Embedded design

is flying high
READ OUR REPORTS FROM EMBEDDED WORLD 2011 IN GERMANY PAGE 3, 4, 6, 10
Design moves to a higher level
THE LATEST HIGH-LEVEL SYNTHESIS TECHNOLOGY OVERCOMES
THE LIMITATIONS OF THE FIRST RELEASE TOOLS PAGE 16
Sun worshippers get energy
CONCENTRATORS ARE PUTTING SOLAR PANELS IN THEIR PLACE PAGE18
9-15 March 2011 | No. 2459 | ElectronicsWeekly.com
ElectroncsWeekly
the week in electronics
One of the most interesting aspects of Apples first iPad was the micropro-
cessor. Apple designed its own 1GHz processor, the A4, most likely based on
an ARM Cortex-A9 core. It has now designed a dual-core processor, the A5,
for the iPad 2, which is probably based on a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9
processor. After all, this is the technology used by Nvidia in its Tegra 2
applications processor, which is being designed into tablet PCs. Qualcomm
is also upgrading its Snapdragon smartphone processor platform to a
dual-core Cortex-A9 processor for tablet PC designs such as the HP
TouchPad.
So if the ARM Cortex-A9 was the smartphone processor of choice, it
seems the dual-core version will be the same for the first wave of tablets.
APPLE DESIGNS DUAL-CORE PROCESSOR FOR IPAD 2
ONE-STOP SHOP FOR SOURCING COMPONENTS
Altium has created an online design ecosystem,
AltiumLive, that could potentially link the design tool
firms 50,000 customers with component suppliers
and manufacturers. This is a major step for us; a
bridge into the future to build a larger ecosystem,
CEO Nick Martin told Electronics Weekly.
The move has been triggered by the release of
Altiums Designer 10 tool suite. We are taking an off-the-shelf approach to
building a design ecosystem, said Harris. Designers can log on to select
content, such as new functions, upgrade, IP and more, then download and
install. For example, Harris says designers can reach into the supply chain,
adding Mouser and Arrow to Altium Designers functionality.
http://live.altium.com/#signin
EDITORS CHOICE PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
Wireless sensors distribution deal
Alpha Micro Components has signed a distribu-
tion agreement with energy harvesting firm
EnOcean to sell its wireless sensor modules in
the UK and Ireland. EnOceans self-powered
modules are typically used in building control and
industrial automation systems. EnOcean enhances our range of wireless
industrial automation solutions, said Maxine Hewitt, marketing director for
Alpha Micro Components. Its innovative technology will be vital for meeting
the sustainability demands for the industrial sector and the built environment.
www.alphamicro.net
Altium launches design ecosystem
Blackfin moves to 65nm process
Analog Devices will move its
Blackfin processor to 65nm process
technology this year. The firms high
performance Sharc digital signal
processors are already on a 65nm
process, with production Blackfins
still at 90nm. According to Rich Mur-
phy, business development manager
at Analog, the first Blackfins have
already been produced on a 65nm
process.
www.analog.com
Kontron puts QorIQ into AMC
Kontron has announced a range of
single-width AdvancedMC proces-
sor modules based on the Freescale
Semi conductor QorIQ commu-
nication processor. The QorIQ
P2020-based Kontron AdvancedMC
processor module AM4120 is sched-
uled for release in Q2 2011. There
are also plans to use the scalable
QorIQ processors on MicroTCA and
AdvancedTCA platforms.
www.kontron.com
On this weeks cover
At Embedded World in Nuremberg
last week, MathWorks demonstrated
a quadrocopter flight control system
that was developed using the firms
Simulink software tools. The system
automatically corrects any differ-
ences between the crafts actual and
desired position caused by external
influences such as wind.
www.mathworks.com
Fujitsu adds Cortex-A15 licence
Fujitsu Semiconductor has expanded
its processor licence with ARM to
include the Cortex-A15 processor,
Mali graphics and CoreLink systems
IP. Already an established ARM li-
censee, Fujitsu introduced its FM3
family of Cortex-M3 processor-based
MCUs last November.
www.fujitsu.com/emea
Rumours of bid for Alcatel Lucent
ZTE, the Chinese telecoms equip-
ment manufacturer, is rumoured to
be preparing a bid for Alcatel Lucent,
according to Bloomberg. Huawei, the
other major China telecoms equip-
ment maker, has denied it is making a
bid. ZTE has not denied the rumour.
wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/
Watch provides call alerts
Casios prototype Bluetooth watch
communicates with smartphones
and runs for two years before it needs
a new battery. It uses the Bluetooth
low-energy profile to provide call
and email alerts from the users

mobile phone or PC.
www.casio.com

Controlled by eye
Built by Swedish eye-tracking firm
Tobii and Lenovo, a laptop that can
be directed by eye has been unveiled
at the CeBIT information technology
trade fair in Hanover, Germany. The
firm claims that using the eyes to
point, select and scroll is intuitive.
www.tobii.com
PC sales hit by iPad
Gartner has downgraded its
prediction for global PC sales this
year, following the popularity of
tablets such as the iPad. Worldwide
PC shipments are forecast to reach
387.8 million units in 2011, up
10.5% from 2010, according to the
firm. Gartner had previously forecast
growth of 15.9%.
ElectronicsWeekly.com 9-15 MARCH 2011 EW | 3
Dual-core ARM in rst tablet PCs
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news
Still problems to solve for
big multicores, says ARM CTO
ElectronicsWeekly.com 4 | EW 9-15 MARCH 2011
EMBEDDED WORLD 2011
M
ulticore microproces-
sors will be limited to
two and four cores for
the foreseeable future,
according to ARMs chief technology
officer.
Academics have tried to solve the
parallelisation of software problem
but no one has truly done it, Mike
Muller ARMs CTO told Electronics
Weekly at Embedded World last
week.
As a result two and four core
microprocessors will be the limit for
some time, said Muller.
The latest smartphones and tablet
PCs are built around dual core ARM
Cortex-A9 processors from ST-Erics-
son, Nvidia, TI and Qualcomm.
Qualcomm last month announced
its intention to design its first quad
core ARM chip but this will not ap-
pear before 2012.
Intel currently sells dual and quad
core processors to the PC market and
last year introduced the first six core
processor, the Core i7 980X, for the
desktop market. AMD followed with
the Phenom II chip.
The barrier is not in the hardware
architecture, but having the software
that can get achieve the performance
gains and which is useable.
The problem is all about the soft-
ware architecture, said Muller.
Muller believes that the problem of
running multiple cores in parallel ef-
ficiently is being addressed.
But it is just really tweaking the
performance, there is still no general
purpose solution to the problem,
said Muller. O
M
icrosemi is positioning itself
as a supplier of system-
on-chip (SoC) devices
with a business built around FPGA
platforms and analogue components.
