(1)
SIICON LABS
XFP transceiver offers best in class jitter performance
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: " Make it easier for customers by streamlining their design/test process. That's the focus of many of today's design programs, and that's exactly what designers at Silicon Laboratories were going for with the Si5040 XFP transceiver."
Readers say: » "I like how the transceiver eliminates just about all jitter that I used to have when using this type of machinery." » "Good device to use." » "It is great that Silicon Labs can pull in many function blocks into single device. It makes my job easier and it helps to reduce the cost of the final product. Thanks for the info." » "Looks like an innovative device. The jitter specs are impressive." » "Leading edge technology. Small size." » "Built-in loopback and PRBS pattern generation assists with remote testing and troubleshooting." » "Meets good functional density requirements.'' » "The device has its capability on both transmit and receive data baths, offering low power solution. Best in class jitter performance, ensure error-free operation. Multi vendors network environment, provided real time operation, configurable through single microcontroller.'' » "Very good size and I am happy to see it meets the industrial temp. range'' » "The jitter attenuation looks very good.'' » "May have great value in our future portable product lines.''
USABILITY RANK: 1

(2)
TRIMBLE
GPS module streamlines portable designs
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: "Some time ago, when the design team at Trimble Navigation Ltd. looked into the future, they saw GPS going portable. Long-time experts in GPS for automotive applications, the team hit the drawing board to deliver a module optimized for size, cost, and performance that would streamline the addition of GPS functionality to portable battery-powered designs."
Readers say: » "Good product." » "Low power is appealing.''
USABILITY RANK: 2

(3)
QUORUM SYSTEMS
Multi-band CMOS cellular transceiver integrates LNA
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: " GSM is a standard that has truly earned the name of "standard." GSM users, although interested in additional functionality and bands, will simply not tolerate anyone messing with the performance of their proven, reliable, GSM handset. So, what should you do when you want to design a multi-band transceiver to enable worldwide cellular coverage in a single handset? You do it very carefully, the team at Quorum Systems will tell you."
Readers say: » "Good product." » "Lots of integrated features...impressive.''
USABILITY RANK: 6

(4)
VITESSE SEMICONDUCTOR
Gigabit Ethernet PHY breaks the logjam
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: " As with most next-generation technologies, the transition to Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) has been constrained by cost, power, and complexity. The design team at Vitesse Semiconductor decided to put its engineering muscle behind removing the roadblocks to widespread GbE deployment and set their targets firmly on low power, small system footprint, and reduced design complexity for their customers. The result? The VSC8601 and VSC8641 GbE PHYs that cut the power to 600 mW, increased integration, and found a price point that enabled a reduced bill of materials cost."
Readers say: » "Good product.'' » "Excellent value.''
USABILITY RANK: 3

(5)
MICROTUNE
Tuner leads DTV specs race
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: " Designers of digital television (DTV) systems are faced with a real challenge. They need to offer the kind of high-performance that early adopters expect for the price premiums they pay, and they need to be able to tune in legacy signals, such as analog and digital cable, until at least 2009. The team at Microtune, Inc. is well versed in the needs of television applications around the globe, and about two years ago they decided to take on the challenge of designing a single integrated silicon tuner that received analog terrestrial, digital terrestrial, and digital cable signals. "
Readers say: » "Good product.'' » "Good value.''
USABILITY RANK: 8

(6)
ATMEL
WiMAX chipset shrinks footprint
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: " In the WiMAX market, some of the first transceivers were largely based on the ones used for wireless LAN or WiFi applications. Recognizing this, the RF design team at Atmel Duisburg committed themselves early on in the process to tailor a new line of transceivers just for WiMAX. Although early design was challenging because the actual WiMAX specification had yet to solidify, the team leveraged its depth of experience in WiFi to keep pace with the specification and tailor a solution just for WiMAX. And, when the WiMAX spec was ready, so was Atmel."
Readers say: » "Good product.'' » Llooks good.'' » "Smaller size is advantageous.''
USABILITY RANK: 4

(7)
SIGE SEMICONDUCTORS
802.11n jumpstarted with RF front end
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: " With the 802.11n standard on track for ratification, SiGe Semiconductor has stepped up to deliver an RF front end that targets the new WLAN specification. Key design concerns for this market include data rates, range, and current consumption. The resulting SE2545A10 from SiGe integrates two full dual-band transmit/receive chains for multiple-in multiple-out (MIMO) functionality, and boosts range of existing products by 20 to 30 percent."
Readers say: » "Good product.'' » "Great.'' » "Looks good.''
USABILITY RANK: 5

(8)
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
Chip streamlines mobile TV design
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: " Going up against two-chip and system in package (SIP) products for enabling mobile TV functionality in a handset, engineers at TI were determined to get the tuner and demodulator on a single piece of silicon in a standard 90-nm process.<br><br> The design team at TI had its gaze firmly fixed on three key criteria: smaller board area, lower power, and lower BOM. They achieved this in part by integrating the RF, demodulator, decoder and memory on chip. "
Readers say: » "Good product.'' » "Very good.'' » "Good Value.''
USABILITY RANK: 7

(9)
SIRIFIC WIRELESS
Single-chip CMOS transceiver targets HSDPA, WCDMA, and EDGE
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: " Sure, transceivers for 3G handsets have to be small, have low power, and good performance, but they also have to be manufacturable in high volumes with high yield. That's what the team at Sirific Wireless had in mind when they committed themselves to develop a single-chip High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)/WCDMA + EDGE (WEDGE) RF transceiver?nd do it in CMOS."
Readers say: » "Good product.''
USABILITY RANK: 10

(10)
ANADIGICS
CDMA PAs get fine tuned
eeProductCenter's Janine Love says: " Most of the time, CDMA power amplifiers (PAs) deliver output power between +7 and +16 dBm. Most CDMA PAs, though, offer the best efficiency when operating at peak power, such as +18 dBm. In support of the continuing quest for lower power consumption, the team at ANADIGICS decided it was time to tweak their CDMA PA design to deliver better power efficiency at the output power levels used most often; the result is the recently announced AWT6273, AWT6278, & AWT6279 PAs."
Readers say: » "Good product.''
USABILITY RANK: 9