Electronic Design UPDATE: June 30, 2004

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Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter
Electronic Design Magazine 
PlanetEE ==> www.planetee.com
June 30, 2004
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Today's Table Of Contents:
1. Industry View
  * VSIA's QIP Metric Will Be A Catalyst For Improved Profits
2. Focus On Embedded
  * Windows CE Shared-Source Licensing Gains Flexibility
3. News From The Editors
  * PXI-Based Digitizers Offer 500-MHz Bandwidths
  * 850-MHz PGA Has Very Low Distortion
  * Help Available On Hazardous Materials Directive
4. Upcoming Industry Events
  * Semicon West
  * International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology
  * IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society Symposium
  * IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society Symposium
5. Magazine Highlights: June 21, 2004
  * Cover Story: Success Story -- Can BMW's iDrive Pass Its Road Test   
    Now?
  * Technology Report -- PCI Express: Hardware Designed With 
    Compatibility In Mind
  * Leapfrog: Industry First -- Platform Straddles Prototyping And 
    Emulation
  * Design View / Design Solution -- Interfacing FPGAs To High-Speed 
    DRAMs Puts Designers To The Test

Electronic Design UPDATE edited by John Novellino, Executive Editor

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Electronic Design presents:
Day in the Life of an Electronic Designer
Photo Essay Contest

Grab your camera and get some shots showing the "guts and glory" of you 
(and your team) at work. We'll be publishing a Day in the Life of an 
Electronic Designer photo essay as part of our YOUR Most Important Issue 
of the Year, our second annual special issue focusing on career issues 
for electronic designers.
$500 Grand Prize for photo series
$250 prize for best photo
And we pay $50 if we use any of your photos in the issue. 
Deadline for photos is July 30.
Please include names and titles of all photo subjects, as well as 
company name and the type of work-in-process illustrated by the photo.
Submit photos digitally to: [email protected]; or mail to 
Mark David
Electronic Design
Editor-In-Chief
45 Eisenhower Dr. 5th Floor
Paramus, NJ 07652
(201) 845-2467
mailto:[email protected]

*****

YOUR CHANCE TO WIN $500! Take our ISSUE POLL and win a $500 gift 
certificate.
The editors would like to know what you think of the JUNE 14 ISSUE of 
Electronic Design. Your feedback will help us better understand your 
critical information needs and provide valuable guidance for developing 
future editorial content. It's also your automatic entry into our 
drawing for a $500 American Express gift certificate. 

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JUST LAUNCHED! A weekly Web Exclusive column by Bill Wong
If embedded technology is your thing, don't miss a single edition of 
Bill Wong's brand new column, EiED Online. As one of the top editors in 
the business, Bill brings his savvy insight to every aspect of embedded 
technology, be it hardware or software or something else. Read all about 
it, from in-depth analysis to hands-on test results.
Go to http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJGH0Af

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1. Industry View -- Exclusive to Electronic Design UPDATE
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VSIA's QIP Metric Will Be A Catalyst For Improved Profits

