Product engineering organizations face the incredible challenge of ever shrinking market windows for innovation in 2012. Due to globalization, increasing competition and rapidly changing technology, there are many risks and uncertainties facing the new product development path. These opportunities if missed, can lead to huge costs and overwhelming complexity that can compromise quality and lead to very expensive recalls. Innovating in the face of these pressures requires organizations to rethink how they work.
Learn the most important new technologies and start designing next-generation equipment early if you are working on real technology company. The real technology companies asks are Amazon, Facebook, eBay, and Google good technology companies or good applications-of-technology companies? Applications-of-technology could also be a good position to be. No matter where you are differentiate to dominate. No more lame “me too” products. CES is over; it’s time to start designing. Here are some material to fuel up your innovation.
EE Times’ 20 hot technologies for 2012 article is a list of 20 technologies EE Times editors think can bring big changes, and that EE Times will be tracking during 2012. Hot technologies: Looking ahead to 2012 article: EDN magazine editors reflect on some of the hot trends and technologies in 2011 – and look ahead to 2012.
Top 12 Hot Design Technologies for 2012 article mentions MEMS, Wireless sensor networks, Internet of Things starts with lightbulbs, new flexibility via organic materials for electronics, Near Field Communication (NFC) is becoming available in many mobile phones, Printed electronics, power scavenging methods for low power electronics, Graphene, conversion of solar energy, Ethernet displaces proprietary field buses, 40/100 Gbit/s Ethernet Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays and Smart Grid technologies (power management and architecture system components). We are nearing the point where some microelectronics systems can be made sufficiently low power – requiring microamps rather than milliamps – that scavenging methods can produce enough power to enable them to be autonomous.
Home electronics is expected to become a new status symbol (Kodinelektroniikasta uusi statussymboli) article tells that consumer electronics demand will increase further in 2012 according to market research by Deloitte. Latest digital technology will also become a status symbol in homes. In particular, tablets, and smartphones Deloitte expects record sales.
Mobile phones with advanced features start to replace traditional separate devices for different functions. This is happening for small digital cameras and video cameras. 2012 At the end of 2012 there is the more navigation capable mobile phones than the stand-alone GPS navigators according to Berg Insight. Berg Insight calculates that the sales of separate GPS navigators started to decline already in 2011. Nav equipment manufacturers have responded to the situation by bringing the software to mobile devices.
How apps for your appliances represent the next opportunity article tells that Samsung Electronics not only pushed its smart TVs at CES, but a whole line of smart appliances, including washers and refrigerators. If Samsung Electronics is right, developers may flock to smart appliances as the next opportunity. That included music apps such as Pandora on the refrigerator and an app on the washer that can ping you when a load is done.
IPv6 is becoming more important. One of the driving forces behind the move from IPv4 to IPv6 has been low-cost embedded devices, which are going online at an accelerating pace. Support for this technology will be crucial for the success of many forthcoming connected embedded devices. IPv6 on a microcontroller article gives some tips how to implement IPv6 on small microcontroller.
The science fiction future of medical implants is here article tells that semiconductor solutions contained in hand-held consumer product innovations are now finding their way into medical implantables: wireless data and power transmission as well as analog, microcontrollers and transducer capabilities.
App Servers and Lua Scripting Speed Rich Web Applications for Small Devices article tells that with ever more smart devices connecting to the web, even small embedded devices must be able to serve up rich graphical presentations of the data to satisfy user expectations. This creates a new challenge for designers of small embedded systems as a new task. With time and space at a premium, a scripting approach can be invaluable. LAMP (Linux, Apache, mysql, PHP) setups work well in full-up web server implementations (at least around 65 Mbyte of memory), but for small embedded system we need something that uses less resources. Smartphones have set the bar ridiculously high when it comes to how sophisticated the application interface should be.
We’re on the cusp of an era that offers better-than-ever display technologies for an excitingly immersive viewer experience. Just as we’ve seen the emergence of 3DTV for consumers and higher than HDTV resolutions are to be tested in 2012 London Olympics. Xilinx Making Immersive 3D and 4K2K Displays Possible with 7 Series FPGA System Integration press release tells that Xilinx just introduced new 28nm Kintex™-7 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based targeted reference designs and a new development baseboard for accelerating the development of next-generation, 3D and 4K2K display technologies at 2012 International CES. The network infrastructure will need an overhaul in 2012 due to the increasing amounts of high-definition video and other traffic.
ARM processor becomes more and more popular during year 2012. Power and Integration—ARM Making More Inroads into More Designs. It’s about power—low power; almost no power. A huge and burgeoning market is opening for devices that are handheld and mobile. The most obvious among these are smartphones and tablets, but there is also an increasing number of industrial and military devices that fall into this category. ARM’s East unimpressed with Medfield, design wins article tells that Warren East, CEO of processor technology licensor ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England), is unimpressed by the announcements made by chip giant Intel about the low-power Medfield system-chip and its design wins. Android will run better on our chips, says Intel. Look out what happens in this competition.
Bill McClean: Don’t broad-brush the semiconductor market article tells that year 2011 started off great, full of optimism and high growth expectations for the semiconductor industry. But that mellowed as the year progressed (total semiconductor market at 2% growth for this year, although smartphone increase very much). Going into 2012, there’s not a lot of optimism. Any thoughts on 2013? A: We’re thinking it’s going to be a little slower than 2012. So, we’re looking to a slower market—not a disaster.
Chip sales flat in 2011, will grow (a wee bit) in 2012 article tells that the prognosticators at Gartner have ranked the chip makers of the world by 2011 revenue and are calling the market for 2012, with a reasonably upbeat forecast for next year’s chip sales, but (paradoxically) a dreadful forecast for companies that make the gear to bake the chips. Disk shortages are expected to slow down PC sales for several quarters. Smartphones, tablets, and flash will represent more than three-quarters of the revenue growth between now and 2015.
There are also some more optimistic predictions for chip sales. Malcolm Penn, founder and chief analyst with semiconductor market analysis firm Future Horizons Ltd, is more bullish than most other market analysts. Bullish Penn sees chip market growth of 8% in 2012 article tells that Malcolm Penn has predicted that the global chip market will rise on an annual basis by 8% to $323.2 billion in 2012. Penn said that after a flat first quarter he expected the chip market to bounce back in the second half of the year. He considers that 8% growth is a “safe bet,” and indicated that annual growth “could easily be 20%.” For 2013 Future Horizons forecasts 20% annual growth.
