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Some links of interest: 11/8/2007

News and Views 2/20/07 Tight Integration of Embedded Wins Every Time .

Alain Philippe did a great job with the SAE J1708 Protocol interface for ADS. By tightly integrating silicon and software he built a compliant interface for less than $1 hardware cost that completely outperforms expensive and bulky /module solutions.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 1/17/07 Reports on the early demise of Xscale seem to be dissonant with the realities of design wins.

iPhone is Marvell Xscale. The market confirms what Marvell has said

From Google Alert:

Everything Apple
Intel let it slip that the iPhone uses a Marvell Xscale chip. Intel would know
too, since they used to own this line of chips and sold it to Marvell just ...
http://everythingapple.blogspot.com/

AOL Message Boards -- Apple Computer (AAPL) -- XScale chip in iPhone
It's an Intel chip. Designed by Intel. XScale. An Intel design. Bought by Marvell
6 months ago. An Intel chip now sold by a different company. ...
http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.php?channel=Personal+Finance&boardId=69267&func=6&articleId=264059

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 1/17/07 It is a new year, with old friends!

We have been pleased with Marvell's continuing support for XScale and Monahans . Perhaps virtue is rewarded. Consider this from Electronics Weekly, 10 January.

Marvell does marvels with Intel handset unit (by David Manners)

"Since Marvell bought Intel’s cellular handheld group, the rate of design wins has gone up, investment in R&D has gone up, and the rate of new product introductions has gone up", according to Jeff Krisa, general manager of the group, who went from Intel with the business when it was sold.

What the article goes on to point out is the high value of the variances to the ARM licence that Intel brought forward from Digital dating from the days when ARM was just an Acorn.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 10/27/06 With Linux, Vanilla, made well, is best

Perhaps you noticed: ELC is now folded into OSDL Perhaps this indicative of the tremendous pressure to move to normative, 'familiar' GNU Linux for embedded linux Special dew-dads and bags hung on the side of Linux have been by and large rejected. Normative Linux goes from strength to strength. GNU software and a solid Linux SBC seems to be the solution

It looks to me pretty clear that in the Linux world, the community sets the standards. It does not just adopt them.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 9/13/06 Freescale for Sale- Time for lightweights to bail?

Looks like Freescale Semiconductors will be purchased by private investors. My guess is this, like the Intel/Marvell Xscale asset transfer now underway, is a move toward focus. Expect future promotion of Freescale, and Xscale, will be focused on fewer customers with higher volumes. Freescale development, and Xscale Monahans Development, will probably not enjoy the 'free' distributor based FAE support they once had. OEM's who want fast turn custom designs may want to find a partner further up on the volume curve.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 9/12/06 A twist on RoHS

John Keller, Editor and Chief of Military and Aerospace Electronics has an interesting piece about RoHS lead-free electronics. Apparently, the Military is mandating use of lead based solder.

The reason is that pure tin solder can develop 'whiskers' over time that can short out circuits. Will this cause long term problems for low power devices? I asked Mike Blateau, the ADS specialist on RoHS. The short answer- don't worry about it. The 'wiskering' problem is related to voltage, and low power tends to be low voltage. The 'whiskers' cause problems primarily with analog, tuned circuits which military has aplenty and others have few. Finally, the higher voltage parts Mike selects tend to have wider pitch spacing, minimizing wiskering, and when it happens it typically burns away at first contact, leaving the device to function normally.

Of course, ADS is set up for leaded and no leaded processes as they are needed.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 8/2/06 PXA Who's your Daddy?

Something new in the world of Single Board Computers and Embedded Systems. The popular Intel PXA Product line, the power inside high end PDA's, the Q, Blackberry and so forth- the PXA has been sold from Intel to Marvell. Continuity of supply is expected.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 7/10/06 In Sync

Woody Allen said 90% of life is showing up on time. For a network packet to show up on time, the clock at the source and destination need to by synchronized. For microsecond-level synchronization, this has always been a problem, sometimes mandating a GPS synchronized clock at each distributed CPU. But now, for low cost automation and networking, hardware assisted IEEE 1588 PCS (precision clock synchronization) enables a new class of applications.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 6/21/06 Paper Like Dispalys

We have been tracking the company e-Ink for some time since their display technology is very low power.

Via a supplier in Taiwan, e-Ink have gone commercial for moderate volume OEMs. The current product is a 6” SVGA resolution 2 bit grayscale reflective display that draws about 1 watt during the second it takes to transition, and almost nothing at other times. This is well suited for non-graphic intensive, low power systems using the PXA270 or upcoming Monahans product.

The product is not as cheep as some display technologies, but reasonably priced for the moderate volume OEM. A lower cost 5” SVGA grey scale solution is expected in the coming months.

Target applications are e-books and dictionaries. Sony and some others already have high volume deployments in Asia.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 5/30/06

ATEX Regulations will change the landscape. Many portable devices will require ATEX approval, and this is not easy to do for may forms of display panel. ATEX SBC computers are one issue, but displays often have high voltages and perhaps high temperatures. Issues abound.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 5/19/06 What CPU do People Look For?

Hey, look at the interest in various ARM AND Intel CPU Types

PXA, IXP, ARM9 and Monahans

Looks like Monahans is coming on strong

News and Views 4/4/2006

Big news at ESC today- Monahans PXA comes out of the bag. Time to start hiring. Engineer demand is very cyclical-

Look here to see when resumes contained the term PXA255:

PXA255-Jobs

Now, take at look at PXA270:
Jobs_PXA270

Its hard to stay ahead of the curve. For most, Monahans is somewhere in the future.

Lawrence Ricci
the Embedded Insider

News and Views 3/09/2006

Origami- is it real?

To better understand the MS/Intel world view you might want to read this:

Press Release on Origami

Looks to me that Intel would really like to enable a class of mobile device based on x86; and this would be OK with MS as well. In any case, this is about spin 3 on the mobile x86. I count the second with Intel and one spin with Transmetta. My take is Oragami will be as successful as the the prior spins. ARM/XScale power management will always be 10x better than x86, and XP can not be made mobile by 'additions'

The future is now, PAX270; and Monahans PXA will be even better.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views 3/03/2006

Intel's development continues, keeping the power curve up to drive that flat panel. The newest of these Intel Xscale systems, not yet released for general sales is Monahans. Next Generation PXA development is underway at Applied Data Systems.

Lawrence Ricci

News and Views 2/28/2006

To support our growth, ADS is hiring engineers familiar with the flatpanel world

For emplyment opportunities, click here for details

News and Views- 2/16/2006

We went for it- At the ESC Show ADS will have a wide-screen monitor for our own Digital Signage. Drop by and see a low power PDA-like, RISC system driving HDTV resolution at full motion video. If you get a minute, check out the VideoClientX SingleBoard Computer

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

News and Views- 2/13/2006

Will it ever stop? Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, the rest are investing big time in bigger, better, brighter displays. Look at this post summarizing CES.

But with every billion dollars investing in a market growing at 50%, a half billion of existing plant and equipment is rendered obsolete. Will we start seeing last years HDTV screens rolling out as the HMI for Gas Pumps, In Store Kiosks, and other mundane devices with long product life and more moderate performance demands?

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider

SID 2006
San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
June 4-9, 2006

Key Exhibitor www.applieddata.net

SID 2006 San Francisco, CA, U.S.A. June 4-9, 2006

*Key Exhibitor* www.applieddata.net

SID 2006
San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
June 4-9, 2006

Key Exhibitor www.applieddata.net