Features
Solving the counterfeit crisis, engineers weigh in
March 11, 2013 9:57 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsHow would you stop counterfeiting? One of the hottest topics in electronic components--and basically every other industry-- is how to deal with the issue of counterfeiting. So we put it to the readers to come up with the best solutions for the counterfeiting crisis.
Nuclear plant inspections need to improve: report
March 11, 2013 9:23 am | News | CommentsMore than one-third of U.S. nuclear power plants suffered safety-related incidents over the past three years, and nuclear regulators and plant operators need to improve inspections to prevent such events, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) said in a report on Thursday.
Focus on climate change in the Arctic could yield environmental and financial dividends, panel concludes
March 6, 2013 9:36 am | News | CommentsClimate change in the far north is occurring far more rapidly than elsewhere around the planet, but common-sense efforts to mitigate key emissions and protect the fragile Arctic environment could slow this trend and benefit communities, the environment, and companies.
Optimizing high-speed, embedded memory interface designs
March 4, 2013 2:00 pm | by Steve Durnal, Micron | Micron | Articles | CommentsDesigners of energy-efficient, high-speed memory subsystems for small form factor or power-sensitive embedded and wireless products are often making the shift from traditional DDR2/DDR3 to low power (LP) DDR2/DDR3 memory solutions. This is largely in response to the ever-challenging power reduction requirements....
Maximizing solid-state storage capacity in small form factors
March 4, 2013 10:38 am | by Kent Smith, Senior Director of Marketing, Flash Components Division, LSI | Lsi Corporation | Articles | CommentsUsers want ever-smaller and lighter devices but also demand ever-increasing storage capacity to keep more apps and data loaded on their mobile computing platforms. To accommodate these two competing objectives, solid-state storage form factors will need to get smaller, while NAND flash memory geometries will be shrinking and storing more bits per cell.
Agita over 3D printed guns is absurd
March 1, 2013 4:26 pm | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Articles | CommentsHobbyists, tinkers, and DIYers are the unsung heroes of our industry — "hackers" in the original sense of the word. But conflating "hobbyists" with "guns" causes fits of hysteria. And it’s entirely unwarranted. The handwringing over the imagined capability to print 3D guns and the associated moral implications is absolutely absurd and betrays a basic misunderstanding of firearms and physics.
Mayer’s memo ending telecommuting puts Yahoo in good company
March 1, 2013 12:27 pm | by Chris Warner, Executive Editor | Blogs | CommentsMarissa Mayer created quite a hornet’s nest when she issued a memo effectively ending the work-at-home option for Yahoo employees. In the memo, obtained by AllThingsD, Mayer writes, “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side."
Why 3D-printable guns are a terrible idea
March 1, 2013 9:45 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsMention the words "3D printed guns" and you’ve got an instant, increasingly heated debate on your hands. When you consider there were 16 mass shootings—defined as a shooting with multiple, random victims—in 2012 with at least 88 people dead including children, it’s definitely a topic worth discussing. My take? No one needs a 3D printed gun or the ability to create one.
Balancing reliability and availability
March 1, 2013 9:28 am | by Chris Hobbs, Senior Developer, Safe Systems, QNX Software Systems Limited | Articles | CommentsOn 14 September 1993, Lufthansa Flight 2904 overran a runway in Warsaw because the reverse thrust deployment system operated exactly to specification. Unfortunately, the Airbus designers had not anticipated conditions during a cross-wind landing. In an analogous incident, on 11 July 2011, a Victoria underground train in London moved off with the doors open....
Big Brother makes our rational choices less rational
February 28, 2013 3:13 pm | by Chris Warner, Executive Editor | Articles | CommentsWhile writing my February 2013 column about EDRs (event data recorders, AKA “black boxes”), I came across an article on the same topic (http://bit.ly/12YX4Fe) by one of my colleagues. She commented on the reservations I share with many others about the use of the data derived from the black boxes.
Engineering Update #5: Robotic cockroaches, lightsabers, a 3D wearable mouse, and Google Glass
February 28, 2013 9:20 am | Videos | CommentsIn this episode of Engineering Update, brought to you by Mouser Electronics (www.mouser.com): Researchers at the University of Michigan are studying cockroaches in order to advance robotic technology. A 3D wearable, wireless, thumb-activated, space recognition, Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy protocol mouse called Mycestro.
Migrating legacy M2M systems to the cloud
February 27, 2013 4:51 pm | by Chris Downey, Laird Technologies | Articles | CommentsThe rapid pace of technological change means that, even before a system has matured, it often is replaced or enhanced with new technologies. Such is the case with machine-to-machine (M2M) applications and their migration to the cloud, or what sometimes is called the Internet of Things (IoT).
