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The article discusses that powertrain electrification, automation and new business models shaping the next generation of mobility. Topics discussed include information on the trends impacting the electrical power and electronic architectures of future vehicles; discussions on the use of powertrain electrification to reduce vehicles’ consumption of fossil fuels; and the charging as the challenge in electromobility.

The article focuses on the 2013 Ineeting Energy Survey that presents the views of 3000 U.S. engineering professionals on unemployment rate for electrical and electronics engineers. The survey shows that unemployment rate for engineers getting worse if the proposals to increase H-1B visas now making their way through Congress are successful.

The article discusses various applications of analog-to-digital converters (ADC). It offers information on the functionality and topologies of various type of ADCs used for particular applications including flash ADCs, pipelined ADCs, and sigma-delta ADCs. It provides data on the key performance of several ADC characteristics such as resolution, differential nonlinearity (DNL), and effective number of bits.

The article discusses the basic requirements of smoke detector design. It indicates that the second phase of a fire is the most critical in terms of smoke detection because it is the first to generate smoke due to combustion of inflammable material. It suggests the importance of detecting low levels of smoke as soon as possible and before the smoke reaches the visible stage, as well as to avoid false alarms.

The article focuses on the VITA 65 known as OpenVPX, a system-level specification designed so that boards and systems can play compatibly with each other. It mentions the useful subset of the available standards, such as those from other VITAs including VPX, among others. It notes that VITA 65 emerges through cooperation from board vendors such as Mercury Computer system Inc., Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing and Tek Mircrosystems.

The article discusses the use of wireless personal-area networks (WPANs), the key factors for wireless network implementation, and the development of Zigbee solution. It states that developing and examining sensing, monitoring, and control solutions will help the design engineer in the component and solution selection analysis process. It suggests to consider several areas in relation to WPAN design requirements including integration, wireless networking topologies, ease of hardware and software design. Also, an example wireless UART (universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter) reference design is provided.

This article focuses on high performance analog solutions from linear technology. As server systems have grown, the number and complexity of input/output (I/O) cards have grown in proportion. Typically these cards contain circuitry to provide more extensive remote system. The management and control of servers via industry standard 2-wire buses. For such 2-wire buses as the 12C or SMBus, each added component on the bus contributes extra capacitance. As a result, rise and fall time specifications are difficult to meet. Stronger pull-up resistors improve rise time, but one has to make the low logic level DC voltage requirement more difficult to meet. Furthermore, zero down time in high availability systems requires users to insert I/O cards into a live backplane. Live insertion of a card is even more difficult because these added components can corrupt active data transactions when connected or removed. Expansion of these systems has become a difficult, rather than trivial task. The LTC 4300 family addresses these problems by allowing the user to plug I/O cards into a live backplane without corrupting the data transaction on the backplane.

Descries the Advanced Power Management (APM), a technology which makes possible to achieve compact-disc-quality audio in ultra-compact systems in portable computers. Development of integrated multimedia audi integrated circuits that work in concert with APM technology; Characteristics of the APM specification as defined by Microsoft and Intel.

The article reports on the safety standards for electromagnetic-compatibility and electromagnetic-interference of electronic equipment. It is stated that the core standards for powersupply safety and electromagnetic compatibility and interference are the European IEC 60601 and 60950 standards. XP Power Inc. stated that the "Level of Protection" is used to define the safety specifications for all electronic equipment. The IEC 60601-1 standard introduces the concept of means of protection, which describes the isolation protection between the electrically charged circuitry and any equipment that may come in contact with the device.

The article focuses on the integration of eye-diagram analysis in examining the double-data-rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM) physical layer for compliance to the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) specification. The eye-diagram analysis provides a comprehensive analysis of a DDR memory's waveform signal integrity by looking at the eye characteristics and estimate the quantity of jitter on the device, if there are problems on the device. Moreover, it discusses some of the eye analysis methods, including the quick eye-diagram scan, overlay bit eye-diagram analysis and composite eye-diagram analysis.

Lists steps in specifying electronics enclosure for electronic equipments in the United States. Concept of enclosure; Conformation of flit to mechanical format; Specifications offered by companies; Classification of electronics layout inside the enclosure; Selection of structure and material; Relevance of making deal with supplier in specifying enclosure. INSET: Plastic Or Steel? Let The Application Decide.

Provides information on the testing of VMEbus reliability in multiprocessor control systems with multiple bus masters. Problems encounted during testing; Test considerations; Testing interrupts; Results.

Three diagrams are presented of a circuit for testing a transistor's h[sub FE] according to the manufacturer's criteria using an oscilloscope.

The article offers the author's insights on the consideration of effective number of bits (ENOB) when choosing an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). He mentions the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)-1241 standard that defines the specifications of data converters and uses ENOB to describe an ADC's performance. He suggests that engineers must not always rely on ENOB since it is incosistently defined, and that they should make sure the methodology to be used in finding ENOB.

The article offers information on the use of non-inverting level shifter in a single-supply voltage while preserving signal polarity. The circuit copes all the requirements, level-switching a ground-referenced signal having one operational amplifier while operating on a single-supply voltage. The non-inverting summing configuration of the operational amplifier makes the level-shifted output by adding a reference voltage with the input signal.

The article focuses on VPX (VITA 46/48) and OpenVPX (VITA 65) standards of computer system. It mentions that in order to speed up the acceptance of the abovementioned softwares, complementary softwares are used, including the VITA 42, VITA 57, VITA 66, and VITA 67. It further explains that to improve VPX, some softwares are used, which includes VITA 66, which is a software that defines the use of fiber-optic connectivity out of the backplane.

The article focuses on new developments related to the test and measurement (T&M) sector of the electronics industry which manages the latest electronic processes and standards, and addresses the test needs of electronic instruments. It mentions that instruments manufacturing companies have to design products to meet the demand of operating at higher frequencies, and write the signal-processing software that exploit the multicore architecture. It mentions that instrument vendors add test software to provide basic instrument functions, and with a personal computer (PC) base, the instrument can incorporate software like LabVIEW and Mathematica to customize to specific standards. It reports that test industry is turning to PXI modular and LAN extensions for instrumentation (LXI) instruments.

The article presents questions and answers related to instrumentation amplifiers. One reader has asked about the capabilities of an instrument amplifier. Another has inquired about the key specifications for these amplifiers. A readers asked how can an individual protect the inputs of instrumentation amplifiers against over-voltages.

Introduces the integrated circuits from Texas Instruments Inc. Product specifications; Price of the items; Reliability of the device.

Features several products for electronic design automation (EDA) from various companies. Specification of the EDA Software Tools Streamline Design and Verification from Xilinx Inc.; Price of the TestWave software from Applied Wave Research; Introduction of OrCAD Windows from EMA Design Automation.

Discusses the use of the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) and smart batteries. Necessity of employing an embedded controller as a system-management bus master; Preference for a dedicated embedded controller in portable systems; Standardization of the smart battery system and power management with ACPI.

Reports on the benefits of the Input/Output Buffer Information Specification (IBIS) developed by a group of electronic-design-automation (EDA) and semiconductor vendors called IBIS Open Forum. Companies included in the vendor group; Protection of semiconductor vendor's proprietary design and process-technology information; Simulation speed; Plans to broaden IBIS; Contact information.

The article offers information on the development of disposable electronics which disappears after completing their task. It mentions that Reza Montazami, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, has discovered a special polymers from which some disposable electronics can be that quickly and completely melt away after triggering.

In this article the author focuses on the dire shortage of engineers. The author states that shortage is a myth but there is a shortage of some critical engineering talent in some sectors which includes analog and microwave design engineers. The author further discusses that this shortage is creating crisis in education like students are not getting enough science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

The article reports on the development of OpenVPX standard by Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) in December 2010. The standard limits the selections, defines system topologies and offer a coherent definition system from backplanes to the types of high-speed pipes used in the design. In addition, the specification of OpenVPX defines standard profiles for the backplane, module, slot and chassis.

The article presents the top 10 articles that fascinated the readers of "Best Electronic Design" in 2010. The October 2010 article by Jay McSherry dices and slices engineering salaries in a way that makes for a strong read. The article on transimpedance amplifier is one of the two columns that analog guru Bob Pease landed in the top 10. The July article by Ron Schneiderman is based on an item wrote by Andy Grove for "Bloomberg Businessweek" on American jobs.

The article offers information on the lightweight version electronics design specification for multicore environments designed by the Multicore Association for the electronics industry. The specification known as Multicore Communications application programming interface (API) (MCAPI) is created for the aim to minimize the footprint, overhead and programming design requirements. Specifically, MCAPI targets the electronics design of multiple cores. Further details of the standard are included.

The article presents the reliability and validity of the bit-error-rate (BER) testing. The BER testing establishes the error rate by using eye patterns. It provides visual representation of the stability and margins of the physical channel. It maximizes the data-transfer speed while minimizing the number of errors. In the user's point of view, the fundamental performance metric for a digital communication system is the BER. Generally, users are more interested in the digital information than in the causes of information loss. For users, the simplest and most accurate test for overall performance of a communication system remains the BER test, which provides in a single statistic, a useful gauge of fidelity for the entire system.

