Toshiba to sample fast SSDs

In Q4, Toshiba is to sample three new families of SSDs with high-speed PCIe interfaces that provide high-bandwidth point-to-point links with the processor and reduce system bottlenecks. 6741A_HRES

The drives use the NVMe protocol and have been designed for various applications including high performance notebooks, thin notebooks, 2-in-1/convertible notebooks, all-in-one PCs and tablets; and server and storage applications.

Each SSD family has been engineered to provide optimum performance and reliability for its target application with capacity, form-factor and security capabilities to match. All three SSD families make use of Toshiba-developed controller platforms and Toshiba’s own state-of-the-art MLC NAND flash memory.

The XG3 family of SSDs is housed in M.2 Type 2280 form factor and is the industry’s highest capacity[1] (1024GB[2]) client NVMe SSD designed for high performance notebooks, 2-in-1 laptop and all-in-one PCs. The drives support up to four lanes of PCIe 3.1, which has a maximum interface bandwidth more than six times that of SATA 6.0 Gbits/s[3]. The XG3 is also the industry’s first[1] NVMe SSD available in a 2.5-inch SATA express form factor.

The XG3 SSD family is equipped with Toshiba’s QSBC (Quadruple Swing-By Code) error-correction technology, a highly efficient error correction code (ECC), which helps protect customer data from corruption, improves reliability, and extends the life of Toshiba SSDs. Engineered for power efficiency, the XG3 series also features lower power state modes and is the first Toshiba product, along with the BG1 SSD family, to support the Trusted Computing Group security specification, Pyrite (TCG Pyrite).

The BG1 SSD family is the world’s smallest[1] NVMe SSD, available in a single package measuring just 16mm x 20mm (M.2 Type 1620) or a removable M.2 Type 2230 module with up to 256GB in capacity. Designed for thin notebooks, 2-in-1/convertible notebooks and tablets, the BG1 family enables PC OEMs to produce thin mobile PCs and tablets while offering a better performing alternative over SATA SSDs for mobile PCs. The BG1 SSD family supports TCG Pyrite and features lower power state modes.

The PX04P series of enterprise SSDs are designed for servers and storage appliances needing scalable power and performance settings. The PX04P series NVMe SSD has the industry’s lowest power consumption[1], with only 18 Watts needed to power the drive at maximum performance. PX04P’s combined high performance and low power consumption may contribute to low total cost of ownership demanded by today’s enterprise data centers. The PX04P family also supports up to four lanes of PCIe 3.0, and is available in either a HHHL (half-height half-length) add-in card or a 2.5-inch form factor with SFF-8639 connector. The eSSD family is also equipped with Toshiba’s QSBC error-correction technology.

david manners

Silicon Labs enables clock-tree-on-a-chip

SLAB0276_Si5348-press-image-no-textSilicon Labs claims best-in-class jitter performance for its Si5348 clock IC which enables hardware designers to implement a “clock-tree-on-a-chip” solution for Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE), IEEE 1588v2 and general-purpose frequency translation for wireless and telecom infrastructure, broadband networks (e.g., G.fast DSL and PON) and data centre applications.

SyncE and IEEE 1588 have become increasingly popular methods to deliver synchronization over packet networks. As these technologies become more widespread, networking equipment designers are demanding more flexible, cost-effective timing solutions that easily integrate into existing hardware architectures. Conventional network synchronizer clocks rely on rigid synchronization clock chip architectures that borrow heavily from legacy Stratum 3 clock ICs, which are not optimized for size, power or performance.

The Si5348 clock delivers a solution that claims to be 50% smaller, 35% lower power and 80% lower jitter than conventional synchronizers delivering a timing solution compliant with IEEE 1588, SyncE and Stratum 3 clocking requirements, enabling the device to be used in a wide variety of timing card and line card clock architectures. The Si5348 clock has been designed to interoperate with IEEE 1588 software running on an external host processor, further simplifying system integration.

In packet timing applications, high-stability oscillators play a critical role in defining the network’s overall performance in terms of frequency, time and phase accuracy. Network topologies often will dictate the type of temperature-controlled crystal oscillator (TCXO) or oven-controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO) required at each node in the network. The Si5348 clock supports a universal reference input port, enabling the device to be paired with any frequency TCXO/OCXO.

Silicon Labs has partnered with Rakon to deliver a combined solution that can be used across a variety of SyncE and IEEE 1588 applications.

