Electronic Design UPDATE: May 19, 2004

May 19, 2004
Editor's View: IEEE Forms Product Safety Engineering Society by Ron Schneiderman, Professional/Careers Editor The IEEE has formed a new society, the first out of a technical committee in more than 20 years...
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Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter Electronic Design Magazine PlanetEE ==> www.planetee.com May 19, 2004

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Today's Table Of Contents: 1. Editor's View * IEEE Forms Product Safety Engineering Society 2. Focus On Analog * 0.35-Micron Process Gives Designers Added Flexibility 3. News From The Editors * PXI-Based Module Boasts 24-Bit I/O * Blade Server, Gbit Ethernet Switch Expand AdvancedTCA Line * Comm Sector Eating Up Computer Boards 4. Upcoming Industry Events * International Microwave Symposium * Sensors Expo * Design Automation Conference * Robots 2004 5. Magazine Highlights: May 10, 2004 * Cover Story: Engineering Feature -- How Safe Is Your Job? * Leapfrog: First Look -- Trimmable Analog IP Blocks Come Fully Armed With Power Management * Leapfrog: First Look -- An Easier Path To RTL For DSP Algorithms * Design View / Design Solution -- Connect PCI Express Subsystems With Advanced Switching Fabrics *************************ADVERTISEMENT************************** NEW! Embedded Software Development Conference Registration is now open for the Embedded Software Development Conference, held Aug 17-19 in San Jose! You'll find more than 50 tutorials and technical classes being taught by the best thinkers and practitioners in embedded development like Larry Constantine, Steve Mellor, and Michael Barr. Check out the class catalog online and save when you register by June 4. Go see it at http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPX0AH today! **************************************************************** Electronic Design UPDATE edited by John Novellino, Executive Editor BE SURE TO VISIT Electronic Design's Web site, where the power of Electronic Design is a mouse click away! Read our Web exclusives, enjoy our Quick Poll, discover Featured Vendors, access our archives, share viewpoints in our Forums, explore our e-newsletters, and more. Go to: http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh105Am0Av TAKE OUR CURRENT QUICK POLL: The editors would like to know your preferred format for e-mail newsletters: -- Text only -- plain, plain-er, and plain-est -- HTML formatted text (bold, italic, underlined) -- HTML formatted text with color -- HTML formatted text with color and images -- I do not care Go to Electronic Design ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BGmZ0Ak ***** Can't get to the Design Automation Conference? Bring DAC to your desktop via Electronic Design's DAC ShowCast. EDA Technology Editor David Maliniak gives you the DAC lowdown, direct from the show. Sign up to join the FREE webcast. Join David Maliniak and his special guest Gary Smith, Gartner Dataquest's Chief EDA Analyst, as they bring you the hot market trends and showstopping new products direct from the Design Automation Conference on Thursday, June 10 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST. You can find the DAC Showcast subscription page at: http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPY0AI ***** Missed the Embedded Systems Conference? You can still find out about the hot products. William Wong speaks about the new and exciting developments at the show. View the showcast archive at: http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BHti0A8 **************************************************************** ********************** 1. Editor's View -- Exclusive to Electronic Design UPDATE ********************** IEEE Forms Product Safety Engineering Society By Ron Schneiderman, Professional/Careers Editor The IEEE has formed a new society, the first out of a technical committee (not an IEEE council) in more than 20 years. The new Product Safety Engineering Society (PSES) is for design engineers who are interested in all aspects of product safety. The PSES plans to work closely with other IEEE societies and councils that include product safety as a technical specialty, says Mark I. Montrose, president of the new society through 2005. It will focus on technical, regulatory, and administrative issues relating to the safety of electronic devices, consumer electronics, medical devices, telecommunications, information technology, and industrial electronics equipment. Montrose also says the society will give engineers and other technical professionals an opportunity to discuss and disseminate technical information, as well as to provide outreach to engineers, students, and others interested in the field. The society has already established several chapters in the United States and Israel, all within two months of its startup. Additional chapters are expected to be developed worldwide. The formation of the PSES has actually been in the works for several years. The IEEE