The article presents the requirements for successful statistical static timing analysis (SSTA) characterization. The requirements include the excellent nominal characterization. Nominal correlation for path delays of within 2% of Spice reduces the uncertainty that must be accounted for through statistical distributions. The brute-force approach to characterization is to take measurements for every transistor over the entire range of variation of every parameter. An acceptable result of such measurement optimization is that statistical characterization takes less than 10 times the time required for single process, voltage, and temperature (PTV) point.

The article reports on the optimization of power consumption ahead of the register-transfer level (RTL) to alleviate the timing closure. Power consumption is a primary design consideration for today's systems-on-a-chip (SoCs). Consequently, pervasive power reduction techniques are now an established part of the design process from RTL to final layout. Static timing analysis (STA) is squarely in the critical path for getting to silicon. Design for power adds yet another set of requirements to this process.

The article suggests steps in Field Programmable Gate Array signal assignment. Accordingly, these guidelines for assigning signals to multipurpose pins give the person to cogitate about signal assignments up front and reduce the chance of iterations based on signal assignment process. To start with the process, it suggests to assign specialized signals that only work on specific pins. Second, it is emphasized to assign large and high-speed signal busses, especially those that would be spread across more than one bank or region. The third step considers slower and less constrained busses to come next using the same principle in the second step, but with less emphasis on things like switching output noise. The fourth step, and the last, implies that individual signals should be done last.

The article focuses on 8-bit microcontrollers. An 8-bit microcontroller requires more than 8-bit arithmetic. Multiply-accumulate hardware joins a multiplier with a large accumulator register. The barrel shifter which is a hardware unit is very useful in the case where all the accumulator bits are not required in a result. They are also useful in manipulation and general data extraction. The multibyte arithmetic unit precision is based on the associated algorithm and application requirements. These can be adjusted to take benefit of an 8-bit microcontroller's multibyte hardware unit. An 8-bit microcontroller's bandwidth limitation is often the speed of data manipulation. Some chips store operations for the wider registers and also support special load. An 8-bit microcontroller equipped with multibyte hardware arithmetic units can handle a wide range of applications.

Reports on developments related to business for the electric engineering industry in the U.S. Support for the Spirit 1.0 specification offered by Mentor's Platform Express tool; Features of the Spirit 1.0; Expansion of CoWare's ConvergenSC library of SystemC models.

The article informs that Hard real-time Linux has been around for ages, or it may never appear. It all depends on who you talk to. It also depends on your requirements. A two-second interrupt latency may be acceptable for some applications, and even many Linux implementations can easily handle interrupts within tens of milliseconds. Monta Vista and other companies like Timesys have gone a different route by improving the real-time performance of the Linux kernel. This is done by tracking down the various routines that limit interrupt response time and recoding them more efficiently from an interrupt standpoint. It's possible to push interrupt response time under 5 ms.

The article informs that in the course of any system design project, pc-board and IC design files proliferate almost of their own volition. Any number of tools can create schematics, models, layouts, and other views of the design. But at any given moment, the design team, which may be widely dispersed, must have access to all of these files. This requires a kind of umbrella under which all of these various files, in their various formats, can be viewed readily. Cimmetry Systems Inc.'s AutoVue 18 offers one answer. This Web-based tool lets users view and optionally mark up documents, drawings, and CAD files in over 450 formats from a Web browser. AutoVue provides native viewing, printing, markup, digital mockup, and real-time collaboration support for engineering drawings, 2D CAD, 3D drawings, pc-board and IC layouts and schematics, and other support documentation.

The article informs that driving a multitude of small diaphragms with motors instead of speaker coils promises big bass-audio response in small volumes. Supported by three papers, Tymphany Corp. demonstrated this concept at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) conference in San Francisco last month. The company's Linear Array Transducer (LAT) technology is based on multidiaphragm loudspeaker transducers in a tubular form factor. The transducers consist of a conventional motor structure, a tubular housing, and multiple diaphragms.

