September 1, 1997

WHAT'S HOT IN THE DESIGN COMMUNITY

CompactPCI invades data acquisition

In the first foray into CompactPCI by a traditional data-acquisition supplier, National Instruments has announced the PXI open modular-instrumentation standard. Although the name, which stands for PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation, sounds suspiciously like VXI (VME eXtensions for Instrumentation), National Instruments insists that PXI and VXI don't compete. So-called desktop-PCI boards, which the company also offers, are rapidly displacing ISA-bus-based hardware as the mainstays of PC-based data acquisition. This transition is occurring for several reasons, not the least of which is PCI's bus speed--roughly 20 times that of the ISA bus. The burst-transfer rate of 32-bit PCI tops out at 132 Mbytes/sec. CompactPCI offers the same speed and, like desktop PCI, lets I/O boards become bus masters. Until the advent of PXI, however, finding instrumentation hardware in the relatively new CompactPCI format meant looking to companies that you probably think of as supplying embedded-system components.

Though somewhat more expensive than the desktop embodiment, CompactPCI achieves favorable costs by using desktop PCI's mass-marketed bus-interface ICs. Unlike desktop PCI, which normally uses an active motherboard, CompactPCI uses a passive backplane similar to those in VMEbus systems. CompactPCI cards conform to the VMEbus' 160-mm-deep, 3U, 100-mm-high and 6U, 233.5-mm-high Eurocard formats. All PXI boards are 3U. In a departure from VME, CompactPCI uses hard-metric, gas-tight, pin-and-socket bus-interface connectors. CompactPCI boards' faceplate-mounted I/O connectors are on the card edge opposite the bus interface. This configuration is the first step in allowing "live" card insertion and removal. The bus-interface connectors' low capacitance enables a CompactPCI bus to accommodate seven I/O boards plus a CPU. In most desktop systems, the PCI bus accommodates a maximum of three cards.

National Instruments is offering cages as well as PXI-based embedded PCs to host the instrumentation boards. An eight-slot cage that includes a 300W power supply and integral cooling costs $1995. A 166-MHz Pentium-MMX (multimedia-extension) CPU with 16 Mbytes of RAM; a 2.2-Gbyte hard drive; a display adapter with 2 Mbytes of VRAM; and serial, parallel, and USB ports costs $2995. A 16-channel, 12-bit analog I/O card that takes 1.25M samples/sec costs $1995. A similar card with a 250k-sample/sec ADC costs $1195. A 15-MHz-bandwidth, 20M-sample/sec, 8-bit-resolution DSO card that samples repetitive waveforms at an effective 1G sample/sec costs $1495. Other products include a $495 IEEE-488 interface, a $1195 bus-mastering digital I/O interface that doubles as a 20M-word/sec pattern generator, and a $1495 VXI adapter that accommodates two PXI boards.

--by Dan Strassberg

National Instruments, Austin, TX. 1-800-258-7022, fax 1-512-794-8411, www.natinst.com.

Long-awaited one-chip MPEG-2 codec arrives

C-Cube Microsystems has finally delivered what several vendors have been promising for years: an integrated codec that can decode and encode MPEG-2 digital video streams. The DVx IC will immediately slash the cost of video-editing and -production systems for professional and broadcast applications and will ultimately bring the cost of MPEG-2 video-editing systems to consumer levels. The IC can handle 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 video pixel formats at resolutions ranging to the 1080 interlaced and 720 noninterlaced lines proposed for high-definition TV.

Although MPEG-2 decoding ICs have been widely available, encoding systems have relied on three to 12 ICs. The DVx tackles both encoding and decoding chores by integrating an 80-MIPS RISC core, a DSP core, and a hard-wired MPEG-2 motion-estimation (ME) engine. The DSP and ME processors combine to perform 20 billion operations per sec. This horsepower allows the IC to concurrently decode dual incoming MPEG-2 streams for editing and output a new encoded stream in real time. The IC also includes an 800-Mbyte/sec interface to synchronous DRAM, real-time audio-visual interfaces, and a PCI-bus interface. An interprocessor-communications interface allows designers to daisy-chain multiple DVx ICs to scale processing power for any application.

