As the performance of many handheld devices approachesthat of laptop computers, design complexity also increases.Chief among them is thermal management—how doyou meet increasing performance demands while keepinga compact and small product cool in the user’s hand?For instance, as battery capacities inevitably increase,charge currents will also increase to maintain or improvetheir charge times. Traditional linear regulator-based batterychargers will not be able to meet the charge currentand effi ciency demands necessary to allow a product torun cool. What is needed is a switching-based chargerthat takes just about the same amount of space as a linearsolution—but without the heat.
Handheld designers often grapple with ways to de-bounceand control the on/off pushbutton of portable devices.Traditional de-bounce designs use discrete logic, fl ipflops, resistors and capacitors. Other designs includean onboard microprocessor and discrete comparatorswhich continuously consume battery power. For highvoltage multicell battery applications, a high voltageLDO is needed to drive the low voltage devices. All thisextra circuitry not only increases required board spaceand design complexity, but also drains the battery whenthe handheld device is turned off. Linear Technology addressesthis pushbutton interface challenge with a pairof tiny pushbutton controllers.
The LTC3546 is a dual output current mode buck regulatorwith fl exible output current partitioning. Beyondthe advantages normally associated with dual outputregulators (reduced size, cost, EMI and part count, withimproved effi ciency), the LTC3546’s outputs can bepartitioned for either 3A and 1A outputs, or two 2A outputs.This increases its application range and simplifi esmultiple supply rail designs. A confi gurable Burst Mode®clamp for each output sets the current transition levelbetween Burst Mode operation and forced continuousconduction mode to optimize effi ciency over the entireoutput range. An adjustable switching frequency up to4MHz and internal power MOSFET switches allow forsmall and compact footprints.
Notebook and palmtop systems need a multiplicity ofregulated voltages developed from a single battery. Smallsize, light weight, and high efficiency are mandatory forcompetitive solutions in this area. Small increases inefficiency extend battery life, making the final productmuch more usable with no increase in weight. Additionally,high efficiency minimizes the heat sinks needed onthe power regulating components, further reducing systemweight and size.
Design techniques for electronic systems areconstantly changing. In industries at the heart of thedigital revolution, this change is especially acute.Functional integration, dramatic increases incomplexity, new standards and protocols, costconstraints, and increased time-to-market pressureshave bolstered both the design challenges and theopportunities to develop modern electronic systems.One trend driving these changes is the increasedintegration of core logic with previously discretefunctions to achieve higher performance and morecompact board designs.
Design techniques for electronic systems areconstantly changing. In industries at the heart of thedigital revolution, this change is especially acute.Functional integration, dramatic increases incomplexity, new standards and protocols, costconstraints, and increased time-to-market pressureshave bolstered both the design challenges and theopportunities to develop modern electronic systems.One trend driving these changes is the increasedintegration of core logic with previously discretefunctions to achieve higher performance and morecompact board designs.
The Virtex-4 features, such as the programmable IDELAY and built-in FIFO support, simplifythe bridging of a high-speed, PCI-X core to large amounts of DDR-SDRAM memory. Onechallenge is meeting the PCI-X target initial latency specification. PCI-X Protocol Addendum tothe PCI Local Bus Specification Revision 2.0a ([Ref 6]) dictates that when a target signals adata transfer, "the target must do so within 16 clocks of the assertion of FRAME#." PCItermination transactions, such as Split Response/Complete, are commonly used to meet thelatency specifications. This method adds complexity to the design, as well as additional systemlatency. Another solution is to increase the ratio of the memory frequency to the PCI-X busfrequency. However, this solution increases the required power and clock resource usage.
Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) has been an interesting problem for a long
time in classical optimization techniques which are based on linear and nonlinear
programming. TSP can be described as follows: Given a number of cities to visit
and their distances from all other cities know, an optimal travel route has to be
found so that each city is visited one and only once with the least possible distance
traveled. This is a simple problem with handful of cities but becomes complicated
as the number increases.
