The whirlwind pace of the general electronics industry seems a small draft in light of the swath cast by the tornado-like development pace of the networking and communications industries. So much is happening in those industries that we at Electronic Design feel a new design discipline has evolved. This discipline blends networking technology with advanced electronics and semiconductor technology. We call this Netronics. To some extent, we see this name as an important way to define a design type, just as almost 70 years ago, another publication coined the term "Electronics," thereby defining the category of Electronics Engineer.
So I ask, "Are you a Netronics Engineer?" You don't have to answer this question right now, but Electronic Design is using the question to make a statement about the evolving design scene. We have created two special issues. One will come out in mid October and the other in early December. These issues, which will be sent to those of you who told us about your involvement in the networking and communications areas, won't carry the familiar Electronic Design logo. Rather, they will be called "Netronics" to bring attention to this important area of design.
Why Netronics? Well, just as other publications have addressed specific areas of technology, Netronics will address the areas of networking, data communications, telecommunications, and wireless technologies. Articles and executive perspectives will examine the new technologies and solutions, as well as how they all converge and work together.
Each of the special issues will contain a mixture of articles, including in-depth staff articles, several contributed design articles, plus many other story types. The first issue in October will carry the theme "Supercharging The Global Infrastructure." It will include a staff report focusing on advances in switch fabrics, and several contributed articles dealing with developments in content-addressable memory architectures. These will advance the performance of network routers, bridges, and other systems heavily dependent on matching data strings. This issue will additionally contain numerous late-breaking developments in the networking and communications industries.
The December issue will focus on developments in the communications channel with an in-depth report that examines the state of the art of xDSL technologies. Complementing the report will be several design articles that show off approaches to implementing voice and video over DSL and cable modem subsystems. Again, late breaking developments from the network industry and several industry-expert commentaries will round out the issue.
Let us know what you think about the special issue. If you don't receive the October issue but want to get on the list, go to www.netronicsmag.com and fill out an application.