Electronic Design

California Approves TV Efficiency Regulations

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:50:01 GMT

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) responded harshly to new regulations issued by the California Energy Commission (CEC) that would regulate energy efficiency standards on televisions sold in California.

It's A Multimedia CPU Feeding Frenzy!

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:50:00 GMT

The ARM Cortex-A5 and MIPS M14K and M14Kc lines are new architectures that the customers of these vendors will be using to build new chips. Meanwhile, ZiiLabs and VIA Technologies are offering new chips—the ZMS-08 multimedia processor and the Nano 300, respectively—using their own designs.

Modular Test Standard Builds On ATCA, PXI, LXI, And IVI

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:50:00 GMT

Does the world really need another modular test standard? Ready or not, here comes AdvancedTCA Extensions for Instrumentation and Test (AXIe). Proposed by the trio of Aeroflex, Agilent Technologies, and Test Evolution Corp., AXIe is an open standard based on AdvancedTCA (ATCA) that aims to extend that standard into the realm of general-purpose and semiconductor test.

Adjustment-Free Fan Controller For Under $1

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:50:01 GMT

No frills here—just inexpensive functionality. This circuit activates a cooling fan when the temperature of a target high-power-dissipation device, such as a processor chip, exceeds a predetermined limit. The key element in the design is the Epcos PTC Temperature Limit Sensor (see the datasheet at www.epcos.com/inf/55/db/ptc_03/01900191.pdf), which cost about $0.50....

ADV: Resolve the battle of performance vs. battery life

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:50:01 GMT

Thanks to Freescale Mobile Consumer Solutions, your portable media player design doesn’t have to be a choice between performance or battery life. Freescale i.MX multimedia processors and Power Management ICs deliver the high performance that multimedia applications demand, while maximizing battery life. For more, visit freescale.com/mobileconsumer

Diode Tester Limits Reverse Voltage And Forward Current To Protect Sensitive Junctions

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:50:00 GMT

Some diode manufacturers caution against using the diode tester function in ohmmeters because it could exceed the reverse-voltage and forward-current ratings of sensitive diodes. This is especially true in optical devices such as photodiodes and laser diodes. However, the circuit described here performs a simple go/no-go test on these diodes while limiting forward current and reverse voltage to safe levels (...

IC Simplifies Support For FIPS 140-2 Level 4 Digital Encryption

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:50:00 GMT

Many solutions exist to supply Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Revision 2, Level 1 and Level 2 digital encryption.1 However, Levels 3 and 4 require monitoring of the environment. Level 3 could be implemented with tamper switches, but they can be bypassed with jumpers or a paper clip. More sophisticated switch sensors require some filtering and deglitching. Level 4 requires monitoring of the supply voltages and temperature. For best...