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Inside IMEC 24
ISSUE 1610 MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011 WWW.EETIMES.COM
EETimes
POISON IN THE VEINS
18
How a counterfeit chip case exposed a dangerous
flaw in U.S. policy
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October 24 , 2011 Electronic Engineering Times 3
CONTENTS OCTOBER 24, 2011
OPINION
4 Commentary: Where are
the jobs?
58 Last Word: Steve Jobs
secret success: Wi-Fi
NEWS OF THE TIMES
7 ARMs tips big-little
strategy for multicore
10 HP, Hynix target memristor
launch in 2013
12 Bob Swanson on why
linearand Linear
still rocks
16 Apple sales come up short
COVER STORY
18 Chip counterfeit case
uncovers U.S. policy flaw
INTELLIGENCE
24 Inside IMEC
DESIGN + PRODUCTS
Global Feature:
Designing for auto safety
33 Processor strategies
34 Benchtop EMI scans
40 SW-intensive auto systems
42 Electrical systems
44 Planet Analog: Spice analysis
of front-end RL drive for ECG
EE LIFE
53 Pop Culture: On jobs, layoffs
57 Drive for Innovation: Are you
outraged yet?
24 An UBM Electronics Publication
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4 Electronic Engineering Times October 24, 2011
COMMENTARY
In an op-ed piece for the New York
Times, Susan Hockfield, president of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
spelled out the challenge, starting:
The United States became the worlds
largest economy because we invented prod-
ucts and then made them with new
processes. With design and fabrication
side by side, insights from the factory floor
flowed back to the drawing
board. Today, our most
important task is to restart
this virtuous cycle of inven-
tion and manufacturing.
MITs president believes
manufacturing has the
power to fuel a U.S. recov-
ery. But Im not sure the
matter is so clear-cut.
EE Times has been cover-
ing the global electronics
for almost 40 years, and in
that time weve all wit-
nessed the mass exodus of
manufacturing facilities
overseas. The exodus certainly hasnt
stopped at mere manufacturing; off-
shore production has ultimately led to
offshore innovation, with many compa-
nies investing in design centers and
R&D facilities outside the United States
that attract and nurture talented design
engineers abroad.
When a U.S. high-tech company
starts logging more revenue from over-
seas markets, it feels justified in trim-
ming its U.S. workforce. The explana-
tion is always the same: We need to
operate in local markets to understand
those markets needs. We are a global
company; we need to design locally and
manufacture locally.
The global label is being used as a get-
out-of-jail-free card. Companies remain
beholden to their customers in the glob-
al markets and to their
shareholders back home.
The one constituency to
whom they are no longer
beholden is their engi-
neers and other workers
in the States, even though
they remain U.S.-based
companies.
How can we break the
cycle?
Returning to Hock-
fields op-ed piece, it
should be noted that she
qualifies what she means
by manufacturing:
To make our economy grow, sell more
goods to the world and replenish the
work force, we need to restore manufac-
turingnot the assembly-line jobs of the
past, but the high-tech advanced manu-
facturing of the future.
Specifically, the MIT president advis-
es that we hang our hats on advanced
manufacturing that relies on the mar-
riage of science and engineering in cut-
ting-edge fields.
Now were getting somewhere.
We at EE Times dont pretend to have
all the answers; far from it. But in the
search for cutting-edge fields that
could create advanced manufacturing
and engineering jobs, we may be able to
help. Since April 2004, EE Times has
been compiling and regularly revising a
listing of emerging startups informally
known as the Silicon 60.
The Silicon 60 includes startups
involved in semiconductor technolo-
gies for analog circuits, memory, logic,
power, microelectromechanical system
devices, optoelectronics, EDA software,
foundry manufacturing, semiconductor
production equipment, electronic sub-
systems, displays, packaging and mate-
rials. EE Times selects the companies
based on a mix of criteria, including
technology ingenuity, market focus,
maturity, financial position, investment
profile and executive leadership.
The Silicon 60 list presents a cross-
section of excellence in the global elec-
tronics industry, where continuous
technological innovationcoupled
with new business modelshas driven
growth and given birth to new ideas,
new companies and, as a consequence,
new jobs.
EE Times has come out with a special
Silicon 60 Career Issue (http://e.ubm
electronics.com/Silicon60/index.html),
offering insight into dozens of hot com-
panies at which you might be tempted
to seek employment. We report on
available jobs and the skill sets required
(please note that not all of the listed
companies have openings). The report
includes viewpoints from venture capi-
talists on the current startup landscape
and poses five questions anyone should
ask before joining a startup.
Its not the whole answer to the job
crisis. But the companies on our list are
committed enough to good old ingenu-
ity that theyunlike, say, Congress
have put their money where their
mouths are.
Happy hunting.
p
By Junko Yoshida (junko.yoshida@ubm.
com), editor in chief of EE Times.
lJOIN THE CONVERSATION
http://tiny.cc/y7z8s
Where are the jobs? Thats the question of the
year. Its easy to blame the President, Congress
and Wall Street, and indeed, in one way or
another, theyre all complicit. My addition to
the rogues gallery would be those big high-
tech companies in the United States that are
sitting on hoards of cash but neither hiring nor
investing.
Where are the jobs?
We shed light
on jobs in
cutting-edge
fields
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October 24, 2011 Electronic Engineering Times 7
OF THE TIMES News
ARM trots out little dog A7 processor
By Peter Clarke
PROCESSOR IP LICENSOR ARM
Holdings plc has revealed a power-effi-
cient Cortex-A7 processor core that it
says is intended to be used alongside its
top-of-the-range Cortex-A15 as part of a
heterogeneous power-driven multicore
strategy.
The A7 is a dual-issue, eight-stage
pipeline core that has been heavily opti-
mized for power efficiency but supports
the same virtualization and extended
addressing as the A15. As a result, ARM
(Cambridge, U.K.) expects partners to
implement a big dog, little dog strate-
gy so that cores are selected to run appli-
cations based on the apps power effi-
ciency needs.
Alternatively, the A7 processor can
be used alone in single- or dual-core
instantiations to power an entry-level
smartphone for price-sensitive markets,
ARM said.
CEO Warren East, speaking at the
U.K. launch of the A7, said he expected
multicore chipswhich could be dual-
core A15 plus dual-core A7to be in
the market and powering smartphones
in 2013.
The big-little strategy allows low-per-
formance basic and always-on tasks to
be run on one or more A7 cores, to max-
imize battery life, while tasks requiring
greater performance would migrate to
the A15. This dynamic core selection
can be made transparent to the applica-
tion software and middleware running
on the processors, supported by
advanced ARM system IP, such as the
AMBA 4 ACE Coherency Extensions.
MULTICORE
Paired with big dog
A15, the A7 will let
ARM partners pursue a
strategy that trades
performance for power
efficiency as the app
warrants, CEO Warren
East said at the launch
NEWS OF THETIMES
The movement of tasks between paired
A7 and A15 cores is triggered by the
same system that drives the dynamic
voltage and frequency scaling that has
become traditional in leading-edge sys-
tem chips, the company said.
In a 28-nanometer process, the A7 is
less than one-fifth the size of the Cor-
tex-A8 in a 45-nm process, while provid-
ing greater performance and much
greater power efficiency, ARM said. A
dual-core A7 processor at 28 nm would
produce about a 70 percent power sav-
ings over a dual-core A9 processor
implemented in a 40-nm technology. In
other words, the A7 would consume
about one-third the power needed by
the A9.
ARM had two or three lead partners
on the development of the A7 and the
associated big-little strategy, East said,
but he declined to identify them. Accord-
ing to the company, ARM now has a
BIG-LITTLE FOR GRAPHICS?
As ARM Holdings plc rolled out its
Cortex-A7 core and attendant big
dog, little dog" flexible power/per-
formance scheme last week, an
ARM executive revealed that a simi-
lar scheme was being considered
for its graphics processor cores.
We are looking at a little-big
approach for Mali, said Peter Hut-
ton, general manager of the media
processing division, who was involved
in the design of the Cortex-A7.
At present, ARMs big-little
scheme applies to the pairing of
the A7 and Cortex-A15, allowing
software to migrate between the
cores based on the processing per-
formance required.
ARM's Mali T-604 graphics
processor supports the OpenCL
parallel programming environment
and the notion of applying the GPU
to parallelizable general-purpose
processing tasks. Hand-coding and
manual partitioning currently have
to be done to break out code that
is suitable for running on a GPU.
The T-604 includes four shader
cores, each of which contains two
arithmetic pipelines, one texturing
pipeline and one load/store unit.
The four shaders share a coherent
L2 cache, an MMU, a tiler and a job
manager. The job management
block is a key component because
the shaders are multithreaded; the
job manager can dynamically move
threads among the shaders. Thus
there is already power/performance
scalability at the thread level inside
the Mali T-604.
In that regard, one could consid-
er the A7, A15 and Mali T-xxx,
which are likely to be implemented
monolithically, as a set of resources
that software should harness opti-
mally based on a set of defined
parameters, most notably minimum
latency and minimum power con-
sumption. Peter Clarke
Cortex-A15 vs. Cortex-A7 Cortex-A7 vs. Cortex-A15
performance energy efficiency
Dhrystone 1.9x 3.5x
FDCT 2.3x 3.8x
IMDCT 3.0x 3.0x
MemCopy L1 1.9x 2.3x
MemCopy L2 1.9x 3.4x
The same system that
drives dynamic voltage
and frequency scaling
triggers task movement
between paired cores
Performance and energy comparison of the Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A15.
Power consumption vs. performance for an A7 and A15 pair showing
dynamic voltage and frequency scaling points.
Overdrive condition
Highest
Cortex-A15
operating
point
Cortex-A15
Cortex-A7
Highest Cortex-A7 operating point
Lowest Cortex-A15 operating point
Lowest
Cortex-A7
operating
point
Performance
P
o
w
e
r
Source: ARM
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NEWS OF THETIMES
SEVILLE, SPAIN The memristor
two-terminal nonvolatile memory that
Hewlett Packard Co. has had in devel-
opment since 2008 is on track to be
on the market and taking share from
flash memory within 18 months,
according to Stan Williams, senior fel-
low at HP Labs.
We have a lot of big plans for it.
Were working with Hynix Semicon-
ductor to launch a replacement for
flash in the summer of 2013 and also to
address the solid-state drive market,
Williams told an audience here at the
recent International Electronics Forum.
A spokesperson for HP said there was
no definitive product road map yet for
memristors but confirmed that HP has
a goal to see memristor products by the
end of 2013.
The memristor metrics pertaining
to energy to change a bit, read/write
times, retention and endurance are so
compelling that flash replacement is
effectively a done deal, Williams said.
So in 2014/2015, well be going after
DRAM and, after that, the SRAM mar-
ket, he said, suggesting confidence
that the memristor would become a
so-called universal memory.
Williams declined to detail the
process technology, memory capacity or
memory-effect material with which HP
and Hynix are working, though he said
the first commercial offering would be
a multilayer device. He said the part-
ners had been running hundreds of
wafers through a Hynix full-size fab
and were very happy with the results.
When challenged over the cost of the
technology, a potential barrier to its
competing against flash, Williams said,
On a price-per-bit basis, we could be an
order of magnitude lower in cost once
you get the NRE [nonrecurring engi-
neering cost] out of the way.
From theory to product
The memristorits name is a combina-
tion of memory and resistorwas
originally a theoretical two-terminal
device whose electrical behavior was
derived by Leon Chua in 1971. Nearly
40 years later, in 2008, HP researchers
published a paper in Nature that tied
the hysteretic I-V characteristics of two-
terminal titanium oxide devices to
Chuas memristor prediction.
What we found is that moving a few
atoms a fraction of a nanometer can
change the resistance by three orders of
magnitude, said Williams. In fact,
many nanodevices have inherent mem-
resistive behavior.
HP has amassed some 500 patents
around the memristor over the past
three years. Williams also acknowl-
edged, however, that phase-change
memory, resistive RAM (RRAM) and
other two-terminal memory devices are
all memristor-type devices, and that
many other companies are working on
metal-oxide RRAMs. Samsung now has
a bigger research team working on the
technology than HP, he said.
Williams touted the crosspoint
nature of the memristor memory
switch or resistive RAM device as pro-
viding a memory capacity advantage
over flash. Whatever the best in flash
memory is, well be able to double that,
he said.
Implication logic and synapse
Williams said HPs technology meets or
exceeds the flash performance in all
categories. Read times are less than
MEMORY
HP, Hynix target memristor launch in 2013
By Peter Clarke
wave of semiconductor licensees eager
to use the A7 core. Chip vendors Broad-
com, Freescale, HiSilicon, Samsung,
ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments
are listed as supporting the technology,
as are system and software concerns
Compal, LG Electronics, Linaro, Open
Kernel Labs, QNX, Red Bend and Sprint.
