Electronics Weekly articles from January 2002

Electronics Weekly archives from January 2002

PC-based ; systems put bench testers in the cold.
January 9, 2002... Mike Green The majority of today's traditional test and measurement instruments are destined to become museum pieces as PC-based instruments become the norm for most R&D, engineering, and industrial applications. A few years ago...

Planar links up to develop automotive instrument EL display.
January 9, 2002... Planar Systems has developed a 'three-dimensional' instrument cluster display with automotive suppliers Sagem and Johnson Controls. The dual-plane semi-circular transparent electroluminescent (EL) display provides speedometer, gear...

Microvision starts to ship translucent SVGA display.
January 9, 2002... Microvision has begun shipping its Nomad Personal Display System. The device is a head-up display, presenting translucent images in the visual field. Nomad has SVGA resolution and the company claims it is daylight readable. The display...

Superconductors violate Fermi theory declare US researchers.
January 9, 2002... High-temperature superconductors are unlike any other known material, say researchers from the universities of Maryland and Toronto - the materials break an important theory. "Our experiment shows that the very low temperature normal metal...

Talking networks.
January 9, 2002... Harry yeates went underground to the packed halls of Earl's court where the annual bash of the optical networking industry, Lightspeed Europe, was taking place and heard all the latest news and views from the exhibitors December's...

What price to pay for telecoms competition?
January 9, 2002... Since BT was privatised the struggle to provide competition has been exhaustive, but is this the right approach? asks melanie reynolds writes A long time ago in the UK there was a nationalised telecoms monopoly which went by the name of...

Actel's flash FPGAs hit a million gates.
January 9, 2002... Richard Ball Actel has launched the second generation of its flash-based FPGAs which take the devices up to a million logic gates. Called ProASIC Plus, the devices are built using a 0.22[micro sign]m process and can achieve system...

Customised 3D hi-fi is all ears to the listener.
January 9, 2002... Steve Bush Better 3D hi-fi sound could come from a research project at the University of California Davis. The researchers have not worked out exactly how to do it yet, but they have put their results on the web so that others can have...

Tiny LEDs lift blues for micro displays.
January 9, 2002... Steve Bush High-efficiency blue micro-LEDs 10[micro sign]m across have come out of a project at Kansas State University. The InGaN LEDs can be made on a 35[micro sign]m pitch and researchers are suggesting micro displays could be a...

Antenova steers CCL to antennas.
January 9, 2002... Harry Yeates Smart antenna firm Antenova has signed an agreement giving Cambridge Consultants (CCL) access to the start-up's steerable technology for use in its own designs. In return, Antenova will get exposure to CCL clients including...

Recruitment analyst warns of further job losses in Q1.
January 9, 2002... Recruiting agency Manpower has predicted further job losses in the electronics industry during the first quarter of 2002. UK employers' predictions for the period January to March 2002 indicate the steepest quarter-on-quarter drop in the...

Start-up develops single-pulse electromechanical valve range.
January 9, 2002... A Cambridge start-up has developed a range of low-power, bistable electro-mechanical valves for a variety of applications. Camcon Technology's designs are based on a common principle in which high-power permanent magnets hold a...

Lumileds lights up for bicycles.
January 9, 2002... Lumileds, the Agilent-Philips joint venture dedicated to led-based lighting, has produced an assembly aimed at torches and bicycle lights. Called the LuxeonStar/O, the device uses a large die, a supplementary lens and just about every LED...

IQE deal will drive Intense Photonics' market push.
January 9, 2002... Harry Yeates Intense Photonics, the Scottish optoelectronics firm, has signed a strategic partnership with Welsh III-V wafer specialist IQE. The arrangement, which covers design, modelling and growth of GaAs and InP structures, will...

Irish firm wins recognition for opto technology.
January 9, 2002... Cork-based fabless photonic technology firm Firecomms has won the Irish leg of a competition to find Europe's most promising early-stage technology projects. The contest, organised by venture capital (VC) firm Tornado Insider, now moves to...

Ceramic sensors set sights on bio-compatible retinas.
January 9, 2002... Steve Bush NASA claims to have created ceramic photo sensors as a step towards a bio-compatible artificial retina. "We are conducting preliminary tests on the ceramic detectors for biocompatibility, and they appear to be totally...

