Category Archives: Newsworthy

How do Airplanes Offer Onboard Wi-Fi?

Not long ago, air travel meant you had to switch off your phone and other electronic devices carried. Even for long-distance air travel, people had to put up with in-flight magazines and movies for entertainment. Fortunately, changes have been made – with more to come.

Today, people value connectivity more than ever. Passengers admiring aerial views prefer tweeting about their experiences and follow up with pictures – not content with merely complaining about the food to their neighbors. Airlines are responding to such demands and nearly 40% of the US fights now provide in-flight Wi-Fi, as do several international long-haul flights.

Onboard Wi-Fi technology is still in the nascent stages and significant problems abound. Fliers are not happy with the slow speeds and unreliable connection, especially when the cost for each device for a full flight is high. A FlightView survey of 600 US passengers inferred Wi-Fi offered in-flight satisfied only about 28% of business travelers. The key problem lies in the manner an airplane’s onboard Wi-Fi technology works – there are two main routes.

A US provider, GoGo, has a network system of 3G ground stations all across the US. Planes communicate with these stations when flying overhead. Although the system is simple, bandwidth can be as low as 3Mbps for the entire flight, making it inadequate per customer for streaming videos.

The company is now moving over to ATG-4 technology, with planes requiring dual modems and directional antennas. That boosts the total bandwidth to about 9.8Mbps – still not a significant increase. Planes flying over the seas cannot link to ground stations, which further worsens the connectivity.

As an alternative approach, some airlines allow planes to connect via a satellite. Earlier, they used legacy L-band technology, which was slow and rather expensive. Now using the higher-frequency Ku-band satellites is more common as they work at 12-18GHz. Not only does this offer good performance, it is economical as well. For example, the FlyNet system from Lufthansa claims its download speed to the aircraft reaches 50Mbps, even at the middle of the ocean.

Passengers can optionally connect in two ways. For example, OnAir, a telecom company, allows connections via GSM and Wi-Fi. If you are using a mobile phone, turn on your GSM mobile phone network and use it just as you would on international roaming. Your regular phone bill reflects the costs.

Wi-Fi connection within the aircraft depends on the airline’s own rules. You pay for bandwidth, time of use or distance traveled. Most service providers offset operational expenses and cost of technology (bandwidth) against the number of passengers opting for the service. That decides the rate the airline charges its passengers for the service.

Airlines are discovering the future for on-board connectivity lies in moving towards the Ka-band, which works at 26.5-40GHz via satellites – potentially increasing the capacity nearly 100 times that offered by the present Ku-band. According to ViaSat, a satellite company, this can mean offering each passenger a speed of about 12Mbps, while lessening the cost about five times – a significant progress for frequent, long-distance fliers.

How Does A Measurement Pillow Work?

In human life, sleep is the period when the body rejuvenates. Two body systems regulate the timing and amount of sleep – the sleep/wake homeostasis and the circadian biological clock. Depending on external circumstances and the health of the individual, people experience different levels of alertness and sleepiness throughout the day. After being awake for a long time, the sleep/wake homeostasis tells the body it is accumulating the need for sleep and that causes us to feel sleepy. It also regulates the period of sleep throughout the night, to let us make up for the hours we will remain awake. The sleep/wake homeostasis balances the wakefulness and sleep periods in the body.

We also have an internal circadian biological clock that regulates the timing of wakefulness and sleepiness throughout the day. The circadian rhythm rises and dips at different times of the day. Typically, an adult has the strongest sleep drive between 2:00-4:00 am and again in the afternoon between 1:00-3:00 pm. However, this varies from person to person.

Sometimes, due to various reasons, things go wrong with the body systems regulating the timing and amount of sleep. Doctors advise monitoring your sleep to know where things are going wrong. However, this becomes a “Catch 22” situation – if you sleep, it is impossible to monitor how you sleep and you cannot sleep if you are monitoring. Now, there is a solution to this dilemma – a measurement pillow.

A chiropractor, Rick Loos, founder of the company Proper Pillow, is all set to develop a pillow containing a set of sensors to monitor the quality of your sleep. The pillow will monitor your sleep position throughout your sleeping time, collect the data and transmit them to an app on your smartphone.

Proper Pillow Plus will have a network of pressure sensors to collect the data. It will use BLE or Bluetooth Low Energy to transmit this data. Of course, this requires a power source, a sensor network with ADCs, and a micro-controller with a BLE radio. Normally, all data collected will remain stored until you decide to transmit it to your smartphone. Watch the pillow doing its work here. Proper Pillow also provides better sleep by giving its user a proper spine alignment.

According to Dr. Loos, the Proper Pillow Plus will contain 9-12 pressure sensors, a digitizer board, a micro-controller with Bluetooth capabilities, a battery, a microphone and a temperature probe. It will use 3-point redundancy to detect correctly the head and neck of the sleeper. The microphone will record various sounds such as the person’s breathing and external sounds such as a dog’s bark. The pillow will also record the ambient temperature to know if the sleeper woke up due to changes in temperature. The pressure sensors will determine how much time the user spent on his back or on his side.

Usually, the hardware will remain in low-power mode to maximize power efficiency. The algorithm wakes the hardware only when there is a change is pressure due to the sleeper’s movements. The slow changes in pressure and temperature permit low-speed digitization.

What are Counterfeit SD Cards?

Many of us use SD or Secure Digital memory cards, but seldom do we check if the total capacity actually matches that specified on the card. According to the Counterfeit Report, several dishonest sellers on Alibaba, Amazon, eBay and other reputed sites offer deep discounts for high capacity cards. They use common serial numbers with cards and packaging nearly identical to the authentic products from all major SD card brands.

According to tests conducted by the Counterfeit Report, although the cards work, buyers usually purchase a card based on the specifications printed on it. What they think and buy as a 32GB SD card, may turn out to be a counterfeit with a capacity of only 7GB. Counterfeiters usually overwrite the real memory capacity, imprinting a false capacity figure to match any model and capacity they prefer. Usually, the actual memory capacity cannot be determined by simply plugging the card into a computer, phone or camera. Only when the phony card reaches its limit, it starts to overwrite files, leading to lost data.

According the Craig Crosby, publisher of the Counterfeit Report, such fake cards also come in capacities that do not exist in any product line and counterfeiters target mostly cards above 32GB. They make a great profit on selling fake cards, with practically no consequence.

Usually, people cannot make out counterfeit cards from real ones, until these stop working. Usually, the blame falls on the manufacturer for making faulty products. This may happen even if you buy from a major retailer, as counterfeiters buy genuine items, only to exchange them unopened with their fakes.

Although software packages are available to test whether the card capacity matches the specifications on its packaging, organizations find it time-consuming, especially if they have bought cards in bulk. Additionally, the problem is not with SD cards alone, counterfeiters make fake portable flash drives including USB sticks as well.

Although the SD Association does make standards and specifications for SD cards to promote their adoption, advancement and use, they do not monitor the trade of products such as SD memory cards. The responsibility of counterfeit SD cards falls in the realm of law enforcement.

Manufacturers of SD memory card products can contract with several SD standards-related organizations for different intellectual property related to SD standards. Additionally, SDA member companies can resort to compliance and testing tools for confirming their products meet the standards and specifications, providing assurance to users about interoperability with other products of similar nature.

Consumers, especially bulk purchasers, should be careful to buy from authorized resellers, distributers and sellers. The best resource for any enquiry is the manufacturer of the SD memory card product.

This malaise is not restricted to counterfeit SD cards alone. It is a part of a larger problem. According to the Counterfeit Report, several other items face the same situation. Phony items exist for iPhones, other smartphones, airbags and many other peripherals such as chargers. It is very difficult for consumers to make out the counterfeits and many are even unaware of the existence of such phony high-end items.

Rechargeable Batteries from Packing Materials

Sweden was in the news recently for their extreme recycling capacity. Swedes recycle waste to the extent that they have to import garbage from other countries for use as landfills. Others countries struggling to recycle their garbage may be interested in generating rechargeable batteries from discarded packing materials that do not degrade when used as landfills.

At Purdue University, researchers have found a new way to recycle discarded peanut-shaped packing materials. They are turning these materials into components that can be used for making rechargeable batteries. Additionally, they claim their batteries can outperform those currently in use.

