May 22, 1997

WHAT'S HOT IN THE DESIGN COMMUNITY

Read-while-write architectures come with a hardware twist

Hot on the heels of Intel's (Folsom, CA) announcement of an Advanced Boot Block architecture, flash memories from two vendor partnerships further advance the state of the art in code-plus-data applications ("Flash device targets mixed code and data storage," EDN, April 24, 1997, pg 16). Intel's products rely on system software to detect read requests and suspend flash-memory program/erase operations to service them. Memories from partnerships between AMD and Fujitsu, as well as Mitsubishi and Motorola, on the other hand, include array-partitioning circuitry that allows no-latency and no-suspend reads from portions of the device while updates are occurring in other memory blocks. In combination with EEPROM-emulation software, these devices may provide a lower cost, lower power, and higher integration alternative to separate code and data memories.

AMD divides its 8-Mbit 29DL800 Simultaneous Read/Write array, for which Fujitsu will act as an second source, into two internal banks. Bank 1 includes two 16-kbyte, two 32-kbyte, and four 8-kbyte blocks, and Bank 2 comprises 14 64-kbyte blocks. You can read from any block in one bank while programming or erasing a block in the other bank. Possible operating scenarios include reading an algorithm from the boot block while updating code segments or reading system code while rewriting data. Neither scenario requires full block-to-block read-while-write capability, which, if implemented, would result in a more expensive memory. Configurable either 38 or 316, the 29DL800 access time is 120 nsec at 2.7V-only (supply and program/erase voltage) and extended-temperature operation, with a corresponding 90-nsec commercial-temperature rating. Packaging options include both 48-lead TSOP and mBGA, and samples are available now with production this summer. AMD's price is $9.05 (10,000). AMD plans to extend the 29DL800 architecture to a multidensity family in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Motorola is 28F800A2 acts as a second source for Mitsubishi's M5M28Fx800VP MobileFlash BGO (background-operation) memory. You can configure the 8-Mbit memory as 38 or 316 bits, and it is available in 48-lead TSOP and, in the future, µBGA packages. The supply voltage ranges from 2.7 to 3.6V, with program/erase voltage at 4.5 to 5.5V. Access time across the ­40 to +858C extended-temperature range is 120 nsec. Reads from any of the 15 64-kbyte main blocks can occur simultaneously with programming or erasing of the 16-kbyte boot block, 32-kbyte main block, or either of two 8-kbyte parameter blocks. The devices' DINOR technology's 50-msec typical erase time is significantly faster than that of many NOR devices, and internal page buffers and multibyte parallel programming address slower write performance than that of NOR­based alternatives. Mitsubishi's price is $11.50 (10,000), and the M5M28Fx-800VP is now in production. The companies also plan to introduce higher densities.

--by Brian Dipert

AMD Corp, Sunnyvale, CA. 1-408-732-2400, fax 1-408-749-3240, www.amd.com.

Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc, San Jose, CA. 1-408-922-9000, fax 1-408-432-9044, www.fujitsumicro.com.

Motorola Corp, Austin, TX. 1-512-933-7726, fax 1-512-933-5076, www.design-net.com.

Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc, Sunnyvale, CA. 1-408-730-5900, fax 1-408-732-9382, www.mitsubishi.com.

Debug FPGA chips with a virtual probe

Silicon Explorer, a new diagnostic and debugging tool suite, lets you access all of an Actel FPGA's internal nodes in real time. You use the tools on a PC to observe your programmable logic's nodes after device placement and routing when the chip is on a prototype board. You can observe nodes without affecting device timing or fan-out.

The Silicon Explorer suite includes ProbePilot, a signal-acquisition hardware interface, and the Explore and Analyze software tools. You connect ProbePilot, using standard serial ports, to an Actel FPGA, the prototype pc board, and your PC or workstation. ProbePilot works with ActionProbe, a piece of built-in circuitry on all Actel parts that lets you observe any internal node through selected device outputs. ProbePilot gives you 18 probing channels that can run at 100 MHz in an asynchronous mode and 66 MHz in a synchronous mode. Each channel has a 64-kbit buffer for storing accessed signal states.

The Explore software sits on your PC or workstation and integrates with Actel's Designer Series programmable-logic-development tools. You use Explore to drive the diagnostic and debugging operations when investigating an FPGA's operation. You use the Analyze software to graphically display the waveforms on nodes accessed by Probe-Pilot, making your design platform look like a logic analyzer. The internal node "probing" capability is useful in an FPGA containing an embedded core, because you can access the nodes both within the core and corresponding to the core's I/O ports. This feature is useful for debugging cores designed by a third party when you may be unfamiliar with core-design details.

