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:
Brit boffin tests LETTUCE as wire for future computers
‘IoT’ hypers can switch to the Internet of Trees any time they want
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/21/brit_boffin_tests_lettuce_as_wire_for_future_computers/
The University of West England has used a lettuce to conduct electricity.
The wired vegetable is detailed on ArXiv by Andrew Adamatzky, who writes that the experiment was conducted as an extension of work done on slime mould as a computing medium. Such devices, Adamatzky writes, have potential but “slime mould based sensors and processor are very fragile, highly dependent on environmental conditions and somewhat difficult to control and constrain.”
“To incorporate plant wires into bio-hybrid self-growing circuits we must develop techniques for reliable routing of the plant roots between living and silicon components of the circuits,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slashing Costs in 3D IC Wafer Process
Forget about adhesives!
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320782&
At Grenoble’s 3D TSV Summit, which took place this week on Minatech’s campus, the talks were about 3D IC manufacturability, and all its associated costs, or how to trim them to make 3D IC packaging a cost-effective winner for most markets, not just niche applications.
IC design aside, there are many processes involved before dies can be stacked together, including the manufacture of Through Silicon Vias (TSVs), wafer handling and thinning, TSV reveal etching, and Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP), then applying micro-bumps to finally stack another wafer or selected know-good dies.
Of course, one way to reduce materials’ costs in these IC-stacking processes is to avoid excess material in the first place and etch minimal layers to reduce the subsequent CMP step (and associated chemical costs).
Currently, the norm is to use temporary adhesives, with their own set of issues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RapidIO 20 Gbps Interconnect
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/idt/rapidio-20-gbps-interconnect/
IDT announced that its 20 Gbps RapidIO interconnect devices are used in Prodrive Technology’s motherboards based on the RapidIO Trade Association’s (RTA’s) data center standard specification that was released in the fourth-quarter of 2013. IDT’s RapidIO switch products offer 100 ns latency, energy efficiency, and multi-processor scalability – providing breakthrough performance in data center and supercomputing analytics applications.
“The RapidIO Trade Association embarked on creating infrastructure to bring the benefits of embedded systems computing to data center applications six months ago,
IDT and Prodrive have delivered a platform that makes it easy for users in these markets to build entire systems with RapidIO, and benefit from a variety of processing options, including x86, ARM, DSP, FPGA and PowerPC.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
2013: Innovations in Automation & Control
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=271254&cid=nl.dn14&dfpPParams=ind_182,industry_alt,industry_consumer,aid_271254&dfpLayout=blog
Ethernet, wireless, cellular, and M2M are all vitally important technologies moving forward, so it’s not surprising that our three finalists provide solutions in this area. And I think we can all agree that innovations in this area are precursors to a sea change in the way that factories will be connected in the (near) future.
The SPECTRE3G-W wireless cellular router with WiFi from B&B Electronics
Red Lion’s N-Tron NT24k managed Gigabit Ethernet switch
From Renesas Electronics, the R-IN32M3 industrial networking communication application-specific standard product (ASSP)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Altair Speeds Smartphone Drop Testing
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=271066&cid=nl.dn14
Altair has reduced drop-testing time in smartphones significantly with the use of computer-aided engineering (CAE). While we often associate CAE with automation set-up, materials testing, or landing a Mars rover, Altair worked with Korean smartphone producer LG Engineering (LGE) to create a simulation model that puts a smartphone through its toughest test — dropping it on a hard surface.
Drop-test simulation on smartphones takes between one to two weeks to set up, conduct, and analyze.
The modeling gives engineers a view inside the product as the impact of the drop occurs. This lets engineers see how each individual component is affected.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Does Technology Restrict Creativity?
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1365&doc_id=271079&cid=nl.dn14
Last November, the Telegraph reported that England will become the first country in the world to mandate computer programming in primary and secondary schools. This is set to happen this year.
During my college days, I worked on a project encouraging people to pick up a pen and paper, rather than going to their keyboards. This brought up some interesting design questions, which have since evolved. Are we losing our collective creative instinct as a result of new technologies? Or are these advancements opening opportunities for innovation? Is the creative process changing?
The act of sitting down at a screen to type and think is incredibly restrictive, creatively speaking.
Will future generations therefore lack creativity as technology and design develops, so that we’re in a more controlled and creatively limited environment, or are we simply a species that rolls with the times?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Silicon Brains That Think as Fast as a Fly Can Smell
http://slashdot.org/topic/datacenter/silicon-brains-that-think-as-fast-as-a-fly-can-smell/
Silicon that mimics brain cells, connected in the same pattern as a fly’s smell-processing center, shows speed and power in solving computing problems.
