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ISSUE DATE: MAY 10, 2004 OPTIONS
Outsourcing: How safe is your job? Robotics for future engineers, Advanced switching fabrics, RFI-free ringer generator, Embedded in ED

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May 10, 2004 - In This Issue

[Engineering Feature]
Outsourcing: How Safe Is Your Job?
Decisions to ship high-tech jobs offshore have become more the norm in executive boardrooms across the U.S. The ensuing fallout is telling: The unemployment rate for American EEs reached an all-time high of 6.2% in 2003 versus 4.2% in 2002—a...  — Ron Schneiderman

[Leapfrog: First Look]
An Easier Path To RTL For DSP Algorithms
Why are so many designers turning to FPGA implementation for DSP designs? Considering the price/performance ratio for today's high-end FPGAs, not to mention the large numbers of DSP blocks and multipliers already included on these devices, it's a...  — David Maliniak

[Leapfrog: First Look]
Trimmable Analog IP Blocks Come Fully Armed With Power Management
A new weapon in the arsenal for designers of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (802.11) system-on-a-chip (SoC) ICs provides low-cost, ultra-accurate trimming of nearly all power-management circuits. By leveraging its know-how in accurately laser-trimming CMOS...  — Roger Allan

[Design View / Design Solution]
Connect PCI Express Subsystems With Advanced Switching Fabrics
Current parallel backplane technologies are rapidly being replaced with advanced serial-I/O-based solutions. Two such open standards include PCI Express Base and Advanced Switching (AS). These new technologies recognize the prevalence and...  — John Gudmundson

[Ideas For Design]
RFI-Free Ringer Generator Works Off Single 5-V Supply
A simple yet effective circuit to generate a POTS-compatible ringing voltage can be made from National Semiconductor's LM4871 audio-amplifier IC and a dozen passive components (see the figure). This...  — Jim Crandell

[Ideas For Design]
D-Type Flip-Flop Synchronizes Multiplexer Data
Multiplexers are widely used in communication systems to convert parallel signals into serial signals. The multiplexer takes a high-frequency clock as the system input clock (Clk_in) that's synchronized with the serial output data. A low-frequency...  — Zhe Lou

[Editorial]
Automation Can Neutralize The Lure Of Going Offshore
In response, IBM's vice president, Steve Mills, allowed that IBM's middleware (software that parses and standardizes data for inter-application integration) does facilitate the "virtualization" of the business process, which can facilitate...  — Mark David

[POV: Point Of View]
Moore Versus Murphy: How 90 nm Affects Innovation
The semiconductor industry is just now recovering from its worst economic downturn in its history. Yet, companies will scarcely have a chance to catch their breaths before facing a new "crisis of complexity" at 90 nm. This crisis could be a far more...  — James McCrory

[Pease Porridge]
What's All This Cruise Control Stuff, Anyhow?
Okay, Pease. You brag that you can slap together a good breadboard in an hour or two, all hay-wired over a copper-clad ground plane. How come it took you two years to build this circuit? Well, most breadboards are quick to build, and...  — Bob Pease

[TechView: The Industry]
Future Engineers Brace For Battle Of The Robots
What happens when you throw together a motor, sensors, shafts, bearings, and a multichannel radio control system containing a 12-V battery power supply with a team of high-school students? Fun, learning, and competition. That's the premise...  — William Wong

[TechView: Analog & Power]
High-Performance 14-Bit DAC Zips Along At 1.2 Gsamples/s
The AD9736 14-bit, 0.18-µm CMOS current-output digital-to-analog converter (DAC) breaks the 1-Gsample/s barrier with a 1.2-Gsample/s rate at a 316-MHz output. And, it does so without compromising performance and at a low power dissipation of 380...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Analog & Power]
Web-Ready UPS System Fits Applications To 800 kVA
True digital power quality (DPQ) for enterprise applications in models from 555 to 800 kVA can be achieved with the EPS8000 uninterruptible-power-supply (UPS) system from MGE. Combined with MGE's data-grade input filter, the system's DPQ...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Analog & Power]
24-Bit IC Delivers Total, Precision Data Acquisition
By integrating analog and digital cores on the same piece of silicon, the Burr-Brown Division of Texas Instruments created a low-cost and high-performance precision data-acquisition system-on-a-chip. The MSC1200 delivers performance levels for in...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Communications]
"10 Gbits/s Over UTP? Gimme A Break!"
That's basically what I said to Ron Cates, vice president of marketing at SolarFlare Communications, when he announced that his company had successfully demonstrated 10 Gbits/s over CAT5e UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cable. With all that...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
Comm Techniques Yield All-Digital High-Power Audio Amp
Virtually every electronic product today is digital, including products in the once all-analog domain of communications. Audio power amplification is about the last thing to be digitized. And thanks to communications techniques, D2Audio has created...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Communications]
Silicond-Germanium Amplifiers Boost 3G WCDMA And 802.11a Radios
Making an integrated power amplifier for microwave radio has never been easy. In the past, most manufacturers settled on gallium-arsenide (GaAs) amplifiers to wring out the most performance. But their high cost keeps the bill of materials (BOM) of...  — Louis E. Frenzel

