August 7, 2000 Magazine Archive

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ISSUE DATE: AUGUST 7, 2000

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10-Gbit Ethernet, Wireless sensor architecture, Flat-panel displays, Automotive power, Tool Integration

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August 7, 2000 - In This Issue

[Technology Report]
Both Larger And Smaller Sizes Are Fueling The Innovation Of Flat-Panel Displays
There's a blizzard of information on flat-panel displays. That's not so surprising, given the 30 varieties of displays available and the 85 or so manufacturers that make them. The technologies they employ run the gamut from fluorescent and plasma... — Stephen Grossman

[Technology Report]
A Power Shortage Is Driving Automotive Applications To 42 V
Looming under the hood, a power shortage is about to transform the automotive electrical system. The traditional 14-V power system is being taxed to its limits as car makers design-in a host of electronic features to improve the rider's comfort and... — David G. Morrison

[Product Innovation]
10-Gbit Ethernet Switching Processor Blasts Barriers To The Backbone
The incessant drive for faster, lower-cost connections to the Internet backbone has set the stage for a struggle between the local-area network (LAN) and the wide-area network (WAN) to achieve the heart and soul of the metropolitan-area network... — Patrick Mannion

[Product Innovation]
Wireless Sensor Architecture Uses Bluetooth Standard
Traditional data-acquisition systems require reams and bundles of cabling to interconnect multiple sensor types to multiple signal-conditioning circuits. This is both an expensive and time-consuming method, plus it isn't flexible when more sensors... — Roger Allan

[Design Application]
Taking Tool Integration Beyond Files Helps Manage Designs Effectively
As device densities increase rapidly beyond the scope of existing tools, new and dramatically different electronic design automation (EDA) methods and technologies must be developed to support them. Designers no longer use tools from a single... — Contributing Author

[Design Application]
Improve Backplane Performance With Source-Synchronous Designs
System performance goals are in a constant march toward higher levels of throughput and bandwidth. This progression is forcing designers to leave the comfort of traditional synchronous interfaces behind. These traditional designs mainly suffer from... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
Current Transmitter With Linear Voltage Transfer Rejects Ground Noise
Many systems use current signals to control remote instruments. The advantage of this method is the ability to operate with two remotely connected power supplies even if their grounds are not the same. In these cases, it's necessary for the output... — Moshe Gerstenhaber , et al.

[Ideas For Design]
Use A PIC12C508 To Emulate An MM53200 Coder/Decoder
Depending on the logic state of a single configuration pin, the popular MM53200 can be used either as a remote-control coder or decoder. The coding function, however, is much simpler than the decoding one. Therefore, it lends itself quite well to... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
SMBus I/O Expander Controls LCD Bias Voltage For Display Contrast
Toroidal inductors are often used in passive filter and equalizer circuits in the 1- to 100-MHz range. For appreciable relative permeabilities and moderate circuit selectivities, stray magnetic fields are sparse1. Coils can be adjusted to... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
Dual-Output SLIC Supply Shares Feedback
For some subscriber line-interface cards (SLICs), both the line and ringer voltages should be regulated under all conditions. The circuit shown in the figure meets this requirement. It accepts a 12-V... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
Designing Extended-Range Toroidal Inductors
Toroidal inductors are often used in passive filter and equalizer circuits in the 1- to 100-MHz range. For appreciable relative permeabilities and moderate circuit selectivities, stray magnetic fields are sparse1. Coils can be adjusted to... — Richard M. Kurzrok

[Ideas For Design]
LED Switching Driver Cuts Current Draw To 3 mA
This Idea For Design was originally published March 17, 1983. A switching transistor and inductor combination, when substituted for a power-wasting series resistor, significantly reduces the current drain of a pilot light or a... — Contributing Author

[Editorial]
We've Come A Long Way In Terms Of Chip Making
Last month, I had the opportunity to walk through the exhibits at the Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers trade show (Semicon) in San Francisco, Calif. In some ways, it was a trip down memory lane. Many of the exhibits reminded me of just how far... — Dave Bursky

[Pease Porridge]
What's All This Sudden Cessation Of Stupidity (SCS) Stuff, Anyhow?
Sometimes when I learn something, and write a column about it, the payment I receive for the column is enough to pay for the something. But, that may not be the case this time. Still, the (Sudden) Cessation Of Stupidity is actually much better than... — Bob Pease

[Viewpoint]
Solving The Modeling Accuracy And Availability Crisis Head On
Design verification has quickly evolved into one of the most critical steps in the system-design process. It was previously possible in many types of systems to use a limited simulation environment to verify critical sections of custom logic. This... — Contributing Author

[Editor's Notebook]
Ode To The Paper Napkin- The Untold Story
As I sit here on a bumpy airplane ride, traveling home from Electronic Design's annual editorial meeting, it seems somehow fitting that I should find inspiration at the sight of a paper napkin. Yes, that's right, I said a "paper napkin!" It... — Cheryl Ajluni

[The Design Factory]
Keeping The Vendor Off The Critical Path
Product developers sometimes ask me how they can shorten development cycles when 80% of their cycle time is dictated by vendor lead times. They correctly point out that most of their product development lead time is determined by long lead-time... — Don Reinertsen

