Archive : 10 November 2008 year
National Semiconductor Introduces Six PowerWise Energy-Efficient Subsystem Reference Designs
21:15Six new PowerWise® reference designs from National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM) empower design engineers to speed through the design process, delivering products that consume less power, extend battery life and generate less heat. PowerWise reference designs combine energy-efficient devices and arrange them in a system to actively lower power consumption and reduce heat dissipation.
Each proven PowerWise reference file kit includes applicable design schematic, bill of materials (BOM), board layout, firmware, design documentation and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) source code in synthesizable Verilog or VHDL. The designs address a wide range of applications including portable, lighting, solar, industrial, medical, communications infrastructure, and test and measurement. For more information on these reference designs, visit www.national.com/refdesigns.
Solar-Powered Lead-Acid Battery Charger
Engineers can increase the efficiency of harvesting solar power from photovoltaic cells with this reference design that efficiently converts sunlight into a charge current for lead acid batteries. The design also compensates for variations in temperature and the amount of sunlight, maintaining the most efficient conversion throughout changing conditions. The two-stage design monitors the solar panel voltages using a SEPIC design that provides the output voltage and tracks the input solar panel voltage over temperature, while the second stage takes the output of the first stage and boosts the input voltage.
High-Efficiency Portable Music Player Dock
Featuring PowerWise power converters, battery charging circuitry, audio drivers and display interface circuits, this reference design lets engineers initiate a power-saving mode when the portable media player (PMP) is unplugged from the wall power, automatically reducing the maximum brightness of the display as well as the output power of the audio drivers.
CCFL to LED Conversion Power Supply
This reference design replaces backlight cold-cathode fluorescent (CCFL) tubes with strings of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for lower power consumption, better durability, smaller size and brighter light that is more easily custom tailored to compensate for changes in ambient light. Using a 3-channel, constant-current LED driver with two strings of six series-connected LEDs, the design configures the LED driver as a boost converter to generate 21V to 27V output voltage with a 12V power source. The design also includes a circuit utilizing a photodiode to make the brightness of the display proportional to ambient light. This improves the display’s readability under all lighting conditions.
Ambient Light Adaptive LED Driver
This reference design automatically adjusts display brightness for changing ambient light conditions to provide a more viewable display with better contrast. The pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming technique of National’s LED driver dims or brightens the display backlight in response to ambient light condition. This increases battery life and improves the visibility of the display under different viewing conditions. A photodiode circuit measures ambient light and provides a signal for dimming the LEDs.
High-Performance SerDes Module with Easy FPGA Interface and Cable Detect
National collaborated with Avnet to develop a comprehensive reference design that implements high-speed, power-saving serial data interfacing for low-cost Xilinx Spartan-3 field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). National’s FPGA-Link SerDes combines high-speed data transfer flexibility with features such as automatic power down on loss of cable or input signal. The included FPGA firmware monitors this cable/signal loss indicator from the SerDes to turn off unnecessary system logic and other external components for a significant savings in total power.
Load-Detecting Power Supply
To help reduce wasted energy from inefficient AC/DC wall adapters that continue to run even without a load, this reference design uses switched-mode power supply (SMPS) technology in place of linear regulators to drastically improve conversion efficiency. Additional circuitry “wakes up” the power supply only when a load is applied, reducing losses to just tens of milliwatts.
From: http://www.national.com
Texas Instruments technology and innovation spurs new era of multimedia-rich features and applications for the next-generation of IP phones
21:12In response to the growing demand for full-featured multimedia applications in enterprise communication devices, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) [NYSE: TXN] is announcing a new technology platform which gives IP phone manufacturers the ability to deliver a significantly enhanced feature-rich experience to the user. TI believes that next-generation IP phones will become the central communications portal of the office as unified communications applications enable users to take advantage of multimedia features like streaming video, touch screen interfaces and advanced productivity applications. Ultimately, this will increase user efficiency and productivity, as well as result in significant cost savings and accelerate adoption of Voice over IP (VoIP) in the enterprise.
With the communications industry on the cusp of a significant shift in the IP phone user experience, TI envisions ergonomically designed, wired and wireless, low-power devices that offer colorful 3-D graphical displays that quickly connect users to Web-based applications with a simple touch of a screen, making their work experience easier, faster, greener and more personalized. Advanced application developers enabled by open software platforms from TI, will create innovative tools that allow enterprises to seamlessly access customer data, manage real-time communications or simply check calendar appointments all on a single converged device. IP phone users will also have an opportunity to experience unparalleled lifelike voice quality with high definition voice capabilities, bringing their customers and partners closer together.
