TI E2E Community

This amplifier doesn't exist...now what!?

Xavier Ramus — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:14:00 GMT

Sometimes it’s impossible to find an amplifier with the right input and output characteristics, but a signal chain approach described in my previous blog posts on high gain, high bandwidth works well. Although very high gain can be achieved, one limitation of this approach is the limited DC accuracy. For application where DC accuracy is a must have, creating a composite amplifier is the best approach.

A composite amplifier is an amplifier made of separate elements with non-ideal properties where the end result takes the best of both elements and combines them together. Let’s consider the first amplifier, the OPA188. It is an excellent auto-zero amplifier, but has a major limitation in that its gain bandwidth product is only 2MHz, limiting both the maximum gain and the achievable bandwidth. Auto-zero amplifiers are usually used in high gain application with very limited bandwidth where excellent DC-accuracy, and in particular, offset drift is necessary. The high gain requirement by itself increases the DC accuracy requirement. The open-loop gain characteristic of the OPA188 is shown below in figure 1.

Figure 1: OPA188 open-loop gain and phase

To create the composite amplifier, I added a second stage using an ideal amplifier to the OPA188, see figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Composite amplifier with OPA188 as first stage and ideal amplifier as 2^nd stage

The second stage, when placed in the loop of the OPA188, will increase the open-loop gain by its gain. Note that I have opted to use 20dB for the second stage. I have also placed the composite amplifier in a non-inverting 20dB gain configuration. The resulting open-loop gain and phase of the composite amplifier can be seen in figure 3 below.

Figure 3: composite amplifier open-loop gain and phase

The composite amplifier will now have higher slew rate and higher gain bandwidth product. You will also notice that it is not going to be unity gain stable any more but must be operated at a minimum gain. Since the second stage is ideal, it will not introduce any phase shift in the phase of the composite amplifier.

Stay tuned for my next blog where we’ll cover the selection of the second stage and evaluate the performance of the entire circuit. In the meantime, check out my high gain, high bandwidth series that will hopefully help you solve some design challenges.

High gain, high bandwidth…how can I get it all?

High gain, high bandwidth…why is this circuit oscillating?

High gain, high bandwidth…putting it all together

TI helps to close the digital divide between the rural and the urban students in China

Around TI — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

The children in the poorest, rural parts of China do not get the same opportunities when it comes to getting a good education compared to their wealthier, urban peers. Texas Instruments is trying to change that.

TI is now working with the China Ministry of Education (MOE) to donate multimedia classrooms to poverty-stricken areas of central and west China. Once the classrooms are completed, students will work and study on a level playing field with kids from other parts of China.

"To support education and provide equal education opportunities to more children is an integral part of our citizenship strategy in China," said Trisha Cunningham, Chief Citizenship Officer of TI. "We are very glad to leverage our advanced technologies to help expand the horizon of children, allowing them to get the latest learning resources.”

As part of the MOE’s 10-Year Education Informatization Plan, TI’s multimedia classrooms help to make sure all students can get high quality education resources through an IT-driven learning environment. More than 3,000 teachers and 50,000 students are expected to benefit from the plan, according to the National Center for Educational Technology (NCET).

TI has installed 100 multimedia classrooms in 100 schools in Yunnan, Sichuan and Henan. The multimedia classrooms include TI DLP-based projector and smart boards, computers and software. The goal: To help teachers inspire students through an intuitive, vivid and highly interactive teaching platform.

Once the multimedia classrooms are ready, TI works with NCET to train teachers on how to get the most out of the technology they now have at their fingertips.

"MOE appreciates TI’s long-term commitment to China’s education, especially the education informatization in poverty-stricken areas," said Zhang Yun, director of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges for the China MOE. "Education informatization is the foundation of education modernization. With multimedia classrooms donated by TI, teachers and students in poverty-stricken areas of central and western China will be able to access advanced education equipment and quality education resources for more development opportunities.”

In Nanbu County, a national poverty county in China, 30 TI Hope Project Libraries and 30 TI multimedia classrooms were donated by TI.

One school at a time, one classroom at a time, one student at a time, TI is helping to close the digital divide between the rural and the urban students, between the poor and the rich.

Analog Applications Spotlight: Anthony Fagnani

Gayle Bullock — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:45:00 GMT

I'm pleased to welcome Anthony Fagnani to the Power House blog. Anthony is the mind behind the article "Synchronous rectification boosts efficiency by reducing power loss" featured in TI's Analog Applications Journal newsletter.

Welcome Anthony!

What is the problem/challenge you saw that spurred you to write “Synchronous rectification boosts efficiency by reducing power loss”? As an applications engineer at Texas Instruments, my group had just released our first wide VIN synchronous boost controller, the TPS43060 and TPS43061. I really wanted to take a closer look at the benefits of synchronous rectification in a step-up application. While testing, I thought others might be curious also. That’s when I decided I would write it up to share and hopefully help others.

Measured efficiency and power loss in a low-duty-cycle application

What was the most difficult aspect of the topic you wrote about and why? The topic was pretty straight forward to write up and test. The hardest part may have been finding the time to do so!

Who and what application do you think this article is best suited for? This article is applicable to anyone looking to design a step-up converter at a high current where synchronous rectification can provide a benefit. This covers a very wide range of applications from industrial to those powered by a battery. I hope this will provide others with a fair comparison to aid in choosing a solution which best fits their needs.

Did you learn anything as you researched and wrote this article that you did not know before? I was at first surprised by how little of a difference there was in efficiency for a high duty-cycle example. There are some slight differences between the controllers which lead to this. One difference is the location of the current sense resistor. The synchronous solution still however, has the benefit of a smaller footprint. Overall, I was lucky to have the development go very smoothly, which doesn’t always happen on engineering projects. I enjoyed writing it and hope to write more when I come with additional ideas.

An excerpt from his article:

"Users of battery-operated applications desire the longest run time possible, and reducing the power loss can directly improve run time. Today it is well known that using a synchronous rectifier can reduce power loss and improve thermal capability. Designers of buck converters and controllers for stepdown applications are already employing this technique. Synchronous boost controllers also have been developed to address power efficiency in step-up applications.

Two typical boost applications can be used to demonstrate the difference between synchronous and nonsynchronous rectification. The first is a lower-input-voltage application that may operate at low duty cycles or, in other words, when the output voltage is close to the input voltage. Example inputs for this system are a USB port or a lithium-ion (Li-Ion) battery pack with two or three series cells. The DC/DC power supply steps up the voltage for charging a two-cell Li-Ion battery or the battery of a tablet PC. The other application boosts the voltage of a system power rail to a high output voltage that can operate at higher duty cycles where the output voltage is much higher than the input voltage. An example input is a 12-V power rail. The high output voltage may be needed for power amplifiers, industrial PCs, or pump-and-dump energy storage for higher energy density."

Looking for a TI emulator? Check it out!

desouza — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:03:00 GMT

If you are planning to start designing with any TI embedded processor or is looking to replace or upgrade your existing JTAG solution, you will be interested in the 2013 TI Emulator showcase webinar.

In this short webinar (presentation + demo in 13 minutes) you will get acquainted with the updated products released in 2013 and get recommendations to what products are suitable for your specific family of devices.

Happy viewing! Just click here.

Want to know more?

MSP430 FET tool

Product page with ordering information: http://www.ti.com/tool/MSP-FET430UIF

Technical information: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP-FET430UIF

XDS 100

Product page with ordering information: http://www.ti.com/tool/xds100

Technical information: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/XDS100

XDS 200

Product page with ordering information: http://www.ti.com/tool/xds200

Technical information: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/XDS200

XDS 560 v2

Product page with ordering information: http://www.ti.com/tool/xds560

Technical information: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/XDS560v2_System_Trace

XDS PRO Trace

Product page with ordering information: http://www.ti.com/tool/xds560

Technical information: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/XDS_Pro_Trace

Have a question?

