Imagination to teach mobile graphics

Imagination Technologies’ University Programme now offers a complete teaching course on mobile graphics – “An Introduction to Mobile Graphics”.

In universities, graphics technologies are generally taught as part of game development or computer science curriculum, and are based on standard console or PC graphics. Since consumers increasingly interact with graphics on their mobile devices via games and user interfaces (UIs), it’s important that developers understand the specific constraints of mobile devices where power-efficient rendering is a must.

“Our programme brings leading-edge technologies into the classroom in packages that are genuinely useful to teachers, and exciting for their students,” says Imagination’s Robert Owen, “this course enables teachers to align with the reality of users today, who often experience graphics through portable devices incorporating an Imagination PowerVR GPU.”

The new course has been developed so that little to no previous knowledge of graphics is required, and the content is adaptable to fit most teaching methods and structures.

A dozen different modules cover mobile graphics technologies and their architectures, the PowerVR framework for mobile graphics development, mobile graphics software development kits (SDKs), texturing, transformations and example shader code including lighting models.

In addition, the course includes lecture slides with integrated presenter notes, practical exercises including model solutions, and example exam questions and answers.

Practical exercises use the PowerVR SDK on a simulator or available boards/tablets. Examples of mobile games and technology demonstrations give students an intuitive idea of the capabilities of the mobile GPU. This introductory course is based around OpenGL ES 2.0, the most widely deployed and adopted mobile graphics API.

Imagination is rolling out “An Introduction to Mobile Graphics” to universities worldwide through a series of workshops that will enable professors to get started. The first workshops will be held at Imagination’s global headquarters in the UK on September 23-24, 2015.

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Taiwan market: Sony unveils MILC α 7R II

Sony on June 30 unveiled α 7R II, a digital MILC (mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera) model, for launch in the Taiwan market on July 23 at a recommended retail price of NT$94,980 (US$3,064) for camera body only, according to Sony Taiwan.

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Wei Chi Energy, APPSRC co-develop hybrid battery system for electric vehicles

Battery maker Wei Chi Energy Technology and Advanced Propulsion and Power System Research Center (APPSRC) of Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University have co-developed a hybrid battery system consisting of hydrogen fuel cells and a lithium (Li) battery pack for use in electric vehicles, according to APPSRC.

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First-tier China makers to sell solar production lines, say Taiwan makers

Several first-tier China-based PV makers, in an attempt to reduce operating burdens and concentrate resources on product lines or business with significant international competitiveness, plan to sell production lines for solar-grade crystalline silicon wafers or crystalline silicon solar cells, according to Taiwan-based solar cell makers.

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Samsung to ramp up shipments of OLED panels, DRAM and, flash chips to channels

Samsung Electronics may ramp up the supply of standard parts and components, including OLED panels, DRAM and flash chips at more competitive prices starting the third quarter as inventory levels of these products have piled up due to its tumbling share in the global smartphone market, according to sources at Taiwan's IC supply chain.

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Tainergy obtains solar cell orders with shipments scheduled through August

Crystalline silicon solar cell maker Tainergy Tech has received orders with shipments scheduled through August, company chairman Frank Hsieh said at a company shareholders meeting on June 30.

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Stagnant tablet demand to continue in 2H15, say Taiwan makers

Global sales of Apple's iPad and tablets launched by brand-name and China-based white-box vendors have been far short of original expectation and the stagnant demand is expected to continue in second-half 2105, according to Taiwan-based tablet supply chain makers.

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Taiwan market: Projector market at less than 20,000 in 1Q15

The Taiwan projector market reached 19,900 units in the first quarter of 2015, down 11.4% on year and down 9% on quarter, according to figures from IDC. The education segment was weaker than estimated and overall demand in Taiwan was down.

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China market: Huawei launches Honor 7

China-based smartphone vendor Huawei has unveiled its new Honor 7 smartphone for the local market. Shipments of Honor-brand smartphones totaled 20 million units worth US$2.6 billion in the first half of 2015.

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XMC likely to be China DRAM hub, says DRAMeXchange

Wuhan, Hubei province will likely be chosen to develop China's home-grown DRAM industry, according to DRAMeXchange. Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing (XMC), a local 12-inch foundry, will serve as the main production base for DRAM.

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Nordic integrates Bluetooth Smart and NFC Touch-to-Pair

Nordic Semiconductor has put Bluetooth Smart and NFC for Touch-to-Pair on its
 nRF52832 SoC which has a 64MHz ARM Cortex-M4F processor, a 2.4GHz multi-protocol radio, and automatic power optimization.

Achieving a 215 CoreMark the nRF52832 delivers up to 60% more generic processing power than competing solutions and thanks to its ARM Cortex-M4F up to an additional 10X the Floating Point and 2X the DSP performance. And at 90 CoreMark/mA the SoC is up to 2X as power efficient as competing solutions
 
 The nRF52832 also includes on-chip peripherals for glueless interfacing to external components such as sensors, displays, touch controllers, LEDs, keypads, motors, digital microphones, and audio Codecs.

This makes it suitable for wearables, human interface devices such as remote controllers, toys, smart home devices and appliances, and wireless charging.
 
 Development Kits, QFN samples, software and documentation are available today. Volume production is scheduled for December 2015.
 

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USB Protocol Analyzers Show What's Under the Bus

Get an overview of what's available for troubleshooting and characterizing USB when designing embedded devices. One is free, another is build-your-own.

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RISC vs CISC: What's the Difference?

A new study comparing the Intel X86, the ARM and MIPS CPUs finds that microarchitecture is more important than instruction set architecture, RISC or CISC.

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Calling all Time Lords

2015 is a wonderful year for anyone who has a special interest in time or simply experiences its passage.

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Talking Sheets, Thinking Shorts

The tagging of garments via RFID-based labels has been commonplace for more than a decade. But what if electronic components could be threaded into the very fabric of clothes and even survive the washing machine?

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Ericsson Layoffs Target R&D, Supply

Ericsson will release 10% of its Swedish workforce as part of an efficiency and cost-reduction plan first announced in March. The plan will cut approximately 2,100 job and save an equivalent of $301 million USD in the second quarter of 2015.

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Sneak Peak! RTOS Smackdown at ESC Silicon Valley 2015

At ESC Silicon Valley, seven of the leanest, meanest, coolest, hottest contenders in the RTOS multi-universe will take it in turns to explain why their RTOS is the bestest of the best.

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Speak recognition system runs on Arduino shield

A couple of developers in California have created the design for an Arduino shield with speech recognition technology.

Called MOVI (My Own Voice Interface), it is the work of Bertrand Irissou and Gerald Friedland founders of Audeme and the project will launch on the Kickstarter crowd-funding website at 8am Wednesday 1 July. (11:59pm PDT)

MOVI is cloudless with no Internet connection required, and has everything built into the board, including an English dictionary for full sentence recognition, and is ready to go right out of the box.

The design aim was to build a self-contained speech recognition system which does not rely on a connection to the internet.

They believe they have achieved this with an ARM processor-based board capable of full sentence recognition and automatic phonetisation.

The developers write:

“It includes an English phonetisation dictionary of over 2GB in order to be able to recognize virtually any English sentence. The power requirements are extremely low, about 2.5W, making it suitable for potential battery operation”.

Power consumption is less than 3W.

Irissou was the founder of Asic Advantage which was acquired in 2011 by Microsemi.

Friedland has contributed to the academic and open-source communities through his research at UC Berkeley, where he is currently director of the audio and multimedia research at the International Computer Science Institute.

More on the Audeme Facebook page.

 

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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explodes minutes after launch

Falcon 9 – SpaceX

The explosion of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket mere minutes after launch on Sunday was strike one for US hopes of rebooting crewed space flight: this is the very type of rocket the company wants to use to send people into space in 2017.

“You want a really, really reliable rocket before you put people on it,” says Jonathan McDowell of Harvard University. Now that SpaceX has lost its perfect launch record with this rocket, it will need to quickly convince people that the rocket can be trusted, he says. “Yesterday [the Falcon 9] was 18 for 18 and looking pretty good. Now it is 18 for 19. That’s a 5 percent failure rate.”

But if another 10 launches of Falcon 9 proceed without incident, that will bring the failure rate to 3.5 per cent, which could be acceptable, he says.