We took the A15 to market last
year because we needed to push the
performance envelope, said East. But
power efficiency is the most impor-
tant thing for ARM. The A7 is the most
efficient core yet.
Power-efficiency-driven selection of
resources has been used before, for
example in the area of graphics, but not
for general-purpose processor cores,
said Tom Cronk, deputy general manag-
er of the processor division.
The Cortex-A7 processor occupies
less than 0.5 square millimeter using a
28-nm process technology and provides
useful performance at about a 1.2-GHz
clock frequency in both single- and
multicore configurations.
Used as a standalone processor, the
Cortex-A7 will deliver sub-$100 entry-
level smartphones in the 2013-2014
time frame that will offer processing
performance equivalent to that of
todays $500 high-end smartphones,
according to ARM.
While the A7 is aimed initially at
smartphones, East said the big-little
strategy would be applicable in other
areas. He predicted that power-driven
resource allocation would eventually be
deployed in consumer electronics and
any area in which complex processing
must coexist with power efficiency.
Tapeouts including the Cortex-A7 are
expected in the first half of 2012, with
systems-on-chip and products based on
them to follow in 2013, East said.
p
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CALL IT CULTLIKE, and Linear
Technology wont take offense. The
companys commitment to analog is
all-consuming. Its hundreds of analog
gurus give concrete form to the tenets
espoused by its founders. And for the
faithful who gathered at the San Jose
Convention Center on Oct. 22 for Lin-
ears 30th anniversary bash, the celebra-
tory anthem was, Linear Rocks.
Executive chairman Bob Swanson,
who co-founded Linear in 1981 with
Bob Dobkin, was a featured speaker at
the gathering. In an interview with
EE Times before the event, Swanson
said his message would be that Linear
isnt a company with a few geniuses
at the core, surrounded by thousands
NEWS OF THETIMES
10 nanoseconds, and write/erase times
are about 0.1 ns. HP is still accumulat-
ing endurance cycle data at 10
12
cycles,
and retention times are measured in
years, he said.
The memristor also has simplicity
going for it, Williams said. It uses mate-
rials that are already common in the
worlds wafer fabs, making the manu-
facture of CMOS-compatible devices a
relatively straightforward process.
That raises the prospect of adding
dense nonvolatile memory as an extra
layer on top of logic circuitry. We
could offer 2 Gbytes of memory per core
on the processor chip. Putting non-
volatile memory on top of the logic
chip would buy us [the equivalent of] 20
years of Moores Law, said Williams.
Further out, Williams said, the mem-
ristor could be used for computation
under a scheme called implication logic
in a fraction of the area consumed in
CMOS by Boolean logic. In addition, a
memristor device is a good analog of
the synapse in brain function, the HP
researcher said.
As for HPs memristor business mod-
el, Williams stressed that the company
would not be getting into the semicon-
ductor components business but would
instead seek to commercialize and then
license the technology to all comers.
p
Texas Instruments
Analog Devices
Maxim Integrated Products
National Semiconductor
Linear Technology
STMicroelectronics
Intersil
ON Semiconductor
Sanken
Fairchild Semiconductor
Others
Total Market
2376
3495
260
393
278
384
5849
7524
15302
20986
526
715
534
699
841
1369
602
886
1674
2290
1265
1813
1097
1418
CY2009
CY2010
Market share rankings for standard analog IC suppliers, 2009-2010
Revenue, $ millions
Source: Gartners Annual Semiconductor Market Share Compilation, 2010, published in March 2011
Bob Swanson on why linearand Linearstill rocks
By Junko Yoshida
ANALOG
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NEWS OF THETIMES
of helpers. This is a company with a
few helpers, like myself and others in
the middle, surrounded by hundreds
of geniuses.
Its the rare executive who publicly
speaks his mind. But Swanson, who
passed the CEO torch to Lothar Maier in
2005, didnt mince words during our
interview, which touched on his own
history, including his 30 years at Linear;
the company and its competitors; and
the changes that have swept the indus-
try over the course of his career.
When Swanson and Dobkin started
Linear, the so-called digital revolution
was just getting under way, and digital
technology was threatening to do away
with all things analog. Swanson lost
sleep over the thought that hed started
a company in a crowded sector
already hosting 50 or more competi-
torswhose best days might already
be behind it.
In the early days, I remember going
into Bob [Dobkins] office every day, ask-
ing him if the talk about the digital rev-
olution was true. And Bob, every time,
assured me that analog would not go
away, Swanson recalled.
Today, nothing amuses Swanson
more than an analyst or reporter who
proclaims analog suddenly hot, or a
chip giant with a bloated portfolio that
promises to reinvent itself as an analog
powerhouse. Such pronouncements are
vindication of the decisions he and
Dobkin made back in 1981, when, as he
put it, all we knew was analog.
Swanson recalled the time his team
did a teardown on a Hewlett-Packard
lab instrument that had been touted for
its digital signal processing capability.
Inside the HP box, the teardown team
found one DSP and 92 analog parts. By
the time Swanson turned over the man-
tle to Maier, analog was again the indus-
trys darling. After 30 years, the biggest
surprise for me was that the digital rev-
olution turned out to be a friend of ana-
log, he said.
The second surprise for Swanson
and further vindication of the choices
made by Linearwas that many in the
analog business today have embraced
the idea of high performance analog.
That was the marketing term we
invented at Linear when we were devel-
oping precision analog ICs such as op
amps, Swanson said, We had to ask
ourselves what it was that we were
after. We identified that we were com-
mitted to high-performance analog, and
we decided to call
it what it was.
Steve Ohr, analyst for analog and
power semiconductors at Gartners
Technology and Service Provider
Research group, said Linears strategy
has always been to stick with standard
multimarket building blocksampli-
fiers, data converters, power manage-
ment ICsbut design and build the
kinds of parts whose specifications (typ-
ically speed, precision and/or low pow-
er consumption) are so finely tuned
that competitors find those specs diffi-
cult, if not impossible, to duplicate.
Its strategy of skimming the very
high end of the standard analog parts
market has made Linear successful and
is still valid today, Ohr added.
Rewinding the tape
Before co-founding Linear, Swanson
worked for Transitron, Fairchild and
National Semiconductor. I worked
for the companies when they were at
their best, Swanson noted, adding
that the experience had imbued him
with the spirit of winning rather than
just surviving.
In 1960, Transitron had $60 million in
sales and was the second biggest chip
company, after Texas Instruments,
according to Swanson. I knew I was
working for a hot company because
whenever I went to a trade show, as soon
as somebody noticed Transitron on my
name tag, hed want to recruit me.
Several years into Swansons tenure
at Transitron, Fairchild came courting.
He took Fairchilds offer, having decid-
ed that Transitron didnt treat people
right; they behaved [as if] they had an
endless pool of engineers coming in
to replace you.
Fairchild was an innovative compa-
ny, said Swanson, but it wouldnt put
up money fast enough to seed the
growth. In 1968, as Fairchild was
imploding and key personnel were leav-
ing to found startups, Swanson landed
at National, where he started out as a
manufacturing guy. After completing a
tour of duty at Nationals fabs in Scot-
land and in Germany, he was put in
Scope Lie #1
Your digital
scopes
bandwidth
When it comes to small signal
bandwidth, engineers need a
gradual signal roll-off to avoid
seeing a lot of ringing and
overshoot in the time domain.
Todays digital scopes employ
very sharp, high-order frequency
responses that trade minimum
sampling rates for maximum
bandwidth. The result is high
overshoot and ringing when
measuring typical digital signals.

Try the scope that tells the truth by
utilizing slow roll off to eliminate
overshoot and ringing.
Discover how your digital scope
may be misrepresenting results at
888-837-8772
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
10
8
10
9
10
10
Rohde & Schwarz
Ideal Gaussian response
Other scopes
charge of Nationals flagship analog
business. It was an exhilarating experi-
ence, said Swanson.
But by the late 1970s, analog was a
business to milk at National, which
had begun buying into the myth that
all problems electronic would one day
be solved digitally. National started
making watches, calculators and com-
puters on a board, Swanson said, and
was trying to take on the Japanese
in memories. I didnt like the odds.
National was also taking on Intel in
microprocessors. I didnt like my
chances there either.
Swanson acknowledged that Nation-
als waning interest in analog had been
a factor in his decision to leave, but he
also cited his disappointment with
what he called the companys ridicu-
lous management style. Under a
matrix management system, National
managers had their hands on every-
thing, but nobody was responsible for
one thing, Swanson recalled. They
were even changing my process at a fab,
driving my yield to crash.
Swansons experiences at his three
earlier employers have informed his
management philosophy and are evi-
dent in Linears continued use of spe-
cialized fabrication facilities (an
unusual posture in the fabless era,
Ohr noted), its emphasis on R&D
investment and its commitment to
its engineers.
Asked what makes Linear unique,
Ohr cited its engineering culture, in
which individual creativity is encour-
aged and applauded. And at a time
when even analog companies like Inter-
sil are responding to Wall Streets prod-
ding to dump their fabs, Ohr said,
Linears bipolar and specialized CMOS
facilities are knobs they can turn to
extract ever more performance from
such devices as low-power 16-bit data
converters with 100-MHz sampling rates;
lithium-ion battery charge controllers
for the automotive battery market; and
the Micro-Module dc/dc converters,
which provide high-current outputs for
densely populated server cards.
The Micro-Module parts, Ohr added,
address one of the sweet spots of the
voltage regulator market: point-of-load
converters for big computers and enter-
prise-level communications systems.
Independent thinker
During Linears first decade, the buzz
around the digital revolution made
the financial community skeptical of
analog. At every analyst meeting on
Wall Street, Id spend the first 10 min-
utes explaining why analog was not
dead, then the next 10 minutes on
what the future held for Linear, said
Swanson.
Hes the first to point out that he
isnt a visionary, noting, I didnt have
a vision for smartphones or MP3 play-
ers. But Linear did see the impor-
tance of portable, battery-powered
products for things like medical equip-
ment or analytical tools. This was way
before portable PCs became popular.
The company capitalized on its early
recognition of the significance of mak-
ing standard functions more power-
efficient as devices shrink and
integration rises.
Thats not to say its all been smooth
sailing. When the dotcom bubble
burst in 2001, Linears sales sank by
half, to $500 million, triggering dramat-
ic action to reset the companys direc-
tion by 2005.
During that period, Linear took the
Scope Lie #2
Your digital
scopes noise
specification
Todays digital scopes only provide
a 5 or 10mV/division setting and
use a digital zoom to get down to
a 1mV/division setting. This tactic
signicantly increases noise while
lowering the accuracy. As a way to
reduce the noise, some oscilloscopes
limit bandwidth on low volts per
division settings, while others do not
offer the 1mV/division setting at all.
Try the scope that has a true,
low noise performance and highly
accurate 1mV/division setting.
888-837-8772
The big surprise
was that the digital
revolution turned
out to be a friend of
analog Bob Swanson
NEWS OF THETIMES
typical cost-cutting measures, but the
big decision was to unhinge ourselves
from the consumer electronics busi-
ness, Swanson said. Given the CE sec-
tors rise in influence during the past
decade, that decision might seem coun-
terintuitive. But what we learned is
that consumer electronics manufactur-
ers always care about price per chip;
they dont care about quality. Put more
accurately, they arent prepared to pay
more for quality.
Say theres consumer market demand
for a complex analog chip that fits in a
small space. Linear might get there first
and improve its chip with each new gen-
eration, but in a few years, some com-
petitor will field a similar chip at half
the price. The race is always to the bot-
tom, and once dragged there, theres no
way for us to protect our IP and continue
the business, Swanson said.
So Linear left the CE market to oth-
ers and refocused on the industrial and
automotive segments. When the glob-
al economic crisis hit in late 2008, we
didnt panic, said Swanson; the com-
pany stayed the course, focusing on
medium- to long-term business. By
2011, Swanson said, we kind of made
our case by maintaining a 30 percent
to 40 percent profit margin.
Between 2002 and 2010, according to
Gartner numbers cited by Ohr, the com-
pound annual growth rate of the stan-
dard analog IC market in which Linear
Scope Lie #3
Your digital
scopes
update rate
Digital scope manufacturers
boast update rates of 1
+
million
waveforms/sec, but this spec
excludes measurements and mask
testing. These demanding scope
measurement tests slow down
the update rate of most digital
oscilloscopes. When conducting
a mask test at lower update rates,
PFKPICPGXGPVVJCVQEEWTUQPEG
per second could take anywhere
from minutes to hours.
