CONTENTS June 2008
 
Cover Story 
Consumer ICs: Designing for reliability
By Michael Santarini, Senior Editor, EDN
Consumers want the latest electronics but only if they'll last longer than the time it takes to take them out of their packages. IC vendors must tackle reliability issues so that their devices will find use in reliable, long-lasting products.
 
Design Feature 
Designing with QDRII+ and QDRII in one system
By Jayasree Nayar, Cypress Semiconductor
Although the latest QDRII+-SRAM devices offer speeds as much as 50% higher than QDRII products, a properly designed board can support either architecture.
Push for power efficiency forces changes in server-center hardware and software
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor, EDN
Industry initiatives have set the ambitious goal of halving data-center energy usage by 2011. To achieve this objective, the industry must shift to the use of digital-power control and management at the ac/dc- and dc/dc-power-supply level. A shift to dc-bus-power distribution within the data-center
 
Special Report 
Interfacing analog signals with FPGAs
By Sanjay Kulkarni, Xilinx India Technology Services
 
Pulse 
Laptop-like performance at handheld power levels in a single chip
Fiber-based energy harvester potentially turns garments into generators
By Matthew Miller
Cool-curing polymer simplifies IC fabrication
By Matthew Miller
Holographic display has a refresh rate of minutes
Holographic display has a refresh rate of minutes
Logic-analyzer-based instruments debug, validate MIPI physical layer
By Dan Strassberg, Contributing Technical Editor
Network-media player drives multiple displays
By Warren Webb, Technical Editor
Fujitsu and HHI achieve optical amplitude noise reduction using ultra high-speed optical switch
Tektronix intros “one box” serial data receiver test solution
Low power ARM7-based MCU series with 100nA power-down mode
Xilinx intros two XtremeDSP development platforms
Highly accurate full-featured real time clocks
“World’s first” programmable receiver with jam avoidance
Keyboard backlight requires less power, fewer LEDs
GBDriver RS1 Series SATA compatible NAND Flash memory controller LSI circuit
3.3V, ZIF tuner for UHF-band MMDS applications
 
EDN Asia.Comment 
Multi-core provides user-friendly design opportunities
by Kirtimaya Varma
 
Design Ideas 
Audio equalizer features transimpedance Q-enhancement topology
Herminio Martínez, Encarna García, and Eva Vidal, Technical University of Catalonia, Spain
AMI-to-NRZI-direct-conversion circuit tolerates unequalized pulse tails
Glen Chenier, TeeterTotterTreeStuff, Allen, TX
Virtual RF generator measures load impedance and power
Michael Nasab, Circuit Mentor, Boulder Creek, CA
 
New Products 
Calibre nmOPC on Cell/B.E. platform qualified for production at IBM
“Breakthrough” in verification intelligence
Cadence and Mentor enhance open verification methodology
Magma Volcano supports TSMC 45- and 65-nm IC implementation
Full-chip, mixed-signal design, analysis and verification
Enhanced 90-nm reference flow reduces IC design, test costs
Concurrent hierarchical design system with latest IC compiler
Fast, accurate tapeout of low-power production design
ESA-approved high reliability connectors
Temperature-compensated resistor for APD biasing in fiber optic modules
Cost effective solution for high-density performance
ERmet ZD plus family for high-speed designs
Ultra-miniature, half pitch, side-actuated DIP switch
MINIPAK HDE connector for demanding environments
Subminiature connectors enable board-to-board spacing of 3mm
Power Metal Strip resistors offer low resistance values
Complete support for W-CDMA A-GPS conformance testing
250kHz 16-bit data acquisition cards for PCI Express
MIMO precoding and channel coding added to 3GPP LTE signal generators
Wideband AMR Support added to base station protocol test system
FlexRay physical layer test tool for automotive
Accurate fault detection in optical submarine cables
“World’s fastest” probe
Protocol tester for UMTS LTE wireless device development
TI’s 2.4GHz RF transceiver for ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4
Power MOSFETs have low figure of merit
SOT883 MOSFETs take up 14% less PCB space
900V superjunction MOSFET has low on-resistance
600V IGBTs reduce power dissipation
MOSBD devices integrate MOSFET, Schottky diodes
Power MOSFET has low on-resistance
Audio DAC features playback-time-extender technology
Precision power op amp for high-voltage apps
Synchronous step-down DC/DC converter in military plastic
AVR MCUs with USB, battery charging, analog features
8-bit digital potentiometer with high performance EEPROM
600V IGBTs reduce power dissipation in UPS and solar inverter apps
WLED driver with Class D amp noise immunity, high efficiency
Enhanced small form factor optical mouse sensor
Platinum SMD flat chip temperature sensors in standard sizes
 
Power Supplement 
Challenges and Solutions in switch-mode power supply applications
Dr. Gerald Deboy and Junyang Luo, Infineon Technologies
The global challenge of energy-efficiency in electronics
By Claudia Innes and Louise Merriman, Fairchild Semiconductor
Increasing power efficiency with power factor correction solutions
Patrick Wang, ON Semiconductor
Tailored Power MOSFETs solution for cool and efficient dc-dc converter
By Fabio Criscione and Filadelfo Fusillo, STMicroelectronics
Extending battery life in a portable multimedia device
A roundtable discussion between Paul Pontin, 3Dlabs; Matt Fisch, Synopsys; and Peter Frith, Wolfson
Happy coexistence
by Kirtimaya Varma
 
Prying Eyes 
SanDisk V-Mate video-memory-card recorder
KNOWLEDGE CENTER
Panasonic Key Devices Guide 2008 :
 
Fairchild Semiconductor :
 
Texas Instruments: DaVinci™ Technology
 
Texas Instruments: Safe Bet Series
 
 
FEATURED CHANNEL 
Embedded Development Tools
 
 
 
ADVERTISEMENT
 
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
 
RESOURCE CENTER
 
 
PRODUCT NEWS
 
FEATURED SPONSORS
 
 
DESIGN CENTERS
 
ADVERTISEMENT
     
Reference Designs