Magazine Electro

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CYCLE

FORTNIGHTLY

W W W. N E W E L E C T R O N I C S . C O . U K

JU NIEL 2 0 0 7 2142 A PR

Blast off!

For amateurs and professionals alike, rocketry is challenging, inspiring, educational and – above all else – fun!

Special Report: Start Ups and Spin Offs

Plus: • RoHS one year on • Virtualisation helps developers mix things up • Multicore devices spawn signal processing changes • Serial communications bring FPGA transceiver boost • Lasers hit the spot • Reference board blends in

In Stock and at Your Door

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CONTENTS

John Bradley

12 JUNE 2007 VOL 40 NO 11

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

COVER STORY Rocketry is enabling both the amateur and professional to experience engineering challenges – to infinity and beyond! 14

DIRECTIVES & STANDARDS Getting greener A year after RoHS came into force, its real impact is only just being felt in some sectors.

SYSTEM DESIGN REFERENCE DESIGNS Blending into the project Is this new reference board the shape of things to come?

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INTRA DESIGN

REGULARS Comment Private equity has cash to spare for profitable and stable technology companies. 5

News ST launches Cortex-M3 based mcu. 6 TSMC eases DFM uncertainty at DAC. 8 MEMS device targets industrial motion control. 10 Location feature added to ZigBee chip. 12 ADVANCE IN THE PROFESSION Should you be thinking about an MBA for your career? 49 Appointments

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SPECIAL REPORT

EMBEDDED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT Pick and mix How virtualisation mixes different operating systems on a single hardware platform. 27

START UPS AND SPIN OFFS Investing in innovation How fishing in the same ‘Pond’ helps to provide investment for great ideas.

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SIGNAL PROCESSING Signalling a change A new algorithmic development approach is needed for multicore and fpga coprocessors. 31

PRODUCT NEWS Intra Design

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INTER DESIGN PROGRAMMABLE PLATFORMS Transceiver take up Manufacturers increase transceivers on fpgas to accommodate emerging serial interface standards.

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Is your company producing innovative designs? If so, why not enter the Innovation and Design Excellence Awards? For more information, go to:

OPTOELECTRONICS

Point of interest New optical filtering techniques are enabling one laser to generate three wavelengths. 41

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www.ideawards.co.uk

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COMMENT

PRIVATE EQUITY

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SE change?

Private equity companies still have more than enough cash to spare.

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ow much private equity is there in the world? Without putting a number to it, the answer is ‘lots’. And the investment firms still have a more than a bit of loose change, at least judging by recent activity. A leading Silicon Valley news source claims that 121 private equity buyouts have been completed this year already, with a value of $109.9billion. Last year, 299 deals were struck, worth $94.8bn. And there are still quite a few deals bubbling away. There’s an $8bn acquisition of networking specialist Avaya in process and Palm has just sold a quarter of its stock in exchange for $325million – much needed, apparently. But the big rumour swirling around is whether Cadence could be the next private equity target. The company has been subject to acquisition rumours over the recent past, but linking it with private equity investors is a new twist. You have the feeling that Cadence will be a big ticket investment, should it happen. Under Mike Fister, the company has seen its capitalisation rise to $6.5bn – and the acquisition rumours boosted that by 6% overnight.

Graham Pitcher, Editor [email protected]

Why the interest in technology, however? The answer is that the sector is now maturing – if not matured. Early stage investors are used to the ‘white knuckle’ ride of getting companies off the ground and the accompanying risk. The private equity investors who ‘swallowed’ NXP and Freescale, for example, are more interested in a steady revenue stream, along with the opportunity for a little ‘asset stripping’. So, while there are profitable and stable technology companies, there will be interest from private equity.

Editor Graham Pitcher Associate Editor Mike Richardson US Correspondent Paul Dempsey ([email protected]) Contributing Editors David Boothroyd, Louise Joselyn, Vanessa Knivett, Roy Rubenstein Art Editor David Walters Illustrator Phil Holmes Sales Director Tricia Bodsworth Business Development Director Lee Nye Circulation Manager Chris Jones ([email protected]) Production Controller Derek Gill Publisher Peter Ring Represented in North America by Huson International Media (www.husonusa.com) West Coast: Matt Lane ([email protected]), 1999 South Bascom Ave, Suite 1000, Campbell CA 95008 Tel: 408 879 6666 East Coast: Michael Andrews ([email protected]), 350 5th Avenue, Suite 2719, New York NY 10018 Tel: 212 268 3344 Represented in Japan by Shinano International: Kazuhiko Tanaka, Akasaka Kyowa Bldg, 1-6-14 Akasaka, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 107-0052 Tel: +81(0)3 3584 6420 New Electronics Tel: 01322 221144 Fax: 01322 221188 www.newelectronics.co.uk email: [email protected] ISSN 0047-9624 New Electronics, incorporating Electronic Equipment News and Electronics News, is published0 twice monthly by Findlay Publications Ltd, Hawley Mill, Hawley Road, Dartford, Kent, DA2 7TJ Copyright 2007 Findlay Publications. Annual subscription (22 issues) for readers in the UK is £105, overseas is £160, and airmail is £196. Composition by JJays, Unit 4, Baron Ct, Chandlers Way, Temple Farm Ind. Est., Southend on Sea, SS2 5SE. Printed in England by Wyndeham Heron Ltd, Heybridge, CM9 4NW.

Moving on? If you change jobs or your company moves, please contact [email protected] to continue receiving your free copy of New Electronics.

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FRONT PAGE NEWS

MICROCONTROLLERS

ST targets 8 and 16bit 32bit micro launch to boost UK design opportunities. Graham Pitcher reports.

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TMicroelectronics has announced a new family of 32bit flash microcontrollers based on the ARM CortexM3 core. According to the company, the combination of high performance, low power and low cost will make the range attractive to existing 8 and 16bit users looking to upgrade. Frederic Gaillard, an ST microcontroller product marketing engineer, said

the objective of the STM32 range was to bring new degrees of freedom to developers by offering good power efficiency, a good peripheral set and high levels of integration. “But a good micro starts with a good engine,” he claimed, “so we chose the Cortex-M3 core because it offer 1.25Dhrystone MIPS/MHz.” ST says the devices in the family run

from a supply between 2 and 3.6V, drawing a maximum of 36mA at 72MHz with all peripherals clocked. With peripherals off, power consumption is 22mA and standby mode draws 2mA. There will be two lines in the family. The Performance range will run at 72MHz, while the Access range will run at 36MHz. Both feature up to 128k of flash, but offer different sram capacities.

First MicroTCA win?

High precision, low power

Motorola has claimed the industry’s first MicroTCA design win for communications computing applications. Under the deal, Hypercom will integrate Motorola’s Centellis 1000 series communications server into its transaction network products designed for use in transport point of sale transactions. “Centellis 1000 series server will help us accelerate delivery of our high security network transaction products to new markets by providing an advanced and system oriented platform for next generation POS networking products,” said Neil Hudd, Hypercom’s senior vp for global product development and marketing.

Intersil has launched a range of low power, high accuracy analogue devices. According to Simon Prutton, general manager of the company’s analog and mixed signal products business: “We have identified many unsatisfied needs for products that deliver improved accuracy over temperature and time. The first of these parts are launching under the pinPOINT name.” The pinPOINT range will include precision voltage references, op amps, comparators, instrumentation amplifiers and current sensing amplifiers.

WEEE registration ‘on track’ With the 1 July WEEE deadline approaching, the Environment Agency believes most major producers, rebranders and importers of household electrical and electronic equipment have signed up with an approved compliance scheme. Liz Parkes, the Agency’s Head of Waste, said: “Initial data ... indicates the major companies are signed up.” But some smaller businesses obligated under the WEEE Regulations still haven’t registered. “Our advice to these businesses is to get into a scheme as soon as possible ... if you leave it too late, you risk getting prosecuted,” she warned. • For more on Directives and Standards, see p23

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UK manager Ollie Althorpe believes the part boasts specifications that will be attractive to UK designers. “It’s a world leading device; battery capable and powerful. It hits where the UK market needs it to hit and gives our small and medium sized companies the ability to tackle new applications – for instance, the ability to run high speed displays directly.”

Back illumination boost

Medical approval Plexus UK has been accredited to ISO13485, the quality standard for medical device design. ISO13485 takes a process approach to quality management. Andy Allen, Plexus’ vp Europe said: “The medical device market is fundamental to our business in Europe. The design, development and manufacture of devices for this market requires an extremely high process standard and the award of ISO13485 demonstrates our commitment to the regulatory requirements related to the design of medical devices.”

Imaging specialist e2v is claiming a ‘dramatic’ improvement in the sensitivity of devices aimed at medium volume applications through the use of back illumination. The company says it has combined its sensor expertise with the circuit layer transfer technology of Soitec subsidiary Tracit Technologies. “e2v’s sensor breakthrough is the result of our optimised manufacturing processes and Tracit’s expertise,” said Jean-Philippe Lamarcq, Imaging Business Unit General Manager at e2v’s Grenoble site. “We are proud to be first in the medium volume professional image sensor market to offer this innovative solution.”

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>IHI6GIH=:G: ;>C9L=6INDJC::96IJ@#9><>@:N#8DB

Access to more than a million products now available online!*

uk.digikey.com 0.800.587.0991 • 0.800.904.7786

*New product added daily. © 2007 Digi-Key Corporation

701 Brooks Ave. South • Thief River Falls, MN 56701 • USA

FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER £100!

ALL PRICES ARE IN BRITISH POUND STERLING AND INCLUDE DUTIES.

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US NEWS

DAC REPORT

Manufacturing clarity TSMC moves to end DFM uncertainty. Paul Dempsey reports from DAC in San Diego.

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eading foundry TSMC has unveiled its latest steps to reduce uncertainty over meeting design for manufacture (DFM) requirements. Its Reference Flow 8.0, aimed at designs up to 45nm and unveiled at last week’s Design Automation Conference, now includes an automatic DFM design fix feature. “We have been in a ‘green-amberred’ kind of situation and obviously

designers have wanted more clarity. It’s important that we are now really offering that in terms of physical DFM,” said Tom Quan, deputy director for design service marketing at TSMC. At the same time, the foundry has launched its Active Accuracy Assurance initiative, which will be based on marrying and intense data mining of its manufacturing data with the tools supplied by

partner EDA vendors and in house software used by major clients. Both Reference Flow 8.0 and the AAA scheme mark a new phase in an often tense relationship between TSMC and its clients and eda partners over the degree of visibility it has offered into its proprietary manufacturing processes. “There are still issues over how the

Resource nightmare?

The 32nm node is threatening to turn into a engineering resource nightmare, according to speakers at DAC last week. Aart de Geus, chairman and eda of Synopsys (above), noted: “We are seeing the early designs in 32nm already.” However, he also expects a significant lag to persist between the introduction and widespread adoption of growing and upcoming process nodes. According to De Geus, the gap between initial significant activity in 65nm and then 45nm had ‘clocked at exactly 24 months’, but he added the ‘mainstream’ was then lagging behind these power users by up to four years. Even heavily resourced companies see 32nm as another step along a difficulty curve growing exponentially. Kazu Yamada, vp and general manager of Custom SoC solutions at NEC Electronics America, said an internal analysis indicated that a 32nm design undertaken by a ‘typical’ team of 40 engineers could take 10 years to complete.

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data is interpreted and imported into tools,” said Rajeev Madhavan, ceo of TSMC partner Magma Design Automation. “The good thing is that the question is now more about the use of the data rather than what we do and do not have.” Both Quan and Madhavan said that further refinements to the DFM component of TSMC’s main flow are required in terms of electrical DFM.

