e-Ismosys edition 3

e-Ismosys: The newsletter for users and partners of Ismosys.com

Welcome to the Third edition of e-Ismosys, the newsletter of the web-based user and partner portal that provides "Engineering Solutions for the Global Electronics Industry". Created specifically for the electronics engineering community Ismosys.com brings together products, services, expertise and resources to help improve engineering efficiency, speed-up product development cycles and reduce the costs and risks associated with time to market challenges.   

Ismosys.com features...

• Easy access to current and emerging technology products
• News, features, releases, articles
• Engineering services and service providers
• Significant silicon vendor endorsement
• Outsourced Design and Manufacturing

EXCLUSIVE to this issue of e-Ismosys - Win a MyVu Personal Media Viewer
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New Intel Atom™ based COM module drives performance up and costs down, plus 50% off starter kits for a limited period only.

RadiSys Procelerant™  Z500 COM module is the innovative combination of Intel’s low power 1.6GHz ATOM processor with a 85mm x 70mm module compatable with the COM Express Type 2 pin-out. The module provides up to 1GB of memory to alleviate memory bottlenecks when used with Intel’s performance low power ATOM processors. 

The COM Express Type 2 specifies the connectors for high speed serial differential signaling technologies such as PCI Express, Serial ATA*, USB 2.0, LVDS, and Serial DVO while retaining some legacy support to ease migration from existing modular designs.

The new module delivers powerful performance with low power dissipation. Also providing up to 1GB memory down, a MicroSD socket, gigabit Ethernet*, extended voltage range and smart battery support, the Procelerant Z500 is ideal for makers of handheld and mobile equipment destined for industrial automation, gaming, test and measurement and military markets. The ultra-low power Procelerant Z500 module enables manufactures  to shrink device size, stretch battery life and increase processing performance while also cutting manufacturing costs.

*Serial ATCA and Gigabit Ethernet are Optional.

Micro Sized COM
The Procelerant Z500 module enables OEM to start designing at the same time as processor release, saving months of development time and resources.  It frees OEM to concentrate on their core competencies such as software and application development rather than focus on high speed circuit design, and so avoid the design churn that comes with implementing new processor generations. 

With the Procelerant Z500 COM module feature changes, demand fluctuations and performance upgrades can all be handled without product re-designs.  Further, service repair inventory can be reduced and upgrades simplified, significantly contributing to the success of a product over its lifetime.

Design Services by the COM Experts
OEMs can depend on RadiSys to support their design at every stage, whether it is carrier board design or services such as schematic reviews, debug assistance and custom BIOS generation. Carrier design tools such as the Carrier Design Guide, carrier schematics and Gerber files are available for customers committed to using RadiSys Procelerant processor modules.  Carrier design consulting and debug services are also available to support OEM product development at any stage.

Altera's Cyclone III FPGAs now available in a new 8x8mm packaging

Altera has released its popular family of 65-nm Cyclone III FPGA devices in a new 8x8mm² 164-pin package. Accommodating up to 16K logic elements the new packaging extends Altera's Cyclone III family of high-density small-package FPGAs that already includes 14x14mm² 256-pin and 17x17mm² 484-pin devices.

Each of these packages offers the highest amount of logic and I/Os for its footprint, opening opportunities for engineers to choose a FPGA for new applications including handheld radios, satellite phones, I/O modules, and consumer displays.

Cyclone III devices consume 75 percent less power than competing FPGAs while delivering 5K to 120K LEs, up to 4 Mbits of memory and up to 288 digital signal processing multipliers. Built on TSMC's 65-nm Low-Power process, Altera' Cyclone III family includes devices that are qualified for commercial, industrial and extended temperatures

SanDisk Doubles Capacity of its High-Performance CF Industrial Memory Card to 16-GB - Sampling through e-Ismosys now.....!

SanDisk Corporation, the inventor and world’s largest supplier of flash storage cards, has doubled the capacity of its CompactFlash® 5000 flash memory cards for industrial applications. In addition to fast read and write speeds, the cards provide a high level of durability and reliability for mission-critical applications such as industrial PCs, medical instruments, military applications, point-of-sale (POS) equipment and gaming machines.

