August 21, 2000 Magazine Archive

Technologies
- Analog
- Communications
- Components
- Digital ICs
- EDA
- Embedded
- Power
- Test
Design Hotspots
- Analog
- Embedded
- Power
- Green Design
Resources
Magazine
eBooks & Whitepapers
Shows
- electronica
- NI Week
- MTT-S
- DAC
- MD&M
- PCIM
- SID
- IEF
- ESC
- CTIA
- APEC
Jobs
More...
- eBooks
- Whitepapers
- Webcasts
- Job Zone
- Newsletters
- Blogs
- Hall of Fame
- RSS
- Subscribe

Click to view this week's ad screen

ISSUE DATE: AUGUST 21, 2000

OPTIONS

Cable modem line driver, FPGA-based processors, Audio codecs, Windows CE 3.0, PC audio

• Get a FREE Subscription
• Renew Subscription
• Reprints/Licensing
• Advertiser Index
• Submit Article Ideas

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

August 21, 2000 - In This Issue

[Technology Report]
Audio Codecs Bring Professional Sound Quality To PCs, Consumer Products
The insatiable quest for better sound quality in low-cost PCs and digital consumer gadgets, including the emerging Internet appliances, is forcing designers to extend professional-quality audio signal processing to the mass market. As these... — Ashok Bindra

[Technology Report]
Windows CE 3.0 Hosts Improvements For More Robust Embedded Systems
Windows CE, Microsoft's 32-bit embedded operating system, is undergoing its third major revision. If it's anything like its Windows cousins, this revision should shake up the competition. Windows CE has targeted two major areas: handheld PCs... — William Wong

[Product Innovation]
Upstream Cable Modem Line Driver Targets Tight DOCSIS Specifications
Since the rollout of proprietary cable-modem systems in the early nineties, the use of data transport over coaxial cables has expanded substantially. Today, market analysts predict that the count for cable-modem users far exceeds one million.... — Ashok Bindra

[Product Innovation]
On-Chip Processors Broaden Embedded Designers Choices
Today, almost every embedded system contains three key building blocks—a processor, some memory, and some logic. Traditionally, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have been restricted to the latter because implementing the processor portion... — Dave Bursky

[Design Application]
Careful Design Helps Exorcise Noise Demons From PC Audio
Did you ever wonder why certain audio cards sound terrific while others include unwanted background noise when moving a mouse or spinning up a hard drive? This tutorial explains how to design terrific sounding audio for PCs without encountering the... — Contributing Author

[Design Application]
Use Forward Error Correction To Improve Data Communications
As bandwidth demands increase and the tolerance for errors and latency decreases, designers of data-communication systems are looking for new ways to expand available bandwidth and improve the quality of transmission. One solution isn't actually... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
Parallel-Port Powers Level Detector With Data Logging Capability
Using a PC parallel port, this selfpowered circuit precisely monitors four voltage levels in the range of 0.0 V to slightly over 5.0 V. Since the circuit is software-controlled, it lends itself to simple data logging applications. It’s a simple... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
Transimpedance Amp Employs Optically Isolated Digital Gain Control
Located atop 7500-ft. Table Mountain near Wrightwood, Calif., is the Jet Propulsion Lab Fourier transform ultraviolet spectrometer (FTUVS). This device uses sunlight as a spectral light source for the chemical assay of trace gases, such as ozone and... — W. Stephen Woodward

[Ideas For Design]
Water-Level Sensor Uses Hysteresis
A low-voltage electronic circuit that senses upper and lower water levels is often used for alarms and sump-pump activation. Since an electronic sensor has no moving mechanical parts, it eliminates problems with corrosion and wear and tear. The... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
Circuit Provides High Current, Kelvin Sensing, And Automatic Shutdown
Low-noise synthesizers require quiet power supplies for their oscillators and other critical circuitry. They typically require more than 5 mA of current, however, making a voltage reference alone inadequate. Three-terminal low-dropout regulators, on... — Contributing Author

[Editorial]
If There's One Constant In Engineering, It's Change
When we look at the world through our engineering eyes, we usually see things that mother nature could have done a better job on. We continually want to change things to make them better (at least in our opinion). Sometimes change is forced upon... — Dave Bursky

[Pease Porridge]
Bob's Mailbox
Hello Mr. Pease: Good article on "More Engineers Stuff" (electronic design, June 12, p. 151). There's a whole other road to travel when talking about "good work." I will shorten my version to say that "good work" lies in the relationship... — Bob Pease

[Viewpoint]
A DOE Program Is Turning Swords Into Plowshares
For interested companies, there's an opportunity to tap into the scientific and technological capabilities of the former Soviet Union and turn that into a business relationship. Since the U.S.S.R.'s collapse in 1991, the U.S. Government has worked... — Contributing Author

[Editor's Notebook]
A Romp Through The Bus Structures
VME, PCI, CompactPCI, PCI-X, InfiniBand. Some are and some aren't familiar terms, yet all are acronyms for popular bus standards. Each of these standards lends itself to multiple sourcing and a range of available solutions, as well as time-to-market... — Stephen Grossman

[The Design Factory]
Debunking The Fairy Tale Of The Great Process Map
Once again, Mr. Big, the general manager of the Bison Valley Ax Works, was upset with his disorganized engineers. Remembering how process maps had improved the operation of his factory, he decided to take action. He called Grnk, the vice president... — Don Reinertsen

[Letters]
Letters
The Lineage Of The Paramp The comments regarding the parametric amplifier (or "paramp") ["Forty Years Ago," June 26, p. 66] brought back fond memories indeed. Use of the paramp (with a gallium-arsenide Gunn... — Various

