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June 5, 1997 WHAT'S HOT IN THE DESIGN COMMUNITYDifferential scope probe captures 1-GHz signals The $3995, 1-GHz-bandwidth P6247 differential scope probe from Tektronix is fast enough to take advantage of the full bandwidth of top-of-the-line real-time scopes. The scope overcomes the problems of wideband-scope measurements: The faster your signals go, the worse the ground bounce and other artifacts become between the scope ground and the receiving devices' ground reference. Moreover, traces on the scope's CRT merge artifacts with the signal you're trying to observe. The Tektronix probes feature small-geometry tips to simplify connection to fine-pitch surface-mount components. The resistive component of the input impedance is 100 kilohms, a high value for wideband-input devices. Besides the differential probes, Tek announced a pair of optical-to-electrical converters for use with fiber-optic systems. The P6701B for 500- to 950-nm wavelengths and the P6703B for 1310- to 1550-nm wavelengths cost $2495 each. --by Dan Strassberg Tektronix Inc, Beaverton, OR. 1-800-426-2200, www.tek.com/Measurement. IC makes PCI hot-swapping cool and easy Designing hot-swappable PC boards requires that you ensure proper control and sequencing of the boards' supply rails. For PCI cards, the HIP1011 power-distribution controller from Harris Semiconductor simplifies the challenge by supporting all four PCI supplies--5, 3.3, 12, and 12V--with MOSFETs in the supply circuits for control. The IC latches the supplies off when it detects overcurrent, undervoltage, or similar transient conditions. The HIP1011 controller incorporates internal MOSFET switches for the ±12V supplies; you use external switches for the other two supplies. (Harris also offers a corresponding N-channel MOSFET, the RF1K49211, targeting PCI hot-swapping.) The power controller provides resistor-settable overcurrent thresholds and capacitor-settable turn-on slew rate for each supply. You can turn the switches on or off as a group and check overall fault status via digital lines. The 12V, 16-lead SOIC complies with PCI SIG Specification Revision 2.1 and costs $4.42 (10,000). --by Bill Schweber Harris Corp, Semiconductor Sector, Melbourne, FL. 1-800-442-7747, ext 7708, www.semi-harris.com. SRAM, EPROM, PLD combo targets space-, power-constrained designs Waferscale Integration's
PSD6XX family combines several common microcontroller
peripherals in one flexible device, delivering useful
integration for power- and space-constrained 5V designs.
The devices' zero-wait-state EPROM/PROM density op-tions
range from 256 kbits to 1 Mbit divided into eight
regions, each with its own programmable system-address
mapping. You can also custom-map an optional 4 kbits of
SRAM, which has a dedicated The company also in-cludes dedicated gates to generate as many as seven external chip selects for additional system peripherals. The customizable, no-glue 38- or 38/16-bit host CPU interface enables each device to work with a variety of 8- and 16-bit embedded controllers and processors, including many 8051/251, 8096, x86, 68HCXX, 683XX, and Z80 variants. User-programmable decoding circuitry provides as many as 26 I/O-port pins. The ports let you reconstruct and expand upon the pins you lose when creating the host CPU's external ad-dress/data bus. The PSD-6XX also supports several automatic and optional modes for low-power operation. The generic PLD block includes 12 configurable macrocells, which Waferscale calls "output microcells," each with as many as nine product-term inputs, and 23 "input microcells," each of which can latch or register port-pin contents. The CPU can directly read and write microcells for high-speed-peripheral and slave-controller interfacing. By bypassing the PLD's AND array, this dedicated internal bus, along with product-term and microcell-output reallocation, maximizes the utility of available logic resources. Fortunately, Waferscale's Windows-based PSDSoft compiler and fitter ($495, or $1295 with a Verilog simulator) free you from having to understand the intricacies of the complex internal architecture. PSD-6XX devices are sampling now and will enter volume production in the third quarter of this year. Packaging options include 52-lead LCCs and PQFPs, and the PSD6XX supports both commercial- and extended-temperature