Electronic Business articles from November 2006

Electronic Business archives from November 2006

Prying information from the carmakers.(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
November 1, 2006... By John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief Talk to an independent mechanic, and you might take a dimmer view of Flexray than the car companies that plan to implement it. When I read on page 47 that Flexray is shrouded in secrecy, I wondered what...

More than fun and games.(future of gambling industry in China)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Compiled by Barbara Jorgensen, Senior Editor China's thirst for connectivity (see page 14, "Opportunities abound in China's home networking market") is going to have a significant impact on online gaming revenue, according to recent...

EMS uses 'lean' to integrate acquisitions.
November 1, 2006... By Barbara Jorgensen, Senior Editor Back in 1999--even before the high-tech bubble burst--investing in a U.S.-based EMS company seemed counterintuitive. After all, the offshore migration of high tech was well under way, and everybody knew...

Opportunities abound in China's home networking market.
November 1, 2006... By Ben Beutler, Contributing Writer Like a young bird preparing to test its wings, the home networking market in China is set to take flight. Market research firm In-Stat (owned by Electronic Business parent company Reed Business...

SMSC's turnaround tale.(Standard Microsystems Corp., Avnet Inc.)
November 1, 2006... By Barbara Jorgensen, Senior Editor When SMSC gained its name in 1997, more than the company logo was getting a makeover. The broad-based tech company--then known as Standard Microsystems--was struggling to find its focus and stanch its...

AMD ♥s N.Y.(Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on its economic growth)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... By Ben Beutler, Contributing Writer Advanced Micro Devices' June announcement that it will be constructing a $5.2 billion, 300-mm fab near Albany, N.Y., caps a pretty remarkable turnaround for the region. But it didn't happen...

Trinity brings VoIP to the handset.
November 1, 2006... By Drew Wilson, Contributing Writer Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) has served as the poor man's telephone. Typically running from a PC, VoIP provides cheap calls but often patchy voice quality. That could be about to change....

Group tackles IP reuse issues.(TCP/IP (Network protocols))
November 1, 2006... By Ben Beutler, Contributing Writer Finding ways to cut costs and reduce time to market are age-old problems that have led to such innovations as Henry Ford's assembly lines and the more recent Six Sigma methodology. It will come as no...

Where will WSNs finally stick?(wireless sensor networks)
November 1, 2006... By Tam Harbert, Contributing Writer Remember "smart dust?" The colorful term referred to tiny sensors that could be scattered anywhere to form a wireless mesh network, making gathering information from the physical world as easy as...

More suppliers vie for RFID chip market.(Impinj, radio frequency identification )
November 1, 2006... By Russ Arensman, Contributing Writer For the past year Impinj , a small Seattle fabless semiconductor startup, was the only vendor of a new generation of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips designed to provide better range,...

Programmable logic breaks out of the 'gate'.(Programmable logic arrays)
November 1, 2006... By Bill Roberts, Contributing Writer For years, Alacron has used field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips in the image processing subsystems it builds for medical, military and other high-end machine-vision equipment. The company's...

VoIP moves beyond hype.
November 1, 2006... By Russ Arensman, Contributing Writer Texas Instruments ' Tom Flanagan has waited a decade for voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology to live up to its early hype. "I can't tell you how many times I predicted 'this is the year,' " says...

Get lean--or die trying.(Novellus Systems Inc., Lean manufacturing)
November 1, 2006... By Sally Cole Johnson, Contributing Writer Lean manufacturing methodologies are helping capital equipment makers adapt to the industry's changing demands and helping them stay competitive in a business environment in which manufacturing...

Time not ripe for 450-mm wafers.
November 1, 2006... By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor For a technology that may be at least a decade away from widespread adoption, the 450-mm wafer size has attracted a lot of attention. Both proponents and opponents have vocally expressed their...

Making chips one atom at a time.(atomic layer deposition technology used in designing integrated circuits)(Editorial)
November 1, 2006... By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor The ever-mounting challenge of manufacturing progressively smaller and increasingly complex chips is pushing the limits of today's semiconductor manufacturing materials. However, a technology...

Operating in the dark.(supply chain management in electronics industry)
November 1, 2006... By Tam Harbert Lack of visibility into your far-flung supply chain is hurting your competitiveness Imagine this scenario: One of your largest customers calls at 8 a.m. and wants to know if he can increase his purchase order of a...

India struggles to fill talent void.(demand for design engineers)
November 1, 2006... By Bill Roberts India's IC design engineers are as good as any on the planet--but there's just not enough of them Sujeeth Joseph had a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Bombay University and three years of experience...

Ray of hope for auto industry.
November 1, 2006... By Drew Wilson Flexray network protocol promises new era of car electronics, highlights challenges In the past, systems in cars were autonomous. A brake failure meant a brake system fault, and a steering failure was a steering system...

Don't believe the headlines: Intel is a marathoner, not a sprinter.
November 1, 2006... by Bill Roberts Intel executives won't be pasting this year's company headlines in their scrapbooks. They've posted disappointing--actually more like dismal--earnings reports. They dumped their communications business--and were pummeled...

A healthy culture can cure what ails you.(Steve Sanghi of Microchip Technology Inc.)
November 1, 2006... By John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief Turnarounds require a stern taskmaster who makes tough decisions and is willing to lower the boom when necessary, according to conventional thought. That's not necessarily so, says Steve Sanghi, who is...