Pd0804p_600

EDITORIAL

To Be or Not to Be

Last month at the Spring IDF in Shanghai, Intel formally launched its Atom processor for mobile Internet devices (MIDs). Since last year’s IDF in San Francisco, Intel—being late to the portable market, if you don’t count notebook computers—has made much of the putative Mobile Internet Device (MID), designed to replace mobile phones for Web surfing, which they admittedly do badly. MIDs, in Intel’s vision, would all be powered by Intel’s new low-power Silverthorne processor, now renamed Atom. (more)

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

Mobile TV: 2008 Outlook

As 2008 begins, Mobile TV boasts a promising outlook. As always, new technologies take time to emerge from initial market studies to trials and finally mass market adoption. The 2005 Mobile TV trials led to some regional commercial launches in 2006, and we can expect these to gradually develop into global deployments over 2008-2009. (more)

PORTABLE POWER

Advanced Dynamic Voltage Scaling via VSEL, One-Pin EasyScale of I²C Interface

In today’s applications dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) means either optimizing battery lifetime in portable applications, or saving energy and reducing heat in complex, multiprocessor environments. (more)

COVER FEATURE

CMOS Power Amplifier Technology - The Next Step Toward the Single-Chip Cell Phone

The market for mobile phones has created a landscape for technological innovation that goes beyond any other consumer product in recent history. The seemingly unstoppable demand for mobile phones has created economies of scale that have driven down the cost of handsets and enabled semiconductor manufacturers to justify the investments necessary to achieve the cost points demanded. (more)

PRODUCT FEATURE

Low-Power Design Flow Supports UPF

In the ongoing race to the standards finish line between Cadence’s Common Power Format (CPF) and the Unified Power Format (UPF) supported by Synopsys, Mentor Graphics, Magma and others, the CPF camp has often flogged its competition about the lack of tool support, despite notable efforts by Mentor and Magma. Synopsys has now met that argument head on. (more)