GAO Instruments Inc.

TIBCO Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) announced today that Hub télécom, operator and integrator of business solutions, has selected TIBCO Software Inc. to develop an operated and universal applications platform for collecting and processing RFID identification data. The “Hub’ID” traceability service relies on an open services platform aimed at providing an end-to-end object monitoring solution extending from the RFID collection infrastructure to customers’ business applications. The Hub’ID service is applicable to all companies on the airport platform and to Transport, Freight and Logistics operations throughout mainland France.

Adding Value to Information

The Hub’ID platform, developed on the basis of the TIBCO software, receives and formats the data collected by the various RFID sensors in real time and to the various standards required by the market. As operator service, the platform has the capacity to process high volumes of RFID data coming from numerous sites and numerous collection sources. The TIBCO platform (including TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks(TM)) processes the raw data by assigning it a business definition, or even enhancing it to ensure real time traceability of objects; the platform then transmits the data directly to the customers’ information systems. The platform is able to integrate heterogeneous technologies from Hub télécom’s partners. Redundant or useless data is systematically divided or filtered.

The visibility of the volumes of data processed allows Hub télécom to see what has actually been utilized and to invoice its services as accurately as possible.

An Open Platform

The first business application implemented on the Hub’ID platform meets the RFID luggage traceability requirements of Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. It allows the networking and the mutualization of gates and RFID tunnels which are displayed on the sorting luggage zones and the tarmac. Hub télécom offers this service to feed the computer luggage systems of airline companies, stopover support organizations and airports. However, in addition to airport applications, the service has been designed to ensure monitoring of all types of logistical flows anywhere in France. Hub télécom’s system is a turnkey service: it includes RFID readers, either fixed or mobile (PDA), network services, and business data processing services.

“The TIBCO solution has been chosen for its modularity, its robustness and its ability to manage high volumes of RFID data. It allows us to assume our unique position as RFID operator in the market without any fuss,” commented Nicolas Lehovetzki, Hub télécom’s director of Marketing, Innovation, Engineering and Information Technology.

Adds Fabio Pulidori, senior vice president of EMEA, TIBCO: “Our collaboration with Hub télécom puts TIBCO’s solutions at the operational heart of one of the world’s five busiest airports. TIBCO will play a critical role in monitoring a wide range of logistical flows in real time, reinforcing our reputation for providing solutions that are relied on to deliver flexibility and control in business scenarios characterized by complex events and high volumes of operational data.”

About Hub télécom:

With its considerable expertise in airport platform telecommunications, Hub télécom, a subsidiary of the Aéroports de Paris group, is the foremost specialist in airports, ports and logistical operations both in France and on an international level. The company’s knowledge and added value make it both a telecommunications operator and an integrator of communications and applications solutions for transport and logistics. Hub télécom is able to address the telecommunications issues of its clients globally and on a personalized footing. The company ensures the convergence of flows on the corporate network and optimization of the supply chain processes for all corporate clients looking for new means of improving their productivity in this area. Hub télécom offers telecommunications services to over 1350 companies within the Paris airports, and to regional airports and exhibition or conference centers, with 150,000 daily users.

Oct. 22, 2009—The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has placed its first order for RFID technology compliant with the ISO 18000-7 standard for a November 2009 delivery, to be provided by Unisys, Savi, Systems and Processes Engineering Corp. (SPEC) and Northrop Grumman. Previously, all four companies had been chosen by the DOD to compete for orders under its RFID-III contract, which calls for active 433.92 MHz RFID tags and readers compliant with the ISO 18000-7 standard.

The newly ordered battery-powered 433 MHz tags were tested and approved this summer by the DOD’s Product Manager Joint-Automatic Identification Technology (PM J-AIT) office, after passing electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing in August at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. The previous RFID-II contract for 433 MHz was based on Savi’s proprietary 433 MHz RFID technology, while the new RFID-III contract requires 433 MHz products compliant with the ISO 18000-7 standard and supplied by multiple vendors. By using ISO 18000-7-compliant RFID hardware, the DOD and other U.S. and allied agencies will have a broadened interoperability of their technology.

