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Get on the Drivetrain

John DonovanThere are a lot of reasons for thinking of buying a hybrid electric car-ecological, economic, political, and just getting cheesed off at seeing all those hybrids with one passenger whiz by you in the Diamond/HOV lane. Besides, admit it-the technology is cool. So just what is the technology inside the Chevrolet Volt? The Chevy Volt-which GM refers to as "an extended range electric vehicle (EREV)"- is essentially a series hybrid, though with a twist that we'll describe in a moment.

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Imagine no uninterruptible power supplies. I wonder if you can. A sad story of six fried hard disk drives

Steve Leibson

This is the story of six fried hard disk drives and why they died needlessly of heat failure as told to me by my good friend Ron Sartore, founder and CEO of AgigA Tech, at this month's Flash Memory Summit. It's also the story of the disaster's aftermath and why it shouldn't happen again-to anyone. Finally, it's the story of why we just might need to reconsider our views regarding the use of uninterruptible power supplies to supply emergency back-up power to servers. Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. More
The State of Voice User Interfaces
Robert CravottaThe forms for interfacing between humans and the machines are constantly evolving, and the creation rate of new forms for human-machine interfacing seems to be increasing. Long gone are the days of using punch cards and card reader to tell a computer what to do. Most contemporary users are unaware of what a command line prompt and optional argument is. Contemporary touch, gesture, stylus, and spoken language interfaces threaten to make the traditional hand shaped mouse a quaint and obsolete idea. More
AT&T's 3G MicroCell: A User-Friendliness Grade Of "Fail"
Brian Dipert As anyone who owns a GSM-based cellphone already knows, having it powered up while in a low-to-no coverage area is a highly effective way to rapidly drain its battery. The handset regularly searches for nearby towers, even when it's not in active use; "airplane mode" or, for that matter, full shutdown are the only meaningful means by which an average user can staunch the resultant steady current drain. More
August Wireless Update: AllJoyn™ Enables Direct Connections Among Several Devices
Will StraussQualcomm spends a lot of money on R&D, usually to improve their products; but in this case to engender new utility for cellphones, tablets and even PCs...even those that don't employ Qualcomm chips. AllJoyn ("all join") is a platform-neutral method of enabling ad hoc peer-to-peer connections between two nearby devices...or among several devices without the need for an intermediary server or even cellular connection. For example, Bluetooth� or Wi-Fi connections between devices would be sufficient for, say, multi-player gaming or project collaboration between colleagues and students in enterprise educational settings. But the technology could be employed for proximity-based services like distributing coupons or vcards. With AllJoyn, one could also Interact and share content with laptops and desktop computers in the area. More
Texas Instruments TPS62730

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Product News

TI launches 10 new Bluetooth low energy profiles for rapid design of consumer medical, fitness, alert applications and more

Blackfin Embedded Processor Now Available For Under $2

New Products from TriQuint - High-Linearity 0.5W LNA and Ultra Low Noise Dual LNAs

ON Semiconductor Introduces Automotive Grade Non-Synchronous Boost Controller with Wide Input Range

42V Input with 55V Transient Protection, 2MHz Dual Channel Step-Down Regulator with Power-On Reset & Watchdog Timer

Fast, Flexible, and Accurate: NI PXI Solutions that Replace Traditional Instruments

Microchip Announces Analog Resistive USB Touch-Screen Controller

Microchip Introduces Compact, High-Efficiency RF Power Amplifier for 5 GHz Wi-Fi Applications

National Semiconductor's Single-Wire 16-bit DAC for 4-to-20 mA Loops Simplifies Smart Transmitter Design

Silicon Designs Introduces Universal MEMS Capacitive Accelerometer Modules

Honeywell Introduces New HumidIcon Digital Humidity/Temperature Sensors

DVGAs from National Semiconductor Enable Higher-Performance Basestation Radio Architectures

TI introduces industry's lowest power near field communication transceiver that lets developers create designs with faster, easier data transfers

Silicon Labs Combines Voice and M2M Connectivity in Latest Communications Chipsets

National Instruments Announces First Multicore CompactRIO With Intel Core i7 Processor and Smallest NI Single-Board RIO Devices

National Instruments Introduces New Levels of Productivity With LabVIEW 2011

Atmel Expands ARM926-based MCU Family with Enhanced Connectivity and Advanced LCD Control

Fairchild Semiconductor's Dual Switch Flyback Solution Provides Competitive Alternative to LLC, Single QR Flyback Topologies

Cypress Introduces World's First 128-Mbit, 64-Mbit and 32-Mbit Low-Power Asynchronous SRAMs with 32-bit Bus Widths

Silicon Labs Introduces Industry's First Six-Channel 5 kV Digital Isolators

TI's 3-MHz, 100-mA step-down DC/DC converter adds 20-percent run-time to ultra-low power wireless and MCU applications

IDT's Patent Pending HyperGear Technology Reduces Motherboard Power Consumption and Boosts CPU Performance Simultaneously

Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. Announces New Automotive Infotainment LED Driver ICs

Silicon Labs Introduces Industry's Most Advanced SLIC Solution for Voice-over-IP Gateways

TI introduces industry's most highly integrated piezo haptic driver

New miniature infrared ChipLEDs provide high output for super low-profile optical touch screens

Analog Devices Integrates Two Bucks Regulators and Two LDOs in Smaller More Flexible Power Management ICs

DesignArt Networks Solves Small Cell Backhaul Problem

Training Courses

computerFundamentals of Solar: Off-Grid

This course covers the fundamentals of off-grid, stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems, with the aim of providing engineers with a good overview of the technologies, topologies and electronics that make up such systems. The course content includes: � Introduction to Photovoltaic Systems � Grid-Connected vs. Off-Grid Solar Systems � Solar Energy Storage � Charge Controllers � Power Conditioning � Energy Harvesting � Integration Issue.

 

computerFundamentals of Solar: Grid Connected

Photovoltaic (PV) solar technology is at the heart of the multi-billion dollar clean/green/renewable energy industry, powering everything from road signs to entire cities. This course covers the fundamentals of grid-connected PV systems, with the aim of providing engineers with a good overview of the technologies, topologies and electronics that make up such systems.

 

computerFundamentals of Microcontrollers

EE Times Fundamentals course provides an introduction to microcontrollers (MCUs) including usage and selection of the devices. The course also includes a video explaining showing how to get started with an mbed evaluation kit.

John Donovan
Editor/Publisher, Low-Power Design & Low-Power Wireless