December 4, 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: DECEMBER 4, 2000

OPTIONS

Internet processor, Multiprocessing, Green power design, Noise reduction, Cable discharge events

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

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

December 4, 2000 - In This Issue

[Technology Report]
Next-Generation Interconnects Will Drive Multiprocessing
Since the days of the early serial mainframes, parallel buses have dominated multiprocessing (MP) connections. But now, parallel MP buses will be edged out by very high-speed, pseudoserial switch fabrics. These will provide a more flexible,... — Ray Weiss

[Technology Report]
Power-Supply Designers Are Taking Aim At "Green" Designs
Engineers of all types are striving to build better products and processes that will create a "greener" world for us and help our environment. This isn't surprising, considering the huge amount of electronics products that are manufactured every day... — Alfred Vollmer

[Product Innovation]
100-MIPS Internet Processor Enables Ubiquitous Communications
When designing communications products, the time pressure to get your product to market is intense because there's only a narrow window of opportunity during which products become winners or losers. On top of that, you must be sure that the cost is... — Louis E. Frenzel

[Design Application]
Noise Reduction Is Crucial To Mixed-Signal ASIC Design Success (Part II)
Large CMOS ASICs and system-on-a-chip designs often contain both analog and digital sections. Combining the two into a mixed-signal IC frequently leads to noise problems. This article, the second in a two-part series, deals with noise-reduction... — Contributing Author

[Design Application]
Multiple Factors Trigger Cable Discharge Events In Ethernet LANs
Network equipment designers are challenged to continually improve system performance while maintaining robust environmental performance. In particular, the convergence of the wide area network (WAN) with the local area network (LAN) has created the... — Contributing Author

[Design Application]
Embedded Memories Are The Key To Unleashing The Power Of SoC Designs
The semiconductor industry continues to validate Gordon Moore's original prediction that device densities and speeds will double every 18 months. With process technologies pushing well into the deep-submicron arena, they have finally reached a point... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
Simple Circuit Detects Airflow
Moving air provides a better conductive path and cooling method for hot components than stagnant air. Therefore, airflow is a critical parameter in systems where heat build-up is a concern. The circuit shown is unique because it wasn’t designed to... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
Take Back Half: A Novel Integrating Temperature-Control Algorithm
According to Linear Technology’s Jim Williams, “The unfortunate relationship between servo systems and oscillators is very apparent in thermal control systems.” (Linear Applications Handbook, 1990). High-performance temperature control is... — W. Stephen Woodward

[Ideas For Design]
Digital Sine-Wave Generator Produces 0° To 360° Phase-Shifts
Sine-wave generators with 0° to 360° phase-shifts are very important testing blocks in many systems involving DSP operations (i.e., I/Q modulator-demodulator communication, phase-angle measurements and up-down counter conversion in... — Contributing Author

[Ideas For Design]
Driver Kick-Starts Sluggish Solenoids
A fundamental problem associated with driving solenoids is that the initial force is low when the moving part is in its farthest position. To overcome such an obstacle, this circuit briefly applies additional drive at the onset of activation (... — Contributing Author

[Editorial]
Design Outsourcing: Are Companies Doing Too Much?
When the semiconductor industry was young, every company that created semiconductors had its own fabrication facility, design center, mask shop, etc. But over the years, the cost of supporting and building fabrication plants, making masks, and many... — Dave Bursky

[Pease Porridge]
What's All This Floobydust Stuff, Anyhow? (Part 9)
Well, it's getting close to the end of the year again, so this is a good time for another Floobydust column. In these columns I put some of the interesting tidbits, follow ups, and miscellaneous items that I gathered throughout the previous year.... — Bob Pease

[Viewpoint]
It's Time To Get The Lead Out Of Our Designs
Nobody is exactly sure when, but everyone agrees that within the next few years, some combination of government regulations and market demand will make it necessary for the U.S. electronics industry to begin producing lead-free products. The... — Contributing Author

[Editor's Notebook]
Electronics Redefines The Auto Of The Future
Over the last few years, electronics has pervaded almost every section of the vehicle. Despite that proliferation, though, the value of electronic content in vehicles ranges from a mere 8% to about 15% today. That's a small number compared to the... — Ashok Bindra

[The Design Factory]
How To Make New Team Members Become Productive Quickly
Ogg, the Cro-Magnon design engineer, sat in a meeting wondering what to do. He had just been transferred to the Mammoth Whacker VI project, which was already halfway complete, when one of the former design engineers was lost during field trials.... — Don Reinertsen

[Letters]
Letters
Don't Fall Into The Sea I read "Great Ideas Get Lost In The Sea Of Incomplete Documentation" [Sept. 18, p. 68], and you're absolutely correct. However, the problem shouldn't be stated as "We are not... — Various

[40 Years Ago]
Special Report: Cutting Lead Time In Design
In the next decade, short-lead-time projects will be the key to survival both for the electronic industry and for the free world. To keep ahead in the race against obsolescence, military products must move from design concept to delivery in the... — Steve Scrupski

[40 Years Ago]
Washington Report: Space Program Accelerating
The space program is accelerating, with current schedules calling for 24 to 30 "major launches" per year over the next several years. In the third quarter of 1961, test flights of the Atlas-Centaur will begin. This, it is hoped, will put spacecraft... — Steve Scrupski

[Forefront]
Initiative Pushes Use Of New FPGAs In Mainstream DSP Applications
Hoping to make field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) an attractive alternative for emerging DSP applications, Xilinx Inc. has launched a major initiative to broaden the devices' role in the DSP arena. With a firm commitment, Xilinx has announced... — Ashok Bindra

