Electronic Design articles from October 2003

Electronic Design archives from October 2003

Startup develops prototype hologram projector.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play; io2Technology's Heliodisplay)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... It's no longer science fiction. We're one step closer to holograms. I[O.sub.2] Technology has completed a working prototype called the Heliodisplay, which can project TV, video, and computer images into thin air. About the size of a breadbox,...

Pocket translator speaks 10 languages.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play; 123 Language's Lingo Pacifica Talk )(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Next time you're abroad, keep your translator right in your pocket. The Lingo Pacifica Talk 10 can translate in any direction between 10 different languages, spelling words out phonetically for easy pronunciation when necessary. Its database...

System jams unwanted camera phone pictures.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Camera phones are great for sending snapshots of the kids to grandma. But they also could be used for more sinister purposes. That's why audio IP licensing firm Sensaura and Internet and mobile technology developer Iceberg Systems have teamed...

Webcast tackles DSOs.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)(Calendar)
October 13, 2003... Are you looking for the latest in digital storage oscilloscope technology? Then log on to hear Dr. Michael J. Lauterbach of LeCroy and our own Executive Editor John Novellino present "New Technologies and Innovations in DSOs, from 350 MHz to 2...

PlanetEE.com: the global resource for electronics engineers.(TechScope: electronics technology at work and at play)
October 13, 2003... Aimed at electronics engineers and engineering managers worldwide, PlanetEE serves as a gateway to the individual Web sites of the highly respected engineering publications and specifier's tools of Penton Media's Electronics Group. Take...

Realities of Iraq limit military electronics market.(Editorial; Military Electronics Show )(Editorial)
October 13, 2003... Despite a rising chorus questioning our country's long-range strategies in Iraq, last month's third-annual Military Electronics Show seemed likely to be one place where I'd find virtually unanimous support for the war and subsequent efforts to...

What's all this credit card stuff, anyhow?(Pease Porridge)(Column)
October 13, 2003... While I was cruising up the A30 from Penzance to London, I stopped to buy 28 liters of petrol (about 20 [pounds sterling]). I pumped the gas and tried to pay. "Your credit card is not valid." Oh, jolly. How about my backup credit card? "That's...

For analog circuitry, smaller isn't always better.(POV: point of view)(Column)
October 13, 2003... For 30 years, electronics engineers have come to expect that the main path to "smaller, faster, and cheaper" products is semiconductor integration. Also, greater integration has been enabled by the move to finer lithographies. There are signs,...

Micro fuel cells target battery replacement in handhelds.(Power)
October 13, 2003... The need to regularly recharge batteries in portables with terminals may become a thing of the past. An STMicroelectronics-led project aims to create micro fuel cells, which are small enough to fit inside a mobile handset. Such cells will...

Europe moves to standardize digital TV receivers.(Communications)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... EUROPE HAS TAKEN A STEP TOWARD consolidating its multiple cable receiver standards in one common specification. The European Information, Communications, and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Association (EICTA) has started working with...

Power supplies deliver isolation, low noise to PoE.(TechView: analog & power)
October 13, 2003... IEEE802.3af Power-over-Ethernet (POE) applications distribute a 48-V dc bus over CAT5 unshielded twisted pair cabling to power voice-over-IP phones, WLAN access points, and other applications requiring 13 W or less per device. To generate that...

RF chips improve power-amp linearity and efficiency.(TechView: analog & powerMaxim Integrated Products' MAX2009 and MAX2010 rf predistorter ICs )(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... The MAX2009 and MAX2010 rf predistorter ICs provide AM-AM and AM-PM distortion correction to counteract the gain and phase compression of LDMOS power amplifiers. These chips offer fully independent controls for both gain and phase expansion in...

Wi-Fi chip set doubles wireless range yet saves power.(TechView: communications; Atheros Communications' AR5004X chipset )
October 13, 2003... Transmission range for most standard Wi-Fi modems rarely extends beyond 100 meters in closed quarters or 300 meters in line-of-sight (LOS). However, in a recent LOS test, Atheros' fourth-generation 802.11 chip set with the company eXtended...

First PXI system emerges for RF/wireless testing.(TechView: communications; Aeroflex's PXI 3000 series )(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... AEROFLEX'S NEW PXI 3000 SERIES RF test system is a flexible, modular pre-lab test system designed for mobile phone and general-purpose wireless testing. It has four key test modules that plug into a PXI-based frame. PXI, of course, is a...

