Get set for set-top boxes: finally a reality By Markus Levy, Technical Editor
With a variety of new devices, software, and reference designs, set-top boxes seem poised to enter the mainstream.
Design Features
Get the best from your low-dropout regulator C Basso, C Fourtet, and P Kadanka, Motorola Semiconductor
Dropout voltage is not the only important characteristic of a low-dropout regulator. Noise, ripple rejection, and wake-up time can also significantly affect the performance of a low-noise, portable system.
Graphics in embedded systems: Add HTML to Java- and C-based user-interface
options Ian Smith, Wind River Systems
Many embedded devices are acquiring GUIs, but the embedded-system industry is unaccustomed to GUI development. Developers face the challenge of finding a suitable technology without compromising the quality and reliability of their products.
Spice provides signal-integrity clues for high-speed systems Ken Boorom, Hewlett-Packard Co
As you raise the clock rate-and thus the signal rise and fall times-to squeeze more performance from a design, understanding the effects of termination schemes is more important than ever. Easy-to-use PC-based Spice tools provide useful insight into the behavior of termination schemes in high-speed interconnects.
Clock-source jitter: A clear understanding aids oscillator
selection Joseph V Adler, Vectron International
The signal edges in a digital data stream never occur exactly when the system expects or wants them. Defining and measuring the timing accuracy, or jitter, of those edges is critical to the performance of synchronous communication systems.
