Electronic Design UPDATE: June 30, 2004

June 30, 2004
Industry View -- VSIA's QIP Metric Will Be A Catalyst For Improved Profits by Norbert Diesing, PMC-Sierra. An extensive amount of third-party intellectual property (IP) is available from a large number of suppliers...
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Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter Electronic Design Magazine PlanetEE ==> www.planetee.com June 30, 2004

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*************************ADVERTISEMENT************************** GlobalSpec--The Engineering Search Engine GlobalSpec, The Engineering Search Engine, meets your specific search needs. We've crawled, filtered and indexed the World Wide Web, focusing on engineering-related information to deliver only relevant results. Visit GlobalSpec for access to the Web's largest database of searchable supplier catalogs plus standards, patents, materials properties and application notes. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWC0Aq **************************************************************** Today's Table Of Contents: 1. Industry View * VSIA's QIP Metric Will Be A Catalyst For Improved Profits 2. Focus On Embedded * Windows CE Shared-Source Licensing Gains Flexibility 3. News From The Editors * PXI-Based Digitizers Offer 500-MHz Bandwidths * 850-MHz PGA Has Very Low Distortion * Help Available On Hazardous Materials Directive 4. Upcoming Industry Events * Semicon West * International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology * IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society Symposium * IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society Symposium 5. Magazine Highlights: June 21, 2004 * Cover Story: Success Story -- Can BMW's iDrive Pass Its Road Test Now? * Technology Report -- PCI Express: Hardware Designed With Compatibility In Mind * Leapfrog: Industry First -- Platform Straddles Prototyping And Emulation * Design View / Design Solution -- Interfacing FPGAs To High-Speed DRAMs Puts Designers To The Test Electronic Design UPDATE edited by John Novellino, Executive Editor **************************************************************** BE SURE TO VISIT Electronic Design's Web site, where the power of Electronic Design is a mouse click away! Read our Web exclusives, enjoy our Quick Poll, discover Featured Vendors, access our archives, share viewpoints in our Forums, explore our e-newsletters, and more. Go to: http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ03Hf0Ah TAKE OUR CURRENT QUICK POLL: The editors would like to know: How do you rate the value of free e-newsletters from vendors? Go to Electronic Design ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ03Hf0Ah ***** Electronic Design presents: Day in the Life of an Electronic Designer Photo Essay Contest Grab your camera and get some shots showing the "guts and glory" of you (and your team) at work. We'll be publishing a Day in the Life of an Electronic Designer photo essay as part of our YOUR Most Important Issue of the Year, our second annual special issue focusing on career issues for electronic designers. $500 Grand Prize for photo series $250 prize for best photo And we pay $50 if we use any of your photos in the issue. Deadline for photos is July 30. Please include names and titles of all photo subjects, as well as company name and the type of work-in-process illustrated by the photo. Submit photos digitally to: [email protected]; or mail to Mark David Electronic Design Editor-In-Chief 45 Eisenhower Dr. 5th Floor Paramus, NJ 07652 (201) 845-2467 mailto:[email protected] ***** YOUR CHANCE TO WIN $500! Take our ISSUE POLL and win a $500 gift certificate. The editors would like to know what you think of the JUNE 14 ISSUE of Electronic Design. Your feedback will help us better understand your critical information needs and provide valuable guidance for developing future editorial content. It's also your automatic entry into our drawing for a $500 American Express gift certificate. Go to http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWD0Ar ***** JUST LAUNCHED! A weekly Web Exclusive column by Bill Wong If embedded technology is your thing, don't miss a single edition of Bill Wong's brand new column, EiED Online. As one of the top editors in the business, Bill brings his savvy insight to every aspect of embedded technology, be it hardware or software or something else. Read all about it, from in-depth analysis to hands-on test results. Go to http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJGH0Af **************************************************************** ********************** 1. Industry View -- Exclusive to Electronic Design UPDATE ********************** VSIA's QIP Metric Will Be A Catalyst For Improved Profits Norbert Diesing, Director of Technology Access, PMC-Sierra An extensive amount of third-party intellectual property (IP) is available from a large number of suppliers. However, the risks to users of IP that fails to meet required functional or parametric requirements are so high that use of this IP is more limited than it could be, restricting the available market and profits to suppliers. Because IP users feel compelled to design and verify IP rather than buy it off-the-shelf from a supplier with proven high quality, users' productivity -- and profits -- are limited. The challenges facing IP suppliers involve the ability to deliver IP that can be proven to: -- integrate easily into the design focus of IP users, -- function