ESL gets IP boost

IBM releases SoI kit IBM is to release its silicon on insulator (SoI) technology into the broader foundry market. A 45nm design kit for SOI asics will be released in early 2008, anticipating the first tape outs towards the end of next year and a volume ramp during 2009. SoI has, so far, been confined to high performance microprocessors, but Big Blue will now be aiming at the consumer, aerospace, defence, storage and multimedia markets, said Richard Busch, director for asic products and services in IBM’s Global Engineering Solutions division. The CU-45HP custom asic offering will also include the SOI embedded dram unveiled at ISSCC earlier this year, and be available through all partners in its Common Platform foundry alliance (also Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung). IBM is also launching its first silicon germanium process incorporating through silicon via technology – where vias can be used the ground plane and which also has potential applications for stacked packages (available this Summer). Latest process additions are rounded out with a low leakage offering for handset design (available later this year) and a cost optimised SiGe design kit (available now).

Two major IP providers have released system level (ESL) models of key products addressing obstacles to implementing abstracted methodologies. Sonics and ARM are now distributing models for interconnect and on chip communication IP alongside traditional RTL versions. Such models would previously have been created on a third party basis. ARM’s C++ model offering within the AMBA Adaptive Verification IP package was described as a consequence of work it had already undertaken. “We need to create the verfication IP ourselves to ensure the quality before we release a product, so it makes sense to make it more widely available,” said Rob Kaye, ARM IP portfolio manager.

Rocket men Start up GateRocket unveiled its RocketDrive ‘device native’ verification modules. “FPGA vendors make huge tools investments, but the cap has been in allowing simulation, rather than emulation. (We’re) allowing the engineer to do validation and test before going to production,” said GateRocket president and ceo Dave Orecchio. The company provides Linux PC modules featuring Altera Stratix 2 or Xilinx Virtex 4 devices. The verification engineer can then place any portion of the fpga design into this drive and run simulation software from almost all major vendors.

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Bidirectional current monitors that make sense. In measurement and control, analog is everywhere.

AD8210 Bidirectional Current Sense Amplifier • –2 V to +65 V operating common-mode voltage range • –40°C to +125°C operating temperature range • 120 dB typical CMRR at dc • 10 ppm/°C typical gain drift • Gain of 20 • 500 kHz bandwidth • Price: $1.79/1k

Precision over temperature—guaranteed With our new AD8210 bidirectional current sense amplifier, you get the industry’s most integrated, flexible, and accurate current sense monitor. With features like ⫾8 ␮V/°C maximum offset drift and 20 ppm/°C maximum gain drift guaranteed across the entire –40°C to +125°C temperature range, it represents a milestone in precision current sense monitoring. The AD8210 improves your ability to meet your error budget and to control more precisely a wide range of loads in communications, industrial, and medical applications. Two other bidirectional monitors—the AD8205 (gain of 50 V/V) and the AD8206 (gain of 20 V/V)—offer 50 kHz operation and excellent performance over temperature.

500

All three amplifiers feature an innovative ratiometric output offset architecture that inherently improves the accuracy of your ADC and your system. With a typical 5 V single-supply, each device can be configured for both bidirectional and unidirectional current sensing. Excellent output accuracy is maintained throughout the input voltage range through the use of a proprietary thin film precision network.

400 300 200 100 0 –100 –200 –300 –400 –500

–40 –30 –20 –10

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For more information on ADI’s current sense amplifiers and monitors, please visit www.analog.com/currentsense-EU

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NEWS

MOTION SENSING

Sensing opportunities Motion sensor targets high end devices. Graham Pitcher reports.

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n advanced motion sensor from Analog Devices is set to address applications previously served by more expensive parts. In a move which extends its iSensor range, the ADIS16355 inertial measurement unit delivers performance and functionality previously reserved for defence, aerospace and other high end applications at approximately one tenth of the cost.

Bob Scannell, iSensor business development manager, noted: “If you look at what’s typically shipped, it’s usually sensor and signal conditioning. We’ve added calibration, which is a big thing for industrial customers.” Although the six degree of freedom unit measures 2.3cm per side, its competitors are much bigger ‘and cost a few thousand dollars’, said Scannell. The

‘355 and its sister product the ‘350 cost less than $359. Ease of use is a key benefit, Scannell contended. “All key parameters can be tuned using the spi port,” he noted, “including dynamic range and filtering.” A wide range of motion control applications will be targeted for the parts, including robotics, platform stabilisation and artificial limbs.

Right by design The introduction of Simulink Design Verifier by The MathWorks will allow developers of embedded systems to obtain test cases to satisfy industry standard metrics, whilst uncovering design errors earlier in the development process. “Model Based Design is becoming a widely used approach for embedded system development, moving from R&D and proof of concept projects into production programs,” said Paul Barnard, marketing director of design automation at The MathWorks. Simulink Design Verifier, which generates tests and proves design properties for Simulink and Stateflow models incorporates the Prover Plug-In from Prover Technology, which searches possible execution paths of a model for test cases and counter examples.

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Camcon eyes global expansion Cambridge Consultants has made three senior management changes and unveiled plans to expand global operations over the next five years, creating more than 200 new jobs. CEO Dr Brian Moon has relocated to the company’s US office, where he will accelerate expansion in medtech and wireless communications consulting. Meanwhile, Alan Richardson has been promoted to deputy ceo and will concentrate efforts on growing the UK office. Richardson will be succeeded as cto by Ray Edgson, who retains his role as ventures director.

PCB and simulation solution to improve design quality

A need for speed Integrating analyser, generator and RNC simulator, the MS269X series of signal analysers from Anritsu is said

to meet the speed and functionality needs of next generation mobile communications test systems.

Synopsys and Zuken have announced a partnership to develop an integrated pcb design and simulation product. The solution, which will combine Synopsys’ Saber Simulator and Zuken’s CR-5000 System Designer, will deliver a platform capable of system level electronic design, simulation and verification. “Working with Synopsys to integrate our design and simulation environments, we can improve the quality and reliability of product design. This partnership can make the Zuken solution one of the most comprehensive pcb design environments available,” said Zuken’s European general manager Gerhard Lipski.

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Industry defined. Analog Devices designed. In energy metering, analog is everywhere.

ICs for energy metering designs ADE71xx and ADE75xx families: Energy metering core, MCU, flash memory, LCD driver, RTC, and intelligent battery management ADF7021: Narrow-band transceivers extend range, resist interference ADM2483: Isolated RS-485 transceiver supports 500 kbps data rate and 256 nodes on bus

a

Smarter on-chip integration offers superior performance and value The ideal energy measurement ICs for LCD display meters are here. Our ADE71xx and ADE75xx families represent a technology innovation that offers meter manufacturers and power utilities: • • • • •

Intelligent battery control LCD contrast control with low dc offset Improved meter reliability Ultralow battery mode power consumption Lower BOM cost with greater design simplicity

Blackfin® Processor: Maximizes performance and efficiency in control processing and signal processing applications

Analog Devices smartly integrates leading analog and mixed-signal ICs with application-optimized functionality for unequalled design features. We offer a broad portfolio of energy metering solutions, with an integration road map for continued reliability, size, cost, and power improvements.

ADE7758: 3-phase energy measurement IC performs active, reactive, and apparent measurement rms calculations

With signal processing ICs inside 175 million meters, Analog Devices is the industry’s most trusted IC supplier. To learn more about our energy metering ICs, visit our website.

www.analog.com/energy-EU Tel: +44 (0)1932 358 530 Fax: +32 (0)11 300 635 ©2007 Analog Devices, Inc. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective owners.

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NEWS

TRACKING CHIP

Where are you? Location hardware means ZigBee chip knows its position. Graham Pitcher reports.

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esponding to a perceived need for tracking abilities within a ZigBee network, Texas Instruments has launched the CC2431, said to be the first SoC solution to boast a hardware location engine. Targeted at industrial and consumer applications, the part is an upgrade to the existing CC2430, devel-

oped by Chipcon before its recent acquisition by TI. Product marketing engineer Eric Markman said the CC2431 calculates its position by determining the strength of signals received from nearby ZigBee nodes. A mobile device can use this feature to determine its location or a static device can be tracked. He added:

“Potential applications include asset tracking and location. In a hospital, for example, the approach can be used to control where expensive and important equipment is stored. But it could also be used as for patient tracking, which can’t be done effectively with gps.” Accuracy is better than 5m, depending upon the number of nearby nodes.

The third generation of non volatile fpgas from Lattice is said to represent the first such range produced on a 90nm process. The XP2 family offers up to 40k look up tables and adds dedicated dsp blocks whilst boosting performance by 25% and, according to Lattice, dropping the price per function by up to 50%. The parts use Fujitsu’s 90nm embedded flash technology, providing such benefits as ‘instant on’. Claiming that most applications need some form of dsp, the parts come with up to 12 sysDSP blocks. The programmable blocks boast pipelined MAC functions, with up to 36 x 36 capability.

Synplicity acquires asic prototyper

BAA signs radar contract UK based radar systems specialist Navtech Radar has won a contract for its W800 Automatic Surveillance system from BAA. The system will be installed at Heathrow, where it will provide continuous automatic surveillance of areas within the airport’s perimeter. Navtech W800 is a high frequency all weather radar, scanning through 360°. It automatically controls CCTV

FPGAs get boost

cameras to allow intruders to be identified and tracked and can detect objects up to 800m away in all weather conditions. “This is a landmark contract for Navtech,” said managing director Andrew Rosenthal. “There is no question that BAA is our most prestigious UK customer to date.” The contract has been awarded following a successful four month trial of the system at Gatwick airport last year.

Synplicity has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Swedish asic prototyping specialist HARDI Electronics. According to the company, the asic prototyping market is one the fastest growing segments of the eda industry, and the acquisition makes it the leader in this part of the asic verification market. Gary Meyers, Synplicity’s ceo, said: “This is a major strategic move for Synplicity. We will be able to immediately leverage our existing asic verification products by selling them together with the HARDI asic prototyping boards.”

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Intersil Battery Management High Performance Analog

Stop Killing Your Battery.

Battery Chargers

Intersil Battery Management ICs deliver the performance and protection your designs need. Intersil provides the power management solution of choice in four of the world’s top five cell phone OEMs. Our portfolio includes everything from the world’s smallest full-featured battery charger ICs to patented FlexiHash+ battery authentication ICs. Whether your concern is size, voltage range, or protection, we’ve got what you’re looking for.

Multiple Cell Li+/Polymer Battery Chargers ISL6251 ISL6251A ISL6253 ISL6255 ISL6255A ISL6257 ISL88731

Charging Safety ISL9200 ISL9209 ISL9209B ISL9209C ISL9212 ISL9212A ISL9212B

Single Cell Li+/Polymer Battery Chargers ISL6291 ISL6292 ISL6292C ISL6292D ISL6294 ISL6297 ISL6298 ISL6299A ISL9203A ISL9204 ISL9214

Authentication ISL6296 ISL9206

Fuel Gauges ISL6295

Go to www.intersil.com for samples, datasheets and support

Intersil – Switching Regulators for precise power delivery. ©2007 Intersil Americas Inc. All rights reserved. The following are trademarks or services marks owned by Intersil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the USA and/or other countries: Intersil (and design) and i (and design).

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All systems... GO! For amateur and professional alike, rocketry is challenging, inspiring, educational and – above all else – fun! By Mike Richardson.

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S

tart the countdown: Five … Race into space tourism could soon be a reality. Four … Amateur rocketry is fascinating and much more challenging than it first appears. Three … Hobbyist rocketeers are developing electronics that parallel those used in the professional world. Two … It’s a great way to introduce children to a range of engineering based disciplines. One … Not forgetting the immense fun and enjoyment it provides both adults and children. Blast off! To really get off the ground however, it’s worth tracing the history of the UK’s rocket technology which first came to prominence with the work of William Congreve during the early 19th Century. At this point Britain led the world in rocket technology but fell behind in the 1930s when liquid propellant technology was developed in Nazi Germany. “After World War II, Britain developed a series of rocket engines using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidiser,” explained British Rocketry Oral History Programme (BROHP) director and historian David Wright. “This technology - developed by Walther in Germany - led to the Gamma engines used by the UK’s Black Arrow rocket for launching the Prospero satellite.” Wright claims that British rocket technology went into decline after the decision to cancel the UK developed Blue Streak and buy missiles for nuclear deterrent instead. Without the kind of subsidy provided to other countries, the UK struggled to support a civilian launcher programme and was finally cancelled in 1971. However, even then some politicians argued that it would be more profitable for the UK to develop satellites rather than rockets. The Astrium facility at Stevenage which used to manufacture Blue Streak now produces some of the largest and most expensive satellites ever built. If the UK had been less focused on cold war defence issues it might have developed a profitable commercial satellite launcher.

