[Engineering Feature] Technology At War
Unmanned aircraft dominate the skies above the theater. A swarm of unmanned ground vehicles with sensors that can see, hear, and maybe even smell prowls the forests and fields of our enemies. High above the theater, peering down from space, are spacecraft that are being refueled in orbit. Their onboard electronics and software are being upgraded and replaced as easily as sliding a PCMCIA card in and out of a laptop." That's the battlefield of the future, according...
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Roger Allan
[Leapfrog: First Look] HCA Packs A Price/Performance Punch
Most switch fabrics face an ongoing struggle of reaching 10 Gbits/s while keeping power consumption, cost, and overhead in check. On the other hand, there's Mellanox and its third-generation InfiniHost III Lx host channel adapter (HCA). This compact, single-chip solution is smaller than a postage stamp, consumes only 2 W, and costs $69(see the figure)--->. The InfiniHost III Lx is a single-port adapter designed to...
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William Wong
[Design View / Design Solution] Speed Time-To-Insight Debugging For High-Speed Memory Failures
Intermittent memory failures can be perplexing to debug. The root of such failures may stem from one cause or a combination of different causes, including BIOS errors, protocol errors, signal-integrity issues, hardware failure, and memory or other subsystem problems. Though some engineering teams achieve rapid resolution to debugging memory failures, many teams experience frustration and flounder while debugging intermittent failures. This article outlines a debug methodology...
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Jennie Grosslight
[Ideas For Design] Power-Supply Tracker Also Margins Supplies
Power-supply margining is a technique commonly used to test circuit boards in production. By adjusting power-supply output voltages, electrical components are tested at the upper and lower supply-voltage limits specified for a design. In addition to its usual task of tracking multiple power supplies, the LTC2923 power-supply tracking controller can be used to margin supplies. The LTC2923 employs the simple tracking cell shown in ...
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Dan Eddleman
[Ideas For Design] Change PC Operating Systems By Switching Hard Drives
If you need or want to have multiple operating systems on a PC, you should be able to access them separately. Some operating systems will take over all of the hard drives, and you may lose data or have data corrupted. (This is the voice of experience speaking!) So I came up with a simple fix that involves an external multiposition switch. This is easier than disconnecting the signal ribbon cable and the corresponding power connectors. Having two distinct operating systems...
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Jerry J. Tomecek
[Editorial] Valuing Engineers' Voices Is Key To Corporate Success
I recently had a chance to talk with Ray Stata, founder and chairman of Analog Devices, at a reception celebrating ADI's 40th anniversary. Forty years is quite an accomplishment now that tech companies seem to rise and fall at fiber-optic speed. The celebration was held in the classy Ray Stata Technology Center on Analog Devices' campus in Wilmington, Mass., where Stata discussed ADI's origins "across the street in a shack." What a feeling it must be to go from a shack...
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Mark David
[POV: Point Of View] Distributed Embedded Aps Poised To Make A Move
Embedded systems and networking are high-growth fields. Where they meet--in distributed embedded systems--there's a world of opportunity for new approaches. Just a few in the long list of applications are military systems, telecommunications, and factory automation. Each of these industries must create a single system from many distributed parts. We could build whole classes of new distributed applications if we had the data. The information is out there. The network is...
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Stan Schneider
[Pease Porridge] What's All This Conditioning Stuff, Anyhow?
Recently I got an e-mail from a friend, bemoaning that he ran out of breath while trying to climb a 14-er in Colorado. He was upset that he had to turn around at the 11,000-ft level and go back down with the women. I suggested that he use the Bob Pease Conditioning Scheme. You don't have to drag a "Stair-Climber" or treadmill inside a simulated high-altitude chamber, evacuated to 14,000 ft. You just have to walk and run up and down stairs--and not in a 20-story building (though I've...
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Bob Pease
[TechView: The Industry] Liquid Lenses Focus Without Moving Parts
While cell-phone cameras are growing in popularity, their electromechanical autofocus lens systems can be costly and complicated. Yet a liquid lens from Varioptic promises to lower these costs and complexities. Lacking any moving parts, this single-element lens is based on immiscible liquids. Small-diameter lens applications like cell-phone cameras will benefit from this simplicity. Conventional focus technologies are based on the principle of moving lenses, i.e.,...