"In addition to the IP phones that are being widely deployed in enterprises today, the next-generation of unified communications devices will break down roadblocks by empowering people with an intuitive and graphical way of choosing when, how and where they wish to communicate," said Aileen Arcilla, senior research analyst, IDC. "An interactive multimedia IP phone with easy-to-use features is something many enterprise users have sought for a long time, and represents an exciting growth opportunity for companies that play in the VoIP semiconductor space."
TI's next-generation IP phone platform, the TNETV107x family, will include TI's powerful TMS320C64x+TM digital signal processor (DSP) and take advantage of a wide-range of TI silicon and software solutions to allow equipment manufacturers to develop a broad portfolio of BOM (bill of materials) optimized IP phones, ranging from reduced cost phones to full featured executive IP phones. TI is also making available its Modular Open Voice Engine (MOVE) software, a highly optimized system software architecture that meets next-generation processing requirements for a broad range of IP-enabled devices utilizing a field-proven voice engine. For IP phones, TI's MOVE software equips customers with a powerful tool that allows them the option to add their own software in addition to what TI already provides. To best support the feature rich IP phones developed by OEMs, TI's new IP phone family will leverage a 3D graphics accelerator for advanced GUI (Graphical User Interface) displays, low-power consumption, support for wideband voice, advanced networking and a portable and flexible software engine that is scalable across TI's multimedia platforms.
"Understanding that enterprises require customizable IP phone solutions to meet specific market needs, TI has developed a next-generation IP phone platform that positions OEMs to take advantage of the quickly developing IP communications ecosystem, driven by TI's DSP technology and MOVE software architecture," said Fred Zimmerman, director of CPE solutions for TI's voice solutions business unit. "Leveraging more than 10 years of VoIP technology leadership, TI's end-to-end IP quality management technology allows OEMs to deliver next-generation IP phones with the most trusted quality and reliability for voice and video applications."
TI has shipped nearly over 850 million VoIP ports to date for the IP phone, customer premise equipment (CPE) gateway and high-density infrastructure markets. For more information go to: www.ti.com/voip.
From: http://ti.com
Yealink Network Technology selects Texas Instruments' VoIP system-on-a-chip for full-featured high-definition voice in enterprise IP phones
21:10Texas Instruments Incorporated announced that Yealink Network Technology CO., Ltd has selected TI's field-proven digital signal processing technology and software to enable its new IP phone, the SIP-T28. TI's VoIP (Voice over IP) technology allows Yealink to quickly deploy high-definition (HD) voice IP phones across the Asian market where, in countries such as China, Japan and Korea, there is a high demand for superior levels of voice quality for enterprise communications.
Yealink's SIP-T28 is a powerful and stylish 6-line IP phone that features 16 programmable function keys, four soft keys, a XML screen, SMS (Short Message Service), language customization and groupable enterprise phone books, among other features. In addition, the SIP-T28 is designed to support the advanced wideband audio codec G.722, which allows users to enjoy lifelike voice quality. For its SIP-T28, Yealink selected TI's TNETV1055 integrated silicon platform, featuring the market-leading programmable TMS320C55xTM digital signal processor (DSP), which includes TI's robust Telogy SoftwareTM for VoIP.
"As Yealink continues to focus on the development of quality VoIP products that offer high-performance, reliability and ease of use, we are drawing from TI's valued partnership and field-proven VoIP platforms, to quickly enable us to deliver a wide-range of advanced features, such as HD voice, that increase productivity in the workplace," said David Chen, president of Yealink. "TI's powerful processing technology and flexible design facilitates our development of scalable, affordable, full featured IP phones that meet the varied needs of our enterprise customers."
Based on the C55xTM DSP family, TI's TNETV1055 IP phone solution is a complete system-on-a-chip solution. The TNETV1055 leverages a superior architecture, powerful processing technology and increased expandability options, enabling product designers and manufacturers to rapidly create differentiated and innovative IP phone offerings.
"TI is working closely with Yealink in the Asian market to ensure VoIP enterprise users experience the highest quality of HD voice solutions," said Fred Zimmerman, director of CPE solutions for TI's voice solutions business unit. "This partnership aligns with TI's vision for voice, supporting the proliferation of HD voice and the next-generation of robust voice applications."