But our interest in rocketry didn’t end there and today, amateur rocketry provides many interesting challenges to anyone with a technical bent. Organisations such as the United Kingdom Rocketry Association (UKRA) promote and represent high, medium power and model rocketry for amateur research, educational and recreational purposes. Equally, the Mars Advanced Rocket Society (MARS) is funded through private donations and corporate sponsorship and strives ‘to put Britain back in space’ through the development of rockets and related technologies. Launching rockets up to 32,000ft in America’s Black Rock desert, MARS is a prime example of people getting together and sharing knowledge. Aspiring rocketeers can gain valuable exposure to the engineering skills of designing and building airframes capable of surviving rocket flight. It helps to enforce the message that engineering can be educational and ‘fun’ for adults and children alike. Associations such as the East Anglian Rocketry Society (EARS) provide opportunity to meet fellow enthusiasts, share information and have an enjoyable time flying handmade creations. EARS’ club secretary, Mike Roberts says flyers at the club come from a variety of backgrounds. “We have folks who discovered Estes model rockets, look for somewhere to fly them, find our club and get hooked. We meet teachers that now use rocketry in the classroom to teach science and engineering, and one has got so interested that he’s taken his experiences back to college to provide new and challenging projects for students.” Meanwhile, the formation of the Purley Amateur Rocketry Society (PARS) came by pure chance rather than design. A boy’s model rocket birthday present for his dad set them on a course that became a focal point for bringing friends together, getting outdoors and having fun.

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COVER STORY

ROCKETEERING

Under the guidance of the ‘dad’, Howard Smith, his son Oliver and friends Daniel Goldsmith and Kes Daood use SpaceCAD to design and build rockets, and with the PARS motto ‘blast into open skies’, it sure beats the kind of school design technology lessons where the limit of ambition seems to stop at coat hooks and wine racks. “Boys need inspiration to go forward in technology, and model rockets is one way forward,” stated Smith. “If you consider what they are doing at school in woodwork or metalwork, they’re usually making candlestick holders. Schools could be more ambitious and I hope that technology teachers are motivated to do something more interesting. My aim is to try and get the boys enthused by building things that involve technology. Sometimes you need to bring them back down to earth by telling them that they have to simulate the rocket first to ensure stability, but they quickly learn engineering principles.” Alongside the educational aspect of design technology Smith says the boys also develop a responsible attitude when handling rocket motors and work as a team to conduct the required safety checks before, during and after a launch. University of Bristol third year electrical and electronic engineering undergraduate, Niall Oswald feels that many people are drawn to rocketry by the ‘whoosh-bang’ factor. “For most it’s recreational, but involves learning new skills and obtaining personal achievements - not just in designing electronics, but in construction and propulsion.” Electronics design is one area where rocketeers can push the envelope to the point where it meets the orbit of professional rocketry. Onboard electronics can involve home built and designed hardware, specialist commercial equipment used for flight computers/altimeters to log acceleration, air pressure and fire ejection charges to recover the rocket; timers to time staging events on multistage rockets; gps to record flight profiles and aid rocket recovery; telemetry systems to down link data during flight; video systems to either record onboard or downlink video of the flight; tracking systems to locate lost rockets and experimental payloads. Airborne Engineering’s director, James Macfarlane is intent on ‘boldly going’ where no rocketeer has gone before. “I’ve prototyped the active stabili-

Left: PARS’ Oliver Smith and friends get ready to ‘blast into open skies’. Centre: Mission control. On the launch pad at one of the many rocketry events held throughout the UK.

sation of a rocket by getting it to fly without any fins and hover by moving the motor around.” The first iteration comprised a homemade gyroscope built from a bicycle dynamo rotor magnet, a propelling pencil and opto sensors to detect its position and trigger the driving coils. This has successfully evolved throughout various revisions into a dynamically stabilised rocket. Mike Bessant runs an instrumentation consultancy since leaving his post as director of the Intelligent Instrumentation Group at Cranfield University. “I use a rocket powered by a cluster of engines to lift a 200grams instrumentation payload which transmits real-time video and a number of sensor channels over a 2.4GHz telemetry link to a ground station for recording,” he stated. “The airborne video is not only very entertaining, but can be correlated with sensor data displayed on a pc. This instrumentation is a proven tool for post flight analysis.” For high power rocketry, Oswald uses a ‘G-Wiz MC’ altimeter/accelerometer to perform deployment of parachute, report peak altitude and log altitude/acceleration data. Data logging shows the acceleration experienced by the rocket at lift-off. “It’s quite something to see that a rocket you’ve built in your garage has pulled 40g or accelerated from 0-500mph in just over a second!”

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Below: Ready for launch. Niall Oswald’s rocket contains self built electronics, including a datalogger/prototype altimeter, a full functioned altimeter with deployment control and a general purpose timer.

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COVER STORY

ROCKETEERING

Above: Blast off! There aren’t many hobbies where you can break Mach 1 accelerating to hundreds of miles an hour in fractions of a second, pulling 50g or more! Below: Electronics design is one area where rocketeers can push the envelope to the point where it meets the orbit of professional rocketry.

Oswald has designed and built three devices: a data logger/prototype altimeter, a fully functioned altimeter with deployment control and a simple general purpose timer - all based on various members of the PICAXE microcontroller family. He says the ability to reprogram without removing the chip from the pcb speeds code development and testing. “The prototype consisted of a Motorola MPX series barometric pressure sensor, a signal conditioning circuit, a PICAXE-18X microcontroller and two 256kbit eeproms. The PICAXE provides an a/d and i2c routines for accessing the eeprom, so in essence a working altimeter can be built with minimal components beyond the pressure sensor, PIC and eeprom. I learnt a lot about op amps and filtering through building this prototype.” Two main obstacles are robustness and rocket recovery. Rockets come down under parachute which means its descent can drift some distance especially when it may have been over 10,000ft high. Often rockets land on arable farms where crops can hide its location so any electronic aid to help find the rocket is welcome. Roberts sums up robustness in a nutshell: “There aren’t many hobbies where you can break Mach 1 accelerating from 0 to 100s of miles an hour in fractions of a second pulling 50g or more! If you don’t build robust electronics, you will lose components from the pcb. Hybrid motors can have high levels of vibration and I have seen commercial switches shaken to pieces by hybrid flights.”

Amateur and professional parallels Technical parallels exist between amateur and professional rocketry. Oswald says the fuel propulsion ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) is used in amateur solid rocket motors and Space Shuttle boosters. To infinity and beyond, the future of rocketry presents challenges for more exploration and development, and there is scope for the enthusiastic amateur to invent a new technology or exploit a new market.

16

“One of the applications that really excites me is planetary missions,” said Macfarlane. “This is where the cutting edge of electronics meets the final frontier of rocket technology. Miniaturisation of components and systems has made it cheaper and easier to do amazing science like sending probes to Mars or performing comet rendezvous.” According to Wright, British engineers have never entirely lost interest in Space flight and a joint venture by BAe and Rolls Royce introduced the HOTOL programme in the 1980s with what remains one of the most complete designs for an orbital Spaceplane. “The HOTOL programme ended when the Government declined further investment,” explained Reaction Engines’ managing director, Alan Bond. Bond intends to build a launch vehicle that can take off, fly like Concorde, go into orbit, return to earth and the next day do the same again. “We’re well on the way to achieving this aim and if we succeed, people will see it as an embodiment of these aspirations. We named it Skylon (pictured above) after the 1951 Festival of Britain structure. Skylon was seen as a symbol of Britain’s technological, political and cultural aspirations.” His hope is that it will transform space transportation. “Skylon will have tremendous scientific and cultural impact, not only on Britain, but the whole world.” Could Bond and his team help the UK reach for the stars and launch rocket technology into the next generation of space flight?

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Intersil Video Drivers High Performance Analog

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Supply Voltage (V)

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375mV

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Intersil – Amplify your performance with advanced signal processing. ©2007 Intersil Americas Inc. All rights reserved. The following are trademarks or services marks owned by Intersil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the USA and/or other countries: Intersil (and design) and i (and design).

nele-jun-12-07-p017 1

31/5/07 14:09:48

Free development boards for Power-over-Ethernet prototyping Your PowerNet board features: Freescale’s MCF52235 microcontroller with 256kB of Flash and 32kB of SRAM

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nele-jun-12-07-p018 1

5/6/07 09:53:41

Spin.qxd

6/6/07

4:01 pm

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START UPS AND SPIN OFFS

SPECIAL REPORT

Investing in innovation B

ack in 2000, industry veteran Peter Claydon and wireless ‘guru’ Dr Doug Pulley joined forces as picoChip to create a solution to a digital signal processing need they had identified. “We had developed the business concept and technology over a period of five or six months,” said Claydon. “We were using our own money and knew from the start that we could not afford to continue for more than a year before securing investment, so it was at this very early stage that we got in touch with Pond Ventures.”

High risk, but big rewards According to Pond’s Richard Irving: “The market for dsps is huge – about $8billion a year and growing. But for hard tasks, current architectures have run out of steam. What the dsp market needs is a powerful engine that allows software to be written and then modified easily at a later date. “The big companies generally can’t afford to develop and launch a new architecture: it is too risky and expensive,” he contended, “and takes away resources

Start ups fish in the same ‘Pond’. By Graham Pitcher. from existing product lines.” Because of these market pressures, this problem has been addressed primarily by start ups – companies like Chameleon, Morphics, BOPS, Equator, Systolix and Chromatic Research have all taken up the challenge. “Pond was naturally sceptical when picoChip claimed to have solved the problem, but it did a great job at convincing us that a key hardware innovation made it much easier to write software,” continued Irving. “We realised a breakthrough on this scale could build a very successful company.” Pond was serious about picoChip from the beginning. At the time, due diligence for an early stage investment normally comprised an hour long phone call. However, Irving took four key picoChip staff to meet prospective customers. These intensive visits, which included all day meetings with technolo-

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gists, were a baptism of fire for Claydon and Dr Pulley. This approach was useful, not only to picoChip, but also to Pond as it helped to clarify whether it was going to invest. For picoChip, it meant its strategy and focus became clear at an early stage. “This is what Pond is good at,” said Rupert Baines, picoChip’s vp of marketing. “It has the ability and the address book that can get start ups into places they would never be able to get alone.” After completion of due diligence, but while the lawyers were finishing the paperwork, a local group of engineers was let go by a US company. picoChip’s founders knew them and wanted to hire them – but the money was not yet available. “It was frustrating”, Claydon recalled. “We had 12 experienced engineers we wanted to employ, but although they wanted to work with us, many had other job offers. We discussed this with Pond and, one Friday evening, two Pond partners came to Bath, looked them in the eye and assured them of Pond’s commitment.” As a result, all 12 decided to join and several started work immediately,

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START UPS AND SPIN OFFS

They had a great idea Stewart Graham, pictured above, was working with Renesas in a senior rf marketing position, but had started thinking about what to do next. “I’d met a number of people in start ups and was impressed with their sparkle,” he said. “It inspired me to look into it a bit further.”

