The Internet of Everything is coming. The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions. Very many electronics devices needs to be designed for this in mind. The Internet of Things (IoT) will evolve into the Web of Things, increasing the coordination between things in the real world and their counterparts on the Web. Gartner suggests that the “the smart machine era will be the most disruptive in the history of IT.” Intelligent systems and assistive devices will advance smart healthcare.
Software-defined anything (SDx) is coming more into use. It means that many proprietary systems are being replaced with commonly available standard computer hardware and software running in them.
PC market: ABANDON HOPE all ye who enter here. Vendor consolidation ‘inevitable’. Even Intel had to finally admit this that the Wintel grip which has served it and Microsoft so well over the past decades is waning, with Android and iOS coming to the fore through smartphones and tabs. The market conversion to tablets means that consumers and businesses are sweating existing PC assets longer. Tablets to Make Up Half of 2014 PC Market.
The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Electronics Kits article mentions that many older engineers first became interested in electronics through hobbies in their youth—assembling kits, participating in amateur radio, or engaging in other experiments. The 1970s and 1980s were great times for electronics hobbyists. But whenever it seems that there’s nothing left for the hobbyist, a new motif arises. The Raspberry Pi has become a best seller, as has a similar experimental board, the Arduino microcontroller. A great number of sensors, actuators, cameras, and the like have quickly become available for both. Innovative applications abound in such domains as home automation and robotics. So it seems that now there is much greater capacity for creativity in hobby electronics then there ever was.
E-Waste: Lack of Info Plagues Efforts to Reduce E-Waste article tells that creation of trade codes is necessary to track used electronics products according to a recent study concerning the waste from growing quantities of used electronics devices—including TVs, mobile phones and computers. High levels of electronic waste are being sent to Africa and Asia under false pretenses.” StEP estimates worldwide e-waste to increase by 33 percent from 50 million tons in 2012 to 65 million tons by 2017. China and the U.S. lead the world as top producers of e-waste. America produces about 65 pounds of e-waste per person every year. There will be aims to reduce the waste, for example project like standardizing mobile phone chargers and laptop power supplies.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Batteryless wireless sensors possible
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4437134/Wireless-Sensors–No-Batteries?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20141114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20141114&elq=e0ee0265df234881b6ee1b3e673c00c5&elqCampaignId=20184
Many applications for the Internet of Things involve simple sensors that report their findings wirelessly to a hub or gateway. The need for batteries, however, creates cost and logistical barriers to many potential use cases. Fortunately, ultra-low-power, batteryless wireless sensor modules appear to be on the threshold of commercial availability.
A wireless sensor module for the IoT comprises several key building blocks. There is the sensor itself, a microcontroller to process the sensor signal and package it for transmission, and the radio transceiver that sends the information to the next stage. Using conventional logic design, these circuits require a power source of at least 1.8 V at many tens of microamperes for even the lowest-power operating modes.
But over the last decade there has been substantial research done in the design of sub-threshold circuits, including logic, memory, and RF.
Operating with gate voltages below threshold allows the transistor’s supply voltage (VDD) to also be low.
Sub-threshold operation requires careful control of device physics as well as circuit structures that mitigate the effects of noise and temperature variations, but research has provided solutions to these problems. Now, those solutions are being put into practice. Research papers have already described and demonstrated functioning circuits for microprocessors, memory, and analog devices. Now, at least one company is preparing to bring full SOC sub-threshold designs to market.
PsiKick is a two-year-old startup coming out of research efforts at the Universities of Michigan, Virginia, and Washington that is preparing a wireless sensor module for batteryless operation based on sub-threshold circuitry.
The power requirements for this module are astoundingly small, some 100 to 1000 times less than that of comparable sensor platforms currently available. In full operating mode the processor only uses 400 nanowatts while the RF transmitter generates 10 microwatts for an effective range of 10 meters. The module’s supply voltage can be anywhere from 0.25 to 1.2 V, making it a good match to the output capabilities of most energy harvesting methods.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Role of QA
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=182&doc_id=1324654&
Delivering high quality doesn’t mean leaning on QA to find your errors. Quality assurance is not supposed to find bugs.
However, almost every software group conflates QA and QC, generally folding both operations into the single term QA. I have no reason to tilt against windmills so will use the term “QA.” Software engineering isn’t manufacturing; we don’t need to adopt their nomenclature.
I believe that developers have the responsibility to deliver extremely high-quality code. Tiny teams may deliver directly to the customer, while larger groups have a separate QA operation. Regardless, we engineers must create the very best work products.
QA’s role is to demonstrate the absence of defects. Sure, life is tough and software complex. Sometimes they will find problems. But that doesn’t absolve the engineers of their responsibility to strive for perfection. We engineers must take pride in our work, demonstrate exceptional craftsmanship, and constantly hone our tools, processes, and techniques to achieve the highest quality
Tomi Engdahl says:
Industrial MCUs integrate precision analog features
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4437234/Industrial-MCUs-integrate-precision-analog-features?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141118&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141118&elq=de219103bd16480dbfea791b13feafd5&elqCampaignId=20233
Texas Instruments has announced its MSP430i204x i-series MCU line – the latest members of its MSP430 MCU family. Designed for industrial and smart grid applications, the 16-bit MSP430i204x MCUs integrate precision analog capabilities and offer a temperature range from -40º to +105º Celsius.
The new i-series MCUs feature a set of up to four 24-bit sigma delta ADCs with differential PGA inputs, delivering precision down to 1 percent across a 2000:1 dynamic range. In addition, an integrated digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) eliminates the need for an external crystal.