Firms start year with face changes at top.
January 9, 2002... Amino Communications' chief executive officer, Bob Giddy. Amino Communications, Celoxica and ARC have all decided to make a fresh start to 2002 with the appointment of new chief executives. IP licensing business Amino Communications has...

Australian telescope gets 100GHz frequency detail.
January 9, 2002... The Australia Telescope radio telescope operates at frequencies up to 100GHz following an upgrade with low-noise indium phosphide amplifiers and digital receiver chips from Velocium, part of US electronics firm TRW. "The extremely high...

CSR joins Microsoft to implement IPv6 over Bluetooth.
January 9, 2002... Melanie Reynolds Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) has started work with software giant Microsoft on implementing Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) over Bluetooth wireless links. The wireless communications silicon firm will provide an...

Industry knights mark strong showing for electronics in New Year's honours.
January 9, 2002... Steve Bush Characters from the electronics industry peppered the New Year's Honours list with Robin Saxby, chairman of ARM, knighted for services to the information technology industry. Saxby became chief executive of ARM when it was...

Irish jobs blow as contract manufacturer pulls plug on its assembly plant in Dublin.
January 9, 2002... Irish electronics has suffered another blow as contract manufacturer Sanmina-SCI closes its Blanchardstown assembly plant in Dublin with the loss of up to 130 jobs. A spokeswoman confirmed that the move was expected following the company's...

Marconi sells businesses for [pounds sterling]360m debt reduction.
January 9, 2002... Financially troubled telecoms group Marconi has sold off interests in two so-called "non-core" businesses which will raise over [pound]360m to reduce the firm's debt of almost [pound]3bn. The sale of a 50 per cent shareholding in the...

Infineon considers DRAM link options.
January 9, 2002... David Manners Acceleration of the consolidation process in the DRAM industry has seen Infineon Technologies pull out of talks with Toshiba, while continuing talks with the Taiwanese producers Nanya, Winbond and Mosel-Vitelic. Toshiba...

Lexra to take MIPS licence as companies drop lawsuit.
January 9, 2002... Processor design firms MIPS Technologies and Lexra have resolved the pending lawsuit between them. Lexra is to hand over to MIPS all its intellectual property and has been forced to take a licence for the MIPS32 architecture. Lexra will...

Market analysts at odds with diverging forecasts.
January 9, 2002... David Manners Despair among semiconductor industry analysts has produced 2002 market forecasts which range dramatically from minus six per cent (Future Horizons) to plus 21 per cent (Semico). "There is really nothing concrete to build...

Oftel puts Ofcom on top of list for work this year.
January 9, 2002... Melanie Reynolds Preparing for the introduction of communications regulator Ofcom will be one of Oftel's main projects this year, along with implementing the European Commission framework for electronic communications. In its draft...

Acquisitive US companies cast for UK design teams.
January 9, 2002... Richard Wilson Two UK design firms face the start of the year with the prospect of being under US ownership. Power semiconductor firm Westcode Semiconductor is the acquisition target of US manufacturer Ixys. Mobile comms design...

Pupils, teachers and engineers join Loughborough engineering scheme.
January 9, 2002... Over 400 pupils, teachers and engineers recently spent three days at Loughborough University working on a variety of projects as part of the Engineering Education Scheme. The residential workshop gave the 68 teams access to equipment and...

Oftel increases pressure on BT to provide broadband to rivals.
January 9, 2002... Telecoms watchdog Oftel has taken fresh action to promote the roll-out of ADSL broadband communications services over BT's national network. Responding to requests for action from operators Energis and Thus, the regulator has specified...

Executive will reclaim [pounds sterling]2.4m if NEC closes Livingston plant.
January 9, 2002... Chris Druce NEC will have to pay back [pound]2.4m of regional selective assistance to the Scottish Executive if it closes its Livingston plant, an Executive spokesman has confirmed. As part of its global restructuring plans, NEC is to...

Ukraine boosts gallium supply.
January 9, 2002... Ukraine's gallium producer Mykolayivsky Hlynozemny Zavod is to expand production from 1.8 tonnes per year to 10 tonnes per year by setting up new facilities. Reports suggest slowing mobile phone sales have reduced global gallium demand and...

Sales jump for mobile test firm.
January 9, 2002... Mobile handset test and billing firm Anite Telecoms has reported turnover for the six months to October 31, 2001 up 74 per cent at [pound]18m, compared with [pound]10.3m in the same period of 2000. Company operating profit increased by 78...

