In the latest of our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Jacob Marsh, the young entrepreneur behind the successful ModMyPi.
This story continues at EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Jacob Marsh, ModMyPi
Or just read more coverage at Electronics Weekly
Ten years ago Intel’s Sean Maloney made a particularly prescient prediction – that traditional TV would die. Maloney told the Telegraph that traditional TV was doomed because user-generated content, distributed over the Internet, was going to be of higher quality than professional content. The reason for that is a new generation of consumer ICs delivering ...
This story continues at The Death Of Traditional TV
Continuing our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight John Alton, of Lascar Electronics.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: John Alton, Lascar Electronics
Productronica is to expand this year with the addition of two co-located events as it focuses on robotics, miniaturisation, semiconductors and digitalisation. The Munich show, which focuses electronic manufacturing services and PCB manufacturing, will host Semicon Europe and IT2Industry for the first time this year. Alongside the new shows, Productronica will be split into five ...
Read full article: Productronica expands with addition of Semicon Europe and IT2Industry shows
Mike Bell, of Canonical, explores different routes to monetising the IoT and outlines a vision of IoT's future – a future of software defined everything.
Read full article: Guest Post: Software defined everything — the future of IoT
UK power supply and cable product manufacturer Stadium Stontronics has upgraded its Reading-based facility in an investment that, it says, demonstrates its commitment to being a “world-class” player in its market.
Read full article: Stadium Stontronics upgrades UK power and cables facility
Raspberry Pi has won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s highest honour – the MacRobert Prize. Previous winners have been the Severn Bridge, the Kinect sensor and the CT scanner. Pi has sold 14 million devices in its six years existence overtaking the Sir Clive Sinclair’s Spectrum and Lord Sugar’s CPC 464 to become the best-selling ...
Read full article: Raspberry Pi wins RAE MacRobert Prize
The EU investigation into the $38 billion Qualcomm-NXP bid has been paused pending delivery of information from the two companies, The EU says that the date for delivering a verdict – which was to have been Oct 17 – will now be put back with the ‘clock re-started’ from the date the information is provided. ...
Read full article: EU puts Qualcomm-NXP deal on ice
Dialog is to put another $15 million into Energous, the wireless charging specialist, on top of the $10 million it invested last November. Energous’ WattUp chips deliver over-the-air power and charging of electronic devices at a distance. Dialog and Energous developed the DA4100 wireless power transmitter which has now been integrated along with Dispalog’s SmartBond ...
Read full article: Dialog puts another $15m into Energous
Building on its CleO smart display and its accessories, Bridgetek has now added wireless connectivity to the mix. Transmitting and receiving in the 2.4 GHz frequency band, the CleO35-WiFi module is compliant with the commonly used IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi standards. With the objective of enabling the control and monitoring of smart devices within the domestic ...
Read full article: Bridgetek adds WiFi to its CleO smart display
28 years since it gave up making vinyl records, Sony is to re-start production. Sony stopped making vinyl records in 1989 handing its vinyl business over to Toyokasei. CDs took over the music market in the 1980s and 1990s becoming the dominant music retail format until ICs and later downloading off the Internet became the ...
Read full article: What Goes Around . . . . .
Including some DIY AI for the Raspberry PI, courtesy of Google no less, flying hoverboards, the Thingy:52 for Bluetooth-based IoT demos, a laser trip-wire alarm built with an Arduino, an EW Brightsparks 2017 profile and robotics for the BBC Micro:bit...
Read full article: Most read Gadget Master posts in June
69 years ago, the New York Times had a feature headed ‘The News of Radio’ on page 46 of its edition of July 1st 1948. The feature consisted of a compendium of news items about radio shows with the names ‘Mr Tutt’, ‘On Your Mark’, ‘Television Chapel’ and ‘The Better Half’. Right at the end ...
Read full article: Fable: The Modest Debut
Featuring a 'smart rope' that senses its position in space and can allow remote monitoring, for example by a rescue team.
Read full article: Electronics patent of the month: Smart rope senses location of rescuers
Global internet access using a constellation of satellites orbiting the earth could be the answer to the world’s data traffic needs. Behind the plan is a joint venture between Airbus of Europe and US comms firm OneWeb. The first mini-satellites will be manufactured on the Airbus assembly line in Toulouse and first satellites are set ...
Read full article: Airbus in venture to launch satellites for global internet
Sales of electronic components in the UK grew by an impressive 24% in May compared with the same month a year ago, according to figures released by the Electronic Components Supply Network (ECSN). The star performer was semiconductor sales which were up 30% for the month. In comparison the global electronic components market is growing ...
Read full article: UK chip sales jump 30% in May, says ECSN
Rohde & Schwarz is expanding the internal analysis bandwidth of its FSW high-end signal and spectrum analyser up to 2GHz. This is relevant to developers of 5G radio access technologies which need a very large bandwidth to analyse wideband signals. Adding this wideband option to the signal analysers, with frequency ranges up to 43.5 GHz ...
Read full article: Rohde & Schwarz gives analyser 2GHz bandwidth for 5G work
Imagination Technologies is in talks with potential buyers over a sale of the whole business as the fallout from its loss of Apple as a customer continues.
Read full article: Imagination in talks with potential buyers
Antenova can now supply a 2.4GHz antenna which is designed to operate without de-tuning on metal surfaces or where the product housing is mainly metal. The antennas in the firm’s Reflector range are formed of two layers, one electrically isolated from the other, so as to provide RF shielding to the second layer. This means ...
Read full article: 2.4GHz antenna is fine for metal assemblies
Imec is looking for customers in China. The head of Imec China, Huiwen Ding, points out that Imec has almost completed development of its 7nm process technology and is engaged in developing 5nm, 3nm and 2nm processes. China is in need of advanced processes for the huge memory fabs it is building in the country. ...