Check the support forums at: http://e2e.ti.com

Make sure you do a search before posting, as lots of commonly asked questions were already answered!

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Geeks UNITE for Geek Pride Day

Lauren Reed1 — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:36:47 GMT

Happy Geek Pride Day from the Processors team! We wanted to celebrate this fun holiday with a unique post on Multicore Mix. We asked some of our team members to answer the question, “At what moment in your life did you realize you were a ‘geek’?” Needless to say, they didn’t disappoint!

Robert Tolbert from the OMAP™ team said, “1987 (11 years old). After playing several grueling hours and rounds of the newly-released Mike Tyson's Punch-Out on Nintendo with my friends, my game console was fried. I wanted to open it up to see what the inside looked like, and my friends wanted to go next door to play on another console. We did both…I was wowed by the green board and the black rectangles with what looked like spider legs, and they were wowed by the ease at which Glass Joe fell and the strength of Bald Bull's Bull Charge.”

Paras Khara from the Sitara ARM processors team said, “I realized I was a geek as a kid when I found huge excitement in taking things apart and figuring out how they work, from Legos to Erector Sets to even old desktop computers around the house. Understanding the inner workings of every toy given to me by my parents drove me to a degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and, ultimately, a challenging career at Texas Instruments.”

Alejandro Erives from the Sitara ARM processors team said, “I realize I’m a geek almost every Friday or Saturday night when I enjoy actually debugging what’s going on with my electronic gadgets such as my computer, iPad, Galaxy S3, etc.”

Debbie Greenstreet from the DSP team explained, “I am not a Geek! I was so surprised when I was asked to participate in this Geek Pride blog as I am not a geek. Sure, when I was a child I was very interested in how things worked, I loved to make things, anything! But I was just a creative, curious young girl. I was not a geek. As I migrated through school and into high school, sure I liked math and science, still liked to really build things, but I was a competitive swimmer. I was not a geek. Ok, yes, I chose an engineering major as I entered college and was teased about being in the “tool school,” but I was a student athlete. I was not a geek. As I entered the workforce and started talked about what I did at my job, my roommates just looked at me, but I was not a geek. At lunch one day with a TI colleague and his wife, I got excited about how something works. She called me out as a geek. I am not! Yes, my husband understands everything I say about the TI products I work with, but he is the geek! I just observed the look on the faces of the marketing team as I explained how the cool design team solved a problem and how I want to understand it more. Oh my goodness, yeah, I guess I am a geek!”

And last but DEFINITELY not least, Arnon Friedmann from the DSP team said, “As someone who lived through the reality of being labeled a ‘nerd/geek’ for most of my childhood (ok, my whole life), I find that this is actually a very difficult topic to write about. I don’t think I can remember a time when I DIDN’T know I was a nerd – but then I had the advantage of my peers never letting me forget through endless teasing, bullying and all the other wonderful elements that go with ‘growing up geek.’ Of course, as my friends now point out, with being founder of the high school chess club, playing Dungeons and Dragons every weekend and being generally unconcerned about my appearance - I was pretty much asking for it and only have myself to blame. Ok, enough about me. Without further ado I give you my ‘ode to geekdom montage’:

Do you have a moment when you realized you were a geek? Tell us about it!

A family that competes together, stays together

Around TI — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Some families consider ‘quality family time’ to be a day at the park. Or popping popcorn and renting a movie. Or a trek to the zoo. But for the Moutinho family in Maine, ‘quality family time’ means building robots and winning competitions.

It all began when the daughter of TIer Thomas Moutinho asked if he would come with her to a meeting about the robotics team at Falmouth and Gorham High School. Seeing it as a chance to hang out with his daughter, Thomas jumped at the opportunity.

From there, Thomas became a mentor, working alongside his daughter in the FIRST Robotics Competitions. The two had so much fun, the following year Thomas’ son joined the team. Four years after that, Thomas’ third child joined the squad and his wife became a coach.

While you can classify what the Moutinhos do together as ‘quality family time,’ they’ve also gotten pretty good at their craft. Their team is officially named FRC Team 172, but they call themselves the Northern Force. The robot they built can toss Frisbees, climb towers and defend itself. The robot is so impressive it earned a spot in the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, Mo.

To see the FRC Team 172 robot in action here: (Please visit the site to view this video)

So the team packed their bags, loaded up in a bus, and headed west for the Edward Jones Super Dome in St. Louis (that’s where the NFL’s St. Louis Rams play). The FIRST Championship brings more than 10,000 students from all over the world to compete, according to the FIRST Robotics Competition website.

"The energy level of everyone in the Edward Jones Super Dome was incredible," Thomas said. "The program has such a positive influence on so many students by exposing them to STEM. There are only 14 teams in Maine, and we need so many more."

Northern Force worked in alliances with two other teams over four days of competition. While the team didn’t win, they learned some valuable lessons.

"We're happy to be here," said Joey Moutinho, age 15. "Being on this team has taught us to be ambitious and to give it all you can."

What started as an opportunity to spend some ‘quality family time’ for the Moutinhos turned into a family obsession, a trip to St. Louis and maybe a look into what the future might hold for the Moutinhos’ three children.

Thomas’ daughter just graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a degree in chemical engineering on May 11 and will be going on for her PhD in environmental engineering at Georgia Tech in the fall.

"It is clear to me that this program is producing the next generation of engineers and leaders who will be solving some of our most difficult future problems," Thomas said.

Interested in achieving extended battery life in portable measurement applications?

MaryMcAuliffe — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:48:20 GMT

New MSP430 Tool Deal Available!

Blog by William Cooper

Interested in achieving extended battery life in portable measurement applications? Give our MSP430AFE2xx devices a try!

CCS UniFlash v2.2 is now available

Lori Heustess — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:43:30 GMT

The CCS UniFlash v2.2 build is now available for download. Please read the full Release Notes for more information for the release, and for location of the download links:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/CCS_UniFlash_v2.2 Release_Notes

デルタ・シグマADC (Delta-Sigma ADC) 基礎から応用まで

trout — Wed, 22 May 2013 03:44:00 GMT

(Please visit the site to view this file)

Delta-Sigma ADC の原理などについて、ご参考資料として掲載（添付）いたします。
過去のセミナー資料から抜粋いたしました。

基本的な原理の理解には、～１８ページまでをお読みください。

［　msp430info, trout, シグマデルタADC　］

Cable equalization 101 – Automating your design

Hooman Hashemi — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:47:00 GMT

Judging by the number of views on a post related to numerical cable equalization, on the High Speed E2E forum (more than 3,700 at last count!), I would guess that it’s a pretty interesting topic for many folks. Since TI is one of the leading manufacturers of current feedback amplifiers (CFA), the workhorses for cable equalization, this two-part blog is devoted to giving you everything you need to implement your custom design, with a list of best devices to use and simulation techniques to boot. In this post, I will present some background information on equalization and a spreadsheet that allows you to automate the design. In part 2, we will use TINA to simulate the design and look into methods of improving the stability of the stage.

Xavier Ramus, a frequent contributor to Analog Wire, does a great job in his Application Note, A Numerical Solution to an Analog Problem, of explaining how to use a spreadsheet like Excel to do the hard work of placing the poles and zeros of Figure 1 high frequency (HF) gain boost banks (R_A, C_A, etc.) at the right frequencies to match the cable so that the cable + amplifier exhibits a flat frequency response. The reason this task is not trivial is these poles and zeros interact with each other if they are spaced close enough, making it difficult to “tune” the total arrangement. With the spreadsheet you can manipulate the component values and see their effect instantaneously.