The new 16-gigabyte (GB) high-performance CompactFlash 5000 card offers twice the capacity of the 8GB CompactFlash introduced by SanDisk almost twelve months ago. Like its predecessor, the new 16GB flash card uses binary memory, designed by SanDisk specifically for mass storage applications, to achieve a sustained read and write performance of up to 30 megabytes (MB) per second. It supports a transfer mode of up to UDMA 4, an industry standard that enables high data transfer rates and includes performance boosters and on-the-fly error detection.

The 16GB CompactFlash 5000 uses SanDisk’s patented flash management technology - such as bad block management, error detection and error correction code (EDC/ECC) - to provide data reliability, even in extreme temperatures that can range from -13 degrees to 185 degrees Fahrenheit (-25 to +85 Celsius). It is available in fixed or removable configurations.

In addition to the mass storage-specific flash memory chips, CompactFlash 5000 includes an intelligent controller that provides a high-level interface to the host computer. This controller manages data storage and retrieval, defect handling and diagnostics, power management and clock control.

Are you building next generation packet based infrastructure?

Networks of the near future are going to be faster, more robust and more secure, and will feature the built-in versatility required to adapt to an ever increasing rate of change. To build them, engineers will need a new kind of high performance, resource-rich configurable device, which is why Cswitch developed the Configurable Switch Array, simply the highest performing, lowest power consuming and most versatile configurable solution available today.

Inspired by reality.
New network protocols, growing security concerns, the convergence of triple-play services, evolving technologies and ever-present performance pressures are increasing the complexity of all types of networks, and the rate of change will go on accelerating. To further complicate matters, the equipment needed to manage, sustain, and secure these networks will also have to much more sophisticated. The reality is that network equipment destined for tomorrow’s market will have to be faster, smarter, and more versatile than ever. Which is exactly why Cswitch built the Configurable Switch Array (CSA).

Taking input from the world’s leading networking and storage equipment suppliers Cswitch fashioned a revolutionary device that delivers a rare hat trick combination of performance, low power consumption and 100% reconfigurability. With the CSA designers are able to replace costly and time consuming ASICs, and slow, inadequate FPGAs with a device that exceeds the best advantages of both.

Packet moving, editing and storing.
If a custom chip is to deliver high performance in any type of networks, it has to be able to move, edit and store packets at very high speeds, and that’s exactly what the Configurable Switch Array does. Move: The CSA is the first configurable solution to deliver bandwidth at 40 to 100 Gbps across a broad range of applications enabling it to move up to 6 TBps of packets at speeds of up to 2 GHz. Edit: The CSA packs a rich assortment of Frame Header Parsers, Arithmetic Units, and RCAMs to edit and classify packets at 1 GHz speeds. Store: The CSA includes over 18 Mb of on-chip memory, as well as support for the latest high-speed memories, such as DDR2, RLDRAM2, and QDR2. And with the Cswitch, CSA each of these key elements is uncompromisingly configurable.

Configurability and reconfigurability
Conventional chip configurability has always come at a cost, with an expensive trade-off to be found somewhere in the gate density, performance and/or power consumption figures. Not anymore: Featuring over 7 million equivalent ASIC gates, speeds of up to 100 Gbps on chip, and the very latest in power management techniques, the Cswitch Configurable Switch Array delivers uncompromising configurability, and with no trade off in density, performance, or consumption.

A 2 GHz, 20-bit wide bus runs in a grid above all the configurable resources on the surface of the CSA and provides up to 6 TBps of bandwidth to all of the major resource blocks. At each intersection, Cswitch’s innovative dataCrossconnect provides fast on- and off-ramps to speed packets back and forth between the resources and ultimately, across and off the chip. Using the latest advancements in power management the CSA automatically reduces power by shutting off clocks to sectors not in use, enabling designers to vary the chip voltage to achieve the optimum total power requirements.

The capabilities of an ASIC tool with the ease of use and rapid deployment of an FPGA tool.
Thanks to it’s partnership with Magma® Design Automation, Cswitch is continuing to deliver on its commitment to provide customers with a feature-rich design flow that appeals to both ASIC and FPGA developers.

Fully leveraging  the Cswitch CSA architecture, Magma offers a fully automated tool flow from synthesis through placement & route to final bitstream generation. Magma’s Blast Cswitch technology synthesizes the control logic directly to the CSA’s Programmable Logic  Blocks (PLBs). When more complex data path oriented logic is required, Magma tools reach out to the CSA’s switch module generator and instantiator to map these complex structures onto the high-performance special-function resources such as RAUs, RCAMs, PacketParser blocks, and dataCrossconnect. The timing is also impeccable: Magma’s timing-driven router lets engineers close timing, with full back annotation, with the minimum of resource expenditure.

