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THE DESIGN CYCLE FORTNIGHTLY W W W. N E W E L E C T R O N I C S . C O . U K

26 FEBRUARY 2008

World Wide Wait again? With

With internet
internet data
data traffic
traffic soaring,
soaring, under
under investment
investment in
in the
the infrastructure
infrastructure
may
may see
see the
the benefits
benefits of
of broadband
broadband access
access negated.
negated.

Special Report: Plus: • Going green, but in the red? • CSSPs help find a quick way to market
• Gigapoint memory brings better test insight• No wires in next gen HD systems
Automotive electronics • Getting legacy systems talking to each other • Powering a better future
P002_NELE_Feb26 18/2/08 14:30 Page 1
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COVER STORY
Increasing pressure from video
uploads and downloads means that,
without more investment, it could be
the World Wide Wait again.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
12:08 Page 3
CONTENTS
26 February 2008 Volume 41 No 4
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
DIRECTIVES & STANDARDS
Clean bill of health?
Is the RoHS Directive having an unexpected side effect of higher energy costs? ..............................................................47
EMBEDDED DESIGN
PROGRAMMABLE PLATFORMS
Navigating the market
How CSSPs are helping designers to find their way to market more quickly ........................................................................ 51
EMBEDDED TEST
Bringing better insight
A scope with a 1billion point acquisition memory should make test more insightful .................................................. 54
COMMUNIC ATIONS DESIGN
NEXT GENERATION COMMUNICATIONS
Look, no wires!
14 The thirst for removing wires is extending to HD systems in the living room .................................................................... 56
INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS
Let’s talk
Getting legacy devices talking over a network .................................................................................................................................... 59
SYSTEM DESIGN
POWER
6 Building a better future
Environmental design should not only encompass the product, but also its social impact ...................................... 63
SPECIAL REPORT
AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS
Beyond telematics
New innovations in automotive electronics is set to enable data to be shared between vehicles ...................... 19
Fit for purpose
22 When the going gets tough... ruggedised components can now withstand life on the open road .................... 22
Logical developments
Time to market is the big driver in today’s automotive industry – so give way to the fpga! .................................. 25
DESIGNS ON DISTRIBUTION SUPPLEMENT
THE MANUFACTURER’S VIEW CONSOLIDATION
Miracle workers The little big men
Keeping up with principal’s demands can be Consolidation: what’s in it for distribution’s
something of a balancing act for distributors ........ 36 little and large guys?.........................................................41
54
MARKET WATCH
Driving design
MCUs continue to drive innovation and new product development in the UK. .................................................................. 68
REGULARS
COMMENT NEWS
56 Like them or hate them, ‘green’ Directives SiLabs launches 0.9V mcu 6. Toshiba ditches
are there for a very good reason. 5 HD-DVD 8. Addressing low power design 10.
EU promotes embedded systems research 12.
3
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COMMENT
Environmental legislation

A green planet?
‘Green’ directives are there for a very good reason.

Editor: Graham Pitcher

Associate Editor: Mike Richardson
US Correspondent: Paul Dempsey
G lobal businesses face mounting challenges in 2008. Maintaining profitability
is always at the top of the agenda, but another item creeping up the list is the
increase of regulatory and compliance risk. With so many Directives and so many
(newelectronics.usa@cox.net)
Contributing Editors:
interpretations in so many different countries, keeping pace with everything will
David Boothroyd, Louise Joselyn, soon be a challenge in itself.
Vanessa Knivett, Roy Rubenstein In the beginning there, was RoHS. Soon, there will be a review of this Directive
Art Editor: David Walters
which will have a profound impact on electronics designers – not only because of
Illustrator: Phil Holmes
Sales Director: Tricia Bodsworth the many different interpretations around the world, but also because of the
Business Development Director: Lee Nye different product categories and substances.
Circulation Manager: Chris Jones Faced with a blank sheet of paper, today’s environmental designer not only
(circulation@findlay.co.uk)
Production Controller: Derek Gill
needs to consider RoHS, but WEEE and EuP as well (see page 47 in this issue for
Publisher: Peter Ring more). And if that’s not enough to give them nightmares, the REACH Directive –
Represented in Japan by which is likely to lead to more substance restrictions – is also under review by the
Shinano International: Kazuhiko Tanaka,
European Commission later this year.
Akasaka Kyowa Bldg, 1-6-14 Akasaka,
Minato-Ku, Tokyo 107-0052
However, help is at hand. Eco design consultancies can advise companies on
Tel: +81(0)3 3584 6420 how to avoid doing the ‘wrong thing well’ when it comes to EU environmental
New Electronics: Tel: 01322 221144 legislation, sustainable design and carbon management. And, if a company is
Fax: 01322 221188 resistant to having its environmental conscience pricked, then it might well
www.newelectronics.co.uk
consider that helping organisations ‘green’ their products can often help them sell
email: ne@findlay.co.uk
more of them. To date, environmental consultancy Giraffe Innovation has
ISSN 0047-9624
New Electronics, incorporating Electronic Equipment identified £50million in savings for its clients – an added financial bonus to their
News and Electronics News, is published twice monthly
by Findlay Publications Ltd, Hawley Mill,
newly found environmental credibility!
Hawley Road, Dartford, Kent, DA2 7TJ It’s enough to turn less altruistic companies green – with
Copyright 2008 Findlay Publications.
Annual subscription (22 issues) for readers in the UK envy! And yet the outlook for electronics manufacturers is
is £106, overseas is £161, and airmail is £197.
Origination by CTT, Walthamstow, London E17 6BU very clear: no company will make money from a
Printed in England by Wyndeham Heron Ltd,
Heybridge, CM9 4NW.
poisoned population and a dead planet.

Moving on? If you change jobs or your

company moves, please contact
circulation@findlay.co.uk to continue
receiving your free copy of New Electronics.
Mike Richardson, Associate Editor (mrichardson@findlay.co.uk)

www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008 5

pg6.qxp:NEWS 22/2/08 12:09 Page 6

FRONT PAGE NEWS

Low power microcontroller

MCU said to boost Sound approach

HiFi speaker manufacturer B&W is using Opera

power efficiency from Vector Fields to find solutions to complex

dynamic problems. The company is currently
developing a generic model that will help it
overcome the problems caused by the voice
coil’s dynamically changing impedance as it
Microcontroller runs from 0.9V. Graham Pitcher reports. moves in the air gap. This changing impedance
gives rise to distortion – an issue solved
previously using empirical methods

R
esponding to calls for devices that offer
longer battery life, lower cost and more
functionality, Silicon Laboratories has
launched what it says is the lowest voltage mcu
currently available.
Gary Franzosa, product manager, noted:
“We have managed to pack a lot of high
performance functionality into a small
footprint. It’s the smallest, fastest mcu of its
kind with high analogue performance.”
Capable of operating from voltages as low as
0.9V, the C8051F9xx allows portable devices to
operate from a single cell. According to SiLabs,
the device has a novel 8bit architecture and an
integrated high efficiency dc/dc boost
converter that can supply 65mW for internal use
and to drive other components, such as leds.
Franzosa said: “We’ve designed this part from
the ground up to support power efficiency and all
consumption modes are optimised. We believe it
has the highest functional density, with an 8051
core capable of running up to 100MIPS, 64k of
flash and 4k of ram in a 4 x 4mm package.”
The part has an operating voltage range
from 0.9 to 3.6V, but the core runs at 1.7V. In
two cell mode, an integrated LDO provides a
constant output of 1.7V, independent of
battery state. In single cell mode, a dc/dc
converter provides 1.7V to the core. Power
consumption is quoted as 170µA/MIPS.
Devices in the F9xx range also integrate a
10bit, 300ksample/s a/d converter, a
SmaRTClock timing module and multiple
internal oscillator options. EU project targets sub 22nm
There are six devices in the range, representing
a combination of three package sizes – 24 and The University of Glasgow has received
32pin qfn, plus a 32pin lqfp – and a choice of £750,000 of European funding as part of the
32k or 64k of flash. DUALLOGIC project, which will investigate the
possibilities of incorporating new channel
materials into the production of chips.
Glasgow’s lead investigator is Professor
Asen Asenov. He said: “The projects will be
particularly important for the vibrant and
innovative UK design industry.”
Scientists at IBM’s Zurich Research Lab are
also involved in DUALLOGIC. Their contribution
will involve depositing a suitable high-k gate
oxide, defining the best material composition
for the metal gate and depositing active
channels using III-V semiconductors.
* For more on DUALLOGIC, see the next issue of
New Electronics.

Chip supports VDSL2

Ikanos has launched the FXS60IF1, which it
says is the first single chip integrated front
end (IFE) that enables cost effective, low
power, multimode VDSL2/ ADSL2+ triple play
Business in sight residential gateways.
Peter Ahimovic, senior director of strategic
Contract electronics manufacturer ACW Technology has won a major contract for the British marketing, noted: “Service providers are
Army’s new surveillance system and range finder. adding services such as VoIP and IPTV, but
The company has been selected by Thales UK to supply fully tested pcb assemblies for a new these need bandwidth and therefore VDSL2.
target locator system known as the Surveillance System and Range Finder (SSARF). The FXS601F1 services their xDSL
ACW has helped to develop and produce four separate pcbs for SSARF, which will be built at requirements.”
Thales’ optronics facility in Glasgow. SSARF pcbs will be made at ACW’s South Wales facility. The single chip device integrates a/d and
d/a converters, along with the filters and line
drivers needed for xDSL operation.

6 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008

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US NEWS
Blu-Ray/HD-DVD

Blu-Ray wins as Lensless xray system

Toshiba pulls HD-DVD

Although it might have lost the ‘disk war’, will the PS3
provide a ‘silver lining’ for Toshiba? Paul Dempsey reports.

T
oshiba’s decision to drop out of the high definition video format war by ditching HD-DVD could A US-Australia research team has developed
have a surprising ‘silver lining’ for the Japanese technology giant. At the same time, the Sony- the world’s first lensless xray probe to examine
Philips led rival camp, Blu-Ray Disc, may be proclaiming outright victory prematurely as on materials at resolutions of less than 20nm.
demand ‘live’ streaming of HD content reaches the US market faster than had originally been Lens limitations have presented a major
anticipated. obstacle to using xrays to examine the internal
The short term good news for Toshiba could, ironically, come from a new wave of sales for Sony’s structures of nanoscale materials and even
PlayStation3, in which it shares royalties from the games console’s Cell processor, together with Sony alternative techniques – most notably the
and IBM. scanning electron microscope – have difficulty
Sony has begun a major marketing campaign to push the PS3 to movie fans as well as gamers – in penetrating beneath a particle’s surface.
the reason being that the PS3 is the only Blu-Ray player currently on sale that can be upgraded to The device uses a coherent high intensity
Blu-Ray’s 2.0 specification. Other standalone 1.0 players lack an Ethernet port and thus cannot beam – and, ultimately, algorithms instead of
access interactive online features in the new rev. There have also been claims that main boards in the lenses – to reconstruct high resolution images.
1.0 players lack sufficient cache memory to support some 2.0 technology, even if it is included on The beam collides with a sample to create a
disk (assuming these players can be upgraded by downloading new firmware from the internet, diffraction pattern that can be recorded by a
burning it to a CD/DVD and then installing it in the player – and this is far from clear). CCD camera and proprietary phase recovery
Sony is therefore readying itself for controversy amongst those consumers who have already algorithms can reconstruct an image of the
opted for Blu-Ray equipment before 2.0 compatible players arrive in shops, in the belief that all specimen that highlights the presence of a
aspects of the format war have been resolved. particular element.
Meanwhile, a number of US cable operators have surprised the market by announcing plans to The work was carried out principally at the
launch the on demand delivery of HD content from both broadcasters and movie studios by the Argonne National Laboratory, with assistance
Spring. Foremost among these is US telecoms giant Verizon. from UCLA in the US and the University of
At January’s Consumer Electronics Show, senior Blu-Ray executives said they believed Melbourne and La Trobe University in Australia.
‘downloadable’ HD content was still potentially a decade away, giving them plenty of time to
establish the disk end of the market.
Whilst this could be true in terms of internet access, NEC unveiled a chip at ISSCC that allows Diagnosing bad breath
speeds of 40Gbit/s and beyond to be achieved on existing fibre optic networks without the
previously assumed risk of seasonal interference on the optimal ‘eye’ for data traffic. Next generation breathalysers may not only
Sources suggest the Verizon offering will be priced aggressively against HD disk content at $5 to determine whether you have had too much to
$10 per movie, against $35 for a typical studio release. drink, but also whether you are at risk from
A key component behind the online HD thinking is that it is exactly one year before the US cancer, kidney failure and other diseases.
switches off its analogue tv transmissions. With the US economy in a shaky state, cable operators US researchers have applied optical
believe middle and working class families obliged to pay several hundred dollars for a digital era tv frequency comb spectroscopy – a technique
will be wary of then paying another $400 (the current price tag on Blu-Ray equipment) for a media that helped its inventor win the 2005 Nobel
player and could be wooed towards a rival, cheaper à la carte HD content option. Prize in Physics – to detect minute samples of
trace chemicals in exhaled breath.
The technique uses a very precise laser to
measure different frequencies of light – and
each ‘comb’ within the beam can be tuned
to pick up the distinct frequency given by a
particular molecule’s vibration or rotation.
One beam, meanwhile, can feature
thousands of combs.
Researchers at the US National Institute
of Science and Technology and the
University of Colorado at Boulder have
begun experiments tuning combs to detect
whether patients may have conditions such
as liver or kidney disease, renal failure,
diabetes and asthma.

8 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008

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NEWS
Low power design

Eclypse sheds light Verification ‘breakthrough’

Mentor Graphics is
looking to speed the
Tool suite set to boost low power design productivity, whilst verification process in

reducing risk. Graham Pitcher reports.

SoC designs with two
tools that are said to
use ‘breakthrough’
technology.

I
n a move intended to allow design teams to produce more efficient low power devices, Synopsys John Lenyo,
has announced Eclypse, a suite of system level, verification, implementation and sign off tools. director of marketing
The move is said by the company to boost productivity and reduce risk. for Mentor’s design
“Eclypse is the result of an intensive, multi year effort to create the most comprehensive and verification and test division, pictured,
silicon proven solution for low power chip development,” said George Zafiropoulos, Synopsys’ vp of claimed: “We’re trying to bridge the gap
solutions marketing. “Synopsys has aligned its low power tools, IP, methodologies and services into between functional and architectural
an easy to use solution so design teams can quickly and confidently adopt the most advanced low verification so users can do tests once. We’re
power techniques.” trying to automate the right tests.”
Said to build on more than 10 years of low power design expertise, Eclypse delivers several new Questa is a multiview verification
low power technologies. Enhanced clock gating and low power clock tree synthesis allow designers to components tool which is said to support any
optimise their clock structures, whilst achieving required skew and timing goals. Multithreshold level of abstraction – from gates to system
leakage optimisation constrains the ratio of Vt options used, whilst enhanced automation for power level. The tool brings together technology
switch insertion and optimisation enables power planning exploration and ‘what if?’ analyses. acquired by Mentor’s earlier purchase of
Whilst techniques such as power gating, multivoltage, and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling Spiratech and Lighthouse. Meanwhile, the
can ‘dramatically’ reduce power consumption in deep submicron chips, Synopsys claims these InFact intelligent testbench automation tool is
approaches often require ad hoc approaches. Eclypse combines an array of techniques, said to support any testing technique.
methodologies, standards and automation to simplify advanced low power design and verification.
Eclypse supports the Unified Power Format (UPF) language and open methodologies, including
those described in the ‘Low Power Methodology Manual’, coauthored by Synopsys and ARM. Nanotubes for wiring
Researchers from Stanford University and
Sales down for European semis distribution Toshiba have reported using nanotubes to wire
a silicon chip and have obtained operating
The European components distribution market saw revenues decline by 6% in the fourth speeds comparable to those of commercially
quarter of 2007 and by 1.9% for the full year, according to DMASS, the Distributors’ and available processors and memory.
Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists. The group claimed distribution The team built an array of 256 ring
revenues in Q4 reached €1.21billion and of €5.37bn Euro for 2007. oscillators, but left one wire of each oscillator
Ian Bass, DMASS chairman, said: “After the record year in 2006, a cyclical slowdown was unconnected. After TSMC made the chip, the
almost inevitable. From our perspective, the slight downturn is not demand or volume driven missing connections were made using
... but strongly influenced by the weak US Dollar and the huge price difference between Europe nanotubes. In 16 of the 19 good connections,
and Asia. Nevertheless, as an indication, DMASS’ 2007 revenues in US Dollars grew by 6.6%.” the oscillators ran at speeds better than
800MHz.

10 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008

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WWW: will we
N
Will video ot so long ago, we cursed the World Wide Web –
and renamed it the World Wide Wait. In the
early days, the web and the internet supporting
downloads take us it were wonderful ideas, but such was the growth in
demand – and so inadequate the networking resources
back to the World – the result was frequently chaos. The dramatic growth
in data travelling on the web often put the network
Wide Wait? By under intolerable pressure and the result was 56kbit
modem links became pitifully inadequate.
David Boothroyd. Thankfully, all this is history. ADSL and cable have
ushered in the age of broadband, with huge
investments in the optical backbone and throughout
the internet. Meanwhile, major advances in techniques
like wavelength division multiplexing vastly increased
the amount of data the cables could carry. Access
speeds rocketed and all was well – and would remain so
forever, we were assured.
Er, not quite. Yes, things are better, but if recent
14 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
warnings turn out to be true, we may well be in the
Golden Age of the web. One report from Nemertes
Research claims limits in internet capacity will stifle
web innovation. Unless telcos worldwide invest more
than $130billion in new capacity broadband access
between now and 2010, performance could slow to
modem speed, it claims. Although telcos are planning
infrastructure investments, the report claims they only
want to spend about half of what is needed.
Much the same message comes from companies like
Jupiter Research and Cisco. Ian Fogg, Jupiter’s research
director, has warned that unless broadband
infrastructure is improved rapidly, the next big thing on
the internet may simply not work in the UK. Similarly,
Cisco warns that if a new application – like real time
video communications – emerges faster than expected,
major bottlenecks are inevitable.
The problem is simple: the amount of data travelling
across the internet is growing extraordinarily. Cisco’s
study is called The Exabyte Era, with good reason. One
exabyte (Ebyte) – 1018 bytes – is estimated to be 50,000
years of DVD quality video. In 2008, Cisco says the
amount of global IP traffic will reach this figure – every
month! Between 2006 and 2011, IP traffic will reach
29Ebyte a month, a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 37%.
There is one overriding reason for this: video. One of
the most significant developments yet for the internet
has been the emergence of personal video based sites,
such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. The growth
has been staggering, as Cisco market analyst Arielle
Sumits says.
“It is nothing short of amazing that YouTube – a site
launched at the end of 2005 – grew to take up 4% of all
traffic by the end of 2006.”
In terms of bytes, this was 27petabyte (1015) a
month – about as much traffic as travelled on the entire
internet in the year 2000.
“We estimate that YouTube accounted for 20% of
online video traffic in North America in 2007 – and
online video amounts to 18% of all North American
consumer internet traffic,” Sumits says.
The emergence of such sites is probably the single
most critical factor currently affecting the web. It is
 Cover frt.qxp:CVR FEATURE TEMP 21/2/08 16:47 Page 15

COVER STORY
Internet performance

why, for example, Cisco predicts consumer IP traffic will
overtake business IP traffic this year and grow at a
CAGR of 57% from 2006 to 2011, reaching more than
18Ebyte per month – equivalent to a mind blowing
4500m DVDs!
Self protection
As Nemertes says, the internet has a self protecting
character – as it nears saturation point, it slows down,
causing people to stop using it as much and preventing
complete collapse. But that does not mean there will be
no negative effects.
“By 2010, the internet’s capacity will probably not
accommodate user demand, with brownouts and
interruptions to applications becoming common,” the
company says. “The impact … will be primarily to slow
the pace of innovation. The next Amazon, Google or
YouTube might not arise, not from a lack of user
demand, but because of insufficient infrastructure
preventing applications and companies from
emerging.”
“This is the first study to model both internet
capacity and demand independently,” said Nemertes’
president Johna Till Johnson. “The fact that the
internet is inherently self protecting means studies
which focus just on growth rates of existing traffic miss
Nemertes stresses it is not predicting this will occur,
because the infrastructure will not be there to support
it, but in the absence of such constraints it almost
certainly would. Hence, innovation is going to be held
back.
It is generally agreed that only certain parts of the
internet will act as constraining factors. The optical
backbone is seen as able to cope, for example, and if
greater capacity is needed here, or in other ‘non local’
elements, it is easier and cheaper to provide than in the Above:
area where the real problem lies: the last mile. Using a How the web looks; a recent
car analogy, Nemertes predicts local roads will be map of the internet and its
congested and, by 2010, users will spend most of their traffic created by the Opte
time stuck in traffic at the edges. Project
Cisco agrees. “The last mile is definitely a
challenge,” says Sumits, “mostly because of the
emergence of peer to peer and video. With ‘bursty’
traffic, like email, you can operate with high over

we wait again?
the issue of how much more traffic could be appearing subscription ratios. But when users
on the net, based on the measured demand by access applications requiring a
business and consumer users – if internet steady flow of traffic, like
capacity were sufficient peer to peer and video, you
to accommodate it.” cannot do that.”
The figures Today’s ADSL and cable
Nemertes cites are broadband rates have not
startling: by reached their limit: ADSL2+ is
2012, 200Ebyte expected to support 24Mbit/s
per month would – in principle. In practice,
be travelling across the actual data rates
the internet. users receive are
“This equates to each user consuming or typically a third of the
generating 26Gbyte per day by 2012. Even maximum possible.
spread across multiple devices, this would Although 8Mbit/s may
seem to be extreme – it equates to each and sound impressive
every user deploying nearly seven hours of high today, it will be
definition interactive video per day.” inadequate for

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COVER STORY
Internet performance
tomorrow’s applications, such as HD video (see below).
Do the infrastructure providers agree that the last
mile poses an imminent threat to internet progress?
Not necessarily. BT, for example, says if there was a
clear cut economic case for installing fibre to the home
(FTTH) – which would enable access speeds of
100Mbit/s and higher – it would do so. But it says there
isn’t, at least today.
“To provide FTTH nationwide would require an
investment of billions and it would take several years,”
says BT press officer Mike Bartlett. “The regulator
Ofcom has said it recognises BT cannot go to its
shareholders with something like a £15bn investment
plan without an overwhelming case, which today does
not exist.”
Much of the investment required is because
thousands of roads would have to be dug up and
millions of miles of cable replaced. With a greenfield
site, the economics are radically different, as illustrated
Above: by Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent. Here, BT is to install its first
Vint Cerf, widely ever FTTH network on a huge new estate, with 10,000
regarded as the Father new homes getting the fastest access speeds in the UK.
of the internet, claims Cable company Virgin is somewhat better placed
99% of all internet because cable typically supports faster speeds than
applications have yet to conventional thin telephone cable. By the end of this
be developed. year, it is aiming to supply a 50Mbit/s service to more
Below: than 70% of the 12.5m homes in its cable network, not
Cisco predicts consumer through use of fibre, but rather via new equipment at
IP traffic, including HD hubs and bundling spare channels.
video on demand, will But, as BT’s comments show, there is no
overtake business IP overwhelming commercial reason today for investing
traffic this year. the huge amounts required to ‘future proof’ the last
16 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
mile. The problem is the one overriding characteristic
of the web and the internet: unpredictability. Vint Cerf,
who jointly created the TCP/IP protocols and is widely
regarded as the Father of the internet, claims 99% of all
internet applications have yet to be developed.
A few things, he says, are predictable over the next
few years: there will be far more mobile devices
connected to the internet, speeds will increase for
wired and wireless, people will be able to connect to
many more home appliances via the internet and many
more sensor based systems will be connected.
There are some emerging developments that,
together, could create bottlenecks. One is HD video –
not on tv, but produced by personal video cameras and
digital still cameras. Several models of the latter have
been introduced in the last few months, notably by
Kodak.
Will IPTV be a bottleneck?
Another potential bottleneck is internet tv via
broadband, with IP enabled settop boxes providing
services like video on demand still forming only a tiny
proportion of the market. Research company iSuppli
forecasts IPTV services worldwide will grow from
3.9million subscribers in 2006 to 103m by 2011.
Much the same is true of conventional HDTV. But
think of IPTV and HDTVs together. Visually, HDTVs
provide an excellent medium for surfing from your
armchair, unlike old tvs. Now, we need a device ‘beyond
the mouse’ which makes the sitting room tv an
effective, comfortable way of accessing the internet.
Could such a device be the next big thing?
Ultimately, Cisco sees real time video
communications – in effect, true HD video telephony –
as a key challenge. “There are few means of coping with
real time video communications other than to transport
it over the core. There is no way to cache real time
communications. If a social networking application that
involves live video gains popularity, there is potential
for a traffic surge and there are few responses available
other than core upgrades.”
Then there are more general economic factors: for
example, the world’s two most populous countries,
China and India, are still in the early days of internet
growth, compared with the West. But, by the end of
2006, China had more broadband lines than anyone
else, around 60m, a figure that represents less than 5%
of its population. India’s 1.2bn people are way behind
that, but the country’s broadband growth is nearly
300% per year. Imagine the potential
impact on internet access of $100 laptops in
such environments?
Bear in mind that the above are all
‘definites’, already in the pipeline. No one
knows about the others! ■
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Car.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:40 Page 19
Beyond telematics
W
ouldn’t it be useful to have an
extra pair of eyes or two that
could see the hazard around
the next bend or the sudden patch of fog
up ahead? Even better, what if that extra
pair of eyes relayed the information you
need automatically?
The ability to provide such information
at a local level and with the necessary
speed has been something of a Holy Grail
and it will be no surprise that car
manufacturers and research consortia
worldwide have been working to provide
just such a service for many years.
Timo Kosch of BMW Group Research &
Technology noted that, over the last few
years, there has been a move towards the
formation of ad hoc networks, rather
Illustration: Vincent Fraser
than digital short range communication
(DSRC) based systems. “Whilst earlier
DSRC systems were designed for
electronic toll collection or platooning,
the recent more general ad hoc network
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
The next development in
automotive electronics is to
connect cars with other cars.
By Vanessa Knivett
approach is not tailored to a certain
application area.”
Ad hoc networks allow other
applications to be considered, including
real time traffic information, post crash
and road condition warning. It’s easy to
understand why the concept of making ad
hoc connections over a peer to peer
network is ideal for this sort of
application – the network organises itself
informally and on the fly, making full use
of the cumulative bandwidth of each of
the participating nodes.
Crucially, any future system would
SPECIAL REPORT
Automotive electronics
need to share data between vehicles if
‘live’ information is to be provided – and
that’s where the ‘buts’ come in.
Lear ning to share
One high profile research effort is by the
Car 2 Car Consortium (C2CC), which
includes car manufacturers Audi, Daimler,
Fiat, Honda, Opel, Renault and
Volkswagen, as well as leading research
groups such as the EPA and the
Fraunhofer Institute for Open
Communication Systems.
C2CC’s goal is to create and establish
an open European industry standard for
C2C communication systems based on
wireless lan components and to
guarantee European wide inter vehicle
operability.
IEEE802.11p, an amendment to the
802.11 standard to support Intelligent
Transport Systems (ITS), is still in
development, although an
19
Car.qxp:Tech Temp 22/2/08 13:07 Page 20
SPECIAL REPORT
Automotive electronics
interoperability demonstration of GM’s V2V programme. GM has already
802.11p is due by the end of October organised a number of system
2008. Meanwhile, C2CC is currently demonstrations, but chairman and ceo
focusing its efforts on furthering the Rick Wagoner explained the capability of
cause within ETSI. In December, a new V2V at the recent CES Show. “These next
technical committee was set up within generation systems promise to be
ETSI to support the development of ITS considerably better … because they’ll be
Service provision across the network. The significantly less costly. But, more
idea is to create a European standard. importantly, they’ll use transponders to
The C2CC standard is a wlan based ad ‘talk’ with other vehicles within a quarter
hoc network. With a range of a few mile of your vehicle. So, if six cars ahead,
hundred metres, each vehicle acts as a somebody in a transponder equipped
vehicle steps on the brakes … your
transponder will immediately know that
and start slowing your car before you’re
even aware you may need to stop.”
Beyond safety
Whilst safety is a primary focus for C2CC,
other applications could benefit.
CarTorrent (a play on BitTorrent), devised
by a team of researchers at the UCLA
Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science, was developed with
“Your transponder will ... start slowing
your car before you’re even aware you
may need to stop.” Rick Wagoner, General Motors
router, allowing messages to be sent via entertainment applications in mind.
multi hop from vehicle to vehicle. The Recounts Professor Mario Gerla, who
routing algorithm uses the gps positional leads the research: “About four years ago,
data and can handle fast changes in the the idea came to us to extend the work we
ad hoc network topology. were doing on ad hoc networking for
It is a similar strategy to the US’ military applications to automotive. We
Vehicle Infrastructure Integration realised vehicles would be an ideal
initiative, whose members include the US environment for ad hoc networks, so we
Department of Transportation, Ford, developed CarTorrent as a way of making
General Motors, Honda, Toyota and VW. the most of the extra capacity existing
The radio system used by the C2CC between cars to facilitate a way of
standard will be in about the same downloading files from the Internet.”
frequency band as that of the US version. Prof Gerla says the initial reaction
With the Federal Communications from automotive manufacturers was
Commission having already dedicated the ‘somewhat lukewarm’. However,
5.9GHz frequency for transport related CarTorrent can be applied equally well to
communications with a range of up to enhance safety – for example, people
1km, the US appears to be ahead in could propagate video of a hazard, such
developing the car to car communication as a flood, to cars in the vicinity.
concept. The UCLA team is using a combination
One of the most advanced efforts, is of DSRC and wlan protocols to connect
20 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
moving vehicles within 100 to 300m of
each other. The team has already
constructed a test bed to study car to car
networking and carried out successful
field tests. However, research continues
at the network protocol level, where Prof
Gerla and his team are looking at ad hoc
networking and routing.
One of the main challenges from a
technical point of view, says Prof Gerla, is
maintaining the connection when there
aren’t enough cars in an area. One
solution is the delayed tolerant network
(dtn), so UCLA is looking at how to
propagate video through a dtn. The team
is also looking at how to deal with errors,
interference and obstacles, as well as
various network coding techniques, such
as digital fountain and end to end coding.
Prof Gerla notes: “Fortunately, there is a
body of existing literature in these areas,
so it is about making the adjustment to
an urban environment.”
Whilst various safety applications are
under development, Prof Gerla sees an
opportunity to develop recreational
applications, such as car to car gaming,
and methods for integrating advertising.
Prof Gerla comments: “If you use 2G or 3G
networks for gaming, it could be very
expensive, but using WiFi car to car, the
bandwidth is free!”
He believes privacy and security
concerns will prove a major hurdle to
safety applications. “If someone slams on
the brakes as a result of the warning
mechanism and the car behind crashes
into them, who is liable? Is it the
manufacturer who installed the system?
There is also the potential for malicious
people to propagate the wrong
information, to direct traffic onto the
wrong road for example.”
Prof Gerla also sees penetration as a
challenge for safety applications – a car
to car network can only realise its full
potential, he believes, if there is at least a
50% adoption rate and the systems
people are using are totally
interoperable. In the meantime,
CarTorrent’s entertainment applications
could prove useful for rooting out those
early adopters. ■
P021_NELE_Feb26 19/2/08 10:15 Page 21

www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008 21

Vehicle.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:43 Page 22
Fit for purpose
C
ar drivers have always been
required to absorb large quantities
of visual information. Delivering
some of this data using electronic
techniques allows car makers to add value
and promote safer driving.
Now, passengers are demanding
improvements in entertainment and
communications. To meet these demands,
car designers are adopting the latest
multimedia data standards. The crucial
requirement is these must withstand the
rigours of the automotive environment.
Automotive system designers realised
some time ago that progress would quickly
become limited by bandwidth and the first
Illustration: Don Seed
high speed vehicle data prototypes
proposed optical signal transport.
Experience showed fibre was not best
suited to the physical requirements of
22
Consumer oriented
components, from ics to cables
and connectors, must toughen
up to withstand life on the open
road. By Roger Broughton.
automotive applications. Whilst research
into optically networked vehicles
continues, the broadband revolution has
arrived in the electronics world. Many of
these standards take advantage of serial
data transmission which, when combined
with improved signal driving, filtering
and processing techniques, achieve high
data rates.
This has opened a new way to deliver
data intensive services
inside the car,
including high
quality video and
graphics for driver
information and safety
purposes, and multimedia
content for passengers.
Examples include the use of body
mounted video cameras, to improve
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
on the performance of conventional rear
view mirrors, and audible parking
assistance devices; some vehicles already
feature seven video cameras performing
forward looking and rearward looking
functions. Video cameras also offer a
solution to implementing future systems,
such as night vision, lane departure
warnings and pedestrian detection.
Some challenges involved in
integrating video based systems into an
automotive electrical infrastructure
include distribution of high speed video
data over several metres of cable. To meet
these demands, the physical layer tends
to rely on a differential signalling
standard, such as LVDS. A number of
LVDS transceivers have recently been
announced in extended temperature
grades for automotive applications. In
fact, LVDS is likely to become more
important in the automotive domain, as
its low noise, low power and low cost
attributes create an attractive solution
for high speed data transmission.
Automotive systems design is
adopting and improving upon solutions
developed in the commercial domain to
reach required performance levels quickly
and cost effectively. The introduction of
automotive grade LVDS
transceiver silicon is one
example. Video cameras themselves
must improve upon accepted consumer
performance
Vehicle.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:43
Figure 1: Electronic systems are becoming prevalent
DVD player
Display
Camera
Camera
benchmarks. For example, automotive
cameras are designed to have a dynamic
range several orders of magnitude greater
than conventional ccd or cmos cameras,
allowing them to adapt to rapidly
changing ambient light conditions. Other
enhancements include superior near
infrared and low light sensitivity to
improve image capture at night time, for
example.
Other areas where established
standards must be upgraded include the
physical interconnects linking the central
video processing resources with the body
mounted cameras, as well as monochrome
and colour monitors located in the cabin.
Some improvements include tougher,
higher quality construction; not only to
survive everyday use, but also to facilitate
assembly on a fast moving production line.
Some solutions, such as JAE’s MX38
LVDS cable and connector system,
incorporate specific performance
oriented enhancements, such as single
pathway mating of the connector blade
and receptacle. This new development
enhances impedance matching in long,
high speed data paths.
Conventional sprung contacts have
prevailed since the earliest signalling
standards required connectors with high
current carrying capability, but these tend
to create several signal pathways between
the mating surfaces. As signalling
currents have fallen considerably and
signal speeds have risen more sharply,
these multiple signal pathways have lead
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
Page 23
PDA/iPod/PC
8 the ability to listen to their favourite
Telephone
Navigation ECU
to poor impedance matching. The MX38
system avoids this problem.
Other enhancements found in
automotive grade LVDS interconnects
include shielding of individual twisted
pairs, as well as dual shielding at the
outer sheath to enhance immunity to
interference in the electrically noisy
automotive environment. Cable
construction is also physically stronger,
to withstand many thousands of flex
cycles and larger flexing amplitudes.
Playing favour ite games
Whilst the driver is busy absorbing
electronically enhanced information,
passengers are demanding equally high
speed information – but of a completely
different nature. The market for in car
DVD systems, for example, is already
established and rear seat passengers also
want to play their favourite video games
whilst on long journeys. Prestige car
brands already offer premium rear seat
entertainment systems with dual screen
capability to show a DVD or video game on
both screens or independently.
Whilst the rear of the front seat
headrest provides the most convenient
location for rear seat screens, there is not
sufficient space inside the front seat to
house the DVD player and other electronics.
Hence, the rear seat entertainment system
hub tends to be located remotely, requiring
video to be distributed via cable. Again,
LVDS provides a suitable high speed
physical solution.
SPECIAL REPORT
Automotive electronics
However, in future, car users will
demand portability of digital media stored
on a range of media. This will not only give
digital music, but also to transfer games
easily into the car and to watch tv recorded
in the home or by an in vehicle tv receiver/
recorder unit.
Car makers are playing close attention
to the preferences of younger consumers
in order to understand how these demands
will evolve. Easily transportable digital
entertainment is the underlying enabler of
their activities and pc based high speed
serial interconnects, such as USB 2.0,
currently dominate. In addition to
automotive grade LVDS for serial high
speed data distribution, requirements are
emerging for similarly enhanced USB
connectivity.
The JAE MX39 system is an example of a
rugged USB connector and cabling solution
for in car entertainment systems. Close
cooperation between car makers, system
developers and component suppliers has
been necessary to determine an optimal
solution. For example, the physical layout
of the USB connector precludes a cost
effective and rugged solution.
The MX39 connector and cable system
meets USB 2.0 electrical parameters for
high performance in automotive digital
media applications, whilst a low cost
adapter presents an ordinary consumer
connector into which the user will insert
the required media device. This approach
acknowledges the connector will become
damaged during the lifetime of the car and
provides a low cost replacement solution.
Digital multimedia has revolutionised
the world’s entertainment markets and,
through massive economies of scale, is
changing the ways in which people drive
and consume services while on the move.
However, significant performance
improvements and more robust physical
characteristics will be necessary if these
components are to stand up to everyday
life in modern vehicles. ■
Au thor prof ile:
Roger Broughton is automotive sales
manager for JAE Europe.
23
P024_NELE_Feb26 22/2/08 12:08 Page 1
FPGA.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:43 Page 25
Logical developments
FPGAs are being used in more automotive systems – including dashboard displays. By Graham Pitcher.
D
esigning cars used to be a long
term process, taking anything up to
seven years. Today, all that is
changed. Now, the development cycle for a
new car has been slashed to timescales that
an electronics design engineer would
recognise.
But it’s not only the length of the
design cycle which is changing. Probably
the biggest revolution in the auto industry
has been the move to embrace electronics.
An indication of just how rapidly
semiconductors are penetrating the
automotive market comes from a recent
study by market researcher Strategy
Analytics. It claims the automotive industry
will buy more than $6billion worth of
semiconductors this year, with demand
showing a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 8% over the next few years. Put
another way, by 2010, cars in the US and
European markets will contain an average
of $350 worth of semiconductors.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
However, fpga use appears to be
growing faster than anything else. Axel
Zimmerman, Altera’s European
automotive market development
manager, said: “Although the general
semiconductor market is growing at
around 10% a year, fpga content is seeing
a CAGR of 45%.”
With growth rates like that, it’s no
surprise that the programmable logic
companies are taking the automotive
market seriously, developing devices
specifically for use in cars.
The reason for growing silicon content
is the move to systems and the more
systems in a car, the more silicon is
consumed. Although the fastest growing
sectors are driver assistance,
infotainment and driver information,
fpgas are beginning to find there way into
in car networking.
But it’s behind the dashboard where
fpgas are having an immediate – and
SPECIAL REPORT
Automotive electronics
often obvious – impact. Alix Coxon,
Xilinx’ European marketing manager,
noted that electromechanical displays are
rapidly disappearing. “They are being
replaced by hybrid clusters, with better
graphics and video capabilities, and by
reconfigurable clusters.” And the last but
one word in that sentence highlights the
role fpgas play in this application.
Xilinx is addressing this market with
the launch of a range of automotive
fpgas. The XA Spartan-3A range is said to
reduce complexity, whilst increasing
security and reliability.
The fpgas offer specialised
functionality, said Coxon, including the
ability to drive individual leds, support
for analogue instrumentation within
hybrid clusters, and LVDS and RSDS
interfaces for direct links with displays.
Previously, said Coxon, led brightness
was managed using a cpld working
alongside a microcontroller. “Now,” she
25
FPGA.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:44 Page 26
SPECIAL REPORT
Automotive electronics
noted, “this all can be integrated in XA
Spartan-3A devices with the embedded
32bit MicroBlaze soft microprocessor.”
Whilst Xilinx points to instrument
clusters as a rapidly growing market,
Zimmermann highlights some other
areas. “I believe the main growth in the
next couple of years will come from
infotainment and telematics. In these
applications, the flexibility and
“In car networks are a rapidly developing
application suited to fpgas.” Axel Zimmermann, Altera
scalability of fpga and/or hardwired fpga
based head units are necessary to meet
next generation requirements.
“But another huge application area is
driver assistance, with such features as
lane departure warning, collision warning,
safe distance support and traffic sign
recognition. These applications always
needs dsp levels of performance, which is
the key advantage of fpga/hardwired
fpgas, which can feature several hundreds
of MAC blocks per device.”
The hardwired fpgas to
which Zimmermann refers are
devices such as Altera’s
HardCopy range of structured
asics, which can be deployed
once an fgpa based design is
hardened for production.
As automotive systems become
more computationally intensive,
26
dsp performance becomes more important.
And both Altera and Xilinx are keen to
promote their dsp capabilities.
FPGAs have become increasingly
attractive as signal processing engines
and one reasons is their ability to handle
high computational workloads.
“If you look at a traditional dsp,” said
Coxon, “they are essentially
microprocessors designed specifically for
efficient execution of common signal
processing tasks. If you implement a filter
using a dsp, the code must loop through a
number of times equal to the number of
taps. So, in a 126tap filter, the dsp loops
through 126 times to process one sample.
For a 1GHz dsp, this equates to
8Msample/s for each hardware MAC.”
FPGAs, by contrast, are inherently
parallel and can perform more work per
clock cycle. Coxon continued: “If you
unfold the filter tap loop and implement
it in a Spartan-3A DSP using parallel MAC
functions, each sample can be processed
in a single clock cycle. So, an fpga
running at 250MHz offers 250Msample/s
for the same 126tap filter.”
Two emerging driver assistance
applications are lane departure warning
and rear camera systems, both based on
processing the input from a camera,
interpreting the data and creating an
output. Coxon said that, because these
systems are now based on a camera input
of 30frame/s, “Systems such as these are
impossible to create
using serial dsp
architectures.”
But another reason
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
for considering fpgas is these
applications continue to developing
rapidly. “Because driver assistance is still
an emerging market, designers need the
flexibility and scalability of fpgas in order
to meet requirements.”
As more data needs to be passed
around the car – whether for safety or
infotainment applications – more capable
networking standards are being
developed. Zimmermann noted: “In car
networks are a rapidly developing
application suited to fpgas. Because they
use complex interfaces such as FlexRay,
this market needs a flexible solutions as it
is not stable.”
CAN has been used in the automotive
environment for some time, but is being
complemented – and, in some cases,
being replaced – by more capable
networks such as MOST (media oriented
systems transport) and FlexRay, which
sits above MOST and CAN.
MOST is an infotainment oriented
network with a ring topology. One of its
strengths is that it supports multiple
simultaneous streams of media intended
for several nodes in the ring.
Xilinx is addressing the MOST market
with an IP core that allows synchronous
data to be transported in real time, whilst
the fpga performs real time dsp
operations. The core can be used in
standalone mode or connected to
MicroBlaze or PowerPC processors.
Altera says its fpgas offer flexible
networking solutions, with configurable
port numbers and types. FPGAs from its
Cyclone and Stratix ranges can be used to
provide gateway solutions with a high
level of hardware routing.
Zimmermann concluded:
“Programmable logic offers designers
scalability of solutions within one
package; an example is graphics
controllers for entry, mid and high end
systems. FPGAs also offer the designer
flexibility during system development,
with easy changes to the hardware until
the C sample stage.
“Together, these benefits enable
platform cost reduction and a shorter
development cycle.” ■
P027_NELE_Feb26 6/2/08 10:14 Page 1
P028_NELE_Feb26 20/2/08 11:57 Page 1
DD COVER D1.qxp:DD COVER D1.qxd 21/2/08 16:58 Page 43

Designs on Distribution

Miracle workers
As industry needs change, distributors are having to
become all things to all manufacturers

The little big men

Can a small distributor with a global parent keep
your design one step ahead of the competition?
P030_NELE_Feb26 18/2/08 14:31 Page 1
Dom contents.qxp:LEADER TEMP
CONTENTS
Miracle workers
Fast paced, ever changing industry
demands that distributors are all
things to all manufacturers. But
distribution is about more than just
shifting boxes; it’s all about
recognising that every customer has
specific needs.
36
The little big men
Is consolidation a bad thing? More
than likely, a small distributor
protected by a global parent, can help
keep your design one jump ahead of
the competition.
41
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
21/2/08 16:57 Page 31
COMMENT
Consolidation
I’ll buy it!
Travel the world, meet interesting distributors and buy them!
V
ictor Kiam, amongst others, said: “In business, the competition will bite you
if you keep running. If you stand still, they will swallow you.” The increasing
trend of large global corporations looking to broaden their market presence
by acquiring smaller independent local distributors has a similar ring to it.
But what’s in it for distribution’s little and large guys? And, importantly, what’s
in it for the end customer? They can get very nervous if their choice of supplier –
and therefore flexibility – is reduced, because they may resent being limited to
buying from fewer suppliers.
On one hand, there can be a falling out over changes in culture between the
small local company and its new huge parent. On the other, these acquisitions
allow designers to have the best of both worlds: the benefits and economies of
scale associated with a large distributor, plus the personal touch at local level.
On announcing the recent acquisition of Azzurri by Avnet, Azzurri’s Mike
Carlucci was quick to point out that the company had not been consumed by some
‘huge giant’. He saw the acquisition as an opportunity to take more product lines
and gain access into other markets throughout Europe. Avnet claims Azzurri as a
useful ally in providing its customers and suppliers with a dedicated and personal
service.
For the look and feel of some of the smaller independents they’ve acquired,
many larger distributors try to maintain local branding; others tend to corporate
brand immediately. The industry’s new phrase is Glocal – ‘act globally, locally’.
Kiam had another way of putting it: ‘I liked it so much, I bought the company’.
Mike Richardson, Associate Editor (mrichardson@findlay.co.uk)
31
P032_NELE_Feb26 21/2/08 16:36 Page 1
Dod news.qxp:NEWS 21/2/08 16:59 Page 33

DESIGNS ON DISTRIBUTION
Distribution news

Independent’s day? Designs on environment

Has consolidation seen the customer’s choice diminish?

Mike Richardson reports.

T
he acquisition of independent distributors by larger corporations can
create uncertainty for designers preferring the personal touch. But
whilst there are differences in culture and business engagement to
contend with, do these mergers offer designers more choice?
According to Arrow Electronics’ UK marketing director Chris McAneny,
pictured right, consolidation enables designers to have the best of both A growing importance in energy efficient
worlds: the benefits and economies of scale associated with a large products and design has seen Farnell
distributor, plus the personal touch at a local level. enhance its range of products and online
“Arrow has achieved this through the creation of a network of regional technical resources to support the
business centres (RBCs),” he explained. “Serving customers in a specific development of end to end energy
geographic region, each RBC is a self contained business dedicated to efficient solutions.
channelling all of the benefits of dealing with Arrow at a local level.” This increased emphasis sees the
But is there still a role for the independent design in distributor? addition of more than 3500 new product
Afdec’s chairman Adam Fletcher thinks so. “There remains a need. The lines encompassing power management,
independent’s business model is viable, but only if they are nimble and able to quickly match their microcontrollers, switching, thermal
services to the needs of their customers and the manufacturers they represent.” management, low power solid state
Nu Horizon’s vp sales EMEA Phil Gee says that, as an independent distributor becomes more illumination and circuit protection.
successful, they become an attractive proposition for acquisition. Gee points to Nu Horizons’ acquisition “To realise a sustainable product
of DT Electronics and how it has given the company a deeper reach in Europe: a global feel, but acting design, energy efficiency must be
locally. considered from the earliest stages of
“The challenge for smaller independents is in providing effective systems, tracking and development, with each element broken
compensation programmes to follow the business as it moves around the globe,” he claimed. down and analysed to see if there is a way
“Typically, they can’t, which is a huge advantage for companies like Nu Horizons.” of making the end product more efficient,”
Farnell’s technology development manager
Jamie Furness explained. “We aim to make
the process easier by offering the widest
Is there life after RoHS? increasingly fewer components being choice of the latest technologies, coupled
introduced on the market have non compliant with technical information to help
As part of a seminar entitled: ‘Life after EU versions.” engineers incorporate them into their
RoHS – future challenges to buyers and Eden highlighted an upcoming Directive product designs.”
suppliers’ held during the recent Southern that’s come out of the blue: the Norwegian
Electronics exhibition, RS Components’ market prohibition of hazardous substances (PoHS).
development manager Richard Eden noted the “This is Norway’s version of RoHS and
Microchip widens the net
availability of non RoHS components will soon contains 18 banned substances compared with Aimed at enhancing its global distributor
become a serious issue for electronics RoHS’ six,” he exclaimed. “Interestingly, PoHS’ network for increased customer support,
businesses operating in exempt industries. banned substances contains two flame Microchip has announced that it is
“RoHS has turned component availability retardants that the EU’s RoHS Directive partnering with Avnet Electronics
on its head and if you are manufacturing recommends to use as replacements for two Marketing and Future Electronics to
systems for markets outside the RoHS substances it is banning. In effect, PoHS is provide its global distribution services.
Directive, you will soon be struggling to find banning RoHS’ replacements for the banned Microchip has added Avnet Memec, a
leaded components,” he stated. “This will only substances!” subsidiary of Avnet Electronics Marketing
become worse in the future, because • For more on RoHS, see p47 in this issue. throughout the Americas, as a new
distribution partner. Microchip already has
Avnet Silica serving its European customer
base and Avnet Electronics Marketing in Asia
Silica takes two covering pricing, delivery and customer service. serving its Asian customers.
Paul March, sales manager Silica UK, said: In addition, Microchip has also
Silica’s UK team has been named Semiconductor “The awards recognise not only our performance announced that it has terminated its
Supplier of the Year by Plexus. The company has in terms of volume of sales, but also the relationship with Arrow Electronics. The
also won Plexus’ Supply Chain Partner Award. dedication and commitment of the company’s relationship with Arrow was limited to
The awards – said to recognise Silica’s employees who have gone out of their way to Europe and the Americas, and
‘exceptional performance’ during 2007 – were ensure the continuation of our successful represented approximately 7% of
judged against a range of performance indicators partnership.” Microchip’s sales.

www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008 33

P034_NELE_Feb26 20/2/08 14:57 Page 1
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DD.Man.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:52 Page 36
Miracle workers
F
or many electronics manufacturers,
distribution is about more than just
shifting boxes. Distributors help
create demand for their products, find new
design in opportunities and help potential
customers understand the benefits of
using one manufacturer’s line card over
another. The distribution channel helps
manufacturers ‘touch’ end customers in the
hope that they will build their product
around their offering.
In fact, the distributor’s role of
providing stocking and logistics
programmes to all types of customers has
not really changed. And yet distributors
continue to enhance and refine these
processes as they represent a competitive
differentiation. It’s all about recognising
that every customer has specific needs.
“Effective demand creation, in both
collaborative marketing as well as
application support, is a ‘must have’
competency,” said National
Semiconductor’s director of distribution,
Europe, Ray Sinclair. “Increasingly, we’re
seeing distributor FAEs developing strong
system level knowledge at their assigned
accounts and this, coupled with a
strong offering in fpga/mcus,
provides a
valuable
insight,
36
Today’s fast paced, ever
changing industry demands
that distributors are all things
to all manufacturers.
By Mike Richardson.
allowing us to more effectively optimise a
high performance analogue solution for
these applications.”
People and per for mance
As well as products, it’s vital that the
relationship between manufacturer and
distributor includes another ingredient –
people. After all, it’s a ‘people’ business
and the distributor needs to hire, train
and match the right employee with the
right manufacturer to ensure a good ‘fit’.
Altera’s European channel sales manager,
Barry Ansell, acknowledges that
manufacturers ask an awful lot of their
distributors.
“From a channel and broad base
perspective, the distributor has to help
us design in the product and then
ensure they have the inventory in
place to ship it when the customer
needs product. They do this for
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
many customers as well as for us, so it’s a
‘big ask’ and they do it pretty well.”
STMicroelectronics’ UK managing
director Ollie Althorpe notes the reach
and diversity of distribution allows his
company to ‘touch’ every customer
looking to buy semiconductors.
“Distributors need to offer agility and
capability to meet the customers’
complex and diverse demands, both in
logistics and design with a consistency
and ethical approach,” he explained.
“Therefore, principals have to be
committed to distribution and they need
to have consistency of purpose. Our
business models evolve because
consistency of purpose and process is
critical in providing the stability for the
distributor to serve the customer base.”
Pierre-Yves Ferrard, Freescale’s vp of
global distribution sales, demands that
distributors are financially strong, can
invest in the line card, hire the best people
in the industry and can carry some level of
inventory necessary to run the business.
“A strong financial background is a
necessity,” Ferrard continued. “The
distributor must be profitable with
Freescale, because when they make
money on Freescale’s line card, they
can reinvest it and continue to grow
the business.
DD.Man.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:53
“It’s my responsibility to incentivise
the distributor to sell products that are
profitable. We have to provide a good line
card to ensure we get their full attention.”
Whilst the distribution channel
continues to offer manufacturers a
variety of marketing programmes,
distributors are increasing their focus
towards the internet – an area where
National’s Sinclair sees catalogue
distributors taking an early lead.
“With catalogue distributors now
generating more than 50% of their sales
through e-commerce, they have an ideal
opportunity to continue to develop the
interaction with the engineer, offering
everything from basic banner advertising
to targeted application sites, online tools
and reference platforms as well as
targeted e-newsletters,” he explained.
Ansell agrees that internet use will
increase: “It’s a cost effective scaleable
way of dealing with many customers,” he
explained. “The channels are becoming
much more complex; the web is part of a
much bigger picture.”
For Althorpe, however, the internet is a
great informer, but an awful communicator.
“The internet is yet another colour and
flavour that people deal with, but for the
majority of our customers it’s another part
of the channel,” he offered.
But in today’s closely fought
and competitive industry, how can
distribution really
help the
manufacturer differentiate its
product lines from the
competition?
“In the same way as
distributors see logistics
services as a
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
Page 37
DESIGNS ON DISTRIBUTION
differentiator commercially, experienced
FAEs are seen as a differentiator for both
customers and suppliers in the design in
arena,” Sinclair offered. “All distributors
fiercely defend and market these
competencies as way of providing more
value to the customer and supplier.
“A knowledgeable and motivated distributor
is invaluable .” Ollie Althorpe, STMicroelectronics
Failure to secure competent resource runs
the risk of being branded a commodity
fulfilment distributor.”
A balancing act
Meanwhile, Ferrard feels it’s important to
have a balanced channel of distributors
offering specific values that can
differentiate from each other.
“It’s important for principals to create
channels that bring the different elements
needed for our success to reach the
customers,” he stated. “The distributor
needs to bring something different, take
on lines that are complementary,
sometimes competitive, but always adding
value. We take differentiated distributors,
they take differentiated lines and we each
bring value in our own way.”
The distribution
channel is evolving
as more and more
products designed in
The manufacturer’s view
European are being manufactured
offshore. At the same time, globalisation
is making it harder for distributors to get a
return on investment in some territories.
“As local specialist distributors are
consumed by larger corporations, we’ll
see more reps filling that vacuum and
supplying the extra sales expertise on the
demand creation side,” said Ansell. “But
as the distributor grows, its challenge is
in maintaining focus. In some countries,
we’ve implemented a rep model, where
they work alongside distributors to apply
an extra focus for some customers.”
Whilst it’s sometimes too easy to
knock distribution, manufacturers still
need to appreciate the job it does.
Provided they have the right expectations
of their distributor and support them
properly, then the relationship can be
long and mutually prosperous.
“A knowledgeable and motivated
distributor is invaluable to the principals,”
Althorpe concluded. “Our customers have
such an enormous choice of suppliers of
products via the internet that we should
not underestimate the influence
that a distributor FAE – who has
the respect of the customer – Illustration: Henning Löhein
can have in order to get your
products in front of that
customer. Without
knowledge there is no
desire.” ■
37
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40 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008

