Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SEPT 4
Issue21/2005
Issue 18/2008
Pg 90
Oil prices, technology,
and the cost
www.edn.com of ignorance Pg 10
Transimpedance-
amplifier stability is key
Pg 24
Prying Eyes Pg 26
HANDCRAFTED
ANALOG GETS
AUTOMATED ASSIST
Page 40
SHEDDING LIGHT ON
EMBEDDED DEBUGGING
Page 29
USING FPGAs IN
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
Page 49
OPTIMIZE MEMORY-
SYSTEM DESIGN FOR
MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS
Page 59
Enter xx at www.edn.com/info
innovation
LEARN MORE AT
www.cirrus.com Cirrus Logic. We make it easier for you.
© 2008 Cirrus Logic, Inc. All rights reserved. Cirrus Logic, Cirrus and the Cirrus Logic logo designs are trademarks of Cirrus Logic, Inc.
All other brands and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
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MEASURE IT FIX IT
Acquire environmental data from thousands of sensors Design and model more energy efficient machines
Present measured data to adhere to regulations Deploy advanced controllers to optimize existing equipment
For more than 30 years, National Instruments has empowered engineers and scientists to measure, diagnose, and solve
some of the world’s most complex challenges. Now, through the NI graphical system design platform, engineers and scientists
are using modular hardware and flexible software to not only test and measure but also fix inefficient products and processes
by rapidly designing, prototyping, and deploying new machines, technologies, and methods. Today, a number of the world’s
most pressing issues are being addressed through green engineering applications powered by NI products.
©2008 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. National Instruments, NI, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 2008-9267-151-101
contents
9.4.08
Using FPGAs in
consumer electronics
49
In cost-sensitive con-
sumer-electronics
products, customiza-
tion is a highly desirable feature
for differentiating your product
from competitors’ offerings. The
inclusion of FPGAs can be afford-
able, even in low-range and mid-
range products, but still allows
customization through some
unique features.
by Phuttachad Thiencharoenwong,
Handcrafted analog SingMai Electronics
gets automated assist
Optimize memory-
40
EDA tools address
simulation, verification, system design
and layout for mixed-
signal designs. for multimedia
by Rick Nelson, Editor-in-Chief applications
59
The convergence of
video and communi-
Shedding light on cations in inexpensive
embedded debugging unified-memory architectures has
made DRAM the most important
29
Embedded debugging
gets a lot of attention and the highest-performance
for being a schedule target in any system.
and resource hog, but there may by David Lautzenheiser
be more to it than just fixing bad and Agha Hussain, Silistix
software. by Robert Cravotta,
Technical Editor
DESIGNIDEAS
R2
71 Platinum-RTD-based circuit provides high performance with few components
R1 R1
7(!4 $/ 7% (!6% 4/ $/ $2!7 9/5 ! 0)#452%
/NLY !CTEL GETS YOU THIS CLOSE TO ZERO !NY OTHER CLAIMS OF LOW POWER SUPERIORITY ARE JUST THAT !CCORDING TO THEIR
OWN DATA !LTERA AND 8ILINX USE BETWEEN AND TIMES THE POWER OF !CTEL )',// &0'!S DEPENDING ON
DEVICE AND MODE 7ANT SPECIFICS 6ISIT US TO GET THE WHOLE PICTURE INCLUDING A VIDEO OF ACTUAL MEASUREMENTS
MORE PROOF AND PICTURES AT ACTELCOMPOWER
contents 9.4.08
pulse
15 Video, graphics module drives dual displays
Dilbert 16
15 AMD updates Stream software-development kit 20 Integrated ORing controller and MOSFETs run
fast and cool for redundant supplies
16 Touch-panel controller targets media-device
interfaces 20 HDD (and SSD) capacities: up, up, and away
22 83
26
D E PA R T M E N T S PRODUCT
& COLUMNS ROUNDUP
10 EDN.comment: Oil prices, technology, and the 83 Power Sources: Switcher ICs, dc/dc converters,
cost of ignorance dual-output converters, dual low-dropout regulators,
and pc-power-supply devices
24 Baker’s Best: Transimpedance-amplifier stability
is key 87 Integrated Circuits: SOCs, 500-mA buck regula-
tors, digital-media processors, and logic-gate
26 Prying Eyes: Prying apart a portable audio player
optocouplers
90 Tales from the Cube: The case of the stolen
88 Computers and Peripherals: 8-Gbyte storage
capacitor
devices, LCD monitors, handset-audio filtering
devices, Mac memory kits, and more
EDN ® (ISSN#0012-7515), (GST#123397457) is published biweekly, 26 times per year, by Reed Business Information, 8878 Barrons Blvd, Highlands Ranch, CO 80129-2345. Reed Business Information, a division of Reed
Elsevier Inc, is located at 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010. Tad Smith, Chief Executive Officer; Mark Finkelstein, President, Boston Division. Periodicals postage paid at Littleton, CO 80126 and additional mailing offices.
Circulation records are maintained at Reed Business Information, 8878 S Barrons Blvd, Highlands Ranch, CO 80129-2345. Telephone (303) 470-4445. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EDN ®, PO Box 7500, Highlands
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a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc, used under license. A Reed Business Information Publication/Volume 53, Number 18 (Printed in USA).
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95
O N L I N E O N LY READERS’ CHOICE 90
Check out these Web-exclusive articles: A selection of recent articles receiving
85
High-voltage, low-noise converters: high traffic on www.edn.com.
Efficiency (%)
Jim Williams’ prototype pictures Photo-sensing circuits: The eyes 80
Longtime contributor Jim Williams, staff of the electronic world are watching 75
scientist at Linear Technology, went all out Baker’s Best: When exploiting the light VOUT = 3.3V
and built 10 prototype boards for a recent sensitivity of silicon, the challenge lies in 70
article on high-voltage, low-noise convert- determining how to convert the low-level VOUT = 5V
65
ers. Check out both the article and the currents from the photo sensor into a
boards here. useful electrical representation. 60
➔ www.edn.com/080904toc1 ➔ www.edn.com/article/CA6582850
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
IOUT (A)
600KHz
K switching frequency
T
ings of supply and demand in the oil industry. Supply of tors because, in much of the develop-
ing world, local demand for electric-
sweet, light crude became insufficient for the demand, and ity—partly created by our desire for
its price shot up. In response to the higher prices, demand cell phones and TV sets—is soaring.
for gasoline in the United States dropped, and the price In countries that lack generation and
shot back down again. In light of this dramatic performance, distribution infrastructure, only local
it is worth asking whether quick, technically feasible applications of diesel generators can meet that de-
mand. Hence, the demand for diesel
electronics could significantly reduce
demand in the short term.
Estimates show soars—driving refineries to capacity
and creating a shortage of sweet, light
We are looking for feasible and fast that a third of the crude oil. (There is no shortage or
solutions, so converting the entire fuels vehicles in price premium for high-sulfur crude,
Western world’s vehicle fleet to fuel by the way. Few refineries can pro-
cells is out. So is covering two South- urban areas con- duce diesel from it.) So what would be
western states with photovoltaic cells sume go to waste the impact on demand if we focused
or building a set of experimental but our photovoltaic and storage efforts
full-scale fusion reactors. Relative- because of unnec- and subsidies not on wealthy North
ly quick measures do exist, however, essary acceleration. Americans’ rooftops, but on develop-
and, unsurprisingly, they focus not on ing-world towns and villages?
fundamental changes in society but would be trivial in comparison with Many such opportunities exist to
on increasing efficiency. the savings and within the resources use a little understanding, a little tech-
One example dear to the hearts of of even state-level governments with- nology, and a little capital to make a
many commuters is traffic control. In out huge national subsidies. The only significant decrease in fuel consump-
much of North America and, from shortage is in the skill to install and tion. And, as noted, a small decrease
the little we have seen, industrializing operate the networks and the knowl- in consumption can make a big differ-
Asia, the entire notion that you can edge to recognize the problem. ence in global inflation pressure. But
enhance rather than impede the flow Public transportation presents a rest assured that these things will not
of traffic by properly regulating traffic similar example. Most municipalities happen. Inefficiency is one of the costs
lights is an as-yet-unmade discovery. in the world wear about their necks nature imposes as the price of public
The cost of this ignorance is horren- as a token of honor an ever-mov- ignorance of technology.EDN
dous. Estimates show that a third of ing, constantly belching necklace of
the fuels vehicles in urban areas con- huge diesel buses, with a ratio of aver- Contact me at ronald.wilson@reed
sume go to waste because of unneces- age payload weight to vehicle weight business.com.
sary acceleration, almost entirely after that would embarrass a Hummer own-
a traffic control or jam has slowed the er. Municipalities could inexpensive-
vehicle. Technologically simple com- ly replace most of these monstrosities + Go to www.edn.com/080904ed
puterized sensor and control networks with fuel-efficient small vans, direct- and click on Feedback Loop to post
and known algorithms could cut this ed by a network of GPS (global-posi- a comment on this column.
waste by a large factor. The amount of tion-system) sensors, traffic monitors, + More at www.edn.com/edncomment
necessary capital equipment and labor requester terminals, and computers,
Copper
63.546
RCOMoPLHIANST
www.coilcraft.com 800/322-2645
Power That Gives You The Best Of
Both Technology Worlds
Switcher Efficiency Combined With LDO Noise And Transient Performance
The MIC38300 is a 3A step down converter and the first The Good Stuff:
device in a new generation of HELDOTM products providing the ◆ 2.2A Continuous operating current
benefits of LDOs with respect to ease of use, fast transient ◆ Input voltage range: 3.0V to 5.5V
performance, high PSRR and low noise while offering the ◆ Adjustable output voltage down to 1.0V
efficiency of a switching regulator. ◆ Output noise less than 5mV
◆ Ultra fast transient performance
As output voltages move lower, the output noise and transient ◆ Unique Switcher plus LDO architecture
response of a switching regulator become an increasing challenge ◆ Fully integrated MOSFET switches
for designers. By combining a switcher whose output is slaved to ◆ Micro-power shutdown
the input of a high performance LDO, high efficiency is achieved ◆ Easy upgrade from LDO as power dissipation becomes an issue
with a clean low-noise output. ◆ Thermal shutdown and current limit protection
For more information, contact your local Micrel sales representa- ◆ 4mm × 6mm × 0.9mm MLF ® package
tive or visit us at: www.micrel.com/ad/mic38300.
© 2008 Micrel, Inc. All rights reserved. Micrel is a registered trademark of Micrel, Inc.
HELDO is a trademark of Micrel, Inc. MLF is a registered trademark of Amkor Technology.
www.micrel.com
PRESIDENT, BOSTON DIVISION, REED BUSINESS INFORMATION
Simplify
Mark Finkelstein, mark.finkelstein@reedbusiness.com
Leila Ziai,
Staff Design Engineer,
Toshiba America Electronic
Components, Inc.
W
ith advanced-sensor-fusion, image-
manipulation, and tactical-moving- graduate I once
map applications in mind, Aitech worked with told
Defense Systems recently introduced the me he got
M590 graphics and video PMC (peripheral-
component-interconnect-mezzanine-card)
into engineering
module that simultaneously outputs informa- for one reason—
tion from two independent data streams to to learn a bit
two analog or digital displays. The new M590 about engineer-
supports 2- or 3-D-video displays plus image Aitech’s new PMC drives dual 2- or 3-D-video ing so that he
capture with overlay and underlay features to displays from independent data streams at
resolutions as high as 1536⫻2048 pixels.
could go back to
provide man-machine interfaces with resolu-
tions as high as 1536⫻2048 pixels at 30- to school
200-Hz refresh rates and as many as 32 bits the M590 provides video overlay and underlay to get a law
per pixel. functions that generate images, superimpose degree and get
An AMD ATI (www.amd.com) M9 graph- an input from one of the various video formats, rich by suing big
ics processor with an on-chip 64-Mbyte and drive the result to a monitor. The module’s corporations over
frame-buffer array and dual RAMDAC (ran- software package supports all onboard capa-
dom-access-memory-digital-to-analog-con- bilities and features OpenGL drivers for both
engineering
verter) units power the M590, which performs VxWorks and Integrity real-time operating sys- patents.”
—Reader and frequent EDN
high-speed 2-D-line, 3-D-polygon, and tex- tems. The M590 is available in commercial-,
contributor Glen Chenier, in
ture acceleration. The module also supports rugged-, and military-temperature ranges and
EDN ’s Feedback Loop, at www.
multiple video-input and -output formats, in either conduction- or air-cooled versions. edn.com/article/CA6578140.
including NTSC (National Television System The price for an M590 starts at $3440 (OEM Add your comments.
Committee) and PAL (phase-alternating line) quantities).—by Warren Webb
for both interlaced and noninterlaced moni- 컄Aitech Defense Systems Inc, www.
tors. For advanced video-display applications, rugged.com.
09.04.08
Touch-panel controller targets MODULE TARGETS
EMBEDDED-
media-device interfaces SYSTEM DESIGN
Building on its popular
A
tmel, in the form of function, eliminating the need
its recently acquired for an external LED controller.
The 2160 FPGA-based PXI (PCI ex-
tensions for instrumenta-
subsidiary, Quantum Atmel designed the device claims high tion), PC, and Compact-
Research Group, has intro- for use as a multimedia-HMI immunity to RIO (reconfigurable-in-
duced a touch controller that (human-machine-interface) put/output) platforms,
combines a slider control with controller in mobile phones and
EMI. National Instruments has
buttons, an integrated LED consumer electronics, such as announced a new line of
controller, and GPIO (general- personal media players. It oper- suppression) intelligently sup- single-board RIO modules
purpose-input/output) func- ates from 1.8 to 5.5V, and you presses signals from nearby that offers a lower-cost,
tions. The AT42QT2160, part can also use it in applications keys so that only the keys that integrated-hardware op-
of the company’s new QTouch such as digital still cameras, a user intends to touch register tion for embedded con-
series, uses charge-transfer PDAs (personal digital assis- a touch. trol and data-acquisition
technology to control as many tants), and handheld gaming The AT42QT2160 has three applications. The RIO-
as 16 touch keys with a slider devices. Like previous chips GPIOs with PWM capability and 96xx devices combine a
that you can configure to use using the charge-transfer tech- eight shared-output ports that real-time embedded pro-
two to eight of the touch-key nology, the 2160 claims high provide additional standard out- cessor, a reconfigurable
channels. If you need an ex- immunity to EMI (electromag- puts for the host without adding FPGA, and analog and
tra-long slider control, you can netic interference) through cost or using an extra I/O-ex- digital I/O on an 8.2⫻5.6-
add interpolation between spread-spectrum modulation pansion device. You configure in. PCB (printed-circuit
points with a resistive-touch- and filtering algorithms, cali- the device with an I2C (inter-in- board). Designers can
sensor element. bration of the device over its tegrated-circuit) interface. You use the company’s Lab-
The chip can also control as lifetime, and designer-defined might design touch-button- View software to config-
many as 11 LEDs through a sensitivity thresholds for indi- sensor electrodes of any arbi- ure the RIO hardware and
host-controlled PWM-output vidual keys. AKS (adjacent-key trary size greater than 6⫻6 mm the application’s embed-
and of arbitrary shape, as cop- ded firmware.
per pads on the PCB (printed- The modules feature
circuit board) or a flexible cir- a 266- or 400-MHz Free-
cuit. The chip senses touches scale (www.freescale.
to those pads through glass or com) MPC5200 proces-
plastic as thick as 2.5 mm. sor, the Wind River (www.
Samples of the AT42QT- windriver.com) VxWorks
2160 are available now in a real-time operating sys-
28-pin, 4⫻4-mm QFN pack- tem, and a Xilinx (www.
age; it sells for 98 cents xilinx.com) Spartan-3
(10,000). An evaluation board, FPGA. The onboard ana-
which comes with an I2C-to- log and digital I/O con-
USB converter to connect to a nects to the FPGA to pro-
PC, costs $82.50. vide low-level customiza-
Atmel’s QTouch controller integrates enough functions to control —by Graham Prophet tion of timing- and I/O-
a complete media device. 컄Atmel, www.atmel.com. signal processing. You
can expand the I/O ca-
pabilities using three ex-
DILBERT By Scott Adams
pansion slots for custom
hardware or any C-Series
I/O module. Prices for
the devices start at $1000
(100 or more). Watch a
demonstration video at
www.ni.com/singleboard.
—by Warren Webb
왘National Instruments,
www.ni.com.
Now with Agilent Data Logger Pro software, you’ll be able to collect data, check limits,
Agilent 34970A & 34980A perform extensive branching, and view and store the data without authoring the program-
switch/measure units ming yourself. It’s an ideal expansion at a significant savings.
S
ummit Microelectronics’ commands on two dedicated dow comparisons, and they tar-
new SMM151 power- rent-sensing accuracy is ⫾2%. pins or the I2C bus. get applications in computing
supervision IC allows The part operates from 2.7 The IC allows users to pro- and datacom equipment, serv-
digital control and monitoring to 5.5V of power and has an gram limits for glitch-filter du- ers, wireless routers, and other
of any voltage regulator. The I2C (inter-integrated-circuit) ration, margin delays, and re- high-reliability systems.
device monitors input current interface that allows system sponse to fault conditions. A The SMM151EV evaluation
to the target regulator so there monitoring in real time with pa- sister part, the SMM152, also board works through a USB
is no added impedance to the rameters that you can change has four general-purpose I/O port with Summit’s Windows-
output rail. A differential pair using the I2C bus. The unit pro- pins. Developers can program based GUI (graphical user in-
that can accept 15V inputs vides fault- and ready-status the power-on state of these terface), which allows design-
performs the voltage sensing, outputs and accepts margin pins and store that information ers to set up the operating
parameters and then program
4 TO 15V
RS them into nonvolatile memory.
2.7 TO 5.5V
Once designers define the de-
vice’s functions, they can ex-
CAPC VDD GND
tract a hex file from the evalu-
VDD_CAP
CSⳮ COMP1
ation board that allows Summit
V1 to provide the part in volume
CS⫹ quantities.
MARGIN
The device operates in a
MUP COMP2
COMMANDS
MDN
0 to 70 or a ⫺40 to ⫹85⬚C
VREF
STATUS FAULT# temperature range and comes
OUTPUTS VIN
READY SMM151 in a 5⫻5-mm, 28-pad QFN
I2C SDA SMM152 VOUT⫹
package. The SMM151 and
INTERFACE SCL TRIM SEN⫹
TRIM SMM152 sell for $3.49 and
A0-A2
WP CAPM⫹ VOUTⳮ
$3.79 (1000), respectively.
(GPIO0) SENⳮ Samples and the SMM151EV
(GPIO1) CAPMⳮ
DC/DC CONVERTER
evaluation modules are avail-
(GPIO2) VM⫹ able, and volume production
(GPIO3) VMⳮ has begun.—by Paul Rako
컄Summit Microelec-
The SMM151 power-supervisor IC provides voltage and current measurement as well as margining tronics, www.summitmicro.
and supervisory functions. com/SMM151.
EDNBLOG
EMBEDDED WEBBLOG
I
n their quest for near-100% voltages of 5V or lower; the
uptime, designers of high- 15V, 15A PI2123 suits ap- tive-ORing P12002 controller
availability-system applica- plications with bus voltages IC has a load-disconnect fea-
tions, such as telecom and of 9.6V or lower; and the 30V, ture that functions like that of
datacom servers, employ re- 12A PI2125 suits applications the PI2122 but works with in-
dundant-power systems: If with bus voltages of 12V. The dustry-standard, back-to-back
one power supply fails, a re- typical on-state resistances N-channel MOSFETs.
dundant supply can pick up the for the three parts are 1.5, 3, Picor’s Cool-ORing family of The PI2121, PI2123, and
load. Redundant- and backup- and 5.5 m⍀, respectively. Each devices integrates high-speed PI2125 come in 17-pin, 5⫻
ORing-MOSFET controllers
power supplies enter the load part can also work in parallel 7⫻2-mm-high, thermally en-
with low-on-state-resistance
along with ORing MOSFETs, to address higher current re- MOSFETs that achieve a typi- hanced LGA packages and sell
which ideally should have a quirements through a mas- cal dynamic response of 160 for $1.98 (10,000). The dis-
minimal on-state resistance ter/slave feature. The devices nsec and a typical on-state crete Cool-ORing controllers
and fast dynamic response to detect normal-forward, exces- resistance as low as 1.5 m⍀. are available in 3⫻3-mm, 10-
power source failures. sive-forward, light-load, and lead TDFN packages and sell
Picor’s Cool-ORing fam- reverse-current flow through thresholds using external re- for 84 cents for the PI2001 and
ily, comprising the PI2121, their internal MOSFETs, and sistor dividers. PI2003 and 92 cents (10,000)
PI2123, and PI2125 devices, they report fault conditions The family also includes dis- for the PI2002. An eight-lead
integrates high-speed ORing- through an active low-fault- crete versions of the ORing SOIC-package option costs
MOSFET controllers with low- flag output. A temperature- controllers. The high-speed, 76 cents for the PI2001 and
on-state-resistance MOSFETs sensing function indicates active-ORing PI2001 control- PI2003 and 83 cents for the
that typically achieve a dynam- a fault if the maximum junc- ler targets use with industry- PI2002 (10,000).
ic response within 160 nsec. tion temperature exceeds standard single or paralleled —by Margery Conner
The 8V, 24A PI2121 targets 160⬚C. You can program the MOSFETs; the PI2003 con- 컄Picor, www.vicorpower.com/
use in applications with bus undervoltage and overvoltage troller suits use in ⫺48V, re- picorpower.
EDNBLOG
BRIAN’S BRAIN
HDD (and SSD) capacities: up, up, and away tive? Although SSDs lag their
HDD counterparts on both
IT SEEMS LIKE just yester- Samsung’s products are absolute capacity and cost/
day that I was first writing to finally shipping in volume (as
Hitachi’s gigabyte metrics, suppliers
you about the world’s first 1- well that 1-Tbyte drives have accomplish- continue striving to at least
Tbyte, 3.5-in. HDD (hard-disk dipped below $150!). ment didn’t maintain pace with the rotat-
drive). Hitachi’s accom- Recent announce- ing-storage mainstay. Witness,
plishment didn’t remain ments show that ven-
remain sole- for example, Samsung’s 128-
sole-sourced long, of dors’ competitive juices sourced long, Gbyte SSD announcement.
course, given the hyper- have by no means of course. Samsung accomplishes this
competitiveness of the abated, even in the 2.5-in.-form-factor feat by
HDD industry. Seagate slightest. On July 9, means of MLC (multilevel-
launched a four-platter (250- Hitachi finally got its 1-Tbyte bit-packing peak for PMR cell, also known as 2-bit-per-
Gbyte/platter) configuration drive down to a three-platter (perpendicular-magnetic- cell) NAND-flash memory,
in June 2007, along with a configuration, the 7200-rpm recording) technology. That which roughly doubles the
Samsung paper launch of a Deskstar 7K1000.B. One same generation of magnetic amount of storage capacity
three-platter (333-Gbyte/ day later, Samsung released recording translates to 0.5- achievable for a given amount
platter) configuration in that the world’s first 1.5-Tbyte Gbyte, 5400- and 7200-rpm, of silicon area on a given pro-
same time frame. Western HDD, high-end member of 2.5-in. HDDs, which won’t cess lithography.
Digital waited until late July the 7200.11 product family, appear until some time in the —by Brian Dipert
2007 to unveil its own four- which was scheduled to enter fourth quarter. 왘www.edn.com/briansbrain.
platter configuration, and production in August. At 375 And what about the SSD 왘For the full post, go to www.
recent data suggests that Gbytes/platter, it hits a new (solid-state-drive) alterna- edn.com/080904b2.
Audio Processor for Advanced TV: ADAV4622 Crystal clear video. Rich, true-to-life sound. Deep color quality. And superior
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promotes seamless interconnectivity. HD delivery, designers who select from the Advantiv portfolio are benefiting
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Low Power HDMI Transmitter with CEC: ADV7520NK to meet the demands of the toughest applications. Wherever user
Longer battery life; lighter and smaller designs; enables
experience defines the design, Analog Devices defines the possibilities.
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HDMI/DVI 1:1 Buffer: AD8195 To experience what Analog Devices can do for your design,
Features equalized TMDS inputs and pre-emphasized
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pulse
the complexity of the prod-
ucts and the need to provide
higher-level tools to our cus-
tomers. Our most capable FP-
GA designers started as hard-
VOICES ware engineers with a flair for
algorithms, DSP, and software
Pentek’s Rodger Hosking: tools. More than ever, techni-
cal writers need to be capable
next-generation-radio engineers with specific exper-
tise in the area of technology
architect ing power dissipation with new
silicon techniques.
they are documenting but not
so close to it that they over-
R
odger Hosking is vice president and co-founder of Pen-
These trends will support look the need to explain some
tek Inc, where he is responsible for new-product defi-
small, complete, system-level of the basics in our manuals.
nition, technology development, and strategic alliances.
solutions close to the antennas Customer-support engineers
With more than 30 years’ experience in the electronics indus-
and sensors. They will include need a special blend of tech-
try, he has authored hundreds of articles about software radio
acquisition, generation, upcon- nical expertise, patience, and
and digital-signal processing. He designed the first commercial
version and downconversion, empathy to help customers
direct-digital-frequency synthesizer and holds patents in fre-
modulation and demodulation, become successful, even if it
quency synthesis and FFT (fast-Fourier-transform)-spectrum-
analysis and detection, buff- is their first exposure to this
analysis techniques. Hosking has a bachelor’s degree in phys-
ering and forwarding, and lo- complex technology.
ics from Allegheny College (Meadville, PA) and both bachelor’s
cal supervisory and decision- Retaining engineers is dif-
and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia
making functions. High-speed ficult because each one is
University (New York).
gigabit links will connect these uniquely qualified and moti-
What are the technical chal- All of these factors lead to autonomous subsystems to a vated, but tasking them with
lenges that you face in high- longer development cycles central facility through dedicat- several areas of engineering
performance-data-acquisi- while the rate of new-technol- ed paths or over the Internet. responsibilities often proves to
tion- and software-radio- ogy-device introductions is in- be a successful strategy.
product development? creasing. This [combination of As a COTS-board manufac-
Complexity of the sili- factors] leads to shorter life turer, how do you prevent What motivated you to se-
A con devices, coupled cycles for each product, even the interoperability issues lect electrical engineering
with high component density though development costs are when designing for today’s and the high-tech industry
and power dissipation, pushes higher. rival fabric-interconnection as a profession?
the limits of PCB [printed-cir- standards? As a very small child, I
cuit-board] design, mechanical As you look ahead for the The most successful A was always fascinated
packaging, and thermal-man- next few years, which tech- A tactic has been to fol- with anything that had to do
agement technology. Gigabit nologies and applications low the standards as closely as with electricity. Later on, I be-
serial links impose strict layout present the most interest- possible and declare each lev- came an avid electronics hob-
rules for matching lengths and ing opportunities? el of compliance your product byist, building hundreds of my
impedances of differential-sig- FPGAs have created supports. A series of simple ex- own projects inspired by mag-
nal pairs. Testing and validation A a major shift in COTS- ample programs demonstrat- azine articles and books. For
of new designs requires not product offerings for data ac- ing operation of the basic mes- me, a career in electronics was
only hardware expertise, but al- quisition and software radio saging types can be extremely a no-brainer.
so a significant software effort by offering critical functions, useful for interfacing with prod-
because of the complexity and including fast and flexible I/O ucts from other vendors. What activities do you pur-
inaccessibility of hardware test resources, DSP engines, con- sue for relaxation outside
points. Drivers and software li- figurable logic and RAM, giga- Which engineering talents your high-tech work envi-
braries offered by the COTS bit serial interfaces, and built- are most important to Pen- ronment?
[commercial-off-the-shelf] ven- in microcontrollers. All of these tek, and how do you find and Outside work, I spend my
dors to support customer-de- features will become more retain them? A time running, rollerblad-
velopment efforts need to sup- powerful in next-generation Fifteen years ago, we ing, ballroom dancing, watching
port multiple operating-system FPGAs. Monolithic ADC and A had one software en- old movies, and listening to mu-
environments and require more DAC technology will contin- gineer for every three hard- sic from the ’30s and ’40s.
testing, qualification, and docu- ue to advance both resolution ware engineers. That ratio is —Interview conducted and
mentation than ever before. and sampling rates while tam- now exactly reversed due to edited by Warren Webb
R A Q ’ s
D E S I G N N E W S 0 0 . 0 0 . 0 0 [ w w w. d e s i g n n e w s . c o m ] 1
BAKER’S BEST
,,
BY BONNIE BAKER
RF CF
PHOTODIODE
ISC CRF
CPD
RPD
DPD
CCM
CDIFF AOL(j) VOU
CCM
NOTES:
A
CCM = COMMON-MODE-AMPLIFIER CAPACITANCE.
CDIFF = DIFFERENTIAL-AMPLIFIER CAPACITANCE.
that information into a useful digital word. At the sys- AOL(j)= AMPLIFIER OPEN-LOOP GAIN.
© 2008 Newark, a trademark of Premier Farnell Corp. All other trademarks, registered or unregistered, are the property of their respective holders. A Premier Farnell Company
PRYING EYES BRIAN DIPERT • SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR PRY FURTHER AT EDN.COM
+ Go to www.edn.com/080904pry
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SHEDDING LIGHT ON
EMBEDDED
DEBUGGING
EMBEDDED DEBUGGING GETS A LOT OF ATTENTION FOR BEING A SCHEDULE AND
RESOURCE HOG, BUT THERE MAY BE MORE TO IT THAN JUST FIXING BAD SOFTWARE.
or each year of Embedded Systems Design’s annu- bugging tools are not merely extensions
F
al market survey of embedded-system developers, of programming tools that help develop-
ers correct mistakes or incorrect coding.
the single most requested area of improvement for There is a less obvious, almost implic-
design activities is debugging tools (Reference 1). it aspect of engineering—that designers
The percentage of respondents making this request must not only design systems that per-
has remained steady at around 32% throughout the form some desirable function, but also
three years of the survey. In contrast, the percent- eliminate or mitigate undesirable behav-
iors that may result from uncertainty and
age of respondents seeking improved programming variability in the environment, so that
tools has dropped from a high of 25% to 10%. De- the system behaves consistently across a
termining why the evolution of modern debugging tools is failing range of operating conditions. This hid-
to hit the mark as well as software-programming tools do is worth den side of engineering potentially pro-
vides insight into the challenges facing
exploring—especially when the surveys to create systems that perform and de- software-debugging tools, especially for
each year also confirm that the testing- liver a practical approach to a problem. embedded-system designers. In addition
and-debugging phase continues to be the Software-programming tools focus on to dealing with processor-architecture
one that consumes the largest amount— the creation side of software engineering. practical constraints for performance,
24%—of the project schedule. The third The survey results suggest that program- function, communication, latency, and
standout request for improvement in all ming tools are on the right path toward power consumption, embedded systems
three years’ surveys is the project-man- improving productivity for the creation often have to deal with real-world in-
agement function of scheduling (see of system code to solve problems. But the terfaces that may exhibit behaviors that
sidebar “COCOMO and evidence-based failure of debugging tools to trend down- are more difficult to predict or charac-
scheduling”). ward as a primary concern alongside pro- terize completely across the whole range
One explicit aspect of engineering is gramming tools suggests that software-de- of usage scenarios.
current project character- performance, and qual- you measure in hours—for Based Scheduling,” Joel
istics. Software engineer ity factors; and deciding example, no more than on Software, Oct 26, 2007,
Barry Boehm first pub- which parts of a software 16 hours to ensure the www.joelonsoftware.com/
lished the model in 1981. system to develop, reuse, estimator has actually items/2007/10/26.html.
DPO70000/DSA70000 Series
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DPO4000/MSO4000 Series
350 MHz to 1 GHz
DSA8000 Series
DC to 70+ GHz
Source: Reed Research. © 2008 Tektronix, Inc. All rights reserved. Tektronix products are covered by U.S. and foreign patents, issued and pending. TEKTRONIX and the Tektronix logo are registered trademarks of Tektronix, Inc.
Stay ahead of the curve.
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debugging tools with the needed func-
tional support still exceed some critical THE LAST DECADE
cost threshold. It is interesting to note HAS SEEN SERIOUS
that this cost threshold is lower than
that for hardware-design tools, even EROSION IN ROYALTY-
though most software-development BASED OPERATING-
tools will likely support more of the ad-
ditional complexity in new systems. SYSTEM- AND
The last decade has seen serious ero- DEVELOPMENT-TOOL-
sion in royalty-based operating-system-
and development-tool-license models.
LICENSE MODELS.
The growing success of Linux as an op-
erating system in embedded systems is
due largely to the cost advantage of us-
ing open-source software. Additionally,
many embedded-system tools from sili-
con providers have adopted the open-
source Eclipse platform to host their
development tools, which substantially
reduces the cost of building these tools,
simplifies configuring their tools by the Cortex-M3 core supports a new real-
end user, and allows them to focus their time-trace capability. Trace enables re-
engineering effort on the features of the verse-order instruction execution, which
tools rather than the look and feel of the more simulators are supporting. The
host environment. This observation is Green Hills Software Multi Time Ma-
not to say that debugging tools have not chine debugging suite enables develop-
followed the same downward trend in ers to swap between on-chip debugging
pricing. At the extreme, many processor and simulator debugging to support sim-
vendors offer small evaluation kits that ulated reverse-order execution.
allow developers to experiment with IEEE-ISTO 5001-2003, the Nexus
the systems for much less than $100. In- 5001 Forum open industry standard for
deed, many development kits that cost a global embedded-processor-debugging
hundreds of dollars today include fea- method, provides a general-purpose in-
tures you would find a decade ago only terface for the software development
in much costlier tool sets. and debugging of embedded processors.
As on-chip-debugging circuitry ex- The initial focus of the Nexus 5001 Fo-
pands on contemporary processor archi- rum was automotive power-train appli-
tectures, the industry may continue to cations, but its result has evolved to be-
see the higher-end-debugging functions come a general-purpose standard. The
finding their way into lower-cost devel- Nexus 5001 Forum membership spans
opment-tool kits. Many processors, in- the semiconductor, development-tool,
cluding small, 8-bit processors, contain and automotive-electronics industries.
some proprietary on-chip-debugging cir- As the cost of silicon continues to drop
cuitry. “The on-chip-debug system is one and on-chip-debugging interfaces and
of the most complex circuits in the chip functions become standard, processor
because it has to non-intrusively inter- providers will likely flow high-end on-
connect with all of the subsystems,” says chip-debugging capabilities from high-
Dag Arne Braend, AVR-development- end processors to lower-end processors
tool director at Atmel. “And it has been to provide even more on-chip visibility.
difficult to justify incurring the extra This step will become necessary to gain
cost for this complexity for something design wins.
that many systems will never use in field
DESIGN AID
intersil.com/power
devices.”
