EDN Blogs
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Adafruit, Sparkfun point to the democratization of hardware
One of the not-so-obvious side benefits of the miniaturization of electronics is that folks far removed from the realm of electronic engineering become comfortable with small electronic devices and think, “Wouldn’t it be neat if I had a [gizmo] that did…?” Back when computers were called “workstations” their inner workings seemed mysterious, complex, and e ... More
About this blog
Technical Editor Margery Conner's PowerSource streams the latest developments in electronic power design and related technologies. Follow Margery on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/margeryc.
5 Engineers: Why did you become an engineer?
Last Friday in our 5 Engineers section - part of this blog and our Fun Friday newsletter, where we toss out a question and invite our audience to respond with their wittiest answers - we asked: What’s your favorite geek song and why? Visit this page to share your own answer to that question and thanks to all who already commented (my iPod has been updated!).This week our thoughts are on mor ... More
About this blog
This blog is open to the EDN audience and moderated by EDN’s editors. We encourage you to share your perspective on all matters of engineering, be that what’s happening in the electronics industry, changes to design, what it means to be an engineer, or anything else of relevance to you and your peers. E-mail submissions to edn.editor@ubm.com.
Sharp Mega Zeni LED modules: Modules replace 50W HID lamps
Targeting replacement of 50W HID lamps, the 50W Mega Zeni LED modules have a luminous efficiency of 3590 and 4770 lm, a light output as high as 100 lm/W in standard operating mode, and a service life of 40,000 hours at an operating temperature as high as 90°C. The devices have a forward voltage of 50V and a forward current of 950 mA but can also operate with a standard power source of 1050 mA ... More
About this blog
EDN's technical editors highlight notable new products including analog and digital ICs, power components, sensors, passives, boards and systems, software, and more.
DesignCon 2012 Panel: Test gurus share vision to accelerate your ‘time to answer’
The countdown begins: On Wednesday next at DesignCon 2012 I’ll be moderating a panel comprising four of the sharpest minds in the electronics industry as they explore the cutting edge of technology and what it means for you, the test engineer. It’s important to note at this point that this panel is a new addition to DesignCon, and its primary purpose is to be an interactive forum for ... More
About this blog
In the Design Cycle I will be focusing on the devices, tools, technologies and techniques that will help you get your job done. If I see an interesting tool, I'll let you know, same for products, design tips and industry trends you should know about. Anything that'll help you get to market faster. If there's something you think I should be talking about, flag it!
Webinar: Power Issues for Chip and Board
Last week, I had the pleasure to record the first part of a webinar that will go live on January 31. This webinar talks about power and power integrity and the two speakers, Arvind Shanmugavel, the director of applications engineering for Apache Design (a subsidiary of Ansys), and Randy White, the technical marketing manager for measurement solutions focused on embedded systems at Tektronix, had s ... More
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Brian Bailey explores how IC design teams work: the struggle for power efficiency and performance, wrestling with semiconductor processes and design methodologies, the challenges of global design teams. How do we somehow herd architecture, IP, design and verification into a successful tape-out?
STEM education gets some attention from Jobs Council
National competitiveness through STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) got some attention this week from the the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which released a new report entitled Road Map to Renewal, laying out a set of recommendations to improve US competitiveness over the long term. At the top of that six bullet list is: Invest in our future by en ... More
About this blog
Focused on the next generation of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) professionals, this blog explores the challenges and opportunities facing incoming engineers, as well as the “engineering crisis” that could be triggered as baby boomers exit the workforce. This blog also aims to connect new engineers to more experienced STEM professionals as a way of growing young careers and passing on the knowledge accumulated by veteran engineers over decades. Contributions to this blog come from engineers, professors, students, mentors/mentees, and EDN’s Suzanne Deffree, who moderates this blog. Contact her at suzanne.deffree@ubm.com if you wish to contribute a blog post.
Which jitter measurement is correct? Part 2
Last week I shared a recent discussion around jitter measurement correlation. As a follow-on to that discussion, my colleague Mark Guenther shared some additional insights. Let’s return to the original question of why don’t the Rj/DJ measurements match the TJ(BER=1×10-12) expected result, given the ~14 multiplier for RJ. Jitter estimation based on RJ/DJ separation depends in par ... More
About this blog
Jit Lim, Tektronix senior technologist for high-speed signal analysis, has an EE degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and more than 20 years of experience in the test-and-measurement industry. He has also designed some of Tektronix's highest-performance real-time scopes and published numerous technical papers. Lim brings his extensive experience in signal integrity, jitter measurement, and high-speed-signal physical-layer characterization to these blog posts.