Try the scope that maintains
extremely high waveform update
rates while performing a mask
test, and locates the error in
less than 30 seconds.
888-837-8772
Applesquarterlysalescomeup
By Dylan McGrath
FINANCIAL
DESPITE RECORD SALES of Mac
PCs and iPads, Apple Inc.s sales for the
quarter ended Sept. 24 fell short of ana-
lysts consensus expectations.
Apple (Cupertino, Calif.) last week
reported sales for its fiscal fourth quar-
ter of $28.27 billion, down about 1 per-
cent from the third quarter and up 39
percent from the fourth quarter of 2010.
The company posted a quarterly net
profit of $6.62 billion, or $4.64 per
share, down 9 percent from the previ-
ous quarter and up 54 percent com-
pared with the year-ago quarter.
Analysts were looking for more.
According to Yahoo Finance, a group
of 44 analysts surveyed had expected
Apple to report sales for the fiscal fourth
quarter of $29.45 billion on average.
Gross margin for the quarter was 40.3
percent, down from 41.7 percent in the
previous quarter and up from 36.9 per-
cent in the year-ago quarter, Apple said .
For the fiscal year, also ended Sept.
24, Apple reported sales of $108.25 bil-
lion, up 66 percent from fiscal 2010. The
company reported net income for the
Analysts had been
expecting scal
fourth-quarter sales
of $29.45 billion
plays was 10.5 percent; Linears CAGR
was 13.1 percent.
Swanson is proud to go against Wall
Streets wisdom. We have a discipline
not to take a business for the sake of
growing sales, he said, adding that
once you start selling more at lower
margins, you find your R&D becoming
overhead that needs to be cut. Linear is
the most profitable company in the ana-
log market, said Swanson. But we have
never promised to Wall Street that we
are the fastest-growing company.
Linear has also worked to keep its
head count stable. Our No. 1 goal is
maintaining a healthy business, which
in turn creates job security and a cul-
ture of loyalty, Swanson said.
That culture, he believes, will help
Linear battle the two-headed giant of the
merged resources of Texas Instruments
and National. Innovation is not an arms
race, he said. TI may have 2,500 to
4,500 analog circuit designers now,
whereas I have only 250 to 300. But at
Linear, we have innovative analog
designers who are truly analog gurus.
Gartners Ohr, however, said TIs
acquisition of National should be a con-
cern for Linear. The future of analog
lies with broadline companies like
Texas Instruments, with the engineer-
ing and manufacturing resources to do
both standard analog and application-
specific analog. This assessment
includes ON Semiconductor, STMicro-
electronics, even Infineon.
Further, Ohr noted, If you dont wish
to be big, then you need to accept an
image of yourself as a niche player, a
billion-dollar-boutique.
But maybe thats what Linear wants.
We have never been committed to
profitless growth, Swanson said.
If thats not a refreshing attitude,
what is?
p
Scope Lie #4
Your digital
scopes
analog trigger
Most analog and digital scopes
utilize separate circuits for trigger
and waveform acquisition. These
circuits have different bandwidths,
varying sensitivities and diverse
characteristics which can cause
trigger jitter.
The R&SRTO digital oscilloscope
does not split the captured signal
into a trigger circuit and acquisition
circuit, virtually eliminating trigger
jitter and enabling you to trigger
QPCP[URGEKGFVTKIIGTRQKPV
Try the scope with the digital
trigger, that triggers on the same
waveform you see on the screen.
888-837-8772
Sell more at lower
margins, Swanson
says, and your R&D
becomes overhead
that needs to be cut
short
year of $25.92 billion, up 85 percent
over fiscal 2010.
Apple said it sold 17.07 million
iPhones in the fiscal fourth quarter,
representing unit growth of 21 percent
over the year-ago quarter. The company
also said it sold 11.12 million iPads dur-
ing the quarter, a 166 percent unit
increase over the year-ago period, and
4.89 million Macs, a 26 percent unit
increase over the same quarter of 2010.
Apple sold 6.62 million iPods, a 27 per-
cent unit decline from the year-ago
quarter, the company said.
Apple expects sales for the current
quarter (the first quarter of its 2012 fis-
cal year) to grow to about $37 billion
and expects diluted earnings per share
to reach about $9.30. Apples fiscal first
quarter includes 14 weeks, instead of
the typical 13 weeks, the company said.
Last Monday, Apple reported it had
sold more than 4 million iPhone 4S
handsets within three days after the
product officially launched on Oct. 14.
By contrast, it took Apple more than
70 days to sell the first 1 million origi-
nal iPhone handsets when the product
was launched in 2007.
Customer response to iPhone 4S
has been fantastic, we have strong
momentum going into the holiday sea-
son, and we remain really enthusiastic
about our product pipeline, Tim Cook,
Apples chief executive officer, said in
a statement.
p
Poison in the veins
By Bruce Rayner
WHEN YOU TYPE www.visiontechcomponents.cominto your
browser, up pops a cheerful page that tells you, Sorry! This
site is not currently available.
Thats because last September, the feds shut the component
broker down, arrested owner Shannon Wren and administra-
tive manager Stephanie McCloskey, and charged the pair
with conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit goods and mail
fraud for knowingly importing more than 3,200 shipments of
suspected or confirmed counterfeit semiconductors into the
United States, marketing some of the products as military
grade and selling them to customers that included the U.S.
Navy and defense contractors.
McCloskey pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge last
November in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
and cooperated with the government. Wren died of an appar-
ent drug overdose in May.
Last month, details of the case against McCloskey were
revealed in the 78-page memorandum in aid of sentencing
that the government filed with the district court. The
memorandum offers a rare glimpse into how a rogue broker
operating out of a house on a quiet residential street in
Clearwater, Fla., was able to dupe the system, put countless
innocents at risk and compromise national security for
nearly five years.
COVER STORY
Chief of Staff
Executive Secretariat
Military Advisor
SECRETARY
DEPUTY SECRETARY
MANAGEMENT
SCIENCE &
TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL
PROTECTION
& PROGRAMS
POLICY GENERAL COUNSEL
LEGISLATIVE
AFFAIRS
PUBLIC
AFFAIRS
INSPECTOR
GENERAL
Chief
Financial
Officer
FEDERAL LAW
ENFORCEMENT
TRAINING CENTER
DOMESTIC
NUCLEAR
DETECTION OFFICE
U.S. COAST
GUARD
OPERATIONS
COORDINATION
& PLANNING
CITIZENSHIP &
IMMIGRATION
SERVICES
OMBUDSMAN
CIVIL RIGHTS &
CIVIL LIBERTIES
HEALTH AFFAIRS
INTELLIGENCE &
ANALYSIS
CHIEF
PRIVACY
OFFICER
COUNTER-
NARCOTICS
ENFORCEMENT
INTERGOVERNMENTAL
AFFAIRS
FEDERAL
EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT
AGENCY
U.S. SECRET
SERVICE
U.S. IMMIGRATION &
CUSTOMS
ENFORCEMENT
U.S. CITIZENSHIP &
IMMIGRATION
SERVICES
U.S. CUSTOMS &
BORDER
PROTECTION
TRANSPORTATION
SECURITY
ADMINISTRATION
Organizational chart for the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol falls
under DHS jurisdiction.
How a chip counterfeiting case
exposed a potentially fatal flaw
in the U.S. governments ability
to keep fake parts out of the
defense pipeline
Damage done by VisionTech
The U.S. government has estimated the damage caused to 21
semiconductor companies by VisionTechs importing of counterfeit
chips over a multiyear period. The dollar values are based largely
on the manufacturers suggested retail pricing for the legitimate
versions of counterfeit parts seized by Customs and Border Patrol
in 35 separate incidents over more than three years.
Advanced Micro Devices $34,900.00
Altera $7,611.00
Analog Devices $75,580.66
Cypress Semiconductor $33,446.00
Freescale $40,021.00
Infineon Technologies $10,036.00
Intel $100,889.50
Intersil $1,857.30
Linear Technology $32,018.75
Maxim $1,596.34
Mitel $2,645.93
National Semiconductor $5,943.80
NEC $24,842.07
Peregrine Semiconductor $2,640.00
Philips Electronics $1,639.50
Renesas $2,400.00
Samsung Electronics America $77,165.00
STMicroelectronics $18,619.21
Texas Instruments $92,899.58
Toshiba $2,424.00
Xilinx $22,235.76
Total $591,411.40
Source: Governments Consolidated Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing and Motion
for Downward Departure Pursuant to USSG. 5K1.1, filed with the U.S. District
Court in the District of Columbia on Sept. 9, 2011, and the U.S. Department
of Justice.
Due to the type of counterfeit goods sold, the industries to
which sales were made, and the multitude of military, com-
mercial and industrial applications into which these devices
may be placed, defendant McCloskey did her part to set a tick-
ing time bomb of incalculable damage and harm to the U.S.
military, U.S. servicemen and -women, the government, all of
the industries to which VisionTech sold goods, and con-
sumers. She has effectively helped to release a poison into the
veins of interstate and international commerce, U.S. Attor-
ney Ronald Machen wrote in the memorandum.
The memorandum recommended McCloskey serve a four-
and-a-half-year prison sentence and pay restitution to the
trademark owners for damages estimated at close to $600,000.
The trademark owners named in the memorandum are a veri-
table whos who of the semiconductor industry.
Of the estimated 3,263 shipments of semiconductors
imported by VisionTech between December 2006 and Septem-
ber 2010, only 35 were confirmed as containing counterfeits
and seized at the border by U.S. Customs agents. Those 35
shipments contained a total of nearly 60,000 counterfeit ICs,
according to the governments memorandum.
The 3,228 shipments that were not seized made their way
into the U.S. electronics supply chain through sales Vision-
Tech made to more than 1,100 buyers in virtually every
industry sector. Many of VisionTechs customers were other
brokers, who resold the parts. While some of the counterfeits
were caught during manufacturer testing, hundreds of thou-
sands, if not millions, of counterfeit parts are potentially still
floating around in the supply chain or, worse yet, inside
equipment thats being used today.
One of the counterfeit shipments contained fake parts sold
to BAE Systems, which makes identification friend-or-foe (IFF)
systems for the Naval Air Warfare Centers Aircraft Division.
BAE purchased 75 devices from a broker who had bought the
parts from VisionTech. The contractor had the chips tested at a
third-party testing facility, which identified them as counter-
feits. If those chips had found their way into an IFF system on
board a Navy vessel and the system had failed, the ships
defenses would have been seriously compromised.
Another case involved the sale of 1,500 counterfeit Intel
flash memory devices to Raytheon Missile Systems for
incorporation in the Harm Targeting System (HTS), which is
Sour ce: Test i mony of SI A pr esi dent Br i an Toohey bef or e t he House Commi t t ee on
Homel and Secur i t y Subcommi t t ee on Over si ght , I nvest i gat i ons and Management
COVER STORY
installed on F-16 fighter planes to identify and track enemy
radar systems. Raytheon installed the flash chips on 28 cir-
cuit boards destined for HTS modules. The boards immedi-
ately failed. After testing nine of the flash devices, Raytheon
concluded the parts were all counterfeit.
Flaw in the system
But this story is not about VisionTech. Its about how
the VisionTech case exposed a flaw in the U.S. governments
tactics for catching counterfeit components at the border.
Specifically, its about an interpretation of the U.S. Trade
Secrets Act by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that
prevents the agency from sharing detailed information about
a counterfeit part with the semiconductor company whose
name is on the component. CBP is one of the Department of
Homeland Securitys (DHS) largest agencies.
Customs agents at U.S. borders are allowed to hold a ship-
ment of suspected counterfeit parts for 30 daysthe so-called
detention phaseto determine whether they are indeed
counterfeits. After 30 days, agents either have to seize the
shipment formally or release it to the intended recipient.
During the detention phase, CBP must disclose to the owner
of a trademark the following information, if available: (1) the
date of importation; (2) the port of entry; (3) a description of
the merchandise; (4) the quantity involved; and (5) the coun-
try of origin of the merchandise, according to a written state-
ment that CBP provided to EE Times on Oct. 5.
The problem is that CBPs so-called redaction policy limits
the information that can be shared with trademark owners. In
accordance with that policy, Customs agents since mid-2008
have been taking photos of chips, blacking out the markings on
the package and sending the touched-up images to chip manu-
facturers, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
The CBP statement explains that its position is founded
on the view that information protected by the Trade Secrets
Act cannot be provided to a third party until after seizure.
In furtherance of CBPs position that no Trade Secrets Act-
protected information is to be released until after seizure,
CBP ... determined that any indicators, such as bar codes and
serial numbers, that might inadvertently disclose such infor-
mation were to be removed or obliterated before providing a
sample to a trademark owner.