Real-time trace appears to be the next John Lambert, chief executive offi-
emerging on-chip-debugging capabil- cer of Virtutech, offers an immediate
ity moving down the processor hierar- possible mitigating factor for the higher
chy. Processors using ARM cores with costs in favor of system-level-simulation
an ETM (embedded-trace macrocell) tools. “A development team usually ac-
enable the downloading of instruction quires our platform to support either the
and data traces from the processor. The front or the back end of its current proj-
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©2007 Lattice Semiconductor Corporation. All rights reserved. Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, L (& design), Lattice (& design), LatticeECP2M, LatticeECP2, LatticeSC, LatticeXP, TransFR, and specific product desig-
nations are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Lattice Semiconductor Corporation or its subsidiaries, in the United States and/or other countries. Other marks are used for identification purposes only, and
may be trademarks of other parties.
ect, but once the team uses the tool, it
more fully realizes its value and uses it at ONE REASON YOU
both ends of the design cycle in future MIGHT CALL THEM
projects,” he says.
This theory exposes another possi- DEBUGGING TOOLS
ble disconnect in what embedded-sys- INSTEAD OF DESIGN
tem designers mean when they say they
need better debugging tools. A primary AIDS IS THAT THE
Direct
function of debugging tools is to pro-
vide visibility into the state of the sys-
CAPABILITIES OF THE Online
tem during runtime. When a system in- TOOLS ARE UNUSABLE Ordering
cludes complex interfaces, sensors, and UNTIL THE SYSTEM-
actuators, a debugger may be the most
expedient tool available for examining
INTEGRATION PHASE
these external systems’ functions be- OF A PROJECT.
cause accurate signal generation for all
of the tightly coupled subsystems is a
major challenge. Therefore, one reason
you might call them debugging tools in-
stead of design aids is that the capabili-
ties of the tools are unusable until the
system-integration phase of a project,
when debugging is well under way.
Looking at debugging tools as design
Check real-time
aids provides a valuable perspective, es- A second example involved taking
pecially when working with closed-loop- the system-integration-test data and availability
control systems where the outputs affect running it through a spreadsheet pro-
the inputs of a system. It can be chal- gram to analyze whether the closed-
lenging to verify the behavior of closed- loop-control algorithm was performing
loop-control systems. I have used end- properly. Again, no amount of software
system software and sensor hardware to simulation or design effort could ac-
characterize and validate how an auto- count for actually hooking the equip-
matic-gain-control algorithm worked
with a sensor across a range of expect-
ment together and collecting the data;
it was more cost-effective to run the
Order with
ed circumstances (Reference 2). There
was no way to simulate this condition or
tests during integration than to try to
create one-time-accurate models of the
your credit card
even test for something like it in a pure prototype system. However, I did use
software-debugging environment be- the information I learned about the sys-
cause there is no accurate model for the tem behavior to build simulation mod-
sensor. As a result, I discovered an un- els for the next-generation-develop-
known characteristic of the sensor before ment work.
it was too late. Another characteristic of debugging
embedded systems is that problems are Ships within 2
+ For related blog posts about embed- not necessarily solely from software er-
ded processing, go to www.edn.com/ rors. However, because it is much more business days
blog/1890000189.html. cost- and schedule-effective to fix most
problems in software, designers usual-
+ For a related article about the
ly implement a software fix to resolve
Eclipse development platform, go to
problems. However, making and record-
www.edn.com/article/CA373866.
ing a fix as a software change belies the
+ For related material about flexible amount of cross-discipline cooperation
silicon, visit www.edn.com/article/ necessary to find, diagnose, and deter- intersil.com/ibuy
CA6558499. mine an acceptable resolution. In fact,
many embedded-system-debugging prob-
+ Go to www.edn.com/080904df
lems are cross-disciplinary, requiring un-
and click on Feedback Loop to post derstanding and expertise of the system
a comment on this article. hardware, software, and domain-specific
+ For more technical articles, go to constraints. This situation does not pose
www.edn.com/features. a problem if the person doing the system-
integration testing happens to be an ex-
pert in all three of these disciplines, but comes through the USB connection,
those types of people are rare indeed. which greatly simplifies the power set-
Because of the cross-disciplinary na- up for using those boards. The interfac-
ture of debugging embedded systems, es to send commands and collect data
debugging tools and engineering ser- between the embedded system and the
vices have an opportunity to fill a void. host system are now simpler to use, and
Just because a debugging tool provides a there is talk of using wireless interfaces
specific type of visibility into the system for debugging systems in the near future.
does not mean that developers will use Many development-tool sets provide
Precisely What that feature. David Kleidermacher, chief a preconfigured setup and allow devel-
technology officer at Green Hills Soft- opers to test the board to confirm that
You Need! ware, agrees. “Too many options in tools it and its tools are working properly in
require a larger learning curve for devel- a known circumstance. Reid Tatge, a
opers, [which] results in a low adoption technical fellow at Texas Instruments,
rate of many of those features,” he says. explains that a goal of the company’s de-
Developers tend to use the simplest fea- velopment tools is to make embedded
tures due to time pressure, and develop- development look like the development
ers adopt these advanced features more of “wintel” systems—those based on In-
as part of a lesson they learned from pre- tel microprocessors and Microsoft Win-
vious projects. Partly in response to this dows operating systems—to ease the
realization, Green Hills added an “al- learning curve for designers to use their
ways-on” trace capability to its Multi embedded processors.
Time Machine debugging tool; the trace Micrium’s C/Probe aims to make
has become more useful to developers it easier for developers to quickly visu-
because the default condition costs the alize what is going on in their systems.
developer practically nothing, requires The tool consists of two pieces of soft-
no learning curve to use, and is more ware—one that runs on the host sys-
effective than explicitly turning on the tem and performs the data analysis and
trace-capture function. display and one that acts as a code stub
Another challenge facing develop- that you load on the target system. The
ers debugging embedded systems is set- stub manages I/O and resource queries
up and configuration of the testbench. as well as communication with the host
This issue is a low-cost, high-value con- system. Although it is an intrusive form
cern that many tool providers are trying of instrumenting the embedded-system
to address in their tool sets. The power code, it provides runtime access to the
supply for many evaluation boards now system without halting your system. The
tool is available for around $1000.
National Instruments’ LabView pro-
F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N vides strong visualization support and
ARM Microchip includes a graphical-programming ca-
www.arm.com www.microchip.com pability. It also includes built-in mea-
Atmel Microsoft surement and analysis functions that it
www.atmel.com www.microsoft.com
organizes around application domains so
Cadence MIPS
www.cadence.com www.mips.com that developers can select which capa-
Eclipse National Instruments bilities to use. The debugging visualiza-
www.eclipse.org www.ni.com tions are well-suited for data-flow execu-
Fog Creek Software NEC of America tion models. Prices for tool sets that in-
www.fogcreek.com www.necam.com tegrate hardware, software, and domain-
Freescale Nexus 5001 Forum specific functions start at around $1000
www.freescale.com www.nexus5001.org
Green Hills Software Renesas
but can exceed $10,000 if you need to
www.ghs.com www.renesas.com add on a heavy amount of domain-spe-
intersil.com/pinpoint Hi-Tech Software Texas Instruments cific tools.
www.htsoft.com www.ti.com This type of pricing flexibility illus-
Intel Vast trates a challenge for many tool provid-
www.intel.com www.vastsystems.com
ers; customers want to pay for only the
Keil Virtutech
www.keil.com www.virtutech.com
right level of visibility based on different
Lauterbach Wind River
touch points. For example, some devel-
www.lauterbach.com www.windriver.com opers target an operating system and do
Micrium not concern themselves with the details
www.micrium.com of the underlying processor architecture.
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Other developers target the instruction- ta that can make it to the host system take advantage of those hidden resourc-
set architecture. Still others worry about for real-time and post-runtime analy- es. But it is a far cry from having a tool
lower-level interactions, such as those in sis. Additionally, processor vendors do that an expert can use in a limited sit-
the architecture layer, which connects not always expose features to the pub- uation to making that tool robust and
all of the resources in the system. lic that they implement on a chip; they usable across a wide range of scenarios
Even when the tools provide the vis- may choose to hide those features be- and expertise levels. Unfortunately, en-
ibility a designer needs, knowing what cause the features are experimental and gineering services are labor-intensive
to look for is another hurdle because vendors are not ready to provide robust, and expensive—far exceeding the cost
the communication link between the production-level support for them. In- threshold of most software-development
on-chip system and the host system lim- ternal tools and expert field-applica- budgets except in the most dire of trou-
its the amount and type of captured da- tion-engineering services, however, can bleshooting scenarios.
To continue evolving, debugging tools
require correlated input from hardware,
software, and domain experts. In some
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EDA TOOLS ADDRESS SIMULATION, VERIFICATION, AND LAYOUT FOR MIXED-SIGNAL DESIGNS.
A
tools have a venerable history in the Mar Hershenson, vice president of
product development at Magma De-
EDA market, having long added some sign Automation’s custom-design-
Spice to their digital-simulation coun- business unit, describes analog design
terparts. When it comes to converting as it has occurred over the last 20
simulations to sine waves and silicon, years as the work of artists, with en-
however, analog-EDA tools fall short gineers manually designing op amps
and other analog functions. As if an-
of what has been possible in the digi- alog design weren’t difficult enough,
tal domain. That scenario is beginning she adds, integrating the analog and
to change. Tools are emerging from traditional digital-EDA the digital portions of a mixed-signal
providers that support the fabrication of analog functions in design can take weeks. Further, for
nanometer-geometry digital processes. In addition, foundry- every process node, analog-system
specific tool kits are easing the implementation of analog, RF, engineers must manually re-create
designs.
and high-voltage functions in analog processes. And even ICs that are function-
Designers cannot expect smooth log, during this year’s DAC (Design ally digital—that is, producing no
sailing, though; full automation of Automation Conference) keynote signals other than zeros or ones—are
analog- and mixed-signal design re- address (Reference 1). Not all prob- exhibiting behavior that requires
mains elusive. Even analog-Spice en- lems are amenable to digital compu- analog-design and -test techniques.
gines may run out of steam as chips tational solutions, however. You can’t That situation is particularly true of
become more complex, requiring readily “calculate” a 120V signal lev- the high-speed serial interfaces that
excessive times for full-chip simula- el, no matter how many 45-nm digi- let chips communicate with the out-
tion, even with fast-Spice implemen- tal transistors you throw at the prob- side world.
tations. Nevertheless, vendors are lem. And, apart from voltage and
working on multiple fronts to bring current levels, the need for analog IP AND ANALOG BEHAVIOR
automaton to the traditionally hand- functions isn’t going away. As Texas The term analog conjures up vi-
crafted analog-design task. Instruments Senior Vice President sions of op amps and data convert-
One way to deal with analog de- Gregg Lowe points out, the transi- ers, but, explains Navraj Nandra, di-
sign is to reformulate analog prob- tion to digital—for instance, music’s rector of marketing for mixed-signal
lems as computational ones. Justin transition from vinyl to MP3—re- IP (intellectual property) at Synop-
R Rattner, vice president and chief sults in an increase in analog content sys, “The speeds of today’s chips’ se-
technology officer at Intel, suggested (Reference 2). rial-digital-I/O lines ensure that an-
that approach, digitally assisted ana- The need for more analog content alog effects come into play” even in
Controllers
Digital Signal
in the U.S.A. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective companies. © 2008, Microchip Technology Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
Analog
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t Free up pins on your connector 11AA020 2K 1.8-5.5V
11LC020 2K 2.5-5.5V
– Smaller connector = lower cost
11AA040 4K 1.8-5.5V
t Compact: Tiny packages and no pullup resistors 11LC040 4K 2.5-5.5V
11AA080 8K 1.8-5.5V
Optimized for embedded applications 11LC080 8K 2.5-5.5V
t Software Write Protection ¼, ½, or full array 11AA160 16K 1.8-5.5V
t Flexible data rate 10 - 100 kHz set by host 11LC160 16K 2.5-5.5V
t 1-million E/W cycles, 200-year data retention
t Low standby current - 1 μA
t Real EEPROM, up to 125˚C
www.microchip.com/UNIO
Titan Chip Finishing’s speed, she said it
SYSTEM DESIGN
can open a 42-Gbyte file in 4 minutes
and can redraw a full chip in 8 seconds.