EDN magazine writes in PC boards: Materials and processing are now a hot technology article that exotic substrates and fabrication methods are now commonplace. A dozen layers, thick copper, fine lines, and buried vias are just the processing side of the modern high-tech PCB. There are many processing options that have made PCBs truly a hot technology. Also the substrates themselves are now high tech. Traditional FR-2 (phenolic resin bonded paper) or FR-4 (glass-reinforced epoxy laminate) are not the only widely supported choices anymore. You could always specify Teflon or polyamide substrates for high-speed circuits. In addition to the old high tech like flex circuits, there are a host of improvements that make a whole new set of high-tech PCB designs that are truly a hot technology.
EDA industry predictions for 2012 mentions that 28-nm design starts will increase by 50% in 2012 and more people will be dabbling with 20 nm. The increased design sizes and complexity will create all kinds of pressure in the verification and test fields.
The rise in fake parts is also contributing to engineers’ fears that their products will be corrupted. Counterfeit electronic components were big issue in 2011, and the problem does not go away this year.
EDA industry predictions for 2012 mentions a trend, and one that has been going on for some time, is a continued migration of functionality from hardware to software. Dr Markus Willems of Synopsys attributed this to “the needs to support multiple standards simultaneously (wireless, multimedia), use the same hardware platform for product derivatives (automotive), quickly adjust to evolving standards (wireless), and react to changing market demands (all applications).” Increased rate of adoption of new technologies such as tablets, ultra-books, and their inherent demand for low-power solutions will help the EDA industry improve their importance. Electronic system-level design tools (ESL) continues to be an important thrust for the EDA industry. Increased adoption of the TLM 2.0 (Transaction-level modeling) standard is a popular theme. Several EDA companies have been busy writing books recently and self-publishing them.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools are taking product design to the next level (especially in automotive, aerospace, and defense). PLM was launched more than a decade ago with the lofty vision of creating an enterprise-wide, central repository for all product-related data, from the earliest customer requirements feedback through quality and failure data collected in the field by maintenance and support personnel. Product lifecycle management, sometimes “product life cycle management”, represents an all-encompassing vision for managing all data relating to the design, production, support and ultimate disposal of manufactured goods. What 2012 holds for Product Lifecycle Management? article tells about current PLM trends.
The prototype comes of age article tells that a radical change is about to happen in the typical development of an electronic system. The hardware-development flow will no longer be the center around which everything else revolves. The rising size and complexity of systems and the limitations of using a single-purpose model—the hardware-design model—have fueled the growth of new prototyping technologies. Among the changes now taking place in this area is the migration to higher levels of abstraction for hardware design. The ability to derive several implementations from a single high-level description is also desirable. Many hardware blocks now come with sophisticated software stacks, and they also must be integrated into the software flow.
‘KISS’ Among Engineers’ Top 2012 Concerns article tells that Rich Merritt agrees that we’ve forgotten the KISS principle especially in automation sector. “We’ve made everything so complicated, complex, and convoluted that we’ve entered the age of ‘transoptimal engineering,’ ” he says. “That is, things are so advanced and have so many features, they don’t work anymore.” Business development manager Herat Shah sees the pressures for complexity and price converging in an unhealthy manner. “The biggest issue for the automation and control supplier is to design and engineer something that’s the cheapest and the best,” he says. “Practically, this is not possible.” In addition to this there are security concerns: Stuxnet targeted controllers, and made engineers realize that factories aren’t immune to security threats.
How do you manage the Internet of you? article claims that electronics has gotten to the point (in the consumer space) where the only innovations are the mundane, the enhancements, the extensions. A computing device today (whether a tablet, a phone or a PC) can do what telephony, typewriters, pen and ink, film (motion and still), cameras, television, radio (basically all major mediums) did a generation ago. And yet… And yet we still innovate. We still build. We still buy. The devices in one sense feed the worst part of a personality: compulsiveness. They suppress pause and reflection. Think about it.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Big Blue bigwig: Tiny processor knobs can’t shrink forever
You cannae break the laws of physics – and 7nm is the limit
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/10/hpc_blog_ibm/
While at IBM’s Smarter Computing Summit last week, I had the great pleasure of hearing Big Blue’s Bernie Meyerson talk about limits to today’s tech, and the associated implications.
Back in 2003 he predicted that Intel would never deliver on its promises of 4 to 5GHz CPUs and would, in fact, be forced to shift to multi-core processors.
Meyerson backed up his brash prediction (it was plenty brash back then) by sharing electron microscope images of individual atoms that showed they’re kind of lumpy. The problem with lumpy atoms is that when you use only a handful of them to build gates, they leak current like a sieve. When asked about this, Intel denied over and over that there was a problem – right up to the point when it announced it was scrapping its entire product strategy in favour of a multi-core approach.
So when Meyerson talks, I pay attention. And Meyerson is talking again.
In fact, when it comes to chips, we have only a generation or two left before we reach the end of the line.
So where’s the end of the line? According to Bernie: 7 to 9 nanometers. When the features on a chip get to this minute size, you start to see quantum mechanics effects that are “very nasty” that impairs the performance of the processor’s decision-making gates.
The problems at 7nm are profound to the point where there isn’t really any way around them – it’s just too damned small – and there isn’t a way to scale down an atom. It’s a fundamental limit, and it’s finally in sight. Chips in mass production these days have a 32nm or 22nm feature size, and 14nm is not far down the line.
Meyerson also talked about the limitations facing us on the storage side.
From what Meyerson said, it sounds like we have a bit more room before we start to run up against the limit on storage density. If my notes are correct, we won’t approach the 12-atom limit until we get around 100 times more dense. Right now, a 1TB per platter is the highest density available. Theoretically, we may be able to get to 100TB per platter and 300TB per drive at maximum density.
Historically, we’ve seen density grow anywhere between 20 per cent and 100 per cent per year. Lately (last decade or so), growth has ranged between 20 per cent and 40 per cent annually, meaning that we might hit the twelve atom limit in as few as 13 years or as long as 25 years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Panasonic to cut LCD TV panel output on weak demand: Nikkei
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/16/us-panasonic-lcd-nikkei-idUSBRE89F1BQ20121016
(Reuters) – Japan’s Panasonic Corp will cut production of LCD and plasma panels for televisions in 2013 as sales continue to remain below expectations, the Nikkei said.
The Japanese electronics company will now focus on small and midsize panels for tablets and other products, the daily said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The average size of the display panels on the increase – only one exception
Market research firm NPD DisplaySearch says that the larger displays in the electronics is industry megatrend.
The average size of the monitor next year is 20.9 inches for desktop.
The average panel size for smart phone is 3.3 inches next year.
