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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.

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Greetings!
To complement Brian Fuller's 2010: The Year in Review, here are a few predictions for the coming year:
  • The digital power and control market will take off, powered by the drive for energy efficiency.
  • Energy harvesting will become mainstream for low-power sensor applications.
  • The Smart Grid will generate plenty of demand for smart embedded devices.
  • Intel's next Atom processor will finally match ARM in idle power, lag in active power but excel in speed.
  • Single chips will sample for cell phones that combine Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM and GPS.
  • Green/low-power design will become or remain the #1 concern for electronics manufacturers.
Beyond that my crystal ball gets cloudy. Welcome to 2010.
John Donovan
John Donovan When Low-Power Design Gets Personal
I lost my hearing in Hong Kong in 1996. Well, everything much over 1 kHz, that is. I took delivery last week on a pair of sub-miniature, 16-channel wireless hearing aids. These little puppies are awesome. More...
Brian Fuller
Brian Fuller
2010: The Year in Review
Through the wonders of WordPress and the fact that you're reading this whacked out of your skull on powerful drugs the U.S. government legalized in April 2010 in a desperate attempt to help balance the budget, it's now the end of the year, and this is the year in review. More...
Steve Leibson
Steve Leibson TI MSP430 Low-Power Microcontroller Demo Runs on Grapes
This TI video has been on YouTube for more than a year, but it's new to me and pretty interesting. With all of the new low-power microcontroller announcements lately, this video is an excellent reminder that there are lots of good choices for low-power processors out there. If you don't want to run your design on grapes, the video demonstrates that strawberries, kiwis, and other fruits are just as powerful. More...
Peregine UltraCMOS
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Backlight LED Driver System in Small Format Liquid Crystal Displays
 
Nurzad graphicThis paper describes the different building-blocks needed to power LED backlights in small format LCDs. A switched capacitor voltage regulator is desirable for applications requiring low cost and small solution size. The constant current regulator approach adds to these features excellent current matching and brightness control. Last but not least the inductive boost solution yields the lowest power consumption over the entire supply voltage range. More...
MRAM-The Future of Non-Volatile Memory?
MRAM graphic Today's portable electronics have become computationally intensive devices as the user interface has migrated to a fully multimedia experience. To provide the performance required for these applications, the portable electronics designer uses multiple types of memories: a medium-speed random access memory for continuously changing data, a high-speed memory for caching instructions to the CPU, and a slower, nonvolatile memory for long-term information storage when the power is removed. Combining all of these memory types into a single memory has been a long-standing goal of the semiconductor industry. More...
Optimizing Video Encoders with Digital Signal Processors
TI graphicVideo compression allows for digital video encoding, using as few bits as possible while maintaining acceptable visual quality. However, video compression involves sacrificing some degree of picture quality for a lower bit rate that facilitates transmission and storage. In addition, compression requires a high level of performance from the processor as well as versatility in design, since different types of video applications have different sets of requirements for resolution, bandwidth and resiliency. The extended flexibility provided by digital signal processors (DSP) address these differences and take full advantage of the options offered by advanced video compression standards to help system developers optimize their products. More...
Calling All Designers: Time to Get Creative with Cellular Functionality
 
Power gatingCellular handsets play the roles of MP3-player, TV, radio, navigator, camera, web browser, PDA, and, yes, telephone. Feature-creep provides opportunities for the system designer but semiconductor integration takes them away at the same time. The hottest new feature in handsets is GPS to enable  navigation features and location-based services. But the standalone GPS chip is going away, as suppliers of  Bluetooth chips integrate the GPS function in their offerings. More...
Use of Integrated Optical Proximity Sensors in Multi-Function Smart Phones
Vogler graphicToday's smart phones are the focal point of technological convergence, combining mobile phone, MP3 player, camera, video, wireless internet, e-mail, gaming, Bluetooth, and navigation systems into one small device with the slim profile and light weight that consumers have come to expect. Short-range proximity sensors have become increasingly important components in managing a number of these features and making these feature-rich mobile devices more flexible and comfortable for the user, while simultaneously reducing power consumption and extending battery life. More...
Optimize Power Consumption in Portable Electronics Using Integrated Load Switches
 Pichot graphic The adoption rate of load switches continues to increase across a broad range of end equipment including portable electronics (mobile phones, portable consumer electronics, notebooks or any portable equipment). Load switches are increasingly used in power management architectures to distribute power from a single regulated source or to switch off any unused peripherals (camera module, WLAN module, SD Card slot, LCD display, etc.) with the goal of limiting current leakages and optimizing the power consumption in a system. 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,
John Donovan
Low-Power Design