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Product Shopper New Product Info

(1)
ANALOG DEVICES
Differential ADC drivers deliver low distortion levels

eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Analog Devices Inc. extended its family differential amplifiers with a pair of devices that it claims delivers distortion levels 10 dB lower than competing driver ICs. The ADA4937-1 and ADA4938-1 differential drivers are optimized for driving the highest performance ADCs from dc to 100 MHz. For example, the ADA4937-1 has 16-bit performance up to 40 MHz, 14-bit performance up to 70 MHz and 12-bit performance up to 100 MHz."

Readers Say:

"Our present designs are more on energy storage. For cutting edge Analog & Mixed Sig, we have always looked to AD."
"Excellent packaging and pinout takes into account layout of high speed analog. The lower THD levels will account for a reduction in errors that may be appreciable."
"Could use a dual at about the same price as this one..."
"Driving the input of a high performance ADC is challenging. This product would appear to tame the monster."

USABILITY RANK: 1

(2)
MAXIM
Automotive LDO runs without a glitch from cold-crank to load-dump

eeProductCenter's Vince Biancomano says: "Maxim's MAX5092 low-dropout (LDO) regulator with boost preregulator, for harsh automotive environments and always-on supplies, facilitates true buck-boost operation, thus providing uninterrupted power from cold-crank (4 volts) through the 72-volt load-dump condition."

USABILITY RANK: 2

(3)
SILICON LABORATORIES
Clock multiplier provides any-rate frequency synthesis

eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Silicon Laboratories Inc. has developed a jitter-attenuating clock multiplier IC line that generates any output frequency from any input frequency with 0.3 picosecond jitter performance. The Si53xx Any-Rate Precision Clocks product family consists of nine devices that leverage the company's DSPLL technology, which is designed to simplify clock multiplication and jitter attenuation circuitry required in high-speed telecommunication applications."

Readers Say:

"A very integrated digital PLL with low voltage support, programmable BW and no external component? Superb!"

USABILITY RANK: 4

(4)
ANALOG DEVICES
Chipset to streamline analog video distribution over CAT5 cabling

eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "In this age of packetized video transmission, Analog Devices Inc.'s (ADI) crosspoint switches [AD8175 and AD8176] and diff-amps [AD8145/6/7/8] reinforce the notion that not all signals are best handled in the digital domain. Though we've come a long way since the days of the mechanical crosspoint switch, there remain myriad solid-state systems that can benefit from smooth switching of analog signals under digital control. Typical systems accommodate video as well as audio."

USABILITY RANK: 7

(5)
MAXIM
14- and 16-bit ADCs set claim to first with +/- 12-V input channels

eeProductCenter's Vince Biancomano says: "Maxim says its MAX1300-MAX1303 and MAX1032-MAX1035 family of 14- and 16-bit ADCs are the first with a +/-12-volt input range, thus raising the performance and flexibility bars for temperature sensor, Wheatstone bridge, pressure sensor, and 4-to-20 mA loop measurements."
"Another A-D converter? There appears to be nothing special here... The inputs require an op-amp to reduce the impedance and establish the scaling. The max input voltage range is not bad, except it requires a more expensive op-amp to achieve the higher voltage input at the 14/16 bit accuracy. One can scale to any input voltage value if an op-amp is used at the input anyway!"
"While 12V is an impressive voltage, the text fails to mention a sampling rate."

USABILITY RANK: 3

(6)
LINEAR TECHNOLOGY
Mixer IC includes on-chip coupling transformers

eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "This power-managed doubly-balanced active mixer chip [the LT5557] from Linear Technology Corp. (LTC) is intriguing. With on-chip transformers, it can simplify impedance matching in some applications."

Readers Say:

"Good show: Versatile and accurate"
"Excellent to have single ended inputs to the device. Nice work!"

USABILITY RANK: 5

(7)
W&W COMMUNICATIONS
H.264 HD codec delivers 1080i/p video with minimum delay

eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "W&W Communications Inc. is sampling the WW20K H.264 HD codec chipset for live broadcast applications. The chipset consists of the WW20000BA single-chip encoder and the WW20001BA single-chip decoder. The low encode-decode tandem delay and ability to encode 1080 video at high quality and relatively low bit rates makes the WW20K chipset suitable for live HD video broadcast applications, such as sports and news events."

Readers Say:

"Would this chip be suitable for H.264 High Definition video conferencing?"

USABILITY RANK: 6

(8)
XCEIVE
Silicon tuner advances HDTV

eeProductCenter's Vince Biancomano says: "Proclaiming a step increase in performance using a heretofore unseen functionality set, Xceive Corporation says its XC5000, reportedly the industry's most highly integrated silicon tuner IC, exceeds worldwide analog and digital TV requirements for terrestrial and cable reception and flat-panel, high definition TV. Indeed, it's positioned as a replacement for the conventional "can" tuner in universal use."

Readers Say:

"Needs to be less than $6 if they want can tuner slots."

USABILITY RANK: 8

(9)
STMICROELECTRONICS
Set-top box chip combines demodulator with MPEG decoder

eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "STMicroelectronics is shipping engineering samples of its latest OMEGA device, the QAMi5107, which is an SoC for digital cable TV set-top boxes that combines a digital signal demodulator with an MPEG decoder in a single package."

Readers Say:

"Behind the curve by years!"

USABILITY RANK: 10

(10)
FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR
4th-order video filter IC surpasses passive LC performance

eeProductCenter's Vince Biancomano says: "Fairchild's 4th-order, single-channel video filter/driver [the FMS6141], which offers an 8-kV ESD rating and SC70 package option, touts better performance at lower cost than passive LC filters for DVD players and printers for digital still cameras."

Readers Say:

"Nice to see competition."

USABILITY RANK: 9

In case you were wondering, here's how Ultimate Products works: Our editors select up to 10 of the most significant products posted at www.eeProductCenter.com during the calendar quarter. Then, using an electronic balloting process, we submit the products with the accompanying editorial reviews to selected, qualified readers. Those readers score the products by technical significance and
USABILITY on a scale of 1 through 5, with 5 being the highest score. The product ranked No. 1 in each category was judged as most technically significant for that category. Relative
USABILITY rankings and selected reader comments are also reported. More than 1,000 of you helped to choose these products. As always, we are grateful for your enthusiastic participation.

Patrick Mannion
Editor-in-Chief, Techonline Network and eeProductcenter.com
pmannion@cmp.com