On portable computers, the average panel size has dropped 10 per cent to 12.2 inches.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/uutiset/nayttopaneelien_keskimaarainen_koko_kasvussa_vain_yksi_poikkeus
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Obama or Romney Should Have Answered the iPad Question
http://allthingsd.com/20121017/how-obama-or-romney-should-have-answered-the-ipad-question/
Crowley: Mr. President, we have a really short time for a quick discussion here. IPad, the Macs, the iPhones, they are all manufactured in China, and one of the major reasons is labor is so much cheaper [there]. How do you convince a great American company to bring that manufacturing back here?
The correct answer is that, under current conditions, which are highly unlikely to change no matter who is president, the job of assembling iPhones and iPads and other consumer electronics is now done mostly in China by companies that specialize in manufacturing, and will never come back to the U.S. And that’s okay.
Sadly, both Obama and Romney flubbed their answers, and educated voters not at all.
Tomi Engdahl says:
From fabless folly to first-class foundries
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/analog-ic-startup/4398599/From-fabless-folly-to-first-class-foundries?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+on+Analog
In an interview with EE Times recently, our CEO, Brett Fox, gave an overview of the company that inspired this blog, Touchstone Semiconductor, and among other things, he talked about how we outsource all of our manufacturing.
We’re a fabless company, which means that we design our ICs in technologies offered by our foundry partners. Realistically, we do not have much of a choice where that is concerned; nowadays, the capital investment required to bring up a proprietary IC manufacturing fab is simply prohibitive for a start-up company.
Bottom line: thanks to the progress made by foundries over the last decade, it is nowadays perfectly possible for a fabless high-performance analog IC company to be competitive with companies that process their wafers in house.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ADC to FPGA high-speed connectivity using the JESD204B standard
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4398493/ADC-to-FPGA-high-speed-connectivity-using-the-JESD204B-standard
Designers using high-speed data converters in systems that have FPGAs as receivers have traditionally struggled with the complexity of interfacing these complementary solutions.
In April 2006, JEDEC, the global leader in developing open standards and publications for the microelectronics industry introduced the JESD204 standard. This new standard defined a multi-gigabit serial data link between converters and a receiver (commonly FPGA or ASIC).
The original standard defined 1 lane, 1 link which defined transmission of samples across a single serial lane for multiple converters at speeds up to 3.125 Gbps.
In April 2008, JEDEC launched the first revision expanding of this standard to multiple links and multiple lanes as the standard moved to JESD204A.
August 2011 brought further improvements to the standard with JESD204B a second revision that utilized a device clock and added measures to ensure deterministic latency.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LED Week in Review—Ikea, Enlightenment via Texas Instruments, Plessey, Wireless bulbs shine on, LED at 50
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/led-zone/4398696/LED-Week-in-Review-Ikea–Enlightenment-via-Texas-Instruments–Plessey–Wireless-bulbs-shine-on–LED-at-50?cid=EDNToday
Ikea
By 2016, Ikea intends to sell only LED lights, becoming the first U.S. furniture retailer to jump on the sustainability bandwagon in such an impressive manner. The company isn’t just following suit—it’s serious. It says it will be selling LEDs at the lowest prices available to encourage adoption. You go, Ikea! Hopefully, more retailers will follow…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electronics giant Sony has announced on Friday by the extensive layoffs. At the moment, 2,000 workers will have to leave their work at Sony.
Sony Europe will also reduce 2,000 employees.
Sony difficulty was reported in the spring to lay-off 10 000 employees worldwide.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/sony+sulkee+tehtaan+ja+irtisanoo+tuhansia/a848878?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-19102012&
sutton perez says:
head barnes
Tomi says:
Samsung terminates LCD contract with Apple
http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/samsung-terminates-lcd-contract-with-apple-20121022/
Samsung has decided to terminate an ongoing contract with Apple to supply LCD panels for use in its growing range of devices. That means, come next year, there will be no Samsung panels used across the iPad, iPod, iPhone, and Mac range of devices.
The reason seems to be two-fold. On the one hand, Apple has been working hard to secure supplies from other manufacturers and therefore decrease its reliance on Samsung. On the other, Apple is well-known for demanding and pushing lower pricing meaning it just doesn’t make business sense anymore for Samsung to keep supplying Apple with displays.
Losing 15 million panels in a growing market and when you are introducing new devices like the iPad Mini could lead to a serious shortfall in supplies. The question is whether LG and Sharp can increase supply enough to compensate, or whether Apple has other suppliers ready to step in and help.
Tomi Engdahl says:
German industrial giant Siemens to put solar power units for sale. According to the company due to the increased competition and subsidies depletion, which is why the sector has not been as successful in making money as was hoped.
Siemens’ withdrawal was a severe blow to the development of solar energy in Europe.
Siemens says that the company intends to focus on from now on water and wind power for renewable energy for its operations.
Solar energy in the world market has decreased.
Solar Energy subsidies are decreasing gradually in Europe
Source: http://www.3t.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/talous/siemens_luopuu_aurinkoenergiasta
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lack of Qualified Engineering Candidates
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=252848&
A friend who works at a startup was recently explaining that the company’s biggest problem at the moment is its inability to find suitable engineering talent.
My friend says, “Engineering students today can’t answer basic engineering questions.”
When you look at these people’s resumes, all is sunshine and rainbows. When you ask them questions about their accomplished projects, it becomes clear that they have no clue what these so-called projects were really about. They can’t answer. And not just undergrads; we rarely interview undergrads. We are talking about folks with MSs and PhDs.
they lack basic understanding of the underlying physics, they really don’t know their specialties all that well, either.
The bottom line is that the schools are to blame. They should not be graduating people who do not understand the material they were taught.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Integrate! You can reduce size and cost
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/isolate-me-/4399061/Integrate–You-can-reduce-size-and-cost-?cid=EDNToday
Reduce Size and Cost with Integrated Industrial Interface Digital Isolators
http://www.analog.com/static/imported-files/tech_articles/Reduce-Size-and-Cost-with-Integrated-Industrial-Interface-Digital-Isolators-MS-2352.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Customers do not always want the best
You do not always need high-tech, sometimes less in return is enough. For this reason, the development of the product is exported to the growth markets, because only there, understanding of local needs, says the CEO of Metso Kähkönen.
Finnish R & D engineers, it is difficult to understand these emerging market requirements of the customers, maintains engineering company Metso’s President Kähkönen.
“Many developing countries, customers want their investment for a shorter payback time than Europeans or North Americans. In emerging markets is also simpler for sale, second-level solutions. Without them, can not be grown or even to keep its market position in the most senior technology. Mid-market companies grow high end buyers, “he says.
“The European and North American customers will appreciate the highest, the most modern technological solutions. If a company only focuses on them, to ignore the growing middle market. ”
enough good market, good enough market
“The Finnish engineering education is based on a high-tech learning. It will be necessary, but do well in the world market, it is not enough. ”
“The global corporate R & D can not be in one place. Knowing the needs of the local know-how.”
