[Technology Report] Hot Cellular Market Can't Escape Icy Economic Winds
While nothing seems to be totally immune to the economic downturn, except perhaps government growth, the wireless industry is still performing better than most. Revenue is down, but the subscriber rate is up. U.S. carriers added 15 million new subscribers in 2008, boosting the total to more than 270 million by the end of the year. Just over 2.2 trillion minutes were used for voice calls alone in 2008. Total cellular revenue topped $148...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Technology Report] Beyond The "Great Recession"
If one looks at the last 50 years of engineering boom-and-bust cycles and correlates them with the “stealth” technologies that emerged during those periods, one can see an encouraging pattern: breakthrough technologies take root during the crises and eventually transform the industry. Often, few people initially grasp these technologies or their potential. It’s also regrettably demonstrable that the actual pioneers have rarely been the ones to reap the big...
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Don Tuite
[Technology Report] Motor Control: More Than Just Switching MOSFETs
Enter “motion control” or “motor control” into your favorite search engine, and you’ll be rewarded with links to an ad-hoc encyclopedia of solid design information. Freescale’s site (www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?nodeId=02M0zpbnQXGM0zpqCKS2&tid=tMCdr) is broad, deep, and far more than a product selection guide—which it...
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Don Tuite
[Technology Report] Laptops, Netbooks, And E-books, Oh My!
You don’t need to wave a magic wand to capitalize on the hordes of mobile devices that are on the market these days. They’ve become bright spots in a wobbly consumer electronics industry as buyers look for new bargains. In many instances, the cutting edge, such as the iPhone and Kindle, still carries a premium price. But the potential of lower-cost alternatives as well as the functionality provided by these new platforms is driving interest. ...
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William Wong
[Technology Report] Putting Robots In Harm's Way
Aremote-controlled landing craft approaches a beach and deploys its robotic cohorts, including a helicopter. The helicopter flies inland and deposits a set of tracked robots that split up to reconnoiter. They use laser designators to highlight targets for incoming robot fighter planes that will launch missiles as part of a coordinated attack. This futuristic scenario is years away, not decades. Odds are good that if you step on a battlefield, a...
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William Wong
[Technology Report] Test Instruments Stay Ahead Of The Curve
Maintaining one’s competitive edge in this economic downturn often comes down to the tools used to get the job done. In terms of test instruments, this is especially true. Without oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and other instruments with the speed and bandwidth to capture today’s high-speed serial bus traffic, it’s virtually impossible to verify the performance of many systems. On top of that, the same instruments are essential to...
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David Maliniak
[Technology Report] Electronics Helps Foster Decentralized Healthcare
Rising healthcare costs, a stretched-thin number of medical providers, longer life expectancies, and a growing number of elderly and disabled patients are transforming the face of medical care. Decentralization—moving healthcare away from medical facilities and into the patient’s home—is fast becoming the new model. In 2008, Medicaid spending for long-term care cost $99.5 billion, according the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...
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Roger Allan
[Technology Report] Auto Electronics Revs Up For "Greener" Pastures
The automobile and electronics industries are struggling mightily through this economic tumult. Straddling these two giants, however, is a shining beacon—auto electronics. At last year’s Convergence Conference, a panel of experts from General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, and BMW suggested that the cost of electronics in a car will increase beyond the oft-quoted 20% figure and climb to 40% to 50%. Getting more extreme, Honda senior...
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Roger Allan
[Technology Report] EDA Remains The Enabler Of Much-Needed Innovation
Some years ago, the electronic design Automation consortium (edAc) adopted the phrase â??where electronics Beginsâ?? as a tagline. coined by richard Goering during his EE Times days, the phrase remains more than apt for edA. As silicon integration grew more complex over the past three decades, the automation of otherwise manual and labor-intensive phases of the design cycle became ever more critical. one could scarcely imagine todayâ??s ...
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David Maliniak
[Editorial] How Do We Get Out Of This Mess? Try New Ideas
Life if full of unassailable assumed truths, and it’s an often disturbing but always constructive exercise to challenge them. Let’s start by questioning an easy one from everyday life: are you a good driver? Your instinctive answer is undoubtedly yes, and you would receive the same answer from anyone else you ask. But there are obviously loads of hopeless drivers on the roads. It just so happens that you, or anyone that’s asked, isn’t one of...
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Joseph Desposito