CES roundup, Thursday
EDN’s Patrick Mannion (@patrick_mannion) has been tweeting quite a bit from CES this week. His latest: Stunning how hard it still is to get a good wifi or cellular connection #EET_CES You’d think you would be able to get decent signal in Vegas, considering what types of products are being showcased. But the sheer volume of users brought in by CES always forces issues. Patrick is only ... More
About this blog
Offering news and business analysis for the design engineer, Managing News Editor Suzanne Deffree filters the electronics industry's developments and trends to explain how what's happening in the board room today can impact the tech innovation of tomorrow. Follow Suzanne on Twitter, @Deffree. Suzanne also manages EDN's Twitter account, @EDNMagazine.
Rako is headed to Analog Devices
It is with a sad heart I tell you that I am leaving EDN today. Next year I will start at Analog Devices. I will be working here in the Silicon Valley office. I loved my gig here at EDN, but Analog Devices asked me to get back to the bench and work on amplifier tools. In preparing for my recent article on error budgets, I fired up my old copy of PSpice and ran a few Monte-Carlo simulations. It remi ... More
About this blog
Technical Editor Paul Rako looks at analog technology in power supplies, interface, the signal path, and life in general.
Rako moves on…but stays analog
As I explained in my anablog post, I am sad to say I am leaving EDN. I have a great opportunity at Analog Devices. I wanted to post some links to my articles and such that might help you folks with your designs, and I sure hope you liked my work editing Design Ideas. I don’t want to go all Mr. Weepytears on you, but I have to tell you that it is a misnomer to call these “my ” ... More
About this blog
Design Ideas editor Paul Rako introduces EDN's latest engineer-submitted circuit designs, providing links to related articles from our archives, design resources elsewhere on the Web, and just-plain-fun stuff.
So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish
One of the things that’s always struck me in interacting with various folks over my time at EDN is how impermanent your careers have tended to be in comparison to mine. Many of you, for example, job-hopped a great deal during the dot-com-boom second half of the 1990s. And conversely, some of you have unfortunately also experienced layoff periods coincident with economic downturns, outsourci ... More
About this blog
EDN Senior Technical Editor Brian Dipert exposes, analyzes and
opines on diverse topics in technology. Follow the Brian's Brain Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/BrianzBrain.
Researchers take spintronics for a ride
In early May, researchers at Ohio State University combined traditional inorganic semiconductors with organic spintronics, in a device that they claimed to be the first of its kind. With the prototype, the researchers managed to incorporate an organic polymer into a GaA-based device. This was no easy task, in fact according to Dr Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, leader of the Ohio State team, ... More
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Matthew Scherer, a semiconductor market research analyst at Databeans Inc, looks at the trends and technologies that will guide the future of the electronics industry in Silicon Beyond.
One EDA/T&M couple is "in a relationship", while another is getting married.
Synopsys and Munich-based test and measurement instrument supplier Rohde & Schwarz have announced that they are collaborating on solutions for the design and verification of LTE and LTE-Advanced chipsets to be used in mobile handsets and wireless basestations. Synopsys will be providing a 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) standard-compliant LTE library for the System Studio and SPW alg ... More
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Technical Editor Mike Demler's IC Design Corner blog provides analysis and discussion on the engineering challenges of IC design and applications, from full custom to field-programmable systems on a chip, EDA tools and methodologies, and advanced semiconductor processes. Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeDemler.
Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! TechShop is coming to downtown San Jose
Exiting the Camera 3 movie theaters on Mother’s Day in downtown San Jose, I spotted this banner across the street. The TechShop is coming to downtown San Jose! Ever wanted to run a plasma cutter or a CNC machine? You won’t find those in the Binford catalog in Tim “the toolman” Taylor’s universe but you will find them at the TechShop, a membership-based, high-tec ... More
About this blog
Leibson's Law: It takes 10 years for any disruptive technology to become pervasive in the design community. This blog is about the disruptive technologies that either have or will win over electronic engineers, some that won't, and why. Please feel free to link to these blog entries! Written by Steve Leibson, Technology Evangelist and Director of Strategic Marketing for Denali Software, formerly VP of Content for Reed Business, and formerly Editor in Chief of three publications including EDN and Microprocessor Report. You can email me at steven.leibson followed by the magic email symbol @ followed by att.net.