operation. The PSD-611E1-15J, with 256 kbits of EPROM, 4 kbits of SRAM, and a 150-nsec commercial-temperature access time, costs $4.99 (100,000). --by Brian Dipert Waferscale Integration Inc, Fremont, CA. 1-510-656-5400, fax 1-510-657-5916, www.wsipsd.com. DC/DC converters change terms of your supply equation When you've got only one alkaline battery cell as your source, such as in pager designs, every factor is critical: efficiency, size, and range of operation. Maxim's MAX1642 addresses these issues by using a synchronous rectifier to reduce size and increase efficiency compared to the standard Schottky catch-diode technique. It accepts a 1V nominal input and directly produces a fixed 3.3V/25-mA output, or a 2 to 5.2V output using two external resistors. Quiescent supply current is 40 µA, and overall efficiency is 85% to maximize battery life at both ends of the load range. The converter comprises a 1 ohm N-channel MOSFET power switch, a synchronous rectifier, an oscillator, a reference, and PFM-control circuitry. For operation, the device needs only the addition of a few passive components. The MAX1642 includes a low-battery detector and a logic-controlled shutdown, which drops consumption to 2 µA. A similar device, the MAX1643, replaces the shutdown pin with a second low-battery indicator, so that you can determine battery-low and -dead conditions. The step-up converters operate with 0.7 to 1.6V inputs and are guaranteed to start at 0.88V. They come in eight-pin µMAX packages, which are half the size of an SO device and 1.1 mm high, and cost $1.76 (1000). The LM2660 charge pump, an MSOP-8 device from National Semiconductor, lets you double or invert a supply voltage, such as in cellular phones, laptop computers, and handheld instruments, without inductors. The device operates from 1.5 to 5.5V supplies and yields 88% conversion efficiency with a 100-mA load and requires 120 mA for operation. You can set the internal oscillator frequency from 10 to 80 kHz; higher frequencies let you use smaller capacitors but increase supply current to 1 mA. Output resistance is 6 ohms, corresponding to a 0.6V droop at a 100-mA load. The companion LM2661 operates at a fixed 80-kHz frequency but has an external shutdown that reduces quiescent current to 0.5 µA. Both ICs cost $1.68 (1000) in the MSOP-8 package and slightly less in an SO-8 package. --by Bill Schweber Maxim Integrated Products, Sunnyvale, CA, 1-408-737-7600, www.maxim-ic.com. National Semiconductor Corp, Santa Clara, CA. 1-800-272-9959, www.national.com. DAC '97: hot tools for cool designs If you sell or use board- or chip-design tools, you're probably going to the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in Anaheim, CA, the week of June 9. Tutorials, panels, papers, and more than 170 exhibitors will be talking about and showing you the latest in EDA software, design libraries, and IC cores. For more information about the show, visit the Design Automation Conference Web site at www.dac.com. A number of EDA companies will be showing tools for high-level design analysis and virtual prototyping before RTL code generation. Design-trade-off exploration at the behavioral level helps you make early architectur-al, hardware, and software decisions. For example, Mentor's new $95,000 Mo-net uses a graphical interface with Gantt, state-transition, and datapath diagrams. The graphical representations, along with automatic scheduling and allocation, let you analyze and compare architectural configurations under your timing and resource constraints. Throughout exploration, you can cross-probe from a diagram to the behavioral code specification. When you have a satisfactory configuration, Monet generates synthesizable RTL code. For handling complex multidomain system designs, Hewlett-Packard's HP EEsof division will show its Advanced Design System, a suite of RF, microwave, and DSP tools for integrating and cosimulating communication signal-path designs. The suite includes two new tools, DSP Designer and DSP Synthesis, each with starting prices of $15,000. You can cosimulate RF and DSP blocks using DSP Designer, which includes a block-diagram algorithm-development environment, DSP filter tool, real-time instrument controller, and data postprocessing capability. DSP Designer lets you simulate digital parameters, such as bit width, along with RF parameters, such as