Researchers in Germany have discovered what they say is a way to get computers to do more than execute all the steps of a problem-solving calculation as fast as possible – by getting them to imitate the human brain’s habit of finding shortcuts to the right answer.
A team of scientists from Freie Universität Berlin, the Bernstein Center Berlin, and Heidelberg University have refined the idea of parallel computing into one they describe as neuromorphic computing. In their design, a whole series of processors designed as silicon neurons
Tomi Engdahl says:
Heatsink Tester Shows Thermal Resistance Isn’t Futile
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/29/heatsink-tester-shows-thermal-resistance-isnt-futile/
[Bogdan] knows that it’s hard to model the cooling needs of any given project. It’s important to know how much heat a system can dissipate given the housing material, airflow opportunity, and the proximity of neighboring components. Inspired by an aluminium-walled enclosure that allows for mounted transistors, he devised and built a heatsink tester.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Designing Flip-Flops with Python and Migen
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/29/designing-flip-flops-with-python-and-migen/
Flip-flops are extremely simple electronic circuits, forming the basis of clock circuits, memory circuits, buffers, and shift registers. Through his dilly-dallying with digital logic, [Jeffery] decided he would build his own. Not with Verilog or VHDL, though, but Migen: the Python-based way to build digital circuits with software.
Migen is an interesting tool that makes traditional FPGA programming a lot easier; instead of Verilog or VHDL, Migen allows an FPGA to be programmed in Python. Yes, it’s the tool you’ve been waiting for, and the tutorials make it look pretty easy.
Migen
http://milkymist.org/3/migen.html
Migen is a Python-based tool that aims at automating further the VLSI design process.
Despite being faster than schematics entry, hardware design with Verilog and VHDL remains tedious and inefficient for several reasons. The event-driven model introduces issues and manual coding that are unnecessary for synchronous circuits, which represent the lion’s share of today’s logic designs. Counter-intuitive arithmetic rules result in steeper learning curves and provide a fertile ground for subtle bugs in designs. Finally, support for procedural generation of logic (metaprogramming) through “generate” statements is very limited and restricts the ways code can be made generic, reused and organized.
To address those issues, we have developed the Migen FHDL library that replaces the event-driven paradigm with the notions of combinatorial and synchronous statements, has arithmetic rules that make integers always behave like mathematical integers, and most importantly allows the design’s logic to be constructed by a Python program.
You can find all the source code and designs for our products on our Github page.
An introduction to Migen
http://milkymist.org/3/migen-tutorial.pdf
Installing Migen – the Python based hardware description language
http://jeffrey.co.in/blog/2014/01/installing-migen/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm posts better than expected earnings for Q1
Still slightly under analysts expectations
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2325971/qualcomm-posts-better-than-expected-earnings-for-q1
SEMICONDUCTUR ARCHITECT Qualcomm posted better than expected financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2014, but still disappointed Wall Street analysts that had forecast slightly higher revenues.
For the quarter ended 31 December 2013, the company’s revenues rose 10 percent compared to the same quarter last year, to $6.62bn.
However, this was slightly under analysts’ estimates, which had forecast revenue of $6.67bn.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Don’t Fear the Cloud, Embrace It
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1365&doc_id=271301&cid=nl.dn14&dfpPParams=ind_186,aid_271301&dfpLayout=blog
The cloud is everywhere; it’s always connected and it has your data. Dropbox, Google Docs, and other tools have changed our file-sharing workflow forever. Productivity and communication have improved tenfold. So the question is, will our design applications make the jump to the cloud as well?