“Many companies have moved the research and development from Finland to emerging markets, and it is still happening. It is not a threat to Finnish engineering works. Product development specialists network. ”
Source: http://www.3t.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/talous/asiakas_ei_aina_halua_parasta
Tomi Engdahl says:
Breakthrough Promises Smartphones that Use Half the Power
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/11/01/0021213/breakthrough-promises-smartphones-that-use-half-the-powe
“Powering cellular base stations around the world will cost $36 billion this year—chewing through nearly 1 percent of all global electricity production. Much of this is wasted by a grossly inefficient piece of hardware: the power amplifier,”
” If you’ve noticed your phone getting warm and rapidly draining the battery when streaming video or sending large files, blame the power amplifiers. As with the versions in base stations, these chips waste more than 65 percent of their energy”
Efficiency Breakthrough Promises Smartphones that Use Half the Power
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506491/efficiency-breakthrough-promises-smartphones-that-use-half-the-power/
A startup says it’s cracked a decades-old efficiency problem dogging wireless communications.
Powering cellular base stations around the world will cost $36 billion this year—chewing through nearly 1 percent of all global electricity production. Much of this is wasted by a grossly inefficient piece of hardware: the power amplifier, a gadget that turns electricity into radio signals.
The versions of amplifiers within smartphones suffer similar problems.
these chips waste more than 65 percent of their energy
Now an MIT spinout company called Eta Devices, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, cofounded by two MIT electrical engineering professors, Joel Dawson and David Perreault, say they have cracked the efficiency problem with a new amplifier design.
It’s currently a lab-bench technology, but if it proves itself in commercialization, which is expected to start in 2013—first targeting LTE base stations—the technology could slash base station energy use by half. Likewise, a chip-scale version of the technology, still in development, could double the battery life of smartphones.
“There really has been no significant advance in this area for years,” says Vanu Bose, founder of Vanu, a wireless technology startup. “If you get 30 to 35 percent efficiency with today’s amplifiers, you are doing really well. But they can more than double that.”
Power amplifiers use transistors that consume power in two basic modes: standby mode and output signal mode when sending out pulses of digital data. The only way to improve their efficiency is to use the lowest amount of standby power possible.
“With high data rate communication, you wind up needing far more standby power than signal power. This is why the phone is warm,” he says.
The new advance is essentially a blazingly fast electronic gearbox. It chooses among different voltages that can be sent across the transistor, and selects the one that minimizes power consumption, and it does this as many as 20 million times per second. The company calls the technology asymmetric multilevel outphasing.
“There are a lot of secondary effects that are really important,
Tomi Engdahl says:
High-Performance Flexible Circuits By The Slice
http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/web/2012/10/High-Performance-Flexible-Circuits-Slice.html
Electronics: A new method to produce flexible integrated circuits from silicon wafers requires little new equipment or materials
If they had flexible integrated circuits readily at hand, electronics manufacturers could start producing new devices including smart medical implants and flexible displays. Now researchers have demonstrated a way to make high performance, flexible integrated circuits using almost exclusively standard equipment and materials already needed to make conventional chips (Nano Lett., DOI: 10.1021/nl302735f).
Sanjay Banerjee, an electrical engineer at the University of Texas, Austin, wanted to make flexible circuits without many changes to existing protocols. He says that sticking with existing equipment and materials would keep manufacturing costs down.
Banerjee and his colleagues decided to slice the top off of conventional silicon wafers to produce thin, bendable circuits.
Manufacturers already make thin silicon circuits to serve as layers in three-dimensional chips. These chips stack up more computing power in a given area, but are not flexible. To prepare those chips, they chemically etch away the wafer, wasting expensive polycrystalline silicon. Banerjee points out that his method saves silicon by leaving behind a silicon wafer that can be reused to make more flexible circuits.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gartner Symposium: 10 technology trends to watch
http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20121031/enterprise/gartner-symposium-10-technologies-trends-watch/
In the U.S., Gartner analysts presented the following list:
Mobile device battles
Mobile applications and HTML5
Personal cloud
Enterprise app stores
The Internet of things
Hybrid IT and cloud computing
Strategic big data
Actionable analytics
In memory computing
Integrated ecosystems
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sharp’s warning it may collapse surprises few
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/440849/sharp_warning_it_may_collapse_surprises_few/
Japan’s Sharp, a major supplier of LCD displays to Apple and other manufacturers, has warned that it may not survive if it can’t turn around its business, an admission that caught few off guard.
Japan’s Sharp, a major supplier of LCD displays to Apple and other manufacturers, has warned that it may not survive if it can’t turn around its business, an admission that caught few off guard.
The company’s turnaround plan includes a focus on its IGZO technology, which uses far less battery power than existing screens. Named after the indium gallium zinc oxide semiconductor on which it is based, the screens will be used in several upcoming Sharp devices, and the company has said it expects them to become a core product.
Branden Faltus says:
These are all great and, as a student, I absolutely agree that having your own printer is just about a must. There will probably be more than one time when you finish an assignment right before class and need to print it off
Tomi Engdahl says:
Perpetual motion: A piezoelectric pacemaker that is powered by your heartbeat
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/139574-perpetual-motion-a-piezoelectric-pacemaker-that-is-powered-by-your-heartbeat
It sounds like the theoretical impossibility of perpetual motion, but engineers at the University of Michigan have created a pacemaker that is powered by the beating of your heart — no batteries required.
in the case of the perpetual pacemaker, the vibrations in your chest as your heart pumps blood around your body. Piezoelectric devices generate very small amounts of power — on the order of tens of milliwatts — but it turns out that pacemakers require very power, too. In testing, the researchers’ energy harvester generated 10 times the required the power to keep a pacemaker firing.
Currently, pacemakers are battery powered — and the battery generally need to be replaced every few years, which requires surgery.
You can imagine how many operations they are spared if this new technology is implemented.”
This piezoelectric energy harvester is about half the size of a conventional battery, too, which is presumably a good thing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Need a Many-Core Strategy?
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/102790
Has your boss asked for a “many-core” strategy yet? Get ready. Many-core is the next step in microprocessor evolution. It will change the world for most of us.
Although we don’t have a stable lexicon yet, multicore is typically used to refer to chips that contain a few multiples of more powerful legacy cores (Intel’s traditional Xeon, for example). Alternatively, many-core refers to a chip containing a large number of simpler processing cores.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Internet of Things needs to become a reality
http://www.eetimes.com/design/microcontroller-mcu/4399704/What-the-Internet-of-Things–IoT–needs-to-become-a-reality?Ecosystem=communications-design
Depending on who you talk to, the Internet of Things (IoT) is defined in different ways, and it encompasses many aspects of life – from connected homes and cities to connected cars and roads (yes, roads) to devices that track an individual’s behavior and use the data collected for “push” services.
