"ALGORITHMS: EDA vendors unveil SoC design trimmers"

EDA vendors Synplicity, Novas Software and Cypress Semiconductor have introduced software tools aimed at streamlining the system-on-chip (SoC) design cycle and semiconductor verification process. The companies announced their products at the Globalpress Electronics Summit here Tuesday (Feb. 27).
Synplicity Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) said its TotalRecall technology offers the debug visibility of a hardware emulator, but at speeds ranging from 10 to 100 times faster. Novas Software Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) introduced Replay, a visibility enhancement to its Siloti software suite, which the company claims adds timing-accurate simulation replay capabilities. And Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (San Jose) unveiled its CapSense software, which adds capacitive-sensing replacements to mechanical buttons for users of its Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) software tool.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197700121

"CHIPS: Tensilica powers up energy estimator for its processors"

Tensilica Inc. has announced the release of Xenery, an energy estimator that allows design engineers to cut power consumption in embedded systems. The software tool, which made its debut at the Globalpress Electronics Summit here Tuesday (Feb. 27), works only with Tensilica's Xtensa and Diamond Standard processors. It lets design engineers perform "what if" scenarios that help them slice power consumption in the media-rich processor technologies the company offers.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197700043

"MEMS: Auto MEMS maker shifting gears"

Infineon Technologies' first microelectromechanical system was a pressure sensor developed for its Automotive, Industrial and Multimarketing group. Now well known for its MEMS side-air-bag and tire-pressure sensors, Infineon AIM has branched out into inertia sensors, mainly for rollover detection and response. In 2003, Infineon acquired Norway's SensoNor AS to leverage that company's 20 years of MEMS experience. And last year, Infineon announced its first consumer electronics MEMS sensor, a silicon microphone that is the first of a planned family of consumer sensors aimed at cell phones, global positioning systems, laptops and even toys. Torsten Fischer, director of sensors and controls at Infineon, spoke with EE Times contributor R. Colin Johnson about Infineon's MEMS activity, both past and future.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197007909

"ALGORITHMS: Driverless vehicles meeting challenge"

The winners of the last Grand Challenge, an autonomous vehicle race sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), announced their entry for this year's Urban Grand Challenge. The entries were announced Saturday (Feb. 17) during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. The Stanford University entry, called "Junior," is a a driverless Volkswagen Passant that will navigate over 100 miles of urban streets with over 85 other autonomous vehicles competing for the grand prize of $2 million for the fastest qualifying vehicle; $1 million for second place and $500,000 for third place. The race takes place on Nov. 3, 2007.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197006955

"OPTICAL: Texas researchers claim fastest photonic waveguide"

Researchers at the University of Texas are claiming the world's fastest silicon photonic waveguide, which achieved a 1,000-fold increase in speed combined with lower power consumption than previously demonstrated chips. The photonic waveguide was constructed from a hexagonal lattice photonic crystal with a period of 400 nanometers and an air hole diameter of 220 nanometers. They were patterned using electron-beam lithography and drying etching.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197006682

"NANOTECH: Nanowires eyed for imprint litho"

Hewlett-Packard Laboratories and a trio of academic labs have scored advances that will make it easier to use nanowires as a replacement for lithography in semiconductor manufacturing, potentially taking chip making to the angstrom scale (an angstrom is 1/10 of a nanometer). Nanowires, fabricated using self-aligned superlattices to create "stamping dice," today can consistently imprint features as small as 15 nm, enabling ultrahigh-density interconnection crossbars as well as memory densities as high as 100 Gbits/cm2.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197004208

"MEMS: TI's Hornbeck heads list of academy inductees"

The National Academy of Engineering on Friday (Feb. 9) elected 64 new members, including Texas Instruments Fellow Larry Hornbeck for his invention of the digital micromiror device. Also selected were: Jerry Sanders, former chairman of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.); Stuart Card, a senior research fellow at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto, Calif.); James Truchard, founder of National Instruments Inc., (Austin, Texas); Edwin Chandross, a consultant for Materials Chemistry, LLC, (Murray Hill, N.J.); John Hallquist, president, Livermore Software Technology Corp. (Livermore, Calif.); Leroy Hood, president of the Institute for Systems Biology (Seattle); Paul Horn, senior vice president of research at IBM Corp. (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.); Martin Newell of Adobe Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.); Thomas Stephens, group vice president at General Motors Corp. (Pontiac, Mich.).

Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197005010

"QUANTUM: 1st Quantum computer 'Orion' debuts"

Computing is poised for a quantum leap in speed and accuracy. D-Wave Systems Inc. will demonstrate the world's first commercial quantum computer next week, a supercooled, superconducting niobium chip housing an array of 16 qubits.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197004661

"CHIPS: Nanowires eyed for imprint litho"

Hewlett-Packard Laboratories and a trio of academic labs have scored advances that will make it easier to use nanowires as a replacement for lithography in semiconductor manufacturing, potentially taking chip making to the angstrom scale (an angstrom is 1/10 of a nanometer). Nanowires, fabricated using self-aligned superlattices to create "stamping dice," today can consistently imprint features as small as 15 nm, enabling ultrahigh-density interconnection crossbars as well as memory densities as high as 100 Gbits/cm2.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197004208