The US-based company, which is
especially strong in the aerospace,
defence and industrial markets,
added the FPGA lines to its existing
analogue and power business with
the acquisition of Actel last year.
This is an example of how FPGA
suppliers are now refocusing their
businesses to be SoC and ASSP
vendors, and not just suppliers of
general purpose programmable logic
devices.
We view the FPGA as a system-
on-chip device, said Jay Legen-
hausen, Microsemis v-p of world-
wide sales for the SoC business.
For us the FPGA is the part which
brings along a whole range of our
other products, said Legenhausen.
According to Legenhausen, future
product developments of the Smart
Fusion mixed signal FPGA range will
focus on embedding new functions
on-chip and not just creating a bigger
FPGA, he said.
Another aspect of this is the expan-
sion of third party support for the
SmartFusion FPGAs with a particu-
lar focus on industrial networking
applications.
The intention is to increase the
choice of operating systems and com-
munication protocols supported by
the FPGAs. O
EMBEDDED WORLD 2011
Microsemi
sees FPGAs as
SoC devices

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news
ElectronicsWeekly.com 6 | EW 9-15 MARCH 2010
Renesas to take on ARM
with unified 32-bit MCUs
EMBEDDED WORLD 2011 EMBEDDED WORLD 2011
Atmel builds
ecosystem
around AVR
R
enesas Electronics is look-
ing at how it can unify its
three high-end microcon-
troller families into a single
processor architecture to compete
with ARM in the embedded market.
The company has three 32-bit micro-
controller ranges - the V850, SH and
RX families.
We are creating a new strategy
and we are discussing how we can
create a unified approach, Tsutomu
Miki, chairman of Renesas Electron-
ics Europe, told Electronics Weekly.
The company has already achieved
this in its RL78 family of lower per-
formance microcontrollers which
unified the R8C and 78K MCU fami-
lies after the merger of the Renesas
and NEC chip businesses last year.
A new unified 32-bit processor
with the support of an ecosystem of
tools and IP will strengthen Renesas
in its battle with ARM-based micro-
controllers in the embedded market.
According to Miki, the companys
MCU partner programme has more
than 700 members covering tools, IP
and reference platforms.
We respect the ARM ecosystem
F
reescale has announced Power
Architecture microcontrollers
for industrial control.
The PX series, based on e200
cores, is intended for motion control
and motor drives. Single-core per-
formance is up to 600DMIPS, there
are multicore options, and up to
4Mbyte of embedded flash.
A single chip can control up to
six motors, process complex math al-
gorithms and manage more than the
typical three communications con-
nections - all at the same time,
claimed the firm.
Freescale run-time software in-
cludes the complimentary MQX
RTOS, DSP and motor control librar-
ies and Swell PEG (portable embed-
ded GUI) development suite.
Power microcontrollers are also sup-
ported by tools and the safety-certified
Integrity RTOS from Green Hills. O
www.freescale.com
and we recognise that combining
semiconductor devices with an eco-
system is the next phase of the micro-
controller business, said Miki.
He also believes that the decision
of Renesas, which operates its own
fabs, to skip the 65nm process gener-
ation and move its processors direct-
ly to a 40nm process will give the
company a lead in 2012.
Last week, the company added
eight microcontrollers to its V850
range which are targeted at low
power smart metering applications,
with the companys single-cycle flash
memory ranging in densities from
768kbyte to 1Mbyte. O
www.renesas.eu
A
tmel is building an ecosystem
around its AVR microcontrol-
lers which includes a set of
tools which will be compatible with
both 8- and 32-bit AVR microcontrol-
lers.
The design ecosystem also in-
cludes source code for 400 design ap-
plications developed by Atmel with
some third party support.
The intention is to expand the
number and range of designs through
third party relationships.
The new Studio 5 is an enhanced
version of the firms existing IDE with
support for all 8- and 32-bit AVR
MCUs.
According to Haakon Skar, market-
ing director for AVR microcontrollers
at Atmel, the new tool set will make
editing and debugging source code
easier with a feature which assists
code writing.
It is an intelligent editor which
analyses the code written by the de-
signer and will correct syntax errors
and even make code suggestions,
said Skar.
In developing integrated tool and
creating an ecosystem around it,
Atmel has abandoned its support for
the Eclipse open source environ-
ment.
Eclipse has not delivered on its
promises, said Skar.
We have seen complexity and
quality issues with Eclipse code and
so decided for the future it would
make sense to use a better platform,
said Skar.
Our intention is to create an open
platform for IP with code for inclu-
sion in designs, said Skar.
It is offering designers a source
code library for 8-bit AVR Xmega and
32-bit AVR UC3 MCUs with over 400
complete applications including
drivers, software stacks and floating
point math libraries. O
www.atmel.com
EMBEDDED WORLD 2011
Power architecture chips for industrial control
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the week online
ElectronicsWeekly.com 8 | EW 9-15 MARCH 2011
Picture Gallery Advance of
the Tablets
electronicsweekly.com/photo-galleries
Picture Gallery Mobile World
Congress 2011 in Barcelona
electronicsweekly.com/photo-galleries
How not to fix car headlights
electronicsweekly.com/
madebymonkeys
Intel builds smartphone
platform around open source
electronicsweekly.com/news
Fable: The Company Which
Went Too Far
electronicsweekly.com/mannerisms
I cant believe someone
makes Power cable lamps
electronicsweekly.com/madebymonkey
Qualcomm sees drive for
all-in-one smartphone chips
electronicsweekly.com/news
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BLOG OF THE WEEK
> Mannerisms: Electric car
chargers to cost $1,000 this year
Domestic electric car chargers should
soon cost $1,000 as the big boys like
Siemens, GE and Eaton get in on the
act.
GEs product called WattStation
comes out in the summer. Sometime
this year the Siemens Charge is due.
The US government has put up
$2.4 billion to develop an electric car
industry and the Chinese govern-
ment has put up $15 billion.
Pike Research says the world mar-
ket for chargers was only $69 million
last year, but will top $1 billion in a
couple of years.
Incentivising electric car buyers are:
GEs plans to install 35,000 Watt-
Stations in the US; a US government
subsidy of $7,500 per car; a further
Californian subsidy of $5,000 per car.
Disincentives are: electric cars cost
twice the equivalent petrol car; take
eight hours to charge and have limit-
ed speeds and ranges.
Electric car models available for
sale include Th!nk City, Nissan Leaf,
REVAi, Mitsubishi iMiEV, Buddy,
and the Tesla Roadster.
electronicsweekly.com/mannerisms
PICTURE GALLERIES
electronicsweekly.com/photo-galleries
> Tablets set to kill the iPad
> Mobile World Congress 2011, Barcelona
Taking a visual angle on stories or
interesting subjects, the galleries
complement Electronics Weeklys
more traditional text-based articles.