Of course, its the very bar codes and serial numbers oblit-
erated by CBP agents that chip companies would normally
use to determine whether a detained chip is real or fake.
Before 2008, when CBP was still providing unaltered photos,
chip companies estimate they were able to resolve almost
85 percent of CBP requests for confirmation of whether a
detained chip was legit or counterfeit.
So how are chip makers expected to help CBP agents catch
counterfeit parts if they cant see the markings on the chips?
And how does CBP reconcile its requirement to provide a
In a word, bad. And its getting worse.
Counterfeit computer hardware,
including chips, was one of the top
commodities seized in 2010 by U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Seizures in the category were up fivefold
last year over 2009, ICE reported.
Between 2007 and 2010, ICE
collaborated with U.S. Customs and Border
Patrol (CBP) on more than 1,300 seizures
that collectively involved 5.6 million
counterfeit semiconductor devices. The
fakes bore the trademarks of 87 Asian,
European and North American chip
companies. More than 50 seized
counterfeit shipments were falsely marked
as military- or aerospace-grade devices.
A 2010 U.S. Department of Commerce
report on counterfeit electronics in the
defense industry corroborated the trend.
Based on responses from component
manufacturers, the Commerce study
reported an increase of more than 150
percent in the number of counterfeit parts
showing up in military and government
applications between 2005 and 2008.
Counterfeiters range from negligent
brokers who dont test the parts they
import to criminals intent on deceiving
their customers. As the VisionTech case
shows, counterfeiters can make a lot of
money by buying cheap fakes and
reselling them for 10, 100 or even 1,000
times more than they paid for them.
And the counterfeiters are getting
bolder. In June, $852,000 worth of
counterfeit SanDisk portable memory
chips were discovered and seized by
federal agents at the Port of Long
Beach/Los Angeles, according to the Los
Angeles Times. CBP agents found the
chips hidden inside 1,932 karaoke
machines shipped from China.
For manufacturers, its essential
to have a formal and rigorous process
for inspecting and testing suspect
components. The components
themselves, shipping documentation and
packing labels must be inspected as the
boxes come off the receiving dock.
Suspicious parts should be tested with
X-ray inspection systems and high-
powered microscopes. If needed,
companies should have the chips
decapped either mechanically or
chemically to check the die markings.
Bruce Rayner
HOW BAD IS THE COUNTERFEITING PROBLEM?
Its one of the most perplexing
issues Ive ever dealt with. Its a
national security issue, and a
clear and present danger ...
We need to solve this problem,
period, and soon.
Brian Toohey, president of the
Semiconductor Industry
Association. The SIA insists
that CBPs redaction policy
hinders chip makers ability
to identify counterfeit
parts during the 30-day
detention period for
incoming shipments
of suspected fakes
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COVER STORY
description of the merchandise to the trademark holder with
its policy of obliterating information on a photo?
I dont understand whats behind this, said Jim Burger, a
longtime Washington-based intellectual property attorney
who represents semiconductor companies. Theres zero
threat to CBP in disclosing the information on the surface
of a chip to the trademark owner. The information is not con-
fidential and is not covered under the Trade Secrets Act. They
are just hands-down wrong.
Indeed, CBP is unique in its interpretation of the Trade
Secrets Act. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), among others,
disclose detailed information to semiconductor manufactur-
ers as part of their investigations of counterfeit cases.
Its one of the most perplexing issues Ive ever dealt with,
said SIA president Brian Toohey. Its a national security
issue, and a clear and present danger.
The VisionTech case confirms just how clear and present.
CBP began sending semiconductor companies sanitized
images of devices starting in June 2008, when VisionTechs
counterfeit operations were in full swing, according to the
governments memorandum. The government does not
know how many shipments destined for VisionTech may
have been detained at U.S. ports but were released when an
authenticity determination could not be made by the trade-
mark holder, U.S. Attorney Machen wrote in the government
memorandum on McCloskeys recommended sentencing.
Given that CBP seized just 35 of the 3,263 shipments
VisionTech made between 2007 and 2010, the number that
CBP could have detained and subsequently released because
of a lack of authentication could have been anywhere from
zero to 3,228. Just one counterfeit VisionTech shipment
released into the supply chain as a result of CBPs redaction
policy would have been one too many, several sources said.
SIAs Toohey has made the argument publicly. On July 7,
testifying at a hearing before the House Committee on Home-
land Securitys Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and
Management, he made the case for CBP to revert to its pre-2008
practice of sharing unredacted photos of detained parts.
Over the summer, letters on the topic were exchanged
between members of Congress, the Homeland Security and
Treasury secretaries, and CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin, who
was pressed to explain and possibly amend the redaction poli-
cy. The latest salvo was fired on Oct. 4 by Chairman Jason
Chaffetz and Ranking Member John Tierney of the National
Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations Subcom-
mittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Govern-
ment Reform. The committee has opened a formal
investigation into the CBPs policies and procedures regard-
ing importation of counterfeit semiconductors.
We are concerned actions taken by CBP may serve to seri-
ously undermine its ability to prevent the importation of
counterfeit semiconductors, Chaffetz and Tierney wrote.
Bersin was given until today, Oct. 24, to provide all docu-
ments related to DHS and CBPs legal interpretation of the
Trade Secrets Act as it pertains to CBPs redaction policy.
We need to solve this problem, period, and soon, said
SIAs Toohey. The only way to do that is if industry and gov-
ernment work together to quickly and accurately identify
suspected chips before they enter the country. The industry
stands ready, as we always have, to stop suspect ICs at our
borders by working collaboratively with CBP.
The conflict will likely play out in one of two ways. In the
first scenario, if Bersin refuses to budge on CBPs redaction
policy, the only recourse would be for Congress to legislate
a change in CBPs policy. It would have an ally in the Obama
administration, which in March released a report on IP
enforcement legislative recommendations that calls for Con-
gress to give DHS authority to share information on suspect
parts with rights holders during the detention phase. Rights
holders know their products better than anyone else and,
thus, obtaining their assistance allows DHS, particularly its
component CBP, to more effectively identify and combat
infringing products, the report states.
CBP, meanwhile, told EE Times it had already submitted pro-
posed legislative language to Congress that would give CBP the
authority recommended by the administrations report.
The other scenario would be for Bersin to get over his con-
cern about violating the Trade Secrets Act, pick up his pen and
write a new directive that permits CBP to share unaltered pho-
tos and samples of detained products with chip companies.
Legislation would likely take some time. A CBP policy shift
could be accomplished overnight. In light of the clear and
present danger, logic would dictate the latter.
p
I dont understand whats
behind this. Theres zero
threat to CBP in disclosing the
information on the surface of
a chip to the trademark
owner. They are just hands-
down wrong.
Jim Burger, a Washington-based
intellectual property attorney,
on CBPs interpretation of the
Trade Secrets Act and its resultant
redaction policy
Additional resources
Ferreting out the fakes in the chip supply chain, EE Times
http://tiny.cc/2z69l
Hearing by the House Committee on Homeland Securitys
Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management
http://tiny.cc/58uya
Defense Industrial Base Assessment: Counterfeit Electronics,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security,
Office of Technology Evaluation, June 2010 http://tiny.cc/w3unv
Obama administration white paper: Intellectual Property
Enforcement Legislative Recommendations
http://tiny.cc/k5eve
Consolidated Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing and Motion for
Downward Departure Pursuant to USSG 5K1.1, filed with U.S.
District Court in the District of Columbia, Sept. 9, 2011
Intelligence
LEUVEN, BELGIUM The Interuniversity Microelectronics
Center recently hosted a press tour at its facilities to reveal
IMECs goals for an office tower now under construction and
a third fab planned for later in the decade. Along the way,
IMEC researchers offered status updates on everything from
450-mm wafers and extreme-ultraviolet lithography to ultra-
wideband and 60-GHz wireless.
IMEC CEO Luc Van den Hove
announced plans to have a
450-mm pilot line up and run-
ning in 2015. Presumably, thats
when IMEC believes a full line of
semiconductor manufacturing
equipment for 450-mm wafers
including the long-awaited
extreme-UV lithography sys-
temsshould be available.
A U.S. consortium looking to
drive the 450-mm wafer genera-
tion recently announced plans for
a pilot facility in New York. Van
den Hove said the move did not
steal any of IMECs thunder or
potential business for plowing the
way to such a capability.
One group cannot solve all the
challenges of the 450-mm migra-
tion, Van den Hove said, claiming
the U.S. announcement had not
been a surprise and would have no
impact on IMECs plans. We had
detailed discussions with partners, fully knew their needs for
450-mm wafers and had our plans worked out.
Our 450-mm timetable is more conservative than what
others have announced, yet it is the most optimistic schedule
we can think of, Van den Hove added.
IMEC will start testing some 450-mm wafer tools as early
as next year in its existing 300-mm facility, which was
expanded just last year. A full 450-mm facility wont arrive
until about 2015 and will cost at least a billion euros (about
$1.38 billion), Van den Hove said.
The good news is that IMEC has land available on its leafy
campus for the new fab.
The latest on EUV
Kurt Ronse (below), IMECs director of advanced lithography,
gave an update on his experiences with the ASML NXE 3100
EUV lithography system (next page, right).
The system was installed in IMECs 300-mm fab in March
and uses a different light source (Ushio discharged-produced
plasma) than the technology deployed in
the handful of other machines in use
around the globe. IMEC has been running
wafers through it since June and thus far
has gotten results down to 18-nanometer
line widths.
Throughput is the big issue. The system
currently only handles about five wafers an
hour. Thats up from one wafer every three
hours at the start, but it will take as long as
nine months to get to the machines rated
throughput of 60 wafers an hour, Ronse
said. Going to 450-mm wafers and keeping
the throughputs the same will require
higher scanning speeds and acceleration, so
some of the biggest challenges are in devel-
oping that staging technology, he said.
I dont expect that the first prototype
450-mm wafer EUV scanners with reason-
able throughput will be available before
2015 or 2016.
An even bigger hurdle, according to Van
den Hove, is getting a strong enough light
source to handle the needed 100-wafer/hour
throughput for commercial systems. At least two companies
are competing to deliver such components now, Van den
Hove said.
Raising a towerand a budget
The big local story at IMEC this year was the groundbreaking
for a 16-story office tower that will house 500 people and
include some new labs.
The Leuven TV news crew turned out to interview Van den
Hove after the event (next page, bottom left), which attracted
technorati from the area, including the manager of the local
branch of Alcatel-Lucents Bell Labs.
Inside IMEC
By Rick Merritt
LEADING-EDGE RESEARCH
Kurt Ronse
A groundbreaking at IMEC drew the
local press; the technorati came for
researchers updates on work with
technologies like extreme UV
INTELLIGENCE
The Flanders minister for innovation,
Ingrid Lieten, was on hand at the
groundbreaking ceremony and promised
the government would increase its
investment in IMEC by as much as 200
million euros by 2014. Thats a substan-
tial boost from the governments current
contribution of about 45 million euros a
year, but its still far short of the billion
euros IMEC estimates it will need to cre-
ate a 450-mm pilot line by 2015.
The mayor of Leuven, Louis Tobback,
also voiced his support at the event.
Indeed, the mood at the groundbreak-
ing was upbeat, as a packed crowd
of partners and local politicians gath-
ered for speeches, a champagne toast
and lunch.
Where the rubber meets
the road
Energy harvesting has found what
could be its first high-volume applica-
tion, according to one IMEC researcher.
All those tire pressure monitors man-
dated in U.S. cars (and soon to be
required in new European and Japan
cars) currently use batteries, which
force a return to the shop every three to
five years. No more, thanks to a proto-
type SoC from IMEC that integrates the
pressure sensor with a block to harvest
energy from road vibrations. It turns
out potholes can be a good thing.
IMEC researchers demonstrated the
so-called smart tire (below left) in an
online video.
The chip includes a small super-
capacitor to store energy gathered from
road vibrations. as well as a 315- to 434-
MHz RF link to communicate tire sta-
tus to the cars management system.
The group expects next-generation
parts will integrate other features, such
as electronic product IDs. Strain sensors
and accelerometers are also being con-
sidered to monitor overall tire safety.
So far, tire makers Pirelli and Conti-
nental are showing interest, said Rob
van Schaijk (left), who manages the
smart-tire program at IMEC.
Ultrawideband redux
Ultrawideband got creamed in the mar-
ket a few years ago when it failed to
meet the data rates and costs expected
as the transport for wireless USB. A
handful of startups went belly-up in
the aftermath of the hype.
Now IMEC wants to bring the tech-
nology back in a slightly different form
for a very focused application.