C-Cube is now sampling the DVx IC with DSP and RISC firmware in configurations that target specific applications. For example, the DVxpert 5000 costs $1500, supports 4:2:0 pixel formats, and targets applications such as video post-production. The DVxpert 6000 costs $2500, supports 4:2:2 pixel formats, includes two DVx ICs, and supports on-the-fly, variable-bit-rate control for applications such as real-time broadcasts. These packages should drive down the cost of video-editing systems. The systems, which currently start at around $25,000, should reach approximately $5000 with the DVx IC. Moreover, the company intends this year to offer a DVx package for consumer applications and will sell it to OEMs for less than $500. At that price, MPEG-2 will begin to displace proprietary video formats in PC applications and enable consumer-edited video streams to play on MPEG-2-based DVD players.

--by Maury Wright

C-Cube Microsystems, Milpitas, CA. (408) 944-6300, www.c-cube.com.

High-performance, midpriced
DSOs tout ease of use

HP emphasizes ease of use--not performance--in the new Infinium DSOs. Yet, in at least one member of the family, performance is tops among medium-memory-depth, medium-priced, general-pu rpose DSOs. The top-of-the-line, $29,995, four-channel unit offers 1.5-GHz bandwidth with 50 ohm input impedance and an 8G-sample/sec real-time sampling rate at a memory depth of 64k samples/channel with two channels active. Prices start at $9995 for a 500-MHz repetitive-signal-bandwidth, 250-MHz single-shot bandwidth, two-channel unit that takes 1G sample/sec/channel in real time and offers memory depth of 32k samples/channel.

Although you may call this performance an incremental improvement over that of comparably priced scopes, there's nothing incremental about the changes the company has made to the operator interface. The scopes even look nonthreatening. Because most users are skeptical at first about controlling a DSO with a mouse, HP designed the Infinium series with an analog-scopelike front panel from which you can perform operations without using the mouse. The DSOs let you turn inputs on and off with pushbuttons that glow green when the channel is on. Each channel also has its own set of position and gain controls. In addition, each channel's knob color matches that of the corresponding trace. The design also eliminates the need for soft keys and the associated menus that most DSO users have come to regard as onerous facts of life.

The mouse lets you reposition a waveform simply by dragging it around the screen. You can also use the mouse to draw boxes around waveform areas that you want to enlarge and then click on Magnify to display greater detail. Similarly, the mouse lets you position measurement cursors and change the trigger level. On-screen icons represent common functions. When you pass the cursor over an icon, further detail appears in a text "balloon."

Behind the bright, sharp, 7.5-in.-diagonal, color LCD is Windows 95. However, unlike the Windows 95-based logic analyzers that Tektronix (Beaverton, OR) introduced in February, the HP scopes don't run general-purpose software, such as Word and Excel. The scopes do incorporate the Win 95 Help system, however, and HP has made some important changes to the Windows Help screens. For example, you can use the scope functions when you display Help screens, and you can familiarize yourself with the units' operation through a self-paced tutorial.

Because the µP that controls the scopes is a high-perform-ance Pentium-class unit, screen updates are much faster--around 700 updates/sec--than those of many other DSOs. The scopes also include a new IC implementing a violation-trigger feature. Among the new capabilities is triggering on setup-and-hold-time violations.

--by Dan Strassberg

Hewlett-Packard Co, Palo Alto, CA. 1-800-452-4844, www.tmo.hp.com.

EDN wants you -- if you're innovative

There's still time to submit your nominations for EDN's Innovation/Innovator of the Year Award. If you or someone in your company has designed an innovative technology this year, contact us as soon as possible for a brochure by phone at 1-617-558-4590, fax at 1-617-558-4470, or e-mail at lguimond@cahners.com. Nominations are due by Nov 14, 1997. We offer awards in nine product categories as well as one award for Innovator of the Year.

--by Fran Granville

EDN, Newton, MA. 1-617-558-4590.

High-density dc/dc converters
target telecomm systems

A range of small, low-noise, high-density dc/dc converters from Vicor conforms to BABT, BTR2511, ETSI, and Bellcore telecommunications standards. The supplies accept nominal input voltages of 24, 48/60, and 300V dc and deliver outputs of 1 to 95V. You can connect the modules in parallel to configure synchronous arrays that can provide kilowatts. A variety of temperature grades covers ­10, ­25, ­40, or ­55 to +85 or +100°C. The supplies are available in 4.6×2.4×0.5-in. (116.8×61×12.7-mm) and 2.3×2.4×0.5-in. (57.9×61×12.7-mm) packages. Conversion efficiency typically ex-ceeds 90% A family of complementary input- and output-filter modules is available. Unit prices for E-grade 75 and 200W modules are $99 and $150, respectively.