Norbert Diesing, Director of Technology Access, PMC-Sierra

An extensive amount of third-party intellectual property (IP) is 
available from a large number of suppliers. However, the risks to users 
of IP that fails to meet required functional or parametric requirements 
are so high that use of this IP is more limited than it could be, 
restricting the available market and profits to suppliers. Because IP 
users feel compelled to design and verify IP rather than buy it 
off-the-shelf from a supplier with proven high quality, users' 
productivity -- and profits -- are limited.
   The challenges facing IP suppliers involve the ability to deliver IP 
that can be proven to:
-- integrate easily into the design focus of IP users,
-- function correctly, and with the required parametric performance, 
across necessary operating voltage, temperature conditions, and process 
manufacturing variations,
-- and be provably immune to DSM and reliability issues such as 
crosstalk, electromigration, hot carrier degradation, electrostatic 
discharge, latch-up, etc.
   Suppliers can meet these challenges through:
-- a documented design methodology that deals with the challenges of 
ensuring that IP meets requirements and is immune to reliability issues,
-- an unrelenting focus on quality by using thorough quality-assurance 
(QA) procedures and related checklists and documentation,
-- a rigorous methodology to validate IP in silicon across all key 
parameters and features with documented results,
-- and an emphasis on building a relationship with IP users that permits 
communication and proves the ability of IP to meet these requirements. 
   One current initiative that has the potential to aid in these efforts 
is the Quality IP (QIP) Metric initiated by the Virtual Socket 
Interface Alliance (VSIA). QIP is an objective and quantitative means 
of measuring IP quality through scoring of key quality issues using a 
spreadsheet composed of quality questions and their relative 
priorities.
   QIP is still a work in progress. The Soft IP portions of the QIP 
Metric as developed by the VSIA are now in beta release, with 
expected production release later this year. The Fabless 
Semiconductor Association (FSA) has also joined forces with the VSIA 
to develop the Hard IP (HIP) portions of the QIP Metric. HIP is 
planned for beta test this month, with production release in October 
of this year.
   QIP will be a catalyst in improving the technical depth and breadth 
of the relationship between IP suppliers and users. This will be 
accomplished through an examination of the completed QIP Metric where 
low-scoring questions will indicate areas of concern that require 
further joint investigation by IP suppliers and users.
   From the IP user's point of view, QIP will provide an objective means 
of comparing suppliers' practices and the resulting IP quality. QIP 
will help lower the barriers limiting use of external IP, with a 
potential result of improved productivity, time-to-market, and 
profits. 
   From the supplier's point of view, QIP will provide a way of proving 
to users the achieved level of quality. Therefore, it can be used as 
a marketing differentiator. If IP can be proven to have high quality, 
the value to users is immeasurable. There will be a resulting 
willingness to purchase more IP overall, as high IP quality will 
allow users to avoid the internal costs of resolving IP problems.
   QIP is not a panacea to the existing IP quality problem. But it has 
the potential to serve as a catalyst to improve today's situation so 
the benefits of increased usage of quality IP can improve the profits 
of both IP users and suppliers.

Norbert Diesing is Director of Technology Access at PMC-Sierra, Burnaby, 
B.C., Canada. He is also chairman of the Fabless Semiconductor 
Association's QIP Rollout Working Group. He can be reached at 
mailto:[email protected].

To comment on this Industry View, go to Reader Comments at the foot of 
the Web page:  

Electronic Design UPDATE ==> 
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWE0As

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2. Focus On Embedded
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***Windows CE Shared-Source Licensing Gains Flexibility
Microsoft Corp. has made its Windows CE shared-source licensing a little 
more flexible with the announcement of Windows CE 5.0. Shared-source 
licensees will maintain ownership of their derivative code and will not 
be obligated to share modifications with Microsoft, partners, or 
competitors. Although it does not change the relationship between 
open-source and shared-source licensing, the new approach addresses a 
major concern of Microsoft's shared-source licensees by allowing the 
licensees to keep enhancements private.
     Microsoft Corp. ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BUP0An 

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3. News -- From The Editors
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***PXI-Based Digitizers Offer 500-MHz Bandwidths
The DC140 and DC135 digitizers feature 1-GHz and 500-MHz bandwidths, 
respectively, in single-slot 3U PXI cards. The DC140 delivers 
synchronous 1-Gsample/s sampling and up to 8-Mpoint acquisition memory 
on two channels. Channel multiplexing provides 2 Gsamples/s and 16 
Mpoints on one channel. The DC135 offers 500 Msamples/s and up to 2 
Mpoints of memory on two channels and 1 Gsample/s and 4 Mpoints on one 
channel. The synchronous 8-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 
sampling, well-matched front-end electronics, and plus/minus 2-ppm time 
base enable the digitizers to perform significant cross-channel timing 
measurements, including jitter, phase, and propagation delay. The units 
come with AcqirisLive, a control program, and associated driver 
libraries. They run under Windows, Linux, and VxWorks and work with 
third-party software. Prices start at $6990. Delivery is in eight weeks 
for the DC135. Delivery details for the DC140 are available on request.
     Acqiris USA ==> 
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BFAK0AY 

