(1) TEXAS INSTRUMENTS RS-485 transceivers offer ESD protection in excess of 15-kV eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Aimed at industrial applications, Texas Instruments Inc.'s latest 3.3-V and 5-V full-duplex RS-485 transceivers provide ESD protection in excess of 15-kV (human body model).
The SN65HVD33/34/35 and SN65HVD53/54/55 are differential line drivers and receivers, with separate input and output pins for full-duplex (4-wire) bus communication designs. The transceivers are designed for interoperation with ANSI TIA/EIA-485A, TIA/EIA-422-B, ITU-T V.11 and ISO 8482:1993 standard-compliant devices." Readers say: » "DIP package would be nice for quick protos."
» "Just designing a product with 75176 buffers."
» "I don't see a distinguishing feature other than 15kV ESD which is probably an overkill for most applications."
» "I feel that this is signifcant in that they work better in noisy industrial environments."
» "The built in ESD protection would help save valuable pcb space instead of using separate discrete components."
» "The slew rate controlled capability is a positive."
» "Low standby current is a must for low voltage battery operated devices and helps prolong battery life."
» "Excellent ESD protection."
» "Built in 15Kv protection will save a lot of consumer returns due to static discharge"
» "It is valuable in the aerospace industry for I/O to support large voltage transients on inputs. This is particularly relevant in applications that require lightning compliance."
» "I'm not sure I see the significance of 15KV ESD protection as a breakthrough technological advance. Perhaps TI sees applications where this is critical."
» "Don't limit production to SOIC packages. Please provide PDIP as well! Believe it or not, there's still a lot of through-hole work being done, especially in legacy repair/rework." » "Impressive signalling rates."
» "Isolation and esd protectionof 15kV would make me look at these transcievers. Plus TI is a good name in the industry."
» "We use MAXIM usually, but would try a sample."
» "Well needed."
» "I mostly do RF design, but these might come in handy some time."
» "Very brief description of device and application."
» "Good signal margin."
» "I use them in my design every chance I have."
» "At the right price point, these could be used."
» "I like the esd feature a lot."
» "For RS-485 transceivers, the addition of a selectable termination resistor would be very useful."
» "Although these are relatively slow transceivers, the high degree of ESD protection is impressive."
» "Low current draw and ESD protection up to 15-kV! How can you go wrong with a rs486 chip?"
» "Good idea. Increases reliability."
» "Where were these high-voltage resistant interfce chips back when serial communications ran the world? I replaced dozens of serial line drivers due to ESD zaps. Now, alas, RS-485 is going away (sigh) ... but these puppies show up ready for a zillion volts."
» "To enhance its user-friendliness would be an advantage."
» "Saves board space, component count, and cost by integrating previously separate functions."
USABILITY RANK: 1
(2) TEXAS INSTRUMENTS Chip bridges legacy PCI devices to PCI Express-based applications eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Texas Instruments sampled this device more than a year ago. And at the time, the company wanted to test its XIO2000 PCI Express-to-PCI bridging device to make sure that it was interoperable and compatible with other various PCI endpoint devices and root complexes in chipsets.
The company performed many testing processes and yielded an improved version of the silicon. It is in its final revision of the XIO2000, TI's first mass market PCIe bridging device according to Jawaid Ahmad, product marketing manager for TI's Interface Business Unit." Readers say: » "PCI express is coming ... need bridging solution."
» "A bit expensive - would probably do a complete redesign when the PCIe part for the required function becomes available."
» "Good way to migrate designs."
» "The future is now."
» "It's about time."
» "Great looking product!"
» "Solves some legacy, upgrade, and TTM issues. A bit pricey though."
USABILITY RANK: 2
(3) ACTEL Mixed-signal FPGA opens new horizons eeProductCenter's Richard Goering says: "
Going boldly where no programmable logic has gone before, Actel Corp. is slated this week to unwrap its Fusion Programmable System Chip (PSC), said to be the world's first mixed-signal FPGA family
The Fusion PSC integrates configurable analog blocks, flash memory, clock generation and management, and digital logic into one monolithic device. Actel believes the device will open new applications for FPGAs, including power and temperature management, motor and motion control, system initialization and configuration, program and data storage, and "live at power-up" clock generation, conditioning and distribution.</p>" Readers say: » "Problem is..Actel does not have a good low end rep so difficult to win over from Xilinx and Altera"
» "Open up to more applications."