Researcher Kathleen Philips (below)
described an impulse-response version
of UWB for use in linking stereo head-
sets to MP3 players and smartphones.
The prototype 90-nm chip set that
IMEC has developed for the application
promises to deliver more throughput
than Bluetooth or ZigBee, with far less
power consumption than Wi-Fi. The
Kathleen Philips
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INTELLIGENCE
group has written a paper describing its work that has been
accepted for presentation at the International Solid-State Cir-
cuits Conference in February. At the event, IMEC will have
working demos to show the chips 1-Mbit/second bandwidth
at 6-mW power consumption, Philips promised.
If all goes well, in 2013 the team will show a version of the
chip set for use in indoor location-based services.
Lighting up fish brains
Researchers at the new Neural Electronics Research Flanders
(NERF) center at IMEC aim to unlock secrets about how the
brain works. They hope their fundamental research will yield
new treatments for brain disorders that today afflict millions.
Researcher Cameron Wyatt (above left) took reporters on a
tour of the NERF center that included its extensive farm of
zebra fish (above right), which assist in the neural investiga-
tions. Zebra fish embryos, it turns out, are wonderful subjects
for studying living brains.
NERF researchers expose the fish to certain tastes or
smells and then conduct fluorescent tests to observe which
areas of their brains light up, as if shot through with ripples
of lightning, as they sense the chemicals and express specif-
ic proteins (top left).
Digital TV gets reconfigured
IMEC researcher Liesbet Van der Perre (below) has expanded
her work in reconfigurable radio to digital TV, developing a
chip that can power TVs sold in any geography in the globe.
Panasonic, Renesas and Samsung are partners in the so-called
green-radio program.
Over the past months, flex-
ibility is becoming a real
requirement to cope with new
standards, said Van der Perre.
The first radios we built had
cost and power overheads
such that some companies
said they werent good
enough, but now the costs and
power have come down to be
on par with, or in some cases
even better than, ASICs.
The team is also working on
reconfigurable chips for LTE,
which is specified across a frag-
mented set of spectrum bands
globally. And it is developing
Fish farmed
at IMECs
NERF center
are giving
researchers
like Cameron
Wyatt insight
into brain
behavior
Liesbet Van der Perre
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INTELLIGENCE
chip sets to handle both 5- and 60-GHz
versions of next-generation Wi-Fi
standards.
Chips replace optics
Francesco Pessolano (above) wants to
replace every piece of glass in vision
systems with silicon.
The IMEC program manager has
broad ambitions for his Nvision initia-
tive. For example, he wants to replace
bulky camera lenses with thinner digi-
tal mirrors and filters in everything
from consumer point-and-shoots to
medical endoscopes.
Glass is actually pretty bad for
optics. For every four glass lenses you
use to focus, you need 20 more to com-
pensate, so you end up with something
large, he said.
IMECs digital optics designs could
shrink a 550-mm camera lens down to
about 126 mm, he estimates. Prototypes
could emerge by the end of 2012.
Chips could also help shrink the size
and cost of todays hyper-spectral imag-
ing systems from table-sized equipment
that costs as much as $50,000 to the size
and cost of a consumer camera. Silicon
also can speed the processing by an
order of magnitude, Pessolano said,
promising demonstrations in January.
Looking way down the road, Pes-
solano showed early demos of chip-
based holographic systems that could
become alternatives to todays 3-D
TVs. The monochrome demos showed
3-D images of IMECs planned office
tower as well as the IMEC logo (above
and right).
The holography demos captured lots
of attention at the press gathering, but
the researchers tempered the enthusi-
asm by warning the technology is a
long way from market.
IMEC proves chip prowess
Stephane Donnay, an IMEC program
director, announced that the institute
had scored its first design-socket wins,
having created three chips for ASMLs
EUV scanners. The design wins are the
first fruits of a program IMEC launched
last year to make low-volume products
for its partners.
The institute will also transfer
designs to foundries if the products
move to high volume sales.
More design wins are in the works.
IMEC chips successfully passed several
qualification audits this year, and the
institute expects to ship silicon in 2012
to five partners, Donnay said.
The three chips done for ASML
include two positioning sensors that
help align and focus the NXE 3100 sys-
tems reticle. The third chip senses EUV
light doses and will be designed into the
next-generation NXE 3300.
The design win faced little com-
petition. ASML is not expected to
sell more than a handful of the pre-
production EUV systems, so few compa-
nies were interested in designing
ASICs for them.
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THE CURRENT GENERATIONof
microcontrollers provides the safety-
critical developer a wide variety of
options when choosing products. The
variety is perhaps most evident when
evaluating available processor safety
strategies for safety integrity. This is an
area where the best solution depends
on the ability of the system developer
to judge the strengths and weaknesses
of the solution.
When considering common solutions
for safe processing, there are a few com-
mon architectures across product offer-
ings. Most available CPU safety
solutions can be classified as single core,
single core with hardware checking,
dual-core lockstep, asymmetric dual
core or symmetric dual core. These clas-
sifications are illustrated in Figure 1.
Watchdog-based solutions, though
valuable for program sequence and
deadlock monitoring, cannot provide
significant diagnostics of processing
and thus are not considered here.
To begin our comparison, we must
establish a few classes of evaluation cri-
teria: software complexity, silicon com-
plexity, safety analysis complexity and
available performance for functional
software execution.
Software complexity measures the
effort needed to integrate safety mecha-
nisms into application software. Silicon
complexity expresses the on-die hard-
ware cost. Safety analysis complexity
measures the difficulty of performing
safety analysis. Finally, available per-
formance measures how much CPU
performance is available to the applica-
tion relative to a single CPU without
any implemented safety constraints.
Single-core CPU solutions are used
across a wide range of products and are
the baseline for analysis.
A single-core solution must rely on
software-based diagnostics and meas-
ures such as multiple execution of safe-
ty-critical code in order to achieve safety
integrity, resulting in high cost to soft-
ware complexity. Silicon complexity is
low, as there is no specific overhead in
silicon dedicated to safety support. Safe-
ty analysis complexity is high, as it is
challenging to prove that the imple-
mented software can detect all relevant
faults. This is particularly true for tran-
sient faults, which temporarily can
change the state of a flip-flop or register
but are cleared by subsequent software
execution. Available performance is low
because of the overhead of software-
based diagnostics, which can easily con-
sume more than 30 percent of the total
CPU performance. Redundant execution
Karl Greb is the functional safety technologist for Texas Instruments Hercules
family of safety-critical microcontrollers. He is currently participating in the
development of the ISO 26262 standard as TIs representative on the US TAG
and is also a member of the SAE Automotive Functional Safety Committee.
Single core
CPU CPU Checker CPU A CPU A0 CPU A1
CPU B Master
CPU
Checker
CPU
Compare
Diagnostic
Single core
with hardware checker
Dual core
lockstep
Asymmetric dual
core
Symmetric dual
core
DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
Matching processor safety strategies
to your system design
By Karl Greb
GLOBAL FEATURE
The right solution for the
targeted application can be different
for every development team, even
when designing the same
type of end equipment
Figure 1. Visual representation
of common CPU safety strategies.
of safety-critical code will
further reduce available
performance. Texas
Instruments Stellaris
ARM Cortex-M microcon-
trollers implement a sin-
gle-core CPU scheme.
Single-core solutions
with hardware checking
address many of the
issues of the single-core
solution by replacing the
majority of software
measures with continu-
ously or periodically oper-
ating hardware checkers.
Such a solution trades
reduced software over-
head for increased com-
plexity of silicon. Safety analysis of this
solution is challenging. A lack of com-
mon standards in design-for-safety
means that the strategy of the hardware
checker must be uniquely proved
to each assessor. Available CPU per-
formance is high, often with less than
5 percent of the CPU overhead con-
sumed for safety diagnostics. TIs Her-
cules TMS470M ARM Cortex-M3
microcontrollers are an example of a
single-core solution with periodic CPU
checking by hardware.
Dual-core lockstep is essentially a
special case of a single-core solution
with hardware checking. In a dual-core
lockstep system, a partially or fully
duplicated processor core takes the
place of the CPU checking functionali-
ty. Software follows a low-complexity
single-core programming model with
little to no software overhead for safety
diagnostics. Silicon complexity varies
based on implementation. Complexity
ranges from medium-complexity 1oo1D
(single channel with diagnostic)
schemes, where a single core is always
the master core, to higher-complexity
1oo2 (dual-channel) schemes where
either core can act as master. The user
should take care to understand the
impact of additional failure modes pres-
ent in more complex schemes. The lock-
step concept is well-known in industry
and trusted by assessors, reducing the
safety analysis complexity for the sys-
tem developer. The vast majority of
CPU performance remains available for
application usage, often approaching
100 percent. TIs Hercules TMS570LS
and RM4x ARM Cortex-R4F-based
microcontrollers are examples of 1oo1D
DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
Software Silicon Safety analysis Available Example TI
complexity complexity complexity performance product family
Single core High Low High Low Stellaris
Single core Medium Medium Medium High Hercules
with hardware TMS470M
checking
Dual-core Low Medium to Low High Hercules
lockstep High TMS570 and RM4x
Asymmetric Medium to Medium to Medium Medium to Concerto
dual core high high high
Symmetric Low High High Medium to OMAP4
dual core high
Source:TI
IN THE EFFORT to eliminate bottlenecks in the design
process and accelerate time-to-market, design teams have
turned to very-near-field electromagnetic interference scan-
ning technology. Very-near-field EMI scanning lets design-
ers measure and immediately display emissions profiles on
a computer through an on-site benchtop system.
The scan identifies both constant and time-based emis-
sion sources. The real-time spatial and spectral graphs let
designers immediately identify the specific location and
spectral profile of the EMI problem. Or, conversely, the test
might confirm that the design in its current form presents
no problem.
Very-near-field testing allows board designers to pretest
and resolve electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and EMI
problems without having to rely on results from a cham-
ber. Generating test results in a chamber often results in
time lags ranging from hours to days, as it usually requires
the involvement of another department and a test engi-
neer, and possibly travel to an off-site location.
In the example shown in this article, the test first evalu-
ated the emission profile of a board with the spread-spec-
trum clock generation (SSCG) feature turned off. The
second set of test results evaluated the same board and chip
with the SSCG turned on. The results verified the efficacy
of the new design, documented the benefits, accelerated
Benchtop EMI scans accelerate time-to-market
By Stphane Attal
Stphane Attal is chief executive officer of Emscan
(Calgary, Alberta), a bench solutions provider for
magnetic near-field measurements. He has
founded and served as CEO of multiple startups.
Table 1. Comparison of CPU safety strategies for a high-safety-integrity design.
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dual-core lockstep solutions.
Asymmetric dual-core solutions use
two processors of different hardware
architecture (heterogeneous multipro-
cessing) to diagnose faults. Such solu-
tions can achieve very high safety
integrity, thanks to their ability to
detect systematic issues in both CPU
and software through diverse hardware
and software implementations. These
should be selected with the main and
checker CPUs having similar perform-
ance. If the performance delta is too
large, it may not be possible to execute
diverse implementations of the target
application, effectively reducing the
design to two single-core systems. The
software complexity is medium to high
because of the need to generate soft-
ware for two platforms.
Hardware complexity varies from
medium to high complexity, depending
on the CPU architectures chosen. Safety
analysis complexity is medium. While
the system itself is complex, the tech-
nique is well understood and accepted
in the industry. Available performance
in a high-safety-integrity system is
medium to high with respect to the per-
formance of a single master core. The
DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
customer time-to-market and created a wow impact in
customer documentation.
Scan technology
Fast magnetic very-near-field measurement instruments
capture and display visual images of spectral and real-time
spatial scan results. Chip makers and pc board designers
can scan any board of any size and identify both constant
and time-based emission sources in the range of 50 kHz to
4 GHz. The scanning technology facilitates rapid resolution
of a wide variety of electromagnetic design issues, includ-
ing filtering, shielding, common mode, current distribu-
tions, immunity and broadband noise.
During any new pc board development process, design
engineers must find, characterize and address unintended
radiators or radio-frequency leakage to pass compliance
testing. Ideal candidates include devices designed for high
speed, high power, high density or complexity. The scan-
ning system displays the spatial emission profile as an
overlay on the Gerber file, so the tester can pinpoint the
source or sources of any emissions problem.
After implementing any needed mitigation measures,
the designer can retest the device and immediately quanti-
fy the effectiveness of the revised design. The scanning
system consists of a scanner and compact adapter. A cus-
tomer-supplied spectrum analyzer and PC to run the scan-
ning system software are added to the setup. The benchtop
scanner includes 2,436 loops, resulting in an electronically
switched array with 1,218 H-field (magnetic) probes at a
resolution of 3.75 mm. The system operates in the range of
50 kHz to 4 GHz, enabled with optional software keys.
