Electronics Weekly articles from April 2004

Electronics Weekly archives from April 2004

Training firms go into workplace as report highlights important links.
April 7, 2004... Brunel University is taking one of its engineering classes in the theory of measure out into the busy commercial environment of the Instrumentation North 2004 trade exhibition. Given the time constraints on engineers a number of training...

Chip and PIN in a vending machine environment.
April 7, 2004... Franchise - Sagem A likely mid-term benefit of the chip & PIN rollout is that it will facilitate an increase in the use of credit cards in vending machines and other unattended payment terminals. To fulfil the security requirements of Visa PED...

The online message.
April 7, 2004... With the RoHS Directive deadline moving ever closer, customers are desperate for component information on part number, ordering information and more. Steve Bush has found a number of distributors with useful websites With the European...

Modular operating systems are way forward for embedded design.
April 7, 2004... Franchise - Microsoft Embedded Embedded technology is one of the fasted-growing areas of the distribution segment, with demand for embedded operating systems showing particularly healthy growth. We have worked with companies in a number of...

Debugger uses USB for ColdFire.
April 7, 2004... Embedded software tools firm Crossware has developed a debugger for Motorola's ColdFire processors that makes use of a PC's USB port. To power its debugger, Crossware went to Cygnal, now part of Silicon Labs, which has an 8051 microcontroller...

Science investment must be targeted.
April 7, 2004... More targeted public investment in science and engineering is among the Engineering and Technology Board's proposals ahead of the Government's summer spending review. The ETB - a group of companies that aims to support science, engineering and...

Ice found to be ferroelectric.
April 7, 2004... Chemists at Ohio State University have found that, in certain forms, ice can be ferroelectric. It had been thought that the vast number of different orientations that water molecules can adopt in relation to one another meant that ice is always...

Administrators phoned up as Tetra operator seeks buyer.
April 7, 2004... UK Tetra network operator Dolphin Telecom has once again been put into administration less than two years after it was acquired by specialised wireless networks operator Inquam for [pounds sterling]25m. Accountant firm KPMG has been appointed...

Single benzene molecule performs logic functions.
April 7, 2004... Researchers at UCL and the CNRS research centre in Toulouse have designed a half-adder logic circuit in a single benzene molecule. Their intention was to overcome limitations of existing molecular systems, for instance on bandwidth and...

Sandia Labs develops MEMS device to look at friction in microscale objects.
April 7, 2004... Researchers at Sandia Labs have developed a MEMS device called the 'inchworm' to investigate friction in microscale objects. While the simple relationship F=normal force x friction coefficient holds true at the macroscale, it does not...

Aussies blow air to generate 1.5nA.
April 7, 2004... Infineon Technologies and Siemens have given up on their joint R&D programme to develop polymer-based RFID tags. "We could only get the frequency up to 100kHz and, at that frequency, the coils require to be wound so many times that they make...

[pounds sterling]300m science park plans get green light; g.
April 7, 2004... Long-mooted plans for a [pounds sterling]300m science park near Bristol have been given the go-ahead, following the purchase of 12 hectares of land by the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA). The initial investment from the RDA is...

UK electronics value-add figure drops by 20%.
April 7, 2004... The value added by electronics and electrical firms in the UK decreased by 20 per cent, according to the latest value-added scoreboard from the DTI. The figure is distorted by a decrease in value added by the largest firm - Invensys - by 26 per...

IBM holds future of architecture in OS partitions.
April 7, 2004... IBM has demonstrated its forthcoming Power5 microprocessor, running multiple operating systems in what it calls virtual micro partitions. The processor is IBM's high-end take on its Power Architecture implementation, and will "drive future...

EPIC boards twice area of PC/104-Plus.
April 7, 2004... Five firms have set an open standard for embedded computer boards, building on PC/104-Plus, but with richer I/O support. Called EPIC, the boards measure 165x115mm, more than twice the area of the PC/104 standard, which specifies a 96x90mm PCB,...

UHF RFID chips set for 2005 launch.
April 7, 2004... High volume production of UHF (ultra-high frequency) RFID chips will start next year in Europe once the bandwidth has been chosen and the technology standardised, according to Dodo Ischebeck, senior director for emerging business in Infineon's...

UK-designed I/O driver added to IMEC's rad-hard IC library.
April 7, 2004... An energy saving I/O driver developed by Adiabatic Logic is to be integrated into the radiation hard IC library created by IMEC, the Belgian research centre. The deal is substantial boost for Cambridge-based Adiabatic, which had originally...