[Forefront]
Automotive Suppliers Roll Out 42-V Power-Bus Parts
At the recent Convergence2000 conference and exhibition, automotive suppliers presented further evidence that 42-V electrical systems are just over the horizon. Industry executives forecast that vehicles with a 42-V power bus may be just a few years... — David G. Morrison

[Forefront]
Manufacturing Pact Bodes Well For Anticipated OLED Demand
A landmark agreement by three companies promises a significant increase in production capability for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. Unlike LCDs that require external lightsources, adding costs and size to their assembly, OLEDs include... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
Experimental Conductive Polymer Promises Novel Variable-Resistance Products
An experimental material functions as a lightweight, malleable conductor that can detect, measure, and respond to a range of pressures. This composite is easily shaped into granular form and can be affixed to fabrics, plastics, and other solids.... — Lisa Eccles

[Forefront]
Company Wire
• Microsoft Corp. has opened a technology center in Austin, Texas, that will let online retailers and other dot-com companies design and test a variety of tools. The center will provide a demonstration platform for companies... — Staff

[Forefront]
ARM Cores Provide Direct Java Execution, Target 3G Wireless
Two ARM cores, the ARM 9E from ARM Ltd. and the pT-120 ARM 4T from picoTurbo Inc., were an-nounced at October's Microprocessor Forum 2000. These ARM devices incorporate direct Java bytecode execution and new single-instruction/multiple-data (SIMD)... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Automotive-Computing Platform Gets Ready To Hit The Road
The creation of Windows CE for Automotive is the first step in Microsoft's .Net initiative. The company has announced its commitment to enabling the development of devices that deliver real-time in-vehicle computing and communications via the... — Lisa Eccles

[Forefront]
Long-Range Military Monitoring Tags May Have Commercial Uses
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Wash., operating under the management of the U.S. Department of Energy, has been developing miniature RF tags for about 10 years. The culmination of this research is holding promise both... — Lisa Eccles

[Forefront]
Wavelet Algorithm Provides Efficient Geometric-Data Compression
Led by CalTech computer science professor Peter Schröder and Wim Sweldens of Bell Labs' Mathematical Sciences Research Center, scientists have developed an algorithm that enables practical transmission of 3D data over the Internet as well as... — Lisa Eccles

[Forefront]
Open Architecture Lets Customers Configure Mixed-Signal Tester
The 3M20 low-cost mixed-signal (LCMS) tester, built by Third Millennium Test Solutions Inc., provides device-specific economics for a wide range of mixed-signal circuits. With a customer-configurable open architecture, it can test cost-sensitive... — Lisa Eccles

[Forefront]
PC-Based Digital Scopes Offered As Standalone Peripherals
Some traditional oscilloscope manufacturers keep adding more and more PC qualities to their products, creating bulky and expensive instruments. Others have configured oscilloscope cards that plug into PCs, but this can create shielding problems as... — Stephen Grossman

[Forefront]
Visual UML-Based Development Tool Uses XML For Collaboration
Developing real-time, Web-ena-bled applications using UML has gotten easier with the release of Rhapsody 3.0. Along with a number of other new features and updates, this tool now supports XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) for exchanging UML information... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Embedded Java Suite Provides Alternative To Other Tools
The latest release of Hewlett-Packard's Chai Application Platform represents a significant upgrade of the Chai Java environment. Its three updated components include ChaiVM 5.0, Chai Server 3.0, and ChaiFarer 2.0. Compatible with but independent of... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Real-Time Monitor Tool Speeds Application Development
An agent-based monitoring tool known as SurroundView provides on-demand, real-time analysis of instrumented applications. Typically, designers would have to evaluate application information as a hex dump. But SurroundView makes it easy to evaluate... — William Wong

[Forefront]
Board-Mounted PFC Modules Are Thinner Alternatives To Discrete Devices
Power-factor correction (PFC) is now required by many switching power supplies sold in Europe and is a desired feature for those marketed in the U.S. Yet in current power-supply designs, as many as ten TO-220 or TO-247 discrete power semiconductors... — David G. Morrison

[Forefront]
Memory Test System Speeds Consumer Electronics' Time-To-Market
The latest version of the Versatest series of nonvolatile memory (NVM) test systems speeds MP3 players, PDAs, and wireless communications devices to market. Built by Agilent Technologies, the V4400 uses a flexible architecture to ad-dress... — Lisa Eccles

[Forefront]
DFT Compiler/ATPG Tool Combo Aids In DFT
The integration of DFT Compiler in the physical compiler environment facilitates design-for-test (DFT) closure. According to the manufacturer, this addition enables fast timing closure with fully testable semiconductor designs. Also, the... — Lisa Eccles

[Real-World Engineering]
Electronic Missile Guidance Changes Tactics And Strategy
The primary purpose of air superiority is to control airspace for or against bombers. When air-to-air fighting was done in short-range dogfights with machine guns and small cannon, speed and agility were the principal determiners of air superiority... — Lawrence J. Kamm

[Heads Up]
TFT-LCDs Get Bigger And Better, But They Will Cost You
One trend in the flat-panel display world continues unabated—the move to higher resolution and larger-area displays. Several companies have made progress in liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels over the last few months, but they remain costly... — Chris Chinnock

[New Products]

• Embedded Systems — Staff

• Optoelectronics — Staff

• Oscillators — Staff

• Passive Components — Staff

• Power — Staff

• Sensors — Staff

PartFinder

GlobalSpec

PART SEARCH :
	Powered by: