Blogs
Office door Young Frankenstein castle knocker
February 28, 2012 6:04 am | by Chris Taylor, Project Manager – Engineering Department, SparkFun Electronics | Blogs | CommentsWe're always looking for more ways to make our office fun and strange. One of our engineers, Mike, recently rigged up the elevator to play the Tardis noise. I wanted to do something similar, but, specifically, in my office.
Key Metrics for Understanding Color Quality for LED Lighting
February 27, 2012 5:03 am | by Gui-Rong Zhou, Synopsys, Inc., www.synopsis.com | Articles | CommentsTerminology used to describe the color quality of an LED light source is often reduced to three letters: CCT and CRI, which are probably the most familiar, and CQS and GAI, which are relatively new. What do these abbreviations stand for, and how are they used?
Tips Help Engineers Write Well -- Part 1
February 24, 2012 6:45 am | by Jon Titus, Senior Technical Editor | Articles | CommentsMany engineers see engineering and writing as mutually exclusive skills. They think people can do one or the other, but not both. Engineers can write well, although it takes some practice.
Congress Opens Market for Commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems
February 22, 2012 11:52 am | by Paul Dempsey, Senior Correspondent, Footwasher Media | Articles | CommentsBuried deep in this month’s controversial Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding bill, passed by the Senate in an unusually bipartisan 75-20 vote were provisions to boost commercial potential for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Assuming President Obama’s signature, the four-year $63B budget bill mandates the FAA to
It’s been fun
February 17, 2012 9:49 am | by Alix Paultre | Articles | CommentsThis is the last column I’ll write as an editor and journalist...at least for now, as I’m moving on to another job where I will continue to serve the electronic design industry. Since joining this publishing group five years ago, I have had a fantastic time working with a great team...
Don’t be alarmed - SIMS keeps you protected
February 15, 2012 11:02 am | by Steve Ryckman, VP Technical Services, SIMS | Articles | CommentsIt’s no secret that alarm systems provide crucial functions for homes and business, but what would happen if the technology that keeps an alarm system up and running failed? There’s about a million different scenarios that come to my mind alone...
Five Reasons You Need Effective WAN Optimization For Cloud Storage
February 15, 2012 5:25 am | by Robert MacIntyre, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing, NetEx | Blogs | CommentsCloud storage is positioned to be one of the hottest IT trends of 2012. At the same time network WAN performance has been identified as a key inhibitor to cloud storage adoption, according to NetEx...
The Tinker's Toolbox - Sasha Gurke of Knovel on the Next Generation of Engineers
February 14, 2012 6:06 am | Podcasts | CommentsIn this episode of the Tinker's Toolbox we talk to Sasha Gurke, Senior Vice President and co-founder of Knovel, about inspiring and creating the next generation of engineers to serve the industry.
Technical Training Series in China Shows How To Move Applications Among 8, 16 and 32-bit
February 13, 2012 5:48 am | News | CommentsMicrochip Technology Inc. announced a series of technical training seminars in China-beginning in February - that will show designers how to easily adapt to changing product requirements by migrating a real-world application from 8, to 16, to 32-bit PIC microcontrollers (MCUs). The seminars will run from
A Digital Power System Demonstration from Texas Instruments
February 10, 2012 7:34 am | Videos | CommentsThis is a video shot at the Applied Power Electronics Conference at the Texas Instruments booth of their latest PM-BUS-compatible digital power system solutions.
Maxim's Power Measurement Technology Demonstration at APEC 2012
February 9, 2012 8:29 am | Videos | CommentsMaxim demonstrates their latest single-, three-, and multiphase power measurement solutions at their booth at the 2012 Power Electronics Conference.
The Tinker's Toolbox - Energy Management and Device Efficiency
February 9, 2012 7:16 am | Podcasts | CommentsHere we talk to J. Francois Crepin and James Ashe of Akros Silicon about energy management vs. power managment, and how proper energy management impacts device efficiency.
