December 4, 1997

Important reference for readers

Bill Schweber's editorial "Have you done your homework?" (EDN, Aug 1, 1997, pg 29) contained a reference to an open letter written by Bob Dobkin, vice president of engineering for Linear Technology Corp. Dobkin's letter referred to an extremely high failure rate on motherboards that did not meet the Intel spec on CPU supply-voltage regulation.

I searched the Web for this letter but could not find it. Roy Twitty at Linear Technology kindly sent me a copy of the article. He also gave permission to post it on my Web site (www.csolve.net/~add/pcalert/pcalert.htm and www.csolve.net/~add/pcalert/results.htm).

This article contains important information that apparently did not get wide distribution. My thanks to Bill Schweber and EDN for mentioning it.

Michael Monett
via the Internet

Corrections and updates

Listing 1 in the Design Idea "Basic routine simplifies factoring" (EDN, Sept 12, 1997, pg 110) is missing line i. The missing line should read:

i: PRINT x&; "= ";

EDN regrets the error.

In "Chip place-and-route tools hit the fast track" (EDN, Aug 15, 1997, pg 16), the price-range upper limit for Silicon Valley Research's SonIC tool is incorrect. The correct maximum price is $400,000.

In "Powering the big microprocessors" (EDN, Aug 15, 1997, pg 30), Table 1's listing for Harris Semiconductor's HIP6005 is incorrect. The model is a 5-bit nonsynchronous buck controller.

Design Idea update

My Design Idea, "Battery simulator provides current limiting" (EDN, Aug 1, 1997, pg 97), contained an error. The TIP31C actually drives two 2N3055s with the bases and collectors paralleled and mounted on a common heat sink without insulating washers.

Hernan Tacca
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

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