SPECIAL REPORT

One of the first things he did was to get in touch with Pond to present some of his ideas, but they didn’t work out. “But we built our relationship over a couple of years, discussing ideas and I got involved with due diligence with some of their other projects.” Meanwhile, Air’s cofounder David Tester, had come to Pond with his own ideas. “Pond liked him and saw some potential,” Graham continued, “so they introduced us. We worked together for a couple of months, then went back to Pond with a business plan, which they agreed and funded.” Air was founded in May 2006, since when it has recruited seven people and now has plans to expand further. Graham noted that, from a very early stage – almost the Powerpoint stage – Pond recognised his and Tester’s marketing and engineering expertise. “That’s the part we’re trying to do,” he noted. “But there’s a lot of other stuff involved and we had no idea about this. Pond really understands the business and supports us. They fill in a lot of the ‘blanks’ themselves and get other people involved when they can.”

trusting they would be paid when the money came in. Pond invested in picoChip in 2001, along with Atlas Ventures, and the company grew to 35 people by the end of the year. Having committed to picoChip, Pond used its financial and marketing expertise

to ensure the company got off on the right foot. In that first year, Irving was involved in operational issues, such as planning for manufacturing, whilst Baines – a Pond associate partner at the time – helped with marketing and strategy. Whilst this sort of help would not be unusual in the US, especially in Silicon

Valley, it was unusual in the UK. “It is getting better,” commented Baines, “but five years ago, it was difficult to find a VC working like this. It is unusual for a UK based VC to have the technical understanding that you get from Pond.” In July 2002, Baines moved full time to picoChip. Baines believes this is the way forward for European VCs. “This is the way VCs operate in the US and it works. The cliché is that Britain has great technology, but fails to commercialise it. For early stage investing, there is a need for investors with industry experience, who can roll up their sleeves to help with the ‘go to market’ strategy and who have a deep understanding of the environment.”

Posing a key question One key question which Pond helped picoChip to answer was whether to sell chips for terminals, like mobile phones, or for infrastructure, like wireless base stations. “Together, we chose the latter,” Irving concluded, “and picoChip is the only player to focus on infrastructure. That, combined with an easily programmed architecture, has made it the de facto solution for next generation wireless.” Today, picoChip has a workforce of more than 75 people, it has working technology and blue chip customers, including Intel, Nortel and Korea Telecom. As a result, Pond is less involved in the day to day operations, although it still has partners on the board. “A friend once said there are three types of VC – hands off, hands on and hands in – and the art is to strike the right balance between the three styles,” continued Baines. “Now picoChip is more established, there is less input from Pond, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t involved and we know it is there to give as advice whenever we need it.” Left: picoChip’s founders Pete Claydon, left, and Doug Pulley, with the company’s LTE basestation development board.

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ChameleonARM NXP ARM7 Reference Platform Presented by EBV Elektronik The ChameleonARM reference platform was developed jointly between NXP and EBV and is based on NXP‘s new 32-bit ARM7 LPC23xx flash microcontroller family. The installed demo software shows the processor power within the ARM7 environment and the communication interfaces. Featured with Power-over-Ethernet, the board is independent from an external power supply. For all questions and application support please contact your local experts at EBV Elektronik, Europe‘s Number 1 in semiconductor distribution. For further information and the chance to win a ChameleonARM platform, check out www.ebv.com/chameleonarm

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nele-may-08-07-p011 1

27/4/07 12:35:12

nele-jun-12-07-p022

6/7/07

3:21 PM

Page 44

4ECHNOLOGICAL,EADERSHIP

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Standards.qxd

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DIRECTIVES & STANDARDS

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

A

s the transition to RoHS compliance gathered pace last year, a feeling of relief might have been detected across the electronics industry. In the UK at least, there is evidence of business as usual – thanks to UK ‘enforcer’ National Weights and Measure Laboratory, whose ‘softly softly’ approach coached companies through the compliance process. However, it isn’t possible to say that most companies are compliant or that RoHS hasn’t had a dramatic impact. But the real impact of RoHS is only just being felt in some sectors. Initially, companies that sought to comply with RoHS ahead of the deadline experienced difficulties sourcing compliant parts. Then, with the deadline looming, concern was voiced that excess non compliant stock would lead to expensive and wasteful write offs. In reality, components for the increasingly powerful consumer segment quickly made the transition, whilst the supply chain’s inventory control kept a tight rein on non compliant stock volumes. As a result, apprehension has built about limited supplies of non compliant

A year after RoHS came into effect, it’s business as usual for some, but the ripples are building in the high reliability sector. By Vanessa Knivett. inventory, with the greatest effect in areas where RoHS’ impact was predicted to have the least impact – in exempt industries such as aerospace, defence, medical equipment and telecommunications, where systems typically have high development costs, long availability and require decades of support. Over the last decade, the electronics industry has changed and RoHS has underlined the extent to which power has shifted to consumer electronics. The erosion in the high reliability sector’s influence may have been exacerbated by its willingness to adopt COTS products and thus capitalise on the performance gains and price of consumer electronics components, plus by the squeeze of

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global competition – leaving contract manufacturers, already working to tight margins, unable or unwilling to support compliant and non compliant processes. Dr Chris Robertson, head of ERA Technology’s reliability and failure analysis team (www.era.co.uk/rfa) confirms that RoHS is affecting the high reliability sector in a number of ways. “Firstly, there is the supply chain movement – it is not being driven by that sector.” Market analysis by Prismark suggested the total available market for all high reliability categories represents around 10% of revenue for the component supply base. Dr Robertson adds: “With some components rendered obsolete, they are suffering problems finding replacements and are considering moves such as retinning components. Also, many of their clients are applying pressure to their supply chains without understanding the true requirements of RoHS. For example, aircraft component manufacturers are being encouraged to produce RoHS compliant sub assemblies, despite being an exempt industry.”

DebutArt: Jürgen Ziewe

Getting greener

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DIRECTIVES & STANDARDS

“The … WEEE Directive is also being reviewed and it is likely that changes will be made in the near future.” Gary Nevison, Farnell

One of ERA’s customers is Smiths, several of whose commercial customers have asked suppliers to meet RoHS and WEEE type requirements, despite some products falling outside scope. Dr Robertson comments: “Those specifying some of these procurement contracts need to understand why you might be using something [environmentally harmful] – generally, there is a very good reason and you don’t choose to use something like cadmium wilfully.”

Re-education Many within the high reliability industry believe more education is needed about the characteristics of high reliability product life cycles. The aim is to persuade suppliers to maintain dual supply chains by offering components in tin lead and lead free. Needless to say, many suppliers aren’t too excited about that. One organisation voicing concern for the high reliability sector is the International Electronics Manufacturing Initia-

24

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

tive (iNEMI), whose ceo Jim McElroy confirmed: “Many have been surprised by how quickly things have unfolded. The high reliability community realised its exemptions wouldn’t last forever, but felt that at least it took some of the immediate pressure off whilst they went about trying to close the knowledge gaps related to lead free and other substances within RoHS’ scope. “Our job is to make sure the sector is focused on closing these knowledge gaps and convincing suppliers, in the interim, that their continued support is needed. But the biggest challenge right now is to address the availability of components – we can almost forget about exemptions.” Most components involve a change of surface finish from tin lead to pure tin. From an assembly point of view, such components are backwards compatible and can be soldered with either tin lead or pure tin paste, although performance impairment can result from the growth of tin whiskers. The high reliability industry remains concerned about the risk of rapidly converting to lead free products prior to fully understanding the implications on long term reliability. Of most concern though, is the threat of not being able to secure SnPb compatible bgas. Although more environmentally friendly ball metallurgies are coming on stream, the consortium is campaigning to ensure that different part numbers are used to differentiate them. Mike Davisson, RoHS technical program manager for Agilent Technologies, commented recently: “The proliferation of solder ball metallurgies only makes it more difficult to close the remaining knowledge gaps for Pb free conversion of mission critical applications. Reliability experts are still working to fully understand the long life performance of SAC 305/405 and have limited data on some of the alternate ball formulations. A change in metallurgy without the

ability to track the change will only make Pb free conversion more difficult and could delay the process.” McElroy says industry is making headway on closing the knowledge gaps; adding that iNEMI is working on understanding where the remaining knowledge gaps are and ensuring that R&D activities are coordinated. Looking to the future, Gary Nevison, Directives expert at Farnell, intimates the true implications of RoHS are yet to be felt. “The RoHS Directive has been in force for less than a year and is already being reviewed by the EC. Any changes are possible, including adding more substances to the list or changing the scope. The closely related WEEE Directive is also being reviewed and it is likely that changes will be made in the near future – and these are unlikely to reduce its scope.” In its reexamination of RoHS, the EC is looking at some of the unintended consequences of RoHS, such as more tin mining and increased demand for silver. Nevison says that, as yet, there is little visibility as to which substances, if any, will be added to the list. Robertson agrees, although makes the point that manufacturers should bear in mind that Chinese RoHS isn’t restricted to six substances, but leaves the door open for more. He also advises manufacturers to pay attention to the European Chemical Bureau’s investigations into a number of substances, including the flame retardant TPPA, Bisphenol-A, hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) and decaBDE (for more, see http://ecb.jrc.it) Asked whether there is evidence of exempt industries moving towards compliance, Nevison confirmed that ‘medical seems to be the most active.’ With category 8 and 9 equipment considered likely to come within scope, it seems that lessons are being learnt about acting early, although the EC knows that manufacturers will need time to comply and the general feeling is that it won’t happen before 2012.

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World’s First Single-Chip Clock Conditioner with Jitter Performance as Low as 200 fs National Integrates the PLL, VCO, and Distribution Circuitry to Deliver the Industry’s Smallest Solution Amp LMH6552

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FPGA PLL

Loop Filter

Divider

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Delay

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Delay

Divider

Delay

Divider

Delay

Divider

Delay

Divider

Delay

Divider

Delay

SerDes

Backplane

ASIC

LMK03000C

SerDes DS92LV18 PLL + VCO LMX2531 ASIC

Comparator LMH7322

ADC14DS080 CAD ADC14DS095 ADC14DS105 ADC14DS115

FPGA

FPGA

LMK03000/01 and LMK02000 Features • Fully integrated VCO option delivers unprecedented jitter performance, reducing board space and risk • Can be configured as jitter cleaner or clock generator • Available in three performance grades for clocking various high performance applications with diverse jitter requirements • Footprint compatibility between performance grades • Three LVDS and five LVPECL clock outputs with dedicated divider and delay blocks simplifies distribution architecture • Wide clock output frequency range of 1 to 785 MHz • Small form factor minimises PCB space by 70%

Clock Conditioners Product ID

Jitter (RMS Typ)

LMK02000

200 fs

LMK03000C/LMK03001C

400 fs

LMK03000/LMK03001

800 fs

Comparator Product ID

Jitter (RMS Typ)

LMH7322 dual comparator (RSPECL)

< 1ps

Ideal for use in 2G/3G/WiMAX basestations, data converter clocking, networking, medical equipment, instrumentation, military, and aerospace applications

For samples, datasheets, Signal Path Designer, and more information on the LMK03000/01 and LMK02000, contact us today at: www.national.com/see/timing Phone: +44 (0) 870 240 21 71 Email: [email protected]

© National Semiconductor Corporation, 2007. National Semiconductor, Signal Path Designer, and of National Semiconductor Corporation. All rights reserved.

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are registered trademarks

4/6/07 09:33:11

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2/5/07 12:54:00

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EMBEDDED S/W DEVELOPMENT

INTRA DESIGN

Virtualisation is allowing software developers to choose different operating environments and mix them on a single hardware platform. By Mike Richardson.

A

new wave of virtualisation tools is helping to simplify the task of migrating, debugging, and optimising software for multicore processors. Able to provide a system wide view of multicore behaviour, virtualisation allows developers to quickly diagnose the complex interactions that characterise multicore designs and to pinpoint bottlenecks. These benefits vary based on how virtualisation is being applied. For software developers, the major benefit is to provide a more flexible and powerful development platform than actual hardware. For the end product, virtualisation provides the flexibility of mixing operating environments on a single hardware platform which leads to a variety of benefits, including improved security, higher availability and reduced size to weight and power ratios. It’s worth pointing out that one of the major issues with the word ‘virtualisation’ is that it means different things to different people. It helps to separate the technology into distinct application areas — software development, server provisioning, security and other applications.

