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ELECTRONICSTALK
The Independent Weekly Product Information Guide
for Electronics Design, Development and Manufacturing Engineers
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ISSN 1475-2913 - Free subscription
Last week's delivered circulation: 23,750
Published every Tuesday from the UK.
Issue 216: 17 May 2005
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23140 product announcements and technical articles on our
website http://www.electronicstalk.com/ - all fully searchable
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In this issue:
* Editor's Message
* Other industry news
* Our Top new products selection
[1] Top-end DSP brings Serial RapidIO on chip
[2] SoC hosts automotive navigation and telematics
[3] Form-in-place gaskets shut out interference
[4] Speedy board accelerates DSP development
[5] Embedded architecture is optimised for audio
[6] Floating point extensions oust coprocessor chips
[7] Eighth bricks stay cooler than quarters
[8] Vectorless estimation enables IC power cuts
[9] Small claims for Pentium-based PCI-104 module
[10] Sensor amplifier has automotive aspirations
* New technical articles and case studies
* Other featured product news
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Laurence Marchini, Editor, writes:
In an era when it seem that even the longest-lived of names could disappear from our radar for ever (sorry Marconi), I must say I take great pleasure in wishing a very happy birthday (OK, it was yesterday) to Texas Instruments.
For those of my era, it's very likely that TI was the first true "electronics" company that we came across. And the fact that the TI scientific calculator predated the IBM PC by close on 15 years speaks volumes for the innovation embodied in that first piece of truly handheld electronics.
However I must admit to a little surprise when the news story (see below) marking the achievements that led up to the company's 75th anniversary reminded all of us that Texas was also among the first to see the merits of global expansion, setting up its UK operation in 1956 - the year before my birth.
If any reader cares to question whether TI continues to innovate, they could do worse than visit http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/tex/tex000.html - our own TI homepage. With a massive 719 stories on Electronicstalk alone, Texas Instruments is the most prolific company featured on any Pro-talk site.
So, happy birthday TI. I can only hope that I am still around to celebrate your centenary.
I hope you find this issue of our weekly newsletter useful. In addition to the new products, news and ideas featured here, there are hundreds more on our website and dozens more being added daily, so do take a look if you can.
Alternatively, the full stories behind all the summaries and headlines in this newsletter can be retrieved by email alone: see details below.
In the meantime, if you have any suggestions as to how we might make the site or the newsletter better, email me directly.
Best wishes
Laurence Marchini, Editor
mailto:ne[-email removed-]nicstalk.com
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This week's industry news
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TI CLOCKS UP THREE-QUARTER CENTURY
(Texas Instruments, 17 May 2005)
Among many major milestones in the history of Texas Instruments, the company passed another one on 16th May 2005 by marking its 75th anniversary.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/tex/tex820.html
or send a blank email to mailto:tex8[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
POWER DESIGN LAB TARGETS MOTOR APPLICATIONS
(Fairchild Semiconductor, 12 May 2005)
Fairchild Semiconductor is expanding its Global Power Resource power design and application lab in Europe to provide complete system power solutions for motion and motor control.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/fai/fai345.html
or send a blank email to mailto:fai3[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
EDA STARTUP FOCUSES ON WIRELESS POWER CUTS
(Azuro, 17 May 2005)
Azuro has revealed its strategy to deliver next-generation design tools that attack the growing power rift in digital chip design.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/azu/azu100.html
or send a blank email to mailto:azu1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
NEW LEARNING CENTRE TO HOST BRAINSTORM SESSIONS
(IMEC, 11 May 2005)
IMEC has formed the Centre for Advanced Learning in Information Technologies to provide a platform for high-level events and training programmes that focus on visionary and interdisciplinary themes.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/ime/ime164.html
or send a blank email to mailto:ime1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
RADIALL ACQUIRES APPLIED ENGINEERING PRODUCTS
(Applied Engineering Products, 16 May 2005)
Applied Engineering Products has been sold to Radiall, the world leading manufacturer of interconnection products for the defence, avionics, telecommunications and automotive industries.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/apn/apn100.html