Mentor Graphics’ approach is to bring
together design-implementation and DESIGN SYNTHESIS
-verification tools into an analog/mixed-
signal-design flow that a data-manage-
ment system governs (Figure 3), accord- MIXED-SIGNAL VERIFICATION
ing to Min-Fang Ho, general manager of
Mentor’s custom-IC division. The De- ANALOG DIGITAL
AND RF MIXED-SIGNAL IMPLEMENTATION
sign Manager data-management tool al-
lows users to collaborate among multiple
sites or handle revision control. Other
components include Design Architect PARASITIC
TIMING
IC for schematic capture, IC Station and EXTRACTION
ANALYSIS
ICassemble layout and assembly tools, AND VERIFICATION
*Qualified Engineers only ©2008 Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. All rights reserved.
lan n in g an
P sed
rn e t -ba
Ethe
s t S ys te m?
Te SCHEMATIC CAPTURE
SIMULATION CONTROL
INTERACTIVE
ANALYSIS
DESIGN
VERIFICATION
TECHNOLOGY-
DESIGN KIT
TECHNOLOGY FILE
• The widest varity of VXI-11
interfaces from any vendor LAYOUT
PHYSICAL
INTERACTIVE VERIFICATION/
FLOORPLAN AND VERIFICATION EXTRACTION
ASSEMBLY
Figure 3 Allowing users to collaborate among multiple sites, Mentor Graphics’ Design
Manager data-management tool orchestrates an interactive analog/mixed-signal design
flow. Within the flow, Design Architect IC handles schematic capture and simulation
control; IC Station and ICassemble perform layout, floorplanning, and assembly; Eldo,
ADiT, and ICAnalyst handle design verification; and Calibre DRC/LVS and Calibre xRC
128 line digital I/O boards handle physical verification and extraction.
with optional relay drivers.
Hemon list several features they would velop complex device models that de-
want to see in commercial tools: support signers can efficiently simulate. Finally,
for high-voltage transistors, not just low- Ho notes, printability issues are affect-
voltage CMOS transistors; the ability to ing designs at 40 nm, and manufacturers
model ESD (electrostatic-discharge) ef- might btter address those issues at the
fects; and the ability to predict defect design stage rather than through RET
rates and aging effects. To capture de- (reticle-enhancement-technology) and
fects in the analog portion of mixed-sig- OPC (optical-process-correction) tech-
Standalone boxes with
nal silicon, Hemon says Freescale engi- niques.EDN
digital, relays, Modbus RTU neers would like to develop a test meth-
and GPIB interfaces. odology similar to the digital domain’s R E FE R E NCE S
IDDQ (integrated-circuit-quiescent-cur- 1 Nelson, Rick, “Analog—that com-
rent) test. Finally, they would like to see putes,” Test & Measurement World,
• VXI-11 means easy control test-program-generation support. June 11, 2008, www.tmworld.com/
from Linux, Unix and EDA vendors aren’t specific about article/CA6569252.
Windows PCs with C, what’s just over the horizon, but Ca- 2 Rako, Paul, “Analog maestro plays to
dence’s Lewis says his company is look- medical and other emerging markets,”
VB or LabVIEW. ing at bringing assertion-based approach- EDN Innovators 2008, June 2008, pg
es—common in the digital world—to 28, www.edn.com/article/CA6569192.
• The payoff is faster, less facilitate verification and test of mixed- 3 Nandra, Navraj, “On-chip test capa-
Reliable
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Using FPGAs
in consumer electronics
IN COST-SENSITIVE CONSUMER-ELECTRONICS PRODUCTS,
CUSTOMIZATION IS A HIGHLY DESIRABLE FEATURE FOR
DIFFERENTIATING YOUR PRODUCT FROM COMPETITORS’ OFFER-
INGS. THE INCLUSION OF FPGAs CAN BE AFFORDABLE, EVEN
IN LOW-RANGE AND MIDRANGE PRODUCTS, BUT STILL ALLOWS
CUSTOMIZATION THROUGH SOME UNIQUE FEATURES.
t may seem odd to be reading about analog-audio and -vid- manufacturers, such as Analog Devices (www.analog.com),
I
eo processing when the industry is currently focusing on which offers the AD9981. The ADC also performs synchro-
the analog transmission switch-off and the digital-broad- nization-separation and clock-generation functions and can
casting successor. However, for legacy reasons and because interface to CVBS (composite-video-broadcast-signal), YC
of the increase in demand from markets that have later (S-video), YPbPr (green/blue/red), and RGB (red/green/blue)
switch-off dates, such as East Europe, India, and South inputs. An external ADC usually achieves a better SNR (sig-
America, it is likely that analog decoding will be a require- nal-to-noise ratio) than that of an integrated alternative, but
ment well into the next decade. the cost of implementation is about 50% higher than that of
Several typical blocks constitute analog-front-end-acquisi- a standard-IC option. However, integrating additional func-
tion circuits (Figure 1). You generally achieve the SIF (sound- tions into the FPGA can mitigate this cost increase.
intermediate frequency) and video decoding through the use For example, it is common for recorders to allow users to
of one or two ICs from a number of manufacturers. The system record one channel while watching another or for televi-
requires external memory if it includes a 3-D comb filter, as sions to have picture-in-picture features. Such capabilities
well as, perhaps, a baseband-audio-stereo ADC. Repetitions of require two digital tuners, two analog tuners, two decoders,
these blocks exist in multituner-system configurations. and, therefore, two sets of ICs in the non-FPGA implementa-
tion. However, you can embed two de- ing that requirement from the main con-
coders within one small FPGA, thereby troller. For example, a microcontroller
limiting the incremental cost to one ad- can issue a simple high-level instruction
ower DC-DC CONVERTERS
High P ditional ADC. To reduce area, it may to tune channels. Advantages of this ap-
Regulated, Up to 400 Watts
Up to 100 volts Standard
be possible to limit decoder options for proach include faster initial channel-ac-
Military
the secondary channel by, for example, quisition times and the ability to power
INdustrial
omitting SECAM (séquentiel-couleur- down more of the main controller under
avec-mémoire) decoding. The total cost standby conditions; this approach has
of the FPGA option, as a result, will be appeal in today’s “green” society.
similar to or even less than that of the You can incorporate additional func-
oltage DC-DC CONVERTERS IC option. tions for higher-end consumer products
High V Up to 10,000 VCD Output
Up to 300 Watts
by integrating the SDI (serial-digital-
NEW Dual Outputs New Regulated Output TUNER ALTERNATIVES interface) receiver. FPGAs now offer
Next, consider how to include addi- LVDS (low-voltage-differential-signal-
tional functions in the FPGA. The con- ing) receivers and clock-recovery cir-
ventional metal-“can” analog tuner con- cuits, which permit the implementation
tains two main functions: an RF tuner of an SDI receiver with just an exter-
and a demodulator. You can reduce the nal cable-equalizer IC. This approach is
AC-DC POWER SUPPLIERS cost of the tuner by alternatively per- considerably cheaper than using a com-
Linear • Switches • Open Frame forming demodulation digitally within plete SDI-receiver IC.
Low Profile • Up to 200 Watts
the FPGA. The video ADC can digitize IC-based video-decoder options usu-
the video IF. The cost savings from elim- ally also strip off the information in the
inating the need for a tuner will double vertical-blanking area of the signal, but
in the case of dual-tuner products. This they leave the processing of that por-
option also opens the possibility of us- tion of the signal for the main processor.
ing a silicon tuner, whose performance Again, having some specialized hard-
POWER FACTOR
is now adequate for most consumer ware and a local controller within the
CORRECTED MODULES
Universal Input • 47-440 hz products. The silicon tuner, with its FPGA permit, for example, closed-cap-
to 1000 Watts • 99 Power Factor all-region capability, brings possibilities tion decoding. Decoding closed-caption
for cost-effective, all-region consumer or Teletext subtitles is common in tele-
products with corresponding manufac- visions, but less so in PVRs (personal
turing-cost savings. Metal-can tuners, video recorders) and DVD (digital-vid-
conversely, are usually region-specific for eo-disc) recorders. However, superim-
unit-cost reasons. posing the subtitle on the output BT656
PICO Another FPGA-enabled possibility is
to add local intelligence through the in-
video, as an FPGA can do, allows the
recording of subtitles for deaf and par-
Electronics,Inc.
143 Sparks Ave. Pelham, N.Y. 10803-18889
tegration of a small microcontroller core tially deaf users. You could embed the
for front-end functions, thereby offload- decoded subtitles in the MPEG (Mov-
Call Toll Free 800-431-1064
E Mail: info@picoelectronics.com
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1.5 V
VTM LOAD2
FPGA
SIF DECODING
I2S/2
(NICAM, A2, BTSC, EIA-J)
TUNER 2 SIF
CONTROL MICROPROCESSOR
NOTES:
BTSC: BROADCAST TELEVISION SYSTEMS NTSC: NATIONAL TELEVISION SYSTEM COMMITTEE.
COMMITTEE. PAL: PHASE-ALTERNATING LINE.
CVBS: COMPOSITE-VIDEO-BROADCAST SIGNAL. SECAM: SÉQUENTIEL COULEUR AVEC MÉMOIRE.
EIA-J: ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIES SIF: SOUND INTERMEDIATE FREQUENCY.
ASSOCIATION OF JAPAN. VBI: VERTICAL-BLANKING INTERVAL.
I2S: INTER-IC SOUND. VIF: VIDEO INTERFACE.
NICAM: NEAR-INSTANTANEOUS COMPANDED- YC: S VIDEO.
AUDIO MULTIPLEXED. YPBPR: GREEN/BLUE/RED.
ing Picture Experts Group) metadata for perfect decoding of complex still frames.
a more elegant approach. However, for real-life images, the wide
aperture of the PAL-frame comb often
COMB IMPLEMENTATIONS means that the 3-D comb will fail on
Another potentially integrated func- moving images and thereby regress to
tion is an improved comb filter. Most line-comb mode. A field comb offers a
consumer products use a 2-D comb, good compromise between memory re-
which leaves undesirable decoding arti- quirements and performance. For PAL, a
facts that also consume valuable band- field comb requires 312 lines⫻1440 pix-
width if compressed. A good 3-D comb els⫻8 bits minimum⫽3.6 Mbits. Unfor-
can noticeably improve quality, but it tunately, this capacity is still too large to
FCC, IC, CE and requires an external-memory device. enable the use of integrated memory in
Telec Certified Available 3-D-comb-IC options use a
symmetrical frame comb, which for PAL
small, cost-effective FPGAs.
However, it is possible to implement
requires four frames⫻625 lines⫻1440 a pseudo-3-D comb that fits within
pixels⫻8 or 10 bits⫽36 Mbits, thereby the memory requirements of even the
necessitating an external-memory de- smallest FPGAs. Normally, three comb
vice, usually an SDRAM. You can halve modes are available to the decoder: the
this requirement by using an asymmet- 3-D comb, a 2-D line comb, and a sim-
rical comb, which has the advantage of ple mode that is either a lowpass or a
requiring no compensating audio delay. notch filter. The decoder chooses the
You can halve it again for PAL by us- appropriate comb mode, basing its deci-
ing PAL modifiers in the comb architec- sion on signals that indicate failure con-
ture. An additional halving of memory ditions, such as motion, which prevents
budget can occur with the use of a field the 3-D comb from operating, or diago-
comb. nals, which prevent the 2-D comb from
A single-tap, 262-line comb for NTSC operating. An often-assumed priority is
or a 312-line comb for PAL gives excel- that 3-D is always the preferred mode
lent results, although it does not permit and that simple mode is the least desir-
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Mountble)
true; on flat areas of color, com/ms4302 and information FM-modulates
rf ac e for example, simple mode click on Feedback onto an approximately 3.5-
Su
-H ole Availa nd is often the best mode, as Loop to post a com- MHz carrier, whereas the
(Thru sformers a measured by highest SNR ment on this article. chrominance information,
Tran nductors or least visible artifacts. The along with the luminance
I g imme
diately reason for this seeming dis-
+ For more feature
information it contains, re-
Catalo articles, go to www.
o’s full com parity is that the wide aper- modulates onto a carrier
See Pic onics.
electr
ico ture of the 3-D comb means edn.com/features.
with a frequency of approx-
w w w. p that clock jitter can leave a imately 600 kHz to avoid
residual subcarrier; just 1 nsec of clock problems recording at higher frequen-
Low Profile from jitter across an 80-msec tap distance can cies. Because of this remodulation of the
www.mill-max.com/EDN581
you derive from a highpass filter. You can determine the cor-
rect phase for the addition of the luminance signals by de-
tecting the improved sharpness of the luminance signal for
particular subcarrier phases. This approach is possible using a
highpass filter, a square-law function to rectify the highpass-
filter output and increase the weighting to the slope of the
signals, and an accumulator to measure the amount of edge
detail in the image. Correct phase adjustment is an iterative
process, albeit a satisfactory one because the phase changes
at a slow rate. The additional phase offset adds to the subcar-
rier phase you derive from the input signal. This method can
substantially improve the perceived sharpness of any VCR
source and reduce the discrepancy between the performance
of the VCR and that of the DVD. It is ideal, for example, in
transcriptions.