Read full article: Imec looks to China to expand customer base
Qualcomm has developed an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor which can operate under the glass of a mobile device avoiding the need for a mechanical home button. It also detects heartbeat and blood flow. The sensor can scan through OLED display stacks of up to 1200 µm, along with enrolling and matching, and can scan through up to ...
Read full article: Qualcomm fingerprint sensor enables virtual home button
Toshiba has developed four level cell NAND flash prototype ICs which it calls QLC. ‘Multi-bit cell flash memories store data by managing the number of electrons in each individual memory cell,’ says Toshiba, ‘achieving QLC technology posed a series of technical challenges, as increasing the number of bit-per-cell by one within same electron count requires ...
Read full article: Tosiba develops quad level cell NAND
While Europe looks to ways to invest in cellular networks and cable to provide 100Mbps Internet access to all its citizens, the US is taking to space. OneWeb has got permission from the US FCC to build a constellation of 720 satellites orbiting 745 miles up. They will deliver 1Gbps Internet connection. The plan is ...
Read full article: Internet Access From Space
In combination with Greenpeace, iFixit compilea a repairability report covering a range of brands - How Repairable is Your Mobile Device? - with some surprising findings.
Read full article: How Repairable is Your Mobile Device?
Leti, the French semiconductor research institute, has teamed with Berlin-based Fraunhofer’s microelectronics group, to extend next generation CMOS technologies for Internet of Things, augmented reality, automotive, health and aeronautics. The will support the development of FD-SOI – fully depleted silicon on insulator – advanced semiconductor process technology in Europe. “The ability to, one, develop key ...
Read full article: French and German researchers collaborate on future chip technologies
Two important European research institutes have signed a deal to develop next-generation electronics. French semiconductor research lab Leti and Berlin-based Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics will initially focus on extending CMOS and ‘more-than-Moore’ technologies. The intention is to create components for IoT, augmented reality, automotive, health and aeronautics, as well as to support French and German industry. ...
Read full article: Leti and Fraunhofer team-up to boost CMOS in France and Germany
The Raspberry Pi Compute Module will now run the Ubuntu Core. Ubuntu Core running on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3, which is a micro-version of the Raspberry Pi 3 that slots into a standard DDR2 SODIMM connector, means developers have a route to the production and can upgrade functionality through the addition of snaps- the ...
Read full article: Ubuntu Core opens IoT possibilities for Raspberry Pi (CM3)
Efficient thermal management is the key to successful, ‘bullet-proof’ high-reliability design, writes Tom Gregory of 6SigmaET.
Read full article: How to keep your cool with high-rel thermal management
After buying Imagination’s IMGworks, Sondrel CEO Graham Curren talks about the group’s great leap forward.
Read full article: Interview: Sondrel IC design group keeps an eye on opportunity
The vending machine is a relatively unrecognised, but fast growing market opportunity for the electronics industry.
Read full article: Intelligent vending machine serves fast growing market
John Corbett, director of EnOcean, loves it when a plan comes together … What is most rewarding in your working day? Seeing a new customer get to market and become successful. A project can be a year or more of hard graft and seeing that come to fruition is the most amazing feeling. EnOcean deals ...
Read full article: My typical day: Love the job, loathe the traffic, use the train
CMOS image sensor sales have increased for six straight years, reports IC Insights, and are set to reach a seventh. ‘Nothing ahead should stop this semiconductor product category from breaking more annual records through 2021’, says IC Insights. After rising 9% in 2017 to about $11.5 billion, worldwide CMOS image sensors sales are expected to ...
Read full article: CMOS Sensors Sales Just Keep On Growing
Microchip has introduced a range of CAN transceivers which includes an automotive Grade 0 qualified device. Designated the ATA65XX family, the devices support the recently established CAN FD (Flexible Data-rate) protocol for up to 5Mbit/s communication speed and the new CAN PN (Partial Networking) standard for improved energy efficiency for vehicles. The devices are compliant ...
Read full article: Microchip offers automotive Grade 0 qualified CAN transceiver
Lattice Semiconductor has created FPGA reference designs that support LoRa communications, elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) security, signal aggregation and machine learning. The reference design is based on the firm’s iCE40 UltraPlus FPGAs which are designed for low power and small form-factor. Target applications for the reference designs include: Machine Learning / On-device Artificial Intelligence – ...
Read full article: Lattice offers FPGA reference design for machine learning
With the Petya ransomware attack sweeping the world it is not before time that Silicon Valkey is combining to fight cyber-terrorism. Silicon Valley’s response is to take on terrorism with The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism formed by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft. The companies have been criticised by the US, UK and French governments ...
Read full article: Silicon Valley combines to fight terrorism
Could Imagination have better managed the risk of its relationship with Apple? asks Josh Brooks Well, you could say it had to happen – 10 weeks after its biggest customer pulled out, Imagination has put itself up for sale in its entirety. Few businesses could have survived the prospect of losing more than two-thirds of ...
Read full article: Comment: Lessons can be learned from Imagination’s fate
Toshiba has sued Western Digital in the Tokyo District court asking for $1 billion in damages and trying to stop WD from interfering in the sale of its chip business. Toshiba also accuses WD of improperly obtaining Toshiba’s private information. Previously WD put the dispute over Toshiba’s auction process to arbitration and sued Toshiba in ...
Read full article: Toshiba sues Western Digital
Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a virtual machine control technology that improves server rack mounting density for each datacenter rack. Currently, in datacenters, the number of servers mounted to a rack is limited by the total rated electrical power of the servers, which must be less than the power supply of the rack. However, often times, ...
Read full article: Fujitsu Labs increase server density
Thanks to IDC for this one – the top five smartphone vendors in Q1 – four if you count OPPO and Vivo as one becasue they’re both owned by BBK Electronics: Unit millions Samsung 79.2 Apple 52.6 Huawei 34,2 OPPO 25.6 Vivo 18.1
Read full article: Top Ten (less 5 – well less 6 really) Smartphone Vendors
Samsung has overtaken Intel to become the world No.1 semiconductor company. Samsung’s estimated chip revenue for Q2 is $15.1 billion and Intel’s $14.4 billion, according to Nomura. For the full year, forecasts put Samsung’s chip sales at $63.6 billion and Intel’s at $60.5 billion. Intel needed to beat Samsung this year to match TI’s record ...
