UniTI Newsletter Forging Relations between Indian Universities and Texas Instruments
Vol 2, Issue 3, July 2009
CONTENTS Editorial
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Understanding Energy Efficiency: Interview with Dr. Ajay Mathur
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Lighting a Billion Lives
5-6
Wireless Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring System
7-8
Soul Of A New Machine – Solar Electric Rickshaw
9-10
Interfacing to the Real World – Data Converters Architectures Oversampling Converters
11-14
MSP430 Microcontroller Workshop at VIT Pune
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TI at the University Campus
16-17
News Update
18-19
The House of Solar Gables
20
Feedback Amplifier
21-22
Don't Miss the Train at the Open Platform
23-24
Project Ideas for Students - Reduce Reuse Recycle
25-26
Analog Design Contest For Indian Universities – 2009
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EDITORIAL “Green Energy” is the theme of this issue of UniTI newsletter. The human population on the Earth has touched 6.7 billion and is impacting our environment in alarming ways. World-wide, researchers are beginning to measure and optimize the energy spent on doing a task or availing a service; the environmental impact of gadgets is being closely monitored. This has led to renewed interest in making low power electronic gadgets. Extending battery life of electronic products is no more just a convenience issue – it is also an environmental issue since we need to reduce the e-waste from batteries and consume less electrical power in charging them. Alternate sources of energy have been explored for many years, but, for the first time, there is widespread and focused attention on the topic. Texas Instruments has been a lead player in the area of Green Energy. Thanks to its “Smart Reflex” technology, which attacks the power minimization problem at all levels of design hierarchy, the power dissipation in TI semiconductor offerings are at record low levels. A recent announcement of a laptop based on OMAP has a battery life of 18 hours. Power management chips from TI help the system designer in addressing the power problem. Since last year, TI has also begun announcing products that support energy harvesting. Texas Instruments has also pioneered the creation of green IC fabrication facilities which use energy saving techniques such as efficient cooling that makes use of circulating chilled water, collecting the excess heat from the plant for heating water, reducing the boilers required for the plant by efficient heat recovery, using the right solar orientation for the plant so as to reflect most of the Sun, and many more. It may come as a shock to many of us that among the 6.7 billion humans in the world, about 1.2 billion people have no access to electricity. The ability to harness solar power may light up a billion lives, as the article in this issue on the “LaBL” project declares. Interestingly, Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments was involved in the research on solar powered devices for many years. TI's Jack Kilby Labs is presently looking at futuristic solutions for harnessing alternate forms of energy, including solar power. This issue brings articles to you on several Indian efforts in the area of “Green Energy.” We are grateful to Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, for agreeing to an interview with Deepak Bhardwaj of TI India and sharing his invaluable insights. Our sincere thanks to Deepak Bhardwaj for his help in creating the articles on the Soleckshaw project and the “LaBL” initiative. The issue also includes our regular features, such as activities of the UniTI program in universities in India. Our sincere thanks are due to all the faculty members who have provided active help in organizing the UniTI events in campuses. We plan to do several Train-the-trainer activities and student activities after the semester begins. We will keep you posted on the “uniti” mailing list – if you are not on our mailing list, please write to us. The “Analog Design Contest” is being held for the first time in India and we hope that it will generate a significant interest among the undergraduate Engineering students in the country. Brochures and posters about the contest have been mailed to Heads of the Departments of most Engineering colleges in India. If you need a copy of the poster/brochure, please write to us. As always, we are eager to receive your feedback. Positive feedback will lift our spirits and suggestions will help us improve the newsletter. We will also be happy to publish your opinions about topics relevant to UniTI. With best wishes C.P. Ravikumar
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UNDERSTANDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY: AN INVERVIEW WITH Dr. AJAY MATHUR On behalf of UniTI, Deepak Bhardwaj, Director Corporate Relations Texas Instruments met with Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Govt. of India and discussed with him on energy efficiency, climate change and how Indian research and academia could utilize the excellent framework provided by institutions such as BEE in formulating policies which create “demand for innovation”. Dr. Ajay Mathur is Director General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and a member of the Indian Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change. As Director General of BEE, Dr. Mathur coordinates the national energy efficiency programme, including the standards and labeling programme for equipment and appliances; the energy conservation building code; the industrial energy efficiency programme, and the DSM programs in the buildings, lighting, and municipal sectors. Before joining BEE, Dr. Mathur has worked on energy research, financing, and implementation. He has headed the World Bank's Climate Change Team in Washington, DC; and the Energy Engineering Division of TERI in New Delhi; and has also been President of Suzlon Energy Limited. Dr Mathur received his Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Roorkee, and PhD from the University of Illinois. He received the Outstanding Alumnus Award of the University of Illinois in 2002. He is the coauthor of three books, and lead author of several reports of the IPCC, the joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
What is the mandate/charter for Bureau of Energy Efficiency? At the time of setting up this institution, was the government able to comprehend such positive outputs from BEE?
What are the key challenges being faced globally and by India specifically on energy crisis and climate change? Energy and Climate Change are the defining issues that will shape the future of our planet. Energy is, and will continue to be, one of the most important issues for the development of our country and the world. Today, it is increasingly evident that the global energy situation, along with concerns about climate change, requires us to change the way we meet our energy needs.
The Bureau was established in 2002 as an autonomous statutory body under section 3 of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001. BEE is responsible for the implementation of policy programs and coordination of implementation of energy conservation activities in the country. BEE's mission is to institutionalize energy efficiency services, enable delivery mechanisms for uptake of energy efficiency in the country and provide leadership to improve energy efficiency in all sectors of economy.
The major challenges to India are: Limited availability of both indigenous and imported fossil fuels Increasing energy efficiency of transport and power production Enhancing renewable energy efficiency Adapting to the new adverse impacts of climate change
BEE's first Action Plan was released by the Prime Minister in August 2002 which clearly articulated the thrust areas, medium and long term activities within each thrust area and target dates with budgets. This provided the basis for projecting positive outputs.
India is specifically faced with the challenge of sustaining its rapid economic growth while dealing with the global threat of climate change. Its development path is based on its unique resource endowments, the overriding priorities of economic and social development and poverty eradication, and its adherence to its civilization legacy that places a high value on the environment and the maintenance of ecological balance.
How do you plan the next two to three years of your organization's activities? The next 3 years will bring us to the close of the XI plan. All our schemes have an agreed work-plan and identified targets within the XI plan. To mention some of the key activities:
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In Standards & Labeling, mandatory labeling will come into force for 4 products, rating plan for motors, ceiling fans, LPG stoves, standby power & other equipments to be in place, increase the check testing facilities to bring about a market transformation in favor of energy efficient equipments and appliances that adhere to Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS).
We realize your organization adopts an inclusive process for all the stakeholders to participate. This is possibly a good example/benchmark for other similar institutions too. Do you have any comments how you go about making this happen? Even though BEE's role has been defined very clearly within the provisions of the EC Act 2001, for BEE to perform effectively and to the desired standard, it is extremely important to understand how its' stakeholders view BEE's role. We plan regular interactions with our stakeholders within each of our programmes. A consultative interaction with stakeholders not only helps to identify gaps but also provides an opportunity to establish a common vision. Equally important in a stakeholder consultation process is target setting, since stakeholders play a key role in helping us to achieve those targets, both physical and financial. And finally, the process helps stakeholders, particularly manufacturers to develop a strategy that incorporates energy efficiency improvements. This, we believe, converts them into supporters for the change process, rather than opponents.
In ECBC, increasing numbers and the technical capacity to set up a pool of ECBC expert Architects and Engineers in the country, Producing and distributing training material in the form of User Guides and Tip sheets, Creating facilities for material testing and certification, carrying out a series of awareness workshops in all the climatic zones for manufacturers, builders, architects, etc., Star rating of buildings and assessment of existing buildings. In Bachat Lamp Yojana, we are partnering with CFL manufacturers and suppliers, and DISCOMS for reducing the cost of the CFL bulb to Rs. 15/-. The savings are being measured through smart meters based on GSM technology.
Do you think we are ready to adapt to the technological changes required to be more energy efficient? Are there any areas of improvement?
We are working in all states with statutory bodies known as State Designated Agencies (SDAs) who deliver against a uniform Energy Conservation Action Plan (ECAP) developed by us, for their respective states.
As a nation, India has shown its ability to nimbly adapt to technological changes whenever it made sense – just look at the case of mobile phones. We also use similar trends towards adapting to new technological changes in the case of energy efficiency. However, we still have a long way to go. We are witnessing a growing energy demand in all sectors of economy to support our GDP growth. We must, therefore, conserve energy for meeting this requirement. Adoption of energy efficient and clean technologies will not only reduce the burden on energy supply utilities but also helps protect the environment. And of course it results in savings for energy users.
For the Agricultural and Municipal Demand Side Management scheme, we are planning workshops for farmers and utility employees in areas where DPRs are being developed, awareness and outreach to local and municipal bodies are underway.
How can research institutes support the national energy efficiency exercise? Do we need advancement on the course curricula to be better equipped? Given India's mandate to improve energy efficiency by 20% in the XI plan, engineering colleges across the country are gearing up to offer courses on energy efficiency and on Solar & Alternate energy. The demand for such courses is also on the rise. One of the key
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deliverables within our ECBC scheme is to influence architectural institutes to include application of energy saving mechanisms in building materials within their curricula.
Energy Awareness on Conservation) in 10 states. The objective being to create awareness, provide guidance to maximize energy education and enhance learning among children. It also provides for children to participate in energy projects, essays, debates and painting competitions. Our national painting competition for children of classes IV and V attended over 700,000 students last year. We hope that in preparing for the competition, these children absorb the tenets of energy efficiency which will remain with them through their lives. We also hope that the preparation process involves – and influences – parents, teachers and friends, and thus creates a ripple effort. Can Indian innovation help the world? What are the areas where you think our engineering institutes, economists and other related institutions should focus for the market of the next decade?
BEE is also working closely with several organizations and research institutes focusing on energy efficiency, e.g. IITs at Delhi and Mumbai, The Energy Resources Institute, etc. for effective technology and policy development, and for implementation of its schemes. Your organization has created opportunities for energy auditors and other related manpower in the country. Is there any way we can do better in terms of the manpower availability for this sector and for the power sector at large? We now have 714 industrial units in 9 sectors which are notified as designated consumers. Since it is now mandatory for designated consumers to employ energy managers and to conduct regular energy audits, the scope for employment of BEE accredited energy managers and energy auditors is on the rise.
India is an innovation accelerator – because our cultural, economic and geographical diversities result in a demand for a variety of products. This stimulates innovation across the value chain. So, there is scope for innovation for an energy-efficient wood – burning chulha, as well as for a LPG – burning stove, and for a microwave oven. Our numbers are so large that each successful innovation has the scale to be commercially viable, and so meet global needs as well.
Besides this, BEE is also aiming to increase the technical capacity of architects & engineers to become BEE accredited ECBC experts. BEE starts its message targeting very young kids at school. It has been impressive to see these kids spreading the message on energy efficiency. From awareness to harnessing innovation, what do you think we can do better as a nation? Today even though most of us are aware of the benefits of practicing energy efficiency, unfortunately few actually practice it. This message needs to be reiterated again and again in various ways. The focus on the next generation has proved to be very effective. It is necessary to introduce children to energy efficiency during their school education. In this regard, a pilot project was undertaken by BEE for school children and as a result, NCERT has revised the 9th standard science text books by incorporating text on energy conservation. BEE has also implemented a school education program on energy titled BEACON (Building
The areas of focus are many. Some of them are insulation of buildings (especially of roofs), efficient lighting (especially LEDs); efficient air conditioning (such as heat pumps); public transport (such as Bus Rapid Transport); and renewable, such as wind, solar and biomass energy technologies.
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LIGHTING A BILLION LIVES Of the 6.8 billion human beings that populate this planet, over 1.6 billion lack access to electricity; roughly 25% of them are from India. For most of us, it is hard to imagine how life comes to a standstill for these people after dusk fall. Inadequate lighting facility not only impedes their economic progress and development, but impacts their health. These villagers depend on kerosene lamps, dung cakes, firewood, and crop residue for lighting. Paradoxically, most villagers begin their day in the wee hours of the morning, much before the crack of dawn – farmers must get to their fields before the blazing sun scorches them while fruit and flower pickers must finish their work before sunrise. There is a poignant photograph of a jasmine picker from South India who carefully balances an earthen lamp on her head while both her hands are busy picking flowers. From Darkness towards Light
actual turnkey for the design and development is given to the technical partners. LaBL has created a platform for public-private-people partnership, where the private sector can enhance the effectiveness of developmental schemes of the government, particularly in health, education and livelihoods sectors, by providing lighting through LaBL. For instance, the government supports the rural health workers; a solar lantern has helped many of them in doing their duties effectively, particularly when attending to medical emergencies at night. Similarly, the hostels for tribal children which are funded under the universal education programmes of the government have been equipped with solar lanterns to help children study at night. The community, represented by the entrepreneur and users of lantern, in turn, contribute towards operation, maintenance and sustenance of LaBL.
Dr. R.K. Pachauri presenting a solar lantern to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh Fortunately, technological solutions are finally becoming available to solve the problem of rural lighting. The 'Lighting a Billion Lives' (LaBL) initiative from TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) is an ambitious step in this direction. At the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, 2008, an annual event organized by TERI, the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh launched the LaBL campaign. TERI Director-General Dr R K Pachauri presented a solar lantern to the Prime Minister in a symbolic gesture to start the campaign, which will replace kerosene and paraffin lanterns with solar lighting devices. The target is to bring 200 million solar lanterns in use, assuming that each solar lantern benefits five members of a family. Every solar lantern saves 40 to 60 liters of kerosene a year and 100 Billion Rupees burned each year in kerosene and wick lamps.
Texas Instruments as a Product Partner of LaBL Towards the continuous development of the state-of-art design of the solar lanterns and charging station, TERI has partnered with some of the major players in the lighting industry, semi-conductor industry, Photo-Voltaic industry and other energy service providing companies. Texas Instruments, as a product partner from the semiconductor industry is working with some of the solar lantern manufacturing product partners of LaBL in development and customization of LED based solar lanterns. TI provides constant-current LED driver and battery charging & protection solutions to these LED based solar lantern manufacturers.
Target users The LaBL campaign works by creating local entrepreneur-driven delivery channels for distribution and servicing of solar lanterns to rural communities. The solar lanterns use compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) as well as LEDs (light emitting diodes). Although LED based lighting solutions is yet to penetrate the urban populace, TERI has taken a bold step to make this technology available to villages. The design and development of the solar lanterns and solar charging stations are the joint work of TERI and its technical partners. While the specifications are provided by TERI,
A street-side fruit-vendor can work beyond dusk fall, thanks to solar lighting
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A solar lantern that makes cooking easier
Feeding silk worms in solar light
Innovations needed for sustaining the campaign A campaign such as LaBL needs support in several ways and innovations are needed to reach the user, the key stakeholder in the campaign. Innovations are needed in technology, product design, micro-financing, and educating the users. An example of a technological innovation is an improved solution for battery charging. According to Harish Hande of Selco, the life style of the end-user must be studied to be able to offer the right solution. Harish has spent many years researching the right solutions for the rural and urban users of solar power. He mentions a product innovation that involved sharing the same solar light between two different rooms in a house in an Indian village, so that the final solution made sense both from functional and economical view point. Providing a solar panel on the rooftop of the house can be a sustainable solution for charging, although it needs the backing of a good financing system for the end-user to adopt it. An alternate is to provide charging stations similar to gas stations and STD booths, which provide employment opportunities to people, including those who are physically challenged. Technical training is needed for the end-users and operators of the charging station.