or send a blank email to mailto:apn1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
NEW CENTRE SUPPORTS CHINESE INDUSTRY
(Assembléon, 16 May 2005)
Further expanding its global, award-winning support for SMT manufacturers, Assembleon formally opened its new China Competence Centre in Shanghai during Nepcon Shanghai.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/ass/ass130.html
or send a blank email to mailto:ass1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
BEWARE THE LIMITATIONS OF COTS COMPONENTS
(Component Obsolescence Group (COG), 12 May 2005)
Organisations which need to maintain in service vital long-lifespan electronic equipment should use extreme care when looking for alternatives as replacements for obsolete components.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/cto/cto103.html
or send a blank email to mailto:cto1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
TOSHIBA ACQUIRES PANASONIC'S HDD DESIGN CENTRE
(Toshiba Europe Storage Device Division, 16 May 2005)
Toshiba has strengthened its global product development capabilities for HDDs with the acquisition of the Panasonic Shikoku Electronics HDD design centre in Fremont, California.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/tsh/tsh113.html
or send a blank email to mailto:tsh1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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OUR TOP NEW PRODUCT SELECTION
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[1] TOP-END DSP BRINGS SERIAL RAPIDIO ON CHIP
(Texas Instruments, 17 May 2005)
Building on its leadership in high-performance signal processing, Texas Instruments has released the TMS320C6455 digital signal processor (DSP), offering improved performance, reduced code size plus more on-chip memory and high bandwidth integrated peripherals including the Serial RapidIO bus for interprocessor communications. Using the new C6455 DSP, developers of telecommunications, network and video infrastructure end equipment and high-end imaging systems will see a system performance gain thanks to 2-12x boosts in performance and I/O bandwidth, allowing them to integrate more high-bandwidth channels, achieve higher image definition, and produce more efficient software easily for faster time to market.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/tex/tex822.html
or send a blank email to mailto:tex8[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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[2] SOC HOSTS AUTOMOTIVE NAVIGATION AND TELEMATICS
(SiRF Technology, 17 May 2005)
Building on its momentum in the position-enabled silicon business, SiRF Technology Holdings has released the SiRFstarIIA GPS system on chip, a highly integrated and cost-effective solution for creating affordable automotive navigation and telematics systems. The groundbreaking SiRFstarIIA combines the industry-leading SiRFstarII GPS engine, a powerful, 32bit ARM CPU and virtually all the peripheral interface circuitry required by in-vehicle navigation and telematics systems, and is supported by a robust array of SiRF and partner-provided development tools and applications to help customers reduce product development effort and cost, minimise recurring costs and accelerate time to market.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/sio/sio100.html
or send a blank email to mailto:sio1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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[3] FORM-IN-PLACE GASKETS SHUT OUT INTERFERENCE
(Laird Technologies, 17 May 2005)
Altocad is a fully automated form-in-place technology from Laird Technologies that provides large (or small) quantities of electromagnetic interference (EMI) gaskets, at reasonable cost. The process is fast and very precise and a high shielding effectiveness of 85-100dB up to 10GHz is obtained. Form-in-place is an automated system for dispensing conductive elastomer EMI shielding and earthing gaskets on to metallic or plastic substrates. This system is ideal for mobile phones, mobile basestations, PDAs, PC cards, radios and many other compartmentalised cast or plastic enclosures and packaged electronic assemblies.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/lir/lir103.html
or send a blank email to mailto:lir1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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[4] SPEEDY BOARD ACCELERATES DSP DEVELOPMENT
(Sundance Multiprocessor Technology, 16 May 2005)
Sundance Multiprocessor Technology has created a new high-speed board it reckons liberates DSP system designers, engineers and research specialists from having to custom-design their own boards or interconnections. Created to set pulses racing, the SMT395Q features four of Texas Instruments' highest powered fixed-point DSPs, each running at 1GHz and each capable of supplying 8000MIPS of processing power. To ensure blistering performance, the design team at Sundance has integrated the quad DSP Texas Instruments Module (TIM) with 256Mbyte of DDR SDRAM and the largest available Xilinx Virtex-II Pro field programmable gate array (FPGA).