Read full article: Samsung overtakes Intel to be No.1
Toshiba seems to have made a spectacular balls-up of its auction process pissing off practically everyone involved. Terry Gou is justifiably pissed off arguing that if they want to hold a public auction, Toshiba shouldn’t then get the government involved in choosing the winner. Gou reckons he’s being frustrated because of the personal vendetta of ...
Read full article: A Piss-Up In A Saké Factory
Continuing our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Daniel Harryman, Electronics Engineer at a public sector technology and research organisation, the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Daniel Harryman, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Samsung has overtaken Intel to become the world No,1 semiconductor company. Samsung’s estimated chip revenue for Q2 is $15.1 billion and Intel’s $14.4 billion, according to Nomura. For the full year, forecasts put Samsung’s chip sales at $63.6 billion and Intel’s at $60.5 billion. Intel needed to beat Samsung this year to match TI’s record ...
Read full article: Samsung overtakes Intel to become No.1
Scratch 2.0 can now be used as an offline app for the Raspberry Pi. This is because the latest update to the Raspbian OS includes the app, which makes Scratch 2.0 available offline on the Raspberry Pi. Scratch is an educational programming tool developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is ...
Read full article: Raspberry Pi gets Scratch 2.0 app offline
Continuing our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Chelsea Back, who is studying and working at AB Open and serving as a volunteers as a STEM Ambassador.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Chelsea Back, AB Open
A constant current LED dimmable driver from Euchips of China is DALI-standard and designed to be waterproof. The EUP50D-1H400C-0WP has an output power of 50W and the output current is 1400mA. The LED driver complies with DALI standard IEC62386, connects with DALI master controller and supports TouchDIM for smooth dimming. The waterproof level is IP65. ...
Read full article: Euchips makes DALI dimmable LED driver is waterproof
Future Lighting Solutions (FLS) has signed a franchise deal with Osram to sell in Europe, the Middle East and Africa the supplier’s range of drivers, light engines and controls for lighting applications. Future’s lighting business has been supplying LEDs for more than 15 years and now provides design services and a range of light sources ...
Read full article: Future signs Osram for LED drivers
The EU has imposed a $2.7 billion fine on Google for abuse of a dominant market position – the highest fine the EU has ever imposed. If it doesn’t end its anti-competitive practices within 90 days Google faces further fines of up to 5% of its $90 billion annual revenues. The EU found that Google ...
Read full article: EU fines Google $2.7bn
Distributor Anglia has revealed plans to almost double its turnover to £100m in the next five years after it posted another year of growth.
Read full article: Anglia outlines ambition to double sales to £100m in next five years
Imec has set up a $100-120 million VC fund called Imec.xpand to back early stage tech start-ups. So far it has raised €60 million and it it is targetting €120 million. Investors include investment agencies of the Flemish and Federal government, the universities KU Leuven and UGent, BNP Paribas Fortis, and the investment arms of ...
Read full article: Imec sets up €120 million VC fund
ZTE’s chip unit, ZTE Microcircuits, which changed its nane to Sanechips, has licensed the CEVA-X1 IoT processor. Sanechips wants the Ceva IP for its Narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) product, the RoseFinch7100. Sanechips recently took part in the first large scale field test of NB-IoT using its pre-commercial RoseFinch chipset. The trial, organized by China Mobile, tested ...
Read full article: Sanechips licenses CEVA IoT processor
The LTC3636 and LTC3636-1 are high efficiency, 4MHz synchronous dual output buck regulators that incorporate a unique constant frequency/controlled on-time, current mode control scheme with phase lockable switching frequency. Ther innovative design architecture reduces conducted and radiated emissions. The devices can deliver up to 6A of continuous output current from each channel or generate a ...
Read full article: Buck regulators with constant frequency control scheme
In August Bosch Sensortec will put out to distribution a family of MEMS acceleration sensors specifically designed for motion and fitness tracking in wearables. They include an optimized step counter for wearables integrated directly in the sensor, with no additional external microcontroller required. Typical applications for the BMA456 and BMA423 include step counting in wearables such ...
Read full article: Bosch Sensortec MEMS wearables sensors cut out the MCU
Arrow and NXP have developed to a system module (SCM) that simplifies the use of NXP’s i.MX 6 applications processor in IoT devices, wearables and smart-home technology. Building on NXP’s DDR-ready i.MX 6SoloX, i.MX 6Dual and i.MX 6Quad SCMs, Arrow’s modules come with pre-stacked LPDDR2 SDRAM, and are ready to use. This solution takes away ...
Read full article: Arrow, NXP develop module for IoT AP
Some things never change and, obviously, the urge to think of meaningless techie names in order to produce a particular acronym, has been a force for at least six decades. Here is a 57 year-old cartoon from Electronics Weekly’s edition of March 29th 1961:
Read full article: The Age-Old Acronym Urge
Continuing our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Matt Timmons-Brown, best known for his popular YouTube channel The Raspberry Pi Guy.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Matt Timmons-Brown (aka The Raspberry Pi Guy)
The Californians are famously wacky – like building the planet’s biggest tech companies from crazy ideas – but they are never so odd-ball about anything as they are about death. Evelyn Waugh’s 1948 novel The Loved One was the greatest account of the Californian Way of Death, but times move on and, apparently, the big ...
Read full article: The Cryo Game
Western Digital’s CEao has weitten to Toshiba objecting to the presence of Hynix in the winning for Toshiba’s menory business, reports the New York Times. “I must make it clear that Western Digital will not consent to a transaction with the proposed consortium,” says WD CEO Stephen Milligan in a letter sent to Toshiba’s board ...