MSP430i2040 MCUs with 16 KB flash are available immediately in production quantities for $1.70 USD in 1K units. MSP430i2041 MCUs with 32 KB flash are available for $1.75 in 1K units. Design support includes the $99 EVM430-i2040S sub-metering EVM and $115 MSP-TS430RHB32A target board. TI also offers its free Energy Library, which includes code for energy and power calculations required for ANSI/IEC qualified meters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low-Cost MCUs Cover Audio to Industrial
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324678&
Microchip has introduced a family of low-cost MCUs rich in features and scalable memory options. The PIC32MX1/2/5 series is a mix of the existing PIC32MX1/2 and PIC32MX5 series, and inherits the key features of both, including Bluetooth, digital audio, and USB host/peripheral/OTG connectivity from the MX1/2 series and CAN2.0B controllers from the MX5 series. The rich peripheral mix makes these devices cost-effective in a wide range of applications, from consumer digital audio to industrial communications.
Microchip’s MPLAB Harmony software development framework provides support for developers using these chips, offering a range of software packages such as Bluetooth audio development suites and serial port profile libraries, CAN2.0B plib.h files, graphics libraries, and USB stacks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Infotainment Systems Drive Automotive SSD Adoption
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324673&
Infotainment systems are driving the increased adoption of SSDs as car owners expect more advanced navigation systems and richer entertainment experiences.
The company just announced the availability of its automotive-grade PATA and SATA FerriSSD line designed for in-vehicle infotainment systems. FerriSSD is designed to replace the traditional SATA and PATA hard disk drives used in a wide range of embedded applications such as automotive infotainment systems. FerriSSD comes in a small BGA package that integrates NAND flash with Silicon Motion’s controllers.
Earlier this year, Silicon Motion expanded its Ferri portfolio for embedded systems with its Ferri-eMMC products aimed at industrial and commercial applications that must withstand extreme temperatures and require longevity and reliability.
Lower prices for SSDs are part of what is driving the adoption of SSDs for automotive applications, according to Joseph Unsworth, VP for NAND Flash and SSDs at Gartner, as well as the inherent benefits of solid-state technology. No moving parts means greater reliability, he says, and the smaller form factors are appealing. SSDs also meet the requirements for extreme temperature ranges and shock resistance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flexible OLEDs Clear Last Hurdle
Kateeva’s flex-coating protects display from environment
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324672&
The last remaining hurdle to flexible, bendable, rollable OLED displays allowing designers to create myriad devices that can bend, flex, and conform to almost any shape over and over without damage has been solved by Kateeva Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.).
Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) enable displays whose colors are richer, whose manufacturing is simpler, and which can be deposited on flexible substrates for all the wearables, smart-watches, smartphones, and other gadgets that would like to have a flexible, bendable, rollable form factor. Many of these devices have been prototyped already, but their lifetimes would be too short for commercialization since the oxygen and moisture would eventually penetrate into the OLED level spoiling it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Putting Memory on Paper
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324669&
They’ll print anything nowadays — even memory and electronics on paper.
While major memory vendors work on improving manufacturing processes for existing memory and for emerging ones such as 3D NAND, research shows that paper holds the promise of being a viable option as a surface for memory.
This research is being conducted on a number of fronts. As Andrew Steckl, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Cincinnati and IEEE fellow wrote in IEEE Spectrum, paper has a lot of potential as flexible material for printed electronics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dmass: Nordic countries are lagging behind
European semiconductor distribution year has been favorable. In the third quarter growth was 7.3 percent, which brought the distributors of the total sales of 1.57 billion. During the first nine months of the year companies had aggregate sales of nearly 4.8 billion euros (almost as well as in record year 2011).
Unfortunately, the development of the Nordic countries have not followed the rest of Europe.
From the perspective of Finnish unfortunate is that only in the Nordic countries, the Benelux countries and Switzerland in the third quarter, sales has been less in the previous year. The Nordic countries, semiconductors sold 146 million euros.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2079:dmass-pohjoismaat-laahaavat-perassa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s efforts to take over the role of Android mobile phones are moved forward, the company has announced in conjunction with the Chinese Rockchip planned 3G mobile phone circuit XMM6321. The chip combines a baseband circuit and a modem.
District modem is based on Intel’s 2G / 3G circuit, which is planted into the side of the graphics and video processor. At its core is an ARM Cortex-A5 processor, which operates at a clock frequency in gigahertz. Chip, the communication is based on the Infineon chipset, which also brings in Bluetooth, wifi and gps.
Rock Chip has published information on the roadmap for future circuits: Next are the new 3G and LTE chipsets “Sofia” with 64 bit processor.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2085:intel-julkisti-kiinalaissirunsa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Circuit Protection Solution for Lithium Cells
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/te_circuit_protection/circuit-protection-solution-for-lithium-cells/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The majority of the LEDs are still based on gallium nitride, which is usually grown safiirialustalle. Many would like a cheaper platform for silicon and is now an English Plessey Semiconductor demoed 6 inch Silicon wafers made of LEDs that produce 5 watts of light output.
Plessey manufactured by six-inch reel, which is filled with 4.5 x 4.5 mm 5-watt LEDs. This is essentially a technical demonstration of “silicon led” preparation was demonstrated. Plessey manufactured LEDs emit blue light from 400 to 480 nanometers.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2083:suurikokoisia-ledeja-piikiekoilla&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
PUF promises to protect all with absolute certainty
The recent extensive data breaches have prompted the debate about which is the best and surest way to protect the encryption keys, for example. The only completely safe technique is PUF (physically unclonable function). There is nothing to digitally stored encryption key, which could be copied.
PUF in a number of different ways and in many different device. For example, magnetic cards use magnetic fields of random variation in leave of unique keys. Last week, at electronica Microsemi introduced its own PUF, a technology that the bottom of the FPGA SRAM blocks.
When the FPGA is started, the SRAM memory anomalies produced by a form of electronic fingerprint.