The Tinker's Toolbox - Mrinalini of Motorola on Civic Infrasturctures and Large Scale Systems of Intelligent Subsystems
February 7, 2012 10:25 am | News | CommentsHosted by ECN's Editorial Director, Alix Paultre, the Tinker's Toolbox is ECN's web-based interview show where we talk about the latest technology, components, and design issues for the electronic design engineering community.
The Tinker's Toolbox - Dr. Scott Nelson of Logic PD on Developing Smart Devices
February 6, 2012 4:43 am | Podcasts | CommentsHosted by ECN's Editorial Director, Alix Paultre, the Tinker's Toolbox is ECN's web-based interview show where we talk about the latest technology, components, and design issues for the electronic design engineering community.
The Tinker's Toolbox - Mark Adams of CUI on Advanced Power System Design
February 3, 2012 4:45 am | Podcasts | CommentsIn this episode of the Tinker's Toolbox we talk to Mark Adams, VP of Advanced Power Marketing at CUI, about designing next-generation power systems.
Dungeons and Dragons Dice Gauntlet
February 3, 2012 4:33 am | by Dia Campbell, TechStyle Specialist at Spark Fun | Blogs | CommentsThe D&D bracer is a fairly quick, fun, nerdy LilyPad project. The final product is a wearable bracer with a display that will randomly generate numbers between 1 and 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, or 100 in response to arm movement, so it can effectively replace all of the dice in your bag for a D&D session.
Sustainable?
February 2, 2012 4:02 am | by M. Simon | Blogs | CommentsI'd like some genius to define sustainable. Could we count something that we can keep doing for 100 billion years - beyond the death of the Universe as we currently understand such things - as sustainable? How about a billion years?
Jim Williams Remembered
February 1, 2012 7:36 am | by Jon Titus, senior technical editor | Articles | CommentsAnalog guru Jim Williams died in mid 2011, but his work lives on in circuits, magazine articles, books and photographs. Part of his lab lives on, too, in the exhibit, "An Analog Life: Remembering Jim Williams," at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
ThreadX RTOS and NetX Duo TCP-IP Stack Enhance Cortex-M4 Performance
February 1, 2012 4:35 am | Stmicroelectronics | Product Releases | CommentsExpress Logic announced that it has ported its popular ThreadX RTOS and NetX TCP/IP stack to support a wide range of processors based on ARM’s Cortex-M4.
The Tinker's Toolbox - Mark Lefebvre of IBM Rational on Next-Generation Automotive Electronics Integration
January 31, 2012 5:29 am | Podcasts | CommentsIn today's podcast we talk to Mark Lefebvre, Strategic Alliances and Integrations, IBM Rational, about next-generation automotive electronics and the challenges facing system integrators.
Remote Testing: the Achilles Heel of Cloud Services
January 30, 2012 4:52 am | by Daniel Joseph Barry, Napatech (www.napatech.com) | Blogs | CommentsThe availability of smartphones and the expectation of immediate and simple access are driving demand for centralization of IT services and the related competence required to support these effectively.
Flowcode Developers Kit Integrates Graphical Programming to Ease Electronic Design
January 30, 2012 3:22 am | Product Releases | Commentselement14, the collaborative global electronics community from Premier Farnell, has teamed up with Microchip and Matrix to introduce the PIC18 Flowcode Developers Kit.
The Tinker's Toolbox - Melissa Chee of Fresco Microchip on Consumer Product Design
January 26, 2012 4:56 am | Podcasts | CommentsIn today's podcast we talk to Melissa Chee of Fresco Microchip, a leader in RF, analog and digital semiconductors, about consumer product design.
PIC32 Multimedia Developers Kit Eases Development of 10-100 Ethernet Applications
January 24, 2012 8:35 am | Product Releases | CommentsTargeted at 10/100 Ethernet applications, the new PIC32 Multimedia Developers Kit from element14 offers comprehensive design software support for rapid evaluation and engineering development projects.
The Tinker's Toolbox - An Exclusive Interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson
January 24, 2012 6:16 am | Podcasts | CommentsIn today's podcast we talk to astrophysicist, technology evangelist, and futurist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.
