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PRODUCT SHOWCASE
The ultimate hard disk music
storage system?
Looking for somewhere to store (and
retrieve) all your music? Linn Products
have a solution – if you’re prepared to
pay for it!
The Kivor Index music library is a
storage/retrieval and playback harddisk-based system that can be used
as a stand-alone unit or together with
other Knekt Kivor products.
It provides up to 500 hours of full
bandwidth, pitch accurate hard disk
music storage and allows up to eight
users to have concurrent access to high
quality, full bandwidth music in a
multi-room system or a hard disk component source in any audio system.
Whether you have a huge library of
LPs or CD discs, or like to download
MP3 music, the Kivor Index hard disk
records and creates playlists of your
favourite tracks by genre, artist, mood
or date. Available in two configurations, the Kivor Index provides either
250 or 500 hours of storage that can be
increased up to tenfold when using
compressed audio.
Music is
simply loaded into the
Kivor Index
via its integrated CDROM and a built-in modem downloads
Internet material for ‘manipulation’ on
Linntek, Linn’s PC set up and control
utility software.
Available in either black or silver,
the Linn Kivor Index music library is
rack mountable for installation with
any multi-room amplification system.
Covered by a two-year parts and
labour warranty, the Kivor Index (250
hours storage) has an RRP of $14,999
and the Kivor Index (500 hours storage) has an RRP of $19,999.
Contact:
Linn Products
Ph: 1800 642 922
email: info<at>audioproducts.com.au
330-1500µF, ultra-low ESR tantalums
A new series of solid tantalum chip
capacitors from Vishay Intertech-nology, Inc. features ultra-low equivalent
series resistance (ESR) and high capacitance values in new “E” and “R”
case sizes.
The Vishay Sprague conformal-coated 597D multi-anode capacitors
provide increased reliability and
improved reception in DC-DC conversion, line cards, mother boards
and power supply applications in end
products including test equipment,
PCs and base stations.
The devices’ ultra-low maximum
ESR values range from 13mΩ to 35mΩ
at +25°C and 100kHz. Capacitance
values range from 330µF to 1500µF
with standard tolerances of ±10% and
±20%, and working voltage ranges
from 4-10VDC. Maximum current
leakage ranges from 27µA to 68µA,
and the maximum dissipation factor
is 6% at +25°C and 120Hz.
www.siliconchip.com.au
Foxie lowpower SBC
The LP3500
Fox low-power
single-board
computer is intended for applications
where power is limited, such as in
portable, hand-held, battery-powered,
and remote monitoring systems.
It features built-in analog and digital
I/O and consumes less than 20mA
when fully operational and less than
100µA in power-save mode
It has 25 industrialised I/Os plus
a relay and has eight analog/digital
converter inputs with programmable
gain. Six serial ports are provided (1x
RS-485, 3x RS-232 and 2x TTL) and
there are optional peripherals including keypad/display, serial flash, etc.
Contact:
Dominion Electronics
Ph: (02) 9906 6988
Website: dominion.net.au
TOROIDAL POWER
TRANSFORMERS
Manufactured in Australia
Comprehensive data available
Contact:
Vishay Intertechnology Inc
PO Box 231, Sanford, ME 04073 USA
Seaford Vic 3198
Ph: (0011 1) 207 490 7240
Website: vishay.com
Harbuch Electronics Pty Ltd
9/40 Leighton Pl. HORNSBY 2077
Ph (02) 9476-5854 Fx (02) 9476-3231
March 2003 53
Cellular call diverter:
50-80% telephone bill
savings claim
A Gold Coast-based telecommunications company, Powertec,
has announced the development
of a new Cellular Diverter that they
claim will save users between 50%
and 80% off their regular landline
and mobile telephone accounts.
The Managing Director of Powertec, Mr Ray Smith, says the new
diverter revolutionises the manner in which small and/or home
business operators are charged for
landline calls diverted to mobiles.
“At present whenever a home or
office telephone call is diverted
to a mobile phone the owner pays
charges for the diversion, in conjunction with the caller paying
costs as well,” said Mr Smith. “The
new Powertec CellularDiverter
turns that landline component into
a mobile call, so users can then benefit from special mobile-to-mobile
rates,” he said.