At the high end of technology, virtualisation provides a computing platform that acts or simulates the system being targeted. In the embedded software arena, there are two major — and very different — applications of virtualisation that can create confusion when trying to understand their benefits: the sub classification of virtual prototyping, which is used to improve the software development process; and the provision of a virtual platform, which helps to improve the actual run time flexibility of a system, in other words, an end product that incorporates virtualisation.

Hastening adoption For embedded applications, virtualisation can hasten multicore adoption. Trends suggest that virtualisation use is being driven by time to market demands, production cost pressures, increased consolidation of functions and the need for more flexibility. “Flexibility comes from time to market demands for the ability to start developing you application and run it before you have the hardware,” explained Green Hills’ cto

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David Kleidermacher. “The gap between when software development begins and when hardware is actually available is increasing and, nowadays, systems are becoming more complex, so the software element becomes proportionally larger and time consuming. You no longer need wait until the hardware is ready to start developing your software. “Virtualisation is also gaining prominence because desktop pcs are becoming fast enough to support its use at a reasonable speed,” he continued. “For example, Green Hills has just released its Multi 5.0 virtual prototyping environment which allows the user to run a simulation of an ARM at 100MIPS on a pc. Suddenly, customers can simulate at close to the same speeds as a real embedded system.” Realtime embedded OS technology specialist QNX claims virtualisation can act as an abstraction layer beneath the OS. The fact that multiple compute cores can be abstracted or hidden from the OS itself allows you to take an OS that is not ‘multicore capable’ and run a rtos on top of a virtualised collection of processors.

Illustration: Vincent Fraser

Pick and mix

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accuracy the customer needs will vary. We have to constantly adapt as new hardware platforms are released.” According to Kleidermacher, the next challenge is performance. “Green Hills’ Padded Cell run time virtualisation tool allows you to run Windows under VMware,” he affirmed, “and you can’t tell that it is not running native speeds. Virtualisation opens up performance possibilities that were previously unheard of on standard pcs. Padded Cell makes it possible to run two copies of Windows seamlessly from a single hardware box. You cannot do this using a regular pc.” Johnson suggests that, in the embedded world of industrial automation, the advent of virtualisation and the increase in dual core processor technology is driving a demand to consolidate different real time OS platforms onto one processor. “The point to remember is that when you virtualise, you still need to be able to guarantee real time,” he explained. “Virtualising by running multiple OS’ isn’t the whole story – you need to consider the connected devices in the peripheral and ensure your real time OS has the required access. A virtualisation layer that allows you to run a rtos is more difficult than what you would find in server applications, where real time isn’t as important. Open source solutions don’t translate well to the embedded world, although we are starting to see certain vendors offer solutions for the real time aspect. QNX’ approach would be to

“Virtualisation allows you to run multiple OS’ and consolidate them onto a single higher power processor.” Kerry Johnson, QNX

QNX product manager for multicore Kerry Johnson said: “I see great value in virtualisation as it allows you to run multiple OSs and consolidate them onto a single higher power processor.” Clearly, virtualisation presents a challenge that companies strive to implement well to achieve adequate performance, whilst retaining the flexibility of the customers’ hardware choice. “The challenge we face is that our customers’ hardware is constantly changing,” noted Kleidermacher. “In the embedded world, this problem is exacerbated because the level of

Figure 1: Secure partitioning for multicore 50%

10%

15%

25%

secure partition 1

secure partition 2

secure partition 3

secure partition 4

QNX NX NNeutrino RTOS CPU 1

CPU 2

CPU 3

multi-core CPU, shared I/O, memory

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CPU 4

partner those companies with mature solutions to maintain the real time requirements we need to work in conjunction with another general purpose OS.” Industry use of virtualisation varies dramatically, depending on how it is applied. In the server market, it is used to improve the management, provisioning and availability of servers. Another area of interest is the use of virtualisation as a means to reach higher levels of security, whilst maintaining the ability to reuse the vast existing software application base. “Although software defined radio has been driven by the defence industry, it also has many commercial applications,” Kleidermacher (pictured below) observed. “Customers are demanding a single hardware platform that can talk different ‘real’ languages. This provides more interoperability and flexibility by taking some of the hardware functions of the radio and putting them into the software. The radio can then change its configuration dynamically and handle different kinds of radio communications. “One Green Hills customer was using Integrity OS, but wanted to reuse its original networking software on top of Linux,” he continued. “Instead of two computers, it had one PowerPC controlling the software defined radio system. Padded Cell enabled itto run Linux as an application on top of Integrity, which meant it could reuse the original software. It now has separation between the Linux being used for legacy reasons alongside critical applications controlling the radio itself — all running directly on top of Integrity and all on the same computer.” The last word goes to Johnson. “It’s still early days for virtualisation in the embedded arena, but what I envisage is the promise of virtualising the processor itself to obtain the kind of consolidation that you just cannot do without. This has a big impact by making the best use of processors and keeping the BoM for large scale systems in control.”

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Signal.qxd

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SIGNAL PROCESSING

INTRA DESIGN

Multicore architectures and fpga coprocessors mean new algorithmic development approaches are needed. By Graham Pitcher.

Signalling a change T

he world of signal processing has advanced almost beyond recognition since the first dsps were introduced some 25 years ago. From their early days, largely in military applications, dsps now find use in a wide range of markets. DSP developers have not, in general, felt the need to push their designs down the Moore’s Law curve – unlike microprocessor manufacturers. So clock speeds are slower and the devices may not be made on the smallest process technologies available. Yet the Laws of Physics are having an effect. Power consumption and heat generation requirements, for example, have prompted a move to multicore devices.

Another development is the use of an fpga as a coprocessor for the dsp. In the microcontroller world, companies are adding ‘dsp like’ instructions to create the hybrid digital signal controller. And ARM is adding dsp capability to its cores. So where does this leave signal processing software? Ken Karnofsky, director of signal processing and communications marketing for The MathWorks, said a number of trends have become apparent recently. “One is to do with applications, another is to do with the type of device being used and a third trend is to do with the development process itself; how engineers are developing signal processing algorithms.”

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As far as applications are concerned, communications and wireless continue to drive the use of signal processing technology. “But multimedia and video are becoming more important,” said Karnofsky, “both in terms of consumer applications and other markets.” He gave the automotive industry as an example. “Video technology is now being used in active safety systems, for collision avoidance and security.” Karnofsky said use of video required more bandwidth and more storage. “So embedded engineers developing these applications may have additional requirements and they may not be so familiar with the algorithms that are needed. For

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“If you can shorten that process, it’s good. But it’s not 100% pushbutton.” Ken Karnofsky, The MathWorks

example, how do they distribute the processing; is it local or is it central?” On the architecture front, Karnofsky believes the move to multicore devices only represents one dimension. “We’re also seeing general purpose microcontroller companies adding dsp like capabilities to their products, creating this new category of digital signal controllers. And ARM is adding more dsp capability to its cores. All of these developments are trying to address the same issue; how do you take a general purpose device and allow it to handle digital processing loads?” With a nod towards the need for more capable tools for multicore design, The MathWorks and Analog Devices have recently introduced a tool which integrates MATLAB and Simulink with Analog Devices’ VisualDSP++ integrated development and debugging software environment. Called Link for Analog Devices VisualDSP++, the tool lets engineers verify embedded code running on VisualDSP++ using MATLAB and to generate VisualDSP++ projects from Simulink models. According to the companies, the devel-

32

opment brings model based design capabilities to engineers working with Blackfin, SHARC and TigerSHARC processors. It allows the same model to be used for executable specification, design with simulation, embedded code generation and code verification. “Rapid advances in processor architectures from Analog Devices have delivered performance and value for embedded systems,” said Derek Leadbetter, Analog’s director of DSP tools development. “At the same time, the complexity of developing embedded software for these devices has increased significantly. The release of Link for Analog Devices VisualDSP++ extends the benefits of Model Based Design with MATLAB and Simulink to embedded systems engineers, enabling them to take advantage of our processors.” An increasingly popular development is the use of an fpga as a coprocessing element for a dsp. “We’re seeing a lot of these systems,” Karnofsky observed. He believes multicore programming and test is already a challenge. “But what happens when that second device is a hardware accelerator? How do you design for this and how do embedded engineers – who know C – work on this challenge?” One obvious solution is for companies such as The MathWorks to develop tools that address multicore design directly. “There’s been a lot of discussion about tools that can deal with multicore partitioning,” Karnofsky continued, “but there’s nothing that automates the problem. Today, there are tools that can help you build system models and perform manual adjustments. Full automation – from idea to hardware and software design – is still some time in the future.” Karnofsky sees another design trend emerging. “Traditionally,” he claimed, “there has been a gap between algorithm implementation and development. In many cases, floating point code has been rewritten for fixed point devices, but a critical development has been the introduction of fixed point development tools.” He sees these tools bringing designers the benefit of working in a higher level environment. “We’ve been investing a lot in fixed point upgrades to Matlab and Simulink,”

he continued. “Engineers can run their code quickly and validate that it works properly in their system design. They can switch between floating and fixed point code to see how the algorithm degrades system performance. When satisfied, they can generate code automatically from the fixed point design.” Karnofsky feels this development will find application where fpgas are being used alongside dsps. “If you have a processor, then word length is predetermined – 32bit, for example. If you’re working in hardware, then a degree of freedom is calculation length; you might go from 16bit to 12bit. If you do, will you meet the overall goals? Will the signal be degraded to the point where it’s not acceptable?” He sees engineers becoming more involved with trade offs between what he sees as correctness and cost. “The problem is that if you’re trying to do this at a later stage in the development, you’ve lost the opportunity for that kind of iteration.” And this move to multicore hardware and software platforms needs new ways to do development, he believes. “There’s more dimensions to the trade offs that need to be made, especially in systems where time cycles are short.” All of these moves are increasing the complexity of the development process, so companies such as The MathWorks are working on ways of easing the problems. “Generating code automatically is of benefit to the designer who wants to try something on an fpga,” Karnofsky contended. “If you can shorten that process, it’s good. But it’s not 100% pushbutton.” Complexity is also increasing as single processor systems are being embedded in larger systems. “Designers need to know how these systems interact,” he continued. “A security system needs to be able to control the camera’s motion as well as handle the video. Where’s the functionality? Is it one device or two? If so, how do they talk to each other?” Karnofsky believes the solution lies at the modelling level. “We’re generating C code for embedded processors and dsps and now we’re doing hdl. That single model can be be mapped to different architectures,” he concluded.

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Intra prod.qxd

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PRODUCT NEWS

Motherboard targets graphics centric designs BOARD LEVEL DESIGN BVM has expanded its embedded board portfolio with the introduction of the LV681 Mini-ITX motherboard, aimed at graphics centric applications such as thin clients, gaming, kiosk and point of sale. The AMD S1 processor socket is compatible with AMD Turion 64x2 DualCore, AMD Turion 64, and Mobile AMD Sempron processors. The board also implements the ATI RS485M chipset with

the ATI Radeon X-300-based 2d/3d graphics engine. Up to 2Gbyte of DDR2 sdram is available via two so-dimm slots; there are eight USB2.0 ports, three RS232C and one RS232/422/485 serial ports. The board also features two 10/100/1000 LAN ports and a CompactFlash slot. Specialist expansion is accommodated through aPCI expansion slot and a mini PCI socket. BVM: visit www.bvm.co.uk

ASSP

LEADING through Technology PowerTrace II • 2 GByte of trace memory to record program and data flow • More than 30 processor architectures supported by the trace port • Trace port speed up to 500 MBit Great Britain Lauterbach Ltd. www.lauterbach.co.uk

• Sophisticated analysis methods to perform comprehensive performance analysis and quality assurance tests

Germany Lauterbach GmbH www.lauterbach.de Italy Lauterbach Srl www.lauterbach.it USA Lauterbach Inc. www.lauterbach.com China Suzhou Lauterbach Technologies Co., Ltd. Phone: ++86-512-6265-8030 www.lauterbach.cn Japan Lauterbach Japan Ltd. www.lauterbach.co.jp

PowerDebug II • A Gigabit ethernet interface guarantees immediate display and rapid analysis of the trace information.