Art by Ananya Ravikumar
“A simple rotational transform helps to change Energy to Green… with peace and harmony thrown in for good measure”
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WIRELESS AMBULATORY BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM Anil V. Nandi1, Vaishali B.M2, Shivanand B3, Shivaprasad C , Shambhling D4, Vinay M4, Shrikanth Y4, Vishal M.S.4, Shashikant S4, Praveen W4, Vilas U4 4
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Assistant Professor, Electronics and Communication Engineering (E&CE) department, 2 Assistant Professor, Instrumentation Engineering department, 3 Project Assistant, Embedded Systems Laboratory, 4 E&CE Students, B.V.Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli, Karnataka Introduction One of the most widely used methods to test the human health condition is to measure his/her Blood Pressure (BP). We have designed and built a BP monitoring system that can measure user's BP using an inflatable hand-cuff and transmit measured data to a central database in the hospital through the user's mobile on a GSM network for remote monitoring. The entire system is built around an ultra-low power microcontroller MSP430F2274 (Mixed Signal Processor) from Texas Instruments. The wireless transmission to a central database is done through USART of MSP430 and user's mobile on GSM network. Using this system, a patient in a remote place can easily be alerted about continuous abnormal BP values.
systolic pressure (180 mmHg for an average person) is built. When the cuff is slowly inflated, we measure the tiny oscillations in the air pressure of the arm cuff through the “pressure sensor” output. From this measurement, the mean pressure is determined. Statistical analysis is used to determine systolic and diastolic blood pressure values. After the pressure reaches its upper limit, air is released from the cuff. After measuring the BP values, we transmit them to remotely located central database in the hospital using patient's mobile on GSM network.
Implementation The built-in components of MSP430 mixed-signal processor, such as ADC, Op-amp, USART and Timers, are used to implement our algorithm, which makes the system compact and leads to very low power. Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the BP monitoring system.
There are two important methods of measuring BP, namely, Auscultatory method and Oscillometric Method. We have used the latter, where air is pumped into the cuff and pressure well above the average
USER BUTTONS
PATIENT’S MOBILE
GSM Network
DOCTOR’S MOBILE
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT MODULE
USART PUMP
control signal
LCD M.C.U.
air
DC signal
CUFF
PRESSURE SENSOR
oscillation signal
Figure 1: Block diagram of BP Monitoring system BUFFER
HP filter
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The cuff pressure is sensed by pressure sensor. The output of sensor is passed through a buffer. The output of buffer is split into two paths for two different purposes. One is used as the cuff pressure while other is processed by a circuit.
USART
Since the pressure sensor MPXV5050GP has an internal op-amp, its output cuff pressure signal (CP) is already conditioned and can be directly interfaced with an (A/D) converter for digitization. The other path filters and amplifies the raw CP signal to extract an amplified version of the CP oscillations, which are caused by the expansion of the user's arm each time pressure in the arm increases during cardiac systole.
MAX232 CIRCUIT
GSM MODEM (MAX232)
MSP 430
Figure 3: Block diagram of wireless transmission prototype Results and Verification
The output of sensor consists of two signals, the oscillation signal (approximately 1 Hz) riding on CP signal (< 0.04Hz). Hence a two-pole high-pass filter (Figure 2) is designed to block the CP signal before the amplification of oscillation signal.
We have measured systolic and diastolic for several users using our system. The readings from our system are compared with the manually measured readings. The results indicate on an average 5.84% error in systolic and 6.11% error in diastolic readings from our system as compared to manual readings (Doctor's method). We are looking into the sources of the error and planning to improve the accuracy of the measurement further.
Features of our system Vo
A unique low-noise air pumping system allows our monitors to inflate quietly. Mean value measurement range: 70-150 mmHg, over-pressure protection. Accuracy: +/- 3 mmHg. System runs on 5V battery. Measured values are sent to the database in the hospital through GSM network.
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BP values are updated to the respective patient's record in the database.
Figure 2: High pass filter
Alarm generation capability to alert the patient in case of out of range BP values.
The oscillation signal varies from person to person and the variation can be in the range of 1mmHg to 3mmHg. From the transfer function of MPXV5050GP, this translates to a voltage output of 12 mV to 36 mV signal. Since the filter gives an attenuation of 10 dB to the 1 Hz signal, the oscillation signal becomes 3.6 mV to 11.4 mV respectively. Experiments indicate that the amplification factor of amplifier is chosen to be 150 so that the amplified oscillation signal is within the output limit of the amplifier (5.0 mV to 3.5 V). For wireless transmission, data from MSP430 is sent through USART and external MAX232 circuit to the GSM board available in our lab. GSM transmits the data to specified central GSM module(Doctor). The block diagram of wireless transmission prototype is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 4: Lab Prototype of BP Monitoring System
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SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE – SOLAR ELECTRIC RICKSHAW The city dwellers share a love-hate relationship with “Rickshaw-wallahs” – love for their uncanny ability to meander through the traffic and get you there on time, while car drivers wait impatiently for the red light to turn green, and hatred for the pollution they emit into the city air. In most Asian cities, a rickshaw has come to mean the “Auto-rickshaw.” But it is still possible to spot a manually pulled rickshaw or one that is pedaled. On a hot summer day, one wonders how the rickshaw-wallah can perform this feat – driving two, or sometimes even three, passengers. While the inhumanity of the rickshaw bothers us, the impact of the auto-rickshaw on the environment is of equal concern. Auto-rickshaws burn diesel – a fossil fuel – and result in two forms of pollution – air pollution and noise pollution. In the busy streets of cities, pollution is at alarmingly high levels due to very slow movement of automobiles. Painting an auto-rickshaw green won't quite make it a green vehicle!
A Green Vehicle? Quite the opposite!
A solar-powered motor-assisted Pedicab has been conceived as a low-cost, environment-friendly alternative. In this “soleckshaw,” the three-wheeled cycle rickshaw has been transformed into a green auto-mobile (see Table 1). The BLDC hub motor is a traction type motor, which can supply high torque at low speed. This characteristic of motor eliminates the use of any gear train and results in simple and light transmission system. An override mechanism has been used at the center of rear axle; resulting in proper turning and better dynamic stability of the vehicle. The braking system is introduced in all three wheels for proper stability and safety.
Vital Statistics for the Soleckshaw Prototype Designed and Developed by CMERI, Duragpur Time for Prototype Development – 8 months Rear-wheels powered by Manual Power Front wheel powered by BLDC (brushless DC) electric hub motor 36V, 30Ah Lead-acid Battery to power the motor Battery charging at solar power charging stations through battery swapping Solar Station Designed by – Central Electronics Ltd. No solar panels on the rickshaw – lesser weight and lower cost Designed for two passengers Value Addition - Headlight, tail lamp, indicator provided for night driving Improved Prototypes targeted by – Commonwealth Games, 2010
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Texas Instruments as a member of the Soleckshaw team Towards the continuous development of the state-of-art design of Soleckshaw and charging station, CSIR has partnered with some of the players in the manufacturing industry, BLDC motor industry, semi-conductor industry, PV industry, battery industry etc. Texas Instruments, as a team member from the semiconductor industry is working towards development and customization of motor controller. Another domain of interest to TI is the battery charging & protection solution for the Soleckshaw project. Several R&D projects are slated to be launched in the areas of storage batteries, charge and speed controller, solar photo voltaic and hybrid transmission, in a network mode to make the future Soleckshaw an engineering marvel. Deepak Bhardwaj, Director Corporate Relations Texas Instruments comments – “For TI, it is bringing cutting edge innovation at the doorstep of the common man and providing this world greener options to pursue.”