Read full article: Western Digital objects to Hynix presence in Toshiba bid consortium
Plug-in electric vehicles are now being introduced globally and this is driving the demand for smart charging solutions. As a result smart charging has become a developer and investment opportunity, according to a recently published report by IoT market research firm ON World. The survey of 2,000 EV users in California found that over half ...
Read full article: Electric vehicle revolution will drive power market – report
Jaguar Land Rover is to begin trials of self-driving cars on the streets of Coventry and Milton Keynes by the end of this year after reaching a key milestone in its autonomous vehicle research. A Range Rover Sport fitted with prototype technology that enables it to operate autonomously through a city, obeying traffic lights, T-junctions ...
Read full article: JLR to take autonomous vehicles to UK streets by end of 2017
The House of Commons says it is working with the National Cyber Security Centre, which was set up last year as part of GCHQ, and has shut down MPs’ remote access to the parliamentary email system. The system was hit by a hacking attack which resulted in MPs’ passwords being sold on-line. “We’ve seen reports ...
Read full article: MPs’ remote email access disabled
LabVIEW provides highly integrated, in-product learning to boost productivity.
Read full article: The next generation of software is here
Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a technology to retrieve similar disease cases from a computed tomography (CT) database of previously taken images. The technology works by retrieving similar cases of abnormal shadows expanding in a three-dimensional manner. Technologies already exist to retrieve similar cases based on CT images for such diseases as early-stage lung cancer, in ...
Read full article: Fujitsu AI retrieves similar disease cases from CT database
Production of electronics has been accelerating in the last several months, contributing to strong growth in the semiconductor market, says Bill Jewell’s Semiconductor Intelligence. China’s electronics production growth moved from below 10% for most of 2016 to 14.5% in April 2017. China’s April growth rate is the highest in over five years. US electronics production ...
Read full article: Electronics production growing
. Drone startups are transforming the way data is collected, property is inspected, and goods are delivered, says CB Insights, citing 70 drone start-ups with 32 in Q1 valued at $113 million. Terrestrial imagery, infrastructure inspection, and delivery have emerged as some of the primary use cases for drone technology, says CB Insights. The 70 ...
Read full article: The Drone Space
An email sent to Uber employees asks them to ask the board to bring back Travis Kalanick. Here it is: Kalanick could bring himself back, if he felt like it, because he and a few friends control the voting rights on the shares through an unusual structure which gives their shareholdings ten votes for ...
Read full article: Bring Back Travis
If ‘the will of the people’ is to determine our approach to Brexit, then the will of the people seems increasingly to be that immigration is a price worth paying to stay in the EU market, Ed confides to his diary. Cabinet meetings are a shambles. A year after the referendum, the Cabinet is split ...
Read full article: Ed Reads The Brexit Runes
Software developed at IST Austria will let users easily adjust a 3D-printable general mechanism to fit differing, particular shapes.
Read full article: Adjusting 3D-printable mechanisms to fit new shapes
The California Institute of Technology has created a planar optical phased array that can form images without a lens. “With our system, you can selectively look in a desired direction and at a very small part of the picture in front of you at any given time, by controlling the timing with femtosecond – quadrillionth ...
Read full article: Optical phased array replaces camera lens
I just found out that ‘galvanise’, as in to get going quickly, came from good old Galvani making muscles twitch with electricity. The metal plating thing is related. You learn something every day.
Read full article: I didn’t know that: galvanise
Wolfgang Ziebart took an unconventional route to becoming CEO of Infineon. “I never made use of what I studied. I studied mechanical engineering”, recounts Ziebart, “then I went to BMW where I worked on body design. I then headed up the electronics design department which meant I had to learn about electronics. I learned that, with ...
Read full article: The Best Kind Of Work Of All
Using liquid metal connections, North Carolina State University engineers have designed a flexible thermoelectric energy harvester. The proof-of-concept is intended to provide energy for wearables. “We wanted to design a flexible thermoelectric harvester that does not compromise on the material quality of rigid devices yet provides similar or better efficiency,” said Professor Mehmet Ozturk. “Using ...
Read full article: Liquid metal makes flexible heat harvester reliable
Featuring companies such as ST, Jaguar Land Rover and ST, and technologies such as LTE, IoT and IC implants...
Read full article: Top 10 most popular articles on ElectronicsWeekly.com
In the latest of our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Tim Wiles, a Signal Processing and Analysis Engineer at Peratech.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Tim Wiles, Peratech
Moth eyes have once again been the inspiration for an anti-reflection coating, this time at the University of Central Florida where anti-reflection of <0.23% luminous reflectance and <1% haze has been achieved with “indistinguishable image quality deterioration”, according to the researchers. The structure has been formed into the surface of a hard coating (>’3H’ in ...
Read full article: ‘Moth eye’ structure banishes reflections from display surface
Leaders of the UK’s top engineering businesses are calling for urgent action on tackling the sector’s shortage of women at an event to mark today’s International Women in Engineering day.
Read full article: Engineering leaders call for action over lack of women in sector
JTAG Technologies has introduced a JTAG/boundary-scan test hardware interface for multiple interconnects in ATE systems using MAC Panel connection systems. The module provides an interface between the test firm’s PXI and PXIe DataBlasters to the MAC panel ‘Scout’ connection system. Designated JT 2147/eDAK, the module employs the firm’s QuadPod active interface. It provides four independent ...
Read full article: JTAG Technologies module brings PXI into play for hi-rel test
ST is to raise $1.5 billion in a convertible bond issue. The company will also redeem its 2019 convertible bonds and buy back shares. The new bonds will mature in five and seven years. The five year bonds will not pay interest. The seven year bonds will pay interest of 0.5%. Settlement is expected to ...
Read full article: ST to raise $1.5bn
125.5 million wearable devices will be shipped this year, says IDC, marking a 20.4% increase from the 104.3 million units shipped in 2016. IDC expects the wearables market will nearly double before reaching a total of 240.1 million units shipped in 2021 – a five-year CAGR of 18.2%. Watches: IDC anticipates that watches will account ...