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Ramtron has introduced the FM33x product family – a range of FRAM Enhanced Processor Companions. Featuring a high speed serial peripheral interface, the FM33x family combines the benefits of a non volatile ram with a set of integrated support and peripheral functions for processor based designs. Ramtron is launching the FM33x family with two products: the FM33256 and the FM3316, which are 3V devices with 256kbit and 16kbit of fram respectively. This solution replaces discrete components and reduces cost and board space, supporting commonly needed system functions in processor based systems. Ramtron: visit www.ramtron.com

MICROS STMicroelectronics has rounded out its ST7 UltraLite family of 8pin microcontrollers with the ST7FLITEU0 series, said to add more memory and system features to the peripheral set of existing devices. Available in 8pin so and dip and 0.9mm thick dfn packages, and with temperature qualification to 125°C, the devices are targeted at HVAC, home appliance and lighting control. With a 2kbyte flash memory, the parts include a trimmable 8MHz RC oscillator, with prescaler ratios down to 500kHz. Other features include an embedded 12bit autoreload timer, an 8bit Lite timer with prescaler, watchdog, real time base and input capture; and a five channel, 10bit a/d converter with 3.5µs overall conversion time. STMicroelectronics: visit www.st.com

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MIXED SIGNAL & ANALOGUE

Keep it Simple.

The LTC2630 is a family of 8, 10 and 12bit d/a converters supplied in 6pin sc70 packages measuring 2.1 x 2mm – said by Linear Technology to be the smallest such devices with an internal reference. The family offers the choice of an internal 2.5V or 4.096V 10ppm/°C full scale reference. The single voltage output converters achieve 12bit dc performance of ±1LSB(max) integral nonlinearity error and are said to be ideal for ‘under the hood’ automotive applications. The devices draw 160µA at 3V and 180µA at 5V. Communicating via a three wire SPI compatible serial interface at clock rates up to 50MHz, the output settles for a half scale step in less than 5µs. Operating from a single 2.7V to 5.5V supply, the output can swing to the internal reference voltage or rail to rail to the supply voltage. Linear Technology: visit www.linear.com

EMBEDDED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

NI CompactDAQ USB Data Acquisition


Now more than 30 NEW LabVIEW 8.20 Now Available

The Micro Digital range of USB drivers is now available from Computer Solutions. The smxUSBH USB host stack, the smxUSBD USB device stack and the smxUSBO On The Go stack are said to help embedded developers by providing easy interfacing between their systems and other USB devices. The smxUSBD device stack is designed for situations in which a developer wants the embedded application to plug into a pc and to exchange data with it or be controlled by it. The smxUSBH host stack allows the embedded application to act like a pc and to control a USB network, whilst the OTG stack provides a limited host capability as well as a USB peripheral. Host stack support is available for interface chips that conform to the EHCI, OHCI and UHCI specification. Computer Solutions: visit www.computer-solutions.co.uk

modules


New NI LabVIEW data-logging software included




Hi-Speed USB for up to 6.4 MS/s streaming I/O




Compact 25 by 9 by 9 cm form factor

For more information and pricing visit ni.com/compactdaq/new

01635 523545

ni.com/uk [email protected]

© 2007 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com, and NI CompactDAQ are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Design with confidence. Introducing the new Stratix III family.

Stratix III Family: The Lowest-Power High-Performance FPGAs Building on the success of prior generations, Stratix® III FPGAs give you the highest performance available, while keeping power consumption to a minimum. Design your next-generation systems with confidence. Design with Stratix III FPGAs.

www.altera.com/confidence Distributors Arrow Electronics (UK) Ltd: 01279 626777 EBV Elektronik UK: 01793 849933 Copyright © 2006 Altera Corporation. All rights reserved. Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, the stylised Altera logo, specific device designations, and all other words and logos that are identified as trademarks and/or service marks are, unless noted otherwise, the trademarks and service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other product or service names are the property of their respective holders. Altera products are protected under numerous U.S. and foreign patents and pending applications, mask work rights, and copyrights.

nele-feb-27-07-p040 1

20/2/07 14:32:21

Platform.qxd

5/6/07

9:45 am

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PROGRAMMABLE PLATFORMS

INTER DESIGN

Transceiver take up A

dding transceivers to fpgas is not new; it was first done a decade ago as part of the former Lucent Microelectronics Orca family. But it is now commonplace, especially with the emergence of several serial interface standards. “These [transceiver] fpgas account for 10 to 20% of the total market and this is growing fast,” said Shakeel Peera, director of strategic marketing, high performance fpgas for Lattice Semiconductor. Altera launched its latest family of transceiver fpgas in May. Dubbed Arria GX, the family targets three specific serial interface standards: Gigabit Ethernet (GigE), PCI Express (PCIe) and Serial RapidIO. “Some applications are so cost sensitive that we believe a family like this will expand the market overall,” said Altera’s Danny Biran, senior vice president of product and corporate marketing. Arria complements Altera’s Stratix II GX, a family of transceiver fpgas that supports six serial interface standards at speeds up to 6.375Gbit/s. Lattice has, for almost a year, had two transceiver fpga families – the SC and ECP2/M – that tar-

get different cost/performance points, whilst Xilinx’ Virtex 5 family has four platforms, three of which have on chip transceivers. “That’s because so many applications require it,” said John Heighton, Xilinx’s EMEA senior manager for product solutions marketing. Altera decided to launch a lower cost fpga family focused on these three standards only at speeds up to 2.5Gbit/s. “Of the various interface flavours [supported by IIGX], these three are breaking away,” said Biran. Support for GigE reflects its widespread adoption within telecom equipment. The transceiver is used to terminate traffic on copper or optical links, for backplanes and even between chips so the entire data path remains Ethernet. The interface’s use is spreading to industrial applications and markets such as broadcasting. One Xilinx customer is using a Virtex 5 fpga for Video over IP. The fpga SoC takes either standard or high definition raw video, performs some digital signal processing before sending the video to

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either the GigE or PCIe transceiver. “Such video over IP – with the dsp, PCI Express and gigabit Ethernet interfaces within the one fpga – is a growing opportunity,” says Heighton. PCIe is the latest variant of the long standing PCI computer expansion card standard. It is adopted by Intel processors and PowerPC devices used for telecoms as part of the control plane. Unlike its predecessors, PCI Express Revision 1.1 uses serial links – or lanes – each capable of bidirectional communication at 2.5Gbit/s. The PCIe lanes range from one (1x) up to 32 (32x), but Arria GX supports 1x and 4x. “PCIe is the interface of choice for the pc and server world,” said Biran. “It is now in high volume, the cost is going down and it is attractive for many applications.” Medical imaging is another market. For example, an fpga provides a PCIe link to a single board computer, whilst interfacing it to the sensing system such as ultrasound and the system memory. The third serial standard is RapidIO, a packet switched based interface that also has a parallel implementation. Serial

DebutArt: Jürgen Ziewe

Manufacturers are boosting the number and type of transceivers on their fpgas. By Roy Rubenstein.

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engineering costs of assps. “FPGAs provide an extra layer of customisation and a value add when you have three or four serial standards fighting it out,” says Peera.

New fpgas

“FPGAs provide ... a value add when you have three or four serial standards fighting it out.” Shakeel Peera, Lattice Semiconductor

RapidIO supports one (1x) and four lanes (4x) at 1.25, 2.5 or 3.125Gbit/s. The Arria GX family targets the first two speeds only. Serial RapidIO transceivers remain a niche market for fpgas compared to GigE and PCIe, but demand is growing as Serial RapidIO becomes adopted as part of ics, such as in TI’s C64xx dsp family. Not surprisingly, Serial RapidIO is used for applications requiring fpga and dsp hardware. The dsps execute program code, whilst the fpgas are used as a coprocessor for computationally intensive tasks. Having fpgas with Serial Rapid IO transceivers enables the fpgas to interface directly to the dsps. “Serial RapidIO is very good for peer to peer, switched communication,” said Peera. “Anywhere you see dsps and fpgas and there is a need for distributed processing.” Such examples include Wimax and 3G wireless basestations.

ASSPs and fpgas Having three serial standards used across the telecom, datacom, industrial and broadcasting markets explains the growing prominence of transceiver fpgas. Vendors typically adopt the best ic for a

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specific application, with the serial protocol being a secondary concern. FPGAs perform an important role as bridging devices, whilst challenging application specific standard products (assps). “If the assp does exactly what you need, then it is the right solution,” says Biran. But if the design requires more than a physical interface (PHY), then an fpga becomes the preferred solution. Biran cites industrial applications that use legacy protocols as one example. “The market isn’t big enough to justify developing an assp due to the cost.” An fpga can interface the legacy protocols to one of the newer interfaces. “There are always going to be applications for which assps do not yet exist, where standards are still evolving or where the system company has unique value it can add through programming some of the on chip logic,” says Jordan Selburn, an analyst at iSuppli. Designers under time to market pressure are also turning to fpgas, argues Peera: “Can I take a specific function on a line card and implement it inside an fpga using the latest technology at a lower cost and lower power? More and more [designers] are saying ‘yes’.” FPGA gate counts continue to grow, as do the non recurring

Altera’s Arria GX family consists of five devices that range from 21,580 to 90,220 logic elements, up to 4.5Mbit memory and 176 18x18 multiplier accumulators (44 dsp blocks). The number of on chip transceivers ranges from 4 to 12. “These are mid range devices: less than 20,000 logic elements is very small, while Stratix II GX has up to 180,000,” said Biran. “Arria is aimed at designers using an fpga for the first time, so we wanted a robust transceiver. We leveraged the II GX transceiver that is at 90nm.” In contrast, Xilinx’s Virtex 5 is a more general fpga family, supporting additional interfaces to Arria’s tailored three. These include Sonet/SDH for telecom, Fibre Channel and Infiniband datacom standard and video interfaces. It also supports PCIe (1x to 8x), Serial RapidIO, including the 3.125Gbit/s data rate, and GigE. It also supports 8 to 24 transceivers and is implemented in a 65nm process. Lattice claims to be the first to tackle the transceiver fpga market with two families. The high end SC has transceivers for the serial standards, as well as others such as the stringent Sonet/SDH. It also includes support for parallel I/O and up to 32 transceivers. The ECP2/M, aimed at cost sensitive applications, uses more compact transceivers and cheaper programmable logic. Meanwhile, since Altera announced the device in May, the supporting design software has been downloaded by users in several markets. “FPGAs, in general, are mainly used for datacom and telecom, but with Arria we are seeing a lot of interest from test and measurement, medical, industrial and office equipment markets,” Biran concluded.

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A PROPRIETARY VERIFICATION SOLUTION IS LIKE A RUNAWAY MERRY-GO-ROUND.

YOU CAN GET ON BUT YOU CAN’T GET OFF.

Advanced Verification Methodology If you’re using a proprietary verification solution, you may be stuck in a vicious cycle because of its inherent limitations. Conversely, the AVM from Mentor Graphics® is an open, flexible approach to applying new and advanced verification methodologies to your complex designs. It is the first true system-level to gate-level verification methodology that enables leading-edge verification technologies at multiple levels of abstraction, using standard languages like SystemVerilog and SystemC. Want to get your freedom back? Go to www.mentor.com/products/fv/_3b715c/ or call us at +44 1635 811411.

