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Low-Power Design
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Welcome to Low-Power Design, your engineering portal into the world of green/low-power design. We create, aggregate and deliver the latest design news and articles to help power the green revolution.
Check out our many sections:
And our informative, opinionated blogs:
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Greetings!
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Low-Power Design picked up the torch from Portable Design, which was all about energy efficient design. Looking at the macro-level implications we realized that "green engineering" is all about creating energy-efficient designs. The power management techniques first developed for portable devices apply equally well to their plugged-in brethren.
Low-power design is the key to a green future, and it's what Low-Power Design is all about. Our goal is to be the Engineer's Portal to Green Design. Our readers are engineering the future, and we're here to help.
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John Donovan
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 Is Global Warming a Hoax?
With the climate change deniers being led by such flat-earth luminaries as James Inhofe and Darrell Issa, it's easy for anyone with upwards of half a brain to dismiss their followers as a bunch of babbling idiots. While some of them clearly are, unfortunately, fellow tree huggers, they have a point.
More...
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Brian Fuller
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Thanksgiving and its Digital DistractionsThis Thanksgiving I saw the future and I shuddered. I've seen glimpses of it before, but last Thursday brought it out in relief. At one point, five of the six of us enjoying a Thanksgiving break in our home-in between cooking bursts-were typing away on their laptops. We had brought together brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles only to have most of them look not at each other but outward toward their social communities. More...
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Steve Leibson
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 NOCs: The Undead of the SOC World
The 7th International SOC Conference in Newport Beach featured a session on NOCs (networks on chip). Perhaps it's the undue influence of the recent Halloween festivities, but NOCs remind me of vampires, of the undead. They just keep coming back no matter what, despite the lack of uptake in the commercial sector. More...
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Peregine UltraCMOS
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Simplifying Android Migration: Using Mobile Virtualization to Reduce Time, Risk and Cost
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The Android mobile device platform from Google and the Open Handset Alliance has ignited the imagination of mobile original equipment manufacturer (OEMs), developers and end users. Since its introduction, Android has enjoyed a rapidly growing market presence and bullish prospects for new deployments. Moreover, Android's success as an open-source environment gives it additional momentum and rapid acceptance, and drives a fast-growing ecosystem of application developers. However, the underlying standard software components and an active developer community have not necessarily made it easier for OEMs to bring Android-based devices to market. More... |
Reducing EMI in Class D Audio Applications by Spread Spectrum Modulation Techniques
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The use of Class D audio amplifiers has become increasingly widespread in portable applications. As complexity, size and audio performance have improved, the Class D topology continues to gain market share. So compelling a benefit is efficiency that Class D amplifiers are now used extensively in portable designs worldwide, as battery life and small profile become key differentiators for end-users. The efficiency advantage is more pronounced when one realizes the typical audio application will normally operate at less than one-third of the total output power specified. Within that range, Class D amps operate at 80% or better efficiency, while Class AB less than 30%. More...
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High-Speed Video Bus Battle in Portable Designs
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During the 80s, I vividly remember my friend sketching his first computer graphic image of a Marlboro cigarette box on a Commodore 64 screen. Using his DOS operating system, he programmed a software routine that would output the color value and address of every pixel and pixel fields onto the CRT screen. It took hours to finish the red, black and white image. More...
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Processor Energy Savings Through Adaptive Voltage Scaling
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Frequency and voltage scaling are common place in portable electronic processors. These devices are providing more and more functionality and demand the highest data processing efficiency. Adaptive Voltage Scaling (AVS) provides the lowest operation voltage for a given processing frequency by utilizing a closed loop approach. The AVS loop regulates processor performance by automatically adjusting the output voltage of the power supply to compensate for process and temperature variation in the processor. In addition, the AVS loop trims out power supply tolerance. When compared to open loop voltage scaling solutions like Dynamic Voltage Scaling (DVS), AVS uses up to 45% less energy. More... |
Active Noise Cancellation Comes to Mobile Phones
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All of us have experienced trying to make a mobile phone call from a
noisy street, crowded restaurant or train station where the background
noise can make it impossible to hear the incoming call. It can be worse
when the person next to you in these situations is yelling into the
receiver in an attempt to be heard. Active and passive noise canceling
technologies can minimize background noise in high end headphones;
however these technologies today can not provide the same benefits in
mobile handsets. Clearly mobile handsets could benefit from noise
cancellation. More...
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Verification Management: The Path of Evolution
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It is a universal truth that evolution is a never ending progression. Whether biological or technological, evolution is all about overcoming the hurdles in the path of development. We evolve and cross one hurdle and soon face another, then evolve again. For example, new modes of transportation were invented to resolve the travel-time issue, and now there is too much traffic. Whether it is in the air or freeway, this is one of many hurdles we must cross in transportation. The verification industry is no different. More...
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That's a brief look at what we have to offer--and we're adding more every day. Please check back with us regularly to get the latest news, tips and techniques for implementing green/low-power designs.
Sincerely,
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