Take a look behind the scenes and
step through the photos.
BLOGS
> US To Put Man In Space Next Year
This was a headline 51 years ago in
Electronics Weeklys edition of 7
December 1960. October 1961 is the
target date for orbiting a US astronaut
in space. Early next year, one of the
seven astronauts now in training will be
tossed into space in a non-orbital flight
in preparation for the final event.
electronicsweekly.com/mannerisms
> Only Connect: A Thunderbolt
of innovation
With the 10 Gbps performance of
Thunderbolt products you can
transfer a full-length HD movie in less
than 30 seconds and back up one
year of continuous MP3 playback in
just over 10 minutes.
electronicsweekly.com/electroramblings
> Samsung Blu-Ray player compo
Time for another competition! Up for
grabs this time is a Wi-Fi ready
Blu-Ray player from Samsung,
courtesy of Digi-Key, which sponsors
the Gadget Master blog. Features
include full 1080P high-definition
video, Dolby True HD and DTS HD
Master Audio.
electronicsweekly.com/gadget-master
k one-stop shop for component distrihutor information.
8ead ahout the Iatest products, news, and deveIopments from the major distrihutors.
0edicated pages from distrihutors showcasing their Iine card and product highIights.
Ihe heart of the Iectronics weekIy products universe.
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Designed to he|p YOU with your components sourcing needs
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Aooess thls valuable resouroe today
news
Secure RTOS technology is
sitting at the tipping point
Green Hills Kleidermacher: We are seeing a lot of interest from the Android
smartphone space
ElectronicsWeekly.com 10 | EW 9-15 MARCH 2011
R
eal-time operating system
(RTOS) technology with
high levels of security
and reliability can now
be used in embedded systems for
automotive and smart metering ap-
plications, according to Green Hills
Softwares chief technology officer,
David Kleidermacher.
Kleidermacher says the increasing
level of embedded processor per-
formance means it is now practical to
run the companys secure RTOS on
even low-end microcontrollers.
Kleidermacher said the company
was working with processor firms
such as Freescale, ARM, Renesas
Electronics and STMicroelectronics
to support its Integrity secure RTOS
on their processors.
Our relationship with the semi-
conductor firms is as strong as it has
ever been, said Kleidermacher.
RTOS in embedded
The secure RTOS, which was origi-
nally developed for high-reliability
system applications in aerospace and
control systems, is now being ported
to a range of embedded processors.
The need for software security is
rippling all the way down embedded
systems from the top, ARMs chief
technology officer, Mike Muller told
Electronics Weekly.
As a result, Kleidermacher expects
the implementation of the RTOS to
accelerate in new areas such as auto-
motive and smart metering, but also
smartphones and even PCs.
We are seeing a lot of interest
from the Android smartphone
space, said Kleidermacher.
Reliability and security
In automotive it is the high reliability
that is important to driver assist-
ance systems. In smart metering and
mobile phones, the software security
features are interesting designers.
According to Kleidermacher, an-
other important development was
EMBEDDED WORLD 2011 MANNERISMS BLOG
Everything
will have its
homepage
when Intel became interested in the
secure RTOS to run on its reference
platforms for point-of-sale terminals.
The firm intends to support Intels
second-generation Core processor
family with the Integrity RTOS and
its secure virtualisation technology.
The RTOS has also been ported to
Freescales QorIQ processors, and
ARM-based processors from Texas
Instruments and STMicroelectronics.
Mobile financial transactions
ARM has its own partitioning soft-
ware called TrustZone, and Green
Hills has been working with ARM
to support software partitioning be-
tween secure and real-time critical
applications running on its Integrity
RTOS and a general-purpose OS
such as Windows or Android, run-
ning on the same processor.
This opens the possibility of im-
plementing secure software for finan-
cial transactions on mobile phones.
Windows cannot be that secure, so
the only way is to run it on an RTOS
and keep the secure applications sep-
arate and outside the Windows OS.
This requires increased processing
power, but with the latest Intel and
ARM cores this will soon be practical
for PCs and smartphones, reckoned
Kleidermacher.
Both Intel and ARM are very in-
terested in the idea, he said
The Integrity RTOS can host gener-
al purpose operating systems such as
Linux/MeeGo, Android and Win-
dows in secure virtual machines. It
also has the reliability and real-time
determinism for critical functions..
The smaller version of the RTOS
has already been ported to Cortex-M4
based processors from Freescale. O
W
e live in the stone age of
computing where we con-
nect to the internet by man-
ual output. The next stage is automat-
ic connection where every object
from a Coke can to a car tyre has a
computer that automatically con-
nects it to its own homepage.
This Internet of Things is the
logical next step for computing,
Professor Elgar Fleisch of the Uni-
versity of St Gallen and ETH Zurich
told the ISS-SEMI meeting in Gre-
noble, France, last week.
There will be a CV for each
product, said Fleisch. The
homepage of a tyre would say
where it was made, when shipped,
where used and its pressure.
The Internet of Things is a place
where smart items have nerve end-
ings and report to anywhere, said
Fleisch.
A processor chip ID and sensor in
a food package could signal to its
homepage that it is going to lose its
freshness, for example, Im getting
warmer do something about me.
New functional layers in prod-
ucts enable a new value proposi-
tion, said Fleisch.
The semiconductor industry is
the enabling industry for this new
world the Internet of Things,
said Fleisch. O
Mannerisms
www.electronicsweekly.com/
mannerisms
Our relationship with the
semiconductor companies is as
strong as it has ever been
Progress: One day, everything in this
fridge will have its own homepage
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news
Chip firms debate
merits of 450mm
Semiconductor panel voices scepticism at benefits of
introducing 450mm wafer, writes David Manners
The European Commission told the conference it wanted fabs to open in Europe
ElectronicsWeekly.com
I
s 450mm a curse or a
blessing? asked Rutger
Wijburg, NXP senior
vice-president for front-
end manufacturing, at the ISS-SEMI
panel discussions in Grenoble.
First, its wanted only by three big
companies, a memory company, a
foundry and Intel. They could push
everyone else out of business, said
Wijburg. Second, the amount of cap-
ital is enormous. Someone has to pay
the bill. Consumers could be asked to
pay that burden.
STMicroelectronics CTO Jean-
Marc Chery was similarly sceptical:
ST thinks 10nm is OK on 300mm,
said Chery. After that the gain is
marginal the gain in moving from
300mm to 450mm is 10%.
NXPs Wijburg pointed up the dan-
ger of stretching resources too widely.
Can we have a programme in
450mm as well as More than
Moore? he asked. If we spread our-
selves too thinly we wont achieve
other aims.