This electronic fingerprint is converted to an encryption key. It is not stored on any SRAM block outside. Key is generated only when it is needed. Used as the key is removed from all internal registers and memory.
Quiddikey function can be used to generate the user’s own encryption keys, as well as AES, RSA and ECC keys for storage.
According to Tim Morin security in IoT solutions of becoming a more important role. – Software-based firewalls and other solutions are broken all the time. Only the hardware based protection can protect your sensitive data.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2078:puf-suojaa-kaiken-taysin-varmasti&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gallium nitride silicon bring bright LEDs
LEDs is ready, move to silicon substrate. Silicon will manufacture cost-effectiveness and the lamp is evolving all the time. In the future, many of the advantages of silicon, particularly in the manufacturing process will increase the popularity of the platform.
It has also developed a number of alternative substrate materials having various sophisticated features: Gallium nitride, gallium nitride (GaN-on-GaN), gallium nitride, and silicon (GaN-on-Si)
The use of clean silicon wafers, on the other hand can bring significant savings, not least because its price is only one-eighth of the price of the sapphire (Lux Research,).
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2099:galliumnitridi-piilla-tuo-kirkkaat-ledit&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
High-Res Line Camera Measures Magnetic Fields in Real Time
http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/1198-ntb/news/news/21012
Scientists have developed a high‑resolution magnetic line camera to measure magnetic fields in real time. Field lines in magnetic systems such as generators or motors that are invisible to the human eye can be made visible using this camera. It is especially suitable for industrial applications in quality assurance during the manufacture of magnets.
The line camera can measure magnetic fields in real time and thus quickly detect defective magnets.
The heart of the device is a 3D Hall‑effect sensor that enables a sensor chip to detect in all three axes any magnetic field present.
Using the camera, it is possible to measure the strength and direction of the magnetic field at 32 positions spaced 2.5 mm apart.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Battle of the Processors: A Guide to Next-Generation Medical Imaging Products
http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/component/content/article/1105-mdb/features/20791
The choice seemed obvious to our client because that is how the legacy systems of the product were architected. But we quickly realized there was a major challenge ahead—getting the processor to work with UltraHD/4K image resolution.
4K video content has been a revelation in terms of quality and image clarity, and the consumer electronics industry has led technology adoption when it comes to displays. The problem designing 4K video systems with general purpose processors is two-pronged. The first issue was that there are not many vendors in the market that would support 4K resolution imaging, in fact, there is just one. The second issue was that the processor was targeted for consumer applications with a market life of three years.
Similar analysis on other general purpose processors and microcontrollers led us to the same conclusion; they may no longer be good enough for imaging applications. This is because as medical imaging advances, engineers and designers will have to move image processing functions to specialized processors to offer advanced features and disruptive performance. We, therefore, had three options for the road ahead: a DSP, an FPGA, and a GPU.
DSPs are best suited to portable devices. Some examples include the Texas Instruments K2E, Texas Instruments Hawking, Freescale IMX.6, and Blackfin.
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are configured by a specialized Hardware Description Language (HDL).
PGAs are flexible, though, and can be reprogrammed after deployment. Examples of FPGAs include Altera, Microsemi, Xilinx.
Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer for output with their parallel structure. They support programmable shaders, which can manipulate vertices and textures, oversampling and interpolation techniques, and very high-precision color spaces. They are ideal for constructing 3D models. (See Figure 2) These include the NVIDIA Tesla, NVIDIA Tegra, AMD Radeon.
Some chips, like the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, incorporate multiple capabilities: a central processing unit, a DSP, and a GPU.
3D imaging, imaging analytics, and 4K content are among the emerging trends in the medical devices industry.
The GPU topped the performance metric because of its multicore, parallel architecture, which can handle large parallel data operations with very low latency in real time.
Our evaluation showed GPUs to be the best option for high-end performance followed by FPGAs and DSPs, in that order. On the efficiency front, microprocessors are the most energy-efficient devices on the table. Typically, FPGAs have higher energy consumption compared to DSPs, but they offer a high degree of flexibility in terms of throughput. The overall energy consumption for FPGAs depends on the application being ported. It may sometimes be less than that for DSPs.
The downside to using a GPU is that it needs to be coupled with a CPU, an FPGA, or a controller for data processing execution. This would add to the overall bill-of-materials for the system.
For the UltraHD 4K resolution imaging, we initially looked at a GPU as it offered the best performance. Soon we realized that we would need to split the frames into four HD images and process them independently.
A high-end FPGA-based design by itself could encompass all the functionality required, but the design and verification cycle was too long for the client’s comfort. So, we opted for a simpler FPGA and a DSP to reduce design time. The FPGA could split the image into four 4K images, which could easily be processed by a DSP.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FPGA-Based Prototyping: Big Design – Small Budget?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324692&
Recent advancements in partitioning, debug, and scalability have made FPGA-based prototyping the ideal solution for even the largest ASIC/SoC designs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Carbon RF to Extend Battery Life
Smartphones charge for week instead of day
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324699&
How would you like your smartphone battery’s charge to last a week instead of a day? I suspect that the answer is an overwhelming “yes.”
That’s the promise being made by Carbonics Inc. of Marina del Ray, a seaside community near Los Angeles.
“Just scaling semiconductor technologies is holding back the devices of the future,” Carbonics CEO Kos Galatsis told us. “Semiconductors need new materials and designs to improve the user experience.”
Unfortunately, it won’t happen overnight, or even in one step. However, by switching from silicon to carbon-based semiconductors, he said, weeklong battery lifetimes for smartphones are just around the corner.
