[Technology Report] Multiple Standards Confound Power-Supply Designers
What's a poor power-supply designer to do? The U.S. alone has four standards for energy efficiency: Energy Star, Executive Order 13221 (1-W Standby), 80 Plus, and the regulations of the California Energy Commission. Europe grapples with at least seven: the International Energy Star program, Blue Angel, the Group for Energy Efficient Appliances, the European Code of Conduct, EU Eco Label, Energy Plus, and Nordic Star. Then there's the Australia Greenhouse Office (Australia also...
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Don Tuite
[Leapfrog: First Look] Pure Java Platform Powers Smart Phone
Java continues to dominate as the development platform for smart phones. Now SavaJe Technologies takes it to the extreme by delivering an exclusively Java platform. The SavaJe Mobile Platform exposes a multitasking Java virtual machine (JVM) and nothing more. There's no native operating system, nor are there any application programming interfaces (APIs) (Fig. 1). This approach brings significant advantages when it comes to...
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William Wong
[Leapfrog: First Look] Microcontrollers Commit To FRAM
Memory options have their good and not-soqualities. Flash is nonvolatile, but updates are very slow. On the other hand, SRAM is fast volatile. Now those tradeoffs may be a thing the past with ferroelectric random-access memory, otherwise known as FRAM. It offers the best of both worlds. According to Ramtron, its 40-MHz VRS51L3074 is the first 8-bit microcontroller to incorporate FRAM into its memory complement (Fig. 1). To keep...
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William Wong
[Design View / Design Solution] Enhance Synchronous-Rectification Control In Flyback Converters
The transition from diodes to synchronous-rectification (SR) MOSFETs in secondary circuits of flyback converters increases with each new generation of MOSFETs, improving performance at little or no cost penalty. SR MOSFETs can be more efficient than diodes, allowing lower operating temperatures and smaller heat sinks, or no heat sinks at all. However, they require a control circuit to manage their switching behavior in order to emulate a diode. The usual synchronous rectifier control method...
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Mario Battello
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[Ideas For Design] Averaging Improves Regulation Of Second Power-Supply Output
A switching power supply's main output usually will have a load regulation of better than 0.1%. However, what if it doesn't need regulation that tight on the main output, but instead needs better regulation on a second output? The averaging technique described here eliminates the need for adding linear regulators to achieve better regulation on the second output, reducing cost and parts count. Figure 1 shows a typical switching regulator....
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Alan Adamsky
[Ideas For Design] Control A High-Power Load With A Low-Power Microcontroller
Many microcontrollers feature a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) output that can be low-pass filtered to produce a variable dc voltage. Without additional circuitry, however, this technique is limited to controlling very low-power loads. The circuit here illustrates a scheme that lets this dc voltage control a high-power load, such as a motor, actuator, or heating element (see the figure). Furthermore, the load voltage may be higher...
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Anthony H. Smith
[POV: Point Of View] iSCSI: The Disruptive Force
Now, iSCSI is ready to bring SANs into the small/ medium business (SMB) market mainstream and greatly affect enterprise SAN decisions. The SAN has been a part of enterprise storage systems for quite some time, adding flexibility and control to the maintenance of vast arrays of data storage devices. Meanwhile, Fibre Channel (FC) has slowly gained in SAN market share. It started in 1988, and the American National Standards Institute first ratified it in 1994. Fibre Channel...
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Marc D. Brooks
[Editorial] Your Efficient Power Designs Have Tremendous Global Impact
Summertime, and the livin' is... pricey. This issue's cover story on energy-efficiency standards seems well timed. I'm in a state of shock over the seasonal rates, pushing my monthly electric bill to more than $400. I'm thinking fondly of my years in Seattle, where the typical home doesn't even have an air conditioner. But the halcyon days of cheap power for Northwest consumers may be coming to an end. Since their construction 50 years ago, Eastern Washington's publicly owned...
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Mark David
[Pease Porridge] What's All This Penny Stuff, Anyhow?
If this plan comes closer to reality, I will complain more vigorously. "I don't usually write to congressmen, but I do when it's important. Right now, I'm not sure this is important. Not yet," I replied to my friend. "I would not mind paying a penny for every e-mail I send. I would even pay, reimburse, my company, NSC, a penny for every personal message I send," I continued. "In the last two months, I have sent over 1000 e-mails, and let's say half are personal. Would I...
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Bob Pease
[TechView: The Industry] Don't Worry About The Bugs—These Tools Know What You Meant
Debugging your software doesn't have to be such a chore. Led by computer science professor Yuanyuan Zhou, a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a tool suite that takes a new approach to the job. Based on observations of how programmers write code, these tools focus on the programmer's intentions to find and correct bugs. "Most bug-detection tools require reproduction of bugs during execution," said Zhou. "The program is slowed down...