Jens Drews, who is in charge of
government relations for Globalfoun-
dries, said: Resources are spread
very thin at the companies which
make the tools. They shouldnt defo-
cus on the automation which makes
300mm more productive. O
SEMI is the industry association serving the
supply chains for the microelectronic, display
and photovoltaic industries
T
he European Commission has
had a change of heart and now
believes manufacturing semi-
conductors in Europe is important.
This was the message of Jean
Therme, director of CEA-Grenoble
and chairman of the European Key
Enabling Technologies high-level
group, speaking to the ISS-SEMI con-
ference in Grenoble this morning.
The commission wants to make
ISS-SEMI
ISS-SEMI
EC wants fab capacity in Europe
possible the siting of fabs in Europe,
Therme told the conference.
Europes share of the worlds fabs
has been declining, said Therme,
with only three 300mm fabs: Intels
in Ireland; STs at Crolles; and Glo-
balfoundries in Dresden.
Collectively Europe has the capaci-
ty to fab 1,453,679 eight-inch equiva-
lent wafers per month, said Therme,
about the same as TSMCs capacity. O
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embedded systems
AMD wants to be the third way
AMD thinks there is room in the market for it to run alongside Intel and ARM , writes Richard Wilson
T
wo of the most important
processor brands in the em-
bedded computing market
are Intel and ARM. Is there
room for a third? AMD certainly
thinks so with its Fusion architecture
being designed in to ETX and XTX
COM systems.
Congatec believes the introduction
of ETX and XTX modules based on
AMD Fusion processors gives these
embedded computing form factors a
viable future.
According to Congatec, Intels dis-
continuation of the 855 chipset fami-
ly left a major gap in the market par-
ticularly for ETX computer modules,
which primarily affected the higher
performance range of applications.
This gap has now been closed by
processor manufacturer AMD with
the Fusion architecture, which also
opens up new graphics-oriented ap-
plications, said the supplier.
The firms AMD Fusion architecture-
based ETX and XTX COM modules are
the conga-EAF and conga-XAF.
The difference between the XTX
and the ETX standard is that XTX no
longer supports the ISA bus, but in-
stead a four-lane PCI Express bus.
XTX also has more S-ATA and
USB interfaces than ETX.
The company offers a choice of
five AMD embedded G-Series proc-
essor options ranging from a single-
core 1.2GHz AMD T44R (64Kbyte L1
cache, 512Kbyte x2 L2 cache) with
9W TDP, to a 1.6GHz dual-core AMD
T56N (64Kbyte L1 cache, 512Kbyte
x2 L2 cache) with 18W TDP.
There is a graphics core with the
Universal Video Decoder 3.0 for
MPEG-2 HD and DivX (MPEG-4) vid-
eos and it will support DirectX 11
and OpenGL 4.0 for fast 2D and 3D
imaging as well as OpenCL 1.1.
There are two independent graph-
ics controllers providing a VESA-
compliant video output with resolu-
tions of up to 2560 x 1600 pixels
Undeniably, it is Intel and ARM-
based processors which define the
embedded module market in terms of
power and performance, with inte-
grated graphics and floating point
units almost a given.
Kontron has introduced a double-
width AdvancedMC processor mod-
ule built around an Intel Core i7 Mo-
bile processor.
The Core i7 processors were first
designed into COM Express compu-
ter modules little more than a year
ago. The impact on performance was
obvious.
Three versions of the 32nm Core i7
processor are available, running at
1.06GHz, 2.0GHz and 2.53GHz clock
speeds with respective power con-
sumptions of 17W, 25W and 35W TDP.
The implementation of hyper-
threading technology means the
2.53GHz dual-core processor can run
parallel, multi-threaded applications.
The AM5020 modules Intel Core
i7 processor is coupled with the QM
57 platform controller hub (PCH) and
supported with integrated memory
controller, PCI Express Gen2 I/O and
Intel HD graphics.
With support for PICMG
AMC.1/.2/.3 sub-specifications, the
modules interfaces include eight PCI
Express lanes to the backplane config-
urable as 2 x PCIe x4 or 8 x PCIe x1.
There are also four Gbit Ethernet
interfaces.
There is a DVI-D interface at the
front combined with two USB inter-
faces, two Gbit Ethernet and a serial
port via RJ45.
Typical MicroTCA applications in-
clude telecoms gateways and switch-
es, as well as applications in medical,
automation and security.
The AM5020 module supports
Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows
Server 2008, as well as VxWorks 6.8
and Wind River Linux PNE 3.0.2.
Intels low power Atom E6xx proc-
essor has established itself in embed-
ded market offer sub-5W modules as
well as hyperthreading.
Hyperthreading technology allows
the logical division of the physical
processor core for multi-processing
with two separate processors. This
means that safety-critical applica-
tions can run on a real-time operating
system on a logical core that is sepa-
rate from the graphical user interface
which, for example, can run on a
Windows operating system.
An example is the conga-CA6
module offering 600MHz, 1.0GHz,
1.3GHz and 1.6GHz Atoms with
512kbyte L2 cache and up to 2Gbyte
of DDR2-RAM.
The integrated 3D-enabled graph-
ics engine has received a 50% per-
formance boost and can accommo-
date up to 256Mbyte frame buffer.
MSC has developed a scalable em-
bedded computer module family
based around ARM processors.
Drawing on the pin compatibility
of various ARM CPUs, the nanoRISC
modules offer processor options from
ranging from ARM9 derivatives
clocked at 400MHz up to 1GHz Cor-
tex-A8 cores. The ARM processors
ensure low power consumption
which is specified at less than 3W for
the 50mm x 70mm modules.
The first member of the family is a
nanoRISC module, based on the
Samsung Cortex-A8 S5PC100 proces-
sor, with up to 667/833MHz clock
frequency, maximum 512Mbyte
DDR2 SDRAM, up to 4Gbyte NAND
flash memory (NAND, eMMC and
SD/MMC), audio and touch support,
real time clock, system monitoring,
watchdog and many other features.
Interfaces such as Ethernet, USB,
CAN, UART, I2C, SPI, GPIO, camera,
audio, ADC, touch and display are
available via a 230-pin MXM connector.
The 2D/3D graphics engine inte-
grated on the S5PC100 supports
video resolutions up to 720p.
There is a baseboard which can be
used as a starter kit for the develop-
ment of hardware on the basis of the
respective Samsung processor, which
is also available from MSC.
