| | Electronics off to the races... | | It's race time! Fresh off an electronics teardown of the popular Toyota Prius hybrid (see Inside the Toyota Prius - Part 1: The airbag control module), we'll look here at a whole different animal -a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP race motorcycle.... |
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| | Freescale expands MRAM product line... | | Austin, Tex. --Freescale Semiconductor has expanded its magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) family with a 3-volt, 4-Mbit extended temperature range (-40 to +105C) non-volatile RAM (nvRAM).... |
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| | Dynamic System Simulation... | |
High-fidelity simulations of dynamic embedded systems can be invaluable. This follow-up to "Modeling Dynamic Systems" (August 2000) presents
some techniques and algorithms you might find useful.
By Jim Ledin
In a previous arti... |
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| | Cummins Centinel... | |
Managing the addition of oil to a diesel engine's fuel-oil mix turns out to be a tricky problem. Here's one design that worked well.
Welcome to the first edition of Inside Look, a periodic column that takes an in-depth look a... |
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| | Auto makers wield technology to reduce collisions... | |
PARK RIDGE, Ill. — Auto makers and suppliers have unveiled a technology that could launch a new era in safety for the auto industry. The technology not only detects imminent danger, but could one day override the driver and actively... |
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| | CAN we talk?... | |
Distributed systems require protocols for communication between devices. CAN and SPI
are two of the most common.
I recently spent some time working on systems with more than one processor and had some fun getting them to talk to one ... |
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| | Recession-weary chip makers turn to auto apps... | |
SAN MATEO, Calif. — The next killer app for semiconductors may be parked in the garage. Indeed, for those chip makers with the patience and wherewithal to pursue it, the automotive market has been a reliable growth vehicle in a bump... |
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| | Motoring with microprocessors... | |
Thanks to the magic of microprocessors and embedded systems, our cars are becoming safer, more efficient, and entertaining.
"I'm drivin' in my car. I turn on the radio." — Bruce Springsteen, "Fire"
By my estimates, the average mid... |
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| | 'Hybrid' processor targets 'by-wire' autos... | |
BOSTON, MASS. - Motorola, Inc. today (Monday, Sept. 22nd) will unveil a "hybrid processor" with an electronic architecture that could serve as the brain for the auto industry's next-generation, by-wire products.
Known as the 56F8300 hyb... |
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| | IC makers gear up for new tire pressure monitor rule... | |
PARK RIDGE, Ill. — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration could be on the verge of issuing a regulation that would put a microprocessor in every new tire, paving the way for semiconductor makers to provide automakers with 80 m... |
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| | Autonomous vehicles to put embedded technology to the test... | |
Ground-based transportation will take a new turn this week, as 20 driverless vehicles, described as "supercomputers on wheels," race across the southern California desert in a million-dollar, winner-take-all competition sponsored by the U.S. D... |
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| | Airbags inflate need for a parts redesign... | |
Chicago — It will take new types of processors and a better breed of sensors to meet the demands of a proposed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration standard that addresses side-impact car crashes. Manufacturers of automotive... |
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| | PCI Express image-acquisition board set to debut... | |
Imaging and video have always interested me. As a youth in the early 1960s I tinkered with a surplus photomultiplier tube (if I recall it was a 941A), rigging it up to an Amateur Radio video transmitter. My interest in video was piqued again i... |
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| | Auto experts see self-navigation coming... | |
Progress is logical: from audible warnings to vehicles that respond to user commands with door-to-door service
It's shortly before dawn, and the handful of early-morning commuters on the fog-shrouded suburban highway don't see the deer mean... |
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| | How to use on-target rapid prototyping... | |
Your new algorithm does the job on a real-time, rapid prototyping computer but will it work on your actual target, a highly complex automotive electronic control unit? On-target rapid prototyping, an emerging trend in embedded systems develop... |
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| | Sensors and single-wire LINs rev up Auto IQ... | |
Sensors to measure such quantities as pressure, temperature and acceleration have been a staple of automotive electronics for many years. But the myriad systems required for such functions as emissions control, fuel economy and safety (inclu... |
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| | Interconnects-Keys to the New Car Sensors... | |
As the automobile's electronic content continues to increase, the need for low-cost, reliable sensing systems becomes even more important. While there are many challenges to overcome to meet those needs, advances in interconnect architecture... |
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| | Electric power steering: one good turn deserves another... | |
Did you know that the hydraulic steering system in your car siphons off somewhere between one to three miles per gallon from your vehicle's performance and consumes more energy than your car's air conditioner? In fact, it's the third highest e... |
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| | CANopen safety chip simplifies safety-related development... | |
Safety-related devices are increasingly being networked together. Expensive safety controllers and safety monitors are available already, but the number of simple and inexpensive safety-related devices is still low. Networked safety technology... |
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| | Fujitsu Ten to use Celoxica tools for auto design... | |
LONDON — Following a period of evaluation and testing Celoxica's DK Design Suite of system design tools is being adopted at Fujitsu Ten, a provider of advanced automotive electronics.