Lucent sells interest in venture firm.
January 9, 2002... Lucent Technologies has sold an 80 per cent share of its venture capital group to London-based Coller Capital. Coller's new fund will be known as New Venture Partners II (NVP II) and will manage the former portfolio of businesses, which has...

Digital TV switch over will only work if viewers want services, says report.
January 9, 2002... People will only switch from analogue to digital TV if there are programmes, equipment and services they want and are prepared to pay for, according to a report by the Viewers' Panel. The Digital Decisions: Viewer Choice and Digital...

Alpha Micro breaks into top 100 league.
January 9, 2002... Alpha Micro Components (AMC) has achieved a place in the Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100, the annual league-table of Britain's fastest growing unquoted companies, thanks to its strong sales growth. Basingstoke-based AMC's sales...

Memory makers look to new technologies to boost margins.
January 9, 2002... David Manners Commoditisation and consolidation of traditional memory markets are forcing manufacturers into new technologies which provide better solutions, with proprietary technologies and therefore fatter margins. A revolutionary...

Invensys to sell off division for $505m.
January 9, 2002... London-based Invensys has agreed to sell its energy storage group to US industrial battery supplier EnerSys for $505m. The automation and control company said it would use the money to reduce its debt which stood at nearly [pound]3.3bn in...

BT plans to broadcast TV over phone using SDSL technology.
January 9, 2002... David Manners BT is six months into a plan to offer TV content down its phone lines using symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) technology. "Sir Christopher Bland set up a working party in June to get the whole thing going - with...

Swiss boost for optical data links.
January 9, 2002... Researchers in Switzerland have developed a small, continuous wave 9.1[micro sign]m mid infra-red laser source that could help extend the range of free-space optical data links. Current free-space systems operate at around 1.5[micro sign]m,...

Bookham no comment on Caswell jobs.
January 9, 2002... The fate of 450 jobs at Marconi's Caswell and Chelmsford sites remains unknown following the announcement last month of the sale of the company's optical business to Bookham Technology. A spokeswoman at Bookham said the company could not...

Mobile basestations' emissions stay within guidelines.
January 9, 2002... Melanie Reynolds A year-long audit of emissions from mobile phone basestations at 100 school sites has failed to produce any results which exceed the recommended exposure levels. Measurements taken at 100 schools were well within the...

FEI launches [pounds sterling]2.8m plan to build PCB skills.
January 9, 2002... Richard Wilson Industry body the Federation of the Electronics Industry (FEI) has launched a Government-backed training initiative aimed at boosting the UK's skills base in PCB design. The Department of Trade and Industry is supporting...

AMD and Intel show off faster microprocessors.
January 9, 2002... Intel and AMD launched processors this week. Intel's 2.2GHz P4 has been made on a 0.13[micro sign]m process. AMD's Athlon 2000+ 1.67GHz processor is made on a 0.18[micro sign]m process However, AMD said when migrated onto a 0.13[micro...

Navigating rough seas for success.
January 16, 2002... Rick Wills At our company's recent global leadership meeting, I likened the current economic downturn to the 1998 Sydney to Hobart sailing race. Of the 115 boats that started under clear skies in Sydney, just 43 would finish. Those 43...

A very different downturn.
January 16, 2002... The big question for the coming year is will the semiconductor industry ever recover? Wilf corrigan gives his views The worst-ever downturn for the global semiconductor industry in 2001 is no longer news. What will be news are the...

Greater design efficiency.
January 16, 2002... joe siderowicz The good news is today's sub-micron silicon technologies enable much more functionality than previous generation devices. The bad news is system, hardware and software teams face a daunting task - how to design, verify and...

Seeking interchangeability of devices.
January 16, 2002... ian martin Since the general purpose interface bus (GPIB) set the standard for the connectivity of test instruments in the 1970's, test system designers have constantly been looking for more. Connectivity was only the start, the true goal...

Innovative approach to emerging products.
January 16, 2002... MARK GILL Emerging technologies including 3G handsets, wireless Internet, and enhanced PDAs demand new approaches to meet the functionality and cost goals of consumers, product designers, and service providers. These devices require higher...

DSP core licensing becomes a trend.
January 16, 2002... NEAL STOLLON Communications companies want to get customised, efficient solutions to the market quickly and to leverage as much reuse in their development efforts as possible. These factors have made DSP core licensing a strategic trend,...