CRL Opto buys up display firm assets and moves to Scotland.
April 7, 2004... CRL Opto of Middlesex has acquired the assets of Fife-based microdisplay firm MicroVue and will be moving to Scotland. "The centre of gravity is going to Dalgety Bay [Fife]," CRL Opto's MD Greg Truman told EW. MicroVue was manufacturing...

Lumileds sets up lighting network.
April 7, 2004... Californian white LED maker Lumileds has started an industry body to promote its products for lighting. The Luxeon Lighting Network is a "certification, training and technical support programme... to assist the lighting spec community in...

Public mistrusts Government's digital TV plans.
April 7, 2004... The general public consider the Government's plans to switchover from analogue to digital TV to be "coercive", according to a report by consultant firm the Generics Group. The report found mistrust over Government motives which needed to be...

Fabless chip company creates library for wireless standard.
April 7, 2004... Bath firm PicoChip is developing a physical layer library for its PicoArray processor to help customers address the IEEE 802.16 WiMAX wide-area broadband wireless standard. The library will add to the firm's existing OFDM blocks to give...

Committee accuses Govt of 'poor judgement' in muddled nanotechnology research funding.
April 7, 2004... The Government has been accused of under-investing in nanotechnology, ignoring advice from UK experts to create at least two nanotechnology fabrication centres, and using a "muddled" policy to distribute the cash it made available. A report...

Rubber laser stretches wavelengths and pockets.
April 7, 2004... Low-cost lasers made of rubber, in which the wavelength of the emitted light can be adjusted by stretching the device, have been built using materials called liquid crystal elastomers. The devices are simply strips of silicone rubber into which...

Surrey firm to benefit from interest in wireless mesh network technology.
April 7, 2004... Surrey-based BPO Solutions is benefiting from increased interest in its wireless mesh networking technology following the failure of Radiant Networks, which went into administration in December 2003. "We've picked up a lot of interest where...

LG repays [pounds sterling]35m grant in Wales.
April 7, 2004... LG is to pay back [pounds sterling]15m cash plus land and buildings worth [pounds sterling]20m, from an original Government grant of [pounds sterling]132.1m awarded to attract the firm's wafer fab and consumer electronics operations to Wales....

Thales Acoustics renamed Racal.
April 7, 2004... Thales Acoustics has been renamed as Racal Acoustics following its acquisition from Thales Defence by US-based private equity firm JF Lehman. All existing 200 staff have transferred with the business which is based in Harrow. The company...

Industry fears Government inaction over system-on-chip design network.
April 7, 2004... Frustration is growing that the Government is going back on its commitment to fund the creation of a national system-on-chip (SoC) design network. The proposal to create the virtual design network linking research teams in universities and...

'Odd' definition of material creates RoHS Directive loophole.
April 7, 2004... A potential European Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive loophole may be the unintended consequence of consultation over the End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Directive. "One source is Okopol's ELV [recommendations]," said Knut...

UK radiological watchdog presses for stricter limits.
April 7, 2004... Stricter limits on exposure to electromagnetic fields from sources of up to 300GHz have been recommended by the UK's National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB). The NRPB says the UK should adopt guidelines issued by the International...

UK certification services combine.
April 7, 2004... ASTA Certification Services and the British Electrotechnical Approvals Board (BEAB) have merged to become ASTA BEAB Certification Services. "Combined, we are creating a more influential UK-based certification organisation worldwide," said a...

UK set-top box start-up looks for engineers.
April 7, 2004... Fusion Digital Technology, the set-top box start-up, is recruiting 15 to 20 engineers over the next year. The Harrogate-based firm has a basic adaptor box for Freeview and is planning at least two further products this year, the firm's CTO Paul...

Saving the green pound.
April 14, 2004... The Government's Envirowise programme aims to smooth the way for firms to comply with forthcoming environmental legislation. The programme's Philip Price looks at how cleaner design can also mean drastic savings for manufacturers leaner...

Dyes let bits take up the same space.
April 14, 2004... Canadian researchers have built a high-density, polymer-based memory in which structures that can encode different bits occupy the same volume. They achieved the feat by combining photosensitive dyes that respond to light of different...