Read full article: Wearables on a roll, says IDC
AMD’s EPYC server chip is driving a rise in AMD shares. EPYC out-performs Intel’s server processors in performance and power and has managed to create an EPYC ecosystem containing server OEMs, ODMs and cloud infrastructure providers. EPYC, which is a scaled up version of its PC CPU Ryzen, beats Intel’s best server processor in memory ...
Read full article: EPYC enthuses AMD investors
Based on its SMART7 thin wafer process , Infineon has introduced two high-side power switch families PROFET+2 and High Current PROFET. The SPOC+2 multichannel SPI high-side power controllers will follow within a year. “In this decade, we have delivered one billion PROFET+ switches, the predecessor family to PROFET+2,” says Infineon vp Andreas Doll, “the SMART7 ...
Read full article: Infineon extends PROFET power switch family
The PM may go around saying ‘there’s no magic money tree’ but there is. 23 year-0ld college drop-out Vitalik Buterin has one – and it’s worth $35 billion. Two years ago Buterin invented a new virtual currency called Ether and it’s already 80% of the size of Bitcoin. The total value of all the Bitcoins ...
Read full article: The Flippening
CambridgeIC has launched a range of arc position sensors, measuring the angle of a rotating ‘target’ relative to a fixed arc-shaped sensor built from a PCB. The UK fabless chip company specialises in angle sensing chips. CambridgeIC’s R48mm 100° Arc Sensor “The arc position sensors use the same technology behind our linear sensors, and are ...
Read full article: Arc angle sensor simplifies measurement inside machines
And continuing our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Benjamin Fitzpatrick, now working at Dyson
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Benjamin Fitzpatrick, Dyson
Nordic Semi has introduced a Bluetooth 5 chip for cost-sensitive applications. Called nRF52810, it is a sub-set of the nRF52 Series. “This new product offers essential performance benefits of Bluetooth 5 to the most cost-sensitive and high-volume applications by offering: two times the data bandwidth [2Mbit/s] of the Bluetooth low energy implementation of Bluetooth 4.2, and ...
Read full article: Bluetooth 5 chip for cost-sensitive applications
Keith Armstrong, worldwide electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) expert at EMC Standards, looks at how electrical interference from mobiles and shop scanners can cause heart-rate pacemaker issues. Even everyday technology can have a dangerous effect on pacemakers and other implanted medical devices. Research has indicated that interference may be caused by holding a mobile phone within 150mm ...
Read full article: How heart pacemakers can be affected by mobiles
There was once a Zilog engineer who moonlighted at LSI Logic. He became aware of the complex, costly and time-consuming process by LSI Logic’s engineers had to prototype their ASICs – getting them hard-wired in silicon then tested and re-engineered and re-spun – and wondered if there was another way. By using a large number ...
Read full article: The Moonlighter
Imagination is up for sale. The company put its MiPS business up for sale recentky and has now decided to put the whole company on the block. The downtrun began with Apple saying it would stop being a customer in two years’ time. Apple accounts for half Imagination’s revenues and has recently been recruting Imagination GPU ...
Read full article: Imagination for sale
Gas Sensing Solutions of Cumbernauld is claiming a speed record for its SprintIR6S ‘non-dispersive infra-red (NDIR) CO2 sensor: up to 20 reading/s for a 0-10% step change in CO2 flowing at 0.1 litre/min, said the firm. www.gassensing.co.uk Inside, the sensor measures differential light absorption between light at 4.2 and 4.4μm. The device is 23.8mm in diameter and 24mm tall ...
Read full article: Speedy CO2 sensor takes little power
Silicon Labs has introduced a multiband version of its Wireless Gecko system-on-chip device which now supports full Bluetooth 5. Designated EFR32xG13, the device family supports all Bluetooth 5 features which means twice the speed and eight times greater broadcasting capacity than Bluetooth 4. The chips feature a 2Mbit/s PHY and also integrate a new 125kbit/s ...
Read full article: Multiband transceiver supports Bluetooth 5
Harting has developed a way to mix electrical and compressed air up to 10bar in the same connector, aiming it at production lines. The pneumatic module (‘Pneumatic Module Metal’) is rated to be plugged and unplugged at least 10,000 times. “It means that users can exploit the benefits of compressed air technology in frequently converted production ...
Read full article: Need to mix pneumatics with electrical connections?
With the LPC84x family of 30MHz ARM Cortex M0+ processors, NXP is pitching for entry-level IoT design-ins. “Upon power-up, its ‘fast access initialisation memory’allows the clocks to be started in a low frequency mode, keeping start-up current consumption to a minimum. Additionally, its input and output ports can come up immediately and in its desired ...
Read full article: NXP’s entry-level 32bit IoT processor
Vishay has announced surface-mount 525nm green leds in 0603 packaging – 1.6 x 0.8 x 0.55mm high. Called VLMTG1400, emission options span 1,200 to 2,800mcd at 20mA with a forward drop between 2.75 and 3.2V – they are binned by luminous intensity, wavelength, and forward voltage. Viewing angle is 146°. Available in 8mm tape, the ...
Read full article: 0603 green led emits 2.8cd
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has revealed plans to recruit 1,000 electronics and software engineers as part of a huge recruitment drive.
Read full article: Jaguar Land Rover reveals plans to recruit 1,000 electronic and software engineers
4DS Memory, the Australian ReRAM specialist, says it has improved its ReRAM through architectural changes which now make its read times comparable to DRAM. 4DS calls its memory Interface Switching ReRAM and claims it needs minimal error correction. That delivers the faster read speed. 4DS has scaled its technology to 40nm and is now focussed ...
Read full article: 4DS makes ReRAM as fast as DRAM
Intel is to sponsor the Olympics in a bid to promote VR which will probably cost Intel around $100 million. “We’ll allow people online to feel like they are there,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich (pictured)!0. The Olympics have their own internet-based Olympic Channel and the IOC has been keen to make it mire appealing ...