Cons.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:48 Page 41
The little big men
J
ust like Monopoly, the component
distribution industry plays out
round after round of acquisitions,
consolidations and mergers. The only
difference is the players don’t use dice
and they play with real money.
Consolidation has become an
increasing trend as large global
corporations look to broaden their market
presence by snapping up smaller,
independent specialists. What’s in it for
the big guy, and will it help the small guy
to gain a foothold in previously
inaccessible markets? And when the deal
is done, what kind of service can the end
customer expect?
Nu Horizons acquired DT Electronics
during 2006 in a move to enter the
European markets. However, as Nu
Horizons’ vp sales EMEA Phil Gee points
out, a start up of this magnitude –
certainly as far as the UK market was
concerned – was obviously going to have
some serious challenges.
“The approach was to find a
technically focused distributor with very
few focused semiconductor lines which
fitted in with Nu Horizons’ overall
philosophy,” explained Gee. “I think the
synergy was there. If you could have a
‘textbook’ acquisition, then the DT
Electronics/Nu Horizons was it!
“It’s brought many different things to
the party. DT needed an fpga line that
focused on the broadcast market, but
needed to open up a new UK customer
base. FPGA lines like Xilinx offered both
companies major opportunities: we could
penetrate new customers and Xilinx had a
serious distributor with a global feel,
but acting locally.”
Back in 2000, Mouser
Electronics became a subsidiary
of TTI. Mouser’s small quantity
order fulfilment means products are
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
DESIGNS ON DISTRIBUTION
Consolidation
A small distributor, protected concentrating on catalogues to supply
the engineering community. Mouser gives
by a global parent, can help us something extra at the bottom end to
compete with the broadline catalogue
keep your design one jump
houses; it creates a lot of leads.
ahead of the competition. “Mouser doesn’t want to get involved
in high volume, high mix products, so we
By Mike Richardson. help follow its projects through and take
them to the next level. Mouser is
predominantly a North American concern
delivered quickly during the prototype and, at this moment, doesn’t
stage, then transitioned to TTI for have a European business. But
production quantities. with the internet and the
“TTI is vying for a top three flexibility of e-commerce,
position in all the networks,” there are no bounds in terms
claimed TTI’s vp of purchasing.”
marketing Europe According to Arrow
Geoff Breed. Electronics’ UK marketing
“Today, it’s the director Chris McAneny, the
only specialist customer/supplier/distributor
passive and relationship continues to evolve
connector global as customers look to reduce their
distributor, with supplier base and more
an arm component manufacturers
look to grow their sales
through the
distribution channel.
“These trends
tend to
support
Illustration: Elly Walton
41
Cons.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:49 Page 42
DESIGNS ON DISTRIBUTION
Consolidation
“It’s only a matter of time before the large
Asian based authorised distributors size up
the European and US markets.” Adam Fletcher, afdec
distributor models based on broad product
and platform portfolios, and with good
coverage within and across regional
boundaries,” he explained. “If this
technology and service mix can be
combined with good technical and supply
chain support delivered at a local level
with a ‘personal touch’, then there are real
benefits for customers, distributors, and
component and system level suppliers.”
The personal touch
The topic of acquisitions tends to raise a
few eyebrows, not least for the e nd
customers in terms of the uncertainty of
change in business engagement. Will they
get the same levels of personal service
they got from their independent local
distributor, as opposed to a large
corporation?
“Just because an organisation is large,
it doesn’t mean the personal touch has to
be compromised,” countered McAneny.
“The key is for distributors to invest in an
infrastructure that supports local service
delivery, providing customers with the best
of both worlds. In Arrow’s case, we have
made significant investment in regional
business centres, each providing services
and support to customers on a local basis.
“If anything, the need for design in
42
support has grown as more SMEs look to
concentrate on core their competencies.
Meanwhile, the challenges facing many
independent design in distributors
include line card breadth and geographic
coverage. The ideal distribution partner is
one that offers locally focused design in
capabilities backed by a broad technology
portfolio and multiregional – yet
consistent – service delivery.”
Gee agrees that designers should
expect the same level of personal service
from the larger organisations, but is
aware that high degrees of specialisation
and focus are ever increasing challenges
faced by the larger organisations.
“There is no doubt that the smaller
independent distributor can use additional
franchises to gain exposure and
penetration in new markets,” he said. “The
question is whether the customer wants to
be served that way. The challenge that
global corporations find – and it’s one of
the main reasons for acquiring
independent distributors – is that margin
is consistently being eroded in the major
OEM and CEM space. So the focus then
shifts to the emerging and smaller
Geoff Breed: “Consolidation is a continuing trend.”
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
customer base which, by definition, helps
create improved margins.
“This is, ultimately, what large
corporations gain: penetration and
visibility in these markets. It becomes
tougher and tougher for the independent
distributor to survive, but it should be
about customer choice in the end.”
According to afdec chairman Adam
Fletcher, some newly acquired
distributors try to keep their local
branding, whilst others tend to assume
the corporate brand immediately. “Most
of the fallout is over changes in culture
between the small local company and its
huge systemised parent,” he points out.
“The buzzword is ‘glocal’ – act globally
locally. Few authorised distributors
achieve this, but it is a laudable aim.”
With Avnet’s recent acquisition of UK
distributor Azzurri still fresh in the mind,
can we expect 2008 to mark the start of
another round of consolidations
throughout the industry?
“It’s only a matter of time before the
large Asian based authorised distributors
size up the European and US markets,”
warned Fletcher. “Part of Avnet and
Arrow’s current strategy may be to stop
them acquiring any large authorised
distributors in their home markets.”
According to Breed, the current
marketplace suggests consol0idation is a
continuing trend. “There are still many
local distributors out there doing a good
job, but there are also multinationals
looking to enhance their business where
these local distributors specialise.
Perhaps this is a stronger route for the
global player to take rather than starting
from scratch?”
The last word goes to Gee. “I think
we’ll see the recent trends start to
flatten. The current US economy and
general global slowdown will probably
contribute to this, but the focus for
potential acquisition targets is shifting to
markets such as eastern European, where
there are many reps and independents
with established footholds. These, in my
opinion, are the companies that offer a
viable opportunity. But, in summary, the
game of Monopoly will continue.” ■
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Direct.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:45
Clean bill of health?
W
hilst environmental legislation
like the RoHS Directive is
designed to promote a greener
world, the impact can have both positive
and negative effects on the industry.
RoHS – the Restriction of Hazardous
Substances Directive – has polarised
opinion and, in some areas, is seen as
more eco harmful than eco friendly.
But it’s the financial burden of
complying with the Directive that
has hit manufacturers the
hardest. Lead free
solders have higher
melting points
and therefore
need elevated
process
temperatures
during the
production
process. This in
turn requires more
power consumption,
which has meant an increase
in operating costs and a negative
effect on companies trying to make their
entire operations more eco friendly.
In 2005, the DTI (now DBERR)
concluded the financial impact of
complying with the RoHS Directive on UK
manufacturing would be between 1% and
2% of turnover. Did anyone in the
industry try to challenge the figures
which the Government used?
Very often, these Directives have far
reaching consequences and some
dissenting voices have challenged the
Directive’s perceived wisdom. Some have
even gone as far as to say that RoHS is
effectively a trade embargo!
So, how can the industry help
designers and manufacturers to comply
with the RoHS Directive when their power
consumption has increased and energy
bills are going through the roof?
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
Page 47
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
How companies investing in
‘clean’ designs can offset the
costs incurred by complying
with the RoHS Directive.
By Mike Richardson.
“RoHS will have a negative effect on
all producers due to the energy demands
of the alternative solders and the price
differential of new solders,” explained
Giraffe Innovation’s Mark Dowling. “This
will impact not just UK manufacturers,
but those in Europe and companies
supplying EEE into Europe from the Far
East, Eastern Europe and even the USA.
There are also restrictions in place in
China and Korea, so the UK is not alone.”
T h e th rowaway s o c i e t y
SMART Group technical committee
member, Nigel Burtt says RoHS is
concerned with making our throwaway
society more responsible, “and, in
principle, you cannot argue against
that,” he stated. “However, as many have
Directives & standards
argued, the ban on lead in solder has
many negative environmental impacts,
unlike the elimination of some of the
other substances. Yes, more energy is
being consumed at a time when energy
prices are increasing significantly. Yes,
higher impact mining is needed to
extract the alternate metals required
with more energy being used again. Yes,
silver and copper possibly leach into the
water system faster than lead.”
Burtt points to another
DTI report in 2004,
which said ‘…
though it is
extremely
difficult to
quantify the
benefits that
may result
from restricting
lead in new
electrical and
electronic equipment
(EEE) products, it is likely
that given current exposure rates in
the UK, the potential benefits from the
RoHS Directive may be somewhat
limited’.
“However,” claimed Burtt, “the train
started rolling at the EU in 1990 when
the issue of waste electrical and
electronic equipment (WEEE) was first
identified and the industry was too slow
to respond.”
The RoHS Directive was originally
added to the WEEE Directive and, when it
was first drafted, much of the industry
ignored it, assuming that it would never
be accepted. However, industry is at a
stage where it is too late to change.
Farnell’s RoHS guru and Directives
expert Gary Nevison points to the lack of
comparative lifecycle assessments
available when the RoHS Directive was
originally drafted, which made it
47
Direct.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:45 Page 48
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Directives & standards
“One of the key drivers in developing more
sustainable or ‘cleaner’ designs has been the
introduction of ... RoHS.” Luke Cox, Envirowise
difficult to determine at the time if there
would be any real eco benefit.
“If the kinds of research we are seeing
now had been available right from the
outset, then it would be interesting to
speculate whether or not lead would have
been restricted as part of RoHS
Directive,” he mused. “Now the research
is available, will that encourage lead to
be deleted from RoHS? This means going
back to the politicians and the answer is
likely to be no.”
Nevison (pictured right) references a
recent Ernst & Young report, which states
that regulatory and compliance risk is
the greatest strategic challenge facing
global business in 2008. This is based on
the fact that there are so many Directives
and interpretations in so many different
countries that keeping up to speed with
them all will be a challenge in itself!
“In general, UK manufacturing has
adapted to the RoHS Directive fairly well,”
he observed. “Some companies have
received grants from the Government,
whilst others have profited from initiating
training courses for the correct uses of lead
free solder production techniques.”
48
According to Giraffe’s Dowling, the
government offers advice to companies
through agencies like the Manufacturing
Advisory Service, Netregs and
Envirowise.
“Giraffe helps companies to run as
lean and as efficient as possible,” he
claimed, “and through our workshops
and meetings with companies in 2007, we
have saved UK industry in excess of
£50million.”
Indeed, a growing community of
legislation experts has appeared
throughout the industry, with everyone
passing on information to help each
other – which is how it should be,
because it’s a common problem.
“The RoHS Directive has put the UK in
a better position of responding to
forthcoming legislations like
Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation
and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)
and Energy using Products (EuP)
because there are now people in
organisations that can respond and
engage with the process,” stated ERA
Technology’s head of reliability and
failure analysis Chris Robertson. “The
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
problem with RoHS was that there was
very little industry engagement and it’s
still quite limited, which means the
legislators and the people they employ
to push forward the process can
sometimes operate in an information
vacuum. The UK’s small businesses are
in a better position to do this because
they are now aware that if you don’t
engage, then it’s more difficult in the
future.”
Cleaner by design
Although designers are being forced to
change their designs – and it is a painful
process to go through – if they do it
well, they can be in a situation where
they are ahead of the competition.
“One of the key drivers in developing
more sustainable or ‘cleaner’ designs
has been the introduction of
environmental legislations, such as
RoHS,” commented Envirowise’s cleaner
design specialist Luke Cox. “Following a
systematic approach to cleaner design
can help companies identify more
efficient design and production
techniques and adapt to major
legislations such as RoHS.”
Cox says that companies investing in
sustainable design also often identify
techniques that give rise to innovations
or products that are more cost effective
or easier to make. Therefore, by
following this approach companies can
offset any costs incurred with complying
with the RoHS Directive.
“Within UK industry, we expect to see
an increasing emphasis on a more
holistic view of product lifecycles in the
future,” he concluded. “In fact, there is
further legislation on the horizon which
seeks to improve the environmental
performance of energy using products.
The EuP Directive may require some
manufacturers to identify which part of a
product’s lifecycle has the most impact
on the environment and then design in
efficiency measures. Producers should
therefore be considering opportunities
to pursue sustainable designs as a
priority – and reap the benefits that this
approach can bring!” ■
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prog.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:55 Page 51
Navigating
the market
P
rogrammable logic and fpgas have
made substantial progress in the
last few years. Once regarded as
having little more use than providing ‘glue
logic’ to fix design glitches, the
technologies have evolved to become
central design platforms for many
companies.
The reason for the recent boom in their
fortunes is largely technology based; with
the likes of Altera and Xilinx pushing their
products onto leading edge manufacturing
processes, the large areas of silicon
needed to create systems on chips are
available at attractive prices.
Programmable devices have
also made serious inroads into
what was once the ring fenced
territory of the asic. It’s a
brave company that commits
to an asic on a leading edge
process; the mask sets alone
will require an eight figure
dollar investment. The
programmable logic companies
have provided another economic
option in the form of the
structured asic, providing a ‘half
way house’ between the tightly
targeted asic and the broadly
applicable fpga.
Yet, despite seemingly boundless
opportunities for programmable
logic, targeting the right market with
the right product remains a
Illustration: Philip Holmes
fundamental requirement.
QuickLogic has been a
programmable logic player since 1989,
with devices such as Eclipse and pASIC.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
How CSSPs are helping
designers find their way
to market quickly.
By Graham Pitcher.
But it made a move at the beginning of
2007 which attempted to carve out a new
piece of a highly competitive market.
Brian Faith, vp of QuickLogic explained.
“We started to brand our
EMBEDDED DESIGN
Programmable platforms
products as CSSPs – customer specific
standard products – rather than fpgas or
whatever. The reason was that, whenever
we talked to customers in focused markets,
we found they didn’t want to do their own
projects. Although they wanted custom
functionality, they didn’t want to do an
fpga or an asic. But the bottom line was
they wanted devices quickly.”
So what is an CSSP? Faith said: “The
‘standard product’ part of the name means
it’s working and proven, whilst the
‘customer specific’ part refers to the
programmable fabric.”
Tom Hart, QuickLogic’s long serving
president and ceo, expanded.
“Development teams are no longer
designing products; they are designing
platforms from which they can spin out a
multitude of products.”
He says three trends have driven this
change. “One is increasing product
complexity; the second is the shrinking of
market windows; and the third trend is
shrinking design budgets.” Hart believes
smaller design teams must find ways of
‘churning out’ products quickly based on
ever changing market requirements. “Yet
these products must contain features that
differentiate them from the competition in
order to interest consumers,” he added.
And it’s this philosophy which
underpins QuickLogic’s CSSP approach.
To a certain extent, it’s a branding
operation; the CSSP family includes
two existing products – PolarPro and
ArcticPro. Faith continued: “PolarPro
is a completely programmable
technology, whilst ArcticPro offers
proven system blocks.”
In Faith’s opinion, the system
blocks to which he refers as ‘more
than IP’. “These are proven
hardware blocks with the
software drivers to make them
work.”
In true programmable
logic fashion, any logic can
be ported onto the CSSP
platform. “Remaining fabric
can be used to implement
customer functionality,”
Faith added.
51
prog.qxp:Tech Temp 22/2/08 09:33 Page 52
EMBEDDED DESIGN
Programmable platforms
“In the last year we’ve seen a lot of our
technology going into satnav products.”
Brian Faith, QuickLogic
functionality,” Faith added.
One of the benefits which Faith sees in
the CSSP approach is that it allows
designers to bring intelligence into end
products. “Take a mobile device, for
example. In these, all data has to flow
through an applications processor – and
this can be a bottleneck. With intelligent
blocks, you can program different devices
to talk to one another without having to
access the processor bus. An example
would be downloading data via a USB port
to a datacard. The net result is a better end
user experience.”
You might, at this point, be wondering
where the difference is between
QuickLogic’s CSSP offerings and those
from its programmable logic competitors.
“Here’s the big difference,” Faith asserted.
“QuickLogic works with customers at the
specification phase. We take that
specification and then design the fabric
part of the device, delivering it as a
package.”
He believes this approach positions
52
QuickLogic as an extension of its
customers’ R&D teams. “We’re delivering
what essentially looks like an asic, but
which brings the customer the economies
of scale associated with standard
products.”
But customers don’t have to take
advantage of this if they don’t want to.
“The design flow is Verilog/Vhdl based and
you can use standard tools,” he continued.
And it is here that a split between
potential end user markets becomes
apparent. “OEMs in the industrial market,
for example, have longer design cycles and
prefer to do the design work themselves,
particularly if they’re putting in
proprietary IP. In the consumer market, by
contrast, designers generally don’t want
to do the work themselves.”
QuickLogic says CSSPs differ from
solutions available from ASSP and ASIC
suppliers in that CSSP solutions not only
can customers’ integration and
customisation requirements by met from
prefabricated silicon, the solutions can
often be delivered in a matter of days.
CSSPs are built up using customisable
building blocks (CBB), a unit of
measurement that represents the amount
of on chip logic that can be used to
implement system blocks. Amongst the
available blocks are those which
implement such interfaces as PCI and IDE
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
or functions such as a NAND flash
controller. As Faith noted earlier, there is
also space for custom logic. PolarPro is
available in 8, 20, 60 and 240 CBB
versions, whilst ArcticPro can
accommodate 20 CBBs. Both solutions can
be housed in a range of packages to suit
various market requirements.
Both approaches are based on
QuickLogic’s antifuse ViaLink technology.
Sram based fpgas often consume high
levels of power, even during standby.
ArcticLink and PolarPro families take
advantage of a VLP (very low power) mode,
enabled by QuickLogic’s underlying Vialink
logic technology offers. Using VLP,
standby power is said to be as low as
2.2µA.
“ViaLink is brought up with our fab
partners,” said Faith. Currently,
QuickLogic is working with TSMC and
Tower Semiconductor. “And you can
produce devices at these fabs on the
process node which you want.”
Despite rapid take up of leading edge
processes, not all customers want to be
on the ‘bleeding edge’. “Customers don’t
want leading edge processes,” Faith
continued, “so long as the process they
are using meets their cost targets. So
some older technologies in fabs where
there is capacity can work out cheaper.”
That’s often appropriate to the
consumer market. In the industrial
world, designs tend to have a longer
lifetime and companies aren’t so
interested in updating them on a regular
basis.
So who is using the CSSP approach?
“In the last year, we’ve seen a lot of our
technology going into satnav products,”
Faith claimed, “and there is interest from
companies developing high end
multimedia phones.” The CSSP approach
is attractive to the latter group of
developers because their designs take
longer to get to market, due to the need
to meet conformance requirements.
“Industry is adopting the concept,”
Faith concluded, “but the volumes are
lower. Nevertheless, we’re seeing CSSPs
going into point of sale equipment and
hand held terminals.” ■
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Test.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:46 Page 54

