Electronic Design Update: April 2, 2008

Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter |   April 2, 2008 ADVERTISEMENT BACKPLANE SOLUTIONS WITH ALL THE OPTIONS
Molex's GbX I-Trac™ and Impact™ Systems offer the widest array of available features.
Click here for more info. scope |Aptera Announces Electric Autos Under $30k By Richard Gawel, Managing Editor
Electric and hybrid luxury cars like Tesla's Roadster and Fisker Automotive's Karma may grab the headlines—and celebrity owners. But what if you’re an early adopter on a budget? Maybe you should take a look at Aptera's latest models. Read the full article...

Our editors have been busy! Come read their commentaries and check out exclusive videos from CTIA, Mobile World Congress, APEC, and Embedded World exhibitions and see the technology of tomorrow from major players in the electronics industry. mark david's roadmap |

Tread Lightly, You've Got Electronics In Your Boots

I recently had a chance to spend some time in the wireless mecca of San Diego; I was there to participate in an Ultra Low Power Wireless event hosted by Nordic Semiconductor. Nordic defines ultra-low power as those devices that can run on a coin cell battery for at least a year, and its 2.4 Gigahertz wireless products offer the perfect range and power for innovative personal area network (PAN) applications. Read the full article... focus on embedded hardware|

Collaboration Launches First Lab-On-Chip For Flu Detection

Pairing STMicroelectronics' In-Check lab-on-chip platform with Veredus' bio-application capability, VereFlu debuts as the first lab-on-chip capable of rapidly detecting all major influenza types at the point of need. Read the full article... EiED online |

Improving Simulation: Virtutech Q&A

The quality and performance of system simulation has improved significantly over the years. Technology Editor Bill Wong interviews Michel Genard, CEO of Virtutech. Read the full article...

ADVERTISEMENT ESC Silicon Valley: Learn Today, Design Tomorrow
ESC Silicon Valley is where the global design engineering community gathers to learn, collaborate and celebrate innovation. ESC is celebrating 20 years of educating the creators of technology at the San Jose Convention Center from April 14 - 17 with over 350 exhibiting companies and over 200 new courses to this year's conference. Register today! Use Code: UX2-D Engineering TV | Festo MPS System: Part 1 At the Vincent A. Stabile Laboratory at NJIT's Newark College of Engineering, a companion robotics laboratory features 10 experimental stations, the Festo System, which gives students "hands-on" training in solving practical problems using robotics for today's automated manufacturing. In this interview, Sanchoy Das, a professor in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, provides Engineering TV with an overview of the Festo MPS and how it has contributed to the students' understanding of automated manufacturing systems.

Click here to watch the video.

news from the editors |Remote Controls Switch From IR To RF—And It's About Time They Did By Louis Frenzel, Communications/Test Editor
Most remote controls on TV sets, DVD players, audio systems, and other consumer equipment use infrared (IR) technology, just as they have for decades. But while IR still works well, it's showing its age. Today's large-screen HDTVs, next-generation DVD players, DVRs, and surroundsound systems need something more sophisticated. Read the full article...

Excess Semiconductor Inventories Drop—For the Wrong Reasons

Excess semiconductor inventories in the first quarter of 2008 were expected to be down by 14.6%, to $2.9 billion, from $3.4 billion in the last quarter of 2007, according to iSuppli Corp.'s Semiconductor Inventory Tracker Service. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily good news, iSupply claims. Read the full article...

Amphenol Launches Backplane Design Portal

The newly launched DesignLink Web portal from Amphenol TCS delivers a custom suite of proprietary engineering design tools and technical information specific to high-speed backplane design. The secure Internet portal features a set of unique, interactive tools that allows designers to perform tradeoff analyses at any phase of a backplane design cycle. Read the full article...

ADVERTISEMENT Learn Strategies for Reducing Cost of Test at the 2008 Automated Test Summit
Leading test and measurement companies worldwide are taking part in this virtual industry event, hosted by National Instruments, to share their tips and best practices for reducing cost of test. By participating in this online event, you can experience the presentations, exhibitors, and dynamic atmosphere of a traditional conference — all from the convenience of your desk. Access session overviews and register for this free event.

Motorola To Split Into Two Companies

Motorola Inc. has announced plans to break up into two independent publicly traded companies, separating its Mobile Device business and it's Broadband & Mobility Solutions business. The decision by the board of directors comes after an evaluation of the structural and strategic realignment of Motorola’s businesses begun at the end of January. Read the full article... quick poll | Last month, Fujitsu announced a 2.5-in. hard-disk drive with speeds up to 7200 rpm and a 320-Gbyte capacity, using just 2.3 W. What does this indicate about the role of HDDs in the future?

• The HDD is here to stay.
• Competition with flash will balance both technologies.
• Flash's dominance is inevitable.
• Eventually, both technologies will be replaced by more exotic storage.

Click here to take the poll. Remeber to scroll down. The poll is at the bottom of the page.

product picks online | GaN Power Transistor Packs 45-W Wallop Portable USB Module Analyzes Sound And Vibration DC-DC Converters Widen Input Range, Raise Power Density App Tests Speech Codec Quality 100-MHz/HCSL-Output Crystal Oscillator Rides The PCI Express engineer's resource |

Webinar: Improving The Accuracy Of Eye Pattern Measurements Presented by LeCroy April 9 at 2 pm ET

This Web seminar, presented by LeCroy Business Development Manager Michael Schnecker, will describe the limitations of eye-pattern testing and some of the more important eye-based measurements. A measurement technique using the normalized q-scale method from jitter analysis and expanded to two dimensions will be described, and its application to mask testing and signal measurements will be demonstrated. Read the full article... upcoming industry events | International Symposium On Physical Design
Portland, Ore.
April 13-16 Next Generation Networks & Basestations
Bath, England
April 22-25 Video Content Analysis Conference
Orlando, Fla.
April 23-24 To view more events, visit our PlanetEE Web site.

ED bookstore |

Industrial Networking Texts: Two Selections

Read up on Communications/Test Editor Louis Frenzel's reviews and recommendations on two reference guides from the industiral networking industry. "Industrial Ethernet, 2nd Ed.," by P.S. Marshall and J.S. Rinaldi introduces how Ethernet carries the TCP/IP protocol suite, and covers Ethernet hardware. The second book, "Industrial Data Communications, 4th Ed.," by L.M. Thompson, covers a rainbow of topics within the serial-data communications field. Read the full article...