Look for growth in wireless connectivity.
January 16, 2002... Scott mcgregor There is nothing wrong with the semiconductor industry. It's doing fine and there are still great products and great technologies out there. The current situation has arisen simply because last year the semiconductor...

The future is mobile.
January 16, 2002... peter george To forecast the testing requirements for wireless devices in 2002 and beyond, we need to understand the likely changes in the communications market. In Europe and much of the world, GSM and similar second generation systems...

Cost reduction to continue.
January 16, 2002... vaughan price The most significant trend that we've noticed in the last 12 months, and one that we see continuing into 2002, is a greater move towards cost reduction of FPGAs by customers. In the current market, there is more time to...

Programmable logic keeps on growing.
January 16, 2002... wim roelandts Despite the current economic downturn, the programmable logic industry remains one of the fastest growing segments of the semiconductor business and continues to expand quicker than the industry itself. This is occurring as...

Riding the wave of wireless data.
January 16, 2002... Robert hinke After years of speculation and innovation it is safe to say that analogue technology is in place for the widespread penetration of wireless data into the consumer market. Components such as audio amplifiers, image sensors and...

Looking forward to a better year ahead.
January 16, 2002... Andy travers As 2001 drew to a close it was clear that the entire electronics industry is still embroiled in one of the most testing downturns on record. And this downturn has its roots in more than just the typical four-yearly dip caused...

Shifts in business drivers and technology for design.
January 16, 2002... Aart de geus In 2002 there will be two trends developing to watch in electronic design automation (EDA): firstly, EDA's customers - semiconductor and systems companies - are experiencing a shift of their key business drivers. This shift in...

A proven business model will ensure you thrive.
January 16, 2002... Jim ready While the hype of Linux has died down, it has gained market share in servers and desktops. The real commercial success in 2002 will however continue to happen in the embedded Linux space, where the two hot growth areas will be...

"2002 should be a very good year...".
January 16, 2002... wally rhines Contrary to the gloomier viewpoint expressed by some of my colleagues in the EDA industry, 2002 should be a very good year for us. The unique characteristics of this electronics industry recovery suggest uniqueness for EDA as...

Technology makes progress to SOPC.
January 16, 2002... paul hollingworth The technology of programmable logic devices - PLDs or FPGAs - has made amazing progress over the last few years. Having lagged well behind the leading-edge processes used in Asics and microprocessors, programmable logic...

Good progress in high-level language.
January 16, 2002... Cris Kobryn Since their inception a half century ago, there has been a general trend for lower-level programming languages to be replaced by higher-level languages. For example, assembly language begat C, which begat C++, which begat Java,...

Communications the key driver ; for test and ; measurement.
January 16, 2002... david carew-jones The key driver for the development of future test & measuring instruments can be summed up in the single word 'communications'. This covers not just the obvious manifestations of the communications market-place - mobile...

Functionality sets the trend.
January 16, 2002... Madhu rayabhari As end-systems evolve, the boundaries that existed between traditional classifications of systems is rapidly eroding. Systems continue to incorporate elements of communications, computing and consumer/ entertainment...

First major shift as telecoms advances.
January 16, 2002... JEAN CLAUD LOIRAT After almost a decade of smooth evolution mainly driven by the audio and industrial markets, the DSP world is facing its first major shift with the emergence of new telecom applications. As the wireless revolution is...

Skills mobility.
January 16, 2002... As companies and products evolve, skills integration is becoming increasingly important, and none more so than in the 3G phone sector. Which is why it is one of the key topics being addressed by training company RTT Programmes, writes GEOFF...

Portable communications will be main driving force.
January 16, 2002... JEAN-MARC CHARPENTIER Portability and time to market will continue to drive DSP development. Portable communications, and the vast array of voice and data products which are emerging in this sector, along with the...

IBM plans to build son of Blue Gene.
January 16, 2002... Steve Bush IBM is to create a second version of Blue Gene, the most powerful computer under construction. Blue Gene (EW July 12 2000) is a 1Pflop special purpose computer designed and funded by IBM to solve 'protein folding' problems....

Quantum cascade laser emits 9[micro]m light at room temperature.
January 16, 2002... Harry Yeates Swiss scientists have developed a semiconductor laser that could have implications for free-space optical links, atmospheric chemistry and medicine. Their quantum cascade laser (QCL) emits at 9.1[micro sign]m, in the...