Some mention 1 trillion Internet-connected devices by 2025 and define mobile phones as the “eyes and ears” of the applications connecting all of those connected “Things”
Everyone, however, thinks of the IoT as billions of connections (a sort of “universal global neural network” in the cloud) that will encompass every aspect of our lives. All of this public discussion suggests the IoT is finally becoming a hot topic within the mainstream media.
Estimates of the future market size for the Internet of Things cover a broad range, but most pundits agree that it will dwarf any other market. In mature markets today, the ultimate, pervasive consumer device is a mobile phone.
Do an IOT-related web search, and you’ll quickly notice the overuse of the term “smart.”
After a device becomes smart through the integration of embedded processing, the next logical step is remote communication with the smart device to help make life easier.
Communication capability and remote manual control leads to the next step … how do I automate things and, based on my settings and with sophisticated cloud-based processing, make things happen without my intervention? That’s the ultimate goal of IoT applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fake tech gear has infiltrated the U.S. government
http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/08/technology/security/counterfeit-tech/index.html
A record number of tech products used by the U.S. military and dozens of other federal agencies are fake. That opens up a myriad of national security risks, from dud missiles to short-circuiting airplane parts to cyberespionage.
Despite laws designed to crack down on counterfeiters, suppliers labeled by the U.S. government as “high risk” are increasing their sales to federal agencies. Their presence in government’s supply chain soared 63% over the past decade, according to a new study released by IHS, a supply chain management consultancy.
Suppliers with the high-risk branding are known to engage in counterfeiting, wire fraud, product tampering and a laundry list of other illicit and illegal behaviors.
The number of fake tech products floating around in the market quadrupled from 2009 to 2011, according to IHS — and they’re sneaking into some high-profile places.
China continues to be the largest source for counterfeit and pirated goods found in the United States, accounting for 62% of the $178 million in products (with an estimated retail value of $1.1 billion) that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency seized last year.
“Counterfeit parts pose an increasing risk to our national security, to the reliability of our weapons systems and to the safety of our men and women in uniform,” Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, said last year in support of anti-counterfeiting regulations.
The good news is that some government agencies are fighting back.
NASA is widely viewed as having taken a lead in anti-counterfeiting by completely vetting its suppliers, giving each a score to help its procurement officials pick the lowest-risk vendors. The agency also requires suppliers to show proof that they have various government and vendor certifications, and it resurveys its suppliers every three years.
“There’s an enormous amount of risk associated with counterfeit parts, not just to the men and women of our armed services, but for consumers as well,” King said. “Military and aerospace get the majority of attention, but if a counterfeit part were to escape into minivan’s braking system, you’ve got a huge issue on your hands.”
Tomi says:
Qualcomm Value Surpasses Intel’s on Robust Smartphone Demand
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/qualcomm-forecasts-sales-profit-that-exceed-analysts-estimates.html
Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) gained a bigger market value than Intel Corp. (INTC) for the first time after it forecast results that topped analysts’ predictions, adding to evidence that smartphones are gaining ground at the expense of computers.
Qualcomm reached the milestone after forecasting earnings and sales this quarter that showed robust demand for handheld devices.
“Qualcomm has absolutely been one of the prime beneficiaries in smartphones and tablets,” said Mike Burton, an analyst at Brean Capital LLC. “This is a very strong report.”
The majority of Qualcomm’s revenue comes from baseband chips, which connect phones to cellular networks, sold to wireless device makers such as Samsung Electronics Co., Apple Inc. and HTC Corp. (2498) The bulk of the company’s profit comes from the licensing of so-called code division multiple access technology, a radio-communications standard used in other chips, handsets and phone systems.
Qualcomm’s licensing revenue is calculated as a percentage of the average selling price of phones,
The company is also expanding into the market for application processors, the chips that run programs in phones and tablet computers, and will be supplying its Snapdragon product to computer makers using the new version of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Agilent’s feature-packed DSOs/MSOs use tablets for display and control
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4401236/Agilents-feature-packed-DSOs?cid=EDNToday
When you look over the list of capabilities embodied in Agilent’s new InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series of DSOs (digital storage oscilloscopes) and MSOs (mixed-signal oscilloscopes), you might conclude that the company should have called the new family “the only electronic instruments many EEs will ever need.”
Despite this long list of capabilities, the feature with the biggest “oh, wow!” factor is likely to be the ability to use a device such as an Apple Computer iPad or any tablet that uses Google’s Android OS (operating system) in place of the scope’s touch-sensitive screen and many of the instrument’s front-panel controls. Moreover, you connect the tablet to the scope via Wi-Fi; a wired connection would only get in the way. Using a tablet for scope control and display can profoundly improve the experience of examining fine waveform detail in complex setups on crowded lab benches.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microchip elevates HMI design with world’s first e-field-based 3D gesture-recognition chip
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4401197/Microchip-elevates-HMI-design-with-world-s-first-e-field-based-3D-gesture-recognition-chip?cid=EDNToday
Microchip Technology has unveiled its GestIC gesture-based non-contact technology with its announcement of the world’s first electrical-field-based 3D gesture controller IC, the MGC3130, enabling a new class of non-contact user interfaces. Based on technology acquired with Microchip’s purchase earlier this year of Germany-based Ident Technology, the MGC3130 offers always-on gesture recognition with minimal power requirements, permitting its use in battery-powered mobile and portable designs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Atmel looks to app store to meet growing embedded development challenges
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/systems-interface/4401277/Atmel-looks-to-app-store-to-meet-growing-embedded-development-challenges?cid=EDNToday
According to Joerg Bertholdt, Atmel’s director of marketing for MCU tools and software, the problem with IDEs is they leave too much to the individual developer to transform the environment into a workable development platform. That’s a basic concept motivating Atmel’s announcement of an app store and cloud-based collaboration environment for Atmel MCU developers.
Available online at gallery.atmel.com, the Atmel Gallery offers a familiar model of access to free and paid software. At launch, the Gallery is limited to products and partners identified by Atmel but the company is also offering an Extension Developer’s Kit that will allow third-party developers to contribute to the Atmel Gallery. All contributes are vetted by Atmel prior to release.
The Atmel Gallery particularly useful as an extension of Atmel’s Studio 6 development environment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Panasonic prepares for “garage sale”, to axe 10,000 jobs
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/14/us-panasonic-cfo-idUSBRE8AD0D120121114
About a fifth of Panasonic Corp’s (6758.T) 88 business units are losing money and only half so far meet a target for at least 5 percent operating margin, the Japanese electronics group’s finance chief said in an interview on Wednesday.
