Electronic Design Update: September 17, 2008

Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter | September 17, 2008 | FREEmagazine subscription digital or print!ADVERTISEMENT Need better signal visibility?
Agilent InfiniiVision Oscilloscopes are engineered for the best signal visibility. Over 30 models, 4 form factors, multiple bandwidths and channels – even mixed signal to show serial, analog and digital signals at the same time.
Click here to see what better signal visibility means for you and get a free app note. scope |Chevrolet Unveils Production-Version Volt By Roger Engelke, Issue Editor
The much-talked-about Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle has moved from concept car to production model. As part of General Motors’ centennial celebration, Chevrolet lifted the curtain on the production version Volt, which delivers 40 miles of gasoline- and emissions-free electric driving and has extended-range capability of hundreds of additional miles. Read the full article... viewpoint |Debugging SoCs Is More Complex Than Finding A Needle In A Haystack By Lauro Rizzatti, General Manager
EVE USA, San Jose, Calif.
Do you remember 1964? That’s when Motown Records’ The Velvelettes, backup singers for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, cheekily sang,“‘Cause finding a good man, girls, is like finding a needle in a haystack.” The song offers refreshingly sound advice 48 years later as the singers intone, “You’d better get yourselves on the right track.” It seems that these days finding a bug in a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design has become significantly tougher than searching for a good man was in 1964. Read the full article... lab bench online |

Altera NIOS II Eval Kit

Technology Editor Bill Wong evaluates the Altera NIOS II Evaluation Kit... Read the full article... engineer's resource | New Product Showcase: TI And Nexergy

John Costas, Executive Vice President of Nexergy, talks about designing custom battery packs for portable applications. Watch it now...
(Videos may take a minute to download; click only once.)Your Ideas For Design Can Win $500 Send us your Ideas for Design and we'll pay you $150 for every Idea for Design that we publish. In addition, the year's top design as selected by our readers will earn an additional $500, with two runners-up each receiving $250. You can submit your Ideas for Design via e-mail to [email protected], or you can mail your material to: Ideas for Design Electronic Design 45 Eisenhower Dr., Suite 550 Paramus, NJ 07652Click here for our guidelines on Ideas for Design.

ADVERTISEMENT Looking for the latest design techniques and technology in your market? Check out Electronic Design's Design Hotspots. Here you'll find exclusive content from our editors in Embedded, Power, and Analog technologies as well as Green Design and ROHS. We've also compiled Ideas for Design schematics here for your circuit design sweet-tooth. These spots are chock-a-block with information, so don’t delay! IFD of the week |Some Basic Math Creates A Low-Cost Nonlinear Thermocouple Interface By Robert S. Villanucci, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Measurement and process control loops often use 8-bit microcontrollers. The devices are inexpensive and widely available, and they can be programmed in many popular high-level languages—like C and Basic. However, if the loop requires a nonlinear sensor, the designer faces the added challenge of having to develop a software linearization algorithm. Read the full article...

James Isom, Educational Consultant for LEGO Education, talks about the WeDo classroom robotics platform for students ages 7 to 11. Watch it now... Engineering TV | Sharp 108-inch LCD Television From CEDIA Expo 2008 in Denver, Colorado, Tony Favia, senior product manager for Sharp Electronics, discusses Sharp's 108-in. LCD television, the world’s largest commercially available LCD TV. The full-HD 1080p LCD TV features an advanced "Super View" LCD panel which uses 8^th generation glass substrates. The LB-1085 features 6.21 million pixels and a thin-film transistor (TFT) active-matrix drive system. It offers an array of inputs, including HDMI and DVI-I connectors for greater connectivity with a wide variety of equipment and devices. A fanless design minimizes noise and intake of dust from outside air to further improve its level of technical sophistication as a commercial display.

news from the editors |

GaN-Based Power Platform Hikes Performance, Efficiency

A new GaN-based (gallium nitride) power device technology platform can provide customers with improvements in key application-specific figures of merit of up to a factor of 10, compared to state-of-the-art silicon-based technology platforms, according to International Rectifier Corp. Read the full article...

Luminary MCUs Run RFID Reader

Secura Key has chosen Luminary Micro’s Stellaris microcontrollers for its new mid-range RFID reader, the e-Tag. The company will also use the Stellaris MCUs in a new line of access-control products that allow the implementation of secured elevator controls that mange up to 130 floors with badge readers. Read the full article...

Alliance Will Promote Internet Protocol For Smart Objects

Aiming to promote the use of Internet Protocol (IP) as the best technology for connecting sensor- and actuator-equipped (“smart”) objects and delivering data gathered by those objects, 25 vendors and users have formed the IP for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance. The Alliance intends to complement the efforts of groups such as the Internet Engineering Task Force and the IEEE, which develop and ratify technical standards. Read the full article... quick poll | GM unveiled the production-ready version of its electric Volt sedan. How will it do in the marketplace?

• It will do very well. The public is now demanding better mileage.
• It will do okay but struggle against other hybrids and consumer perception.
• It will be a flop, as the public isn't ready for plug-in cars.

Click here to take the poll. Remember to scroll down. The poll is at the bottom of the page.

focus product |

3G-SDI Dual SERDES Razes Jitter And Power Consumption

Introduced as the industry’s first triple-rate (3G/HD/SD) serial digital interface, dual-channel serializer and deserializer transceiver, the LMH4345 promises to reduce board space, system cost, and power consumption in multi-channel broadcast video equipment. Read the full article...