Electronics the right fuel to drive automotive growth.
January 16, 2002... David Manners If automotive semiconductors can grow in a year like 2001 - in a normal year they should rocket. Last year, says Dataquest senior analyst Mike Williams: "Automotive was the only semiconductor applications area not in...

Comms still gloomy as 3G stutters into action.
January 16, 2002... Melanie Reynolds There were a lot of technologies rattling around in the communications market looking for mass market deployment last year. Unfortunately unless something dramatic happens to lift the financial gloom it looks like they...

Will this be the year of digital TV?
January 16, 2002... Richard Wilson The basic trend for digital TV in the UK is that more televisions with integrated receivers and cheap set-top boxes for picking up free-to-air services will appear on the market. Well, that is the hope of both the industry...

Viruses to build with nanometre particles.
January 16, 2002... Liquid crystal films assembled using viruses could be the first step towards arranging nanometre-sized particles over larger scales, for applications such as molecular-scale electronic devices and data storage. Researchers at the...

Xilinx heats up CoolRunnerII programmable logic devices family Cool Runner.
January 16, 2002... Richard Ball FPGA firm Xilinx has redesigned CoolRunner, the family of programmable logic devices it bought from Philips in 1999. CoolRunner II combines the best features of the original Philips devices and Xilinx' own 9500 CPLDs, the...

Banking on PCB design.
January 16, 2002... The DTI with the FEI and Scottish Enterprise has put PCB design to the top of its must do better list and invested [pound]2.8m in creating a training scheme and design centre. chris druce examines its relevance Low-level electronic assembly...

Aldec adds support for huge FPGAs and team design to verification tool.
January 16, 2002... Aldec has released the latest version of Active-HDL, its verification tool for FPGA designers. Active-HDL 5.1 adds more support for FPGAs exceeding a million gates, and for team-based design. Compilation speed has doubled, the firm said....

DALI casts light on controller.
January 16, 2002... Motorola has released a reference design for digital addressable lighting interfaces (DALI). The reference design is the third application-specific designs based on the company's 68HC908 8-bit flash microcontroller. It is aimed at...

Exploding silicon fires up sensors in the field.
January 16, 2002... Steve Bush After discovering that silicon can be persuaded to explode, scientists are proposing to use the effect in sensors. "If you want to look for lead or other toxic metal ions in a sample of groundwater, typically what's done is...

Simplex design tools hit by chip downturn.
January 16, 2002... Design tool firm Simplex Solutions is to announce lower than expected revenues tomorrow (Thursday) of around $11m. The firm had expected fourth quarter 2001 revenues of more than $14m. Moreover, the company will break even, rather than make...

Mathematics discovery boosts digital sampling.
January 16, 2002... Steve Bush New mathematics could dramatically improve digital sampling, according to two US mathematicians. "Our theory, based on a lot of beautiful new mathematics, can produce more accurate digital representations of all kinds of...

Engineering applications drop as university numbers rise 5%.
January 16, 2002... Richard Ball The number of students taking science and engineering subjects has dropped despite a five per cent rise in overall university admissions this year. Numbers of HND students in electronics have dropped 25 per cent, while...

Scottish online IP trading firm VCX seeks cash to fund future activities.
January 16, 2002... Harry Yeates The Virtual Component Exchange (VCX), the online semiconductor intellectual property (IP) trading organisation set up by Scottish Enterprise in October 2000, is in talks with "local venture capital firms". The company is...

Kodak team with Sanyo to market active OLEDS.
January 16, 2002... David Manners Plastic displays are approaching commercialisation with Kodak teaming up with Sanyo to be first to mass manufacture full-colour active matrix OLEDs while some passive matrix production lines are moving into genuine volume...

UK firm brings little known standard to play in home networking market.
January 16, 2002... Harry Yeates A little-known standard that is "everything you want of a network technology" is being pitched into the competitive home networking arena by UK firm 4Links. High-speed serial interconnect firm 4Links, based in Bletchley,...

Pace implements home network live field trials.
January 16, 2002... Melanie Reynolds UK-based company Pace Micro Technology will be starting live field trials of its home networking technology in consumer's houses in Europe next month. "There is increasing consumer awareness of what this product will...

Hospitals trial medical sniffer technology.
January 16, 2002... Crewe-based medical sniffer device firm Osmetech has begun clinical trials of its technology across three US and UK hospitals. The trials follow on from US approval for its urinary tract infection (UTI) sensor device in November last year....