Linux and Windows CE are offered
as board support packages. O
From the top: Congatec, MSC, Kontron
ElectronicsWeekly.com 14 | EW 9-15 MARCH 2011
Congatec
www.congatec.com
Kontron
http://uk.kontron.com
MSC_Gleichmann Electronics
www.msc-ge.com
Combining hordwore ond softwore
for on intelligent opprooch to
embedded control
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embedded systems
Design moves to a higher level
The latest generation of HLS technology overcomes the limitations of first release HLS tools by enabling modular
design and assembly, writes Shawn McCloud
F
or high level synthesis (HLS)
tools to scale and keep pace
with designs of the future,
they must be able to handle
large, complex designs in their en-
tirety.
To do this, they must be able to de-
sign and assemble blocks of different
abstractions and input languages
from legacy RTL to cycle accurate
SystemC to untimed algorithmic C
code. They must be able to do this
with an intuitive and predictable
methodology so that productivity
scales with design size and complex-
ity.
Such tools will carry EDA to the
next step in its evolution, enabling
more complex, larger, nanotechnolo-
gy designs to be produced quickly
and competitively.
Only a few of the dozen or so HLS
tools offered today have the level of
maturity and robustness to support
the move from a top-down to a mod-
ular HLS design flow. Initially, HLS
took a block level approach, follow-
ing the tradition of hardware archi-
tects to partition designs according to
what individual hardware designers
could handle.
First release HLS tools did not
have the capacity to handle all as-
pects of an SoC; thus, some parts
were done in C while others re-
mained in hand-coded RTL. Howev-
er, the latest generation of HLS tech-
nology overcomes these limitations
by enabling modular design and as-
sembly.
An HLS modular strategy divides
complex systems into heterogeneous
hierarchical blocks and provides
legal interface synthesis for designers
to plug and play these different ab-
stractions together.
In other words, these tools have
the ability to mix legacy RTL with
multi-abstraction, C-level blocks, en-
abling the representation of all design
functionality at the system level of
abstraction without converting legacy
RTL code to C. This increases pro-
ductivity, reduces risk, and yields
greater flexibility while helping de-
sign teams manage design complexi-
ty, leverage legacy RTL, and increase
capacity. Just as we saw with RTL
reuse, we will see the creation and
reuse of C++ IP and the ability to in-
corporate that into increasingly larg-
er, more complex designs.
This HLS modular approach is a
big step forward for designers for
three key reasons:
Teams can divide-and-conquer de-
signs.
Designers can follow a build-as-
you-go process.
Physical effects can be locked
down and linked back to C-level
models.
HLS tools that provide design par-
titioning support team design, and
increasing the capacity to design by
spreading the design across teams.
This ability to divide-and-conquer al-
lows design teams to break up very
complicated, large, hardware sub-
systems into manageable pieces that
individual designers in a team can
work on independently.
For this approach to be successful,
these HLS tools must include fea-
ElectronicsWeekly.com 16 | EW 9-15 MARCH 2011
Mentor Graphics
http://www.mentor.com
tures that provide predictability as to
how those pieces will be verified in-
dividually, integrated into the larger
sub-system, and then verified togeth-
er as the larger SoC.
The modular HLS approach must
support incremental design. As de-
sign blocks are assembled into very
large subsystems, designers can pre-
serve their optimised blocks through-
out the design flow.
The ability to build-as-you-go al-
lows design teams to freeze the ma-
jority of their hardware subsystem
and re-optimise only those blocks re-
quired to implement a design change.
In other words, it allows designers to
isolate those changes to a sub-block
and keep the rest of the system un-
touched.
In a modular HLS flow each un-
timed block can be designed in isola-
tion and fully optimised, then instan-
tiated in another design where it is
referenced but not synthesised. Top-
level synthesis becomes a matter of
creating the interconnect.
Incremental design also allows
HLS to scale to 100 million gate SoCs
and, theoretically, beyond, because it
builds blocks of reusable C++ IP that
are highly configurable, highly pa-
rameterised, and hardware neutral.
As design teams move to next-gen-
eration SoCs, they will be able to lev-
erage these legacy blocks and sub-
systems and incorporate them into
larger systems, then optimise them
for specific area, performance, and
power goals. This will be an impor-
tant step forward similar to what we
have seen in todays RTL SoCs,
where tremendous RTL design reuse
enabled the creation of 20 million
gate SoCs.
The ability to lock down physical
effects and link them to C-level mod-
els allows the annotation of correct,
accurate implementation details.
This will be particularly necessary as
we move into the 0.32m geometries
and lower, and as we begin to see
very high frequencies in the 1 to
2GHz range.
To support a modular approach, an
HLS tool must be able to associate
new hardware blocks with the physi-
cal effectsall the way to place-and-
routeand annotate that information
back to the design being synthesised
in C. These advanced HLS tools will
make adjustments to the C-level de-
signs to satisfy the physical effects
and fix any violations that may have
occurred. Once that iteration has oc-
curred, the implementation-accurate
estimates for blocks that are funda-
mentally critical can be locked down.
Modular HLS design and assembly
capabilities will enable HLS tools to
handle highly complex, massive de-
signs in their entirety. With this pow-
erful capability, HLS will broaden its
reach and acceptance for the produc-
tion of the largest and most complex
systems attainable. In fact, it is what
will make these types of systems pos-
sible at all. O
Shawn McCloud is the product line director
for the Mentor Graphics high-level synthesis
technology.
In a modular HLS flow each untimed block can be designed in isolation and then
optimised
processors
Top graphics run along
with ARMs Cortex A8
Extra power in processor-based boards will deliver high definition
images in multimedia applications, writes Richard Wilson
C
hester-based embedded
computer firm Blue Chip
Technology has designed
a range of ARM Cortex-
A8 processor-based boards with the
additional processing power of a
520MHz C64x DSP.
Designated RE2, the board is built
around a Texas Instruments OMAP 3
chip.
The RE2s power dissipation is
typically around 2W at 720MHz. But
for this designers still get a graphics
capability to deliver 720p resolution
video content.
TI designed the OMAP34x and
OMAP36x processors for low power
battery-powered applications.
There are integrated IVA hardware
accelerators to enable multi-standard
video encode and decode up to HD
resolution.
There is also a dedicated image
processor for image capture.
Blue Chip Technology designs and
manufactures the embedded boards
in the UK.
With applications likely to be in
multimedia, image and voice
processing, and data compression/
decompression, the supplier has cre-
ated a display kit with the necessary
display-specific cables and interface
electronics to handle the signal, back-
light and touch screen requirements
for an off-the-shelf range of TFT dis-
play panels ranging from 3.5 to 7
inches.
Called REsolution, the display kit
also includes a PC utility allowing
fine-tuning of display resolution and
other parameters to accommodate
most available TFTs.
The RE2 board itself will accept an
input voltage range of 7Vdc to 36Vdc,
so is suitable for vehicle installations.
An expansion port can accept an
optional CM1 module to add GPRS
and GPS functionality for telematics
and in-vehicle applications.