ST offers first standalone ARM.
April 14, 2004... STMicroelectronics is offering its first standalone ARM microcontrollers. The company has been embedding ARM cores in Asics for four years but the ARM7TDMI-based STR710 series is its first standard ARM microcontroller. www.st.com

D battery-sized 350F supercapacitor.
April 14, 2004... To increase the adoption of supercapacitors, San Diego-based Maxwell Technologies has produced one that is physically interchangeable with a standard D-size battery. Super capacitors are variously also known as ultra-capacitors and double...

Tagging along with Tesco.
April 14, 2004... Although the technology has been around for a long time, RFID tags are only now being widely considered for use in an enormous variety of applications, from supermarket goods to plane tickets and passports, writes David Manners They said...

Government report highlights worrying gap between innovation and wealth creation.
April 14, 2004... If you sit back and take a long look at the UK's electronics industry, you would think there is a wealth of innovative, technology defining companies. But you would also see that the UK's innovative firms never seem to amount to much...

Cartoons get in character.
April 14, 2004... Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have developed a memory system for virtual reality characters making their behaviour more realistic. The technique uses a model of memory derived from cognitive theory, so simulated characters react to new...

Scientists grow Si nanowires with connections at both ends.
April 14, 2004... Scientists at Hewlett Packard's Californian Labs have devised a method to grow silicon nanowires, with connections to both ends, on a silicon substrate. Although currently a technical curiosity, the high surface area of the wires "could...

Southampton University sets up centre to provide silicon services.
April 14, 2004... A dedicated silicon technology centre providing advanced services to UK and European industry has been created at Southampton University. The new venture, which is called Innos, has emerged from the EPSRC-funded Silicon Fabrication Facility, a...

VCSELs are tunable over 30nm range.
April 14, 2004... Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) tunable over a 30nm range are being built by Two-Chip Photonics of Germany. The firm, using technology from a European tunable lasers project, said the device has "the highest tuning range...

Polymer Fets pushed to below one micron.
April 14, 2004... Polymer Fets with a channel length of less than 500nm have been built by researchers at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish lab. The scientists claim the Fets are the first such devices with a sub-micron channel length to use polymer...

Microsoft joins digital radio DAB lobbyists.
April 14, 2004... Microsoft is joining the World DAB Forum, the consortium of over 80 firms promoting digital audio broadcasting. The link will help push standard DAB services, but could also have a big effect on added features, such as sending images and video....

Maths techniques reduce software bugs.
April 14, 2004... UK software experts have started a firm to develop tools that let software developers reduce errors in their code. Verum Consultants has taken maths techniques, including formal verification, and combined them with the communicating sequential...

ARC takes further step into software sector in bid to spread customer mix.
April 14, 2004... ARC is moving further into the software market, with a package of products for developers of real-time industrial control systems. The London-based firm has combined its MQX real-time operating system with software drivers for CAN-bus, TCP/IP...

Chinese chips at Edinburgh forum.
April 14, 2004... China's fast growing and heavily subsidised semiconductor sector is one focus of this year's Semiconductor 2004 conference. Held in Edinburgh on June 17 and 18, the conference will also look at security in silicon and compound semiconductors....

NEC reveals organic radical battery details.
April 14, 2004... NEC has revealed performance details of its organic radical battery, a lithium-ion cell variant that could potentially be recharged in less than a minute. "The organic radical battery was created through the substitution of the heavy metal...

Sun delays details of staff cuts.
April 14, 2004... Following its announcement at the start of this month of 3,300 jobs cuts wordwide, Sun Microsystems has said details on how specific geographic regions and individual sites will be affected won't be available until the beginning of May. The job...

Firm to move quantum tunnelling into volume.
April 14, 2004... Darlington-based materials developer Peratech has secured [pounds sterling]700,000 in what the company hopes will be its final funding round. Andy McLeod, chief executive officer at Peratech, said the money would be used to move its quantum...

DTI strategy team asks companies for answers.
April 14, 2004... The Government has started a fact-finding exercise as it prepares a long-term strategy document for the electronics industry which will address the decline in manufacturing. Working through its Electronics Innovation and Growth Team (EIGT), the...

CSR collaborates on Bluetooth.
April 14, 2004... CSR has teamed up with Motorola to work on Bluetooth-enabled chipsets and reference designs for multimedia feature phones. Motorola's i.250 feature phone reference design incorporates CSR's BlueCore Bluetooth single chip with Motorola's...