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Richard Gawel
[TechView: The Industry] ULCHs Need Single-Chip Solutions To Succeed
For years, mobile-phone makers have been adding features to their products to expand their appeal. Yet with hopes for wireless subscriber growth now pinned on developing nations with large populations of low-income consumers, mobile-phone makers also are developing and offering ultra-low-cost handsets (ULCHs). These inexpensive devices have minimal feature sets. But to meet their strict cost targets, ULCHs cannot simply be strippeddown versions of existing phones. Instead, they...
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Scott Smyser
[TechView: Analog & Power] Digital Power Regulators Strive For Simplicity
The 25-A ZL2005 digital-control point-of-load (POL) converter now has a baby brother. Zilker Laboratories' 3-A ZL2105 seamlessly interfaces with the ZL2005, but it also integrates its own power MOSFETs (RDS(ON) = 120 mΩ) and boost diode. It's designed to work alongside one or more ZL2005s (see the figure). Zilker's claim to fame isn't that it closesthe voltage-regulation loop in the digital domain, though the fact that the...
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Don Tuite
[TechView: Communications] Packet Switching Chips Set Mark For Density, Efficiency, And Flexibility
Four factors are key in designing new networking boxes: power consumption, density, cost, and scalability. Reducing power consumption means using a minimum number of efficient integrated links and reducing the number of off-chip interfaces. For density, integrate as much bandwidth per device as possible and use very highspeed links. Using chips made with standard but advanced CMOS silicon processes minimizes cost. And then there's the most important factor, scalability. Use a...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Digital] High-Speed USB Chip Targets Mobile Phones
Do you ever get the feeling you could produce a video quicker than the time it takes to download one to your mobile phone? With Cypress Semiconductor's latest MoBLUSB chip, you can just say no to snailpaced downloads and greet up to 480 Mbits/s with open arms. "The ability to download music at the snap of a finger will accelerate the integration of MP3 players into cell phones," says Rajiv Nema, Cypress's product marketing manager for highspeed USB. Previously, consumers...
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Daniel Harris
[TechView: Digital] Pondering: Silicon Replacement
As semiconductor process technology continues to shrink, the cost associated with manufacturing a new IC using the latest process technology increases over the last generation. These cost increases are forcing companies to look for cheaper alternatives to semiconductor technology. What technology will replace semiconductors and why? If you have some ideas, e-mail them to dharris@penton.com. ...
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Daniel Harris
[TechView: Digital] Digital Design Tip: Avoid Clusters Of High-Frequency Outputs
One of the many issues FPGA and ASIC designers must now consider before system integration is simultaneous switching output noise (SSO or SSN). Generated by too many closely spaced outputs switching simultaneously, SSN can cause a system or IC to fail. In the end, since you probably don't have control over several key parameters, you should break large high-speed buses into bytes and spread the bytes out as much as feasible. Determining if SSN will wreak havoc on your system...
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Daniel Harris
[TechView: Test] Unique Nullmeter/Nanovoltmeter Improves Calibration Precision
Let's say you're performing a critical calibration or measurement in a bridge configuration. You have your choice of a high-resolution digital multimeter and an analog nullmeter with nanovolt resolution and its mirrored zero-center meter. Which instrument should you trust to produce the closest measurement to zero? When "nearly nothing" isn't good enough, go with the analog meter. But finding a calibration-grade nullmeter/nanovoltmeter these days isn't easy. Popular calibration...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: EDA] The 800-lb Gorilla Enters The DFM Room
Bringing manufacturing awareness into the design loop is the only true form of what has been termed "design for manufacturing," or DFM. Synopsys's latest thrusts into the DFM arena declare the EDA giant's intention to bring statistical analysis to bear on the problems that are posed by design-induced process variation. By enhancing the Star-RCXT parasitic-extraction and PrimeTime static timing-analysis tools, Synopsys enables its customers to better control timing margins and...
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David Maliniak
[TechView: EDA] System-In-Package IC Design Gets Lift From Tools And Methodology Kit
System-in-package devices (SiPs) are seeing more use in wireless, networking, and consumer applications such as cell phones, Bluetooth modules, wireless local-area networking (WLAN) modules, and network packet switching. SiPs, which used to be known as multichip modules, are a viable means of raising the integration bar for systems houses while enjoying a reduced time-to-market for the end product. A full-fledged system-on-a-chip version of the same device can always follow later. ...
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David Maliniak
[Component View] C-Cell Ultracapacitors Replace Batteries For Industrial Apps
The BoostCap energy-and power-type C-cell ultracapacitor cells and multicell packs provide "life-ofthesystem" alternatives to batteries for a host of industrial and transportation uses. Maxwell Technologies' 2.5-V cells are the same size as a C battery but weigh a third as much. Designed for easy mounting on pc boards, applications include industrial robotics, actuators, telecom power buffering and backup, aircraft door and airbag actuation, and distributed power nodes for automotive...
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Lisa Maliniak
