Electronic Design UPDATE: March 29, 2006

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Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter
Electronic Design Magazine
Electronic Design ==> www.electronicdesign.com
March 29, 2006
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Visit: http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253E3:484C79 

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Today's Table Of Contents:
1. News Focus
  *Helical Antenna Makes Satellite Reception Reliable And Easy
2. News From The Editors
  *Power-Saving MCUs Run Off One Battery For Years
  *Low-Power PLED Fills Role Of Traditional LCDs
  *Sealed, Tactile Switches Survive 1 Million Cycles
3. TechView Scope
  *Supercomputer Throws 102-Gbit/s Fastball
4. Upcoming Industry Events
  *Embedded Systems Conference
  *Nanotech 2006
  *Spring Processor Forum 2006
5. Book Review
  *"Electric Motors and Drives, Second Edition"

Electronic Design UPDATE edited by Lisa Maliniak, eMedia Editor
mailto:[email protected]
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1. News Focus
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Helical Antenna Makes Satellite Reception Reliable And Easy

Receiving a signal from a geosynchronous satellite 22,300 miles out or 
a GPS satellite over 10,000 miles away is a challenge. Big gain 
antennas usually are necessary. But that's just the opposite of what 
developers need for their handheld designs. Benefon's TWIG Discovery 
smart phone uses Sarantel's GeoHelix helical antenna in its full-blown 
GPS receiver and navigation system...

   Read the full article at 
http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253D9:484C79

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*************************ADVERTISEMENT**************************

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Visit sunstone.com at http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253DA:484C79

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*******************Live on ElectronicDesign.com***********************

Free Webcast: Unveiling Innovations in Batteries and Portable Power 
Wednesday, April 5, 2006 at 2:00 pm ET

This webcast will share upcoming innovations in the battery and 
power-management industry. Our speakers will provide an unbiased and 
vendor-neutral roadmap of upcoming innovations in cell chemistries, 
power-management electronics, authentication technology, and portable 
fuel cells for mobile devices. 
http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253D5:484C79 

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2. News -- From The Editors
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***Power-Saving MCUs Run Off One Battery For Years
Two AVR microcontrollers (MCUs) from Atmel extend battery life in a 
variety of applications that spend most of their time in sleep mode. 
The Atmega169p and Atmega165p incorporate the company's picoPower 
power-saving technology to provide multiyear battery life. Consumption 
is cut to as little as 650 nA in power-save mode and 100 nA in 
power-down. They're pin- and code-compatible with existing AVR MCUs. 
Both MCUs have 16 kbytes of flash memory, 512 bytes of EEPROM, and 1 
kbyte of SRAM. They feature a 10-bit analog-to-digital converter, 
USART, serial peripheral interface, and two-wire interface and operate 
from 1.8 to 5.5 V with up to 16 MIPS of throughput. Fourteen 
additional 8-bit picoPower AVR MCUs will be added within the next 12 
months. The ATmega165P and the ATmega169P are available now in 
production quantities in 64-pin TQFP and 64-pin QFN packages. The 
ATmega165P costs $2.15 and the ATmega169P with LCD controller is $2.25 
in lots of 10,000 units.
     Atmel Corp. ==> http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253E5:484C79

***Low-Power PLED Fills Role Of Traditional LCDs
One Stop Displays now offers a 20- by two-character polymeric LED 
(PLED) for low-power, bright display applications. The OSD2002-B is a 
high-contrast, low-power display useful for point-of-sale terminals, 
security panels, and handheld products. It features a 116- by 37-mm 
module outline that is identical to the popular LCD standards from 
most vendors and a pin-to-pin compatible interface supporting a 
drop-in replacement upgrade from standard LCDs. It has 160-degree 
viewing angles, a contrast ratio of more than 100:1, and uniform, 
intense illumination. The PLED is compatible with the Hitachi HD44780 
protocol. It has an operation life of at least 10,000 hours and a 
storage life of at least five years. Displays are shipping now, with 
samples available starting at $12. Contact the company for volume 
pricing.  
     One Stop Displays ==> http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253E1:484C79