Read full article: Intel to sponsor Olympics
Intel’s forays into new areas have become a joke – loads of drum banging and hullabaloo then a surreptitious exit. Could we be seeing yet another of these In-Out shufties? And could it be the first indication that Intel is losing faith in IoT? Well, first surprise is that Intel’s dropping its Arduino initiative – ...
Read full article: Intel Cans IoT Products
Between 1.2 and 2.8cd of 525nm green is available from variants of Vishay’s VLMTG1400 series of 0603 (1.6 x 0.8mm, 0.55mm high) leds which, according to the firm, use “the most recent ultrabright InGaN chip technology”. Sepcification forward current is 20mA, where 2.75-3.2V is dropped. Viewing angle is 146°. Available now in 8 mm tape, the LEDs ...
Read full article: Vishay 0603 525nm green emits up to 2.8cd
Using what it calls the “most recent ultra-bright InGaN chip technology”, Vishay has announced green 0603 leds producing up to 2.8cd (or 2,800mcd as it puts it). The devices are 1.6 x 0.8mm and 0.55mm high and called VLMTG1400. Various 525nm outputs are available across 1.2-2.8cd at 20mA, dropping 2.75-3.2V. Viewing angle is 146°. Available in 8 ...
Read full article: Vishay 0603 green led shines up to 2.8cd
Continuing our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017, we highlight Edward Nutting, an undergraduate student at the University of Bristol.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Edward Nutting, Undergraduate
In its R6 generation, Amphenol has increased the capacity of its 8mm Radsok terminals, creating the Radsock NG whose single circuit can carry 220A at 40°C ambient. It can also work with 160A at up to 100°C. Both of these figures are with 35mm² cable ( 35-50mm² cable is the range) and without the housing (housing is installed ...
Read full article: Heavy duty connector snaps on
This seems like a neat idea, for quickly securing access to data: Microsoft's Modern Keyboard with Fingerprint ID.
Read full article: Gadget Watch: Microsoft adds fingerprint ID to Modern Keyboard
The Toshiba saga has ended with a Japanese solution. Employees, regulators, customers and Toshiba corporate welcomed the choice of the INCJ-DBJ-Bain consortium as the winning bidder. Any other solution would have faced regulatory scrutiny which would have delayed the sale when Toshiba corporate is in urgent need of the proceeds. Any different solution would have ...
Read full article: Japanese Solution For Tosh
NXP has teamed-up with Elektrobit to create a platform for those developing automated driving systems. The aim is to combine NXP’s BlueBox automated driving reference hardware with Elektrobit’s Robinos automated driving software framework. “They combine two powerful building blocks for enabling self-driving robots on wheels,” said NXP autonomous platform architect Davide Santo. “We look forward to ...
Read full article: NXP partners software provider for automated driving
TDK claims to have created the smallest common-mode choke for automotive Ethernet applications. Its dimensions are 3.2 mm x 2.5 mm x 2.5 mm. The ACT1210L choke, which is qualified to AEC-Q200, retains the Scd21 mode conversion characteristic of the previous generation product, the ACT45L. According to the supplier, this key parameter expresses the amplitude ...
Read full article: TDK claims ‘smallest’ choke for automotive
Thanks to Boing Boing for highlighting the Pighixxx website as a repository of high-quality circuit diagrams and schematics.
Read full article: Crowdfunding Watch: The Pighixxx ABC: Basic Connections book
NXP and Samsung subsidiary Harman are to collaborate on connected car technologies such as over-the-air updates, secure V2X communication and software-defined radio. The two companies will further expand their partnership in technologies supporting the connected in-car, including tuners, digital signal processors, amplifiers and applications processors. As a lead customer for NXP’s latest generation of NXP infotainment ...
Read full article: NXP and Samsung ink connected car deal
NXP Semiconductors has developed a power transistor for 915MHz applications which is its highest power device in this frequency class. The 50V silicon LDMOS power transistor has been designed to deliver 750W continuous wave (CW). It is intended to move microwave generator design out of the vacuum tube-era where technologies such as magnetrons are the ...
Read full article: NXP moves solid-state RF energy design to new level
Fears about the potential threat of the IoT botnet malware known as Mirai are growing. Security specialist Cesare Garlati, chief security strategist at prpl Foundation believes building a root of trust within the hardware is the only defence against Mirai malware attacks. The fear is that the malware behind an IoT botnet could be made ...
Read full article: Mirai malware must be tackled in hardware
Qualcomm’s business model is illegal, claims Apple in its legal scrap with Qualcomm in thevfederal court of the Southern District of California. Apple is asserting that Qualcomm’s practice of charging both for its chips and for a technology licence to use the chips is illegal. Apple cites a US Supreme Court case involving Lexmark where ...
Read full article: Qualcomm business model illegal, claims Apple
After saying last week he would take a temporary leave of absence, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (pictured) has now resigned as CEO following shareholder pressure. He remains on the board. Five large investors are said to have insisted that he go following an investigation into workplace practices at Uber. Kalanick’s shares in Uber are said ...
Read full article: Uber CEO resigns
Thanks to IC Insights for this one – the top eight MCU vendors in 2016: $bn NXP 2.9 Renesas 2.5 Microchip 2.0 Samsung 1.8 ST 1.6 Infineon 1.1 TI 0.835 Cypress 0.622
Read full article: Top Ten (less 2) MCU Vendors
Cobham Wireless has launched TeraVM LaaS (lab-as-a-service) for core network testing, intending to support mobile operator networks as they shift towards ‘network function virtualisation’ (NFV) infrastructure. “The introduction of LTE-Advanced and 5G requires mobile operators to invest in virtual core network technology, in order to operate with dynamic flexibility and reduced cost,” said the firm. ...