Find out more at the EDA Tech Forum on 19th June www.edatechforum.com/events/ nele-may-22-07-pifc 1

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PCB Mounted LEDs Filament Replacements Professional Panel Indicators Architectural / Lighting Solutions Specific Solutions for the Rail sector

Quality Marl International is the UK-based manufacturing company specialising in the design, manufacture and supply of standard and customised visible LED indication, illumination, component and system solutions. Highly experienced and long-established, we have a policy of continuous improvement and a commitment to quality & reliability. Constantly growing and providing innovative solutions, we are recognised as pioneers in the specialised field of LED technology. We also incorporate a distribution brand, Marl Optosource, which has privileged access to the portfolios of some of the world's leading optoelectronics manufacturers. Trust Marl with your next project - and see the light.

See the light Marl International Limited, Marl Business Park Ulverston, Cumbria, LA12 9BN, England t +44 (0)1229 582430 f +44 (0)1229 585155 e [email protected] w www.marl.co.uk

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ention the word ‘laser’ and you could be forgiven for thinking of epic sci-fi space movies with the kind of handheld accessories that no self respecting Jedi should be without. Less destruction and fight, more construction of light, the advances in laser technology – through a burgeoning use of innovative electronics and minus the wobbly ‘zapping’ noises – have brought a host of industry applications under the steady beam of the laser’s focus. Laser specialist Pacer sees an innovative use for fibre lasers and market growth stemming from their versatility and flexibility. Pulse on demand fibre lasers can replace a number of other lasers in a multi-station process. Users can vary the pulse width, peak energy, repetition rate and program complex pulse shapes. Frequency doubling and trebling enables a single laser to ablate at the fundamental, doubled and tripled frequencies. “The demand for fibre lasers is driven by the customers’ requirements for increased speed and improved quality,” Pacer’s new business development director Stuart Sendall began. “Because fibre lasers have different optical beam characteristics – which are significantly better than traditional lasers – you can achieve brighter intensity all in one focal point. Even though older laser systems had the high power and could be focused, they didn’t have the beam quality or accuracy of focal point currently demonstrated by fibre lasers. As a result, the energy density wasn’t as high as hoped. Fibre lasers deliver a much higher brightness, which has set the benchmark in terms of W/cm≈ and in a more clearly defined area to because the beam quality is higher and therefore more precise and faster.” Sendall notes that some materials don’t interact well with certain lasers because they simply absorb the energy and overheat. This is particularly noticeable on semiconductor repair, scribing and marking, solar panels and even with writing encoder discs. Nowadays, material interaction is more predictable and consistent because of the advances in laser technology. To underline his point, he relates the

Point of interest

How the latest laser techniques can prove that three into one will go. By Mike Richardson.

process of stripping wire and marking it. “This normally requires the work of two lasers: one to strip the insulation off and the other to mark it. The difference is that while one is a heat based process the

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other clearly needs to avoid heat, so it’s rare to find one laser that does both tasks. The semiconductor process requires numerous lasers to perform a number of different processes on a hybrid combina-

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“… the latest optical filtering techniques enable one laser to generate three wavelengths on demand.” Stuart Sendall, Pacer

tion of materials. Sometimes it’s down to wavelength but much of the time it is due to the energy pulse profile, the shape of it, how long it will last and its peak energy. Pulse on demand lasers optically ‘pulse’ to create a hammering effect. By shaping the pulses you can obtain more flexibility and versatility than having just one traditional laser.”

Three of a kind While material processing is normally performed at around 1064nm, a revolutionary process of adding a ‘crystal’ can double the frequency to 532nm (green) and treble the frequency to 355nm (UV). Normally, you would require an infrared laser, a green laser or a UV laser, whereas in theory, you can use the latest

42

optical filtering techniques to enable one laser to generate all three of these wavelengths on demand. “Customers are looking for more versatility and flexibility; they want fully adjustable lasers to replace a number of different types of laser,” Sendall affirmed. “This places technology demands such as higher brightness, long life diode sources and lower cost per Watt technology platforms to meet these requirements.” Photonic Products states that general medical uses now employ laser diodes in patient positioning, DNA analysis, X-ray scanners and blood sensors. Complementary activity can also be seen in the field of molecular diagnostics and where the deflection of laser light caused by particles in suspension, i.e. in blood can prove a useful diagnostic tool such as a nephelometer. In addition, low level laser therapy for muscle recovery and skin treatment continues to grow in interest. Photonic’s sales director Tony Wright reaffirms this view by pointing to the proliferation of new applications that are suited to the compact size and versatility of the laser diode. “There’s an expanding use of laser diodes in bio-scientific applications, such as in instruments that function around the stimulation and sensing of fluorescence at a number of wavelengths,” he explained. “The recently introduced blue violet (405nm) devices enable new areas of activity in bioscientific and medical fields. Fibre delivery to ‘point of interest’ is becoming progressively more attractive and is adding to the versatility of the laser diode as a laser solution. Customers primarily require reliability which we are able to offer in our range of modules and collimators - many with focusable optics and onboard drive circuitry - due to the fact that the ‘heartbeat’ of the device is either a well proven Sanyo, Sony or Opnext laser diode.” Many laser techniques touch on the electronics

industry such as the ablation of indium tin oxide (ITO) in OLED manufacture, as well as numerous material processing applications including semiconductor scribing, solar panel processing, thick film deposition and laser deposition. Pulsed laser deposition is new area of innovation where a powder form of the base metal, such as titanium for example, is used to create a desired shape by illuminating the area and fusing the powder together to form the shape. Repeating the build up process over successive layers gradually constructs an intricate 3d shape.

Upward integration With low cost, versatility, power reduction, longer lifetimes and consistent quality on different surfaces high on the laser user’s wish list, Sendall says that Pacer is seeing an upward integration to add functionality and intelligence whilst making user application simpler. Wright points to a distinct market requirement: a demand for higher stability green modules at economic price levels. “Current technology is generally centred on a diode pumped crystal arrangement where a higher wavelength diode (808nm) is used to ultimately produce 532nm emission. But if you’re looking for any kind of stability then thermo electric cooling (TEC) is usually a prerequisite here. Generally this carries a prohibitive cost for many applications. However, in collaboration with Sanyo, we’ve just launched a TEC green module at pricing that approaches that of many uncooled lased diode modules.” Satisfying a range of diverse laser applications, both Pacer and Photonic Products have dedicated design centres to help customers who cannot source off the shelf components or assemblies. Pacer uses its extensive product portfolio and capability in designing pcbs, assemblies, enclosures and connections, whilst Photonic Products offers a complete custom design service centred on the packaging and supply of laser diode solutions for a host of applications.

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Pacer offers an extensive range of display technologies, in sizes from 1" to 108" and to suit all budgets. Our specialist team is experienced in finding display solutions for retail, kiosk, signage, industrial control, medical, broadcast and gaming applications. Pacer can customise displays to fit your requirements exactly, supporting you technically and commercially from design concept through to full production.

Pacer International Ltd Tel +44 (0)118 9845280 · Fax +44 (0)1635 32370 Web www.pacer.co.uk · Email [email protected]

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E

very embedded application contains at least one microprocessor and the large number of microcontrollers available means developers are often spoiled for choice. In its search for an affordable microcontroller that can be used in a range of applications, EBV Elektronik has selected the ARM based LPC23xx microcontroller family from NXP. With a range of communications interfaces, LPC23xx microcontrollers are flexible enough to be regarded as the new embedded workhorse, thanks to the family’s 32bit processing power and its wide range of peripherals. In order to reduce the time to market and to make the developers’ work easier, EBV has developed the ChameleonARM reference platform. Although designed specifically for the LPC23xx microcontroller family, this platform can also act as a ‘superset board’, facilitating the move to smaller ARM7 controllers from NXP. ChameleonARM can be used as part of the development process, but can be integrated directly into a design. A circuit dia-

SYSTEM DESIGN

Can this reference board take any shape you want it to? By Rudy Van Parijs. gram and software demo projects are included in the board’s delivery package. Developers already use this option with EBV’s other boards – such as SnakeBytes or DragonFire. In many cases, the ChameleonARM board will be used in the first prototype, whilst the production version will use a more compact variant. In this way, EBV is helping its customers to cut time to market because a ChameleonARM based design can be implemented quickly. The board is also designed for the future and will support additions to the LPC23xx product family. With this reference design, EBV is leaving the field of pure component sales and offering its customers an example of an application in which the components from

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its franchise partners combine to form an optimum solution. Following DragonFire and SnakeBytes, ChameleonARM is EBV’s third reference design in nine months and a fourth such design will follow in September. Four further boards are planned to be launched next year.

Platform = board + software Whilst hardware is a major element, software development now requires much greater resources. ChameleonARM is a typical example – representing several years of development work and embedded networking know how. By contrast, the hardware was developed in eight weeks. For this reason, EBV provides comprehensive software support in the ChameleonARM delivery package. This software supports all the platform’s interfaces, so developers can concentrate on their application software from the start. ChameleonARM comes with an embedded web server, including a TCP/IP stack, as well as Ethernet and USB drivers and various network protocols.

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Figure 1: Chameleon Arm Block diagram power supply

dc plug poE 48V

EBV board connectors 3·3V

poUSB 4·5V ethernet

SPI

USB

I2C

RS232 ISP

LPC2378 ARM7

JTAG A/D, D/A I/O

CAN

GPIO

reset

LEDs

serial flash/eeprom

crystal plus battery

As LPC23xx microcontrollers are based on the ARM architecture, a wide range of software is already available (often in house) and can continue to be used. Alongside the LPC23xx microcontroller, the board contains switching regulators to facilitate power over Ethernet, USB or mains power. The microcontroller features an Ethernet PHY and transceiver components for CAN and UART interfaces. The range of interfaces available is the highlight of the LPC23xx product family. On the ChameleonARM board, these interfaces link to the

usual standard plug connectors. As this controller has already been almost fully integrated by NXP, the board does not contain any further interface controllers. Two 120pin plug connectors run parallel to each other, allowing EBV add on boards to be connected directly. ChameleonARM also contains an interface to an SD card, which acts as mass memory storage. Although EBV is targeting industrial control and process automation, other

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5V

SD card interface

potential applications include medical equipment, office and network applications and the wide ranging field of home automation. This is borne out by the following examples: ● Embedded web server An optimised embedded web server, including TCP/IP stack and Ethernet drivers, has been ported to an LPC 2378 microcontroller. As the board can be powered via the Ethernet connection, only one cable is required. ● Industrial network Actuators, sensors, regulators, controllers, gateways and operating elements can be developed around a ChameleonARM board and interconnected. The diversity of LPC23xx microcontrollers means one hardware/software base can be used for various different applications. As a result, this network can be implemented quickly and inexpensively whilst ensuring full Ethernet compatibility. ● USB Ethernet bridge A highlight of ChameleonARM is its ability to work in two network segments simultaneously. The board facilitates data exchange between these segments so a device connected to Ethernet via TCP/IP can communicate with an remote network device interface specification (RNDIS) service connected via USB. With this type of bridge, developers can implement router, switch or gateway functions. ● USB and LAN ChameleonARM allows the user to connect to a pc or another USB host. This

means any devices can be connected to the pc via USB, avoiding the need for special interface cards. ● From CAN to Ethernet ChameleonARM allows CAN based networks to be connected to an Ethernet based LAN. This means the control computer does not have to be located in the vicinity of the CAN network. As this removes all restrictions on the length of CAN networks, this opens up new opportunities for developers. ● LON controller LON transceiver add on boards, controllers and gateways to Ethernet, CAN, USB and Pyxos can be created without the need of a Neuron chip. As the LON protocol stack is available from EBV, what was a complex application can be implemented relatively easily and quickly.

The complete solution EBV designed ChameleonARM to offer development engineers optimum support. For the design itself, EBV drew on the support of some of its development partners. For example, Fraunhofer IMS was in charge of hardware development and ARM subsidiary Keil controlled software development. The demo software is based on software forging solutions from Sevenstax and Thesycon. By taking this approach, EBV is providing its customers with access to state of the art technologies which they can either implement off the shelf or adapt to their requirements. This reduces costs and development work for EBV’s customers, as well as reducing time to market. In addition to the board and documentation, EBV supplies RS232, USB and Ethernet cables, a power supply and a preconfigured SD card.

