voltage. Battery-voltage regulation is accurate to 0.5%, which increases battery...
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Don Tuite
[TechView: Analog & Power] USB Battery-Charge Chip Packs Plenty Of Features
The AAT3688 battery-charger IC for 4.2-V lithium-ion/polymer battery cells operates from a USB port. Its charge-reduction loop monitors the USB port voltage to determine how much power other functions in the portable device are drawing from the USB source. This lets the IC reduce charge time by dynamically adjusting the current while the battery is charging. Developed by Analogic Tech, the AAT3688 integrates a charging device, a reverse blocking diode, and a...
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Don Tuite
[TechView: Digital] Self-Timed Interconnect Network Eases SoC Designs
A chip-area interconnection (CHAIN) scheme developed by Silistix promises reduced power consumption and simpler system-on-a-chip (SoC) design by eliminating many problems associated with traditional global bus architectures. Generated by the CHAINworks design and synthesis tool suite, the CHAIN interconnect fabric is a self-timed, packet-based interconnect network that manages the flow of data between IP cores on a chip. The fabric's self-timing eliminates...
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Dave Bursky
[TechView: Test] Digital Scopes Squeeze Big Performance In A Little Box
The latest WaveRunner digital oscilloscopes from LeCroy eliminate the common tradeoff between performance, display size, and bench footprint. The 10.4-in. TFT-LCD color display provides SVGA resolution (800 by 600 pixels) while maintaining a scope depth of only 6 in. The series includes the four-channel, 400-MHz WR 44Xi and the 600-MHz WR 62Xi (two channels) and WR 64Xi (four channels). All three sample at 5 Gsamples/s on all channels, and the 600-MHz models interleave for...
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John Novellino
[TechView: Test] Scopes' Speed, Record Length Simplify Circuit Debugging
To meet the tougher design validation, debugging, and compliance test requirements created by today's increasing speeds and circuit complexity, designers need better real-time signal acquisition and instrument intelligence. That means fast sampling rates, long record length, and fast waveform capture and analysis—all capabilities precisely targeted by the Tektronix DPO7000 family of digital phosphor oscilloscopes. The three scopes' new-generation...
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John Novellino
[TechView: EDA] Tool Repairs Lithography Rule-Check Errors
The movement of true design for manufacturing into the hands of designers is beginning, and Aprio's Halo-Fix tool is a harbinger of more to come. Halo-Fix lets engineers use the results from any lithography rule-checking (LRC) or optical proximity correction (OPC) tools to repair or optimize post-OPC chip layouts. Until now, post-OPC verification has meant rerunning the entire chip through the mask data-preparation cycle and another round of verification, including LRC across the...
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David Maliniak
[TechView: EDA] IC-Design Suite Brings Packaging Into The Picture
Thanks to an interconnect-synthesis approach, the RioMagic chip design and optimization suite lets designers account for the way signals leave an IC package, ensure their routability, and analyze those signals' electrical fidelity. RioMagic analyzes a range of variables to converge on a final I/O plan for an IC design, making simultaneous tradeoffs between chip and package design. With RioMagic, IC designers can develop optimized I/O strategies for their chips and...