Soleckshaw launching on the Birthday of Mahatma Gandhi – Oct 2, 2008 The Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Kapil Sibal, and Chief Minister of Delhi, Mrs. Sheila Dikshit
Fruits can not only give you energy, but can also energize your electronics! See a demonstration of fruits being used as batteries in an MSP430-based system – it is available on YouTube at: tinyurl.com/nlml74
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Interfacing to the Real World – Data Converter Architectures – Oversampling Converters
since the transition band can now be gentle (fs/2 to Fsfs/2) – additional noise aliased in this region can be removed by the digital filter since this is outside the signal band. In short, anti-alias filtering requirements are relaxed while the complexity of the filter is transferred to the digital domain. With the advent of digital CMOS processes, even complex digital circuitry can be realized cheaply and this accounts for the popularity of this architecture today.
K Anand, Texas Instruments, India In the concluding article of this series, let us understand the basics of oversampling converters. Oversampling converters emerged as a concept several decades ago – however, these converters became commercially attractive only about 15-20 years ago coinciding with the availability of cheap digital CMOS processes. The reason for this will become obvious later. In order to understand the need for oversampling converters, it is necessary to revisit some basic concepts. When a signal is sampled with sampling rate fs and quantized, the total quantization noise power of is distributed uniformly in frequency –fs/2 to fs/2 (Figure 1). The noise spectral density is given by (refer article on data conversion performance metrics):
Figure 2
Figure 3 Figure 1
While oversampling provides a 3 dB advantage in signal-to-noise ratio for every doubling of sampling frequency, further gains can be achieved if most of the quantization noise can be pushed outside the signal band and removed in the following digital filter (Figure 4). This implies that very high performance can be achieved in the signal band even with a single bit (or low resolution) A/D converter - this is achieved by a deltasigma based oversampling converter whose operation is described next.
Oversampling implies sampling a signal at a frequency Fs which is higher than twice its signal bandwidth (as mandated by the Nyquist theorem). In this case, the same quantization error power gets distributed over a larger bandwidth, increasing the achievable signal-tonoise ratio in the signal band (Figure 2). Here, OSR refers to the oversampling ratio (Fs/fs). Clearly, digital post filtering with a sharp cutoff (at fs/2) is required to obtain this advantage. Another advantage is that the anti-alias filtering requirements are relaxed (Figure 3)
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Oversampling Ratio, OSR (the ratio of Fs/fs) and the number of quantization levels, L. The dynamic range, DR of the converter in terms of the above parameters can be shown to be 2O + 1 ( LOSR () 3( 1) 2O + 1) DR = 2O 2p 2
From the above equation, it can be seen that for a first order loop filter, every doubling of oversampling ratio results in 9 dB improvement in the dynamic range, while for a second order loop, the improvement in dynamic range is 15 dB and so on. The basic implementation typically uses an integrator based loop filter, a low resolution flash ADC and a feedback DAC. It is important to note that though the quantizer is of low resolution, the DAC resolution needs to be as good as the final desired performance. This is one reason why most quantizers are single bit since a single bit DAC is always linear (any two points will always lie on some straight line). A simple, first implementation of a delta-sigma A/D converter is shown in Figure 6 and its output spectrum in Figure 7. A representative implementation of a second order converter is shown in Figure 8 and its spectrum in Figure 9. In figure 9, the shaping of the quantization noise can be seen clearly. Please note that the signal band is only a small fraction of the sampling frequency.
Figure 4
Figure 5 illustrates the block diagram of a basic discrete time delta sigma converter. The oversampling converter is a simple control loop as shown. H(z) represents the loop filter which is typically a low pass transfer function, E(z) represents the feedback transfer function (typically 1) while Q(z) represents the quantization noise added by a low resolution quantizer (or ADC) which is embedded in the control loop.
Figure 5 The signal transfer function of the above loop is given by:
Figure 6
Vo ( z ) H ( z) = Vin ( z ) 1 + H ( z)E( z)
FFT Plot for 1st Order Modulator Output OSR=256, fs=48e3, level=7
The noise transfer function of the above loop is given by:
Vo ( z ) 1 = Q( z ) 1 + H ( z)E( z) From the above, it can be deduced that the signal transfer function is low pass in nature while the noise transfer function is highpass in nature. The highpass nature of the noise transfer function results in shaping of the quantization noise as desired. The key parameters of an oversampling converter which decides its performance are Order, O (of the loop filter),
Figure 7
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Figure 8 FFT Plot for 2nd Order Modulator Output OSR=256, fs=48e3, level=7
Freqency Spectrum for - 120dB, 19593.75 Hz Input signal
Figure 10
Figure 9 While the above represent the most basic types of the delta-sigma architecture, there exist several possible implementations distinguished by order, oversampling ratio, number of quantization levels used, single feedback, multiple feedback, feed-forward, resonator based, etc., Since this article is introductory in nature we will not study the different architecures in detail – it will suffice if the reader understands that multiple architectures are possible and the most appropriate one should be chosen based on the critical requirements. We will study a couple of non-idealities of this type of converter to show how architectural choices determine the performance of the converter. When a low dc input signal is applied to low order modulators, the output pattern repeats resulting what are known as idle tones (Figure 10). This happens because the loop is deterministic and the input is constant with time. These tones can be reduced by choosing a higher order loop filter, increasing the number of quantization levels, adding dither, etc.,
quantizer gets overloaded and its non-linearity limits the performance of the ADC. The input amplitude at which this occurs is referred to as the Maximum Signal Amplitude, MSA upto which the ADC can be used reliably. If the input exceeds this amplitude, overloading occurs and unless carefully designed, the converter could become unstable and sometimes not recover even if the input signal is reduced. Overload recovery is a key specification for converters if such events can occur – this again depends on the particular architecture of the converter. Typically, low order, multi-level quantizer based converters show better overload recovery performance.
Figure 11 shows a typical plot of the signal-to-noise ratio versus input signal amplitude. Most part of the curve shows a linear behaviour as expected – however, at high signal amplitudes the curve deviates from a straight line and the performance drops drastically. This is due to the fact that for a high input signal, the
Figure 11 13
Though we have used analog-to-digital conversion to explain the idea, the uniqueness of the delta-sigma architecture lies in the fact that it is equally applicable to digital-to-analog conversion. Figure 12 illustrates the basic block diagram for both analog-to-digital conversion and digital-to-analog conversion. The input digital filter of the D/A converter interpolates the signal from the Nyquist rate fs to the oversampled rate Fs. The equivalent of the analog anti-alias filter (A/D) is the relaxed analog post filter (D/A) whose main function is to reject the images of the input signal at multiples of Fs.
In summary, the oversampling delta-sigma converter is an alternative converter architecture, applicable to both analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters. The main advantage of this architecture is that it trades off analog precision for digital complexity and hence highly suitable for modern day digital CMOS technologies. However, the performance is tightly coupled to the architecture and hence a lot of care is required while choosing the architecture. Initially intended only for low speed applications, this architecture is now all pervasive and is used for low
speed (eg. audio, instrumentation) applications as well as very high speed (eg. communication) applications.
Questions and Problems Derive the following dynamic range equation for a deltasigma converter of order O, oversampling ratio OSR and L quantization levels.
Figure 12
TI has announced the new CC430 technology platform, which offers the industry's lowest power, single-chip radio-frequency (RF) solution for microcontroller (MCU)based applications. By making RF design easy, small, performance-rich and power-efficient, the CC430 platform helps advance applications such as RF networking Energy harvesting Industrial monitoring Tamper detection Personal wireless networks Alarm and security systems Automatic metering infrastructure The CC430 leverages TI's industry leading RF expertise and ultra-low-power MSP430 microcontroller to offer a powerful sub-1GHz RF protocol/applications processor. Supported by the well-known and easy to use MSP430 tool kit, as well as RF design tools, the CC430 allows fast and efficient design-ins. Watch a short video that provides an overview of CC430 at http://tinyurl.com/nsougp
Lowest Power Single-Chip RF Solution for MCU based applications
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MSP 430 MICROCONTROLLER WORKSHOP at VIT Pune A one-day workshop on “MSP430 Microcontroller and Its Applications” was held at VIT, Pune on May 19, 2009. The workshop was jointly organized by VIT Pune, Cranes Software, Texas Instruments, and IEEE Signal Processing Chapter, Bombay. The workshop attracted about 40 faculty participants from engineering colleges in Pune. There were also some student participants from VIT, Pune.
