[Technology Report] Power Connectors Align With High-Rel Needs
Although the high-tech spotlight rarely shines on power connectors, they're crucial to the performance of many advanced electronic systems. Without the interface they provide between power supply and load, it would be difficult to create scalable...
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David G. Morrison
[Product Innovation] Hierarchy Spells Order For SoC Data-Management Tool
Increasingly, system-on-a-chip (SoC) design is a discipline that requires its practitioners to look, at least during some parts of the design process, at the big picture. Certainly, at times, it's necessary to drill down into small segments of the...
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David Maliniak
[Ideas For Design] "Manually Operated Digital Pot" Is Revisited
An idea for design published in the April 2, 2001 issue, "Manually Operated Digital Pot Doesn't Need A Microprocessor," uses two proprietary ICs to manually control a digital potentiometer. After reviewing this design, a simpler solution came to mind....
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Contributing Author
[Editorial] Let's Innovate Ourselves Out Of The Downturn
Innovation. Designers have plenty of it. In fact, innovation is one "commodity" for which the United States is famous. Some say that necessity is the mother of invention. Today, the need to bring the economy out of the doldrums should provide plenty...
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Dave Bursky
[Pease Porridge] Bob's Mailbox
Dear Bob: Your article on ROI was very interesting (Electronic Design, Aug. 6, p. 97). I know that many people get caught out by great offers in savings on energy-efficient devices. One thing that bothers me is that...
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Bob Pease
[Letters] Letters
Where Analog Tools Stand In response to the letter "Interest In Analog" [Sept. 17, p. 54], analog HDLs/VHDL-AMS have been under development for many years. But they haven't achieved the level of adoption of...
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Various
[40 Years Ago] Illiac II Computer Shaping Up For Tests
Iliac II, the University of Illinois' scientific computer, is expected to be ready for its first system tests next spring. At that time, the arithmetic units, some of the control units, core storage, and some of the tape units should be...
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Steve Scrupski
[40 Years Ago] Micromin Digital Computer Uses Semiconductor Net
A microminiature digital computer, using semiconductor logic networks, rather than individual components, has been built by Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, for the Air Force. The experimental model, having a total volume of 6.3...
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Steve Scrupski
[Forefront] Re-Architected DRAMs Deliver Denser, Lower-Cost Storage
While DRAM memory cells have continually shrunk, scaling has, to some extent, reached its limit. Also, the mixed analog and digital technologies used to implement DRAM storage cells, sense amplifiers, and control logic have forced designers to...
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Dave Bursky
[Forefront] PMOS Technology Kicks Flash MCU Price Below OTP
Flash-based microcontrollers (MCUs) have been costlier than one-time programming (OTP) solutions. But Microchip Technology's patented PMOS electrically erasable cell (PEEC) technology, PICmicro Flash, significantly lowers the cost and size of...
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William Wong
[Forefront] Online Point-To-Point Simulator Goes Live For LVDS Designers
A free online simulation tool is available to support system architects designing with low-voltage differential-signaling (LVDS) technology. Working with Innoveda Inc. of Marlborough, Mass., Fairchild Semiconductor now offers an online, interactive...
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David Maliniak
[Forefront] RapidIO Gets Chip Traction
RapidIO is rapidly becoming a chip reality. Chips are emerging that implement RapidIO connectivity. Also, a RapidIO serial bus implementation promises to build on the InfiniBand/Gigabit-Ethernet serial bus base. RapidIO is a lower-level...
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Ray Weiss
[Forefront] 25-MHz 8051 Crams Flash, ADC, And Timers Into 9-mm2 MLP
The 8051 is alive and well. Cygnal Integrated Products has crammed a 25-MHz 8051 core, 8 kbytes of flash, and 256 bytes of data RAM into a tiny 11-pin, 3- by 3-mm (9 mm2) micro-lead package (MLP). Chip peripherals include a 500-ksample/s...
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Ray Weiss
[Forefront] Laser-Diode Driver Supports Multiple Standards
A single laser-diode driver from Elantec Semiconductor directly drives both CD and DVD lasers, simplifying the task of combining these optical drives in a single system. Elantec's patented EL629XC series of highly integrated laser-diode drivers...
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Ashok Bindra
[Forefront] Dual-Channel SLIC Simplifies Line-Card Designs
The smallest footprint to date for two subscriber-line interfaces (SLICs) makes the Si3220 and Si3225 the most compact solutions for designers building line cards for central-office (CO) systems and PBXs. The Si3220 ProSLIC targets shorter-loop (2000...
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Dave Bursky
