Review

Offered for specific applications and products, reference designs and development kits can take a big chunk of time and sweat out of product development, as well as provide a critical edge in time to market. A good number of these tools go unrecognized in publication as they are bundled with a particular device or board, etc., while those stand-alone items grab the spotlight. Here are some of the more interesting examples of this year's players.

Targeting the cell phone market, Motorola's (motorola.com) i.Smart reference design promises to get design concepts up and running on a 2.5G network in as few as 90 days. It employs the company's Innovative Convergence GSM/GPRS platform and i.MX media extension and supports integration of advanced voice, image, video, and data capabilities on a single platform with an open standards interface. The platform includes the i.Smart chipset, integrated GSM/SPRS software, an i.MX1-based application subsystem, a CMOS image sensor-based imaging subsystem, and a Bluetooth V1-1-compliant wireless data transceiver. Operating system support includes Symbian and Windows CE. eLin

Paragon Innovations' Embedded Telemetry System (PETs) (paragoninnovations.com) came on the scene as a hardware and software reference platform to accelerate the design of remote controlled devices. The software portion claimed to be the embedded industry's first proprietary software to operate via multiple carriers and radio spectrums. This feat is made possible through a telemetry abstraction layer (TAL), described as a proprietary software interface that automatically determines the system's radio and network connection.

Optotek's (optotek.com) MMICAD suite of design and test software for RF/microwave applications got a makeover with a new version of its Linear Simulator and a set of 21 optimizers, enhanced tuning capabilities, and expanded models. The synthesis filter design program expanded hosting capabilities to 35 filter topologies in microstrip, lumped element, and waveguide categories, while the waveform time domain, transient analysis simulator added the Gummel-Poon BJT model.

Two development kits, the DI-154RS and DI-194RS from Dataq Instruments (dataq.com) made it easier for OEMs to create PC-based data acquisition systems. Both kits come with WinDaq/Lite software for data acquisition, real-time display, playback, and analysis—without programming. They also provide an ActiveX control library that allows them to be used with programming languages, including Visual C, Delphi, Visual BASIC, and LabVIEW.

Designers of switch-mode power supplies got a helping hand from Texas Instruments (ti.com) in the form of the TDPS1000EVM DSP development kit for quick implementation of smart, versatile power management. It employs the company's TMS320-C2000 DSPs to launch power management modules and provide users with a fully software configurable platform. Reported as an industry first, the kit employs digital signal processing technology to achieve better switcher control and performance and to add new features to the supplies.

SBS Technologies (sbs.com) tapped the power of FPGAs and the Tsunami FPGA platform for its TS-DK- IT01 imaging development kit. The Tsunami architecture allegedly exceeds the processing capacity of multi-CPU boards. The kit supports up to five FPGAs per board in a 64-bit/66-MHz PCI format and includes infrastructure software, development environment, and resources for integration of CameraLink and applications.

Cutting motor-control design time from weeks to days, International Rectifier's (irf.com) IRACS201 development system employs the Accelerator Design Platform to achieve design flows that require no coding to configure algorithms. The platform includes a mixed-signal, motion-control chipset, FPGA-based DSP, high voltage ICs, and an IGBT-based power inverter stage. The development system enables an advanced field control and PWM algorithm loop to be executed in under 4 µs.

—Mat Dirjish

Outlook

Tools Are Forever
Whether bundled as a value-added feature or sold separately, the future of reference designs, development kits, and development platforms is obvious. As long as there are new design challenges for specific products, there will be solutions. With more cross-platform integration designs appearing, that is, the use of FPGAs, MCUs, ASSICs, DSPs, and SoCs in roles formerly reserved for microprocessors, engineers and designers will need specific knowledge to create and debug them. Tools, like diamonds and deadlines, are forever.

—MD