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Dear Sir/Madam
There is no doubt: every car is polluting the environment when
driving. But electronics can help to reduce the pollution to an
absolute minimum. You´ll find solutions in this newsletter.
Enjoy!
Wolfgang Patelay
Technical Editor, EPN
Accelerometers In Small Package (Maxim)
The MMA6270Q (XY-axis), MMA6280Q (XZ-axis) and MMA7261Q
(XYZ-axis) sensor devices provide two and three axes of
sensitivity, depending on application needs. The MMA6280Q, the
industry's first XZ-axis accelerometer, can sense in both
lateral and perpendicular planes, which eliminates the need for
daughter cards and makes it a more cost-effective solution when
a three-axis device is not needed.
Click here
Economical Spray-Guided Combusion (Bosch)
Bosch has developed an innovative technique for
direct gasoline injection for what is known as the spray-guided
combustion process. Very fast-switching piezo injectors are the
special feature of this new gasoline-saving technology: the fuel
which they spray into the combustion chamber is so finely atomised
that it can be ignited directly without mixing in the combustion
chamber - a technique called spray-guided combustion process with
stratified charge.
Click here
Powertrain Sensor (Cherry)
Cherry has released
its new Hall Effect sensor for critical braking applications in
lorries and HGVs. Located in the brake booster, the
way-measuring-unit consists of a magnet and an analogue hallsensor
with linear programmable voltage characteristics.
Click
here
HIL
Combined With Unit Tests (Hitex)
Hitex extends software-unit test tool Tessy with the
hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system Tanto2-HIL. Consequently, the
testing of embedded software can now include the hardware
environment and the physical interfaces of the application system.
Click here
LIN and Mixed-Signal Process Advances Enable Smart Auto Sensors
and Actuators
The ever-increasing importance of electronics in automobiles
brings with it a growing need for low-cost, reliable sensors and
actuators. These devices do not function on their own but must
communicate with the system's main electronic control unit
(ECU). Scott Monroe explains in
his article that digital multiplex communications, which
maintain the signal's integrity, reduce the number of wires
required and introduce new possibilities for intelligent control
distributed throughout the vehicle.
Click here
Embedded Flash Enables New Sensor-Interface Applications in Vehicles
Single-chip sensor-interface solutions that also
incorporate Flash memory offer a great potential to automotive
designers who are adding more and more electronic content across
their increasingly comprehensive and complex vehicle ranges.
Hervé Branquart from AMIS shows in
his article in EPN that single-chip sensor-interface ASICs that
incorporate Flash have the advantage of achieving greater
reliability, lains in his article how shorter development time and
significant cost savings.
Click here
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Novel circuit isolates temperature sensor from its host
Temperature sensors must sometimes operate at locations whose
return potentials differ considerably from that of the
data-acquisition system's common—that is, equipotential—ground.
In consequence, the temperature sensor's support circuitry must
provide galvanic isolation between the sensor and its
data-acquisition system. Also, the data-acquisition system
seldom provides an isolated source of power for the sensor. The
circuit in described in the Design Idea by
Alfredo H Saab
and Tamer Mogannam from Maxim
solves both problems by
isolating the sensor's signal and power supply.
Click here
Microcontroller's single I/O-port line drives a bar-graph display
Instrument designs featuring a digital display may
benefit from a secondary display that provides an analog version of
the displayed parameter. A bar-graph display provides an easily
interpreted graphical indicator that allows comparison with its
full-scale value, but a conventional microcontroller-based design
uses at least one eight-line I/O port to drive an
eight-segment-bar-graph LED display. R Jayapal
explains in his Design Idea an alternative: how you can minimize the
number of required I/O lines by using the PWM output to drive
Natioanl Semiconductor´s LM3914 bar-graph-display-driver circuit or
an equivalent
Click here
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4| Market Research |
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Mobile Video Industry Will Begin to Shape up in 2008
The market for long form mobile/portable video content (video
content of greater than 30 minutes) is currently in an
experimental phase, and will likely remain at this stage for at
least two years, reports In-Stat. By 2008, however, the industry
will begin to gain traction and demonstrate its long-term
potential, the high-tech market research firm says.
Click here
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5| Book of the Month |
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Customizable Embedded Processors, by Paolo Ienne and Rainer
Leupers
Customizable processors have been described as the next natural
step in the evolution of the microprocessor business: a step in
the life of a new technology where top performance alone is no
longer sufficient to guarantee market success. Other factors
become fundamental, such as time to market, convenience, energy
efficiency, and ease of customization. This book is the first to
explore comprehensively one of the most fundamental trends which
emerged in the last decade: to treat processors not as rigid,
fixed entities, which designers include “as is” in their
products; but rather, to build sound methodologies to tailor-fit
processors to the specific needs of such products.
Click here
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