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December 2011 Archives

December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas! But the Web never sleeps...

christmas tree small.jpgHere's a quick post to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Note, however, that ElectronicsWeekly.com is not taking a break. The Web never sleeps, and there's plenty to catch up with on the site over the Christmas holidays.

The new Jobs Service, for example, will remain fully active, awaiting your specifically-filtered searches!

Continue reading "Merry Christmas! But the Web never sleeps..." »

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 23, 2011 9:37 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 5, 2011

Only Connect: NASA-standard quality

NASA technical standard.jpgWelcome to another post in the series by Nick Locke, of Nicab Ltd, who has over 15 years experience in the electronics manufacturing industry specialising in interconnection cable assembly.

Last week I set you a little test on your soldering skills and, on the same subject, have you ever wondered what NASA recommend for standards of soldering techniques? Well wonder no more here is a document on the NASA website on soldering electrical connections.

As you can imagine it's very detailed and fairly identical to the IPC Class 3 standards that are probably most familiar to most of us. What is interesting is that the document reads like a legal paper!

Continue reading "Only Connect: NASA-standard quality" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 5, 2011 9:48 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Programmable solutions zone updated for Arria V

FPGA Zone with Altera.jpgDon't forget to bookmark our programmable solutions zone, sponsored by Altera - www.electronicsweekly.com/programmable-solutions-zone

You will find a range of content - videos, app notes, product announcements, event details - concerned with programmable solutions, and we are constantly updating it.

New content on the Zone includes:

Video - Arria V FPGA Sneak Peek: Transceiver Operation at 6.375 Gbps and 10.3125 Gbps

Announcement - Details of the 28-nm Arria V FPGAs

Three new technical papers:
Visit www.electronicsweekly.com/programmable-solutions-zone

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 5, 2011 2:56 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 9, 2011

OhmArt Cartoon: Releasing the magic smoke

600_014 Releasing the magic smokeTime for another in our series of posts featuring the excellent electronics cartoons from OhmArt! Check out more on Barney's blog, too...

This one is about a tragic moment in a component's existence...

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 9, 2011 11:56 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Top 10 most popular articles on ElectronicsWeekly.com

electronics weekly logo 120 x 60 png.pngHere are the top ten most popular articles on ElectronicsWeekly.com in the last week, with smart grids, Qualcom, GloFo and Pocket TV leading the way...

See what your peers have been reading. In reverse order:

10. Synopsys to buy Magma to address 20nm chip design

9. Atmel expands touch engineering centre in UK

8. Picture Gallery - Elektra Awards 2010 Attendees

Continue reading "Top 10 most popular articles on ElectronicsWeekly.com" »

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 9, 2011 12:12 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 12, 2011

Only Connect: Guitar wiring

Welcome to another post in the series by Nick Locke, of Nicab Ltd, who has over 15 years experience in the electronics manufacturing industry specialising in interconnection cable assembly.

Because it's getting close to Christmas I thought I would let you into a secret. I am a massive guitar fan. That's right I love to shred, and the tenuous link to my blog is that electronics in guitars and most electrical instruments is often overlooked.

However when Les Paul decided to electrify his guitar in 1931 he could only imagine how things have developed over the 80 years.

Continue reading "Only Connect: Guitar wiring" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 12, 2011 10:29 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 13, 2011

An Engineer in Wonderland - Thinner than a human hair

 

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.

 

Blah blah blah is 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.

What?

My human hair visualisation is already wobbling at half as thick as a human hair.

Continue reading "An Engineer in Wonderland - Thinner than a human hair" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 13, 2011 4:39 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 14, 2011

Welcome to a new LED Luminary!

Paul WardWe are very pleased to say that we have a new expertly-qualified luminary blogging for us on the LED Luminaries blog.

Paul Ward is Opto Product Manager at the distributor Farnell and his first post is: Will Binning be consigned to the Bin?

He looks at how ANSI is making an effort to bring the 'wild world' of LEDs into a somewhat more ordered system, with the bin standard (ANSI C78 377A).