“Our new boss has said businesses must achieve at least a 5 percent operating profit target within three years,” Kawai said, referring to Kazuhiro Tsuga, who took over as company president in June. “But we won’t wait that long to tackle units that need to be dealt with.”
Panasonic plans to offload assets worth 110 billion yen before the end of March, mainly land and buildings in Japan, Kawai said. More assets sales will follow from next business year if needed to bolster cash flow.
Selling businesses and offloading other assets should boost Panasonic’s cashflow and help pay for the latest restructuring at a company that began in 1918 making electrical socket extensions and bicycle lamps, and now employs 300,000 workers.
“Panasonic’s debt holders are concerned and it is critical for us to improve our finances,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The U.S. semiconductor manufacturer Texas Instruments plans to reduce 1 700 jobs in the production of wireless components.
Texas Instruments work force reductions are aimed at the production of components for mobile phones and tablet computers.
Among others, Nokia and Amazon have been using mobile device chips manufactured by Texas Instruments.
Texas Instruments plans to focus its business focus again, because the equipment manufacturers like Samsung and Apple have begun to use their own chip.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/nokian+suoritinvalmistaja+ahdingossa+irtisanoo+1700/a856316?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-15112012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
EDN Hot 100 products of 2012
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4401457/EDN-Hot-100-products-of-2012?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+Fun+Friday
Once again it’s that time of year. No, we’re not talking about the holidays – it’s time for EDN’s annual list of the year’s Hot 100 Products!
Of the many thousands of products announced during the past year, these are 100 that especially caught the attention of our editors and our readers. They range from ICs and components, to software, test instruments, development tools and sensors, and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital Home Devices to Offer Increased Opportunities for Embedded OEMs
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/102788
The much touted digital home may have started off with lighting and thermostat controls, but it is rapidly expanding to more advanced security, energy management and lifestyle enhancement applications and beyond as the ecosystem grows.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Mind of Engineer’ study spotlights global design challenges
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4401567/-Mind-of-Engineer–study-spotlights-global-design-challenges?cid=EDNToday
Engineers are feeling the pressure. Their number one concern is keeping their skills and technology knowledge up-to-date, according to a survey of engineers from around the globe conducted by UBM Tech, the publisher of EDN.
They are also a maturing group, whose members see themselves as risk-takers who like to solve problems. They are generally contented with their lot and have a broad-range of interests.
One finding of the survey is that shrinking design cycles and more complex engineering tasks mean that many engineers feel they are working on more projects than before – although in fact the survey reveals that there has been a fall in the number of projects worked on.
“The wins are fewer but with higher stakes,”
Just starting engineers, defined as being less than 10 years in the profession, are more likely to use online resources or participate in communities and forums.
Engineers with 10 to 30 years’ experience are more likely to use supplier or publication websites, printed publications and catalogs.
Prime timers with more than 30 years in the industry tend to prefer meetings and seminars.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bird Technologies celebrates 70 years of helping others be heard loud and clear
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4401484/Bird-Technologies-celebrates-70-years-of-helping-others-be-heard-loud-and-clear?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+on+Analog
As a pioneer in radio frequency (RF) communications dating back to the ‘40s, Bird Technologies is excited to be at the forefront of yet another remarkable and enviable accomplishment: the celebration of its 70th year in business.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why JESD204B may solve a lot of your system design headaches
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4401737/Why-JESD204B-may-solve-a-lot-of-your-system-design-headaches?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+on+Analog
Recently a new digital interface standard (JESD204B) used for communication between data converters and processors, FPGAs and ASICs has been ratified and its industry-wide adoption is quickly picking up speed. It promises to overcome many limitations posed by traditional interfaces like CMOS or LVDS, such as synchronization across multiple channels or board design complexity.
In recent years an evolution has been unfolding in digital interconnection of high speed (> 10 MSPS) data converters. The goal is to minimize board space and improve reliability, all the while data converter sampling rates increase.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Optimizing clock trees to meet performance and system cost targets
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4401739/Optimizing-clock-trees-to-meet-performance-and-system-cost-targets?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+on+Analog
Hardware design in high-performance applications such as communications systems, wireless infrastructure, servers, broadcast video, and test and measurement equipment is becoming increasingly complex as systems integrate more functionality and require ever-increasing levels of performance.
This trend extends to the board-level clock tree that provides reference timing for the system. A “one size fits all” strategy does not apply when it comes to clock tree design.
Optimizing clock trees to meet both performance and cost requirements depends on a number of factors, including the system architecture, integrated circuit (IC) timing requirements (frequencies, signal formats, etc.) and the jitter requirements of the end application.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D NAND flash is coming
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/practical-chip-design/4401542/3D-NAND-flash-is-coming
Flash memory has very quickly risen from being an obscure memory type to perhaps becoming the dominant memory type for many devices, including music players, cell phones, tablets and now increasingly servers and mainstream PCs. But flash memory does not scale quite as well as the more traditional DRAM that it is replacing. It is thought that DRAM can scale down to 1nm whereas we are already hitting some problems with the scaling of the floating gate in NAND flash. It is not thought that planar NAND can go below 10nm which is only a couple of processes steps away from where we are today.
There are several other types of memory being developed, including spin-torque MRAM and Resistive RAM (ReRAM) that may replace both RAM and flash in the future. Another exciting direction is 3D NAND structures. In some respects this is similar to FinFET development for traditional transistors that are finding their way into 20nm and 14nm processes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Samsung to mass-produce flexible displays for mobile devices in early 2013
http://www2.electronicproducts.com/Report_Samsung_to_mass_produce_flexible_displays_for_mobile_devices_in_early_2013-article-fajb_samsung_flex_display_nov2012-html.aspx
Using plastic instead of glass will allow the manufacturer to create devices that are unbreakable, lighter, and bendable
According to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung intends to move forward with mass production of displays that use plastic instead of glass, a move that will allow the manufacturer to create devices that are unbreakable, lighter, and bendable.
Confirmation of the company’s intentions comes from a person familiar with the situation, who added that Samsung is in the last phase of development of these displays, with intentions to release new devices in the first half of next year.
Besides saving on manufacturing costs, making the move to flexible displays will provide Samsung with the one thing all mobile manufacturers covet nowadays — differentiation in a crowded marketplace.
According to the WSJ, the new plastic displays will incorporate organic light emitting diodes (OLED), a display technology that the company is already using in its smartphone and television products. Specifically, they will use active-matrix) organic light-emitting diodes (AMOLEDs).
Samsung anticipates that by 2014, 50% of all phones might have AMOLED displays, and that by 2015 the market could see integration of this technology into TV panels, too.