RoHS dev kit debate heats up in Europe
The RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive status of development kits and evaluation boards has always been unclear and hotly debated within the electronics industry with no legally binding decisions being made. The German government decided many years ago that printed circuit boards sold separately to users, for example, to increase computer memory or add new functions to PCs would ... More
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Gary Nevison, director of legislation and environmental affairs at Newark and Farnell, contributes his views on the electronics supply chain and environmental compliance's most critical topics -- ROHS (all variations around the world), REACH, EUP, WEEE directives, and on whatever else comes up in this ever evolving business channel.
Tenet of Innovation #10: Recognize that innovation can be managed
The process of creating commercial products involves generating information and moving from high risk and uncertainty toward very low risk and great predictability. By the time the products and services are in production, our expectations are for high quality and certain yields, cost, and performance. And yet we know that, by its very nature, risk is inherent to the innovative process. The answer ... More
About this blog
Larry Pendergrass, vice president of New Product Development at Keithley Instruments, Inc., contributes his views on a variety of issues related to new product development leadership, including general leadership, innovation, strategy development and execution.
EDAgraffiti is now at edagraffiti.com
I’ve moved EDAgraffiti to its own website at www.edagraffiti.com. There may be teething troubles so please let me know of any problems. See you over there… ... More
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MRAM Moves to Higher Densities
Everspin introduced a 16-megabit MRAM product today focused on all applications requiring both SRAM performance and nonvolatile data storage. This latest product also addresses MRAM’s traditional high reliability and high-performance market segment, while advancing the technology to a higher density. The new MR4A16B is a 3.3-volt parallel I/O non-volatile memory product featuring 35ns acce ... More
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The Professor Memory blog covers critical new applications and the resulting shift in the value proposition of memory technologies. The professor identifies competitive advantages of the widening range of memory technologies, and forecasts potential market entry points that will be enabled by changes in market dynamics.
Stratix Strategy for Fifth Generation
Given Altera Corp.’s earlier statements regarding 28-nm processes and HardCopy architectures, the capabilities of Stratix V were known long before the April 19 launch of the family. Still, the justification for the 28-Gbit/sec transceivers and 1.6-Tbit/sec aggregate switching capability aims for a core transport application space that may be only a partial realization of the inherent d ... More
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Analyst Loring Wirbel covers programmable logic from an application perspective, providing a sneak peek at the vertical applications that help drive FPGA complexity, performance, and density. The blog will feature videos allowing engineers to spotlight their latest designs, along with news of products and corporate trends at FPGA vendors and the developers of third-party tools for programmable logic.
Robust Design: Patch-It Principle
The software patch is a much maligned technique for keeping systems robust because many users perceive that the majority of these patches as merely fixes of feature bugs that the developers should have taken care of before shipping the software. While there are many examples where this sentiment has a strong ring of truth to it, the patch-it principle is a critical approach to maintaining robust s ... More
About this blog
Welcome to The Embedded Master, the expert resource for embedded systems designers and developers. Daily news, insightful blogs, video demos, monthly contests, whitepapers and more for the embedded community
Join me at the Embedded Master Micro-site
I have found a new home at the Embedded Master-Microsite to continue the topics we were exploring here. Thank you to all of the people that sent me an email in response to the Tying up Loose Ends post. I have three series running at the micro-site at this time.Monday posts address the Robust Design series. Wednesday posts address the Question of the Week series. Friday posts address the Extreme P ... More
About this blog
Technical Editor Robert Cravotta explores processor and software-processing architectures and the impact they have on system and software development. Relevant architectures include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), multiprocessor architectures, processor fabrics, coprocessors, and accelerators, plus embedded cores in FPGAs, SOCs, and ASICs. You can find out where Robert is posting by checking Embedded Insights. Follow Robert at Twitter at: http://twitter.com/robertcravotta
Using eight bits to save two bits
Do some inflection points make as much sound as one hand clapping? It seems that way. Why else would so many device manufacturers still use 8- or 16-bit processors, when modern 32- and 64-bit processors blow those parts out of the water? The answer, of course, is cost. 8-bitters are cheap. Unfortunately, this cost-saving measure comes at a, well, cost — lost productivity. Engineering time i ... More
About this blog
Industry leaders share their insights about processor and software-processing architectures and the impact they have on system and software development. Relevant architectures include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), multiprocessor architectures, processor fabrics, coprocessors, and accelerators, plus embedded cores in FPGAs, SOCs, and ASICs. Moderated by EDN Technical Editor Robert Cravotta.