Figure 1: Typical equalizer schematic where R_A, C_A, etc. boost gain at high frequency

In the below Excel file, I have implemented the spreadsheet that Xavier has explained. It is set up for four boost banks (R_1, C_1 through R_4, C_4) capable of 25dB of boost. For more boost or longer cable lengths, you can cascade more identical stages. The spreadsheet has an entry for the number of stages “N” in cell M6, default set to “2”. This enables you to increase the total boost (e.g. 50dB of boost for two cascaded stages, etc.) for longer cables. For additional information, check out the below PowerPoint.

(Please visit the site to view this file)

Earlier I mentioned that CFA is the architecture of choice for an equalizer. The reason is that the high frequency noise gain (1+R_F/Z_G where Z_Gis the total impedance from the inverting input to ground) increase that you need for equalization has much less unwanted impact on loop gain (and subsequently closed loop response) for a CFA than for the traditional voltage feedback topology. Furthermore, a CFA with lower internal buffer output impedance (R_I,see OA-13) holds an advantage because of the same reason. Table 1 below is a list of TI CFA amplifiers with pertinent specs, ordered from lowest R_I to highest:

Device	Devices / Package	R_I (Ω)	R_Fnominal (Ω)	Large Signal BW (Av=+2) (MHz)	Slew Rate (V/µs)	Max Supply Current / channel (mA)	Supply Rails Range (V)	Output Current (mA)	Packages	TINA Model?	1k price ($)
THS3201	1	11	768	880	6,700	18	6.6-15	100	SOT23 SOIC-8 VSSOP-8 MSOP-8	Y	1.95
THS3001	1	15	1k	300	6,500	9	9-33	120	SOIC-8 MSOP-8	Y	3.38
OPA695	1	29	402	450	4,300	13.3	5-12	120	SOT23 SOIC-8 VSSOP-8	Y	1.48
OPA2695	2	29	402	400	2,900	13.3	3.5-12	120	SOIC-8 QFN-16	Y	2.98
LMH6733	3	30	390	1,000	3,750	7.3	3-12	80	SOIC-16	Y	2.47
LMH6738	3	30	549	400	3,300	11.7	10-12	90	SOIC-16	Y	2.60
OPA694	1	30	402	675	1,700	6	7-12.6	80	SOT23 SOIC-8	Y	1.38
OPA2694	2	30	402	670	1,700	6	7-12.6	70	SOIC-8	Y	2.58
LMH6703	1	30	560	750	4,200	12.5	8-12	90	SOT23 SOIC-8	Y	1.35
OPA3695	3	37	402	440	1,700	13.3	3.5-12	120	SSOP-16	Y	3.73
LMH6714 / LMH6722	1/ 4	180	390	400	1,800	7.5	10-12	70	SOT23 SOIC TSSOP WSON SOIC	Y	0.73 1.41
LMH6723/ LMH6724	1/ 2	500	1.2k	100	600	1.4	5-12	110	SOT23 SOIC-8	Y	0.79/ 1.00
LMH6702	1	N/A	237	720	3,100	16.1	10-12	80	SOT23 SOIC-8	Y	1.45

Table 1: TI High speed CFA portfolio

Once you’ve selected a proper device from Table 1, enter its recommended feedback resistor “R_F nominal” value in Excel cell C6. To get your design (Excel row 6 final values), follow the instructions in the PowerPoint file (pages 4-9) and use Excel Solver function to minimize the difference between the computed response of your amplifier from the computed attenuation of your cable (the Excel file is already set up for that in Column P). You can find “minimize” (called “min”) in Excel under data > solver. The solver function does this by manipulating the values of gain elements in row 6 to find the best solution. You do this at low frequency and work your way up to the highest frequency of interest, and when you’re done you will end up with a plot in Excel, such as the one in Figure 2 where the amplifier response overlaps the cable attenuation plot (up to 100MHz and with ~55dB of boost from 2 identical cascaded stages).

Figure 2: Amplifier gain superimposed on cable loss

This allows you to equalize the losses in your cable for a flat overall (cable and amplifier) response. Figure 3 shows the schematic of the circuit designed by Excel:

Figure 3: Excel Solution_ One of Two LMH6733 Stages Used as Cable Equalizer

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I will discuss how TINA can be used to simulate this circuit in order to shed more light on its stability. In the meantime, please use the comments field below to fill me in on some of your biggest challenges with numerical cable equalization. Also, let me know if you found this useful and if there is additional information you feel I should cover in Part 2 of this 101.

Grounding Principles

Bruce Trump — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:26:00 GMT

In a previous blog on supply bypassing, I cautioned that poor bypassing could increase distortion of an amplifier. A reader, Walter, asked an interesting question… where should you connect the ground of a bypass capacitor to avoid problems?

This raises questions regarding proper grounding techniques. Wow. Big topic, but I may be able provide some insight with a couple of simple examples.

Figure 1 shows inverting and non-inverting amplifier stages with unintended, parasitic resistance or inductance in the ground connections (highlighted in red). The nodes A, B and C are all intended to be ground. But if current flows in parasitic ground impedances, these nodes will not be at the same potential. It is these parasitic ground impedances that can allow distorted ground currents to contaminate signals.

Walter’s specific question was, “where should you connect the bypass capacitor [the ground side].” It’s an important point. The currents flowing in op amp supply terminals (and therefore the bypass capacitors) may be distorted because they represent only half a sine wave. If distorted (or other interfering) current flows into a vulnerable ground node it can increase the distortion (or other errors) of the amplifier.

An interfering or distorted current flowing into node_A directly affects the ground reference of the input signal, summing in an error. Likewise, a ground current injected into node_B serves as a direct input to the amplifier stage (inverted, in the first circuit). Ground current flowing into node_C directly sums an error with the output voltage. This node may be less vulnerable because the error signal is not amplified by the circuit gain.

The bypass capacitor should be connected to node_G. Though there may be additional parasitic impedance on its way to other ground points, variation in voltage at node_G affects the critical nodes equally, so it does not inject an error or distortion. I’ve shown an op amp with a single power supply. The ground connection of the op amp (shown on top of the op amp) should also connect to Node_G. A dual (±) supply op amp circuit would have another bypass capacitor for the negative supply and it, too, should connect to node_G.

A solution is to create a circuit board that establishes a ground with the characteristics of node_G. The principle is simple—the circuit trace from the input ground terminal to the ground side of R1 should be a clear path with no connections to contaminating sources of current along the way (figure 2). This input ground trace can join a larger ground connection or ground plane where they meet. With some gain in this stage, output errors are less critical, but you still may want a separate trace to the output terminal connections.

The input ground connection should not connect to equipment chassis at an input connector. This would create an opportunity for other interfering ground noise (such as AC mains ground currents) from impressing current on the clean input ground trace.

A single blog cannot begin to cover all the issues relating to the art of grounding. Woops… did I call this an “art?” It’s science, not art! While, at times, may seem like black magic, Ohm’s law is always at work. Considering where ground currents flow and how they could affect the circuit is always a good start!

Thanks for reading. Comments welcome below,

Bruce

60 other interesting The Signal topics.

OpenMP - All aboard!

Debbie Greenstreet — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:50:45 GMT

With so many end products today relying on multicore DSPs for optimized solutions, I find it very encouraging to see that our multicore customers are leveraging the power of OpenMP as part of TI’s KeyStone software/tool suite. While some multicore engineers have learned to evolve single core programming through hand calculating and trial and error mapping of the software program, this approach is quite time consuming and will not scale well.

I am reminded of a time that some of our younger readers might find baffling, but the more experienced engineers may recall it well. Before Windows launched, avid PC users were well adept at DOS command line. The DOS command line memorized functions that enabled navigation around one’s own PC. When Windows was unveiled, some of the PC users rejected it - “Not me, I will not adopt. I will not give up direct access to the operating functions,” they said. Certainly, as PC applications continue to grow and performance increases, Windows offers a far more scalable means of managing the PC environment. This is why these PC users eventually learned to adopt the new operating system.

