NIWeek: Xilinx honours team for LabView FPGA design

Xilinx has honoured the winner of the LabView FPGA Innovation Award at a ceremony during the NIWeek 2012, National Instruments' technology conference and exhibition in Austin, Texas. The winning design team was selected by a judging panel of National Instruments and Xilinx represenattives to have the most innovative application using LabVIEW system design software to program the FPGA in NI hardware. The Data Science Automation design team was recognized for its use of FPGA technology in a mission-critical oil and gas industry field application.  "I'm proud to honor this year's LabVIEW FPGA award recipients from Data Science Automation for exemplifying the tremendous performance, flexibility and freedom afforded...

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Microchip signs global deal with Arrow

Microchip Technology has signed a global distribution deal with Arrow Electronics. This global agreement includes Microchip’s complete line of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit PIC microcontrollers, analogue and interface semiconductors, wireless solutions, and memory devices, along with related development tools. Arrow is also a principal distributor for Standard Microsystems Corporation (SMSC) that was recently acquired by Microchip. “This is a strong addition to our global linecard,” said Jeff Eastman, Arrow's senior v-p of global supplier marketing and asset management. “Microchip’s resources aid in almost every aspect of a customer’s design, from concept to production,” said Eastman. “Arrow is already franchised with SMSC products,”...

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Discordant bits and single photons boost quantum power

Exploiting the weirdness inherent in the quantum world to create new technologies just got a little easier, thanks to two breakthroughs. One suggests that an untapped quantum phenomenon previously dismissed as mere "noise" could give quantum computers a boost. The second harnesses objects known as quantum dots, used previously in brain science and computing, to make quantum code-sharing more secure. The quantum world, with particles that can be in multiple places at once, is known for its strange properties. Perhaps the most famous example is entanglement, which inextricably links particles no matter how far apart they are in space. Most quantum computers exploit entanglement: the idea is that some problems could be run much faster on a computer that has entangled quantum bits, or...

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NIWeek: First RF vector signal transceiver unveiled

National Instruments has unveiled at NIWeek in Austin, its first RF vector signal transceiver on the PXI virtual instrumentation bus. The PXIe-5644R RF vector signal transceiver is a software-designed instrument which combines a vector signal generator and vector signal analyser with a user-programmable FPGA into a single PXI modular instrument. As a result engineers can use the LabView design system to optimise the FPGA-based hardware for specific mobile and other wireless applications. “When we first started our company, we envisioned the central role software would play in instrumentation, and now we are truly seeing LabVIEW revolutionize the way engineers approach RF design and...

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Smartphones drive strong mobile DRAM sales

Due to growing smartphones and tablet sales, mobile DRAM is set to hit a record $6.56bn in revenues this year, up 10% from 2011, according to an IHS iSuppli Mobile & Embedded Memory Market Brief. Mobile DRAM density in smartphones increased from 2.28Gbit to 5.85Gbit in the last two years. The expansion is even greater in tablets, with the mobile DRAM average density soaring fourfold during the same period from to 8.33Gbit. Mobile DDR DRAM chips differ from standard DRAM with power-saving features including lower operating voltage and optimised refresh rates. “The mobile DRAM segment is achieving impressive growth as mobile operating systems, streaming apps and games require more memory to handle sophisticated tasks,” said Ryan Chien, analyst for...

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Xilinx pushes Zynq-7000 to 1GHz on TSMC 28nm process

Xilinx says it has increased the top processing performance spec of its Zynq-7000 programmable SoC devices to 1GHz. This is a 25% increase over initial specifications for the two largest Zynq-7000 devices. Target applications are likely to be in high-end image and graphic processing applications within the medical, aerospace and defence markets. “A significant factor behind our ability to take the Zynq-7000 family to 1GHz is Xilinx’s choice of TSMC’s 28nm HPL process, which we are using for our entire 28nm generation to bring the value of low-power with high-performance to customers,” said Vidya Rajagopalan, Xilinx’s vice president of processing solutions. Based around an ARM dual-core Cortex-A9...

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Toshiba will start volume production of a 3Tbyte HDD this month.

The 3.5 inch drive is aimed at consumer products. It complies with the EU RoHS directives. There are variations: one for desktop PCs; one for digital video; one for low power consumption applications. High-speed data transfers are secured by adoption of SATA I/F capable of a 6Gb/s transfer ra...

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UMC growing sales

UMC, the No.3 foundry, saw July revenues climb 3.49% on June and over 9% on July 2011. July revenues were $320m up from the $310m of June 2011 and up on the $293m of July 2011. So far this year, UMC has had revenues of $2.03bn which is 6.3% down on the $2.17bn of the January to July period last ye...

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Energy harvesting design explored

Everyone’s talking about energy harvesting – but what exactly is it? The term is often used as a paraphrase for the whole range of low-power applications, yet the “harvesters” themselves are only one part of a larger system, writes Ingo Seehagen, a field application engineer at Avnet Memec. Energy harvester circuits are used in electronic systems that need to be self-sufficient in energy – in other words, those that are not powered by mains electricity or batteries. They can also be used to extend battery life. In all these systems, the collection, transformation, storage and use of energy need to be coordinated with one another. They capture and transform energy from different sources, including thermal, kinetic and optical. One of the issues here is that the energy that results...

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Microchip moves serial EEPROMs to 5V

Microchip has introduced its first serial SRAM which operates off 5V. Likely applications are in automotive and industrial applications.  The EEPROM market has completely moved to serial interfaces, and the flash market is also making this transition, due to the higher cost, board space and power consumption of parallel devices. These 512kbit and 1Mbit SPI devices come in 8-pin packages. Speeds of up to 80Mbit/s are achieved via the quad-SPI, or SQI, protocol, providing the zero write-cycle times with near instantaneous data movement needed for offloading graphics, data buffering, displays and audio. With their fast dual-SPI (SDI) throughput of 40Mbit/s and low active and sleep currents, these serial NVSRAM devices feature...

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NIWeek: LabView 2012 has iPad app

National Instruments has introduced the latest version of its LabVIEW system design software on the first day of its NIWeek conference in Austin, Texas. "New features and resources in LabVIEW 2012 promote training and drive development practices to help our customers deliver high-performance and high-quality systems in less time, thereby minimizing development and maintenance costs," said Dr. James Truchard, president, CEO and co-founder of National Instruments. There are new design templates and sample projects, intended to give users gain ready-to-run starting points for different LabVIEW applications. National Instruments has also introduced its first RF vector signal transceiver, the...

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NXP adds DSP to turn up volume in smartphones

NXP is using a DSP and measurement of both output current and voltage to push 2.6Wrms through phone speakers. The product, called TFA9887, is a single chip intended to replace standard audio amplifier ICs in phones. Loudspeakers inside phones are already marvels of acoustic engineering, producing clear sound from remarkably small packages. Two things limit the amount of power than can be driven into phone speakers: over-heating and over-excursion. “These microspeakers are typically rated at 0.5W max,” Shawn Scarlett, director of mobile audio at NXP, told Electronics Weekly. “After that, heat melts the glue and resonant excursions crack and tear the speaker membrane.” According to Scarlett, these issues are usually addressed by simple amplitude limits and filtering, or basic open loop...

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Comment: Eastman Kodak patent auction highlights value of IP

Patent portfolios are rapidly becoming the single most valuable asset for technology companies With Eastman Kodak’s long-awaited patent auction taking place tomorrow, it is rapidly becoming clear that patent portfolios should now be regarded as the single most valuable asset for technology companies. Eastman Kodak’s patent auction is in fact a last ditch attempt to recoup some of the company’s financial losses and save it from bankruptcy and while the outcome is by no means certain, reports that some major bidders are circling has led to speculation that the proceeds could reach around $2 billion. See also: Electronics patent of the month: Aiding pilot choice of flight path modes If last year’s Nortel patent auction is anything to go by, Kodak will be expecting to secure...

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Murky Q3

Traditionally the strongest quarter of the year, Q3 is proving to be a tricky quarter for the industry to forecast with some wider than usual spreads on guidance. Seeking Alpha points out that Intel is guiding 2-10% growth; Qualcomm -4 to +5%; TI -4 to +4%; ST -5 to +5.5%; Broadcom 1 to 9%; Altera 2 to 6%. There are some notable exceptions who see a stellar Q3: Cirrus Logic is guiding 72 to 92% growth for the quarter which might say something about Apple's plans for a 7 inch tablet and/or iPhone 5. Apple is Cirrus' largest customer. Then there's SanDisk guiding 11 to 21% suggesting that SSDs could be in big demand. "Our SSD SKUs continue to grow nicely," it was said at the earnings call, "and we are moving the company higher up the value chain with our SSD software solutions." Skyworks...

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MediaTek soars

MediaTek, the Taiwan wireless chip vendor which is challenging Qualcomm and Broadcom, saw sales soar 18% in July to $309m. Sales have topped $1.5bn for the year so far. For Q3 the company expects 13-18% growth to around $840m with a gross margin of  41-43%. The company expects to sell 95m wireless ICs this year mainly because of the demand from China. MediaTek is about to maerge with its Taiwanese neighbour MSt...

