[Engineering Feature] Electronics Advances Fuel Home Healthcare Boom
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), home healthcare is the fastest-growing segment of the medical device industry. Longer life spans, an increasing number of patients with chronic medical conditions, and rising health costs are the main forces behind the trend of immersing the consumer home market with “smarter” and “friendlier” medical devices (Fig. 1). What kinds of medical...
—
Roger Allan
[Technology Report] Power-Intent Standards Vie For Designers' Loyalties
About three years ago, timing closure for large system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs began to develop into one huge headache. Every EDA vendor’s toolset had its own interpretation of timing constraints, and there was little or no consistency between those representations. So if you used tools from more than one RTL-to-GDSII vendor, you were in hot water. Designers began clamoring for a single open standard for the modeling of nanometer timing effects, and EDA vendors...
—
David Maliniak
[Design View / Design Solution] Networking Processor Peripherals With I2C
As microcontrollers drop in price and offer more capabilities, designers have found it more costeffective to utilize multiple small controllers in both single-board and multiboard systems. Such auxiliary processors can relieve the main processor of timeconsuming tasks such as scanning keyboards, display controllers, and motor control. These controllers can also be configured as a wide range of application-specific peripherals. Recently, I was given the task...
—
Mark Hastings
[Ideas For Design] Use Bootstrap Cell Circuits To Generate Multiple Voltages
Bootstrap circuits are widely used in dc-dc converters to serve as top-side bias voltage supplies. After explaining how bootstrap circuits work, this article will show how versatile they can be. One example bootstrap circuit uses the LTC3728 highside driver. The bias voltage for the high-side driver is produced by the bootstrap supply circuit between the BOOST, INTVCC, and SW pins (Fig. 1). At...
—
George Yu
[Ideas For Design] Inexpensive MCU Replaces Dedicated Backup-Power Controller
Portable battery-powered applications sometimes also permit operation from the power grid. If so, the application must choose the appropriate available power source—the grid or the battery. If the battery is rechargeable, the system also requires a charging circuit. Instead of employing a dedicated charge controller for the backup-power controller, designers can choose the more economical option of using an inexpensive eight-pin microcontroller, available...
—
Ashish Aggarwal
, et al.
[Editorial] Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?
I wonder if the line “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?” from the famous Simon and Garfunkel song, “Mrs. Robinson,” will have any meaning for future generations. Not because they won’t understand the context of the song or even know who Joe DiMaggio is, but because not knowing where someone has gone might be a concept that is totally foreign to them. I just finished reading an article called “Microchips Everywhere: A Future Vision” by Todd Lewan of the...
—
Joseph Desposito
[POV: Point Of View] Mechatronics Design Faces Two Challenges—And Two Solutions
o compete on a global scale and meet the growing demands for increased throughput, higher quality, and greater yield, the way the machine industry builds machines has evolved. The industry is enhancing purely mechanical systems, based on gears and cams, with electromechanical systems, which combine mechanical elements with advanced technologies such as electronic controls and motor drives into a single system. These software-controlled electromechanical machines offer better accuracy...
—
Joel Shapiro
[Pease Porridge] What's All This Oscillator Stuff, Anyhow?
Anybody can make an oscillator these days at almost any imaginable frequency. But how do you make a good one at low power? A couple of people recently asked me why I add so much complexity by using an op-amp oscillator in my Cold Toe Detector. (That general-purpose slow oscillator is in the LH upper corner of www.national.com/rap/coldtoes.html.) "What kind of analog freak are you?" they asked. "Why don’t you just use a CD4060, which has a built-in oscillator?" I responded that everybody...
—
Bob Pease
[TechView: Analog & Power] Sensor-Conditioning Amps Use Rejustors For Precision Compensation
Microbridge Technologies’ MBSTC-02 compensation amplifier is the first IC to marry the company’s Rejustor technology with a CMOS analog process (see the figure). Rejustors are trimmable resistors that have marked advantages over older technologies. Notably, they can be trimmed iteratively to a high degree (0.01%) of precision, while their temperature coefficient (TC) can be adjusted...
—
Don Tuite
[TechView: Analog & Power] Power-Efficient Video Amp Detects Loads
The MAX9516 video amplifier from Maxim Integrated Products doesn’t just detect and report the presence of a video load. It also reduces power consumption when the load isn’t present so system designers can better manage power (see the figure). On top of that, additional features further reduce power consumption in the system. Designers who use have used traditional video amplifiers have had to add an...
—
Don Tuite
[TechView: Digital] Save Cold Cash On ColdFire
ColdFire MCUs have been part of Freescale’s 68K family since 1994. Because of their popularity, the company has decided to make the 32-bit V1 ColdFire core available to the embedded community through IPextreme, an IP licensing company. Yet the ever-competitive MCU core market has prompted IPextreme to offer V1 ColdFire for as low as $10,000. “By offering the V1 ColdFire core to developers at the $10K threshold, Freescale and IPextreme...
—
Daniel Harris
[TechView: Test] Oscilloscope Software Automatically Detects Hidden Waveform Anomalies
All digital oscilloscopes come with their own measurement and analysis software to perform basic and advanced tests and measurements. You can also get a great thirdparty scope analysis software package from Amherst Systems Associates (ASA Corp.). Known as the M1 Oscilloscope Tools, it runs on virtually any modern digital sampling scope from Agilent, LeCroy, Tektronix, or Yokogawa. The software offers measurement workflow automation and built-in...