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Dave Bursky
[TechView: Analog & Power] Differential Amps Match ADCs With Complementary-Bipolar SiGe
Analog-to-digital-converter (ADC) resolution and sampling rates keep pushing the envelope. And every time they push further, it gets harder to match the ADC to an input amplifier in high-end test and measurement, medical imaging, wireless infrastructure, and industrial applications. So to meet the needs of ADCs reaching 100-MHz speeds, Texas Instruments came up with a third fully differential amplifier that uses the company's complementary-bipolar Bicom-III silicon-germanium (SiGe)...
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Don Tuite
[TechView: Analog & Power] POL With Inductor Parlays Power Density
Rising power density marks today's point-of-load (POL) dc-dc converters. Enpirion's 6-A EN5360, part of a POL product line that's already unique for integrating the inductor, achieves 700 W/in.3 More importantly from a layout perspective, it achieves 80 W/in.2 on a single-sided board. Input voltages can range from 2.375 to 5.5 V. Seven standard output voltages are pin-selectable, or any output voltage from 0.8 V to VIN can be set via a...
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William Wong
[TechView: Analog & Power] Battery Packs Whisper Secret IDs To Host Controllers
Some OEMs are concerned about personal liability issues. Others are confronted with the product damage caused by end users who try to power portable devices with inappropriate battery packs. A new authentication IC developed by Dallas Semiconductor may help allay those worries. The DS2703 implements a challenge/response scheme, utilizing the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-1) specified in the Federal Information Publication 180-1/2 and ISO/IEC 10118-3, to authenticate battery...
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Don Tuite
[TechView: Digital] Reprogrammable Electronic "Fuses" Leverage CMOS Logic Processes
Thanks to an embedded nonvolatile memory core, chip designers can arm themselves with a multiple-time-programmable (MTP) fuse that's manufacturable via standard CMOS logic processes. Unlike several one-time-programmable (OTP) technologies available today, the AEFuse from Impinj Inc. can be reprogrammed up to 1000 times. The AEFuse does away with larger OTP arrays and with having to subdivide those arrays into pages. Usually, to write new data, the old page is disabled...
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Dave Bursky
[TechView: Digital] Second-Generation HardCopy Won't Be Hard To Get
The latest HardCopy structured ASICs deliver up to 2.2 million ASIC gates, 8.8 Mbits of RAM, and up to 350 MHz of system performance. Based on a fine-grained architecture developed by Altera, this family of five HardCopy II devices will deliver a lower cost per gate than the previous HardCopy family. On top of that, these ASICs will extend Altera's reach into wireline and wireless communications, storage, digital consumer, industrial, and military markets. Interface...
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Dave Bursky
[TechView: Test] Signal-Generator Calibrator Does It All—In One Box
Signal generators must be calibrated at regular intervals to stay within their numerous specs. The FSMR Measuring Receiver from Rohde & Schwarz can perform this calibration on the multiple signal-generator parameters and on variable attenuators without any additional hardware or software. The unit combines a level calibrator, am/fm/pm modulation analyzers, an audio analyzer with total harmonic distortion and SINAD capability, an rf power meter, and spectrum analyzer...
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John Novellino
[TechView: Test] Software Automates Serial Data Analysis
Compliance with industry standards is critical in many systems. LeCroy's SDA-SATA automated test suite makes such compliance easier to determine for transmitters under both Serial ATA (SATA) 1.0a and SATA II. Working with the SDA 6000 family of serial data analyzers, the suite provides an extensive set of validation, verification, and debug tools written in accordance with the SATA Gen1 and SATA Gen2 electrical specifications. Amplitude and jitter measurements are...
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John Novellino
[TechView: Test] One Tester Handles All Major Cell-Phone Technologies
A single test system performs development and conformance testing of applications running on all major cell-phone types, including GSM/GPRS and W-CDMA. Developed by Aeroflex, the Air Interface Monitor Emulator/Applications Test (AIME/AT) system does live network testing or, in conjunction with the company's GSM, W-CDMA, and CDMA protocol test systems, deterministic lab testing. The AIME/AT takes a protocol-agnostic approach that is air-interface independent. Consequently,...
