[Cover Feature] White Emitters — Can They Cure The Night-Time Jitters?
Most of the latest mobile phones have built-in cameras with megapixel resolution. To enable users to take pictures in a darker environment, additional lighting is required, but standard flashlight solutions, as used in digital still cameras, are typically bulky and therefore not suitable for the small size of a mobile phone. Recently introduced high power LEDs used in automotive applications do, however, offer an attractive solution to this problem, as they can easily be built...
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Jürgen Neuhäusler
[Direct Feature] Power Play For The SoC Developers
The Xtensa LX processor uses Tensilica's innovative FLIX (Flexible Length Instruction eXtensions) architecture – a highly efficient implementation of the Xtensa instruction set architecture (ISA) that gives designers more options for cost/performance tradeoffs. FLIX technology provides the flexibility to freely and modelessly intermix single-operation RISC instructions, simple- and compound-operation TIE instructions, and multiple-operation FLIX instructions. By packing multiple...
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Chris Rowen
[Direct Feature] Developing Broadband Remote Access Servers On Standards-Based Platforms
As a new wave of requirements are emerging in the telecommunications industry, equipment manufacturers are seeking ways to accelerate time to market and reduce development and production costs. They also need to preserve technology investments through successive generations of products. Hardware and software standards are increasingly seen as a way to achieve these objectives so that resources can be focused on product differentiation while deriving maximum business benefit and competitive...
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John Fryer
[News Feature] Facing Up To Today’s FPGA Verification Challenges
Today it is not unusual for FPGA users to have to deal with more than one language in their designs. At earlier stages of the design development it may be necessary to interface HDL simulation with environments using Domain Specific Languages, such as Matlab. To speed up testbench simulations, patches written in C/C++ are frequently used. Sometimes, when simulation is still too slow hardware acceleration may be necessary. In the last two years embedded systems found their way...
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Jerry Kaczynski
[News Feature] Express Logic ThreadX RTOS Is Extended To ARC 600 And 700 Processor Cores
ARC International, the supplier of configurable RISC CPU/DSP processor cores and application platforms, is to collaborate with Express Logic, the supplier of RTOS, to provide ARC customers with ThreadX RTOS support for ARC 600 and 700 configurable processor cores and ARCtangent cores. Express Logic's ThreadX RTOS provides a multitasking solution for embedded developers. Combined with ARC's configurable cores, Express Logic's picokernel architecture delivers...
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David Fritz
[News Feature] Module Aims To Cut Cost Of Next-Generation WLAN Systems
SiGe Semiconductor has developed and launched a 5GHz power amplifier module for access points, PCMCIA cards, laptop computers and other client devices compliant to the 802.11a WLAN standard. The RangeCharger SE2534A is based on the company's integrated, high-performance power amplifier architecture and is claimed to simplify design and reduce the cost of next-generation WLAN systems. The module has a linear three-stage power amplifier, power detector, analogue biasing and...
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Contributing Author
[Editorial] High Frying Strategies And The Big Hollow Horse
For years now ever since the success of the Trojan Horse at Troy military strategists have puzzled over the concept of a weapon that wins wars, yet does little collateral damage and minimises the death and injury of humans. In fact technology that would allow a military or terrorist strike along those lines already exists, although fortunately some of the finer problems involved in its application still need solving. What is it and where did it come from? Back in 1962,...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Motorola Finalises The Force Deal
Motorola has completed the acquisition of Force Computers from the Solectron Corporation. Force employees worldwide are to be integrated with the Motorola Computer Group and the two entities will be named the Embedded Communications Computing Group. Motorola declined to disclose the terms of the agreement. Both Force and Motorola are global providers of embedded computing systems for OEMs. 'This is a win for our customers, Force and for Motorola,' said...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] EMC UK 2004 Event To Reflect Design Changes
The EMC UK 2004 exhibition and conference will take place at Newbury Racecourse in England on 12 and 13 October. Some 42 papers will be presented at the conference by leading EMC and compliance experts from around the world, with the keynote speech given by Thierry Brefort of the European Commission. Subjects covered by the speakers will include EMC itself and related issues such as the Low Voltage Directive, Functional Safety, WEEE and Telecoms, RoHS, the New Automotive...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Fujitsu And Cadence Sign Global Partnership Deal
Fujitsu and Cadence Design Systems have agreed a global partnership deal under which they will create advanced SoC design environments. The companies believe there is an urgent need for new design methodologies for the development of advanced SoCs, particularly for the latest designs that have process technologies of 90nm and beyond. The semiconductor industry's rapid product cycles are driven by constant technological advances and are subject to volatile market fluctuations. ...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] FPGA Provides Four Times The Density
Atmel says it has released the only available FPGA configuration ICs that provide single-chip configuration storage for FPGAs with up to 8mn gates. The 32Mb AT17F32 and AT17F32A have four times the density of any competing device that is available commercially. The AT17F32 is claimed to be the only FPGA configuration device available in production quantities that can store all 29Mb of configuration data required for Virtex II XC2V6000 and XC2V8000, as well as Virtex II Pro XC2VP50 and...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] ARM Acquires AXYS
ARM Holdings has agreed to acquire Axys Design Automation, a provider of processor and system modelling and simulation solutions. Axys, which employs 26 people, is headquartered in Irvine, California and has a design centre in Aachen, Germany. It has assets valued at...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Patent Power
National Semiconductor has been granted 221 US patents in fiscal year 2004 for a variety of product inventions and process innovations, the most it has received in a single year since its founding in 1959. Approximately one third of all the company's patents are in analogue technologies. The balance of National's patent portfolio includes processing, device design, packaging, architecture and other IC...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] RadiSys Expands Endura Line
RadiSys has developed a half-size PCI card based on the Intel815E, which can be used in small backplane-based systems or as a standalone controller card without a backplane. In either case, the EPC-2327 card offers OEMs a choice of entry-level or mid-range performance, since it can be configured with Intel Pentium III and Intel...
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Paul Whytock
[Point of View] Preaching To The Converted
Any discussion of programmable logic must include the role of the FPGA and, in particular, how designers can get the best out of their FPGA designs during design, development and final manufacture. FPGAs offer designers the flexibility to test a design in the application without incurring large NRE charges and allow design iterations to be performed using the same FPGA prototype device until the final working solution is attained. Furthermore, high-density FPGAs have changed the...
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Vince Hopkin
[Pease Porridge] What’s All This Clinometer Stuff, Anyhow?
When I decided to go on a bicycle trek in Nepal a few years ago, I planned to instrument the tough hills with a clinometer to measure the slopes I'd be ascending and descending. Well, designing a 'clinometer' shouldn't be Rocket Science. A weight dangling from a pivot can tell you the slope of a hill. So I set out to engineer one per these needs: A clinometer must be enclosed to read correctly despite winds. It must have good damping to reject vibration. If I'm gonna carry it to...
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Bob Pease
