power
National’s Portable Power Group creates energy-efficient solutions for cell phones and other mobile devices. This year, the Portable Power team announced that National’s Advanced Power Controller (APC) is available for licensing from UK-based ARM. Built on National’s PowerWise™ technology, the APC, used in conjunction with the ARM® Intelligent Energy Manager can reduce processor core power consumption by up to 75 percent. National’s Power Management Group creates solutions for distributed power, digital core and I/O power, signal-path power, lighting management, plus controls, supervisory, and reference ICs. The Group extended its lead in high-voltage products with a new -48 V hot swap controller that delivers board area savings and long-term reliability for communication systems. Overall, National is the world’s number one supplier of voltage regulator and reference ICs with 12.8 percent market share, according to market research firm iSuppli.
amplifiers
National, a pioneer and industry leader in operational amplifiers, ships more than 500 million parts per year, and is the world’s number one supplier of low voltage/low-power products, according to iSuppli. National offers a complete portfolio of amplifier products, from building blocks to application-specific standard products (ASSPs). In high-speed amplifiers, National’s innovative LMH family is ideal for video, communications signal path and instrumentation. During 2004, National introduced the world’s fastest laser diode driver that will allow desktop and notebook consumers to burn full 4.7-gigabyte DVD discs in about 15 minutes. National also introduced the world’s thinnest audio amplifiers for small form-factor electret microphones that extend battery life in cellular handsets, MP3 players and other mobile devices. In audio amplifiers, National’s Boomer® family of products is the amp of choice for the world’s leading cell phone makers.
data conversion
With some of the lowest-power high-performance analog-to-digital converters (ADC), National addresses a broad range of applications including communications, medical imaging, test, measurement and consumer video. This year, National introduced seven new 10- and 12-bit high-speed ADCs that deliver excellent dynamic performance at the lowest power levels. Leveraging its analog-optimized CMOS process, National reached the gigahertz range and industry-leading accuracy with the ADC081000. Continuing to expand in our low power, high performance ADC offering, National released the first five members in a new family of general-purpose products that provide superior performance, power, and size. National is an industry leader in silicon temperature sensors and thermal management. Our broad portfolio of products offer pinpoint accuracy, the lowest power consumption and smallest packages on the market.
interface
National invented Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS)—and today it is rapidly becoming the most popular differential data transmission standard in the industry. National’s portfolio includes serializers/deserializers (SerDes), drivers/receivers/transceivers, crosspoint switches, clock/data distribution devices, and buffers. This year, National introduced point-to-point differential signaling. PPDS™ architecture enables cinema-quality display performance and can support LCD TVs up to 90 inches in diagonal.