Magna’s Graphical Explorer (geXp) tool provides simple and intuitive GUI displays of designs implemented on the CSA architecture. It displays a floor plan of the chip and highlights the placement of  PLB and custom block (e.g., RAUs, RCAMs) instantiations. PLB and dataCrossconnect routing resources and design nets can also be selectively highlighted. Display pop-up windows can be opened to display the internal configuration of instantiated PLBs or custom blocks while convenient side windows can be opened to show netlist timing data.

One part, many successes.
The recourses and capabilities of the Cswitch Configurable Switch Array make it the most versatile of any configurable solution currently available. In addition, the savings the device provides in both development time and inventory translate directly to the bottom line. This is the CSA reality!

New LED Driver offers 10% Higher Efficiency and Easy Interface Control in Portable Applications"

The latest revision of Analog Devices popular ADIsimPLL phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit design and evaluation tool is available for free download through Ismosys.com. ADIsimPLL Version 3.0 features extended range of devices, and enhanced library and simulation features.

A comprehensive design and simulation package for Analog Devices’ extensive portfolio of PLL Frequency Synthesizer/VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) products. ADIsimPLL Version 3.0 enables rapid prototype development and design optimisation. It  builds upon the success of previous versions of the software tool by offering nine new loop filter topologies, a new VCO ()/reference library editor, enhanced VCO libraries and new analysis features. These innovative features further remove time-consuming iterations from the design process, ultimately speeding the design to market.

To assist in entering and maintaining VCO and reference oscillator data libraries, ADIsimPLL Version 3.0 comes with a new dedicated VCO/Reference Library File editor, which allows browsing through a VCO or reference oscillator library file, and user entry of VCO tuning and phase noise data. In ADIsimPLL Version 3.0, the closed loop gain of the PLL is calculated and displayed on the FreqDomain page, while the phase noise plots have been enhanced to show the contributions from each of the noise sources in the PLL. The new version of ADIsimPLL comes with a substantially expanded VCO/VCXO (voltage controlled crystal oscillator) library collection, which will automatically search for suitable VCOs that meet the user’s frequency requirements. Other enhanced features include automated design of the output matching circuits for the ADF4360-8 and modeling of dither feature effects fractional-N designs. In addition, ADIsimPLL Version 3.0 is compatible with files from earlier versions of ADIsimPLL.

“With its extensive range of PLL Frequency Synthesizer/VCO products and its enhanced ADIsimPLL tool, Analog Devices is constantly delivering on its commitment to provide designers with innovative solutions that improve performance and help ease the development of wireless systems,” said Nigel Bond, Business Development Manager, Ismosys.com.
 
“ADIsimPLL Version 3.0 is available to download now free of charge thereby enabling designers to run simulations locally”. 

Samples now available - SST Announces Industrial Grade Options added to its Single Chip Managed NANDrive Family

Fox Electronics now offers 2.5V LVPECL and LVDS oscillators that require up to 50% less current than conventional 3.3V devices. In many applications the new oscillators operate at the same voltage as the chips they are controlling, resulting in lower overall power consumption and heat generation.

The latest additions in Fox's XpressO^TM family, the FXO-PC72 (LVPEC) and FXO-LC72 (LVDS) oscillators couple noise-reducing DSM technology with a low noise architecture, providing significantly lower levels of jitter and phase noise. The FXO-PC72 and FXO-LC72 oscillators are ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) based, which increases both the accuracy of performance and system flexibility: The new devices offer a frequency range of 0.75MHz to 1.0GHz, stabilities as tight as +/-20ppm and -20 to +70C or -40 to +85C operation.

Fully RoHS-compliant the FXO-PC72 and FXO-LC72 feature a gold-over-nickel termination finish and industry-standard 7 x 5mm packaging, including footprint and pinout. In addition, the new oscillators offer Fox's new, patented serial identification system, which provides the security of comprehensive traceability back to its original manufacturing lot.

Designed to benefit engineers and purchasing personnel alike, these high-quality, low-cost oscillators offer short lead times: Fox guarantees to ship samples within 24 hours and production quantities within 10 days

First 8GB Dual-Rank DDR2 Registered DIMMs - Samples Available Now!

