» Altera and Xilinx share honors
in this category, with Altera's video-over-IP reference design winning
the top spot for technical significance by a nose, and Xilinix placing
first in usability with its multi-gigabit serial transceiver.
(1) ALTERA FPGA-based reference design enables video-over-IP eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
"By leveraging the programmability of its Cyclone FPGA series and Nios
II embedded processor, Altera Corp. has developed the first FPGA-based,
video-over-Internet Protocol (IP) reference design to help engineers
accelerate the development of cost-effective, low-complexity systems in
the emerging video-over-IP market.
Video-over-IP is a digital technology for transporting video over
IP-based networks. The new reference design, which can be used with any
of Altera's FPGAs, targets applications for broadcast head-end and
audio/video delivery systems. By using Altera's latest product to build
their broadcast systems, manufacturers can lower costs since they no
longer need to design an ASSP into their systems. " Readers say: » "Would need to know the software application provided with Ref design."
» "Interesting product for the embedded set top box space."
» "Cost will likely be a most significant factor in this space."
» "Good!"
USABILITY RANK: 2
(2) XILINX Virtex-4 FX60 FPGA 'first' to feature multi-gigabit serial transceiver eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
" Xilinx Inc. is shipping Virtex-4 field-programmable gate arrays
(FPGA) that it claims are the first to integrate multi-gigabit serial
transceivers that support speeds of 622-Mbits/s to 10.3125-Gbits/s. The
Virtex-4 FX60 FPGAs support all major serial standards, including PCI
Express, Serial RapidIO, Ethernet and Fibre Channel. Virtex-4 FX
RocketIO transceivers provide advanced equalization features such as
3-tap transmit pre-emphasis, linear receive equalization, 6-tap
decision feedback equalization (DFE) and integrated AC-coupling
capacitor to enhance signal integrity at all speeds. " Readers say: » "PPC, EMACs, MGTs, DSP,
Dual Port Ram and tons of logic. What more could you ask for."
» "We already use the Virtex 4. However, the article could have said
some more about other advantages of HSSLs, such as reduced power
consumption compared to LVDS, and reduced pincount as well as
simplified layout (only signal pairs have to match lengths)."
» "This is very informative and useful for prototyping work of a high
data rate system."
» "Being that Xilinx is the leader for FPGA Design, I would turn to
them for this capability."
» "Good overall technical support and IP cores availability."
USABILITY RANK: 1
(3) MELLANOX TECHNOLOGIES InfiniBand DDR switches offer twice the bandwidth of conventional devices eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
"As dual-core and 3-GHz processors place additional data contention on
the server's I/O system, balancing the bandwidth between the system
processor, memory, PCI Express (PCIe) interconnect bus and the cluster
network has become a major challenge for system makers. While these
high-speed processors give designers the compute processing power they
need, there just isn't enough bandwidth to handle the load. That's
where InfiniBand double-data rate (DDR) technology comes in and
balances the compute platform, said Thad Omura, director of product
marketing at Mellanox.
InfiniBand interconnect technology is a channel-based switched fabric
point-to-point architecture that is rapidly gaining momentum.
InfiniBand, which offers remote direct memory access (RDMA) and
built-in hardware support that are key for I/O efficiency, is making
its way into existing data centers with host channel adapters deployed
on PCIe adapter cards. " Readers say: » "Products delivering
communication vandwidth improvements at a low cost will always be
significant."
» "InfiniBand scalable architecture in terms of bandwidth and
performance is likely to put ethernet's entry into server interconnect
market more difficult."
» "The description of the product is quite impressive."
» "Very good."
» "Good."
» "Assuming this is more than a false promise which was the case from
1999 to 2002, performance in this space is very critical. Is it real
this time!"
USABILITY RANK: 5
(4) SYNPLICITY Software optimized to enable DSP implementation into Virtex-4 FPGAs eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
"
Designers looking to put digital signal processing (DSP) functions into
Xilinx Inc.ýs Virtex-4 field-programmable gate array (FPGA) designs can
now turn to Synplify Pro Software 8.1 from Synplicity Inc.
Synplicity Pro 8.1 software allows users to take advantage of the
different operating modes of the Virtex-4 deviceýs DSP48 blocks by
automatically implementing selected XtremeDSP structures. Users can
also leverage the Virtex-4 device familyýs ability to cascade multiple
DSP blocks. " Readers say: » "Sort of self-evident.
ASIC development cost skyrocket, and lots of transistors and DSPs
available in FPGAs. Slam dunk, somehow. Question always was how to make
it happen. Good product, moderately good intro of the product."
» "Good."
USABILITY RANK: 4
(5) INTERSIL 3.3-V data transceivers offer small footprint, 15kV ESD protection eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
"
Designed to transmit data over long distances and in noisy
environments, a family of BiCMOS, single data transceivers operates at
3.3-volts and meets the RS-485 and RS-422 standards for differential
data communications.
