Product category:
Design and Development Hardware
News Release from: Anadigm | Subject: AN10DS40 FPAA development board
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 04 January 2001
Development board for programmable
analogue arrays
Anadigm - formerly Anadyne Microelectronics - has launched a development and evaluation board for field programmable analogue arrays (FPAAs).
Anadigm - formerly Anadyne Microelectronics - has launched a development and evaluation board for field programmable analogue arrays (FPAAs) The new board, AN10DS40, provides a range of resources to help electronics engineers evaluate FPAA technology and develop working systems
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Aug 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Software puts standard filters on analogue arrays
Anadigm has added filter synthesis to its field-programmable analogue array (FPAA) configuration software.
Programmable analogue arrays turn to laser cooling
Anadigm has published an application note detailing how field-programmable analogue arrays (FPAAs) simplify the control of Peltier-effect thermoelectric coolers.
It additionally incorporates an onboard microcontroller to demonstrate the way in which FPAA functionality may be adapted in the field, to help users understand the technology's potential for radically reshaping the way electronics products function.
The board provides an FPAA - with its 20 configurable analogue cells - and a serial interface for PC connection so that programs created using the free AnadigmDesigner CAD package can be downloaded.
Also onboard are numerous connectors, interfaces and status LEDs to simplify development, interconnection and test, including stereo jacks for convenient interfacing in applications involving audio signals.
Further reading
Analogue array solves DVD performance problems
The Conradt Measurement and Control development company has designed an innovative analogue lens control solution which dramatically improves the write speed of DVD peripherals.
Software supprts reconfigurable analogue arrays
A breakthrough analogue EDA tool enables the design and implementation of dynamically reconfigurable analogue circuits within a matter of minutes.
Users can develop two kinds of FPAA-based analogue systems.
The first is a fixed-function FPAA to integrate discrete analogue component based circuitry, which boots from a serial EEPROM - for which a socket is provided.
The AN10DS40 board additionally incorporates a microcontroller which can dynamically modify FPAA functionality by reloading a new device configuration file - an operation taking 100 microseconds.
This feature allows users to explore the concept of adapting analog performance in a software-controlled, event-driven fashion.
Four pushbutton switches are provided to manually trigger interrupt-based reconfiguration, to simplify the real-world test of this innovative new capability.
The onboard microcontroller is from the HC08 family - one of the most popular types on the market today.
A standard peripheral interface (SPI) is also provided on the AN10DS40 board to allow the FPAA to be controlled from an alternative microcontroller - and/or a user's own prototype hardware.
Dynamic reconfiguration can be used by an engineer to radically improve product performance, and lower costs - potentially replacing multiple PCBs with one chip.
For example, a general purpose data acquisition board could reconfigure its front-end signal conditioning for different sensors sequentially - as it scans channels - providing major savings in both PCB space and cost.
Alternatively, FPAA functionality could be modified according to operating conditions, such as a change in light level, providing analogue designers with a practical low cost method of implementing real-time adaptive capability for the first time.
The EEPROM-based configuration method also provides designers with considerable flexibility, allowing one standard PCB to be configured for different applications at the end of the production or during installation.
Anadigm's new board costs US $499.
• Anadigm: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
