May 13, 2002 Magazine Archive

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ISSUE DATE: MAY 13, 2002

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InfiniBand host adapter, Java for embedded needs, Fine-pitch connectors, All-format AFEs, Embedded In ED

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Browse Archived Articles By: Issue | Author | Department | Topic

May 13, 2002 - In This Issue

[Technology Report]
Fine-Pitch Connectors Scale Down To Fit Portable Designs
Connectors developed for pc-board interfaces have come a long way since the days when I/O density was dictated by the 0.1-in. (2.54-mm) center-to-center spacing of contacts or pitch of commonly available products. Over the last two decades, the... — David G. Morrison

[Technology Report]
Meeting Embedded Needs With Java
Software Java Solutions Run Everywhere Any processor with a couple of megabits of RAM can handle Java applications. Only a Java virtual machine (JVM) is necessary. All JVMs are not created equal, but that's the beauty... — William Wong

[Product Innovation]
Dual-Port Host Adapter Streamlines InfiniBand Designs
InfiniBand switches can push more data with links that run at the 10-Gbit/s speed of 4X InfiniBand. Handling this kind of power isn't easy, though. The dual-channel InfiniHost MT23108 chip from Mellanox Inc. solves this problem with a building block... — William Wong

[Design Application]
All-Format Analog Front Ends Handle Video And PC Formats
Much-hyped PC/TV convergence is becoming a reality in many display products. Consider an LCD PC monitor with a TV input, or a big-screen TV coupled to your home PC for Web surfing. Also, projectors for business presentations are shrinking to the point... — Peter Chang , et al.

[Ideas For Design]
Maximize Battery Life And Minimize Replacements
Designers and consumers want to maximize battery life in portable and handheld applications—to avoid discarding batteries that contain useful life, and to minimize battery replacements. Small battery-powered devices with wall-adapter plug-ins... — Mark Pearson

[Ideas For Design]
Supervisory IC Protects System Against Overvoltage Conditions
Careful design limits overvoltage on the supply input of integrated circuits, and avoids compromising an IC's specifications. Overvoltage damage can cause an immediate failure, or accelerate an early-life reliability failure. Older technology CMOS... — Clayton B. Grantham

[Ideas For Design]
Use Four External Interrupts Through One 8051 Input
The 8051-compatible microcontrollers are equipped with up to two inputs that may be used as general-purpose interrupts. A simple way to increase the number of interrupt inputs is shown in the figure. The... — Yuri Magda

[Editorial]
Learn From The Past, Or Make The Same Errors Again
Perhaps it's our destiny to forever repeat mistakes and learn the hard way what can and can't be done. Like the typical teenager who wants to experience both good and bad firsthand, we continually make many of the same mistakes when we don't heed the... — Dave Bursky

[Pease Porridge]
What’s All This Wattmeter Stuff, Anyhow?
Last month, I designed a good 1-mΩ> shunt ("What's All This Shunt Stuff, Anyhow?" April 29, p. 94). Now we'll use it in a 1.5-kW wattmeter. This one is optimized for the 80- to 130-V ac range, and for currents up to 15 A (... — Bob Pease

[Viewpoint]
Consider All Memory Options For Best Network Line-Card Practices
Next-generation packet-processing line cards will need large amounts of memory with very high bandwidth. Such cards could pack 50 Mbytes of high-performance SRAM in addition to 500 Mbytes or more of fast DRAM. Beyond the memory, the line cards will... — Peter Richmond

[Editor's Notebook]
Are You Getting Caught In The .Net Or Addicted To That Cup Of Java?
Embedded network devices from cell phones to set-top boxes are useless in isolation. Plus, though they may work with their peers, they rarely implement a peer network, instead requiring a server. Sun Micro-systems would like that platform to be Java,... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Little Packages
Small 8- and 16-bit microprocessors make up the bulk of processor shipments. Memory capacity and performance in this space is growing, increasing the need for compact RTOS solutions such as those examined this month. Chips like the 8-bit... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Board News
Hyperthreading SBC—Trenton Processors' new $2000 XPI single-board computer (SBC) sports the new Intel 2-GHz Xeon processor, which uses hyperthreading to make one processor look like two. The board also includes dual Gigabit Ethernet... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
News Clips
Eclipse Gains Supporters—The open, extensible IDE (www.eclipse.org) is being extended past its Java roots. QNX Software Systems (www.qnx.com) was one of many companies that showed off customized versions of Eclipse at the... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Software Directory: CMSystems CMX RTX/Tiny+
Keeping things small and simple is the name of the game with CMX RTX and CMX Tiny+. This is a requirement for both compact platforms, like the 8051, and more powerful 32- and 64-bit processors when the job does not demand a heftier operating system,... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Software Directory: Keil Software RTX51/RTX166
Keil Software is really in the compiler and development tool business. Its Professional Developer's Kit includes a compact RTOS kernel. The RTX51 Tiny is part of the PK51 kit for 8051 chip architectures, while the RTX166 Tiny in the PK166 and PK161... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Software Directory: OSE Systems OSE RTOS
Direct process-to-process message passing is the hallmark of OSE Systems' RTOS. Its namesake support for processor architectures extends down to the Atmel AVR and scales up to high-end ARM, PowerPC, and MIPS processors. OSE's transparent,... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Software Directory: Lineo RTXC 3.2
Lineo offers two versions of RTXC. Although RTXC 3.2 predates RTXC Quadros, it supports a wider range of processors, including those at the low end of the spectrum, such as the 8-bit Hitachi H8S and the Motorola HC12. RTXC Quadros provides a more... — William Wong