This article presents information related to Set-Top-Box apps. Due to the latest digital cabal techniques, cable TV providers are offering more services. Digital set-top-box sales are soaring, with over 60 million shipped this year and over 80 million expected in 2005. Along with these new boxes comes the capability for handling HDTV, DVR/PVR, picture-in-picture and interactive programming. To implement all of these processes, each application needs the incoming cable signal. That means some kind of signal splitter is needed. Today, passive devices like baluns are used. Analog Devices, however, offers the ADA4302-4 active four-way splitter. It takes the incoming cable signal via the diplexer and then it amplifies and distributes it to four different tuners, moderns or other roads in the set-top box. The ADA4302-4's gain is 4.5 dB. Its 1-GHz total bandwidth makes it fully compatible with any future expansions. Noise and distortion are very low, with a 4,5-dB noise figure. Linearity is specified by the composite triple beat and composite second order specifications outlined by the Open Cable standard.

This article focuses on timing analyzer. With timing-margin budgets changing so rapidly during an IC or pc-board design project, miscommunication of relevant information among design teams can create serious headaches. Timing- Designer 7.0, an interactive timing-analysts and diagramming tool, seeks to simplify the exchange of critical timing information. Users will be able to better manage the specification and analysis of high-speed interfaces in digital ICs and boards. To handle growing design complexity, TimingDesigner 7.0 gives users the option to logically organize multiple timing-diagram components within one project. Components and blocks are arranged and displayed in a single tree with a summary list of all constraint violations in the project diagrams. Designers also can merge two diagrams from different components. This automatically creates an interface that accounts for component connectivity and manages signal duplication and propagation delays. This release includes other enhancements. Designers now can localize library management for specific diagrams and their associated paths, avoiding time-consuming network access to large library repositories.

This article presents information related to automotive-optimized FPGAs. The XA family of FPGAs and complex programmable-logic devices (CPLDs) meets the automotive industry's strict requirements. This line of programmable devices from XIIInx targets GPS, infontainment, communication, driver assistance and comfort applications where configuration changes can alter the feature sets, eliminating the need to create multiple ASIC solutions for different car models. The XA devices meet the Automotive Electronics Council AEC-Q100 qualification flow. They also fully support the automotive industrys Production Part Approval Process provision and comply with the ISOT516949 specification. The XA devices meet the Automotive Electronics Council AEC-QIOO qualification flow. They also fully support the automotive industry's Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) provision and comply with the IS0-TS16949 specification. The FPGAs in the family are available in densities ranging from 50k to lM system gates, and they will be available in a variety of packages. The CPLD devices range in density from 32 to 256 macrocells and offer from 33 to 184 I/O pins.

This article presents information related to an assertion based methodology. One of the better bets for enhanced verification productivity these days is adoption of an assertion-based methodology. Version 6.0 of Mentor's ModelSim fully supports a standards-based approach to assertion-based verification and coverage-driven flows. The simulator can handle Verilog 2001, VHDL, PSL SystemC and System Verilog. Now offering a native assertion engine as well as assertion debugging, ModelSim 6.0 gives designers various ways to more easily ensure that designs match their functional specification. Also included are functional coverage capabilities, enabling users to track verification effectiveness. The combination of assertions and functional coverage produces coverage-driven verification. Here, designers use feedback from testing to target subsequent testing for greater productivity and effectiveness. The built-in assertion engine currently supports PSL, with SystemVerilog Assertions coming in revision 6.1.

Introduces the hot-swap controller device from Maxim Integrated Products Inc. Product specifications; Price of the device; Reliability of the system.

Features the SiliconBackplane III embedded systems from Sonics Inc. Price of the system; Product specifications; Reliability of the device.

Introduces the APE-3D field solver from Cadence Design Systems company. Poduct specifications; Price of the items; Usability of the product in the electronics industry.

Introduces the InfiniScale III MT47396 switch chip from Mellanox Technologies Inc. Product specifications; Price of the items; Reliability of the device.

Inroduces the Quad GigPHYTER Ethernet device from the National Semiconductor Corp. Product specifications; Price of the ethernet products; Voltage level of the items.

Focuses on the significance of the switch-fabric interconnect technologies in the computer industry. Improvement on the quality of various computer products; Enhancement of Internet services; Product specifications.

Features the version of Rambus Inc.'s RASER high-speed serial interface. Significant provision of PCI Express specifications; Design of the serial interface; Applications.

Reports that Nexus 5001 Forum, has enhanced its IEEE ISTO 5001 debug specification. Assertion that the revision incorporates connector specifications; Optional features described in the specification; List of implementation classes.

Focuses on the role of special interest groups (SIG) in addressing problem or opportunity that requires multivendor cooperation. Description of the rule of the SIG; Deployment of network processing technologies by establishing common and open network processing interfaces and benchmarks; Process for developing specifications.

Features the integrated circuits (IC) Tsi1400 and Tsi500 from Tundra Semiconductor Corp. Price of the ICs; Product specification; Availability of the product.