 PM J-AIT placed orders with all four vendors for tags to be delivered in early November—altogether ordering approximately 128,000 data-rich tags that can store large amounts of information, and 40,000 license plate tags encoded simply with a unique ID number. All four RFID-III vendors received a portion of this award. In 2007, Savi—which owns intellectual property necessary for complying with the ISO 18000-7 standard—granted licenses to other vendors so they could manufacture products compliant with that standard (see Seven Companies Sign Up for Savi IP License). Savi says its portion of the new order for ISO 18000-7 hardware totals $6.6 million and includes the Savi ST-654 data-rich tag, widely used to track shipping containers, vehicles and other large assets, as well as the Savi ST-621, a license plate tag.

In December 2008, the DOD granted the four prime contractors the opportunity to compete for orders under its RFID-III contract—an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract established by the U.S. Army on behalf of all U.S. armed services (see U.S. Defense Department Picks Four for RFID-III). The contract, administered by the PM J-AIT office, entitles the four firms to compete for purchase orders from any authorized organization supporting the Defense Department, the U.S. Coast Guard, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), coalition partners and other foreign military agencies. The purchase orders, however, were contingent on passage of the EMI testing, which was intended to determine whether RFID technology in airplanes or helicopters would interfere with onboard avionics, such as radios, navigation or flight instruments.

“The test procedure is used to verify that radiated spurious and harmonic emissions from transmitters do not exceed the specified requirements,” says John Zentner, an electromagnetic environmental effects engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Sensors Directorate.

Because the four vendors’ tags passed aircraft testing, they were granted inclusion in the military’s EMI certification, which lists specific devices—such as laptop computers and audio-visual equipment—that have been approved to operate while aboard military aircraft.

The tags were tested in a lab to simulate the environment in which they would operate—namely, helicopters, as well as large and small fixed-wing aircraft—to determine whether they met the requirements of the DOD Interface Standard 461F (an RF standard used by the U.S. military, according to Zentner). In theory, he says, a tag’s power supply could generate RF noise. All of the vendors’ tags now operate within the military’s 461F specifications, though at least one model needed to be modified before it could pass the test. Helicopters are the greatest risk for this interference, he adds, since they have more apertures (openings through which RF transmissions could leak out) than other small or large aircraft.

Ultimately, Zentner says, the RFID hardware provided no interference concerns. “RFID devices seem fairly innocent,” he states. The tests were undertaken in a metallic room without actual aircraft, and the tags were set to continually transmit. The researchers measured the electromagnetic fields that resulted.

For Savi, says Mark Nelson, the company’s director of corporate communications, “it means that we now have an authoritative source that has tested active RFID at the 433 MHz range, and has found that it does not interfere with the aircraft that is carrying the tags. This certification can now be used to show civilian airlines that the tags are safe to carry.”

The DOD and other government agencies use aircraft as a means of transporting RFID-tagged cargo. In the case of the 18000-7 tags, most will be utilized on shipping containers that would be transported by ocean, so few will actually be placed within an aircraft. However, the EMI certification indicates the tags can be safely transported by air, if necessary.

The switch to ISO 18000-7 hardware is opening up opportunities for the commercial use of active RFID technology for tracking supplies that will be transported to or by the military, says Patrick Burns, the president of the Dash7 Alliance, a coalition of 30 companies and organizations from multiple industries focused on supporting the adoption of the ISO 18000-7 standard. The alliance was launched this year, in part due to the DOD’s plans for the RFID-III contract using ISO 18000-7 (see Dash7 Alliance Seeks to Promote RFID Hardware Based on ISO 18000-7 Standard).

The DOD has been an advisor to the alliance, helping the organization to develop testing and certification procedures for interoperability of the technology, as well as planning the next stages, including encryption plans and outreach work to publicize the active RFID standard. Products purchased by the DOD in this order have earned Dash7 1.0 Interoperability Certification, indicating they have successfully completed baseline interoperability testing for DOD-specific deployments.

The use of ISO 18000-7-compliant technology in the RFID-III contract, Burns says, could lead to the use of the same technology by DOD suppliers. This would enable the companies to then track products through the supply chain, both for their own purposes and for the Defense Department.

