Electronics Weekly articles from December 2006

Electronics Weekly archives from December 2006

News.
December 6, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Frustrated with the lack of electronics graduates in the UK, one firm is taking matters into its own hands. ?Schools are not doing anything to evangelise engineering, so we are going to go out to...

News.
December 6, 2006... Grant Instruments in Cambridge has formed a partnership with Universal Sensors to manufacture the firm? potentiometric biosensor reader. Universal was looking for a local manufacturing partner to commercialise the design of the reader, to...

Products.
December 6, 2006... By Nick Flaherty editorial@electronicsweekly.com UK chip designer 3Dlabs is being spun off by its parent Creative Labs after three years spent developing a new multi-core chip architecture for high definition TV in handheld devices. 3Dlabs...

Products.
December 6, 2006... Shares in distributor Acal fell over 16 per cent last week, leading up to interim results announced this week. The firm? shares lost around 60p to land at 292p. The company is focusing heavily on its semiconductor business at the moment which...

News.
December 6, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Opportunities for new wireless technologies are limited except in near field communications (NFC), according to Peter Gardner, technology sector head for wireless communications at 3i Group, the...

News.
December 6, 2006... A team of physicists from Imperial College London has accurately measured the profile of a femtosecond laser pulse. To make the measurement, the pulse is directed into a cloud of gas. ?By firing it into a gas, we frequency up-convert it to...

News.
December 6, 2006... Research into controllable viewing angles for dual and triple viewing LCDs for industrial and automotive applications is taking place at Sharp? European laboratory in Oxford. The laboratory is also one of the Japanese firm? centres for...

News.
December 6, 2006... Dec 12: Schematic Capture with Altium Designer 6, Stanstead Abbotts, Ware, Herts www.eda.co.uk/ad_training_schematic.htm Dec 14-15: European nano systems conference, Paris. http://tima.imag.fr/conferences/ENS Jan 3-6: Thermal issues in emerging...

Cyan looks east for recruitment.
December 6, 2006... Cambridge-based Cyan Technology is looking to China to address a skills shortage, taking part in a student exchange through international student organisation AIESEC. ?AIESEC is a cost-effective platform for us to access skilled graduates...

High-speed bus launched in cars.
December 6, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk The bandwagon has started to roll for the FlexRay in-car comms bus standard as NXP and Freescale Semiconductor see BMW design their FlexRay chips into its X5 vehicles. ?We are now out of the study...

Antenna firm manufactures in Singapore to set minds at rest.
December 6, 2006... Antenna firm Sarantel is moving the bulk of its manufacturing to Singapore with contract manufacturer Sanmina-SCI. Bill Taylor, Sarantel? operations director, told EW the move was intended to set potential bluechip OEM customers? minds at...

BT embarks on IP-based network transformation.
December 6, 2006... BT has transferred the first customer lines to its IP-based (Internet protocol) 21st Century Network (21CN) in the first phase of its national roll-out of the technology. The first customers switched were in Wick, near Cardiff. ?A...

ICT standardisation needed to cut costs.
December 6, 2006... If Europe doesn? start standardising on some of the ICT systems it is intending to install over the next decade or so, it is going to be in a mess, according to Jozef Cornu, president of the Information Society Technologies Advisory Group...

News.
December 6, 2006... Gordon Lindsay is product manager in Europe for the wireless devices division of Broadcom Will VoIP over WiFi phones become an alternative to cell phones? Broadcom does not see Wi-Fi phones replacing cellular phones. They are a more a...

News.
December 6, 2006... Abacus Group has been named as Harting? best performing distributor for the fourth year in succession. Doreen Sanderson, distribution manager for Harting, said the connector firm had enjoyed a successful year. ?Abacus Group has...

News.
December 6, 2006... MEDEA+ has set up a scientific committee to look into nanotechnology and where it relates to the electronics industry. ?We have set up a scientific committee to give their views on this, recognising that a lot of what they say will not be...

