Portable Design announces 2005 Editor's Choice Awards
January 6, 2006 Nashua, NH -- Portable Design magazine, the engineer's resource for portable applications, today announced the winners of its 2005 Editor's Choice Awards.
January 6, 2006 Nashua, NH -- Every year Portable Design reviews several hundred products intended to make life easier for designers of portable electronic devices. We report the best of these in our magazine and, starting this year, we recognize the best of the best with our Editor's Choice Award.
We believe that these products are indicative of the creativity our readers bring to bear, and they're worthy of the wider recognition that this award will bring.
The 2005 Portable Design Editor's Choice Awards go to:
Environmental monitoring and control sensors
SMSC (Hauppauge, NY) developed a family of environmental monitoring and control (EMC) solutions for cooling portable systems such as notebook computers. The family includes four sensors--the EMC1001, EMC1002, EMC1023, and EMC1033--that claim to provide a high level of accuracy while conserving board space. Each is powered from a 3.3-V supply and is 5-V tolerant. The EMC1001 temperature sensor is housed in one of the industry's smallest SMBus packages (supporting SMBus 2.0), while still able to signal two interrupts, unlike competitively priced parts that generate just one interrupt. As a result, designers can employ a host alert and a critical shutdown. Using SMSC's resistance error correction, errors in temperature measurement are erased by automatically canceling the resistance effects. This feature actually gets a system to market faster by eliminating the time needed to invoke system characterization.
SMSC - www.smsc.com
GSM/GPRS/EDGE chip
RF Micro Devices' (RFMD - Greensboro, NC) Polaris 2 Total Radio Solution comprises a transceiver and a power-amplifier (PA) module. It supports up to four frequency bands (850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz) and performs all the radio functions needed to build a GSM, GPRS, and EDGE cellular handset. The transceiver's advanced transmit methodology provides handset developers with advantages over alternative solutions in terms of ease of use and reduced heat dissipation as well as giving the end user longer talk time and battery life. The Polaris 2 transceiver achieved better than -109 dBm receive sensitivity in the low bands and better than -108 dBm in the high bands, helping service providers reduce their infrastructure costs while minimizing the number of dropped calls. DSP technology in the receiver improves performance in fading and blocking conditions, which also helps to reduce dropped calls.
RF Micro Devices - www.rfmd.com
Low-power video amplifiers
Analog Devices (Wilmington, MA) launched a pair of high-performance video amplifiers that combine low operating power with low standby power, resulting in longer battery life in cell phones, multimedia players, and digital video cameras. These devices are also suited for television playback on a cell phone. The ADA4850 family of amplifiers includes the single ADA4850-1 and the dual ADA4850-2. The 130-MHz, -3-dB bandwidth, and 800-V/µs slew rate of these amplifiers suits them for general-purpose, high-speed applications. When not displaying video, these voltage-feedback rail-to-rail output op amps can be disabled and use 10x less power than most comparable devices. The ADA4850-1 and ADA4850-2 amps are designed to operate at supply voltages as low as 3 V and up to ±5 V using just 2.5 mA of supply current. To further reduce power consumption, each amplifier is equipped with a power-down mode (achieved using the company's patent-pending internal shutdown mechanism), which lowers the supply current to less than 1 µA.
Analog Devices - www.analog.com
Integrated radio-antenna modules
Antenova (Cambridge, UK) introduced its Radionova line of fully integrated radio-antenna modules (RAMs) to target small products requiring a small internal antenna by essentially integrating all of a handset's front-end RF components. The module's high-efficiency high dielectric antenna (HDA) technology integrates all key RF components into a single module. The module's balanced antenna is highly resistant to detuning, so the same module can be used across multiple product designs and will operate at multiple frequencies. Wireless performance is unaffected by the RF device's position which, according to the manufacturer, enables OEMs and ODMs with significant design flexibility, cost reduction, and time-to-market advantages. The modules have been specifically designed to work across multiple wireless protocols and cover the GSM 900, 1800, and 1900 bands. The manufacturer's patented dielectric balanced antenna technology enables RF performance to be independent of the module's surroundings, even when applied to multiband designs.
