Friday, December 28, 2007

Direct synthesis of WiMedia UWB signals

http://rfdesign.com/next_generation_wireless/broadband_technologies/synthesis-wimedia-uwb-signals-0907/

http://rfdesign.com/next_generation_wireless/broadband_technologies/709RFDF2.pdf

News - Eye catch

ADC PMC/XMC Module can be deployed in harsh environments.

Click here for product page of GE website.



Small chip, big potential

Click here for MxL5003S and here for MXL5005S.

Note its archeitecture for ultra-broadband receiver.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

OFDM Baseband Receiver Design for Wireless Communications

OFDM Baseband Receiver Design for Wireless Communications

352 pages December 2007

Description
As technologies such as mobile digital broadcasting, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX become more prevalent, increasing numbers of engineers are participating in OFDM system design. With OFDM techniques positioned to become the solution of choice for beyond 3G and 4G communications systems, the march toward single-chip solutions for small, power efficient OFDM devices is inevitable. However, up to now all OFDM books have focused on communications theory rather than hardware aspects. Composed of three sections, OFDM Baseband Receiver Design for Wireless Communications fills the gap for both signal processing and VLSI engineers with discussion of OFDM theories, algorithms, architectures and circuits.
The first section gives the reader a concise yet comprehensive look at digital communications fundamentals. Concepts behind formulas, rather than mathematical derivations, are emphasized.
The second part focuses on modern OFDM modulation and signal processing algorithms in OFDM receivers.
The third section introduces hardware design -- from design methodology to physical IC implementation -- and includes concrete examples for MC-CMDA and MIMO-OFDM WLAN.

Readers will learn how to transfer communication receiver concepts into hardware, design wireless transmitters and receivers with acceptable implementation loss, and achieve low-power designs.

Based on course materials from a highly successful graduate class in digital communication IC design, OFDM Baseband Receiver Design for Wireless Communications is aimed at senior undergraduate and graduate students of VLSI Design and Communications/Signal Processing Courses. The didactic approach also makes the topic fully accessible for experienced Engineers working on algorithms or hardware for wireless communications devices.

Tzi-Dar Chiueh receive d his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1989 and he is now a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the National Taiwan University (NTU). Since August 2004, he has also served as the Director of the Graduate Institute of Electronics Engineering at the same university. He has held visiting positions at ETH Zurich Switzerland and at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Professor Chiueh has received the Acer longtern Award 11 times and the MXIC Golden Silicon Award in 2002 and 2005. His teaching efforts were recognized four times by the Teaching Excellence Award from the NTU. Professor Chiueh was the recipient of the Distinguished Research Achievements Award from the National Science Council, Taiwan, in 2004, and was awarded the Himax Chair Professor ship at the NTU in 2006. He is the author of more than 140 technical papers, many of which are on algorithm, architecture and integrated circuits for baseband communication systems.

Pei-Yun Tsai received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the National Taiwan University in 2005 and she is now an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the National central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Professor of Electrical Engineering at the National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Professor Tsai has received the Acer Longtern Award, MXIC Golden Silicon Award and 1s Asian Solid-State Circuit Conference Student Design Contest Outstanding Award in 2005. Her research interests include signal-processing algorithms and architectures for baseband communication systems.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Analog and RFIC Design InterView Question

Websites about PLL Design

MIT High Speed Circuit and System Group
EE 536, Winter 2006 - University of Washington

Free Alternatives to Matlab

Matlab・has become the de facto standard for DSP system design and simulation. However, Matlab has two problems: 1) it's expensive, and 2) it costs a lot. Fortunately, there are alternatives: Free Clones. Whatever else you can say about them, these Free Clones offer two significant advantages: 1) you don't have to pay for them, and 2) they're free.

The major Matlab clones are Scilab, Octave, and Rlab. None are true "clones", because none offer 100% compatibility with Matlab's "m-files". However, they all provide number-crunching power similar to Matlab, at a much better cost/performance ratio (since they're free!)

Essentially, Scilab, Octave, and Rlab are interpreted, matrix-based programming languages. They share with Matlab:

The use of matrices as a fundamental data type. Built-in support for complex numbers. Powerful built-in math functions and extensive function libraries. Extensibility in the form of user-defined functions.

Scilab
In some ways, Scilab may be the "best" of the Matlab clones. Scilab has many strengths, including excellent documentation (the signal processing manual is an education in itself!) and excellent support (via e-mail and its own newsgroup). Best of all, for Windows users, Scilab is supplied not only as source code, but as a Windows binary. Scilab is mostly--but not completely--compatible with Matlab. (Scilab now comes with a Matlab-to-Scilab translator, but that's still a bit immature.) For more information:


Octave
Like Scilab, Octave is another mature, high-quality Matlab clone. If you use a Unix-like operating system, Octave may be a better choice than Scilab because it reportedly offers better compatibility with Matlab. (However, for Windows users, Octave suffers the comparitive disadvantage that the binary distribution of it is quite complicated to install.) For more information:


Rlab
Rlab is the least Matlab-compatible of the three. Rlab does not try to be a Matlab clone but instead, in the words of its creator "borrows what I believe are the best features of the Matlab language and provides improved language syntax and semantics." For more information:


Others
JMathLib - A Java Clone of Octave, SciLab and Matlab
TeLa
Algae
Yorick
Euler
Python with NumPy and SciPy
The R Project for Statistical Computing (not a clone, but same matrix multiplication plus more)