While the applications of LEDs are myriad, so too are the technical nuances of driving them efficiently, with well-controlled and evenly spread luminous intensity. To help you keep up with and understand the main differences in the many LED driver ICs now being introduced, we've developed this comparative table. Use it in conjunction with our two highly popular LED courses to succeed in your next LED-based design.

Designers are faced with a bewildering selection of MCUs upon which to base their next embedded system. This regularly updated comparative table of recently announced microcontrollers, along with the associated Fundamentals of MCUs course, will help make the selection process a little easier for the embattled engineer.

Few areas have the ability to turn the cold science of metrology into pure art as quickly as medical diagnostics, and few systems embody the essence of this art as the Radical-7 Signal Extraction Pulse-CO Oximeter from Masimo. We go deep inside to uncover some of the secrets and design choices, that transform a box of ICs into a cutting-edge, life-saving system.

As chip, software and system vendors gather to regale carriers at next week's Mobile World Conference, falling costs and proven viability will give many the courage to declare 2010 the year of the femtocell, and quietly, eagerly, put 2009 behind them.

Apple Inc.'s total costs for the iPad consumer electronics device is less than 50 percent of the proposed retail price, according to iSuppli Corp., giving the OEM ample flexibility on pricing if demand trails expectations when the product debuts in the next few months.

Apple Inc. has not said very much about its A4 processor. But it could represent a battleground for Imagination's PowerVR graphics versus the Mali graphics from local rival ARM.

The number of people who suffer from diabetes is growing. The CDC (Centers or Disease Control and Prevention) states that 23.6 million Americans had diabetes in 2007, with more cases every year.

Once seen and felt, the Apple iPad elicited its share of "so what" reactions. But is it really all that disappointing? Here are 10 reasons why the iPad is an achievement of value.

Future Electronics

Electric Cloud

Flexera Software

Synopsys

Flexera Software

Altera

Octasic

eASIC

Keithley Instruments

Fujitsu Microelectronics

Attend this webinar to learn:

• When and how to use binary vs. counting semaphores
• Why priority inversions are dangerous and how to prevent them
• When and how to use a mutex
• How to write reentrant functions, which can be safely called from two or more tasks
• The most popular RTOS APIs for mutexes and semaphores

Join Wind River, Intel, and EE Times in this web seminar panel discussion to learn more about the technology and business trends that will change the way devices are architected and developed, and how you can prepare for this future with the right multicore and virtualization technologies.

With the recent launch of Android 2.0, learn how using the ARM platform when developing for Android using the Android NDK (Native Development Kit), will help make full use of your CPU and deliver leading edge Android applications. Follow the performance improvements of a simple processing intensive Image application moving from a pure Android version, to native C, optimized assembler and finally to a high performance NEON implementation.

Semiconductor IP leaders Sonics, Inc. and MIPS Technologies team to illustrate the most effective ways to optimize your wireless SoCs for superior performance, power and cost efficiencies, and system flexibility. The presenters will also share the on-chip 'must-haves' essential for high-performance, power-aware wireless designs.

This class uses Micrium's recently released uC/OS-III as a reference, and is presented by the kernel's author, Micrium's Founder, Jean Labrosse, in conjunction with one of the company's software experts, Matt Gordon. The class describes real-time kernels from generic terms to specifics involved with an ARM Cortex-M3 architecture.

This webinar includes a briefing from the Mentor Graphics OS engineering team, who will discuss the implementation of Nucleus OS and Linux on the Marvell Sheeva MV78200 Dual-core Embedded Processor.

In this course we will explore some of the fundamentals of ESL with particular emphasis on one of the most mature areas, namely high-level synthesis of the hardware portions of the system. While this area is maturing, different vendors have chosen different languages as their starting point and we will explore some of the tradeoffs that this makes.

This class covers sensorless vector control formulation for Brushless DC (BLDC) motors and its implementation techniques. The class starts with basic theory in terms of BLDC motor model, vector control principle, Clark & Park transformation, PWM modulation, flux observer, and speed and position estimation. Vector control based on sensor and its normal processing is briefly explained. Then the class focuses on processing for a sensorless vector control that does not use position or speed sensors. Specific implementation of the motor model based flux observer and overall sensorless vector control implementation strategy is described. Also, techniques for measuring currents via conventional sensors and using one-shunt reconstruction are explained. Finally, this class demonstrates the performance of sensorless vector control regarding speed regulation and CPU bandwidth usage.

Handheld mobile devices provide an ever richer range of applications and connectivity which, when combined with their limited computing resources and physical accessibility, implies a unique set of security issues. High-value services must operate alongside low-risk features and even user-downloaded applications. The complex mixture requires a rich OS environment which carries with it its own inherent vulnerabilities. This class outlines a security architecture tailored to provide the assurance required for high-value services while at the same time allowing the freedom needed for user-downloaded applications on the same device. Starting with the hardware components providing tamper-resistant monitoring and debug port protection, the class moves through tamper-evident software load and execution and through to system and user data protection. Finally, the class outlines the integration of these elements with software virtualization technology to provide assurance for high-value services. The virtualization solution runs a strictly contained and hardware access-restricted User OS. Alongside, but fully isolated from the User OS, virtualization allows a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) to run, in which high-value services may operate out of reach of other features and applications.