Antenova - www.antenova.com
PHS handset chip
Atheros Communications' (Sunnyvale, CA) Personal Handyphone System (PHS), known as a Personal Access System (PAS), is an advanced digital TDMA-TDD technology that operates at 1.9 GHz, providing high-quality voice and advanced data services as well extended handset battery life. To simplify the design of these PHS phones, Atheros Communications has developed the AR1900 single-chip cellular platform. For applications that include singlemode PHS handsets, dual-mode PHS/WLAN handsets, and small-scale PHS cell stations, the AR1900 chip uses a 1.9-GHz radio, DQPSK modem, and TDMA controller with 1C/3T and PIAFS capabilities in support of RCR STD-28 version 3.3 PHS calling features. The chip implements required handset functionality, including applications processing on a 120-MHz ARM946E-S core, LCD control, and battery management, while also integrating a direct conversion RF transceiver, baseband, protocol control block, voice coder and audio paths, and polyphonic ring-tone generator as well as keypad, display, and USB interfaces.
Atheros Communications - www.atheros.com
Mobile software platform
Microsoft (Redmond, WA) says the latest version (5.0) of its Windows Mobile software platform incorporates enhancements that will provide designers and operators of mobile devices with more options to differentiate themselves from competitors, while ultimately providing end users with a wider range of converged devices, including the company's Smartphone and Pocket PC platforms as well as PDAs, portable media players, and other mobile phones and devices. The new version enables partners to build devices for Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) networks and supports simultaneous voice and data transfer. Cross-platform enhancements include soft-key integration, landscape display orientation, and QWERTY keyboard support, allowing users to access information without using a stylus. Developers can use tools available in the Beta 2 release of the company's Visual Studio 2005 application as well as API enhancements, including ARM-based emulation, to develop mobile applications for location-based services as well as 3D gaming and video capabilities.
Microsoft - www.microsoft.com
Multiband DVB-H tuner
Microtune (Plano, TX) introduced a multiband tuner compliant with the Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) standard, an industry specification that allows for simultaneous transmission of multiple television, radio, and video channels to mobile devices. Designed for integration into cell phones, PDAs, and other handheld multimedia convergence products, the Mobile MicroTuner MT2260 is a single-chip DVB-H tuner that enables mobile devices to operate across networks allocated for mobile broadcast TV services in both the United States and Europe. The device enables multichannel broadcast of full-motion digital TV with CD-quality sound. Microtune says the MT2260's multiband capability permits manufacturers to develop handset designs for global markets without incurring the added expense and duplication of effort involved in designing market-specific devices. Measuring 6×6 mm, the device comes in a 40-pin QFN package, operates from a 2.7-V power supply, and consumes as little as 20 mW in viewing mode, depending on the severity of the reception environment.
Microtune - www.microtune.com
DSP application software tools
Texas Instruments (Houston, TX) launched the Platinum Edition of its Code Composer Studio (CCStudio) Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which supports multiple TI platforms in one installation to streamline the design of multiprocessor, multiplatform DSP applications. The software includes reference frameworks, a project manager, code generation tools, TI's integrated CodeWright Editor, fast simulators, DSP/BIOS real time OS, debugging and analysis tools, drivers, and software libraries. A single installation of the IDE covers all TI platforms, including the TMS320C6000 DSP, TMS320C5000 DSP, TMS320C2000 DSP, and OMAP platforms. The IDE can be installed and updated at one time for all platforms. Other benefits of the software, according to the company, include parallel debug capabilities for interprocessor visualization and simplified migration of software from one TI DSP platform to another under a common IDE. Cross-platform support for compiler updates helps improve cycle counts and code size for maximized DSP performance.