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David Maliniak
[TechView: Wireless] ZigBee SoC Doubles Transmission Range
The EM-250 system-on-a-chip (SoC) packs a host of features that fit ZigBee applications. Developed by Ember Corp., this radio includes a 2.4-GHz transceiver, the low-power XAP2 16-bit processor, 128 kbytes of flash memory, 5 kbytes of RAM, and the ZigBee stack software. It also fully complies with IEEE 802.15.4. Derived from work done at Cambridge Consultants, this fourth-generation chip doubles the range of previous Ember devices and competitive products. In fact,...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Wireless] UWB Reference Designs Make Wireless USB A Cinch
With a maximum data rate of 480 Mbits/s, wireless USB ports represent a key Ultra-Wideband (UWB) application. Wisair offers ready-to-go reference designs for a wireless USB hub and dongle that let manufacturers offer wireless USB products right now. The dongle plugs into any standard USB port, making a PC, laptop, or any other device fully wireless as well as compatible with USB 2.0. The hub design accommodates up to four USB devices, such as printers, scanners, remote hard...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Making Money With Modules
Getting a solid product out the door quickly is more important than ever now, and incorporating a module in your design can help. Small modules are available for everything, from the 8-bit Rabbit 3000 in Rabbit Semiconductor's RCM3750 to a 32-bit X-scale processor in Kontron's X-board. These modules can plug into dual-inline package sockets such as Netburner's 40-pin MOD5213 or standard single-inline memory-module sockets like Systronix's Java-based, TINI-compatible (Tiny...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] PMC + SBC = Serial RapidIO Fabric Solution
With the PMC-RIO serial RapidIO switch-fabric PCI mezzanine card (PMC), Thales Computers' Power-Node3 dual 1-GHz PowerPC 74587 single-board computer (SBC) can connect to a Serial RapidIO fabric. The quad 400-Mbyte/s port PMC-RIO has an aggregate sustained throughput of 1.6 Gbytes/s (see the figure). The rugged, 6U VME PowerNode3 board has VME 2eSST (150 Mbytes/s) capability, 512 Mbytes of RAM, and 32 Mbytes of...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] OS Provides Remote Management For 8-Bit MCU
Rabbit Semiconductor's RabbitSys operating system enables developers to take advantage of the 8-bit Rabbit 4000 microcontroller's memory-management unit and Ethernet support. RabbitSys also provides remote updates and debugging via an Ethernet link. The application is isolated from the operating system, so remote manipulation and downloads are always possible. This can significantly reduce deployment costs since a technician doesn't have to physically replace a module to correct...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Motor Control Kit Targets Low-Cost Brushless DC Motors
The MC73110 Brushless Motor Control IC Developer's Kit (DK73110) from Performance Motion Devices comes with highefficiency MOSFET amplifiers. The board can drive a three-phase brushless motor at up to 10 A. It also can handle analog or digital command signals. And, it uses a single-voltage high-power input. The DK73110 costs $495. www.pmdcorp.com See the figure ...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Card Facilitates AdvancedTCA Shelf Management
The IPM Sentry ShMM-500 with Shelf Management Controller (ShMC) cross-connect from Pigeon Point Systems can plug into a range of AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC, and CompactPCI boards to support shelf management. ShMC cross-connects improve redundancy by allowing the two shelf managers in an AdvancedTCA shelf to communicate with both of the Ethernet hub boards instead of just one. The shMM-500 lets designers only switch over a failed type of module instead of an entire board....
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] 16-Bit MCU Handles High-Speed LIN
Renesas' R8C/Tiny line now includes an on-chip oscillator and a separate oscillator that runs at up to 40 MHz for the low-over-head local interconnect network (LIN) interface. The smallest version is available in a 6.5- by 4.4-mm, 20-pin LSSOP. Chips are available with up to 32 kbytes of flash and 1.5 kbytes of RAM. Some versions include 2 kbytes of high-endurance data flash. Pricing starts at $1.50. www.renesas.com...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] PMC Card Gets Graphics Right
The AtlasPMC/2 PMC card from Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing handles composite video, RGB, and DVI input capability. Its multimedia features include dual-head analog or DVI output display, stereo audio I/O, and an on-board USB 2.0 interface. It's based on ATI Technologies' RADEON Mobility 9000 (M9) mobile graphics processor with 64 Mbytes of RAM that support dual 2D, 3D, OpenGL, and DirectX with resolutions up to 1920 by 1200. The AtlasPMC/2 costs $2500. ...
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William Wong
[Component View] Capacitors/Resistors
The AMK series of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) now includes what developer Taiyo Yuden claims is the industry's first 100-µF device housed in an EIA 1206 case size. The 1206 case, which measures 3.2 by 1.6 by 1.6 mm, has a 36% smaller footprint than the previous 1210-sized version. The tiny 100-µF capacitors are well suited for smoothing CPU power circuits. In addition, the company also claims the first 0.47-µF MLCC in an 0805 case, which measures 2.0...
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Lisa Maliniak