Right now the display is the biggest drain on the battery, but next on the list are the multiple RF transistors and front ends that permit a single smartphone to operate on the diverse bands used the world over. Carbonics plans to offer a single RF transceiver with such a wide bandwidth that you need only one to generate all the RF frequencies needed by a cellphone, now and in the future. For instance, beyond 4G LTE running at 2 GHz, the same Carbonics RF transistor can run at WiGig frequencies (60 GHz) and even at advanced imaging frequencies (more than 100 GHz) for biometric security applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese Dream for IC Powerhouse Is Coming True
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324666&
China, which for nearly two decades has aimed to make semiconductor manufacturing one of its pillar industries, may realize the dream in the next 10 years, according to executives and analysts surveyed by EE Times.
China’s initiative comes as the nation imports more than 90 percent of the semiconductors it uses to assemble mobile devices such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad. The nation’s chip imports, exceeding $160 billion in value, cost more than its oil imports.
China is targeting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the domestic chip industry of 20 percent between now and 2020, with potential financial support from the government of up to 1 trillion renminbi (US$170 billion) over the next five to 10 years
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Merges Mobile, PC Divisions
Promise of a big smartphone division fades
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324682&
In a move to streamline business and combat dismal mobile financial results, Intel will merge its mobile and PC divisions in early 2015.
The Mobile and Communications Group reported a $1 billion operating loss in the third quarter of 2014, with a $1 million revenue drop year-over-year. The mobile chip group will join Intel’s profitable PC Client Group — which saw a 6% increase in revenue to $9.2 billion in the third quarter — under PC Group vice president Kirk Skaugen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Charger zero load to near zero
On February 2016, after the 5-watt chargers are no longer at no load connected consume more than 0.1 watts of power. Socket for power supplies values are defined in the new Energy Star standard VI.
XP Power announces that its new 5-watt chargers meet the future requirements. New arrivals VEL05- series is equipped with either the United States, Britain, Europe or Australia plug fixed, while the VER05- series of products are supplied with four replaceable plug in different areas.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2097:laturin-nollakuormitus-lahelle-nollaa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm: More Trouble Ahead
EU, FTC begin antitrust probes
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324547&
If Qualcomm reported a good fourth quarter and cheery guidance for the next quarter and fiscal year, why did its share price plummet?
Qualcomm reported earnings and revenues slightly below Wall Street expectations for its fourth quarter this week, and it gave cheery guidance for its next quarter and next fiscal year. So why did the chip maker’s share price fall immediately after the announcement by 6%?
One reason is clearly because the company said it believes phone makers in China are not reporting hundreds of millions in cellphone unit sales to avoid royalty payments. The news was part of the company’s one sore spot as it reported another quarter of solid growth and upbeat guidance for its coming fiscal year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PIC16F1719
http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?product=PIC16F1719&utm_source=Hearst_EEWeb&utm_medium=485×510&utm_term=ePostcard&utm_content=MCU8&utm_campaign=Integrated-Analog-PIC16F170X
PIC16F1719 combines Intelligent Analog integration with low cost and extreme low cost (XLP) to suit a variety of general purpose applications. This microcontroller delivers on-chip Op Amps, Core Independent Peripherals (CLC, COG, NCO and Zero Cross Detect) and Peripheral Pin Select, providing for increased design flexibility.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Software option multiplies oscilloscope vertical resolution
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4437433/Software-option-multiplies-oscilloscope-vertical-resolution?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20141120&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20141120&elq=6cf43df24f284cd582939624703e57f8&elqCampaignId=20244
Rohde & Schwarz offers a new software option for its RTO and RTE oscilloscopes: The High Definition option doubles the vertical resolution word length from 8 to 16 bit, translating into a 256-fold gain in resolution
High definition describes the capability of an oscilloscope to handle applications requiring high vertical solution. This is the case in particular in those applications where the user needs to analyse small voltage components in detail, but where the signal at the same time contains parts with high voltages. An example is characterising switching power supplies.
The High Definition mode increases the vertical resolution of Rohde & Schwarz oscilloscopes to 16 bit, a 256-fold resolution increase. This is achieved through a digital low-pass filter of the signal directly after it has passed the ADC. The filtering reduces noise power, causing the signal-noise ratio to rise. Users can adapt the low pass filter bandwidth flexibly to the signal characteristics between 10 kHz and 500 MHz. The lower the filter bandwidth, the better the gain.
The activation of the High Definition Mode does not compromise measurement speed and versatility. Low pass filtering which leads to the gain in resolution and noise suppression is achieved in real-time in the oscilloscope’s ASIC,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automotive Industry Drives Chip Demand
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324718&
IC Insights compared the six most significant end-user markets for integrated circuits. These are the computer, consumer, communications, automotive, industrial/medical, and government/defense markets. During the time frame, until 2018, the IC demand from automotive customers is expected to exhibit the strongest average annual growth — 10.8% on average. This is significantly higher than the communications industry, at second place with 6.8%.
The computer market, once the IC growth driver per se, apparently is approaching saturation status. With 3.3% CAGR, it shows the lowest growth of all segments (albeit certainly at a very high sales level).
In contrast, automotive chip demand is still growing from a smaller base. While a high semiconductor content in earlier years was associated to the luxury class, higher quantities of chips are installed now in vehicles of all categories.
Demand drivers include safety features that increasingly are becoming mandatory, such as backup cameras or eCall. But driver-assistance systems are also becoming ubiquitous. Future drivers will include connectivity, such as vehicle-to-vehicle communications, as well as sensors and controllers necessary for various degrees of autonomous driving.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Week: Duracell Buyout Tied to Wireless Power, EVs?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324720&
This past week, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway agreed to buy the Duracell brand battery products division from Procter & Gamble. Though primarily known for its alkaline batteries, Duracell also makes NiMH and lithium rechargeable products. Some analysts speculate that the deal could have broader implications for the power technology industry.