Silicon Explorer costs $1295. You can also get a version without the Analyze logic analyzer for $495. You use the tool suite for both antifuse- and SRAM-based Actel programmable-logic devices.

--by Jim Lipman

Actel, Sunnyvale, CA. 1-408-739-1010, fax 1-408-739-1540, www.actel.com.

Ultralow-drop-out regulator melds size, high output, precision

The LP2986 regulator from National Semiconductor provides 200-mA output current with just 180-mV dropout, falling to 1-mV dropout at 1-mA load. The eight-pin device comes in SO-8 and MSOP-8 packages and includes an internal resistive divider that you can pin-strap to provide 5, 3.3, or 3V outputs to 0.5% or 1% accuracy at room temperature, depending on grade. Alternatively, you can use an external divider for ad-justable output. In shutdown mode, the device draws less than 1 mA, and the IC includes an error-flag output, which signals if the output drops more than 5% below nominal value. It operates from supplies as large as 16V and supports transient peak outputs as high as 400 mA. Price is $1.23 (1000).

--by Bill Schweber

National Semiconductor Corp, Santa Clara, CA. 1-800-272-9959, www.national.com.

Software tools up efficiency of PCI designs

Tests of PCI-bus-based network-interface cards at Intel Platform Architecture Labs (Hillsboro, OR) reveal that seemingly similar designs can exhibit radically different throughput. With this result in mind, Hewlett-Packard has announced a set of software tools that enable PCI-bus-hardware designers to evaluate both board- and chip-level designs and to pinpoint the causes of performance bottlenecks. The E2972A PCI-performance analyzer works with the 2970A PCI-analyzer tool set. To operate, both tool sets require a hardware product, the 33-MHz E2925A PCI exerciser and analyzer with a deep-memory option that provides a 1M-sample trace memory. To evaluate PCI performance, the tools provide transaction-level activity trace, real-time counter-based measurement, performance-summary charts, and textual-performance summaries. Prices for system configurations that include hardware and software start at $14,800.

--by Dan Strassberg

Hewlett-Packard Co, Palo Alto, CA. 1-800-452-4844, www.hp.com/go/tmdir, www-europe.hp.com.

ADCs define points in the converter-performance constellation

New ICs improve two of the traditional trio of basic A/D-converter trade-offs--speed and resolution--and minimize the third--power. The LTC1419, a nonpipelined architecture IC from Linear Technology Corp, provides 14 bits at 800k samples/sec, consuming just 150 mW from ±5V supplies. The integral sample/hold amplifier with 20-MHz bandwidth rejects wideband common-mode noise by 60 dB. For applications that require spectral purity, the converter provides 81.5-dB SINAD (signal-to-noise and rejection) and 95-dB SFDR (spurious-free dynamic range) with a 100-kHz signal input; the corresponding figures for a 400-kHz input are 80 and 86 dB. You can use the internal 2.5V reference for conversion or provide a reference from your system. The 28-pin IC, in SO and SSOP packages, uses a 14-bit parallel port as its mP interface and costs $16.80 (1000).

If you need more resolution but at a lower sampling rate, the LTC1605 16-bit A/D converter samples as fast as 100k samples/sec. As with the LTC1419, it includes an overridable 2.5V reference and comes in 28-pin packages. With a 20-kHz input, SINAD is 86 dB, and THD is ­90 dB. The no-missing-code converter has integral nonlinearity of ±2 LSB over the 0 to 70 or ­40 to +858C operating temperature, depending on the grade. The 5V device has a ±10V input range and consumes 55 mW; it provides both 2-byte and 16-bit parallel interfaces and costs $18 (1000).

At the high-speed end of the spectrum, the AD9070 from Analog Devices provides 10-bit resolution while sampling at 100M samples/sec, with typical power dissipation of 600 mW. The converter also features a 230-MHz bandwidth, well beyond the Nyquist rate, which makes the converter suitable for communications signal digitization, direct IF sampling, high-definition TV, and test-and-measurement equipment. The 28-pin SOIC costs $68 (1000) and requires just one supply for operation.

Also targeting high-speed operation and low power, the 10-bit Harris HI5766 samples at 60M samples/sec and typically dissipates less than 260 mW. The CMOS device uses a 5V supply and is aimed at signals with ±1V swing to simplify input-signal buffering. It also has a 250-MHz full-power input bandwidth, which is compatible with the needs of undersampling applications. To meet the needs of signal-processing designers who are concerned about low-order harmonic energy's aliasing into the baseband, the converter specifications separately call out second harmonic, third harmonic, and THD at ­61.6, ­58.1, and ­56.2 dB, respectively, for a 10-MHz input. The 28-pin SOIC costs $14.95 (1000).