The DOD employs approximately 30,000 active RFID tags per month for its shipments, the bulk of which travel to the Middle East. That number will vary, depending upon the movement of troops and supplies into and out of the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Sept. 30 of this year, Unisys received the first order for the new active tags, and was given 45 days to deliver them, according to Michael Saunders, the company’s federal system partner for the DOD and the U.S. Army—though he declines to indicate the exact number of tags ordered, or whether they were data-rich or license plate tags. “Unisys believes we can supply about 50 percent of the military’s needs,” he says.

The DOD’s adoption of the ISO 18000-7 standard is saving the agency money. Saunders says the new tags provided by Unisys will cost about half as much as the previous Savi proprietary tags. “It makes good sense for the government,” he indicates. Although Savi does not discuss pricing, Nelson says, “it’s reasonable to assume that the costs of [these ISO 18000-7] tags are highly competitive with historical prices. As more active RFID technologies based on the ISO 18000-7 standard become even more ubiquitous and innovations arise from it, we fully expect that active RFID tag prices will continue to move downward over time.”

If the current RFID-III vendors wish to provide new tags other than those already approved for the DOD, that hardware would require EMI testing, says Lieutenant Colonel Cary Ferguson, PM J-AIT’s product manager. All ISO 18000-7 interrogators will only read tags that are compliant with that standard. Therefore, to become ISO 18000-7-compliant, previous tags must be upgraded through an update to their firmware.

In order for Savi’s older proprietary interrogators to read the new ISO 18000-7 tags, they must be upgraded to support dual mode, enabling the reader to interrogate not only Savi’s proprietary 433 MHz tags, but also tags complying with the ISO 18000-7 standard. PM J-AIT has upgraded its Radio Frequency In-Transit Visibility (RF-ITV) infrastructure so that it is capable of operating in a dual-mode environment. The RF-ITV is a system designed to assist in the implementation and integration of RFID technology into the DOD’s supply chain.

According to Ferguson, the RFID-III contract has a maximum potential value of $429.4 million for products, services and maintenance. Unisys selected RFID hardware vendors Hi-G-Tek and Identec Solutions to serve as the subcontractors that would supply the actual tags. SPEC is using hardware from Identec Solutions, Northrop Grumman utilizes Evigia hardware, and Savi manufactures its own tags.

A Venezuelan hacking suspect arrested in Mexico last February on computer hacking and fraud charges faces a court appearance in New Jersey on Tuesday, following his extradition to the US last week.

Edwin Pena, 26, a former Miami resident, fled from US justice in August 2006 two months after he was bailed on charges of hacking into phone systems and stealing VoIP call credits. Pena allegedly resold these services in collusion with an accomplice, Robert Moore of Washington. Pena and Moore raked in an estimated $1.4m through the alleged sale of 10 million voice call minutes stolen from telecoms suppliers.

Moore pleaded guilty multiple computer hacking and fraud offences in late 2007, resulting in a two year jail sentence. His admitted involvement in the scam involved scanning telecom supplier networks for vulnerabilities between June 2005 and October 2005. Pena, the alleged brains of the operation and major beneficiary, use Moore’s reconnaissance to draw up a list of targets for attack.

The Venezuelan used brute force techniques to extract activation codes from vulnerable telecom supplier systems. Among those victimised was a Newark, New Jersey supplier of telecoms services.

Pena used the alleged proceeds of crime to finance a comfortable lifestyle including real estate in Miami, a 40-foot boat and a BMW M3 car. He is due to appear before a judge on Tuesday before an arraignment scheduled for 23 October before US District Judge Susan D Wigenton, who has been assigned the case.

“This extradition represents the continued success of the United States in working with foreign countries to bring alleged cyber criminals to justice,” said US Attorney Paul J Fishman in a statement on the case. “No one should feel free and comfortable from prosecution or detection merely by being in another country.” ®

Cleveland, OH, October 14, 2009 –(PR.com)– Keithley Instruments, Inc. (NYSE:KEI), a world leader in advanced electrical test instruments and systems, today announced an expansion of its Series 3700 System Switch/Multimeter and plug-in card family with the addition of a new plug-in switching card, the Model 3731 6´16 High Speed, Reed Relay, Matrix Card. Its exceptional voltage and current characteristics (200V, 1A switched or 2A carry signal capacity) make it ideal for use in multi-channel I-V testing in conjunction with Keithley’s Series 2600A System SourceMeter® instruments. For more information on the Model 3731, please visit www.keithley.com/products/switching/?mn=3731.