Features include 256Mbyte LPDDR
SDRAM and 512Mbyte NAND flash,
both soldered on board, plus an op-
tional NAND flash microSD card.
Video output is available through a
24 bit RGB TTL connector or a DVI
port, and a four-wire touch screen
controller and audio codec interface
are also provided. Communications
capability comprises a 10/100 Ether-
net port, quad USB 2.0 host ports,
one USB 2.0 device port, dual RS-232
and a single RS-485 port. Bluetooth,
Wi-Fi and a camera interface are also
provided.
The board supports Windows CE
6.0 and, by special request, Linux,
QNX and VxWorks.
The RE2 board has an extended
temperature option of -40 to +85C at
600MHz and soldered memory if the
design is required for harsh environ-
ments.
ElectronicsWeekly.com
Blue Chip Technology
www.bluechiptechnology.co.uk
Inspired Solutions
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from the Worlds leading
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Milton Keynes
2, The Stocks,
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Milton Keynes, Bucks.
MK19 7JD
Tel. 01908 263999
Fax 01908 263 003
Miltonkeynes%msc-ge.com
Weybridge
Lock House,
Hamm Moor Lane
Weybridge, Surrey.
KT15 2SF
Tel. 01932 268990
Fax 01932 848610
Weybridge%msc-ge.com
renewable energy systems
Another type of sun worship
In certain areas like deserts where there are high ambient temperatures and lots of direct sunlight a type of solar cells
called concentrators are putting solar panels in their place, writes Steve Bush
T
he classic image of a solar
farm is acres of large blue-
grey rectangles propped up
to face the sun.
And there is no doubt this is the
usual form of photovoltaic power sta-
tion, but there is another type - con-
centrator solar - which could become
far more common, particularly in
Earths sunnier spots.
Whereas solar panels use large
areas of low-cost silicon semiconduc-
tor, concentrators use tiny, typically
10x10mm, solar cells made from ex-
pensive III-V semiconductors, com-
bined with mirrors or lenses to con-
centrate the suns rays - typically 500
times.
500x is a happy number because a
few years ago 1cm
2
was a standard
size and the remaining heat, about
30W/cm2 of waste, turned out to be
do-able passively. It was a natural
physical design limit, Dr Tom Tib-
bits, director of product marketing at
Imperial College solar spin-out Quan-
tasol, told Electronics Weekly. The
trend in the industry is now for
smaller cells and higher concentra-
tion. Typical new designs are coming
out at 5.5x5.5mm and 700-1,000x.
Although it is decades old, the
solar industry is in many ways still in
its infancy and the jury is out on
which panel or concentrator is
best, or under what circumstances
one is better than the other.
Even if there is no clear boarder,
there are some locations where con-
centrators look to have an advantage,
claims Tibbits, and hot deserts are
one of them.
Concentrators are less costly in
the right place, particularly in high
ambient temperatures, desert for ex-
ample, where there tends to be a lot
of direct sunlight, he said. All solar
cell efficiency drops at high temp and
III-Vs are inherently more tolerant to
high operating temperatures than sili-
con.
The cost equation is complex. Sili-
con is cheaper than III-V, but only
tiny amounts of III-V are needed, and
III-V cells are more efficient because
they catch more of the suns spec-
trum. Silicon is installed in fixed flat
panels whereas concentrators need to
be steered to track the sun and steer-
ing joints need maintenance.
You can turn the tracker question
around, said Tibbits. You need
tracking to completely optimise
power output throughout the day,
particularly at the beginning and end
of day, and particularly in mid to late
afternoon in places like California
where there is maximum demand for
electricity.
If pushed, what would Tibbits in-
stall?
I would never advocate concen-
trator array on a house in London,
he said. If I lived in Spain and had a
couple of acres, I would certainly
consider concentration.
And they are being built.
Last year, US concentrator firm
SolFocus built a six acre 122 array
2.6GWh/year farm in Victor Valley
College California (pictured above).
The cells at the focus of concentra-
tors are triple junction devices, typi-
cally InGaP, InGaAs, and Ge made by
metal-organic chemical vapour depo-
sition (MOCVD) epitaxial growth on
a germanium substrate.
Efficiency is close to 40%, com-
pared with around 25% for silicon
because each junction absorbs its
own part of the solar spectrum. Sili-
ElectronicsWeekly.com 18 | EW 9-15 MARCH 2011
Quantasol
http://www.quantasol.com
con largely ignores shorter wave-
lengths.
Quantasols unique intellectual
property is adding quantum wells to
the triple junction structure to in-
crease efficiency and allow absorp-
tion to be tuned to the sunlight land-
ing at different locations on the
planet.
It has already made cells with
record-breaking efficiency.
We are able to understand our
customer system and location, and
design a cell for that system and pro-
duce maximum energy per annum,
claimed Tibbits. We can harvest
5-10% more than standard triple
junction cells depending on the spec-
trum and optics. In the south-west
USA spectrum, we can certainly add
around 5% harvesting improvement,
and in Saudi Arabia we can have a
larger benefit, around 10%.
He went on to explain that the
desert in the US and Saudi Arabia are
10 degrees apart in latitude, and the
Arabian peninsula tends to have
atmospheric dust which attenuates
the blue end of the spectrum.
Although an almost infinite variety
of quantum well cells could be made,
Quantasol estimates three to five
should cover all conditions found in
concentrator-applicable sites across
the globe.
Adding quantum wells means a
more complex manufacturing proc-
ess than that for standard triple junc-
tions, but not much.
Quantum wells are easy to grow
with the control systems of modern
CVD reactors which can switch
sources in sub-seconds, and we use
the same sources as everyone else,
said Tibbits. We argue typically
growth time is lengthened by only
10%.
This becomes a few per cent more
expensive overall, he added. We
aim to sell at a similar price to our
competitors, attracting a premium
with our higher efficiency because
the customers gain in energy har-
vest. O
SolFocuss six-acre 122 array 2.6GWh/year farm in Victor Valley
College California with cell detail (inset)
renewable energy
ElectronicsWeekly.com
stalled off Orkney last August.
Unfortunately, one of the compos-
ite blades failed the same month.
Teething troubles are not unusual
with tidal generators as the sea is a
harsher and less well understood en-
vironment compared with that sur-
rounding wind turbines. One of Sea-
Gens original turbine blades was
broken during an installation attempt
and its wiring had to be up-graded
during trials.
Atlantis replacement blade was
ordered from Norco GRP, a glass-rein-
forced plastic firm based in Dorset.
Norco joins a UK-dominated sup-
ply chain for the turbine, alongside
Soil Marine Dynamics, Isleburn, Tata
Steel (Corus), Wichita and Hallin Ma-
rine, said Atlantis.