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John Novellino
[TechView: EDA] Debug Platform Targets SoCs Based On Embedded CPUs
Deep insight into the behavior of complex system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs and on-chip communications is more critical than ever due to the onslaught of designs based on embedded processors. Novas Software's nESL debug platform endeavors to help the cause by extending the company's existing Verdi automated debug system to bridge the RTL and system/software domains. System-level methodologies are gaining ground in both embedded-processor designs and verification...
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David Maliniak
[TechView: EDA] SystemC Tool Weds HW And SW Concepts
Although many designers have begun incorporating electronic-system-level (ESL) methodologies into their design flows, some still look for tools that complete the path to implementation. Summit Design's Vista design environment for SystemC looks to fill that gap by combining hardware and software concepts to speed the design and debug of SystemC applications. Vista provides a native, source-based SystemC platform that lets designers with HDL backgrounds quickly learn...
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David Maliniak
[TechView: EDA] EDA Roundup
Automating the process of RTL closure, Blue Pearl Software's Indigo RTL Analysis identifies functional problems in RTL before synthesis to gate level. This reduces the number of design iterations by resolving issues such as synchronization of clock-domain-crossing data and logic race conditions (e.g., write-write, read-write, and combinational loop races). Indigo automatically pinpoints the lines of source code causing the problems. The tool's functional-analysis technology runs at...
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David Maliniak
[TechView: Wireless] Baseband Chips Move 3G Cell Phones To The Fast Track
Are we there yet? That is, to 3G? Well, almost. It's been a long trip with many stops for economic, business, social, and regulatory issues. Yet Agere Systems' combo UMTS/EDGE chip set will give multimode phones the kick they need to get back on the road. 3G cell phones promise packet speeds from 384 kbytes/s to 2 Mbytes/s. That's enough for e-mail, Web browsing, messaging, music downloads, and some video. But to get there, entire cell-phone systems need to be refitted with...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Wireless] Wireless Protocol Serves Up Multiple-Node Access
WirelessUSB radio modems crafted by Cypress Semiconductor hit the market over a year ago, replacing wires in various industrial and home applications. Now along comes the WirelessUSB N:1 protocol, which has opened up new doors for these modems. Using a star topology, this protocol offers access to as many as 65,000 nodes. A central hub can then access data from remote sensors that monitor anything, from the state of a ceiling light to a hallway's temperature. It can also...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Wireless] Data Converters Braced For Ever-Expanding Wireless Needs
Point 1: Cell-phone basestations now handle multiple interface standards in multicarrier implementations with faster data rates. Point 2: Wireless broadband promises furious access speeds and multimedia distribution. Combine the two points, and it becomes obvious that data converters are vital to achieving successful products. Analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters (ADCs and DACs) are used in a basestation's IF section. More and more, they're translating...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Wireless] Fortify Embedded Wi-Fi With RF Power Amps
Advanced applications that embed 2.4-GHz 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, such as laptops, cell phones, PDAs, and Voice-over-Wi-Fi phones, have new power amplifiers at their disposal. Designed by SiGe Semiconductor, the RangeCharger RF amps feature increased integration for lower parts count and cost, smaller size, and reduced current drain for higher power efficiency. The SE2550L is a complete front-end module with all of the circuitry needed to interface the antenna and radio chip. It...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Embedded in Electronic Design] InfiniBand Boards Drive VITA 41
SBS Technologies' 10-Gbit/s InfiniBand switch and single-board computer (SBC) plug into a standard 6U VME VITA 41 switch-fabric system. The IB4X-V41 is a 24-port 4× InfiniBand switch that uses a single Mellanox InfiniScale III switch chip with an aggregate bandwidth of 480 Gbits/s. The VXS1 VITA 41 SBC is driven by a 1-GHz Freescale MPC7447A G4 PowerPC. It contains a built-in, Mellanox MT23108 4× InifiniBand host bus adapter (HBA). The SBC supports the 320-Mbyte/s 2eSST backplane...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Kit Simplifies IPMI Module Creation