Similarly, in the multicore development environment, tools like OpenMP are necessary for time to market, productivity, product line scalability and optimizing product development costs. And, that is exactly what we at TI are witnessing. Our multicore customers who are using OpenMP with the TI KeyStone Code Composer Studio (CCS) tool set, including the recent compiler update that has performance enhancements for high data sets, see all of those benefits I mentioned above. So, to all of you multicore developers, are you on board?

To learn more about OpenMP, I invite you to check out our latest Ask the Expert video by Dr. Arnon Friedmann, where he answers why every multicore developer should be an OpenMP user. Also, if you are going to be attending the Multicore Developer’s Conference, be sure to check out the keynote by TI’s Andy Fritsch, Director of Foundational Tools, on Tuesday, May 21, at noon PT, where he will discuss how software RULES the world! Additionally, TI’s Alan Ward, Distinguished Member Technical Staff, will invite attendees to “Look where OpenCL™ is now!” on Wednesday, May 22. Alan will also be on a panel Wednesday evening to discuss Manycore or Anycore: Exposing the Limitations and Advantages of Manycore in Embedded Systems.

We hope to see you there!

Field Oriented Control Just Got WAY Simpler!

Dave (Wisconsin) Wilson — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Dave Wilson, Motion Products Evangelist, Texas Instruments

At 6:31 a.m. on Feb. 26, if you were wearing your motor control goggles, you would have seen a bright flash in the skies over Texas. TI finally announced its long-awaited new sensorless Field Oriented Control (FOC) algorithm that it had been working on for the past couple of years. Called “TI InstaSPIN™-FOC,” this new technology promises to make FOC a lot easier to use while at the same time improving controller performance over a wider range of operating conditions. While the flash of this initial announcement is over, the motor control community will continue to feel the rumble from this big-bang for years to come!

I’m trying to think of how to communicate my excitement about this technology without sounding like a cheerleader. I’ve been in the motor control industry for 34 years. From fuzzy logic to the switched-reluctance craze of the late 90s, I have seen a lot of promising motor control technologies come and go. But in all that time, I can’t recall a technology announcement that had the potential to shake the motor control world like this one. But, enough flag waving. I will resist the urge to write using superlative phrases and grandiose keystrokes. Instead, let me bring it down to the bench level and explain why I think this announcement was so significant and why it will continue to rock the motor control world for years to come…

The first point I want to make is not related to the technology at all but how it is implemented. It is actually embedded within select C2000™ real-time control microcontrollers (MCUs) and is directly accessible as C-callable library routines. This exemplifies a growing business trend within TI to re-evaluate how we think about our products. At the last semiconductor company I worked for, I made the statement that “any processor company that still thinks its main product is silicon will be out of business within a decade.” Although my comment was not well received, I still believe it is true! In many cases, our silicon is just one component of our real product, which is our intellectual property. In my past life as a field applications engineer, having a superior piece of silicon almost always resulted in a sale. But today our customers demand more than just good silicon – they expect applications leadership and innovation. And THAT must be the prism through which we evaluate future products. I think it is safe to say that you can expect to see more innovations like this from TI in the future.

Second, TI InstaSPIN-FOC can make your job easier. A LOT easier! At the risk of overdramatizing my point, let’s just say that you can now go to your child’s music recital or sporting event after work instead of fighting with your motor control code until midnight. The research is done. The coding is done. The porting is done. All you have to do is call the functions you want. Whether you are an expert at FOC or even if this is your first motor control project, TI’s InstaSPIN-FOC can get you to the finish line much faster than trying to write the code yourself.

But even the best written code is worthless if it doesn’t perform. So let me highlight a few observations about what this technology can do for you. At the heart of TI InstaSPIN-FOC is a new sensorless engine that works like nothing I have ever seen before. You are probably aware that there are lots of different sensorless observers available today. In fact, TI has code examples of most of them already available on our website. But if you pop the hood on this engine you won’t see a sliding-mode observer. You won’t see a traditional back-EMF observer. And it doesn’t require you to inject any signals into the motor. It is something totally new. The result is a unified observer structure that works with almost any motor, over a speed range that spans over four orders of magnitude using today’s processor capabilities! We have already demonstrated practical examples of an eight-pole motor running down to five RPM without a shaft angle sensor, and a two-pole motor running up to 50,000 RPM. Unlike dual-mode observers that require extra bandwidth and mode switching between different speeds, the TI InstaSPIN-FOC observer requires no mode switching and no parameter adjustments regardless of motor speed.

We have named the observer “FAST,” which is an acronym derived from the four outputs of the observer: flux, angle, speed, and torque. Arguably, the angle estimate is the most important output since it drives the controller’s synchronous frame axis into alignment with the machine’s flux axis. It is the accuracy of this parameter that allows such elegant control over such a wide speed range. Another improvement that we have observed is how robustly the angle estimator behaves during transient conditions. While sliding mode observers we tested could easily be confused by sudden speed transients, FAST was able to track the same transients with ease.

Now that TI’s InstaSPIN-FOC has been released, don’t expect TI to just sit back and enjoy the fruits of its labor. We realize that this is a hugely competitive market, and we must continuously earn your business. To that end, we are already busy working on next-generation innovations that will enable this technology to perform even better in the future. There are many other features in TI’s InstaSPIN-FOC that I plan to address in future blogs. But for now, you can get more information about this new technology at our website.

Time will tell whether this technology really does change the motor control world. I am betting that it will. But for now, I just wanted to let you know that the sound you just heard is the collective cheer from motor control designers the world over as they just realized how easy and fun their next motor control project is going to be. :-)

Keep Those Motors Spinning,

www.ti.com/motorblog

TI and MIT collaborate on researching material that could be the next big thing that powers devices – including yours.

Around TI — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Imagine a charger that powers your laptop – but it’s the size of a cell phone charger. It’s smaller and lighter, but still packs the same power punch. This is just one way that new material being researched today could save energy – and impact your life.

TI has been working with students and professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the use of the material gallium nitride (GaN) in powering devices in homes and offices, to name a few areas of use. “Everyone hopes it’s the next new material for power devices,” says Dave Freeman, a TI Fellow and chief technologist for power supply solutions in analog. “Right now, it has some attractive features, but there are some challenges with it.”

Those challenges are what Freeman and other TIers have been working on, with the help of MIT students and professors. The material could help reduce the power loss– while reducing the total size of the circuit solution (it can run at a higher frequency, which would reduce the size of components). In other words, it could create high-power chargers that are small in size.

“It translates to an enormous amount of power saving,” says Saurav Bandyopadhyay, who did research on the material while pursuing his PhD at MIT. Bandyopadhyay started working on GaN studies during his second TI internship in the summer of 2011. The excitement behind the material had just sparked, and Bandyopadhyay spent time in TI’s research facility Kilby Labs, studying GaN’s potential in solid-state lighting.

His goal was to create a more efficient driver (or the device that powers LEDs) using a GaN transistor. “I was trying to come up with circuits that could do this efficiently,” Bandyopadhyay says. “I was working on the proof-of-concept to verify that it could be done. The goal was to make a product that people will actually use.”

At the end of the summer, he headed back to MIT to continue his research. “Everything I did at Kilby Labs was used later, and gave me an idea of what could and couldn’t be done,” he says. Working with Anantha Chandrakasan, head of MIT’s electrical engineering and computer science department and a pioneer on energy efficient circuits and systems, Bandyopadhyay successfully designed an efficient driver. It’s a final product that he applied to his thesis in order to earn his PhD (he just received his degree last week). He has published his study at International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2013), in San Francisco in February 2013.

“This was a new project and a new direction for me,” Bandyopadhyay says. “It was a really great learning experience. I was exposed to different devices and new concepts. It’s one thing to learn it in school, but when you have to build something in the lab, the concepts get instilled deeper. Book knowledge is one thing; implementing it is another.”

His project is, however, just the beginning -- many students and researchers are studying other ways GaN can be used (for instance, another MIT student Dina El-Damak spent time at TI researching integrated high voltage isolated power that can be used as part of the GaN ecosystem).