power-amplifier reverse-isolation. DSP Synthesis includes behavioral and RTL VHDL and Verilog code generation and simulation. The tool outputs HDL code for logic synthesis. For board and system analysis, Omniview will demonstrate its new $60,000 Galaxy tool. You enter a high-level, block-diagram system description in Galaxy and use the tool for component selection, timing analysis, and schematic generation. The tool has a graphical interface with which you enter design parameters, such as cost, size, process technology, and weight. Galaxy then selects components from a large integrated library, including logic, memory, and µP devices, to meet your specifications. You then run a static-timing analysis to verify performance. At RTL, Senté is expanding its Watt Watcher/Architect to include VHDL analysis. The analysis engine costs $60,000; Verilog and VHDL front ends cost $15,000 each. Senté originally of-fered the tool for Verilog only. It provides an early, presynthesis power estimate. Another tool, Watt Watcher/Gate provides postsynthesis, gate-level power estimation. Simplex Solutions and Frequency Technology are offering new products for postlayout chip-design verification. Simplex is complementing its Fire & Ice and Thunder & Lightning full-chip signal- and power-verification tools with the $50,000 Barometer interconnect-analysis tool. You use Barometer to validate interconnect capacitance models against the capacitance you obtain using high-accuracy, slow 3-D field solvers. The tool generates test structures for a process for modeling area, lateral, and fringe capacitances. Barometer then extracts and models the capacitances. Simplex claims that Barometer's capacitance accuracy is within 5 to 10% of QuickCap, a well-known 3-D field solver, when you use the tools with the Fire & Ice extractor on a 0.25-µm, five-layer-metal process. Frequency Technology used its interconnect-modeling expertise, which the company previously offered only as a service, to develop the $100,000 Columbus chip parasitic-extractor tool. Columbus uses Frequency's True-3D Interconnect Primitive Library and standard net, pin, and layout data to produce an output file with accurate data for deep-submicron interconnect lines. The Primitive Library comprises tens of thousands of elements that a 3-D field solver previously analyzed on the process in which you will fabricate your chip. You then use Columbus' output parasitic information as critical-net, distributed-RC trees to provide accurate information for net-timing analysis. DAC will also highlight core-based design and ASIC libraries. EXD Technologies will announce the Scale System II/EXLib process-independent standard-cell library with prices starting at $250,000. It comprises 400 logic elements and generates cells for 0.5- and 0.35-µm processes with advanced process features, such as stacked vias and diffusion silicide. Interra will demonstrate the $30,000 Mprobe MPEG-analysis and standard-compliance tool. Although verification suites for PCI and USB cores are common, an MPEG-verification product is new. You use the MProbe MPEG stream analyzer for debugging hardware and software and for ensuring audio/video compliance with MPEG 1 and 2 standards. Mprobe offers random navigation of a portion of a stream (walk-through), continuous play and error checking of a stream (run-through), and regression testing (batch runs of selected streams with detailed analysis files). Check out Synopsys' $35,000 PrimeTime full-chip, gate-level, static-timing analyzer. You can run PrimeTime on a 1 million-gate ASIC in a day. Because it shares commands and timing libraries with Synopsys' Design Compiler gate-synthesis tool, PrimeTime fits into many ASIC design flows. Using a new modeling language, Stamp, you can model blocks, such as RAM and processors, you would normally not synthesize. Although targeting synchronous or mostly synchronous designs, PrimeTime also aims at designs with complex clocking, including multiple and gated clocks. Viewlogic will show ViewCable with prices starting at $14,700. ViewCable is a design environment for combined electromechanical/electronic design-automation analysis. You use ViewCable for designing and verifying electromechanical systems connected with cables and wires, such as automotive electronic systems. Viewlogic designed the tool as a bridge between physical design and the