News Industry Spotlight
Redundancy transfer switch
New FPGAs for latest in context awareness for mobiles
interfaces, enabling the FPGAs to deliver near-zero latency. This tech- nology supports the latest in context- aware
Powersolve has launched its latest ATS Series redundancy transfer switch that operates from 110 or 220VDC. This solution is a dual mains input device that will automatically switch between inputs if one fails, to ensure mains power continuity. Switching or transfer time is less than 6ms and the unit automatically matches the phase frequency and polarity when switching. The switch can be supplied with six IEC or six NEMA output sockets and these can be individually controlled, scheduled or delayed. An LCD panel displays input source, voltage, fre- quency and status as well as the name and current level of each output. Another display gives the status, voltage and load of each input and out- put, while LEDs indicate normal and warning conditions. Remote monitoring is possible with the SNMP Intelligent Slot and RS232 Interface. The unit measures 440 by 250 by 44mm, it weighs 3.2kg and operating temperature range is 0 to 40°C. Powersolve Electronics
www.powersolve.co.uk
New ultra-low-density FPGAs have been released by Lattice Semiconductor. The iCE40 devices are designed for context-aware, ultra-low power mobile devices and come in a very small footprint so are able to fit just about anywhere. Technical aspects include hard IP for strobe generators, I
2 C and SPI
systems with real-time capturing of user and environmental inputs with minimal delay or error. This means mobile devices will be able to deliver media-rich experi- ences via movement, travel direction, location and other interactions within the environment.
The small size of the new FPGAs supports advanced functions such as IrDA, barcode emulation and service LED, amongst others in a single chip with available logic for additional customer defined functions.
The FPGAs have the facility to add and/or customise sensor management functions and capabilities using a single platform that can be used across different designs. The new additions include the iCE40LM 4K, iCE40LM 2K, iCE40LM 1K FPGAs and consume very little power, just under 1mW in active mode.
The company advises, this product line will also rective a new 16-ball WLCSP (wafer-level chip- scale) package for both FPGA ranges to help drive down the footprint of this family. Lattice Semiconductor
www.latticesemi.com/iCE40
XMOS partnership delivers programmable SoC products
XMOS has recently launched its xCORE-XA range of eXtended Architecture xCORE devices. These products are a combina- tion of the company’s config- urable multicore microcontroller technology and ultra-low-power ARM Cortex-M3 processor. This development comes as
New DCR sensing controller
output ripple voltage in high current applications.
A current-mode dual output synchronous step-down DC/DC controller has been released by Linear Technology Corporation that enables the use of very low DC resistance (DCR) power inductors, achieved by enhanc- ing the current-sense signal. Power inductor DCRs down to 0.2milliohms can be utilised to maximise converter efficiency (up to 95 percent), increase power density and reduce the
Electronics NOVEMBER 2013
This new DCR sensing tech- nique also reduces the switching jitter normally associated with low DCR resistance applications. DCR temperature compensation maintains a constant and accu- rate current limit threshold over a broad temperature range. The LTC3774 works in conjunction with external power train devices such as Power Blocks and DrMOS, as well as discrete N-channel MOSFETs and associated gate drivers, enabling flexible design configu- rations. The device operates over an input voltage range of 4.5V to 38V and produces a fixed output voltage from 0.6V to 3.5V. Linear Technology
www.linear.com
the result of a partnership between XMOS, and Silicon Labs. Users can enjoy high-level soft- ware for device configuration with all the interfaces and peripherals needed for design, while at the same time re-using existing ARM binary code and ultra-low energy peripherals. There is also the ability to add real-time data-plane plus control processing and DSP blocks, using multiples of these processor cores; with the ARM available to run larger control plane processing software such as communication protocol stacks, standard graphics libraries, or complex monitoring systems.
These devices offer a low-cost solution that uses ultra-low- energy and are programmable completely in C-code.
As a result of this technology development it is no longer just a case of choosing between power hungry, programmable logic devices, inflexible fixed-function alternatives, or traditional micro- controllers that lack computing power and are constrained by a hardware-defined peripheral set. This architecture provides flexi- ble energy management modes requiring less than 1 micro Amp of current. Xmos
www.xmos.com
The Intel Galileo development board
Mouser Electronics, Inc. is now taking pre-orders for Intel’s Galileo development board, based on the company’s Quark Application Processor. The microcon- troller board uses Intel’s Quark SoC X1000 Processor, which is a 32-bit Intel Pentium-class system on a chip (SoC). Design features include hardware and software pin-compatibility with Arduino shields and accessory boards that plug into the board for extended capability. The board has several PC industry
standard I/O ports and features to expand native usage and capabilities beyond the Arduino shield ecosystem. A full sized mini-PCI Express slot, 100Mb Ethernet port, microSD slot, RS-232 serial port, USB Host port, USB Client Port, and 8MByte NOR Flash memory come standard on the board. The Galileo system uses the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to create programs called ‘sketches’. To run a sketch on the board, you just have to connect a power supply, connect Galileo's USB Client port to your computer, and upload the sketch using the IDE interface.
The sketch runs on the Galileo board and communicates with the Linux kernel in the board firmware using the Arduino I/O adapter. Mouser Electronics
www.mouser.com
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