Fujitsu Ten says that through extensive testing i... |
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| | Eight-bit MCUs claim half the automobile... | |
Dozens of 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) inhabit the average new automobile, which says something about both 8-bit MCUs and automobiles. Today's automobiles are nothing like their predecessors. Whereas automobile engineers/ inventors were origi... |
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| | The Grand Challenge... | |
Around mid-October the second DARPA Grand Challenge race had gear heads and bit heads glued to their Web browsers watching robotic cars traverse the Arizona desert. Unlike last year, many of the self-guided trucks actually made it to the finis... |
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| | DSCs boost automotive electric motor control... | |
Mechanically actuated automotive systems, such as power steering and fuel and water pumps, are being replaced with systems that utilize electric motor technology. Consequently, the presence of semiconductors in automobiles is increasing geomet... |
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| | CANopen product guide available... | |
LONDON — CAN in Automation (CiA) has released the CANopen Product Guide 2006 on the Internet (www.can-cia.org/products/pg2006) and on CD-ROM.
The number of CANopen-specific product entries has increased again to 322 (295 in 2005, and 2... |
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| | Flash microcontrollers handle automotive applications... | |
NANTES, France—Atmel Corporation announced four AEC Q100-qualified AVR® Flash microcontrollers dedicated to the automotive segment. The devices are designed to enable performance and cost effective automotive solutions for sensor and ... |
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| | Total motion control in auto engine plant... | |
The task of building a 3.9L V-6 engine at a major U.S. carmaker is being made easier as a result of a total Siemens Solution for Powertrain, based upon the Siemens TRANSLINE System Solution and Motion Control Information System (MCIS). This s... |
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| | Current sense resistor packs 1 watt in 1206 package... | |
Malvern, Pa. — Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. said its surface-mount Power Metal Strip resistor is the industry's first 1-watt current sensing resistor in a 1206 package size.
The smaller size allows it to replace larger current sensing res... |
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| | Cable connector system adds more choices... | |
Midlothian, Va. — ERNI has expanded its single-row cable connector system with a pitch of 1.27 mm (0.050 inches). Originally launched in a 4-pin version, additional variants are also available with 2, 3, 6 and 8 poles.
Designed for board-to-c... |
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| | Extreme automotive environment challenges sensor design... | |
Sensor applications in the automotive electronics field run a wide gamut from pressure sensors for manifold and exhaust systems to magnetic sensors for gear tooth and valve position. Regardless of the specific application, most automotive sensor mod... |
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| | Improve Hall sensor rotor-position measurements: Part 1... | |
The presence of semiconductors in automobiles is increasing geometrically, in part due to automotive systems developers' desire for electronic motor control to address consumer requirements for safer, more efficient cars. Part of this growth in auto... |
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| | Improve Hall sensor rotor-position measurements: Part 2... | |
Part 1 of this article described the design task required and various sources of electric motor rotor position error.
Concept overview
Let's assume a motor with three Hall sensors, but what follows can be applied to whatever number of Hall sensors.... |
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| | Accelerometer delivers high accuracy measurements... | |
San Juan Capistrano, Calif. — Endevco Corporation has introduced its Model 7285 low-cost piezoresistive accelerometer for vehicle crash, crush zone and impact testing. With a weight of less than 1 gram and a 2000 g full-scale range, the 7285 is... |
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| | 8-bit MCU supports field oriented control... | |
Munich, Germany — Infineon Technologies has introduced a family of 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) with field oriented control (FOC) capability and a new Digital Application virtual Engineer (DAvE) drive software configuration tool kit, which is ... |
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| | Driverless vehicles meeting challenge... | |
PORTLAND, Ore. — 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... |
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| | PWM control IC touts input voltage range up to 75-V... | |
El Segundo, Calif.—International Rectifier introduced the IR3651, a synchronous PWM control IC designed for high-performance synchronous DC/DC buck applications with an input voltage range up to 75-V.
With programmable switching frequency up ... |
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| | BMW takes artificial intelligence into cars... | |
MUNICH, Germany — In order to enable car-to-infrastructure applications, auto maker BMW has signed a cooperation agreement with the German research center for artificial intelligence (DKFI). The researchers' plan to explore semantic technologie... |
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| | 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 i... |
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