News Briefs

Agilent Technologies has announced that its board of directors has elected William P. (Bill) Sullivan as the company's next president and CEO, effective March 1. Sullivan, 55, currently Agilent's executive VP and COO, will succeed Edward W. (Ned) Barnholt, who has announced his retirement as chairman, president, and CEO of the company that he helped launch following its spin-off from Hewlett-Packard in 1999. Barnholt, 61, had previously been an executive VP of HP and the general manager of its measurement organization that incorporated all of Agilent's business groups.

In addition to his current responsibilities as executive VP and COO of Agilent, Sullivan (pictured) has had overall responsibility for the Electronic Products and Solutions Group (EPSG), Agilent's largest business group. He has been instrumental in returning this business to financial health and in helping to lead the company's operational transformation. Sullivan was formerly senior VP and general manager of Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group. He joined Hewlett-Packard in 1976, and during the course of his career, he developed considerable expertise in telecommunications, data communications, computers, and semiconductors. www.agilent.com.

"In creating Silicon Aware IP, Virage Logic tunes its infrastructure IP using specific knowledge of the physical IP it will support, as well as the targeted manufacturing process. In turn, our physical IP is created with an understanding of the test, diagnostics, reliability, and yield-improvement algorithms that are designed into the infrastructure IP," noted Dr. Yervant Zorian, vice president and chief scientist at Virage. "By using a single compiler to jointly generate the infrastructure and physical IP, designers can realize significant time savings."

Virage now offers Silicon Aware IP compliance in its Self-Test and Repair (STAR) memory system, introduced in 2001. www.viragelogic.com.

In late January, Aeroflex announced that it has changed the name of Racal Instruments Wireless Solutions (RIWS) to Aeroflex. Aeroflex purchased RIWS from Racal Instruments in July 2003, and the new name signifies that the transition of RIWS to the Aeroflex brand is now complete.

"Our goal is to grow through product sales and acquisitions to become one of the top test and microelectronics companies in the world. To help achieve this goal, it is important to have a single Aeroflex brand recognized worldwide," said Len Borow, vice chairman and chief operating officer of Aeroflex. The former RIWS offers protocol and parametric testers used in the cellular communications industry. www.aeroflex.com.

PCI-SIG, the special interest group that coordinates the PCI Express architecture, has announced that the data rate for the next revision of the PCI Express specification will double to 5 Gbps. With this higher transfer rate, the new spec should meet anticipated system requirements in computer and communication industry applications. PCI-SIG expects to deliver the new spec in the second half of 2005. www.pci-sig.org.

In December, Eagleware, a supplier of high-frequency system design software for the RF and microwave industry, announced it had acquired Elanix, a provider of electronic-system-level design tools. More recently, Eagleware announced that it has renamed the merged companies as Eagleware-Elanix and has released a new version of SystemView software, a Windows design, simulation, and analysis program.

The 2005 version of the software supports two emerging ultra-wideband (UWB) standards: mulitband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) and direct sequence ultra wideband (DS-UWB). Originally from Elanix, SystemView has been enhanced so its product licensing structure is more compatible with the licensing scheme of the company's Eagleware-Elanix GENESYS electronic design automation software. www.eagleware.com.

Targeting high-speed serial-data link design, debug, and compliance test, the TDS6124C digital storage oscilloscope achieves a 12-GHz analog bandwidth. The companion TDS6154C employs DSP enhancement to extend bandwidth to 15 GHz, enabling it to measure rise times (20% to 80%) of 40 ps with 3% accuracy and to capture the fifth harmonic of a Serial ATA III clock signal.

The DSP enhancement feature is user-selectable per channel and can be switched off to eliminate potential DSP-related artifacts. Both instruments combine a 64-Msample record length with a 40-Gsample/s sample rate at full bandwidth to provide a 1.6-ms time window.

Real-time protocol-trigger and data-decode functions facilitate debug operations. IBM's SiGe technology powers each instrument's 12-GHz analog front end. The instruments work with the vendor's P7313 differential probes, which offer a typical 12.5-GHz system bandwidth when used with the TDS6154C.

Base price: TDS6124C, $100,000; TDS6154C, $125,000. Tektronix , Beaverton, OR. www.tektronix.com.

B&K Precision's VSP4030 produces up to 1200 W of DC power for bench and system-test applications. The switching supply's output is adjustable up to 40 V, 30 A from either front-panel controls and three-digit displays (for voltage and current) or through an RS-232 interface.

The VSP4030 is 1.75 in. high, which is a standard 1U size and is rack mountable. It uses a soft-switching technique that turns on its switching device when there is little voltage across it. Thus, the supply eliminates sharp voltage transients at its output. To further reduce output noise, the VSP4030 uses a linear regulator at its output stage. You can cascade up to nine units together to produce over 10,000 W of DC power.

Price: $1795. B&K Precision , Yorba Linda, CA. www.bkprecision.com.

Burn-in and Test Socket Workshop, March 6–9, Mesa, AZ. Sponsored by IEEE. www.bitsworkshop.org.

Wescon, April 12–14, Santa Clara, CA. Sponsored by IEEE. www.wescon.com.

NEPCON East/Electro, May 3–5, Boston, MA. Sponsored by Reed Exhibition Cos. www.nepconeast.com.

For more calendar listings, visit www.tmworld.com/events.