Delivering The Standard In Wireline Home Networking
In the year since my original post to this blog, "Setting the standard in wireline home networking", our industry has devoted many engineer-hours to progressing the wireline home networking standards currently in development. Now that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it is time to turn our attention from setting the standard to delivering it. First: an administrative point. In this p ... More
About this blog
Industry leaders, moderated by EDN Senior Technical Editor Brian Dipert, share their thoughts on consumer electronics: past-event post-mortems, current developments and future trends. Follow the How We See CE Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/HowWeSeeCE.
Minimizing Video Processing Design Time with FPGA Development Kits and Reference Designs
Introduction Video standards and methods of encoding/decoding have made tremendous progress over the last decade with the availability of large system-on-a-chip (SOC) solutions using ASSPs, ASICs, or FPGAs. The majority of broadcast content is already streaming in high definition (HD) and is moving from an interlace format to a progressive format. Today’s broadcast equipment must be capable ... More
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Do you know enough about LEDs?
The majority of the people who read this blog are components distributors or other members of the electronics supply chain, so I won’t go into a whole repetitive blathering here about how huge the opportunity is for the electronics supply chain when it comes to LEDs or why it’s a long-term opportunity for the overall electronics industry with tremendous growth potential. Why tell you ... More
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What's happening in the electronics supply chain that will change the way business is done? News Editor Suzanne Deffree looks at environmental regulations, RFID, inventory levels, globalization, distribution, and a host of other issues that influence the electronics supply chain.
Module merges SUMIT interface with ISM form factor
Taking advantage of the latest small form factor announcements, ADLINK Technology just introduced the CoreModule 730 single board computer combining the SUMIT (Stackable Unified Module Interconnect Technology) standard expansion interface from the Small Form Factor Special Interest Group (SFF-SIG) with the newly defined ISM (Industry Standard Module) form factor. The new embedded computer is based ... More
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Technical editor Warren Webb comments on board-level embedded hardware, development tools, and software. No chips!
Capital spending: can it get worse?
After last week’s Wall Street plunge, it was a relief to receive word that all was not lost at least at Lehman Brothers as C.J. Muse, semiconductor equipment/display technologies analyst there continued to send out his reports. With word of a number of fab closures, sales and cutbacks as well as floundering equipment sales, Muse said in a report Friday that in terms of semiconductor ma ... More
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What's happening behind the scenes in the semiconductor manufacturing industry? Read this blog by Senior Editor Ann Steffora Mutschler to find out - and chime in with your thoughts and questions.
DesignCon 2008: One step forward, two steps….
I attended DesignCon last week and covered two events: “Where’s the ROI on DFM?”, which was a lively business panel, and a panel moderated by EDA industry analyst Gary Smith on functional verification. I actually planned to write-up a few more events but was sad to find that the others I attended lacked substance and were largely product and/or marketing pitches. I’ve b ... More
About this blog
EDN Senior Editor Mike Santarini covers digital design and the EDA, ASIC, and FPGA industries. [Editor's note: As of Feb. 2008, this blog is no longer active and is presented here for archival purposes.]
OLED Sony TV shines at CES from afar
I didn’t attend the CES show. This is the second straight year that start-of-the-year management tasks have kept me from the show. In this case, however, I didn’t miss much from most accounts. But as I promised in my most recent post, I have to commend Sony for their introduction of an OLED TV even if it measures only 11-in diagonally. I’ve regularly blasted Sony for obsession ... More
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In this blog, EDN Editorial Director Maury Wright focuses on digital consumer-electronics gadgets and the converged networks that feed them with video, audio, and data. [Editor's note: As of Feb. 2008, this blog is no longer active and is presented here for archival purposes.]
