Design Features: August 4, 1994

Cover Story
Synchronous Memories	As system clock speeds push past 50 MHz, designers are discovering that asynchronous memory becomes unmanageable. As a result, they are looking to synchronous memories to handle increasing system speeds. What they are finding are new design challenges. -- Richard A Quinnell, Technical Editor
Design Features The hottest new technologies and the latest design techniques to help you work efficiently and effectively.
Noise-figure curves ease the selection of low-noise op amps	Evaluating plots of noise figure vs source resistance makes it easy to select a low-noise amplifier for a given source resistance. A BASIC program calculates the numbers from data-sheet parameters. -- John W Christensen, National Semiconductor Corp
Canny choices condense CPLD and FPGA design cycles	The proliferation of CPLDs and FPGAs has resulted in flexible devices that reduce design time and contribute to a design's smaller size, higher reliability, lower cost, and lower power consumption. However, you must choose from among many devices, each having its own diverse architecture. --Sung C Hu, San Francisco State University
Embedded RISC µPs present new debugging challenges	Embedded systems based on RISC mPs offer many advantages but present unique debugging challenges. Although a logic analyzer isn't the only tool you need to meet these challenges, it is an important one, and you should consider making it the cornerstone of your debugging strategy. --Roger Crooks, Tektronix Inc
New philosophy aids shift from schematic-based	Using HDL-based techniques for developing hardware is similar to using high-level languages to develop software: An object-oriented design philosophy is directly applicable. --Charles F Shelor, Shelor Engineering
Software vendors sweep aside language barriers	US software vendors face a dilemma: whether to thrust English-language products on foreign users or to "localize" products and offer their users native-language help, aide, ajuda, hjælp, hilfe, nápoveùda, ohje, pomoc, súgó, dowa, juseyeo... -- Brian Kerridge, Senior Technical Editor
Desktop DOS goes undercover to run embedded systems	Embedding a PC often involves embedding the most popular desktop operating system. -- David Shear, Technical Editor