Electronic Design UPDATE e-Newsletter August 30, 2006
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LabVIEW 8.20 – Easy. Powerful. Open. With National Instruments LabVIEW 8.20 you can measure in minutes regardless of programming experience, build custom measurement solutions based on commercial off-the-shelf technologies, and integrate external applications and services with open connectivity tools. Take advantage of your existing hardware and software investment to create powerful measurement and test applications with the easy-to-use, intuitive graphical programming of LabVIEW.
Ultra Wideband Systems: Technologies and Applications
Electronic Design UPDATE edited by Lisa Maliniak, eMedia Editor
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The Fire Next Time?
Last week’s media feeding frenzy over Dell’s recall of 4.1 million laptop battery packs, followed by this week’s recall of 1.8 million Apple battery packs has some worrisome aspects. I wish I knew more than I do at this point. Here’s the short version: if you abuse a lithium battery, it can experience a “discharge with flame” and you can’t put it out. It generates its own oxygen to keep the fire going. Also, as we discovered this week, errors in manufacturing can give them the potential to self-ignite...
Development Software Offered As Free Download ZiLOG is offering its Developer Studio II (ZDS II) software free of charge via download from the company's website. ZDS II is an established Integrated Development Environment (IDE) providing a suite of software tools that support development with ZiLOG's eZ80Acclaim, Z8 Encore!, Z8 Encore! XP, Z8 Encore! MC, and Crimzon MCU product lines...
Piezoelectric Dome Delivers Better Speaker Sound Murata Electronics has designed what it claims is the world’s first super tweeter drivers that are able to improve the total sound of a speaker and not just reproduce high frequencies, as with conventional super tweeters. Murata’s proprietary design does away with the ordinary magnetic-based drive system and instead uses an active piezoelectric dome with an integrated drive system...
Lightweight Toggle Switches Target Handhelds Two new series of illuminated toggle switches from NKK Switches are extremely lightweight, making them an ideal choice for front panel interfaces or handheld devices. The toggle actuators of both the G series ultra-miniature and the B series subminiature illuminated switches are manufactured from a clear polyamide, allowing the LED color to fully illuminate...
Fast PCB Protos, 24/7/365 customer service Top quality quick-turn PCB proto boards from Sunstone Circuits, with the world’s best 24/7/365 customer service. From online quote and order to file check and delivery you get better service. Best on-time delivery record in the industry. Use the web’s easiest online quoting and ordering service now. Visit sunstone.com, click here.
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MP3 Player Offers 8-Gbyte Memory The iPod has some serious competition. Due in September, SanDisk’s Sansa e280 MP3 player will offer 8 Gbytes of flash memory for just $249. That’s equal to 128 hours of playback, or approximately 2000 songs. On top of that, the e280’s microSD expansion slot and an optional 2-Gbyte microSD card can boost the total to 2500 tunes...
With an up-to-date program of innovation and information from more than 3,000 exhibitors on 160,000 m² of exhibition space, electronica 2006 will present the entire spectrum of electronics and put the latest trends and developments on exhibit. One of the main attractions will be the automotive, wireless, embedded and micro- and nanotechnology areas and the automotive, wireless and embedded conferences.
Ultra Wideband Systems: Technologies and Applications Edited by Robert Aiello and Anuj Batra
Books on ultra wideband UWB have been pretty scarce. This technology only just emerged from secrecy and obscurity in the late 1990s, and reference works are rare. This once highly classified technology has come out of the closet so to speak, but it has only been recently that some practical books have become available. I say practical meaning books the working engineer can use to design and build real systems without having to get a doctorate in EE. This is just such a book...
Parallax Propeller Embedded in Electronic Design (EiED) Online is your source for technical insight and hands-on reviews. Read Embedded Technology Editor Bill Wong's latest EiED Online column, "Parallax Propeller." Bill checks out the Propeller multicore microprocessor from Parallax. This is definitely not your mother’s Basic Stamp.
photos wanted!
Submit Photos And Get Paid!
Grab some photos showing the "guts and glory" of you (and your team) at work. We need them for our "Day in the Life of an Electronic Designer" photo essay, which will appear in Electronic Design's Oct. 20 special issue. There's a $500 Grand Prize for best photo series and $250 prize for best photo, and we pay $50 if we use any of your photos in the issue. Please include the names and titles of all photo subjects, as well as company name and the type of work-in-process illustrated by the photo. Digital photos should be in .tif or .jpg formats and must have resolution of at least 300 dpi. Deadline for submission is Sept. 15. E-mail digital photos to Managing Editor Richard Gawel at: rgawel@penton.com.
TAKE A POLL! California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill that would make his state one of the world's largest producers of solar power. Could a similar program on a national level reduce America's dependence on foreign oil?
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