Embedded Systems and Networking

To maintain its position at the forefront of international research, the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University wanted to develop a new high-performance computing cluster - find out how they did it.

This issue of Custom Systems Magazine will discuss the recent influx of opportunities for custom system builders to enter the tablet PC market as serious competitors. Prior to the emergence of the iPad, it was difficult for system builders to get involved in the PC market, due to expensive parts and several different distribution outlets. But these days, tablet components are cheaper and easier to come by. There are more technology options to choose from, and manufacturers can purchase all their components from one distributor, allowing custom system builders and boutique PC makers to build customized tablets and still enjoy a margin to make it worth their while.

The new line of HP Integrity servers consists of the BL860c i2, BL870c i2, BL890c i2 server blades; the rx2800 i2 rack-mount Integrity server; and the Integrity Superdome 2. All of these latest generation of Integrity servers are designed to maximize uptime and reduce operating costs.

This white paper highlights the benefits of the Linux operating system (OS) running on the HP DL980, and the advantage of running enterprise applications in a lower cost clustered Linux environment.

The supply chain meltdown begins due to the impact of Japan's travesty, but spending and growth is still reportedly on the rise in 2011 for integrated graphics chips. Inside this Custom Systems eZine, a market-research report forecasts that the market segment for integrated graphics chips will grow by 9 percent in 2011, shipping inside more than 63 million units globally, from 369 percent of the overall processor market last year. And while the PC market may not be the high growth opportunity it used to be, there's still plenty of business to be done around computer peripherals and custom systems. CRN's Need To Know list this month looks at a wide variety of vendors that build all of the necessary parts that compose today's computers, from the graphics cards and memory to the hard drives and chassis.

What Is CFA and Why Do I Need It? This five-part paper series examines the conditions that led to the development of recommended rules, and describes the process by which automated design analysis and rule verification can help designers optimize designs to the fullest and most efficient use of area, while still ensuring manufacturability.

This paper will examine the implementation and demonstrate the benefits of eqDRC through a variety of examples comparing traditional DRC with eqDRC approaches.

Mocana's NanoSSL is a comprehensive SSL solution designed for efficiency and high performance in embedded and resource-constrained environments. Download the NanoSSL whitepaper and receive a free trial.

Learn how Mocana's NanoSSH can speed your product development while providing best-in-class SSH services custom-built for device environments. Download the NanoSSH whitepaper and receive a free trial.

Learn how Mocana's NanoSec can speed your product development cycle while providing best-in-class device security for resource-constrained environments. Download the product whitepaper and receive a free trial.

Until recently, designing or building a wireless device meant cobbling together whatever security implementations you could find, often with open source and other code that is usually too big and too slow for device environments.

Mocana's NanoCrypto is one of the smallest, fastest, and most complete cryptography engines designed for embedded systems. Download the NanoCrypto whitepaper and receive a free trial.

The focus of this paper is a combined electrical, thermal and optical characterization of power LED assemblies. Thermal management play important role in case of power LEDs, necessitating both physical measurements and simulation.

Today's technological innovation demands high performance coupled with low environmental impact. These dual requirements are driving components of the semiconductor industry which informs many global businesses and consumer lives.

This technology white paper introduces the reader to an entirely new scheme for lossless audio compression called apt-X Lossless.

This paper will present the case that there are a number of frailties associated with Dolby E, the most notable of which are the latency, audio quality and general awkwardness in terms of operation and implementation.

This paper examines the key performance aspects of low bit rate audio codecs for the next generation of bandwidth-efficient digital wireless microphone systems that meet the future needs of live events.

This paper discusses research undertaken to lower the complexity of existing high-quality sub-band ADPCM coding schemes to better satisfy these conflicting criteria.

Viable distribution of Multi-channel Audio-over-IP for Live and Interactive "Voice Talent" based Gaming using High-quality, Low-latency Audio Codec technology.

"As the number of enhancements to various Hardware Description Languages (HDLs) has increased over the past year, so too has the complexity of determining which language is best for a particular design. Many designers and organizations are contemplating whether they should switch from one HDL to another. This paper compares the technical characteristics of three, general-purpose HDLs.

Join us at ESC Boston, September 21-24 at the Hynes Convention Center, in Boston, MA. Expo registration is FREE, and advanced registration pricing is still available for conference packages.

A powerful signal integrity analysis tool must be flexibility, easy to use and integrated into an existing EDA framework and design flow. In addition, it is important for the tool to be accurate enough. This report reviews a validation study for the Mentor Graphics HyperLynx 8.0 PI tool to establish confidence in using it for power integrity analysis.

For advanced signaling over high-loss channels, designs today are using equalization and several new measurement methods to evaluate the performance of the link. Both simulation and measurement tools support equalization and the new measurement methods, but correlation of results throughout the design flow is unclear. In this paper a high performance equalizing serial data link is measured and the performance is compared to that predicted by simulation. Then, the differences between simulation and measurements are discussed as well as methods to correlate the two.

High Density Interconnect (HDI) is being used more often to meet the growing need for more complex designs in smaller form factors. Beyond some of the more obvious electrical effects of using smaller vias, there is also an impact to the power integrity of a board using HDI. This includes different effects of mounted inductances of decoupling capacitors, changes in plane performance due to reduction in perforation from chip pinouts, and the inherent plane-capacitance changes from using dielectrics of various thicknesses. This paper will examine and quantify these effects, using numerous design examples, including a large conventional through-hole design board that was reduced using HDI.

The success of any consumer electronic device depends to a large extent on the appeal of the user interface (UI) and how easy the device is to use. Studies show that good cosmetic design can encourage users to explore the full range of features and often engenders the perception that a product is easier to use. So if the benefits of a great looking, easy-to-use UI are so clear, why are so many products still falling short of customer expectations? The solution lies in taking a fresh new approach a consumer electronic device UI plays. By identifying common UI functionality and implementing it in a reusable and customizable way, we can make it far easier for embedded engineers to deliver visually engaging and easy-to-use consumer electronic products.