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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 | |
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January/February 2003 - In This Issue [Cover Story] Wireless Makes A Play For Mobile Entertainment > Wireless entertainment is becoming one of the bright market spots on today's technology front. Whether it takes the form of games, picture messaging, videos, or music, wirelessly enabled entertainment is generating interest among consumers, handset... — John Blyler [Design Application] Embedded Linux Is A Hit In Wireless Entertainment > A new generation of Linux-based entertainment appliances will deliver a variety of experiences and content into the home, car, and wireless handheld devices. Their medium may be streaming video, digital radio, interactive gaming, or some new... — Bill Weinberg WCDMA Baseband Design Faces Challenges > Third-generation (3G) wireless access will soon make its way into products like portable game consoles. This evolution will enable users to play interactively with friends anywhere and anytime. Compared to previous-generation wireless systems,... — Harald Elders-Boll Techniques Simplify Wireless Transmission > Broadband communications equipment is increasingly pushing the envelope of mixed-signal technology in terms of speed, distortion, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and cost. Many broadband wireless systems require wideband, low-noise analog-to-digital... — Curt Wise [Product Features] 3G/WLAN Connectivity Becomes A Reality > While many companies have talked about the convergence of 3G cellular networks and wireless LANs, one company has turned discussion into action. That company—Nokia—recently introduced the D211 multi-mode radio card for portable computers... — John Blyler Chip Set Slashes Per-Channel Costs > Of all the technical aspects of 3G cellular network deployment, the channel-card system may have garnered the most attention from cost-conscious cellular carriers. By relying on a combination of DSP and ASIC architectures, existing 3G UMTS channel... — John Blyler Device Integrates RF And Baseband Circuits > The Bluetooth market is steadily growing, and will continue to do so until 2005 and possibly beyond. According to Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), the bulk of this growth will occur in the cellular area. Cellular phones and... — Nancy Konish Two-Chip WLAN Solution Operates at 54 Mbps > The industry is unsure whether IEEE 802.11g is just a transitional technology on the way to 802.11a or a wireless-local-area-networking solution in its own right. Intersil, however, is betting on 802.11g for its backward compatibility with existing... — Staff [New Products] PA Reaches New Heights > The RFS P2020 power amplifier (PA) is said to offer the highest efficiency and range for the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) 802.11b and the draft 802.11g standards. This multimode PA is a high-performance InGaP HBT integrated circuit. It is... — Staff Software Tools Accelerate Development > Hoping to advance the capabilities of digital-signal-processor (DSP) software development, Texas Instruments, Inc. and The MathWorks have announced two software tools. Both tools work to simplify development while speeding time-to-market for... — Staff ATM Chip Eyes 3G > With the SAR-2K ATM adaptation-layer system-on-a-chip (SoC), wireless network operators and OEMs can efficiently transmit higher-quality and greater volumes of voice, video, and data over asynchronous-transfer-mode (ATM) networks. Targeted... — Staff Overcurrent Protection Gets Miniaturized > The AccuGuard line has expanded to include the 0402 AccuGuard II thin-film fuse. The company claims that this SMD fuse is the world's smallest. In such an ultra-miniature package, it can provide reliability, economy, accuracy, and speed. With an... — Staff HCRP Spec Comes To Life > A Bluetooth Hardcopy Replacement Profile (HCRP) for the WindConnect Bluetooth wireless print adapter is now shipping from Troy Wireless. HCRP is the latest printing specification developed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. It is designed to... — Staff Operational Amplifiers Are Portable-Friendly > Designers of portable equipment constantly seek to cut size and power consumption. Now, they have help in achieving these goals from Seiko Instruments. The company's S-8940xA series of CMOS mini-analog, single, wideband operational amplifiers... — Staff Software Enables User-Defined Networks > Designers always put ad-hoc wireless networking on a pedestal. Now, GreenPacket promises to make it easier to create such a network with SONbuddy. This software platform enables WLAN-equipped handheld and personal devices to form spontaneous,... — Staff IP Solution Pushes Bluetooth Adoption > As a cable-replacement technology, Bluetooth remains popular. Yet it has been hindered by limits in cost, power, and designer expertise. Synopsys, Inc. hopes to solve this problem by enabling