effects of interconnect physical properties on system electronic performance. ViewCable supports many Viewlogic and third-party EDA tools for analog and mixed-signal simulation, HDL simulation, signal-integrity analysis, and electromagnetic-compliance analysis. --by Jim Lipman EXD Technologies, Santa Clara, CA. 1-408-970-1480, fax 1-408-970-1484. Frequency Technology, San Jose, CA. 1-408-938-9300, fax 1-408-938-9309, www.frequency.com. HP EEsof, Westlake Village, CA. 1-818-879-6200, fax 1- 818-879-6223, www.hp.com/go/hpeesof. Interra, San Jose, CA. 1-408-573-1400, fax 1-408-573- 1430, www.interrainc.com. Mentor Graphics, Wilsonville, OR. 1-503-685-7000, fax 1-503-685-1202, www.mentorg.com. Omniview, San Mateo, CA. 1-415-286-9400, fax 1-415- 286-9458, www.omnivw.com. Senté, Chelmsford, MA. 1-508-244-1100, fax 1-508-250- 4938, www.powereda.com. Simplex Solutions, San Jose, CA. 1-408-432-8260, fax 1-408-432-8262, www.simplex.com. Synopsys, Mountain View, CA. 1-415-962-5000, fax 1-415-965-8637, www.synopsys.com. Viewlogic, Marlborough, MA. 1-508-480-0881, fax 1-508-480-0882, www.viewlogic.com. Heat sinking defeats CPU's heat The newest CPUs provide more processing power but at the cost of more processor power. You can't just "slap on a heat sink" to solve the dissipation problems, either, because this approach involves relatively high power levels and package-design and mounting constraints (thanks to Intel's stringent and encompassing specifications). To counter the greater-than-30W load of the Pentium II, Aavid Thermal Technologies offers a complete heat sink, bracket, and mounting-clip assembly, which snaps onto the CPU and attaches to and detaches from the motherboard in a few seconds. The resulting thermal impedance is less than 0.92°C/W. The heat sink includes an integral conforming thermal layer between the CPU module and the heat-sink fins; thus, it requires no thermal grease or other interposing layers. In addition, Aavid designed the assembly to have its center of gravity and weight provide the shock and vibration damping necessary to maintain mechanical stability and CPU-connector integrity, even as the circuit board is flexed in a six-axis, 50g shock test. The 0.92°C/W model 364644B21100 targets applications in which airflow is directed via duct work; the 0.90°C/W 364744B21100 has a slightly different fin pattern for undirected airflow. Either style of heat sink is $8 (OEM). --by Bill Schweber Aavid Thermal Technologies Inc, Laconia, NH. 1-603-528-3400, www.aavid.com. EEPROM/reset controller mediates conflict, avoids corruption The S24XX3 series from Summit Microelectronics incorporates both the reset and the memory in one IC with common threshold values. This approach minimizes the effect of the data corruption that occurs when an EEPROM and a system-reset controller with different thresholds are separate devices. (See "Supervisory ICs establish system boundaries," EDN, Sept 28, 1995, pg 71.) The S24XX3's combined function locks out the memory during glitch, power-down, or brown-out situations and thus protects its own memory. The IC also offers lower package count and overall cost than two-IC implementations. The reset controller generates a 200-msec reset signal when its VCC-sense circuit determines that the supply rail has dropped below acceptable thresholds. The vendor offers 4.4 and 4.6V values for 5V systems and 2.6V values for 3V systems. The serial EEPROMs are available with 2-, 4-, and 16-kbit densities. The combined memory and reset controllers come in pin-compatible, eight-pin plastic DIP and SOIC packages; prices range from $0.85 to $1.10 (10,000). --by Bill Schweber Summit Microelectronics Inc, Saratoga, CA. 1-408-867-8960, www.summitmicro.com. Programmers expand options for cost-sensitive situations Data I/O Corp adds four entry-level members to its PROM-programmer family. The ChipWriter line comprises the single-socket, $995 ChipWriter, which doubles as a ROM emulator; the $1495 ChipWriter Portable; and the eight-socket, $1195 ChipWriter Gang. All three programmers operate under a DOS-based user interface; directly provide 48-, 40-, and 32-pin DIP sockets, respectively; and support other programmable IC packages via Data I/O or third-party socket adapters. The single-socket, $1995 LabWriter delivers a more robust feature set. It directly supports surface-mount IC packages via