When it comes to 3D modeling and design software, it’s not a question of if, but when. Companies like Autodesk, Adobe, SpaceClaim, and startups like GrabCAD, Onshape (Belmont Technologies), Lagoa, Ciespace, and more are redefining the product development workflow by re-envisioning design applications to take full advantage of cloud technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
El Reg BuzzFelch: 10 Electrical Connectors You CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/31/electrical_connectors/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Makeup embedded with electronics allow disabled to control devices
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Digital_ICs/Microprocessors_Microcontrollers_DSPs/Makeup_embedded_with_electronics_allow_disabled_to_control_electronics.aspx
Katia Vega has a good thing going with her Beauty Technology Project, where she’s creating cosmetically-based electronics that can interact with a bevy of gadgets. She’s already created metallized false eyelashes, which can be used to activate a broad roster of electronic devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Switching vs linear regulators: Time for a fresh look
New developments in linear regulators challenge the accepted view of linear vs switched-mode designs
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Power_Products/AC_DC_Power_Supplies/Switching_vs_linear_regulators_Time_for_a_fresh_look.aspx
The switching-versus-linear regulators debate is rather like ac versus dc power. Most people take it to be about which is best, and that has been decided, so discussion over. The traditional, widely held view is that linear regulators may be simple and low cost but are also inefficient; therefore really only suitable for lower-cost applications where efficiency isn’t critical
For many applications, switching regulators are used and their disadvantages — extra supporting components, additional complexity, and higher cost — have been accepted in the quest for efficiency.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pmods offer easy circuit evaluation
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Software/Development_Tools_and_Software/Pmods_offer_easy_circuit_evaluation.aspx
Pmods are small I/O interface boards that offer an ideal way to extend the capabilities of evaluation kits and demo boards. They communicate with system boards using 6, 8 or 12-pin connectors and can plug into any FPGA/CPU expansion port which follows the Pmod standard established by Digilent.
Pmod™ Peripheral Module Evaluation Boards
http://www.digikey.com/catalog/en/partgroup/pmod-peripheral-module-evaluation-boards/33407
Pmod™ Peripheral Modules Pmods are small I/O interface boards that offer an ideal way to extend the capabilities of our FPGA/CPLD and embedded control boards.
http://www.robot-r-us.com/vmchk/pmod-i/o-interface-board.html
Sensors / Interfaces / Peripheral Modules (Pmods™)
http://digilentinc.com/Products/Catalog.cfm?NavPath=2,401&Cat=9
“Pmod™” is the trademark of Digilent Inc. The Pmod Interface Specification is the property of Digilent Inc.
PmodMIC – Microphone w/ digital interface
http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?Prod=PMOD-MIC
Pmod™ License Agreement
http://digilentinc.com/Pmods/licensing.cfm
Pmod specification (pdf)
http://digilentinc.com/Pmods/Digilent-Pmod_%20Interface_Specification.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Going Lead Free With Vapor Phase Soldering – Lead Free Is Still a Challenge For Major Industries.
http://www.smtnet.com/library/index.cfm?fuseaction=view_article&article_id=1957
As of today, the electronic industry is aware of the requirements for their products to be lead free. All components are typically available in lead free quality.
A big concern in this transition process is reflow soldering. The process temperatures for lead free applications became much higher. Related with this is more stress for all the components.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: Upping the Efficiency of Solar Cells
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=270854&cid=nl.dn14
To take solar energy to the next level, researchers are working diligently on new solar-energy technologies that range from poking holes in the cells to using materials derived from trees, to even interrupting the natural process of photosynthesis to leverage that process in solar-cell development.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EcoBot Turns Waste Into Power
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=271280&cid=nl.dn14
As robot technology advances, one important area of common concern is how to power these bots. The same is true for many different areas of technology.
It is clear that a new method of energy is needed to power robots. Scientists and researchers have been working to develop robots that can harvest energy to recharge their batteries.
Developed by Chris Melhuish and a team of researchers at the Bristol Robotics Lab in the UK, the EcoBot has been built to derive energy from organic matter, including flies, old vegetables, or even human waste.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Memory and Storage
ARM Support Claimed for Non-Filamentary ReRAM
http://electronics360.globalspec.com/article/3996/arm-support-claimed-for-non-filamentary-reram
An innovative non-volatile memory technology that could scale further and perform better than flash memory and resistive RAM (ReRAM) technologies has attracted the interest of processor licensor ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England), according to Carlos Paz de Araujo, a professor at the University of Colorado who is the leading advocate for development of the memory.
CeRAM devices as small as 5 nanometers made using an atomic force microscope
To date CeRAM devices have only been fabricated at dimensions of about 0.8 micron.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LED based lighting market is growing due to cheaper prices at a furious pace in the coming years. Lux Research predicts that the current two billion dollar market size is $ 25 billion in 2023.
Last year, the light-emitting diode was sold to one and a half billion dollars. The next 10 years, therefore, the market is growing by as much as 12-fold.
Although LEDs can be found in almost every application, it is still quite a young market.
Source: Elektroniikkalehti
http://www.elektroniikkalehti.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=909:ledivalaistuksen-markkina-12-kertaisiksi&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The use of integrated circuits made of graphene is getting closer. IBM’s researchers have been prepared in effective communication circuit, which has integrated graphene transistors. Tests the circuit works just like the existing circuits.
