Portable applications that require precision measurement at low voltage levels with minimal power consumption may want to consider the AD8506 op amp. Specifically, applications would include battery-powered patient monitors, remote sensors, handheld instrumentation, among other mobile types of equipment.

The low-power CMOS dual op amp features rail-to-rail inputs and output. Replete with a novel circuit architecture, the AD8506 maintains high linearity by minimising distortion through its power supplies and its inputs. The op amp’s 105dB PSR reduces errors caused by powersupply voltage variations over a battery’s lifetime.

Furthermore, the AD8506 maintains 105dB CMR, maximising linearity by minimising the common-mode-induced distortion often found in amplifiers having rail-to-rail inputs. While maintaining high linearity, the AD8506 consumes only 20µA of supply current per amplifier.

The combination of low power and high linearity delivers extended battery life for portable applications regardless of external conditions, says the company. The AD8506 is well suited for use with Analog Devices’ 16bit, low-power, lowvoltage data converters, including the AD7683/AD7684/ AD7685 and the AD7680.

Bench power supplies use “smart” analogue controls

The PL Series of laboratory dc power supplies, crafted by TTi (Thurlby Thandar Instruments), offers the benefits of digital technology whilst retaining true analogue controls for voltage and current.

In designing the new PL Series, TTi wanted to incorporate the stability benefits associated with digital control. However, the company was also anxious to ensure that the product would meet customer needs and expectations. Customer research showed that traditional analogue controls were seen as simpler, quicker, and better fitted for the job.

To solve this dilemma, TTi developed a hybrid system combining true analogue control knobs with digital internal circuitry. For users, the new PL Series operates identically to a traditional analogue-controlled power supply. However, if users want the benefits of digital control, they’re instantly available via the S-lock and V-span functions.

The S-lock function enables the voltage and current settings to be locked at the press of a button. This transfers control of voltage and current from the analogue controls to internal digital circuitry. This provides complete security and stability, with each setting controlled by a high-resolution instrumentation-quality digital- analogue converter.

The V-span function allows users to redefine the end-stop valcover ues of the voltage control to create a specific voltage range. When working with any piece of equipment, engineers often require a voltage source variable over only a narrow range. VSpan enables the whole 300 rotation of the voltage control to cover whatever voltage range required by the user.

Two dual-core Xeon processors energise SBC

Concurrent Technologies’ 6U VME64/VME320 single-board computer, the VP 426/23x, features two 1.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon ULV processors. The board, which provides up to 8Gbytes of on-board DDR2 ECC dual-channel SDRAM, incorporates a variety of I/O interfaces that can be further expanded via the board’s PMC/XMC site, whilst still maintaining a single slot solution.

Combining high-performance data processing, large amounts of memory, and flexible I/O interfaces targets the VP 426/23x at intensive data-processing applications within the communications, defence, security, telemetry, scientific, and aerospace markets.

An extended temperature version of the SBC is available, too. The Intel E7520 server class chipset and Intel 6300ESB ICH are used to complement the two Dual-Core Xeon processors to achieve a high-performance, yet low-power, dual-processor dualcore architecture. Each Xeon interfaces to the E7520 via a 667MHz front-side bus. The E7520 chipset can access up to 8Gbytes of DDR2-400 ECC dual-channel SDRAM at up to 6.4Gbytes/s—and it supports up to 4Gbytes soldered and up to 4Gbytes of SODIMM, all in a single slot.

For I/O flexibility, there’s a PMC/XMC site supporting both front and rear I/O, two SATA150 interfaces, two graphics interfaces, and four Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. The PMC site supports up to 66MHz PCI operation and a x8 PCI Express XMC interface.

To sustain fast control/data rates across the VME backplane, the VP 426/23x also supports, as standard, the VME320 (2eSSt) protocol. For fast transfer of system-wide data, the four channels of Gigabit Ethernet can sustain full-duplex gigabit data rates. That’s because each dualchannel Ethernet Controller is connected to its own x4 PCI Express link.

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