Dave doesn’t particularly like Youtube Multi-Channel Networks like Fullscreen, Machinima, and Makers Studios, and wishes they would just leave him alone.
Should you join one? What are the benefits?
The Ray William Johnson controversy
Forum HERE
Robert Day: the OS is the key attack point
In the connected world of the internet of things (IoT), like in the defence industry, one attack could be fatal. Security thinking needs to be turned on its head, and IoT endpoints and routers need to be designed to resist the next attack rather than patched to prevent the last one.
If the right technology is applied when the network is being designed (rather than as an afterthought), it could dramatically reduce the chance of an attack, or its impact when it occurs.
Much of this technology already exists and was evolved to meet the security needs of the defence industry, which has been operating secure remote networks for decades, and where a compromise in any part of the network could be fatal to national security and hence not an option.
In the endpoint, operating systems are often the key attack point as they are typically the highest privileged software in any given system, and if compromised offer keys to the control and data kingdoms.
However, if an RTOS (real-time operating system) is used that has built-in security functionality, especially one that was designed to meet the exacting security needs of tactical defence systems, then it could offer enough security protection to stop the most determined attacker.
The router will need a similar secure OS but due to its greater complexity, and multiple network connections, especially its link to the Internet, additional measures are needed. This leads us toward what is known as a multi-domain system.
In the defence industry, secure OSs have been used for multi-domain systems linked to different networks at different levels of security classification, but the prevailing thoughts and technology for true domain separation call for something known as a separation kernel.
This is at a higher level of privilege than the OS (i.e., it sits between the OS and the hardware), and its primary function (as the name suggests) is to separate the resources in the system, such that an attack in one domain cannot reach or compromise the other domain.
A defence in depth strategy must be employed as we put IoT infrastructure in place, as traditional network and endpoint security is not adequately containing today’s cyber threats. IoT systems need to be secure by design, as successful attacks can degrade or even destroy public confidence before the IoT proves its value.
Writer is Robert Day, v-p marketing, Lynx Software Technologies
FEM simulation of the RESET process of a phase change memory cell (IBM)
IBM has used phase change memory to build network of 913 neurons with 165,000 inter-connections, reports the MIT Technology Review.
The connections change as the chip processes incoming data, altering how the virtual neurons influence one another, allowing the device to learn. can recognise handwritten numbers.
The connections mimic the human brain’s synapses to produce so-called neurotrophic ICs which are thought to be the route to getting computers to understand video or learn from experience.
Previous efforts at using phase-change memory to build neuromorphic systems have been modest, with 100 synapses or less, says IBM researcher Geoff Burr.
After being shown 5,000 labelled images of handwritten digits from a standardised data set, the researchers’ chip could recognize handwritten digits it had never seen before with an accuracy of 82 percent.
Iliad, the French provider of telecommunications services, launches a cloud service next month based on ARM-based servers which it has built in-house using Marvell chips.
18 servers – each with a quad-core CPU – can fit onto a blade, and 16 blades can fit in a chassis.
The service starts in mid-January and is provided by Iliad subsidiary Online.
ARM saw server chip revenues for the first time this year.
Earlier this year, HP brought out two ARM-based servers – the ProLiant M400 with a 2.4GHz ARMv8-based Applied Micro X-Gene eight-core SoC and M800 which has a 32-bit Texas Instruments quad-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A15 with eight DSP cores.
The M800 is aimed at “businesses wanting VOIP/LTE, seismic processing and/or real-time video transcoding while saving on energy, space and cost,” says HP.. Customers for it include the US Department of Energy’s Sandia National Labs and the University of Utah.
The M400 is for tasks like web caching and PayPal is one customer for it.
Three chip-makers have announced 64-bit ARM v8 chips to go into the server and networking markets.
The Big Beast is the 48 core v8 64-bit 2.5GHz Cavium processor called ThunderX. “ThunderX will enable Cavium to be the first ARM-based vendor to deliver the performance and features required by today’s volume server market at half the power and significantly lower cost compared to competing solutions,” says processor guru Linley Gwennap.
As well as ThunderX, there’s Applied Micro’s eight v8 core X-Gene processor and AMD’s eight v8 core Seattle processor.
ARM vp Pete Hutton sees the server market as a 50 million unit a year opportunity and ARM aspires to a 5-10% market share by 2017. This year it expects a ‘single digit percentage’ share.
However analysts Canaccord reckon ARM server CPUs will have a 20% share of the server chip market by 2018.
Analysts Moor Insights say that, over three years, the cost of buying and running ARM servers could be 35% less than x86 and they use two thirds the number of physical racks.
“Right out of the box you can begin capturing and sharing aerial photographs and videos,” says Ivan Reedman, Head of R&D for the project which is called ZANO.
‘A plethora of sensors work seamlessly together to allow ZANO to avoid obstacles, hold its position and know exactly where it is in conjunction with your smart device, at all times,’ says the project description.
If ZANO senses it’s strayed too far from your phone or is running low on battery, it will automatically return to your phone.
Operating on a virtual tether to your phone allows a “Follow me” capability which will instruct ZANO to constantly maintain that distance from your smart device and follow you.
The AA has warned against connecting cars to the Internet because of the dangers of hackers stealing cars or hacking into their control systems.
“You are now getting the connected car,” says AA President Edmund King, “you’re getting cars that are connected to the Internet. If cyber-criminals targeted automobiles like they’re targeting other things we’d be in for a hard and fast ride. The more cars rely on technology, particularly remote technology, the more there is to get at.”
King said most dangerous would be hacking into a car’s security system including cruise control and braking.
“Ultimately there could be a terrorist-type threat to transport systems,” says King.
It has been suggested that, now it is possible for outside hackers to gain access to a car’s control systems, criminals could interfere with a car’s speed and braking so hackers could take control of a car and make a demand for money on pain of having their car crashed.
Range Rovers and BMWs have been stolen as thieves use a handheld device to bypass keyless ignition systems,
Cars’ CANs (Controller Area Networks) can be hacked. Microphones could be switched on to hear occupants’ conversation and usage can be tracked and monitored.
Infotainment devices are particularly vulnerable as they are connected to the Internet and many use open source OSes like Android which make them as hack able as phones.
The proliferation of sensors in cars collecting large amounts of data about the user’s movements and driving habits makes cars increasingly vulnerable to outside interference.
China anti-trust regulator NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) has announced it will soon end it’s investigation into Qualcomm which suggests it has come to a deal.
The investigation has gone on for 13 months during which time Qualcomm has complained thst users of Qualcomm IP in China have been reluctant to sign licensing agreements.
Qualcomm has also complained that existing Chinese licensees have been under-reporting sales.
It is thought that the NDRC will impose a fine on a Qualcomm for over-charging for use of its patents and that Qualcomm will agree to charge less for licences.
This will spur anti-trust regulators in Europe and the US to get similar deals with Qualcomm.
Qualcomm has no choice but to comply with the NDRC because half of its $26.5 billion revenues come from China.
However, 2014 saw a sharp change in attitude. The IDTechEx report Energy Harvesting/ Regeneration for Electric Vehicles Land, Water & Air 2015-2025 explains more.
For example Komatsu KELK in Japan had trialled 1.5 kW thermoelectric modules on its huge construction vehicles showing that thermoelectric harvesting was no longer just about providing signal power. It had been most widely deployed by the EnOcean Alliance for tiny bursts of UHF signal to operate wireless, batteryless building controls where they were on heating radiators – EnOcean almost entirely uses only electrodynamic and photovoltaic harvesting on its devices. The thermoelectrics was just a back story.
Another pivotal occurrence was Komatsu and others more than doubling efficiency of its thermoelectric devices to up to 7.5%, at least for the smaller ones, for example, creating electricity from electronic components that run hot. Schneider Electric started to use them on wireless sensors triggered and powered by heat outages on such things as copper power busbars.
Thirdly, the day was getting close when thermoelectric energy harvesting on hybrid electric engines and exhausts would be viable. In IDTechEx visits to AIST in Japan, Komatsu KELK in Japan and the National Physical Laboratory in the UK (Dr Alexandre Cuenat working on standard tests and new devices) plus various electric vehicle events in Europe and the USA in 2014, the message was the same: thermoelectric energy harvesting will be in on-road vehicles in 2018.
The only disagreement was whether hybrid cars would be first to adopt them or buses because they are sold not on up-front price but on cost of ownership and green credentials.
We enter 2015 with the following view at IDTechEx, “Thermoelectric energy harvesting will be on production hybrid electric on-road vehicles from 2018.” It will be commonplace on hybrids in 2020 and almost entirely to charge the battery, or increasingly supercapacitor or supercabattery used for power.
There will be little use on wireless devices through the vehicle because the necessary heat differences will not exist where most of these are positioned. Logically thermoelectric energy harvesting should go on large vehicles first including military ones because the increased efficiency does not just save money, it eases the problems of fuel logistics (the US Military plans 70% reduction in fuel consumption for this reason) and security of propulsion.
IDTechEx believes that hybrids will outsell pure electric vehicles that do not have adequate heat differences for thermoelectrics, until 2030 so the market is ongoing. We expect thermoelectrics to remain the only form of energy harvesting where the material cost is not the largest component of cost though work is ongoing to make these elements by additive processes instead of the current micro-machining.
One implication is that the materials can be very profitable due to limited price sensitivity and breakthroughs such as less toxic materials and formable materials will be greatly valued. The addressable automotive market is therefore primarily hybrid cars for charging and that is around 9 million units in 2025 if paybacks are established.
Conventional cars?
More speculatively, conventional cars, which will still be the majority of cars made in 2025, are incorporating more and more energy harvesting to reduce fuel usage since the starter heating Ventilating Air Conditioning HVA batteries can be loaded at up to 500W in them these days.
Some stop-start is electromechanical energy harvesting and some alternators work backwards in an equivalent of regenerative braking in EVs. It is therefore possible, but by no means demonstrated, that thermoelectric energy harvesting on all those hot conventional engines may prove viable adding tens of millions to our figure for addressable market in 2025.
Writer Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx
For more on the subject also attend Electric Vehicles: Everything is Changing and Energy Harvesting & Storage Europe being held in Berlin on 28-29 April 2015.
A bumper mailbag, the last one for 2014!
SPOILERS:
A car dashcam and custom automatic LCD video player from:
http://eve-radio.com/
Girl time!
And old GPS unit, and a PIN Calculator from Gemma & Liz a.k.a Annierak and Hoofbag
http://www.hoofbags.me.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/user/hoofbags
http://www.annierak.hoofbags.me.uk/
Blood Glucose meter
Crappy calculator with secret construction technique – cardboard!
High voltage Victor power supply modules
PicoPSU ATX Power Supply for embedded automotive computers:
Bubble memory from an old GRiD laptop computer.
I Dream Of Wires documentary DVD about the development of the electronic synthesiser.
http://www.idreamofwires.org/
Precision electronics knives from:
http://ghlargh.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/Ghlargh
High altitude ballooning PCBs from Chris Stubbs:
http://chris-stubbs.co.uk/wp/
https://www.ukhas.net/
And an awesome drawing of Sagan from That Crazy Indian Bloke
Forum HERE
Higher resolution, more integrated ICs with higher ASPs will push the driver IC market to $7.3 billion in 2018, up from $6.4 billion in 2012, says DisplaySearch.
While the trend toward slimmer bezels for LCD TVs and tablets that use gate-on-array (GOA) technology is reducing the demand for gate drivers, higher resolution screens are causing growth in the source driver IC market.
Market observers are optimistic about the growth potential related supply chains will see from the LCD/OLED driven demand. Higher resolution screens have been a focus for many panel makers in Taiwan over the last year as they aim to maintain profits amid increasing competition from China makers, which continue to expand production and lower pricing.
As China makers expand production capacity in order to meet increasing demand for cheaper panel supply in China, local handset vendors will receive Full HD panels for use in smartphones in 2015 below $21, down 11.5% on year, according to Digitimes Research.
Additionally, the makers will provide HD panels as low as $11 and WVGA panels at $3, down 10% and 25% on year, respectively.
In terms of Full HD panel production, most of the supply will come from BOE’s and Tianma Microelectronics’ 5.5G lines while that for entry-level and mid-range units will come from 6G lines, noted Digitimes Research.
For the first time, Toshiba may build a fab overseas.
In the 1980s, when Japanese semiconductor companies were internationally expansive with NEC building two fabs in Scotland and one fab in China, with Hitachi building a fab in a Germany and with Fujitsu building a fab in Durham, Toshiba was a notable stand-out keeping all its fabs on home soil.
Now things have changed with Toshiba Semiconductor CEO Hisao Tanaka saying that a decision will be made during Toshiba’s next financial year, which runs from 2015 to April 2016, on where it will build its next NAND fab and that it could be built abroad.
Tanaka points out that NAND flash rivals Samsung and Hynix both have fabs in China and, pressed on whether that is where Toshiba will go, Tanaka responded: “But Samsung has a plant in the United States, as well.”
Although Toshiba has never built a fab overseas, it has owned one.
Back in the 1970s, Toshiba bought a Silicon Valley company called Maruman. With it came a fab and Toshiba used it to build DRAMs.
One of the young executives sent out to run the fab, Tsuyoshi Kawanishi, later to be an outstanding CEO, recalls that yields and wafer throughput were half those of Japanese fabs and nothing he did improved them.
Eventually diffusion was closed down and the site was used for customer service, assembly, ASIC design, and a limited amount of gate array metallisation.
After that, although Toshiba regularly thought about foreign fab building, it never took the plunge. But now it may.
Calxeda, which raised $100 million to make ARM-based server chips before going bankrupt earlier this year, may see its IP in server SOCs in 2015. Calxeda’s assets have been acquired by a company called Silver Lining Systems which is a subsidiary of AtGames Cloud Holdings. It is reported that SLS will work with Foxconn to bring out new server chips in 2015. ARM is also described by SLS as a partner. ARM was an investor in Calxeda. Last year was the first year that servers shipped with ARM-based ICs in them.
Dave tears down the 1983 vintage Apple Lisa, the first graphical user interface machine that pre-dates the Macintosh.
Datasheets:
Apple Lisa repair guide
R6500 processor
AM2148 static RAM
AMD AM9512 floating point math co-processor
MOSTEK MK4564
Switching regulator
Apple Macintosh Teardown
Apple Newton Teardown
Teardown Photos:
Forum HERE
Hires Teardown Photos:
The agreement enables Synopsys to deliver process-calibrated models for its Sentaurus TCAD tools to semiconductor manufacturers for use during 5-nm technology node research and development.
This agreement follows collaborations on FinFET and 3D-IC technologies for the 10-nm and 7-nm technology nodes.
The Imec-Synopsys team is investigating, among other topics, a vertical nanowire-nanosheet hybrid SRAM cell to target 5-nm technology.
Early studies show the benefits of nanowire-nanosheet technology in density and performance compared to conventional FinFETs and lateral nanowires.
Synopsys’ Sentaurus TCAD tools that support this collaboration are used by technology development teams at foundries and integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) for device architecture selection, design and process optimization.
Using early versions of Synopsys’ TCAD models allows the Imec project team to explore a range of topics including fundamental device physics (material science, quantum transport and strain engineering), middle-of-line (MOL) local interconnects and the optimization of parasitics.
A significant part of the analysis involves full-3D process and electrical simulations to identify device and interconnect reliability solutions for these highly scaled circuits.
“This is the first time a process-calibrated TCAD simulation flow has been used to comprehensively study the process, device and circuit architectures so early in the technology path-finding process,” says Imec’s Anda Mocuta.
This simulation flow enables technologists to evaluate the speed and power consumption of ring oscillators and other test circuits in the early stage of technology development, thereby closely linking technology development and selection with circuit-level targets.
Designed by Jake Dyson, the son of Sir James, the bulb will cost £1,400.
Dyson told The Guardian that, while LEDs should last a lifetime, manufacturers are building them to have only six or seven years life so that they have a healthy replacement market.
Dyson says that some LEDs degrade in brightness quite quickly – 30% in six months – but Ariel will maintain its brightness for 180,000 hours – 40 years at 12 hours a day.
The trick to extend lifetime is to remove heat, says Dyson. He gets his LED to operate at 55 deg Centigrade by drawing heat away from it ‘like a radiator”, he says.
Ariel is Zigbee-enabled to provide control.
Dyson sees applications for it in airports and high profile buildings.
But while security applications remain the most valuable for the industry, 2015 is also expected to see substantial growth in the production of holographic optical elements (HOEs) for use in automotive displays and lighting, as well as for general lighting control, says Ian Lancaster, the general secretary of the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA).
“Anti-counterfeiting technologies will grow as the criminal masterminds get more sophisticated every year, and the security printing industry needs to expand capabilities using multiple technologies to remain ahead,” said Lancaster.
Product counterfeiting is a trillion dollar a year problem, which represents about 5 – 7% of all global transactions, so the long term outlook for anti-counterfeiting technologies is good.
“There will be growth in all markets but those countries with an emerging middle class will probably see the highest. This includes economies such as India where there’s continued expansion – and our industry in India will reflect this with growth of up to 20%,” said Lancaster.
The design of authentication solutions is advocated in ISO’s 12931 standard, to verify the authenticity of a legitimate product, differentiating it from the counterfeits.
Holograms can also be used to control light and the growth of LEDs is stimulating the adoption of holograms to provide better control of their emitted light.
HOEs are being used to diffuse and “smooth” the light from arrays of LEDs as now being used in display and domestic environments, while they are also being used to focus and shape the light.
Similarly, with LEDs in use as vehicle rear lights and brake lights HOEs are also being used to enhance the emitted light. Meanwhile, HOEs also have an important role in vehicle instrumentation and improving the image on small and large format LCD and OLED displays.
China has set a target to generate $140 billion in semiconductor output by 2020, reports DigiTimes.
Europe’s target under the Neelie Kroes plan to raise the EU’s semiconductor production is to achieve $72 billion in semiconductor output in 2020.
The value of the 2020 world semiconductor market is thought to be around $400 billion.
As well as committing $10 billion a year over the next decade to build fabs, the China government is organising the companies to meagre resources.
The mobile chip firms Spreadtrum and RDA Microelectronics were acquired by State-control led Tsinghua Unigroup.
Also, Huawei, Datang Telecom, ZTE and Haier, have all committed investment to IC design houses.
China is pushing the integration of IC design houses and IC manufacturing companies such as SMIC, Huali Microelectronics Corporation (HLMC) and Changziang Electronics to result in branded IDMs.
‘The formation of large-scale IDMs is also one of the major tasks of China’s new Five-Year Plan that will fulfill the supply chain of its semiconductor industry’ says DigiTimes.
Also Taiwan-based IC design houses and IC backend service providers are likely to become ‘the preys to be hunted by China-based IC companies’, says DigiTimes.