Intel's 95 per cent lead reduction does not satisfy RoHS.
April 14, 2004... Intel's decision last week to reduce the lead content of its processors and chipsets will not result in RoHS-compliant products. While external pins and solder balls will become lead-free, five per cent of the lead will remain to connect the...

Taiwan courts Western companies with offer of 'Bamboo Connection' to China.
April 14, 2004... Taiwan is setting itself up as a stepping stone for Western firms looking to manufacture in lower cost China. Jack Cheng, senior specialist at the Taiwan External Trade development Council, told EW: "Western companies should take advantage of...

PCB maker closes after fire at plant.
April 14, 2004... Selkirk-based PCB manufacturer North Riverside, which was operating as Signum, has closed with the loss of 105 jobs. The failure of the company was partly blamed on a recent fire which seriously damaged production facilities at the plant....

Component firms join forces.
April 14, 2004... Birmingham-based component manufacturing firms Microponents and Micro Metallic have joined together to create one company called Precision Micro. The firm, employing 135 staff across four sites, specialises in precision profiled, formed and...

Low-cost gyro developer seeks production partner.
April 14, 2004... Hertfordshire-based consultancy European Technology For Business (ETB) is seeking a co-development customer to take the firm's miniature gyro to production. "We have good working prototypes," MD and gyro inventor Dr Diana Hodgins told EW, "and...

UK researchers invited to exhibit.
April 14, 2004... Researchers are invited to participate in the 'Celebration of UK Engineering Research and Innovation' event, which will be a central part of the 'International Review of Engineering Research 2004'. The event, being run by the Engineering and...

Analyst warns of chip 'overshoot'.
April 14, 2004... Demand for semiconductors will outstrip supply well into 2005 according to analyst Future Horizons, which warns against "overshooting" the recovery which would trigger another downturn. "The upswing should outlive previous positive periods,"...

UK timing scheme cuts power and skew in complex chips.
April 21, 2004... Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a novel timing scheme for complex chips that they say reduces power and clock skew compared to traditional designs. The technique involves using a grid of asynchronous nodes to create a...

Microsensor specialist ETB claims world first with piezoelectric three-axis accelerometer.
April 21, 2004... A novel three-axis accelerometer is being developed by microsensors specialist European Technology for Business (ETB). The planar device uses advanced processing to integrate the piezoelectric material PZT with silicon to provide very low...

Spread-spectrum system improves antenna range by measuring patterns.
April 21, 2004... Formby-based Fizzle Technologies has developed a spread-spectrum technique it calls 'correlation' for measuring antenna patterns in real-time. It could be used to improve accuracy in indoor ranges, or to give mothballed ranges a new lease of...

China attracts and challenges.
April 21, 2004... Although Taiwan is pursuing a manufacturing love-in with the Chinese mainland, a similar route into this important growth market for non-Chinese companies is fraught with difficulties. "Over 3,500 of our member companies have set up over 6,000...

US develops 'soluble' version of semiconducting material PEDOT.
April 21, 2004... Scientists in the US have developed a version of the organic semiconducting material PEDOT, widely-used in plastic electronics, which can be dissolved in organic solvents and polymerised simply by irradiating with UV light. Unmodified PEDOT is...

Tests find one-in-five SRAM upsets may give logic errors.
April 21, 2004... An investigation into the frequency with which single-event upsets (SEU) caused by high energy neutrons from cosmic events occur in FPGAs has found that SRAM-based devices are affected to a greater extent than either flash or antifuse parts....

Simulator gets testbench automation.
April 21, 2004... Verification tool supplier Verisity has announced a package combining its Specman Elite testbench automation software with its Xsim simulator. The SpeXsim package, integrated with the firm's SureCov code coverage and debug tools, is the first...

Can you review an EMC guide?
April 21, 2004... Power equipment specialist REO UK is looking for 4,000 engineers to review 17 of its mini guides which explain various EMC standards and related issues. Volunteers will receive the first two guides immediately and then one a month for fifteen...

BAE collaborates on 152GHz chip.
April 21, 2004... BAE Systems in the US has been working with Vitesse Semiconductor and the University of Illinois to design what they claim is one of the fastest chip devices ever produced. Made using an indium phosphide process, the frequency divider circuits...

Fabless semiconductor firm gets $10m funding to extend product portfolio and customer base.
April 21, 2004... UK-based fabless chip company Aspex Semiconductor, formerly Aspex Technology, has secured $10m in second round funding with which it intends to develop the business internationally and expand its product portfolio. "We've got a good solid base...