Factory pre-programmed samples and production quantities of the Si5348 network synchronizer clock are available now in a 9 mm x 9 mm QFN package. Si5348 pricing in 10,000-unit quantities ranges from $10.00 to $12.00 (USD), depending on output frequency. Silicon Labs’ Si5348-EVB evaluation board, priced at $399 (USD MSRP), enables developers to move quickly from device configuration to detailed performance analysis to custom part number generation in less than five minutes.

david manners

Record silicon wafer area shipments in Q2

SEMI silicon shipments 2015

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased during Q2 2015

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased during Q2 2015 compared to Q1, says the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG).

Total silicon wafer area shipments were 2,702 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 2.5% increase from the 2,637 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter resulting in a new quarterly volume shipment record, says SEMI’s Silicon Manufacturers” Group.

New quarterly total area shipments are 4.4% higher than second quarter 2014 shipments. First half 2015 shipments are 7.8% higher than the first half of 2014.

“For two consecutive quarters, strong silicon shipment growth has been recorded by the Silicon Manufacturers Group,” says Ginji Yada, chairman of SEMI SMG and general manager, International Sales & Marketing Department of SUMCO Corporation, “continued growth off of the record level shipped in the first quarter, produced another record level of shipments in the most recent quarter.”

The increasing level of silicon shipped since Q2 last year, measured in million square inches is:

Q2 2014 – 2,587, Q1 – 2015 – 2,637, Q2 2015 – 2,702, H1 – 4,951, H2 2015 – 5,339.

View previous SEMI reports on Electronics Weekly »

SEMI is a global industry association serving the nano- and micro-electronic manufacturing supply chains with 1,900 member companies.

See also: SEMI book-to-bill languishes

 

david manners

Sellafield clean-up removes 50-year-old radioactive relic

Large-Decanner-77-610x400A giant relic from the earliest days of Britain’s nuclear industry has been dredged from the bottom of Sellafield’s oldest storage pond.

The machine, weighing six tonne, has lain at the bottom of the pond more than half a century before being lifted clear last month.

In order to safely hoist the rusting hulk to the surface, the machine, called a decanner which was originally used to strip the outer coating from nuclear fuel rods before they were sent to be ‘reprocessed’, had to be cut in half with a innovative underwater ‘diamond wire saw’.

Project manager David Birks said:

“We spent months planning for the job, but there’s only so much preparation you can do before you have to have a go. And when we did have a go, we found that the reality was different to the drawings and the underwater camera inspection.

“You would be forgiven for thinking that this kind of heavy lift would pretty straightforward, but when you bring in the fact that it has been submerged underwater in a contaminated pond for decades, this makes things hugely complicated.”

Constructed in the 1950s to receive, cool and decan fuel from the Windscale reactors during the cold war, the storage pond is one of the site’s most hazardous facilities containing a radiological inventory of sludge, oxide fuel, metal fuel and remaining intermediate level waste which needs to be retrieved, reprocessed and safely stored.

Robotic technology is an important tool in the clean-up, and as with so much of the technology being developed for the Sellafield operation, much of this is being made available to industry through collaborations.

The history of the facilities, collectively known as Legacy Ponds and Silos, featured in a BBC4 documentary ‘Britain’s Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield’, which was broadcast on August 10th, was presented by physicist Jim Al-Khalili.

 

 

Richard Wilson

Atmel EEPROM needs just two pins, one wire

Atmel has designed a self-powered EEPROM, the AT21CS01, which requires only two-pins—a data pin and ground pin - for operation.

Atmel has designed a self-powered EEPROM, the AT21CS01, which requires only two-pins—a data pin and ground pin – for operation.

Atmel has designed a self-powered EEPROM which requires only two-pins—a data pin and ground pin – for operation.

As the devices are self-powered, there is no need for a power source or Vcc pin, with a parasitic power scheme over the data pin.

These single-wire EEPROMs have a specified power standby of 700nA, 200µA for write current, and 80µA for read current at 25 deg C.

The AT21CS01/11 products include a product identification with a plug-and-play 64-bit unique serial number in every device. According to the supplier this means the memory chip can be used with wearable and internet-connected healthcare devices.

The chips have an electrostatic discharge (ESD) rating (IEC 61000-4-2 Level 4 ESD Compliant).

Padam Singh, director of marketing, memory products, Atmel, writes:

“Our new Single-Wire EEPROM family makes it convenient to add serial EEPROM using just one-pin from the MCU/MPU without the need to route the Vcc to the device. In addition, the plug-and-play 64-bit serial number is the easiest way to add identification to various accessories and consumables.”

The AT21CS01 devices offer a security register with a 64-bit factory programmed serial number and an extra 16-bytes of user programmable and permanently lockable storage.