--by Bill Schweber

Linear Technology Corp, Milpitas, CA. 1-408-432-1900, www.linear-tech.com.

Analog Devices Inc, Norwood, MA. 1-617-937-4273, www.analog.com.

Harris Corp, Semiconductor Sector, Melbourne, FL. 1-800-442-7747, ext 7708, www.semi.harris.com.

ICs slash 10/100-Mbps Ethernet-switch costs

Designers of multiport network devices, such as switches, hubs, and repeaters, are discovering that their new products must support 10- or 100-Mbps operation on any port. Meanwhile, few ICs have so far been available that both integrate multiple ports and include support for dual speeds on each port. Lucent Technologies, however, has just announced the LUC3R04 quad-port repeater and LUC3S02 dual-segment switch ICs that target such dual-speed devices.

The LUC3R04 provides four independent Ethernet ports that automatically adapt to 10- or 100-Mbps devices. The repeater device provides the front end of physical-layer segment switches and supports remotely configurable virtual-LAN environments. The IC also includes on-chip counters and registers that meet IEEE-802.3 requirements for remote monitoring and management. Segment-switch designers would typically combine the LUC3R04 with an ASIC switching device to support multiple LAN segments.

Lucent also offers the companion LUC3S02 switching IC for dual-segment applications. For example, four LUC3R04 ICs and an LUC3S02 IC can implement a dual-speed, 12-port repeater that connects each port to a 10- or 100-Mbps segment. Moreover, you can cascade the devices in designs that have as many as 120 ports. The ICs come in 208-pin SQFPs and are available now. The LUC3R04 costs $20 (10,000), and the LUC3S02 costs $25 (5000).

--by Maury Wright

Lucent Technologies, Allentown, PA. 1-800-372-2447, Department R30.

Fluke instruments from HP (and vice versa)--no fluke

You can now buy seven types of Fluke handheld electronic test tools, including the ScopeMeter series, graphical multimeters, and counters, from Hewlett-Packard's HP direct-sales channel. In addition, 15 Fluke distributors now sell approximately a dozen types of benchtop and handheld HP instruments that were previously available mainly through the HP Direct portion of HP's T&M sales organization. Among the HP instruments that Fluke distributors now carry is the new Logic Dart, a $795 handheld unit that functions as a three-channel, 100-MHz logic-timing analyzer, logic probe, and DMM.

--by Dan Strassberg

Fluke Corp, Everett, WA, 1-888-723-7278.

Hewlett-Packard Co, Palo Alto, CA. 1-800-452-4844.

Net-based software simplifies team designs

Designing complex electronic systems is difficult. Compounding the difficulties are designs done by a group of engineers in different locations, sometimes thousands of miles apart. Two companies, Synchronicity and Viewlogic, are providing World Wide Web-based tools to assist with workgroup designs.

DesignSync HDL from Synchronicity is the first tool in the company's planned Design Management Groupware (DMG) product line. The Web-based tool is in a client/server configuration. DesignSync HDL provides configuration management with revision/release control. The tool also has data-compression capability, encryption if you are sending sensitive design files, and user authentication. You use DesignSync HDL for either Verilog- or VHDL-based designs and can run the tool with either a Web-browserlike graphical user interface or with a command-line interface.

The tool dynamically generates HTML (hypertext-markup-language) data sheets. This attribute lets you query a design's database and have requested data sent to you as an HTML page, with hotlinks to important data, that you can read with Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browsers. DesignSync HDL runs on PCs under Windows 95 or NT and on Unix-based workstations. It will be available in the third quarter. Prices start at $25,000 for a five-user system. Synchronicity this year will add a bug-tracking and design-"notes" option that will let you track and correlate design defects and application notes with design revisions and releases.

Viewlogic is also introducing an Internet-enabled tool suite, Design Exchange, to help team product-development design. The tool package, also in a Web-based, client/server configuration, comprises the DxDataBook and DxDataManager servers and some Web-browser plug-ins. You use DxDataBook for component selection and verification and DxDataManager for design management and reuse. The plug-ins include Web browsers and other Web-server extensions to help you with Internet communications.

DxDataBook uses Web-browser technology to look for components and designs in corporatewide data-bases. You can view component-library objects, such as schematic symbols, layout shapes, data sheets, and even web URLs. Using industry-standard ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), DxDataBook can access data from a variety of database formats.

DxDataManager helps you organize, access, and control engineering data that design-team members share. You use the tool to browse and view design data with a commercial Web browser. Using the browser interface, you can check designs into and out of a central location, freezing finished portions of a design, and releasing a design object to the next design level. DxDataManager provides automatic revision control and lets you see the version-related information for any design object.

