Tool bundles target FPGAs 6/25/2009

Xilinx this year introduced two families of Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGAs that enable targeted-design platforms. The company is now adding domain-specific-tool support to the targeted-platform concept. Xilinx’ ISE (integrated software environment) Design Suite 11.1 offers interoperable domain-specific design flows and tool configurations for logic, DSP, embedded processing, and system-level design....

DSP combines fixed- and floating-point operation 4/23/2009

Texas Instruments’ TMS320C6743 low-power DSP features both high-precision, wide-dynamic-range, floating-point operations and higher-performance, lower-power, fixed-point operations in the same device.

FPGA serial I/O hits 11.3 Gbps 4/9/2009

In the latest additions to its Stratix range of FPGAs, Altera has incorporated serial-data transceivers that support signal rates as high as 11.3 Gbps. The company envisages the Stratix IV GT’s parts finding applications in 40- or 100-Gbps systems. You might use a link at the maximum speed to directly connect an optical receiver or transmitter to the FPGA.

Customizable microcontroller, $75,000 NRE costs target 10,000-unit applications 4/1/2009

Atmel’s AT91CAP7L standard-product microcontroller has as many as 200,000 gates of MCPF (metal-programmable-cell fabric) that you can use to implement proprietary customer IP (intellectual property), hardware accelerators, additional processor cores, or peripherals.

EDN names winners of 19th Annual Innovation Awards 3/31/2009

EDN has bestowed its 19th Annual Innovation Awards, honoring a diverse group of electronics engineers and the ground-breaking products they have produced. The Altera Stratix IV 40-nm FPGA design team is named Innovator of the Year. Read on for a complete list of the winners.

Mobile device security through virtualization 7/1/2009

A hypervisor running in privileged mode allows a more flexible approach, providing security for mobile devices.

Tee up your multiprocessing options 6/11/2009

A good processor taxonomy helps you understand processing architectures' sweet spots. You should probably look at multicore options in the same way.

Multicore programming: easy or difficult? 3/25/2009

Many commentators are concerned that efficiently and correctly porting existing code onto platforms with four or more cores is beyond the capabilities of many engineers. Others simply state that this is a solved problem and that mature SMP operating systems and threading libraries already exist and are well understood. So who is right?

One sensor does the work of many 3/19/2009

The single-array camera captures images that conventionally require an array of sensors.

Code optimization tips for 8-bit microcontrollers 3/12/2009

Knowing how your 8-bit compiler works can save you additional code size and program execution time.

Dangerous games 4/9/2009

Budding engineers benefit from physically challenging games.

Voices: Microchip’s Ganesh Moorthy 12/15/2008

Executive discusses support for embedded developers, general-purpose versus application-specific products, trends in embedded-processor integration, and software.

EDN Innovation: Awards season comes to technology 2/6/2008

Engineers rarely receive the same fame as those that toil in some higher profile professions. But I don't know of a job that demands a better combination of technical savvy, theoretical knowledge, and creative thought process.

AMD: Fading fast, nearly fini? 12/14/2007

At the moment, AMD is reeling on a number of fronts due to a number of factors. My prognosis for the troubled chipmaker has worsened.

Development boards speed learning and product-development cycle 12/3/2007

How do you use development boards? Complete our survey on development-board usage, and you'll enter a drawing for a special development prize.

Perform timing for microcontrollers without using timers 1/22/2009

Use the I/O "interrupt-on-change" feature to implement a medium-precision, long-period timer with low additional cost.

Simple microcontroller-temperature measurement uses only a diode and a capacitor 12/5/2008

Discharging a capacitor through the reverse leakage of a PN junction allows you to measure ambient temperature.

Microcontroller detects pulses 7/24/2008

A microcontroller detects output pulses in a device under test.

Hot-swap circuit allows two computers to monitor an RS-232 channel 5/29/2008

A hot-swap serial-interface circuit allows two computers to monitor all the traffic on an RS-232 port.

Tiny microcontroller hosts dual dc/dc-boost converters 5/15/2008

An Atmel AVR microcontroller can serve as the PWM controller for two dc/dc converters that provide high voltages from a two-cell supply.