Packing materials have always presented a challenge when they have to be disposed. It is not very cost-effective to recycle them. For one, they are light and their large size makes it expensive to transport them to the recycling center. Additionally, they take up a lot of space in landfills. Vinodkumar Etacheri, Ph.D. explained this in a presentation of the research at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

The other reason why packing materials are not suitable is they can be harmful to the environment. Although they may not contain CFCs or ozone depleting gasses, packing materials are usually made from recycled or new polystyrene, which was also used for making Styrofoam. While the exact constituents may vary, packing materials usually contain different types of chemicals.

Among them may be potentially harmful substances such as heavy metals, chlorides and phthalates. These leach into the environment easily when in a landfill. They deteriorate the soil and water quality. Although marketers claim newer material they use for making packing material is more environmentally friendly, the chemicals and detergents used in the starch-based alternatives also contaminate the ecosystem.

A new process developed by the researchers converts the packing material into high-tech nano-particles and carbon micro sheets. These are useful in making anodes for rechargeable batteries.

Lithium ion batteries have lithium ions moving between electrodes as the batteries charge and discharge. When the new anodes replace the conventional graphite ones in commercial lithium ion batteries, the performance gain is dramatic. The anodes made of nano-partcles and carbon micro sheets increase the storage capacity of the lithium ion batteries several folds.

The porous microstructure of the new anodes allows the lithium ions to diffuse in quickly and create more surface area within the micro sheets. The increased surface area offers greater electrochemical interactions. In addition, the disordered crystal structure and the porous nature of the new anodes can store more lithium ions beyond their theoretical limit.

According to the researchers, they use a relatively low temperature for the new process. This is a crucial factor in producing these new materials with their advantageous architecture. While other researchers make micro sheets at temperatures as high as 4,000°F, researchers at Purdue University have kept the temperature of their process at only 1,100°F. Instead of the more layered arrangement of carbon atoms at the higher temperature, the lower temperature generates less-ordered materials. That actually increases the electrical storage capacity by about 15%. The lower temperature process also allows the materials to remain more environmentally friendly.

Raspberry Pi and the Intel Edison

The Intel Edison is an extremely small computing platform suitable for embedded electronics. Intel has packed the Edison with many technical goodies within its tiny package. That makes it a robust single board computer, powered by the Atom SoC dual-core CPU. It includes an integrated Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi and a 70-pin connector. A huge number of shield-like blocks are available to stack on top of each other on this connector.

Do not be misled by its small size, as the Edison packs a robust set of features within the tiny size. It has a broad spectrum of software support, along with large numbers of IO, delivering great performance with durability. Its versatile features are a great benefit to beginners, makers and inventors. The high-speed processor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio on board makes it ideal for projects that need low power, small footprint but high processing power. These features make the Edison SBC suitable for those who cannot use a large footprint and are not near a larger power source.

In addition, the Intel Edison Mini Breakout exposes the native 1.8V IO of the Intel Edison module. On this board is a power supply, a battery charger, USB OTG power switch, USB OTG port, UART to USB Bridge and an IO header.

So, how does the Intel Edison SBC compare with the RBPi or the Raspberry Pi SBC? The first question that comes to mind when starting a comparison between the two is the lack of a USB port on the Edison to plug in the keyboard and mouse. Compared to the RBPi, the Edison also lacks video output, has low processor speed, higher cost and it is not possible to use the IO connector without an extra board.

Although Intel claims it as an SBC, unlike the RBPi, the Edison is a module meant for deeply embedded IoT computing. On the other hand, the RBPi has always been a low-cost computing terminal to be used as a teaching tool. That the RBPi platform also has hardware hack-ability is a bonus feature and purely incidental.

The Edison, a deeply embedded IoT computing platform, does not have video output because usually, Wi-Fi enabled robots do not need video. Since wearables do not need keyboard and mouse, the Edison does not have a USB port. To keep power consumption on the low side for portable applications, Intel has deliberately kept the processor speed low.

Although the Edison is comparatively higher-priced as compared to the RBPi, the difference is lower when you add the cost of an SD card, a Wi-Fi card and a Bluetooth dongle to that of the RBPi. Not only does the Edison integrate all this, it is more of a bare ARM A9 or A11 SoC that can be integrated easily into a product.

Finally, three things need highlighting. The Edison has a Quark micro-controller; it operates at 1.8V and is very small. The RBPi, without the addition of the communication modules, occupies about 93 cubic centimeters, whereas the Edison and its breakout board together require only 14. The RBPi requires about 48 square centimeters of footprint, while the Edison needs only 17.