Bringing
better insight
Agilent brings 1billion point acquisition memory to scopes. By Graham Pitcher.

W
ith electronics components and dilemma, Agilent has recently unveiled the be the fastest off load speed. But these
the interfaces which link them Inifiniium 90000A series of scopes and the features come at a price: if you specify the
together running at ever faster top of the line devices in the range feature top of the range device, then you’ll likely
rates, testing the designs which take 1billion points of acquisition memory. be paying more than $130,000 for the
advantage of their features becomes Takuya Furuta is oscilloscopes product privilege.
increasingly complex. manager with Agilent’s digital test So what do you get for your money?
But design today isn’t just about debug division. He said: “The key message in this Signal integrity, for one thing. According
and similar processes. Here’s some of the launch is that signal integrity brings better to Agilent, the 90000A maintains its
issues which Agilent has identified. Higher applications insight.” commitment to low noise floors. Taking the
data rates require interconnect analysis, Agilent has stacked up a number of 2.5GHz model as an example, and quoting
low instrumentation error and high quality features in the 90000A range, including a the 5mV per division setting, Agilent says
probes. The prevalence of fpgas means it’s low noise floor, fast hardware the noise floor is 147µV. This figure has
harder to simulate overall performance, triggering and what it been achieved, it adds, through the use of
whilst evolving standards means claims to its rf design expertise, along with
measurement requirements are tighter proprietary packaging and a/d conversion
and this often requires new test technologies. Even with the top of
hardware. These various elements the range 12GHz model,
have one thing in common; they noise floor is
need a lot of data to be captured.
And that’s where acquisition
memory comes in. Over the
last few years, cheaper
memory and more capable
control schemes mean
oscilloscopes have been
equipped with more and
more acquisition
memory. But even scopes
with the highest amount
of acquisition memory
have struggled to
perform in the way their
users would wish.
Looking to solve this

54 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008

Test.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:46 Page 55
389µV. Similarly, noise is quoted as 1.21mV
at a resolution of 100mV per division on the
2.5GHz model, rising to 3.01mV on the
12GHz device.
The 90000A series features new data
conversion technology. All models in the
range are equipped with twin 20G
acquisition/s a/d converters, providing
40Gsample/s sampling. Each of the six
models also features four channels as
standard.
Furuta expanded. “Although these
scopes have the same front end as the
80000A range, there are new a/d
converters, a data accelerator and trigger
asics. In fact, the front end is now created
as a 20layer pcb.”
He pointed to the ability to control
bandwidth more precisely. “Controlling
bandwidth to that required for the
application is a further benefit. Take, for
example, a design featuring a USB2.0
interface. Too much bandwidth makes the
measurement worse because of noise.
Being able to downgrade bandwidth
improves performance.”
9 00 0 0A r a n ge
Deep application analysis is claimed as
another bonus. According to Agilent, the
90000A enables engineers to debug and
characterise digital systems more quickly
than previously. This feature is enabled by
the Infiniiscan Plus event identification
system, a software facility based on a fast
hardware trigger. Furuta said the trigger
system, featuring the new asics, can
identify glitches of less than 250ps. In
fact, Agilent quotes 150ps for hardware
event identification and 75ps for software
event identification.
The trigger system is set to be
improved in the coming months. Initially,
the 90000A range will be shipped with
one hardware and one software trigger,
but a free upgrade, available shortly, will
bring an additional hardware trigger.
“With the three step trigger,” Furuta
continued, “you can find one condition,
then look for another, plus use a free
trigger. Or you could qualify a trigger,
then fire another trigger when a
problem is found.”
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
Using this latest technology, Agilent
believes the 90000A can update waveforms
significantly faster than is possible with
competitive scopes. By setting the 90000A
to capture 40Gsample/s with a 50Mpoint
update rate and at150µs/point, the scope
can update a waveform every 0.9s.
Deep memory is enabled by the
Infiniium Data Accelerator, pictured
below, another new development in the
9000A. “This is an fpga based data
manipulator,” Furuta explained. The
device performs trigger jitter free
algorithms, phase compensation and
amplitude compensation, actions
previously handled by software in the
80000B. “It’s just like having a second cpu
for real time acquisition memory
management,” he added.
But if your needs are not so extreme,
Agilent has just revised its mid range
offering with the launch of the
InfiniiVision 7000A series, which includes
10 models. These mid range devices, says
Agilent, are most likely to be used by
engineers as their primary tool for test and
debug of their designs.
Peter Kasenbacher, oscilloscope product
line manager, EMEA, noted the move built
on the existing 6000 range from a technical
point of view. “But it also takes into
account two recurring comments from
customers. Firstly, screen size, secondly,
form factor.” Screen size in the 7000A is
doubled from the previous 6.4in to a 12.1in
xga screen. Meanwhile, realising the
competition for bench space, Agilent has
packaged the scope in a 7in deep housing.
Like its bigger brother, the 7000A
range features a fast update rate. Now
Embedded Design
Embedded test
updating at 100k waveform/s, the scopes
are said to overcome two common reasons
for testing error: unresponsive controls
with deep memory turned on; and
architectures that are blind to changes in
the signals being tested.
Agilent claims that, because the update
rate in the 7000A range is 5000 times that
of similar scopes, critical signal
information can be captured.
Kasenbacher said three parameters
were important in mid range scopes.
“Users need bandwidth, memory and
sampling rate,” he said. “But ease of use is
just as important. We’ve improved the
update rate and this, in turn, improves
usability. Users want to see results
immediately and the combination of a
faster update rate with a better quality
screen gives more chance of capturing
infrequent events.
The 10 models in the range span
bandwidths from 350MHz to 1GHz and are
available with two or four channels. Two
channel models come with 16 digital
channels.
And, like the 90000A range, the 7000
family comes with a range of software
applications, allowing users to work more
productively in such areas as serial trigger
and decode, CAN/LIN trigger and decode,
fpga debug and vector signal analysis.
The scopes also feature segmented
memory, which optimises the available
memory when dealing with data streams
that have long dead times between activity.
According to Agilent, this feature – popular
amongst aerospace companies – is suitable
for analysing signal activity on serial buses
and bursty signals such as radar. ■
55
next.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:39 Page 56
Look,
The thirst for the removal of yet more wires continues unabated. By Vanessa Knivett.
C
ountless surveys, focus groups and
user forums have left consumer
electronics vendors in little doubt as
to what people feel about the nest of wires
behind their tvs, or their wish to network
seamlessly with such products as HD DVDs,
camcorders and gaming devices. The
debate – and a matter of fierce debate – is
which flavour of wireless technology will be
the enabler.
Panasonic, partnering with SiBeam,
demonstrated at the recent Consumer
Electronics Show (CES) how it could
transmit HD video within a room at 1.8GHz
using a 60GHz radio. It’s the physical
incarnation of WirelessHD, a specification
announced in January. Notably, SiBeam
says that its two chip solution will be
capable of 4Gbit/s.
56
no wires!
Another demonstration featured Pulse-
Link’s CWave uwb wireless high definition
multimedia interface (HDMI) technology
integrated in a Westinghouse tv. Tzero and
Airhook also had uwb chipsets on display –
the latter capable of delivering 720p or
1080i HD streams without compression,
whilst Pulse-Link and Tzero used Jpeg2000
compression for HD streaming.
Sony showed Amimon’s technology as a
proof of concept. Amimon’s wireless
uncompressed HDTV transmission solution,
called Wireless High Definition Interface
(WHDI), is a proprietary technology using
OFDM and MIMO techniques to provide
whole home connectivity at a quoted
3Gbit/s bandwidth in the 5GHz unlicensed
spectral band. Meanwhile, HP
demonstrated versions of its SmartMedia
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
TVs with built in 802.11a/b/g/n wireless
networking connections, signalling a move
towards the WiFi/802.11n route to market.
Take two
For comparison purposes, Bruce Watkins,
president of Pulse-Link, and John Marshall,
chair of the WirelessHD Consortium
explained the factors that give their
respective technologies the edge.
Marshall said of what is a relative
newcomer to the pack: “WirelessHD
defines a specification for a solution which
streams uncompressed wireless video at
4Git/s.” He puts particular emphasis on
the term ‘solution’, explaining that: “Most
other protocols [in the wireless video
space] focus on the MAC and PHY layers
and don’t delve into ensuring that the
next.qxp:Tech Temp 21/2/08 16:39 Page 57
video performs perfectly. They also don’t
have provision for universal remote control
for all compliant entertainment devices in
the stack, and not enough security for
streaming content, which operates at the
solutions layer.”
He also cited WirelessHD’s beam
steering attributes, which scans a room for
the highest data rate path, although he
notes that 802.11n will employ MIMO to
support higher data rates.
Watkins was emphatic about why uwb
has the edge over 802.11n. Noting that
consumer electronics devices ‘all have
HDMI ports today’, he said: “Firstly, we
have the ability to transport an HDMI
stream over wireless, whereas 802.11n
streams Mpeg2 format, which has to be
encoded and then decoded at other end.”
Whilst Watkins conceded that 802.11
implements quality of service (QoS) by
adding prioritisation and parametisation,
as exhibited by Amimon’s proprietary
technology, he explained: “UWB
guarantees QoS because, just like
FireWire (IEEE1394) and IEEE802.15.3b,
we use isochronous MACs. This means the
network reserves whatever bandwidth is
necessary to guarantee on time delivery.
With an asynchronous network, the only
way to guarantee delivery is to have lots
of spare bandwidth.”
Watkins added that 802.11’s ‘wild
success’ could be its downfall. “Each 802.11
device operating in the vicinity will pull
capacity from the network. So a 802.11g
equipped mobile phone or pda located in
the living room may crash your network.”
Whilst there are significant differences
in terms of the radio used, compression is
perhaps the most divisive issue. Marshall
is unequivocal that the
standard he supports
represents ‘true
uncompressed digital
video,’ claiming his
stance is brought
about by the
degradation in video
quality that results
from compression. Amimon’s vp
marketing Noam Geri is similarly explicit in
a paper entitled ‘Compressed or
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
Uncompressed?’ which explains that an
uncompressed interface is the ‘only way to
provide a universal video interface which
can support all video sources: legacy, new
and future sources’.
Watkins believes those who don’t
favour compression now will be forced to
consider it in the long term. His argument
is the HDMI specification is scaleable
across video formats which, until recently
required bandwidths of up to 4.5Gbit/s.
More recently, the specification was
upped to 10.2Gbit/s to support 1440p
resolution, frame rates of up to 90Hz and
better colour depth.
He says: “The implication is that
4Gbit/s is still not enough to cover all the
wireless HDMI specification. So what do
you do? Do you add compression?” In
contrast, he claims Pulse-Link’s uwb
solution is scaleable. “CWave monitors
bandwidth continuously, optimising it ‘on
the fly’ to maximise the available data
rate, so we’ll be OK if there is a scaling up
of the compression ratio.”
“802.11n streams Mpeg2 format, which
has to be encoded and then decoded
at the other end.” Bruce Watkins, Pulse-Link
Marshall leaves the door open for
compression in the future, saying: “We are
always looking to enhance the technology.
Compression is a good thing. I have no
fundamental bias against it, but we have to
evaluate the issue in terms of what
consumers want. The
very latest
compression
technology, Jpeg 2000,
is not sufficient for their
needs.”
Interference issues
An area where WirelessHD
and uwb concur is content protection.
Watkins says uwb implements full HDMI
content protection, whilst Marshall notes
that WirelessHD chose to integrate the
COMMUNIC ATIONS DESIGN
Next generation communications
Digital Transmission Content Protection
(DTCP) protocol over HDMI’s High
bandwidth Digital Content Protection
(HDCP) as, crucially, the former allows
consumers to copy content.
Aside from an established protocol, strong
encryption (the specification provides for
stronger than AES encryption) and
proximity control were other criteria on
WirelessHD’s ‘must have’ list. Proximity
control refers to the 60GHz radio’s
inability to transmit through walls,
ensuring content can only be received by
primary users.
It’s early days for WirelessHD, but the
goal will be in room, point to point, non
line of sight communications at up to
10m. However, Watkins doubts
WirelessHD’s beam steering techniques
will cope with a large room. “You wouldn’t
be able to put the transceiver in a tv
cabinet, which is what many people want
to do. Also, [Wireless HD’s] signal would
have to shoot out from a shelf and bounce
back to the tv. If it is a small room, this
would be OK, but this could be
problematic in a large room.”
The battle for WirelessHD continues, but
one thing can be guaranteed: there will be
some lively debate. ■
57
P058_NELE_Feb26 22/2/08 12:10 Page 1
Comm.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:49 Page 59
How to get legacy devices
communicating over a
network. By Graham Pitcher.
I
n general, the industrial
communications world is moving
towards two generic solutions: wired,
using Ethernet; and wireless, with
technologies such as ZigBee coming to
the fore.
Those technologies are fine if you’re
designing new products or systems. But
there’s an important factor to bear in mind
when discussing industrial
communications and that’s legacy. The
reason, of course, is that there’s a lot of
expensive machinery of various shapes and
sizes out there and it’s no surprise that the
owners of those machines should want to
include them in their industrial networks.
Let’s talk
Legacy communications protocols can
be found in a number of sectors, but
building automation systems are a
particularly challenging area, according to
Richard Bethell, technical director for Solid
State Supplies, who added machine control
into the mix. “The machine control sector
used to be proprietary; everything tended
to come from one supplier. But now, some
products are better than others and users
need to connect them together into new
networks – and that’s the problem.”
Matt Cook, Solid State’s
senior applications engineer,
addressed the building
automation sector. “There’s a
range of equipment deployed
in supermarkets, large
buildings and so on;
everything from fire alarms
and area alarms to air
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
conditioning and ventilation systems. We
often work with companies who build
ventilation systems and their expertise
is in driving fans, rather than
dealing with industrial
communications protocols.”
So an ideal solution
would be a ‘box’ which
takes one protocol and
converts it to another –
and that’s what Solid
State is offering.
ProtoNode is a translation
device designed for use by
building and industrial
automation OEMs. The device provides a
range of protocol translation abilities,
including serial to serial, serial to
Ethernet and Ethernet to Ethernet. A
further option is ProtoNode LonWorks,
which provides support for serial to
LonWorks, Ethernet to LonWorks,
LonWorks to serial and LonWorks to
Ethernet protocol conversions.
ProtoNode, developed by US company
FieldServer Technologies (FST), is
designed to be used by those who need to
enable new or legacy devices to interface
with other protocols. An extensive driver
library, coupled with the company’s
experience in protocol translation
gateways, provides the OEM customer
with confidence that their products will
meet the foreign
networks
COMMUNIC ATIONS DESIGN
Industrial communications
requirements for interfacing.
According to FST, ProtoNode provides
high flexibility and versatility. It supports
virtual nodes, which allows multiple OEM
controllers to connect to a single
ProtoNode and for them to be seen as
separate controllers on the various field
networks.
ProtoNode includes all the hardware
and software to enable the customer’s
products to interface to various networks.
It includes two serial and one Ethernet
port. Each ProtoNode is provided with the
necessary protocol drivers. Multiple
drivers can be installed on a single
ProtoNode. FieldServer can provide
custom driver support when needed.
ProtoNode is driven by a 32bit ColdFire
cpu running at 66MHz. The device is
equipped with 4Mbyte of flash and
16Mbyte of sdram. It features two serial
ports that can be configured as either
RS232 or software selectable RS485.
There is independent port configuration
of baud rate, stop bits and parity.
Meanwhile, there is a 10/100BaseT
autosensing Ethernet port. It can be
supplied in a tab mount box or in a DIN
rail housing.
From a software perspective,
ProtoNode operates in the same
manner as FST’s ProtoCessor module. It
does need a common host protocol,
such as Modbus or the ProtoCessor
Simple Protocol (PSP). Once this is
59
Comm.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:49 Page 60
COMMUNIC ATIONS DESIGN
Industrial communications
Figure 1: ProtoNode can perform a range of protocol conversions
GUI
BACnetIP
Modbus TCP Ethernet
serial to Ethernet
Modbus RTU
ProtoNode
serial to serial
Metasys N2
done, the OEM has the ability to support
many field protocols on new or legacy
equipment, with the OEM’s memory
registers mapped to each of the field
“ProtoNode is what could be regarded as a
‘get out of jail’ card … it’s a good solution.”
Richard Bethell, Solid State Supplies.
protocols via a configuration file.
PSP can be implemented on the OEM’s
host or application cpu. It is defined as
an ASCII protocol in order to facilitate
debugging, analysis and
implementation. According to FST,
PSP not only allows data to be
transferred to and from the ProtoCessor
or ProtoNode, but it also allows the host
microcontroller to configure aspects of
the ProtoNode, including IP address,
Node ID and baud rate. Data written to
the ProtoNode is available to other
devices on the Ethernet connection,
whilst data written to the
ProtoNode by other devices over
Ethernet is available to the host
cpu.
Cook expanded on this. “Say
you’re trying to communicate
with a legacy protocol, for
example, DNP3.0, which is
used widely in the water industry. In
order to convert this to another protocol,
60
Allen Bradley
EtherNet/IP
Ethernet to Ethernet
Allen Bradley DFI
BACnet MSTP
we can take a register list and then map
that and ship a configured ProtoNode.
The key is the configuration file.
“If the equipment doesn’t have a
known protocol, then PSP can be
implemented on that equipment and,
once that device supports PSP, you can
Embedded connectivity
Digi’s RCM4200 family of microprocessor
core modules offer 10/100BaseT
Ethernet connectivity, optional analogue
links and support serial to Ethernet
applications.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
then work with other fieldbuses.”
Bethell added: “Because ProtoNode is
available for the LonWorks environment,
this means that you don’t have to get
involved with licensing issues.”
ProtoNode is aimed primarily at system
integrators and those who are looking to
retrofit equipment. “But you don’t need
one ProtoNode per device,” Bethell added.
“You may only need one per system. For
example, you might have 10 different
protocols, but the device will sense
protocols automatically and convert them.”
According to Solid State, building
automation systems are ideal
applications for devices such as
ProtoNode. “There’s a big push in this
sector,” said Cook, “for buildings to be
environmentally sound; for example,
making sure the heating system is not
running at the same time as the air
conditioning. Much of this is to do with
building control systems, for example,
motorised shutters for windows, which
need to ‘talk’ to thermometers.”
“There’s a lot of people trying to get
legacy equipment talking to other
devices,” Bethell concluded, “and
ProtoNode is what could be regarded as a
‘get out of jail’ card. If you have to
connect equipment together, it’s a good
solution.” ■
The modules feature 4 or 8Mbyte of
serial flash memory for communication
and data logging applications, with
optional on board 12bit analogue
channels providing further
connectivity potential.
The modules feature the Rabbit 4000
micro, running at up to 58.98MHz. Other
features include hardware DMA, auxiliary
I/O, quadrature decoder, input capture,
GPIO lines shared with up to five serial
ports and four levels of alternate pin
functions including variable phase PWM.
The modules measure 47 x 61mm
and can be mounted directly onto a
motherboard.
P061_NELE_Feb26 18/2/08 14:23 Page 1
P062_NELE_Feb26 21/2/08 11:47 Page 62

