EE Times - March 10, 2008 - (Page 2)

gg Opinion www.eetimes.com INSIDE Monday, March 10, 2008 Commentary from EE Times editors around the globe Is shortwave a short-timer? he British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) recently announced that it would discontinue its shortwave radio broadcasts to Europe, following the lead of other major shortwave services. The very mention of the phrase “shortwave” (the spectrum from about 3 to 20 MHz) brought a nostalgic image to my mind. Who hasn’t seen those old movies in which listeners are hunched by the radio, straining to hear news from abroad or perhaps a coded message (“elephants dance under the moon”) while the signal fades, static and interference play havoc, deliberate jamming intrudes, and the radio drifts and needs retuning? Shortwave radio is rapidly becoming a museum concept and historical artifact, right next to telegrams and postal letters. Among the reasons given by the BBC were a declining audience (an aging one, too, I suspect), the rise of online news and music, and the cost of running those multimegawatt transmitters and their corresponding antenna farms. The irony is that today’s shortwave receiver is far cheaper, smaller and better than those of just a decade ago. But even those advances can’t overcome limitations on reception and radio schedules. But before we say goodbye to shortwave, it’s worth taking a quick look at what it has taught us. It popularized low-noise front ends, antenna tuners to match impedances, dual- and triple-conversion superheterodyne architectures to optimize stage-bystage performance and reduce images, and multiple filters to adapt to different signal modulations, among other functions. It also provided the platform for developing the PLL-based synthesized tuner with digital readout, which was far more accurate, precise, repeatable and stable than older “analog” tuners, along with advances in crystal oscillator design. Even better, it taught us about electronics: Until the 1970s or so, you could build News analysisData path’s in mix for edge multicore to drive security apps T your own receiver from a kit (Heath, Knight and others) and end up with a fairly sophisticated product that you could troubleshoot and even modify. We should keep one more thing in mind before we put shortwave in that shallow, barely marked grave our industry digs for its castoffs: We may be prematurely saying goodbye. The BBC pointed out that it will continue broadcasts to much of Africa and Asia, where Internet access is rare and costly, despite the intentions of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and similar programs. Broadcast radio is still a very cost-effective way to reach remote, isolated and relatively poor regions with news, music and education. Sure, it lacks the flexibility, depth and broadness of the Web, but it is very real and very much here. We shouldn’t let sophisticated solutions (OLPC and similar) get in the way of those that already work well for certain audiences and situations. ■ By Bill Schweber (bschweber@techinights. com), site editor of Planet Analog 22 Bridging the lasing gap Business 25 Dell battles for balance 26 Chip execs expect ‘volatile’ profitability Design 29 Reducing front-end complexity in multimode handsets 30 Under the Hood: Evolution of the smart phone Planet Analog 37 Understanding the LIN PHY layer 37 Analog Insight: When your problem is part of the solution Business Section; Editor Bolaji Ojo, (610) 279-2071 bojo@techinsights.com CONTRIBUTORS A TechInsights Publication® (516) 562-5000 Fax: (516) 562-5325; Online: www.eetimes.com CEO, TECHINSIGHTS Paul Miller (415) 947-6631 pmiller@techinsights.com Vice President/Publisher David Blaza (415) 947-6929 dblaza@techinsights.com Vice President, Global Business Development/Editorial Director Richard Wallace (516) 562-5623 rwallace@techinsights.com Editor in Chief Junko Yoshida (516) 562-5642 jyoshida@techinsights.com Editor in Chief, EETimes.com Tim Moran (516) 562-5442 tmoran@techinsights.com U.S. News Director George Leopold (516) 562-5090 gleopold@techinsights.com Art Director Debee Rommel, (516) 562-5280 drommel@techinsights.com Semiconductors Editor Mark LaPedus, (408) 238-6840 mlapedus@techinsights.com Computing, Medical Devices Editor Rick Merritt, (408) 930-7372 rbmerrit@techinsights.com Design Section; Research, Test Editor Nicolas Mokhoff, (516) 562-5625 nmokhoff@ techinsights.com Loring Wirbel, Director, EE Times Market Intelligence Unit (719) 481-1317 lwirbel@techinsights.com David Carey, End-Systems Analysis (512) 338-3654 dcarey@portelligent.com R. Colin Johnson, Technology (971) 570-4162 rcj@spiritone.com K.C. Krishnadas, India Correspondent kckrishnadas@yahoo.com Patrick Mannion, Editor in Chief, TechOnline (516) 562-5060 pmannion@techinsights.com Richard Nass, Embedded Systems (201) 288-1904 rnass@techinsights.com Gregory Quirk, Semiconductor Analysis (613) 599-6500 gregoryq@semiconductor.com Bill Schweber, Planet Analog Site Editor (781) 839-1248 bschweber@techinsights.com EEPRODUCTCENTER ONLINE: Ismini Scouras, (347) 312-3162 ismini.scouras@gmail.com Gina Roos, (207) 989-2368 gmroos@aol.com EE TIMES EUROPE Peter Clarke, London, European News Director (011) 44 20 7254 7360 pclarke@techinsights.com John Walko, London Editor (011) 44 20 7921 8271 jwalko@cmp-europe.com Christoph Hammerschmidt, Munich Editor (011) 49 89 44 45 02 09 chammerschmidt@ techinsights.com Anne-Françoise Pelé, Paris Editor (011) 33 1 73 28 17 76 afpele@techinsights.com Jean-Pierre Joosting, Brussels Editor (011) 32 2 740 0056 joosting@electronics-express.com Henri Arnold, Brussels Editor (011) 32 2 740 0054 harnold@techinsights.com Colin Holland, London Editor (011) 44 20 8319 1324 cholland@techinsights.com Erik Boman, Stockholm, Editor, Electronik iNorden (011) 46 8 445 20 81 erik@elinor.se COPY DESK Diana Scheben, Copy Chief (516) 562-5843 dscheben@techinsights.com ART/PRODUCTION Lynda Conley, Assistant Art Director, Online Chief Production Editor OFFICE SUPERVISOR Jeanna Ranieri, (516) 562-5681 jranieri@techinsights.com SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES (800) 577-5356; Fax (847) 763-9606, www.subscribeeetimes.com UNITED BUSINESS MEDIA LLC Scott Mozarsky, Chief Operating Officer David Wein, Chief Financial Officer Anne Marie Miller, Corporate Senior Vice President, Sales Marie Myers, Senior Vice President, Manufacturing Alexandra Raine, Senior Vice President, Communications Copyright® 2008 All Rights Reserved, Printed in the USA, United Business Media LLC, 600 Community Drive, Manhasset, N.Y. 11030 Products 47 Static analysis stomps on bugs 48 Step-down converters boost efficiency ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING TIMES (ISSN #0192-1541) is published weekly, except 3 issues in December (51 issues) by United Business Media LLC, 600 Community Drive, Manhasset N.Y. 11030 and is free to qualified engineers and managers involved in engineering decisions. 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Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EE Times - March 10, 2008

EE Times - March 10, 2008 Contents Data Path's in Mix for Edge Multicore Bridging the Lasing Gap to Drive Security Apps Dell Battles for Balance Chip Execs Expect 'Volatile' Profitability Reducing Front-end Complexity in Multimode Handsets Under the Hood: Evolution of the Smart Phone Analog Insight: When Your Problem is Part of the Solution Understanding the LIN PHY Layer Static Analysis Stomps on Bugs Step-down Converters Boost Efficiency

EE Times - March 10, 2008

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