Articles – Page 516

58VIN, 2A with IOUT, 2.4MHz Step-Down DC/DC Converter Draws Only 85µA of Quiescent Current & Withstands 80V Transients

September 29, 2009

MILPITAS, CA – September 28, 2009 – Linear Technology Corporation announces the LT3980, a 2A, 58VIN step-down switching regulator with Burst Mode® operation to maintain quiescent current under 85µA. The LT3980 operates within a VIN range of 3.6V to 58V, with overvoltage lockout protection against transients as high as 80V, making the device ideal for load dump and cold-crank conditions commonly found in automotive applications. Its internal 3.4A switch can deliver up to 2A of continuous output current at voltages as low as 0.79V. The LT3980’s Burst Mode operation provides ultralow quiescent current, well suited for applications such as … Read More → "58VIN, 2A with IOUT, 2.4MHz Step-Down DC/DC Converter Draws Only 85µA of Quiescent Current & Withstands 80V Transients"

Green Hills Software to Present and Exhibit at ISA Expo 2009

by Kevin Morris

September 29, 2009

SANTA BARBARA, CA — September 29, 2009 — Green Hills Software, Inc., the largest independent vendor of embedded software solutions, will speak at the ISA Expo in Houston, TX, during the week of October 5, 2009. At booth 2533, Green Hills Software will also demonstrate its latest embedded software solutions.

Green Hills Software will present:

Topic: Leveraging COTS Software for Building Safe Control Systems
When: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 12:30pm — 1:00pm
Where: Reliant Center, Safety & Security Exchange X-Pod Theater, exhibit hall, Booth 2703
Who: Joe Fabbre, Technical Solutions Manager, Green Hills Software

Synopsis
Commercial … Read More → "Green Hills Software to Present and Exhibit at ISA Expo 2009"

Aonix Announces PERC® Java Virtual Machine for BeagleBoard

by Kevin Morris

September 29, 2009

San Diego, CA, September 29, 2009 —Aonix®, the provider of the PERC product line for embedded and real-time Java developers, announced Java™ virtual machine support for the low-cost BeagleBoard with its flagship product PERC Ultra. More developers and projects will be able to quickly and more cost efficiently launch development that takes advantage of PERC’s new graphics support via the ARM®-based BeagleBoard. The BeagleBoard is distributed by Digi-Key Corporation and available through its global websites.

“For projects planning final deployment on ARM processors, PERC Ultra and the BeagleBoard are a … Read More → "Aonix Announces PERC® Java Virtual Machine for BeagleBoard"

Embedded Signal Processing Capabilities of the LatticeECP3 sysDSP Block

by Jim Turley

September 23, 2009

Enhanced DSP Capabilities

The success of the LatticeECP2M family in addressing the 2G/3G wireless arena, coupled with discussions with customers, has served to drive the architectural improvements made in the LatticeECP3 DSP block. Several key points have been addressed. First and foremost, backward compatibility has been maintained with the current LatticeECP2/M DSP. There is also finer control of … Read More → "Embedded Signal Processing Capabilities of the LatticeECP3 sysDSP Block"

The Death of the Trade Press

Engineering Away Objectivity

by Kevin Morris

September 22, 2009

Obsolescence is a familiar and friendly concept to engineers. In fact, it is our job. We are professional creators of obsolescence. Each day, we go to work with the goal of making some previous work of engineering obsolete. Our revised rodent retention device must surpass, supersede and exceed all previous versions, else we have failed.

Audio Cassettes – gone. Rotary-dial telephones – expurgated, and not a moment too soon. Typewriters, cathode ray tubes, mimeograph machines – all banished to the backwaters of vintage-retro curiosity by our hard-working, innovation-happy profession.

Occasionally, however, … Read More → "The Death of the Trade Press"

A World Of Their Own

Tanner Charts a Different Course

by Bryon Moyer

September 22, 2009

They were your typical pack of teenage kids. By turns rough-and-tumble and vulnerable. On top of the world while at the same time knocked about by forces they didn’t understand or couldn’t control. Watching them on the beach that Saturday, they could have been any kids anywhere in the world. They’d fight, they’d squabble, they’d play, they’d slap each other’s backs, they’d even undulge the slightest hint of a hug. They competed with each other and yet they were the best of … Read More → "A World Of Their Own"

ARM’s Race Escalates with Cortex-A9

by Jim Turley

September 22, 2009

In military parlance, an Osprey is a propeller-driven airplane that takes off and lands vertically, like a helicopter. The Osprey tilts its wings 90 degrees, the props pull it straight up, and the wings flip back again for conventional flight. Clever engineering, but a bit ungainly to look at.

Over in the less dangerous but equally contentious microprocessor world, ARM has also hatched its own Osprey, this one officially named the ARM Cortex-A9. The new A9 will be capable of 2-GHz clock rates, an unheard-of speed for an ARM core. The previous-generation A8 was barely able to … Read More → "ARM’s Race Escalates with Cortex-A9"

Universities and Electronics

by Dick Selwood

September 15, 2009

When the first semiconductors were created, they were the result of theoretical studies. As integration grew, so the device manufacturers and the equipment manufacturers pragmatically pushed ahead with brute force, scaling as they pushed down the Moore’s Law curve. Universities often struggled to keep abreast of developments, although, for a long way down the scaling curve, the mainstream underlying theories were pretty well understood.

Today we can no longer rely on scaling alone. Small channel effects, themselves difficult to understand and predict, are worked around by using double gates, raised sources and drains, surround gates, and … Read More → "Universities and Electronics"

AV Done Right. Finally.

AVnu Alliance Standardizes AVB Networking

by Kevin Morris

September 15, 2009

We’ve all experienced it.

The SPDIF output on device A doesn’t match with the analog line inputs on pre-amp B, which don’t synchronize with the VGA-to-composite-to-component de-interlacing, re-sampling, trans-formatter box connected to the monitor from the output device, which now really wants HDMI from your 1968 turntable. The problem of non-standard, proprietary, incompatible, poor-performing interfaces has dogged audio-visual equipment for decades, and most of us have a giant rat’s nest of cabling tucked behind some piece of furniture in our house to prove it.

In the modern era, when … Read More → "AV Done Right. Finally."

New Chips Don’t Suck (Power)

by Jim Turley

September 15, 2009

Within a week, Intel and Freescale both announced new high-end embedded processors. They’re both packed with multicore processors, DRAM controllers, and PCI Express interfaces. But, for all their similarities, they couldn’t be more different.

In this corner, we have Freescale’s new P1022, the sixth member of the QorIQ family. And in this corner, we have “Jasper Forest,” a mostly new family of chips from Intel. Both are more power-efficient than their predecessors, though, in one case, that’s not saying much. And both are well-supported with software … Read More → "New Chips Don’t Suck (Power)"