Among almost two tonnes of supplies and equipment in the Dragon capsule atop the rocket were two docking stations, intended for Space X to dock its crewed Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS). It was also carrying several plant and animal experiments.

The failure shouldn’t force a delay in plans to launch the first crewed space mission on US soil since 2011, said William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration, at a press conference. “It could help us to nail down designs and move forward,” he said.

The Falcon 9 rocket exploded 2 minutes and 19 seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. In a tweet, Elon Musk said it was triggered by too much pressure in a liquid oxygen tank in the upper stage of the rocket, adding: “Data suggests counterintuitive cause,” without further explanation.

“It was in the upper part of the rocket, not the part that was firing at the time,” says McDowell. “That’s representative of a class of failures associated with structural and aerodynamic problems.”

McDowell says there are probably no safety procedures that SpaceX would undertake during a crewed flight that could have prevented this explosion. “But Crew Dragon would have an escape system that would save the capsule, so you wouldn’t have killed the crew.”

Another SpaceX rocket spectacularly exploded during an attempt at landing it as part of a plan to make the Falcon 9 reusable. That attempt was highly experimental and appears unrelated to yesterday’s explosion during launch.

“SpaceX have been careful to do the experimental tests after the operational part of each mission is over,” says McDowell. “So playing with new stuff in the stage 1 re-entry phase shouldn’t make the all-important launch phase more dangerous.”

The explosion also follows a number of failures of other ISS supply rockets.

“There’s really no commonality across these three events other than the fact that it’s space, and it’s difficult to go fly,” said Gerstenmaier. “We’re essentially operating systems at the edge of their ability to perform and operate.”

Watching from on board the ISS, US astronaut Scott Kelly summed up the sentiment in a tweet: “Space is hard.”

Syndicated Content: Michael Slezak, New Scientist

 

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Synopsys Acquires Elliptic Technologies, Beefs up Security

Synopsys, Inc. is acquiring security intellectual property company Elliptic Technologies.

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Merck Buys Display Quantum Dot Company

Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany) has announced it is acquiring Qlight Nanotech Ltd. (Jerusalem, Israel), a developer of nanocrystalline materials for lighting and display applications.

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Bringing More Affinity and Testability to Multicore

To make its affinity-based RTOS scheduling algorithm for multicore software both testable and flexible, Green Hills is using LDRA's lightweight code coverage tools.

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30W dc-dc in one square inch

TDK has introduced 30W wide input range dc-dc converters in a 25.4×25.4mm (1x1inch) by 9mm high metal package.

Called CCG30, they operate over a 4:1 input range (9-36V or 18-76V) – so 12 and 24V, or 24 and 48V – and have six-sided shielding.

Output voltages are 3.3, 5, 12 or 15V at up to 7A.

Applications ae expected in datacoms, telecomms, industrial control, test and measurement, broadcast and portable battery powered equipment.

Efficiency is up to 91% and operation is from 40 to +85°C.

Standard features include +/-10% output voltage adjustment, remote on-off, over-current, and over-voltage protection, and five-year warranty.

Input to output isolation is 1,500Vdc. Input or output to case is 1,000Vdc.

Safety certification includes IEC/EN 60950-1, UL/CSA 60950-1 with CE marking for the Low Voltage and RoHS2 Directives.

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Formula Student racers given design tool challenge

MathWorks is encouraging the use of its MATLAB and Simulink software by student engineers by offering a £500 prize for the most effective use of the design tools during the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Formula Student competition at Silverstone next week.

As part of the video challenge, MathWorks is offering participating students from universities across the country the opportunity to win £500 by submitting 2-4 minute videos demonstrating how MATLAB and Simulink was used to design and test their cars during the competition.

The final videos will be uploaded to YouTube, under the hashtag #MATLABFS along with a separate entry form per video.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Formula Student competition challenges student engineers to design, build and race a single seat racing car in one year.  There will be 135 teams in total, with 49 from the UK and teams from as far afield as Australia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Coorous Mohtadi, senior academic technical specialist at MathWorks said:

“Formula Student provides a great opportunity for students to work on an industry-scale project and put their engineering knowledge into practice, as well as developing important skills such as project management and problem solving.  MATLAB and Simulink are standard tools within industry so gaining hands-on experience will help them prepare for their future careers.”

Submission dates are as follows:

·         ‘Design phase’ and ‘building your car at the workshop’ video submission date – July 1st 2015

·         ‘Car performing at the competition’ video submission date – August 14th 2015

·         Competition winners will be announced on September 30th 2015

Professor Richard Folkson, president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and former chief judge at Formula Student said:

“Formula Student really is the breeding ground for the best young engineering talent and I’m looking forward to seeing all the fantastic innovations in this year’s cars.”

 

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Micron Remains Optimistic Despite Down Quarter

Sluggish PC market affected DRAM growth, but company appears confident in long-term prospects for 3D NAND, mobile, in-memory computing and the automotive segment

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Ultrasonic MEMS predicts electric vehicle battery failure

French research lab CEA Leti is using ultrasonic sensing to detect imminent battery failure in electric vehicles, and has proposed a way to extend running life.

It has identified three causes of electric vehicle battery fires: connector failures, thermal runaway on charge or failure in associated electronics – at the same time acknowledging freak puncturing incidents have also caused electric vehicle fires.

Its proposal for detecting impending battery failure is to combine conventional voltage, current and temperature sensing, with strain gauges and an ultrasonic detector that can ‘hear’ electrical arcs as they develop.

To detect sparking, signals between 20kHz and 300kHz from a custom MEMS sensor (see photos) are analysed to reject non-arc sources, then further analysis estimates the physical location of the problem within the battery pack.

As a way to increase the robustness of electric vehicle battery packs when faults are detected, Leti is splitting its 400V vehicle battery into eight separate 50V modules.

Each module has a series disconnect relay, plus a relay that can short the module’s output terminals.

When a fault is detected in one 50V module, it can remove itself from the 400V string and replace itself with a short circuit so the vehicle can continue to operate on what has become a 350V battery.

This removal and bypass process can be initiated during: charge, driving, maintenance or a crash.

Within each modules are the two power switches and six series-connected battery sub-modules – allowing the module to be serviced.

Individual cell balancing within each sub-module and module maximises module storage capacity during charge and discharge.

Then at the module level, the two power switches can be used to implement module-level charge balancing – for example switching out the weakest module when it is depleted, allowing the vehicle to continue on seven others.

In a modelled example with eight ill-matched modules, a battery with power switches lasted 34% longer than a permanently connected battery – which is effectively empty once the weakest module is empty.

The strategy used in this case was to save the weakest module until last – it was only switched into the battery once the second weakest module had depleted to its charge level.

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Selecting Your M&A Banker

At some point in the life of a technology startup company, the CEO and the founding team will be confronted with the question of whether to sell the company or not. Hopefully, the question arises in a positive context and comes from an interested buyer driven by the opportunity to deploy the new technology to a much larger user base.

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DoT Call for Proposals, Registration Open

The IoT, wearables, and 3D printing-focused Designers of Things conference has also partners with the IPSO Alliance to call on entrepreneurs, makers, students, and professional engineers to submit designs using IP.

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Automotive King Redefines Future

By 2030 the cost of an automobile will be mostly from the advanced electronics, according to analysts, with Freescale supplying the lion's share of those chips since it will be number one is automotive electronics after the merger with NXP later this year.

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8 FD-SOI Questions You're Afraid to Ask

Paul Boudre, CEO of Soitec, told us last week in Grenoble, "Evidence [for FD-SOI's advantages] is there. But some choose not to see it."

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Panasonic pressure sensors integrate amp and compensation

Panasonic pressure sensors

Panasonic Automotive & Industrial Systems has a range of semiconductor pressure sensors that integrate amplifiers and temperature compensation circuitry (PS-A units).

Precision sensors without amplifier and open wheatstone measurement bridge are also available and in ultra-miniaturised sizes.

There are also versions with chamfered pins for improved ease of DIP pin insertion into PCBs.

The PS-A units come in three types. The standard type with a glass base can handle pressures from ±100kPa to -1000kPa with a total accuracy of ±1.25%.

The economy type without a glass base is for 40kPa pressures and ±4% accuracy and the low-pressure version is for 6kPa and ±2.5% accuracy. Footprint is 7.0 by 7.2mm (10.4 by 10.4mm for the low-pressure type).