DAA modem chip set squashes cost, space, and power consumption.(Breaking News; Silicon Labs' Si3018/10 DAA)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Silicon Labs' third-generation silicon DAA (direct access arrangement) modem chip set is aimed directly at embedded modem applications. Among the anticipated applications are point-of-sale (POS) terminals, set-top boxes; digital video...

Graphics processor brings multimedia and video capture to handhelds.(TechView: digital; Emblaze Semiconductor's ER4525 mobile multimedia application processor)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... With cell phones, PDAs, and other portable devices being asked to do more, whether it's playing multimedia files or capturing images, the system's CPU simply can't handle the task alone. Designers at Emblaze Semiconductor agreed, so they came...

Hot product.(TechView: digital; Cirrus Logic CS42406 surroundsound codec )(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... PACKING TWO analog-to-digital and six digital-to-analog channels, the CS42406 surroundsound codec simplifies system design by providing single-ended inputs and outputs. Developed by Cirrus Logic Inc., the codec offers high-quality 24-bit...

Development kit takes the bite out of digital media application creation.(TechView: digital; Texas Instruments)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Developing digital media applications can be daunting, which is why Texas Instruments came up with a new digital media development kit. It's equipped with a 600-MHz TMS320DM642 DSP chip on the evaluation board and all the peripheral functions...

Methodology expedites route to SoC testbenches.(TechView: EDA)
October 13, 2003... By encapsulating verification best practices and combining them with large productivity gains, Verisity's System Verification Methodology (sVM) can help overcome a lack of verification expertise. The methodology builds on Verisity's e Reuse...

Cadence, CoWare ally to drive ESL design.(TechView: EDA; electronic-system-level )(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... With the lofty goal of creating a new level of design abstraction, Cadence Design Systems and CoWare will jointly pursue an electronic-system-level (ESL) design methodology. The vendors' strategic alliance is intended to mend the methodology...

Mixed-signal simulator speaks Verilog-AMS.(TechView: EDA)
October 13, 2003... Designers today find themselves adding more and more analog and mixed-signal content to their creations. And at nanometer geometries and gigabit speeds, digital circuits begin to look more analog than digital. It all adds up to enormous...

Coax backplane connector handles rates to 40 Gbits/s: using a direct pin-to-pin connection method eliminates interconnect and channel losses, extending copper's capabilities beyond the present 10 Gbits/s.(Leapfrog: industry first)(from SiliconPipe)
October 13, 2003... Copper backplane interconnects, struggling to meet the needs of high-speed backplane communications, are presently stuck at about 10 Gbits/s. In fact, most systems work at just 3 Gbits/s. To go any higher requires more complex and costly...

To step up your career you've got to keep learning: knowledge is power and money, but only if you acquire and apply it. Here are some suggestions for your educational journey.(Engineering Feature)
October 13, 2003... IF YOU'RE NOT INVOLVED IN SOME FORM OF CONTINUING EDUCATION, THEN you are doomed to suffer the consequences of ignorance, peer contempt, technological obsolescence, and eventual obscurity--and then you retire. Well, okay, maybe it's not that...

Power-over-Ethernet chips give LANs a new outlet: controller ICs safely distribute 48-V power from hubs and switches to peripherals in accordance with the IEEE 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet standard.(Technology report: PoE Power Controller ICs)
October 13, 2003... IF YOU'VE GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO VIEWING the familiar LAN connector as a data port, think again. That RJ-45 jack makes a great power outlet. At least that's the message being promoted these days by Power-over-Ethernet (POE) proponents. They want...

Boost regulator makes low profile SEPIC with both step-up and step-down capability--Design Note 317.(Design Notes)
October 13, 2003... Introduction Automotive, distributed power and battery-powered applications often operate at a voltage that is derived from a widely variable bus voltage. Frequently the operating voltage falls somewhere in the middle of the bus voltage...

When you have a debugger, everything looks like a breakpoint.(Embedded in electronic design: special editorial feature)
October 13, 2003... I'm always amazed at how little time some developers take to learn about debugging techniques and tools. While I agree that good planning and design, along with smart compilers, can reduce the number of bugs in a program, it doesn't eliminate...