The SSCG example
A major semiconductor manufacturer implemented SSCG
on the deserializers parallel bus. The SSCG function
provides a means to reduce emissions by spreading the
Figure 1
Figure 2
Scan courtesy of National Semiconductor
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to 64GB
solid.toshiba.com
2011 Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. All rights reserved. e-MMC is a trademark of
MultiMediaCard Association. SmartNAND is a trademark of Toshiba Corporation. 1As of April, 2011.
checker core is consumed with diverse
execution of the safety-critical applica-
tion, while the master core has some
cost associated with interprocessor
communication to check results of the
diverse computation. TI C2000 Concer-
to microcontrollers based on the ARM
Cortex-M3 and the TI C28x DSP core
are an example of asymmetric dual-
core solutions.
Symmetric dual-core solutions use
independent or semi-independent CPUs
of the same hardware architecture
(homogeneous multiprocessing) to
diagnose faults in the processing func-
tionality. Such a system typically exe-
cutes two instances of the same
safety-critical software in order to
reduce software complexity, though
diverse algorithms can also be used.
When two instances of the same appli-
cation are used, the software complexi-
ty is low. The cost of the dual CPUs
results in a relatively high silicon com-
plexity. Because of the lack of diversity
between processor channels, as well as
the dependence on software, the safety
analysis effort can be high. Available
performance is good, with typically less
than 10 percent of overall single-core
CPU performance dedicated to the task
of checking results of diverse execution.
The TI OMAP 4 platform application
processors based on dual-ARM Cortex-
A9 CPUs are an example of a symmetric
dual-core solution.
The result of this evaluation is shown
in Table 1 (page 34).
Beyond the simple aspects considered
here, there are other parameters that
might influence a developer. Applica-
tions with tight control loop timing
may require a solution based on single
core with hardware checking or dual-
core lockstep because of the need for
fast fault detection. If there are concerns
with systematic faults in the CPU or
software, then an asymmetric dual-core
approach can be invaluable. For systems
with low-safety-integrity requirements,
an asymmetric or symmetric dual-core
system can operate as two single cores
in parallel for enhanced performance.
The right solution for the targeted appli-
cation can be different for every devel-
opment team, even when designing the
same end equipment.
p
DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
radiated peak energy over a wider frequency band. As
shown in Figure 1 (page 36), the frequency variation occurs
around the nominal clock center frequency (center spread
modulation). The spreading of the spectrum is 1 percent
(f
dev
). At the receiver parallel bus, the outputs modulate the
clock frequency and data spectrum over time at a modula-
tion rate in the kilohertz range (f
mod
). The specified serdes
chip set targets automotive manufacturers that have estab-
lished requirements for low-EMI-emissions profiles for
installed electronic devices.
The chip vendor sought to generate compelling, quanti-
fied evidence to indicate to its automotive customers that
the SSCG function reduces EMI emissions. To do so, it first
placed the device under test (DUT) on its in-house scanner
with the SSCG function turned off, applied power and cap-
tured the emissions profile in a PC. Then, to provide a valid
comparison, the company conducted the identical scan on
the same DUT, but this time turned the SSCG feature on.
The very-near-field scanning system generated and dis-
played the emissions profiles shown for both spatial and
spectral scans. Note that the scan results overlay the Gerber
design files, so those analyzing the results can immediately
determine specific emitters on the DUT. Figure 2 (page 36)
shows the profile of the DUT with SSCG turned off.
By comparison, note the marked reduction in emissions
confirmed by both spatial and spectral profiles in Figure 3
with SSCG turned on.
After comparing test results, the design team observed
that the profiles quantified the dramatic reduction of elec-
tromagnetic radiation because of the SSCG feature. Auto-
motive electronics engineers biggest challenge is reducing
EMI. Whenever the chip vendors customer support team
has demonstrated these results to its automotive cus-
tomers, the universal response has been favorable. Any fea-
ture that reduces EMI in this case, the SSCG
featureresults in faster time-to-market for the electronic
device, less shielding and lower costs.
Two factors enabled the chip vendor in this example
to achieve speedier time-to-market using real-time benchtop
EMI testing. First, multiple chamber tests that delay the
design process were eliminated. Second, the highly visual
spatial and spectral test results accelerated the customer
approval process.
The trend to real-time, benchtop EMI testing is sure to
grow, given the two-pronged advantage in achieving opti-
mum time-to-market goals.
p
Figure 3
ecolibrium
Dow Ecolibrium
DOW ECOLIBRIUM
DOW ECOLIBRIUM
www.dow.com/ecolibrium
Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company
INNOVATION IN NEARLY every area
of the automotive industry has been
driven by an exponential increase in
the use of software. One result is over-
whelming complexity in the interac-
tion and integration of mechanical,
electrical/electronic and software sys-
tems, introducing a significant risk of
systematic and random failure and the
potential for human harm.
Safer development processessuch
as those that focus on and provide
guidance for the prevention of system-
atic and random failuresresult in
safer products. ISO 26262, developed
as an automotive-domain-specific
standard for functional safety of pas-
senger cars, focuses on product devel-
opment processes.
ISO 26262 takes a broad develop-
ment life cycle approach that unifies
engineering processes. It also supports
model-based development (MBD),
which has proved effective in address-
ing automotive system complexity.
The full benefits are realized when
MBD is integrated with a solution for
managing the safety life cycle.
Consistent and complete trace infor-
mation is a basic requirement for the
development and change management
of complex embedded systems in vehi-
cles. ISO 26262 asserts that manufac-
turers of safety-related systems must
provide evidence that all reasonable
safety goals have been satisfied. It also
recommends the reuse of proven archi-
tectures and components.
With software playing a more sig-
nificant role in automotive compo-
nents, organizations should move
aggressively toward support for better
software reuse frameworks. The use of
software product lines or variants is
one approach that lets organizations
reuse system- and software-level arti-
facts. Advanced implementations allow
for trace relationships to be propagated
automatically, as requirements, design,
test and code artifacts are branched for
reuse in a new product variant.
The development of complex
embedded systems can require dozens
of supporting tools. In working with
hundreds of customers, we have
found that maximum efficiency is
best achieved with a coherent tool
landscape. This can be achieved using
artifact repositories and tool hubs.
An architecture that utilizes a low
number of repositories (ideally one
central repository for all artifacts),
managing output artifacts and other
relevant information, provides a single
source of truth to which all upstream
and downstream development activi-
ties can reference and be traced.
Tool hubs are more flexible and
robust than tool chains. Considering
the complexity and level of detail of
the trace information in functional
safety development, integrating all
tools with point-to-point integrations
would lead to a complex and almost
unmanageable tool landscape. If one
link in the tool chain became incom-
patible after a version upgrade, the
entire tool chain would fail.
Solutions that offer an integrated
tool environment with traceable visi-
bility into upstream and downstream
development activity let organiza-
tions increase the quality of their
products while reducing the time and
effort needed to deliver those prod-
ucts. The framework and guiding
principles in ISO 26262 let organiza-
tions address embedded system devel-
opment complexity while ensuring
acceptable safety.
p
DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
Safety-critical development
of software-intensive auto systems
By Christoph Braeuchle
Christoph Braeuchle is customer requirements manager responsible for
PTCs Integrity business unit focused on the automotive vertical market.
Braeuchle led the initiative to have Tv Sd Automotive certify Integrity for
achieving ISO 26262 compliance.
Worldwide Corporate Headquarters
16 Malcolm Hoyt Drive . Newburyport, MA 01950
phone 978.462.9332 . email sales@rocelec.com . web www.rocelec.com
Leaders on the Trailing Edge of Technology.
You know Rochester Electronics as the solution for EOL products, but did you know that we also have
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DESIGNING FOR SAFETY affects
every component of a product, and
every automotive component supplier
must implement best processes to
ensure safe function. One frequently
overlooked domain is the electrical sys-
tem that implements signal connectivi-
ty among ECUs, sensors and actuators.
This system can fail in ways that can-
not be predicted by simply optimizing
the individual component parts.
The increase in system complexity
has caused an explosion in the num-
ber of operation states that a complete
system can achieve. The electrical sys-
tem must be designed to ensure sys-
tem robustness in every state.
Failure modes and effects analysis
(FMEA) is an effective tool for elimi-
nating catastrophic failures caused by
loss of component function. FMEA
provides a numeric analysis of the
consequences of a failure on each part
in the system. The numeric results
from FMEA highlight the most criti-
cal failures. This information can be
used to identify which parts of the sys-
tem should be redesigned and provide
insight into how the redesign should
be done to minimize the effects and
consequences of component failure.
The major drawback of FMEA
applied to electrical systems design is
the effort required to collate the data
that is processed into a numeric
result. A further difficulty is that the
result of a particular component fail-
ure is not always obvious. Each failure
needs to be analyzed to understand its
effects. In the case of electrical
designs, that demands a detailed
numeric analysis for every failure.
Developments in electrical systems
design software have slashed the cost
and effort of conducting FMEA on the
electrical system. Modern ESD soft-
ware can provide systems and wiring
engineers with automated simulation
facilities that provide rapid feedback
on electrical continuity, voltages and
currents as they create the electrical
schematics. The automated simulation
facilities then enable the use of
advanced functions, such as FMEA, to
ensure system safety and reliability.
Engineers place graphical symbols
for each of the components and wires
to create the schematic diagram. In
addition to the graphical representa-
tion, there is an associated simulation
model. The engineer thus can test the
electrical behavior and integrity of the
design at any time by simply invoking
the run simulation command. This
is a significant advance from the tradi-
tional design process, which required
simulation specialists to assemble the
simulation data, run the simulation
and then process the results in context
with the original circuit schematics.
Engineers can invoke a permuta-
tion processor on their electrical
designs. The processor can be config-
ured to permutate every state of the
electrical system. The safety of the
permutated system can be evaluated
in several ways. It is the foundation of
the FMEA analysis, but it is also used
to provide sneak circuit analysis and
component sizing analysis.
Component sizing analysis is used
to calculate the appropriate specifica-
tion of wires, fusing and circuit break-
ers by ensuring these components are
correctly rated for the worst-case con-
figuration of switches and controllers.
The results can be back-annotated
into the circuit schematics, speeding
the design process and ensuring
design quality.
Sneak circuit analysis, meanwhile,
is used to detect unexpected system
states that could potentially create an
unsafe condition.
p
DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
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Specications
Designing electrical systems for safety
By John Wilson and Muhammad Askar
bJohn Wilson is a product marketing manager at Mentor Graphics
Integrated Electrical Systems Division (IESD).
Muhammad Askar is a product marketing manager in the IESD.m
www.xilinx.com/7
Copyright 2011. Xilinx, Inc. XILINX, the Xilinx logo, Artix, ISE, Kintex, Virtex, and other designated brands included herein are
trademarks of Xilinx in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Twice the performance. Half the power.
Innovate without compromise with the Xilinx 7 series FPGAs.
The new 7 series devices are built on the only unied architecture
to give you a full range of options for making your concepts
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HIGHEST SYSTEM PERFORMANCE BEST PRICE / PERFORMANCE LOWEST SYSTEM COST
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DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY
(ECG) is the science of convert-
ing the ionic depolarization of
the heart to a measurable electri-
cal signal for analysis. One of
the most common challenges in
the design of the analog electron-
ics interface to the electrodes/
patient is in the optimization of
the right leg drive (RLD) for com-
mon mode performance and sta-
bility. Leveraging SPICE to help
in this effort can greatly simplify
this process.
In an ECG front end, the RLD
amplifier provides a common
electrode bias at V
ref
and feeds
back the inverted common mode
noise signal (e
noise_cm
) to reduce
the overall noise seen at the
inputs of the instrumentation
amplifier gain stage. In Figure 1,
the sources ECG
p
and ECG
n
are
split to show how the RLD
amplifier provides the common
reference point for a portion of
the ECG signal that is seen at the
positive and negative inputs of
the instrumentation amplifier
(INA).
The parallel RC combination
for the left arm, right arm and
right leg represents the lumped
passive electrode connection
impedance, which will be repre-
sented though the rest of this
article as 52k and 47nF. Assum-
ing e
noise
couples parasitically
into the inputs, the feedback of
e
noise_cm
will reduce the overall
noise signal at each input, leav-
ing the residual noise to be fil-
tered externally or rejected by
the common mode rejection
ratio (CMRR) of the INA.
Analyze the RL drive in an ECG front end
using SPICE analysis
By Matthew Hann
PLANET ANALOG
Figure 1. Simplified LEAD I with RLD connections.
