14 MHz single chip micro

CMOS A/D drivesLCD di iay The TSC7126A, a 3½ digit CMOS A/D converter with direct drive for liquid crystal display, has been announced by Teledyne Semiconductor. The design includes an internal zener diode reference voltage circuit. The zener reference establishes the analogue common potential which is used to generate the converter's reference voltage. The maximum power dissipation of the TSC7126A is 900/lW. The analogue common temperature drift coefficient is typically 35 ppm °C-Z. Teledyne guarantee a maximum drift limit of 75 ppm °C-1. The TSC7126A adds an automatic zero cycle to the conventional technique of two-phase dual slope conversion. This cycle automatically corrects conversion errors induced by the device offset voltage. A zero display reading is given for zero voltage input without adjustment by the user. Teledyne promise a maximum linearity error of 1 count on the 200 mV or 2 000 V full scale range. The leakage current for the highimpedance differential CMOS analogue input is typically 1 pA and at most 10 pA. A 10 MD, input resistance causes a typical DC error of 10 #V (0.10 count on the 200 mV full scale range).

The differential reference voltage input allows ratiometric measurements for ohms or bridge transducer measurements. The peak-to-peak noise is I 5/zV. The display reading difference for input signals of equal magnitude but opposite polarity is less than I count. (Teledyne

Semiconductors, Heathrow House, Bath Road, Cranford, Middx TW5 9QQ, UK. Tel: 01~97 2501. Telex:

935008)

Disc access for 8 CPUs The Octopus-De has been announced by Mator Systems as an addition to their range of Winchester hard-discbased products. The system gives access via serial I/O for up to eight user processors. The Octopus is compatible with personal computers fitted with an RS232 capability. The shareable file storage space ranges from 20 Mbyte to over 120 Mbyte. The Octopus-DC displays all the disc, file and management characteristics of the Mator DOS-based Shark. There are also extensions for a lockunlock facility Ion files or data areas), privacy control passwords (sign on/off), RQS, back-up tape dump/restore, and deadlock avoidance. (Mator Systems

Ltd, 134-140 Church Road, Hove, Sussex, UK. Tel: (0273) 720451/2)

Test and repair for hard and floppy disc drives A disc drive exerciser which can cope with Winchesters and floppies has been released by Omnitest. Used with an oscilloscope, the AVA 103D can test a disc offline. Head alignment and other

Disc drive tester 280

routine maintenance can be carried out. Omnitest claim that their device is the first drive exerciser to offer buffered seek step rates for 5¼-in and 8-in Winchester drives. The 103D is designed for goods-in, field service and repair depot test operations. It is compatible with all 5¼-in and 8-in floppy drives using the Shugart/ANSl interface. Adaptor cards are available for any Winchester drive using the 5¼-in Seagate STS06 interface or the 8-in Shugart SA1000 interface. The AVA 103D costs £461.64.

(Omnitest Ltd, Highcliffe House, 41 I--413 Lymington Road, Highcliffe, Christchurch, Dorset BH23 5EN, UK. Tel: (04252) 77731. Telex: 418449)

ECL gate arrays 'have 0.5 ns delay' Three ECL gate arrays have been introduced by NEC. The/zPB6301,/~PG6310 and p.PB6320 feature a typical gate delay of 0.5 ns (with fanout of 3 and a wiring length of 2 ram) and I/O interface peripheral circuits compatible with ECL-100K technology. Maximum number of gates is 300 with at most 56 I/O buffers, 1200 with at most 88 I/O buffers and 2000 with at most 108 I/O buffers for /~PB6301,/JPB6310 and/~PB6320 respectively. The arrays come in 72 PIP, 132 PIP and 68 LCC (leadless chip carrier) packages. Each has a thermal resistance of 5.6°C W-1 . The/zPB6301 comes in a 72-pin and a 6g-pin Lcc package. The/~PB6301 and/~PB6320 have a 72-pin and a 132-pin PIP package as well as 68 Lcc. CAD tools support the series with a block library of 68 macros. Routing and layout programs achieve an 85% usage. This can be manually completed to reach a 95% level. NEC designers in Di~sseldorf are improving the turn around time by logic simulation and delay time simulation. (NEC Elec-

tronics (UK) Ltd, 116 Stevenston Street, New Stevenston, Motherwell MLI 4LT, UK. Tel: (0698) 732221)

14 MHz single chip micro The MSL8049H microcomputer is one of five models launched by Mitsubishi Electric. The MSL8049H features a clock pulse of 14 MHz and a basic instruction speed of 1.07/~s. Now available in the UK from Mitsubishi Electric's semiconductor division, the five single-chip 8-bit microcomputers are aimed at consumer as well as industrial products. They have higher speeds and lower power consumption than the company's existing series of microcomputers with NMOS and CMOS. They are compatible with Mitsubishi Electric's existing single-chip 8-bit microcomputers in software and hardware. (Mitsubishi Electric (UK) Ltd,

Semiconductor Division, Centre Point, 103 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1EB, UK. Tel: 01-379 7160)

microprocessors and microsystems