TI's analog and embedded processing technologies let a runner set up their own personal network between their sports watch, pedometer, heart rate monitor and computer-based health and fitness analysis programs to monitor exercise intensity, miles and calories. |
TI's technology, powered by energy harvested from motion, vibration and heat, can enable sensor networks that remotely monitor bridges for stress cracks. |
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Electronics are everywhere. From GPS systems to video security cameras and from power tools to medical ultrasound machines, virtually every electronic gadget today contains analog chips and an embedded processor to make it work.
But, more and more, TI's technology is being used in ways that go beyond traditional electronics. Powered by energy harvested from motion, vibration and heat, TI chips can monitor bridges for stress cracks. Other TI chips can let a runner set up their own personal network to measure and track fitness.
In all, TI offers more than 20,000 different semiconductor products to more than 60,000 customers. Analog and embedded processing technologies are TI's expertise. The company leads the semiconductor industry in both of these segments.
These technologies can be used in many new and exciting ways. For example, TI chips can power sensor networks that can find smoke in the atmosphere and detect forest fires, detect moisture or pesticide information in crop fields or even humidity levels in a winery. TI technology enables the systems to wirelessly communicate while operating for years on a battery, significantly reducing system maintenance in remote locations. This technology also enables energy harvesting so that an electronic device can run off of solar power, human body temperature or vibrations instead of a battery.
But what are analog chips and embedded processors and what do they do?
Analog
Analog chips are an essential element of almost all electronics used in today's digital world. They convert "real-world" signals such as voice, sound, pressure, temperature and electricity into the 1s and 0s of the digital world, where the digital signals can be processed very fast. These signals are then turned back into real world signals again by another analog chip. This creates the voice you can hear on a cell phone or a picture you can see on an ultrasound or digital camera.
This is the role that just one type of analog chip – the data converter – plays. There are other types of analog chips too. Most notable to non-engineers are power management chips that help battery-powered electronics like MP3 players last for days or "wired" electronics like wireless base stations and servers use less electricity.
Embedded processors
Processors compress and process the digital signals coming from data converters instantaneously, and they alter and improve the signal. Special processors can perform mathematical computations in real time with a high level of precision. This makes them very well suited to operate any kind of electronics where the consumer doesn't want to experience a delay, such as a digital video camera.
Embedded processors can handle a vast assortment of information, including sound, images and video, without having to be programmed by the consumer. TI makes a number of different kinds of embedded processors including digital signal processors, digital media processors and microcontrollers.
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