PCI Express is a-comin'.(Embedded in electronic design: special editorial feature)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... PCI Express moves into the real world as more companies such as NEC Electronics deliver real products like the x8 PCI-X Bridge and Switch. These chips are based on NEC's 0.15-[micro]m process technology. The cores are also available in custom...

2.6 kernel works its way into embedded Linux.(Embedded in electronic design: special editorial feature)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... The long-awaited 2.6 Linux kernel Is finally available for embedded systems. The latest incarnation of BlueCat Linux from LynuxWorks plans to use the new kernel. The 2.6 kernel is preemptible, providing reduced Interrupt latency. It also...

Custom 8051 fits FPGA: surround an 8051 from a menu of standard peripherals.(Embedded in electronic design: microcontroller series)
October 13, 2003... Finding the right 8-bit MCU is easy when you can choose the configuration. Actel's Core8051 approach starts with a single-cycle processor core. Creating the rest of the system is a matter of adding devices, such as a 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet...

100MIPS 8081 gets two-cycle 16x16 MAC.(News Clips)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... 100MIPS 8081 Gets Two-Cycle 16x16 MAC. The C8051F120 single-cycle 8051 MCU includes a two-cycle 16x16 multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit, making it the fastest 8-bit MCU around. The chip has 128 kbytes of flash memory and 8448 bytes of RAM....

Development kit targets standard arm MCU.(News Clips)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Development Kit Targets Standard Arm MCU. The LH7A400 Zoom SDK is built around Sharp's 200MHz, 32-bit ARM7TDMI-S-based LH75401 MCU. The board handles up to 32 Mbytes of flash memory and 64-Mbyte SDRAM, and includes a touchscreen controller,...

C++ Compiler targets mobile XScale applications.(News Clips)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... C++ Compiler Targets Mobile XScale Applications. Intel's new C++ compiler lets developers take advantage of the XScale Wireless MMX technology. The C++ Compiler for Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ is available for $399. The Intel C++ Compiler for...

Mobile I.MX MCU likes Linux.(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Motorola's i.MX line of ARM9-based MCUs is now supported by the MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 3.0. The i.MX MCUs incorporate 128 kbytes of RAM and a wide range of peripherals, such as a multimedia accelerator, Bluetooth accelerator,...

SBC mixes old with new.(Embedded in electronic design: news)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... The SVME/DMV-182 single-board computer combines the popular MIL-STD-1553B Interface with a Gigabit Ethernet interface, yet it still has enough space for two 64-bit 66/133-MHz PCI-X-compatible PMC mezzanine modules. The 1553B interface has...

Acquisition boards do 200 Msamples/s.(Embedded in electronic design: news)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... The 6U CompactPCI DC436 and DC438 from Acqiris have dual 12-bit ADC channels that handle sample rates up to 200 and 100 Msamples/s, respectively. They have a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of up to 62 dB and a spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) of...

Access the internet with AT commands.(Embedded in electronic design: news)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... The C0710AG is the latest iChip Internet controller that employs Connect One's AT+I command set. The command set is an extension of the popular AT modem command set. This simple, serial interface allows devices to access a network using dial-up...

DSL chip set cuts DSLAM TCO.(Embedded in electronic design: news)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Texas Instruments' AC7 DSL chip set runs less than $10 per port and consumes less than 750 mW. Integrated memory helps keep parts count down to 23 per port. The AC7 splits DSLAM functions into a 16-port transceiver and a 2-port analog front end...

UML 2.0 incrementally improves scalability and architecture.(Design View Software)
October 13, 2003... There's much hoopla surrounding the upcoming UML 2.0 specification. Soon enough you will be able to take advantage of elaborated interfaces and ports, interaction fragments and operators, plus better modeling of behavior over time. However, UML...

Simple volt-second clamp prevents transformer saturation.(Design briefs: innovative designs from readers)
October 13, 2003... Single-transistor forward converters are popular in higher-power isolated power supplies because they feature low parts count and component stress. On the downside, careful attention must be given to transformer reset to prevent saturation and...

Basic circuit supplies stepper-motor timing.(Design briefs: innovative designs from readers)
October 13, 2003... The fundamental circuit shown in Figure 1 generates timing for a two-phase stepper motor from an oscillator, as well as a direction (forward or reverse) signal. Figure 2 depicts the typical timing signals for a two-phase stepper motor. ...