TI has shipped over 850 million VoIP ports to date for the IP phone, customer premise equipment (CPE) gateway and high-density infrastructure markets. For more information go to: www.ti.com/voip.
From: http://ti.com
Intel Announces its First Home Medical Device to Better Connect Clinicians with Patients
17:11
Intel Corporation today announced its Intel® Health Guide, a care management tool designed for health care professionals who manage patients with chronic conditions. The Health Guide represents Intel's entry into a new category of personal health systems that go beyond the simple remote patient monitoring systems available today.
The Intel® Health Guide, which received 510(k) market clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July, is a comprehensive personal health system that combines an in-home patient device - the Intel® Health Guide PHS6000 - as well as an online interface - the Intel® Health Care Management Suite - allowing clinicians to monitor patients in their homes and manage care remotely.
"The Health Guide is a step forward in offering more personalized and effective management of chronic health conditions in the home," said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of the Intel Digital Health Group. "Intel has spent years researching the needs of both caregivers and patients, and we are now moving to launch a series of products that will help extend care from the hospital to the home. Our products will help address the challenges of an aging population and rising rates of chronic disease."
Intel is collaborating with health care industry leaders around the world to validate the clinical benefits of the Health Guide for a wide range of chronic disease conditions and health and wellness applications. Pilot studies in the United States are currently planned with health care organizations such as Aetna, Erickson Retirement Communities, Providence Medical Group in Oregon and SCAN Health Plan. The goals and objectives are to assess how the Health Guide integrates with different care management models in the home. These first studies focus on the ability to demonstrate improved health outcomes for conditions such as heart failure, diabetes, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Customers such as Advanced Warning Systems, Inc., (AWS), a provider of health care discovery products and web-based services, monitor people for acute cardiovascular symptoms that can cause sudden death. AWS will use the Intel Heath Guide to connect with a targeted class of users, including retired athletes and post-war veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with the highest incidence of cardiovascular related illnesses.
The Health Guide promotes greater patient engagement and more efficient care management by enabling communication between patients and health care professionals and providing clinicians with access to the most current, actionable data. This solution offers interactive tools for personalized care management and includes vital sign collection, patient reminders, surveys, multimedia educational content, and feedback and communications tools, such as video conferencing and alerts. Clinicians have ongoing access to data so that they can better manage each patient's conditions while patients benefit from customized care in the comfort of their own living room.
Intel is working with leading health care organizations that have an understanding of health care delivery to develop unique patient care plans as well as multimedia educational content for chronic conditions. Specifically, Intel is working with the Mayo Clinic to have licensed educational content from MayoClinic.com made available to customers using the Health Guide. In addition, Intel is working with the American Heart Association to create care plans based on the organization's treatment guidelines for a pilot project for the ongoing management of patients with heart failure. The intent is to help health care professionals monitor patients and remotely manage their care in accordance with science guidelines and also to provide patients with ready access to credible and targeted education material. Intel has also hired a team of clinical experts to provide a range of professional services to enable health care organizations to successfully integrate the personal health system into their current disease management programs and models of care.
Additionally, Intel plans to use the core technology components of the solution to build products targeted for new areas such as independent living and programs for health and wellness management and to support new devices such as mobile phones and handhelds.
American Medical Alert Corporation, a national provider of remote patient monitoring devices and 24/7 health care communication services, will be the first U.S. market channel partner for the Intel Health Guide. By adding the Intel Health Guide to its portfolio of offerings, AMAC will be further equipped to provide its customers with the best in care management technologies. The Health Guide is designed to be used by health care professionals to manage their patients at home and is not currently available for general consumer purchase.
For More Information
For information on how to purchase this product, visit www.intel.com/healthcare/ps/healthguide/wtb.htm.
For more information on the Intel Health Guide, visit www.intel.com/healthcare/telehealth.
To learn more about Intel in health care, go to www.intel.com/healthcare.
From: http://www.intel.com
NI Lookout 6.2 Adds Connectivity to Most PLCs
17:10National Instruments today announced the release of NI Lookout 6.2, the latest version of the Web-enabled human machine interface (HMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software. Lookout delivers unparalleled power and ease of use for demanding manufacturing and process control applications. The new features in Lookout 6.2 include integration with NI OLE for Process Control (OPC) servers, offering one software tool that can communicate with multiple programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and a client connection monitoring window that can be used to view the connectivity between the local server and its clients.