Prof. PM. Patil, Prof. Madhuri Joshi, and Dr. Ravikumar at the inauguration
Informal interaction with students during the workshop
Prof. PM. Patil, Head of the Department of Electronics, welcomed the participants and stressed the importance of such workshops in exposing the faculty to latest industry trends. Prof. Madhuri Joshi of College of Engineering Pune spoke on behalf of IEEE Signal Processing Society (Bombay) and encouraged the participants to take advantage of the learning opportunity. Dr. C.P. Ravikumar delivered a keynote talk on “Embedded Systems.” This was followed by a workshop on MSP430 conducted by Mr. Vasant of Cranes Software. The workshop included both lecture and demonstration. Our sincere thanks to Prof. Ashutosh Marathe of VIT, who coordinated the event. The feedback from the workshop has been very enthusiastic and is summarized below. What Participants liked
What Participants wanted
Got gross idea about MSP 430XX, one more good product of TI It provided an insight into the latest development in the different applications in various field Got proper guideline to start project work in this area Good presentation and sufficient coverage of topics Systematic, informative and well organized Got good knowledge about TI University activity Session was very interactive Got to learn about new generation of microcontrollers from professionals of industry
More numbers of such events To include more demos and practical sessions Allowing students to participate in such events More detailed explanation of applications Free samples Hands-on sessions
Editor's Note - Free samples of TI's semiconductor products can be ordered by University Professors by visiting my.ti.com and clicking on “Sample and Buy”.
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TI AT THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS March 2009
NIT Surathkal
SGGITS, Nanded
On March 10, 2009 a talk on “OMAP platform for Embedded Systems – Architecture and Applications,” was held as part of the “ARM Architecture and Applications” workshop held at NIT Surathkhal. Abhishek Denis Jacob was the speaker from the TI India. More than 50 students and faculty participated in this event. Many thanks to Prof. Sumam David and Prof. Laxmi Nidhi for their invitation and hospitality.
On March 6, 2009, C.P. Ravikumar (Texas Instruments) visited SGGITS, Nanded, to take part in the student technical festival Pragyaa 2009. He conducted a halfday workshop for students and faculty, on the topic “50 years of IC innovation.” The focus of the talk was recent developments in semiconductor technology, which are fuelling amazing developments in the field of embedded systems. There were more than 80 participants including faculties and students. He also participated in the inauguration of the student festival and interacted with the faculty members of the Electronics and Computer Science Departments. In the same event, Vasant of Cranes Software delivered a half-day workshop on “MSP430 Microcontroller.” Many thanks to Dr. Y.V. Joshi and his colleagues and students for the hospitality!
Manipal University
ABV-IITM On March 7, 2009, a seminar on TI DSP, entitled “C6000 Architecture, Programming and Optimizations” was held at Atal Bihari Vajpayee - IITM, Gwalior. Venugopal Mudumbu of Texas Instruments was the speaker. More than 50 participants attended the seminar. Abhishek Jacob Denis demonstrating Beagle Board at Manipal University On March 11, 2009 a talk on “OMAP platform for Embedded Systems – Architecture and Applications,” was held at Manipal University. Abhishek Denis Jacob, an alumnus of Manipal University, was the speaker from the TI India. About 25 participants took part in this event. Many thanks to Prof. Harishchandra Hebbar for hosting.
SVCE, Chennai On March 13, 2009, C.P. Ravikumar of Texas instruments delivered two talks at a VLSI Design workshop held at Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering, Chennai. The first talk was entitled “Challenges in VLSI design and Verification,” and the second talk was entitled “50 years of IC innovation.” About 40 participants, including faculty and students from several colleges, took part in the event. Thanks to Prof. Shashikiran Venkatesha for the invitation and hospitality.
Prof. Sumam David and Prof. Laxmi Nidhi along with faculty and students of NIT Surathkal at the OMAP
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On April 9, 2009 Dr. C.P. Ravikumar from TI India visited SRM University (Kancheepuram) and took part in the National Conference on Microelectronics and Communication (NCMEC). He delivered a keynote talk on “Semiconductor Innovation for Modern Medicine”. More than 150 student and faculty took part in the event. Thanks to Dr. Vidya Charan Bhaskar and Dr. A.N. Parameswaran for their hospitality during the visit.
On March 13, 2009, C.P. Ravikumar of Texas Instruments gave a talk on TI products in the event “50 years of IC Innovation” held at SVCE Chennai. There were more than 50 participants including faculties and students.
Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering On March 19, 2009 visited the Dyananda Sagar College of Engineering. He interacted with the Director, Dr. Prem Chand Sagar, and delivered a talk on Embedded Systems for a gathering of about 75 students and faculty. The event was part of the National Engineering Conference held at the college. Thanks to Dr. Sagar and his faculty colleagues for the hospitality.
April 2009 Siddaganga Institute of Technology On April 6, 2009 C.P Ravikumar of Texas Instruments visited SIT, Tumkur, as Chief Guest at the event “Browse 2009” organized by the Department of Information Science and Engineering. Over 200 students and faculty were present in the inauguration. He gave a talk on “Embedded Systems” at the event. Thanks are due to Prof. Nalini, Head of the Department of ISE, for the hospitality.
If you are interested in learning about LED lighting, you will find the following videocasts useful. They are available from the following TI Website: http://tinyurl.com/kobl9t
IIT Kharagpur
Some of the videocasts featured there are:
On April 7, 2009 C.P. Ravikumar of TI India, gave a keynote talk entitled “From VLSI Design to Embedded Systems - A Natural Progression for India,” as part of the annual meeting of the Advanced VLSI Consortium at IIT Kharagpur. AVLSI Consortium conducts research in all aspects of VLSI Design and is supported by a number of semiconductor companies in India, including Texas Instruments India.
LEDs for MR16 Lamp Replacement Applications LEDs for Solar Powered Lighting Applications Powering LEDs How to Connect Multiple LEDs
SRM University, Kancheepuram
Selecting A LED Lighting Diode
Submit your paper to UniTI Have you/your students designed a system using TI semiconductor as part of a University Project? You can share your achievements with our readers. Submit an article for the next issue of UniTI newsletter. Your contribution must be in MS Word format and must be less than 5 pages in length. Do include a picture of your project/project team. Please send your article to
[email protected] to reach before September 1, 2009. UniTI will donate a TI tool for every selected article.
Dr. C.P. Ravikumar delivering a keynote talk at National Conference on Microelectronics and Communication (NCMEC) in SRM University (Kancheepuram)
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NEWS UPDATE 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 based Microcontrollers are now in TI portfolio Texas Instruments acquired Luminary Micro , a market-leading supplier of ARM Cortex™-M3-based 32-bit microcontrollers. With this acquisition, Texas Instruments now offers the Stellaris portfolio, which addresses mainstream 32-bit microcontroller applications with the general-purpose processing power of the industry-standard ARM Cortex-M3 core and advanced real-time communication capabilities, including 10/100 Ethernet MAC+PHY, CAN, USB On-The-Go, USB Host/Device, SSI/SPI, UARTs, I2S, and I2C. The Stellaris family is positioned for cost-conscious applications requiring significant control processing and connectivity capabilities including motor control, remote monitoring, HVAC and building controls, network appliances and switches, factory automation, electronic point-of-sale machines, test and measurement equipment, medical instrumentation, and gaming equipment. Brian Crutcher, the Vice President and General Manager of Advanced Embedded Control business in TI, said: “With the addition of the Stellaris Cortex-M3 family to its portfolio of microcontrollers, TI gives designers a one stop shop for microcontrollers for almost any application.” To complement this offering of MCUs, TI offers the industry's most extensive analog portfolio to help build embedded systems. There are ten different products in the ARM portfolio and their details are available from www.ti.com/stellaris - you will be able to order samples of the following microcontrollers from the family - LM3S8971, LM3S6938, LM3S6537, LM3S2616, LM3S828, and LM3S308. In the past issues of UniTI, we have carried articles about TI’s microcontrollers: · ·
the ultra-low-power 16-bit MCU (See [1]) high-performance, 32-bit TMS320C2000™ real-time controllers (See [2])
Which is the right Texas Instruments Microcontroller for your application? If you have been wondering which is the best platform from cost, performance and power view points, visit the MCU selection guide – an online tool that will help you interactively select the right platform: http://focus.ti.com/en/multimedia/flash/selection_tools/mcu/mcu.html
References [1] Ultra Low-Power Microcontrollers from TI. UniTI Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue 2. Article available from tinyurl.com/lfyn3j [2] Padmini Sampath. C2000 Digital Signal Controllers – An Introduction. UniTI Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue 2. Article is available on-line from tinyurl.com/lfyn3j
Soliloquy of an ARM Designer: “Is my gym equipment making my arm stronger or my ARM making this gym machine stronger?”