“The key reason for Samsung to use plastic rather than conventional glass is to produce displays that aren’t breakable,” Lee Seung-chul, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities, explained to the WSJ. “The technology could also help lower manufacturing costs and help differentiate its products from other rivals.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Did Europe’s Ecodesign Directive pick up speed in 2012?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-efficiency/4401959/Did-Europe-s-Ecodesign-Directive-pick-up-speed-in-2012-?cid=EDNToday
Since 2005, the European Commission’s Ecodesign Directive for Energy related Products (ErP)* program has delivered energy efficiency standards for a number of consumer and commercial product families (referred to as Lots).
One of the world’s most ambitious programs to reduce energy consumption, the Ecodesign Directive consists of over 40 Lots, covering televisions, set-top boxes, computing equipment, heating and air conditioning, lighting, external power supplies, white goods, and more.
An issue in the past with the program has been the length of time it takes to get a standard approved. The process, from Lot identification to the final published standard, is a long and winding road.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Design Reuse without Verification Reuse Is Useless
http://www.eetimes.com/design/eda-design/4401994/Design-Reuse-without-Verification-Reuse-Is-Useless
For years, design productivity has been assisted by increasing levels of reuse. Many system-on-chip (SoC) designs now contain 10s or even 100s of reused intellectual property (IP) blocks that can constitute in excess of 90% of the gates in a chip. In addition, the size of IP blocks has risen from small peripherals to entire subsystems.
What has happened to total productivity over this same period? Productivity is being constrained by verification, but verification has not seen its reuse needs met by models and tools available on the market. As a result, verification continues to take a greater percentage of total time and budget, constraining product innovation that would otherwise be possible.
While some verification IP (VIP) is available, there is not enough and it does not provide the levels of reuse necessary. As SoC design moves to platform IP, where is the corresponding platform VIP? Where are the fully defined verification environments for platform IP that can be extended to add additional functions without having to understand the parts of the platform that are not being modified? Why is verification reuse so far behind design reuse?
These issues are explored in this article
Tomi says:
U.S. Solar Jobs Face Bright Future, Wind Posts Flutter
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-24/u-s-solar-jobs-face-bright-future-wind-posts-flutter.html
Job growth in the U.S. solar industry, fueled by falling panel prices, will outpace employment in wind energy, which faces the looming expiration of a federal credit, according to a report from CleanEdison Inc.
CleanEdison expects about 36,600 people will be certified as technical employees in the U.S. solar industry in 2020, including positions such as installers, the New York-based provider of clean-energy training programs said today in a statement. That’s a 24 percent increase since 2010, compared with wind jobs, which are expected to grow 14 percent to 27,700.
Surging use of solar energy in the U.S is driving employment, said Avi Yashchin, CleanEdison’s chief executive officer. U.S. developers may install as much as 3.9 gigawatts of panels next year, up from a forecasted 2.9 gigawatts to 3.3 gigawatts this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That’s creating employment opportunities in a variety of fields.
That contrasts with the wind industry, which is contracting, according to the American Wind Energy Association. There have been 3,000 U.S. wind employees fired this year, mostly in manufacturing. Demand for turbines is slowing
Tomi Engdahl says:
MEMS sensors in gaming: $500M “Call of Duty” revenue will drive what’s next in game platforms
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/anablog/4401967/MEMS-Motion-sensors-in-gaming—500M–Call-of-Duty–revenue-will-help-drive-what-s-next-in-Xbox-360–Wii-and-PlayStation-3
The MEMS suppliers know where the money is with smart phones and tablets plus the gaming industry and you can be sure they are feverishly working on the next level of motion sensing to make gaming more realistic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Implementing vision capabilities in embedded systems
http://www.edn.com/design/systems-design/4402000/Implementing-vision-capabilities-in-embedded-systems?cid=EDNToday
We use the term “embedded vision” to refer to the use of computer vision technology in embedded systems. Stated another way, “embedded vision” refers to embedded systems that extract meaning from visual inputs. Similar to the way that wireless communication has become pervasive over the past 10 years, we believe that embedded vision technology will be very widely deployed in the next 10 years.
It’s clear that embedded vision technology can bring huge value to a vast range of applications. Two examples are Mobileye’s vision-based driver assistance systems, intended to help prevent motor vehicle accidents, and MG International’s swimming pool safety system, which helps prevent swimmers from drowning. And for sheer geek appeal, it’s hard to beat Intellectual Ventures’ laser mosquito zapper, designed to prevent people from contracting malaria.
Just as high-speed wireless connectivity began as an exotic, costly technology, embedded vision technology has so far typically been found in complex, expensive systems,
Similarly, advances in digital chips are now paving the way for the proliferation of embedded vision into high-volume applications. Like wireless communication, embedded vision requires lots of processing power – particularly as applications increasingly adopt high-resolution cameras and make use of multiple cameras. Providing that processing power at a cost low enough to enable mass adoption is a big challenge. This challenge is multiplied by the fact that embedded vision applications require a high degree of programmability.
With embedded vision, we believe that the industry is entering a “virtuous circle” of the sort that has characterized many other digital signal processing application domains. Although there are few chips dedicated to embedded vision applications today, these applications are increasingly adopting high-performance, cost-effective processing chips developed for other applications, including DSPs, CPUs, FPGAs, and GPUs. As these chips continue to deliver more programmable performance per dollar and per watt, they will enable the creation of more high-volume embedded vision products. Those high-volume applications, in turn, will attract more attention from silicon providers, who will deliver even better performance, efficiency, and programmability.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Embedded systems are evolving, but where are the tools?
http://www.techdesignforums.com/blog/2012/11/13/embedded-systems-tools-gap/?mid=14528057&PC=L&c=2012_11_29_embedded_technical_news
These are exciting times to be an embedded system developer. The landscape is evolving at a rapid pace. That much is evident from the almost daily stream of news from this sector.
However, although the announcements are exciting, they are either about evolution in embedded hardware architectures or what’s new in the software space
These are exciting times to be an embedded system developer. The landscape is evolving at a rapid pace. That much is evident from the almost daily stream of news from this sector.
There is little, if any, mention of happenings in embedded development tools.
That is partly because the evolution of those tools has not kept up with the growth in embedded hardware and software. It’s a problem.
A scenario is quickly developing where the gap could become very large between what the embedded ‘system’ (hardware + software) is capable of delivering and what the embedded developer can actually enable.
The embedded software design methodology, especially the code-compile-debug flow, hasn’t changed much. The arrival of multicore architectures has given rise to new defects (race conditions, deadlocks, stalls, etc.) which are not a part of the traditional embedded design lexicon. Added to that, there are the expectations of ‘high-performance’ from multicore that imply a need for quality performance analysis tools.