--by Bill Travis

Vicor Corp, Ando-ver, MA. 1-800-735-6200, fax 1-508-475-6715, vicorexp@vicr.com.

Compass points to a new owner

Avant has signed an agreement to buy Compass Design Automation, the 1991 EDA-tool spin-off of VLSI Technology. Avant products include tools for IC layout, simulation, analysis, and verification, particularly for chips fabricated in less-than-0.5-µm technology. The best known of these tools is Aquarius, Avant's timing-driven place-and-route tool set, and Star-Hspice--formerly, the Hspice circuit simulator from Meta-Software. Avant also has a Verilog simulator from its purchase of Frontline Design Automation, as well as silicon-characterization and process-modeling services from its purchase of Meta-Software. Compass supplies tools in formal verification, chip placement and routing, floorplanning, and physical libraries. Along with ASIC libraries, Compass also has a set of proven library-development tools.

Avant plans to complete the purchase in the third quarter. Designers now have the chance to use a richer chip-design tool set than what is now available from either company. Current Compass customers will also be able to purchase some Avant tools at a discount.

--by Jim Lipman

Avant, Fremont, CA. 1-510-413-8000, fax 1-510-413-8080, www.avanticorp.com.

Compass Design Automation, San Jose, CA. 1-408-433-4880, fax 1-408-434-7821, www.compass-da.com.

10-port Ethernet switch on-a-chip
aims at small homes, offices

The latest addition to Texas Instruments' ThunderSwitch family, the TNETX3100, aims at small- and home-office Ethernet-switch application. The shared-memory switch chip integrates eight 10-Mbps and two full-duplex, 10/100-Mbps up-link ports into a 240-pin PQFP. Each port supports multiple addresses and automatic source-address recognition. You can configure the switching engine for cut-through or store-and-forward operation.

A market-ready switch design based on the Desktop ThunderSwitch 8/2 will be available as a reference kit that includes board and enclosure schematics, Gerber files, diagnostic software, and documentation. The reference design includes no CPU but instead uses an EEPROM interface on the TNETX3100 for autoconfiguration. The kit uses standard physical-layer devices that connect to the 10 ports. The new chip drives LEDs to monitor link activity, flow-control indication, and port status. In addition, the chip has on-chip per-port storage for Etherstat and remote-monitoring statistics for the Simple Network Management Protocol.

The TNETX3100 uses a 3.3V power supply and low power dissipation for fanless operation. The device costs $65 (10,000), which lets OEMs purchase a switched-Ethernet for about $15 per port.

--by Stephen Kempainen

Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX. 1-800-477-8924,ext4500, www.ti.com.

Packaging family meets IEEE-1101.10
VME64 extensions, CompactPCI norms

The Dot·Ten family of packaging components from Electronic Solutions supports VME64 extensions and CompactPCI standards ac-cording to IEEE-1101.10 and 1101.11 mechanical standards. The IEEE standards pave the way for a new generation of board-level VME64- or CompactPCI-based computers. The company plans to release several products based on the new standard over the next several months. Immediately available are in-jector/ejector handles, shielded front panels, subrack assemblies, air-management boards, ESD-prevention hardware, and programming keys. In addition to the mechanical components, a line of backplanes is available. Dot·Ten Eurocard panels include the front panel with an electromagnetic-compatibility (EMC) gasket, injector/ejector handles, a bracket with alignment pins, conductive screw retainers, and all mounting hardware. The component kits, panel kits, and panel assemblies are available in 3, 6, and 9U heights and in four-, eight-, and 12-horizontal-pitch widths. An EMC-shielded front panel with injector/ejector handles typically costs $16.43; an eight-slot CompactPCI, 6U card cage with backplane costs $1000.

--by Bill Travis

Electronic Solutions, San Diego, CA. 1-619-452-9333, lorim@elsol.com.