» "Interesting, but the performance of the analog blocks would be critical. Not suited for all applications."
» "It would be interesting to compare the analog capabilities of this device to the Cypress PSoC. The PSoC has established itself as a viable alternative to mainstream 8 bit microcontrollers, providing configurable analog blocks, and allowing integration of external analog circuitry."
» "A link to tech lit on this device would have been helpful: if this can be viewed as an ADC with integrated support logic, it might provide a tidy solution to a current design problem. At least participating in this survey has brought it to my attention! I may just look into this a bit further..." USABILITY RANK: 3
(4) MERCURY COMPUTER SYSTEMS Serial RapidIO 8-port switch provides 64-Gbits/s of bandwidth eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "
Mercury Computer Systems Inc. has developed it fourth-generation switch IC that is compliant with the Serial RapidIO specification 1.2.
Designed to perform multiple switching applications in the embedded, communications, wireless and storage markets, the MC432 is a 64-Gbits/s switch with eight ports of 4X lanes. Each port has four full-duplex serial transceivers.
The MC432 is a serial-based switch that incorporates internal SerDes functionality with 8/10-bit encoding; its previous device was parallel based, according to Mercury's silicon IP systems applications engineer at its Advanced Solutions Business Unit, Charlie Frazer, who cited other enhancements." Readers say: » "Not using rapidIO, using GigE and IB."
» "Good bandwidth."
» "Looks like a great product...
» "With many competing io technologies like PCIe, HT, where does sRIO stands ? I guess only market and time will tell."r)
USABILITY RANK: 7
(5) TRANSWITCH Chip delivers Ethernet services to the last mile eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "
TranSwitch Corp. is planning to sample EtherMap-PDH, a device that delivers Ethernet services into the last mile over existing copper infrastructure.
EtherMap-PDH, part number TXC-07861, is a protocol converter that transports Ethernet services over existing PDH (plesiochronous digital hierarchy) signal formats. Ethernet-over-PDH (EoPDH) is an extension of Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH (EoS) to bring Ethernet services closer to the subscriber.
With EtherMap-PDH, Ethernet frames can be mapped through GFP/HDLC/LAPS into bonded PDH signals. The chip is compliant with the recently ratified ITU-T G.8040 and G.7043 standards. And it can be designed into any platform that has a PDH interface for wire line and wireless applications." Readers say: » "Not invlolved in ethernet designs now but demo board would be usefull to demonstrate the technology."
» "Good product to increase the bandwidth."
» "This is a cool technology, but I wonder whether the Telco's or Cable operators will embrace it. There have been several "Last Mile" solutions in the past that should have worked, but failed due to lack of support by the operators. MMDS, FTTC, FTTH, 16CAP, etc.."
» "Price is on the high side."
» "Good idea."
» "Can they explain their product in plain English? With fewer acronyms?" USABILITY RANK: 9
(6) XILINX Xilinx charts high-end DSP roadmap to build demand for its FPGAs eeProductCenter's Gil Bassak says: "
The launch by Xilinx, Inc. of "application-optimized" DSP products for multimedia, video, and imaging (MVI) systems, as the press release at left notes, represents the first in a series of products that will follow one of four road maps described in a companion announcement. The four road mapsýMVI, defense systems, digital communications, and DSP tools and methodologyýare key to the company's strategy for growth: tapping into what it estimates is a $2-billion market for high-performance DSPs." Readers say: » "Perhaps in the next spin of a coprocessor board....looks interesting"
» "Good to support DSP."
» "DSP is important to support."
» "An eval board by another name is still an eval board."
