[Technology Report] Designers Tame The Harsh Environment Of The Auto
The auto industry may have sped past its one-hundredth birthday. But as anyone who visits its research facilities and its first-tier suppliers in Detroit learns, there's no hardening of the arteries. Automotive-entertainment designers pursue...
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Stephen Grossman
[Ideas For Design] Low-Power Solid-State Airflow Detector
Explicit airflow detection is essential in many applications. High power-density electronics are liable to overheat and self-destruct when cooling-fan failures go unnoticed. Heating and air-conditioning systems often incorporate multipoint...
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W. Stephen Woodward
[Editorial] Setting Goals That Don't Set Us Back
Any new project that we start has goals associated with it. Looking further at the bigger picture, we can view our entire life as a "goal"—to live it as fruitfully and enjoyably as possible. We do this by setting small daily, weekly, and yearly...
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Dave Bursky
[Pease Porridge] Bob's Mailbox
Mr. Pease: You inserted a comment into the letter by Dan Conine (Electronic Design, Aug. 21, 2000, p. 136) that demands an informed response. In your insertion, you stated "I might like some of those better than...
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Bob Pease
[Editor's Notebook] A Modest Proposal: A Hardware API
Everyone knows what a bus is and how to define it. Unfortunately, these definitions can be very cumbersome, especially in this new everything-connects-to-everything-else bus world. Maybe we need a new defining mechanism, something a bit higher in...
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Ray Weiss
[Letters] Letters
Surviving In The Jungle Your feedback loop model of high-tech economics sounds right ["Economics For Engineers Is A Branch Of Psychology," Oct. 2, 2000, p. 160], but I suspect the higher speed of the...
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Various
[40 Years Ago] Computers, Peripherals At EJCC
Improvements in peripheral equipment and new computer announcements were the highlights of the Eastern Joint Computer Conference in New York. One commercial computer was unveiled at the show: the Recomp II, a new low-cost machine designed by North...
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Steve Scrupski
[40 Years Ago] Silicon Wafers Used In Fixed Digital Memory
Thin silicon wafers imprinted with ion-deposited conducting paths form the basis of a digital memory with a storage density of 70,000 bits per cu in. Development of the Silicon Permanent Array Memory is being pushed by the Librascope Div. of General...
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Steve Scrupski
[Forefront] New Memory Technology Utilizes Magnetic Charges
Magnetic random-access memory, or MRAM, uses magnetic rather than electrical charges to store data bits. While this prototype memory has so far existed only in the laboratories of IBM Corp., the company plans to propel MRAM into commercial production....
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Lisa Eccles
[Forefront] PIC Architecture To Get 16-Bit Extension And DSP Capability
The 8-bit PIC has made its mark as a mainstream architecture. To-morrow's PIC is moving up to a 16-bit implementation with added DSP functionality. Proprietary PIC vendor Microchip is developing the next-generation 16-bit architecture, which will...
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Ray Weiss
[Forefront] Demand For Organic LEDs Expected To Ramp Up Quickly
It's true that production of organic light-emitting-diode (OLED) displays at a scant $18 million annually is today barely visible on the radar screen. But that won't be the case for long. As display aficionados learned at December's Flat Information...
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Stephen Grossman
[Forefront] Results Of Nanotube Study Hold Promise For Ultra-Small Circuits
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have announced practical results in their ongoing research on nanotubes. The team has discovered that the electrical resistance between nanotubes and graphite surfaces varies according...
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Lisa Eccles
[Forefront] Digital Camera With Built-In Printer Looms On The Horizon
A prototype of a digital still camera unveiled by Canon integrates a bubble-jet color printer. Put on display at the Canon Expo 2000 event that was held in Tokyo in late November, the Micro Bubble Jet Camera features both low power consumption and a...
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Lisa Eccles
[Forefront] Company Wire
Insilco Technologies Inc. has acquired Texas-based Rockwall Precision Cable Manufacturing Co., a provider of insulated wire and cable assemblies and wire harnesses servicing a wide array of automotive, telecom, and medical applications....
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Staff
[Forefront] Microcontroller Families Integrate CAN And LIN Interfaces
Controller Area Network (CAN) and Local Interconnect Network (LIN) are quickly becoming the automotive industry's control networks of choice. Mi-crochip Technology's PIC18Cx58 and PIC-16C43x microcontrollers target this market with integrated CAN...
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William Wong
[Forefront] Power Driver Generates 3-Φ Control To Bridge Motors, DSPs
To provide an easy bridge between a motor and a DSP, Apex Microtechnology's motion-control modules contain three independent IGBT or MOSFET half-bridges with drivers in a single package. These Easy Bridge devices generate three-phase control for...
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Ashok Bindra
[Forefront] FPGAs Deliver Key Stages For 10-Gbit Ethernet
It may not be here yet, but 10-Gbit Ethernet is coming. Key components for its implementation over optical networks are now emerging, like two FPGAs from Lucent Technologies: the ORLI10G 10-Gbit Ethernet line interface and the ORT82G5 eight-channel...
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Ray Weiss
[Forefront] Low-Cost Image-Processing System Fits Multiple Applications
According to its manufacturer, the VCM30 image-processing system comes with the lowest price tag on the market. This compact, lightweight optical system also is the first to include NEMA 4 (IP67) housing as a standard feature. It's designed for a...
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Lisa Eccles
[Careers] Are You A "Great Communicator"?
No, the above title doesn't refer to Ronald Reagan. It doesn't refer to a new and vastly more powerful Internet protocol either. Instead, it refers to your potential as a communicator of ideas, concepts, designs, and implementations. Like most broad...
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Peter Varhol
