Electronic Business articles from April 2006

Electronic Business archives from April 2006

Mobile video coming to a kid's handset near you.(Editorial)
April 1, 2006... Mobile video promises to be the next killer app. Those who prognosticate for a living are pushing some big numbers. iSuppli, in a March report entitled "Mobile Premium Content: Music, Ringtones, Games and Video," forecasts that mobile...

Say what?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Have you really convinced yourself that all this drivel you generate has any basis in fact ("Should the U.S. go fabless?" by John Dodge, editor-in-chief, March 2006 issue)? Anyone who is not brain dead knows what is really going on. For the...

Video everywhere.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Regarding your question on "favorite scenario for video everywhere (Editor's Note, "Leaving Las Vegas" by John Dodge, March 2006 issue), I think that although it won't be perfect for some time, it will still improve communication. I've...

National e-waste program needed.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Bravo to Dave McCurdy of Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) for backing a national approach to e-waste recycling ("The problem with recycling," January 2006 issue). Without it we're seeing a state-by-state approach (and even city-by-city,...

Watch this space: industry participants keep close tabs on two major U.S. IPTV projects.(EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES)
April 1, 2006... To hear some industry leaders talk, 2006 will be the year of Internet protocol television (IPTV). At January's Consumer Electronics Show, for example, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said he expects to see IPTV field trials scale up into large...

More cash for the labs? Tech leaders are optimistic about the American Competitiveness Initiative.(R&D)
April 1, 2006... If the rest of the year plays out as well as it started, 2006 might become known as the year the electronics industry finally got traction in Washington, D.C. At his State of the Union address in January, President Bush announced his American...

U.S. students fall short; they are not prepared to compete in the global electronics industry.(MANAGEMENT)
April 1, 2006... We've all heard about the alleged declining college graduation rates in engineering for American-born students and how that decline threatens U.S. technological dominance (see "Too few techies?" February 2006, page 18). Experts are now honing...

Meet the iPod's "Intel": PortalPlayer provides multimedia processors for Apple's personal media player.(PROFILE)
April 1, 2006... Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years, you've seen Apple Computer's ipod personal media player (PMP) and likely own one yourself. Ever wonder what kind of chips make that device possible? At the heart of every iPod sits...

Energy diets are still in vogue; TI's fab sets a new standard for energy-efficient chip production.(Semiconductors)
April 1, 2006... Texas Instruments' newest semiconductor fabrication plant, which should be ready for the installation of production tools this month, will require 20 percent less energy than the company's previous fabs to produce each finished silicon wafer....

Peer into technology's future: iNEMI road map set to tackle disruptive technologies.(National Electronics Manufacturers Initiative)
April 1, 2006... In 1996 the National Electronics Manufacturers Initiative (NEMI) identified the phaseout of lead as one of the key issues the electronics industry would be dealing with in the coming years. In 2006 lead-free manufacturing is a reality. ...

Can cutting edge save EDA? Big moves are in store for the now-commoditized semiconductor design software industry.(Electronic Design Automation)
April 1, 2006... Although the electronic design automation (EDA) landscape may look calm on the surface, big changes are brewing. The changes are eagerly anticipated, as a new generation of EDA leaders is preparing to emerge. When exactly that will happen...

Software to the rescue: tools help get RoHS under control.(Restriction of Hazardous Substances)
April 1, 2006... As the electronics industry--OEMs, EMS providers and suppliers--prepare for the RoHS directive to take effect (the European Union deadline is July 1, 2006), many companies have turned to software to help them gather detailed information with...

Toolmakers embrace upswing; the transition to new technology nodes is driving growth.(Capital Equipment)
April 1, 2006... Good news for wafer fab equipment makers: The industry's current shift from 90-nanometer to 65-nm processing is creating plenty of growth opportunities. As the transition continues down the next three generations--65 nm, 45 nm and 32 nm--and...

A wasteful legacy: the electronics industry risks becoming a victim of its own success.(Letter From the Editor)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... THE ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY RIGHTLY TAKES pride in the progress it's brought to mankind. It has enriched our lives with products that inform, entertain and increase efficiency. And it's literally in the nature of the electronics industry to churn...

Unwanted electronics: while the industry argues about who's responsible for end of life products, some state and local regulators in the U.S. are taking matters into their own hands.
April 1, 2006... There's a skeleton in the electronics Industry's closet. Actually, there are a lot of skeletons--namely the decaying "carcasses" of old PCs, monitors, cell phones, fax machines, PDAs and other electronic equipment. They are piling up in office...

Out of sight, out of mind.
April 1, 2006... Discarded electronic equipment is now the fastest-growing waste stream in the industrialized world, according to Basel Action Network (BAN), a watchdog organization based in Seattle, Wash. Some of that waste is being exported from the United...

A patchwork of regulation.
April 1, 2006... Although there's littleaction at the federal level on the problem of electronic waste, state and local regulations are proliferating, creating a patchwork of laws that may become burdensome and expensive for electronics manufacturers. So...

RoHS fights redux.(European Union's RoHS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... As more and more states and municipalities begin to regulate electronic waste, some are also trying to ban the use of hazardous materials in electronics in the first place. If this trend grows, it could become a night mare for the electronics...

Flying high at Micron: battered from the memory's darkest years, a stronger Micron emerges.(Micron Technology Inc.)(Company overview)
April 1, 2006... Under CEO Steve Appleton, Micron Technology has been on a 12-year odyssey that is finally Showing a payoff. Micron's share price has nearly doubled since May 2005, and the once troubled memory maker has earned a profit for the past seven...

Startups grow up; the first customer on a startup's dance card is critical.(BEST SMALL COMPANIES)
April 1, 2006... SHIV TASKER, THE CEO OF BLUESPEC, A WALTHAM, MASS.-BASED STARTUP that develops system-level-design synthesis tools for ASIC and FPGA chips, might be in the best position an entrepreneur could be in less than three years after launching. Ten...

David meets Goliath.(top 25 electronic components distributors)
April 1, 2006... It's been a while since small- and midsize distributors have had reason to gloat. For decades these companies have been an endangered species, being gobbled up by larger competitors, losing valuable component franchises and watching the U.S....

Digging deeper: watch the speculators to see where the economy is beaded.(ECONOMIC OUTLOOK)
April 1, 2006... The pace of U.S. economic growth over the next year will be substantially influenced by the actions of U.S. housing and worldwide energy speculators. The unusually large amount of speculative activity in these two markets may temporarily push...