Our industry is evolving fast and urgently needs to address the hardware-software gap.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flexible Phones ‘Out By 2013′
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/11/30/1346234/flexible-phones-out-by-2013
“Imagine treating your phone like a piece of paper. Roll it up. Drop it. Squish it in your backpack.”
“There have already been prototypes, attracting crowds at gadget shows.”
“Numerous companies are working on the technology — LG, Philips, Sharp, Sony and Nokia among them — although reports suggest that South Korean phone manufacturer Samsung will be the first to deliver. Samsung flavors smartphones with so-called flexible OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology, and is confident that they will be ‘very popular among consumers worldwide.’”
Bend me, shape me: Flexible phones ‘out by 2013′
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20526577
In 2005, Philips demonstrated the first prototype of a rollable display.
Amazon’s first Kindle e-reader used a plastic non-rigid screen – known as an optical frontplane – to display its images. The only problem was that the components beneath it required the device to be stiff.
“There are about 30 million flexible e-ink displays in the field today – the oldest working ones are from 2006,”
“They [are] well-suited for simple phones, memory and battery indicators, smart credit cards, wristwatches, and signs.”
But why are most e-ink displays hidden behind a rigid glass screen and not made bendy?
One reason is cost, says Abhigyan Sengupta, an analyst with consultancy firm MarketsAndMarkets, which recently published a global study on flexible displays.
To have a fully flexible finished product, both parts of the display have to be flexible – the optical frontplane and the backplane, where transistors are – as well as the device’s battery, the outer shell, the touchscreen and other components.
“They could prove a terrific benefit for handsets, where damage from drops is common,” says an LG spokeswoman. “Their light weight and thinness should provide huge potential to the future of handset design development.”
“We are working on flexible, bendable and transparent displays and surfaces that could in future be part of flexible phones, tablets, TVs and solar cells,” says Prof Ferrari, who is working with Finnish phonemaker Nokia.
“Samsung is really quite advanced in this field, but we here in Cambridge have done some great work on Nokia’s prototypes as well.”
He says that graphene will complement and highly enhance the performance of OLED-type flexible phones, because in theory, even a handset’s flexible battery can be made out of this material.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Self-Healing” NAND Flash Memory That Can Survive Over 100 Million Cycles
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/12/02/2222235/self-healing-nand-flash-memory-that-can-survive-over-100-million-cycles
“Engineers at Macronix have a solution that moves flash memory over to a new life. … They redesigned a flash memory chip to include onboard heaters to anneal small groups of memory cells”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aging population seen as boon for IC industry
http://www.eetimes.com/design/medical-design/4402448/Aging-population-is-good-news-for-IC-industry
The IC industry is headed for a dramatic restructuring, and medical electronics will be one of the key drivers for the chip makers over the next five years, according to market researcher IC Insights Inc.
The supply base is increasingly controlled by a few very large companies, momentum continues for the fabless/fablite business model, and the ratio of capital spending as a percent of IC sales is dropping, said Brian Matas, vice president, Market Research, at IC Insights, at the Sitelesc’s European Microelectronics Summit here this week.
Matas said demand for ICs continues to be robust in all phases of life-medical, auto computer and telecom. And, these two trends are building the foundations for a more stable IC market and better growth rates over the next five years.
The world population is aging, and this represents a unique opportunity for the medical electronics industry.
The world population reaches 7.05 billion in 2012, with 1 in 9 people being over 60 years old (11 percent), according to the United Nations. In 2020, the world population is expected to amount to 7.7 billion in 2020, with 1 in 7 people over 60 years old (14 percent).
Today, 30 percent of the Japanese are over 60 years old. This will be true for 64 countries in 2050, Matas noted.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Temp and voltage variation of ceramic caps, or why your 4.7-μF part becomes 0.33 μF
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4402049/Temperature-and-voltage-variation-of-ceramic-capacitors–or-why-your-4-7–F-capacitor-becomes-a-0-33–F-capacitor
Conclusion
As a result of this lesson, I no longer just specify an X7R or X5R capacitor to colleagues or customers. Instead, I specify specific parts from specific vendors whose data I have checked. I also warn customers to check data when considering alternative vendors in production to ensure that they do not run into these problems.
The larger lesson here, as you may have surmised, is, “read the data sheet,” every time, no exceptions. Ask for detailed data when the data sheet does not contain sufficient information. Remember too that the ceramic capacitor type designations, X7R, Y5V, etc., imply nothing about voltage coefficients. Engineers must check the data to know, really know, how a specific capacitor will perform under voltage.
Finally, keep in mind that, as we continue to drive madly to smaller and smaller sizes, this is becoming more of an issue every day.
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 Engineers: How do you explain what you do as an engineer to a non-engineer at a cocktail party?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/voice-of-the-engineer/4311774/5-Engineers-How-do-you-explain-what-you-do-as-an-engineer-to-a-non-engineer-at-a-cocktail-party-
“I tell them ‘I create things to make your life fun and then create time for you to enjoy by making your job redundant, by automating the jobs’”
“When I am asked what I do at work I explain that I design machines that solve problems for people. Mostly for manufacturers who don’t want to ship a defective product”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Safety, Powertrain Will Drive Need for Automotive Semiconductors
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=255018&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
Active safety will continue to drive the need for faster processors and more affordable memories, Delphi Automotive chief technology officer Jeff Owens told Design News Radio recently.
Owens, an auto industry veteran who heads a staff of 17,000 technologists at Delphi, said the automotive industry is looking to a new generation of electronic components to meet the needs of so-called active safety systems, which can prevent accidents. “The cost-benefit to this technology is significant,” Owens said. “We think it’s the next big step to having that curve of fatalities drop downhill.”
Active safety systems, which can take control of a vehicle’s brakes or steering, are built atop many of the same processing innovations (microcontrollers and memories) that have served as the foundation of the passive safety revolution.
“We need the ability to see the accident before it occurs and have the vehicle take some kind of mitigating action,” he said. “Putting on the brakes, maybe even going into a full panic stop — those are the kinds of things that would eliminate or at least reduce the impact of a collision.”
“Faster processors and more affordable memories open up many doors and windows into automotive electronics,” he said. “When the processing power is available, it will be used.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Customers demanding evermore functionality. Shorter market windows. Compliance demands. It’s more difficult than ever to create products that stand out among the competition, yet are still profitable. Next generation products require next generation development techniques, such as systems engineering, to leverage knowledge and drive innovation earlier in the development process, to leverage knowledge and drive innovation earlier in the development process.
Source: http://www.edn.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/webinars/4394467/How-to-capture-the-hidden-value-within-your-engineering-data-?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+Design+Ideas