For example, wireless charging is one technology that could see a boost. The new investment may accelerate Duracell’s plans to place PowerMat charging devices in Starbucks coffee shops, which number more than 21,000 worldwide. Another area of speculation revolves around Berkshire Hathaway’s investment in the Chinese electric car maker BYD and the possibility that this deal could be a way for Duracell to expand into batteries for vehicles and the power grid.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel offers ingenious piece of 10TB 3D NAND chippery
The race for next generation flash capacity now on
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/21/intel_offering_an_ingenious_piece_of_10tb_3d_nand_chippery/
IMTF, Intel Micron Flash Technologies, a partnership between Intel and Micron, has a 3D MLC NAND technology, which will be used to build 10TB SSDs in two years.
With 3D flash a die is made up from layers of ordinary or 2D planar cells stacked (as it were) one above the other.
The news came in a webcast for Intel investors yesterday, 20 November, with Rob Crooke, veep and GM of Intel’s non-volatile memory solutions group, revealing the development:
32 planar layers
c4 billion interconnect pillars between the layers
256Gbit – 32GB – of capacity in a die using MLC (2 bits/cell) NAND
348Gbit – 48GB – using TLC (3 bits/cell) NAND
The process geometry was not revealed but is thought to be 3X – 39-30nm.
Crooke foresaw 10TB SSDs in two years, meaning (we’d assume) late 2016/early 2017, and promised disruptive costing, meaning (again, we’d assume) per-GB pricing nearer that of disk.
Other 3D flash initiatives are coming from Hynix, Samsung, and SanDisk, with Samsung being the most advanced.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trillion-Sensor Vision, Results Shared
UCSD researchers show latest efforts
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324603&
Saving the planet one sensor at a time, the backers of the Trillion Sensor Summit here shared their visions and some research working toward a fully instrumented world.
“I believe in a world with abundance — a world without hunger, with medical care for all, with clean energy for all, no pollution,” said Janusz Bryzek, chairmen and CEO of the event. “One of the components creating this world is a sensor at the bottom of the pyramid for mobile health, the Internet of Things, and wearable applications. In order to get there, we need to completely transform the economy.”
Abundance will require another 45 trillion sensors, many of which haven’t been developed, Bryzek said. Wearable medical sensors pose enormous potential, speakers said.
Real stats moving up and to the right fueled some of the enthusiasm. The mobile sensor market grew more than 200% between 2007 and 2013, and the mobile health market is expected to lower treatment costs by 35%.
“The biggest challenges are the amount of data, processing this [data], and supporting infrastructure,” Bryzek said. Global health monitoring will require the cost of sensors to drop to less than 50 cents each.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Expects 2015 Mobile Speedup
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324727&
Intel is back on track with mobile, company officials said at an annual investor meeting. The company’s fiscal outlook for 2015 included stabilization of several divisions and an increase in its cash dividend to 96 cents-per-share.
Full year revenue in 2014 is expected to hit $55.8 billion, up 6% from 2013; Intel’s PC Client Group had operating revenue of about $35 billion, a 9% increase. The PC Group, which recently merged with Intel’s mobile division, expects a slight reduction in profit next year due to higher costs associated with 10nm technology and Broadwell.
Krzanich said the company is on target to ship 40 million tablets by the end of 2014 and, in the third quarter of this year, shipped over 100 million CPUs. Low cost mobile products such as Sofia and Cherry Trail drove demand.
Intel is also banking on several cheap smartphone chips planned for 2015 — the Sofia LTE and Sofia 3G — to up the mobile ante. Sofia LTE and 3G are 40% and 25% less expensive than Bay Trail, respectively, and “will improve margin structure on tablets.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Test Your Way to a Better IoT
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324680&
Better design and test procedures will lead to much lower maintenance costs than for systems where those precautions have not been taken.
The Internet of Things (IoT) promises a lot. By providing simple sensor and actuator nodes with both local intelligence and access to compute resources spread across the network, it promises to provide the infrastructure not just for smarter systems but systems of systems. Simply by adding new software and compute power, it will be possible to deploy additional services without having to change the things themselves.
But with such power comes a greater responsibility. Week after week of announcements of successful hacks — an increasing number of which are focused on embedded systems and other things at the edge of the network — underline how important security is to this new generation of devices. And they need to be able to ensure resilience under other problems, such as failing sensors, applications failing to access them correctly or errors in the data they are passed.
Because many of the devices will often be practically inaccessible, the “patch and pray” strategy used for many desktop software packages is unlikely to be an effective strategy for many forms of IoT devices. They will need to be shown to be secure against a wide range of attacks. Patching can only be used for extreme situations where certain types of hack were unforeseeable at the time of design. This puts a much greater emphasis on the design and test strategy used to implement IoT devices.
IoT devices are likely to be designed independently of each other making it almost impossible for the device design team to test for specific problems caused by other parts of the system.
The UK has taken a lead on the issue of trustworthy systems with the release of a standard designed to improve the ability of software to avoid failures and resist attacks. The Trustworthy Software Initiative has backed the British Standards Institute’s PAS 754:2014 standard, which identifies five aspects of software trustworthiness — safety, reliability, availability, resilience, and security — together with ways in which to achieve them.
There is, however, a spinoff benefit to taking trustworthiness into account. Better design and test procedures will lead to much lower maintenance costs than for systems where those precautions have not been taken.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can Japan Get Her Groove Back With IoT?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324745&
Japan, which once looked like a world leader as it pushed its Home Energy Management System (HEMS) and the smart home standard, is now trying to get her groove back via the Internet of Things.
If last week’s conference programs and exhibits at Embedded Technology 2014 show here were any indication, Japan’s M2M, HEMS, and Echonet Lite programs have been rebranded as a part of the IoT effort.
In the late 1990s, NTT Docomo talked about how the communication traffic of the future would be driven by machines calling up other machines (M2M) to help humans without human involvement.
