IC Shrinks Battery Electronics In Handheld Products

Said to provide features found only in high-end systems, the DS2438 Smart Battery Monitor is designed to reside in battery packs and stores battery-specific data and tracks parameters. The device measures battery temperature with a resolution of 0.03°C, current with a 10-bit resolution, and voltage with a 10-mv resolution.
Using the company's 1-Wire technology, the DS2438 communicates with a product over a single wire, allowing battery packs and products to be connected using only three contacts. Via a unique 64-bit net address, multiple packs can be wired to a single bus but can still be addressed individually. The chip costs $1.15 each/10,000 in 8-pin SOICs.