dedicated, low-noise, high-reliability modules. The optional service contract includes regularly scheduled support-maintenance up-dates, which Data I/O automatically mails to registered users. LabWriter also operates under a Windows 3.1/95 graphical user interface. --by Brian Dipert Data I/O Corp, Redmond, WA. 1-206-881-6444, fax 1-206-881-6856, www.data-io.com. Universal tuner IC modulates, translates signals to any TV standard Although digital TV is getting headlines, most consumer sets in use are conventional analog screens. Siemens' TDA606XS IC, a software-controlled tuner and modulator, combines video and audio signals and translates them to frequencies and formats compatible with NTSC, PAL, and SECAM standards. Applications include modulator boxes, videorecorders, games, satellite receivers, and cable-head-end and set-top boxes. The single-chip design includes a gain-adjustable video amplifier; an AM video modulator based on a double-balanced mixer; a balanced carrier oscillator; and a sound modulator that is selectable at 4.5, 5.5, 6, and 6.5 MHz for FM and 6.5 MHz for AM. When a 4-MHz crystal source drives the modulator oscillator, you can set its frequency from 30 to 950 MHz in 250-kHz increments by controlling the onboard digital PLL that you address via the device's I2C bus interface. Internal registers allow you to set other operating parameters and to read flags, such as those indicating PLL lock or a signal's exceeding the clipping level. The 5V, 28-lead TSSOP device costs $2.58 (10,000). --by Bill Schweber Siemens Components Inc, Cupertino, CA. 1-408-777-4500, www.sci.siemens.com. Transceiver board eases Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel checkout High-speed data designs are leading-edge, and there's the rub: Evaluating potential designs is a challenge. Vitesse Semiconductor eases the task with the LAB25 logic-analyzer board. The self-contained unit lets you use the company's VSC-7125 Fibre Channel transceiver or VSC7135 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver ICs. Using the 5V board, you can evaluate transceiver characteristics such as output jitter, waveform integrity, and error rates. In basic operating mode, you use the board's switches to set up operation and LEDs to monitor received data and status. An onboard pattern generator provides simple word patterns, or you can hook up an external generator that provides 8 or 10 bits at 106.25 or 125 MHz for more extensive testing. For additional bit analysis, the board includes a pod where you can connect a logic analyzer. The LAB25 supports both 50 ohms coax and 150 ohms twinax media and includes the requisite oscillator, which is interchangeable so that you can switch it among standard clock frequencies. Documentation for the $600 LAB25 includes operating and connection details, a schematic, pc-board-layout diagrams, and a bill of materials. --by Bill Schweber Vitesse Semiconductor Corp, Camarillo, CA. 1-805-388-3700, www.vitesse.com. LeCroy goes short; Tek, long with DSO acquisition memories LeCroy and Tektronix are offering new four-channel, color-display DSOs, each attacking the other's strongest features. LeCroy, best known for its deep acquisition memories, announces a unit with a memory of 100k points/channel, or 500k points when you use only one channel. Tek, meanwhile, has announced units that offer the option of 8M samples of single-channel-mode memory. LeCroy is aiming its $19,990 LC374A at what it calls the high-end DSO market's price/performance "sweet spot." The LC374A offers 500-MHz bandwidth and 2G-sample/sec/channel acquisition in the two-channel mode. Tek's TDS 754C ($24,495 with deep-memory option 2M) and TDS 784C ($36,190 with option 2M) target an increasingly important market segment. The TDS 784C offers 1-GHz bandwidth and 4G-sample/sec acquisition in the single-channel mode. Tek also announced the monochrome TDS 540C ($20,745 with option 2M). The unit's 2G-sample/sec single-channel-mode capture rate, 500-MHz bandwidth, and 8M-sample single-channel-mode memory with the deep-memory option match those of the more expensive color-display TDS 754C. All three Tek scopes include the proprietary InstaVu feature, which permits capturing as many as 400,000 waveforms/sec. All are available at a savings of $4995 if you omit the deep-memory option. Another optional feature of the Tek scopes is a $3250 communications