EMC Society created a technical committee for product safety, TC-8, which included a working group known as the Product Safety Technical Commmittee (PSTC). TC-8 will continue to be an active part of the IEEE EMC Society, but it has dropped the PSTC as an ongoing activity. Daniece Carpenter, cochair of the IEEE Technical Activities Board Committee, which helped form the new group, says the PSES fills a void in the electronics design community. "While product safety has been addressed in various committees over the years, there has not been a widely accepted professional organization solely devoted to product safety engineering as a discipline," she says. "Now, IEEE has established a home for this important technical field." PSES members will have exclusive access to the society's transactions and journals, technical papers, and conference information. Montrose says that several IEEE societies have indicated an interest in establishing a working relationship with the new society for conference sharing, publications, and other areas in support of product safety engineering. The PSES has also formed a relationship with the National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers (NARTE), a worldwide, nonprofit association that certifies qualified engineers and technicians in telecommunications, EMC/EMI, product safety, electrostatic-discharge control, and wireless systems installation. Montrose says the PSES has signed a memorandum of understanding, expected to be approved in June, under which NARTE will provide product safety certification for qualified engineers. The PSES's role in the agreement will be to review all test questions for technical accuracy and professionalism. Formed when the Federal Commuications Commission (FCC) stopped awarding radio technician certificates and licenses, NARTE also now administers FCC commercial operator license exams. According to NARTE officials, its product safety certification originated primarily because of the rapid advancement of electronics technology, the increased use of software operating systems, and growing legislative requirements in the United States and Europe. With growing expectations in the technology, from consumers and commercial users as well as the military, the PSES will work with NARTE and other IEEE societies to develop an industry-wide cadre of product safety professionals. The PSES has already planned its first annual symposium, scheduled for August 13-15, at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The conference immediately follows the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society's (EMC) annual symposium at the same location. Session topics will include designing for safety, how to communicate with the engineering team, outsourcing product design and manufacturing, product safety incident investigations and forensics, and thermal safety in laptop computers. The Web site for the PSES is http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPl0Ab . To comment on this Editor's View, go to Reader Comments at the foot of the Web page: Electronic Design UPDATE ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPa0AQ **************************************************************** *************************ADVERTISEMENT************************** RapidChip Product Guide: Xtreme and Integrator Families Growing design complexities and reduced time-to-market goals for new products are forcing designers to seek different and innovative ways of managing development. LSI Logic's RapidChip (TM) platform ASIC successfully addresses these challenges for a wide range of applications - minimizing your time, effort, and cost. Learn the advantages RapidChip's Xtreme Family and Integrator Family have to offer. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPb0AR **************************************************************** ********************** 2. Focus On Analog ********************** ***0.35-Micron Process Gives Designers Added Flexibility The Polar35 process offers a 0.35-micron modular process with both 5-V CMOS and analog device bundles with predefined devices, allowing customers to optimize designs for a specific application. The CMOS device bundle includes diffused N+ and P+ resistors, an N+ gate poly resistor, and electrostatic-discharge devices. The 5-V analog bundle, typically used in 3.3-V power-management applications to handle inductive voltage spikes, includes a poly-poly capacitor, a high sheet rho resistor, a lateral PNP, and a Schottky diode. The process is manufactured on 8-in. wafers and is available with up to three layers of metal for additional space savings. Planned enhancements include the addition of several high-performance devices, including a complementary pair of bipolar transistors and higher-voltage devices. Production qualification is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2004, but designers can use PolarShuttle, a multiproject fast-track program, to create prototypes now. Prices and delivery will depend on customer requirements. PolarFab ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh107mZ0AO ********************** 3. News -- From The Editors ********************** ***PXI-Based Module Boasts 24-Bit I/O The PXI-4461 dynamic signal acquisition module features 24-bit delta-sigma converters that deliver nearly 120 dB of dynamic range over an input bandwidth of 92 kHz at 204.8 ksamples/s in a PXI form factor. To ensure accuracy for audio measurements, the module uses differential inputs, anti-aliasing protection, and integrated electronic piezoelectric conditioning for microphones and accelerometers. It also includes two differential output channels that generate frequencies up to 92 kHz, which can be used for shaker control and stimulus-response tests such as swept sine. Applications can be developed with the aid of LabView 7 Express graphical development software and the LabView Sound and Vibration Toolkit 3.1, which offers 50 ready-to-run examples. Prices start at $3995. National Instruments ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BCzj0AB ***Blade Server, Gbit Ethernet Switch Expand AdvancedTCA Line AdvancedTCA projects can take advantage of the ATCA-715 blade server and ATCA-717 16-port managed Gigabit Ethernet switch. The ATCA-715 has a 1.6-GHz Pentium M with up to 4 Gbytes of double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAM. It incorporates an Intelligent Platform-Management Interface (IPMI) management controller and an optional 30-Gbyte, 2.5-in. hard disk. Gigabit Ethernet provides communication. The ATCA-717 is an enhanced ATCA-715 with an added 16-port switch. Both models have four PMC slots. Pricing for the ATCA-715 and ATCA-717 starts at $3940. Force Computers ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BG3N0Aa ***Comm Sector Eating Up Computer Boards The communications industry's recovery will combine with a growing trend toward the use of standards-based, rather than proprietary, architectures to ensure healthy demand for merchant computer boards. In fact, the communications sector continues to consume more embedded merchant computer boards than any other vertical segment. Both conclusions come from Venture Development's 2002/2003 Embedded Merchant Computer Board Market Intelligence Program. Total shipments last year were $2.227 billion, with communications taking 38%, industrial control/automation/instrumentation 21%, military/aerospace 15%, and medical 12%. Transportation, enterprise (including storage), security, and "others" were each in the single digits. Some of the other findings included a prediction that demand for single-board computers in communication will increase, with more boards going into edge applications like wireless infrastructure. Also, use of mezzanine cards in communications is forecast to increase by 15%, while use in other markets, with the exception of military/aerospace, is expected to drop. The research firm is preparing to launch the Merchant Computer Boards for Embedded/Real-Time Applications Market Intelligence Program, 2004 -- 13th Edition. Venture Development Corp. ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPc0AS ********************** 4. Upcoming Industry Events ********************** June 6-11, International Microwave Symposium (IMS) Fort Worth, Texas http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BG6I0AY June 7-10, Sensors Expo Detroit, Mich. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BCEP0Aq June 7-11, Design Automation Conference (DAC) San Diego, Calif. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh107w50Av June 9-10, Robots 2004 Ypsilanti, Mich. http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BGP30Ac ********************** 5. Magazine Highlights ********************** In case you missed them, here are some of the high points of our most recent issue. May 10, 2004: * Cover Story: Engineering Feature -- How Safe Is Your Job? Offshoring has turned into an industry -- and political -- hot button that's getting pushed with greater frequency. But at what cost to EEs? http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPd0AT * Leapfrog: First Look -- Trimmable Analog IP Blocks Come Fully Armed With Power Management http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPe0AU * Leapfrog: First Look -- An Easier Path To RTL For DSP Algorithms http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPf0AV * Design View / Design Solution -- Connect PCI Express Subsystems With Advanced Switching Fabrics http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPg0AW For the complete Table of Contents, go to Electronic Design ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eA0Gl4E70Fh10BIPh0AX

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CONTACTS: Electronic Design UPDATE e-NEWSLETTER

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Editorial: Lucinda Mattera, Associate Chief Editor: mailto:[email protected] Advertising/Sponsorship Opportunities: Bill Baumann, Associate Publisher: mailto:[email protected]

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