The fault with the original blades
related to the composite material
used during their fabrication and that
the faulty composite parted from the
blade structure, which remained in-
tact.
Both firms have partners signed up
for further projects, MCT concentrat-
ing around the UK and Atlantis fur-
ther afield, and both have agreements
aiming to put turbines in Canadas
Bay of Fundy, the place with the
highest tidal range in the world. O
www.marinecurrentturbines.com
www.atlantisresourcescorporation.com
Turning the tide
on wind turbines
T
he UK is leading the world
with a modern spin on
ancient technology as tidal
turbines appear in the seas
around Britain.
Not everywhere suits tidal tur-
bines. There needs to be shallow fast-
moving water near enough to land for
cable laying and maintenance.
Suitable sites are usually in narrow
channels where land funnels large
masses of water shifted by the tides
between Orkney and the Scottish
mainland for example, and in the en-
trances of some sea inlets.
Where conditions are right, tidal
turbines may well turn out to be
cheaper per kWh than wind turbines
over time, particularly as tidal flow is
regular and its magnitude is almost
entirely predictable.
Bristol-based Marine Current Tur-
bines (MCT) installed the worlds
first commercial tidal turbine,
1.2MW SeaGen, in the entrance
Northern Irelands Strangford Lough
in April 2008.
MCT was established in 2000 and
its principal corporate shareholders
include BankInvest, Carbon Trust In-
vestments, EDF Energy, ESB Interna-
tional, Guernsey Electricity, High
Tide and Siemens Energy.
Atlantis Resources has a 1MW tur-
bine called AK1000 which it in-
D
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J

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In areas near the coast where there is shallow fast-moving
water tidal turbines are thriving, writes Steve Bush
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fpgas
ElectronicsWeekly.com 20 | EW 9-15 MARCH 2011
Prototyping SoC designs on FPGAs
Envelope signal generation in the
FPGA was implemented using Nu-
jiras Envelope Generation Interface,
which is compliant with the openET
Alliances specification for infrastruc-
ture ET modulators.
www.xilinx.com
www.nujira.com

Synphony support added to
Microsemi FPGAs
Microsemi has announced that Syn-
opsys Synphony Model Compiler,
a design tool suite for hardware DSP
algorithm design, now provides sup-
port for its FPGAs.
The compiler offers an automated
implementation and verification flow
for engineers using MATLAB/
Simulink. It supports many of Micro-
semis FPGAs, including the RTAX-
DSP, RTAX-S/SL, Axcelerator, as
well as the ProASIC3, IGLOO, and
Fusion devices.
For algorithm designers, the soft-
ware offers high-level synthesis in
their chosen design environment and
automates a smooth transition into
the Synopsys FPGA logic implemen-
tation flow.
For the hardware engineer, the
software generates the necessary RTL
code and offers built-in optimisations
that account for device-specific fea-
tures.
There is a synthesisable IP model
library for the MATLAB/Simulink
environment for wireless, multime-
dia and signal processing applica-
tions.
www.microsemi.com
Video camera development kit
based on LatticeECP3 family
Lattice Semiconductor has released
the HDR-60 video camera develop-
ment kit, a production-ready high
definition (HD) system based on the
LatticeECP3 FPGA family.
The kit is pre-loaded with a plug
and play evaluation image signal
processing (ISP) pipeline based on
intellectual property (IP) cores from
Lattice partner Helion.
1080p can be delivered at 60
frames per second with 2D noise re-
duction and high dynamic range
(HDR).
Designed with a form factor to fit
into commercially available camera
housings, and capable of supporting
two sensors simultaneously, the kit is
intended for evaluation and proto-
typing of security, surveillance, traf-
fic control, video conferencing and
automotive cameras.
Using a ECP3-70 FPGA, the IP
pipeline for a complete 1080p60
camera requires only a 33K LUT
ECP3-35 device.
Equipped with an Aptina 720p
HDR sensor, with a 1080p HDR sen-
sor planned in Q2, the kit has greater
than 120dB system dynamic range,
an auto white balance algorithm, and
the 2D noise reduction all in stream-
ing mode through the FPGA without
the need for an external frame buff-
er, said the firm.
On-board DDR2 memory also ena-
bles applications such as 3D noise re-
duction, image stitching from multi-
ple sensors, image rotation and
de-warping.
In addition to two USB ports, there
is an RJ45 Ethernet port, a Broadcom
Broadreach PHY and a built-in BNC
connector, offering support for Ether-
net over RG6 coaxial cable for dis-
tances up to 700 meters at 100Mbps
for customers incorporating compres-
sion encoders into their designs.
It supports programming over
standard USB cable.
The kit is $399 and schematics and
layout files are available free to all
purchasers
www.latticesemi.com
There is a video demonstration at
www.latticesemi.com/hdr60videoen
PRODUCT
FOCUS
Reference design for cellular
basestation PA circuit
Nujira and Xilinx have created a
reference design for a cellular base-
station power amplifier (PA) circuit
with Nujiras envelope tracking
modulator linearised by a digital

pre-distortion (DPD) block running
on a Xilinx Virtex 6 FPGA.
The integration was based on Nu-
jiras NCT-B1110 Envelope Genera-
tion Interface VHDL code integrated
with Xilinxs v4.0 Digital Predistor-
tion LogiCORE IP block, running on a
Xilinx ML605 reference platform for
the Virtex 6 FPGA.
The integration of the openET En-
velope Generation Interface with Xil-
inx DPD and CFR LogiCORE IP was
extremely straightforward, and the
design was up and running within a
few hours with no major issues, said
Simon Whittle, Nujiras design centre
manager.
A Nujira NCT-H4010 ET modula-
tor was used with a simple FMC in-
terface adaptor for direct connection
to the ML605.
The RF path was generated by An-
alog Devices AD-MSDPD-EVB
mixed-signal digital pre-distortion
evaluation platform, and the power
amplifier was a Nujira NCT-T4503
using a SEDI EGN21B090IV GaN
power transistor.
According to Dave Hawke, senior
product marketing manager, wireless
communications at Xilinx: Enve-
lope tracking technology is increas-
ingly being recognised as a must-
have power optimisation technology
and Xilinx has therefore integrated
an envelope tracking port into its 3rd
generation multimode radio targeted
design platform.
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products
ElectronicsWeekly.com 2-8 MARCH 2011 EW | 21
Interface cards with four RS232 serial ports
Standard character OLED display
modules with 2000:1 contrast
Plus Opto has a range of standard
character OLED modules from
Taiwanese display manufacturer
Winstar.
The PM OLED display modules
are compatible with the same me-
chanical sizes and pin outs as the
suppliers standard range of STN
character modules.