The devices use the I2C protocol and up to eight devices can be connected on the same bus.

There are two variants of the device available to support different voltage requirements. Atmel’s AT21CS01 is targeted for low-voltage applications operating at 1.7V- 3.6V.

For applications that require higher voltage ranges such as Li-Ion/polymer batteries, the AT21CS11 will support 2.7V- 4.5V operating range and is the ideal product to meet IEEE1725 specifications for electronic identification of battery packs.

The Atmel AT21CS01 devices are available now in production quantities in 3-lead SOT23, 8-lead SOIC and 4-ball WLCSP. The AT21CS11 will be available in Q4, 2015.

 

Richard Wilson

USB charger chip for automotive has extra protection

Allegro A8652 A8653 applicationAllegro MicroSystems has introduced two USB charger chips specifically for vehicle use.

A8652 and A8653 are automotive qualified and regulate input voltages from 4.0 to 36V – with under-voltage lock-out at 2.6V.

There is no magic here, it is a buck converter so when used for USB the 5V output will not be supported below 5V on the input. Duty cycle is maximised when the input voltage approaches the output voltage. Slope compensation provides for stability at PWM duty cycles above 50%, and the amount of slope compensation is scaled with switching frequency (100kHz-2.2MHz) when frequency is programmed with a resistor or an external clock.

Allego A8652 A8653 block diagramThe difference between the chips is that the A8653 will deliver 2.6A, while the A8652 does 1 A – described at USB3 and USB2 respectively by Allegro.

Rectification is synchronous for efficency and, for known harness resistance, there is a cable compensation feature that avoides the use of remote sensing. This works by tweaking the internal reference proportionally with output current. ±2% output accuracy can be achieved with 500mV of correction.

Remote load regulation control includes a 115% voltage clamp and dynamic over-voltage protection.

Other protection includes: configurable load-side cycle-by-cycle current limit, hiccup mode short-circuit protection and thermal shut-down.

Going the extra mile, it is also protected against adjacent pin short-circuit and short-to-ground at every pin, as well as under-voltage, over-voltage, over-current and short-circuit on the bootstrap capacitor – which has its own 5V regulator.

Bonus features include: externally set soft-start time, external compensation network, output enable pin, a pin to synchronise or set the PWM switching frequency, and a “power OK” output to indicate when the output voltage is within regulation.

A8652/53 comes in a 16pin eTSSOP package with exposed pad for thermal dissipation.

The package is Pb-free, with 100% matt tin lead frame plating. Maximum junction temperature is 150ºC.

steve bush

Imagination demos Vulkan open API on Android

PowerVR gnomes

Imagination will demonstrate a prototype of the new Vulkan open-source graphics API

Imagination Technologies will demonstrate a prototype of the new Vulkan open-source graphics API on a Google Nexus Player  with its PowerVR GPU.

The intention is to demonstrate at the Siggraph computer graphics conference in Los Angeles this week, the capability of the soon to launched Vulkan API for the Android graphics developer community.

Vulkan, which is not yet publicly available, will mark the entry of open standards consortium Khronos into the low-level graphics API field.

Vulkan is an open standard API for graphics processors which is designed to make the most of  multi-threaded processor architectures.

It will be positioned as a lower level graphics API than existing OpenGL ES APIs.

Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group writes:

“Today, OpenGL and OpenGL ES provide access to billions of GPUs, and Khronos will continue to evolve and maintain these popular 3D APIs. The complementary Vulkan open standard API will deliver high-efficiency access to graphics and compute on modern GPUs, providing applications with direct control over GPU acceleration for maximised performance and predictability.”

Google is supporting Vulkan on its Android products.

 

 

 

Richard Wilson

Moon bound spacecraft could use GPS satellites for navigation

Moon bound spacecraft could GPS satellites for navigtation

Moon bound spacecraft could GPS satellites for navigtation

It seems spacecraft on their way to the moon could use signals from GPS satellites on the distant side of Earth to navigate. Jacon Aron reports.

At the next space station, turn left. Efforts to repurpose GPS and other navigation satellites to help spacecraft reach the moon are under way, and could bring about an increase in lunar-bound traffic.

You can’t just point your rocket at the moon and be sure of getting there in one piece – you need to navigate. “It’s not possible to predict the trajectory accurately,” says Vincenzo Capuano of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. “That’s why you need to know where the spacecraft is.”