Backed by the Japanese government, Japanese companies established Echonet (later, Echonet Lite), communication protocols for linking appliances made by different manufacturers — a decade before the emergence of Apple’s HomeKit and Google’s Thread.
Positioning Echonet as the linchpin of the smart home initiative, Japan earnestly pursued the idea of energy management. That was, of course, well before Google bought Nest.
One company pitched a bridge device between HomeKit and Echonet. Another unveiled a simplified wireless platform “with 920MHz wireless module and Echonet wireless module adopter,” intended to link home appliances and sensors. Exhibits pitching Wi-SUN — low-power, wireless utility products based on IEEE 802.15.4g — were everywhere.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disturbance in the force lets phones detect gestures with WiFi
These are movement detection devices you are looking for
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/25/gesture_control_for_a_smartphone_with_no_new_hardware/
How would you like a phone that gives you gesture recognition – without needing to buy a new phone?
That’s the tantalising prospect offered by a project at the University of Washington (UoW), which uses the existing WiFi capabilities of consumer-grade devices (laptops were used for the research paper) to work out peoples’ movements.
Their software, dubbed Wi-Fi Gestures, “detects large amplitude peaks caused by human gestures”, the authors write.
“Specifically, as the human moves her arm, the wireless reflections from her arm either constructively or destructively interfere with the direct signal from the Wi-Fi transmitter. This results in peaks and troughs in the amplitude of the received signals”, the paper states. The algorithm they created in their research classifies gestures according to the size and timing of the peaks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Melexis Unveils Software-Defined Sensor
http://www.melexis.com/News/Melexis-Unveils-Software-Defined-Sensor-1970.aspx
Ultra flexible, magnetic sensing solution gives engineers carte blanche in HMI implementation through breadth of programmable parameters
Melexis introduces a new, fully programmable, extremely compact sensor IC capable of accurately measuring changes in magnetic flux density along its X, Y and Z axes. Based on the company’s proprietary Triaxis® technology, the MLX90393 provides almost unlimited scope with which all manner of human machine interface implementations can be accomplished – from joystick, slide switches, push/pull switches, levelers, linear swipe switches and rotary knobs, right through to complex 3D position sensing systems. Suitable for micropower applications, the IC draws just 2.5µA of current when idle. It employs a monolithic pixel cell arrangement and has a 16-bit resolution output.
Using its SPI and I2C interfaces, engineers can access the MLX90393’s various operating modes; continuous; single measurement; wake up on change and burst mode.
Tomi Engdahl says:
System Bits: Nov. 25
http://semiengineering.com/system-bits-nov-25-2/
In recent years, researchers have made progress in the design and creation of biological circuits which can take a number of different inputs and deliver a particular kind of output — like electronic circuits. However, while individual components of such biological circuits can have precise and predictable responses, those outcomes become less predictable as more such elements are combined. Now, MIT researchers have come up with a way of greatly reducing that unpredictability, introducing a device that could ultimately allow such circuits to behave nearly as predictably as their electronic counterparts.
There are many potential uses for such synthetic biological circuits, the team explained, including biosensing — cells that can detect specific molecules in the environment and produce a specific output in response. For example, cells that could detect markers that indicate the presence of cancer cells, and then trigger the release of molecules targeted to kill those cells.
While this is relatively early-stage research that could take years to reach commercial application
Tomi Engdahl says:
Megachips to Launch DSP-Based Sensor Fusion IC
The battle over sensor fusion chips heats up
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324760&
The emerging sensor-fusion controller market for smartphones and wearable devices is about to meet a new competitor — this time out of left field. Megachips, Japan’s fabless, is rolling out a motion engine and sensor hub chip, dubbed Frizz.
Unlike existing sensor-fusion controller chips, Frizz isn’t MCU-based. (Sensor hubs usually use a 32-bit microcontroller core or similarly powerful processing device.) Instead, Megachips’ designers customized Tensilica (now Cadence)’s 32-bit DSP — Xtensa Lx4 — and expanded the hardware with 3-way VLIW and floating point 4-way SIMD.
Megachips’ deputy general manager Kenji Nakamura, tells EE Times, “Frizz is optimized for wearable devices. It can do high-level computations, such as matrix arithmetic processing, that had been only possible with a high-speed clock CPU. And Frizz does it at ultra-low power consumption.” Matrix arithmetic processing is ideal for running pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) algorithms that require Kalman filters, for example.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Graphics Processing Fuels Growth in Embedded Computing
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/103828
The growing demand for graphic displays from embedded systems in both the consumer and industrial space presents challenges for system designers. Fortunately a convergence of innovative connectors and low-power, highly integrated processors is enabling developers to meet that demand with small, powerful and rugged solutions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Class of PSU ICs Enables Cost-effective Charger Design
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/power_integrations/new-class-of-psu-ics-enables-cost-effective-charger-design/
Power Integrations took a long, hard look at the problem and with its new InnoSwitch™ family of highly integrated switcher ICs has come up with a digital magnetic communications function – termed FluxLink™ – within the IC package at virtually no extra cost. Effectively, a magnetic coupling between the primary and secondary side is created without the need for high permeability magnetic cores, using only the standard bill of materials for the manufacture of the IC package. Full internal galvanic isolation is achieved, meeting UL, TÜV and all other global safety standards, while external pin-to-pin creepage of over 9.5 mm is achieved with a custom surface-mount package, designed for this application. Furthermore, by occupying the space on the PCB normally reserved for the primary to secondary isolation region, the InnoSwitch IC essentially takes no PCB area. The design allows for simple resistor divider direct sensing of the power supply output voltage while the power supply output current measurement is fully integrated inside the package, eliminating external current sense circuitry altogether.