62 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008

Power.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:45 Page 63
Building a better future
W
ith climate change high on the
global agenda, manufacturers
constantly need to build on
reducing the environmental impact of
their products by providing sustainable
solutions to customers.
But whilst a growing number of
environmental power evangelists deliver
the same sermon promising a better
future, full of green and pleasant lands,
few companies can deliver a message that
encompasses not only the environmental,
but the social and economic impact on
the planet too. Fortunately, many nations
are already aware of the fragility of our
environment, perhaps none more so than
the Nordic countries.
Nordic culture has a close affinity to
the environment and its people are well
known for their efforts to preserve
nature. Today it has become trendy to talk
about the environment, whereas Ericsson
claims to have taken this approach a long
time ago by striving to improve the
environmental aspects of all its products
– from manufacturing, through the
reduction of product energy consumption
levels, to end of life disposal.
But there’s also the human dimension
to consider. Although design for
environment (DfE) is often connected
with products, it’s important to
remember that there’s a design engineer
behind the product too. A clean design
can only be successful if the designer has
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
Environmental design needs
to address not only the
product, but also its social
and economic impact.
By Mike Richardson.
a full understanding of the global benefit
of working this way.
Ericsson Power Modules’ DfE policy
drives the design and development of
high efficient dc/dc power modules that
are said to decrease the energy
SYSTEM DESIGN
Power
consumption of the end user equipment,
resulting in lower environmental impact
and life cycle cost. This not only affects
the energy bill, but also the design,
dimensioning and cost of other parts of
the complete installation, such as cooling
fans and air conditioning, heat sinks, real
estate requirements, power supplies and
battery back up capacity. Higher
efficiency in the dc/dc power modules
can contribute to lower total cost of
ownership for the end user and a more
resource efficient society.
Environmental footpr int
“Ericsson tries to make the system more
efficient from day one,” explained
Ericsson Power Modules’ marketing
director Patrick Le Fèvre. “This is not only
to improve cost, but also to ensure our
environmental footprint is as small as
possible. Everything we have done has
been driven directly by this philosophy.
We don’t have any strict guidelines to
guarantee that the final design meets
this requirement. Instead, we develop the
basic tenet stating that every new radio
base station (RBS), for example, has
higher efficiency and is designed to
reduce the environmental impact –
including the use of different types of
‘green’ energy.”
Le Fèvre avows that Ericsson was the
first company to deploy solar energy at
commercial level by understanding the
63
Power.qxp:Tech Temp 19/2/08 12:46 Page 64
SYSTEM DESIGN
Power
best way of reducing energy consumed by
the RBS in different environments.
“Those people that say everything
should be powered by bio fuel or solar
energy are wrong because it cannot all be
“Tower Tube addresses … how to eliminate
the need to cool radio base station
equipment.” Patrick Le Fèvre, Ericsson Power Modules
based on one technology alone. Instead,
it needs to be a combination of different
energy technologies so we try to guide
our customers to use the best energy
available at site.”
To counter equipment heating in base
stations, Ericsson has launched a new
solution to reduce the wasted energy
used to cool RBS’ and power amplifiers.
Called Tower Tube, the aptly named
concept employs the natural laws of
thermodynamic and chimney effects. The
Tower Tube houses base stations and
antennas, fully encapsulating them in an
energy efficient, environmentally friendly
and more aesthetically pleasing tower. It
can be built in a variety of shapes and
sizes, with customised finishes that make
it a natural fit for any landscape.
“Tower Tube addresses the question of
how to eliminate the need to cool radio
base station equipment,” continued Le
64
Fèvre. “The initial reaction from the
designer will be ‘no, it’s impossible
because the high levels of integration
cannot survive without cooling’. However,
Tower Tube is cooled in a natural way
without the need for fans or air
conditioning. The chimney effect pulls air
from the ground to the top of the tower
by using the difference in temperature
between the top and the bottom to create
air turbulence.”
The Tower Tube’s construction requires
a 5 to 6m deep foundation, which
produces far lower temperatures
compared to those on the surface.
Ericsson unveiled the first experimental
Tower Tube installation recently in Kista,
Sweden’s ‘Silicon Valley’ near Ericsson’s
headquarters.
“This is one way of reducing the
energy consumed by the equipment
during its lifetime and it all stems from
making the design less harmful to the
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
environment,” stated Le Fèvre. “Ericsson
helps to influence the way in which
people consider how to design RBS
equipment whilst reducing the traditional
‘force’ cooling methods that has been
used up until now.”
Digital techniques
Le Fèvre envisages that power
management and power control will
increasingly use more digital techniques
in the coming years and that the
combination of analogue and digital
power control will generate many
benefits for end user applications. For
him, the future of the RBS lies in moving
from static to dynamic power systems.
“It’s now possible for system designers
to control power management down to the
silicon level in terms of controller ics or
dsps that can perform energy management
and control far more efficiently. Ericsson
considers the many ways in which its
customers can benefit by adding digital
control to our system solutions – from the
front end to board level.”
In essence, Ericsson combines many
technologies to promote its green
awareness of designing for the
environment. But, as Le Fèvre points out,
the company’s philosophy goes beyond
merely satisfying environmental
requirements.
“We strive to reduce the digital divide
between the world’s populations,” he
concluded. “However, we are also mindful
that one sixth of the world’s population
has no access to drinking water, so we
have to keep things in perspective. Part of
Ericsson’s culture is about making it
possible for those people living in remote
and rural areas of third world countries to
gain access to the kind of
communications technology that most of
us take for granted.
“It’s important to make a big
contribution to improve their community,
but it’s also difficult to express where you
put the commercial benefits versus real
human issues. So whilst it’s important to
limit your environmental impact, it’s
equally important to ensure we provide a
benefit to the overall community too.” ■
P065_NELE_Feb26 6/2/08 10:15 Page 1
Sys prod.qxp:PRODUCTS TEMP 22/2/08 12:11 Page 66