Request free details from the supplier:
http://www.electronicstalk.com/rdx/da/sda/115/4
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/sda/sda115.html
or send a blank email to mailto:sda1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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[5] EMBEDDED ARCHITECTURE IS OPTIMISED FOR AUDIO
(ARM, 17 May 2005)
Revealed at this week's Spring Processor Forum in San Jose, California, ARM OptimoDE Audio Edition embedded data processing technology is optimised for the efficient implementation of digital audio in embedded devices. The new configuration of the ARM OptimoDE data engine technology has been specifically developed to improve the efficiency of digital audio recording and playback in products such as hard disk and Flash-memory-based portable media players and mobile phones, enabling consumers to enjoy their music content for up to 40% longer from a given battery charge.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/ank/ank201.html
or send a blank email to mailto:ank2[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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[6] FLOATING POINT EXTENSIONS OUST COPROCESSOR CHIPS
(ARC International, 17 May 2005)
ARC International has developed new floating point extensions (FPX) for the ARC600 and ARC700 processor core families. By implementing IEEE754-compliant floating point functionality using the extendibility feature of ARC's patented configurability, ARC can achieve up to 90% reduction in gate count compared with competing floating point coprocessors with comparable performance. ARC FPX extensions provide direct execution in hardware of the most frequently used floating point functions, which greatly accelerates computations requiring high maths precision. Applications that using floating point processing include graphics, image processing, printers, GPS, automotive controls and instrumentation.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/ara/ara192.html
or send a blank email to mailto:ara1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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[7] EIGHTH BRICKS STAY COOLER THAN QUARTERS
(Power-One, 11 May 2005)
New from Power-One is the 30A SQE Series of eighth-brick DC/DC convertors. With a full range of outputs (1.2, 1.5, 1.8, 2.5 and 3.3V DC) providing thermal performance superior to 30A quarter bricks, SQE Series products are ideal power sources for communications and server applications. At temperatures up to 70C, the 1.8V output SQE requires only 61m/min airflow to deliver 29A and 91m/min to deliver a full-rated 30A. This industry-leading thermal performance is facilitated by high efficiencies, up to 92% for the 3.3V output model at half load, and advanced thermal management techniques.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/pxw/pxw114.html
or send a blank email to mailto:pxw1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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[8] VECTORLESS ESTIMATION ENABLES IC POWER CUTS
(Azuro, 17 May 2005)
Azuro has released PowerCentric, a revolutionary new low power clock implementation solution that significantly reduces the power consumption of digital chips. Azuro's PowerCentric solution differs from existing industry design flows where clock gating and clock tree synthesis are performed at two different points in the flow. By unifying these operations at the placed gates level in the design flow, PowerCentric's patent-pending iCTS technology is able to explore a larger global solution space of clock gating topologies and make power-timing tradeoffs that are superior to current industry solutions.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/azu/azu101.html
or send a blank email to mailto:azu1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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[9] SMALL CLAIMS FOR PENTIUM-BASED PCI-104 MODULE
(Advantech (UK), 13 May 2005)
Advantech has released its smallest PCI-104 Pentium M embedded platform to date. The PCM-3380 gives developers the opportunity to design small yet powerful solutions that combine the fast data throughput of PCI-104 with the low power fanless features of the Pentium M processor. PCI-104 enables faster data transfer compared with traditional ISA-based PC/104 modules, all in a small rugged form factor. The PCM-3380 is designed with multiple I/O options that make it ideal for medical, military, transportation and emergency services applications.
Request free details from the supplier:
http://www.electronicstalk.com/rdx/da/axv/184/4
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/axv/axv184.html
or send a blank email to mailto:axv1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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[10] SENSOR AMPLIFIER HAS AUTOMOTIVE ASPIRATIONS
(Analog Devices, 13 May 2005)
Analog Devices is adding a new member to its family of digitally programmable amplifiers with the introduction of a sensor amplifier well suited for a variety of automotive and industrial applications. The AD8556 features internal EMI filtering, a very wide temperature range, low offset voltage and drift, and open and shorted wire protection, making it ideal for pressure sensors in ABS, occupant detection systems, fuel level sensors, transmission controls and precision strain or pressure gauges. In addition, the AD8556 is a zero-drift, sensor amplifier with digitally programmable gain and output offset.