“I’m hoping to look at applications other than energy drivers,” says Bandyopadhyay, who just joined TI full-time. “The device has a lot to offer, and in order to get the full benefit, there are a lot of other things that need to be done.”

New book focuses on Battery Power

MattMcK — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:00:00 GMT

I sat down this week with Yevgen Barsukov and Jinrong Qian, two of TI’s leading battery technology experts to discuss the release of their new 240-page book, Battery Power Management for Portable Devices (by Artech House publishing -- available now on Amazon). The book provides comprehensive coverage of the latest battery management components and technology used in portable electronics, ranging from smartphones to ultrabooks and tablets and many other designs.

According to the authors, there is a growing need to educate battery pack makers and portable electronics manufacturers about the characteristics of batteries and battery chemistries.

“Over the last 10-12 years, we saw a large number of customers who tried to implement newer battery types and chemistries, from lead-acid to NiMH and NiCd and then higher-capacity lithium batteries,” said Qian, who is product line manager for TI’s battery chargers. It became really important to help clarify battery management concepts and outline the characteristics of different types of chemistries. Even though TI is the leading provider of power management integrated circuits, we have some of the best battery chemistry experts on staff.”

“We hope this book will be useful to a range of readers from engineering experts to students in related fields,” said Barsukov, IP development manager and chemist in the battery management systems group. “Our goal is to help them better understand power design techniques and battery characteristics – so that end consumers will ultimately experience portable electronics with long battery life, faster charging and safer batteries.”

Battery Power Management for Portable Devices discusses how to use new innovative charging circuits for faster and cooler charging; how to design with battery gauge technology that provide the longest possible run-time, while ensuring data protection; and utilize safety circuits that provide multiple independent levels of battery protection. The book provides real-world perspective of battery management systems, and covers:

Battery Chemistry Fundamentals and Characteristics
Battery Charger Techniques
Battery Safety and Protection
Cell-Balancing Techniques
Battery Fuel Gauging (state-of-charge and remaining run-time indication)
System Battery Power Management Solutions

The book already received a couple of notable reviews from other industry experts.

“This book provides valuable insights into why batteries behave the way they do so that you can understand how to use them in an optimal fashion. Recognized as industry experts, Jinrong and Yevgen have compiled a comprehensive set of information using their extensive experience in practical battery management. This book will certainly be perched on my desk, and I expect to refer to it often.” – Andy Keates, battery technologist at Intel Corporation. (As referenced in the Foreword of the book).

David Andrea, author of “Battery Management Systems for Large Lithium-Ion Battery Packs,” reviewed the book on his blog.

I hope my colleagues find great success with their first book!

MSP430@Maker Faire

William Cooper — Tue, 21 May 2013 01:44:50 GMT

We know that not everyone could make it out to Maker Faire, so check out our Make the Switch blog for updates from this past Saturday. The TI booth was hopping and we even had some of our own resident authors out for the event!

Want more? Read up on how you can create real solutions (wireless light switch displayed at the event) using Energia and the MSP430 LaunchPad.

A look back: Two years of Multicore Mix

Lauren Reed1 — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:09:21 GMT

A big thank you to everyone who participated in our contest last week! We loved hearing about how our blog posts have inspired you. Congratulations to David Hoelscher for submitting the winning response: “I found the three-part series about Multicore Navigator Tips 'n Tricks very helpful in understanding the various ways it can be used. In particular, using the Queue Manager for Notification purposes as a means to avoid moving data and improve efficiency was very appealing.”

We have had a great two years on the Multicore Mix. We thought it would be an appropriate time to take a look back at a few of our top blog posts and the accompanying comments over the years.

Do we really need ‘Transactional Memory’? (By one and zero) explained what Transactional Memory is, how it works and asked the question do we need it?
Anybody got tools? (By Tom Flanagan) helped familiarize our Multicore Mix readers with the next steps after selecting a snappy new multicore device!
Happy Anniversary, Multicore Mix! Celebrate by entering a MONTH of contests! Everyone loves a contest! Last year, we celebrated our first anniversary by giving away a prize bag to a fan of the Multicore Mix. We chose our favorite answer from readers who wrote why they were a Multicore Mix fan in 50 words or less.
Share your love of MULTICORE – and win BIG! This contest was all about our LOVE for the readers of the Multicore Mix. In celebration of Valentine’s Day, we asked readers to tell us why they loved multicore for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card and a box of chocolates!
The answer is “42.” What was the question? (By one and zero) discussed programming language and how to know which is best suited for multicore architecture.

If you didn’t enter the contest last week, don’t worry! Since it’s our SECOND anniversary here at the Multicore Mix, we are going to have TWO contests this month. This time we want to know what you would like to see covered in our third year. Do you want to see more about tradeshows, design tips, tutorials or even trends in vertical markets? We want to know!

To enter this contest, comment on this post to let us know what you want to see in the next year, and our bloggers will select their favorite suggestion based on which one they feel is most relevant and interesting to our multicore audience. You have until midnight CST on Sunday, May 26, to enter! The winning comment will get a $100 Visa gift card and a multicore T-shirt. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 28.

CONTEST DETAILS: This contest is open to all residents of the United States. TI employees and their family members cannot enter the contest. Prizes will be shipped via Fedex Ground and cannot be shipped to P.O. Box addresses. Entries will be judged based on what our Multicore Mix bloggers consider to be the best comment on what they want to see in the Multicore Mix this next year. The selected winner must respond to the email notification within 72 hours or they will forfeit the $100 Visa gift card and multicore T-shirt. If the selected winner does not respond within 72 hours, an alternate winner will be chosen based on originality and content of response by Multicore Mix bloggers.

F28M35x Workshop is now Available

Lori Heustess — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:22:14 GMT

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/F28M35x_Workshop

Call for Innovation – Part II

Ravikumar C.P. — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:42:09 GMT

Call for Innovation – Part II

What can you look forward to, if you are taking part in Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge: India Analog Design Contest

C.P. Ravikumar, Texas Instruments

Listen to what the winners of last year’s contest have to say about Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge: India Analog Design Contest!

"This is taking it too far! Even the winners' stand is analog!"

The cake and the icing

I remember the evening of April 5, 2013 distinctly. About 700 people had gathered in the “Silicon Hall” of NIMHANS Convention Center, Bangalore. The atmosphere was charged with excitement. Twenty three teams who had been shortlisted for the second round of the “TI India Analog Design Contest” waited with bated breath for the award announcements. Foot-tapping music played as student teams and mentors climbed on to the stage to receive the awards.

I wish to reiterate what I said at the beginning of this award ceremony in my capacity of the host of the event. Every student who took part in the contest and completed the project is a winner. The true reward of participating in the contest is the learning that the students derived. The awards are only the icing on the cake.

I have already disclosed who the winners of the contest were in an earlier blog post (see [1]). The purpose of this post is different. We had a chance to interact with the winners of the contest when they visited TI’s Bangalore campus and made seminar presentations about their projects to an invited audience. We used the opportunity and asked them to describe their overall contest experience. I will share their secrets with you, if you promise me that you will share it with at least five others.

Fruitful Learning Experience

“It was a fruitful learning experience … made us improve our intellectual and engineering skills.” This is how Dinesh P, an undergraduate student in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapally, sums up the experience of his team. Incidentally, his team won the top prize in the contest.

What was the challenge their team faced? “Designing and debugging the hardware system was the challenging part,” says Dinesh. ”But we learnt a great deal. While we picked up a lot of knowledge in the application domain (solar inverter), there was much to learn about the ICs we used - power electronics ICs, op-amps, voltage regulators.”

His teammate Bhaskar adds to this list. “We learnt to design high power printed circuit boards. We also became adept in using the TI MSP430 series of microcontrollers.

