So You Want To Design For Low Power...

Low power has been a primary design goal for years now, and there’s no sign of that changing anytime soon. Having a low power requirement places significant additional constraints on a design—ones that would ordinarily be secondary or non-existent. Often, a simple oversight in programming a part can lead to huge losses in battery life. This article covers some of the key aspects of designing low-power embedded devices. Much of the discussion will focus on microcontroller-based design, as this is fairly representative of a broad set of low-power applications. CONTINUE 

Altium Designer... PCB Designer Shangri-La?

There is a constant industry drive to advance and evolve EDA tools, including their PCB schematic and layout packages. Mentor Graphics and Cadence have traditionally “owned” the market, and most designers are accustomed to their tools. However, these tools have their quirks and limitations. If you’re growing tired of these issues and are looking for something new, then read on. CONTINUE 

NUVATION IP UPDATE SATA Host Controller for Altera FPGAs Nuvation is now shipping its SATA I/II Host Controller for Altera Stratix IV FPGAs and is currently preparing a release for Altera Arria IIGX. The design is fully functional in our test suites reading/writing to a variety of SATA-I/II hard disk drives. As this is a relatively new IP core, Nuvation has launched it under our Early Customer Acceptance Test (ECAT) program. The ECAT program provides license discounts and unlimited technical support during the ECAT period. Nuvation’s SATA core features an AHCI v 1.3 interface for standards-compliant 3Gbps performance, as well as an Avalon bus interface for ease of integration. Licensee packages include the Encrypted Source IP, Verilog test benches, Nios II test firmware, detailed user guide, email technical support, and a one-year warranty. Unencrypted Source Code licenses, extended support, extended warranty programs, and design customization services are also available Nuvation’s SATA core reduces PCB real estate and product cost by implementing the controller in spare FPGA resources. The core joins Nuvation’s portfolio of storage IP, which have been implemented in dozens of licensee products including defense, aerospace, medical products, scientific instrumentation, and video security. As an Altera Certified Design Center, Nuvation provides ‘blue-chip’ support from its North American design centers. Nuvation is currently accepting ECAT customer applications. Please contact us at ip@nuvation.com for more information.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES   HIGHLIGHTS OF RECENTLY INTRODUCED, NOTABLE TECHNOLOGIES   TI C674x and OMAP-L138 Floating-Point Processors Texas Instruments’ new floating-point TMS320C674x and OMAP-L13x processors are welcome news for designers who want a floating-point DSP but are dissatisfied with the cost and power of existing processors. These processors are also attractive for fixed-point applications thanks to their new connectivity options and the inclusion of an ARM9 in the dual-core OMAP-L13x. MORE    TechBites Launches Engineering Website TechBites.com provides an open interactive platform where members can obtain high-quality technical content; publish their own content; and interact with colleagues in multiple technical communities, all on one website. MORE

Message from Nuvation's CEO Happy Holidays to our amazing clients & partners! We appreciate your continued support and hope that your businesses are stronger as a result of our relationship. 2009 was a remarkable year. The financial crisis rippled across nearly every sector of our economy and put a damper on new product development. However, the impact on technology markets was less severe than the dot-com crash of 2001-2002, and our business has been steadily growing this year. We hope you are also seeing strong signs of a rebound and renewed growth...    CONTINUE