Secondary side sensing brings several other benefits. As well as eliminating the often-unreliable optocoupler, it enables a simple transformer to be specified since the circuit will not be sensitive to the bias winding location or transformer inductance tolerances.
But perhaps the most significant benefit of InnoSwitch ICs is the provision of simple and rugged synchronous rectification – resulting in high efficiency – without the usually expected cost penalty.
InnoSwitch power-supply ICs include the high-voltage power MOSFET, primary- and secondary-side controllers, FluxLink feedback link and an integrated synchronous rectifier (SR) controller within a single, safety-rated, 16-pin eSOP™ surface-mount package.
Using an InnoSwitch IC, a typical 2.5 A, 5 V mobile device charger can be achieved using just 30 components, roughly 33% fewer than equivalent performance solutions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NXP launches dual PCB configurable logic devices and design competition
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/-electronica/4437389/NXP-launches-dual-PCB-configurable-logic-devices-and-design-competition?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20141126&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20141126&elq=ca6e4f95c09149b6b4b67fb77b769971&elqCampaignId=20353
NXP used Electronica 2014 to launch its line of multi-gate, multifunction, dual PCB configurable logic devices with Schmitt-trigger inputs, along with a design competition
Tomi Engdahl says:
University of Texas at Austin, researchers have developed without operating the radio waves magnets of the rotary member. Body of rotator can be implemented in integrated circuit materials and integrated into the size of a few microns. Even the current prototype is 75 times smaller than the operating wavelength. The system is based on three symmetrical resonator coupled parametric modulation. Their resonant frequencies are modulated by external signals having the same amplitude and 120 degree relative phase difference, which provides an efficient electrical angular torque system.
The radio wave circulator utilized in wireless communications to double the bandwidth by enabling full-duplex operation, ie, devices can send and receive signals in the same frequency band simultaneously.
Current circulators are usually based on magnetic materials and are therefore bulky and expensive. Thus, it is not used, for example, the current cellular network systems.
Researchers envision even micro-sized rotary element into the mobile phone technology.
Source: http://www.nanobitteja.fi/uutiset.html?537
Simple Circuit Could Double Cell-Phone Data Speeds
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/532616/simple-circuit-could-double-cell-phone-data-speeds/
A circuit that lets a radio send and receive data simultaneously over the same frequency could supercharge wireless data transfer.
The new circuit, known as a circulator, can isolate signals coming into a device from those it is sending out, acting as a kind of selective filter in between a device’s antenna and its radio circuitry. Circulators are already a crucial part of radar systems, but until now they have always been built using strong magnets made from rare earth metals, making them bulky and unsuited to the circuit boards inside devices such as laptops and smartphones.
The new circuit design avoids magnets, and uses only conventional circuit components. “It’s very cheap, compact, and light,” says Andrea Alù, the associate professor who led the work. “It’s ideal for a cell phone.”
The two-centimeter-wide device could easily be miniaturized and added to existing devices with little modification to the design. “This is just a standalone piece of hardware you put behind your antenna.”
When a wireless device’s antenna is connected to one of the wires leading into the circle, it isolates signals that have just been received from those the device has generated for transmission itself. The new design is described by Alù and colleagues in a paper in the journal Nature Physics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony’s 3-Year Plan: Treading Water or Just Sinking?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324780&
For the ailing Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp., now is apparently not the time for boast and bluster. Sony is talking softly and hunkering down.
During the company’s Investor Relations Day in Tokyo on Tuesday (Nov. 25), Sony announced the company is reducing its TV and mobile phone product portfolio to cut costs while hanging its hat on a multi-billion dollar revenue increase expected from the surge of its PlayStation 4 and image sensor businesses over the next three years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HMC Spec Update Signals Healthy Adoption
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324781&
The odds of Hybrid Memory Cube becoming a viable successor to conventional DRAM are improving with the release of specification 2.0 from the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMCC). Highlights of the HMCC 2.0 specification include increased data-rate speeds, from 15 Gbit/s in 1.0, up to 30 Gbit/s, and migrating the associated channel model from short reach (SR) to very short reach (VSR) to align with existing industry nomenclature. HMC uses a vertical conduit called through-silicon via (TSV) that electrically connects a stack of individual chips to combine high-performance logic with DRAM die. The memory modules are structured like a cube, instead of being placed flat on a motherboard, allowing dramatic performance improvements over DDR4 with lower power consumption.
When work began on the first specification, which was finalized and released in May 2013, 15 Gbit/s seemed like a good starting point, says Black, as it was at the top end of serial interfaces. The consortium has leveraged the work of other standards organizations to develop HMCC since its inception. It released an update to HMCC 1.0 in February.
Handy notes that Intel has embraced HMC with its next-generation Intel Xeon Phi processor. Intel is collaborating with Micron to offer up to 16GB of high-performance memory and more than five times the sustained memory bandwidth compared with DDR4, along with improved power-efficiency and space-savings.
Like him, Handy sees HPC applications as an early user of HMC. “Supercomputing is usually the proving ground for concepts that later become commercial.” In addition, he sees high-end routers and networking gear using ASICs as a driving force for the adoption of HMC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NXP to Pick Up Its Missing IoT Link – Bluetooth Low Energy
NXP to buy Quintic’s assets and IP
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324767&
In pursuing the growing Internet of Things market, NXP Semiconductors has picked up a key technology piece that was conspicuously absent from the company’s portfolio — Bluetooth Low Energy.
The Dutch company announced this week that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Quintic to acquire its assets and intellectual property (IP) related to the wearable and Bluetooth Low Energy IC business.
The company’s Bluetooth Low Energy products range from standalone Bluetooth Low Energy chips to those integrated with a sensor fusion hub based on ARM M4 cores — designed for wearable and fitness devices.