Art by Ananya Ravikumar
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Product
Short Description
Information on Evaluation Kits (Visit www.ti.com/stellaris)
LM3S8971
50 MHz ARM Cortex™-M3 MCU with on-chip Ethernet (MAC+PHY), CAN, 256 kB flash, 64 kB SRAM, motion control unit, 2 QEI, IEEE 1588 assist
LM3S8962 Ethernet+CAN Evaluation Kits
LM3S6938
ARM Cortex™-M3 controller core operating at 50 MHz, 256 kB flash, 64 kB SRAM, 10/100 Ethernet MAC/PHY, Systick timer, four 32-bit or eight 16-bit general purpose timers, watchdog timer
LM3S6965 Ethernet Evaluation Kits
LM3S5739
50 MHz ARM Cortex™-M3 MCU with on-chip Ethernet (MAC+PHY), CAN, 256 kB flash, 64 kB SRAM, StellarisWare™ in ROM, motion control unit, QEI
LM3S2965 CAN Evaluation Kit
LM3S2616
50 MHz ARM Cortex™-M3 MCU with CAN, 256 kB flash, 16 kB SRAM, StellarisWare™ in ROM, motion control unit, QEI, 24-bit Systick timer, four 32-bit or eight 16-bit general purpose timers, watchdog timer
LM3S2965 CAN Evaluation Kit
LM3S811
50 MHz ARM Cortex™-M3 MCU, 64 kB flash, 8 kB SRAM, motion control unit, 24-bit Systick timer, three 32bit or six 16-bit general purpose timers, watchdog timer
Development Kits
LM3S3748 USB H/D Evaluation Kits
Supplemental Daughterboards LM3S811 Evaluation Kits
LM3S308
25 MHz ARM Cortex™-M3 MCU, 16 kB flash, 4 kB SRAM, 24-bit Systick timer, three 32-bit or six 16-bit general purpose timers, watchdog timer
LM3S811 Evaluation Kits
TI India celebrated the World Environment Day on June 5. The ESH team from TI India – Environment, Safety and Health – had several tips for keeping our environment clean and green.
Reduce Waste: Purchase products with returnable and refillable packaging. Avoid over-packaged and disposable products. Reuse: Give away things that you no longer need for the needy people – clothes, toys, books, equipment. Try making organic compost at home. Carry your own shopping bag – say “No” to plastic bags in shops. Recycle: Encourage books and newspapers that are printed on recycled paper. Drive Less: Use public transport or car pooling. Ride a bicycle or walk to a near-by destination! Fly Less: Flying is one of the most carbonintensive modes of transport. So when possible take a train or bus instead of flying. Or just use video-conferencing.
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The House of Solar Gables TI Sponsors University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in Solar Decathlon
The Solar Decathlon is a competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in partnership with its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Texas Instruments will sponsor the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign team in Solar Decathlon 2009. The aim of Solar Decathlon is to encourage Universities to build and operate the most attractive, energy efficient homes. Among the twenty homes that will be part of the contest, built by Universities from several parts of the world, is the “Gable Home” from UIUC. The Solar Decathlon will be held during October 9 -18, 2009. Gable Home will be on display on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Texas Instruments is a Gold Sponsor in the Gable Home project. TI engineers will serve as mentors for the team, sharing their experience in energy-efficient technology design and insight into solar power innovation. TI is also providing a small portion of the funding, as well as products toward UIUC's effort. TI's expanded involvement in the Solar Decathlon interfaces nicely with the company's increasing interest in solar and other renewable energies. To find out more about Gable Home, visit the following link: http://www.solardecathlon.uiuc.edu/about.html
“Energizing” Thoughts According to Dr. Bobby Mitra, President and Managing Director, Texas Instruments (India), despite economic meltdown, Indian semiconductor industry is on the rise due to growth in areas like industrial electronics, renewable energy and analogue power devices. According to Frost and Sullivan, the analog power market in India is expected to grow from $189.9M in 2008 to $257.9M in 2010. Everything from lights, fans to automobiles is powered by micro-controllers. The challenge is to reduce their power consumption and thereby their carbon footprint. India's potential in this area has been recognized. TI India has increased number of patents filed from 70 in 2007 to 87 in 2008. India can innovate in healthcare and education sectors by leveraging this technology with the help of Semiconductor companies.
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FEEDBACK AMPLIFIER! Dear Dr Ravikumar, The UniTI newsletter you have been sending is very useful. It helps to connect us to the resource persons and widens our horizon. Please continue to send us the newsletter in the future. We would like to see articles on healthcare, solar energy harvesting and CMOS OPAMP design basics in future issues. Regards, S.R.Purohit Asst. Prof. and HOD of ECE department BLDEA's Dr.P.G.Halakatti CET Bijapur
Dear Dr. Ravikumar, The UniTI newsletter is very useful for our staff and students since it exposes us to many innovative ideas and new research in the field of electronics. You can consider increasing the number of pages. I look forward to more interaction through a visit. Thanks and Regards, K.G. Parthiban Head of the Department, ECE M.P. NACHIMUTHU M. JAGANNATHAN College of Engineering Chennimalai, Erode 638112 Dear Sir, I have read the online version of your news letter. It is very good. I will spread the word among students about it. I hope the relations of Young Engineers with TI will become more stronger year by year. Thank you, Chintan Pandya Student Event Coordinator, “Young Engineers,” IIT Kanpur Sir, I am studying in REVA Engg College (Second Semester, ECE) in Bangalore. I am very impressed by your magazine. Can you start a column that gives some interesting information about electronics and associated fields, which will create more interest in reading the subject and will compel us to think beyond them … Thank you, Devesh Kumar REVA Engineering College Dear Sir, I want to thank you and Vasant for having spared the entire day for the workshop at VIT, Pune, despite your busy schedule. The participants have given a very encouraging feedback and requested for a longer workshop on the topic. The MSP430 family details were covered in a very lucid manner by Mr. Vasant from Cranes Software. He conducted interactive sessions highlighting subtle details of the MSP 430 with an excellent presentation and demonstrations. Ashutosh Marate VIT Pune
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Dear Dr. Ravikumar, The April 2009 issue of UniTi Newsletter was very impressive. The farsightedness of the editorial team in selecting the articles is clearly visible. The interview with Dr. Bobby Mitra can work as a catalyst in opening up many young brains for constructive thinking. The article "From Semiconductors to Embedded systems...." provides a good glimpse of the past and future of the embedded systems in the country. K Anand and K Radhakrishna Rao in their technical articles have very successfully explained difficult concepts of ‘Nyquist Rate ADCs’ and ‘Determination of transfer functions of passive electrical networks’ respectively in a simplified manner. Please also put on record our appreciation for the article – ‘From Nano to Pico’, which gives an insight into the latest electronic gadgets. The future of electronic gadgets is simply impossible to predict, but we as academicians need to keep ourselves updated with the latest of the technologies and also make our students aware of them. We feel that possible inclusion of some kinds of quizzes in the future issues of newsletter will draw immediate attention of the young readers. Best wishes for future issues of UniTi. Archana Mantri, Director (Academics), Chitkara Institute of Engineering andTechnology, Punjab
Rajnish Sharma, Assistant Dean (Academics), School of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University, Himachal Pardesh
I have found the UniTI newsletter very useful. I would like to see more interviews and technical articles that are informative and written in simple language. In particular, I would like to see applications in Robotics. UniTI articles can focus on R&D for improving human life style and economy. Satya Sheel Electrical Engineering, M.N. National Institute of Technology, Allahabad 211004
We want to hear from you! We would be happy to have your feedback on this issue of UniTI newsletter! Did you find it useful? If so, how? If not, what kind of articles would you like to see? Do you have any specific comments on any article in this issue? Do you have any opinions on green electronics or related topics? Write to
[email protected] If you wish to receive a personal copy of UniTI newsletter, please send us your official contact details.