Prototyping Plate Kit for the Raspberry Pi

For new owners of the versatile inexpensive Raspberry Pi or RBPi, there is always a period of perplexity as to how they can try out an embedded computer project with the SBC. Although a breadboard helps to some extent, connecting the circuit on a breadboard to the RBPi involves many loose wires, making the experiment very cumbersome. An add-on kit, the Pi Plate from Adafruit, makes it very easy to prototype circuits for the RBPi.

The Pi Plate snaps on to the RBPi and the user can easily unplug it for making any changes to the circuitry. This is a double layer board and has a connector on the underside for fitting on to the GPIO pins of the RBPi. The specialty of the Pi Plate is the huge prototyping area, half of which is in the form of a breadboard style, and the rest in the form of a perfboard style. Therefore, users can wire up DIP chips, sensors and switches.

All the GPIO, I2C, SPI and Power pins from the RBPi are broken out to 0.1” strips along the edge of the proto area. The connections are all labeled, so the user has little difficulty in connecting them to his/her prototype circuit. In addition, all the breakout pins are also connected to 3.5mm screw-terminal blocks, all with labels. That makes it very easy to connect sensors, actuators, LEDs, etc. semi-permanently with wires. For general-purpose non-GPIO connections, there is also a 4-block terminal block broken out to 0.1” pads. For those with surface mount chips to be connected, the remaining space has a SOIC breakout area, therefore, if you can conveniently use an IC that does not come in a DIP format.

When you buy the kit, all parts come separated. Following a tutorial on how to assemble the kit, any first-time user can learn to put it together. One advantage with this process is the user learns to solder and thereby acquiring a new skill. This is in line with the philosophy of learning with the RBPi.

Those who regularly use add-ons to the RBPi will appreciate that the header breakouts on the Pi plate are taller than the typical custom header breakouts. Therefore, the prototype plate sits above the metal connectors on the RBPi, allowing for a large workspace. However, this does not prevent it from fitting within the RBPi enclosure. Therefore, the RBPi remains safe within the enclosure, with complete access to the terminal blocks, making prototyping simple. Adafruit plans to have stackable header kits, which will help in putting multiple plates on top of the RBPi.

It is very easy to use the Prototyping Pi Plate. Adafruit has designed it to be as simple as possible so that it is a good fit for any type of RBPi project – whether simple or complex. According to Adafruit, there is no extra power regulator on board and none of the pins is buffered, because that keeps the design simple and inexpensive. In addition, it also offers the maximum space for adding any circuitry for prototyping.

Raspberry Pi and Energy Harvesting Wireless Devices

Do-It-Yourself home automation enthusiasts will welcome the idea of a wireless arrangement when setting up devices for automating their homes. It would be still better if these sensors and switches did not require an external power source to make them work. EnOcean Pi makes both these scenarios possible, with the tiny ubiquitous single board computer, the Raspberry Pi or RBPi, acting as a home automation server.

Therefore, with the EnOcean Pi, enthusiasts can set up home automation systems without any cables connecting the self-powered sensors and switches. Depending on information from sensors measuring temperature, humidity and from those detecting human presence, the RBPi may switch lights on/off and control blinds on windows.

Enthusiasts may either have sensors and actuators communicating directly with one another, or control them through an intelligent and smart home server. The latter allows adding remote sensing and remote control for home automation, which can be done conveniently through a PC or a smart phone. This type of home server is ideally suited for a tiny single board computer such as the RBPi. The EnOcean Pi then acts as a gateway controller to the EnOcean radio world. Element14 offers three types of kits for this purpose – the starter kit ESK 300, the developer kit EDK 350 and the Sensor kit PSK 300.

The wireless module, EnOcean Pi, comes in three versions – 868MHz for Europe; 315MHz for Japan, India and North America; and 902MHz for North America. This wireless module connects to other self-powered EnOcean sensor modules, which generate their own power through energy converters that use temperature differences, light or mechanical motion as an energy source. Therefore, the RBPi receives necessary data for intelligent control from maintenance-free sensors and actuator solutions.

It is always possible for OEMs and developers to design low-cost gateways for embedded applications including smart home solutions. Rather than developing new products from scratch, developers now have the option of using the EnOcean Pi and RBPi for creating a ready-made smart home box. This can process and visualize the data coming from self-powered wireless sensors, thereafter providing central control of a wirelessly connected house.

