The real technology companies

Are Amazon, Facebook, eBay, and Google good technology companies or good applications-of-technology companies?

Patrick Mannion, Director of Content -- EDN, December 15, 2011

As an engineer, I find it easy to look at the Hot 100 Products and say definitively that these products represent the best technology had to offer in 2011. Why? Because they do! From Analog Devices’ ADA4096-2 dual op amp to Tektronix’s MDO4000 mixed-domain oscilloscope, all represent the latest thinking in integration, processing, end-user requirements, cost, features, power, and so on. The products were designed by real engineers for real engineers.

In the Hot Technologies section, our editors outline what those real engineers are now enabling with those products and looking into 2012. Contributing Editor Steve Taranovich takes a future-is-now approach to medical implants, pointing to Cactus Semiconductor Inc’s neurostimulation, pacing, defibrillation, ultrasound, and medical-monitoring technology, as well as Plessey’s EPIC (electric-potential integrated circuit), which can detect changes through clothing—and even through walls. EPIC proves once again that we have not yet reached the limits of what we can measure and detect, and that’s exciting!


You’ll find much more in which to immerse yourself if you’d like to get a quick update on what’s happening beyond your specific field of interest—if you’re lucky enough to be able to indulge in a specific field of interest. Margery Conner and Bill Schweber give the latest on, you guessed it, LEDs and LED drivers. You had better pay attention: 2012 will be a big year for LEDs in the United States as the federal government begins to phase out inefficient light sources.

Janine Love provides an update on low-power wireless, which will be everywhere in the coming year, and Clive Maxfield updates us on programmable logic. The GreenPak 2 from Silego is particularly exciting. I hope the company takes the time to enter it in our UBM Electronics ACE Awards, as should others from the Hot 100 Products list. Check to see whether your devices are on it and take a stab at the awards.

Finally, Rick DeMeis gives the latest in automotive innovation, Rich Pell provides an audio download, Colin Holland shows us what’s hot in microcontrollers, and Paul Rako tells us why PCBs are hotter than you’d think.

All in all, it’s an issue I’m particularly excited about, and I hope you are too. However, sitting here looking at the cover for the October issue of Test & Measurement World, I can’t help but surmise that anyone who tries to separate technology from the application of technology is in for a rough ride. The cover features a smiling Ward Ramsdell, electrical engineer and co-owner of Prototype Engineering, sitting at a bench strewn with high-end test equipment. He’s posing for a photo and looks busy testing something, but it reminds us that the components now in test systems will enable the development of the next generation of components and systems.

In the same way, those systems in data centers will allow Google, eBay, Amazon, and Facebook to develop the next generation of applications and interaction channels that will enable the communications and collaboration that will, in turn, enable the next generation of systems design. So, are Amazon, Facebook, eBay, and Google good technology companies or good applications-of-technology companies?

You could ask the same of Apple. The iPod and iPhone were and are not new technologies but good packaging of fairly standard technologies. Where do real engineers sit in this landscape? It’s a blurry line indeed. Can you help me get a clean eye diagram on this? In the meantime, enjoy the products and tools of your endeavors, and read on.

Contact me at patrick.mannion@ubm.com.