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01 May 2007
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News & Analysis
Two rival specification formats for low-power IC design are now publicly available, and backers of both agree that it would be technically feasible to converge them into a single standard. But disagreements over how that convergence should take place threaten to block further progress.
A Java-based API designed to bring interactivity to DTV broadcasts and STBs is being proclaimed dead-on-arrival in Europe, a casualty of mishandled procedures for disclosing intellectual property rights (IPR) related to the standard.
The tumultuous ASIC business is undergoing a shakeout amid dwindling design starts and soaring technology costs.
Expected to fight LCDs and plasma for a slice of the market, UniPixel Displays' Time Multiplexed Optical Shutter technology addresses display requirements in avionics applications, particularly heads-down cockpit deployments.
Digital STB makers in China are on a collision course with MPEG-2 patent owners over unpaid royalties, setting the stage for what will likely be intense haggling in the coming months.
DAB software developer RadioScape has chosen ADI's Blackfin processor as its mobile-TV platform and will share its extensive DAB knowledge with ADI to build mobile-TV receivers.
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Rumors of Apple's upcoming launch of NAND-based video iPods and the emergence of NAND-based solid-state drives have fueled recovery hopes for the beleaguered NAND flash memory market.
In a bid to extend Felica's success beyond Japan, Sony will work with NXP Semiconductors to develop a secure chip that will bridge Felica with NXP's competing Mifare technology.
Chipnuts Technology's reference design includes a Linux-based OS, business applications and an applications processor—all targeted at China handset makers looking to design low-cost smart phones.
The fabless chip developer will capitalize on its image- and video-processing expertise to score design wins in China's growing PMP and IP camera markets.
Startup Stretch Inc. has revamped its management and its architecture, slashing the cost of its reconfigurable processor by almost two-thirds while claiming a significant performance boost as it seeks design wins in broadcast, WiMAX and security systems.
Using Sigrity's power integrity analysis technology, OptimizePI helps automate the selection and placement of decoupling capacitors on high-speed PCBs and IC packages, and takes some trial and error out of the process.
TI claims its new DSPs will be a natural choice for OEMs building DSP-based devices that connect to the Internet Protocol network.
Starport Systems Inc.'s SF7001 single-chip CMOS reader IC will use UHF bands in a design that can operate from NFC distances to several meters.
Broadcom Corp. has parlayed its 65nm foundry access into single-chip transceivers for Edge and HSDPA+Edge (Hedge) standards.
Silicon Laboratories Inc. is offering 8bit microcontrollers that integrate a 25-MIPS 8051 CPU, a 10bit ADC with a programmable analog multiplexer and an internal ±2 percent oscillator in a 3-by-3mm package.
Cantata Technology Inc. is updating its 1010 appliance, offering new features for both the IMG 1010 media gateway and the MSP 1010 multiservices platform.
BroadLight Inc. has increased its optical-line termination solution by a power of four, with the introduction of a quad-channel gigabit passive optical network controller.
The Edge technology has matured in terms of worldwide coverage, stable infrastructure and the variety of handsets supporting Edge features. Low-cost infrastructure upgrades and the availability of Edge features in majority of mid- to high-end handsets provide a compelling price-performance argument for Edge deployment.
The key to the WiMedia form of UWB is that it can leverage existing markets surrounding USB, Bluetooth and IPs. WiMedia radios can support one or all of these schemes simultaneously.
True 3G technology must support data rates of 2Gbps or above per user. This leap in data rate has forced network vendors to rethink how they implement data-plane processing in their networks.
Smart sensors are increasingly being used in industrial systems, changing device-level communication to a more complex information exchange.
As reliability becomes more difficult to achieve in nanometer designs, designers can no longer just ignore the issue of electromigration. Here are tips on how to manage EM in the design domain.
Despite the advent of powerful processors and better data-collection and analysis software, GIGO remains a very valid summary of the real world signal-processing chain.
Technical Features
802.11n opens up new opportunities for media-rich wireless applications used at home and enterprise. (PDF file)
By using more application-specific SoC solutions, process-flow intelligence and control can be moved from a centralized to a distributed model, thus increasing efficiency and quality while reducing unit cost. (PDF file)
Reprogrammable, fully-featured FPGAs help designers keep up with short product lifecycles and growing competition in the portable application domain. (PDF file)
Low-power tuners for conventional TV and STB applications guarantee good performance while reducing module size and lowering system costs. (PDF file)
Full planar AC power switches and AC power control circuits have considerably improved appliance performance, power and resource savings, user safety and ease-of-use. (PDF file)
Thin-film devices need to be put into the right thermal and dimensional form-factor environment. The devices can be integrated directly into a semiconductor or optoelectronic package to achieve localized cooling and temperature control hat. (PDF file)
According to Freescale, the major advantage of its MRAM technology is that it is a back-end addition to conventional CMOS and is therefore suitable for embedded use. The Freescale MRAM cell has multilayer MTJs placed diagonally between two high-current write line conductors, which are formed in metal 4 and metal 5, and arranged at right angles to each other. (PDF file)
A recently developed version of current-mode control known as emulated current-mode control drastically improves the ability to operate with very high step-down ratios while maintaining good noise immunity. (PDF file)
Simulation technology helps software developers write and test high-level application code on the desired OS, then run the application on a particular hardware platform even before the hardware is available. (PDF file)
Simulation technology helps software developers write and test high-level application code on the desired OS, then run the application on a particular hardware platform even before the hardware is available. (PDF file)
Opinion
To celebrate EE Times-Asia's 20th anniversary, we will bring special content offerings that will mark the evolution of the elecronics industry.
The problems created by key cost and productivity bottleneck in the IP ecosystem can't be solved by using industry standards. Instead, the solution requires targeted ecosystem focus, collaboration and openness.
Interview
Ajit Manocha, executive VP and chief manufacturing officer of NXP, believes that the widening gap between design productivity and Moore's Law will trigger a paradigm shift in IC manufacturing that will entail a breakthrough in the way companies work together.
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