Lookout 6.2 compatible with industry-standard OPC specifications, so users can easily connect to a wide variety of PLCs, other OPC Server software systems and NI hardware such as Compact FieldPoint. Rather than purchasing specific software to communicate with individual PLCs, engineers can use the new version of Lookout as inexpensive and easy way to publish data to legacy remote terminal units and the latest PLCs that span the most popular vendors.
The new version of Lookout also includes a client connection monitoring window that improves development and deployment efficiency. The monitoring window displays the numbers of current and licensed connections, client computer name, IP address, logon user, connected time and other information about each connected client. Engineers can monitor the connections between the Lookout server and the clients without interruption while using the Lookout software system to simplify the building of their industrial automation applications.
Additionally, Lookout 6.2 is equipped with an easy-find display window that helps find display objects on panels rapidly and highlights the display object on the control panel. The latest version of Lookout also introduces a new controlled expression feature that offers engineers the option to specify when a controlled expression should be evaluated.
Readers can learn more about Lookout 6.2 at www.ni.com/lookout.
National Instruments Announces New Wireless Data Acquisition and PXI Express Modules for Sound and Vibration Applications
17:05National Instruments today announced the release of a new wireless data acquisition module and two new PXI Express modules for sound and vibration applications. With the NI WLS-9234 wireless dynamic signal acquisition (DSA) module, engineers and scientists can stream vibration data wirelessly over the IEEE 802.11g (Wi-Fi) standard to distributed monitoring systems and eliminate the cost and clutter of cabling. The new PXI Express DSA modules, the NI PXIe-4496 and PXIe-4498, make it possible to acquire data from 272 channels at full rate in a single PXI Express chassis, so engineers and scientists can acquire more data from more channels at faster rates.
The WLS-9234 offers four simultaneously acquired input channels, each with 24-bit resolution and a 51.2 kS/s maximum sampling rate. The module delivers 102 dB of dynamic range and incorporates software-selectable AC/DC coupling and integrated electronic piezoelectric (IEPE) signal conditioning for accelerometers and microphones. The WLS-9234 relays data wirelessly over a Wi-Fi network, allowing for easy distributed I/O, and provides support for various wireless security protocols including WEP, WPA and WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i) to protect data and network integrity. In addition, the module features support for direct Ethernet connection.
The NI PXIe-4496 and PXIe-4498 modules offer 16 simultaneously acquired channels, each with 24-bit resolution, 204.8 kS/s maximum sampling rates and a 113 dB dynamic range. The modules are based on the PXI Express bus architecture, which offers higher throughput than PXI and makes it easy to synchronize up to 17 NI PXIe-449x modules in a single chassis and simultaneously acquire data at full rate. The NI PXIe-4496 and PXIe-4498 modules are designed for interfacing with accelerometers and microphones that require constant current power.
All the new modules are compatible with the NI Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite, the most comprehensive collection of NI analysis and signal processing tools for noise, vibration and harshness; machine condition monitoring; and audio test applications. The suite includes NI Sound and Vibration Assistant stand-alone, interactive software for quickly acquiring, analyzing and logging acoustic, noise and vibration data. The Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite also extends analysis functionality with NI LabVIEW VIs for performing audio measurements, octave analysis, frequency analysis and order tracking for automotive, military and aerospace and mechanical and structural designs.
For more information on the new modules, readers can visit www.ni.com/soundandvibration.
Invitrogen Launches Microarray to Study Non-Coding RNA
17:03Invitrogen Corp. a provider of essential life science technologies for research, production and diagnostics, today announced the launch of the first high-density microarray for the profiling of non-coding RNAs. The NCode Human and Mouse non-coding RNA microarrays consist of both non-coding RNA and messenger RNA (mRNA) content on the same array. The arrays are designed by Invitrogen and then manufactured by Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A), a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis, using the company's proprietary SurePrint technology.
Transcription, or the synthesis of RNA as directed by DNA, involves not only mRNA corresponding to the genes that are translated into proteins, but also tens of thousands of long non-protein-coding RNAs. These non-coding RNAs appear to comprise a vast hidden layer of genetic programming implicated in development and disease pathways in mammals.
"Non-coding RNA transcripts play a variety of roles in a cell, ranging from simple housekeeping to complex regulatory functions, and evidence is mounting that their expression is perturbed in many cancers," said John Mattick, Ph.D., professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Queensland, Australia. "Because their function remains largely unknown, these transcripts represent a new frontier of molecular genetic, molecular biological, physiological and cell biological research."