Figure 2. CMRR vs. RLD gain.
800.275.3323
www.americaii.com
Our 420,000 square foot distribution facility and 30-person inventory solutions team provides the
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Expect something greater.
Well make you think differently about what it means to be an independent distributor.
The variation in common mode rejec-
tion can be seen in Figures 2, 3 and 4,
which show the common mode test cir-
cuit with varying gain of the RLD ampli-
fier. These plots show that the best
low-frequency CMRR is achieved with
no feedback resistor (i.e., infinite gain);
however, in reality, eliminating the DC
path and/or setting R
F
to a high value
may not be practical for applications
that require linear operation of the RLD
amplifier when one of the input amplifi-
er leads is removed.
Once the gain of the RLD amplifier
has been determined, the next step is to
use the test circuit in Figure 5 and inject
a small signal step in the loop and moni-
tor the output response.
p
DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
Figure 3. Plot of CMRR vs. frequency and RLD gain (R
F
).
Figure 5. Small signal pulse test circuit.
Figure 4. CMRR RLD versus no RLD.
Matthew William Hann, precision analog
applications manager at TI, has more than
a decade of product expertise that includes
temperature sensors, difference amplifiers,
instrumentation amplifiers, programmable
gain amplifiers, power amplifiers and TIs
line of ECG AFE devices. Through his role
as an applications engineer, Matt has
developed a focused expertise on the
design of analog front ends for medical
applications such as ECG, EEG, EMG, blood
glucose monitoring and pulse oximetry.
Matt received his BSEE from the University
of Arizona, Tucson.
l MORE For the full story, go to
www.eetimes.com/4229295.
for electronic manufacturing
november 1518, 2011
new munich trade fair centre
www.productronica.com
19th international trade fair
for innovative electronics production
innovation all along the line
Register online and enjoy the benets:
www.productronica.com/benets
18.5 Million Power Cycles, Zero Failures
Module Power Products
, LT, LTC, LTM, Linear Technology, the Linear logo and Module are
registered trademarks and Hot Swap is a trademark of Linear Technology
Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For Three Decades Weve Looked to the Future
Thirty years ago, at the dawn of the digital revolution, some questioned
the wisdom of founding a company dedicated to delivering purely analog
products. Since then, the worldwide analog market has grown twenty-fold.
With this tailwind, Linears growth as an industry leader is no mystery.
Innovation. Linear Technology wrote the book on analog innovation. From our
power and Hot Swap
TM
devices to Module
and energy harvesting products,

weve provided our customers with enabling technology.
Focus. Our laser beam focus on designing the hard stuff for automotive,
industrial and communications markets resulted in new products for the
most demanding applications.
Technical Prowess. Early on, we recognized the importance of building a solid
technical team. Our designers and applications engineers are second to none.
Support. Many say it; we deliver on time, with the industrys shortest lead times.
Quality. Our products meet the data sheet specs every time with the
industrys highest quality.
Were there for you, with the industrys highest
performance analog products and the support
you demand. Count on it.
www.linear.com
View a video with CEO Lothar Maier and
Co-founders Bob Swanson and Bob Dobkin
at www.linear.com/30yearinterview
$2 BILLION
1981 2011
$44 BILLION
$54 BILLION*
ANALOG MARKET GROWTH
Source: World Semiconductor Trade Statistics
*WSTS Analog Market Forecast, 2014
Digital audio SoC family
enables cooler flat-panel TV designs
STMicroelectronics says its STA381BW and
STA381BWS Sound Terminal digital-audio
systems-on-chip for home-entertainment
apps will enable smaller product designs
while also running cooler to help designers
meet product-safety requirements.
Full story: http://bit.ly/ne57U6
www.st.com
Wireless stereo audio modules
feature audio codec firmware update
The firmware in Laird Technologies
enhanced Bluetooth BTM510/511 and
BTM520/521 wireless stereo audio mod-
ules supports digital audio via an I
2
S bus;
universal GPIO functions for mapping gener-
al-purpose I/Os to specific A/V Remote
Control Profile functions; and a license-free
version of CSRs aptX audio codec.
Full story: http://bit.ly/pObdPc
www.lairdtech.com
Audio streamer delivers cost and power
optimization for mono wireless audio
Nordic Semiconductor says its nRF2460
audio streamer IC offers class-leading pow-
er optimization and performance for cost-
sensitive battery-powered mono
(single-channel) C applications such as
microphones, subwoofers, musical instru-
ments and gaming.
Full story: http://bit.ly/p2nRFH
www.nordicsemi.com
Dolby goes Mobile
Ceva claims to be the first to offer a Dolby-
approved DSP core implementation of Dol-
by Mobile. Based on the Ceva-TeakLite-III
DSP, the implementation of the third-gener-
ation Dolby Mobile technology, including
support of Dolby Digital Plus for mobile, tar-
gets designers of mobile audio processors
incorporating Dolbys latest enhancements.
Full story: http://bit.ly/no1Mzm
www.ceva-dsp.com
Audio SoC brings access to DSP cores
Wolfson Microelectronics says its single-chip
audio processor can replace up to five of its
discrete ICs in mobile phones, tablet PCs
and other handhelds. The WM5100 also
represents the first extensible solution,
using algorithms either developed by the
customer or purchased from Wolfson.
Full story: http://bit.ly/qGKSwx
www.wolfsonmicro.com
Low-power audio codec optimizes
performance, prevents speaker damage
Maxim Integrated Products says its
MAX98089, a highly integrated stereo audio
codec targeting portable multimedia apps
such as tablets, netbooks and mobile
phones, can improve audio performance
and prevent speaker damage, while its
graphical user interface is claimed to ease
design-in.
Full story: http://bit.ly/npXull
www.maxim-ic.com
DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
800.323.2439
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EETimes.com Products: Imaging, video, audio ICs
Audio SoC debuts with ARM technology
Nuvoton Technologys ChipCorder ISD9160
system-on-chip features a 32-bit ARM
Cortex-M0 microcontroller core running at
up to 50 MHz. The ISD9160 is designed
to optimize low-power audio recording and
playback in industrial applications as well
as consumer designs, according to the
company.
Full story: http://bit.ly/rnvnM5
www.nuvoton.com
USB A/V codec in 38 x70-mm footprint
Sensorays Model 2253 is a compact,
robust, USB-compatible audio/video codec
that is powered from a single USB port. Its
38 x 70-mm footprint and 1/5-W power con-
sumption suit portable and embedded apps.
The codec can simultaneously produce two
video streams from its single composite
input and send the streams out over USB.
Full story: http://bit.ly/resLCC
www.sensoray.com
0.5-mm-thick piezo speaker boosts audio
Murata has enhanced the audio characteris-
tics of its ultrathin piezoelectric speaker.
The 0.5-mm-thick VSLBP2115E1100 uses
an optimized structure and new materials
to reduce distortion and increase sound
pressure level without affecting speaker
size. Distortion has been cut by 50 percent
in the voice frequency region of 2 to 4 kHz.
Full story: http://bit.ly/nqNEzo
www.murata.com
DESIGN PRODUCTS
+
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ARM IP-based design.
Learn proven techniques for accelerating your design
with leading operating systems and software.
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designing with the leading embedded microprocessor
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design everything from sensors to servers. The design
possibilities are endless, but the seats are not.
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Chip Design Day
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A DEEPER DIVE
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IS HUMANLY POSSIBLE
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2011 ManpowerGroup. All rights reserved.
EE LIFE
On engineering jobs and joblessness
By Brian Fuller
ENGINEERING
POP CULTURE
PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING. TO
paraphrase the old saying, when your
buddys out of work, its bad; when
youre out of work, its the end of days.
For the better part of 10
years, its safe to say, jobs
have among the top issues
on your minds as part of the
engineering community
first as the offshoring trend
caught fire and, more recent-
ly, as the economy cratered.
You offered some interesting
perspective in our jobs survey (Age
survey results: Lifes good if youre
employed; http://tiny.cc/qua8d).
Weve moved from bad to, in many
cases, a world-ending feeling. Many of
you have commented or sent me per-
sonal e-mails about how long youve
been jobless and how hard the search is.
When I wrote Are you outraged
yet? (see page 57) for Drive for Innova-
tion, one reader e-mailed me: I have so
many things to be outraged about
that the [governments] $500 million
bad investment in a green energy com-
pany [Solyndra] falls pretty far down
on my list.
You also weighed in big
time on my post predicting
President Obamas job
speech would miss the
point of jobs creation
http://tiny.cc/0p3lc.
Recently, using TagCrowd
(www.tagcrowd.com), I ana-
lyzed both your comments and the
text of the Presidents speech to see
whether there was a massive discon-
nect in perspective. It turns
out there was considerable
commonality in the language
you and Obama used in dis-
cussing the nations unemploy-
ment problem.
The major differences were
that you used the word peo-
ple and create more fre-
quently, while Obama used
tax second most often after
jobs (if you exclude Ameri-
ca and American) and fre-
quently used pass, because he
was pushing his bill. You also
referred to the economy more
than he did.
Depending on your political
perspective, youll see the box-
es at left through your lens. In
the end, these are just words
artfully rendered. They do lit-
tle to reassure the 55-year-old
engineer who hasnt had a job
for two years and whose benefits are
running out.
But while a lot of engineers are out of
work, there are jobs being created.
EE Times is just out with its Silicon 60
Career issue (http://e.ubmelectronics.com/
Silicon60/index.html). Its worth down-
loading because it reflects what weve
seen out on the road in the Midwest
and the Northeast: Startups are form-
ing, and companies are hiring. Its not
1997, and companies are definitely cau-
tious given the state of the economy,
but they are hiring.
There are jobs, and there is hope.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
http://bit.ly/mWnQkz
The most common words in your
comments on my creative destruction
blog (created at TagCrowd.com).
The most common words from the Obama
jobs speech (created at TagCrowd.com).
The day the
layoffs came
By Neil Johnson
ENGINEERING
POP CULTURE
MICHELLE AND I, with our one-year-
old, Ethan, were settling into our new
home on the outskirts of northwest
Calgary. It was August 2008, six months
since the move.
After 10 years in Ottawa, wed been
ready for a change in scenery from
high-tech hub and maple trees to the
windswept Canadian prairie. Being
on our own in Ottawa while our imme-
diate family was scattered around
Alberta and neighboring Saskatchewan
had tugged at our heartstrings; after
Ethan was born, the tugging had gotten
harder to ignore.
Being closer to family had been the
upside to a move west. The downside
wasnt apparent until I the morning I
saw Roger through his office window.
Roger is a middle-aged family man
and serial entrepreneur, though his
entrepreneurial spirit hadnt consumed
him the way Id seen it consume others.
The work/family balance is important
to Roger. So spotting him in his office
that morning, when he was supposedly
just two weeks into a monthlong family
vacation in Europe, made me nervous.
Hed seemed optimistic about the busi-
ness before he left, but now the look on
his face announced the optimism had
soured. Coming home early clearly
wasnt his idea. And managers dont cut
vacations short to deliver good news.
Ten or 15 minutes after Id settled
uneasily into my desk chair, the call
went out for a meeting in the confer-
ence room. Roger stood at
the door, arms crossed,
nodding at each of us as we
filtered in and took seats
around the table. There
were 20 of us in all, crowd-
ed around the large confer-
ence table with just a little
elbow room to spare. It was
quiet and uncomfortable.
Roger leaned back
against the wall. His arms
were straightened now, his
hands in his pockets.
Are we all here? he
asked Velma. She nodded.
Roger stumbled out of
the gate, his attention alternating
between our collective blank stare and
a crescent-shaped coffee stain near the
edge of the tabletop in front of him. It
had clearly been there a while, but he
seemed to welcome the diversion. As he
searched for words, he leaned forward
and rubbed the stain with his thumb.
It didnt come off.
Finally, he explained why hed called
the meeting. Deteriorating business
conditions had combined with manage-
rial ineptness. Both conditions had
been beyond our control, but we were
about to pay for themsix of us with
our jobs.
Six was the number that San Diego
had decreed to Roger. It was the num-
ber hed pondered on the long flight
home and the one hed thought about
in the sleepless hours the night before
the meeting.
At that moment, I didnt care for an
explanation. I didnt care about the bad
decisions, and I didnt care whod made
them. I was worried about the mortgage
wed just renewed and the cost of
Michelles university tuition, neither of
which wed be able to afford if
whenI lost my job. Only a few
months after Id made a paid move to
join a satellite office in a promising new
organization, I sat helplessly at the end
of the table, trembling and fuming.
Wei Amir, Roger started. This
was hard for him. There wasnt much
difference between the guys leaving
and those staying. There had been no
dead wood to trim.