Users wanting to develop and integrate quick applications can download the EnOcean Link Trial Version middleware that comes with the new Pi accessory. The RBPi acts as a gateway, automatically controlling the EnOcean-based energy harvesting wireless sensors, switches and thermostats. That ensures a comfortable management of lighting, shading and HVAC, thus helping to save energy.

For a bi-directional communication via radio and serial interfaces, EnOcean Pi also offers the EnOcean Smart Ack controller functionality. The RBPi can use the serial interface to send and receive radio messages transparently in both directions. In this case, using the Smart Ack technology, the EnOcean Pi acts as a postmaster and controls up to 20 bi-directional sensors.

The EnOcean Sensor Kit has a set of three wireless sensors that includes a temperature sensor, a reed switch and a push button. Rather than use a battery, the sensors have a solar cell that supplies them with power. Each sensor has a wireless module with a built-in antenna requiring no cables. That makes the sensors totally self-powered and maintenance-free.

What is the Torrent Protocol?

When downloading a large file, you can do so from a single source, with a multiple mirror sources technique for data distribution. This presents a problem when used on networks with lower bandwidths and in the presence of sever recipients. As an alternative, a Torrent (also known as BitTorrent) protocol increases the efficiency of the distribution by reducing the network and server impact. The torrent protocol allows users to join a swarm of hosts that download and upload from each other simultaneously. That increases the efficiency of distributing files to many recipients, working over low bandwidth computers and mobile phones.

A user wanting to upload a file has to create a small torrent descriptor file first. They can distribute this file by conventional means such as web, email, etc. The file itself is made available through a seed or BitTorrent node. Those wanting to download the file present the torrent descriptor file to their own BitTorrent nodes on their computers. These nodes further act as peers or leeches and the node downloads the file by interconnecting to the seed and to other peers.

The file under distribution is divided into several segments called pieces. When a peer downloads a piece of the file, it turns into a source for that piece for all other peers. That exempts the primary seed from having to transmit that piece to all computers or users connected to copy. BitTorrent allows the task of file distribution to those who want the file. While the seed may only be sending a single copy of the file itself, the distribution ultimately reaches an unlimited number of peers.

A cryptographic hash within the torrent descriptor protects each piece of the file. Therefore, any modification of the piece is reliably detectable. That prevents any modification – accidental and malicious – of any piece received at other nodes. If any node starts downloading with a genuine copy of the torrent descriptor, it can verify the genuineness of the entire file it downloads.

This way of downloading pieces makes the collection non-sequential. However, the BitTorrent Client rearranges them in the correct order. The client continually monitors the pieces it has, and uploads to other peers, as they need. Throughout a single download, all pieces are of the same size. That makes the BitTorrent process very useful for transfer of large files as you can stop a file download any time and resume it later, without the loss of any information previously downloaded.

The non-sequential download typically reduces the overall length of a download. The client can seek out readily available pieces and download them immediately. It does not have to halt the download process to wait for the next and possibly unavailable piece in the line.

As a peer completes its file download, it turns into an additional seed. This eventual shift from peer to seed actually determines the overall health of the file. This is also shown as the number of times the file is available in its complete form. In reality, BitTorrent type of distribution creates a spreading akin to a torrential flood throughout many peer computer nodes. As the number of peers goes up, the likelihood increases for any particular node to complete a successful download.

What are UEFI and Secure Boot?

When you first turn on the power button of a computer at the start of your day, your PC or laptop goes through a set of procedures before allowing you to log in. The first thing that happens is the reset signal generated sets the registers of the CPU to their pre-defined values. The reset vector within the CPU now points to the start address of the BIOS or Basic Input Output System.

BIOS is a small firmware stored in a flash memory on the motherboard of the computer. It functions as a startup process for setting up the various hardware peripherals attached to the motherboard. BIOS starts with the POST or Power-on Self-Test, which checks for the presence of basic stuff such as the monitor, keyboard, mouse and memory – primary and secondary. Next, it looks for the MBR or the Master Boot Record on the secondary memory storage – the hard disk or a Solid State Device.

The MBR contains the Primary Boot loader that redirects the CPU to the Secondary Boot loader. What you see on the screen as GRUB when booting into Linux is the Secondary Boot loader is responsible for loading the actual Operating System present on the memory device of the computer.