The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a critical component for high-availability systems like Advanced-TCA (ATCA). Pigeon Point makes the creation of an IPMI module easier with its 16-bit Renesas H8S/2168-based board management reference design. The starter kit lets developers test a system prior to placing it on an ATCA board. The 33-MHz MCU has 256 kbytes of flash, 40 kbytes of SRAM, six I2C ports, and an eight-channel analog-to-digital converter. The IPM...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Rugged Video Targets C41
Rugged, military Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Intelligence (C4I) environments are just what the Octegra3 is built for. The 6U VME board from Radstone drives dual displays and has a mezzanine site for video extensions. Also, it features its own 1-GHz 7447A PowerPC processor with 256 Mbytes of RAM. The video processor contains 64 Mbytes of RAM. An overlay module supports streaming video. Cost for the Octegra3 runs...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Java For Critical Jobs
Standard Java has been found unsuitable for many embedded applications, but real-time and mission-critical enhancements are remolding the language. Hard real-time Java was formalized in JSR-1. It specifies a very flexible scheduling system (see "Will The Real-Time Java Please Stand Up?" ED Online 3156). The Open Group is looking to make more changes to Java so that it can meet safety- and mission-critical applications. The table shows how various Java flavors differ....
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] The Many Faces Of Embedded Java
What is embedded Java? This question tends to be difficult because most people and organizations--including Sun--have decided to lump so much under a single name. Java is a language and a platform. The latter is what makes categorization in the embedded space more difficult. Sun tried to partition Java into three camps: Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), Standard Edition (J2SE), and Micro Edition (J2ME). These days, embedded developers often contend with all three. J2EE...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] uCLinux Rides A Blackfin
Blackfin DSP developers can now take advantage of uCLinux, a compact Linux kernel, with help from Analog Devices. As the maker of Blackfin DSPs, Analog Devices has made significant contributions to the GNU toolset. The Analog C compiler enhancements currently are being merged to exploit the 2.6 kernel. Support is being included for Analog Devices' BF533 development board. A number of additional daughtercards are available, such as a video encoder. The development board wraps the...
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William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] 3- By 3-mm, 10-Pin MCU Targets Tight Applications
Compact, low-power MCUs are in greater demand as they invade ever-smaller product packaging. The LPC9102 and LPC9103 MCUs crafted by Philips Semiconductors feature twice the number of I/O pins versus comparably sized products. The MCUs are based on the 8051 architecture, with two clock instructions executing in as little as 111 ns. The LPC910x family offers 128 bytes of RAM, 1 kbyte of byte-erasable flash, an 8-bit analog-to-digital converter (with a window comparator that can...
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William Wong
[TechScope] Integrated Alarm Goes Wireless
It's like a dozen different alarm systems in the palm of your hand. Simple convergence—long thought an oxymoron—has been achieved in the HomeHeartbeat home awareness system. This kit from Eaton Electrical immediately notifies homeowners via a wireless key fob or their cell phones when problems occur. The kit consists of a basestation, a control, and a group of sensors (see the figure). Users plug the basestation...
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Richard Gawel
[Basics Of Design] Streamline System Design Prototypes Using FPGAs Sponsored by: NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
Field-programmable gate-array (FPGA) use can be divided into three categories. At the low end is programmable logic that can handle simple decoding and translation chores. At the high end are large FPGAs capable of implementing entire systems or subsystems, including soft processors. Some chips even incorporate dedicated processor cores. The in-between midrange FPGAs are ideal for massaging data, synchronizing subsystems, and generally making customization significantly easier. A...
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William Wong
[Design FAQs] Multifunction Power Management Sponsored by: NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
What is a typical application for a multifunction power-management IC? Multifunction power-management ICs are members of a new generation of devices that manage the power for special-application processors. For example, Intel's XScale processor optimizes low power consumption and high-performance processing. Its micro-architecture stateof-the-art processing technology enables it to produce mW/MIPS performance. This processor supports mobile handheld devices, including...
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Sam Davis
