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August 2009 Archives

August 4, 2009

An Engineer in Wonderland - spatial languages

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

I almost could not believe my ears last night.

Good old Radio 4 provided me with another revelation.

Apparently, about a third of the world's languages have no concept of left and right.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 4, 2009 2:08 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 6, 2009

An Engineer in Wonderland - That bridge again

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

 

RoyalAlbertBridge.JPGI actually went and visited by Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge, mentioned in another blog, that carries the main railway between Devon and Cornwall.

RoyalAlbertBridgeCloser.JPGEven to an untrained eye like mine, the mechanics look fairly straight forward, except for the diagonal beams from the chains to the main deck, and the curiously complex joints.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 6, 2009 4:14 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 10, 2009

An Engineer in Wonderland - A universal cloth

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

UniversalCloth.JPGWhen I used to go backpacking, I would put all sorts of cloths in my rucksack.

There would be at least: a towel, a flannel, something to wipe mud off the groundsheet, and something to wash up with. 

Over the years, I just managed to cut down the towel size to save space.

But since a foray into the kitchen department of a supermarket, I have reduced the camping cloth count to one.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 10, 2009 4:54 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 4, 2009

Feeling the heat of medical electronics

ctc detail.jpgDon't miss the latest Nick Flaherty column - Nick Flaherty on... Feeling the heat of medical electronics

He considers some UK electronics successes in the medical monitoring market.

He begins:
Established wisdom is that the medical market is no place for startups. While the margins are good and the need for more intelligent systems grows as the Western world's population ages, getting medical approvals can take an age, and the liabilities and legal issues can sink a small firm.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 4, 2009 3:28 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 6, 2009

Weird & Wireless: What is the difference between a human eye and an antenna?

cc eye.jpgWelcome again to the wonderful but sometimes weird world of wireless comms, written by Joel Young, CTO of Digi International

As we grow up, until perhaps we enter our second physics class, we are never really taught that what we call visible light and other wireless things in the electromagnetic spectrum are really the same stuff.

Of course I very well realise that because the readers of this blog are naturally more intelligent than those non-blog readers, you all are well equipped with this knowledge.

Nonetheless, I think it is rather fun to consider that our eyes are perhaps the most advance antenna system ever created.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 6, 2009 10:12 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

August 10, 2009

Q5 Interview - Matt Johnson, Fairchild Semiconductor

Matt Johnson - Vice President of Signal Path - Fairchild Semiconductor.JPG
The latest Q5 interview is now online, with the vp of Signal Path products at Fairchild Semiconductor.

Matt Johnson talks analogue ICs. We ask him about the trend for power efficient design, how high speed serial interface standards - such as uSerdes and USB2.0 - impact signal path design, and analogue chip firm recoveries.

The five questions this week are:

1. How is the trend for more power efficient design influencing the selection and use of analogue ICs by your customers?

2. What developments in signal path ICs such as DACs, filters, amps and switches improve power efficiency?

3. How are high speed serial interface standards such as uSerdes and USB2.0 impacting signal path design?

Continue reading "Q5 Interview - Matt Johnson, Fairchild Semiconductor" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 10, 2009 11:24 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 12, 2009

An Engineer in Wonderland - A worthy wall chart

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

energy-use_tiny.jpgIn the same way that Harry Beck's 1931 Tube map simplified navigating the London Underground, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has just released a rather interesting chart that summarises US energy consumption.

Continue reading "An Engineer in Wonderland - A worthy wall chart" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 12, 2009 12:00 AM | | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

August 11, 2009

The Most Important Semiconductor Breakthrough?

Make sure you vote in the new poll on Mannerisms. It asks: What Was The Most Important Semiconductor Breakthrough? You can enter it here, too.

David Manners, our Components Editor, writes:
Very, very tricky this one. What was the most important of the very many important breakthroughs that have made today's IC industry possible?


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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 11, 2009 11:22 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 14, 2009

An Engineer in Wonderland - Sea urchin teeth

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

cc sea urchin.jpg

Given that survival requires nibbling a hole in rock, what kind of teeth do you need?

Quite complex and innovative teeth, it turns out.

Sea urchins hide in DIY limestone holes.

They have five teeth which, like those of rats, grow throughout the animals' life.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 14, 2009 2:04 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 13, 2009

Weird & Wireless: Why is the use of cell phones discouraged around petrol pumps?

cc no gas.jpgWelcome again to the wonderful but sometimes weird world of wireless comms, written by Joel Young, CTO of Digi International

This is another one of those puzzlers for me. I've noticed recently that the number of posted signs prohibiting cell phone usage around gas pumps in the US has gone down. Often times they seem to disappear when the pumps are upgraded or replaced. So what's the deal? 

Well, let's look at what we know: Gasoline really only burns in its gaseous state, not in the liquid form. This is why you may have heard someone say that you could extinguish a cigarette in a bucket of gasoline. DON'T try this.

For a while the liquid gasoline will most definitely extinguish the cigarette and the path the cigarette has to take to get to the liquid will have it move through gasoline vapour mixed with oxygen - a deadly combination.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 13, 2009 4:05 PM | | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

August 18, 2009

In-Depth: DRAM and silicon packaging

silicon generic 3 100 x 74.jpgCheck out these two In-Depth features recently added to the site, covering DRAM and silicon packaging

In depth: DRAM technology for SOC designers
Consumers have come to expect - and even demand - the full benefits of the convergence between computing, communications, and digital-media technologies that we've all been predicting for the past 15 years...
Read the full article >>

In depth: First-pass success in silicon packaging
There are few aspects of a semiconductor program that can be more detrimental than a re-spin. This re-spin may be of a die, a package, a PCB (printed-circuit board), or another portion of a project.
Read the full article >>

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 18, 2009 4:55 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 19, 2009

Weird & Wireless: How did we end up with a kilowatt-hour?