CSR combines LAN specs on next Bluetooth chipset.
December 6, 2006... Cambridge Silicon Radio is designing a chip for the next generation of Bluetooth combining all the wireless LAN technologies, multiple antenna technology and UltraWideband. ?We are designing right now on 65nm,? James Collier, chief...

TSMC has no demand for 65nm earlier than 2007.
December 6, 2006... TSMC, Altera? foundry, said it has not been asked for a high performance 65nm process any earlier than Altera? announced schedule for sampling 65nm FPGAs. ?Altera? a development partner. They pretty well dictate when a process becomes...

ZBD signs supermarket deal for shelf-edge LCDs.
December 6, 2006... ZBD Displays has signed deals with retail systems firm Episys to provide shelf-edge displays to supermarkets. ?Episys will support our plans to roll out its electronic point of purchase displays,? said ZBD, which also revealed a tie-up with...

News.
December 6, 2006... Metalwork company Hitec and electronics manufacturer Kaizen Technology have formed an alliance that will offer a ?one-stop shop? for fast turn-around prototypes and volume manufacturing. John Stevenson (left), managing director of Hitec is...

Features.
December 6, 2006... Optical networks are achieving unprecedented agility - from the core to the edge - with the help of a new generation of network elements called reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs). The design, implementation and...

Features.
December 6, 2006... The last few months has seen a rapid increase of interest in technologies that can be used to deliver video content to the home or office. And, just as importantly, in methods of distributing that content to a variety of different devices in...

Features.
December 6, 2006... There are multiple ways to deploy an A-GPS (assisted-global positioning system) server, and to distribute the process flow between the server and the mobile. The MS-based method places the position determination in the receiver, while the...

News.
December 6, 2006... The ever-shrinking dimensions of semiconductor structures, accurate characterisation of nano-electronic devices, and the verification of low-level medical radiation sources are all requirements that have been prompting companies such as...

Features.
December 6, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk ISLI has arranged for a semiconductor design specialist from Leuven University to present its next low-noise low-power analogue IC design course. The three-day course will be held in Livingston on...

Advanced DSP course to cover digital filter design.
December 6, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk The University of Surrey? first course next year will be Advanced Digital Signal Processing, to be held on 12-16 February, which will have a revised syllabus for this year. The course is...

Features.
December 6, 2006... Dec 14-15: Advanced FPGA Implementation - Bournemouth www.doulos.com 2007 Jan 9: The New EMC Directive 2004/108/EC - York www.elec.york.ac.uk/cpd Feb 2: DSP Implementation - Algorithms to Optimisation - Oxford ...

Features.
December 6, 2006... The future of TV and broadcasting was the topic of discussion at a seminar called Lights, Camera, Action recently held at Hertfordshire University. Speakers examined the major impact engineering has had on the creation and consumption of...

Features.
December 6, 2006... 15nov06maile.jpg Patents ? a bastion of innovation or stifling bane of the SME? By Dr Graham Maile, director of strategic consulting at Plextek The patent system, a concept dating back to the 1400s, is heralded as the bastion of...

News.
December 6, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Malvern-based bistable LCD firm ZBD Displays has chosen a proprietary wireless protocol for its shelf-edge display system. ?The key requirement is very low power consumption. We looked at ZigBee but it...

News.
December 13, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Frans van Houten, CEO of NXP, is continuing his strategy for the firm despite the company? takeover by private equity investors. ?Our strategy of operating in five market segments: home, mobile,...

News.
December 13, 2006... Investors have had other benefits. ?Our investors can help us get into customers I couldn? serve before,? said van Houten. ?Before the deal was closed, I was introduced to new customers I was finding it hard to get into before.?

News.
December 13, 2006... The Hertfordshire Business Innovation Centre has appointed Bill Collins as business development executive. His responsibilities at the centre will be to run incubation programmes. The CEO, Keith Attwood, of E2v Technologies is to succeed...