designers to quickly add Bluetooth capability to... — Staff GPS Positioning Engine Outperforms The Rest > A jointly developed GPS solution has been spawned by Atmel Corp. and u-blox. It claims to require less external parts, while keeping power consumption low. Called Antaris, it targets the high-volume mobile, navigation, and multimedia mass markets.... — Staff Toolkit Speeds 3G Multimedia Applications > Now that the industry is seeing the beginnings of third-generation (3G) services, everyone is rushing to get their products to market. To hasten the process, RADVISION has released its 3G-324M Toolkit. For network-equipment and mobile-device... — Staff Antenna Switch Modules Deliver On Talk Time > To help minimize handset complexity, Skyworks Solutions, Inc. has expanded its family of gallium-arsenide (GaAs) switch products. The two new antenna switch modules are specifically designed for next-generation cellular handsets. They support all... — Staff WLAN Internal Antennas Increase Range > Designers are busy adding wireless networking to products everywhere. To do so effectively, however, they must have the product comply with IEEE 802.11b while preparing it for 802.11a. Operating on the 2.400-to-2.485-GHz and 5.150-to-5.825-GHz... — Staff Tool Puts An End To Code-Centric Programming > Time, money, and materials can all be saved by modeling, analyzing, and validating designs earlier in the process. Yet designers don't usually have adequate tools to accomplish this task. Now, Telelogic has two tools specifically geared toward the... — Staff Wireless Networking Faces Tough Environments > In harsh settings, technologies like 802.11 and Bluetooth have suffered from reliability problems and limited scalability. They may not be able to transmit data through an environment filled with RF interference from motors, steel tanks, concrete... — Staff Advanced Memory Solutions Flaunt Low Cost > To fulfill wireless designers' need for low-power memory at a decent price, Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. (ISSI) has announced two MCPs that combine NOR-type Flash with Pseudo SRAM. The products offer high-density random-access memory (RAM) by... — Staff Logic Line Slashes Mask And Silicon Costs > Whether they're pressured to meet specifications and/or time-to-market, many industry members see IP platforms as their savior. Virage Logic is joining this fray with its first semiconductor IP platform. This family of Area, Speed and Power (ASAP)... — Staff 2.4-GHz Solution Connects HIDs At High Speed > For the first time, manufacturers of human-interface devices (HIDs) can go wireless without sacrificing performance. Thanks to Cypress Semiconductor's CY694X WirelessUSB product family, makers of PC mice, keyboards, and gaming consoles can minimize... — Staff [Column] Cut The Cord On Gaming > Ever play "cat's cradle" as a kid? Think back to that convoluted web of string. That's what your living room quickly resembles when your kid and several of his or her friends take delivery of the latest Gamecube/PS-2/X-Box games. The TV is on one... — Rich Kapusta Wi-Fi Usage Affects Both Bluetooth And 3G > Remember hearing talk of the so-called "battle" between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for control of all wireless kind? This much-touted struggle between the wireless-PAN (WPAN) and wireless-LAN (WLAN) worlds has fizzled into nothing. Bluetooth is finally... — John Blyler [News] Let The Wireless Gaming Begin > Consumers at large have generally felt let down by their handheld devices—particularly cell phones. For all of the innovative technology involved in the workings of these devices, users have been left holding rather basic phones with pretty... — Nancy Konish Streaming Video Smooths Itself Out > Industry members have consistently picked streaming video as the "killer app" for future handsets. Like most new applications, however, its market success is dependent on users having a positive experience. Luckily, MediaQ, Inc. (www.mediaq.com)... — Nancy Konish TV Becomes Mobile And Interactive > When ideas began to surface about bringing gaming to wireless devices, the dream was to make it interactive. Now that gaming has taken its initial steps into the market, the new goal is to bring in television for that same purpose. By making... — Nancy Konish 802.11a Carries High-Definition Video > When it comes to streaming video, it's easier to focus one's imaginings on whiz-bang handhelds than on bulkier devices. But the wireless-entertainment revolution isn't going to neglect the TV room or the desktop computer at the office. Research and... — Nancy Konish Catch That Play On Your PDA > Carriers and content deliverers have been bustling to find applications that will persuade users to pay for data. They're now looking toward offerings that will attract consumers through their own interests and passions. In one example, FOX Sports... — Nancy Konish Batteries Look Forward To Longer Lives > Wireless entertainment is bringing a lot of excitement to the