“This means that a 10 minute
diverted call which would normally
cost up to $2.50 will now only cost
20 cents,” he added. “Any business
making calls to mobiles or receiving calls from their own mobiles
can take advantage of the new cost
saving system even when they do
not use the diverter,” he said.
Mr Smith says the new Powertec Cellular Diverter is the result
of more than two years of research
and development, at a cost of
thousands of dollars. He says the
device is Australian compliant and
has patents pending. They are used
in conjunction with the Ericsson
Fixed Cellular Terminal which was
released on the Australian market,
late last year.
Powertec is offering to loan the
system to approved customers at no
cost to prove that the technology
is beneficial in saving on phone
bills for small business and home
users.
Contact:
Powertec Telecommunications
19 Short St, Southport Qld 4215
Ph: 1800 MOBILE
Website: powertec.com.au
54 Silicon Chip
Increased airflow inside racks and enclosures
American Power Conversion (APC)
has available a new compact air distribution unit that increases airflow
inside racks and enclosures.
APC’s NetworkAIR Rack Mounted
(RM) Air Distribution unit works in
tandem with an existing precision air conditioning system in
enclosed environments to pull
air from beneath the raised
floor directly into the rack enclosure, before it can mix with room air.
It eliminates dangerous hot spots
in data centres by boosting the conditioned air volume within the rack itself
and improving air delivery in poor
static pressure areas. In environments
without raised floors, the NetworkAIR
RM Air Distribution unit uses air
from under and around the bottom
of the rack or enclosure where the air
is coldest. This boosts the amount of
air supplied to ensure the necessary
amounts of airflow to equipment.
Contact:
American Power Conversion (APC)
Ph: 9955 9366
Website: apcc.com
Need more “oomph” from your wireless LAN?
When your wireless LAN needs more
output, these cards
will do the job. They
represent the next
generation of wireless equipment offering both robust
construction and a
choice of a both high
power (200mW) and
standard (100mW)
models.
They are ideal for
wireless ISPs.
The detachable external antenna
further enhances their overall perfor-
mance. If you use them with a high
gain antenna, make sure you don’t
exceed the 4W EIRP legal limit.
They support both peer-to-peer and
infrastructure communications and
are usable with WiFi (WECA) certified
products. Operating systems supported
include Win 95, 98, 2000, NT, ME and
XP. Memory size is 128K x 16 SRAM
and 128K x 8 flash ROM.
Contact:
Microgram Computers
Unit 1/14 Bon Mace Cl, Berkeley Vale
NSW 2261
Ph: (02) 4389 8444 Fax: (02)4389 8388
Website: microgram.com.au
TDK’s one-chip smart card terminal controller
TDK Semiconductor
Corp. now offers the
73S1121F smart card
terminal controller –
said to be the first true
system on a chip for
smart card terminals.
The new low-cost
device integrates all the
functionality for implementing a complete range of smart card
terminals for network access security,
e-purse terminals, payphones, vending
machines and inexpensive POS terminal applications. It includes an 8052
processor, a USB interface, two built-in
smartcard interfaces with a dedicated
hardware ISO7816 UART, multiple
card terminals.
development software
layers, extensive I/Os,
64KB of Flash, 4KB
of user-RAM and a
PIN pad interface all
on a single chip. This
solution will significantly reduce cost and
component count for
implementing smart
Contact:
Adilam Electronics Pty Ltd
Ph: (03) 9737 4900
Fax: (03) 9737 4999
Website: adilam.com.au
www.siliconchip.com.au
SILICON CHIP WebLINK
How many times have you wanted to access a company’s website but cannot remember their site name?
Here's an exciting new concept from SILICON CHIP: you can access any of these organisations instantly by going
to the SILICON CHIP website (www.siliconchip.com.au), clicking on WebLINK and then on the website graphic of
the company you’re looking for. It’s that simple. No longer do you have to wade through search engines or look
through pages of indexes – just point’n’click and the site you want will open!