Incorrect timing of luminance and chrominance is common
with some video sources, such as VCRs. Noncoincidence of
vertical edges leads to a lack of clarity in the resultant video
image, specifically with regard to smearing of vertical edges.
Many video decoders offer a YC-delay control, which allows
the user to vary the comparative delay. However, the prob-
lem with this manual-control method is that the user needs
to know the delay to be able to compensate for it, effective-
ly rendering the control redundant. Such adjustment is dif-
ficult to do visually, especially for an unskilled user, and it
requires specific video-test patterns to properly perform the
adjustment. The delay can also vary over time, especially for
mechanical mechanisms, such as VCRs. However, the FPGA
can incorporate methods not available in off-the-shelf IC de-
coders to automatically, periodically retime the luminance
and chrominance.
AUDIO APPROACHES
Audio acceptance occurs in either an SIF (sound-interme-
diate frequency) from the tuner, such as NICAM or BTSC,
or baseband stereo from the composite- or component-video
inputs. ICs demodulate and decode the SIF signal; similarly,
IP cores that perform these functions are available for FPGAs.
As mentioned, the FPGA can take advantage of different
configurations for different standards to reduce the area im-
pact, and it can incorporate additional decoders for multitun-
er products.
IC options may integrate the baseband-audio ADC with
the video decoder. However, this approach usually results in a
worse SNR than that of an external-IC alternative. However,
it is possible to also use one of the video ADCs for the audio.
By substantially oversampling the audio and then decimating
the result, you can theoretically achieve the additional need-
ed bits without using an external device, leading to further
cost savings (Figure 3).EDN
AU T H O R ’ S B I O G R A P H Y
Phuttachad Thiencharoenwong is sales director for
SingMai Electronics. Before emigrating to Canada,
she ran her own civil-engineering company, ODP
Engineering, in Thailand and Singapore and previ-
ously sold electronic components in Thailand.
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THE CONVERGENCE OF VIDEO AND COMMUNICATIONS
IN INEXPENSIVE UNIFIED-MEMORY ARCHITECTURES HAS
MADE DRAM THE MOST IMPORTANT AND THE HIGHEST-
PERFORMANCE TARGET IN ANY SYSTEM.
RAM efficiency has become a severe challenge system functions that use DRAM, as well as interactions with
D
for video-processing-SOC (system-on-chip) de- the controller logic that manages DRAM operation.
signers. This evolution is the result of many fac- Figure 1 shows how the key processing functions that supply
tors. Continued advances in process technology and manipulate DRAM data communicate with the DRAM
have enabled higher integration levels. Domi- controller. In traditional SOCs, this communications network
nant consumer-pricing pressures have replaced is usually a hierarchy of clock-based, processor-oriented bus-
higher-margin communications infrastructure and high-end es. In more modern SOC architectures, the interconnect is a
computing as the market drivers. In the consumer markets, separate system for managing traffic, using architectures such
the adoption of much-higher-bandwidth-consuming stan- as a synchronous-star crossbar, clock-based NOC (network on
dards, such as HD (high-definition) video, in consumer equip- chip) or a clockless, asynchronous NOC.
ment has created enormous bandwidth requirements. At the High DRAM efficiency is important for multimedia pro-
same time, however, low-cost chip-to-chip bandwidth gener- cessing, particularly for devices that process HD data streams.
ally lags behind the on-chip speed increases that on-chip pro- A number of factors affect the efficiency of this processing.
cess technology and architectural advances enable. Though these factors vary from system to system, you need to
All of these pressures eventually focus on the SOC-to- carefully consider them when developing the architecture of a
DRAM interface. With the convergence of video and com- multimedia system.
munications in inexpensive unified-memory architectures, The DRAM controller needs maximum visibility of the IP
DRAM has become the most important and the highest-per- (intellectual-property) core making a request. The controller
formance target in any system. cannot always infer the needed information from the request:
As SOCs have integrated more functions on a single chip, The system must explicitly communicate the information to
the additional cost along with the loss of digital-logic perform- the controller, allowing the controller to determine the im-
ance associated with integrating DRAM on that chip has portance of the new request relative to other requests already
forced consumer-multimedia-device manufacturers to employ under way.
DRAM as one or more separate chips. As this trend contin- In older bus-based systems, differentiation among potential
ues, it highlights the cost of the DRAM as a major component requesters was not part of the request. The controller had to
of overall system cost. To minimize system cost for a given per- infer it by some other means. For example, in AHB (advanced-
formance level, efficient use of DRAM becomes
critical. If, through intelligent SOC design, a
system can use slower and therefore lower-cost GENERAL- OTHER IP CORES
PURPOSE
DRAM or fewer DRAM devices, then that sys- CPU
tem can significantly increase its performance-
to-cost figure of merit. Consequently, in recent
VIDEO- DRAM
years, DRAM-access performance and use have PROCESSOR CONTROLLER
pushed past 50% to more than 80% in consum- DRAMs
er digital devices.
DISPLAY
CONTROLLER
MAXIMIZING DRAM EFFICIENCY OTHER IP CORES
You can increase DRAM efficiency, but only
by considering a number of complex interac-
tions in the overall system design. Key among Figure 1 Key functions in a video-processing SOC include various processor
these interactions are communication with and and controller cores, including the DRAM controller for external memory.
the information that flows between the various
(a)
Figure 3 A 2-D block transfer using a synthesized self-timed interconnect fabric may pack MBurstSeq into IP and deliver it to a target
adapter (a) or convert MBurstSeq into multiple burst requests in optional hardware at the initiator adapter (b).
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which endpoints can directly accept the 2-D block command form. The Silistix tools can generate an OSCI- or CoWare-
and which ones must use the optional hardware. This ap- compatible SystemC model of the synthesized interconnect
proach involves slightly more hardware overhead to service and a timed or an untimed version of the model for early sys-
both types with OCP 2.2 MBurstSeq⫽BLCK burst types but tem verification.
allows efficient management of mixed systems. Using 2-D block transfers improves both DRAM and network
Design teams must consider various trade-offs when evalu- efficiency; it improves network efficiency by aiding traffic flow
ating the two implementations. Table 2 shows these trade-offs on the network. These types of transfers improve the efficien-
relative to the two 2-D block transfer in Figure 3. cy of both synchronous and asynchronous, self-timed networks
For either option, it is important to model the traffic inter- but are particularly beneficial for the asynchronous variety. It is
actions relative to the DRAM controller in a more abstract possible, by examining the kinds of transfers the blocks in an
SOC require, to synthesize a network that
can enable a DRAM controller to most
efficiently mediate between the needs of
the blocks and the behavior of DRAM
PC-based Oscilloscope chips. It can happen nearly independent-
ly of the individual characteristics of the
Ideal for ATE or OEM Applications blocks and the controller, as long as the
architecture respects the separation be-
tween the processing and the transport
functions.EDN
AU T H O R S ’ B I O G R A P H I E S
David Lautzenheiser is the vice
president of marketing at Silistix.
Before joining Silistix, he was in
private practice, assisting innova-
tive small companies with com-
pany and product-strategy issues and plan-
BASE-8
TM
ning and executing company and product
launches. Previously, Lautzenheiser success-
Introductory price $2895 fully launched new companies and products
as vice president of marketing at both Son-
ics and LightSpeed Semiconductor. Lautzen-
heiser began his marketing career at Xilinx,
Easily and cost effectively integrated into your custom application. where he led the introduction of the first
FPGAs. He holds a bachelor’s degree in
Ultrasonics electrical engineering from Washington Uni-
Disk Drive Testing versity (St Louis).
Laser Optics
and many more Agha Hussain recently joined
Silistix as the company’s chief
system architect. Previously, he
Key Features
was an application architect at
• 1 digitizing channel with 8-bit vertical resolution* Sonics, working in the digital-me-
dia and wireless areas for applications such
• 500 MS/s maximum sampling rate*
as DVD, DTV, cell phones, and WiMax.
• 200 MHz bandwidth In addition, he was a co-founder and vice
• Timing synchronization with external trigger input president of hardware platforms for Net-
• Optional memory upgrades available work Utilities and worked in a variety of
roles at Integrated Device Technology. His
• Programming-free operation with GageScope® oscilloscope software
interests and experience include synthesis,
• SDKs available for LabVIEW, MATLAB, C/C# and more timing and performance analysis, chip in-
• Custom on-board eXpertTM (FPGA) signal processing functionality available terconnect, DDR memory, and silicon-bus
*Higher channel counts, sampling rates and AWG available
protocols. Hussain has a bachelor’s degree
from Nardirshaw Edulji Dinshaw Universi-
ty of Engineering and Technology (Karachi,
Pakistan) and a master’s degree in engineer-
www.gage-applied.com/BASE-8 ing from the University of Southern Califor-
1-800-567-GAGE nia (Los Angeles).
Design Completely
Design Today
The Virtex®-5 Family:
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©2008 Xilinx, Inc. All rights reserved. XILINX, the Xilinx logo, and other designated brands included herein are trademarks of Xilinx, Inc.The PowerPC name and logo are registered trademarks of IBM Corp. and used under license.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners
Ohm’s Law Still Applies
VOUT = ISET x R
• Outputs May Be Paralleled for • Output Adjustable to 0V • Stable with 2.2μF Ceramic Output Capacitor
Higher Current and Heat Spreading • Wide Input Voltage Range: 1.2V to 36V • Minimum Load Current: 0.5mA
• Output Current Up to 1.1A (LT3080) • Low Dropout Voltage: 300mV • Current Limit with Foldback and
• Single Resistor Programs Output Voltage • <1mV Load Regulation Overtemperature Protected
• 1% ISET Accuracy • <0.001%/ V Line Regulation
LT308x Family Easily Paralleled for Heat Spreading Info & Free Samples
designideas
AND FRAN GRANVILLE
PVIN
12V C1
L1 1μF L2 L3
15μH 50V 15μH 15μH
PVIN
C1 TO C3
42V MAX CAP1 CAP2 CAP3 1μF
200mΩ 200mΩ 200mΩ s3 D1 D2 D3
LED1 LED2 LED3 C2 CAP1 C3 CAP2 C4 CAP3
1μF 1μF 1μF
TG1 M1 TG2 M2 M3 TG3 50V 0.5Ω 50V 0.5Ω 50V 0.5Ω
Figure 1. Triple Buck Mode Can Drive 3x 500mA LED Strings Figure 2. Triple Boost Mode Can Drive 200mA LEDs
09/08/449
Buck Mode Circuit Drives Three 500mA LED Strings Buck-Boost Mode Circuit Survives Load Dump Events
Figure 1 shows a triple buck mode LED driver. Each chan- In automotive applications, load dump is a condition un-
nel drives 500mA of current to its LEDs. Each string can der which an IC is expected to experience 40V transient.
have from eight to twelve LEDs, depending on type. The In such applications, the LED string voltage often falls
2.1MHz switching frequency minimizes the solution size in the middle of the 8V to 40V input supply range, thus
by allowing the use of low profile inductors and capaci- requiring buck-boost mode.
tors. The overall size of the circuit is less than 16mm ×
In a buck-boost circuit, the switch voltage is the sum of
16mm, with a maximum height of 1.5mm.
the input voltage and the LED voltage. Therefore, it is
Efficiency can be above 95% for a LT3496 buck mode necessary to turn off the internal power switch before
driver. A further reduction in the parts count is possible the input voltage gets too high. The LT3496 circuit in
by removing M1, M2 and M3. However, the dimming ratio Figure 4 drives four LEDs, at 200mA per channel. The
drops without those MOSFETs. To improve the efficiency, circuit monitors the Schottky diodes’ cathode voltage
the VIN pin should be biased from a 3.3V or 5V supply. (VSC). The OVP logic turns off the main switch when VSC
Energy to the LEDs is supplied by PVIN. OVP protection is above 38V, preventing the switch voltage from rising
is omitted in Figure 1. further. Since no IC pin experiences absolute maximum
voltage, the circuit survives the load dump event.
