As EE-Evaluation Engineering heads into its second half-century of publication, we look forward to continue bringing you news of state-of-the-art technology. It’s unimaginable where technology will take us 50 years from now. Just think back 50 years—The Jetsons was a popular prime-time show, and it got people expecting to see flying cars, jetpacks, and humanoid robotic housekeepers in the not-too-distant future.
That hasn’t worked out yet, but we can keep hoping. So rather than forecasting 50 years out, we will be monitoring trends and providing information you can put to work right away.
You’ll find that as we do that, at times we will have our head in the clouds—that is, the public computing clouds that will increasingly represent an option for storing your test data, operating on it, and retrieving it from anywhere in the world. On page 26 in this issue, we take a look at how companies like National Instruments and OptimalTest already can help you make use of public clouds. Also, we report on how companies such as Agilent Technologies and Ixia see the cloud as providing opportunities for test-equipment vendors.
In addition to cloud computing, we will be expanding our coverage in several key areas, including medical test, mobile apps for engineers, green technology, sensing, and remote monitoring. We already have introduced some of these topics, covering sensors in our January feature “From Images to Movement, Devices Catch Data” and remote monitoring in our March article “Collecting Data at the Edge.” In January, we also addressed green technology with “Improving the Power Grid IQ” and engineering apps with the article “Mobile Apps Support Communications Test, Data Acquisition.” And in February, we covered medical test with the feature “Ultrasound Imaging: More Than Skin-Deep.” We also highlighted the test challenges posed by the advent of 3-D ICs in “Addressing Interposer and TSV Quality Challenges.”
We will continue to cover core instrumentation and automated test and inspection technologies. On page 16 in this issue, for example, we report on innovations in signal analyzers—flexible instruments that employ software to adapt to evolving communications standards, and on page 10, we cover advances in PXI and PXIe instruments. In our March feature “Elevating the Test Function,” we summarized key trends in automated test as disclosed in a report from National Instruments. And we will continue to keep you up to date on applications involving communications test, military/aerospace test, and EMC and compliance.
While it’s our goal to help you contend with the rapidly approaching future, we also realize it can be interesting and informative to look back. So on the inside back page of each issue this year, we are recounting the history of key technologies, including DMMs in this issue. And in this special anniversary issue, we have an interview (page 8) with Vern Nelson, EE-Evaluation Engineering’s founder.
Reviewing the past can help us extrapolate to the future. As we review the past 50 years, perhaps we will find clues as to what we can expect to see 50 years from now. After all, some Jetsons technology has arrived already—consider electronically accessible newspapers and video chat, for example.
So who knows what we’ll have in 50 years? Keep in mind The Jetsons was set 100 years out—in 2062. Maybe by then we will have flying cars, jetpacks, and humanoid robotic housekeepers. I can’t wait to find out.