Your company or business can be a part of SILICON CHIP’s WebLINK . For one low rate you receive a printed entry
each month on the SILICON CHIP WebLINK page with your home page graphic, company name, phone, fax and site
details plus up to 50 words of description– and this is repeated on the WebLINK page on the SILICON CHIP website
with the link of your choice active. Get those extra hits on your site from the right people in the electronics industry – the people who make decisions to buy your products. Call SILICON CHIP today on (02) 9979 5644
SPECIALISTS in AUDIO, VIDEO, CD, DATA
Media and Multimedia manufacturing
& wholesale. We also specialise in DVD
Production & editing. We can produce Short
Run or Bulk CD Audio, CD Rom & DVD projects. Distributor of Emtec (by Basf) TDK,
HHB and Quantegy Professional Products.
PRO-COPY
JED designs and manufactures a range of
single board computers (based on Wilke Tiger
and Atmel AVR), as well as LCD displays and
analog and digital I/O for PCs and controllers.
JED also makes a PC PROM programmer and
RS232/RS485 converters.
Jed Microprocessors Pty Ltd
Tel: (08) 9375 3902 Fax: (08) 9375 3903
Tel: (03) 9762 3588 Fax: (03) 9762 5499
WebLINK: procopy.com.au
WebLINK: jedmicro.com.au
We specialise in providing a range of Low
Power Radio solutions for OEM’s to incorporate in their wireless technology based
products. The innovative range includes
products from Radiometrix, the World’s
leading manufacturer.
TeleLink Communications
Tel:(07) 4934 0413 Fax: (07) 4934 0311
WebLINK: telelink.com.au
A 100% Australian owned company supplying frequency control products to the highest
international standards: filters, DIL’s, voltage,
temperature compensated and oven controlled oscillators, monolithic and discrete
filters and ceramic filters and resonators.
Hy-Q International Pty Ltd
PIC chip specialists –
microEngineering Labs and others.
Easy to learn, easy to use, sophisticated
CPU based controllers & peripherals.
See our website for new range of ATOM
products!
MicroZed Computers
Tel:(03) 9562-8222 Fax: (03) 9562 9009
Tel: (02) 6772 2777 Fax: (02) 6772 8987
We’re one of Australia’s most innovative
electronic equipment suppliers. For over 10
years we’ve served Australian industry with
an extensive range of electronic components
and equipment from the world’s leading
suppliers. We ensure our customers
have the best selection and service.
RCS Radio has available EVERY PC Board
ever published in SILICON CHIP, EA, ETI and
AEM (copyrighted boards excepted).
Many late boards are available ex stock,
others can be made to order within a few
days.Custom & production boards too!
· Hifi upgrades & modification products - jitter
Tel: (02) 9482 1944 Fax: (02) 9482 1309
WebLINK: clarke.com.au
Tel: (02) 9738 0330 Fax: (02) 9738 0334
Clarke & Severn Electronics
WebLINK: www.hy-q.com.au
RCS Radio
WebLINK: cia.com.au/rcsradio
WebLINK: microzed.com.au
reduction and output stage improvement.
· Danish high-end hifi kits - including preamps, phono, power amps & accessories.
· Speaker drivers including Danish Flex Units
plus a range of accessories.
· GPS, GSM, AM/FM indiv. & comb. aerials.
Soundlabs Group
Syd: (02) 9660-1228 Melb: (03) 9859-0388
WebLINK: soundlabsgroup.com.au
Controller upgrade brings new life to old machine
JAR Engineering faced the prospect of
scrapping their Kasuga Machining Centre
while the core of the CNC machine was still
fully functional. The problem: the Kasuga
controller was: “Old and slow – a case of a
still young body under the direction of an old,
slow brain!” said Roy Milan of JAR.
But scrapping the machine and buying
a new system would have involved a large
capital investment. Instead, JAR Engineering contacted H & H Machine Tools and
investigated the possibility of a controller
www.siliconchip.com.au
transplant. The result: the Kasuga is now
working at double the previous feed rate.
Mr Milan says: “The system used to operate in a jerky, stop, start motion. The new
Fidia controller provides a continuous smooth
movement and reads at a very high rate of
knots. We are frequently recording savings
of $500 a day or higher —savings that will
rapidly pay out the upgrade cost.”
He adds that his company has found the
Fidia controlled machine “very user friendly,
with the need for operator training minimised.”
Contact:
H&H Machine Tools
Ph: (03)9719 7729,
Fax: (03) 9719 7298
email: gmann<at>h-h.com.au
March 2003 55
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