The Model 3731 is a two-pole, 6 row ´ 16 column reed relay matrix card. High speed dry reed relays (<0.5ms actuation times) make it an excellent choice for applications that demand a combination of high throughput and long switch life. The Model 3731’s relay contacts are rated for more than one billion no-load switch operations.

As a matrix card, the Model 3731 offers users the flexibility to connect any of up to six differential instrument channels to any combination of 16 devices under test (DUTs). Any row can be connected to the Series 3700 mainframe’s analog backplane by using the analog backplane connection relays. This allows for easy matrix column expansion. A single Model 3706 mainframe can support a matrix of up to 6 rows by 96 columns when six Model 3731 cards are installed. By using the TSP-Link® master/slave communication bus, multiple mainframes can be linked to create even larger switch configurations. The analog backplane also offers automated access to the high performance multimeter built in to the Model 3706 mainframe, one of the most popular Series 3700 options.

The Model 3731 uses two 50-pin male D-sub connectors for signal connections. A detachable Model 3731-ST accessory is available for making screw terminal connections.

The Model 3731 is the latest addition to the growing family of plug-in switch and control cards for Keithley’s Series 3700 System Switch/Multimeter platform, adding to the line of high-density and general-purpose plug-in cards that accommodates a broad range of signals and topologies including multiplexer, matrix, and isolated switch functions.

The Series 3700 offers scalable, high-performance switching and multi-channel measurements that are optimized for automated testing of electronic products and components. Keithley’s next-generation Series 3700 platform satisfies the demands of medium to high channel count applications, with its ability to control up to 576 multiplexer channels in an industry-leading six-slot, 2U form factor, saving precious rack space and lowering the cost of test. A high-performance integrated DMM option, the Model 3706, provides fast, low-noise measurements with resolutions up to 7½-digits at a price lower than typical 6½-digit DMMs.

Series 3700 System Switch/Multimeter instruments include a variety of capabilities optimized for high speed testing, including LXI Class B compliance with IEEE 1588 time synchronization; Keithley’s embedded Test Script Processor (TSP®) technology that offers unparalleled system automation, throughput, and flexibility by bringing PC-like functionality into the instrument; and TSP‑Link, a master/slave communication bus that simplifies expanding systems to keep pace with changing test demands. TSP-Link provides for seamless integration with Series 2600A System SourceMeter instruments, for adding high speed I-V source and measurement capabilities.

Price and Availability. Keithley’s Model 3731 6´16 High Speed, Reed Relay Matrix Card is priced at $1995 USD. Availability is four to five weeks after receipt of order.

Market watcher Berg Insight reports that the number of mobile subscribers downloading navigation routes and turn-by-turn navigation instructions using their mobile handsets increased twofold from 1H 08 to 1H 09 to reach 28 million. The company forecasts that until 2015, the subscriber base will grow at a CAGR of 33.7 percent to reach 160 million users worldwide. The growing adoption will be driven primarily by the broader availability of GPS-enabled handsets and bundling of navigation applications with mobile devices and service plans.

In the United States and Japan, where mass market GPS handsets are already available, adoption of mobile navigation services have already surpassed three and four percent of the total mobile subscriber base respectively. More recently, increasing volumes of GPS handsets have also started to pave the way for adoption of mobile navigation services in Europe where PNDs have been the prevailing navigation solution for some years. In other regions of the world, better availability of low-cost GPS cellphones and improving map coverage will enable rapid uptake of navigation services in the coming years.

“Mobile operators and handset vendors are now starting to experience the business opportunity of a growing installed base of GPS handsets and customers trying navigation services,” said André Malm, senior analyst, Berg Insight. He adds that since relatively few subscribers need turn-by-turn navigation services on a daily basis, the mobile industry should integrate navigation services with other location-based services to improve the total user experience and ensure that customers continue to subscribe.

pagesource:http://www.eetasia.com

Rolling Meadows, IL–(Marketwire) – Charles Industries, Ltd., a leading provider of outside plant innovations for communications service providers, has expanded its industry-leading family of fiber optic pedestal lines with the introduction of Charles Fiber Cross-Connects (CFXC) for point-to-point architecture fiber networks. CFXC provide a convenient cross-connect and testing point between the feeder network and the distribution field in Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) networks. Compared to traditional metallic cross-connect cabinets, their above-grade pedestal form factor is more convenient and less costly to install.

