 Welcome to the April issue of our new monthly Journal On Demand newsletter. This month, our popular new supplement to FPGA Journal, Embedded Technology Journal, and IC Design and Verification Journal brings you an exciting lineup of white papers, videos and webcasts from industry-leading vendors, as well as the newest episodes of our popular Chalk Talks with Amelia Dalton.
If you have any questions or comments, please let us know - or better yet, jump right in and make yourself heard on our new, remodeled Journal Forums. Our community of over 100,000 engineers worldwide can probably answer just about any technical question you can come up with. Thanks for reading, Kevin Morris
Editor-in-chief, Techfocus Media, Inc. 
| Next Generation System Design – Platforms versus Tool-Chains (WHITE PAPER)
This paper will enumerate the benefits of a platform-based system design approach. The original electronic design process built by linking tools together has remained largely unchanged for decades (i.e. tool-chains). A layered platform architecture unifies PCB, FPGA and embedded software development into one application. At the foundation is a unified data model that enables numerous data management benefits including versioning and ECO management. Companies switching to a platform based design process are doubling their productivity as compared to traditional tool-chains. (Altium) | ______________________________________________________________________________ 
|  16-bit Performance for an 8-bit Price: TI's MSP430 Microcontroller Value Line (PRODUCT BULLETIN)
The ultra-low power MSP430™ microcontroller Value Line offers superior 16-bit MCU performance and industry leading ultra-low power consumption for cost sensitive applications that have traditionally depended on low cost 8-bit microcontrollers. Starting at 25 cents (in 100K volumes), the MSP430G2xx Value Series ensures 8-bit developers no longer need to sacrifice performance, power efficiency or scalability because of price. (Texas Instruments) | ______________________________________________________________________________ 
| Actel FPGAs for Handheld Portable Solutions (CHALK TALK)
With the industry's lowest power and widest range of small packages, it's no wonder Actel IGLOO® FPGAs can be found in the latest handheld portable devices. Actel has been designed into a wide array of handheld devices, including smartphones, eBooks, cameras, medical devices, industrial scanners, military radios, and the list goes on. Actel IGLOO low power FPGAs bring reprogrammability, design security, integration, small form factor, and live-at-power-up operation to handheld portable applications. In this webcast host Amelia Dalton chats with Naseem Aslam about Actel solutions for handheld portable applications. (Actel) Design Made Easy With Mixed-Signal FPGAs and State of the Art Software Tools (WHITE PAPER)
This paper examines the evolution path for FPGAs with embedded processors, and the design tools that support them, and considers whether engineers need to evolve their techniques to accommodate the integrated silicon or whether they can continue to manage their boundaries at the silicon level instead of the board level. New techniques are available in the embedded mixed‐signal FPGA design flow, but do they smooth the adoption of a fully integrated device? Find out by reading the White Paper. (Actel) Actel SmartFusion: Intelligent, Innovative Integration (WHITE PAPER)
Actel SmartFusion™ Intelligent Mixed Signal FPGAs – Innovative, Intelligent, Integration. Introducing the only device that integrates a flash FPGA, hard ARM® Cortex™-M3-based microcontroller subsystem (MSS) and programmable analog into a complete, integrated solution. Don't compromise your embedded design. Build the system you want, with all the features you need, on a single-chip solution. Read the White Paper to learn more. (Actel) | ______________________________________________________________________________ 
| Xilinx Automotive Spartan-6 FPGA Devices (VIDEO)
Learn more about how the new line of automotive devices from Xilinx® can help advance next generation driver assistance, driver information, and driver infotainment applications. Presented by Thorsten Kistler, Automotive Marketing Manager, Europe. (Xilinx) Spartan-6 FPGA Industrial Ethernet Kit (VIDEO)
Accelerate your next generation factory automation design with the Spartan®-6 FPGA Industrial Ethernet Kit, jointly developed with Avnet. Walk through a demonstration of the benefits and features of the kit with Giulio Corradi, Senior System Architect (Xilinx) | ______________________________________________________________________________ 
| Streaming Multichannel Uncompressed Video in the Broadcast Environment (WHITE PAPER)
Designing video equipment for streaming multiple uncompressed video signals is a new challenge, especially with the demand for high-definition video streams. This white paper examines how a multichannel streaming PCIe DMA controller and other "building block" IP cores are combined within a Cyclone IV GX FPGA to support SD- and HD-SDI applications using an open-source video packet streaming-format protocol such as those used in non-linear editors, video servers, and video-capture applications. (Altera) Easily Support WDR CMOS Image Sensor Processing with Low-Cost FPGAs (VIDEO)
High-definition (HD) wide dynamic range (WDR) CMOS image sensors are ideal for applications like video surveillance cameras. And for the underlying technology, FPGAs are optimal because they deliver the high bandwidth these sensors demand. In this 7-minute video, you'll see how an FPGA-based platform easily performs complex image processing to support WDR CMOS image sensors. (Altera) | |
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