94 results found for Editor's Notebook, displaying items 1 - 20
October 8, 2009
$10 Million Light Bulb Prize Remains Unfunded
Philips Electronics is the first company to submit a prototype LED replacement for the common 60-W bulb in the U.S. Department of Energy’s $10 million Bright Tomorrow Lighting Contest. However, Congress has yet to appropriate funding for the prize, and questions remain about contest eligibility.
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Don Tuite
July 22, 2009
What’s Wrong With Engineering Education?
Engineering education faces a number of challenges in supplying the industry with qualified graduates ready to produce on the job. These challenges include a lack of industry participation, faculty arrogance, and dated curricula. Fortunately solutions are available.
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Louis E. Frenzel
July 6, 2009
Why Are They Doing This? Another Look At The ITU’s G.hn Standard Effort
In my May 12 article “Powerline Communications Standards Continue to Struggle” (ED Online ID #21180) I questioned the need for another wired home-networking standard like the ITU’s forthcoming G.hn standard. I’ll admit that the lack of details about this effort led to my doubt and somewhat negative reaction.
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Louis E. Frenzel
June 18, 2009
Do You Need Wireless Video Transmission For Your HDTV? Maybe, Sort Of…
It has been possible to send HD video over wireless links for consumer electronic equipment connectivity for a long time. Wi-Fi and WiMedia UWB solutions have been around a few years, but both rely on compression techniques to bring the data load down into a range that the wireless data speeds can handle. But compressing and then decompressing video always leaves it just a bit less definitive than before compression.
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Louis E. Frenzel
May 12, 2009
Powerline Communication Standards Continue To Struggle
Powerline networking puts OFDM on the ac powerline for high-speed data transfers over the installed power wiring. There are no new wires. The standard ac outlets are your network connections. That has to be as convenient as wireless, since every room or area in your home probably has multiple ac outlets. Yet the powerline networking segment of home networking is in a muddle and not doing as well as it could.
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Louis E. Frenzel
February 27, 2009
Need A Job? Try Consumer Medical Electronics
Are you looking for a new technical challenge—or a new job? You might want to consider the healthcare sector. It’s growing fast in terms of new opportunities being advanced by very inviting consumer data, particularly in the U.S., and in a growing investment in medical electronics technology development, much of it from consumer electronics companies.
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Ron Schneiderman
February 18, 2009
Whatever Happened To Heathkit?
Whenever I mention to folks that I used to work at Heathkit, a few people actually ask, “What’s Heathkit?” Yes, I suppose that does date me a bit. Others will say, “Oh, yes, my dad used to build Heathkits.” Anyway, some of you do remember Heathkit, and fondly in most cases. And believe it or not, it's still around.
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Louis E. Frenzel
January 22, 2009
Digital Technology Fuels The Analog Career Revolution
With analog systems still firmly embedded in the technosphere, and generally more difficult to develop than comparable digital circuits, finding qualified designers continues to be a major challenge for product manufacturers and other companies, even during hard economic times. But what’s a headache for employers is nothing less than great news for analog designers, many of whom enjoy a level of security, recognition and appreciation that other designers can only imagine.
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John Edwards
January 16, 2009
What Will President Obama’s Chief Technology Officer Do?
President Obama has announced plans to appoint the nation's first chief technology officer. Electronic Design discusses the potential duties and challenges facing the CTO with Dr. Leah Jamieson, the 2007 president of the IEEE and the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering at Purdue University.
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Ron Schneiderman
January 7, 2009
APEC Presents A Uniquely Powerful Opportunity For Analog Designers
You don't have to be a power engineer to benefit from attending the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC), Feb. 15-19 in Washington, D.C. Analog engineers will find plenty of information available that will make their next design easier, too.
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Don Tuite
March 2, 2006 Protocols, PoE, And The Less-Is-More Objective
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN Ericsson Power Modules has joined the Power Management Bus (PMBus) Implementers Forum. The company now can contribute to the development of a future, standardized digital power-management platform that it believes will benefit its customers in the short and long terms. The PMBus open-standard digital power-management protocol facilitates communication with a power converter or other device by defining the...
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Paul Whytock
December 9, 2002 Butterfly Standards
One of my favorite sci-fi plots starts with a man entering a time machine with the dials set to some year in the ancient past. After the press of a button and loads of special effects, the man emerges in the midst of dinosaurs. Startled, he steps...
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William Wong
October 28, 2002 Scripting Is Not Enough
I've been looking at a number of microcontroller development kits from Atmel, Cypress Semiconductor, Parallax, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Ubicom, and Rabbit Semiconductor. It's surprising how inexpensive the kits are and how easy it is to get started using...
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William Wong
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