[Embedded in Electronic Design]
Software Directory: Accelerated Technology Nucleus Plus
The Nucleus kernel comes in three forms, including one that's compatible with the Japan Itron standard and another with the auto industry OSEK standard. These are based on the main Nucleus kernel. Although Nucleus handles a number of 8- and... — William Wong

[Celebrating 50 Years]
Engineering Hall Of Fame/Flashback
Flashback > 10 Years Ago MAY 14, 1992 CONCURRENT ENGINEERING, SEMICONDUCtor device technology, manufacturing, software engineering, education, and international issues are among the common subject... — Staff

[Forefront]
Laser Diode Controller Targets Fiber-Optic Applications
To precisely control the bias and modulation current of laser diodes in fiber-optic applications, Xicor's X9530 integrated controller incorporates two digitally controlled current sources or sinks. Each of the X9530's two 8-bit current... — Ashok Bindra

[Forefront]
Virtually Develop DSPs
Multiple digital signal processor (DSP) development can be as easy as developing for one chip using Wind River's new VSPWorks and its Virtual Single Processor (VSP) model. Developers design a program as if a single DSP is used. Tasks are... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Testbench Acceleration Weds Synthesis And Hardware
With functional verification still a huge bottleneck, designers continue to search out ways to speed up the design process. Verisity Design Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., has developed a technology that enables engineers to accelerate their... — David Maliniak

[Forefront]
Open-API Initiative Advances, But Will EDA Industry Cooperate?
The OpenAccess Coalition (OAC) has gotten a long-awaited boost. The group's chief technology contributor, Cadence Design Systems Inc., has signed off on a roadmap for release of the source code for its Genesis database and application programming... — David Maliniak

[Forefront]
Digitizers Deliver 1-GHz Bandwidths, 4-Gsample/s Rates On CompactPCI Cards
Using advanced silicon-germanium (SiGe) biCMOS technology, the V-Class DC series of digitizer cards offers 1-GHz bandwidths, sampling rates to 4 Gsamples/s, and memory depths up to 32 Mpoints (512 kpoints standard). One-, two-, and four-channel models... — John Novellino

[Forefront]
Synchronous Buck Regulator Doubles Output Current In ThinSOT
Combining circuit refinements with process advances, Linear Technology has doubled its synchronous current-mode step-down regulator's output-current capability. Consequently, the LTC3406 offers a 600-mA continuous current output with a 3-V supply. A... — Ashok Bindra

[Forefront]
LED Headlamp Illuminates New Automotive Uses
After proving their capabilities in automotive rear signal and brake lamps, LEDs have demonstrated their potential as vehicle headlamps. At the recent Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, Italian car designer Fioravanti unveiled a concept vehicle named... — David G. Morrison

[Forefront]
Carrier-Grade Linux Drives COTS
Developing high-availability and carrier applications for commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware gets easier with MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition (CGE) 2.1. Based on MontaVista's Linux Professional Edition and High Availability Framework 3.0... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Coverification Environment Expands Reach Into C/C++
With architectural exploration at high levels of abstraction becoming of greater interest to ASIC designers, it's crucial for these designers to have a means of coverifying hardware and software at those levels. So, Mentor Graphics is extending its... — David Maliniak

[Forefront]
One Tester Does The Job Of Many For 10-Gbit/s Optical Networks
The A3306 optical standards tester is an automated instrument that contains all the functions needed to analyze and test 10-Gbit/s optical networks. It automatically performs layer 1, 2, and 3 tests on Sonet/SDH systems, 10-Gbit Ethernet local-area... — John Novellino

[New Products]

• Surface-Mount Oscillators Operate To 800 MHz — David G. Morrison

• Very Small VCO Targets Wireless Internet Systems — David G. Morrison

• VCXO Maintains Precision Over Wide Temperature Range — David G. Morrison

• DC-DC Converter Series Provides Up To 20 A From 5-V Input — Lisa Fakhry

• Dual-Output Quarter Bricks Deliver 40 W — David G. Morrison

• Telecom Power Supplies Configure For 250 To 2000 W — David G. Morrison

• Class D Controller IC Achieves 90% Efficiency — Richard Gawel

• 32-Channel VME Board Doubles The Sampling Rate — Richard Gawel

• Instrumentation Amp Minimizes Errors While Drawing Just 95 μA — Richard Gawel

• Low-Power Single-Chip Codec Integrates PLL And Audio Amps — Richard Gawel

• Fully Differential Amplifiers Claim Industry’s Lowest Distortion — Richard Gawel

• Low-Power Comparators Reduce Current-Flow Demands — Richard Gawel

• Analog Switch And Multiplexer Family Boosts Throughput And Bandwidth — Richard Gawel

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