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Dear Sir/Madam
It seems we all have to wait a little longer to feel the warm
temperatures and sunshine normally associated with spring time.
But if you need any information about embedded design – you
don´t have to wait – you´ll find it in this newsletter. Enjoy
it!
Wolfgang Patelay
Technical Editor, EPN
AdvancedTCA Backplane (Elma Electronic)
Elma has developed a system platform for AdvancedTCA
applications that complies with the ETSI standard. The
well-thought-out airflow guidance system together with
efficient, redundant fan units, ensure efficient cooling, even
with high dissipation losses from the active cards. The system
platform now offered is ready for immediate use.
Click here
Quiet
Industrial Server (Kontron)
An
ultra-quiet 19-inch 4U industrial server family, the KISS (Kontron
Industrial Silent Server) is now also available in a short version,
with an installation depth of only 12 inches (300mm). Producing less
than 35dBA, the KISS family is suitable for the most noise-sensitive
environments and the KISS-Short leaves roughly one third of the
space in a 19" switching cabinet free for cable ducts and dock-on
behind the server.
Click here
Multimedia Chip (Philips Semiconductors)
The
STB22x is a new family of STB platforms that bring together a
validated turnkey STB design, third-party software and world class
support. It will allow CE makers to produce low-cost STBs for cable,
satellite and terrestrial broadcast with fast time-to-market. It
offers support for standard-definition PVR, dual input/dual output,
MPEG2 and MPEG4, and also integrates USB2.0 OTG and picture
improvement features into the source decoder in order to create a
streamlined product.
Click here
In-System Programmer (Softec Microsystems)
Designed for use with Freescale Semiconductor's range of HC(S)08 and
HCS12(X) range of microcontroller units, the inDART-One in-system
programmer is fast enough for production programming. The optimised
algorithm for MC908GP32 can program the 32kbytes memory in about 1
second, while the 256kbytes memory of the MC9S12DP256B needs only
8.5 seconds. The module allows simultaneous multiple programming of
up to 32 devices through only one host PC, via a USB 2.0 connection.
Click here
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Trends in Oscillator Design
If the brain of an electronic system is the processor, then its
heartbeat is the frequency-control device that provides the
system clock. Both are vital components of the functional whole.
It should come as little surprise then that the market forces at
work upon the frequency-control sector are basically the same as
those that are shaping the electronics industry as a whole:
constant pressure to deliver higher performance, higher
functionality, smaller package size, lower power consumption,
lower pricing and faster turnaround of new designs.
Peter Sinclair from C-MAC
describes in his article in EPN that the efforts of
high-profile semiconductor companies to ride the wave of rapid
technological development are well documented and meanwhile,
designers and manufacturers of oscillators are working just as
hard to keep up the pace.
Click here
Language Support
for Analogue Designer
Most people regard, with good reason, analogue design
as being difficult to automate, and believe that productivity
improvements are hard to come by. Because there are no widely
accepted high-level tools such as synthesis software that can take
arbitrary descriptions of analogue functions and convert them into
circuits, the image of analogue design is one of hand-drawn designs
with few benefits from automation. But
Paul Double from
EDA Solutions knows a way to
automate analogue design and describes it in his article.
Click here
Configurable logic gates' Schmitt inputs make versatile
monostables
Drawing from an earlier Design Idea and a recent design
requirement for adding pulse-generation functions to a crowded
pc board,
Glenn Chenier
searched Fairchild Semiconductor's Web site for small-footprint
Schmitt-input logic gates and found single-gate
configurable logic that forms one-shots and trigger circuits.
Click here
Shift
registers and resistors deliver multiphase sine waves
Sine
waves with fixed phase relationships find application in
communications equipment, instrumentation, and power sources.
Although you can use any of several traditional analog techniques to
generate basic sine-wave signals, this Design Idea by
Gary Steinbaugh
offers a simple method that uses only digital logic and fixed-value
resistors to
deliver multiphase sine waves
Click here
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4| Book of The Month |
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Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems, by Tim Wescott
Many embedded engineers and programmers who need to implement
basic process or motion control as part of a product design do
not have formal training or experience in control system theory.
Although some projects require advanced and very sophisticated
control systems expertise, the majority of embedded control
problems can be solved without resorting to heavy math and
complicated control theory. However, existing texts on the
subject are highly mathematical and theoretical and do not offer
practical examples for embedded designers. This book is
different; it presents mathematical background with sufficient
rigor for an engineering text, but it concentrates on providing
practical application examples that can be used to design
working systems, without needing to fully understand the math
and high-level theory operating behind the scenes. The author,
an engineer with many years of experience in the application of
control system theory to embedded designs, offers a concise
presentation of the basics of control theory as it pertains to
an embedded environment.
Click here
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5| Competition |
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Embedded Human-Machine Interface Starter Package
Aimed at embedded-systems developers, the HMI-SK520 is a
ready-to-use starter package that could reduce HMI (Human
Machine Interface) development times from nine months down to
one to eight weeks. MicroSys is offering EPN readers the
opportunity to win a complete package worth over 1400 Euros,
composed of four different boards from MicroSys (PM520 processor
module, CPU module carrier, carrier extension, graphic
extension), the VxWorks operating system and Workbench from Wind
River (30-day evaluation version), and the IDS graphic solution
(interface-development suite) from Tilcon.
Click here
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Copyright
2006, Reed Business Information.
EPN and EDN Europe are members of the Reed
Electronics Group
Reed Business France - 2 rue Maurice Hartmann, 92133 Issy-les-Moulineaux,
France
Tel- +33 (0) 1 46 29 23 60
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