“Working as a team was great fun! And of course, winning the competition was the sweetest experience!” Our project was an exercise in system design. We had to address many concerns, such as power consumption, self sustainability, reliability etc. Now we are planning to patent our idea.”

Their message to next year’s contest aspirants is “Give in your best effort folks! It will definitely be one of the best learning experiences in college.”

Hello, Real World

“Through this contest we experienced what real world electronics system design is!” says Varun Reddy of NIT Surathkal, whose team shared the top award with NIT Trichy. “It gave me a reason to tinker around and experiment with things I normally wouldn't have done.”

“In our project, we touched upon all the aspects of system design starting from hardware aspects (PCB design and sensor design) to software aspects (Linux and C coding.) We also had to think of system integration which involved putting all of these individual components together into a single usable product. I feel final system integration, making every part work together after individual testing was most challenging.

“The technical learnings that we obtained through this project include: PCB design, RTOS coding, various communication protocols such as Zigbee and WiFi, and to some extent, Linux coding. In the initial stages of the contest, TI’s e2e community was very helpful when we needed information on how to get started with the development kits provided by TI. Our faculty mentor was very helpful and provided lot of helpful guidelines on how to make our project better.”

“I am planning to apply for higher studies abroad, and the contest has provided me with exactly the kind of experience to succeed in the chosen field of my study. Winning the contest will definitely help in the admission process, as it is a very important achievement and I can use it to showcase technical capability.”

Felt like Entrepreneurs

“The contest was the best platform to pick up skills in electronic system design,” says Raghav A. His team from BNMIT, Bangalore, won the First Runner-up Award. “Students who are interested in product design seldom get this kind of unique opportunity. I have participated in other contests also, but the kind of support TI provides by giving components, offering tutorials etc. is phenomenal”

“We enjoyed demonstrating our project at TI India Educators Conference! We felt like entrepreneurs!” added Raghav. His team mate Shashanka D agrees. “We enjoyed explaining their project to educators and industry professionals who visited our booth at TI India Educators’ Conference.”

Shashank believes he learnt a great deal during the contest. “I learned a lot about analog ICs and microcontrollers from TI, MSP430. I understood the differences between different IC packages and their importance. I also learnt a PCB design tool and the PCB manufacturing process, and autocad for designing the case for our safety lock.”

“Getting all the components from TI was great encouragement for us. We also appreciate the sharing of project videos and conference pictures through social media and blogs. It was a motivating factor for us.”

“We used C2000 microcontroller from TI - Piccolo F28027 in our project. Learning this controller and interfacing it with MATLAB was a great experience,” said Harshitha N of BMS College of Engineering.

Soft Skills

“Apart from technical skills, the contest helped us in learning lots of non-technical skills such as team management, coordinating with team members, personality development and working under deadlines,” said Prem Sagar, a student member of the team from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

“I have participated in many contests which are generally open-ended. But the TI contest has clear guidelines & directions, which were very helpful. A unique feature of the contest was project demonstration through video which tested our creative skills. We were thrilled to win the best video award for our video demonstration” says Hitesh Mittal from Chitkara University, Punjab. His team mate Jai Aditya said “We are planning to productize our project prototype and in this regard we are talking to our college for support.”

“The contest exposed us to a wide variety of technologies that has inspired us to pursue higher studies,” said Kishore P of NIT Tiruchirapally. He advice to the next year’s contestants is, “Manage time. Make sure you carefully select a project that you should be able to finish in given time period while managing your academics.”

Innovation Challenge

The purpose of writing this blog post is to encourage students to take part in the next year’s contest, which we have renamed “Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge: India Analog Design Contest.” I hope the positive experiences of the participants who took part in previous contests will motivate more students to take the plunge! I know many of you are completing your semester now and looking forward to a summer break. It would be useful to form your team now and start thinking about your project proposal, which is due by August 15. In the next part of this blog series, I intend to write about selecting projects.

After reading the first part [2] of this blog series, a few students wrote to me. Some of them incorrectly think that the contest is about making new inventions. I want to reiterate that our contest challenges students to “innovate.” Read the article [3] to appreciate the difference between innovation and invention. You may also benefit from reading the interview at [4] and the article available in [5]. You will benefit from the “Guidelines” document we have posted at [6]. The contest website anchored at [7] is also a great resource from where you can get information about the colleges which were shortlisted in the previous years, the links for their video demonstrations, etc. Happy reading!

References

[1] C.P. Ravikumar. Innovation Premier League!

[2] C.P. Ravikumar. Call for Innovation – Part I - Top Ten Reasons for participating in Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge: India Analog Design Contest 2014 http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/designproject/archive/2013/05/16/call-for-innovation-part-i.aspx

[3] English Wikipedia. Innovation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation

[4] C.P. Ravikumar’s interview published in Electronics Maker, May 2013. http://www.uniti.in/images/interview.pdf

[5] System-level Design: Nurturing College Students to Innovate through TI India Analog Design Contest http://www.uniti.in/images/system-level-design.pdf

[6] Guidelines Document for Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge: India Analog Design Contest. http://www.uniti.in/adc/texas-instruments-innovation-challenge-india-analog-design-contest-2014

[7] Website for Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge: India Analog Design Contest. www.uniti.in/adc

Live from Maker Faire!

Make the Switch TI MCUs — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:03:00 GMT

As Day 1 of Maker Faire comes to a close, there was a flurry of activity at our booth (504)! Makers came out in full force during this year’s show to get a glimpse of what the community is producing to help, entertain, and amaze others with their designs.

We’ve featured several fun Maker-friendly demos. Some of the most eye catching demos on display included an LED coffee table that uses the MSP430™ LaunchPad to sense the audio frequency and illuminated the LED based on this data. Another fascinating demo was the Air Mouse using motion sensors on the new Tiva™ C Series Sensor Hub BoosterPack to control the cursor on your computer. Though these demos were intriguing, the demo that had most Makers talking was the C2000™ LaunchPad compatible Quadcopter BoosterPack that coordinates and controls 4 servo motors to enable the copter to fly!

Gerard Sequeira, founder of the 43Oh online community, also had several community built BoosterPacks on hand to display the strong Maker involvement within the 43Oh community. Not to be left out, our third party partners from Anaren were at our booth and were excited to announce a new Energia library for their CC110L RF “Air” BoosterPack.

Were you at Maker Faire and stopped by our booth? Upload your Maker Faire photos and share them with us on Twitter and Facebook. We’d love to see pictures of you exploring Energia, Modkit or simply just playing with one of the above demos in the booth. Unable to attend Maker Faire? That’s okay -stay connected to all things ‘MAKE’ through Twitter, TI Facebook page, and the MCU Facebook page.

Tomorrow, May 19, is the last day of Maker Faire. Be sure to swing by our booth if you haven’t done so yet to grab some giveaways and learn about Energia, Modkit, 43Oh community, Anaren and others. As always, remember to Keep Calm and MAKE ON!

RS-485 - Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Neel Seshan — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:37:00 GMT

Would you agree that RS-485 has turned out to be one of the most versatile communication standards when it comes to industrial applications? It’s very reliable for long distance communication and very popular. In all the years that the RS-485 standard has been around, RS-485 transceivers have undergone a lot of changes. Just like we crave more "apps" on our phones, RS-485 users want more features in the transceivers making it safer and robust.

With safety and protection in the forefront for industrial applications, transceivers today have a bunch of safety features packed into the same package. If you fear the common-mode voltage in your system is going to violate the standard (-7 to 12V), then simply choose one that has two times wider common mode range, such as the SN65HVDHVD20. By the way, we call these SUPER-485 devices because they are the true super-stars when it comes to industrial applications/harsh environments where there is likelihood of ground movement.

For cases when there is a possibility of over-voltage faults due to accidental shorting of wires to power supplies or mis-wiring, one could use transceivers, such as the SN65HVD1780, which are high-voltage fault protected. As long as the voltage on the bus lines in not greater than 70V, the device will survive. Once the fault is corrected, the system will work as expected.