Smart Modular Technologies cost-effective PC2-4200 RDIMMs address high-end server applications with doubled storage capacity and lower power consumption.

SMART Modular Technologies Inc. (SMART) the memory module, embedded computing subsystems and TFT-LCD display specialist has introduced the industry's first cost-effective 8GB dual-rank PC2-4200 registered DIMM (RDIMM). Combining SMART's advanced DDR2 packaging technologies with MetaRAM's MetaSDRAM chipset, the new RDIMM doubles available storage capacity while significantly lowering cost compared to conventional dual-rank modules. And as a four-rank module solution, the new devices also improve overall system performance by lowering power consumption.

In high performance computing (HPC) and server applications he new 8GB RDIMM will double the maximum memory capacity of an AMD^TM Barcelona-based 32-slot motherboard from 128GB to 256GB. In an embedded computing application it will provide up to 32GB of total capacity on the San Clemente-based, Cranberry Lake 4-slot small form factor platform offered by Intel®. Achieving these system densities using conventional modules is impractical due to cost and power consumption constraints and the degradation of system performance that results from excessive module bus loading.

According to Alan Gulachenski, SMART's Senior Director of Advanced Memory Solutions, designers can reduce power consumption by up to 20 percent by replacing four conventional 4GB dual-rank RDIMMs with two of SMART's 8GB dual-rank DDR2 RDIMMs: "SMART's RDIMM featuring MetaRAM's MetaSDRAM chipset technology will help customers close the persistent gap between memory and processing improvements, the biggest challenge they currently face in their IT systems:," Gulachenski said. "Today, processing power doubles every 18 months, while it takes twice that time for memory capacity to double, and that gap limits processor utilization in many applications. By incorporating MetaSDRAM in the new 8GB RDIMM module, Smart's offering customers a convenient and affordable way to boost system performance."

Visit www.smartm.com for more information about SMART's 8GB dual-rank RDIMMs

Hi-Resolution USB Camera Modules for OEM Video and Still Applications

Cynove (www.cynove.com) introduced two USB 2.0 high-speed camera modules ideal for video monitoring, image processing and colour rendering in a wide range of industrial, medical and security applications.

Exar Corporation has added two new devices to its EXstor™ family of storage products: The XRS10L210 is a 2:1 eSATA port selector, and the XRS10L220 is a 1:2 port selector/multiplier combo. Like other members of the EXstor family the new devices target a wide variety of data storage environments including data management systems for consumer, industrial, and Small Medium Enterprise (SMB) applications.

The XRS10L210 is an active passive SATA-II Host port selector that provides an optimal solution for HA applications that utilise redundant SATA host controllers. In addition to supporting side-band and register based switching, the XRS10L210 supports in-band command based switching and is compliant with SATA II: Port Selector, Revision 1.0.

The XRS10L220 provides the combined advantages of a SATA II port selector and port multiplier implementations at 3.0Gbps and 1.5Gbps. Combining the 4 SATA II PHYs capability on-chip to address two SATA devices with support for a fail-over path from two independent hosts, the XRS10L220 offers an industry leading solution for extending the range of high data rate SATA data. Also, in addition to the port multiplier functionality, the XRS10L220 port selector is compliant with SATA II: Port Selector, Revision 1.0.

The two new devices incorporate industry-leading analog front end with Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC), substantially reducing the total EMI. They also minimise the power management overhead by consuming under 700mW and offering several power down modes. The XRS10L210 / XRS10L220 devices support programmable output swing controls as well as both transmit pre-emphasis and receive equalization enabling use over more than 30 inches of backplane or 2 metre cable lengths. In addition, Exar's SATA port multiplier products support the SATA II: Port Multiplier 1.1 specification enabling multiple SATA drives to be connected to a single SATA or SAS host bus Adaptor.

According to Jehangir Parvereshi, Exar's product line director, Storage Products the XRS10L210 and XRS10L220 are ideal for cost-sensitive High Availability (HA) fault tolerant storage sub-system applications: "These devices have superior analog capabilities coupled with fail-over storage functions", Parveresh said. "In addition, the XRS10L220 reduces the BOM cost as it integrates both port selector and port multiplier capabilities. Competitive solutions require two discrete ICs to accomplish the same functionality."

