Embedded Processor Watch

Editor: Jim Turley

In This Issue:

• Tom Halfhill Joins Editorial Staff
• Motorola and Siemens Open 300-mm Fab
• Industry Resources: One Week Left for Embedded Forum Discount
• Industry Resources: EEF-III v2.0 on WWW
• Industry Resources: Telecommunications Dictionary
• New Embedded IC Announcements

Tom Halfhill Joins Editorial Staff

I'm pleased to announce that Tom R. Halfhill has joined our staff as our new Senior Editor for embedded microprocessors. Many readers may know Tom from Byte magazine, where he was senior editor, writing nearly 200 articles about microprocessors, data compression, thin clients, Java, computer reliability, broadband communications, and a variety of other topics.

Before Byte, Tom was the editor of several magazines covering home computing and electronic games, such as COMPUTE! and Game Player's. He has been a full-time technical journalist since 1982, after starting his career working at daily newspapers in 1977. Tom has coauthored and edited several books, and still writes a monthly technology column that appears in four magazines.

With Tom aboard, our coverage of embedded systems in both Microprocessor Report and Embedded Processor Watch will expand and improve, I'm sure. You can reach Tom at mailto:halfhill@mdr.zd.com. --Jim Turley, Editor in Chief

Motorola and Siemens Open 300-mm Fab

As we suggested earlier this year (see Embedded Processor Watch #34), Motorola has struck a foundry deal with Siemens in Dresden, Germany. The two companies have officially opened their jointly owned 300-mm wafer fab and produced 64-Mbit DRAM chips therefrom.

Processing 300-mm wafers presents several technical challenges, not the least of which is the fact that the wafers, which are a foot across, sag under their own weight. The two firms will now work on updating their design tool chains so that other products can take advantage of the Dresden fab, a process the companies expect to be finished in 2001.

Industry Resources: One Week Left for Embedded Forum Discount

The second annual Embedded Processor Forum will be held May 3-6 in San Jose, but the early-registration discount expires at the end of this week. Before February 28, early registrants receive a $100 discount to the conference. Subscribers to Microprocessor Report, our sister publication, receive another $100 discount, and groups of three or more registering together get another $100 off. For conference and registration details, visit http://www.MDRonline.com/epf.

The agenda for the Embedded Processor Forum as now been fixed; nearly two dozen microprocessor and DSP companies will be announcing new chips and new developments. Among the most significant presentations will be Intel's discussion of the next-generation StrongARM architecture and a joint IBM/Motorola announcement of the contents of "Book E," the secret embedded extensions to PowerPC. Other announcements are slated from Tensilica, Sun, Toshiba, ARC Cores, DSPGroup, TeraGen, Texas Instruments, Hitachi, ARM, IDT, and STMicroelectronics. Be sure to check the Embedded Processor Forum Web site for updates to the conference agenda.

Industry Resources: EEF-III v2.0 on WWW

Electrical and Electronic Formulas III, version 2.0 is an electronic publication and software tool for developers and engineers looking for an automated alternative to looking up formulae. Covering DC and AC circuit analysis, inductance, impedance, reactance, resonance, and related calculations, the $40 program runs on PCs.

For more information call Software Today (Kansas City) at 816.587.8369 or visit http://www.softwaretoday.com.

Industry Resources: Telecommunications Dictionary

CRC Press has released the Data and Telecommunications Dictionary, a 768-page compendium of terms with "colorful, easy-to-understand" coverage of close to 7,500 entries. Edited by Julie K. Peterson, the book is just one in the publisher's Advanced and Emerging Communications Technologies series.

Copies of the book (ISBN 0-8493-9591-7) sell for $50. For more information, or to order, contact CRC Press (Boca Raton, Flor.) at 800.272.7737 or visit http://www.crcpress.com.

New Embedded IC Announcements

PIC16HV540 (Microchip) One-time programmable microcontroller has 8-bit core and on-chip voltage regulator for 9-V and 12-V applications. Price: $1.34/1,000; Production: Now; Call Microchip at 602.786.7668.

PIC16F876, PIC16F877 (Microchip) Microcontrollers have flash memory and are pin-compatible with equivalent chips with one-time programmable or mask-programmed ROM. Price: $7.97/1,000; Production: Now; Call Microchip at 602.786.7668.

PIC16F627, PIC16F628 (Microchip) Microcontrollers have 4-MHz clock oscillator, voltage comparators, USART, capture/compare PWM module, and 1K ('627) or 2K ('628) of flash. Price: $2.98/1,000; Production: Now; Call Microchip at 602.786.7668.

CS4340, CS4341 (Cirrus Logic) DAC has 100-dB dynamic range, audio sample rates of 2 kHz to 100 kHz, power on/off transient control, and operates at 3 V to 5 V. Price: $2.15/1000; Production: Now; Call Cirrus at 510.249.4244.

DiskOnChip (M-Systems) Single-chip disk replacement measures 11.7 x 21.3 x 1.2 mm, writes at 400KB/s, reads at 1.2MB/s, burst rate of 13.3MB/s; with 8MB capacity. Price: $20/10,000; Production: Now; Call M-Systems at 510.413.5950.

74LCX16244T (STMicroelectronics) Three-state non-inverting, 16-bit buffer in a TSSOP48 package features power-down protection, latch-up performance, and 2-kV ESD immunity. Price: $1.00/10,000; Production: Now; Call ST at 781.861.2650.

S2076 (AMCC) Quad-fibre channel transceiver bundles four channels in a 23 x 23 mm 208-pin TBGA package. Price: $65/100; Production: Now; Call AMCC at 800.755.2622.

ML6460, ML6461 (Micro Linear) Video encoder chips integrate output filters, amplifiers, A/D converters, and Macrovision copy protection ('60) for DVD applications. Price: $8/1,000; Production: Now; Call Micro Linear at 408.433.5200.