By adding security, NFC and MCUs — NXP’s strengths — to the combination of Bluetooth Low Energy and sensor hubs, NXP believes it will have a winning formula for IoT solutions.
Noting that NXP already has NFC and Zigbee, Mark Hamersma, general manager and senior vice president for emerging businesses at NXP, told EE Times, “With the acquisition of Bluetooth Low Energy technology, we now have all three connectivity standards” critical to IoT. “Our customers are delighted about this.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Week: Si-Based Power Discretes to Continue to Dominate Over Next Decade
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324777&
The market for discrete power electronics is predicted to grow to $23 billion by 2024 from $13 billion today, according to a report, “Sizing Up the $23 Billion Discrete Power Electronics Market in 2024,” by market research firm Lux Research. While silicon-based devices are predicted to remain predominant with an 87% share of the market, the company expects SiC- and GaN-based components to grow at annual rates of 30% and 32%, respectively, with cost and availability curbing their market-share potential.
Tomi Engdahl says:
USB Oscilloscopes Get Beta Drivers for Open-Source Hardware
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324771&
Cambridgeshire, UK — On November 5, Pico Technology made a small but significant announcement: the release of beta drivers that let its USB oscilloscopes communicate with BeagleBoneBlack and Raspberry Pi open-source controllers. Although it didn’t have much fanfare, the announcement made to the Pico Technology Linux community shows what could be a trend in using open-source hardware to control measurement equipment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cirrus Logic’s Articles
The Rising Wave in PFC Techniques
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/cirrus_logic/the-rising-wave-in-pfc-techniques/
This article presents the use of PFC (Power Factor Correction) techniques as a means of improving power efficiency. This document briefly discusses the challenges of improving efficiency and its efforts to strive for it. It also briefly defines the Power Factor Correction, as well as the digital PFC and its tangible benefits in the real world.
The significance of power factor correction (PFC) has long been visualized as technology requirements for improving the efficiency of a power system network by compensating for the fundamental reactive power generated or consumed by simple inductive or capacitive loads. With the Information Age in full swing, the growth of high reliability, low cost electronic products have led utilities to escalate their power quality concerns created by the increase of such “switching loads”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GDTs on GR-1089 PSTN
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/te_circuit_protection/gdts-on-gr-1089-pstn/
TE Circuit Protection has designed a Gas Discharge Tubes (GDT) that has a DC sparkover voltage 420 V. This device has capacitance at 1 MHz of =10000 MΩ. It is commonly used in GR-1089 : Public Switched Telephone Network Equipment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
News & Analysis
Gyroscope Accuracy Beats MEMS
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324794&
The most accurate gyroscope in the world, Qualtre Inc. of Marlborough, Mass., claims, is its newest bulk-acoustic wave (BAW) single-axis gyroscope. Originally licensed from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the BAW uses a totally different approach than the traditional “tuning fork” type of architecture used by all other MEMS gyroscopes.
“TFGs [tuning-fork gyroscopes] have hit the wall in terms of performance, but bulk acoustic wave gyroscopes have overcome these obstacles,” Sreeni Rao, vice president of Vertical Markets told EE Times. “And we have a headstart by holding the patents on that, which could improve those tuning-fork gyros.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip Market for Wireless Sensor Networks on 23% CAGR
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324800&
he number of Internet connections will grow from 9 billion devices in 2014 to 100 billion by 2020, according to market research firm Radiant Insights of San Francisco.
That’s twice as many as the estimate from Cisco Systems Inc., which has been widely used by proponents of the Internet of Things (IoT). Radiant’s figure represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the period of about 50 percent. It is also four times higher than the 26 billion figure estimated by Gartner.
As a result of this explosion of connectivity, the worldwide market for chips supplying wireless sensor networks is set to grow from $2.7 billion in 2013 and reach $12 billion by 2020. This is a CAGR over the period of 23 percent.
Radiant predicts that wireless sensor networks will be used to monitor and control very many domestic, urban, and industrial systems. This promises to produce an explosion of data, much of which will be discarded as users are overwhelmed by the volume. As a result, analysis of the data within the wireless sensor network will become necessary so that alerts and meaningful information are generated at the leaf nodes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Micron Expands IoT & Auto Memory Products
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324786&
In November, Micron went big in DRAM, flash, SSD, and eMMC, most notably with announcements at Electronica. I caught up with Amit Gattani, senior director of segment marketing, and Kris Baxter, senior director of Micron’s Embedded Business, earlier this month.
Micron’s Electronica news mostly focused on products aimed primarily at Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive applications. Industry requirements will differ, especially in the security level, temperature range, latency, performance, and power required by each application.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Moore’s Law Competitor Wins $150K Elevator Pitch Prize
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324742&
$150,000 seems a princely sum in exchange for an elevator pitch but not when you consider the research that went into it.
The Elevator Pitch Session, a contest recently sponsored by MIG (MEMS Industry Group, based in Pittsburgh, Pa.), brought out dozens of submissions competing for a $150,000 purse. Narrowed down to six entrants, finalists were allowed to give a five-minute pitch with five slides and five minutes for questions in front of a live audience at the MEMS Executive Congress 2014, held in Scottsdale, Ariz. Nov. 5-7.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony’s 3-Year Plan: Treading Water or Just Sinking?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324780&
For the ailing Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp., now is apparently not the time for boast and bluster. Sony is talking softly and hunkering down.
During the company’s Investor Relations Day in Tokyo on Tuesday (Nov. 25), Sony announced the company is reducing its TV and mobile phone product portfolio to cut costs while hanging its hat on a multi-billion dollar revenue increase expected from the surge of its PlayStation 4 and image sensor businesses over the next three years.
Most important, Sony said it will keep its smartphone business, neither letting it go nor shutting it down.
Sony’s three-year outlook for its mobile business “isn’t aiming for size or market share but better profits,”