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DON'T MISS THE TRAIN AT THE OPEN PLATFORM UniTI decided to catch up with Syed Mohammed Khasim, Texas Instruments for a chat... UniTI: What is your advice to students on how they should find what is best suited to them? Khasim: It is hard to push a person towards a concept that is not of his interest. Everyone has a different personality and a different skill set. Students should not wait until the last few months of their student career to look for opportunities. Fortunately, today many industries have a University Program and it is possible to get a good exposure to products. Students must make a serious effort to take advantage of the University programs. UniTI: How do you explain the advantages of open platforms to students? Khasim: Affordability is still the #1 concern for students. This is what makes open platforms attractive. There are many low cost development platforms to explore TI technology: o OMAP3 based Beagle board at costs as low as Rs 12,000/- (beagleboard.org) o Dm355 based Leopardboard at costs as low as Rs 6000/- (leopardboard.org) o DSP JTAG emulators like XDS100 starting at Rs 3000. (http://tiexpressdsp.com/wiki/index.php? title=XDS100) o ARM emulators like flyswatter (elinux.org/BeagleBoardJTAG)
UniTI: Khasim, you interact a lot with students on the Beagle mailing list. A lot of students write to you about their projects. We wanted to catch up with you and find out what your advice is to our student readers. Khasim: My advice to them would be to “get going.” Last Sunday, I was watching the movie Apollo 13; I liked the scene where a senior manager says “let's work on the problem and not make things worse by guessing.” I try to relate this to the questions that many students raise when they approach me through e-mail or during by visits to the campus under the TI India University program. I come across students who think that using state-of-the-art technology is beyond their reach, either because they cannot afford it or because it is too complicated for them to comprehend. I tell them to get started on the problem instead of speculating.
And there are many more things on their way. UniTI: But what about software? Khasim: There is quite a bit of free foundation software available: o Software available for free on GIT, Example for OMAP3 : http://code. google.com/p/beagleboard/ o Free Codecs and tons of software from Texas Instruments, http://www.ti.com/requestfreesoftware
UniTI: So you are saying that there is a hesitation to get started due to the confusion on what to do for their projects. What is the origin of this problem? Khasim: I think students begin to take a closer look at Industry only during the last years of their study. This gives them very little opportunity to learn and explore alternatives. It takes a while for a young student to figure out his/her skill sets and interests and match them to the available domains. Several students simply turn to a consultant to guide them on a project which they wish to complete in a short span of time.
UniTI: How about support? Any student who wishes to do a project would have a lot of questions! Khasim: There is 24/7 support from the community on several forums: o IRC (http://beagleboard.org/discuss), o TI community (e2e.ti.com), o Mailing Lists (
[email protected], davinci-linux-open-source) o Forums (http://community.ti.com)
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UniTI: Are there any training that students can personally attend?
UniTI: Can you highlight some benefits of working with an open platform like beagleboard.org?
Khasim: We have a team of volunteers from Beagleboard.org who train students across India on the usage of open platforms and its concepts. o Free trainings to students on TI platforms at http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/ wiki/Trainings o Beagle Clinic is a monthly event to solve real problems and address issues http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/bangalore_ user_meet
Khasim: o It provides a open and collaborative development model: o Students across the world share their work at http://beagleboard.org/project o The work students do can be maintained on many free code repositories like code.google, github, gitorious etc. and linked to project space on beagleboard.org o Student's efforts are globally recognized by the industry. o Students learn sharing, gain knowledge, creative thoughts and working in a team that is distributed across the globe, these skills are very important when they move into their career.
UniTI: What development environments are available for students who wish to do projects? Khasim: Lot of open and free development tools are available, o A free ARM compiler is available: http://www.codesourcery.com/gnu_tool chains/arm/portal/release313 o DSP compilers are available for download: https://www-a.ti.com/downloads/sds_ support/targetcontent/LinuxDspTools/ download.html o Free DSP Simulators are also available.
UniTI: What is your advice to students who wish to use Open platforms for projects? Khasim: The Open Platforms initiative from Texas Instruments should be leveraged by every student to at least understand the problem and find the current state of solution and move towards finding an optimal solution. For any queries please feel free to mail me at
[email protected] or
[email protected]
Embedded Processing Tech Day Texas Instruments held a one-day event called “Embedded Processing Tech Day” at Mumbai on 6 May, 2009. The seminar was targeted at software engineers and decision-makers intending to develop applications on TI's Embedded Processors. About 60 participants from industry took part in the Tech Day. Specific deep-dive sessions were held on enabling rapid application development using TI's low power and highperformance embedded processing platforms, leveraging open source development tools. In particular, the seminar focused on Linux-based programming of TI's OMAP3 application processor with an in-depth tour of the most common software components, codecs and applications. Praveen Ganapathy spoke about TI's processor overview and the future roadmap. This was followed by several product demonstrations: OMAP3 and Beagleboard DM3xx and IP NetCam
Praveen Ganapathy of Texas Instruments, speaking at Embedded Processing Tech Day (Mumbai)
DM64xx and Vision Audio demonstrations using TAS processors
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PROJECT IDEAS FOR STUDENTS REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE C.P. RAVIKUMAR The Carbon Footprint of E-mail Potboilers
Conference Rooms Many colleges have huge auditoriums that can seat hundreds of people. The design of these auditoriums can be made more eco-friendly. Sometimes, we book a conference room based on a guesstimate of the number of participants, only to realize that our enthusiasm for a topic is not shared by so many people, after all. The conference room, however, is illuminated or airconditioned for the large audience that we expected. What technological solutions can you think of, to address this problem? Can the software (or the person) who books conference rooms suggest a more energy-efficient alternative? Can the lighting and air-conditioning in the auditorium be made “smart” and dynamically adjusted to suit our needs? This is also true for large reading rooms or common rooms in libraries and hostels.
Food for Thought Plastic cups and plates thrown in the lawns of a college campus after a college festival make a miserable sight. Is there a technology solution to address this problem? You can brainstorm on this topic and come up with some innovative solutions. Meanwhile, please talk to the vendors who use plastic cups for serving food and beverages on campus and convince them to switch to eco-friendly alternatives.
How many e-mails do you receive in a day and how many of these add value? How many emails were forwarded messages that you had already seen before? How many of them were (needlessly) sent to large mailing lists? How many e-mails had large attachments (that were never opened)? An interesting project would be to collect these statistics and publish them -- I will be happy to publish your interesting findings in UniTI. As I write this, I am counting the Joules which we may save by dealing with the e-mails in the right way. A server could detect that I have already received a 1 MB attachment of a Power Point file and stop the attachment from being forwarded. An even smarter server may detect to trim the contents of the e-mail which is the tenth reply in a “Re: Re: Re:” chain of replies! I would think that Computer Science and Information Technology students would find numerous project ideas in this area! Not only would it save the energy for computing and communication resources – I read somewhere that an Internet Search has the same carbon footprint as that of a tea pot that is boiled -- it would save a lot of energy for the poor receiver of e-mails. Not only would this contribute to the long life of batteries but also to the long life of professors who may be getting frustrated with spam mails! A professor once told me that even deleting an unnecessary mail consumes a few seconds and a fair share of his salary goes towards deleting mails.