[TechView: Components & Test]
Standardized D Cell Ultracapacitor Promises Lower Costs
Ultracapacitor technology steps forward with the D Cell Boostcap (DCAP series). Based on industry-standard D cell battery dimensions, it is 61.5 mm long and has an outside diameter of 33 mm, as per the EN60086-2 and EN60285 battery standards....  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Components & Test]
Light-To-Frequency Converter Offers High Sensitivity, Low Noise
Able to sense ultra-low light levels undetectable by most silicon-based sensors, the TAOS TSL237R light-to-frequency converter with a 5,000,000:1 dynamic range combines enhanced sensitivity with low dark-signal levels. This device senses...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Components & Test]
12-Bit PCI Digitizer Cards Make Data Acquisition Affordable
Low-cost data acquisition is now available from two new two-channel ATS1250/1220 12-bit PCI digitizer cards at 50/20 Msamples/s. Priced at $1795 and $1295, respectively, the cards include 128 kbytes per channel. Larger versions are available up to 8...  — Roger Allan

[TechView: Digital]
Instruction-Set Extensions Let CPU Accelerate Key Operations
By integrating configurable logic into the datapath of a high-performance processor, designers at Stretch Inc. have crafted a CPU that combines a fixed instruction set and a way to create highly optimized custom instructions in hardware....  — Dave Bursky

[TechView: Digital]
Native PCI-Express Boosts Graphics Bandwidth
The GammaChrome high-performance 3D graphics accelerators from S3 Graphics incorporate a 16-channel native PCI-Express host interface that delivers an aggregate data transfer rate of 8 Gbytes/s between the host system and the graphics processor....  — Dave Bursky

[TechView: EDA]
Full-System Modeling Tool Behaves Like An Emulator
All too often within the SoC world, system design isn't exactly... system design. Software and hardware design often come together too late to overcome problems. But some tools help meld the two earlier in the cycle. Tenison EDA's newly...  — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
Startup Elevates SoC Synthesis
For some SoC hardware designers, the use of algorithmic expression to define a system in behavioral terms may enable faster simulation. But it also can obscure significant details, such as how much pipelining is contained within the...  — David Maliniak

[TechView: EDA]
EDA News
The first 65-nm X architecture test chip has been produced at Applied Materials' Maydan Technology Center in Sunnyvale, Calif. Applied Materials leveraged its wafer fabrication equipment and processes along with lithography equipment from Canon USA...  — David Maliniak

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
If It Goes Away, It May Not Return
System developers are well aware of how hard it is to find a needle in a haystack, which is why tracing tools have become so important. Catching the symptom of a problem is often done best via a trace tool. Hardware trace features were first...  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
VME Bus Analyzer Board Plugs In The Bus
VMetro's Vanguard VME Bus Analyzer includes a 2-Msample trace buffer and a 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet interface. The analyzer supports VME, VME64, 2eVME, and 2eSST. A multilevel trace viewer is part of the software package. It handles state and timing...  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
x86 MB Fits In Tight Spots
The EPIA N-Series Nano-ITX motherboard series measures only 12 cm on a side. It's powered by a 1-GHz VIA Eden-N processor with a VT8237 South Bridge that supports Serial ATA, Parallel ATA-133, USB 2.0, on-board local-area network (LAN), and V-RAID....  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Emulator Delivers TriCore MMU Debug Support
The Tanto for TriCore with MMU support from HiTex Development Tools handles the latest TC11xx and TC19xx MCUs from Infineon Technologies. The Tanto TriCore system consists of the universal Tanto Base module and a TriCore-specific Port Link module. It...  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Modules Deliver Smart Memory
Flash memory is the dominant non-volatile storage for embedded applications. Often, though, it's simply a bank of memory that requires a custom interface providing only storage support. PQI and M-Systems offer two very different intelligent modules...  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
PC/104 SBC Gets Analog Data
The Athena HRC104 PC/104 single-board computer (SBC) from Diamond Systems couples a low-power, 660-MHz Via Eden x86-compatible processor with a data-acquisition controller that sports a 16-channel, 16-bit analog-to-digital converter and four-channel,...  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Toolset Targets TriCore TC1130
Toolset support for Infineon's new TC1130 StarCore-based, 32-bit MCU comes by way of Altium's Tasking TriCore VX-toolset. Included is the Embedded Development Environment (EDE), CrossView Pro debugger, assembler, and the Tasking C/C++/EC++ compiler....  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
MCU Bridges USB And Ethernet
The 77.4-MHz 32-bit LH79524 and 16/32-bit LH79525 ARM720T-based microcontrollers (MCUs) represent Sharp Microelectronics' latest BlueStreak systems-on-a-chip. The flash-based MCUs support a touchscreen controller and a programmable LCD controller with...  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Software Speeds Layer 4 Dynamic Ethernet Switches
Soup-to-nuts functionality for dynamic stacking Ethernet switches supporting layers 2, 3, and 4+ comes via LVL7 Systems' FastPath 4000 platform. It supports single IP address management for an entire switch stack. FastPath 4000 incorporates extensive...  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
EPIC Fills PC/104 Board Gap
PC/104 is too small and EBX is too big, but the new EPIC (Embedded Platform for Industrial Computing) is just right, or so says the founding group of five vendors that includes Ampro, Micro/sys, Octagon, VersaLogic, and WinSystems. EPIC...  — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
EPIC Boards
EPIC Is Ready For Networking The ReadyBoard 550 and 700 target both ends of the performance spectrum, each with a pair of 10/100BaseT Ethernet ports. The 550 supports a 300-MHz to 1-GHz Eden processor. The 700 handles...  — William Wong