Lastly, if there is clutter on the board surrounding the transceivers such as ESD diodes or transient voltage suppression (TVS) diodes, why not clean them up with the SN65HVD72 family or the SN65LBC184 devices? These devices, especially the SN65LBC184, will ensure that a lightning strike does not damage your transceiver. Yeah, it's that robust; we call it our SUPER-DUPER485.

Oh!! Did I mention each of these transceivers is backward compatible to the basic RS-485 transceiver without any frills? So upgrading your old solution should be as easy as hitting the easy button at Staples. Well, maybe not, but as easy as un-soldering the old device and soldering in one of these super-stars. Then watch your old RS-485 system breathe a new robust life.

Make our day - Meet our Makers at Maker Faire!

Susan Barr — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:53:00 GMT

Quirky robots, fire-breathing metal dragons, and a parade of amazing prototypes can mean only one thing - Maker Faire is finally here! Maker Faire is a family-friendly festival filled with a mix of innovative and creative designs and is a place where Makers of all kind can gather together to celebrate their creations. This year at the San Francisco Bay Area Maker Faire, we will be demonstrating MCU LaunchPad-based projects, holding a few giveaways and sharing some exciting news for the Maker community! Come by and see us in booth 504 – it will ‘Make’ our day. Want a sneak peek of the show? Read below for more details!

We’ll have a few things to share at the TI booth, including:

Energia – Simple code editor for the LaunchPad

We are excited to share Energia with the maker community at Maker Faire! Energia is an open-sourced, community-developed integrated development environment (IDE) developed with MCU LaunchPad and BoosterPack designers in mind. Energia breaks down and simplifies coding, making development easier for engineers, hobbyists, and students to start creating code for our LaunchPad ecosystem. Energia is also supported by a large, active, and friendly online community. Users can share ideas, ask and answer questions, and get integrated into one of the best maker communities at www.43oh.com. Robert Wessels, the founder of Energia, will be at our booth to answer questions and demonstrate this new IDE at Maker Faire. Learn more about Energia by stopping by our booth or by visiting www.energia.nu

Energia Library for the CC110L RF wireless BoosterPack

Our third party partners from Anaren will also be at the TI booth to announce a new Energia library for the 430BOOST-CC110L RF Air BoosterPack! This kit includes 2x RF BoosterPacks for just $19! Wireless development has never been more accessible when you pair affordable hardware with this new easy-to-use Energia library. Learn more about the Anaren CC110L BoosterPack here!

Modkit – Graphical programming on the LaunchPad

A third party graphical user interface (GUI) based tool for programming that utilizes drag and drop code blocks to make designing on your LaunchPad a breeze. Having Modkit running on the LaunchPad will help anyone interested in designing with TI MCUs the ability to start blinking LEDs and programming their LaunchPads' in seconds. Stop by our booth to meet the Modkit founders and experience Modkit for LaunchPad! Learn more about Modkit in our booth or online via blog.modk.it

Meet our friends from www.43oh.com

But wait, there’s more! Just when you thought we were finished, Gerard Sequeira, the founder of the 43Oh community, will be on hand to answer questions about the 43Oh community and showcase some neat community-developed BoosterPacks and demos.

BeagleBone Black and the BeagleStache

What Maker Faire is complete without BeagleBone Black open-source Linux computers? The Maker Shed booth will have 200 of these boards, based on our Sitara™ AM335x ARM®\ Cortex™-A8 processor, available for purchase. Our own Jason Kridner will also be at the show with his BeagleStache cam, so track him down if you want to electronically “grow” an irresistible mustache and show it to your friends on Twitter. These BeagleStaches look great on men, women and babies alike!

Of course what would a show be without awesome giveaways?! We will have buttons, t-shirts, carrier bags, copies of Getting Started with MSP430 LaunchPads and even a LaunchPad or two as giveaways.

As always, stay connected to all things ‘MAKE’ through Twitter (@TXInstruments) , TI Facebook page and MCU Facebook page to get all the current Maker Faire action at your fingertips.

Unable to make it to Maker Faire? Participate online with our #NameThatMaker contest – look for hints describing famous Makers on our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook and Google+ ) for the chance to win one of each MCU LaunchPad in the lineup or a BeagleBone Black! See the full list of rules and regulations for this contest here.

Getting to TI on two wheels

Around TI — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

TI was recently included as one of 63 new Bicycle Friendly Businesses (BFB) from across the country from The League of American Bicyclists. And with spring in the air and May being Bike to Work month, it’s the ideal time to hit the pavement on two wheels.

"Texas Instruments sees great value in supporting alternative commuting solutions for employees," said David Thomas, vice president and manager of Worldwide Facilities at TI.

"We've invested resources to build bike paths that connect to local trails, added bike racks, repair stations and onsite showers, and created social networks that support TI bike commuters. We want to make it easy for our existing bike commuters to get to work safely and to encourage more employees to try biking to work.”

To read more about TI making the Bicycle Friendly Business list, visit our Corporate Citizenship News site.

Микроконтроллеры MSP430 с FRAM памятью от Texas Instruments

Alexander Vassiliev — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:06:46 GMT

НОВОСТИ с сайта дистрибьютора - КОМПЭЛ

Texas Instruments анонсирует новую линейку низкопотребляющих микроконтроллеров под названием «Wolverine». Новая серия MSP430FR59 (-xx) является продолжением популярного семейства MSP430 для энергосберегающих приложений. Использование FRAM в качестве основной памяти программ в этих устройствах позволяет повысить показатели энергоэффективности. Данный фактор является решающим при разработке устройств с батарейным питанием или с использованием источников альтернативной энергии. Среднее энергопотребление микроконтроллеров серии MSP430FR59 (-xx) в активном режиме не превышает 100 мкА/МГц, а время выхода из сна не превышает 7 мкс.

На сегодняшний день для заказа доступны инженерные образцы старшей модели семейства XMS430FR5969. Аббревиатура XMS указывает на то, что это первая ревизия микроконтроллера, предназначенная для изучения разработчиками основных особенностей работы микроконтроллеров с FRAM памятью. Всего в линейку Wolverine будет входить 9 различных моделей, отличающихся объемом памяти и типом корпуса.

Основные параметры микроконтроллера XMS430FR5969

Частота ядра, МГц	16
FRAM, кбайт	64
SRAM, байт	2048
Выодов GPIO	40
16-битных таймеров	5
USCI_A (UART/LIN/IrDA/SPI)	2
USCI_B (I2C & SPI)	1
АЦП	12-bit SAR
Каналов АЦП	16
Тип корпуса	48 RGZ
Поддержка внешнего кварцевого резонатора*	HFXT, LFXT

*LFXT – низкочастотный «часовой» кварцевый резонатор с частотой 32.768 кГц; HFXT – высокочастотный резонатор от 4 до 24 МГц.

Микроконтроллер XMS430FR5969 содержит также дополнительные модули: WDT, RTC, супервизор питания, аппаратный модуль перемножения 32×32, аналоговые компараторы.

Для заказа бесплатных инженерных образцов микроконтроллера MSP430FR5969 (XMS430FR5969), добавьте позицию XMS430FR5969 в корзину и далее действуйте по инструкции:

«как заказать образцы»

Внимание! Компания Компэл работает только с организациями и индивидуальными предпринимателями – юридическими лицами. Для заказа образцов необходима регистрация на сайте.

Продукция в параметрическом каталоге

Микроконтроллеры MSP430 в каталоге

#NameThatMaker Social Media Giveaway

Susan Barr — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:10:00 GMT

Our team is excited to participate in Maker Faire and we’d like to share our excitement with you! From May 17 – 19, we are hosting the #NameThatMaker contest on our Google+, Twitter and Facebook pages. Stay tuned for hints appearing on these channels referencing an influencial Maker. Respond back with the name of the Maker we’re describing and you could win an MCU LaunchPad ecosystem or a BeagleBone Black!