OK, thats two, I thought. He said
six, and he hasnt called me yet. I hope
to God he doesnt call me. Why would
these idiots move me out
here just to cut me loose?
Stuart, Roger continued.
OK, I thought, thats
three; just two more. No,
wait, three more. I scram-
bled to calculate the odds of
mine being one of the last
three names. What would
we do if it was? How much
did Michelle and I have in
reserve? Twelve thousand?
Thats not much. How long
could we make it on that?
Three months, maybe four
with unemployment? How
would we pay Michelles
tuition? What about Ethans day care?
Sam
My heart stuttered. Sam had uproot-
ed his family from Vancouver four
months after we did! He was visibly
shaken, clearly regretting his decision,
as Roger said his name. I sat regretting
my own decision more than ever.
I was living a story Id heard many
times over. I knew next to no one in
Calgary. For the first time in a long
time, I had no Plan B.
Rogers attention stalled on the coffee
stain. Hands still in his pockets, he bent
forward just slightly for a closer look, as
if peering into a crystal ball. Wally
The air thinned, and my breathing
grew uneven. The room became a
vacuum; the walls squeezed inward.
My colleagues faded from view. I could
see only Roger, standing at one end of
the conference table, as I sat frozen at
the other. My future dangled precari-
ously between us.
... Siavash. The rest of you can go.
The air roared back into the room;
the walls burst outward, and everyone
else reappeared.
As those of us who had been spared
filed out, I looked back and saw the
empathetic smile Roger had for the six
who remained in the conference room.
It was all he could offer them.
My narrow escape had brought
immediate relief, but not because Id
fooled myself into thinking my job was
safe. Not a chance. While round one
had been a shocking surprise, it was
also just a warning shot.
At least thered be no surprises when
round two took out the rest of us. Cer-
tainty is a powerful motivator.
p
Neil Johnson has worked in ASIC and FPGA
development for more than 10 years.
He currently is principal consultant at
XtremeEDA Corp, a design services firm
specializing in all aspects of ASIC and FPGA
development. He is also co-moderator for
AgileSoC.com, a site dedicated to the
introduction of Agile development methods
to the world of hardware development.
READERS RESPOND
That was beautifully written. Tom Clancy
couldn't have done better. But I don't under-
stand this manager's approach. He had
already made up his mind. There was no
reason to put everyone in the office through
the ordeal and to embarrass those laid off
in front of all the others. Furthermore, man-
agers should be intelligent enough to know
that when laying someone off, any excuses
about bad management, locally or remotely,
are just noise in the circuit. The guy being
fired couldn't care less. Bert22306
At my last company, I survived about a
dozen rounds of layoffs that brought down
the workforce from about 1,600 to about
100. Finally, the entire division (by that
time, we had become a division of a com-
pany that we had rescued from bankruptcy)
was shut down. The layoffs were all con-
ducted in private, but I will never forget the
guilty relief each time I dodged a bullet, the
tearful farewells and, eventually, the blow to
the gut on that final day. dnh
http://bit.ly/omvMQh
EE LIFE
Rogers
attention
stalled on
the coffee
stain; he
bent forward
for a closer
look, as if
peering into
a crystal ball
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OFFICIAL HOST SPONSOR:
EE LIFE
DRIVE FOR
INNOVATION
Are you outraged yet?
By Brian Fuller
CONSIDER THESE: In California,
Solyndra received $500 million in gov-
ernment-backed loans, thenpoof!
went bankrupt. In Massachusetts,
Evergreen Solar received millions in
government grant money, moved man-
ufacturing to China, thenpoof!
went belly-up. Shares of First Solar are
down 25 percent from earlier this year;
shares in the Guggenheim Solar
exchange-traded fund are down 33 per-
cent in the same period. Poof!
And yet, the Department of Energy,
under the direction of Energy Secretary
Steven Chu, approved billions of dollars
in loan guarantees to major solar power
projects just ahead of a Sept. 30 dead-
line. Your stimulus dollars at work.
The projects are:
A $646 million loan guarantee to AV
Solar Ranch One for the Antelope
Valley 230-MW ac cadmium tel-
luride thin-film-photovoltaic solar
generation facility.
$1.46 billion in loans to Desert Sun-
light 250 and Desert Sunlight 300 to
support a 550-MW project that is
predicted to fund more than 550
construction jobs.
A $1.237 billion loan guarantee to
support the California Valley Solar
Ranch Project, sponsored by Sun-
Power Corp. The project includes
the construction of a 250-MW ac PV
solar generating facility and associ-
ated infrastructure.
Granted, these are power-generation
projects and not solar-panel manufac-
turing deals. Still, it kind of takes your
breath away. The definition of insanity,
of course, is doing the same thing over
and over again in hopes of a different
outcome.
There are least a couple of other ways
to look at this:
Weve got to try something. The
economy continues to wheeze its
way along; Chinas killing us.
People are suckers for every bubble,
from tulips to terawatts.
It amazes me that government agen-
cies think they can act as late-stage VCs.
And Im outraged that entrepreneurs
who fail to get traction in the private
sector continue to whisper sweet noth-
ings into federal funders ears. Remem-
ber SpectraWatt? That Intel-incubated
companys assets were sold for a song
just weeks ago.
There is a place for government
investment in new technology, but it
needs to remain at the R&D stage, not
at the startup stage.
Do you agree, or, do you believe the
global economy requires that govern-
ment agencies take a more active and
aggressive investment stance in home-
grown technologies ?
READERS RESPOND
It is clearly illegal for the feds to invest in
private enterprise. Our taxes are collected to
pay for a short list of government mandates
spelled out specifically in a document called
the Constitution. The government is allowed
to collect taxes to fund its legitimate func-
tions. The Constitution makes no mention of
investing. The government is out of control
when it finds that it has so much extra mon-
ey left over from funding its duties that it
can invest. Larry
Sometimes projects need governments
deep pockets to get a technology started
(remember the Manhattan Project and
Apollo?). I have yet to read that the technol-
ogy at Solyndra or Evergreen Solar was at
fault. What I have read that they couldnt
compete in the marketplace, because of
Chinas multibillion-dollar investments and
subsidies (as opposed to our fractional-bil-
lion-dollar investments).
We need to get industries running in
America, not develop the technology and
then give it to China because it is cheaper
for them to make it. How stupid is that?
Weve been transferring manufacturing and
technology that weve developed [to China]
based on cost alone, with no care for pre-
serving our workforce ... fantasizing that our
intellectual property is not giving the Chi-
nese a leg up for free.
I see Solyndra and company as an
attempt to stem the outward tide. But as
usual, we tried to do it on the cheap, think-
ing market forces would make the correct
decision in our favor. BrainiacV
Its illegal for the U.S. government to invest in
private enterprise? Since when? There would
have been no moon shot if our national
mind-set had shared the first commenters
strict interpretation of the Constitution.
The moon shot may have been backed
by the government, but it wouldnt have even
made it past geosynchronous orbit without
a host of private companies. Lockheed
Martin, Boeing, Rand, Honeywell, IBM, Texas
Instruments, Sperry and a long line of other
companiesand tens of thousands of their
employeesall benefited greatly from the
vision of President Kennedy and the drive of
NASA. Sean
http://bit.ly/owm6Sq
EE Life editorial director Brian Fuller
is on a Drive for Innovation, touring
the country in a Chevy Volt and
talking to engineers along the
way. Follow the adventure at
driveforinnovation.com, where youll
find stories and videos like these:
45 ways to improve the Chevy Volt
http://bit.ly/qNetdE
Short drive and deep dive
http://bit.ly/nUHJsQ
Rocks that wiggle
http://bit.ly/pkkUdE
LAST WORD
jacks. His personal drive and vision
gave wireless Internet its form.
It all began after Jobs returned to
Apple in 1996 and made
the decision to venture
beyond the desktop mar-
ket to enter the laptop
space. That decision was
the impetus for the Apple
iBooks creation.
Jobs would not have
been Jobs, however, if
he had not always been
searching for unique dif-
ferentiators. And so I
received a call from one
of his lieutenants to
come to Cupertino to do
a presentation on wire-
less LANs.
At the time, I was
working for Lucent Tech-
nologies as the general
manager of the Wireless
LAN Division. Located in
the Netherlands, we were
developing and selling the WaveLAN
wireless LAN product line with moder-
ate success, in limited volumes. The
applications were niche oriented: retail
point-of-sale, hospitals and schools. At
the time, WaveLAN was a separate add-
on card and very much a curiosity.
Of course, we had tried to go main-
stream and had negotiated to be inte-
grated into laptops from Dell, Toshiba
and others, but the costs
were too high and the
applications too limited.
There was no vision of a
mobile connected world
as we have today.
In fact, the Lucent team
had launched the first
WaveLAN products back
in 1991 and had been try-
ing since then to team up
with the PC manufactur-
ers, as integrated wireless
connectivity seemed a
no-brainer.
But no one got it. There
was no spark. There was
no dream of the any-
where, anytime data con-
nection. We always got the
same pushback: Everyone
has Ethernet ports; who
needs wireless?
It all changed with that single call.
With only two weeks to prepare, on
April 20, 1998, I had to present wireless
LANs to Jobs, who at the time did not
yet have the intimidating reputation he
would earn in the years to come.
Even though it was a well-prepared
presentation, I was expecting that it
was going to be a tough sell. The oppo-
site proved to be true. I put up the first
slide, and Jobs started talking about
what he wanted. After that he said:
Next slide, please, and then he men-
tioned all his specific requirements,
including the price point at which he
wanted to sell the wireless feature at
($99). Then he had to leave the meeting.
I remember that all of us in the
roomboth the Lucent people and the
Apple peoplewere baffled. To put
things in perspective, at that time, the
cost to manufacture a WaveLAN card
was around $130. Jobs challenge to us
was to get the cost down to about $50,
to create sufficient margin for sales
and distribution.
That electrifying meeting was the
start of a successful joint Apple/Lucent
effort that resulted in the launch of the
Apple iBook with wireless LAN and the
AirPort basestation. The key challenges
were redesign, integration and working
with all suppliers to drive down the
cost. Amazingly, in about six months
time the goal was within reach.
It was a sterling example of what a
clear vision, the promise of high vol-
umes and purchasing power can do.
Further speaking to Jobs vision, the
launch in 1999 perfectly coincided with
the rise of the Internet and the need of
people to have Internet access at home,
as well as being able to connect multi-
ple PCs in different locations in the
home. Within weeks of Apples rollout
of the WLAN technology, we received
calls for product integration from IBM,
Sony, Compaq, HP, Dell and more.
Today, Wi-Fi is a standard feature of
every laptop and of many other devices
worldwide.
Would Wi-Fi exist today if Jobs had
not called that meeting back in 1998?
Sooner or later, yes, the technology
would have made an impact.
But it was Jobs personal drive that
had determined when and how Wi-Fi
was introduced, and that made it an
instantaneous success for Apple.
p
By Cees Links, president and founder of
GreenPeak (http://www.greenpeak.com)
and marketing chair for the ZigBee RF4CE
Alliance (http://www.zigbee.org).
Since his death on Oct. 5, many have lauded
Steve Jobs for his vision and leadership, which
changed how people use computers, how they
consume personal media and how they com-
municate with one another. Everyone knows
about iBooks, iPhones, iPods and iPads.
What is far less known is the fact that Jobs is
the godfather of Wi-Fi. Without him, we might
still be plugging our laptops into Ethernet
Steve Jobs secret success:
Wireless Internet
Jobs would
not have
been Jobs if
he had not
always been
looking for
differentiators
READ
>
WATCH
>
DISCUSS
>>>
intel.com/embedded/innovation/connectivity
Were crossing the boundary
between the physical and the
digital world.
Vida Ilderem, Vice President, Intel Labs,
Director, Integrated Platforms Research Lab
Intelligent connectivity is driving unprecedented smart services and business models, and promises to be one of
the decades most disruptive technologies. At Intel, we are reducing development complexity by combining Intel
architecture-based computing, I/O and connectivity in small-footprint modules. Like the Intel Reference Design
for Smart Services Development based on the Intel Atom Processor, a platform that can greatly reduce time
and cost for developers of smart services, intelligent connected devices and software solutions.
Challenge >

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Solution >

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EMBEDDED WITH INNOVATION: Intelligent Devices. Smart Connectivity.
2011 Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and the Intel Embedded logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Software and workloads used
in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark*, and MobileMark* are measured using specic
computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information
and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products.
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Research 2011.
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Bandwidth (MHz) 70, 100, 200 50, 70, 100, 200 100, 200, 350, 500 100, 200
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