» "Programming costs are the driver in hardware specific DSPs ... if there's not a ready-to-go package of FIR, IIR, and FFT programs, it's likely to take a lot of time & bucks to use such devices." USABILITY RANK: 4
(7) ACTEL Soft ARM7 processor optimized for ProASIC3 FPGAs eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "
Actel Corp. has started to sample three devicesýthe M7A3P250, M7A3PE600 and M7A3P100ýwith CoreMP7, a soft ARM7 microprocessor optimized for use in its ProASIC3 family of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
The company's move to create the first soft core FPGA version of the ARM7 family microprocessor stems from a licensing deal it signed in March 2005 with ARM Ltd.
Actel is offering the 32-bit ARM7 family microprocessor for use in its products free of license fees, which helps reduce the cost of entry and increase designer access to SoC development with the ARM7 family. Operating at up to 25-MHz, CoreMP7 is suitable for many applications in the consumer, industrial, automotive, and high-reliability sectors." Readers say: » "No need for a high end core, rep came in and showed the technology...impressive for ARM."
» "ARM is a strong candidate as a second core in two-core systems."
» "ARM7 is popular in many applications."
» "There is a market need for this product."
» "The Actel part is too small to have an embedded soft core - it's more cost effective to have an external CPU."
» "Inexpensive but sophisticated." USABILITY RANK: 5
(8) CHIPX Structured ASIC devices embed PCI Express physical layer eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "ChipX has introduced a new structured ASIC family that it claims is a low-risk alternative to traditional ASIC and FPGA devices.
There are 12 devices in the CX6100 family with densities ranging from 240K to 1.8M ASIC gates, up to 1.1-Mbits of embedded SRAM and maximum operating frequencies of up to 250-MHz across the die. Four on-chip, configurable, low-jitter PLLs support output frequencies from 10-MHz to 1-GHz.
The CX6100 structured ASIC family features an embedded PCI Express physical layer (PHY). The devices have a generic fabric that consists of gates and programmable I/Os, and a few fast PLLs that its customers can use, but what sets this design apart is there is a complete PCIe subsystem." Readers say: » "Looking for this...excellent...might be in our next design spin."
» "Good integrated solution."
» "An easy way to get PCIE to market?"
» "PCIe solutions in ASIC and FPGA is common.... structured ASIC is catching up slowly. Strucured ASIC with proven emebedded PCIe PHY will definetly help in pushing its usage." USABILITY RANK: 6
(9) QUICKLOGIC Logic cell architecture sharply lowers FPGA power consumption eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "In the eighteen months since it introduced its low-power Eclipse II field programmable gate array (FPGA) family, QuickLogic Corp. gained insight into how to provide customers developing power-critical and sensitive applications with a more energy-efficient device.
Its experience with Eclipse II customers has led the company to develop a new FPGA line called PolarPro, which is designed with a new logic cell architecture that is tailored to address the needs of power-sensitive applications. PolarPro will give the battery-powered, handheld designers the option of choosing an FPGA, which hasn't been viable due to its high-cost and power-consuming nature." Readers say: » "Going to be difficult to make inroads into designs where traditionally Xilinx coolrunner had been in place, or in general Altera or Xilinx." » "low power applications are rising and critical." USABILITY RANK: 8
(10) XILINX FPGA vendor qualifies Spartan-3E devices for automotive sector eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Xilinx is adding its entire Spartan 3E FPGA family, as well as a Virtex-4 device to the Xilinx Automotive (XA) portfolio. This announcement isn't just a point solution that the company is taking into one or two specific applications. It represents a significant commitment from Xilinx to put all of these devices through the qualifications processes and testing required for automotive.
"What differentiates them from [conventional FPGAs] is the qualification and testing flow that they have to go through. It's the same silicon, it's the same package. It's just that we have to put it through different type of qualification processes," said David Gamba, senior marketing manager at Xilinx. "It takes six months to put our devices through this type of qualification. It's a significant investment on our side from budgets and resources to address this to understand what auto manufacturers want."" Readers say: » "Already using them, will continue...good job xilinx!"
» "Not an automitive design facility, but these devices seem quite enticing to use.
» "Automotive market is critical."
» "A good quality set of PLA's for autos. Once upon a time, timing belts, odometer ticking, and spark plug advance was done mechanically; now with the wired car, entertainment is done alongside these functions. Not bad (and quite cheap!)" USABILITY RANK: 10