The seven new devices that comprise the ISL8307xE family from Intersil
Corp. use balanced data-transmission schemes, making them suitable for
applications in factory automation, security networks, building
environmental control systems, industrial process control systems and
automated utility meter-reading systems.
" Readers say: » "Tri-state during
power-up and a known receiver output for bus faults are time savers
during development when dealing with fault tolerance. What I'd expect
from a company with Intersil's heritage."
» "Good products, but who is still in the business of desining and
using RS 422 and RS485? We sure don't. Good article, though."
» "Okay!"
» "3.3V good, vitually all logic IO (used by me) at this level; Smaller
footprint good, saves $ on pakage, many layer boards; Mainly use Xcvrs
for sensor data, so not bussed."
USABILITY RANK: 3
(6) TARACOM INTEGRATED PRODUCTS Low-power SATA II physical layer IC operates from 1-V supply eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
"A dual serial ATA (SATA) II physical layer (PHY) chip from TaraCom
Integrated Products Inc. offers jitter tolerance that exceeds the SATA
specification of 3-Gbits/s. The TRC3002 is claimed to be the industry's
first SATA PHY that operates from a 1-V supply, consuming just 70 mW
per channel in Gen I mode and 100 mW per channel in Gen II mode. Each
channel consists of one transmitter and one receiver, according to
Farhad Haghighi, chief executive of TaraCom.
" Readers say: » "Good."
USABILITY RANK: 8
(7) TUNDRA SEMICONDUCTOR Serial RapidIO gains momentum as second switch hits the market eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
"Following its introduction in February of the industry's first serial
RapidIO switch, the Tsi568A, Tundra Semiconductor Corp. has added to
its product portfolio another device that is cheaper and smaller but
delivers the same performance to build high-performance communications
systems. The Tsi564A serial RapidIO switch measures 21-mm x 21-mm
compared with Tsi568A's package size of 27-mm x 27-mm package. It
offers low-power multiple port widths and speed configurations, and
supports 40-Gbits/s aggregate bandwidth. " Readers say: » "Well, as soon as S-RIO
based Opterton servers are availble, we'll buy them! We may even use
them for internal purposes. However, article could have been crisper.
Benefits anyone?"
» "Okay."
USABILITY RANK: 7
(8) QUICKLOGIC ýWatt controller advances HDD adoption in embedded systems eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
"Intel's PXA2XX processors continue to gain huge support in high-growth
mobile consumer applications, creating a need for high-performance
low-power bridging solutions to enable the adoption of emerging
networking, storage and media technologies in handheld and portable
equipment.
Typically, traditional field programmable gate array (FPGA) and complex
programmable logic device (CPLD) products would fill that need;
however, PLD makers have shied away from serving the market.
Not QuickLogic Corp. The company has developed a product strategy that
helps designers expand the Intel PXA2XX processor's native interface
set to communicate with different devices.
" Readers say: » "Good!"
USABILITY RANK: 6
(9) MICRO MEMORY CoSine SoC relieves DSPs eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
" Engineers designing with custom logic should take a good look at this
highly integrated system-on-chip (SoC) from Micro Memory. CoSine is a
SoC that performs real-time field programmable gate array (FPGA)
processing. It is the closest thing to a structured ASIC without the
latency problems associated with using a bus translation bridge. CoSine
bridges two high-speed interfaces ý PCI-X or PCI-Express and Serial
Rapid I/O ý through a multi-port DDR controller, enabling access to a
user programmable logic (UPL) block without any difficulty. Engineers
can focus only on application specific state machine processing in UPL
block. With CoSine, they don't have to code other modules or perform
complicated SoC integration or verification. Its IP cores, memory
controllers, specialized DMA engines, embedded processors and
surrounding logic are configured in the factory. " Readers say: » "Not sure." USABILITY RANK: 9
(10) LEGERITY Line card access switch struts dual-channel architecture eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says:
"It's been a little more than two years since Legerity Inc. acquired
the voice interface division of Agere, which developed the first
generation of line-card access switches (LCAS). In that time, Legerity
has significantly improved the product, employing a special
manufacturing technique called trench isolation. At Chartered
Semiconductor, its foundry partner in Singapore, Legerity's
high-voltage, high-bandwidth semiconductors are manufactured using
BCD3T, 350-Volt DMOS transistor technology.
Legerity has since improved the switches and redesigned them based on
market needs.
Its latest introduction is a pair of LCAS devices, the Le75181 and
Le75282, which the company contends are the first non-custom parts to
use foldback technology. It also says that the Le75282 is the only LCAS
with a two-channel architecture. " Readers say: » "Marketing speak, content free... While the products may be good, the article and product info are useless." USABILITY RANK: 10