[TechScope]
Getting The Lead Out
Consumer Consumer Consumer electronics contribute a significant portion of the lead found in landfills, potentially contaminating drinking water supplies and having other toxic effects on the environment. Intel will eliminate about 95% of the lead...  — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
NCSP Releases Four-Point Plan To Secure Cyberspace
As hackers get smarter, software security professionals must enhance their methods to stay one step ahead. Fortunately, they don't have to work alone. The National Cyber Security Partnership released a report that recommends four key steps in...  — Richard Gawel

[TechScope]
Sloar Cells Get A Thicker Skin
Outer space can be a pretty tough environment, calling for just as tough solar cells. Hybrid Plastics, Auburn University, and Entech Inc. have teamed under a NASA Glenn Research Center program to develop protective coatings for next-generation...  — Richard Gawel

[Basics Of Design]
Mobile Multimedia
Sponsored by: PHILIPS SEMICONDUCTORS
Today, mobile multimedia generally means images and sound. The basic design elements for mobile multimedia comprise an imaging chip and its encoding and compression circuitry, a display and its driving circuitry, possibly some storage, an interface to...  — Don Tuite

[New Products]

• Component Specifier: Connectors And Sockets  — Lisa Maliniak

• UL-Approved Shoulder Feedthrough Capacitors Withstand 250 V ac  — Roger Allan

• Dual-Rate VCXO Replaces Two VCXOs For SONET/SDH Uses  — Roger Allan

• Button-Sized Capacitor Fits Into Coin-Sized 2325 Battery Holder  — Roger Allan

• Flat-Panel Display Monitors Target Kiosk/Industrial Applications  — Roger Allan

• Sensor System Performs Accurate 2D Measurements In A Single Procedure  — Roger Allan

• Low-Voltage PECL Clocks Deliver Frequencies From 77 To 330 MHz  — Roger Allan

• Crystals And Oscillators Meet TI’s 1394b FireWire Specification  — Roger Allan

• Dual-Axis MEMS Accelerometers In Tiny Cases Suit Consumer Uses  — Roger Allan

• Evaluation Kit Eases Analysis Of Protocol Acceleration Performance  — Staff

• Telephone/Telecom Test Kit Offers Cords For All Situations  — Staff

• Sound-Source ICs Give Phones CD-Quality Ring Tone Audio  — Staff

• Protocol Accelerator Gives A Boost To Network Performance  — Staff

• On-The-Go USB 2.0 Core Delivers Master And Slave Capabilities  — Staff

• Network Access Solution Combines IP Router, VPN, Firewall, And More  — Staff

• Audio/Touch-Panel Codec Spares Power But Not Functions  — Staff

• SPI Bridge Processors Link PCI/PCI-X With SPI3 Or SPI4.2  — Staff

• Multichip NOR Flash Module Packs 64 Mbytes Of Configurable Storage  — Dave Bursky

• Flash-Memory Family Delivers Densities From 16 to 256 Mbits  — Dave Bursky

• High-Density DDR Memory DIMMs Bring Up To 4 Gbytes At 266 MHz  — Dave Bursky





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