signal-analysis package, which permits mask testing with 39 predefined masks and allows you to define custom masks. LeCroy provides advanced math functions as a standard feature and provides disk-drive and optical-recording measurement packages at $3000 each. --by Dan Strassberg LeCroy Corp, Chestnut Ridge, NY. 1-914-578-6020, fax 1-914-578-5985, www.lecroy.com. Tektronix Inc, Beaverton, OR. 1-800-426-2200, www.tek.com/Measurement. June 16 to 19 Assembly Technology Expo Southeast, Charlotte, NC, The conference offers 26 sessions detailing SMT, ergonomics, product-quality automation, productivity, system integration, and quality assurance. Conference prices are on a per-day basis. Assembly Technology Expo Southeast, Carol Stream, IL. 1-630-260-9700. June 17 to 19 FieldComms USA, Boston, focuses on digital communications, industrial networking, and fieldbus technologies. Conference sessions include system integration, conformance testing and tools, case studies, and sensors and actuators. FieldComms International, Titusville, FL. 1-888-268-0777. June 23 to 24 Ball Grid Array National Symposium, Bedford, MA, cosponsored by IPC and SMTA, features presentations on layout and routing methods for high-density ball-grid array, fabrication technologies, solder attachments, standardization, package types, X-ray inspection, assembly processes and process-control methods, repair and rework, and reliability. Symposium costs $395 for SMTA and IPC members; $495 for nonmembers. SMTA, Minneapolis, MN. 1-612-920-7682. July 14 to 18 Semicon West '97, San Francisco and San Jose, CA, offers two tracks covering wafer processing (San Francisco) and test, assembly, and packaging (San Jose). Featuring more than 1500 exhibitors and more than 4200 booths, the conference also provides industry-specific business/technology education programs on semiconductor-processing technology, new-product introductions, and equipment-productivity improvements. SEMI, Mountain View, CA. 1-415-940-6905. Books illuminate Java Adding to its library for Java programmers, O'Reilly & Associates introduces two new reference books. Java Language Reference (ISBN: 1-56592-204-2) by Mark Grand details the Java programming language, defining data types and explaining with railroad diagrams the syntax of expressions and control structures. Using examples, this 464-pg reference clarifies the subtleties of Version 1.0.2. The book also examines multithreaded programming with Java and the language's object-oriented style. Java Threads (ISBN: 1-56592-216-6), a 268-pg book by Scott Oaks and Henry Wong, offers instruction on threads, including Java's thread facilities and their portability among platforms. The book shows readers where to use threads to increase efficiency, how to use them effectively, and how to avoid mistakes. Discussions on deadlock, race condition, and starvation help readers write code without hidden bugs. Java Threads also covers Thread and ThreadGroup classes, the Runnable interface, and Java's synchronized operator and details how to extend the language's thread primitives. Java Language Reference and Java Threads cost $29.95 each. --by Kasey Clark O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA. 1-707-829-0515. Micrel enters op-amp market Reacting to demand from its wireless-communication and telecomm customers, Micrel Semiconductor has entered the op-amp market with six op amps. The first op amps leverage the company's IttyBitty packaging and target cellular phones, pagers, USB devices, PCMCIA cards, and portable instruments. The op amps, comparators, and instrumentation amplifiers offer supply voltages as low as 2.4V and supply currents lower than 1 mA. They operate over a 40 to +85°C range. Prices range from $0.40 to $1.90 (100). --by Fran Granville Micrel Semiconductor Inc, San Jose, CA. 1-408-944-0800, fax 1-408-944-0970. Smart-card-interface IC runs on batteries