Welcome again to the wonderful but sometimes weird world of wireless comms, written by Joel Young, CTO of Digi International

How did we ever end up with something called a kilowatt-hour? The kilowatt-hour has always been, at least for me, one of the more puzzling of all the units of energy.

I know, for many of us we are continually embroiled in the metric vs. imperial system debate, this is a debate that I understand - miles vs. kilometres for example, both seem reasonably arbitrary for me.

However, the kilowatt-hour is an abomination, created by someone who forgot what they learned in physics. Ever since we changed our first light bulb, we have been familiar with the almighty watt. We might not have completely understood the nuances of the watt, but it didn't take us long to figure out that light bulbs with more watts, are brighter and hotter. The bill payers in our house were noticeably irritated when we left the lights with big watt numbers turned on.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 19, 2009 5:30 PM | | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

August 21, 2009

Mobile phones through the ages - Babushka style

Mobiles through the ages.jpgA bit of fun for a Friday - check out these carefully crafted cardboard models of mobile phones through the ages, created by the designer and animator Kyle Bean. The work is dubbed Mobile Evolution (thanks to Technabob for this one).

What's more, Russian Doll-like, they all fit within each other. This must prove the miniaturisation of technology.

The sequence begins with a Motorola DynaTAC and finishes with an iPhone, but can you identify the other models? Can you pick out the Ericsson GH198? Or the Nokia Mobira Cityman 1320? You can read the full details of the phones.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 21, 2009 11:38 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer in Wonderland - Wireless charging nonsense

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

Wireless Power.jpg

I neither like or dislike the idea of wireless charging, providing it does not fill up my house with strong magnetic or electric fields.

However, I don't like misleading comparisons.

Continue reading "An Engineer in Wonderland - Wireless charging nonsense" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 21, 2009 4:49 PM | | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

August 24, 2009

Dallas Cowboys' over-field TV stops play

Dallas Cowboys screen.jpg
This one caught my eye over the weekend - the super-huge television screen hanging over the field of play at Dallas Cowboys' American Football stadium. With the stadium being so large, the high-def screen is intended to give the crowds up in the gods a detailed view of the action.

Not only is it very, very big, but it is low enough to have now interefered with the play, when a punted ball hit the screen during a game.

I noticed Chelsea playing there, pre-season, and thought the screen was low, and lo, it seems it is.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 24, 2009 4:41 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 25, 2009

Q5 Interview - Guido Schreiner, The MathWorks

Guido Schreiner photo.jpgThe latest Q5 interview is now online, with the communications and semiconductor industry manager at The MathWorks.

Guido Schreiner talks to Electronics Weekly about demystifying the terminology of model-based design and explaining its benefits of the time-constrained designer.

The five questions this week are:

1. What are the benefits of using Model-Based Design for programmable systems?

2. Model-Based Design has the reputation for being complex. Is this fair?

Continue reading "Q5 Interview - Guido Schreiner, The MathWorks" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 25, 2009 2:45 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 26, 2009

Sony turns the page for two new eBook Readers

Sony Reader Pocket Edition.jpg
I've been keeping my eye on the electronic book market, waiting my moment to pounce on an e-Reader. Well, Sony UK has announced two new variables to the eBook equation: they have the Reader Pocket Edition (pictured) and the Reader Touch Edition.

Both use the E Ink Vizplex electronic paper display technology, and run Sony's eBook Library software 3.0 (with support for Apple Macintosh as well as PCs, supporting Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, BBeB files, or other text file formats on the Reader).

Continue reading "Sony turns the page for two new eBook Readers" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 26, 2009 9:45 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 27, 2009

Weird & Wireless: Does unplugging all your wall-warts really matter?

ganton street power switch small.jpgWelcome again to the wonderful but sometimes weird world of wireless comms, written by Joel Young, CTO of Digi International

In the spirit of green, there has been a lot of talk lately about the need to unplug all those unused wall-warts (also known as those little black transformers that seem to be required for most every little electronic gadget).

Convention says these wall-warts consume some power when they are plugged in, even if there is no load.  Typical items are battery chargers, etc.  When we stretch our analysis a bit, we also recognize that there are many electronic gadgets that remain plugged in and consume power when they are turned off. Typical items here are your DVD player, television, etc. We like to think of these devices as "sleeping."

Continue reading "Weird & Wireless: Does unplugging all your wall-warts really matter?" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 27, 2009 5:02 PM | | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

August 28, 2009

Welcome, Scott Adams readers

Scott Adams Blog_ Battery Bubble 08_24_2009.jpgWelcome indeed to readers of Scott Adams' blog. It's great to see the man behind the great Dilbert referring people to Electronics Weekly.

Our HitBox traffic monitoring system always tells us of referrals and it was great to see floods (well, 250+) of Dilbert readers coming our way.

What article were they reading? Linear spotlights LT3652 chip for solar-power battery charging

Continue reading "Welcome, Scott Adams readers" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on August 28, 2009 2:52 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

About August 2009

This page contains all entries posted to Electro-ramblings in August 2009. They are listed from oldest to newest.

July 2009 is the previous archive.

September 2009 is the next archive.

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