***850-MHz PGA Has Very Low Distortion
The LT5514, an 850-MHz programmable-gain amplifier, boasts an output 
third-order intercept (OIP3) of 49 dBm at 70 MHz and second- and 
third-order distortion products below -87 dBc while delivering a 2-V p-p 
output into a 200-ohm load. An on-chip attenuator delivers gains of 10.5 
to 33 dB in 1.5-dB increments, controlled by a 4-bit parallel input 
word. A differential input and output topology provides a balanced drive 
to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Even with a 50-ohm load, the 
LT5514 can swing more than 3 V p-p to match any converter's output. As 
an amplifier, the device's gain is flat plus/minus 1 dB over a 450-MHz 
bandwidth. The LT5514 contains two output amplifiers connected in 
parallel for optimal distortion performance. But one of the amplifiers 
can be turned off, reducing supply current by about 50%, yet still 
delivering 43-dBm OIP3 at 70 MHz. The LT5514 comes in a 20-pin plastic 
TSSOP and costs $5.20 each in lots of 1000. It's available from stock.
     Linear Technology Corp. ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BGCT0Ak 

***Help Available On Hazardous Materials Directive
Two years from tomorrow, the European Restrictions on Hazardous 
Substances (RoHS) Directive takes effect. It sounds like a lot of time, 
but the RoHS will greatly limit the use of heavy metals and other 
substances in most electronic equipment and very little specific 
guidance on compliance is available. (See "Managing Product Obsolescence 
-- Now You See It, Now You Don't," Electronic Design, June 7, 2004, p. 
47. Or go to 
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJGO0Am )
   To help out, Raymond Communications, publishers of Recycling Laws 
International (RLI), has organized a teleconference with two experts 
in the field. Presenting during the teleconference, which is 
scheduled for 1:00 p.m. eastern time, July 14, will be Steve Andrews 
of the eco-design and product policy unit of the UK's Department of 
Trade and Industry. He will explain how the UK plans to implement the 
directive. In addition, Mark Newton, senior manager of environmental 
affairs for Dell Computer, will discuss the industry's response to 
the directive. For information on cost and how to register, go to 
RLI's Web site and check out the conference page and the "Durables" 
page.
     Raymond Communications ==> http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWG0Au 

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4. Upcoming Industry Events
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July 12-16, Semicon West
San Francisco/San Jose, Calif.
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJVp0Aa 

Aug. 2-6, International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology
Denver, Colo.
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BIoe0An 

Aug. 9-13, IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society Symposium 
(EMC2004)
Santa Clara, Calif.
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJGN0Al 

Aug. 13-15, IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society Symposium
Santa Clara, Calif.
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWH0Av  

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5. Magazine Highlights
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In case you missed them, here are some of the high points of our most 
recent issues.


June 14, 2004 Special Issue:
* Don't miss the exciting editorial lineup in our 2004 The State Of The 
Industry special issue, covering all the major EOEM markets, plus what's 
hot today, tomorrow's winners, and their impact on the EE job market. 
For the complete Table of Contents, go to 
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWI0Aw


June 21, 2004:

* Cover Story: Success Story -- Can BMW's iDrive Pass Its Road Test Now?
After a catastrophic debut and a major makeover, BMW's iDrive 
infotainment system is gaining acceptance with critics, competitors, 
and customers.
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWJ0Ax

* Technology Report -- PCI Express: Hardware Designed With Compatibility 
  In Mind
PCI Express is ramping up slowly, but it will quickly become the 
dominant peripheral interconnect.
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWK0Ay

* Leapfrog: Industry First -- Platform Straddles Prototyping And 
  Emulation
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWL0Az

* Design View / Design Solution -- Interfacing FPGAs To High-Speed DRAMs 
  Puts Designers To The Test
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWM0A1

For the complete Table of Contents, go to 
Electronic Design ==> 
http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJWN0A2

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

Ahead of the Curve:
The Hosted Instrument: Finally A No-Compromise Approach
By Paul G. Schreier

A new expert viewpoint brought to Electronic Design by Agilent 
Technologies

June 21 issue, page 21

http://lists.planetee.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/egXB0Gl4E70EmQ0BJGT0Ar

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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, 
Publisher: 
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