The IC's ISO7816-compliant activation and deactivation sequences ensure the controlled application of power and clock signals to a card. For example, the IC avoids latch-up by holding the levels of I/O lines below the supply voltage as it powers a card on and off. An on-chip dc/dc converter outputs a 5V card supply over the IC's 3 to 6.5V operating range. Supervisory circuits monitor both the card and system power lines. If the circuit detects excess current drain, short circuits, excess voltage dips on the card side, or card removal, then the IC automatically initiates a card-deactivation sequence that interrupts the system µC. The IC also generates a system reset during power-up and power-down. During such time, all card contacts are guaranteed to be glitch-free. The IC's supervisory circuits, alarm output, interrupt output, and card-presence detector remain fully operational--even in sleep mode. The IC supports both synchronous and asynchronous data transfers, allowing you to use the part in a range of smart cards and memory cards. The features of the TDA8002 comply with a range of standards, including GSM-11.11, EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa), and ISO7816. The IC also includes enhanced ESD protection on all three of the card's I/O contacts. From $1.60 (50,000). --by Brian Kerridge Philips Semiconductors, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Fax +31 10 458 9196, www.semiconductors.philips.com. Development tool orchestrates multi-SHARC designs
The IDE6000 uses a knowledge base of supported boards to provide you with information on interprocessor links and other resources, such as flash memory for downloadable firmware. The user interface allows you to select the type of hardware in your system. You can also identify which processors need to communicate with one another, as well as select physical links. Using this information, the software constructs a project database, which in turn generates a communications harness for the application. The software also indicates which onboard jumpers or switches to set. A project-manager module keeps track of source and object code for each processor. The module also works with a download monitor to coordinate a variety of debuggers, including external tools such as White Mountain's Multi-ICE for SHARC processors. Other modules include a host-communications-interface library and a message-routing kernel. The kernel provides functions to route messages through a DSP network using SHARC link ports. The kernel ensures that as much as 95% of a link port's bandwidth is available for user applications and that processors without links can still communicate. Base price is £1500. --by Brian Kerridge Loughborough Sound Images, Loughborough, UK. +44 1509 634300, www.lsi-dsp.co.uk. 3-D audio IC uses wavetable synthesis
Songbird digitises and stores real-life audio effects and instrument sounds. The chip stores the audio data in tables in a compressed form and can decompress the data for output in real time. When you combine your own recordings with preloaded data, the range of downloadable sounds is virtually unlimited. The Songbird chip supports both the Intel AC '97 and Microsoft DirectSound standards and is also compatible with General MIDI and Roland MPU401 standards. VLSI provides drivers and utilities for OS/2 and Windows 95 and NT. $25 (10,000). --by Brian Kerridge VLSI Technology, Munich, Germany. +49 89 6270 60, www.vlsi.com. Roadmap for digital-terrestrial-TV chip set unfolds
The chip set conforms to the "2K" Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (COFDM) standard used in the BBC's test transmissions from Crystal Pa-lace, London. The chip set also meets the requirements of the "8K" single-frequency-network COFDM standard that other European and Far East countries are currently evaluating. The 0.5-µm CMOS four-chip set includes the STV-0310 CODFM demodulator, the STV0320 channel corrector, the STV0330 channel decoder, and the STV0340 DSP synchroniser. The chip set's output is an MPEG-2 transport stream, which you can connect directly to a decoder, such as an STi5500 Omega-TV. Samples and a reference design will be available in July. Production volume will arrive in the fourth quarter. SGS-Thomson is currently working on a development that will combine the de-modulator, channel corrector, and channel decoder into one 0.25-µm CMOS chip. Samples are due by the first quarter of 1998. --by Brian Kerridge SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, St Genis Pouilly, France. Fax +33 4 50 40 28 60, www.st.com. |
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Smart
cards increasingly need to work with portable handheld
products. In response, Philips Semiconductors' TDA8002
smart-card-interface IC operates on supplies as low as 3V
and has a typical sleep-mode consumption of 70 µA.