—
Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Test] Agilent Releases App Notes On Using Linux In Test Systems
Agilent Technologies has released a free multipart series of application notes that explain how to control your test instruments using Linux. Topics include Linux basics, control of LXI instruments and USB instruments, Linux in real-time applications, and Ethernet and USB interfaces. If you’re building a test system with USB or LXI (Ethernet) interfaces and are looking for an operating system to run it, this series will give you some ideas and solutions....
—
Louis E. Frenzel
[Embedded in Electronic Design] The Sights, Sounds, And Sensory Overload Of CES
If you went to this yearâ??s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas like I did, you probably were overloaded from its sights and sounds. Iâ??m still trying to catch up, categorize, and comprehend everything I saw there. You can find a fraction of what I ran into in my EiED Online column, with more details and images than I can list here, at ...
—
William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Proto Heaven
Proto Heaven One of the highlights hidden in the Sands at this yesr's International CES in Las Vegas was Bug Labs’ BUGbase and BUGmodules. This system is designed to be modular and mobile. The $349 base contains an ARM1136JF-S microcontroller with MPEG4 hardware encoding/decoding, graphic acceleration, and a 10/100 Ethernet MAC. It also has 802.11b/g support. Modules cost less than $100 and include a digital video camera, an...
—
William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Seeing Double
Seeing Double Samsung’s $549 SyncMaster 2263DX adds a second 7-in. LCD on a movable arm that lets users to utilize the full monitor while additional applications display info on the smaller screen. DisplayLink’s UbiSync USB-based graphics adapter drives the small LCD and tracks screen orientation when rotating. The main monitor includes a built-in webcam, microphone, and speakers. ...
—
William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Lambda: Reclaiming An Old Concept
I think I’m going to go back to programming in APL and Lisp. The concepts and methodologies of decades ago are being reborn in today’s languages, like Microsoft’s C# and Sun’s Java. Of course, languages like C#, C++, and Java were designed to take advantage of other object-oriented precursors such as Simula and SmallTalk. However, in trying to minimize the complexity of the new languages, designers left out many features. Some of...
—
William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Graphics Chip In For The Long Term
Graphics Chip In For The Long Term Advanced Micro Devices’ ATI Radeon E2400 comes with five-year availability and long-term support—factors that are almost as important as its performance features to embedded developers. The E2400 Discrete’s 31- by 31-mm package also holds 128 Mbytes of GDDR3 memory. The MXM-II module has 256 Mbytes. Both support x16 PCI Express and incorporate AMD’s revolutionary Unified...
—
William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] FPGA Tools Target Automotive Apps
FPGA Tools Target Automotive Apps The Xilinx Automotive (XA) Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Development Kit is based on the automotive-qualified XA Spartan-3E FPGA. The board includes interfaces for CAN 2.0B and 2.0C, 10/100 Ethernet, USB 2.0, SPI, and SCI. Pre-verified application IP is available for a range of devices such as MOST as well as for FlexRay connectivity. The kit costs $1495. ...
—
William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Linux Targets Virtex-4 FX FPGA
Linux Targets Virtex-4 FX FGPA Developers looking to take advantage of the two 32-bit PowerPC 405 processor cores in a Xilinx Virtex-4 FX FPGA can check out the Timesys 2.6.23 Linux kernel. The distribution is optimized for the Xilinx ML405 FX Evaluation Platform. Developers can customize their subscription using the Web-based LinuxLink Builder for royaltyfree development tools, including the Eclipse-based TimeStorm integrated...
—
William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] External 2.5-in. Drives Break 300-Gbyte Barrier
External 2.5-in. Drives Break 300-Gbyte Barrier Toshiba America’s 320-Gbyte hard drives are available in internal and external configurations (see the figure). The 5400-rpm internal drives are available with a 3-Gbit/s SATA or ATA8 interface. The external drives are USB-based. Higherperformance 7200-rpm drives come in sizes up to 200 Gbytes. A freefall...
—
William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Matlab Meets Multi
Matlab Meets Multi The Mathworks’ Embedded IDE Link MU ties Matlab to Green Hills Software’s Multi development environment. It allows processor-in-the-loop (PIL) simulation tests using Simulink models while enabling the debugging and monitoring features of the Multi integrated development environment (IDE). Likewise, developers have access to Simulink’s interactive graphical analysis tools, so access to code during test and ...
—
William Wong
[Embedded in Electronic Design] Dual-Slot CompactPCI SBC Draws Less Than 10 W
Dual-Slot CompactPCI SBC Draws Less Than 10 W Adlink Technology’s Compact- PCI cPCI-3600 series single-board computer (SBC) comes in a dualslot form factor, enabling it to hold a 2.5-inch IDE hard drive (see the figure). It runs a low-power AMD Geode LX 800 processor. The system also has a Compact Flash slot and comes with 256 Mbytes of 400-MHz double-data-rate (DDR)...
—
William Wong
[Engineering Essentials] Piezoelectric Ceramics: Science Meets Pottery
Electronic engineers are no strangers to odd-sounding and difficult-to-pronounce methods and mater ial s . However, the words piezoelectric ceramics still trip up even the most experienced designers. And why not? These materials are relatively new to the world of electronics. Many engineers are still learning about the piezoelectric effect or have little exposure to ceramic material advances. But when they’re combined, ceramics...
—
Mike Johnston
, et al.
[Lab Bench] Don't Touch That Dial
Server environments have needed secure communications for almost as long as computers have been around. But authentication and encryption often aren’t even discussion points when it comes to consumer devices. Take the lowly IR television remote. At last month’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a blogger used a small remote called TV-B-Gone to wreak havoc on a host of HDTVs (Fig....
—
William Wong