Unlike metallic cross-connect cabinets, the lift-off dome design of CFXC pedestals provides flood-proof environmental protection, allowing them to be installed in almost any location. Their compact size compared to large cabinets makes them easier to install and ideally suited to small communities and neighborhoods. Right-of-ways are no longer a concern and the units can be economically placed directly in the ground without the need for an expensive concrete pad.

CFXC feature a pre-stubbed cross-connect bulkhead with user-specified SC/APC or SC/UPC connectors. The bulkhead is sealed inside an inner dome that protects connectors from dust, insects and other contaminants. Routing guides are provided for organized fiber management of shielded or all-dielectric ribbon or loose tube fiber cable. Once placed in the network, technicians may turn up new customers quickly and easily by placing a pre-connectorized jumper from the feed panel to the distribution panel, all conveniently located on the front panel of the bulkhead

“Placing metallic cross-connect cabinets is often cost-prohibitive in small subdivisions and groups of homes,” says Minesh Patel, vice president of Charles Industries’ OSP Business Unit. “Charles Fiber Cross-Connect Pedestals are right-sized for these applications, with room for future expansion. By utilizing CFXC and doing away with permits and concrete pad placements, service providers realize a substantial cost savings.”

CFXC are available in three pedestal diameters and five frame sizes with up to 48 (8″), 72 (8″), 96 (10″), 144 (12″), or 288 (12″) fiber connections. Both stake-mount and vault-mount configurations are available. Vault-mount models are ideal for locations that require splice case or slack cable storage at the same location as the cross-connect placement.

CFXC join Charles Fiber Flexibility Point (CFFP) and Charles Fiber Distribution Point (CFDP) Interconnect pedestals in providing service providers a full range of pre-connectorized, above-grade fiber distribution solutions. CFFP Pedestals offer the same design and environmental protection features as CFXC Pedestals, but are intended as a cost-effective alternative to placing Fiber Distribution Hubs in the outside plant. Likewise, CFDP Interconnect Pedestals provide an above-grade alternative to optical interconnect-connect cabinets.

pagesource:http://www.fiberopticsonline.com/

Candle are seeking experienced technical Web based Testers to join their client an Australian telecommunications giant working on a range of cutting edge projects. You will be working with a strong team of like minded dynamic and passionate individuals from a range of disciplines covering all facets of the SDLC. Working alongside a high-end team of professional Java developers, you will responsible for applications and systems integration testing.

Our Client is particularly interested in candidates who have worked in any of the following spaces: WEB/Online/Data/Internet/Broadband/Billing/Order Management/CRM. Within any industry but with Telco as a preference. To be successful in this position you will have a strong Web applications background ideally within a JAVA SOA environment and also have experience in any WebServices environment.

You will have experience in the following areas:
Testing Tools:
Mercury Quality Centre/SOA test/Winrunner/QTP/JMeter/Selenium

Systems maintenance and use:
Intel/JBoss/Tomcat/Oracle

Platforms:
Windows/Sun (solaris)/Macintosh

Languages/technologies:
Java/ASP/JSP/JavaScript/VB/SQL/Python/SOAP/XML/Perl. Essential to this role is experience working in a UNIX environment (ideally Sun Solaris or Linux) with a history of developing and modifying Unix Scripts in one or more languages. An ISTQB or equivalent qualification will also be highly regarded. If you would like to know more or apply, please send your Resume to Sonya Doyle at (see below) or call to discuss further.

Searchable fields:
Test analyst, systems tester, test prime, applications tester, JavaScript, Oracle, Visual Basic, Solaris, SOAtest, billing, MQ, PL/SQL, JSP, struts, ASP, JAVA, J2EE, automated tester, broadband, narrowband, ADSL, telco, online, test director, UNIX, Perl PHP, python, korn, WebLogic, tomcat, EJB, Application Server, system tester.

pagesource:http://jobs.itnews.com

Calypto Design Systems Inc. has developed what it touts to be the most accurate register-transfer level (RTL) power analysis capability by applying its patented sequential analysis technology.