DxDataBook and DxDataManager run on Unix- and PC-based platforms. Viewlogic has integrated the tools with the Powerview and Workview Office tools environments. Design Exchange prices start at $35,000 for a 10-user license.

--by Jim Lipman

Synchronicity, Boston, MA. 1-510-462-4993, fax 1-510-462-9272, www.syncinc.com.

Viewlogic Systems, Marlborough, MA. 1-508-480-0881, fax 1-508-480-0882, www.viewlogic.com.

Innovations make touchscreens more responsive

The newly redesigned TouchTek Premier resistive touchscreens from MicroTouch now respond in less than 15 msec, fast enough to capture even the quickest touch of a finger or stylus. The boost in speed comes primarily from a proprietary technique that allows simultaneous measurement of x and y coordinates. Other resistive touchscreens make two separate measurements.

Like other five-wire resistive touchscreens, the TouchTek Premier touchscreens have a resistive, glass substrate and a flexible, conductive overlay. (In simpler four-wire screens, both the overlay and the substrate are resistive.) And, as in all five-wire resistive touchscreens, four wires connect to the substrate, and one connects to the overlay. A grid of minute, insulating bumps separates the two by a gap of about 0.0001 in. Touching the screen puts the overlay in contact with the substrate, completing a circuit and allowing coordinate measurements.

The new touchscreens differ from others, though, in what and how they measure. In an ordinary five-wire resistive touchscreen, the flexible overlay serves as a "probe" to measure voltages on the substrate. One measurement occurs when two wires establish a vertical gradient on the substrate; another occurs when two other wires establish a horizontal gradient. These two measurements determine the x and y coordinates of the point on the screen that you touch.

In MicroTouch's new touchscreen, the flexible overlay serves as a current source, and coordinate information comes from simultaneous current measurements at all four substrate corners. A single, 2-D voltage field replaces two, sequential, 1-D voltage gradients. The key to a single-measurement approach, says MicroTouch, is a patented electrode pattern on the substrate that establishes a uniformly varying 2-D field.

The TouchTek Premier touchscreens have 102431024-pixel resolution and require less than 5 oz of force to activate. Expected life, according to MicroTouch, is 20 million touches. Software drivers are available for Windows, OS/2, and Unix. Development kits include a touchscreen, a controller, and drivers. A kit with a 10.4-in. flat screen costs $315; with a 14-in. spherical screen, the price is $595. (For more information on touchscreens of all types, see "Touchscreen technology improves and extends its options," EDN, Nov 9, 1995, pg 52.)

--by Gary Legg

MicroTouch Systems Inc, Metheun, MA. 1-508-659-9000, fax 1-508-659-9100, www.microtouch.com.

Op amp offers as much as 250-MHz gain on a curve

Automatic gain control (AGC), voltage-controlled filters, and signal-leveling applications require amplifiers with easily controlled gain, such as the CLC5523 variable-gain amplifier from National Semiconductor's Comlinear Products Group. It lets you use a 0 to 2V control signal to provide linear-in-decibel gain control over a 60-dB range. With its 250-MHz bandwidth (3 dB) and 135-mW dissipation, it lets you set the maximum gain from 2 to 100 with two external resistors. The circuit can change the gain as fast as 4 dB/nsec. The op amp has an 1800V/msec slew rate, a 0.2-dB gain flatness from dc to 75 MHz, 2-nsec rise and fall times for a 0.5V step, and settling to 0.1% in 22 nsec for a 2V step. The CLC5523 is available in eight-pin plastic DIP and SOIC packages for $3.75 (1000).

--by Bill Schweber

National Semiconductor Corp, Comlinear Products Group, Fort Collins, CO. 1-800-272-9959; www.national.com.

RF amp delivers from battery supplies

Targeting applications operating in the 915-MHz band, Maxim's MAX2430 power amplifier for 800- to 1000-MHz operation runs directly from 3 to 5.5V supplies, such as a triple-cell NiCd/nickel-metal-hydride or a single-cell Li-ion battery pack. With a 3.6V supply, the open-collector device delivers a 32-dB power gain and 21.4-dBm output power (125 mW nominal), measured at 1-dB compression. Applications include digital cordless phones, industrial-scientific-medical-band applications, pagers, LANs, and telemetry systems.