RF crystal oscillator suppresses jitter, phase noise.(Components)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * Sonet, SDH, ATM, and WAN applications are the main targets for the RFX300 series (rfXO) of high-performance RF crystal oscillators. The devices feature just 3-ps RMS jitter, 0.5-ps phase jitter, and 30-ps cycle-to-cycle jitter. Frequency...

Miniature SMD SAW filters suite mobile phone applications.(Components)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * The WF SAW filters for North American mobile phone standards feature low insertion loss (1.6 to 3 dB) in an SMD plastic package measuring just 2.5 by 2.0 by 1.15 mm. The 836.5/881.5-MHz WF617A/B for GSM850 (Tx/Rx) applications operates from...

Cost-conscious PID controllers aim at brushed dc motors.(Components)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * These affordable motor-position PID controllers are designed for use with medium-sized brush dc motors. They provide 32-bit position control for dc motors with two-channel quadrature encoders and provide direct control via 38.4-, 19.2-, or...

Coded switches fashioned in tape-and-reel.(Components)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * Type 07 coded-output switches now can be obtained in tape-and-reel form. They come in all standard 4- and 16-bit unique code output formats for human-machine interface applications in two-way radios, as well as medical, industrial, and...

Infrared LEDs produce highly collimated outputs.(Components)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * Highly collimated output beam angles of [+ or -] 2[degrees] and [+ or -] 4[degrees] are possible with the CLE351 and CLE355 IR LEDs, respectively. Packaged in PLCCs, they can be operated up to 1 A when pulsed at 10 [micro]s, at a rate of 100...

LabView software plug-in lets sensors communicate smartly.(Components)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * The Intelligent Sensor Communicator, a software plug-in for National Instruments' LabView, allows sensor data and simulated sensor data to communicate via an XML microserver to engineering and corporate networks using the KnowNow router...

10GE switch promotes cost-efficient scalable enterprise switches.(Communications)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * The BCM5673 is billed aa the first 10-Gbit Ethernet multilayer switch that supports the CX4 interface. It enables manufacturers to produce switches that can aggregate 1GE ports in the enterprise. Also, it offers wire-speed layer 2 through...

RJ-45 connector modules facilitate power over Ethernet.(Communications)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * New hub and switch designs can take advantage of the J20-0017 and J20-0019 RJ-45 connectors, which offer 2-by-4 ports and 2-by-6 ports of Ethernet connections, respectively. The connectors conform fully to the IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet...

10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet transceiver uses CMOS for low power.(Communications)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * Thanks to its fully CMOS architecture, the 78Q2120C 10BaseT/100BaseTX Ethernet transceiver drops power consumption to less than 300 mW. The device replaces the original 78Q2120 biCMOS version. It's designed for desktop PCs, laptops, set-top...

Gigabit Ethernet transceiver pushes 10 Gbits over copper.(Communications)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * The call for a cost-effective 10-Gbit/s internet-working system in data-center server/switch and stackable gigabit switch applications may be answered with the MY3124. This XAUI-to-XAUI retiming transceiver implements 10-Gbit/s Ethernet...

Transceiver brings high signal integrity to 10GE, fibre channel.(Communications)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * The PM8358 is a four-channel fully redundant 3.2-Gbit/s XGMII-to-XAUI interface transceiver that provides high-speed serial I/O for backplanes and line-side network interfaces. Developed for serial backplanes and optical modules, this...

Precision rate control and QoS hallmarks of Fast Ethernet switches.(Communications)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * With a multitude of high-speed multimedia applications driving greater traffic volume, equipment manufacturers need a switch chip that processes time-sensitive traffic more effectively with better network security. This is where the ZL50408...

Controller-area-network IC beefs up data throughput.(Analog & Mixed-Signal)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * Faster data throughput and efficient data-byte tittering make the MCP2515 controller-area-network (CAN) IC a contender for serial-communication applications. The device offers a maximum clock-input speed of 40 MHz and a 10-MHz serial...

Single-chip audio subsystem supports voice and digital audio.(Analog & Mixed-Signal)
October 13, 2003... * Contained within the LM4930 Boomer audio subsystem IC are a stereo [I.sup.2]C digital-to-analog converter, voiceband codec, stereo headphone amp, mono speaker amp, microphone preamp, and sidetone generator, air with [I.sup.2]C control. The...