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Pervasive magnetic sensors

Magnetic sensors grew 22% last year. The biggest application areas are automotive, in current and motion-control positioning and navigation systems. The six largest suppliers of magnetic sensors who collectively mop up 80% of the $1.5bn market, are: Asahi Micro Devices Allegro MicroSystems Infineon Technologies Micronas Melexis NXP The automotive market was worth $731m last year; the wireless-consumer market was worth $550m; industrial-military-energy-medical sector was worth $153mand the data processing segment, was worth $65m. This year the market is expected to grow 1...

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Interview: Congatec CEO says processor choice is key

Gerhard Edi, CEO of Congatec talks to Electronics Weekly about the impact ARM is having on the Intel dominated embedded processor market.   As a provider of embedded computer modules for Intel, ARM and AMD, what’s your take on the current processor market? How do the different processors size up against each other? Gerhard Edi: Most of our COMs utilize Intel processors which scale from power saving Intel Atom up to the 3rd Generation Intel Core i7 processors. AMD comes into play when high performance integrated graphics are required. In order to offer a solution for applications which require even lower power consumption we offer Qseven modules based on ARM Cortex 9 (Freescale i.MX6) processors. These processors are used on standardized COM form factors like COM...

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ST buys technology for MEMS pico projector

STMicroelectronics has is MEMS sensor product business by acquiring the intellectual property and taking on most of the staff of Israeli company bTendo. ST has been working with the Israeli company to combine bTendo’s scanning laser projection engine with ST’s MEMS technology, video processing know-how and semiconductor process technology. They have produced evaluation samples for integration into next-generation smartphones, digital cameras and laptops. These samples are now in the hands of potential customers. The Scanning Laser Projection engine produces a focus-free high-resolution output that will allow users to display their video, pictures and presentations on external surtfaces. The bTendo module is smaller than 1.7cm3 and...

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NIWeek 2012 presents Big Physics summit

National Instruments launches its 2012 technology summit in Austin, Texas this week. NIWeek 2012, which starts tomorrow (August 7), will include a keynote presentation from White House Science and Technology Office advisor and Georgia Institute of Technology professor, Dr. Thomas R. Kurfess. The three-day conference will include presentations on a range of topics including energy technology, RF and communications, vision, aerospace and defence, big physics, and robotics. The Science and Big Physics summit brings together scientists and engineers from major national and research labs to discuss topics in the areas of control, measurement and diagnostics for particle accelerators, synchrotrons, fusion reactors and...

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Three new Mali cores from ARM

ARM has produced three new Mali graphics cores in its T600 series. The cores can be configured with between one and eight processors. The T624 and T628 versions are for phones and TVs; the T678 is for tablets and high-end TVs. The cores use ARM’s Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression (ASTC) technique. The cores claim a 50% performance improvement over previous cores but no performance metrics are announc...

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Space: SpaceX, Boeing among spacecraft development winners

Three companies were today charged with developing crewed spacecraft that will take American astronauts to low-Earth orbit, replacing the NASA space shuttle, which was retired last year. NASA chose SpaceX of Hawthorne, California; Boeing of Chicago, Illinois; and Sierra Nevada Corporation of Louisville, Colorado to develop commercial crewed spacecraft that must be ready to fly within five years. A major aim of the commercial crewed spaceflight program is to end NASA outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs across the country, says NASA chief Charles Bolden. Right now, NASA has to buy seats to the International Space Station from its space race arch rival, Russia. Boeing was granted $460 million by NASA for...

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Dynex opens £1.8m power chip R&D centre in Lincoln

Dynex Semiconductor has officially opened a new Lincoln-based £1.8m R&D centre as part of an £11.25m investment which will create up to 40 engineering jobs and safeguard its 315-strong workforce in the city. Dynex designs and makes high power bipolar semiconductors, insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules and electronic assemblies, and the project is a partnership with Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric, the majority shareholder of its parent Dynex Power Inc., Canada. “Our major investment programme started in May 2010, when we announced the start of the R&D project to expand that team, by forming a joint operation with CSR,” said Dynex’s president and CEO, Dr Paul Taylor. "We are still recruiting,...