The MAX2430 third-order intermodulation distortion offers ­30 dBc when tested with a two-tone input pair at 915/916 MHz. To save critical power, such as during time-division multiple-access (TDMA) transmission "idle slots," the amplifier includes a shutdown function that reduces consumption to 1 mA. You can program the power envelope ramp's up and down times via a single external capacitor for values in the microsecond through millisecond range. The amplifier input is matched to 50V sources, and you can control its output power over 15 dB. Available in a 16-pin narrow-SOIC package, the MAX2430 costs $2.97 (1000).

--by Bill Schweber

Maxim Integrated Products, Sunnyvale, CA. 1-408-737-7600, www.maxim-ic.com.

PCI data-acquisition board offers high performance, low price

Data Translation's PCI bus-mastering DT3010 analog/digital I/O board does its job better and faster than some boards that cost more. The $1695 DT3010 includes a 1.25M-sample/sec, 12-bit ADC that digitizes high-speed signals on multiple channels to 11.6 effective bits. That near-perfect performance is unusual in ADCs in this speed class. The ADC scans 32 single-ended or 16 differential signals. Full-scale inputs range from 1.25 to 10V unipolar or bipolar. The board also provides 16 digital I/O channels, two dynamic digital outputs, and four counter-timers. Most competitive boards provide fewer counter-timers. Each of two D/A converters accepts as many as 500k samples/sec. A FIFO memory can cycle data through the DACs. Once you load the data into the FIFO memory, the DACs can generate waveforms repeatedly without further data transfers to the board.

Moreover, because of the board's bus-mastering design, it can perform data transfers to and from a reserved block of memory without CPU attention. With the board, you get drivers for Windows 3.1, 95, and NT. The vendor also offers DTx-EZ ActiveX controls for Visual Basic and Visual C++, interfaces to HP (Palo Alto, CA) VEE and National Instruments' (Austin, TX) LabView, and software-development kits for all three flavors of Windows.

--by Dan Strassberg

Data Translation Inc, Marlborough, MA. 1-800-525-8528, 1-508-481-3700, www.datx.com.

Electronics guide offers one-stop shopping

The TAB Electronics Yellow Pages: Equipment, Components, and Supplies by Andrew Yoder offers an alphabetical list of electronics mail-order suppliers and retail outlets. Instead of thumbing through piles of old catalogs, you can use the book to get all the information you need about a company--the type of products it sells or manufactures, its address, telephone and fax numbers, Web site, and e-mail address. The book also lists information on warranties, payment options, refund policies, and catalogs. If you don't have a particular company in mind but know what kind of product you're looking for, use the 61-category product index to cross-reference for a list of companies. Obviously, no guide can keep pace with every name and phone-number change in the electronics industry, but the listings are as up-to-date as possible, and the author plans to create a Web site to add corrections and updates as needed. The paperback version (ISBN: 0-07-076510-3) costs $29.95.

--by Beth Morrison

McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. 1-212-337-5951.

Web site offers free design software

Harris Semiconductor is offering free HIP5020 design and development software on the company's Web site. You can access the software via www.semi.harris.com/models/ipmm/hip5020/. The HIP5020 software program provides a fast and convenient environment for the design and simulation of high-performance dc/dc converters using the Harris HIP5020 control IC. The program operates under Microsoft Windows 3.1 or 95. It features advanced algorithms for automatic component design and selection, easy-to-use standard component selectors and libraries, a parametric mode for trade-off analysis and worst-case design, and thermal and control-loop simulation. You can load and modify designs, including an evaluation-board design, and you can create and save designs after entering the converter specification.

--by Fran Granville

Harris Semiconductor, Intelligent Power Products, Melbourne, FL.
1-800-442-7747, ext 7708, www.semi.harris.com.

CALENDAR

June 9 to 12

Nepcon East, Boston, features more than 500 exhibits for electronics-manufacturing professionals. A technology-advancement center featuring a mixed-technology assembly line will debut at the conference. Conference value pass costs $1195. Reed Exhibition Companies, Norwalk, CT. 1-203-840-5656.

June 9 to 13

International Conference on Consumer Electronics, Chicago, sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Society of the IEEE, offers eight tutorials on emerging technologies, such as advanced television, DVD, and MPEG. Conference costs $250 for IEEE members; $300 for nonmembers. ICCE Conference Coordinator, Rochester, NY. 1-716-392-3862.

June 9 to 13

Design Automation Conference, Anaheim, CA, provides panel sessions on a variety of EDA topics. The conference's designer track focuses on formal verification, hardware/software codesign and low-power design, and new techniques for simulation and synthesis. The developer track concentrates on CAD-tool R&D. Conference costs $220 for IEEE or ACM members who register before May 12; $275 for nonmembers. Registration is $275 after May 12 for members; $350 for nonmembers. DAC, Boulder, CO. 1-303-530-4333.

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