The chiplet universe is coming: What’s in it for you?
There’s a lot of talk and excitement about chiplets these days, but there’s also a lot of confusion. What is available today? What should I expect in terms of interoperability? Is the promise of an emerging ecosystem real? More fundamentally,…
Power Tips #126: Hot plugging DC/DC converters safely
In power converters, the input capacitors are fed through inductive cabling to the power source. Parasitic inductance will cause ringing of the input voltage to almost twice its DC value when first plugged into the system, also called hot plugging.…
The PowerStation PSX3: A portable multifunction vehicular powerhouse with a beefy battery
As regular readers may already recollect, I’ve got two vehicles in outdoor storage, which (at minimum) I start once a year to reorder them and drive the one now in front to a nearby emissions testing center.
Stored-vehicle batteries inevitably…
Foundry PDK aims to train engineers on 2-nm process node
A new process design kit (PDK) from imec aims to provide broad access to a 2-nm gate-all-around (GAA) process node and associated backside connectivity for design pathfinding, system research, and training. This foundry PDK features the necessary…
What does Renesas’ acquisition of PCB toolmaker Altium mean?
Renesas increasingly looks like Cisco of the 1990s, when the router pioneer became an acquisition force and transformed itself into a networking giant within a decade. Renesas, the semiconductor industry’s serial acquirer, has announced to…
Low-power MCUs perform diverse tasks
Built with an Arm Cortex-M33 core, NXP’s MCX A14x and A15x series of general-purpose MCUs operate at 48 MHz and 96 MHz, respectively. The devices target a broad range of applications, including motor control, industrial sensing, smart metering,…
Fast SSD improves computer performance
Joining Samsung’s lineup of consumer SSDs, the 990 EVO delivers a sequential read speed of up to 5000 Mbytes/s, 43% faster than the 970 EVO Plus model. The company also reports that the 990 EVO offers up to a 70% improvement in power efficiency…
Platform simulates Wi-Fi 7 devices and traffic
The E7515W UXM wireless test platform from Keysight offers network emulation with Wi-Fi 7 signaling RF and throughput testing of Wi-Fi 7 devices. It performs Wi-Fi to application and Wi-Fi to cellular internetworking testing of both Wi-Fi clients…
IEEE 1588 grandmaster clock handles 25 Gbps
Microchip’s TimeProvider 4500 (TP4500) is an IEEE 1588 PTP grandmaster clock that furnishes high-speed network interfaces up to 25 Gbps. The hardware timekeeping platform not only offers 1-Gbps, 10-Gbps, and 25-Gbps Ethernet options, but also…
5G router streamlines industrial operations
Purpose-built for Industry 4.0 use cases, the Digi IX40 router provides global 5G and LTE connectivity with edge intelligence and real-time processing. The IoT cellular router allows enterprises to seamlessly connect multiple wired or wireless…
Hotwire thermostat: Using fine copper wire as integrated sensor and heater for temperature control
Conventional thermostats are based on separate temperature sensor and heater devices with means for feedback between them. But in some recent EDN design ideas (DIs) we’ve seen thermostat designs that meld the functions of sensor and heater…
Indoor solar cells spur design-option reassessments
Conventional solar cells are just that: photovoltaic devices which, by their physics, extract and transform energy from the sun. Their sensitivity and efficiency are matched to the optical-energy spectrum of radiated and received power from…
