Electronic Design Update: March 26, 2008

Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter |   March 26, 2008 ADVERTISEMENT On-Line Tools for High-Speed Backplane Design

Register for your free access to DesignLink from Amphenol TCS. Perform trade-off analysis and “what if” scenarios at any phase of your backplane design, using Amphenol TCS's unique set of interactive backplane design tools. Reduce the decision time and identify cost reduction opportunities early. Download valuable technical information 24x7, including symbols and footprints, application notes, drawings, SPICE models and more. Click here to request access today. editor's view |How To Become A VP In Your Organization By Louis Frenzel, Communications/Test Editor
At some point in your career as an engineer, if you haven't already, you probably will decide whether you’ll stay with engineering or move into management and the executive ranks. It's a tough call. The geek in us may want to continue to create, design, and solve challenging problems, but the greater pay, perks, and prestige of management are irresistible. Read the full article...

Our editors have been busy! Come read their commentaries and check out exclusive videos from the Mobile World Congress, APEC, and Embedded World exhibitions and see the technology of tomorrow from major players in the electronics industry. focus on components |

HD/SD Video Filters Raise Performance Bars

Providing the industry's best stop-band attenuation, gain matching, and ESD protection, according to the company, the MAX11500 three-channel HD video filter, MAX11501/MAX11502 three-channel SD video filters, and the MAX11504/MAX11505 four-channel SD video filters integrate filters exhibiting reliable time-domain response with low overshoot, input clamps, output buffers, and ±12 kV of ESD protection. Read the full article... EiED online |

Dev Kits 2

Technology editor Bill Wong takes a look at new development platforms from Silicon Labs, STMicroelectronics, and Lantronix. Read the full article... design solution |

Analog Multiplier Improves the Accuracy of High-Side Current-Sense Measurements

High-side current-sense amplifiers are used in a wide variety of applications where reliability and accuracy are paramount concerns. In computer notebooks, these devices monitor the battery's charge and discharge currents, as well as currents in USB ports and many other supply rails that may need to be powered down to control heating and power dissipation. Read the full article...

ADVERTISEMENT New Agilent VEE Pro 8.5 -- now with more enhancements to simplify programming
Agilent VEE Pro 8.5 is an open and powerful graphical language environment that provides a quick and easy path to measurement and analysis. Keep programming simple with less lines of code with high-level task-oriented approach. Click here to watch our online demo or webcasts to learn more. Engineering TV | MIRTHE MIRTHE is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center headquartered at Princeton University, with partners City College New York, Johns Hopkins University, Rice, Texas A&M, and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The center encompasses a world-class team of engineers, chemists, physicists, environmental and bio-engineers, and clinicians. MIRTHE's goal is to develop mid-infrared optical trace gas sensing systems based on new technologies such as quantum cascade lasers or quartz enhanced photo-acoustic spectroscopy, with the ability to detect minute amounts of chemicals found in the environment or atmosphere, emitted from spills, combustion, or natural sources, or exhaled.

Click here to watch the video

news from the editors |

PoE Plus Draft 3.0 Ready For Technical Review

The Ethernet Alliance announced that the IEEE P802.3at task force has written IEEE P802.3at/Draft 3.0 and submitted it to the IEEE 802.3 working group for technical review. The task force expects to complete the ratification process by 2009. Read the full article...

Ethernet Alliance Schedules Plugfests

Several upcoming plugfests conducted by the Ethernet Alliance will give members a chance to demonstrate to the industry the interoperability of various new Ethernet technologies. The sessions will be held at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL). Read the full article...

High-Mileage Auto Competition Announces $10 Million Prize

The X Prize Foundation and Progressive Insurance have announced the company's title sponsorship of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize competition and its funding of the $10 million prize purse. Read the full article...

ADVERTISEMENT ESC Silicon Valley: Learn Today, Design Tomorrow
ESC Silicon Valley is where the global design engineering community gathers to learn, collaborate and celebrate innovation. ESC is celebrating 20 years of educating the creators of technology at the San Jose Convention Center from April 14 - 17 with over 350 exhibiting companies and over 200 new courses to this year's conference. Register today! Use Code: UX2-D

Agilent Eliminates Need For Physical Test Points For ICT

Agilent Technologies' Cover-Extend Technology is a hybrid between two established test methods for manufacturing test: boundary scan and VTEP vectorless test. Part of the company's VTEP v2.0 Powered test suite, Cover-Extend offers a limited-access solution for in-circuit test (ICT) users that eliminates the need for physical test points, providing benefits that traditional VTEP cannot. Read the full article... quick poll | In his April 10 Technology Report, Contributing Editor Roger Allan will look at the latest in portable video. What development will be most necessary before portable video achieves portable audio's popularity?

• More processing muscle
• Streamlined software and standards
• Better power efficiency
• A wider selection of content
• Other


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

product picks online | Quad-Mode LED Driver Boosts Efficiency For Portable Backlighting GPSDO Standard Keeps A Low Profile SIP POL Regulators Save Space, Cut Costs Software Provides One Box Serial Data Receiver Test Solution Keyboard Backlight Uses Fewer LEDs engineer's resource | Webinar: Improving The Accuracy Of Eye Pattern Measurements
Presented by LeCroy
April 9 at 2 pm ET This Web seminar, presented by LeCroy Business Development Manager Michael Schnecker, will describe the limitations of eye-pattern testing and some of the more important eye-based measurements. A measurement technique using the normalized q-scale method from jitter analysis and expanded to two dimensions will be described, and its application to mask testing and signal measurements will be demonstrated.

Click here to register

upcoming industry events | Multicore Expo
Santa Clara, Calif.
April 1-3 CTIA Wireless 2008
Las Vegas, Nev.
April 1-3 Embedded Systems Conference
San Jose, Calif.
April 14-18 ED bookstore |

Industrial Networking: Two Selections

Read up on Communication/Test Editor Louis Frenzel's reviews and recommendations on two reference guides from the industiral networking industry. Industrial Ethernet, 2nd Ed., by P.S. Marshall and J.S. Rinaldi introduces how Ethernet carries the TCP/IP protocol suite, and there is also coverage on Ethernet hardware. The second book, Industrial Data Communications, 4th Ed., by L.M. Thompson, covers a rainbow of topics within the serial-data communications field. Read the full article...