The PS and PF sensors come in two versions. The standard type with a glass base is for pressures from 4.9 to 980.7kPa and the economy type without a glass base for 40kPa.

The PS models, which have a footprint of 7.2 x 7.2mm, have a 3.3kΩ resistance.

Applications for the PS units include industrial pressure switches and pneumatic devices and medical blood pressure measurement.

 

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LED lighting driver tunes to ZigBee for control

Harvard Driver with ZigBee interface

Yorkshire LED lighting driver maker Harvard Engineering has added ZigBee wireless control to its range of lighting power supplies.

The 33W driver, called CLZ and part of the firm’s CoolLED range, offers dimming down to 1% and includes a 2.4GHz radio – either built-in or remote (pictured).

Radio communication alloes the driver to tap into Harvard’s ‘EyeNut’ monitoring and management system for indoor lighting.

EyeNut drivers enable easy commissioning during the installation stage and reduce the number of components needed within the luminaire. The driver also works in conjunction with light engines from our LEDeng range to provide an all-in-one controllable LED solution,” said Harvard. “EyeNut provides individual luminaire control through a web interface as well as allowing energy consumption management and enabling a variety of control strategies to be employed.”

The  33W EyeNut driver with ZigBee dongle combines the company’s market leading CoolLED driver technology with the benefits of the award-winning

CLZ, basd on exixting CL rivers from Harvard, is SELV compliant.

Retail, office and hospitality use is expected.

EyeNut is intended for new and retrofit installations – using an adaptor with existing luminaires. Harvard is developing further EyeNut-enabled drivers.

 

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Taiwan market: Sony Mobile, Huawei expanding mobile device sales

Sony Mobile Communications and Huawei have both recently launched their latest products in Taiwan and are looking to expand their presence in the local market.

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Taiwan to mothball No. 4 nuclear power plant

The state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) will put mothball No. 4 nuclear power plant consisting of two generators located in northeastern Taiwan for three years on July 1, according to the company.

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Global LCD TV panel shipments reach 22.45 million in May

Global LCD TV panel shipments reached 22.45 million in May 2015, up 8.1% on year and up 2.7% on month, according to several China media reports quoting Sigmaintell Consulting. The shipments produced 10.04 million square meters in panel surface area shipped, up 10.1% on year and up 1.9% on month.

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Global DRAM module sales rise 21% in 2014, says DRAMeXchange

Global DRAM module sales totaled US$8.8 billion in 2014, up 21% from US$7.3 billion a year earlier, thanks to more stable prices for PC DRAM as well as a rising ratio of contract sales, according to DRAMeXchange.

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Taipower to limit power supply to industrial users

With Taiwan's power consumption having risen significantly due to hot weather, the government-owned Taipower's operating reserve may drop to as low as 2.2% shortly and the issue could lead to malfunctions of some of its mid- or large-size machines. As a result, Taipower is planning to cut power supply to Taiwan's industrial users by 5% each time up to three times if the situation does not improve.

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DRAM spot prices hit 28-month low, says CNA

DRAM spot prices have fallen further, with prices for mainstream 4Gb DDR3 chips reaching US$2.64 - the lowest level in 28 months, Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) quoted DRAMeXchange as saying in a recent report.

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Foxconn mulls spinning off subsidiaries for listing in China stock markets, says report

Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is considering spinning off its subsidiaries in China to let them list in local stock markets, and more than one of such subsidiaries are likely to go public by year-end 2015, according to a China Business News report.

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TEEMA opens 2nd Smart Living Center in Nantong, China

The second Smart Living Center, planned by the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (TEEMA) and located in Nantong, China opened on June 29, linked with the Smart Living Center in Taiwan. The two centers represent cross-strait communication and partnership.

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Europe shipments of DSLRs into professional video applications dropped 41% in 2014, says firm

Europe's shipments of DSLRs into professional video applications dropped by 41% in 2014, according to Futuresource Consulting.

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Pay TV set-top box market contracts for the first time in 12 years, says IHS

Pay TV operators purchased US$15.3 billion worth of set-top boxes (STBs) in 2014, down from US$15.9 billion in 2013. This decline represents the first contraction in the market since 2002, according to IHS. Shipments of pay TV STBs grew slightly in 2014 to 204.7 million units, an increase of just under 1% from 203.1 million units in the previous year; however, such modest shipment growth failed to compensate for the effects of price erosion in this highly competitive market.

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Socionext enables record data transmission speeds.

Socionext’s Manfred-Mettendorff

Socionext, the Panasonic-Fujitsu SoC jv, has launched DACs and ADCs with sampling rates up to 92 GSa/s which have been integrated into coherent receivers and transmitters that were used to transport data at several tens of terabits per second over a 762-kilometer Lyon-Marseille-Lyon fiber optic link in the Orange optical transport network.

Socionext were part of a team from Orange, Coriant, Ekinops and Keopsys who successfully demonstrated the highest ever C-band transmission capacity using 24 x 1 Tbps/DP-16 QAM (i.e. 24 Tbps), 32 x 1 Tbps /DP-32 QAM (i.e. 32 Tbps) and 32 x 1.2 Tbps/DP-64 QAM (i.e. 38.4 Tbps) modulation formats in a ‘live’ networking environment.

A record-setting transmission reach of 762 kilometers in the same ‘live’ environment was achieved, which is more than twice the distance of any previous field records for 32 QAM, and the first ever regional transmission for 64 QAM. These achievements represent an important milestone in the research and development of highly scalable, spectrally-efficient optical networking technologies for future network growth.

Socionext provided key technology and components, in the form of development kits, to enable partners the evaluation and optimisation of higher-order modulation techniques and next–generation algorithms.

The new generation of transmitters and receivers used to establish the transmission record were based on ultra high speed digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters designed and developed by Socionext Network SoC Business Unit using a standard 28 nm CMOS technology.

The converters cover a broad sampling range with a maximum rate of 92 GSa/s. The high effective resolution and analog bandwidth characteristics, greater than 20 GHz, makes scalable architectures for multiple wavelengths and high modulation formats on a single device possible.

On-chip implementation of the converters using advanced packaging technologies along with very low power consumption are additional features that are mandatory for future long-haul, metro and access applications.

“We are excited to be able to contribute again to a world record in optical transport with our advanced ADC and DAC technology. Our 3rd and 4th generation DAC and ADC IP optimized for network applications will help system vendors to address the exponential growth of global and metropolitan internet traffic” says Socionext’s Manfred Mettendorff, “having already supported the launch of the leading 100 Gbit, 200 Gbit and 400 Gbit technology we are confident that highly power efficient, economic single chip Tera-bit systems are also within reach.”

This record-breaking field trial was conducted using the latest advances in ultra-high capacity optical communications. The aim for Socionext, Coriant, Ekinops and Keopsys was to validate the compliance of their most advanced optical transport solutions with the real operation constraints of a ‘live’ capital transport network. Whilst Orange was able to demonstrate its legacy fiber infrastructure was able to transport such multi-terabit capacity.

The field trial was performed within the framework of the European Celtic-Plus SASER (Safe and Secure European Routing) project funded jointly by the BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) and DGE (Direction Générale des Entreprises), and supported by the IDEALIST project (Industry-Driven Elastic and Adaptive Lambda Infrastructure for Service and Transport Networks).

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EDAC integrated connector helps with gigabit Ethernet

Edac – gigabit Ethernet

Connector firm EDAC is offering a range of magnetic jack connectors that integrate up to ten of the most sensitive discrete components inside a shielded RJ45 housing.

Mainly targeting 10/100 Base T and 1000 Base T gigabit Ethernet applications the three device families in the edacJAX range offer single and stacked multi-port options and LED indicators that provide visual indication of port status and system activity.

USB or HDMI connections can be incorporated in the industry standard sized housing.

Rapid Electronics will be stocking the new edacJAX connector range.

According to Nathan Ashford, European distribution manager with EDAC (Europe), board area constraints can be an issue when designing 10/100 Base T and 1000Base T gigabit Ethernet interfaces.

“EDAC’s edacJAX magnetic jack connectors are able to integrate an impedance matching transformer, LED indicators, a high-voltage capacitor and a common mode chokes inside a standard sized RJ45 connector,” said Ashford.