Texas Instruments - www.ti.com
Crossover programmable logic devices
Lattice Semiconductor (Hillsboro, OR) introduced its MachXO family crossover PLDs, which are designed to more efficiently support applications traditionally addressed by either high-density complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) or low-capacity FPGAs. The MachXO logic devices are built on 130-nm embedded flash process technology that enables instant-on operation in a single chip, a feature essential to many CPLD applications. Pin-to-pin delays as fast as 3.5 nsec allow the devices to address the high-speed requirements of contemporary system designs. The technology employs a native 1.2-V logic core supported directly by MachXO "E" versions for the lowest power consumption. An on-chip voltage regulator enables "C" versions of the devices to support 1.8-, 2.5-, or 3.3-V external power supplies, addressing legacy system power requirements. The devices' dedicated "hard" FIFO support logic increases the efficiency of FIFO implementations as well, requiring no additional lookup tables for pointer and flag functions. Flash backup allows each EBR block to be configured not only for standard single- and dual-port RAM functions, but also for nonvolatile user ROM.
Lattice Semiconductor - www.latticesemi.com
Electronic design kits
Cadence Design Systems (San Jose, CA) unveiled its "kits approach" to streamlining design capabilities for applications within the markets for WLAN, PCI Express, Ethernet, and digital TV devices. The company says its AMS Methodology Kit enables analog mixed-signal (AMS) designers of networking, wireless, consumer electronics, and automotive devices to achieve shorter, more predictable design cycles while creating reusable AMS blocks. The goal of this approach is to simplify the application of Cadence's technology to shorten time-to-productivity. Customers, according to the company, can then focus their design resources on design differentiation rather than design infrastructure. Cadence says that the kit can alleviate numerous "pain points" associated with target applications. For wireless applications, such points can include high-frequency (RF) parasitics and the effect on re-spins; mixed signal simulation (analog, digital, RF in IC, and system context); enabling integration independence (SoC or SiP); and others. For consumer electronics applications, the challenges may include multiprocessor validation, mixed signal simulation and integration, and more.
Cadence Design Systems - www.cadence.com
ARM processor
ARM (Cambridge, UK) says its Cortex-A8 processor--previously code-named "Tiger"--delivers up to 2,000 DMIPS while consuming <300 mW in 65-nm implementations, making it suitable for use in consumer and low-power mobile devices running multichannel video, audio, and gaming applications. The processor features the company's Thumb-2 technology for enhanced performance, energy efficiency, and code density. The device also includes the first implementation of the company's Neon signal processing extensions to accelerate media codecs such as H.264 and MP3. The platform also includes Jazelle-RCT Java acceleration technology to optimize just-in-time and dynamic adaptive compilation, which can reduce memory footprint by up to 3x, according to the company. The processor features ARM's TrustZone technology for secure transactions and Digital Rights Management and its Intelligent Energy Manager technology for low power. The processor will run at more than 600 MHz in low-power 65-nm processes, with the core using <4-mm2 of silicon. High-performance consumer designs will run the Cortex-A8 at up to 1 GHz in 90- and 65-nm processes.
ARM - www.arm.com
Power management IC
Freescale Semiconductor (Austin, TX) extended its power-management IC (PMIC) line with the introduction of the single-chip MPC18730 PMIC for portable audio and video applications. The company says the device's 0.9-V minimum operating voltage and significantly low power consumption can extend battery life in battery-powered systems such as portable media players, MP3 players, PDAs, and portable data loggers, as well as in voice-over-IP phones and other portable consumer electronics. The MPC18730 minimizes power consumption by using DC-DC converters to generate the main supply voltages, and multiple series regulators for the auxiliary rails. It includes two DC-DC converters and three low-drop-out (LDO) linear regulators. All five supplies are digitally controlled with digital-to-analog converters (DACs) through a serial interface. The analog IC employs proprietary SMARTMOS process technology, which integrates precision analog and power devices with logic, including voltage regulation, power MOSFETs, input signal conditioning, transient protection, as well as system diagnostics and control.
Freescale Semiconductor - www.freescale.com
Established in 1995, Portable Design has long been the electronic engineer's resource for portable applications. A leading design magazine, Portable Design delivers news, product reviews and application feature articles focusing on the consumer, wireless, automotive and industrial markets.