EXstor Storage Devices Overview
The EXstor series improves the signal integrity, increases reliability and resolves bandwidth bottlenecks. Comprised of three additional solutions: the XRS10L140/XRS10L120 a SATA port multiplier which supports a single host to connect up to four/two SATA drives targeting next generation enterprise class disk array systems that use SATA mid-planes; also, the XRS10L240 device combines port selector and port multiplier functionality in a single integrated device enabling two SATA or SAS hosts to address up to four SATA drives. All the EXstor devices use PHY technology with adjustable equalization, pre-emphasis and amplitude settings for tuning high-speed long backplane implementations and eSATA cables. The devices also support the SSC schemes to reduce EMI issues.

Marvell® DSP Switcher® Single and Dual Output Switching Regulators

The Marvell DSP Switcher® family of non-isolated Step-Down Switching Regulator modules are the industry’s smallest and highest performance general purpose, step-down buck integrated switching regulators.  They are available in single output and dual output versions.  The primary output is a high-performance integrated switching regulator and the secondary output (on dual output devices) is an LDO controller.  Minimal external component count simplifies system design and slashes the overall solution size.  Device in this innovative family power are a wide range of loads spanning small ASICs in handheld equipment to power-hungry processors in portable computers.

·        95% efficiency
·        Input voltage range – 3.0V to 5.5V
·        Primary output voltage range – 0.72V to 3.63V
·        Up to 10A output current

Integration of power MOSFETs, internal frequency compensation and single resistor output programming reduce design effort and increase system reliability. Further, the inclusion of Marvell’s innovative AnyVoltage™ technology, (see below) makes it very easy to set the output and trim the module, and so shorten design cycles. Outputs voltages of 0.72V-3.63V with current levels up to 10A are supported with input voltages of 3.0V-5.5V or 12V.

Ismosys.com offers Control IC and passive component kits to further aid high volume users of these modules..

88MG815 – 88MG831: Non-isolated Step-Down Switching Regulator Modules.
Comprising four devices, the Marvell 88MG815 – 88MG831 series of high-performance, non-isolated  DC-DC converter modules are designed for POL (point-of-load) applications. These small-form-factor, lead-free plug-n-play devices function as synchronous step-down (buck) switching regulators and are ideal for portable applications. They operate from an input voltage range of 3.0V to 5.5V and provide an output voltage ranging from 0.72V to 3.36V. The 88M G815/88MG816 are rated at 1A output whilst the 88MG830/88MG831 are 2A devices.

All four devices in the 88MG815 – 88MG831 series include a proprietary Marvell integrated regulator device. The switching frequency for the regulator is 1 MHz. Thanks to AnyVoltage™ technology, the modules requires no external components except a single resistor to enable the user to program the output. Ultra-high conversion efficiency of 95% (typ.) means that the modules require no heatsink.

Additional features of the 88MG815 – 88MG831 series include internal current limiting, under voltage lockout, thermal shutdown and a wide ambient temperature range of  -40ºC to 85º C.

88MG875z-x – 88MG876-x: 5A Output, Non-isolated Step-Down Switching Regulator Modules.
Also designed for POL (point-of-load) applications, the 88MG875z-x – 88MG876-x series of high-performance non-isolated  DC-DC converter modules broadly share the same features as the 88MG815 – 88MG831 series but target applications where space is even more of a premium. Available in tiny SIP, DIP and SMT package options, the two modules in this series are available in 2.5 and 3.3 voltage versions (LDO 88MG876-x only) and, thanks to Marvell’s AnyVoltage™ technology, offer 72 output selections.

About AnyVoltage™ technology
AnyVoltage™ technology enables users to program a Marvell DSP Switcher modules using a simple lookup table to select the resistor value for the VSET and PSET pins. The VSET pin sets the output voltage and the PSET pin trims the set voltage to a percentage value. Using a VSET resistor with a value greater than 619kohm or less than 7.68 kohm disables the step-down switching regulator and sets the S?W pin to high impedance. If the VSET resistor value falls outside the 5% tolerance , the out-pin can be either higher or lower than the set voltage. Using a resistor with a value greater than 619kohm or less than 7.68 kohm for the PSET pin does not affect the set voltage. Like the VSET resistor, the percentage value of the PSET resistor can be either higher or lower if its value falls outside the 5% tolerance.

Extensive family of standard power modules in compact, low-profile SP1 packages

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How can we improve the relevance and content of e-Ismosys, or Ismosys.com to better meet your needs?

Please email your suggestions or comments directly to the editor nigel@ismosys.com