The transmitter was able to send a text to binary form at 4.3 GHz frequency. Message containing the letters IBM.
The components were implanted silicon 0.6 mm square area.
Graphene interest to semiconductor companies, not least because of the mobility of electrons is the time for up to 200 higher than with silicon.
Source: Elektroniikkalehti
http://www.elektroniikkalehti.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=918:ibm-teki-toimivan-piirin-grafeenista&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Glass that bends but doesn’t break
Natural forms inspire McGill researchers to develop a technique to make glass less brittle
https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/glass-bends-doesn%E2%80%99t-break-232659
The researchers were able to increase the toughness of glass slides (the kind of glass rectangles that get put under microscopes) 200 times compared to non-engraved slides. By engraving networks of micro-cracks
Tomi Engdahl says:
Many lasers become one in Lockheed Martin’s 30 kW fiber laser
http://www.gizmag.com/lockheed-sets-new-record-for-laser-weapon/30655/
Lockheed Martin has demonstrated a 30-kilowatt fiber laser produced by combining many lasers into a single beam of light. According to the company, this is the highest power laser yet that was still able to maintain beam quality and electrical efficiency, paving the way for a laser weapon system
Spectrum Beam Combining
means of fiber laser modules. Fiber lasers are lasers where the active gain medium consists of an optical fiber doped with a rare-earth element, such as erbium, ytterbium, neodymium, or others.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bangable poster firm Novalia makes printed ‘leccy keyboard
Electronics via standard printing technology
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/04/novalia_bluetooth_paper_keyboard/
The Cambridge company Novalia is working to launch a printed keyboard in the next year
Printing presses which are designed for high-volume runs – such as shampoo bottles – are being used to create the electronics.
Novalia’s process uses metal plates with the circuit embossed to carry the special conductive ink. Electronics can be printed at the rate of 100m/minute, far faster and far cheaper than traditional electronics, albeit slower than the presses run when they are printing ordianry labels.
The keyboard they have shown uses a Nordic Semiconductor chip which handles both the decoding of the keyboard and Bluetooth. While Novalia has experimented with printing transistors, it proved unreliable with low yields and so chose to attach a single chip to the A4 sheet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amputee Successfully Feels Prosthetic Grip Strength Via Arm Electrodes
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/bionics/sensitive-prosthetic-hand-gets-a-grip
For decades, amputees have been able to open and close prosthetic hands by twitching muscles and activating a superficial electromyogram (sEMG), but they had no way of feeling what the prosthetic was encountering and little control over the strength of their grasping grip. It was a clunky, incomplete solution.
But recently, an amputee who allowed European researchers to plug electrodes into a bundle of his wrist nerves was able to control the strength of a prosthetic hand’s grip and to distinguish the shapes and stiffness of three kinds of objects.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Graphene circuit’s wireless promise
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25944824
The promise of faster, cheaper and more efficient wireless devices has moved a step closer.
Researchers at IBM have demonstrated the most advanced integrated circuit made of wafer-scale graphene – often touted as a “wonder material” that could revolutionise electronics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DARPA hands IBM £3.4m to develop SELF DESTRUCTING CHIPS
Left an embarrassing USB key behind? No problem – it’ll blow itself into dust
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/05/now_you_see_it_now_you_dont/
scheme called Vanishing Programmable Resources
This will be achieved by using a fuse to shatter a thin piece of glass substrate which forms the base of the chip.
Last month, DARPA awarded BAE $4.5m to develop a sensor that will simply dissolve when it is no longer required.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: IBM to peddle its chip wing
Big Blue looks at chip division, then chopping block, then chip division, then …
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/07/ibm_chip_division_story/
IBM is rumored to have retained Goldman Sachs to help it put a price on its semiconductor division.
The news was reported by the Financial Times on Thursday afternoon
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spansion, Post Merger, to Launch Auto SoC Mid-2014
Unveiling first fruits of Fujitsu MCU/analog integration
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320902&
Spansion, which began last summer its transformation process from a flash memory specialist to a supplier of “embedded systems solutions,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chips Break Sales Record in 2013
4% growth expected to continue this year
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320876&
The semiconductor industry posted record sales in 2013, climbing 4.8% to reach $305.6 billion with December 2013 sales the strongest on record at $26.6 billion
The Americas semiconductor market
increasing annual sales by 13.1% in 2013. Year-over-year sales also increased regionally in Asia Pacific (7%) and European (5.2 %) markets but fell over 15% in Japan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow
DesignCon 2014: Test Equipment on Display
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320901&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gadget Freak Review: Smart Contact Lens, Precise Nutrition Facts & Mini Solar Powered Greenhouse
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1362&doc_id=271297&cid=nl.dn17
Google is currently testing a new smart contact lens that can measure the glucose levels in tears.