industry. In its applications, people see the potential for a rebirth in revenue and innovation. Yet they also overlook potential obstacles, like power consumption. To tackle this... — Nancy Konish Multimedia Applications Gain Speed > The evolution of the mobile-phone market has been slowed by the current economy. As a result, it seems that all sectors of the industry are suffering. Carriers cannot roll out new services as quickly as they predicted. Manufacturers can't count on... — Nancy Konish Alliances Breathe New Life Into PDAs And Smart Phones > It is often said that hard times in the industry bring about the most innovation. Maybe it's because these tough periods also seem to encourage more cooperation. Without the extra resources needed to branch out into new specialties, many companies... — Nancy Konish On The Wireless Front > Milpitas, California Linear Technology (www.lineartech.com) has introduced the LTC4214, a negative Hot Swap controller in a MSOP package that allows a board with a low-voltage negative supply to be safely inserted... — Staff [Show Coverage] EMI Shielding Is A Snap > A new board-level, multi-cavity shielding product has recently come to market with promises of excellent protection against electromagnetic interference. Referred to as snapSHOT, this metallized, thermoformed EMI plastic shield is easy to install... — Staff MCM Converters Shrink In Size And Cost > A family of surface-mount downconverter modules has hit the streets to serve current and next-generation mobile-infrastructure base-station applications. It promises small size and increased performance at a price that is lower than today's... — Staff Driver Amplifiers Improve Power Efficiency > The first 11 high-performance driver amplifiers in a new family have arrived. Each has been designed to improve gain linearity and power-added efficiency (PAE) for high-power-amplifier (HPA) signal conditioning/transmit circuits and systems. They... — Staff RF System-On-A-Chip Is An Industry First > A single-chip 300-to-1000-MHz CMOS RF transceiver and microcontroller IC is now available. Dubbed the CC1010 chip, this device was spawned from the integration of the CMOS CC1000 RF transceiver and the 8051 microcontroller core—with its... — Staff High-Clock-Speed DDSs Lower Power Dissipation > A portfolio of radio-frequency ICs (RFICs) has been expanded to welcome a new family of 14-b direct digital synthesizers (DDSs). DDS is the technique used for digitally creating and manipulating sine waves—or other continuous wave... — Staff Design And Test Share Common Platform > Recently, Elanix, Inc. integrated the Tektronix TekVISA interface with its SystemView environment. As a result, test engineers will now be able to effectively design, develop, and verify design models within one common environment. This is a... — Staff Are Satellite-Broadband Systems Internet-Ready? > The world is moving toward wireless-Internet connectivity at an astonishing rate. But instead of spelling the end of the wired Internet, the acceptance of wireless connectivity has resulted in an impressive collection of hybrid networks. These... — John Blyler RF Power Analyzer Boosts Yield > The production of RF devices is littered with time-consuming tests, especially in the calibration stage. Generally, board-level test takes up more than 50% of the testing process. Aside from being time consuming, this step is very expensive. The... — Nancy Konish Multimedia Chip Showcases Integrated Design > Highly integrated systems have become the key to success for mobile wireless products. Customers have come to expect the ever-shrinking form factor that typifies today's handsets. Yet they also want more features and longer recharge... — John Blyler The Future Of Computing And Communications Takes Center Stage At Wireless Systems 2003 > Imagine a world in which your refrigerator talks to your television. Your car talks to your home's central-cooling system, the garage-door opener, and the coffeepot. Now, imagine that the computing and communications spaces have converged into one... — Cheryl Ajluni Bluetooth Module Claims To Be World’s Smallest > In an effort to provide designers with more space for less money, Murata's Blue Module has squeezed itself into 9.8 × 9.6 × 1.8 mm. This full Host Controller Interface (HCI) -level module integrates active devices like ICs as well as... — Staff SiGe Transistors Minimize Cost > Two new versions of the 5-GHz NPN silicon-germanium (SiGe) series of transistors are available from NEC. Best of all, they deliver the same low noise and low-current performance of gallium-arsenide (GaAs) at a greatly reduced cost. Both of these... — Staff [Editor's Note] Confronting The Year Ahead > Congratulations! We made it through another year. Now it's time to focus on 2003. There are challenges ahead, but also the potential for a brighter future. What will lead the wireless industry into that bright future? The editors of Wireless... — Cheryl Ajluni |
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