4-MHz step-down DC-DC converters deliver 500 mA with 90% efficiency.(Analog & Mixed-Signal)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... * Providing up to 500 mA of continuous current at 0.6-V dc output voltages, the MAX8560, 8561, and 8562 step-down dc-dc converters come in SOT23 and thin DFN packages. Thanks to a 1-mm high, 1-[micro]H inductor and tiny ceramic capacitors, they...

Ode to engineering.(Publisher's Foreword)
October 20, 2003... If I had to pick the greatest engineering achievement of all time, I'd probably put the harnessing of electric power at the top of my list. However, one could certainly make a case for other great discoveries and inventions--from the printing...

Everything you always wanted to know about your engineering peers--and then some.(Editor's Overview)
October 20, 2003... Electronic Design strives to be the electronic engineering community's favorite magazine. To meet that goal, we stay in close contact with readers. When we're not holding impromptu meetings at seminars, conferences, trade shows, and other...

What it takes to get ahead: finding the job you want and trying to identify and emulate the qualities and skills you need to move up the management ladder isn't an easy task.(About Your Job)
October 20, 2003... Ambition is the personal engine that drives us to want to get ahead on the job and in society. Most of us have ambition to spare, plus the inherent desire to please our superiors and earn the respect of our peers. We tend to lack the knowledge...

Who makes what: a look at current EE salaries.(What You Earn)(electronics engineers)
October 20, 2003... The past few years have been particularly tough on the electronics industry. EOEMs were hard hit by both the high-tech downturn and the increasingly sluggish U.S. economy, which stalled, slid, and snuffed out any lingering feelings of...

Has engineering as a career differed over the years? It depends on who you ask.(How Your Job Has Changed)
October 20, 2003... Some things never change, but you can't say that about electronics engineering. At least that's true when you ask people who have been doing it for a while. Young EEs with only a few years experience also have some thoughts about what the...

What you have to say.(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... Alan Cunningham Principal Staff Electrical Engineer, Philips Medical Systems "It's important for me to know that my good performance will enhance my personal job stability Armando Solar Senior Electrical Engineer, ...

EE horror stories.(electronics engineers)
October 20, 2003... The Customers from Hell... Revenge of the Managers... No, we're not talking about the titles of the latest horror movies to hit your cinemaplex. But they could be chapters in some of your professional biographies. During the course of our...

Avionics.(Market Profiles)
October 20, 2003... Next-generation warfare technology is evolving at an extraordinary rate, and the sky seems to be the limit for avionics and space defense systems. On-board advances have led to dramatic improvements in surveillance, communications, and missile...

FPGAS on the up, with flash poised for avionics market share.(Avionics)(field programmable gate array)
October 20, 2003... FPGA MARKET The field-programmable gale array (FPGA) industry has been one of the major successes in the semiconductor market over the last 10 years, experiencing unprecedented growth to become a $3 billion business. The key driver for...

Communications.(Market Profiles)
October 20, 2003... The communications market continues to set the pace in the electronics industry thanks in large part to the explosive growth in the wireless sector. Emerging technologies like Wireless LANs have taken off as consumers and manufacturers rally...

Do emerging technologies meet the specific requirements of mobile applications?(Communications)
October 20, 2003... The explosive growth of mobile communications is driving the development of innovative, complex wireless consumer products and the infrastructures supporting them. New, high-demand applications, such as Web streaming, color display, and image...

Military.(Market Profiles)
October 20, 2003... The recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq provided an unprecedented showcase for U.S. military technologies. Newly deployed defense technologies include global positioning systems (GPS), simulation software, secure broadband satellite and...

When it comes to customer satisfaction, "cookie-cutter" service just doesn't cut it.(Military)
October 20, 2003... At Newark InOne, we don't take the "one size fits all" approach to customer service common to other electronics catalog distributors. We let our customers decide how they want to do business with us, offering them a wide range of channels, as...

Test & measurement.(Market Profiles)
October 20, 2003... The test & measurement industry faces a number of stiff challenges as testing continues to take a bigger bite out of product development costs. Increasing device complexities, record-setting performance levels, new and emerging applications,...

WaveRunner 6000--the new standard in everyday bench scopes.(Test & Measurement)
October 20, 2003... LeCroy is the only company focusing its business on the needs of the oscilloscope user. Ninety five percent of LeCroy sales are of oscilloscope related products. Though LeCroy has established technology leadership in oscilloscopes for testing...

