09/02/2016
Once an after thought, power consumption is a major consideration for those developing embedded systems. Before, they were subsystems in mains powered equipment, but today’s embedded systems may have to operate independently for a decade from a coin cell. How times change.
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09/02/2016
In the wake of the disclosure of the Heartbleed bug that punched a hole in the protocol for encrypting web page transfers, NXP’s chief security technologist, Mathias Wagner, looked at the IP camera he had just bought to see whether it was afflicted and, if so, what he could do to update the firmware.
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09/02/2016
Looking for a drone? Angling for an HDR enabled TV or a virtual reality headset? Want the latest in smart home devices or to find out more about recent developments in autonomous vehicles, then the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas last month, wouldn’t have disappointed.
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08/02/2016
The term ‘high usable power’ is widely used by the manufacturers of DC/DC converters to describe their product’s performance. Many engineers though tend to focus on the datasheet’s rated current and assume that, by selecting a more expensive, higher power converter, it will give them more derating and improved reliability.
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01/02/2016
Convection cooled power supplies are ideal for applications where acoustical noise cannot be tolerated or when there is a possibility that dirt, dust and other materials can be drawn in by a cooling fan. With power supply efficiencies now commonly in excess of 90%, more fan-less products are entering the market, particularly in the 100 to 300W power range.
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26/01/2016
In the near future, several billion devices will be connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). According to Harbour Research, 2billion IoT devices were sold in 2014; in 2020, it will be more than 7bn. But this will only happen with cost effective communications networks and wireless devices.
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26/01/2016
When it launched the Cortex-M range in 2004, ARM brought 32bit processing to what had, essentially, been an 8bit world. The first core – the Cortex-M3 – was adopted enthusiastically by a range of companies. ARM has since added the M0, M0+, M4 and, most recently, the M7.
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26/01/2016
The system and semiconductor worlds are in transition. In the past, the focus in verification used to be on bug identification. Today, the electronic design industry is seeing a shift towards greater efficiency in finding bug root causes and in bug remediation. To that end, SoC providers have been looking to provide software with their products. While this higher value speeds design in time, it has the tendency to increase verification complexity and moves the responsibility of hardware-software verification to the SoC provider. As a result, in 2016, we can expect to see broad application of software-driven hardware verification methodologies.
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26/01/2016
The lithium-ion cell is a testament to the problems of battery chemistry. Lithium-ion products are prone to burst into flames when they get too hot and, even under good conditions, need careful management during charging, simply to avoid capacity-sapping damage.
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26/01/2016
One of the big themes being pursued by the recently elected Conservative Government is the revival of manufacturing as one way to reduce the country’s dependence on the financial and services sectors. While the UK’s manufacturing sector remains in the world’s top 10, it has been drifting down the league table since the 1970s and productivity has been of particular concern.
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25/01/2016
With outdoor events like concerts, events and festivals now involving multiple, large display screens and a host of other electronics, portable diesel generator sets are often used to provide the AC power in temporary locations.
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12/01/2016
A fan-out buffer is used in timing applications that require multiple copies of a clock signal to be distributed. When choosing the right fan-out buffer for a timing application, it’s usually helpful to understand additive phase jitter specifications when comparing product data sheet specifications.
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12/01/2016
Security was the buzzword of 2015, particularly when it came to the Internet of Things (IoT). The industry came to realise that billions of devices with communications capability presented something of a threat and that ‘something needed to be done’.
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12/01/2016
Hardware design has, traditionally, been accomplished in a linear fashion – the so called waterfall approach. This starts with requirements capture, followed by the production of a detailed specification and then an architecture.
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12/01/2016
Contract manufacturers have an increasingly important role to play in the UK’s manufacturing ecosystem, whether that is in supporting volume production or new and emerging businesses looking to take new products from concept to volume assembly. According to figures from the Electronic Components Supply Network (ECSN), the CEM sector in the UK and Ireland now, in terms of demand, accounts for more than 40% of all electronic components by value.
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11/01/2016
Providing the multiple unrelated clocks of today's multiprocessor FPGA/SoC designs presents a complex challenge to designers; user-programmable clock ICs with independent output frequencies and formats offer a solution.
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04/01/2016
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… the Star Wars universe introduced millions of science fiction fans to an epic saga that had many anxiously anticipating the release of the next instalment late last year. Being an engineer, I can’t help but think back to the original movies and the ideas created within them that are now a reality today. Lightsabers, unfortunately, we can still only imagine, but just focusing on “droids”, it’s remarkable where we are today.
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02/12/2015
The Internet of Things (IoT) has exploded on to both the consumer and business markets in the last few years and is starting to have a major impact in almost every industry. From construction and manufacturing to retail and healthcare. Like it or not, IoT is here to stay.
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24/11/2015
The move to push semiconductor manufacturing processes to ever smaller dimensions continues with undiminished enthusiasm, even though progress may not be as quick as some in the industry have been used to.
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24/11/2015
Life has a distinct advantage over the processes used to make most of today’s products – it works at room temperature, involves very little in the way of toxic chemicals and can create intricate structures with no external help.
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10/11/2015
As the Internet of Things (IoT) develops and becomes an everyday reality for more people, many parts of the technological framework for realising an IoT system are still yet to be proven in practice.
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10/11/2015
By not testing sufficiently for correct behaviour up front, companies are building massive technical debt – and a major payment might be just around the corner.
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10/11/2015
Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and environmental tests are often treated separately, so it is not unusual for products to be sent for assessment at different times; EMC testing is usually done first, with environmental testing following on much later. As a consequence, the effect of environmental degradation on EMC performance tends not to be routinely addressed and, very often, such testing is carried out in benign conditions that fail to represent real-world use.
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10/11/2015
The entries to this year’s British Engineering Excellence Awards highlighted the fact that the UK’s manufacturing and design industries remain in good shape.
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28/10/2015
Individually tailored, automated logistics solutions not only improve material availability and thereby provide security of supply but also simplify and speed up procurement processes, helping to reduce process costs while increasing quality at the same time. However, these benefits are not only being used by large companies and corporations but an increasing number of SMEs have tailored concepts at their disposal.
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