Author profile: Rudy Van Parijs is VP Technical Development for EBV Electronik. Support and prize draw For more information and to enter a draw for a ChameleonARM board, go to www.ebv.com/chameleonarm.

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“We were delighted to be named as a finalist in the 2006 Innovation & Design Excellence Awards. It was an excellent opportunity to gain national recognition, as well as celebrating the expertise and hard work of our team. Being named amongst the industry’s leading companies is a great honour in itself.”

you win! Win or lose

Paul Marsh, managing director, GSPK Design

The 2007 Innovation & Design Excellence Awards (iDEAs) reward creativity, innovation and excellence in engineering design. They celebrate the critical role played by engineering design teams. These can be an in-house team or external design house.

What’s more, the awards provide a key benchmark of your performance against the best in the field. If you think your design team can compete with the best, this is your chance to prove it. This year’s categories are: ■ Design Collaboration ■ B2B Product ■ Consumer Product ■ Green Innovation ■ Small Company ■ Design Cycle Reduction, and ■ The prestigious Innovation & Design Excellence of the Year Award. It all starts with an entry form (details below), in which you describe how you apply innovation in design. If this looks good, an iDEA judging team will visit you for a day and make a rigorous assessment. Many companies see this visit – and subsequent feedback – as the most compelling reason to enter. The highlight of the programme is the prestigious Awards Luncheon, where more than 500 guests will gather at the Park Lane Hilton in London in September. Entry to the awards is free, but entry forms must be completed by 20 June 2007.

You can only gain from entering the 2007 Innovation & Design Excellence Awards

To request an entry form, contact: Maggie Bridge, Awards Co-ordinator, Cranfield School of Management, Bedford, MK43 0AL Email: [email protected] Tel: 01234 754498 Fax: 01234 751806 www.ideawards.co.uk Organised by

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11/5/07 12:30:34

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POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION

ADVANCE IN THE PROFESSION

Mastering your future T

here was a time when postgraduate study was viewed as a ‘way in’ to an academic or industrial research post. Those who embarked upon a Masters straight after their first degree risked giving the impression of being more interested in academia. Taking time out mid career to pursue postgraduate qualifications was very unusual. However, times have changed and appropriate postgraduate study can now be a career enhancing experience. Today, some 10% of electronic engineering graduates take higher degrees. Postgraduate study at Masters level allows students to specialise in a particular field and to gain extra skills, whilst a PhD, MRes, MPhil or EngD are appropriate further qualifications for those pursuing academic careers. Because the average first degree in electrical and electronic engineering tends to introduce students to a broad range of topics, postgraduate study is now regarded as a natural means of gaining specific expertise. There is also the question of Chartered Engineer status. Michelle Richmond, director of qualifications at the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) explains: “There are many routes to chartership, including a BSc and BEng Hons. A new standard for professional engineers called the UK Standard for

A postgraduate degree isn’t just for those headed for academia. By Vanessa Knivett. Professional Engineering Competence (UKSPEC) was launched in December 2003 to raise the standard for Chartered Engineer status to Masters level.” The action was taken, recounts Richmond, in response to a ‘cohort of engineers coming through the system, whose education finished at BEng level’. As a result, Masters courses have again become a popular means of demonstrating a commitment to professional development and a key tenant to obtaining Chartership. One word of warning – the Institution has an approved list of postgraduate courses and

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began assessing MScs in 2004. If an MSc is to count towards Chartership, then you should follow an approved course and there are more than 40 of these on offer in the UK. Jane Black, senior accreditation coordinator at the IET, is one of those responsible for approving courses. It is an involved exercise, she says, that includes formal visits to the institution to look at the whole student experience, a detailed investigation of course content, plus consideration of ongoing research within a department through peer assessment. Black says that an important criteria is that learning outcomes are mapped to UK-SPEC. According to Richmond, the IET is keen to promote postgraduate study in the workplace. Similarly, universities are keen to attract employed students and many part time Masters schemes are now available. For employed students, the challenge is finding the right MSc which runs at a suitable time. Universities have become increasingly accommodating – some provide evening tuition. Meanwhile, the number of distance learning courses is on the increase. Whilst no distance learning courses are currently approved by the IET, Black suggests this will change. Black feels employer support for staff following postgraduate study is, at best,

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What are the options? There are many postgraduate courses in electronic engineering available in the UK. Typically, a full time MSc programme runs for 12 months, combining compulsory and optional taught units, as well as a project carried out independently by the student. Part time courses usually run for two years, with the taught section organised into intensive weeks of study or one day of classes per week. Postgraduate courses can be found at www.findamasters.com. Going to www.learndirect-advice.co.uk may be useful for sources of funding. It is also worth investigating the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (www.ktponline. org.uk) for funding opportunities. Meanwhile, the following are some of the courses now available.

photography courtesy iSLI

Where?: University of Leicester What?: MSc, a Postgraduate Diploma or Certificate in Advanced Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Target student?: Engineers who wish to follow a career in the design and implementation of electrical and electronic systems within the wider engineering environment. Half the intake tends to be new first degree graduates, whilst the other half tends to have spent a few years in industry. What’s covered?: Modules available include digital communications, biomedical engineering and electrical power. Links with industry: An industrial consultative committee and the Engineering Institutions all advise on course content. Next intake:? 1 October 2007 Programme director: Paul Lefley ([email protected])

‘patchy’. “During my university visits, I’ve talked to many part time students. Some employers are incredibly supportive and will offer day release and even pay for the course. Others allow employees to attend courses if time is made up, whilst others are not very supportive.”

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ADVANCE IN THE PROFESSION

Where?: University of the West of England What?: MSc Advanced Technologies in Electronics Target student?: The course has been designed predominantly to expand upon knowledge gained in an electrical/electronic biased first degree. However, mature students who wish to update and expand their knowledge are encouraged to participate and a part time mode is offered. What’s covered?: There is a large embedded computing, VLSI, hardware/software codesign, mobile telecoms, and modern AI implemented in engineering systems content for British and European candidates. Links with industry: The MSc is closely related to the research strengths of the teaching staff, which in turn, are often related to industrial research contracts. Next intake? September 2007 Programme director: Dr Tony Pipe (Anthony.Pipe@ uwe.ac.uk) Where?: The University of Bolton What?: Full or part time MSc, Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Electronics Design Target student?: First class or upper second honours graduates in electronics or related subjects. Industrial experience in electronics design plus an HND may be sufficient. What’s covered?: Taught modules include microelectronic technologies and applications, engineering design, project management, signal integrity and emc, dsp, microcontrollers and system design using fpgas. Links with industry: The electronics team at Bolton is very involved in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with local companies, and with the UK’s Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network launches in December 2006. Next intake?: September 2007 Programme director: Linda Holland

Employer support tends to depend upon the relevance of your chosen course to your job specification. If you are interested in using a postgraduate course to manoeuvre into a different area of expertise, then other sources of finance and support are worth investigating. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is an important source of funding for postgraduate studies in engineering. Although it doesn’t give money to students directly, it does fund universities through Doctoral Training Accounts and Collaborative Training Accounts – the latter designed to support training with strong connections to industry. Meanwhile, the IET has amalgamated the various scholarships, awards and prizes that

Where?: The University of Southampton What?: Full time MSc in Microelectronic Systems Design (other MScs include System on a Chip, Nanoelectronics, Microsystems Technology and Radio Frequency Communications Systems) Target student?: First degree graduates with either an upper second-class honours degree or higher in an appropriate related discipline. What’s covered?: This MSc programme offers a wide choice of modules based on digital integrated circuit design and analogue integrated circuit design. It examines aspects of system integration and aspects of discrete device properties. There is also a group project on VLSI design and optional modules on nanotechnology, microsystems technology and radio frequency transceiver design. Links with industry: The MSc degrees have been designed around areas of expertise for which there is great demand from industry. Much of the tuition is from academics who are world-leaders in their field. Next intake?: October 2007 Programme director: Dr Darren Bagnall ([email protected]) Where?: Institute for System Level Integration What?: MSc in System Level Integration Target student?: Undergraduates considering a career path in analogue design, as well as practicing analogue design engineers. What’s covered?: The MSc is designed to provide an understanding of the process of system level design, the use of IP blocks and the architecture of modern electronic systems. The course also provides a thorough grounding in business issues. Links with industry: The course has been designed with substantial input from industry. Next intake?: 2007

previously belonged to the IIE and IEE into three programmes, entitled Achievement, Ambition and Innovation. The Ambition Awards, launched this year, seek to recognise, support and encourage those either studying, or at the start of their careers, within the fields of engineering and technology. These may prove a useful source of either whole or part postgraduate course funding.

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Electronic and Engineering Design vacancies

Consultancies in this sector www.vrl.co.uk T: 01234 436136 E: [email protected] Vector - the High Technology Specialists. We are all Engineers and we find jobs for Engineers. We speak your language, we understand your needs and we get it right. Whether you are job hunting or recruiting staff for your company, talk to the experts! www.webrecruit.co.uk T: 0845 0707337 E: [email protected] Looking to recruit? We fill 9 out of 10 vacancies, guaranteed by our unique 100% money back promise. Job seekers? We can help you find the next job, sign up for our job alert service on our website. www.technicalfutures.co.uk T: 01442 871676 E: [email protected] Specialists in permanent recruitment. We have secured a leading reputation and recognised name in the supply of high quality candidates, across all disciplines and levels, targeting the electronics and engineering sectors.

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Business Analyst Programmer/ Programmer Location: Midlands, South, South West, Wales

Salary: Negotiable

Renishaw plc was founded in 1973, a UK company and is regarded as a world leader in the design and manufacture of precision metrology equipment and systems. We employ over 2000 people in more than 30 locations to supply and support our customers on a world wide basis. A vacancy for an Business Analyst/Programmer has arisen within the Business Systems Department to cater for the expansion in the use of commercial IT systems throughout the Renishaw Group. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work in a dynamic department of a growing and innovative company that is a world leader in Manufacturing and Engineering. The position involves working with staff in subsidiary companies and departments across the Renishaw Group, supporting and enhancing existing commercial processes and IT systems, as well as supporting the development of markets in new geographic and business areas. The successful candidate will be expected to analyse business needs, propose practical innovative solutions and see those solutions through to stable implementations, working both within a team and, where appropriate, individually. Candidates will need to demonstrate strong skills and a minimum of 18 months’ experience in some of the following areas; implementing and supporting an ERP package (Sage Line 500 or Infor SyteLine, preferably), systems analysis, C#/.NET, Visual Basic, SQL Server and Crystal Reports.

Telephone: 01453 524524 Email: [email protected]

Electronic Test Rig Engineer Location: Midlands, South, South West, Wales

Salary: Negotiable

Renishaw plc was founded in 1973, a UK company and is regarded as a world leader in the design and manufacture of precision metrology equipment and systems. We employ over 2000 people in more than 30 locations to supply and support our customers on a world wide basis. Within our manufacturing services division we have a vacancy for a Test Rig Engineer. Working closely with other engineers the successful candidate will specify and design the electronics component for new test rigs; provide support for existing rigs based in UK/Ireland and the groups subsidiaries; re engineer new rigs and oversee the development of new rigs and assist in their build test and installation for eventual handover to production; provide design support to other groups in the company as required. Applicants must have a relevant Degree/HND in Electronic Engineering with at least 2 years in design or test development. They should also possess some experience of some or all of the following: Design with PIC controllers, PCB design using Protel or Cadstar PCB rapid prototyping, Labview software.

T: 0800 929 114 E: [email protected] www.kinetic-selection.co.uk Established in 1983, Kinetic Search & Selection exists to meet the permanent recruitment demands of both businesses and candidates based in the Engineering, Manufacturing and Technical industries.

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4/6/07 09:38:38