==================================Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter Electronic Design Magazine PlanetEE ==> www.planetee.com June 29, 2005
=============================*************************ADVERTISEMENT************************** FREE Measurement Fundamentals Series The National Instruments Measurement Fundamentals Series is your FREE resource for test and measurement knowledge on the Web. Both expert and student alike will benefit from real-world examples and audiovisual tutorials providing quality technical content covering analog, digital, sensor, and instrument topics. Click here to begin exploring the series today. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D533:1001CD **************************************************************** Today's Table Of Contents: 1. Editor's View *Watch Out For Wireless Aircraft 2. Focus On ASICs *Platform Accelerates High-Speed PCI Express Development 3. News From The Editors *NASA Probe Crashes Comet's Fourth Of July Party *IC Inventor Jack Kilby Dies At 81 *High-Power Square LEDs Can Replace Neon 4. Magazine Highlights: June 23, 2005 *Cover Story: Engineering Feature -- Wanted: Roboticist *Technology Report: Audio Codecs -- The Entertainment-DSP Connection *Leapfrog: Industry First -- Power-Integrity Flow Cuts Out The Guesswork *Design View/Design Solution -- SoC Designers: Learn The What, Why, And How Of Transactions 5. Electronic Design Helpline *Human Body Detection System Electronic Design UPDATE edited by Lisa Maliniak, eMedia Editor mailto:[email protected] **************************************************************** Designing With Video Signals Dealing with digital video signals in the analog world can be tricky. Arm yourself with knowledge and download our eBook, "Analog/Mixed-Signal Components For 21st Century Video," by Analog/Power Editor Don Tuite. Chapter 1 covers the basics, and recently added Chapter 2 discusses interfacing video amps to digital-to-analog converters. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D534:1001CD **************************************************************** ********************** 1. Editor's View -- Exclusive to Electronic Design UPDATE ********************** Watch Out For Wireless Aircraft By Ron Schneiderman, Professional/Careers Editor You're climbing out of Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport after a rare on-time takeoff and about to reach your cruising altitude of 35,000 feet when you notice something strange out your window. You see another aircraft about a half-mile off your left wing that just keeps climbing. In fact, it's passing you. Could it be a UFO? More likely, it's a UAV. That would make it part of a little talked about NASA-led program that has been kicking around for the past few years. But HALE ROA, as the project is called, is still very much in play. There could be lots of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying around the U.S. over the next few years as NASA, the FAA, the Pentagon, and several aerospace firms try to determine if it's safe for these small, stealthy, and highly manueverable aircraft to buzz around in commercial airspace... Read the complete story at http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D530:1001CD To comment on this Editor's View, go to Reader Comments at the foot of the Web page: Electronic Design UPDATE ==> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D52E:1001CD **************************************************************** *************************ADVERTISEMENT************************** Your easiest way to control display brightness. Microsemi visible light sensors mimic human eye response. Breakthrough technology enables automatic brightness control that's not fooled by infrared or ultraviolet wavelengths. Easy design-in needs no optical filters. Integrated high gain photo current amplifiers, temperature stable, and RoHS compliant. No lead, no cadmium. Four models to meet your specific LCD or LED display design requirements. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D527:1001CD **************************************************************** ********************** 2. Focus On ASICs ********************** ***Platform Accelerates High-Speed PCI Express Development A PCI Express development platform from GDA Technologies Inc. efficiently leverages the configurable logic and resources available on LSI Logic's RapidChip platform ASICs. It will enable RapidChip technology customers to easily integrate their design functionality with GDA PCI Express intellectual-property (IP) cores and LSI Logic's industry-compliant high-speed serializer-deserializers and embedded standard processors. The development platform can leverage the multiple PCI Express end-point controller cores from GDA, any of which can be selected at run-time. That will enable developers to test their application logic working in conjunction with the PCI Express cores and other IP integrated on the RapidChip platforms. They can then compare the performance of the RapidChip solution over other ASIC alternatives to implement multigigabit, serial-interface designs with faster time-to-market and lower nonrecurring engineering costs than with a full custom ASIC. GDA Technologies Inc. ==> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D53A:1001CD ********************** 3. News -- From The Editors ********************** ***NASA Probe Crashes Comet's Fourth Of July Party This weekend's biggest fireworks will take place 83 million miles away. NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft will launch a probe at comet Tempel 1 on July 3. At approximately 1:52 a.m. EDT on the Fourth of July, the 39-in. wide probe will hit the comet, which is about half the size of Manhattan, at 23,000 miles/hour. The inevitable crater could range in size from a large house to a football stadium two to 14 stories deep. The impact will eject ice and dust, revealing the material beneath the surface. The Deep Impact spacecraft, about 310 miles away from the collision, will have 13 minutes to take images and spectra of the event before it's enveloped in debris. Observations will resume once the spacecraft clears the debris zone, giving researchers a view of the comet's core... Read the complete story at http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D528:1001CD ***IC Inventor Jack Kilby Dies At 81 Jack Kilby, inventor of the monolithic integrated circuit, passed away on June 20 at the age of 81. Electronic Design formally honored this pioneer in 2002 by inducting him into our Engineering Hall of Fame. In the summer of 1958, Mr. Kilby conceived and built the first electronic circuit in which all of the components, both active and passive, were fabricated in a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip. He worked at Dallas-based Texas Instruments at the time. This first simple microchip changed the course of the electronics industry, and the world, by laying the conceptual and technical foundation for the entire field of modern microelectronics... Read the complete story at http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D52C:1001CD ***High-Power Square LEDs Can Replace Neon A series of high-current, high-flux square LEDs can be used in arrays or mounted in housings for a variety of uses, including replacing traditional neon. Applications for the OVF series LEDs from Optek Technology include scoreboards and large-area electronic billboards, traffic signals and highway signage, and exterior automotive lighting. They are available in white, blue, green, amber, red/orange, and red. The LEDs are housed in 7.6-mm square, four-pin, through-hole packages with water clear lenses that provide viewing angles from 40 to 120 degrees. All the parts are rated for operation between -40 deg. C and +100 deg. C and are compatible with lead-free soldering processes. Pricing starts at $0.21 each in quantities of 10,000 units. Lead time is stock to eight weeks. Optek Technology ==> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D539:1001CD ********************** 4. Magazine Highlights ********************** In case you missed them, here are some of the high points of our most recent issue. June 23, 2005: * Cover Story: Engineering Feature -- Wanted: Roboticist Frameworks and COTS hardware make it easier to create robots for practical applications. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D52D:1001CD * Technology Report: Audio Codecs -- The Entertainment-DSP Connection Standard compression algorithms and proprietary post-processing code challenge DSP chipmakers to deliver more MIPS at fewer watts. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D52B:1001CD * Leapfrog: Industry First -- Power-Integrity Flow Cuts Out The Guesswork Thanks to a healthy dose of physical awareness, a power-integrity implementation and optimization tool attacks many facets concurrently. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D52F:1001CD * Design View/Design Solution -- SoC Designers: Learn The What, Why, And How Of Transactions Transaction-level modeling lets you record transactions in the multitude of everyday design languages. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D529:1001CD For the complete Table of Contents, go to Electronic Design ==> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D531:1001CD ********************** 5. Electronic Design Helpline ********************** Electronic Design reader Colin Hartley asks: "I am looking for a method of detecting a human body up to 50 feet away, and then I would like to determine his/her approximate x-y location within the detection area/zone. I thought of using two passive sensors, mounting them on two stepped motors, and scanning the area, but I can't seem to find narrow-beam sensors. Is there another method or product I can use to achieve the end result?" Do you have any solutions to this design problem? Please e-mail your ideas to Lisa Maliniak mailto:[email protected] for posting on the Electronic Design Web site. ***Readers seeking help with design problems are encouraged to e-mail us at mailto:[email protected] for posting in future editions of the ED Update newsletter. **************************************************************** Embedded in Electronic Design (EiED) Online is your source for technical insight and hands-on reviews. Read one of Bill Wong's latest EiED Online columns, "Debugging Is Job One." According to recent surveys, most programmers place debugging at the top of their list. So what has changed in the last 20 years? http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D52A:1001CD ********************** TAKE A POLL! What is your personal outlook for design projects in the next quarter? -- Concerned about slowdown/layoffs -- Fewer projects, but still feel secure in my position -- Good, stable workflow continues -- Increased number of projects -- Lots coming down the pike, maybe more than I can handle Vote at Electronic Design ==> http://www.elecdesign.com ********************** THOUGHT YOU'D MISSED THEM? DON'T WORRY, THEY'RE ARCHIVED Electronic Design's webcasts are available online: DAC Showcast: Take a look at the latest and greatest EDA tools introduced at the Design Automation Conference http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D535:1001CD Next-Generation In-House PCB Prototyping: Produce your own PCB prototypes without the use of hazardous chemicals. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D532:1001CD High-Frequency Signals: Technology for capturing high-frequency signals with real-time and sampling oscilloscopes. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D537:1001CD **************************************************************** Need To Go Green? We Can Help! The European Union, as well as Japan and China, is about to restrict the use of environmentally hazardous materials in electronic components and systems through the Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. Electronic Design's RoHS Reference Center has the information you need to make the shift to green designs. The second chapter of our eBook, "Electronic Design's Guide To New International Environmental Laws," is now available for download. And don't miss our comprehensive list of industry and government Web sites and contacts. http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D538:1001CD **************************************************************** 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://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=D536:1001CD ****************************************************************
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