See below for official contest rules.

Good luck and happy Making!

MAKER FAIRE: #NAMEThatMaker GiveAWAY CONTEST RULES

For purposes of these Rules, “TI” shall mean Texas Instruments Incorporated and its subsidiaries.

1. To be eligible to compete, each entrant must read and agree to abide by the Contest rules.

2. Each entrant must correctly respond to the hint with a comment on Facebook, a tweet with the #NameThatMaker hashtag on Twitter, or a comment with #NameThatMaker on Google+.

3. Entries must be in English.

4. The Contest begins May 17, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. (CDT) and ends May 19, 2013 at 10:00 p.m. (CDT). No submissions submitted after May 19 at 10:00 p.m. (CDT) will be considered. The award recipients will be contacted before 6:00 p.m. (CDT) on May 20, 2013 and will have until 6:00 p.m. (CDT) on May 24, 2013 to claim their prize by messaging TI his/her address. TI reserves the right to cancel this Contest phase before the end date at its sole discretion, and decline to award prizes if there are no eligible entrants.

5. Only one entry per person is allowed on each TI social media platform for each hint given during the Contest.

6. Odds of winning are determined by the total number of eligible entries received.

7. TI reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify anyone found to have tampered with the Contest.

8. The contest is offered and participation is limited to only RESIDENTS OF the united states, Canada and MexicO.

9. To be eligible, entrants must be eighteen (18) year of age or older.

10. THERE IS NO ENTRY FEE.

11. ENTRANTS DO NOT RECEIVE BY WAY OF OR UNDER THE CONTEST ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN ANY COPYRIGHTS, PATENTS, TRADEMARKS, TRADE NAMES, TECHNOLOGY, TRADE SECRETS, OR KNOW-HOW OF TEXAS INSTRUMENTS OR ANY THIRD PARTY.

12. Entrants must agree to these terms and conditions to be eligible to participate in this Contest. Entries must be submitted by the deadline to be considered. Entrants will not be allowed to change or supplement their submissions once they have been submitted.

13. All entrants agree to follow and abide by the judging criteria.

14. All entrants warrant and represent that their entry is entirely original and that entrant is the owner of said entry. This representation is a requirement of participation in the Contest. By participating in the contest, all entrants represent and that there is no third party of any kind, whether an academic institution, commercial company, individual, or governmental legal entity which has any proprietary or other interest in, claims or rights to, any intellectual property rights, including trade secret, “know-how,” copyright, patent, trademark or trade name, in any material submitted under the Contest.

15. All entrants agree, represent and guarantee that there are no obligations of any nature, legal or otherwise, which would prohibit, restrict, or interfere with their participation in the Contest. All entrants agree to obtain any necessary clearance or approval from any necessary third party participation in all Contest activities and any such approvals, which are required as a condition of participation.

16. No confidential relationship is established between TI and the entrant as a result of entering this Contest. None of the content submitted by the entrants will be treated by TI as trade secrets, confidential information, or as protected data under any obligation.

17. Taxes (United States federal, state and local) and other obligations are solely the responsibility of the winners. Prizes may be subject to reporting for tax and other purposes. Winners agree to supply TI with any information necessary for tax reporting purposes and to cooperate in fulfilling all applicable legal requirements.

18. The entrant that is chosen for consideration for any award, as a condition of award, may be required to submit further information concerning employment and residence. Also, as a condition of award, the entrant may be required to sign a liability/publicity release.

19. The non-exclusive license to TI of intellectual property rights, as described herein, is free of charge and without remuneration of any kind. All entrants agree that the opportunity to compete for prizes and receive publicity represents full and adequate consideration for license of these rights by all entrants. Prizes do not represent fixed-sum monetary remuneration of the licensing of intellectual property.

20. All entrants grant to TI the right to publicize their names, likeness, any information provided on their Facebook profile, their Google+ profile, or their Twitter handle in whatever manner without reservation or compensation. Entrants further agree to execute, at TI’s request, a publicity release related to TI’s use of an entrant’s name, likeness or information.

21. Entrants will not be reimbursed for any costs incurred or for efforts expended in connection with their participation in the Contest. Such costs are the responsibility of the participants.

22. NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY.

23. Decisions by the Contest judges are final. TI reserves the right to refrain from awarding any prize if there are no or minimal qualified entries.

24. PRIZES: Three (3) winners of the first contest each day will receive C2000™ Piccolo LaunchPads valued at $17.05, EK-LM4F120XL Stellaris LM4F120 LaunchPads valued at $12.99, and MSP430 LaunchPad Value Line Development Kits valued at $9.99. Three (3) winners of the second contest each day will receive BeagleBone Black boards valued at $45 USD each. Total approximate value of all prizes: $255.

25. In the event of unavailability of any of the stated prizes, TI reserves the right to substitute items of equal or greater value.

26. If a winner cannot be reached by 6:00 p.m. (CDT) on May 24, 2013, TI reserve the right to deem the prize forfeited.

27. Employees and agents of TI and such individual’s immediate family (including spouse, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, step-children, step-parents and in-laws) and members of the same household are prohibited from entering this Contest.

28. THE CONTEST SHALL BE CONSIDERED VOID WHERE, AND TO THE EXTENT, PROHIBITED BY LAW.

29. TI reserves the right to use information regarding contestants for future mailings subject to applicable laws and regulations and privacy policies. TI’s privacy policy can be found at www.ti.com/home_f_privacy.

30. Subject to verification of eligibility and compliance with all Contest rules, one person who correctly responds to each hint will be randomly award a Prize during the contest.

31. No entries will be returned to participants, regardless of whether they are accepted. The winners’ names will be published on TI’s websites and media outlets.

32. If there is a dispute regarding the identity of the entrant, TI reserves the right to deem the account holder of the e-mail address as the entrant.

33. THE CONTEST AND ITS RULES AND CONDITIONS SHALL BE GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF TEXAS AND ANY DISPUTE ARISING OUT OF THIS CONTEST SHALL BE BROUGHT IN, AND YOU HEREBY CONSENT TO EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION AND VENUE IN, THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURTS SITTING IN DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS.

34. If any aspect of the Contest or any rule or condition be found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or void, participants agree to allow TI to change such provision and, upon notice, to make it valid. Also, in such case, the remaining Contest provisions shall remain in full force and effect and the Contest shall proceed accordingly.

35. Winners will be notified by TI by 6:00 p.m. (CDT) on May 20, 2013. The prizes will be shipped to the winners no later than 6:00 p.m. (CDT) on July 26, 2013.

36. By entering this Contest, each entrant agrees to release and hold TI harmless from and against any losses, damages, rights, claims and actions of any kind arising from (i) an exclusion or disqualification of an entrant pursuant to these Rules; (ii) late, lost, misdirected, or unsuccessful efforts to notify winners of any prize; (iii) forfeiture of a prize and the selection of an alternate winner; (iv) late, lost, delayed, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, illegible or unintelligible entries; (v) telephone, electronic, hardware or software program, network, Internet, or computer malfunctions, failures or difficulties of any kind; (iii) failed, incomplete, garbled or delayed computer transmissions; (iv) any condition caused by events beyond TI’s control that may cause the Contest to be disrupted or corrupted; (v) any injuries, losses or damages of any kind relating to a contest prize, or acceptance, possession or use of the prize, or from participation in this Contest.

37. TI reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend this Contest if it becomes corrupted or if for any reason the Internet portion of the Contest is not capable of running as planned, including infections by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of TI, which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Contest.

38. A list of the winners will be available after May 24, 2013. For a list of the winners, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:

Tara Stratton

GolinHarris

13155 Noel Road

Suite 750

Dallas, TX 75240

39. Sponsor:

Texas Instruments Incorporated
12500 TI Boulevard
Dallas, Texas 75243