correctly, and with the required parametric performance, across necessary operating voltage, temperature conditions, and process manufacturing variations, -- and be provably immune to DSM and reliability issues such as crosstalk, electromigration, hot carrier degradation, electrostatic discharge, latch-up, etc. Suppliers can meet these challenges through: -- a documented design methodology that deals with the challenges of ensuring that IP meets requirements and is immune to reliability issues, -- an unrelenting focus on quality by using thorough quality-assurance (QA) procedures and related checklists and documentation, -- a rigorous methodology to validate IP in silicon across all key parameters and features with documented results, -- and an emphasis on building a relationship with IP users that permits communication and proves the ability of IP to meet these requirements. One current initiative that has the potential to aid in these efforts is the Quality IP (QIP) Metric initiated by the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA). QIP is an objective and quantitative means of measuring IP quality through scoring of key quality issues using a spreadsheet composed of quality questions and their relative priorities. QIP is still a work in progress. The Soft IP portions of the QIP Metric as developed by the VSIA are now in beta release, with expected production release later this year. The Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) has also joined forces with the VSIA to develop the Hard IP (HIP) portions of the QIP Metric. HIP is planned for beta test this month, with production release in October of this year. QIP will be a catalyst in improving the technical depth and breadth of the relationship between IP suppliers and users. This will be accomplished through an examination of the completed QIP Metric where low-scoring questions will indicate areas of concern that require further joint investigation by IP suppliers and users. From the IP user's point of view, QIP will provide an objective means of comparing suppliers' practices and the resulting IP quality. QIP will help lower the barriers limiting use of external IP, with a potential result of improved productivity, time-to-market, and profits. From the supplier's point of view, QIP will provide a way of proving to users the achieved level of quality. Therefore, it can be used as a marketing differentiator. If IP can be proven to have high quality, the value to users is immeasurable. There will be a resulting willingness to purchase more IP overall, as high IP quality will allow users to avoid the internal costs of resolving IP problems. QIP is not a panacea to the existing IP quality problem. But it has the potential to serve as a catalyst to improve today's situation so the benefits of increased usage of quality IP can improve the profits of both IP users and suppliers. Norbert Diesing is Director of Technology Access at PMC-Sierra, Burnaby, B.C., Canada. He is also chairman of the Fabless Semiconductor Association's QIP Rollout Working Group. He can be reached at mailto:[email protected]. To comment on this Industry View, go to Reader Comments at the foot of the Web page: Electronic Design UPDATE ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWE0As **************************************************************** *************************ADVERTISEMENT************************** Two New ARM Cores Available for RapidChip Two new high-performance industry-standard ARM processor cores are available for integration into RapidChip (TM) Platform ASIC designs using an innovative and unique Landing Zone(TM) region. The proven 200 MHz ARM926EJ-S and 212 MHz ARM966E-S cores are tightly integrated with LSI Logic's RapidWorx (TM) 2.0 design flow, dramatically reducing time-to-revenue for a broad range of applications. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWF0At **************************************************************** ********************** 2. Focus On Embedded ********************** ***Windows CE Shared-Source Licensing Gains Flexibility Microsoft Corp. has made its Windows CE shared-source licensing a little more flexible with the announcement of Windows CE 5.0. Shared-source licensees will maintain ownership of their derivative code and will not be obligated to share modifications with Microsoft, partners, or competitors. Although it does not change the relationship between open-source and shared-source licensing, the new approach addresses a major concern of Microsoft's shared-source licensees by allowing the licensees to keep enhancements private. Microsoft Corp. ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BUP0An ********************** 3. News -- From The Editors ********************** ***PXI-Based Digitizers Offer 500-MHz Bandwidths The DC140 and DC135 digitizers feature 1-GHz and 500-MHz bandwidths, respectively, in single-slot 3U PXI cards. The DC140 delivers synchronous 1-Gsample/s sampling and up to 8-Mpoint acquisition memory on two channels. Channel multiplexing provides 2 Gsamples/s and 16 Mpoints on one channel. The DC135 offers 500 Msamples/s and up to 2 Mpoints of memory on two channels and 1 Gsample/s and 4 Mpoints on one channel. The synchronous 8-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) sampling, well-matched front-end electronics, and plus/minus 2-ppm time base enable the digitizers to perform significant cross-channel timing measurements, including jitter, phase, and propagation delay. The units come with AcqirisLive, a control