Hydrogen fuel cells get a lift
February 27, 2013 9:16 am | by M. Simon, Technical Contributor | Blogs | CommentsI was reading one of the logistics magazines I regularly get and found out something amazing. By about 2020, roughly 80 percent of the lift trucks in America will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The fuel cell advantage is constant voltage output and longer continuous run time.
What role will sensors and controls play in emerging solid state lighting applications? (Part II)
February 15, 2013 2:41 pm | Articles | CommentsQ: What role will sensors and controls play in emerging solid state lighting applications? Solid-state lighting technology is a natural fit in our digital, wireless world. Adaptive control and wireless sensor networks are the key to ever more sophisticated LED lighting schemes including dimming,
What role will sensors and controls play in emerging solid state lighting applications?
February 15, 2013 2:38 pm | Articles | CommentsQ: What role will sensors and controls play in emerging solid state lighting applications? Where will the Internet of Things make its big commercial debut? Probably a few feet above your head. Intelligent sensing systems — installed and configured in overhead lighting systems and combining motion, temperature and light sensors with microprocessors, imagers and LEDs
What is the Real Smart Home?
February 15, 2013 12:17 pm | by Elly Schietse, General Manager, GreenPeak Belgium | Articles | CommentsYou are ready and packed to leave on a holiday trip and for the first time, you agreed that your teenage son can stay home alone. The control freak in you is already making long lists of daily and weekly tasks and to-do’s to keep the pets and plants alive, and the calamity predictor in you wants to anticipate for flooded bathrooms and burning fryers.
Engineering Update #4: Robots driven by moths, recycling Nike & Nokia, and a hacking kit that flies
February 14, 2013 9:52 am | Videos | CommentsIn the latest episode of ECN 's Engineering Update, brought to you by Mouser Electronics (http://www.mouser.com): In case you were looking for a more dramatic way to steal competitive data or hack Facebook accounts, a build-it-yourself quadrocopter, called Crazyflie, is now available.
Large-scale free WiFi is still a dream worth pursuing
February 13, 2013 3:34 pm | by Chris Warner, Executive Editor | Articles | CommentsSometimes, it seems our nation no longer aspires to great things. These days our astronauts hitch rides to the International Space Station on Soviet spacecraft, and just recently, the U.S. Postal Service — once the envy of the world — announced its intention to eliminate Saturday mail service.
Engineers weigh in on best energy management tactics
February 13, 2013 9:28 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsWe know ECN readers have varied and valuable opinions – now here’s a great opportunity to showcase them. Send us an answer to the question below and if we think yours is the best, we’ll feature your response in the April print issue. Plus, you’ll get a $15 Starbucks gift card simply for sharing your thoughts.
Insulated-gate bipolar transistors optimized for uninterruptible power supplies, solar, induction heating, industrial motor, and welding applications
February 11, 2013 3:00 pm | International Rectifier | Product Releases | CommentsInternational Rectifier (IR) announced the expansion of its family of 600V insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) with the introduction of the IRGP4640D, IRGP4650D and IRGP4660D. The new rugged, reliable devices are optimized for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), solar, induction heating, industrial motor and welding applications.
Engineering Update #3: Watson, Nano Batteries, 3D Chips, and Mission: Impossible Gets Real
February 7, 2013 1:42 pm | Videos | Comments"Watson," no, not Sherlock's sidekick, but the famous supercomputer who beat the world's best human at Jeopardy, is going back to school. IBM is sending the Watson system to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, so it can improve its "thinking" skills. Because making robots more human always works out just fine.
Mechatronics security by design
February 6, 2013 12:06 pm | by Peter Thorne, Managing Director, Cambashi Ltd. | Articles | CommentsEngineers responsible for mechatronics development have always known that it’s not just PCs that can suffer from malware. A study in 20111 used experiment rather than theory to identify vulnerabilities of in-vehicle automotive systems. Not only was this a strong reminder of the seriousness of the issue...
Automobile EDR data collection by the Government must include safeguards
February 6, 2013 10:34 am | by Chris Warner, Executive Editor | Articles | CommentsIn December, The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a proposal that would require automakers to equip all light vehicles with event data recorders (EDRs) that capture information in the moments before and after a wreck similar to the way they are used to study airline crash.
Will 12V solar disappear in 2013?
February 5, 2013 3:08 pm | by Jon Gabay, Mouser Electronics | Mouser Electronics | Blogs | CommentsThe established solar architecture based on 12V photovoltaic panels, batteries, charge controllers, and inverters will continue to give way to grid-tied inverter architectures. This approach to harvesting solar energy brings with it a lot of key benefits.
Engineering Update #2: Revolutionary self-healing wires
January 31, 2013 1:53 pm | Videos | CommentsOur second newscast for Electronic Component News is brought to you by Mouser Electronics, the electronic components distributor with the widest selection of the newest products. In this episode of Engineering Update, we're discussing new research into larger, safer lithium ion batteries, revolutionary self-healing and self-assembling wires using liquid metal....
