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Testing arm goes at Inchcape
Inchcape, the international distribution group, is determined to sell all its worldwide testing businesses by the end of the year. The plan, unveiled after Inchcape announced disappointing results last week, will raise about ?500m for the company. Inchcape intends to concentrate on its core businesses, including motor vehicle importation, leaving it seeking a buyer for the myriad textile, medical, electrical and electronic testing activities. These activities achieved profits of ?27.8m on turnover of ?284.1m last year. In the UK Inchcape has an EMC test house. Multichip modules for Pentium

US firm MicroModule Systems is shipping a line of Pentium-based multichip modules (MCMs) designed for notebook computers. The firm hopes that the modules will find design slots in portable PCs. The Spectrum modules house a range of CPUs with different frequencies, a support chip set, cache memory and a temperature sensor, in an approach that lets engineers design one motherboard that can be upgraded simply by switching modules. Next-generation Spice for PC and Unix

Small US EDA vendor Deutsch Research has introduced a version of Spice claimed to offer a next-generation Spice product. Called Dr. Spice, the simulator fruns under Windows and Unix platforms. Dr. Spice has tight integration with Orcad, Protel and Viewlogic schematics. The simulator is based on Berkeley Spice 3 code, in addition to proprietary sparse-matrix, convergence and time-step algorithms. These features result in both speed and accuracy improvements, the firm claimed. All basic Spice analysis modes are included, such as dc operating point, ac small-signal response, temperature, time-domain, Fourier, noise, distortion and Monte Carlo. Controlling the power to Pentium Pro
Specialized voltage regulator modules based on discrete components are being built to meet Intel's stringent VRM specs for Pentium Pro power needs. Micro Linear and Raytheon Electronics have both introduced single-chip power-supply controllers. Micro Linear's ML4900 and Raytheon's RC5042 are highly integrated, high-efficiency programmable DC/DC converters that generate output voltages between 2.1 and 3.5V from a 5V input to meet Intel's specs. To do so, they require passive external components and n-channel Mosfets. New MOSFETs from Motorola
Motorola has unveiled a family of power MOSFETs based on its new HDTMOS-2 process, which the company said enhances the devices' on-resistance and ruggedness. The target is low-voltage (20 and 30V), high-speed switching applications. Motorola says it expects to extend this capability to 60V parts later in the year. Specifically, the HDTMOS-2 based devices will be aimed at applications in which Rds(on) is critical.