program, and associated driver libraries. They run under Windows, Linux, and VxWorks and work with third-party software. Prices start at $6990. Delivery is in eight weeks for the DC135. Delivery details for the DC140 are available on request. Acqiris USA ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BFAK0AY ***850-MHz PGA Has Very Low Distortion The LT5514, an 850-MHz programmable-gain amplifier, boasts an output third-order intercept (OIP3) of 49 dBm at 70 MHz and second- and third-order distortion products below -87 dBc while delivering a 2-V p-p output into a 200-ohm load. An on-chip attenuator delivers gains of 10.5 to 33 dB in 1.5-dB increments, controlled by a 4-bit parallel input word. A differential input and output topology provides a balanced drive to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Even with a 50-ohm load, the LT5514 can swing more than 3 V p-p to match any converter's output. As an amplifier, the device's gain is flat plus/minus 1 dB over a 450-MHz bandwidth. The LT5514 contains two output amplifiers connected in parallel for optimal distortion performance. But one of the amplifiers can be turned off, reducing supply current by about 50%, yet still delivering 43-dBm OIP3 at 70 MHz. The LT5514 comes in a 20-pin plastic TSSOP and costs $5.20 each in lots of 1000. It's available from stock. Linear Technology Corp. ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BGCT0Ak ***Help Available On Hazardous Materials Directive Two years from tomorrow, the European Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive takes effect. It sounds like a lot of time, but the RoHS will greatly limit the use of heavy metals and other substances in most electronic equipment and very little specific guidance on compliance is available. (See "Managing Product Obsolescence -- Now You See It, Now You Don't," Electronic Design, June 7, 2004, p. 47. Or go to http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJGO0Am ) To help out, Raymond Communications, publishers of Recycling Laws International (RLI), has organized a teleconference with two experts in the field. Presenting during the teleconference, which is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. eastern time, July 14, will be Steve Andrews of the eco-design and product policy unit of the UK's Department of Trade and Industry. He will explain how the UK plans to implement the directive. In addition, Mark Newton, senior manager of environmental affairs for Dell Computer, will discuss the industry's response to the directive. For information on cost and how to register, go to RLI's Web site and check out the conference page and the "Durables" page. Raymond Communications ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWG0Au ********************** 4. Upcoming Industry Events ********************** July 12-16, Semicon West San Francisco/San Jose, Calif. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJVp0Aa Aug. 2-6, International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology Denver, Colo. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BIoe0An Aug. 9-13, IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society Symposium (EMC2004) Santa Clara, Calif. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJGN0Al Aug. 13-15, IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society Symposium Santa Clara, Calif. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWH0Av ********************** 5. Magazine Highlights ********************** In case you missed them, here are some of the high points of our most recent issues. June 14, 2004 Special Issue: * Don't miss the exciting editorial lineup in our 2004 The State Of The Industry special issue, covering all the major EOEM markets, plus what's hot today, tomorrow's winners, and their impact on the EE job market. For the complete Table of Contents, go to http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWI0Aw June 21, 2004: * Cover Story: Success Story -- Can BMW's iDrive Pass Its Road Test Now? After a catastrophic debut and a major makeover, BMW's iDrive infotainment system is gaining acceptance with critics, competitors, and customers. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWJ0Ax * Technology Report -- PCI Express: Hardware Designed With Compatibility In Mind PCI Express is ramping up slowly, but it will quickly become the dominant peripheral interconnect. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWK0Ay * Leapfrog: Industry First -- Platform Straddles Prototyping And Emulation http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWL0Az * Design View / Design Solution -- Interfacing FPGAs To High-Speed DRAMs Puts Designers To The Test http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWM0A1 For the complete Table of Contents, go to Electronic Design ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWN0A2 *************************ADVERTISEMENT************************** Ahead of the Curve: The Hosted Instrument: Finally A No-Compromise Approach By Paul G. Schreier A new expert viewpoint brought to Electronic Design by Agilent Technologies June 21 issue, page 21 http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJGT0Ar ****************************************************************

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Editorial: Lucinda Mattera, Associate Chief Editor: mailto:[email protected] Advertising/Sponsorship Opportunities: Bill Baumann, Publisher: mailto:[email protected]

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