[Letters]
Letters
Finding A Home For Old Computers Great article, right on the money ["Technology Haves And Have-Nots: Can We Share?" May 1, p. 46]. I'm an electrical engineer who graduated way back in 1984. There has been one... — Various

[40 Years Ago]
Wescon 1960: The Big Show Takes A New Look
Los Angeles, the fastest-growing electronics area in the U.S., is again host city for Wescon. With a brand-new showplace for its exhibits and technical sessions, Wescon's increase in quality is expected to keep pace with its increase in... — Steve Scrupski

[40 Years Ago]
Services Spelling Out Micromin Plans
As the focus on electronics moves West for Wescon, much attention will be directed toward microminiaturization. Comments of components manufacturers at New York's IRE Show in March showed the doubts that exist about the approach to the coming... — Steve Scrupski

[Forefront]
High-Voltage And Power Elements Are Combined In Fine-Line CMOS
At the recent International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices (ISPSD) in Toulouse, France, STMicroelectronics disclosed the results of implementing high-voltage LDMOS power transistors in a 0.35-µm CMOS process. This implementation is... — Ashok Bindra

[Forefront]
Inferno Operating System Burns Its Way Into Embedded Systems
The Inferno operating system may be familiar to academics, but it's new to most embedded-systems designers. Released by Vita Nuova of York, England, Inferno and its supporting tools from Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs are now available in the... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Color LEDs Take On A New Assignment—Backlighting LCDs
Soon, researchers at Philips' Flat Display Systems (FDS) of San Jose, Calif., will be using LEDs to backlight active thin-film transistor (TFT) LCDs. Other companies have employed monochromatic LED arrays for backlighting before. FDS, however,... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
Unusual OLED Characteristics Create A Large-Screen Illusion
By combining ICs, microdisplays, and optics, eMagin Corp. of Hopewell Junction, N.Y., has created a virtual image equivalent to a real image on a computer monitor or large-screen TV. Using this technology, the company has unveiled an SXGA... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
Embedded CAM-Based Compiler Speeds Network Traffic Searches
Search engines are a key element in various networking systems that use routers, switches, and processors. Typically, these software-based devices require long search times. Their software instructions need a lot of time to perform comparison... — Roger Allan

[Forefront]
OS Lets Embedded Designers Choose Protection Level
An upcoming operating system (OS) from Wind River Technologies, code-named Cirrus, will benefit from a new memory-management model. Protected Domains differs from conventional virtual-memory protection models, as it lets designers select the level... — William Wong

[Forefront]
MPEG-7 Focus Group Launched To Foster Exchange Of Ideas
At the 52nd Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, in June, the MPEG-7 industry focus group was launched. Its purpose is to establish a platform that enables a continuous two-way exchange of ideas between MPEG... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
Ethernet Alliance Gains Support
The 10-Gbit Ethernet Alliance (10GEA) has gained more support with the joining of Alactritech Inc., San Jose, Calif., a leading manufacturer of network processors. Alactritech has developed a session-layer interface card (SLIC) technology with... — Roger Allan

[Forefront]
Company Wire
• Synopsys Inc. and Avant! Corp. have launched DesignSphere Access, located at www.designsphere.com. This open-hosted design environment reduces the cycle time and costs associated with taking designs from concept to... — Staff

[Forefront]
Gigabit Ethernet And Fibre Channel IC Features Four Transceivers
Four complete transceiver functions are housed within the VSC7185 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel IC. A quad dual-data-rate transceiver, this device contains four transmitters. Each of these accepts a 10-bit 8B/10B-encoded word input on a 5-bit... — Roger Allan

[Forefront]
ARCNET 3.3-V Controller IC Supports Operation At Industrial Temperatures
Handling data rates up to 5 Mbits/s, the COM20020 ARCNET CMOS controller IC runs off 3.3-V supplies at −40°C to 85°C. This general-purpose communications IC for networking microcontrollers and intelligent peripherals can be used in... — Roger Allan

[Forefront]
Low-Power PC-On-A-Chip Uses A Failsafe Startup
Consuming just half a watt at 133 MHz, the MachZ PC-on-a-chip from ZF Linux incorporates all major PC-compatible peripheral controllers, SDRAM support, and a PCI and ISA bus. Its ZF Failsafe boot ROM and ZF-Logic both support multiple... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Low-Profile Inductorless Charge-Pump IC Suits Cell Phones
The CMOS SP6680 inductorless dc-dc charge-pump IC provides buck/boost performance with up to 96% efficiency. Ceramic capacitors replace large, bulky coils and expensive tantalum capacitors. The IC also boasts a switched multicapacitor topology.... — Roger Allan

[Real-World Engineering]
Whistle Blowing: Should I? And How To Do It Safely
I receive e-mails from readers confirming my criticisms of industry and academia and describing their own frustrations. They dare not complain to industry management or academic deans for fear of retribution, yet such complaints, if acted upon,... — Lawrence J. Kamm

[Heads Up]
The Projection Market Is Shifting Gears
The projection market encompasses products ranging from small portable devices that hook to laptops for business presentations to big behemoths for large-venue applications. Over the last 10 or so years, this market has been driven by rapid... — Chris Chinnock

[New Products]

• Embedded — Staff

• Passive Components — Staff

• Power — Staff

• Software — Staff

• Test And Measurement — Staff

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