The Best of SemiApps: The Ultimate Resource for Building Next-Generation Systems
Each month we bring you our best on-line postings on new ASICs and how to design them into the systems you are building—whether they be consumer, computer, industrial, automotive, or communications systems. Our choices, as presented here, are based on what other engineering readers like you looked at most during the previous few weeks.
Readers Choice: The best new application-specific ICs
You’ll never be lost again: Texas Instruments chip adds GPS capability to your phone.
We’ve been waiting for this one. A single new chip in your phone and you can find out more about what’s around youATMs, restaurants, movie theatres, and more. You can also keep track of your kids or friends with something TI calls “presence” management.
…And Zoran adds high-definition video recording.
Zoran’s betting that high-quality video capture, such as offered by its new Coach 10 processor will play a significant role in future consumer cameras because video is quickly becoming a predominant feature in the digital camera market. Our reaction: What took them so long?
Speaking of cameras.
What makes Omnivision’s single-chip, high-performance CMOS image sensor much like a human eye is its ability to handle extremeand suddenvariations of bright and dark conditions within the same scene. That’s called high dynamic range (HDR). And when conditions are normal it automatically switches back to non-HDR mode.
Engineering Blog of the Month
Blogger Bjoy Santos of Intersil looks at the “dark” side of white LEDs: How LED performance can degrade pretty quickly unless you take certain precautions.
Tell us what you think.
Design Classics Library: Application Notes of Note . . . and more
A beginner’s guide to Ethernet.
Everybody needs a refresher course now and then. Readers found this one particularly useful: An overview of the Ethernet specification and some popular protocols that can be used “on top of” an Ethernet driverfundamental stuff you need to know about the protocols and hardware. From Analog Devices.
Signal integrity and clock system design.
Signal integrity is all about getting a signal from point A to point B with a minimum of distortion, which can occur as a result of crosstalk, transmission line effects, and voltage drops. This white paper argues that the quality of high-speed signals (which are the most sensitive to these distortion factors) is ultimately dependent on the design of the clock network. A must read!
Semiconductor Solutions: Product Families, Chipsets, Platforms, etc.
MEMS-based motion sensing
STMicro’s portfolio of MEMS-based linear accelerometers, which can sense acceleration or vibration in one, two, and three axes, drew considerable reader attention. These tiny low-power MEMS devices are in high demand for miniaturized motion-sensing solutions in portable electronic devices.
White-LED drivers overview
To complement our popular blog on white LEDs, we suggest looking at Maxim’s backlighting and camera flash solutions, which offer high efficiency, current-matching, and a small footprint. ■
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