TellSpec is a handheld device that scans and analyzes food to alert you of the exact ingredients it contains. Using laser spectroscopy and a unique mathematical algorithm, TellSpec can analyze the chemical composition of any food.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gadget Freaks Rejoice: CES Highlights Impressive Inventions
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1362&doc_id=271002&cid=nl.dn17&dfpPParams=htid_66,industry_consumer,bid_30,aid_271002&dfpLayout=blog
Mother can keep track of your daily activity and movement, and reports back to you with updates and reminders.
Mother works with Motion Cookies, which are a family of small sensors that can be attached to most objects to detect and understand movements of objects and people.
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Dyson plans ROBOT ARMY to take over the world
Gadget boffin wants an android doing the ironing and washing up in every home
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/10/dyson_robotics_plan/
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM’s Chip Unit on Chopping Block?
Impetus behind the talk
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320914&
The Financial Times Friday morning reported that IBM retained Goldman Sachs “to sound out possible buyers for the business,”
Before diving into the speculation, here are some basic facts we all need to know.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top 10 Sensor Trends to Watch
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320763&
Sensors come in all shapes and sizes these days and fulfill all sorts of uses.
Use of sensors across a whole host of products and businesses is exploding.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ISSCC Keynote: No Silicon, Software Silos
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320954&
Closer cooperation between chip and app developers is needed to scale the rising wall in energy efficiency that’s making it hard to fulfill expectations of smaller, cheaper, faster systems, said the opening keynoter at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). Stanford professor Mark Horowitz called for a combination of specialized silicon and better algorithms to combat stalled clock frequency and rising power consumption.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Components were bought for industrial electronics for $ 33.7 billion last year (24.7 billion Euros).
According to IHS Research Institute the market was 11 per cent higher than the previous year.
The Institute believes will continue to grow steadily. In 2018, the electronics industry wants circuits for 45 billion dollars.
Although a large part of the manufacturing industries have disappeared from Europe, Europe has a big role in industrial electronics.
Source: Elektroniikkalehti
http://www.elektroniikkalehti.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=947:teollisuuselektroniikka-yha-vahvassa-kasvussa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Boffins hose down fiery Li-ion batteries with industrial lubricant
Non-flammable electrolyte found hiding in plain sight
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/11/industrial_lubricant_provides_liion_battery_surprise/
As Boeing and Tesla both know, if you mistreat a lithium-ion battery, it can start a fire – which puts a premium on the search for non-flammable components
As the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
proposing using perfluoropolyether (or PFPE) as a replacement electrolyte because it’s both non-flammable and has good ion transport properties
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Applications for Energy Harvesting
http://fi.mouser.com/applications/energy-harvesting-new-applications/
Current technologies and applications
There are several energy harvesting technologies in common use, with some innovative techniques just over the horizon. The most common energy sources are light, heat, vibration, and RF. Short of rooftop solar panels none of them generate a great deal of energy, but one or more of them may be more than adequate to power low-power devices in a particular environment.
Source Source Power Harvested Power
Light
Indoor 0.1 mW/cm² 10 µW/cm²
Outdoor 100 mW/cm² 10 mW/cm²
Vibration/Motion
Human 0.5m at 1 Hz
1m/s² at 50 Hz 4 µW/cm²
Machine 1m at 5 Hz
10m/s² at 1 kHz 100 µW/cm²
Thermal
Human 20 mW/cm² 30 μW/cm²
Machine 100 mW/cm² 1-10 mW/cm²
RF
GSM BSS 0.3 µW/cm² 0.1 µW/cm²
Mouser Energy Harvesting Modules
http://fi.mouser.com/Embedded-Solutions/Energy-Harvesting-Modules/_/N-8t3zx
Tomi Engdahl says:
Foxconn Is Quietly Working With Google on Robotics
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/02/11/foxconn-working-with-google-on-robotics/
Foxconn has long been associated as the partner for Apple, assembling the majority of the U.S. company’s iPhones and iPads.
People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that Foxconn has been working with former Android executive Andy Rubin since last year to carry out the U.S. company’s vision for robotics.
Hon Hai Precision industry, has been quietly working with Google.
Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou met with Rubin in Taipei recently
At the meeting, Gou expressed excitement over new automation technologies demonstrated by Rubin, they said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM Cortex A17: An Evolved Cortex A12 for the Mainstream in 2015
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 11, 2014 1:00 AM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7739/arm-cortex-a17
ARM has been doing a good job figuring out its PR strategy as of late. In the span of a couple of years we went from very little outward communication to semi-deep-dives on architecture and a regular cadence of IP disclosures.
If you’re a fabless semiconductor, it looks like 28nm will be the sweet spot for manufacturing for a little while.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny motors controlled inside human cell
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26136979
For the first time, scientists have placed tiny motors inside living human cells and steered them magnetically.
The rocket-shaped metal particles were propelled using ultrasound pulses.
“We might be able to use nanomotors to treat cancer and other diseases by mechanically manipulating cells from the inside,”
“Nanomotors could perform intracellular surgery and deliver drugs non-invasively to living tissues.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
So cool it 2.4 gigahertz: BATTERY-FREE comms for international band
Embedded wireless bods show off first prototype this month
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/12/enocean_debuts_self_powered_wireless_transmitter/
Embedded wireless solutions company EnOcean is planning to show the first self-powered transmitter to work at 2.4GHz.
The radio isn’t passive, the power to run the radio is generated through motion, light or temperature changes.
The EnOcean self-powered prototype will debut at Embedded World 2014 in Nuremberg
Tomi Engdahl says:
Protecting Aircraft from Lasers
New Program Offers Rewards for Information
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/february/protecting-aircraft-from-lasers
Today the FBI announced a program aimed at deterring people from pointing lasers at aircraft—a felony punishable by five years in jail—and rewarding those who come forward with information about individuals who engage in this dangerous activity.
“Aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft is a serious matter and a violation of federal law,” said Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “It is important that people understand that this is a criminal act with potentially deadly repercussions.”
Laser Pointer Leads to Arrest
http://www.fbi.gov/news/videos/laser-pointer-leads-to-arrest/view
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microchip to Acquire Supertex for $394M
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320973&
In an effort to grow its presence in the medical, lighting, and industrial markets and gain high-voltage process technology expertise, Microchip Technology Inc. has agreed to acquire Supertex Inc. for $394 million in cash.
Supertex (Sunnyvale, Calif.) is a niche analog and mixed-signal IC vendor with more than 300 proprietary products, and 58 patents with 36 pending.
Indeed, analysts believe Supertex’s high-voltage process technology prowess is the main attraction for Microchip.
Supertex’s dominant revenue driver is the medical sector
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung joins IBM’s secretive chip consortium
Asian electronics giant sighted at table with Google, Nvidia, Mellanox…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/13/ibm_samsung/
Samsung Electronics has joined IBM’s OpenPOWER Consortium, adding another company to stuff Big Blue’s chips into a variety of hardware products.
OpenPOWER is a scheme by IBM designed to make it easy for companies to license the architecture and customize it for specific needs, like ARM does with its chips. Big Blue unveiled the consortium in August of 2013.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A shocking discovery:
Can Electric Current Make People Better at Math?
Scientists find mild jolts to the brain may improve performance with numbers
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303650204579374951187246122
The idea of using electric current to treat the brain of various diseases has a long and fraught history
Electroconvulsive therapy has improved dramatically over the years
Transcranial electrical stimulation, or tES, is one of the newest brain stimulation techniques. Unlike DBS, it is noninvasive.
Up to 6% of the population is estimated to have a math-learning disability called developmental dyscalculia, similar to dyslexia but with numerals instead of letters.
There are also ethical questions about the technique. If it truly works to enhance cognitive performance, should it be accessible to anyone who can afford to buy the device—which already is available for sale in the U.S.? Should parents be able to perform such stimulation on their kids without monitoring?
“It’s early days but that hasn’t stopped some companies from selling the device and marketing it as a learning tool,” Dr. Cohen Kadosh says. “Be very careful.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacking our senses to boost learning power
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131022-hacking-senses-to-boost-learning
Some schools are pumping music, noises and fragrances into the classroom to see if it improves exam results – could it work?
Tomi Engdahl says:
US television shipments decrease, global industrial electronics chip revenue on the rise
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Optoelectronics/Displays/US_television_shipments_decrease_global_industrial_electronics_chip_revenue_on_the_rise.aspx
According to research conducted by IHS iSuppli Research, the U.S. television market fell 9% in 2013
Global industrial electronics chip revenue amounted up to $33.7 billion last year, an 11% increase from $30.4 billion in 2012.