Dual and triple video-speed line
drivers pump up the current

Combining low power, high output, and optional programmable gain, a family of line drivers lets you handle video, ADSL/HDSL, and similar applications. National Semiconductor's dual-channel CLC5602 and CLC5622 and resistor-programmable, dual-channel CLC5612 and CLC5632 with gain of +2, +1, and ­1 are well-suited to driving twisted-pair or transformer-type loads. The triple-channel CLC5623 and programmable CLC5633 target RGB applications. These devices can source or sink as much as 130 mA, driving a low-impedance load to within 1V of the supply rail. You can run these drivers from a 5V supply or dual 5V supplies, and their supply current is as low as 1.6 mA/channel. Depending on model, bandwidth at gain of 2 is 90 to 160 MHz, and slew rates are 290 to 410V/µsec. Second- and third-order harmonic distortion ranges from ­86 to ­97 dBc, depending on device and operating configuration. Prices range from $1.70 and $2.23 (1000).

--by Bill Schwe ber

National Semiconductor Corp, Santa Clara, CA. 1-800-272-9959, fax 1-800-737-7018, www.national.com.

Mentor, Model Technology
merge HDL-simulation tools

Mentor Graphics and Model Technology Inc (MTI), a Mentor subsidiary, will consolidate both companies' HDL-simulation products under MTI. The move unifies MTI's V-System and Mentor's QuickHDL products into a common product, ModelSim. (Mentor built QuickHDL around V-System's simulation kernel.) Both companies will sell the ModelSim simulation-product family.

MTI and Mentor guarantee upward compatibility from V-System and QuickHDL simulators into ModelSim, including customized simulation scripts. The first unified product, ModelSim 5.0, will be out by the end of the third quarter. ModelSim 5.0 also has some enhancements over the previous MTI V-System 4.6 products, including faster Vital (VHDL Initiative toward ASIC Libraries) and Verilog gate-level runtimes and a new graphical interface.

ModelSim EE (Elite Edition) for Unix-based workstations comes in EE/VHDL and EE/Vlog variations, for VHDL and Verilog, respectively, and EE/Plus for single-kernel, mixed VHDL and Verilog simulation. The single-HDL tools sell for $14,995 each, and EE/Plus sells for $29,990. The Windows-based tool, ModelSim PE (Personal Edition), includes PE/VHDL and PE/Vlog for $4495 each and PE/Plus for $8990.

--by Jim Lipman

Model Technology, Beaverton, OR. 1-503-641-1340, fax 1-503-526-5410, www.model.com.

Mentor Graphics, Wilsonville, OR. 1-503-685-7000, fax 1-503-685-1202, www.mentorg.com.

Ethernet MAC chip integrates
eight 10- or 100-Mbps ports

The MAC8110 Ethernet media-access-control (MAC) IC from Oki Semiconductor is port-selectable on the fly for 10- or 100-Mbps standards. Ethernet switches, routers, and repeaters, in which eight, 16, or 24 ports per box are common, can use this MAC device to reduce the number of components. Integrating just eight ports on one chip takes advantage of the high-volume 352- pin BGA package that is also common in PC chip sets.

The device lets switch designers choose a physical-layer interface for low-cost, 10-Mbps transmission or the media-independent interface (MII) for autonegotiating 10- or 100-Mbps physical-layer devices. For highest throughput, it offers large-packet tagging that benefits virtual-LAN applications and small-packet detection for discarding. All ports provide full- or half-duplex flow control that conforms to the IEEE standards. In addition, all ports share the 64-bit, 66-MHz FIFO DMA interface that achieves 4-Gbps bandwidth. The ports also share the 32-bit PCI interface for control, status, and statistics information and multilevel FIFO buffering. For high-performance management, the device collects statistics per packet and per port for remote monitoring. A VHDL model is available to facilitate system-level simulations and software development. The MAC8110 uses a 3V power supply and costs $40 in small quantities.

--by Stephen Kempainen

Oki Semiconductor, Sunnyvale, CO. 1-408-720-1900, www.okisemi.com.

CMOS tricks stabilize Hall-effect sensor

A line of Hall-effect sensors from USMikroChips exploits the advantages of CMOS processing to eliminate error sources. The two main error sources in Hall-effect sensors are Hall-plate offset, caused by piezoresistive stress in the sensor element, and bridge-amplifier offset voltage. CMOS-based switched-capacitor circuitry in the US2881UA family eliminates both these errors by using a chopper-stabilization technique, which turns the signal of interest into an ac component riding on the dc offset voltage. A switched-capacitor lowpass filter then removes the error signal. The use of these CMOS tricks eliminates the need for link blowing, a silicon-costly technique traditionally used to null dc errors. The US2881UA Hall-effect latch is available in four operating-temperature ranges from 0 to 70 to ­40 to +125°C. The 0 to 70°C version costs $0.28 (100,000). A companion Hall-effect bipolar switch, the US2882UA, adds the ­40 to +150°C automotive range at $0.43 (100,000).