SYSTEM DESIGN
Product news

G et on the bus DISPLAYS

Densitron has upgraded its OLED Evaluation
Kit, which is now said to offer users more
flexibility.
The kit – a demonstration tool for driving
oleds from the USB port of a desktop or laptop
pc – comprises an oled, a USB controller card,
a mini USB cable, an interchangeable display
card and a CD with software applications and
drivers.
The kit detects the connected display
automatically and customises initialisation to
suit. Users can also send register commands to
the driver ic, either using a command line
interface or sending a script file.
Densitron: visit www.densitron.com
TEST & MEASUREMENT
ENCLOSURES
The Yokogawa SB5000 is an oscilloscope based serial bus analyser focused on in vehicle serial
bus protocols, including FlexRay, CAN and LIN. The instrument allows users to perform Hammond Electronics has introduced ice blue
protocol analysis and physical layer waveform measurements simultaneously, offering the translucent versions of its 1591XX series small
capability to debug and troubleshoot bus problems due to noise, signal quality, timing and instrument housings. The plastic is
data errors. Users can evaluate the performance and verify the operation of engine control translucent to blue, white and near white
units and onboard semiconductors, as well as measuring test parameters and their conformity. leds, readouts and displays, enabling them to
YOKOGAWA: VISIT WWW.YOKOGAWA.COM be mounted inside the enclosure, reducing
configuration costs.
Moulded in ABS with a satin texture finish,
POWER Users can specify single or dual ac inputs, the seven family members range in size from
The CCR Series is 3U 19in modular rackmount whilst outputs can be either 24 or 48V dc. The 87 x 57 x 36mm to 193 x 113 x 58mm. The
power system designed to provide from 240 units are CE marked and power factor cases are optimised for mounting pcbs
to 1440W. Unusually for a power system of correction is standard. Up to six hot swap horizontally, with four stand offs moulded
this size, says the supplier, CCR Series units modules can be housed, each providing up to into both the top and the base.
are convection cooled. This, coupled with the 240W, and the unit can be configured for N+1 The enclosures are sealed to IP54, with a lap
option of a conformally coated pcb, allows redundancy. joint keeping out dust and splashing water.
the system to be used in industrial XP Energy Systems: Hammond Electronics:
environments. visit www.xpenergysystems.com visit www.hammondmfg.com

66 www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008

NE jm feb 26.qxp:NE jm sept 11.qxd 22/2/08 12:17 Page 44

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N e w E l e c t r o n i c s Va c a n c i e s

Consultancies in this sector Senior Electronics Engineer

T: 01234 436136 Location: South East
E: post@vrl.co.uk Salary: to £43,000
www.vrl.co.uk
Vector -the High Technology Specialists. We are all Engineers and An opportunity for an experienced RF / Electronics Design
we find jobs for Engineers. We speak your language, we understand Engineer to work with a leading defence company involved in
your needs and we get it right. Whether you are job hunting or the design and manufacture of marine defence systems.
recruiting staff for your company, talk to the experts!
The main aspects of the job are:-
• To become part a small team in the development of new
products - generally radar transceiver related.
• To assist in the production of accurate project plans and
T: 0800 929 114 development estimates.
E: permrec@kinetic-selection.co.uk • To produce regular and accurate progress reports.
www.kinetic-selection.co.uk • To design and develop a range of Transceiver related sub-
Established in 1983, Kinetic Search & Selection exists to meet the
assemblies.
permanent recruitment demands of both businesses and candidates
based in the Engineering, Manufacturing and Technical industries. • To contribute to feasibility studies related to new product
development.
T: 0845 0707337 Candidates must have:-
E: mail@webrecruit.co.uk • 2:1 or better degree in electrical/electronic engineering or a
www.webrecruit.co.uk
related discipline.
Looking to recruit? We fill 9 out of 10 vacancies, guaranteed by • A minimum of 7 years’ design experience in analogue design
our unique 100% money back promise.
with a good understanding of RF principles and test methods.
Job seekers? We can help you find the next job, sign up for our job
alert service on our website. • Practical in-depth experience designing power electronics in
the form of SMPS and power pulse circuits.
• A good knowledge of digital circuit design and software
T: 0117 9742835
implementation is required.
E: awinser@nustar-recruit.co.uk
www.nustar-recruit.co.uk • An understanding of related components e.g. magnetrons,
NuStar is an independent recruitment company totally circulators, limiters, wound components etc.
committed to providing clients and candidates alike, with a • In-depth design capability from component level upwards.
timely, innovative and high quality recruitment service.
Successful applicants will be required to be security cleared
NuStars expertise is in the sourcing of Senior and Middle prior to appointment.
Managers for SME`s through to Multi-Nationals, in a range of
sectors.

T: 01268 540001
E: bev@bekham.co.uk
www.bekham.co.uk
BeKham Resourcing is a recruitment agency serving the Engineering Contact: Mr M White
industries with a reputation for delivering a recruitment service Telephone: 01737 222732
totally focussed around the needs of employers and job seekers. Email: mwhite@shannonwhite.demon.co.uk

A-Z Recruitment Agencies

www.abatec.co.uk www.bpasearch.co.uk www.electusrecruitment.co.uk www.futurestep.co.uk

www.abatec.co.uk/intlApp.asp www.cbsbutler.com www.epcglobal.co.uk www.g2technologies.co.uk

www.arvsolutions.co.uk www.colbernlimited.co.uk www.encore-solutions.co.uk Genesis Technical Recruitment Ltd

www.ata-selection.co.uk www.networxrecruitment.com www.ets-technical-sales.co.uk www.hartland.uk.com

www.beechwoodrecruit.com www.debelder.co.uk www.ocus-management.co.uk www.pertemps.co.uk

MARKET WATCH2602.qxp:MARKET WATCH 19/2/08 12:47 Page 68
Driving design
MCUs continue to drive innovation and new product development in the UK. By Laurence Dellicott.
W
hilst large scale manufacture
continues to drift away from the
UK, its core engineering skills and
unbeatable innovation rates mean it is fertile
soil for many new design starts – from
complex systems to everyday consumables.
At the core of these developments are
microcontrollers. Whilst in the past high
performance mcus have driven innovation and
new product development, the latest trend is
driven by requirements for low power, small
footprint, emerging connectivity standards
(in many instances, the ability to interface to
rf functionality) low cost and a swift time to
market.
Market and customer visibility during last
year’s Embedded Systems Show only served to
highlight the shift in the design engineer’s
requirements to low power and rf
functionality, rather than interest in purely
traditional low end mcus previously.
So, what kinds of applications are behind
the low power wave? Key application and
market drivers include: smart metering for the
home; plastic electronic products; automation; near field communication;
RFID; access control and building security; capacitive sensing; and medical.
From an architecture perspective, one of the most interesting devices is
TI’s MSP430, a multifunctional mcu which, when used with a very low power TI
Chipcon device, provides a low power mcu and rf solution which allows many
of the above mentioned applications to be developed.
A second solution to watch out for is the latest member in
STMicroelectronics’ 32bit mcu family. This is based on the ARM Cortex M3
processor, which provides an excellent balance of speed and power
consumption and which was developed specifically for embedded
applications. Also remember the R8C & M16C platforms from Renesas and the
The iSuppli mission is to reduce the
overall cost of acquisition for
electronic components, whilst
improving the continuity of supply
and simplifying supply chain
processes for ems, oem and supplier
communities. Market Intelligence Services provide critical information
designed to enrich tactical decisions and strategic plans.
Visit www.isuppli.com
68
versatile PSoC mixed signal arrays from Cypress.
And there is Microchip’s PIC family, ranging
from the low end PIC10, to the well known
PIC16, the dsPIC – an mcu with dsp functionality
– and now the PIC32. This broad range of flash
mcus offers huge opportunities to those
designers working in low power and low cost
segments.
For design engineers today, the breadth of
products available for their next design start is
better than ever, and Silica, an Avnet Company,
is supporting the UK market and its designers.
Not only has Silica intensified the demand
creation and design in efforts around the
MSP430 with rf, it has started to help designers
with the Cortex M3 architecture and is
continuing to support the Renesas and Cypress
products. There is also a renewed and deeper
relationship with Microchip, and Silica (Avnet)
is now one of the company’s two global
distribution partners.
All of these franchises allow Silica’s 14 field
application engineers in the UK to provide the
right package of information, knowledge and
support to UK customers in order to make low power the next design wave and
to help revive the industrial and consumer electronics market in the UK.
With a series of seminars over the next few months – the Speedway
Seminars – Silica will offer deeper information and application insight on the
various mcu architectures mentioned here – including MSP430, STM32, M16C,
PSoC and the PIC family – to help you get started with low power designs with
multifunctional requirements.
For more details on the Speedway Seminars, email stevenage@silica.com
Author prof ile:
Laurence Dellicott is Silica’s technical marketing manager.
Avnet Electronics Marketing EMEA
is a group of specialised pan
European electronic components
distributors and service
organisations. The group’s
distribution divisions – Avnet Memec, Avnet Time, Silica and EBV – offer
customers specific technology and market know how, complemented with
cross functional and synergistic services, such as logistics, product
modification and supply chain consulting. For more, see www.avnet.com
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
MARKET WATCH2602.qxp:MARKET WATCH 19/2/08 12:47 Page 69

MARKET WATCH
Microcontrollers

CATEGORY DESCRIPTION NOV DEC JAN ANALYSIS

Analogue Monolithic Amplifiers and comparators -0.7 -0.4 -1.7 Amplifiers
A surge in demand in the
Analogue Monolithic Analogue interface ics -1.3 -0.4 -1.7 second half of 2007 pushed up
lead times and helped to hold
Analogue Monolithic Voltage regulators and references -0.1 -0.4 -1.3 prices up. But demand has
slowed and lead times are back
Capacitors Aluminium -0.2 -0.1 -0.5 to a normal five weeks. An
increase in demand is expected
Capacitors Ceramic -1.1 -0.8 -1.3
by Q3.
Capacitors Tantalum -0.8 -0.6 -0.8
Aluminium capacitors
Connectors -0.1 -0.4 -0.8 Demand continues to be strong
for higher voltage capacitors
Resistors SMD flat chips -0.6 -0.6 -0.6 used in flat panel applications
and tv power supplies. Demand
Filters -0.1 -0.6 -0.6 for general purpose capacitors
has increased, but prices have
Crystal kHz -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 remained relatively flat. Whilst
there will be lead time
Crystal MHz -0.5 -0.5 -0.6
extensions for surface mounted
Oscillator TCXO -1.1 -0.4 -0.4 devices in Q1, iSuppli is not
projecting chronic shortages.
Oscillator VCXO -0.7 -1.2 -1.5
VCXOs
Oscillator XO -1.4 -0.1 -0.4 Some softening in demand for
vcxos has been seen, due
Magnetics Ferrite beads 0 -0.1 -0.6 partially to design alternatives.
Whilst demand from Bluetooth
Magnetics Fixed inductors 0 -0.7 -0.7 and DVD manufacturers has
decreased, demand is still
Standard Logic General purpose cmos -0.5 -0.5 -1.0
strong for some networking
Standard Logic General purpose bicmos -0.9 -1.1 -1.4 applications. iSuppli expects
lead times and pricing to firm
Standard Logic General purpose bipolar -0.4 -0.3 -0.6 through the first half of 2008.

Rectifier Schottky and ultrafast -0.1 -0.3 -0.9 DRAM

DRAM suppliers continue to lose
Transistor Bipolar power -0.4 -0.3 -0.8 money as prices stay at the
bottom of the cycle. Taiwan
Transistor Power mosfet -0.5 -0.3 -0.4 based suppliers planned to shut
fabs around the Chinese New
Transistor Small signal 0 -0.3 -0.9
Year, which should stabilise the
Memory Dram -9.1 -9.7 2.1 market.

Memory Eprom/eeprom -0.2 0 0.2 Note:

Component prices were reset at
Memory sram -0.8 -1.0 -0.5 zero in September 2007 and
now show percentage changes
Memory flash – NAND -1.5 -9.4 -3.3 per month. Increasing prices
are highlighted in red.
Memory flash – NOR -3.2 -2.5 -1.7

www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008 69

Careers.qxp:Tech Temp 22/2/08 12:15 Page 70
ADVANCE IN THE PROFESSION
Remote management
Remote control?
Management is struggling to keep up with an increasingly mobile workforce. By Vanessa Knivett.
A
workplace revolution has taken
place from Swanage to Strathclyde
and up to 4million people in the UK
are now working flexibly or remotely – and
the Institute of Directors predict that one
in four staff will work remotely by 2020.
Yet there is something hampering
progress, according to a report from City
& Guilds and the Institute of Leadership &
Management (ILM). The study – entitled
‘Tomorrow’s Leaders’ – suggests poor
management may be preventing the
productivity benefits of flexible and
remote working from being realised.
Whilst there has been much discussion
of the potential benefits of
flexible/remote working, there has been
less mention of the organisational and
management changes needed. If the
process is managed effectively,
employees enjoy a better work-life
balance by working flexibly or remotely,
whilst organisations can attract and
retain key staff by providing a broader
range of working patterns.
Almost three quarters (73%) of the
200 managers interviewed for the study
said flexible working is common in their
organisation and, strikingly, 37% of them
now look after teams who are either
entirely or predominantly based away
from the office. However, nearly half
(44%) of the respondents say they are
unprepared for such a move and only 25%
had received any training on how to
manage a remote team.
Chris Humphries, director general of
City & Guilds, commented: “Employment
away from the office has never been so
popular. However … managers are
finding it less comfortable to lead and
motivate flexible teams.”
70
The research says that whilst
managers are sympathetic to the notion
of flexible/remote working, in practice
they find it difficult to break old habits
and the mindset of ‘presenteeism.’
Despite nearly 75% of respondents
believing remote workers to be more
productive and 90% saying they trust
their remote employees, a third admitted
they wanted to monitor their employees
more closely – indicating they do not
trust remote staff to manage themselves.
Legislation has already played an
important role in promoting flexible and
remote working and, recently, some
government figures have called for the
legal right to request flexible working to
be extended to everyone. So how can
managers prepare for working with
remote teams?
The report encourages managers to
set out on the right path by recruiting
people who can perform their work
without close supervision. Remote staff
www.newelectronics.co.uk 26 February 2008
need a combination of the right attitude
and attributes, which include time
management, self motivation and
communication skills. Psychometric
testing as part of the recruitment process
could identify these skills; alternatively,
training can help build them.
To facilitate the process, suggest the
authors, ‘Managers must be able to set
goals for their employees and manage by
outputs, not hours on the clock. However,
this in itself can be a stumbling block as
managers do not have the processes in
place for measuring results’.
Management competences required
include setting clear objectives, planning
workload and monitoring progress, all of
which can benefit from specific training
and/or sharing best practice.
Communication is also vital, says the
report. ‘Managers need to be attuned to
the emotional and professional cues
delivered over the phone and by email,
through the delivery of deadlines and to
other signs from their employees.
Managers need to be able to listen to
both what their people say, and what they
do not, in order to build a relationship at
a distance’.
Regular face to face meetings, social
and team building opportunities are
advised and, with only 15% use instant
messaging and 9% using video
conferencing to keep in touch with
employees, it is suggested that more
could be made of modern communication
technologies.
Ultimately, the study concludes that
what is needed are good leaders. ‘A leader
should aim to empower their staff to
make decisions and have confidence in
their own abilities’. ■
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