[Editorial] Emerging Technologies Hot Even In A Down Economy
Even as the financial markets continue to nosedive, several bright spots have maintained their appeal. Emerging technologies, such as MEMS and dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) optical components, are still managing to attract...
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Dave Bursky
[Pease Porridge] Bob's Mailbox
Dear Bob: About your reference to coffee timers (Electronic Design, Jan. 22, p. 127): we too have been threatened by our security guards for leaving our coffee pots on. So, I purchased a couple of timers for coffee pots...
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Bob Pease
[Editor's Notebook] Wireless Rolls Out The Red Carpet For MPEG-4
Both wireless and server groups are giving MPEG-4 a big boost, and perhaps these efforts will quell the catcalls to the effect that it's about time. This source-coding technology, which became an ISO/IEC standard in 1999, seems to have taken a long...
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Stephen Grossman
[Letters] Letters
Correction Someone has slipped by a decimal in the report "LSI Designs Bring MPEG-4's Potent Multimedia Performance To Fruition" [Feb. 19, p. 107]. To fit 31 million transistors onto an 8.8- by 8.6-µm...
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Various
[40 Years Ago] Microminiature Guidance Computer
A prototype microminiature guidance computer, using a combination of ceramic wafer-mounted microcomponents and deposited elements in its logic, is scheduled for completion before the end of this year. A nondestructive multiaperture-type memory,...
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Steve Scrupski
[40 Years Ago] New Printed Circuits Closing A Gap In Design
Printed circuitry, criticized as recently as a year ago as lagging in the big push forward by the electronics industry, is posting some impressive advances for designers. Among recent developments are integrally damped boards, highly resistant to...
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Steve Scrupski
[Forefront] Compact Coprocessor Acceleates Java On Embedded Processors
A new Java coprocessor architecture called JVXtreme takes a different approach to Java application acceleration. It works in cooperation and in parallel with the main processor, generating better performance than in-line conversion of Java bytecodes...
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William Wong
[Forefront] Technology Weeds Out C/C++ Loops For Soft-Core Acceleration
Designers writing C/C++ language code for embedded systems applications can breathe a bit easier. A new technology by Proceler Inc. of Berkeley, Calif., simplifies the partitioning of logic between a system's processor and hardware acceleration....
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David Maliniak
[Forefront] Configurable DSP Core Spurs 3G Wireless Baseband Architecture
To stay competitive in the burgeoning 3G wireless communications sector, which is projected to reach $9.2 billion by 2005, National Semiconductor Corp. has forged a technology partnership with 3DSP Corp., a maker of configurable DSP cores. Using...
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Ashok Bindra
[Forefront] Interconnect Technology Boosts Chip Communication Rates
A novel point-to-point bus technology known as HyperTransport brings greater bandwidth to a range of applications, including servers, workstations, network switches, and embedded applications. Developed by Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale,...
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Lisa Eccles
[Forefront] From The Labs
• Armed with a NASA grant, NanoSciences Corp. will develop a solar-blind, ultraviolet-sensitive photocathode based on III-IV aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN). Coupling the photodiode with NanoSciences' micromachined silicon...
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Staff
[Forefront] Company Wire
• A collaboration between GeneScan Europe AG and Clinical Micro Sensors, a business unit within Motorola Inc., is set to produce new DNA detection tools for genetically modified crops. The tools will apply bioelectronic...
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Staff
[Forefront] AC-DC Power-Supply Maker Aims To Increase Power Densities
In space-restricted designs, a power supply's capabilities can be a limiting factor in determining system-level performance. This is particularly true in the telecom and datacom areas, where demand for power is growing and power-supply manufacturers...
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David G. Morrison
[Forefront] Research Redefines Web Site Visualization
Researchers at the University of West Florida's Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola are redefining the standard page structure used for Web site construction. While the page-by-page organization of information on the Web is...
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Lisa Eccles
[Forefront] InfiniBand Chip Delivers HCA, TCA, And Switch Functions
InfiniBand is more than a paper tiger. Silicon and hardware are now emerging to implement this next-generation switch-fabric standard. One of the first devices to help deploy the InfiniBand architecture is Mellanox's MT21108. This chip functions as...
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Ray Weiss
[Forefront] Ultra-Low-Power Comparator Includes Precision Reference
Intended for monitoring low-voltage levels in battery-operated systems, the MIC841 and MIC842 ultra-low-power comparators feature on-chip precision voltage references with 1.25% accuracy. These Micrel Semiconductor units also incorporate hysteresis...
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Ashok Bindra
[Forefront] BER Measurement Software Speeds Component Verification
A ready-to-use software measurement user interface is now available from Agilent for the ParBERT 81250 parallel bit-error ratio (BER) tester. According to the company, the software accelerates the testing, verification, and characterization of...
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Lisa Eccles
[Forefront] Mixed-HDL Simulator Upgraded For Speed, Space
In its latest incarnation, Model Technology's ModelSim 5.5 HDL simulator boasts significantly enhanced memory utilization, interactive debug features, testbench, and regression test support. According to the company, it substantially outperforms...
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David Maliniak
[Careers] Take Control Of Your Time On The Job
Maybe you've just come into a new job and the amount of work seems overwhelming, or perhaps your company has experienced an increase in design projects and is reluctant to hire more engineers. Either way, you find yourself with a workload that you...
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Peter Varhol