***Sealed, Tactile Switches Survive 1 Million Cycles
The ST series of thru-hole tactile switches includes a right-angle 
version, the STV. The sealed switches, the newest addition to CIT's 
switch family, feature an improved heat/pressure tab-staking process 
that prevents top and actuator separation from the switch body and 
maintains integrity of the watertight seal. The switch measures 7.2 by 
7.2 mm, while the right-angle version measures 8.0 by 8.0 mm. All the 
parts offer 130-, 200-, 300-, and 500-gF actuation forces to provide a 
distinctive tactile feel. Switch construction includes a 
stainless-steel cover with silver-plated brass terminals and 
silver-plated phosphor bronze contacts. An optional 130-gF 
stainless-steel dome contact increases operating life to 1 million 
cycles. Standard actuator height options range from 4.7 to 10.0 mm. 
The actuator travel is 0.30 mm +/-0.1 mm. 
     CIT Relay and Switch ==> http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253E4:484C79

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Design Briefs Wanted!

Send us your ideas for design. We'll pay you $100 for every Design 
Brief that we publish. You can submit your ideas to: 
mailto:[email protected].

For submission guidelines, go to http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253DC:484C79

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3. TechView Scope 
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Supercomputer Throws 102-Gbit/s Fastball

The ASC Purple supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 
recently stepped up to the mound and threw some real heat. Working 
with IBM, researchers at LLNL demonstrated over 102 Gbytes/s of 
sustained read and write performance to a single file in an experiment 
named Project Fastball...

   Read the full article at 
http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253D7:484C79

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Let Electronic Design take you out to the ballgame!

Stop by our booth at the Embedded Systems Conference April 3-6 and 
receive a complementary ticket to join us at Opening Night for the San 
Jose Giants baseball team. The Giants are the 2005 California League 
Champions and will be celebrating with a pre-game ceremony and 
fireworks after the game.

Come out and have a ball with Electronic Design!

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4. Upcoming Industry Events
**********************

April 3-7, Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley
San Jose, Calif.
http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253DF:484C79

May 7-11, Nanotech 2006
Boston, Mass.
http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253DE:484C79

May 15-18, Spring Processor Forum 2006 -- Power-Efficient Design
San Jose, Calif.
http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253E2:484C79

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5. Book Review
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"Electric Motors and Drives, Second Edition"
Fundamentals, Types and Applications

By Austin Hughes

If you're going to be implementing motor control in your application, 
then you better know how the motors work. This book will tell you how 
to do just that, assuming you didn't specialize in it when you went to 
college. Hughes starts with the basics, from electromagnetics and flux 
density to torque and efficiency...

Read the full book review at 
http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253D8:484C79

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EiED Online -- Altium NanoBoard-NB1: FPGA Kits Part 1

Embedded in Electronic Design (EiED) Online is your source for 
technical insight and hands-on reviews. Read Technology Editor Bill 
Wong's latest EiED Online column, "Altium NanoBoard-NB1: FPGA Kits 
Part 1." Altium Designer 6 is out the door. Bill takes a look at 
Designer 6 and its components in conjunction with the NanoBoard-NB1 
FPGA development system. Find out how to make FPGA development easy. 
This is the first in a series of FPGA kit reviews planned for this 
year.

http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253D6:484C79

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TAKE A POLL!

Electronic Design recently featured an "engineer" on its cover. Do you 
think that engineers are unfairly portrayed as nerds in the media? 

-- Yes, all too often we're depicted as stereotypical geeks
-- No, I'm a nerd and I don't have a problem laughing at myself
-- No, I don't think engineers are usually portrayed as nerds

Vote at Electronic Design ==> http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253E0:484C79

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CONTACTS: Electronic Design UPDATE e-NEWSLETTER
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Editorial: Mark David, Editor-in-Chief
mailto:[email protected]

Advertising/Sponsorship Opportunities: Bill Baumann, Publisher:
mailto:[email protected]
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