Electronic Design Update: October 8, 2008

Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter | October 8, 2008 | FREEmagazine subscription digital or print!ADVERTISEMENT Register Today for the 6th Annual IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference!
Held in Las Vegas from 10-13 January 2009, IEEE CCNC features presentations on Wireless Networking for Consumer Electronics, Personal Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks, Entertainment & Multimedia Networking, Peer-to-Peer and Content Delivery, Emerging Applications & Pervasive Technologies, and Security for CE Communications. In additional to its outstanding technical program, IEEE CCNC offers Technology Applications Panels, Special Sessions, Tutorials, Workshops, Demonstrations, and several networking events. As a bonus, every full registration includes One Complementary Tutorial!
For more information, visit www.ieee-ccnc.org/2009 mark david's roadmap |VIDEO: Under The Hood Of The Tesla Roadster By Mark David, Group Editorial Director
After the test drive, I had a serendipitous interview with Tesla’s CTO, J.B. Straubel, during MIT’s annual Emerging Technology conference. In the video interview, Straubel shares info about the upcoming Tesla sedan and the new factory slated to be built in San Jose. Read the full article... commentary |Samsung HDD Touts Highest Storage, Smallest Footprint By Roger Allan, Contributing Editor
It’s astonishing to say the least. Samsung’s Spinpoint M6 hard-disk drive (HDD) packs 500 Gbytes of storage into a single 2.5-in. hard-disk drive (HDD) in a standard 9.5-mm height with a 3.0 Gbit/s SATA interface, in what may be the best pound-for-pound HDD out there. Read the full article... lab bench online |

Small Packages For .Net Micro Framework

Microsoft’s .Net Micro Framework targets compact, single chip microcontrollers. Technology Editor Bill Wong takes a look at.Net Micro Framework platforms from Design Solutions and SJJ Micro. Read the full article... engineer's resource | Vote For The Best IFD And Leapfrog We’re wondering which IFDs and Leapfrogs are your favorites. What articles do you consider to be the most innovative, or the most helpful to you from the past calendar year? Just take a look at the list of IFDs and Leapfrogs and pick the ones that you think are worthy of recognition. The ballot closes on October 17. The winning IFD and Leapfrog will be presented in our December 1st Best Electronic Design Issue, where our Technology Editors will offer added commentary on each article.

One Powerful Day
Power Electronics Technology and the Electronic Design Group bring the latest in power design information direct to you, the power designer, with the premier of One Powerful Day, a free online conference with a full day of top speakers on top topics via Web conferencing. The conference brings you up to date on the latest in power design, and you can pick and choose the free sessions that benefit you the most.

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 07652
Click 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 |

Narrow-Shift Digital Discriminator Detects Differential GPS Corrections

The U.S. Coast Guard transmits differential corrections to GPS signals (DGPS) via low-frequency (285- to 325-kHz) beacons. Transmission data rates are 100 or 200 bits/s. The modulation is minimum-shift keying (MSK), resulting in a pseudo frequency-shift keying (FSK) with a carrier shift of half the bit rate. For a 100-bits/s signal, the carrier shift is only ±25 Hz. With a receiver IF frequency of 1 kHz, the IF signal shifts between 975 and 1025 Hz. The two data tones correspond to times of 1026 µs and 976 µs, respectively. Read the full article...

Agilent Technologies' Chris Johnston provides the rundown on the N5106A PXB MIMO receiver tester. Watch it now...

Engineering TV | Earthquake Shake Table At Colorado State University, civil engineering professor Dr. John van de Lindt conducted a series of earthquake shake table tests of a half-scale two-story residential building with an integrated one-car garage as part of a National Science Foundation funded NEESWood project related to seismic protection systems. The overall goal of the task is to enable applications of protective systems to woodframe buildings by integrating them into the performance-based seismic design philosophy developed within the project as a whole.

news from the editors |

Breakthrough In Skin-Like Optical Sensing Foils

Building on last year’s rigid-surface development, INTEC reports that it has produced the first functional optical links embedded in a flexible substrate. INTEC is IMEC’s associated laboratory at Ghent University. With this technique, it becomes possible to make foils that sense changes in pressure. Read the full article...

Partnership Aims To Speed 32-, 28-nm SoC Design

A group of semiconductor industry firms are collaborating to develop a common design platform for 32- and 28-nm systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) designs. The platform will be based on IBM’s high-k metal-gate (HKMG) technology. Joining IBM are ARM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Read the full article...

WirelessHART Wins International Approval

With the National Committees of 29 countries participating in the balloting, the International Electrotechnical Commission has approved the WirelessHART Communication Specification (HART 7.1) as a Publicly Available Specification (IEC/PAS 62591Ed. 1). Read the full article...

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focus product |

Floating-Point DSPs Provide Peripheral Options And Low-Power Operation

Teaming a wealth of peripheral connectivity and low power consumption, Texas Instruments unveils what it is calling the industry's lowest power floating-point DSPs: the TMS320C6745 DSP and TMS320C6747 DSP and the OMAP-L137 floating-point DSP plus ARM applications processor. Read the full article... product picks online | Video Crosspoint Switches Lower Power, Raise Bandwidth VPX Memory Board Supports Up To 16 Gbytes 1340-W Supply Stands 1U High RFIC Design Environment Adds Over 100 Enhancements USB Connector Family Adds Mini Receptacles upcoming industry events | 13th Si2/OpenAccess+ Conference
Santa Clara, Calif.
Oct. 13 Why Vent? Improve Reliabilty For Rugged Electronics
Webinar
Oct. 22 Application Workshops For High-Performance Electronic Design
North Amerca, Asia, Europe
Oct. 9 - Nov. 12 ED bookstore |Computers As Components: Principles Of Embedded Computing Design By Wayne Wolf
The title is a bit of misnomer, as author Wayne Wolf is really presenting a typical embedded design and programming book. There is little about connecting CPU components together in anything other than a basic network. Still, skipping over the naming of the book reveals a very good coverage of general embedded processors and system design. Overall, this is an excellent book for a college course or for new embedded designers. Read the full article...