Archive

Has someone got a deal for you? 22/05/2012

The extent of counterfeit component usage in military applications is gradually coming to light as the various parts of the supply chain get to grips ...

As economics changes the face of the semiconductor ... 22/05/2012

The semiconductor industry has developed a well organised supply chain over the years. Whether fabbed or fabless, companies knew where they stood as ...

UK electronics unites to address the future 21/05/2012

Electronics trade organisations, professional and skills bodies are coming together to create a 'state of the nation' report on the industry and its ...

Working with the wrong partner may have a bigger effect ... 08/05/2012

We've always been led to believe that the result of any endeavour is the sum of the parts. It's a view of the world which is categorised under the ...
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Andy Green’s Bloodhound Project diary 30/04/2012

The thing about setting a land speed record is that speeding up is only half of the problem. Once you've gone flashing through the timing lights of ...

As the first digital switchover draws to an end, do we need ... 27/04/2012

With the digital switchover largely complete after the London region turned off its analogue transmissions last week, discussions are already turning ...

Will Intel change the fpga and foundry worlds? 24/04/2012

Intel has been at the leading edge of semiconductor manufacturing for many years. Its 'tick tock' strategy – refining the microarchitecture one year, ...

Rearranging deckchairs? 24/04/2012

Since its formation in 2009 as a joint venture between STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, ST-Ericsson (STE) has been losing money at an alarming rate. ...

Will Raspberry Pi see history repeating itself? 23/04/2012

Readers of a certain age will be able to cast their minds back to the early 1980s and recall the impact of computers such as the BBC Micro and the ...

Novel technologies needed to handle SKA's data deluge 10/04/2012

Since man's early days, we have looked at the stars and wondered what it's all about. Slowly, the workings of the universe are beginning to make ...

Qualcomm acquires configurable peripherals pioneer 02/04/2012

Qualcomm has, apparently, acquired Ubicom with hardly a fanfare. It's the end of the road for a microcontroller company which tried over the years to ...

Does ARM's launch of the M0+ core spell the end for 8bit ... 27/03/2012

Slowly, the embedded systems market has been moving away from its reliance upon 8bit microcontrollers and towards the brave new world of 32bit ...

Can steerable antennas solve supercomputing challenges? 26/03/2012

Supercomputers keep getting larger as more computational challenges are addressed. And the larger the supercomputer, the more power it needs: today's ...

Altium helps to create a brighter future for Manchester ... 26/03/2012

The UK educational landscape has changed massively over recent years, bringing a whole host of challenges to University staff and management. For ...

Will ARM’s M0+ core catalyse the ‘internet of things’? 20/03/2012

There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the 'internet of things'; a handy phrase which many commentators are reaching for in their ...

ARM changes 8bit mcu life expectancy 19/03/2012

Despite all the hullaballoo surrounding 32bit mcus, 8bit parts remain firm favourites for many applications and are selected for cost reasons.

White powder? It's TiO₂ – honest! 16/03/2012

Some 40 years ago, Prof Leon Chua predicted the existence of a fourth circuit element to complement the resistor, the capacitor and the inductor. ...

Can free space communications cut it in the supercomputing ... 16/03/2012

Free space communication is a concept which has been around for many years; the ancient Greeks used their shields to flash messages amongst each ...

Should Europe be thinking 'outside the box' about a 450mm ... 13/03/2012

The 450mm manufacturing era is approaching; five of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers have combined under the banner of the Global 450 ...

What do you know about UK manufacturing? 12/03/2012

The UK's manufacturing sector is anything but past it; it generates some £130billion a year and employs 2.5million people. More than 50% of the UK's ...

Andy Green’s Bloodhound Project diary 07/03/2012

What's the fastest and scariest thing you've ever done? For me, they are two different events. The fastest is, of course, driving Thrust SSC to the ...

Embedded World breaks attendance record 05/03/2012

Embedded World has underlined its position as the world's leading exhibition and conference for the sector.

More mcu part numbers than makes sense? 01/03/2012

A few years ago, Luminary Micro (now part of TI) started a trend by launching an ARM Cortex-M based mcu family with about 80 variants. That was a new ...

Will merger improve the dram market? 28/02/2012

The dram market is a volatile place where only the brave and the foolish venture. While the need to minimise the cost per bit forces dram ...

Meet the man who made the digital world we live in possible 21/02/2012

Professor Alf Adams should be an electronics billionaire. And if not 'famous' as such, at least acknowledged by more than an optoelectronics niche ...