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Bare die are key for design miniaturisation

Using unpackaged die in embedded designs can have important benefits for designers offering new options for small-footprint designs, writes Shahram Tadayon Embedded system designers have benefitted from procuring integrated circuits (ICs) such as microcontroller (MCUs) in die form for many years. Because the dimensions of die are much smaller than when the IC is packaged, the use of unpackaged die allows the product designer to significantly reduce the size of the electronic circuit. High-volume products such as hearing aids, cell phones and RFID cards have become more comfortable, more portable and thinner due to the integration of die in the circuit design. Until recently, lower volume products have not benefitted from the same level of innovation as it has been historically...

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Mediatek and Broadcom inch out Qualcomm

Intense competition in the low-end Android smartphone market has seen Mediatek and Broadcom reduce Qualcomm's share of the smartphone apps processor market to 44% compared to 51% in Q1 2011, says Strategy Analytics, while ST-Ericsson is bounding back with 600% revenue growth in Q1. The total market from Q1 2011 to Q1 2012 grew 55%, says Strategy Analytics. The top five players were Qualcomm, Samsung, TI, Broadcom and Mediatek. Marvell dropped out of the top five following the troubles at RIM. Mediatek joined the top five for the first time following success in the sub-$200 smartphone market. ST-E won design-ins for Thor and NovaThor at Tier One customers. Stand-alone processors accounted for 44% of smartphone apps processors in Q1 and multi-cores accounted for 30% of the all smartphone...

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Space: NASA's Curiosity rover lands safely on Mars

NASA's control room erupted with cheers as confirmation reached Earth that the Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars. Scientists and engineers hugged, sobbed and punched the air as the first images from the rover's cameras came down. The first pictures, low-res thumbnails taken through the rover's rear hazard avoidance cameras and a clear dust filter, showed the Martian horizon and one of the rover's wheels. Shortly after, the front cameras took the rover's first self-portrait: its shadow on the Martian surface. Now safely on the ground in the Gale Crater, Curiosity can begin its two-year mission: to find whether Mars has the crucial ingredients that could once have supported life. No wonder mission control went wild: the...

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TSMC putting $1.4bn into ASML

TSMC has followed Intel in buying a stake in ASML and putting up money for ASML's 450mm and EUV R&D projects. Of ASML's three major customers, Samsung is now the only hold-out on ASML's co-development project. TSMC is to pay Euros 838m for a 5% stake in ASML and will put up another Euros 276m for the R&D projects. ASML says it expects 450mm tools to be availalbe in 2018, but TSMC has said it expects to be using 450mm tools in 2014. Intel paid $2bn for a 10% stake in ASML and said it would put another $1bn into the R&D projects. Intel also said it would be willing to pay another $1bn for another 5% stake in ASML. ASML has said it is only offering a limit of a 25% stake to its three top customers. No announcement has come from...

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ADI aims ECG chip at consumer health monitors

Analog Devices is targeting consumer body monitor designs with a heart-rate monitor analogue front end (AFE). The AD8232 AFE is designed to meet the ECG signal conditioning requirements of emerging fitness, portable/wearable monitoring and remote health monitoring equipment. "The intention has been to create a device which supports a range of heart rate and ECG monitoring applications ranging from consumer style fitness monitors to remote health management devices," Jan-Hein Broeders of Analog Devices told Electronics Weekly. A feature of the front-end chip is its two-pole, high-pass filter that is tightly coupled with the IC’s instrumentation amplifier architecture, and an uncommitted operational (gain) amplifier that enables the...

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Organic electronics ready for boom years, says analyst

The market value of organic devices such as TFT dispalys, transistors and non-volatile memory will grow to nearly $1bn in revenues by 2018, according to NanoMarkets. Over the same time period, the value of the market for printed electronics devices enabled by these organic components will reach $4.6bn. Analyst firm NanoMarkets announces the release of its latest report on the emerging organic/printed logic and memory market, titled “Markets for OTFTs, OFETs and Organic Memory – 2012.”  A decade ago, organic TFTs, FETs and memories were seen to have great promise, but the technology failed to live up to early hype. Materials performance was low and manufacturing proved more difficult, and more costly, than originally expected. "Today there are signs...

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QinetiQ transceiver to monitor NASA Mars landing

A transceiver designed by UK-based QinetiQ is in orbit around the Mars on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express and will soon monitor NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) through entry, descent and landing on to the surface of the planet on Monday, 6 August. QinetiQ has modified a transceiver, launched in 2003, to allow it to record transmissions from MSL during the critical seven minutes as it approaches the Martian surface, which will be sent back to Earth to allow scientists to analyse the performance of the system. “This is a landmark achievement for the QinetiQ Space Team, and sets a solid base for future innovations," said Sanjay Razdan, managing director new technologies at QinetiQ....

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