Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Wire and cable terminations now RoHS compliant
Tyco - Wire and cable terminations now RoHS compliant
A new line of Raychem brand RoHS compliant SolderSleeve devices is now available from Tyco Electronics. The SolderSleeve devices are lead and cadmium free and provide a fast, reliable and convenient method for splicing and terminating wire and cable. In addition, the company has established unique part numbers for the RoHS compliant parts.
Installation of RoHS compliant SolderSleeve devices is identical to non-RoHS parts. Furthermore, these new devices retain the same performance attributes as similar existing SolderSleeve devices that are not RoHS compliant.
SolderSleeve devices are suitable for many applications in commercial and industrial electronic systems. Wire to wire termination and splicing, ground termination and wire to cable shield applications are among the most popular. Additionally, SolderSleeve devices can be used in coaxial applications.
SolderSleeve devices are comprised of precisely engineered solder preforms, flux and a cross-linked heat shrinkable sleeve which provide a completely soldered, strain relieved, and encapsulated termination. This one-step process provides for quick installation, says the company.
IAR - High-performance middleware for embedded systems developers
Published Dec 1 2006 
The new IAR PowerPac for ARM, which comprises a small memory footprint RTOS and versatile file system, and introduces innovative licensing model - ideal for cost-sensitive ARM-powered MCU applications, has been announced by IAR Systems.
IAR PowerPac is a fully-featured real-time operating system (RTOS) combined with a high-performance file system. With a small (2kB) memory footprint and an affordable licensing model, the IAR PowerPac RTOS is particularly aimed at the low-cost ARM-powered microcontroller market. Further products in the IAR PowerPac family are planned, and will address a comprehensive range of target devices.
32-bit microcontrollers are becoming more affordable for a wide range of applications, while at the same time software and hardware complexity continues to grow, and this trend has generated an increasing need for a real-time multitasking system. Until now the RTOS market for MCUs has been a relatively fragmented one, with very few fully integrated offerings available.
Additionally developers of small embedded systems have been reluctant to buy a stand-alone RTOS; in fact many have not been using an RTOS at all, either because they prefer to build their own task scheduler or because they believe they either don't need or can't afford one. However, there are several compelling reasons for using an RTOS: in addition to providing real-time multitasking capability, the task-oriented design process imposed by an RTOS is cleaner and better organised than in a system without an RTOS; the RTOS promotes code reuse, and provides a useful service to the application by offering clean hooks to middleware and by shortening development time. The quality of the application is also ensured by the predictable response times that are achieved in time-critical applications. This is the niche that IAR PowerPac has been developed to fill, says the company.
IAR PowerPac features re-emptive scheduling as well as round-robin scheduling, handling up to 255 priorities with an unlimited number of tasks, semaphores, mailboxes and software timers. Full interrupt support is provided, and zero interrupt latency time is a key benefit. Nested interrupts are permitted, and very fast context switch times can be achieved. The IAR PowerPac File System is MS-DOS/MS-Windows compatible, with FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 support as well as support for multiple device drivers and multiple media, including: RAM disk; MMC; SD; CompactFlash; IDE; SMC; and NOR/NAND flashes. The highly modular structure helps to minimise memory consumption.
The innovative business model under which IAR PowerPac is licensed is similar to that of IAR Embedded Workbench, IAR Systems' flagship compiler, with which IAR PowerPac is tightly integrated. In addition to a single-user licence, with an option to include source code, IAR Systems is also introducing the concept of a group licence suitable for development teams of up to 20 developers, which also includes full source code of the product.
The per-seat licensing fee is the only fee associated with using IAR PowerPac; there are no royalties or fees connected to projects, end-user products / product families or production volume. This makes investing in IAR PowerPac a truly low-risk licensing model, since all associated licensing costs are known in advance, says the company.
Novarm - Intuitive software simplifies and speeds PCB designs 
DipTrace is an advanced PCB design software application, from Novarm, it comes with a PCB layout module, a powerful auto-router, schematic capture and component / pattern editors - to design bespoke component libraries. In addition to being easy to learn, the software has an intuitive user interface and many innovative features, says the company.
A schematic can be converted to a PCB with one mouse click. The board designer can instantly renew the PCB from an updated version of the schematic and keep existing placement, routed traces, board outline, mounting holes and other work. DipTrace has a high-quality automatic router, 'superior to many routers' included in other PCB layout packages. It can route a single layer (bottom side) and multilayer circuit boards, and there is an option to autoroute a single layer board with jumper wires, if required.
Smart manual routing tools allow users to finalize the design and to quickly get the results they want. DipTrace has an accurate shape-based copper pour system with different possible fill types and thermals to make plane layer or to reduce manufacturing costs by minimizing the amount of etching solution. Another important feature is Design Rule Check (DRC) - a function that checks the clearance between design objects, minimum size of tracks and drills, which ensures board accuracy.
A net connectivity check allows users to check all electrical connections and find all broken nets and their isolated areas. A feature comparing a PCB to a schematic helps detect possible design mistakes and correct them before prototyping. Output formats are DXF, Gerber, N/C Drill and G-code. DipTrace allows you to import DXF files in PCB Layout and Pattern Editor.