Hackers planning to usurp the control of your computer have been targeting some of the elements in this chain of the booting process. Malware planted in the computer can modify the boot loaders so that it first enables a sleeping Trojan horse (a form of virus), before actually loading the Operating System. That allows the virus to control whatever you are doing with the computer and report it back to its original master.

To prevent this from happening, members of the PC industry have modified the plain and simple BIOS to a UEFI secure boot type. When booted through UEFI or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, the firmware ensures that the system boot loader has a cryptographic key as authorized by a database within the firmware. The next steps involve the boot loaders in a series of signature verification for the kernel and possibly of the user space. That prevents any unsigned code (the Trojan horse) from executing and compromising your computer.

The computer requires no specialized hardware to implement and operate UEFI Secure Boot. The firmware resides in the non-volatile flash storage on the motherboard. This storage also stores the UEFI implementation itself as well as the protected variables including the trusted root certificates of the UEFI.

Therefore, unless presented with a signed next-stage boot loader, the UEFI Secure Boot will prevent your computer from functioning, unless you disable or switch off the Secure Boot mode. Note that UEFI Secure Boot does not verify signatures when installing or changing the boot loaders. Signatures are verified only when booting up and any tampered boot path leads to a display of invalid signature, preventing further operations. Unlike web server certificates, there is no information as to who issued the certificate and the user has no way of overriding the decision to reject the signature of the boot loader.

Why are Inductance-to-Digital Converters Useful?

Inductive sensing is bringing a revolution in the technical world. Inductive sensing offers capabilities for measuring position, motion and or composition of a conductive or metal target, with a contact-less, magnet-free sensing technology. In addition, inductive sensing can help to detect twist, compression or extension of a spring.

Now, LDC or Inductance-to-Digital converters from Texas Instruments, such as the LDC1614, is helping to utilize springs and coils as inductive sensors that can deliver better reliability, improved performance and increased flexibility when compared with existing sensing solutions. In addition, inductive sensing offers solutions at lower system costs and with lower power consumption.

Users of LDC technology can expect several advantages –

Higher resolution: 24-bit inductance values and 16-bit resonance impedance offers sub-micron resolutions in position sensing.

Better reliability: sensing is contact-less and therefore, immune to non-conductive contaminants such as dust and dirt.

Increased flexibility: The sensor can be located away from the electronics and in areas that do not have space for PCBs.

Low system power: LDC consumes less than 9mW during standard operations and less than 2mW when in standby mode.

Lower system costs: As no magnets are required for both the sensors and the targets, the entire system can be significantly low-cost.

Limitless possibilities: Permits endless possibilities for innovative and creative system design, such as with conductive ink and pressed foil.

Inductive sensing applications can range from simple push buttons, on/off switches and knobs to high-speed motor controllers, turbine flow meters and high-resolution heart rate monitors. The versatility of the LDC1614 allows it to be used in several markets including medical, industrial, computing, mobile devices, consumer electronics, white goods and automotive industries.

LDC1614, from Texas Instruments, is a series of inductance-to-digital converters comprising four devices. They offer two or four matched channels along with 12-bit or 28-bit resolution. Available in a compact 4x4mm package, users can configure these LDCs easily via an I2C interface. These converters offer precise position and motion sensing almost independent of the environment.

Inductive sensing involves low-cost, high-reliability inductors as sensors. Use of LDC converters enables the sensors to be located remotely from the PCB containing the IC. As the LDC1614 can integrate up to four channels, designers can distribute sensors throughout the system, while centralizing the electronics on a few PCBs. Since the channels are well matched, users can perform ratio metric and differential measurements. That allows easy compensation for aging and environmental conditions, such as those caused by mechanical drift, humidity and temperature.

The 28-bit resolution allows detection of submicron level changes in distance measurements. With the LDC converters supporting a frequency range varying from 1KHz to 10MHz, users can employ a large variety of inductors as sensors. As the converters require powering by a 3.3VDC supply, the power consumption is only about 6.9mW during standard operation and about 0.12mW when in shutdown mode.

TI offers its LDC1614 in QFN-16 packages and in the cheaper WSON-12 packages for both the 12-bit and the 28-bit devices. LDCs applications can be extremely wide-ranging and seemingly endless, covering fields as diverse as automotive, medical, consumer electronics, white goods and other industries.