Design East 2012

Author:
Joshua Israelsohn, Editor-in-Chief, Power Systems Design

Date
09/27/2012

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Design East continues its transformation—nearly complete now—from ESC (the Embedded Systems Conference)—Boston. The notion of co-located events persists, primarily in the organizer's promotional materials, with foci on Sensors in Design, the LED Summit, DesignMED, the Android Summit, and the Android Certificate Program in addition to ESC itself. To this casual observer, however, these distinctions manifest in small ways—mostly in color-coding of programs and schedules. In this regard, one could argue, the categories remain helpful but, as for distinguishing one part of the exhibition and conference from another, they seem increasingly vestigial. Not a criticism, I make this observation as a compliment to the organizers, who, to my view, have adapted the event to reflect better broadening industry trends. So, though particular presentations and product demonstrations may have particular leanings toward, say, sensor inputs for consumer devices, the presenters and demonstrators undoubtedly have a much broad range of interests that likely cross into many of the so-called summit topics. In particular, the subject of embedded system design is topically far more extensive than it was (or had been presented as) in years past. Part of this reflects changes in the embedded systems, which incorporate more sensors, more sophisticated user interfaces, and substantially more extensive energy-management technology than in years past. Gone are the days when such an event could get by with a focus dominated solely by marginally differentiated computational resources and tools. Nowhere was this more evident than in the conference presentations, which numbered some 120 organized in 21 tracks. These included 16 full- and half-day sessions on opening day, while the Exhibition space was still closed to attendees, covering 10 tracks plus the Android Certification Program:

  • Debugging, Optimization, and Software Engineering
  • Microcontrollers, ASSPs, & SoCs
  • Open-Source: Linux, Eclipse, Arduino, etc
  • Programmable Devices
  • Project Management
  • Prototyping and Development
  • Real Time Systems
  • Safety & Security
  • System Integration & Test
  • Wireless & Wired Connectivity
During the rest of the event, presentations comprised 45-, 60-, and 75-minute technical briefings occupying 174 scheduling blocks. A number of these were offered in multiple time slots—a great convenience for attendees trying to juggle meetings, presentations, and exhibition-floor time. Despite their modest lengths, a number of these shorter presentations stood out for their ability to convey a good deal of technical information and perspective in such brief intervals. For example, Analog Devices Segment Manager for Medical and Life-Science Instrumentation, Chris Hyde, presented Options and tradeoffs in sensor signal conditioning and data conversion that covered a range of sensor-interface methods and design issues that affect a sensor interface's ability to preserve measurement accuracy. Some of these are environmental, such as circuit-performance variations with temperature, but others relate more directly to implementation details such managing the signal-conditioner's interface to an ADC. Other topics included sensor excitation and ratiometric measurements, both of which can have dramatic influence on accuracy. One of the most information-packed presentations I saw was DC-DC buck regulator design considerationsby Robert Gendron, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Picor, the IC subsidiary of Vicor. The audience, which were engineers with a mix of backgrounds and familiarity with power design, seemed to particularly appreciate Gendron starting with basic nomenclature—differentiating between controllers (no drive-train devices), regulators (drive-train but no filter components), and modules (drive-train and output inductor). Despite such basic beginnings, the presentation managed to touch on implementation density, thermal considerations, tracking and sequencing, benefits of high-voltage power distribution, high-ratio conversion, PCB layout issues, and current sharing. Microchip offered presentations in their booth with participation from Energizer—a tag-team combination that clearly underscored how important energy management is to the MCU-maker and how important a market portable electronics is for the battery manufacturer. Microchip, one should note, long ago expanded its product lines beyond MCUs to include analog and power-management ICs, among others. Here, to an audience of only a few tens at a time, the MCU focus was on low-power processors or, perhaps more accurately, agile devices that feature as many as eight modes differentiable by energy demand. This type of flexibility allows designers to plan and easily execute an energy-management strategy for their product designs, substantially extending operating life, without sacrificing features or functionality. The presentation covered the many reduced-power modes and wake-up methods that allow designers to squeeze the most out of every joule. This is a theme that I found common to many MCU vendors (see part two of this review) though none, perhaps, implementing it more extensively than Microchip in its low-power product line. Attendees who were not already intimately familiar with discharge curves for various batteries learned about how the most popular commonly-available primary cells—Alkaline and Lithium-Ion—differ. Lithium-Ion primary cells, which are well known for their higher energy density, lower self-discharge, and flatter discharge curves, can be challenging to monitor for the many applications that require some sort of fuel-gauge indication. The sloping characteristic of Alkaline cells, by contrast, makes state-of-charge assessment a simpler task. I'll take the higher energy density. Thanks. Companies mentioned (in alphabetical order) Analog Devices Energizer Microchip Picor Vicor Power Systems Design

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