Worldwide telecoms market will move into a period of growth this year, says US analyst.
April 21, 2004... The worldwide telecoms industry will begin to return to "historic growth patterns" this year as companies start seriously investing in next generation equipment according to a report from US analyst company Insight Research. 'The 2004 Telecom...

Digital consumer surge is catalyst for Japanese semiconductor investment.
April 21, 2004... Japan's semiconductor industry is investing heavily again after a decade of low spending and retrenchment. There was a 40 per cent growth year in the domestic market last year driven by a surge in the digital consumer sector. "The Japanese...

Anritsu 3G handset test ready for Christmas sales.
April 21, 2004... The essential conformance tests for 3G mobile phones are expected to be ready in time for phones to be tested and in the shops at the end of the year, according to Anritsu. "The target is to get the tests into a form which can be used for...

SMEs in Queen's Award spotlight.
April 21, 2004... An MPEG decoder and PCB X-ray system were two of the UK developed technologies winning Queen's Award for Enterprise this week. Winners in the innovation category included Dage Precision Industries for its PCB x-ray system and e2v technologies,...

IP developer releases decoder for set-top boxes and DVD players.
April 21, 2004... Belfast IP developer Amphion Semiconductor has released a high definition hardware video decoder core for digital television applications. The CS7050 device is compliant with the MPEG H.264/AVC standard, and aimed at set-top boxes, DVD players,...

Maxim countersues in US.
April 21, 2004... Maxim Integrated Products has filed a counterclaim to a patent infringement lawsuit brought against it in the US by Qualcomm. Maxim has made the claim that Qualcomm has misused its CDMA technology patents to maintain dominance in the market...

Algorithm to boost optical networks.
April 21, 2004... A forward error-correction (FEC) algorithm developed by Bristol-based fabless semiconductor firm Phyworks has been standardised in a new ITU G.975.1 recommendation that enables the bandwidth of existing optical networks to be doubled. A...

UK firm wins DTI award for tagging.
April 21, 2004... A Richmond-based company has won a Smart award to develop and produce an electronic tagging and tracking system for packaged items. ITPCO won the [pounds sterling]20,000 award from the DTI for an RFID tag with 1kbyte of data. Smart awards are...

Alcatel to licence UK web browser.
April 21, 2004... Cambridge-based ANT has seen Alcatel license its Internet browser technology to enable the French firm to add TV-over-IP capabilities to its open media digital TV set-top box platform. The intention is to provide an integrated set-top box and...

AND flash cell runs write/erase 'faster than NAND'.
April 21, 2004... Renesas Technology has shrunk its assist-gate AND (AG-AND) flash memory cell below the size of competing NAND flash cells and achieved a write/erase speed faster than NAND. "Write/erase speed becomes very important at high density in...

Free embedded seminar in April.
April 21, 2004... The free Embedded Masterclass half-day seminar on April 27 will take place in Reading. Titled The PowerQuiccIII Experience, the event includes presentation and demonstrations of embedded technology focused around Motorola's PowerQuiccIII....

FASL eyes NAND flash.
April 21, 2004... FASL, Fujitsu-AMD Semiconductor Ltd, the flash memory joint venture is looking at moving into the NAND market. "Certainly there is a huge amount of market for NAND flash for storage. FASL is paying attention to the NAND market," the chairman of...

Cooling tech firm to set up HQ in UK with promise of nano jobs.
April 21, 2004... Cooling technology specialist iCurie Lab Holdings is to set up its worldwide headquarters in the UK with the intention of creating hundreds of jobs in the UK nanotechnology sector. The company has received funding of $3m from Hansen Gray which...

Questions raised over Government commitment to microelectronics.
April 21, 2004... Government departments are questioning the amount of long term financial support they give to the microelectronics industry. Sources inside and outside Government have expressed the view to EW that in future companies will find it harder to win...

Arithmatica launches maths IP libraries for ICs.
April 28, 2004... Arithmatica, a firm which started life in Oxford six years ago to develop innovative maths for silicon chip designs, has launched a line of IP libraries aimed at maths-intensive ICs such as graphics chips and high-end processors. The company,...

Making use of free software.
April 28, 2004... Free development software offered by silicon vendors eager to sell microcontrollers gives an effective integrated development environment on which products can be designed. Steve Bush finds out what is on offer mbedded code development...