Design Features:July 20, 1995

Cover Story
Designing for speed with high-performance PLDs	High-performance PLDs come in a variety of flavors. To choose the right one, consider the speed and time-to-market requirements of your application and learn what each PLD architecture offers. -- John Gallant, Technical Editor
Design Features The hottest new technologies and the latest design techniques to help you work efficiently and effectively.
High-density FPGA synthesis speeds system design	FPGA density and performance are rapidly increasing. As a result, designing with an FPGA closely resembles working with complex-gate-array or cell-based chips. You need to choose the synthesis and other high-level design tools carefully for your targeted FPGA family because the proper tools can speed design time and help produce higher performance chips. --Jim Lipman, Technical Editor
NSP technology promises free multimedia in PCs	No one can predict whether Intel's NSP technology will achieve widespread success. The technology should, however, alert all designers of PCs, motherboards, and add-in cards to the need for unifying the media types in advanced PCs. --Maury Wright, Technical Editor
ASIC oscillator cells reduce system timing costs	Developing stable oscillator circuits for logic systems once was a daunting analog-design task. Now, commonly available oscillator standard cells make the job relatively simple: You add a crystal and a few passive components to sustain the oscillations that drive your clocks for disk drives, PCMCIA boards, and other new products. --Marvin A Veeser, Raltron Electronics Corp
Systematic approach makes op-amp circuits resist radiated noise	Minimizing the noise effects of electric and magnetic fields on op-amp circuits does not require a magician. A step-by-step procedure can tame such interference. Once you understand the basis of noise pickup, the reasons for each step become clear. --Bonnie Baker, CBurr-Brown Corp --Jerald Graeme, Graeme Consulting