The NCode non-coding RNA microarrays contain sequences of RNA that do not code for proteins along with sequences of RNA corresponding to mRNAs, which are translated into proteins in a cell. The non-coding sequences were generated and subsequently validated by Professor Mattick's team at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, and exclusively licensed by Invitrogen.
"When we talked to scientists about their interest in studying non-coding RNA, many told us they wanted a microarray that consisted of both mRNA and non-coding RNA content, which would help them elucidate the function of specific non-coding RNAs in relation to known pathways of gene expression," said Amy Butler, vice president of Gene Expression Profiling for Invitrogen. "We answered with an array-based solution, exclusive to Invitrogen, that has tens of thousands of coding and non-coding sequences which could answer multiple scientific questions with a single experiment."
Because the NCode non-coding RNA microarrays include thousands of individual sequences, they must be spotted very densely on a glass slide. To meet this density requirement, Invitrogen partnered with Agilent to use Agilent's proprietary SurePrint technology to manufacture the NCode non-coding RNA microarrays. Invitrogen will market and distribute the product.
"The precision and flexibility of Agilent's Sureprint technology enables an unmatched level of performance and quality that is essential to conduct array-based gene expression research," noted Yvonne Linney, Ph.D., Agilent vice president and general manager, Genomics. "By selecting SurePrint technology to manufacture this new array for research use, Invitrogen is ensuring the consistent performance of the NCode non-coding microarrays."
For more information, visit www.invitrogen.com/Ncode.
From: http://www.agilent.com
The Infineon SLE 78 Security Microcontroller Family Brings Revolutionary Digital Security Features to the Chip Card Industry
17:01Infineon Technologies AG the world’s leading supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for chip cards, announced availability of its latest high-security microcontroller family that utilizes digital security features to an extent that was previously unknown in the chip card industry. Infineon also announced to have introduced a hardware security technology called “Integrity Guard”. With the “Integrity Guard” for the first time in chip card history, security microcontrollers are equipped with comprehensive error-detection capabilities and full on-chip encryption over the complete data path which comprises the dual-CPU, all memories (EEPROM, Flash, ROM, RAM), caches and the buses. The first principle of Infineon’s “Integrity Guard” is that no plain data is available on the chip.
The “Integrity Guard” hardware security technology is available in Infineon’s new security microcontroller family SLE 78. Infineon particularly developed the SLE 78 family and the “Integrity Guard” for use in highly demanding chip card-based and security applications as called for in the payment and government identification areas.
The chip card industry already honored Infineon’s latest security innovation. Yesterday on the eve of the “Cartes & Identification” opening exhibition day, the SLE 78 family was awarded with the prestigious 2008 Sesame Award in the category of Best Hardware.
“Integrity Guard”, Infineon’s new security technology
Before the background that variety and effectiveness of new chip card attacks are increasing, hardware security is becoming more than ever the differentiating factor in the chip card industry. The “Integrity Guard”, that Infineon specifically developed for use in chip card and security applications, tackles chip card attack scenarios at the very root.
With the new “Integrity Guard” for the first time in chip card history, security microcontrollers are equipped with a comprehensive error-detection capability .The dual-CPU approach allows error-detection even while processing and detects whether a calculation was performed without errors. After detecting an error or the attempt of an attack, the microcontroller can decide whether the operation is continued or an alarm is to be triggered and the operation automatically to be stopped.
Also, for the first time in chip card history, a security microcontroller is equipped with full on-chip encryption over the core architecture and data path, including all memories (EEPROM, Flash, ROM, RAM), buses, caches and the two CPUs. Encrypted signals are of no use to the attacker neither for manipulation nor for eavesdropping. The two CPUs use fully hardware-encrypted calculation with different secret keys in both of the CPUs – which also is a first-time-ever for a commercial security microcontroller.
“Infineon is a leader in error-detection circuits and their utilization in security microcontrollers,” said Dr. Helmut Gassel, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Chip Card & Security division at Infineon Technologies. “Instead of setting up sensors against every possible threat, Infineon invented the “Integrity Guard” which we consider to set a benchmark in high-quality design of security features and enables our SLE 78 family of security microcontrollers to provide comprehensive error-detection, error-correction and on-chip encryption.”
Availability of the SLE 78 family
Today, six members of the SLE 78 security microcontroller family are available in sample quantities. These devices differ in EEPROM size and offer memory capacities between 36 kBytes and 144 kBytes. Volume production is expected to begin in Q1 2009.