Currently, spacecraft communicate with tracking stations on Earth, such as NASA’s Deep Space Network, to monitor their positions. But these large radio antenna facilities are expensive to run, and there are a limited number dotted around the planet. If we’re ever going to send spacecraft to the moon on a regular basis, we’ll need a more autonomous system.

Enter GPS. Some spacecraft in low Earth orbit, around the level of the International Space Station, already use GPS to navigate, but missions to the moon fly well above the GPS satellites. That’s a problem, since the transmitters point down, towards Earth.

Now Capuano and his colleagues have figured out that spacecraft on their way to the moon could use signals from GPS satellites on the distant side of Earth to navigate. The signal is much weaker, but they’ve calculated that combining signals from US GPS satellites with those from Galileo, a European navigation system currently under construction, would be enough for a lunar trip. “You would save a lot of money because you don’t need a lot of people working in the ground stations,” says Capuano.

The team is also developing more powerful GPS receivers to pick up this weaker signal, which could in turn have benefits on Earth – standard smartphone receivers struggle to get a location inside buildings or other built-up areas, so new devices could mean better navigation.

Journal reference: Acta Astronautica, DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2015.06.007

Syndicated content: Jacob Aron, New Scientist

Image:  NASA ISS

 

Alun Williams

Plessey retrofitting with its own lighting LEDs

Plessey is retrofitting its Plymouth manufacturing facility with LEDs and lighting modules made on-site.

Plessey is retrofitting its Plymouth manufacturing facility with LEDs and lighting modules made on-site.

Plessey is retrofitting its Plymouth manufacturing facility with LEDs and lighting modules made on-site.

It will replace fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent bulbs in existing fixtures – approximately 2,700 fixtures replacing 4,200 fluorescent lamps – for which it has designed retrofit kits.

“LED retrofit kits offer the facilities engineers and installation contractors a cost effective, quick and easy method to take advantage of the new technology, said Plessey facilities engineer Thomas Abbott. “It only takes five to 10 minutes to retrofit a fixture.”

There are three main types of fixture: batten, pod-style down-light and reflector ceiling troffer, plus high bay and low bay HID fixtures.

Current site lighting power consumption per year is 1,000,000kW/h costing £100,000, said the firm, plus approximately £5,000 in materials and 200 man hours annually.

“Once the retrofit is completed, the company would expect to see 25% – 40% reduction in lighting electricity consumption, saving tens of thousands of pounds per year,” said Plessey.

See also: Plessey selling GaN-on-Si LED die

See also: Plessey goes into LED light bulb ‘filament’ production

View more Plessey stories on Electronics Weekly »

 

steve bush

LED street lights need better lightning protection, says Osram

Lightning density in Europe differs significantly from region to region.

Lightning density in Europe differs significantly from region to region.

The introduction of LED street lighting has raised a new problem. How can the electronic drivers be protected from voltage peaks from lightning strikes.

The problem with LED lighting modules is that they operate at lower voltage levels and could be damaged from overvoltage.

According to LED supplier Osram, this danger has increased with the UN Climate Council identifying increasing levels of lightning worldwide in its fifth assessment report (IPCC14).

“Around 10% of the several million lightning strikes occurring each day impact on the ground, thereby causing voltage peaks. To effectively protect LED modules assembled in road luminaires, the Osram Optotronic 4DIM features overvoltage protection of 8 kilovolts as standard,” said Osram.

Levels of lightning density in Europe are high in summer, particularly in July and August, and with large regional differences – the UK Meteorological Office recorded between just 0.25 and over 20 strikes per square kilometre in 2014.

Osram believes that it is necessary for the electronic control units to have voltage protection of up to 8kV between mains supply and ground in protection classes I and II.

“This means that lightning can strike an area of up to 200 metres from a luminaire mast without the LED module being damaged,” said the supplier.

Osram has designed 8kV protection into its LED controllers with a so-called EQUI connection (equipotential) for protection class II applications, which it claims can reduce the occurrence of overvoltage on the LED module.

Overvoltage though does not automatically mean the immediate failure of an LED module, but can cause premature ageing and therefore shorter operating periods; this has consequences for the operator in terms of costs.

Graph shows 8kV overvoltage protection provided by the Optotronic 4 DIM from Osram.

Graph shows 8kV overvoltage protection provided by the Optotronic 4 DIM from Osram.

Normally, LED solutions have low failure rates and achieve up to 100,000 operating hours.

The LED control units also need to be protected from voltage peaks from two other hazardous sources: – those with up to 6kV due to load changes or switching commands in the power supply grid and from electrostatic discharge (ESD) occurring with for example maintenance work, if no ESD protective measures exist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Wilson