Embedded Technology Journal Update

a techfocus media publication :: May 1, 2007 :: volume VII, no. 04

FROM THE EDITOR

This week, we roll with the RoHS – examining the trends and terminology behind today’s new, greener electronics manufacturing standards. With Moore’s Law obsolescing a full generation of electronic products every two years, a lot of the stuff we work so hard to design quickly ends up in landfills. Here’s a quick primer on the standards that are helping us reduce the impact on the environment.

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Kevin Morris – Editor
Embedded Technology Journal

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Announcing Synplify® DSP ASIC Edition
- Fast and efficient implementation of DSP algorithms
- Synthesize architecturally optimized RTL for ASICs and FPGAs
- Memory extraction for 3rd party memory IP support.
- Integrated support for standard ASIC design flows.
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Introducing TotalRecall™ Full Visibility Technology
Synplicity’s revolutionary TotalRecall Technology provides 100% visibility into an FPGA while allowing the device to run at real-time hardware speeds. This patented technology enables the capture of full signal information preceding and following a triggering event.
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Free Job Postings on Journaljobs.com
JournalJobs.com – the job board for FPGA Journal and Embedded Technology Journal is now re-launching with a host of new features and capabilities. In celebration of JournalJobs.com grand re-opening, we’re offering free job postings through June 30, 2007. Go online, post a job, pay nothing, and watch for those qualified resumes to come knocking on your inbox.
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Free Seminar - Winning Webcasts
Does your company do webcasts? Want to make them better? Embedded Technology Journal's Amelia Dalton will show you how in this free online seminar "Winning Webcasts".
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CURRENT FEATURE ARTICLES

It Isn’t Easy Being Green
Weee Review RoHS Basics
When Software Flies
Doing DO-178B
USB Goes Vertical
by Jim Turley, Embedded Technology Journal
Smaller is Bigger
ESC 2007 Tracks Technology
Bigger, Faster, More Connected
Embedded Technology Looms at ESC
ArcticLink
Connectivity Without the Watts
ARM Optimizes for FPGA
ARM/Actel Announce Cortex-M1
Mixing Fossil Fuel and Electrons
by Jim Turley, Embedded Technology Journal

JOURNAL WEBCASTS

NEW! Learn to Design with Stratix III FPGAs’ Programmable Power Technology & Selectable Core Voltage sponsored by Altera

Using Processors in FPGAs? The industry's only soft IP ARM7 core for Flash FPGAs sponsored by Actel

Low Power FPGA design with Actel IGLOO, the 5µW FPGA for cool portables sponsored by Actel

ARM7, Analog,Flash and FPGA in a Single Chip Actel's ARM in Fusion sponsored by Actel

Introducing Actel Fusion – the world’s first Flash-based FPGA, with Memory and Analog front end sponsored by Actel

Introducing Spartan-3AN FPGAs – Non-Volatile Secure Platform for Highest System Integration sponsored by Xilinx

Embedded Design with LatticeMico32 Open, Free 32-bit Soft Processor sponsored by Lattice Semiconductor

It Isn’t Easy Being Green
Weee Review RoHS Basics

We all know the basics of Moore’s law, right? Every new process node brings a bounty of the three “Ps” - Price, Performance and Power. Most of us can recite them like the alphabet. Missing from our recitation, however, might be some other things that come with a new process node – Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Chromium, PBBs and PBDE – now THOSE will taste nice on your breakfast cereal. Electronic waste is a major polluter, and, thanks to Moore’s Law, we always have better, faster, cooler products to offer the public – inspiring them to take our last year’s products and dispose of them irresponsibly. As a result, in the US, electronic waste is estimated at two percent of the contents of landfills, and 70 percent of toxic waste.

Yes, I see your hands in the back again. (Why is it always the people in the back who raise their hands?) “Aren’t we all RoHS now? Isn’t this problem gone?” Well, the answer is that many of us are RoHS now, but our newer, greener, RoHS-er products are mainly the ones consumers are currently purchasing. Once they have these new, shiny, green devices, they’re taking their old lame lead-laced ones and tossing them into the environment.

So – even though we’re engineers and great at problem solving, we can’t do too much to alter the behavior of the public, and we can’t change the products that are already out there in the field. We can, however, understand what all this RoHS stuff means, how Weee is not a new video game console, and what the impact of our design decisions can be on the environment and on our ability to distribute our products globally. [more]