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Fremont, CA, June 29, 1998 -- Exar Corporation (NASDAQ: EXAR) today announced an industry first: a 3V voltage mode, digital-to-analog converter (DAC) family with the industry's lowest power consumption. At over 30 percent less than rivals, the XRD54L08/L10/L12 DAC family offers customers a new range of options for their portable device designs. The DACs are available now from Exar. The XRD54L08/L10/L12 offers 8-, 10- and 12-bit resolution, respectively, draw very little power -- a max of 188 mW including the reference, 37 percent of the nearest competing device meaning additional battery life. These devices are ideal for digital calibration in low-power portable equipment such as remote industrial devices, medical monitoring equipment, environmental controls, cell phones, two-way pagers and other wireless communications systems.
According to John Sramek, Division Vice President and General Manager of Exar's Video and Imaging Division, "Our lower power 8, 10 and 12-bit DACs offer significant power savings over anything on the market today for calibrating portable industrial, medical and communications equipment. The fact they save on battery life in operating mode, without the need for standby mode, is a real benefit to users. These additions to our existing
5V DAC family signifies of our further commitment to this market segment."
Exar's Digital Conversion Family
This most recent DAC announcement represents the newest generation of digital conversion devices from Exar. Earlier this year, Exar introduced the XRD6440, a 10-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with a conversion rate of 40 MSPS. Also available, a (ADC) with 12-bit resolution at 20 MSPS, the XRD6622. Since their introduction, both parts have received favorable market acceptance and have secured many design wins. As validation of recent successes, Exar announced recently that the XRD6418, an ADC, was
designed into Kodak's digital Advanced Photo System for converting images from analog into digital for manipulation in PCs.
Technical Description:
Each member of the family has a 3-wire serial port with an output allowing the user to daisy chain several of them together. The serial port will support Microwire, SPI and QSPI standards. In addition, the data format is PIN-compatible with the MAX 515 from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., and the TCL5615 from Texas Instrument so they can be used to replace these parts in designs migrating to 3V. The output of the family is set at a gain of 2, and is capable of swinging rail-to-rail. The output short circuit is 12mA typical. Each part has buffered voltage output, flexible output range and power on reset. Settling time is typically 13 micro seconds to 12 bit levels.
The user can select from 8, 10 and 12 bit parts. Because these parts have a standard three wire serial port with a serial data output pin, the user can mix and match depending on the needs of the system while only using one I/O port from the microcontroller. Once the user digitally sets required voltage, nothing needs to be done with the DAC until recalibration.
Price and Availability:
The XRD54L08/L10/L12 family is available now in 8-pin SOIC and DIP packaging, and has an operating temperature from -40 degrees C to +85 degrees C. Prices for sample parts in 1,000 unit quantities for the XRD54L08 are $1.29; for the XRD54L10 are $1.60; and for the XRD54L12 are $1.92.
Exar Corporation designs, develops and markets innovative, system-oriented analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for video and imaging, communications and silicon sensing markets. The Company, based in Fremont, CA, had fiscal 1998 revenues of $102 million and employs approximately 350 people worldwide.
For more information, contact the company at 48720 Kato Road, Fremont, CA 94538. Phone (510) 668-7000.
FAX: (510) 668-7017. World Wide Web site is http://www.exar.com
Microwire is a registered trademark of National Semiconductor Corporation. SPI and QSPI are registered trademarks of Motorola Corporation.
Greg Kaufman (510) 668-7121
greg.kaufman@exar.com