Continue reading "Welcome to a new LED Luminary!" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 14, 2011 11:04 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tonight is the night for the Elektras

elektra 2011.jpgTonight is the night for the Elektra European Electronics Industry Awards 2011! The Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London Hotel is the venue for the awards ceremony and Christmas party!

You can be sure the winners of this year's industry awards will be featured on the site tomorrow, followed by lots of pics of the event.

And to get us in the right spirit, here are some pics from last year's Elektras!

Photos: Elektra Awards 10 - Winners >>

Photos: Elektra Awards 10 - Attendees >>

elektra awards 10 38 - 465.JPG

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 14, 2011 11:29 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 16, 2011

Google searches for the function of love

google graph.jpgDigging around Google blogs the other day, looking for material for the Eyes on Android blog, I came across an interesting snippet...

Did you already know that you can type sums into the Google search box and the result will be calculated? You did? Well, Google has now extended this to cope with functions...

All well and great, but thanks to Sue P for flagging this one: Alex Bellos (author of Alex's Adventures in Numberland (and also Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life)) has tweeted a nice one to try.
"Awwww! You can now stick equations in Google. Try this one: sqrt(cos(x))*cos(400*x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.4)*(4-x*x)^0.1 http://bit.ly/w3H7i7"

Like it!

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 16, 2011 8:11 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 15, 2011

And the (Elektra 2011) Winner is...

all the winners.jpgI hope a good time was had by all at the Plaza Park Hotel last night, and a big thank you to the RBI Events team that ran such a good show so smoothly. Thanks, also, to all the event sponsors who helped lift the Awards event to a new level - your support is much appreciated.

Finally, thanks  to Greg Davies, for being such a good host on the night!

Who won? I'm glad you asked. Without more ado, see: Elektra 2011 Awards - The Winners

Congratulations to all who were nominated and to all the winners!

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 15, 2011 2:49 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 19, 2011

COMs Insider: Graphics the key to innovation in embedded apps

coms insider 9.jpgWelcome to the latest post in the series COMs Insider by Bob Pickles, Congatec UK territory manager.

Time-to-market and total-cost-of-ownership (TOC) are critical for success even in relatively long-lived market segments. This has enabled computer modules to establish a strong foothold since they allow device developers to focus on their core competencies.

Processor and RAM memory technology solutions, which require a lot of costly know-how and expertise, are cheaper to buy-in as pre-integrated solutions. They can also be exchanged easily and with little integration effort on the module level as demands evolve. As a result, the scalability of systems becomes almost unlimited and long-term availability at the module level increases because it no longer matters which processor is implemented.

Currently available processors for embedded applications in most cases have four physical processor cores. For multi-processing, which requires more separate processors, a logical division into a maximum of eight physical cores is possible.

Continue reading "COMs Insider: Graphics the key to innovation in embedded apps" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 19, 2011 10:36 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 21, 2011

Only Connect: Workshop tools and cool, cute videos

Weller wx1012 thumb.jpgWelcome to another post in the series by Nick Locke, of Nicab Ltd, who has over 15 years experience in the electronics manufacturing industry specialising in interconnection cable assembly.

As an end of term edition of my Blog I am going to give you my list to Santa for tooling for my workshop...  And some of my personal favourite video channels from YouTube.

So here it is Santa, these are the tools I would like in my workshop!

1    Schleuniger, Crimp centre 67 Auto Cut, Strip & Crimp Machine (Oh yeah!)
2    Press Master Embla Cut & Crimp Tool
3    Cirris easy-wire Tester - The Big Daddy.
4    Mini Crimp Applicators
5    Weller WX1012 Soldering Station (pictured)
6    Quick 100-4C Solder pot
7    Chip Quik Flux, it makes life so easy!
8    Cyclops Cable Stripper
9    Purex, 200 Digital Fume Extractor
10    Universal Hand Crimp tool - an all round good egg to have in your toolbox! 

Continue reading "Only Connect: Workshop tools and cool, cute videos" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on December 21, 2011 9:38 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

About December 2011

This page contains all entries posted to Electro-ramblings in December 2011. They are listed from oldest to newest.

November 2011 is the previous archive.

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