EEs at work: the good and the bad.(All about you: at work and at home)(electrical engineer)
October 20, 2003... Engineering isn't easy. You wrestle with the laws of nature to make your next project faster, smaller, and less costly. You also grapple with shrinking budgets, longer hours, and management and co-workers alike. And you can't forget about all...

EEs at home.(All about you: at work and at home)(electrical engineer)
October 20, 2003... Electronic Design's reader survey shows that collectively, engineering professionals comprise a rather eclectic group--versatile in their skills, well-rounded in their interests, resourceful in their activities, discriminating in their tastes....

Connector excellence.(Technology Leaders in electronic design)
October 20, 2003... In the interconnection industry, it can be difficult for a manufacturer to stand out from the crowd. Although there are various ways in which a connector supplier can distinguish itself, Positronic Industries has seized on vertical integration...

Aries Electronics, Inc.: a continuing spirit of interconnect innovation.(Technology Leaders in electronic design)(Company Profile)
October 20, 2003... While the rest of the world might be content to believe that good things come in small packages, the measure of success in IC packaging is constantly evolving toward putting better and better things into smaller and smaller packages. ...

It starts with an idea--Electronic Concepts.(Technology Leaders in electronic design)(Company Profile)
October 20, 2003... "All of us associated with Electronic Concepts are proud of having given new life to film capacitors with our energies and technological developments. We are confident that as a result of these efforts, new market areas will constantly emerge,...

Engineering Hall of Fame 2002 inductees.(Honoring Your Profession)
October 20, 2003... In this issue, Electronic Design once again pays tribute to the EE profession by presenting the Class of 2003 inductees for the Engineering Hall Of Fame. These are the individuals you deemed most worthy to be honored with your online ballots....

Engineering hall of fame: 2003 inductees.(Honoring Your Profession)
October 20, 2003... Gene Myron Amdahl The competitive chip market owes its start to Dr. Gene Amdahl, founder of the first successful IBM-compatible CPU manufacturer, Amdahl Corp. It developed the world's first large-scale-integration (LSI)...

Ray Stata: reaching out to third world villagers.(2003 Featured Inductee)(Biography)
October 20, 2003... SOME PEOPLE DREAM OF WHAT IT WOULD be like if third-world countries had the advantage of technology. Instead of dreaming, Ray Stata is doing something about it. Stata, founder of Analog Devices, is pushing technology into emerging nations like...

Martin Cooper: but, is it useful?(2003 Featured Inductee)(Biography)
October 20, 2003... "TECHNOLOGY" MARTIN COOPER BELIEVES, "is only technology if it does something useful for society. It's important to create science and develop products, but sooner or later you will be involved in the creation of technology. Remember then, you...

Barrie Gilbert: from crystal sets to submicron silicon.(2003 Featured Inductee)(Biography)
October 20, 2003... IN 1945, AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLBOY in England, who earlier had lost his father in the war, fiddled with the position of the cat's whisker on the lump of galena in his crystal set. He wondered why only certain spots lit up his headphones. This...

Richard Stallman: freedom-his passion both for work and in life.(2003 Featured Inductee)(Biography)
October 20, 2003... FOR RICHARD STALLMAN, THERE'S NO separation between his work and his beliefs. They are one and his creation of the GNU Project is the optimum example of that. The GNU system (an acronym for GNU is not Unix) gives computer users a free...

Lynn Conway: a trailblazer on professional and personal levels.(2002 Featured Inductee)(Biography)
October 20, 2003... LYNN CONWAY IS A COMPUTER SCIENTIST, electrical engineer, inventor, research manager, and engineering educator. Some may more accurately describe her as a pioneer in microelectronic chip design. Most of today's chip designers learned their...

Luis Navarro: improve the product but maintain the familiar.(2003 Featured Inductee)
October 20, 2003... "IF YOU BUILD A CAR WITH A BETTER engine, you don't move the steering wheel," says Luis Navarro, team leader for Tektronix's extremely popular digital oscilloscopes. His Tektronix team used the same philosophy. It kept the existing control...

Class notes 2002 inductees: here's how many of our 2002 hall of famers enjoy their leisure time and how they still give back to society.(Honoring Your Profession)
October 20, 2003... In many ways, the leisure-time activities for last year's inductees into Electronic Design's Engineering Hall of Fame are just like those of our readers. But in other ways, the activities truly represent their creativity, vision, and genius....