Read full article: Cobham validates core networks as they go virtual
Micro Crystal is offering a lower ESR (effective series resistance) version of its tuning-fork 32.768 kHz crystal, claiming that the low impedance crystals “extend the oscillator safety margin, where standard crystals are on the limit”. With hermetic sealing (gold-tin preform, ceramic package, metal lid), it operates under vacuum. Application is expected in : wearables, activity bands, ...
Read full article: Low ESR 32.768kHz crystal
The iFixit team have been busy again, with their micro screwdrivers, spudgers and anti-static wrist straps. They've been tackling the latest Microsoft Surface Laptop.
Read full article: Tearing down the Microsoft Surface Laptop
In the latest of a series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Alex Croucher, of GB Electronics.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Alex Croucher, GB Electronics
In 1989, Bill Emmott published the Sun Also Sets and, in December of that year, the Japanese stock market hit 38,916. The outraged Japanese thought Emmott misread their economic expansion which was going on forever. A month ago Moody’s slashed China’s economy and the Chinese response was an infuriated denial that their surging economy was ...
Read full article: Shorting China
Infineon has adopted sensor fusion technology from French research lab Leti into its Aurix TC29x platform, that uses 32bit TriCore CPUs for automotive power-train and body control, as well as safety and ADAS. “The Aurix family advances the automated and electrical car,” claimed Infineon microcontroller director Ralf Koedel. “Aurix is responsible for safe and secure ...
Read full article: Infineon adopts sensor fusion IP from Leti
The short answer is: If the motor breaks on you system, you might need a new controller as well You might need to check that the relay in the controller has silver tin oxide (AgSnO2) contacts Replacing the pump in a solar thermal system with any old central heating pump is not the answer, unless ...
Read full article: What you might need to know when repairing solar water heating
As voters went to the polls last week, we spoke to industry figures about their political hopes for the future and their concerns
Read full article: Update: A political manifesto for electronics
VR is proving slow to take off – only 6.3 million headsets have ben sold worldwide – despite the fact that the world has 2.6 billion gamers. Cost, market fragmentation, the difficulty of exposing people to it, its tendency to make people feel sick are all reasons put forward as to why it’s a slow-burner. ...
Read full article: Sluggish VR uptake
Accenture and Microsoft are combining on a UN- supported project to use Blockchain technology to give an identity to the billion people in the world without one. A prototype of the network was shown yesterday to the UN during ID2020 the public-private initiative to give everyone on earth a legal identity. Without an ID, people ...
Read full article: Blockchain tech to give everyone ID
BBC plan colour TV by autumn was the headline, 57 years ago, in Electronics Weekly’s edition of March 29th 1961 The story opens: The BBC hope to start colour television in November this year, to coincide with their 25th anniversary, said Mr L.C. Jesty of Sylvania Thorn Colour Television Laboratories Limited, Enfield when he recently ...
Read full article: BBC to broadcast colour TV
We all need some good news in UK at the moment. How about Jaguar Land Rover saying it is looking to recruit 1,000 engineers this year? Specifically, it aims to take on more than 1,000 electronic and software engineers for its expanding business, due to the demand for luxury cars seen in the USA and China in ...
Read full article: Jaguar to recruit 1,000 electronic and software engineers
Harting has filled a gap in its Han-Eco Outdoor connector series by introducing A-sized housings (10A and 16A for those familiar with Harting’s nomenclature) . Previously A-size was only available in the Han-Eco industrial version, which lacks the fluorinated rubber (FPM) profile and flange gaskets of Outdoor types. Aimed at carrying tens of amps in ...
Read full article: Harting adds A-size hardware to outdoor connector range
Bosch is to build a 12 inch fab in Dresden. The company says it will cost $1 billion. Bosch does not say how many wafers the fab is being equipped to handle, nor does it say what level of process technology will be installed in the fab. However $1 billion would fund a 10k wpm fab ...
Read full article: Bosch to build fab
In the latest of a series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Shuran Chan, who is specialising in the Internet of Things.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Shuran Chan, Self-employed
How on earth did this happen? Gartner published this graphic which demonstrates how much IBM and Oracle have screwed up in providing cloud services. Both companies say they are relying on the cloud for major revenue but both, despite a huge lead in the technologies, have fallen way behind Amazon and Microsoft. Oracle’s cloud offering ...
Read full article: How Did This Happen?
In Q4, the embedded analytics specialist UltraSoC, will offer processor trace support for products based on the open source RISC-V architecture. The company has developed a specification for processor trace that will be offered for adoption by the RISC-V Foundation as part of the open source specification. Five core vendors have already announced their support for the new ...
Read full article: UltraSoC to offer processor trace support for RISC-V
Molex, Phoenix Contact, Murrelektronik and Binder are driving the standardisation of a non-proprietary push-pull connection system.
Read full article: Only Connect: On the new M12 push-pull connector standard
Analogue Devices has managed to create a 500W switched-capacitor power chip for fixed ratio power conversion at up to 72V and 99% efficiency. The main application foreseen for the chip, the LTC7820, is 48V non-isolated dc bus conversion, although it is capable of up, down and inverting conversion at a variety of ratios. An example ...
Read full article: ADI hits 500W with switched capacitor power converter
Technological advances have substantial benefits for healthcare, says a report from Accenture called ‘Technology Vision 2017 – Amplify You’. “It’s no longer people who are adapting to technology – rather, the technology is adapting to us,” argues the report which lists five tech trends. AI is one – “the new universal intelligence” – as the ...
Read full article: Tech is good for your health, says Accenture
Google is in line to beat Intel for incurring the largest-ever EU fine for abuse of a dominant position. The EU’s beef is that Google searches favour Google’s own price comparison web-site over rival sites. The EU fined Intel $1 billion for a series of dirty tricks to prevent AMD’s PC CPUs, which were at ...
Read full article: Google faces $1bn+ EU fine
Supporting the technology community from education to maker, right through to product design and maintenance – find out more.
Read full article: Farnell element14 is the Development Distributor
The LTE baseband market grew 36% last year in a total cellular baseband market which grew 5.5% with all non-LTE segments declining sharply, says Strategy Analytics. Qualcomm had a 52% share of the LTE baseband market measured by unit volume which was a drop from 65% in 2015 because of Apple choosing Intel modems for ...
Read full article: Qualcomm’s LTE baseband share slips 13%
SJ, the Swedish state railway company, is offering customers a payment option which uses an implanted NFC IC. The chip has been implanted in 2000 of SJ’s customers’ hands. The Swedes are keen on this sort of thing. Swedish start-up Epicenter has had 150 of its employees implanted with NFC chips which give them access ...
Read full article: Swedes go for IC implants
‘As soon as you screw up big-time in politics – resign and lie low,’ Ed confides to his diary, ‘our PM didn’t and is now powerless, ridiculed, forced to sack her closest political friends and ordered to appoint political enemies as Ministers. Bullied by the ‘bastards’ – right wing Europhobe back-benchers – the PM is ...
Read full article: Ed Sizes Up The Pigswill Trough
In the latest of a series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Saloni Chhabra, Principal Application Engineer at Cadence Design Systems.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Saloni Chhabra, Cadence Design Systems
It took a while for the transistor to establish itself. Invented in 1947, by 1952 there were only eight manufacturers. In 1953 there were 15. In 1956 there were 26. The reason for the slow take-up was the stickiness of vacuum tubes. Between 1954 and 1956 17 million germanium transistors and 11 million silicon transistors ...
Read full article: Facing The Future With Eyes Fixed On The Past
Don't miss the latest competition on Electronics Weekly, giving you a chance to get your hands on a JTAG Live Controller.
Read full article: Your chance to win a JTAG Live Controller
Welcome the MOVE Mini Buggy, which enables users to build and code their own two-wheeled robot.
Read full article: MOVE Mini Buggy moves the micro:bit towards robotics
A reconfigurable device that can be a p-n diode, a MosFET or a BJT has been made by researchers at SUNY-Polytechnic Institute in Albany, New York. ‘We can form a single device that can perform the functions of all three devices,” says researcher Ji Ung Lee. The device is made of 2-D tungsten diselenide (WSe2), ...
Read full article: SUN-Poly makes device that can be a pin diode, a MosFET or a BJT.
A team of Chinese scientists has demonstrated satellite-based entangled photon pair distribution to two places 1,200km apart on earth, making cryptographic quantum key distribution over that range possible. The experiment used two satellite-to-ground down-links with a summed length varying from 1,600 to 2,400km. “So far, entanglement distribution has only been achieved at a distance up ...
Read full article: Chinese send entangled photons 1,200km
Antenova, the Hatfield antenna specialist, is shipping the first antenna in a new antenna family called REFLECTOR. The first member of the family is a 2.4GHz antenna called Zenon. The new family of antennas has been engineered to operate without de-tuning on metal surfaces – or where the product housing is mainly metal – a situation where it ...
Read full article: Antenova metal-mounted antennas
7 out of the top 10, and 10 out of the top 14 smartphone manufacturers are Chinese, according to IC Insights. Is this a great achievement or does it show China has learnt how to bend plastic round a Qualcomm or MediaTek chip-set? It would seem the latter. Apple and Samsung took 95% of the ...
Read full article: China Gains Smartphone Share But Sucks Up Losses
60 years ago this year, two years before the invention of the chip, a government signed a contract with a telecommunications organisation to work on the development of an IC. That same year, the telecommunications organisation showed off a non-working demonstration model of a chip. The model was very similar to the chip which received ...
Read full article: Fable: The Dumb Government
Yorkshire-based force-sensing firm Peratech has won another design in, inside what it claims is the world’s first computer mouse with force-sensitive analogue buttons. Aimed at gaming, the Z mouse from Swiftpoint is the first mouse with pivot, tilt and roll, enabling users to access dozens of different button actions while barely moving their fingers, said ...
Read full article: Peratech wins place in most advanced gaming mouse
I took my eye off the ball last year and missed a single chip public key cryptography processor IC from Maxim, aimed at folk who don’t have a deep knowledge in security. The firm’s claim is that: customers don’t need to write firmware and they get a comprehensive set of crypto services, secure key storage and ...
Read full article: One I missed: easy security in a single chip
Western Digital has applied to the Superior Court of California for an injunction to stop the sale of Toshiba’s chip business. “Attempts to circumvent our contractual rights have left us with no choice but to take this action,” Western Digital CEO o Steve Milligan, “left unchecked, Toshiba would pursue a course that clearly violates these ...
Read full article: Western Digital seeking injunction to stop Toshiba auction
Reactive Group, the Reading data storage and networking specislist , has bought Arraid, the Phoenix manufacturer of replacement data storage products for ageing disk, tape and floppy drives on legacy computer systems. Reactive Group will revamp Arraid’s replacement drives with SSD technology. “The acquisition of Arraid significantly expands our existing ‘Through Life Support’ capabilities with ...
Read full article: Reactive buys Arraid
Data analysts CB Insights have taken the micky out of the analyst industry over what they call they call “the BS of market sizings”. They quote a market analyst describing his methodology for sizing the handset market: “My report was due and I didn’t have much time and my boss told me to look at ...
Read full article: BS Market Sizings
In the latest of a series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Roger Thornton, Principal Hardware Engineer at the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Roger Thornton, Raspberry Pi Foundation
Imagination Technologies has introduced functional safety into its 64bit I6500 multi-core processor family for ISO 26262 automotive and IEC 61508 industrial compliance. “Things that move around – cars, robots and drones – will increasingly have functional safety requirements,” Imagination v-p business development Steve Evans told Electronics Weekly The firm has aimed the intellectual property, dubbed ...
Read full article: MIPS releases safety-critical processor core
In the third of a series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Robert Green, a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate at Loughborough University.
Read full article: EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Robert Green, Loughborough University