--by Bill Travis

USMikroChips, Webster, MA. 1-5080943-9430, fax 1-508-943-0487, usmikro@aol.com.

Book Reviews

Your IP defense

"Intellectual property" (IP) is a hot buzz word right now, and one of the key tools in the IP portfolio is the basic patent. Two books from Nolo Press can help you in getting that patent. Patent It Yourself, Sixth Edition (ISBN 0-87337-395-2) by patent agent Jack Lo and patent attorney David Pressman discusses all aspects of patent procedures, rules, and required practices. The 480-pg, $44.95 book also includes information on protecting software, conducting searches on the Internet, and extending a US patent to other countries. The book includes a CD-ROM that contains the required forms and legal advice. The companion The Patent Drawing Book (ISBN 0-87337-378-2) by Pressman covers an area that is more involved than you might suppose. The Patent Office has detailed and complex rules on how drawings should look and be annotated, as well as what material you should draw them on. This 250-pg, $29.95 volume details the drawing process along with use of computer-based drawing tools and photos. Although many of the examples are of mechanical devices, the book also includes drawings of electronic circuits and systems.

--by Bill Schweber

Nolo Press, Berkeley, CA. 1-800-992-6656, fax 1-510-548-5902, www.nolo.com.

Information in a handbook can beat the Web

Although the Web can eventually provide you with vast quantities of useful technical information, a comprehensive book can sometimes be faster and more practical as a resource. Digital Consumer Electronics Handbook (ISBN 0-07-034143-5), edited by Ronald K Jurgen, now retired from IEEE Spectrum magazine, contains 30 chapters by industry technical leaders and experts. The book eschews basic and frequently covered topics, such as Fourier transforms, focusing instead on explaining enabling technologies, applications, and systems applied to various applications. The $99.50 book, which has approximately 1000 pg, covers these topics in sufficient but not overwhelmingly complex detail and thus is truly useful and satisfying to design engineers. Each chapter examines hardware, software, algorithms, standards, and mechanical issues.

Among the topics are error-correction codes, digital modulation, JPEG, MPEG, digital audio, videoconferencing, digital video disc, digital TV, PCs, wireless and wired telephony, CDs, fuzzy logic, optical disks, digital radio, and CEBus. I was surprised, though, that this otherwise-comprehensive book omits digital cellular phones and Global Positioning System technology. The chapters are independent of each other, so you can read just what you need, and each includes its own glossary--more useful in many ways than a "universal" glossary for the book--and an extensive bibliography. This book is a useful addition to the library of anyone who defines or designs products for the consumer market, a major portion of the electronics industry.

--by Bill Schweber

McGraw-Hill Book Co, New York, NY. 1-800-722-4726, www.books.mcgraw-hill.com.

Technology's role in victory

If you need a break from reading data sheets or EDN and want to get a sense of perspective and challenges met, pick up a copy of The Invention That Changed the World (ISBN 0-684-81021-2) by Robert Buderi. The subtitle of this $30, 575-pg book tells you why: "How a small group of radar pioneers won the Second World War and launched a technological revolution." You find out how an amazing mix of insight, luck, perseverance, hard work, and determination resulted in practical ground- and air-based radar systems. These systems allowed the Allies to anticipate German air attacks on England, provided the first effective submarine defense, and changed the offense/defense balance. Today's supersensitive, advanced radars, which track planes and spacecraft, map continents and planets, and catch speeders, emerged from this work, which scientists performed under the pressure of a worldwide conflict.

Most of these scientists and engineers performed their work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory (Cambridge, MA), and many worked in the United Kingdom. The challenges they faced make today's time-to-market and competitive pressures seem trivial.

According to one of them, these engineers "invented all kinds of things, not because we were so smart, but we were the first people who had the problem." Although the frequencies were approximately 100 MHz--low by our standards--these engineers didn't have the scopes, voltmeters, or the other tools we take for granted. They knew a lot, they guessed right a lot, and they used "what works" as their guide, even when they had only a vague idea of what was going on. Yet they developed and tamed the cavity magnetron (the super-secret RF source that was the key), antenna transmitting and receiving switches, RF front ends, and more without transistors, computers, calculators, or software. Though the book is about technology, you need not be an engineer to appreciate it. It's great reading that will make you stop and think.