Used to enable accurate power measurement in its PowerPro Analyzer tool, the technique performs sequential analysis of the entire design, delivering power measurement results that are significantly more accurate than the decade-old RTL power analysis tools in use today.

According to Tom Sandoval, CEO of Calypto, previous tools have been based on combinational analysis which limits the accuracy of switching activity propagation compared to the actual sequential circuit activity.

“Sequential analysis ensures switching activity propagation estimated by the tool closely correlates with real life circuit activity,” he said.

By dramatically improving RTL power analysis accuracy, he said PowerPro Analyzer will enable designers to finally move away from time-consuming, gate-level power analysis flows.

“These flows require designers to run complex gate-level simulations in order to provide the power analysis tool with accurate design behavior that emulates real-world functionality,” said Sandoval. “Running those same simulations at the RTL level improves efficiency by 10x, often reducing the overall power analysis task time from days to hours.

“Moreover, RTL-level simulation is part of the standard simulation regression method used by designers to verify their design.”

The RTL simulation results can be provided to Calypto’s PowerPro Analyzer without adding to design schedules.

“The inaccuracy of existing RTL power analysis tools has limited their adoption and forced the industry to continue using complex, schedule-extending, gate-level power analysis techniques,” said Sandoval.

Where older solutions use simplistic propagation engines that do not correlate with real circuit behavior, he said, Calypto’s sequential analysis-based propagation engines capture temporal and spatial correlations across registers that simply cannot be taken into account by obsolete, combinational analysis-based solutions.

Because clock trees consume a significant amount of power in a design, he said, understanding how to model a clock tree with a substantial amount of clock gating is critical to accurate RTL power analysis.

Calypto’s RTL power analysis capabilities have been integrated into a new version of PowerPro Analyzer, which can be used as a standalone tool for RTL power analysis in SoC design flows.

PowerPro Analyzer with block-level power analysis will be available in October and chip-level power analysis will be available in February 2010. The tool will be offered for a list price of $50,000.

PowerPro CG and PowerPro MG, RTL optimization tools based on sequential analysis, each list for $295,000 and include PowerPro Analyzer. PowerPro CG is an automated clock gating power optimization tool that reduces power by up to 60 percent with little or no impact to timing or area.

PowerPro MG is an automated memory power optimization solution that takes advantage of the low-power control options available in today’s on-chip memories to reduce both dynamic and leakage memory power with little or no impact to timing or area.

pagesource:http://www.eetasia.com

Wireless standards are inundating the market, placing tremendous demands on the test engineer and on the tools necessary to test these new integrated devices. There are two realities in device manufacturing. First, assembly complexity is inversely proportional to the level of integration. Second, functional test complexity is proportional to the number of features and wireless standards to test.

This challenge is compounded, because RF measurements and tests for a particular standard often require specific firmware personalities or modes of operation for the test instrument. Testing multiple wireless standards on a single device requires either purchasing another RF test instrument for that standard (increasing test costs) or reconfiguring the instrument firmware or mode for the next standard (increasing test time and cost for new firmware).

The solution to these challenges is to take a different approach to the architecture for RF test instruments. The two biggest hurdles in building a software-defined RF test system are the processing power necessary to demodulate, decode and analyze acquired waveforms, and the bandwidth necessary to transfer a large enough waveform from the measurement circuitry to the processing circuitry.

Engineers can overcome these hurdles by using a modular, PC-based architecture with a high-throughput bus interconnecting the measurement and processing circuitry. An example of an ideal software-defined architecture is the rugged, CompactPCI-based PXI platform for test, measurement and control. PXI leverages commercial off-the-shelf computer components, such as the latest Intel processors and large memories, and a PCI-based high-throughput bus that links this controller to the measurement module.

The measurement module uses a modular architecture, incorporating a downconverter unit to transfer a block of frequency spectrum to an IF acquired by a digitizer unit, which then transfers this large waveform to controller memory using the 132Mbps bus in the PXI backplane.

An example of software-defined, modular instrumentation is the development of a MIMO-OFDM system. The combination of MIMO and OFDM lies behind many of the latest wireless and data standards emerging, including 4G mobile cellular communications and 802.11n Wi-Fi data networking, designed to increase the number of subscribers and data throughput on cellphones and computers, respectively.

The Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) at the University of Texas at Austin studied the characteristics of this system to validate the research and benefits of MIMO-OFDM. The WNCG study involved simulation and full hardware integration components, and took six weeks to complete. This was made possible by the high degree of reuse of MIMO-OFDM software simulations and models in the software used to define the PXI-based modular RF vector signal generators and analyzers from National Instruments.

The result of using a modular, PC-based architecture such as PXI is a universal, software-based RF test system that can adapt to any type of measurement and wireless standard. The system also has the ability to test multiple wireless standards and protocols, and adapt to emerging communication standards.

pagesource:http://www.eetasia.com

Tektronix Inc. has introduced a line of mixed-signal oscilloscopes that visualize and analyze analog, digital and serial signals with one instrument. The MSO3000 series offers up to four analog and 16 digital channels, 100MHz to 500MHz bandwidth, 5M record length and 2.5GSps analog sample rate for system debug.

Versatility in test solutions to monitor digital, analog and serial data signals is important when performing system-level troubleshooting across a wide range of integrated components, such as microprocessors and microcontrollers, FPGAs, A/Ds, D/As, serial and parallel buses, embedded audio and switch-mode power supplies. At the same time, design engineers are under pressure to keep a tight rein on costs.

Bob Bluhm, VP, value scopes product line at Tektronix said, “With this latest addition to the Tektronix MSO/DPO Series of bench oscilloscopes, we now provide a full range of performance options combined with a great price point for the majority of engineers who need powerful and easy-to-use instruments to simplify debug of embedded system designs.”

The 16 digital channels offered by the MSO3000 series are tightly integrated into the oscilloscope’s user interface, simplifying operation and making it possible to solve mixed signal issues easily. The color-coded waveform display simplifies viewing of digital waveforms, displaying ones in green and zeros in blue. This makes it easy to recognize the logic state of a signal without having to scroll to a transition. Digital waveforms can be grouped and labeled, greatly reducing setup time. MagniVu high speed acquisition provides confidence when making critical timing measurements on digital waveforms with the acquisition of 10,000 points at up to 8.25GSps (121.2ps resolution), providing significantly finer timing resolution and capturing narrower glitches than comparable MSOs on the market.

Speed at every stage
The MSO3000 series provides a comprehensive set of features to speed every stage of debugging a new design. Embedded system designers can easily discover intermittent problems with a 50,000 waveform per second capture rate and intensity-graded digital phosphor display technology. The designer can then capture signal anomalies and glitches with a complete set of triggers, including parallel data and serial packet content. The trigger is applied across all input channels and automatically time correlates all analog, digital and serial signals.

Wave Inspector controls enable automatic search across all analog, digital, serial and parallel data signals for a specific event of interest. Wave Inspector will automatically mark every instance of the event enabling rapid navigation between them. Finally, the designer can quickly analyze signals with 29 automated measurements, advanced waveform math and specialized application support for serial bus analysis, power analysis and video debug.

For serial bus applications, a single signal often includes address, control, data and clock information. This can make isolating events of interest difficult. The MSO/DPO oscilloscopes offer a robust set of tools for debugging serial buses with automatic trigger, decode and search for I2C, SPI, RS- 232/422/485/UART, CAN, LIN, and I2S/LJ/RJ/TDM standards.

Power analysis
Additional application support packages automate power measurements and perform HDTV and custom video analysis. To meet the need for longer battery life devices and for green solutions that consume less power, power-supply designers can now quickly and accurately analyze power quality, switching loss, harmonics, safe operating area, modulation, ripple, and slew rate (di/dt, dv/dt) and comply with national and regional power quality standards. The DPO3PWR power analysis module provides automated, repeatable power measurements with a touch of a button; no external PC or complex software setup is required. The DPO3PWRBND Power Analysis Solution Bundle combines all of the essential tools needed to perform typical power measurement and analysis tasks with savings up to 25 percent.

With the MSO/DPO oscilloscopes’ fast waveform capture rate and intensity-graded signal view, video engineers can now see more video signal detail and access standard features such as IRE and mV graticules, holdoff by fields, video polarity, and an Autoset smart enough to detect video signals. The optional DPO3VID application module provides the industry’s most complete suite of HDTV and custom (non-standard) video triggers.

All new models are available for purchase and delivery.

pagesource:http://www.eetasia.com