Integrating the components within the connector can also help with EMI, RFI, crosstalk and jitter.

Janice Ratcliffe, E-Mech product manager at distributor Rapid Electronics, said they were the UK’s first distributor of the edacJAX Series A00, A20 and A60 modular and magnetic jack connectors.

 

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Imagination flags graphics processor teaching

Imagination Technologies wants to raise the profile of mobile graphic processor design in university teaching with a new course as part of its online Imagination University Programme.

“An Introduction to Mobile Graphics” includes a rich set of teaching materials and practical exercises and will be based around Imagination’s own PowerVR graphics processors (GPUs).

According to Imagination, the teaching of graphics technologies are very game console or PC graphics focused.

Robert Owen, manager, Worldwide University Programme, Imagination writes:

“Our programme brings leading-edge technologies into the classroom in packages that are genuinely useful to teachers, and exciting for their students. This course enables teachers to align with the reality of users today, who often experience graphics through portable devices incorporating an Imagination PowerVR GPU.”

This introductory course is based around OpenGL ES 2.0, the most widely deployed and adopted mobile graphics API.

Course modules cover mobile graphics technologies and their architectures, the PowerVR framework for mobile graphics development, mobile graphics software development kits (SDKs), texturing, transformations and example shader code including lighting models.

Practical exercises use the PowerVR SDK on a simulator or available boards/tablets. Examples of mobile games and technology demonstrations give students an intuitive idea of the capabilities of the mobile GPU.

The materials for “An Introduction to Mobile Graphics” were developed by Darren McKie, undergraduate/MSc games and graphics programme leader and selector fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Department of Computer Science, at the University of Hull.

These materials have gone through extensive critique through academic reviewers including Associate Professor Martin Kraus, in the Department of Architecture, Design, and Media Technology at Aalborg University, Denmark; and Dipl. Inform. Jan Robert Menzel, at RWTH Aachen, Germany.

“An Introduction to Mobile Graphics” course materials are now available for download from the Imagination University Programme website.

 

Richard Wilson

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Skeleton launches graphene ultracapacitors

Skeleton Technologies has launched graphene-enhanced ultracapacitors with a capacitance of 4500 farads. Skeleton claims this to be “the single biggest increase in energy density for ultracapacitors in the past 15 years”.

Energy density is a key development challenge for the ultracapacitor market and is fundamental if the technology is to eventually replace battery storage.

Skeleton’s SkelCap 4500 series addresses the heavy transportation and industrial markets where weight and space are at a premium.

“Graphene has long been heralded as a wonder material for a range of applications, including energy storage. However, a mass-market, graphene-based product has been slow to materialise. Our ultracapacitors will be that market breakthrough,” says Skeleton CEO, Taavi Madiberk, “we are harnessing the power of graphene to make the most significant advances in ultracapacitor performance seen for several years.”

Skeleton Technologies ultracapacitors have been chosen by the European Space Agency, where their use is expected to lead to significant cost savings by reducing the volume of heavy batteries required for energy storage. Next month, the company will be announcing the first ultracapacitor product for the hybrid truck market.

The new range has been designed for mass-market applications and the needs of systems engineers. The format has been developed to meet the industry standard of a 60 mm diameter cylindrical cell. Skeleton Technologies had previously offered prismatic cells, which are more compact in modular arrangements but more expensive to produce.

Skeleton Technologies has also achieved one the lowest ESR (equivalent series resistance) levels on the market at 0.095 mΩ. This factor is crucial as it greatly increases the efficiency of the cells by reducing the amount of energy that is lost as heat. For example, if a 3900A current is run through the SkelCap 4500 cell, it will lose only 0.30 joules per farad, whereas competing products can lose as much as 1.00 joules per farad.

Skeleton is targeting 20 Wh/kg by 2020, which is comparable with battery level energy density.

In the last month, Skeleton Technologies secured €9.8 million in Series B financing with a strategic investor in the electrical equipment market to ramp up the deployment of their graphene ultracapacitors.

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Taiwan to hike minimum wages

Taiwan will hike its monthly minimum wage by 3.81% from NT$19,273 (US$623) to NT$20,008 and the hourly minimum wage rate will rise 4.35% from NT$115 to NT$120, with the new wage schemes to take effect on July 1, according to the labor ministry.

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Digitimes Research: LED makers extend development to IR, UV applications

An international LED forum held in Taiwan in mid-June showed that makers have extended development and production from general lighting to IR (infrared), UV (ultraviolet) chips, and high-end automotive lighting, according to Digitimes Research.

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Go Scale Capital facing challenges running Lumileds, says Epistar chairman

Philips has decided to sell an 80.1% stake in its subsidiary Philips Lumileds Lighting to China-based Go Scale Capital, and the latter is expected to be faced with challenges, mainly on how to operate Lumileds and handle its patents, according to chairman Lee Biing-jye for Taiwan-based LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker Epistar.

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JTouch continues to see steady demand for metal mesh products

Touch panel maker JTouch expects orders for metal mesh products to increase into the third quarter of 2015 when the company also expects revenues to climb 10% on quarter.

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Digitimes Research: Intel 28nm SoFIA 4G AP delayed to early 2016; may face overlap issue with 14nm version

Despite the fact that the design is complete and the chip is ready for mass production, Intel's 28nm SoFIA 4G application processor (AP) is still unlikely to be launched until the beginning of 2016 due to the adjustments over the software part that is still not yet mature. For 2015, Intel will still need to rely on its SoFIA 3G/3G-R APs to prop up is mobile device AP business and may miss the business opportunities from the 4G market, which is expected to grow rapidly in the second half of this year.

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Epistar expects business operations to peak in 3Q15

LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker Epistar, in view of large growth in demand for LED lighting and LED backlighting from China-based LCD TV vendors, expects its business operations to peak in the third quarter of 2015, with the corresponding net operating profit to exceed that for the first half of the year, according to company chairman Lee Biing-jye at the 2015 shareholder meeting on June 29.

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Digitimes Research: Japan has potential demand for UAVs

While Japan is less active than the US, Europe and China in promoting application of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), the UAV industry is significantly developing following the establishment of Japan UAS (unmanned aircraft system) Industry Development Association (JUIDA) in October 2014 and there is potential demand for commercial application of UAVs in Japan, according to Digitimes Research.

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Industry mergers may boost SPIL's role, says company chairman

The role of Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) could be more important following mergers in the worldwide semiconductor industry, according to Bough Lin, chairman for the Taiwan-based IC backend house.

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Taiwan LED makers faced with decreased global TV demand, competition from China makers

Taiwan-based LED epitaxial wafer and chip makers and LED packaging service providers have been faced with decreasing orders for LED backlighting from international LCD TV vendors due to stagnant growth in global demand for LCD TVs as well as increasing competition from China-based fellow makers, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

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ASE to raise US$200 million through ECB

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) has unveiled plans to raise US$200 million via an euro-convertible bond (ECB) issue, and set the conversion price of the ECBs at NT$54.55 (US$1.76).

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ASE to raise US$200 million through ECB

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) has unveiled plans to raise US$200 million via an euro-convertible bond (ECB) issue, and set the conversion price of the ECBs at NT$54.55 (US$1.76).

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4K TV panel shipments grow nearly 60% in 2Q15

Ultra HD (4K) TV panel shipments reached just over nine million in the second quarter of 2015, up 58% on quarter, for a total of 14.7 million in the first half of 2015, according to Sigmaintell Consulting.

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New Architectures Target 5G Power Needs

The next generation of mobile telephony is not so far away with 5G cellular networks expected to be deployed by 2020. New and advanced architectures will be needed for energy efficiency and software-defined power architectures hold promise for reducing overall network energy consumption while supporting massive increases in data traffic and number of users.

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EEVblog #759 – Mailbag

A big mailbag episode, getting through lots of backlog.
P.S. Yes I failed to twig to the cordless ESD strap. Will have to do a video debunking this!
Forum HERE

SPOILERS:
NicaDrone EPM688 OpenGrab Electro Permanent Magnet
For UAV/drone payload pickup

Fused USB to UART adapter (FTDI-Free)

A PCB designed in AutoCAD.
Freescale tower system modular development platform

Perf prototype board

Pulsed Light laser LIDAR module

A fun FAIL button, and a whole lot more.

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Back in the Driver's Seat on Global Trade

The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is a major victory for free trade and the semiconductor industry, says CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association.

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Back in the Driver's Seat on Global Trade

The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is a major victory for free trade and the semiconductor industry, says CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association.

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Gobsmacking Graphic Novels

Max recently became enthralled with a bunch of new graphic novels; now he wants to make contact with someone with whom he can discuss the little rascals.

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Slideshow: IMEC Innovates in Wireless

Here are some wireless innovations from IMEC, one of Europe's premier research institutions.

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Smartphone Saturation Becomes OEM Conundrum

Smartphone sales are down and OEMs should be worried. Creating new features to enhance brand differentiation is getting harder and harder.

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Wafer-Level Packaging Not Enough, say OSATS

Large format fan-out packaging was the focus of discussion at IC packaging and semiconductor processing experts gathered at European's largest for this year's SEMI Packaging Tech Seminar.

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Rounding Algorithms Can Be Tricky

There's a lot more to the topic of rounding than most people think, like the fact that different software applications may do things in different ways.

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DAC Trip Report: Expanding EDA's Charter & Topical Hardware Emulation

Dr. Lauro Rizzatti paid close attention to trends at DAC two weeks ago and wrote them up in a trip report for EETimes readers.

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Systems Integrator Supplies Assembly Cells to Automotive Supplier

EVANSVILLE, IN—Systems integrator Evana Automation has shipped two lean assembly cells to an automotive electronics manufacturer. The cells include equipment for labeling, screwdriving and connector installation.

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Maker builds SD Card-sized Arduino computer

A maker developer has squeezed an Arduino onto an SD card. His aim was to go one better than Intel’s Edison.

Already dubbed SDuino, it is kodera2t’s entry for the Hackaday Prize.

“Once I was excited to see Intel’s announce that they will release “SD card sized (SD card shaped) computer”, but it was not true. This time I made a real SD card sized full programmable (indeed, Arduino pro compatible) small computer board,” said the developer, who calls himself – kodera2t.

It consists of ATMega328P and four LEDs connected to D6 to D9. (red, blue, green, white).

As shown in above image, I assigned several non-standard function to SD card interface, but I needed to be careful for VCC and GND, not to make short circuit even if my wife puts it to computer by mistake.

A0 is assigned to one of GND, which will not make fatal side-effect for computer connection.

Will it be possible to programme the SDuino through the SD card interface?

“The SD card interface has a definition of “iSDIO” which is different from general storage access, and I imagine and guess if appropriate driver is developed in OS level, direct programming (without USB-TTL) will be implemented,” said the developer.

He invites anyone who is familiar with iSDIO and who knows how to make OS level driver to get in touch.

“Actually, developing general iSDIO driver is quite useful not only for SDuino but also all general SD card in order to bring out its capability, and I believe it is worth to do. Of course the driver implementation does not have any bind with SDuino but the developer has its own copyright and if needs it can be sold in consideration of its usefulness.”

The 2015 Hackaday Prize is open for entries to compete for the Best Product award.

If you can deliver three working beta test units, prove your design can be manufactured, and you can win $100,000 in cash, a six month residency at the Pasadena HackASpace, and help with introductions to the partners you need to reach market.

 

Richard Wilson

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Carbon Nanotubes Are Ready for Prime Time

Material cost is now negligible with respect to chip cost, making the value proposition of memory based on carbon nanotubes more compelling than ever. Including NRAM

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30 years of satellites from deepest Surrey

Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) is celebrating 30 years of operations, from a tiny enthusiastic group at the University of Surrey in 1985, to 500 staff today with a satellite assembly line.

“We have come a long way together since the early days of our first microsatellites,” said founder Sir Martin Sweeting. “Indeed, small satellites are now all the fashion and we can be proud to have stimulated a global industry.”

In June 1985, a small team including PhD student Sweeting designed and made UoSAT-1 using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components in the corner of a University lab.

Launched in 1981, UoSAT-1 weighing 72kg and, according to SSTL, claimed two firsts: the first microsatellite with in-orbit re-programmable computer and the first to fly a CCD area array Earth imager.

Since then, the company has had more firsts including: first recorded and verified unintentional space debris impact by two man-made objects in Earth orbit, first orbiting UK nanosatellite, first use of butane as a space propellant, first orbiting satellite with a web address, and the first momentum wheel to guide a landing craft to the surface of a comet.

Originally a spin-out from the University, SSTL moved to purpose-built premises on the Surrey Research Park in 2006. 99% of it was bought by EADS Astrium in 2009, and since 2014 it has been an independent company within the Airbus Defence and Space Group.

 

SSTL facts:

Its satellites have amassed over 520 orbit years, ~115 million Earth orbits  and 5 trillion km of travel.

Six national space agencies have been formed as a result of SSTL satellite launches.

The firm has averaged 2 satellite launches per year – 43 launches from eight different sites.  Four more launches are due this year.

20 spacecraft are in manufacture or awaiting launch, as well as 22 payloads for Europe’s GPS-like Galileo constellation.

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MRAM Maker Everspin Remembers Its Industrial Roots

The only company currently shipping magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) products sees a wide array of use cases, including in the data center, but industrial applications remain its bread and butter.

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Mystery Keysight Unboxing

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Augmented Reality Helps Blind See the Light

Three hundred or so visually challenged people are getting assistance in seeing the world around them, thanks to augmented reality goggles developed at the University of Oxford in England. Smart Specs by Va-ST use 3D mapping and depth sensing to provide object and facial recognition assistance.

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GaN Converters Charge Simultaneously

Mobile devices have gotten slimmer over the years but chargers have remained in the same clunky form factors. Zolt, a subsidiary of gallium nitride fab Avogy, has developed a lipstick tube sized charger capable of powering three devices at once at up to 70 Watts.

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Seaward bought by Metrowatt

Metrawatt of Nuremburg has bought UK-based electrical safety tester specialist Seaward Group.

Seaward will become part of the GMC Instrumentation Division, a group of separate specialist test and measurement equipment makers based in Germany, Switzerland and the USA.

Know for portable appliance testers (PAT), Seaward makes instruments used in appliance testing, bio medical, renewable energy, electronics manufacturing and utility markets.

“The directors of both businesses believe that there is a very good synergy between the two companies in terms of product ranges, geographical spread and main markets served,” said Seaward.

Under the terms of the deal, the Seaward name and its brands Seaward, Clare, Cropico, Rigel and Seaward Solar) will continue, as will manufacturing in County Durham.

“One of the attractions of linking up with GMC is that Seaward can make the most of the global growth potential of its products without losing its brand identity or core values,” said Seaward founder Rod Taylor (right in photo).

Export represents 50-60% of Seaward turnover, which supplies over 60 countries, recently breaking into Japan, China and South American.

“There are parts of the world and specific markets where Seaward products are already strong that have the potential for GMC growth, and, similarly, there are areas where GMC’s presence can now provide a platform for expansion of Seaward’s technology,” said Metrawatt chairman Dr Hans-Peter Opitz.

Metrawatt owns GMC-I-ProSys in Skelmersdale, which makes current probes and voltage instruments.

As part of the deal, Taylor, who started the company in 1982, will retire and Andrew upton (photo left) will move from v-p Seaward USA to MD Seaward Group.

 

Photo: Seaward MD Andrew Upton (left) and founder Rod Taylor.

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Wearable tech will revolutionise healthcare, says Imperial

Scientists from The Hamlyn Centre, Imperial College London, are presenting their latest research in wearable technology at the Royal Society’s annual Summer Science Exhibition^, which officially opens to the public today.

 

The theme for the Hamlyn Centre’s exhibit is “smart sensing”, technologies for wearables devices.

It will include very low power ICs and sensors, ranging from optical, impedance, and micro-fluidics.

Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, director and co-founder of The Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, Imperial College London, comments:

“Wearable sensors are transforming our understanding of health, and have the potential to revolutionise healthcare – from reactive to proactive management.”

The exhibition will also demonstrate how a body sensor network can deliver a personalised monitoring platform that is pervasive, intelligent and context-aware yet “invisible”.

“By harnessing body sensor technologies, from young people looking to improve their lifestyle to the elderly and those with chronic diseases, we can detect possible issues so that doctors and health professionals can take action before problems arise,” said Professor Yang.

This is a preview of the technologies that will be on display.

The exhibit will include the beta release of a brand new lifestyle app, ActiveMiles, which monitors personal activity and promotes behavioural change.

The app includes automatic detection and monitoring of general activity (whether running, walking, travelling), goal-setting and performance sharing with friends, GPS tracking and geolocation, and monitoring diet through barcode and image recognition.

The free app can be downloaded now

 

 

 

Richard Wilson

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Space: X-ray Observatory pinpoints faraway neutron star

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory finds Circinus X-1

Astronomers at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have used echoes – albeit those of light – to work out the distance of an object far beyond the boundaries of Earth.

Circinus X-1 is a binary star system located at the other end of the Milky Way from us. It contains a neutron star that regularly emits bursts of X-rays.

The bright spot in the centre of the image above is one of its intense X-ray flares, observed in 2013. The four brightly-coloured rings surrounding it represent echoes of the original signal, formed when bursts of radiation bounced off dust clouds en route to our vantage point. Eventually they reached us, after a delay of several months. (The sharp cut-offs on the image are a result of the detector orientation on the Chandra telescope, which prevents them from providing a continuous map of the sky.)

Sebastian Heinz from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and his team combined this image with radio data revealing the distance to the four dust clouds to work out the distance to Circinus X-1 with more accuracy than ever before. According to the new estimate, it is 30,700 light years away from Earth. This resolves a large discrepancy in previous results: one measurement gave a similar distance, but another claimed it was just 13,000 light years away.

Light echoes from a supernova have recently helped create a 3D map of its host galaxy. Cosmic echoes bouncing around the universe could also hold clues about the very early universe, shortly after the big bang.

Syndicated content: Gilead Amit, New Scientist

Image: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/S.Heinz et al/DSS

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Huawei selects Cypress touchscreen solution for tablets

Huawei has selected Cypress Semiconductor's TrueTouch capacitive touchscreen solution for its next-generation MediaPad X2 tablet PC, according to the chip vendor.

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Notebook demand not strong as expected in 2H15, overall shipments to drop on year in 2015

Notebook demand may not see as strong growth in the second half as originally expected and overall shipments are expected to decline to 160 million units in 2015, down 5% on year with some conservative players even forecasting the number to reach only 150 million units, down a double-digit percentage on year, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

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LG Chem to mass produce hexagonal battery for smartwatches

LG Chem has developed a hexagonal battery for use in smartwatches, a move that will allow for 25% more energy efficiency than a rectangular battery, according to various Korea media reports.

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Windows 10 not prompting new notebook panel surge, say makers

Despite the busy season in the notebook segment approaching coupled with the upcoming release of Windows 10, notebook panel makers are currently not seeing demand increase despite previous market expectations.

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Commentary: SMIC gains access to 14nm process technology

The recent announcement by China-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) to form a joint venture with Huawei, Qualcomm and Belgium-based microelectronics research institute IMEC to develop and produce advanced semiconductors could be another milestone for China's goal of ramping up the local production of IC parts.

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Intense set-top box market consolidation not over, says firm

Arris' acquisition of Pace created the largest set-top box (STB) manufacturer, with 22% worldwide market share of the STB market. Arris is about three times larger than most competitors including EchoStar, Technicolor, Cisco, and Humax. STB semiconductor leader Broadcom was also acquired by relative newcomer Avago, an acquisition not directly impactful to the set-top market, but a sign of the significant consolidation that will continue to impact the market in the next few years, according to ABI Research.

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Solar cell makers lower prices

Solar cell makers in countries other than China and Taiwan have lowered quotes for polycrystalline models from US$0.37-0.38/W to US$0.35-0.36/W, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

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Powerchip to build China fab

Powerchip of Taiwan is to set up a joint venture fab in China, reports Digitimes.

The 40k wafer a month fab will cost $2 billion and run 90nm, 110nm and 150nm processes.

The fab will act as a foundry for LCD driver chips.

Powerchip is to provide the process technology and a small amount of capital while its jv partner Hefei Construction Investment and Holding will provide most of the funding and hold a majority stake in the jv.

The plant is expected to run its first silicon in 2018-19.

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Taiwan market: CHT hikes 4G user targets, says paper

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) has upward adjusted the target number of its 4G mobile communication subscribers in the Taiwan market for the end of 2015 from four million to 4.2 million, Chinese-language newspaper Economic Daily News (EDN) has cited company president Shih Mu-piao as saying at a recent shareholders meeting.

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Wistron conservative about 2H15 notebook shipments, says chairman

Wistron's first-half 2015 notebook shipments fell far short of expectation and the second-half volume will not grow more than 10% sequentially, according to company chairman and CEO Simon Lin.

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Compal 2015 shipment goals unchanged, says president

Compal Electronics in early 2015 set a goal of shipping 45.2 million notebooks, 50.5 million tablets, smartphones and other smart mobile devices as well as 4.4 million LCD TVs in 2105, and although global demand for such products so far in 2015 has been short of original expectation, the ODM's shipmment goals have remained unchanged, according to company president Ray Chen.

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China mobile phone user base drops slightly on month in May, says MIIT

There were 1.292 billion subscribers of mobile communication services in China as of the end of May 2015, slipping 0.05% on month but growing 2.86% on year, and 455.84 million (35.27%) of them were 3G users, 200.77 million (15.54%) 4G ones and 896.94 million (69.40%) had mobile Internet access, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

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Powerchip inks pact to built 12-inch JV fab in China

Powerchip Technology has announced that it has inked an agreement with Hefei Construction Investment and Holding to set up a 12-inch joint venture fab in Hefei, China.

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IC backend service company KYEC to ramp capex for 2015

King Yuan Electronics (KYEC) has decided to hike its capex for 2015 to NT$5.8 billion (US187.08 million) from NT$5 billion set previously, the IC backend service company has said after its latest board meeting.

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China market: Meizu ready to launch MX5, says paper

China-based smartphone vendor Meizu will unveil its new model, the MX5, at a product event on June 30, according to the China-based 21st Century Business Herald.

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Bold Brit Builds Bodacious 16-Bit Mega-Processor

Once again, Britain is leading the world with regard to creating extremely large, painfully slow, and excruciatingly expensive computing technology.

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Sir Richard Branson and Airbus back UK micro-satellite builder

UK-based micro-satellite builder OneWeb has raised $500m to fund its development of satellite-based systems for providing broadband communications and driving the roll-out of the IoT.

OneWeb has also acquired 65 rockets including 21 Soyuz launch orders from Arianespace and 39 launches from Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne.

Greg Wyler, founder of OneWeb said:

“The dream of fully bridging the digital divide is on track to be a reality in 2019.”

“We are committed to solving one of the world’s biggest problems – enabling affordable broadband Internet access for everyone.”

OneWeb has attracted investment from firms including Airbus, Bharti Enterprises, Hughes Network Systems, Intelsat, Qualcomm, Coca-Cola and Virgin Group.

Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group commented:

“Our vision is to make the Internet affordable for everyone, connecting remote areas to rest of the world and helping to raise living standards and prosperity in some of the poorest regions today. We believe that OneWeb, together with Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne satellite launch system, has the capability to make this a reality.”

OneWeb is also developing solar-powered user terminals which will provide LTE, 3G, 2G and Wi-fi access capabilities.

The network is also inter-operable with Intelsat’s fleet of Ku-band satellites.

OneWeb has a joint venture with Airbus Defence and Space to design and manufacture its first 900 microsatellites.

Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus Group said:

“We’re very excited to be part of OneWeb’s endeavor to provide global Internet access for everybody, everywhere. Whether at some remote place on earth or flying high on an Airbus aircraft, you’ll be connected: a grand proposition for mankind and a sound business opportunity for us! We are committed to giving our full industrial and space expertise to this mission.”

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises and Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus Group, will be joining Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, Dr. Paul Jacobs, Executive Chairman of Qualcomm Incorporated, and Greg Wyler, founder of OneWeb, on the Board of Directors.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises commented:

“Access to affordable high-speed Internet is a powerful tool for economic development and empowerment of populations, particularly, in emerging economies. OneWeb is an innovative platform backed by leading global corporations and will complement the efforts of Governments and telecom operators across the globe to take Internet to the masses.”

 

 

Richard Wilson

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Startup's Tech is Intel's Quark Neural Network

The pattern-classification technology inside the Quark SE system chip from Intel is the same as that being offered for license and in chip form by startup NeuroMem Inc.

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Leti's FD-SOI Lesson: Build Ecosystems

Annual open-house events hosted by CEA-Leti and IMEC collided this week, exposing the growing rivalry between the two laboratories. As they court the same partners in the electronics industry, at stake are big contracts and government grants.

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GaN fets for DC-DC converters carry high currents

Solder balls are placed with a 1mm pitch on one axis

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) has introduced two GaN fets that handle 31A continuously – the 200V EPC2034 and the 150V EPC2033.

The firm is keen to promote pulse capability, which is 140A for the 200V part and 260A for the 150V part. Both are 2.6×4.6mm, and can operate with junctions up to 150°C.

Typical on-resistance is 7mΩ (200V, 10mΩ max) and 5mΩ (150V, 7mΩ max).

Solder balls are placed with a 1mm pitch on one axis. “The wider pitch allows for placement of additional and larger vias under the device to enable high current carrying,” said EPC.

Applications are predicted in DC-DC converters, synchronous rectification, motor drives, LED lighting, industrial automation and Class-D audio amplifiers.

An evaluation board, EPC9047, includes a half bridge made from two of the 150V transistors and a Texas Instruments UCC27611 gate driver (optimised for this kind of fet), opto-couplers and capacitors for supply and bypass – all on 50x37mm.

Both fets and the development board are available from Digi-Key.

Richard Wilson

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Wireless Charging Awareness Surging

More than twice the percentage of consumers surveyed said they are now aware of the technology, with most indicating they would like to try it.

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Micron’s 32-layer 3D NAND for production this year

Micron is to move into “low volume” production of a 32-layer 3D NAND device in the second half of this year.

Next year Micron says it expects 3D NAND to be a “significant” percentage of its “trade NAND supply”.

The device going into production this year will be a 32-layer device.

It is belived that 3D NAND does not become cost-competitive with the most advanced planar NAND until it reaches 48 layers.

So Micron will either have to sell them at a loss or charge more for them.

Nonetheless, CEO Mark Durcan says he expects the market to absorb all the 3D NAND he can make this year.

Production will be at the company’s Singapore fab.

Late next year Micron intends to introduce a “second generation” 3D NAND which is, presumably, a 48 layer device.

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Fast D-Sub connector cuts RF noise

150ohm Quadrax connectors

Smiths Connectors has introduced a rugged high speed D-Sub series connector with 150Ω Quadrax contacts.

It has been designed to ground the outer shield Quadrax directly to the shell of the connector, providing minimal RF noise.

The connector is specified up to 1,000 mating cycles.

To ensure that the correct high-speed connectors are mated to address specific wiring requirements and keying functions, a keyed jack post option has been incorporated into the design.

The six-positioned post allows for 36 possible keying combinations, ensuring that the correct Fibre Channel D-Sub plug is mated to the appropriate high-speed receptacle.

Non-keyed jack post versions are available as well.

The Fibre Channel D-Sub connector features standard non-keyed insert arrangements with 2-, 4-, 6-, 8-way and hybrid options available.  It supports data rates up to 6.25Gbit/s and has common back shells.

 

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Research stops lithium batteries overheating

Instead of creating destructive “fingers” of lithium metal, known as dendrites, when lithium polysulfide is added, harmless pancake-like deposits form instead. (W. Li et al, Nature Communications)

The problem with lithium metal laptop batteries heating up and bursting into flame has been addressed by researchers in the US.

The researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have discovered that adding two chemicals to the electrolyte of a lithium metal battery prevents the formation of dendrites – “fingers” of lithium that pierce the barrier between the battery’s halves, which can cause it to short out and overheat.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, could also help remove a major barrier to developing higher capacity lithium-sulphur and lithium-air batteries for use in electric cars.

“Because these batteries would be much lighter than today’s rechargeable batteries, they have a lot of potential for extended-range electric vehicles,” said Yi Cui, an associate professor at Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

“But one of the things that’s been holding them back is their tendency to form dendrites, which are also the culprit behind overheating and occasional fires in today’s lithium-ion batteries.”

Dendrites form when a battery electrode degrades, and metal ions become deposited on the electrode’s surface. When those finger-like deposits elongate until they penetrate the barrier between the two halves of the battery, they can cause electrical shorts, overheating and fires.

The research has found that by adding chemicals to the electrolyte it can prevent dendrite formation.

There two chemicals were lithium nitrate, known to improve battery performance, and lithium polysulfide, which has been thought to have negative effects. But the research team found that when combined together the chemicals could potentially react with lithium metal to form a stable, solid interface between the electrode and the electrolyte.

In tests, batteries with both chemicals added operated at 99 percent efficiency after more than 300 charge-discharge cycles, compared to significantly decreased efficiency after 150 cycles for batteries treated with lithium nitrate alone, said Fiona (Weiyang) Li, a postdoctoral researcher in Cui’s lab and first author of the paper.

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5G not necessary yet, says mobile industry conference

Tony Milbourn

The mobile industry does not need 5G technology as it has been defined so far, according to delegates at the Future of Wireless International Conference in London.

According to Bob Driver, CEO of conference organiser Cambridge Wireless the delegates voted against 5G deployment as it is currently specified.

“This reflected a strong feeling that 5G and future of wireless connectivity in general, was so vital to every industry sector, and every citizen, that the development needed to embrace a wider constituency. It was clear that there is a need to consider the wider business models necessary to lead the industry, rather than only focusing on the technologies,” said Driver.

5G, the next generation of mobile radio access network technology, is scheduled to be ready for early service adopters by 2020.

Tony Milbourn, v-p strategy of u-blox, said the standards-making machine has now moved to a point where it is defining things beyond the needs of the consumer.

“The area for investment is coverage, not yet another standard that sucks capital out of operators and delivers something that consumers don’t need,” said Milbourn.

However Milbourn added that his argument does not apply to M2M or IoT. “For a new connected world we do need new standards, urgently,” he said.

However, not everyone is against 5G.

Howard Benn, head of standards and industrial affairs at Samsung Electronics Research Institute said: “We need 5G because history tells us that we can’t predict what services will be popular from 2020 to 2030 so we need a super-efficient and super-flexible system to cover all bases.”

There was also concern over a confused situation in 5G standards.

“At this stage, I don’t know what 5G isn’t. But, I believe we could use it as an excuse to make a commitment to the country and roll out blanket coverage to change the way people do things. Look at what GSM did for mobile broadband. That’s the blueprint we should look at for 5G,” said Moray Rumney, Lead Technologist at Keysight Technologies.

 

Richard Wilson

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Real-time clocks integrate a power switch for battery use

Epson’s RX8130CE and RX8900CE real-time clocks (RTCs) are available from distributor Rutronik.

Both new modules are available in 3.2 x 2.5 x 1.0mm packages and include an IC and crystal.

The RX8130CE is designed for low power and has a built-in power switch function optimised for rechargeable batteries and achieving an accuracy of 5 ±23 ppm at 25°C.

It is designed for the use of any power source including a discharging battery as primary supply.

The RX8900CE module uses digital processing temperature compensated crystal oscillator (DTCXO) technology to achieve ±5 or ±3.4 ppm accuracy over the entire -40 to +85°C operating range.

Its power is 700nA, which is three times lower than that of competing DTCXO RTCs.

Richard Wilson

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Antenova launches compact antenna

Antenova, the Hatfield antenna specialist, has brought out a compact, dual-band antenna for the Wi-Fi 802.11n and AC 2.4GHz-2.5GHz and 4.9GHz-5.9 GHz bands, called Mutica.

A 2x MIMO system with two antennas placed perpendicular to one another: an S21 measurement between these antennas shows good isolation of <15dB mimimum

The company describes Mutica as an SMD mounted antenna for all dual-band Wi-Fi applications, such as high speed data transfer and multiple-in multiple-out (MIMO) applications, for example security cameras, video cameras, set-top-boxes and devices for connected vehicles.

Its specifications will also suit Wi-Fi access points, portable electronics, headsets, PC cards, games consoles, network devices and wearable electronics, according to Antenova.

“In 2014 2.4 billion Wi-Fi-enabled devices were shipped worldwide, and the industry surpassed 10 billion Wi-Fi devices cumulatively in early 2015,” says Antenova’s Colin Newman. “Over half of the products shipped are dual band 2.4GHz/5GHz, and the market is forecast to grow further over the next five years, making 802.11ac the prevailing WLAN standard. 5Ghz 802.11ac offers high definition video streaming with more channels and less interference than at 2.4GHz. This, coupled with the high efficiency of the Mutica antenna, will help to support faster data rates, fewer disconnects and better battery life in portable devices”.

Antenova calls its antenna “Design For Integration” (DFI). Because the antennas are always embedded within a customer’s product, Antenova designs them so that the RF elements can easily be added to the customer’s design, and so that the antenna will provide excellent performance when it is placed in position on the PCB.

The comapany offers advice on RF design and the integration of the antenna, along with engineering assistance and customer support, and provides the CAD footprint files of each antenna free of charge.

The Mutica antenna is the first in the new family of lamiiANT FR4 SMD antennas which Antenova announced earlier this year.

The antennas are supplied on tape and reel.

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Parade to ramp up shipments of USB Type-C switches

Parade Technologies is currently shipping a USB Type-C port configuration switch in small volumes and will ramp up shipments starting the third quarter of 2015, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) quoted company chairman Jack Zhao as saying.

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Broadcom expands strategic collaborations in China

Broadcom has announced a series of MoU agreements with several China-based companies, including Hangzhou H3C Technologies, Inspur and StarTimes. The signing of these agreements reflects Broadcom's ongoing commitment to expand strategic relationships in Asia and drive further innovation in home entertainment and the digital home, the chip vendor said.

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Green Energy Technology to hike prices by 5% in July

Solar-grade crystalline silicon wafer maker Green Energy Technology (GET), in view of booming orders, will hike quotes by about 5% in July, company president Swean Lin said at the 2015 shareholders meeting on June 26.

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Apple may switch to OLED displays for iPhone, reports Korea media

Rumors published by the media in South Korea are stating that Apple is considering switching to OLED displays for iPhones shipping as early as 2018.

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ShunSin revenues to rise starting July

Revenues at ShunSin Technology, a Foxconn subsidiary engaged in the assembly and testing of system-in-package (SiP) modules, are expected to rise substantially in July 2015 thanks to shipments for new iPhone models, according to market sources.

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Commentary: Sales of Apple Watch not optimistic

Sales of Apple Watch have been lower than expected, totaling about three million units in two months since its availability in late April. Although the smart wearable device will be available to more consumers around the globe at the end of June, prospects are still not optimistic.

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Compal expected to benefit from vice chairman joining Amazon

Compal Electronics' former vice chairman John Kevin Medica will reportedly join Amazon and this is expected to help tighten Compal and Amazon's partnerships further, according to industry sources.

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Advanced Optoelectronic Technology expects revenues to rebound in 4Q15

Advanced Optoelectronic Technology (AOT), a LED packaging service provider belonging to the Foxconn Group, expects its consolidated revenues to rebound in the fourth quarter of 2015 due to increasing demand for LCD TV backlighting, according to company president Fang Jung-his.

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Wayfair, Etsy, and Amazon post over 100% on-year growth in mobile commerce in 2014

US e-commerce giant Amazon, online home furnishings retailer Wayfair, and online handmade sales platform Etsy posted over 100% on-year growth in mobile commerce in 2014 (including smartphones and tablets). Other B2C e-commerce operators reaching the same performance include Germany-based online fashion retailer Zalando, and China-based e-commerce operators Yixun.com, MMB, and JD, according to MIC.

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Samsung female employee proportion rises to 42% in 2014

The proportion of female employees globally at Samsung Electronics reached 42% in 2014. For operations in South Korea, 27% of total employees are female while in operations abroad female employees account for 49%, according to various media reports from Korea.

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Quanta Computer expects Apple Watch shipments to increase in 2H15

With related yield rates significantly improved, the Apple Watch is expected to see a significant shipment growth in the second half of 2015, boosting the revenue performance of the device's manufacturer Quanta Computer, according to sources from the upstream supply chain. As for recent market rumors that other manufacturers may land some Apple Watch orders, the sources believe the chance is slim since shipment volumes have not yet reached a level that requires multiple suppliers to reduce risks.

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Automotive rotary position sensor meets safety standards

Standard four-wire serial peripheral interface allows MCU to read absolute angle position data and to program non-volatile settings

Ams has a magnetic rotary position sensor for automotive applications compatible with the requirements of the ISO26262 functional safety standard.

Designed to provide absolute and incremental measurement outputs at speeds up to 28,000 revolutions per minute (rpm), the AS5147P is designed for safety-critical applications such as electric power steering (EPS), brake and accelerator pedals, pumps, double-clutch transmissions, starter motors, alternators and windscreen wiper motors.

The supplier says its dynamic angle error correction technology reduces the propagation delay inherent in the sensor’s signal chain to almost zero.

As a result, the AS5147P’s angle error is 0.02° at 1.7krpm, 0.17° at 14.5krpm and 0.34° at 28krpm.

The DAEC function also enables the device to refresh its measurement output every 1.9µs.

The differential sensing principle of the magnetic position sensors  makes them immune by design to stray magnetism in the vehicle.

A standard four-wire serial peripheral interface allows a host microcontroller to read 14-bit absolute angle position data and to program non-volatile settings without a dedicated programmer.

The AS5147P is available in a TSSOP-14 package.

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D-Wave puts 1000 qubits on a chip

D-Wave Systems has put 1000 qubits, comprising 128,000 Josephson Junctions, on a chip using a 6-metal layer planar process with 0.25μm features.

D-Wave’s quantum computer runs a quantum annealing algorithm to find the lowest points, corresponding to optimal or near optimal solutions, in a virtual “energy landscape.” Every additional qubit doubles the search space of the processor.

At 1000 qubits, the new processor considers 21000 possibilities simultaneously, a search space which dwarfs the 2512 possibilities available to the 512-qubit D-Wave Two. In fact, the new search space contains far more possibilities than there are particles in the observable universe.

The chips are fabricated partly in at D-Wave’s facilities in Palo Alto, and partly at Cypress Semiconductor’s wafer foundry in Bloomington, Minnesota.

While D-Wave’s previous generation processor ran at a temperature close to absolute zero, the new processor runs 40% colder. The lower operating temperature enhances the importance of quantum effects, which increases the ability to discriminate the best result from a collection of good candidates.​

Through a combination of improved design, architectural enhancements and materials changes, noise levels have been reduced by 50% in comparison to the previous generation. The lower noise environment enhances problem-solving performance while boosting reliability and stability.

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Flexible PCBs made to order

Beta Layout has introduced a manufacturing service for flexible PCBs using a production pooling process to keep costs down.

Tooling charges are minimised by manufacturing different PCB designs together in a single batch.

The flexible printed circuit boards are currently available as single-layer or double-layer.

Polyimide material is used as the base layer; the thickness between the copper layers is 18 microns and the overall PCB thickness is 0.2mm. There is also the option to add stiffener material.

The flexible PCBs are manufactured in Germany.

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Power transistors stabilizing and setting record sales in 2015, says IC Insights

Power transistor sales are forecast to grow 6% in 2015 and set a new record high of US$14.0 billion following a strong recovery in 2014, which drove up dollar volumes by 14% after two consecutive years of decline, according to IC Insights.

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Wind power capacity installations expected to grow 8.9% in 2015, says firm

Following 2013's 20% global decrease in wind power installations, the wind energy industry saw new signs of strength in 2014. With installations growing by 42% on year in 2014, supported largely by policies in China, Germany, and the US, the market is poised for further growth in the next couple of years. According to a recent report from Navigant Research, 2015 wind power capacity installations are expected to grow by 8.9%.

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Solartech Energy to expand PERC polycrystalline solar cell capacity

Solartech Energy will expand annual production capacity of PERC (passivated emitter and rear cell) polycrystalline silicon solar cells with an average energy conversion rate of 18.8% from 60MWp at present to 240MWp in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to the company.

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Foxconn to be largest handset, tablet, desktop ODM/OEM in 2015, says chairman

Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) will be the largest OEM/ODM for handsets, tablets and desktops in 2015, company chairman Terry Guo claimed at its 2015 shareholders meeting on June 25.

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