Electro-ramblings

Get the lowdown on the latest ISSCC in San Francisco. From a programmable chip for mobile WiMAX and an encrypted near-field phased array antenna, to an infra-red video camera for consumer use and a DC-DC converter that wastes only 1.4µA...

Check out our full coverage at www.electronicsweekly.com/isscc

Electronics Weekly puts solar cells in the spotlight, bringing together detailed reference
information about photovoltaic technology. Check out www.electronicsweekly.com/solarcells

As with MEMs last week, we have added a dynamic news feed on photovoltaic technology, as well as presenting an introduction and overview of the topic, a listing of important news stories involving solar cells, and an index of other solar cell-related online resources.

The latest Q5 interview with Simon Payne, CEO of boundary scan test firm XJTAG, has just gone live.

He reveals his thoughts on UK electronics events, the competitiveness of the market for boundary scan technology, and problems with component circuitry.

The five short sharp questions this week are:

* We hear you reckon the UK needs to sort out its electronics events. Why?

* Do you still get something out of attending exhibitions/conferences?

DEVmonkey is live! If you work with development kits make sure to bookmark this new site: www.developmentmonkey.com

Aimed at design engineers it delivers dev kits, ratings, reviews, news, and a whole lot more

* Check out the new "2 Minute Review" series to read the February DEVmonkey Lab evaluation - a quick, hands-on evaluation of a kit - who needs it, what's in it, quick facts to know and what design engineers can do with it.

Texas Instruments is using the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to showcase prototype handsets based on the Android mobile platform, the Google-backed initiative based on Mobile Linux.

TI's early Android prototypes take two forms. First, a handset based on its OMAP850 processor, which also includes its WiLink Wireless LAN and Bluetooth technology, and an OMAP3430 processor-based Zoom Mobile Development Kit from Logic PD.

In terms of the UI and functionality of the devices, TI promises "quick and easy access" to applications such as web browsing, email, messaging and video... [read the full story]

The subject of high definition display is seldom far from the News Index - see today's "TI, Nvidia and Broadcom chipsets turn mobiles into high-def camcorders", for example, the recent TI, Nvidia and Broadcom chipsets turn mobiles into high-def camcorders. Well, check out a new in-depth feature that has recently been posted on Electronics Weekly.com - Using FPGAs for HDTV design.

It begins:

"Today’s rapid proliferation of large-screen HDTVs (high-definition televisions) requires the use of highly complex video-processing algorithms to achieve high resolution, which in turn necessitates faster data rates to address the many artifacts that viewers would not typically notice on smaller screens.

ZigBee, the low-power radio networking technology that can support thousands of nodes in dynamic star and mesh networks, is the latest topic to get the update-treatment in the Electronics Weekly Trends & Technology section.

As well as the newly updated dynamic news feed - ensuring the latest articles on Zigbee are included - there are sections on related technologies, Zigbee development kits and external resources. Make the most of this valuable resource if you are involved with radio networking.

It was scrumdown in Carshalton on Thursday - out of the office all-day for a training course on agile software development. Specifically, 'Scrum'-based agile development...

Reed Business Information uses the Scrum methodology, and this website is developed by following the process. Basically, rather than development time being an opaque box - into which ambitious plans enter and failed mis-specced projects emerge (late), it is meant to be a more flexible and transparent process, chunking up tasks against specific measurements of time.

Check out an in-depth look at Mobile Television that has been posted on the site - Mobile television: strong, weak, or zero reception?

Brian Dipert describes mobile television as a seemingly perpetual "almost mainstream" app. While the 3G mobile-data networks may be unable to satisfy most potential users' video-delivery expectations, the picture may become clearer in the 4G iteration.

Get the lowdown on Embedded World 2008, currently running in Nuremberg - we are bringing the latest news stories from the event into one listing. Embedded World - showcasing embedded electronics

The event covers automotive, military, telecomms, industrial and consumer electronic sectors, with last year's show attracting 600 exhibitors with embedded hardware, software, tools and services.

We have updated our Electronics Weekly guides to LED technology, both White LEDs and Coloured LEDs.

As well as adding a couple of Design Ideas to the White LEDs guide (Buck regulator controls white LED with optical feedback and White-LED driver operates down to 1.2V supply voltage) and a feature on coloured LEDs (Coloured LEDs: How are they programmed?), we have also added a dynamic news feed to ensure the latest relevant news on the topic is displayed.

It's human nature to want to know what other people are doing. What do they know that you don't?

In the spirit of quenching such curiosity we have added a 'Most Read' featurette to the homepage.

Check out the five most read articles on the site over a 24-hour period. Check out what other people have found of interest. There will be more of this coming to the site, but for the moment I can't say more...