Boost Mode Circuit Drives Three 200mA LED Strings
Figure 2 shows a triple boost mode driver that delivers Conclusion
200mA to each LED string from a regulated 12V. Figure 3 Multiple output LED drivers, such as the LT3496, offer
shows the superior PWM dimming performance of the excellent current matching, efficiency and space sav-
circuit. The LED current reaches a programmed 200mA ings. The flexibility to operate in buck, boost or buck-
in less than 500ns. The efficiency of this circuit is 90% boost mode makes the LT3496 feasible in many rugged
at a 2.1MHz switching frequency. Unlike the buck mode applications.
driver, the boost mode and buck-boost mode drivers
always require an OVP circuit at the output for open LED PVIN, 8V TO 16V
protection. 40V TRANSIENT
C1
1μF TG1 M1 TG2 M2 TG3 M3
50V L1 L2 L3
7.15M 7.15M 7.15M
15μH 15μH 15μH
PWM LED1 OVP1 LED2 OVP2 LED3 OVP3
5V/DIV 0.5Ω 191k 0.5Ω 0.5Ω
191k 191k
(100Hz)
CAP1 CAP2 CAP3
IL
200mA 4 LEDs 200mA 4 LEDs 200mA 4 LEDs
500mA/DIV
ILED D1 D2 D3
VSC VSC VSC
200mA/DIV
C3 C5 C7
DN449 F03
2.2μF 2.2μF 2.2μF
0.5μs/DIV PVIN 25V PVIN 25V PVIN 25V
SW1 SW2 SW3 TG1-3
Figure 3. Achieving Greater Than 3000:1 PWM VIN CAP1-3 OVP1-3
3.3V OR 5V LED1-3 VC1-3
Dimming Ratio with a PMOS Disconnect VIN
LT3496
VREF 18.2Ω
PWM PWM1-3 FADJ
SHDN SHDN GND CTRL1-3
C8 1nF
1μF
6.3V
C1: TAIYO YUDEN UMK325BJ105MH L1-L3: SUMIDA CDRH3D14/HP-150
C3, C5, C7: TAIYO YUDEN TMK212BJ225MG M1-M3: ZETEX ZXMP6A13F
D1-D3: ROHM RB160M-60TR DN449 F04
Part No.
Voltages Threshold
Features Package (mm)
www.linear.com/2917
Monitored Selection
LTC2915 1 Pin-Selectable
27 Pin-Selectable Thresholds, Pin-Selectable
TSOT23-8, 3 x 2 DFN-8 1-800-4-LINEAR
Tolerance: 5%, 10% or 15%
Pushbutton Input, 5% Tolerance,
LTC2916 1 Pin-Selectable 9 Pin-Selectable Thresholds TSOT23-8, 3 x 2 DFN-8
Watchdog, 27 Pin-Selectable Thresholds,
LTC2917 1 Pin-Selectable Pin-Selectable Tolerance: 5%, 10% or 15% MSOP-10, 3 x 2 DFN-10
Watchdog, Pushbutton Input, 5% Tolerance,
LTC2918 1 Pin-Selectable MSOP-10, 3 x 2 DFN-10
9 Pin-Selectable Thresholds Telecom,
LTC2904/LTC2905 2 Pin-Selectable
27 Pin-Selectable Thresholds, Pin-Selectable
TSOT23-8, 3 x 2 DFN-8 Datacom and
Tolerance: 5%, 10% or 15%
Industrial Brochure
LTC2909 3 3 Resistors Undervoltage/Overvoltage Monitor TSOT23-8, 3 x 2 DFN-8
LTC2900/LTC2901/ 4 2 Resistors
Watchdog, Individual Supply Comparator Outputs, MSOP-10, 3 x 3 DFN-10/
LTC2902 Pin-Selectable Tolerance: 5%, 7.5%, 10% or 12.5% SSOP-16 www.linear.com/48vsolutions
LTC2908 6 2 Resistors 2 to 5 Adjustable Inputs, Tiny Package TSOT23-8, 3 x 2 DFN-8
Pushbutton Input, Watchdog, Individual Supply
LTC2930/LTC2931 6 2 Resistors Comparator Outputs, Pin-Selectable Tolerance: 3 x 3 DFN-12/TSSOP-20
LTC2932 5%, 7.5%, 10% or 12.5%
, LTC, LT and LTM are registered trademarks and μModule is a
LTC2910 8 2 Resistors 8 Adjustable Inputs SSOP-16, 5 x 3 DFN-16 trademark of Linear Technology Corporation. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners.
designideas
LINE 1
R6 VCC
TO AC LOAD
249k
R2 (HEATER)
100k VCC
C1
R11
R1 0.22 F R8 R23 R12 R13
100k 180
100k 390 180 180
VIN R4 1 6
⫺ R9
IC1A 100k R7 LED1
⫺ IC 1k
CONTROL VOLTAGE ½TL072 100 2 4
1B 3 ⫹ SCR1
0 TO 2V ⫹ ½TL072 C2
IC2A 1 2 5 IC4 0.1 F
OP AMP ⫹ VCC D1 Q1 R10
R3 ½LM319W MOC3011 250V
R5 6 100
49.9k OP AMP 4 IC3A Q1
VCC 71.5k ⫺ COMPARATOR Q1
R18 2 74HCT74 2N3906
R17 1k D FLIP-FLOP LINE 2
100k VCC 1
R15 R1
100k 4
R14 S1 C1
1k 8 ⫹ 3
IC2B 6 60-Hz CLOCK
R16 ½LM319W
4.7k 9 COMPARATOR
⫺ 7
VCC
5V
IN IC4 OUT
LM317
16V AC +
LINE 1 C3 ADJ R20 +
CT 470 F C4 C5
500 mA R19 243 33 F 0.1 F
750
T1 8V AC D2 D3
R21
120V AC 750
+ +
C6 C7 C8
D1 D4 220 F R22 33 F 0.1 F
8V AC ADJ 243
IN IC5 OUT
LINE 2 LM337
VEE
⫺5V
Figure 1 This ac controller borrows from a sigma-delta converter to output a number of whole cycles of ac-line power according
to an input-control voltage.
voltage’s input impedance is 100 k⍀. PNP transistor Q1 and optoisolated IC2B switches high during the positive
The next stage, IC1B, is an integrator. SCR (silicon-controlled rectifier) IC4 half-cycles of the ac line and low during
The integrator output ramps either up drive load-switching SCR1 into con- the negative half-cycles. Resistor R15
or down depending on the polarity of duction whenever the flip-flop provides provides a small positive bias, causing
the input current. The speed at which feedback current to the integrator. In- the edges of the 60-Hz clock to occur
it ramps depends on the magnitude of dicator LED1 lights when the load SCR slightly early—which is better than late
the input current. The integrator is the is on. The secondary of transformer in this case. If you turn off the SCR too
heart of the delta-sigma modulator. It T1 detects the zero crossings of the ac- late, its self-latching nature may cause it
forces a balance, on the average, be- power line; these crossings provide the to stay on for an extra half-cycle when
tween the control-voltage current in 60-Hz clock. The output of comparator it should have been off.
R4 and the feedback current in R6. In Both comparators IC2A and IC2B use
other words, the duty cycle of the out- a small amount of hysteresis to promote
put of IC3A, a CMOS D-type flip-flop, IF YOU TURN OFF fast, clean switching. The remaining
must match the control-voltage per- THE SCR TOO LATE, components generate the regulated 5
centage of full-scale. and ⫺5V power supplies. Transformer
Comparator IC2A detects whether
ITS SELF-LATCHING T1 and optoisolator IC4 provide isola-
the integrator’s output is positive, thus NATURE MAY CAUSE tion from the ac-power line.
requiring more feedback current, or This Design Idea works well for an
negative, thus requiring less feedback
IT TO STAY ON FOR application such as a spa-heater control
to maintain the balance. The output AN EXTRA HALF-CYCLE but does not work for light-dimming or
of the comparator switches between 0 WHEN IT SHOULD motor-speed control because the out-
and 5V. The flip-flop latches the com- put power is pulsating in nature. You
parator’s decision on the next rising HAVE BEEN OFF. can easily adapt the design for 240V-ac
edge of the 60-Hz clock. or 50-Hz operation.EDN
VREG
VSYS UNREGULATED ISOLATED
POWER SUPPLY
+ VCC
RO
LDO 8
1 R
RE B
MCU AND
RELATED 2 7
DETECT
CIRCUITRY
CIRCUIT
VREG A
3 6
VSYS DI GND
4 D 5
MAX13412E/MAX13413E
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Part VCC Supply (V) Data Rate ±15kV ESD Protection* AutoDirection Price† ($)
MAX13412E 500kbps
6 to 28 1.49
MAX13413E 16Mbps
DIRECT ™
Protect your R&D investment with a proven, low-cost* authentication solution. Options range from
customization of the 64-bit factory-lasered serial numbers to secure crypto-strong FIPS 180-1/2 and ISO/IEC
10118-3 SHA-1 based challenge and response for bidirectional authentication.
Printer
toner/ink Secure Consumer
electronics
cartridges
IC
solutions
for
Medical instrument
probes/sensors
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R1 R2 R3 IC4C
4.7k 4.7k 4.7k IC4B
DATA 0 IC4A
DATA 1 R4 74HCT86
74HCT86
CS 74HCT86 100
5V DIGITS
DIGIT ZERO ONE TO SIX DIGIT SEVEN
CS DIN CLK SEG A
V+
SEG B
R5
SEG C
ISET IC5 SEG D
MAX7221 SEG E
SEG F
SEG G
SEG DP
GND GND DIG 7 DIG 6 . . . DIG 1 DIG 0
Figure 1 Three 1-Wire switches—IC1, IC2, IC3; three XOR gates, IC4; and the associated components enable a 1-Wire
network to control this display through the SPI peripheral IC5.
a leap ahead
in linear magnetic encoders
plug & play
Linear and Off-axis
Magnetic Encoder ICss
High resolution
25μm – AS5304
15μm – AS5306
High speed
20m/s – AS5304
12m/s – AS5306
400
-μMAX
1ä 350
m 250
m Ý xm
3
TF
1ä- 200
150
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m Ý 3m
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POWER SOURCES
EMT series
switching power supply
30 W output power
interchangeable blades
ac power cord inlet
USB style series Energy Star / CEC / EISA 2007 compliant
switching power supply
insulation resistance 50 M Ohm at 500 V dc
2.5 & 5 W output power
no-load power consumption 0.5 W max.