OLED character types are supplied
with an all-in-one fonts driver,
which allows the user to select from
English, Japanese, European or Rus-
sian characters.
Modules can be supplied with or
without polariser, with a contrast
ratio of up to 2000:1 for those with a
polariser.
OLED technology offers a fast re-
sponse time of 10s (at 25C) and a
wide viewing angle of 175.
Operating temperature is -40C to
+80C allowing the technology to
also be suitable for automotive appli-
cations.
www.plusopto.co.uk
48-pin MCU has 7x7mm footprint
at 0.5mm pin pitch
Energy Micro is making its EFM32
Gecko and Tiny Gecko product lines
available in the small form factor
QFP48 package.
The 48-pin package has a footprint
of 7 x 7mm at a pin pitch of 0.5mm.
The QFP48 Gecko product offers
the same range of low energy periph-
erals as its larger QFP100 packaged
variant, including a multiple sensor
interface, UARTs, LCD Controller, 12-
bit ADC and AES encryption/decryp-
tion engine.
The QFP48 packaged EFM32
Gecko and Tiny Gecko microcontrol-
lers will be available from April.
www.energymicro.com
Solderless LED socket for Philips
Lumileds Luxeon S LEDs
Tyco Electronics has a solderless LED
socket designed specifically for use
with the Philips Lumileds Luxeon
S LED.
The Type LS socket complies with
UL-1977 specifications and is de-
signed with insulation displacement
technology to allow for quick and
easy termination of 24 AWG wires to
the socket.
An integral stainless steel spring
within the socket is designed to pro-
vide a uniform and adequate normal
force to the LED.
To position the LED on a heat sink,
a plastic frame that is first placed on
the heat sink to correctly orient the
LED prior to socket attachment. Once
positioned, only three commercially-
available #4 or M3 screws are needed
to rapidly secure the socket to the
heat sink.
Designed to maximise optical effi-
ciency in un-lensed applications, the
shape of the Type LS socket ensures
that 98% of the light emitted from the
LED is unobstructed.
www.te.com/lighting
Power management development
kits can create reference design
Texas Instruments has two power
management development kits, the
TPS54060 and TPS7A30/49 for
data converters, operational ampli-
fiers, clocks and other signal chain
devices.
The evaluation modules can be
connected to create a reference de-
sign.
The 60V TPS54060 switcher in an
inverting buck-boost configuration
generates a balanced positive and
negative output voltage up to 18V.
The switchers positive and nega-
tive voltage outputs are post-regulat-
ed with TIs TPS7A30 and TPS7A49
low-noise high-PSRR LDOs.
www.ti.com
Tiny JTAG boundary scan controller
products
ElectronicsWeekly.com 22 | EW 9-15 MARCH 2011
Electronics Weekly
Quadrant House, The Quadrant,
Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS
www.electronicsweekly.com
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steve.bush@rbi.co.uk 020 8652 3640
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alun.williams@rbi.co.uk 020 8652 8313
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claire.cormack@rbi.co.uk 020 8652 3654
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CONTACTS
Reference design for candelabra-style LED bulbs
open state, 200A of current will
flow through the switch to determine
if the high voltage is present. The
switch does not close until the cross-
terminal voltage drops below 2.0V.
The IC replaces the conventional
discrete transmit/receive solution
and requires no diode bridges, induc-
tors, resistors or power rails. The IC
typically reduces component counts
from up to 48 to one. Because the IC
doesnt require a power supply,
MD0105 dramatically reduces noise
in ultrasound circuits, thereby en-
hancing dynamic range.
www.supertex.com
12-bit ADC added to hybrid/
electric vehicle battery monitor
Linear Technologys latest version
of its high voltage battery monitor for
hybrid/electric vehicle and other
high voltage battery systems includes
a 12-bit ADC, a precision voltage ref-
erence, a high voltage input multi-
plexer and a serial interface. Each
LTC6803 can measure up to 12 indi-
vidual battery cells in series.
The devices design allows multiple
chips to be stacked in series without
optocouplers or isolators, permitting
voltage monitoring of every cell in long
strings of series-connected batteries.
The maximum total measurement
error of the LTC6803 is guaranteed to
be less than 0.25% from -40C to
125C.
www.linear.com/6803
250W fanless AC/DC power
supplies with 12Vdc output
Fully-enclosed 250W fanless AC/DC
power supplies featuring a 12Vdc
output and an operating temperature
range of -40 to 85C are available
form Emerson Network Power.
The LCC250 power supplies fed
from a nominal 115 Vac input are ca-
pable of maintaining their full 250W
load capacity up to their maximum
baseplate temperature of 85C.
The input range is 90-264Vac, 47-
63Hz and the 12Vdc output is adjust-
able by +/-10%, capable of delivering
250W max.
Active power factor correction is
employed to minimise input har-
monic current distortion. The power
supplies have a safety-ground leak-
age current of less than 275A when
fed with a 250Vac input, and provide
an output hold-up time of at least
16ms when fed with a 115Vac input
and delivering full load.
All models have a 178 x 101mm
footprint. The conduction-cooled
versions have a height of 28mm,
while the convection-cooled versions
integrate a heatsink which raises
their overall height to 38mm.
www.powerconversion.com
High IP rating 3 in 1 dimmable
power supplies
Ecopac Power is offering the Mean
Well LPF-40D series 40W, 89% high
efficiency, high IP rating, 3 in 1 dim-
mable power supplies.
The LPF-40D series are fully pot-
ted by heat-conducted glue to meet
IP67 rating and are fully enclosed by
plastic casing to give 94V-0 fire pre-
vention levels.
With built-in active PFC function
and input range of 90-305Vac, the
LPF-40D series not only meets the
harmonic current limitation per
EN61000-3-2 Class C, they also fulfil
PF>0.9 if loading is over 50-60%.
With cooling by only free air convec-
tion, they can operate at full load
from -40 to +70C ambient tempera-
ture.
The LPF-40D series has the option
to adjust the constant current output
with either a 1-10Vdc or a 10V PWM
signal or resistor.
www.ecopacpower.com
Two terminal, bi-directional
voltage protection device
Supertex has introduced the MD0105
two terminal, bi-directional volt-
age protection device, which draws
200A while protecting receiver
circuitry of ultrasound systems from
high voltage transmitter pulses.
It is a normally closed switch gov-
erned by a switch control that moni-
tors the voltage drop across terminals
A and B.
The switch will open if the voltage
difference exceeds +/-2.0V. In the
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9-15 MARCH 2011 EW | 27 ElectronicsWeekly.com/jobs
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in 2010
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ASSISTANT ELECTRICAL ENGINEER
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This role at Greenwich Council will give you plenty of scope to develop/
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Youll either have a relevant qualification in Electrical Engineering (BSc, BTEC,
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