==================================Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter Electronic Design Magazine Electronic Design ==> www.electronicdesign.com March 29, 2006
=============================*************************ADVERTISEMENT************************** Party like a hero the week of ESC Silicon Valley! Planning to attend ESC Silicon Valley this year? Want to attend a special club party in honor of the true engineering hero in you? Then be sure to RSVP today and join ZiLOG as we salute the engineering heroes around the world at Club Glo in San Jose on Monday, April 3rd. Come enjoy an open bar, food, music, prizes, retro Go-Go dancing, and a hip club style atmosphere. Space is extremely limited, so reserve your spot today! Visit: http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253E3:484C79 **************************************************************** 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] **************************************************************** ********************** 1. News Focus ********************** 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 **************************************************************** *************************ADVERTISEMENT************************** The engineer's on-time PCB design check leaders With 30+ years PCB manufacturing experience, Sunstone Circuits offers the world's best, 24/7/365 customer service -- including expert design checks on demand. From online quote and order, to file check & delivery you get a higher level of service. Sunstone boards have the best on-time delivery record in the industry. Visit sunstone.com at http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253DA:484C79 **************************************************************** *******************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 **************************************************************** ********************** 2. News -- From The Editors ********************** ***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 **************************************************************** 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 **************************************************************** ********************** 3. TechView Scope ********************** 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 **************************************************************** 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! **************************************************************** ********************** 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 **************************************************************** ********************** 5. Book Review ********************** "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 **************************************************************** 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 ********************** 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 ****************************************************************
==================================CONTACTS: Electronic Design UPDATE e-NEWSLETTER
==================================Editorial: Mark David, Editor-in-Chief mailto:[email protected] Advertising/Sponsorship Opportunities: Bill Baumann, Publisher: mailto:[email protected]
======================================= SUBSCRIBE ONLINE TO ELECTRONIC DESIGN If you're reading this e-newsletter, then you are either a current Electronic Design subscriber, or should be (145,000 of your peers are.) To apply for or renew a subscription to Electronic Design absolutely FREE and without paperwork or hassle, click on the link below. http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253DB:484C79 To unsubscribe click here http://news.electronicdesign.com/u?id=683EDA4D52DD5257D6CB5363A190485B To change your email address send an email, include your old address as well as your new one, to: mailto:[email protected] To subscribe visit our e-newsletter subscription center at http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253DB:484C79 If you need assistance in updating the information you have provided to Penton or you have questions or comments about our privacy policies, please click on the link below. http://news.electronicdesign.com/t?ctl=253DD:484C79 Copyrighted 2006 Penton Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Electronic Design 45 Eisenhower Dr., 5th Floor Paramus, NJ 07652 USA