A different audience: Designers look to crowdfunding to get their idea off the ground 23/04/2013 Not so long ago, getting a business venture off the ground involved one course of action: grovelling to a bank manager in the hopes they would offer a loan or second mortgage. Read Article
Understanding the benefits and pitfalls of modern cryptography 24/01/2012 In a world where everything is connected to everything else by the internet, the need to keep secrets has never been so strong. Traditionally, the need for strong encryption was limited. Governments and military organisations required it to protect secrets from the enemy and so it remained a specialist subject. The rise of virtualisation has changed all that. Read Article
EMC legislation continues to evolve 14/06/2011 The flurry of activity and worry that heralded the implementation of the EMC Directive has been followed by 15 years of relative calm, even though the legislation received a significant update about five years ago. Neither have there been the large number of prosecutions anticipated, although one initiated by an enforcement project driven by the Department of Trade and Industry in the early 2000s highlighted a flaw in the legislation. Read Article
Chipmakers move to 3d to create successor to multichip module 24/05/2011 Moore's Law has been in danger for some years now, but claims of its demise remain exaggerated. Even with optical lithography, manufacturers reckon there is a reasonably clear path to 16nm and evidence that structures such as finFETs could be good down to 10nm. Read Article
Designing for extreme temperatures 26/04/2011 For decades, electronics design has relied on the temperatures inside a system never getting too far away from room temperature, even when those devices are specified for military applications. In practice, few devices are ever expected to work at -55°C or more than 125°C even; in fact, many fail to function below freezing. Read Article