Request free details from the supplier:
http://www.electronicstalk.com/rdx/da/anc/298/4
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/anc/anc298.html
or send a blank email to mailto:anc2[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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New Technical Articles and Case Studies
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EDUCATION IS KEY TO WIRELESS ACCEPTANCE
(Alpha Micro Components, 11 May 2005)
Christos Papakyriacou, Managing Director, Alpha Micro Components comments on the ever increasing developments in wireless technology.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/alp/alp123.html
or send a blank email to mailto:alp1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
MIDDLEWARE MAKES MORE OF DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER
(Cabot Communications, 13 May 2005)
Vestel has developed a new generic digital video recorder using Cabot's Aurora middleware stack and ST Microelectronics' new 5100 MPEG2 decoder.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/cot/cot119.html
or send a blank email to mailto:cot1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
CUSTOM IC DESIGN ENABLES RF SIGNAL GENERATOR
(Plextek, 13 May 2005)
Plextek has designed a number of custom ICs for test and measurement equipment vendor Aeroflex.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/ple/ple106.html
or send a blank email to mailto:ple1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
UPS SUPPORTS POINT-OF-SALE UPGRADE
(Uninterruptible Power Supplies, 12 May 2005)
UK supermarket chain Waitrose has chosen the Minipower UPS to provide flexible, easy-maintenance support for its EPOS systems.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/uin/uin103.html
or send a blank email to mailto:uin1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
SENSOR SYSTEM AIDS FUEL CELL DEVELOPMENT
(Sensor Products, 16 May 2005)
The Tactilus electronic pressure mapping sensor system is an ideal aid for designers of fuel cells.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/seb/seb108.html
or send a blank email to mailto:seb1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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Other featured new product news
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SINGLE-CHIP QVGA CONTROLLER IS A FIRST
(Renesas Technology Europe, 11 May 2005)
Renesas Technology has launched its first single-chip controller/driver integrating nonvolatile memory for QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) resolution and 260k colour displays.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/ren/ren187.html
or send a blank email to mailto:ren1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
SOC SHOWS OFF DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TV CAPABILITIES
(Toshiba Electronics Europe, 16 May 2005)
Toshiba Electronics Europe used last week's Mediacast 2005 to provide visitors with live demonstrations of the company's first single-chip pan-European DTT implementation.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/tos/tos267.html
or send a blank email to mailto:tos2[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
CHIPSET BRINGS GPS SERVICES INDOORS
(Nemerix, 12 May 2005)
The Nemerix NJ2020 A-GPS plug-and-play chipset is engineered to respond to the most challenging requirements in the mobile phone market.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/tch/tch101.html
or send a blank email to mailto:tch1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
FLYBACK TRANSFORMERS DRIVE HIGH IMPEDANCE LOADS
(Datatronics Romoland, 12 May 2005)
Model 4283-1200 Series high-voltage flyback transformers provide a cost-effective means of driving high impedance loads requiring up to 2000V DC.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/dao/dao100.html
or send a blank email to mailto:dao1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
THREE-LINE PROTECTOR CONDITIONS AS WELL
(9 Corporation, 13 May 2005)
The Theon is billed as the only point of protection device that offers true three-line (live-neutral-ground) protection in a convenient, cost-effective package.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/cor/cor101.html
or send a blank email to mailto:cor1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
UNIVERSAL PORT SOLUTION RUNS ON TI DSP
(Surf Communication Solutions, 11 May 2005)
SurfUP is a new high-performance universal port solution powered by a Texas Instruments TMS320C6412 DSP.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/sur/sur113.html
or send a blank email to mailto:sur1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
SOFTWARE UNIFIES ELECTRONIC PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
(Altium, 16 May 2005)
Altium has unified its recently released DXP 2004-based products under the Altium Designer name.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/tas/tas180.html
or send a blank email to mailto:tas1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
BACKSHELLS ARE SMART AND TOUGH
(Tyco Electronics UK, 17 May 2005)
The ADK series of backshells for D-sub connectors combines an attractive modern design with the durability of a die-cast construction.
Request free details from the supplier on ADK series backshells:
http://www.electronicstalk.com/rdx/da/tya/191/4
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/tya/tya191.html
or send a blank email to mailto:tya1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
TERMINAL BLOCKS CARRY MORE CURRENT
(Camden Electronics, 17 May 2005)
A new range of PCB terminals can handle currents up to 57A, making them ideal for use in energy management and heavy duty industrial heating and ventilating applications.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/cab/cab139.html
or send a blank email to mailto:cab1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
TRANSCEIVERS BRING ETHERNET AND RF TOGETHER
(Aerocomm, 13 May 2005)
The rugged plug-and play ConnexNet line of Ethernet-enabled transceivers merges AeroComm's sophisticated RF protocol with the Digi Connect ME embedded device server.
* Read more: http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/aro/aro122.html
or send a blank email to mailto:aro1[-email removed-]lectronicstalk.com
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