USB type A receptacle output
universal input
Energy Star / CEC / EISA 2007 compliant
UL/cUL, CE, FCC; TUV/GS, C-Tick approvals
insulation resistance 100 M Ohm at 500 V dc
V78 series RoHS compliant
no-load power consumption 0.5 W max.
dc switching regulator
universal input
pin compatible with 78XX linear regulators AC-AC series
UL/cUL approvals
500 and 1000 mA output current models linear power supply
RoHS compliant
efficiency up to 96% 3 – 12 W output power
no need for a heatsink 6ft. cord length - custom lengths available
wide input range
VMS-160 & VMS-365 series
output voltage tolerance: ±5 % at rated load
switching power supply
thermal shutdown class 2 power supply
VMS-160: 160 W output power in a 2”x 4” footprint
low ripple and noise Energy Star / CEC / EISA 2007 compliant
and 18.2 W/in³ power density
non-isolated no-load power consumption 0.5 W max.
VMS-365: 365 W output power in a 3”x 5” footprint
short circuit protection North American wall plug
and 19 W/in³ power density
single output voltages of 5, 12, 24, and 48 V dc UL/cUL approvals
90% typical efficiency RoHS compliant
medical approvals
universal input (90 – 264 V ac)
built-in active PFC function
12 V auxiliary fan output EISA 2007- The Energy Independence and
Security Act of 2007 was passed by Congress
in December of 2007 and addresses minimum
efficiency standards for external power supplies
Energy Star- Energy Star is a joint program of manufactured on July 1, 2008 and after. This law
the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stipulates the energy efficiency criteria for adapt-
and the US Department of Energy (DOE) aimed
ers in active mode depending upon their power
at preserving the environment through energy
rating. The stipulated energy consumption for
CEC Level IV- The California Energy Com- efficiency. Adapters meeting the Energy Star
guidelines are up to 30% more efficient than non- all adapters in no-load mode must be less than
mission has mandated requirements for power
supplies used with certain types of products. compliant versions and must meet both active 0.5 W according to EISA 2007. Compliance with
The most current requirements are the same and no-load minimum efficiency requirements set these requirements is mandatory.
as the EISA 2007 requirements and are forth by the EPA and DOE. Compliance with these
referred to as either “Tier 2” or “Level IV.” requirements is voluntary.
available through
V
visit: www.cui.com/efficient or www.v-infinity.com/efficient call: 800.275.4899
productroundup SIMULATE IT.
POWER SOURCES
Dual-output converters low quiescent current make it suitable in
meet military standard applications requiring continuous pow-
er-up. The family allows the use of small
704B-F ceramic output capacitors to reduce re-
The MTC15 and MTC30 dual-
output converters join the ven-
quired board space. The MIC5313 and
15 come in 2⫻2-mm MLF-10 lead pack-
dor’s MTC series of fully encapsulated ages, and the MIC5314 and 16 come in
COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf), 4 to 2.5⫻2.5-mm MLF-12 lead packages.
35W dc/dc converters. Providing a ⫾12 Operating over a ⫺40 to +125⬚C tem-
or a ⫾15V-dc output and a 15.5 to 40V- perature range, the MIC5313/4/5/6 cost
dc input range, the converters target $1.29 (1000) each.
military and avionic platforms requir- Micrel, www.micrel.com
ing a 28V-dc in-
put. The con- The secret to successful
verters suit 10V PC-power-supply high-speed PCB design.
transients for 10 device meets
sec and 50V dc
for 1 sec, meeting 80 Plus Gold standard Simulate fast driver edges and
military standard
704B-F. They can With 90% efficiency, the Green-
Chip PC chip set meets the Ecos
new bus technologies with
draw as much as Consulting and 80 Plus Program require- HyperLynx® – the most
80% of the out- ments for certification for a reference
widely used high-speed PCB
put power from design. The PC-power-supply reference
the positive or device features a secondary-side-con- simulation software.
the negative out- trolled-switch concept and an active-
put, as long as they do not exceed the clamp reset with an integrated switch, HyperLynx provides both
maximum output power. A feedback lowering the breakdown-voltage demand
pre- and post-layout analysis
loop constantly monitors the outputs in for the power components. The chip set
order, providing a high degree of load fits standard ATX-size boxes. Compris- of signal integrity, flight times,
regulation. The 15W MTC15 dual-out- ing the TEA1771, the TEA1781, and
put unit costs $203. the TEA1782 chips, the GreenChip PC crosstalk, multi-gigabit
XP Power, www.xppower.com chip set sells for $4 to $5. SERDES technologies and
NXP Semiconductors, www.nxp.com
EMC, and is compatible
Dual low-dropout with all major PCB design
regulators claim high DC/DC-converter series
conversion efficiency provides as much as 165W flows, including PADS.®
output-voltage tracking To find out more, download
The low-input-voltage-capable
MIC5313/4/5/6 family integrates
two low-dropout regulators operating Adding eight dc/dc converters to
the Senpai series, the FPMS12T
the latest hands-on
from a 1.7V input voltage at a 37-A and the FPLS12T nonisolated point- high-speed tutorial from
total quiescent-current consumption. of-load converters operate over a 6 to
To regulate low-voltage rails and pro- 14V-dc input bus with a 0.75 to 5.5V-dc www.mentor.com/rd/tutorial
vide improved conversion efficiency, programmable-output voltage. The con-
or call 800.547.3000.
the family’s design allows very low-drop- verters incorporate an output-voltage-
out voltages. The dual regulators supply tracking function, enabling various se-
as much as 300-mA output currents and quenced-power-up and power-down sce-
consume 37-A quiescent current with narios when using multiple converters.
both channels on. The device’s low qui- The FPMS12T devices deliver 55W of
escent voltage, low input voltage, and output power at a 600W/in.3 power den-
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INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
SOC supports range of grated dual-power monitor, a fixed 3.3V
output, or an adjustable output voltage
options for fax machines of 1.2V to the input voltage. The regu-
Targeting use in fax machines
with ink-jet-, laser-, or thermal-
lator provides soft-start, current limiting,
and thermal shutdown, drawing a 1-mA
printing capabilities, the SX9543X current during shutdown. Claiming 93%
SOC provides direct printer control and efficiency, the device integrates a 100%
USB interfaces. Features include dual- duty cycle, extending operation in low-
voice ADCs and DACs; multiple voice dropout conditions. A pin-selectable ® ®
inputs and outputs, including a speaker peak-current limit reduces component PADS and HyperLynx
amplifier; a cross-point switch; and ad- size by adjusting inductor selection. Op- Available through Value Added Resellers
ditional ADCs for scanner and other erating over a ⫺40 to ⫹85⬚C industri-
analog-sensor inputs. Powered by a 180- al-temperature range, the regulator also
MHz, 32-bit RISC processor, the device provides 37-A operation when deliv- PADS resellers are full-service
includes a 120-MHz, DSP-based image ering 500-A output current. Available
companies that provide sales,
processor and three 288-MHz, flexible- in a 4⫻4-mm MLPQ-12 package, the
I/O processors. The I/O processors en- AS7620 dc/dc converter costs $1.36. tech support and customized
able connections to a variety of periph- austriamicrosystems,
services in your region. These
erals, such as scanners, printers, memory www.austriamicrosystems.com
cards, and LCDs. The SOC comes in an resellers are our partners; they
exposed-pad QFP-176, and prices range understand your needs and
from $7 to $15. Digital-media processor
can help you grow your
Conexant Systems, integrates video-process-
www.conexant.com business. PADS resellers provide
ing subsystem
solutions that will improve the
500-mA buck regulator Powered by an ARM926EJ-S core
operating as fast as 270 MHz, the quality of your designs on time
provides an integrated DM335 digital-media processor inte- and within budget. Visit
grates a video-processing subsystem,
dual-power monitor enabling a 720p, high-definition video www.mentor.com/rd/buypads
ARM
C/C++ Development Kit including ULINK®2 Adapter data rate. The GTX 280 provides 1024
best-in-class compilers, genuine Keil for target debugging Mbytes of GDDR3 frame-buffer memo-
μVision®, and royalty-free RTX RTOS. and Flash programming. ry, a 602-MHz core clock, and a 1296-
www.keil.com/arm
shader clock. The 280 has a 141.7-Gbps
memory bandwidth, 48.2 billion/sec
Cx51
A/D I/O Ports Run-
Control texture-fill rate, and 2214-MHz effec-
Timers Interrupts Debug tive data rate. The GTX 260 PCIe 2 and
Channel
www.keil.com/c51 the GTX 280 PCIe 2 graphics cards cost
PWM Flash $649.99 and $399.99, respectively.
ROM
C166
PNY Technologies, www.pny.com
UART
CPU
RAM
2
I C/SPI
DMA
RTC www.keil.com/c166 Discrete device combines
handset-audio filtering
Ethernet SD USB CAN
Out-of-the box support and ESD protection
for more than 1,400
Keil RTOS and Middleware components are specifically
Microcontroller devices. Combining handset-audio filtering
and ESD protection, the EMIF06-
optimized for embedded systems and include TCP/IP, Flash File
system, USB and CAN support.
A DV E R T I S E R I N D E X
I
some input stabilizing capacitance.
responsibility for the end product, with assistant designers The result was the addition of ca-
working on specialized subsystems. I was designing the fiber- pacitors that we should have included
optic-communications links for the product, and, not want- during the initial rework, even though
it was too labor-intensive. Yet, it would
ing the noisy 5V digital-VCC supply to contaminate my sen- have been far less-labor intensive than
sitive analog circuits, I elected to linearly regulate the 12V the resulting recall of the cards.
down to a reasonably clean 5V to keep my analog circuits hap- I learned a good lesson from that ex-
py. The data sheet instructed me to include 10 F of stabilizing perience. Even though it was ultimate-
capacitance at the input to my voltage regulator. Read on to ly not my responsibility, I should have
insisted that the team leader include
learn the very good reason for this inclusion. the additional capacitor. I have since
In the week before shipping the sulted; hot-plugging caused a glitch on applied this lesson to later team-design
product, a horrendous problem emerged. the 12V rail, in turn causing another issues, and some people now think of
Hot-plugging a card into the live back- colleague’s PLL (phase-locked loop) to me as an ornery old curmudgeon, but
plane caused a glitch on the system’s 5V hiccup. This glitch did not bother my the resulting designs always worked
rail and caused the main processor card 12 to 5V regulator because it had lots properly.EDN
to restart. Oops! I managed to arrive at of filtering on the output side.
a Band-Aid solution to that problem by So, the team lead came up with a You can reach design consultant Glen
attaching tantalum capacitors and fuses “fix” that resulted in the insertion of Chenier at glen@teetertottertreestuff.
DANIEL VASCONCELLOS
across the 5V rail on the backplane at a resistor that effectively separated the com. Like him, you can share your
every card slot. I then suggested that we capacitor from my regulator and stole Tales from the Cube and receive $200.
should perhaps also look at the hot-plug my regulator’s input capacitor for use in Contact edn.editor@reedbusiness.com.
effect on the 12V rail. the PLL-filtering function. When I saw
Surely enough, a similar problem re- his ECO (engineering-change order), I + www.edn.com/tales
Put our analog leadership to work with your power designs. Contact ADI’s
power technical support at power.management@analog.com.
Integrated Price
Part Hot Swap
Power Features Package @ 1k
Number Range (V)
Industry’s most accurate Hot Swap and power monitor ICs provide Monitoring ($U.S.)
accurate data on power consumption, enabling better control and ADM1175 3.15 to 16.5 Yes Manual convert pin 10-lead MSOP 2.50
conservation of energy. ADM1176 3.15 to 16.5 Yes 16 I2C addresses 10-lead MSOP 2.50
ADM1177 3.15 to 16.5 Yes Dedicated SOFT START pin 10-lead MSOP 2.50
ADM1178 3.15 to 16.5 Yes Overcurrent ALERT pin 10-lead MSOP 2.70
ADM1170 1.6 to 16.5 No Separate VCC pin 8-lead TSOT 2.10
ADM1171 2.7 to 16.5 No Current sense output 8-lead TSOT 2.20
ADM1172 2.7 to 16.5 No Power fail comparator 8-lead TSOT 2.00
www.analog.com/power
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