[40 Years Ago]
Russian Test Equipment And Ours: A Comparison
In July of 1959, the Russians showed many pieces of electronic test equipment at their Exhibition of Science, Technology, and Culture at New York City's Coliseum. Since most engineers want to know how Russian test equipment compares with ours,... — Steve Scrupski

[40 Years Ago]
Random-Access Disk File Reduces Access Time
A new, random-access disk memory, the Telex I from Telex Inc., Minneapolis, has nearly a third the access time and double the storage capacity of currently available disk files. The improvement in access time is due to the two sets of read-record... — Steve Scrupski

[Forefront]
Test And Measurement
Interface Cards Feature Two CAN Ports For Dual-Speed Operation Models in a series of three dual-speed interface cards come with two controller area network (CAN) ports. One port supports high-speed CAN, while the... — Staff

[Forefront]
Packet-Based Data-Transfer Bus Keeps Interface Simple And Data Rates High
As microprocessors get faster, designers are using wider, high-speed buses to transfer data quickly enough to prevent the CPU from stalling. Yet it's getting harder for CPU and system designers to deal with wider buses that must run at clock rates... — Dave Bursky

[Forefront]
New Server Cluster Promises Relief For Internet Traffic Woes
The pundits have been predicting that Internet traffic will triple this Christmas. Fortunately, help is on the way. A trio of companies claims to have developed the world's fastest commercial server. Together, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft have... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
Tools Help Shrink Linux To Fit Embedded Systems
Linux is quickly transforming into a top-notch embedded-systems development and deployment platform. New tools from a variety of vendors are letting designers deploy it in a range of environments, from those that require a small memory footprint to... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Superfast CMOS SRAM Macros With Copper Interconnects Cut Access Times To 430 ps
When designers create a high-performance processor, the on-chip cache memory deserves a lot of attention. It doesn't matter how fast the datapath is. If the processor can't get the data from the cache, the device slows down. By employing an... — Dave Bursky

[Forefront]
Company Wire
Two founding members of the Local Interconnect Network (LIN) Bus Consortium, Motorola and Volcano Communications Technologies (VCT), are partnering to develop vehicle-networking architectures. Initially, they will use LIN's serial... — Staff

[Forefront]
Serial Interconnection May Supplant The Parallel Interface Between The CPU And The Hard Disk
When it comes to the interchange of data between the CPU and internal and external storage hard-disk drives, "The parallel approach is simply running out of gas." This is the opinion of Steve Tirado, executive vice president, marketing and... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
From The Labs
Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have launched a web site (www.sensorwebs.jpl.nasa.gov) that provides information, pictures, and animation about wireless "webs" of small sensors. A sensor web consists of a... — Staff

[Forefront]
Breaking The 50-MHz Barrier On Distributed Backplanes
Don't sell the distributed backplane short. It simply isn't true that its top speed is 50 MHz. And that's generally where designers run into problems—in the 40- to 50-MHz range, with anywhere from 15 to 20 slots loaded. Running at... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
Group Releases Software Spec For CompactPCI Hardware
The PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) has released its first software-focused specification. Designated PICMG 2.12, this guideline is meant to simplify the porting of hot-swap infrastructure software to Compact-PCI hardware... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
Application-Specific MOSFET Tailored For Zero-Voltage Switching Supplies
A new series of HEXFET power MOSFETs targets high-frequency zero-voltage switched (ZVS) power-supply circuits. De-signed by International Rectifier, this line boosts efficiency and reduces EMI emissions. It also offers extremely low RDS(ON)... — Ashok Bindra

[Forefront]
Compact High-Efficiency EL Lamp Driver Targets PDAs
The SP4403 lamp driver for backlighting electroluminescent (EL) displays suits personal digital assistants. It offers a small form factor, high efficiency, and sufficient drive for a bright output from EL display lamps. Its high coil-switching... — Roger Allan

[Forefront]
Controller IC Supports Printing, Scanning, Faxing, And Copying
Aimed at multifunction peripherals, the MFC2000 all-in-one controller IC from Conexant Systems supports printing, faxing, scanning, and copying. As a result, this single-chip solution reduces development costs and time-to-market by integrating all... — Roger Allan

[Forefront]
Crossplatform Debugger Analyzes And Plots Application Data
The CrossView Pro crossplatform debugger from Tasking Inc. now can analyze data stored on an embedded system and plot it using one of five formats: an x-t plot, an x-y plot, an FFT power spectrum, an FFT waterfall, and an eye diagram. Developers... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Mobile/Notebook 1.1-V 750-MHz Processor USes Less Than 2 W
Featuring SpeedStep technology, Intel's latest mobile Pentium III processor runs at speeds of up to 750 MHz. This is a boost of 50 MHz more than the last processor to join the ranks of the Pentium III SpeedStep series. Similar to its other family... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
Wireless Network Software Supports PHS Voice, Data
The PHS Internet Access Forum Standard (PIAFS) software supports voice and data transmission over the wireless Personal Handy-phone Service (PHS). Together with the company's universal access modules, this software makes it easy to add... — Roger Allan

[Forefront]
Compact High-Efficiency Charge Pumps
The SP6800 family of charge-pump voltage inverters lets designers implement voltage inversion in very little board-space and at ultra-high efficiency levels. These devices provide an easy way to accept a positive input voltage and output the... — Roger Allan

[Careers]
Knowing When To Leave: Look At Yourself And Your Environment
My father worked for the same company, in the same job, for 31 years. Today, it's becoming unusual for professionals to spend a significant part of their careers with a single company. One reason is because hiring goals have changed. Also, shifting... — Peter Varhol

[New Products]

• Analog — Staff

• Communications — Staff

• Components — Staff

• Electronic Design Automation — Staff

• Software — Staff

• Power — Staff

• Motors/Motion Controls — Staff

PartFinder

GlobalSpec

PART SEARCH :
	Powered by: