Electro-ramblings

Q5 Interview - Professor Chris Toumazou, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College

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The latest Q5 Interview is now online with the Director and Chief Scientist at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College, London.

Professor Chris Toumazou talks to Electronics Weekly about the the status of biomedical engineering in the UK, how the worlds of semiconductors and bioengineering come together, and his view on the status of the engineer in the UK.

The five questions this week are:

1. What is the role of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the UK's electronics and high tech industries?

2. How would you characterise the status of biomedical engineering in the UK?

Continue reading "Q5 Interview - Professor Chris Toumazou, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College" »

Posted by Alun Williams on January 8, 2009 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer In Wonderland - Metal detecting with an 8 pin micro

Sometimes I am amazed by the ingenuity of a circuit.

I had such a moment when I first saw a 1997 application note for the PIC12C series of 8 pin microcontrollers called 'Using PIC12CXXX as a Sensor Interface for Metal Detection' by Vladimir Velchev of Bulgaria.

An entry for Microchip's 'Designing for Dollars' competition.

The very clever bit is that Velchev cunningly replaces the microcontroller's external crystal with a parallel LC tank circuit, where the L is the coil of a metal detector.

This means the processor clock frequency is determined by the coil inductance, which is affected by nearby lumps of metal.

Continue reading "An Engineer In Wonderland - Metal detecting with an 8 pin micro" »

Posted by Alun Williams on January 8, 2009 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Electronics Weekly Live - Get the Events Brochure

Read the EW Live Events Brochure.pdf

More details are now available for Electronics Weekly Live, the 'How To' conference and exhibition which will be held in association with National Electronics Week.

The event will take place at Earls Court, London on 16 - 18 June 2009. More details will follow, but an Events Brochure is now available. Also, bookmark: www.electronicsweekly.com/live

For exhibition and sponsorship opportunities, please contact: Dean Slade
For programming information, please contact: Richard Wilson

Continue reading "Electronics Weekly Live - Get the Events Brochure" »

Posted by Alun Williams on January 7, 2009 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

LED Luminaries take a blogging bow

There is now a new blog in town, covering the latest developments in LED technology - LED Luminaries! Don't miss out.

As its strapline says, "LED industry insiders, from Dialight, Carclo, Farnell and SKK Lighting share their insights on the issues shaping the development of LED technology in general and LED lighting in particular."

Posts already on the blog include:

Continue reading "LED Luminaries take a blogging bow" »

Posted by Alun Williams on January 6, 2009 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Most read posts of 2008

cc%20plug.jpg Happy New year to all our readers!

Before we kick off 2009 in earnest, here is a roundup of the most-viewed content in 2008, with the Engineer in Wonderland series proving its popularity (only posts on advent calendars and the world's largetst LCD monitor puncturing its dominance).

'Alice' is a special contributor, by the way, with the title 'An Engineer in Wonderland' inspired by the 1967 book 'The Engineer in Wonderland' by Professor Eric Laithwaite: champion of the linear induction motor.

1. An Engineer in Wonderland - Domestic wiring madness?

2. An Engineer in Wonderland - A car alternator surprise

3. An Engineer in Wonderland - You can't just turn off CERN

Continue reading "Most read posts of 2008" »

Posted by Alun Williams on January 5, 2009 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Web never sleeps!

Just a quick post to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Not that ElectronicsWeekly.com is taking a break - there's plenty to catch up with on the site over the Christmas holidays.

For example, there's our Trends & Technologies section - featuring 45 in-depth articles, on topics ranging from Bluetooth to WiMax, and Coloured LEDs to Zigbee.

Speaking of which, the latest addition to the section, and one not to be missed, is our guide to OLED Technology, written by our Technology Editor Steve Bush.

Also, maybe you will have a chance to catch up with one of our seven blogs. Mannerisms, for example, will be putting in a full shift over the break, with David Manners, our Components editor, maintaining his Olympic-standard blogging with two posts a day.

Continue reading "The Web never sleeps!" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 22, 2008 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Circuit Search - schematics, schematics, schematics

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Don't forget about the new Circuits section on ElectronicsWeekly.com, specifically - the Circuit Search section.

We update this regularly and two new circuit schematics have recently been added. One covers a configurable low-cost battery-voltage monitor (pictured, click to expand), and the other is a circuit to achieve precision temperature control.

The five most recent entries are:

Posted by Alun Williams on December 19, 2008 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Forecasting the future, to a decimal point

An excellent article by David Manners on the fallability of analysts and their future forecasts - Gartner forecast ridiculous, says Future Horizons

They might be armed with a mountain of data and have the best analytical models but no one can anticipate the future, especially to a decimal point.

"Frankly anyone's number for next year, including ours, is a pure guess. No one in the world has a model. If they say they do they're lying", said Malcolm Penn, CEO of Future Horizons.

Continue reading "Forecasting the future, to a decimal point" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 18, 2008 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Q5 interview - Linda C. Rae, Keithley Instruments

The latest Q5 interview is now online, with executive vp and chief operating officer at the test and measurements company Keithley Instruments.

Linda C. Rae talks to Electronics Weekly about the state of the test and measurement world today, the challenges facing test engineers, and making the job of test simpler for the customer. The five questions this week are:

1. What is the state of the test and measurement world today?

2. So what are the challenges these conditions create for test engineers?

Continue reading "Q5 interview - Linda C. Rae, Keithley Instruments" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 16, 2008 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Reader book review - Resource Allocation for Wireless Networks

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Resource Allocation for Wireless Networks: Basics, Techniques and Applications, Zhu Han and K.J. Ray Liu (Cambridge University Press, ISBN-13: 9780521873857, £50.00)

Radio resource management (RRM) is one of the key aspects of radio comms systems. RRM is the difference between a base station or radio terminal causing network interference or wasting electrical power; the difference between a telephone call being as clear as day or a noisy hiss; the difference between a network operator being able to support five or fifty users in a coverage area.

Highly mathematical/algorithmic in nature, RRM is one of the "dark arts" of radio comms systems, and the authors of this book attempt to bring light to the subject matter.

The book is structured in three parts. Part I is an overview of the various aspects of radio comms systems, and the general/specific issues that require/trigger RRM solutions. Part II is a summary of mathematical fields such as combinatorial optimisation, game theory, time-honoured in problem-solving. Part III considers specific RRM problems (antenna arrays, radio channel allocation etc).

Continue reading "Reader book review - Resource Allocation for Wireless Networks" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 11, 2008 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Embedded RFID and Power SoCs

Don't miss two useful In-Depth articles that now feature on the site, regarding RFID tags in embedded designs, and Power SoCs.

RFID in embedded designs: Your move

"Radio Frequency Identification technology has the potential to become a common and important element in embedded-system design. In addition to the traditional role of the technology in inventory management, recent advances in RFID tags and high-speed, long-range readers allow embedded-system designers to easily incorporate features such as access control, counterfeit prevention, simplified payments, medical authentication, dynamic pricing, product histories, and remote asset tracking."

Continue reading "Embedded RFID and Power SoCs" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 10, 2008 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Don't forget to sign up to the Electronics Weekly newsletters

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It's my periodic reminder: Have you signed up to receive the Circuits or Made by Monkeys newsletters yet? Or the Mannerisms semiconductor mailing? Or the general, weekly Electronics Weekly newsletter, bringing you the latest news and content from the site?

Go to MyAccount to make sure you keep receiving them. If you wish to receive the newsletters you will need to register!

Also, there is the Daily Newsletter bringing you the latest news, products releases and most popular content on the site, read by your peers. Straight to your inbox, no fuss. It is mailed out early afternoon.

Under the My Emails heading, simply tick the box for:
"Daily news - Daily highlights of the latest news from ElectronicsWeekly.com"

Continue reading "Don't forget to sign up to the Electronics Weekly newsletters" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 9, 2008 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A call for book reviews - the full list of available books

We've had a number of requests regarding reader book reviews. To make things easier, here are all the titles from Cambridge University Press that we currently have up for review.

Each one is available for free, and all we ask in return is a publishable review to a length of at least 300 words, outlining the strengths or weaknesses of the book.

Basically, advising your peers on the worthiness or otherwise, of a purchase.

[TAKEN] Wireless Internet Security, Architecture and Protocols, by James Kempf, ISBN 978-0-521-88783-0 (£35.00) [TAKEN]
[TAKEN] RFID Technology and Applications, by Stephen B. Miles, Sanjay E. Sarma, ISBN 978-0-521-88093-0 (£60.00) [TAKEN]
Iterative Receiver Design, by Henk Wymeersch, ISBN 978-0-521-87315-4

Continue reading "A call for book reviews - the full list of available books" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 8, 2008 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer in Wonderland - Statistics are like sharp things (idiots should not be trusted with them)

See all 'Engineer In Wonderland' posts

Some things drive me to fist-clenching frustration, bordering on despair.

A remarkable amount of this happens to me when I hear what politicians do when they are trusted with statistics.

A few years ago I was up in the far north of Scotland, in a cafe next to Loch Eriboll.

By the way, if you have a small motorcycle, I reckon the road up the west side of this Loch is the best in the UK.

Anyway, I was chatting to a local small-scale commercial fisherman who said he had given up trying to catch fish and gone over to lobsters - or crabs, I can't remember which - after he saw a huge ocean-going trawler come into the loch in a desperate search for a catch.

Continue reading "An Engineer in Wonderland - Statistics are like sharp things (idiots should not be trusted with them)" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 8, 2008 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Reader book review - Network Coding : An Introduction

Network Coding : An Introduction, Tracey Ho and Desmond S. Lun (Cambridge University Press, ISBN-13: 9780521873109) £30.00

We made a call for book reviews, and that call has been answered. Here is the first:

Network coding is one of the emerging approaches in the fields of information and communication theory that offers the possibility of revolutionising the way in which communications networks are constructed and operated.

The basic premise is as follows : data from multiple sources in traditional networks are usually transmitted separately across a network from source to destination. The Network Coding approach applies a 'code' to each individual data item, and then combines the coded items together into one item. The receivers then effectively use the codes to solve a set of linear equations to retrieve the information for all the data they are interested in.

The implications for systems that use routeing / buffering, provide broadcast / multicast services (TV, live events etc) are immense.

It is to this background that the authors attempt to provide an overview of the key concepts.

Continue reading "Reader book review - Network Coding : An Introduction " »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 4, 2008 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer in Wonderland - Charger power waste. Did they miss a trick?

See all 'Engineer In Wonderland' posts

Call me fussy, but I do not like designs that throw away power.

Particularly designs that consume stand-by power.

High stand-by power, even if it is to save a few pence in manufacture, is sloppy design.

Some big players in the mobile phone industry: LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson recently got together to come up with a star rating for charger standby consumption.

The ratings are:

* * * * *    = 30mW
* * * *    > 30 to 150mW
* * *    > 150 to 250mW
* *    > 250 to 350mW
*    > 350 to 500mW
No Stars > 500mW

Don't get me wrong. This is a fine idea and should be applauded - if only set-top box makers could get anywhere near this.

Continue reading "An Engineer in Wonderland - Charger power waste. Did they miss a trick?" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 4, 2008 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer in Wonderland - You want magnetics how fast?

See all 'Engineer In Wonderland' posts

TDK knows a lot about magnetics, having been set up in 1935 as the world's first commercial producer of the stuff.

A few years ago, I can remember standing by a TDK engineer when he heard that a 2 or 3MHz (I can't remember which now) dc to dc converter chip had been introduced.

"Are you sure?" he asked incredulously.

He went on to say that, although raising frequencies was great for reducing size, efficiency could suffer when you push magnetic materials so far up the spectrum.

But if anyone could make ferrites efficient at 3MHz, TDK could - and probably already had, somewhere in its vast organisation.

Fast forward - and I can imagine eyebrows were once more raised in Japan when Analogue Devices recently introduced the ADP2121, a buck regulator that is designed to operate at a stunning 6MHz.

Continue reading "An Engineer in Wonderland - You want magnetics how fast?" »

Posted by Alun Williams on December 3, 2008 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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