Hall-effect sensor ICs sport magnetic
personalities
Innovative stabilization and trim techniques are yielding dramatic improvements in
Hall-effect sensor ICs.
--Bill Travis, Senior Technical Editor
Set-top-box chip sets evolve for digital TV
Over-the-air digital-TV (DTV) is set to begin broadcasting in the US and Europe. DTV
standards allow new set-top and converter boxes to take advantage of better pictures,
sound, and two-way data. So it's no surprise that vendors have responded by offering chip
sets and reference designs.
--Stephen Kempainen, Technical Editor
Adopting VHDL for PLD design and simulation
As your designs become more complex, it becomes more efficient to use tools that allow
you to design at a higher level of abstraction. Hardware-description languages, such as
VHDL, are a natural next step for tackling large designs.
--Troy Scott, OrCAD Inc
Current limiting defuses the dc/dc time bomb
If components' impedance is all that limits a dc/dc converter's output current, the
circuit is a time bomb--waiting to destroy itself and other parts of your system. There
are many ways to sense and limit the current.
--William Pelletier and Dimitry Goder, Switch Power Inc
Debugging embedded systems: using a trace
buffer to see what went wrong
Your program writes values to a trace buffer when it executes significant points in
the program code. When something fails, you can look at the trace buffer to see a portion
of program history.
--Stuart R Ball
Step-down rectifier makes a simple dc power
supply
A simple and useful nonisolated rectifier features voltage step-down operation, acceptable
Class-A line-current harmonics, inherent short-circuit protection, and, optionally, a
regulated output.
--Nathan O Sokal, Design Automation Inc, K Kit Sum, Consultant,
and David C Hamill, Surrey Space Centre
New standards and certified modules ease
low-power-radio  design
Europe's new 868- to 870-MHz licence-free band encourages the trend to a "more
professional" class of wireless-link design. Designers can now implement wireless
links using precertified modules without mastering RF design or grappling with
type-approval procedures.
--Newell White, Contributing Technical Editor
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