Chips and high-speed cable modems enable
two-way communications New cable-modem specifications standardize high-speed, two-way
communications. Now, you can use highly integrated chips to customize consumer-friendly
modems for retail shelves. —Stephen Kempainen, Technical Editor
Design Features
MEMS sensors and mechanical gadgets enter the mainstream Once considered lab curiosities, micromachined-silicon devices are making the
grade in the commercial market at an increasing rate. —Bill Travis, Senior Technical Editor
APIs and development tools advance paging applications Flex and Ermes protocols enable paging applications ranging from a simple
one-way pager to advanced two-way and voice paging. Understanding these protocols helps
you quickly develop paging applications. Also, new APIs and development tools help you
test and debug your designs. —Manju Nath, Technical Editor
When Dhrystone leaves you high and dry A worthwhile evaluation of processor performance requires more insight into
the underlying issues than a Dhrystone benchmark test or any other single program can
provide. The results of three processors running Dhrystone and a larger piece of embedded
code reveal just how misleading Dhrystone results can be. —Daniel Mann, AMD, and Paul Cobb, QED
Use spread-spectrum techniques to reduce EMI In many countries, EMI requirements limit the selling of PCs. Spread-spectrum
techniques are cost-effective ways to control clock-generated EM emissions. —Steve Bolger and Samer Omar Darwish, Integrated Circuit
Systems
Optimize ASIC test suites using code-coverage analysis Performing code-coverage analysis of HDL code before synthesis saves time and
prevents costly design errors. —Martin Abrahams, TransEDA Ltd, and Stuart Riches, Texas
Instruments Ltd
