EDN on Embedded Processing: Open source wrangling; one-shot substitute; more...

Embedded Processing Features
 
Open source OS: Innovator or copy-cat?
...and what are the implications for the open source community as companies wrangle over who did what, and what remuneration or access is appropriate? Brian Dipert asks for your questions as he prepares to interview one of the involved companies.

 
Microprocessor-based dual timer features four outputs
The combination of simple code and some switches yields two timers in microcontroller, and offers an alternative to one-shots.

Finalizing hardware before you should
Finalizing hardware before its time can delay a project. Improper planning of long hardware leadtimes may prompt you too early to finalize the hardware portion of your design. This poor planning can happen before the product definition, firmware design, or hardware-prototype testing is complete.

News & Features

Compression technique preserves accessible data elements
Like all other compression technologies, WindSpring's DMT (data-miniaturization technology) shrinks data sets, thereby reducing storage requirements and the accessing or transmitting time necessary to fetch data. But DMT differs from most other lossless-compression techniques in that the data elements that comprise a compressed file maintain a one-to-one relationship with the data elements in the original file.

Module enables graphical embedded programming
National Instruments recently announced an embedded-development module for its popular LabView software that extends graphical programming to any 32-bit embedded processor. With the module, designers can describe algorithms and program their applications using LabView's graphical data-flow language.

Fabric technologies reach the mezzanine level
A new mezzanine-card family offers designers standard plug-in modules with high availability, hot-swap functions, and multiple switched-fabric options.

TMS320C6418 DSP offers better performance
The TMS320C6418 DSP has an extended case-temperature range of -40 to +105degC, 512 kbytes of level two cache, and an integrated Viterbi coprocessor.

Chipmakers weave fiber announcements
Optimism about fiber-based network rollouts is in evidence at last week's Supercomm show in Chicago, where the news included new fiber silicon from Passave and a joint SOC (system on chip) effort between Alcatel and Freescale Semiconductor.

Compiler and HTX adapters suit Dual-Core AMD Opteron Processors
The EkoPath compiler suite Version 2.1 and the InfiniPath low-latency interconnect provide enhanced support for the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors.

Class driver provides USB support for Smart Card applications
A new class driver for the Nucleus USB software offers USB support for the Nucleus RTOS.

Storage-chip portfolio has hard-coded TMA
The NASn01 (network-attached-storage, in which n stands for the number of SATA 1 hard-disk drives the chips can support) includes the NAS8xx, NAS4xx, NAS2xx, and NAS1xx.

Interested in the latest information on standards developments and compliance programs essential to successful WiMAX deployment?
As a founding and board member of the WiMAX Forum, Fujitsu supports what is essential. Find the latest information for Fujitsu WiMAX 802.16-2004 SoC, including related articles and frequently asked questions. Click here.