Design Cycle
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!
Our ever-evolving EDN
- 05.03.2013
The fact that the last issue of EDN print, DESIGN West 2013, and one of the best months ever for the relaunched EDN community site happened at the same time is pure coincidence, but their relationship isn’t. Read More...
The ‘art of engineering’ exhibit and book signing at DESIGN West
- 04.19.2013
The true art of design takes center stage at DESIGN West with book signings by famous authors and an art exhibit at UBM Tech’s lounge. Read More...
'Tweet' if you're an engineer!
- 03.29.2013
Social media, and all its codes and shortcuts, has caught fire, even among engineers, who tend to be viewed as, well, anti-social. At least that’s the perception we were working to overcome. Read More...
Cadence plus Tensilica is a four-way win, particularly for you and your customers
- 03.15.2013
What’s not to like about Cadence buying Tensilica? Here you have a top EDA tool company snagging what is arguably the best signal-processing IP on the market, all led and driven by a forward-thinking, industry-savvy, partnership-oriented CEO. Read More...
Pick your favorite contributor; winner gets $5000!
- 03.08.2013
As part of the annual ACE Awards celebration at DESIGN West in San Jose, CA, we will be presenting a plaque and a $5000 check to the person we as a community consider to be most deserving of the Jim Williams Memorial Contributor of the Year Award. Read More...
Mind of the Engineer: rational versus emotional?
- 01.11.2013
At DesignCon, we'll explore the Mind of the Engineer survey results. It’s all very intriguing—after all, we all love to hear about ourselves—but is this really the mind of the engineer? I wonder about that. Read More...
Wild rides and hot technologies
- 12.19.2012
It’s been a crazy year, but you’ve not stopped doing what you do: identifying opportunities and engineering the best paths to leverage them. Read More...
Gene Frantz, TI Principal Fellow and DSP visionary, to retire in February
- 10.22.2012
Visionary, catalyst, enabler, teacher, mentor, seeker, finder, and, of course, father of DSP are all terms that could be been used to describe Gene Frantz, Principal Fellow at Texas Instruments, but on February 2, 2013, the 39-year veteran of TI will officially add ‘retiree’ to that list, but only on paper. Read More...
Want to succeed? Don't let it cost you a testicle
- 10.11.2012
Warning: if you’re squeamish, stop right now. If you take offense at the mere mention of anything considered private or immodest by some civilization’s norms, please – please – stop right now and move on. If you think this has nothing remotely to do with you and your job, read on. Read More...
Could this take the $10 million Tricorder X Prize?
- 10.03.2012
Graham Ewing’s demonstration of Virtual Scanning, his entry for the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize competition, had all the hallmarks of a “Mission Impossible” scene. Read More...
MIT’s Picard demos emotion monitoring at DESIGNEast, and creeps me out
- 09.19.2012
Emotion-monitoring technology predicts seizures, gives insight into autistic children’s emotional states, remotely monitors heart rate and, in a technologically quirky interpretation of Peter Drucker’s famous quote,“What gets measured gets done,” shows people when they’re smiling and gets them to smile more – and be happier. Read More...
LEDs and how to properly implement dimming
- 09.17.2012
We’ve heard all about the efficiency advantages of LEDs, but do you understand the industry dynamics at play, and even if you do, do you really know how to drive LEDs, especially where dimming is concerned? Join me tomorrow I get the honor of playing host to some of the finest minds in the industry on this very topic in a special EDN Webinar: Driving and Dimming LEDs (2 pm EST). Read More...
Apple won, so what now for designers?
- 09.06.2012
TechInsights IP rights expert Mike McLean has advice for navigating what I call the tripping point, where the little-guy innovator becomes a patent-suit target. Read More...
Patents: Hewlett-Packard's team racks up over 400 plaques
- 09.04.2012
A while back, after visiting Mentor and RF Monolithic and taking photos of their walls of invention, I invited all you inventors, designers and innovators out there to give us a snapshot of your patents and patent portfolio and I’d post them here on EDN. Read More...
Neil Armstrong, 1930 to 2012: Gone but never to be forgotten
- 08.27.2012
I have no idea where I was when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, but I know where I was when I found out he passed away: in the middle of daddy-daughter time on Saturday, August 25, while my son and wife were off, appropriately enough, exploring and digging in an abandoned mine in New Jersey. My son had just texted me excitedly about having found some geode rocks. Neil would have been proud of him. Read More...
Top Silicon Valley startups but no silicon
- 08.20.2012
It’s interesting and symbolic that the list of top Silicon Valley startups listed by Business Insider has no companies that have anything to do with, you know, silicon. Read More...
Our Edisons are alive and well at NIWeek 2012
- 08.08.2012
Notions of our best and brightest turning to apps instead of ‘real’ engineering were put to bed at the NIWeek Graphical Systems Design Achievement Awards. Read More...
Car totaled but bodies intact: Thank you Nissan engineers!
- 07.10.2012
My car got totaled in an accident last week. Everyone’s OK and the insurance companies will do their necessaries, but how do you mourn a great piece of engineering and thank the people behind it? Read More...
Freescale proves Kinetis L-Series MCU has lowest power
- 06.19.2012
In an extremely competitive market fraught with parametric fuzziness, what happened this morning at the opening keynote of day two of the Freescale Technology Forum was both dramatic and unusual: Freescale performed a demo that proved its new L-Series Kinetis MCUs drew less power than the lowest-power devices it could find from Renesas, Texas Instruments and Microchip. Read More...
FTF2012 Day 1: Tech fest, new QorIQ processors, wireless and sensors
- 06.18.2012
Day 1 of the 2012 Freescale Technology Forum kicks off with tech fest to highlight theme of Power Innovation, including new QorIQ processors, sensors and wireless. Other, sub-theme, is coming out party for new CEO, Gregg Lowe. Read More...
Welcome to the new EDN.com
- 06.04.2012
Welcome to the new EDN.com: The Electronics Design Network for electronics engineers, innovators, and creators who want to get from concept to reality as quickly as possible, and just maybe take time out to have a little fun in the process. Read More...
It's my turn to tell Apple what to do
- 03.20.2012
Make me a pair of decent headphones. That’s it. Then take the remaining $87 billion left over after the stock buy-back and go figure out how to stop people who don’t know what they’re talking about from telling you what to do. Read More...
Patents: Where's yours (and how do you get them)?
- 03.07.2012
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, patents are a mark of accomplishment and every engineer would like one, or ten, under their belt. Where’s yours? Read More...
DesignCon 2012 Panel: Test gurus share vision to accelerate your "time to answer"
- 01.25.2012
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. Read More...
Teardown of Vizio VTAB1008 tablet shows man-machine symbiosis
- 01.07.2012
Few designs generate a symbiosis of user and system, but all designers know how hard it is to achieve that natural, seamless integration. Read More...
Wise words from Einstein, Tesla, Spock, and others
Accidental engineering: 10 mistakes turned into innovation
Gears are discovered on the Antikythera mechanism, May 17, 1902
The case of the resistor turned strain gauge
6 famous people you may not know are engineers
10 tips for maximizing battery life
Wise words from Einstein, Tesla, Spock, and others
What's your battery shelf-life experience?
The case of the resistor turned strain gauge
-40°C to +85°C or 25°C only. What temp range is this part truly guaranteed over?
Skylab launches into space, May 14, 1973
Intelligent LEDs will dramatically improve nighttime driving