--by Bill Schweber

Simon & Schuster, New York, NY. 1-212-698-7000.

ADC family fills motors'
synchronous-sampling needs

Vector motor control, among other applications, requires simultaneous sampling of pairs of input signals. Two pin-compatible A/D converters from Analog Devices each comprise dual successive-approximation converters, two track-and-hold amplifiers, a two-channel multiplexer, an internal 2.5V reference, and a parallel interface, available in a variety of 28-pin packages. The 12-bit AD7862 is a 256k-sample/sec device with 3.6-µsec conversion time, and the 14-bit AD7863 is a 200k-sample/sec with 4.5-µsec conversion time.

Operation requires a 5V supply, and power consumption is typically 60 mW for the 12-bit IC and 75 mW for the 14-bit IC. Each converter comes in three versions, supporting input ranges of ±10V, ±2.5V, and 0 to 2.5V. Prices are $11 and $16 for the 12- and 14-bit converters, respectively (1000).

--by Bill Schweber

Analog Devices Inc, Norwood, MA. 1-617-937-1428, fax 1-617-821-4273, www.analog.com.

CMOS ICs make RF, video switch to 350 MHz

A trio of 350-MHz (3-dB) bidirectional CMOS T-switches for RF and video applications targets 50 and 75 ohm applications. The ICs feature crosstalk and isolation--at 10 MHz in 50 ohm systems--of less than ­87 and ­83 dB, respectively. The Maxim MAX4565, MAX4566, and MAX4567 offer "contact" configurations of four NO spst switches, two dual spst switches, and two spdt switches, respectively.

Using 5V supplies, on-resistance is 60 ohms, matched to within 4 ohms between switches. You can operate the switches from a 2.7 to 12V supply or bipolar 2.7 to 6V supplies. Leakage current is less than 5 nA at 25°C and 50 nA at 85°C. Digital control inputs are TTL/CMOS-compatible, and switches are ESD-protected to 2 kV. The ICs are available in 16- and 20-pin packages, and prices begin at $1.55 (1000).

--Bill Schweber

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

Microcontroller fits inside
auto-control mechanisms

Automotive-management functions, such as window lifting, currently use a µC and associated components mounted on a pc board separate from the control mechanism. By integrating a range of analogue and memory functions in a single chip and including surge protection to 40V, Motorola's 68HC805PV8 now allows you to design a µC into the mechanism itself--inside a window-lift motor, for example.

The 28-pin SOIC device, based on the company's S3 (seamless-silicon-systems technology), includes protection from the 16 to 40V voltage surges typically found in a car's electrical system. This feature allows you to connect the µC directly to an automotive wiring harness and battery.

The µC also includes the company's ByteFlash technology, which extends the capabilities of standard memory by allowing you to write or erase data in single bytes. This feature adds flexibility in application development and offers you the option of field programmability. The full memory complement for the 68HC805PV includes 8 kbytes of ByteFlash, 192 bytes of RAM, and 128 bytes of EEPROM.

The µC operates from a 5.5 to 16V supply and includes an on-chip 5V, 20-mA regulator with a high-and low-voltage reset for supplying external devices. Other functions include a single-channel, high-speed PWM; a six-channel 8-bit ADC; a five-channel, 16-mA contact monitor; a two-channel, 3 ohm LS relay driver; an op amp, a keyboard wake-up; a 16-bit timer with two input captures and two output compares; and power-on reset.

The µC costs $3.50 (10,000). A ROM-based version is due in the first quarter of 1998.

--by Brian Kerridge

Motorola, East Kilbride, UK. +44 1355 565869, www.mot.com.

CMOS image sensor has
2048×2048-pixel resolution

The Fuga 22 is a randomly addressable image sensor with a 204832048-pixel resolution over a 16 mm² area. The image sensor occupies an 84-pin QFP, which includes TTL-level I/O and analogue outputs.

The device accepts the digital X-Y coordinates of individual pixels and outputs an analogue level that corresponds to the light intensity at that point. Your design can address pixels and produce parallel outputs for groups of up to eight pixels. Each pixel exhibits a logarithmic response with a 120-dB dynamic range. Maximum pixel sampling rate is 4.5 MHz horizontally and 8 kHz vertically.