(Borrowed from the Architectural Lighting magazine, Nov 2008 issue, the picture shows the use of solar lighting in University of Wisconsin campus.)
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Going Solar!
conference rooms or classrooms that are fitted with airconditioning, air-cooling, or air-heating. These gadgets need to be utilized optimally to reduce wastage – there is no need to turn a summer into a winter or a winter into a summer!
Think where you can use solar energy in the college campus. Solar lighting may be possible for lighting up several parts of the campus. Solar heaters may be useful for heating water in hostels. You may have to dig into the economics of your solution before you present it to your management. Since the investment may be significant, the management will perhaps ask you how long it will take to recover the investment, what the lifetime of the solar panels would be, whether these is a maintenance cost, etc.
RRRobot! I know many of you are very excited about building robots. In many technical festivals held in colleges, we see Robot-building contests. Perhaps a robot can be built to help turn off the lights in empty rooms or report leaking taps. A robot can help clean the solar panels to improve their efficiency. A robot can detect a blaring TV in a common room when there is no one watching it and turn off the TV! What about a robot that pickups up cups and plates strewn on the campus? … Since it helps us reduce, reuse, and recycle, we could call it a RRRobot?
Lights Off! If you are the last person to leave the classroom, turn off the lights. If your classroom has a projector, please ensure it is turned off. Technological solutions exist for these problems, but you may have to select the solution that is most appropriate for your college. There may be
Your college management may be willing to explore technological solutions to some of the problems I have mentioned above. You can consider offering these problems as challenges in your next Tech Fest. Last, but not the least, please share this letter of UniTI newsletter with your library and promote reuse!
Power Supplies (SMPS) in PCs lose their reliability after 3-5 years due to the use of aluminum electrolytic capacitors. You may argue that one can replace these capacitors with better alternatives to extend the reliable life of SMPS to 10 years. However, thanks to consumerism, PCs do not have such a long life! The same is true for mobile phones. Putting the SMPS outside the PC would allow us to reuse the power supply, but customers often do not want this for reasons of aesthetics or portability. Finally, the thermal issues of SMPS do not allow us to reduce the physical size to that of a notebook's external power supply unit. Brainstorm on this issue – what innovations can you come up with?
Monitoring the batteries Imagine that your camera can warn you about the level of energy left in your battery and the number of pictures that you can still take before you change the batteries. Similarly, when you are charging your mobile phone, you may like an indicator of how much they are energized. According to Ram Ananth of TI, the older versions of battery monitoring IC measure the battery voltage. A better monitoring device would count Coulombs i.e. the charge flowing into and out of the battery. Using a shunt resistor connected in series to a battery, the charging current is converted to voltage. This voltage is fed to a voltage to frequency converter (VFC). The VFC along with an embedded microcontroller such as MSP430 can track the energy flow while the battery is charging. This is done by incrementing a counter in proportion to the charging current. The same concept can be used during the discharging process as well – except that the counter is decremented. The counter value is an indicator of the energy in the battery. Another new technique is called impedance tracking, which is used in some high-end cell phones. When the battery is charged or discharged, its impedance changes. The impedance can be measured and used as an indicator for battery life.
Opportunities for green semiconductor in the Indian Market According to Ram Ananth of TI, there are many opportunities for green semiconductors in the Indian market. He quotes the example of street lights. In some parts of Bangalore, bright mercury lamps are installed, which consume 275 Watts of power! They can be replaced with LED lighting fixtures that have 40X higher longevity and reliability. LED lights for same brightness consume only 50 watts of power. TI has a big initiative to produce green semiconductor devices and technologies and is fully focusing its R&D efforts on Indian as well as global market for a greener world.
Can you save the SMPS? When an electronic equipment is scrapped, an SMPS that is integrated into the equipment also gets trashed – the SMPS may be in working condition and could have been saved! According to Ram Ananth of TI, Switch Mode
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ANALOG DESIGN CONTEST FOR INDIAN UNIVERSITIES - 2009 Website – www.india.ti.com/in/analogdesigncontest.htm (Under Construction)
Guidelines The letter of intent, along with proposals, must be received no later than July 31, 2009. All proposals will be acknowledged. Shortlisted colleges will be intimated by August 20, so that they can proceed with the project implementation. The names of the shortlisted colleges will appear on the TI website.
Texas Instruments announces an Analog Design Contest for Indian Universities for the year 2009. To encourage system-level design at the undergraduate level of engineering education, Texas Instruments has announced a design contest, which is now open to Indian Universities. Five universities will be selected from India for participation in the contest, which will take place in two rounds. In round one, teams from within each university compete for a $1,500 prize (to be split among team members). The winning team from each school will then be entered in the second round, called the Engibous Prize Contest. This contest has a first-place prize of $10,000, second place $7,500, and third place $5,000, each to be split among team members.
The proposal should not have been submitted as an entry for any other contest. Universities that propose three or more projects will be short-listed for the award and their names will be published on contest website. It is a requirement that the project will make use of either (a) at least three analog chips from TI or (b) at least two analog chips from TI and a TI processor. Eligible chips include:
Who can enroll? Analog category Amplifiers Clocks and timers Comparators Data converters Interface MSP430 (MCU+ADC) Power management RF Switches Temperature sensors
Any Indian College/University that offers undergraduate programs in Engineering may participate. A letter of intent to take part in the contest, signed by the Principal of the College, must be sent to the address shown below. A sample letter format is also enclosed with this announcement. The university must propose at least three teams, each team consisting of two or more undergraduate students and at least one faculty advisor from the University. If a student is enrolled in a dual-degree program, then he/she is eligible to participate if he/she in the first four years of a UG program.
Processor category MSP430 OMAP DSP
If you need help in getting free IC samples for any specific TI chip, you should write to C.P. Ravikumar (
[email protected]) specifying the part number and package type. (In order to understand what package types are available as free samples, please go to www.ti.com and click on “Sample and Buy”.)
For each team, please include a 1-page proposal which contains the following information: 1 Name of the University 2 Department 3 Names of student team members along with their student id numbers 4 Name(s) of faculty advisor(s) 5 E-mail contacts of the students and faculty 6 Mobile phone contacts of the students and faculty 7 Title of the project 8 Brief summary of the project, explaining the intention
It is expected that the teams will independently work on the project. The final submission is due on November 1, 2009 and must include a write-up on the project, limited to 10 pages.
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The write-up must include the following. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Rewards Each team member of all submitted entries will receive a certificate of participation from Texas Instruments.
A copy of the original proposal An abstract of about 150 words explaining what was achieved in the project An introduction to the problem Proposed solution – highlight any innovation Practical challenges faced in implementation Results, highlighting your accomplishments References to papers, websites, etc. Photograph(s) of the finished product. A letter signed by the faculty member in the specified format.
The details of five selected proposals will be publicized on TI website. A prize of US $1500/- will be awarded to each of the five selected entries in Round 1. The winners of Round 1 will automatically enter Round 2. If the team gets selected in Round 2, the Engibous Prize of $10,000/- will be awarded to the team. The 2nd place team will receive $7,500, and the 3rd place team will receive $5,000.
The prizes will be announced in the first quarter of 2010. The decision of the judges will be final. TI reserves the right to split the prize money in case the judges recommend more than one winning entry. Similarly, TI reserves the right to not award The Engibous Prize awards if there are not sufficient entries or if the judges so recommend.
The students/faculty will be invited to attend the TI Technical Symposium, where the award will be presented to them. The students/faculty will have the opportunity to present their work in a TI University forum. The students/faculty will have the opportunity to publish their work in a TI publication.
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