Products.
December 13, 2006... Antenna frim Sarantel? shares fell by over 20 per cent to reach 15.5p after the firm saw a full year pre-tax loss of ?6.9m. The firm is going to outsource its manufacturing to Sanmina-SCI which should reduce costs for the firm. Sarantel did...

News.
December 13, 2006... By Alex Mayhew-Smith alex.mayhew-smith@rbi.co.uk E2v Technologies? Grenoble facility, acquired from Atmel, is beginning to play a major role in the business after just a few months under its new owners. As well as contributing some ?13m of...

News.
December 13, 2006... AMD has moved into the worldwide semiconductor top ten rankings as it increased its revenues by $4bn, according to US analysts iSuppli. At the same time AMD? arch-rival Intel? revenues decreased by $4bn. AMD? revenues grew by 90 per...

News.
December 13, 2006... A consortium lead by BAE Systems has won a ?124m contract from the MoD to develop unmanned aerial vehicle technology. Other firms in the consortium include Rolls-Royce, Qinetiq, and Smiths Aerospace. They will work on Project Taranis to...

News.
December 13, 2006... Whether or not the spectrum issues surrounding WiMAX are settled has been a subject of some disagreement. According to Intel in its announcement of an integrated WiFi/WiMAX chipset the global frequency issue is settled. ?With global...

News.
December 13, 2006... Graham Naisbitt is MD of test equipment manufacturer Gen3 Systems You must see a lot of solder joints. Has the UK properly got to grips with lead free soldering yet? No it hasn?t. Many companies are simply sitting on the fence. The problem...

News.
December 13, 2006... By Nick Flaherty editorial@electronicsweekly.com The ?3m electronics Knowledge Transfer Network (EKTN) is to be a key way for firms to obtain Government funding as Ashley Evans is appointed CEO of the network. Funding schemes such as the...

News.
December 13, 2006... Xg Technology, which has made bold claims that it will revolutionise wireless telephony, said it will prove its technology in the field next February. The company said if it explains in advance how it works, larger firms would appropriate...

News.
December 13, 2006... This is a separate par after: US history next year.? This repalces the quote at the end: ?We will have our first field trial in February and, in late February or early March, we will have a second field trial with FarReach of Daytona [a...

Features.
December 13, 2006... By Adam Fletcher chairman of industry association Afdec Many industry commentators believe the greatest threat to the UK economy is the continuing departure of UK-based manufacturing jobs to countries with lower labour costs. Whilst the...

Features.
December 13, 2006... By Jezel Hardern UK managing director of Rutronik In-house design engineers are stretched to the limit. For specialist areas, RF design for instance, these projects increasingly require external help. Design work can be carried out by...

Features.
December 13, 2006... By Richard Wilson Semiconductor suppliers are relying more than ever before on their distribution networks to provide customers with specific types of device-related design expertise. In most cases designers have come to expect technical...

Features.
December 13, 2006... By Dirk Rathsack European director for distribution at Texas Instruments The semiconductor market in the UK developed quite nicely in 2006 and should show growth of around nine per cent in distribution, whereas the same market declined by...

Features.
December 13, 2006... By Richard Eden market development manager at RS Components Those distributors who want to grow and prosper must move out of their comfort zone and focus on their customers? needs. Most distributors are stocking similar products and, as the...

Features.
December 13, 2006... RoHS puts the Internet into focus By Chas Ewen RoHS was the dawn of a new era for the electronic industry? relationship with the Internet. Whilst distributors in other sectors may have offered up their websites as information portals on...

News.
December 13, 2006... Rotherham-based CPI Electronics is the first company on a business development programme for South Yorkshire intended to create jobs in the region. Electronics Yorkshire? network manager Andy Lee (right) is pictured with Paul Ironmonger, MD of...

News.
December 13, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk A combination of surface and X-ray computer tomography (CT) have revealed a 2,000 year-old shoe box-sized object to be an eclipse calculator including over 30 gears. ?The CT X-rays came from X-Tek in...