The ability to randomly address any pixel in the array enables your design to sense subsamples or contiguous areas of an image at the same speed. The resolution of the array and the response of individual pixels enables adjacent pixels to detect signals at each end of the light intensity range without blooming an image. Spectral response covers visible wavelengths and near-infrared (400 to 1000 nm). The signal-to-noise ratio is approximately an order of magnitude below CCD alternatives. Sensitivity is 10^-4 to 10³W/m².

A Fuga 22 costs approximately $4000. The company also offers an evaluation camera, including the device and a PC card, for approximately $4700.

--by Brian Kerridge

C-Cam Technologies, Heverlee, Belgium. +32 16 398 309, www.imec.be.

Dual-channel UART has 3.125-Mbps
data rate and 128-byte FIFO buffers

Oxford Semiconductor's OX16C952 dual-channel UART enables you to build PC data-communications boards that raise COM1, COM2, and LPT1 port performance to match that of today's high-speed modems and ISDN terminal adapters.

The PC-compatible UART supports data rates of 3.125 Mbps per channel and provides 128-byte transmit and receive FIFO buffers. The UART is software compatible with 16C450/550/ 650, ST16C654, and TL16C750 devices and is pin compatible with the popular 16C552 dual UART.

Xon/Xoff software flow control and CTS/RTS and DSR/DTR hardware flow control prevent FIFO over-run. You can program flow control and interrupt thresholds to fine tune performance. FIFO levels are readable to enable fast driver applications in poll mode.

The UART also supports the parallel Centronics printer interface, is IrDA compliant, and includes a sleep mode. The 68-pin PLCC device costs $6.50 (10,000). You can also implement the UART design as a core function in 0.5-µm CMOS ASICs.

--by Brian Kerridge

Oxford Semiconductor, Abingdon, UK. +44 1235 861461, www.oxsemi.com.

VCXOs come in ceramic SMD packages

Aimed at mobile applications, Tele Quartz's voltage-controlled crystal-oscillator (VCXO) range includes SDM versions in ceramic packages. The TQCJ and TQCL models offer several standard frequencies in the 2.048- to 24.96-MHz range.

The pulling range of the 0.5 to 4.5V control voltage is ±100 ppm, which allows your design to compensate for the standard frequency tolerance of ±40 ppm.

For higher stability applications, the company offers a temperature-compensated TQLV series that covers 12.8 to 30 MHz and has 2-ppm stability over a ­20 to +70°C ambient range. Another SMD model for SONET/SHD applications includes the TQVCSO 622-11, which works in the 622.08-MHz range. This package measures 20.5× 20.5×10.5 mm.

--by Brian Kerridge

Tele Quartz, Neckarbischofsheim, Germany. +49 7268 8010, www.telequartz.de.

Calendar

Sept 14 to 17

International Conference on Signal Processing Applications and Technology/DSP World Expo, San Diego, offers more than 400 lectures, panel discussions, tutorials, and product workshops on emerging image-processing, medical, TV, multimedia, communications, and telephony technologies. The Industry Technology Forum, in which six companies introduce products, accompanies the DSP World Expo. The expo features more than 120 exhibitors. Registration for the conference alone costs $695. Miller Freeman Inc, San Francisco, CA. 1-415-278-5231.

Sept 29 to Oct 2

Embedded Systems West Conference, San Jose, CA, offers more than 120 courses and tutorials. Classes focus on improving interrupt performance, Java in embedded systems, DSP architectures, flash-memory techniques, using the Web to manage networked devices, and understanding USB. Full-day tutorials cover Java, hardware and software codesign, C++, infrared communications, project management, software scheduling, and controller-area networks. More than 240 companies exhibit their embedded-system products. Registration for both the conference and tutorials cost $1445. Miller Freeman Inc, San Francisco, CA. 1-415-278-5231.

Sept 29 to Oct 2

PCI Plus Europe, Berlin, cosponsored by 12 international publications, including EDN Europe, features a two-day tutorial on PCI and USB. Tutorial topics include PCI hardware, software, and firmware design; PCI ASIC development; CardBus; USB; hot-swap; small PCI; embedded PCI; and PCI market strategies. Two days of technical sessions cover PCI and PCI-compatible technologies. Exhibits showcase the latest developments in PCI hardware, software, and system technology. The conference runs with the Industrial Control Programming conference and the International CAN Conference. Annabooks, San Diego, CA. 1-800-462-1042.

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