Electronics Weekly – Synopsys Headlight Simulation, Toshiba Hard Drives & More

Analog Devices MEMS Accelerometers

(Image courtesy of Analog Devices.)

Analog Devices has announced two high frequency, low noise MEMS accelerometers designed explicitly for industrial condition monitoring applications. The ADXL1001 and ADXL1002 MEMS accelerometers deliver the high resolution vibration measurements necessary for early detection of bearing faults and other common causes of machine failure.

The MEMS accelerometers deliver low noise density over an extended bandwidth with high-g range. They are available in two models, with full-scale ranges of ±100g (ADXL1001) and ±50g (ADXL1002). Typical noise density for the ADXL1002 is 25 μg/√Hz, with a sensitivity of 40mV/g, and 30 μg/√Hz for ADXL1001, with sensitivity 20mV/g. Both accelerometers operate on single voltage supply from 3.0V to 5.25V, and include other features such as a complete electrostatic self-test and an over range indicator.

For more information, visit the Analog Devices website.

Intersil 12V Synchronous Buck Regulator Portfolio

(Image courtesy of Intersil.)

Intersil has introduced five synchronous buck regulators that step-down 12V rails to point-of load inputs as low as 0.6V for MCUs, FPGAs, memory and peripheral I/Os. The ISL850xx family consists of the ISL85014, ISL85012, ISL85009, ISL85005A and ISL85005 buck regulators. They deliver 14A, 12A, 9A and 5A of continuous output current, respectively, to industrial computers and programmable logic controllers as well as telecom, test and measurement, server and storage networking equipment.

The ISL850xx sync buck regulators support input voltage of 3.8V to 18V and wide output current range. The pin compatible regulators integrate low RDS on high side and low side MOSFETs that can reduce external component count and power loss to extend product life. Both FETs also provide current limit and reverse current limit to boost reliability and protect the system during an overcurrent event.

Information concerning pricing and availability can be located on Intersil’s website.

Samsung Completes Qualification of 2nd Generation 10nm FinFET Process Technology

(Image courtesy of Samsung.)

Samsung announced that its second generation 10-nanometer (nm) FinFET process technology, 10LPP (Low Power Plus), has been qualified and is ready for production. With enhancement in 3D FinFET structure, 10LPP allows 10-percent higher performance and 15-percent lower power consumption compared to the first generation 10LPE (Low-Power Early) process with the same area scaling.

Samsung began mass production of system-on-chips (SoCs) products on 10LPE last October. The current Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphones utilize some of these SoCs. Samsung has started installing production equipment at its S3-line in Hwaseong, Korea, and the S3-line is expected to be ready for production by the fourth quarter of this year.

For more information, visit Samsung’s website.

Synopsys Continues Virtual Simulation of Adaptive Headlights

(Image courtesy of Synopsys.)

Synopsys has revealed version 2017.03 SR1 of its LucidDrive software for night-driving simulations to evaluate road performance of vehicle headlight designs. LucidDrive technology provides controlled simulations of vehicle lighting beam patterns and their appearance on the road, allowing designers to assess and improve design performance.

This version of LucidDrive software provides a Traffic Simulation feature for realistic simulations of headlight response to dynamic traffic and road conditions, such as traffic jams, lane changes, bends in the road and oncoming vehicles.

By simulating changing driving conditions and individual vehicle behaviors, the Traffic Simulation feature can analyze adaptive front-lighting system (AFS) headlights, which must adapt the light distribution, detect and illuminate obstacles, and automatically mask out the high beam to prevent glare for oncoming vehicles.

Key features include:

Calculations of traffic flows and patterns based on an intelligent driver model.
User-defined parameters, such as vehicle speed, acceleration, deceleration and braking capabilities.
Automatic lane changing maneuvers.
Support for LucidDrive scripting to program customized vehicle behaviors.
Expanded library of road scenes for simulations.

More details are available on the Synopsys website.

Toshiba 8TB1 Consumer HDD Series

(Image courtesy of Toshiba.)

Toshiba has announced its series of 3.5-inch internal NAS (Network Attached Storage) consumer hard drives – the N300 Series HDDs. This line of drives are designed for the requirements of NAS environments in which large amounts of data need to be efficiently stored and accessed daily.

The N300 Series is available in 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB capacities; all featuring a 128MB data buffer, with support for eight drive bays in a multi-RAID NAS2 design. Additionally, Toshiba’s Dynamic Cache Technology, a self-contained cache algorithm with on-board buffer management, is designed to optimize cache allocation during the read/write process. The N300 Series HDDs also provide control and sensing technology to mitigate the effects of vibration, shock and heat. A tied spindle motor stabilizes the motor drive shaft at both ends to curb system-induced vibration.

Detailed specifications are available through Toshiba’s website.

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