The Week in Brief: MOST, PC/104, Apple BOM, More…
March 17, 2012. Highlights from the week include Rohde & Schwarz adding WLAN signaling capability, Tektronix adding PCIe and MIPI M-PHY support, GOEPEL enhancing embedded support, Azimuth enhancing its Field-to-Lab product, and Masimo acquiring a semiconductor operation.
In addition, GOEPEL electronic introduced the PXI 6161 PXI communication controller, which supports the MOST150 standard. A break-out module as an optional accessory facilitates the connection of additional resources such as an electronic control line (ECL) or trigger lines. In addition to the PXI version, GOEPEL electronic offers the module as USB variant. The card’s intelligent PowerPC architecture allows the access to two on the board integrated network interface controllers to suport MOST internal communication and monitoring of MOST contents. www.goepel.com.
Other news of the week comes from IHS iSuppli, B&K Precision, and WinSystems. B&K Precision has announced models 2540B-GEN and 2542B-GEN 60-MHz and 100-MHz digital storage oscilloscopes, which include function/arbitrary waveform generation capability. With the integrated 20-MHz AWG in the 2540B-GEN and 40-MHz AWG in the 2542B-GEN, users can generate sine, square, and arbitrary waveforms from the oscilloscope's generator output terminal. Other features of the built-in AWG include frequency sweep, burst mode, and a wide variety of modulation schemes such as AM, FM, FSK, PSK, and PWM. List price starts at $1,195. www.bkprecision.com.
WinSystems has introduced its PCM-SDIO, a PC/104-compliant module with four asynchronous serial ports and forty-eight lines of digital I/O. It eliminates one board in a stack without sacrificing any features or benefits at a lower cost. The PCM-SDIO is based upon an FPGA with both 16C554 UART and WS16C48 digital I/O-compatible cores. The digital portion is further enhanced since its I/O can interface with up to 30-V signals. The PCM-SDIO will operate from -40° to +85°C without forced air cooling. Base price is $249 in unit quantities. www.winsystems.com.
Apple Inc.’s iPad is set to continue to dominate worldwide demand for NAND flash in media tablets at least through the year 2015, according to the IHS iSuppli. Overall shipments of NAND flash for all media tablets will rise to 16.3 billion gigabytes by 2015, up by a factor of 10 from 1.6 billion gigabytes in 2011. By 2015, media tablets will account for 17% of global NAND shipments, up from 9% in 2011. While the iPad has proven to be a NAND glutton, its appetite for DRAM has been more restrained. The first iPad used just 2 gigabits of mobile DRAM. While iPad 2 upped that amount to 4 gigabits, it still managed to keep its DRAM content lower than most of its competitors—and even compared to many of the smartphones that were launched in 2011. www.ihs.com.
In related news, HIS says the new iPad, equipped with 32 GB of NAND flash memory and 4G LTE wireless capability, carries a bill of materials (BOM) of $364.35. When the $10.75 manufacturing costs are added in, the cost to produce the new iPad rises to $375.10. The $364.35 BOM represents 50% of the $729.00 retail price of the 32GB LTE version.
If you missed any of the week's highlights, visit “Rohde & Schwarz Adds WLAN Signaling Functions,” “Tektronix Adds PCIe, MIPI M-PHY Support,” “Azimuth Systems Enhances Field-to-Lab,” “Masimo Acquires Assets of Spire Semiconductor,” and “GOEPEL Software Targets ESA.”
Visit previous “Breaking News”: Rohde & Schwarz Adds WLAN Signaling Functions.
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