News
Avnet, TI, and Xilinx deliver FPGA/DSP development board for digital video 10/31/2008
Avnet, Texas Instruments, and Xilinx today announced the availability of the Avnet Spartan-3A DSP DaVinci Development Kit, an aptly (albeit cumbersomely) named development board that combines a Xilink Spartan-3A FPGA with a TI media-processor DSP for digital-video applications including automotive systems, machine vision, and surveillance.Slimmer light guide heralds ultrathin-LCD panels 10/16/2008
Philips Research recently displayed a prototype of a 32-in. LCD television that measures only 8 mm thick—about 20% as thick as the slimmest commercially available panels. The key to the skinny design is a 1-mm-thick light-guide plate that uses patented technologies to uniformly distribute light from high-power, energy-efficient LED backlights.Android phone announced, platform expected to gain 4% of US Q4 smartphone share 9/23/2008
The Google branding behind T-Mobile's G1 Android-based smartphone will only take it and the platform so far, analysts say, noting Open Handset Alliance's late entrance into an already crowded market and possible operator subsidies issues for Android-based phones.Innovation-aid software gets infusion of 1.3 million IEEE documents 8/20/2008
Invention Machine has announced the addition of 1.3 million technical documents from the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) to its Goldfire Innovator software tool.Intel turbo charges future Core processors 8/20/2008
IDF: Intel showed off its next-generation desktop PC chips -- Intel Core i7 processors -- and energy-efficient, high-performance server products, codenamed “Nehalem-EP,” that will be moved into production in Q4. Intel also said it is planning a second server derivative aimed at the expandable sever market, codenamed “Nehalem-EX”, along with desktop and mobile client versions in the second half of 2009.In-Depth
3G wireless data: about to break? 11/13/2008
Although the definitions of 3 and 4G wireless data networks, services, and terminals have been moving targets, some long-promised 3G capabilities are starting to appear. Meanwhile, 4G deployments have been delayed even further.Solid-state drives challenge hard disks 11/13/2008
Hard-disk-drive vendors assert that more-than-50-year-old rotating storage will remain relevant for many years to come. Solid-state-drive suppliers scoff at these claims, calling hard-disk technology a has-been. Which camp is right?Designing intelligence into door-entry and security systems 11/13/2008
Designers now have greater opportunity than ever before to design more intelligence and flexibility into personal-security systems by using mature and proven standards-based technology. Learn about some of the key challenges to implementing high-quality, cost-effective, and secure door-entry and video-monitoring systems using IP voice and video technology.Virtualization: silicon and software salvation or technological tower of Babel? 10/2/2008
Stable, robust code speaks one language; new CPUs speak another. Is a software rewrite necessary to resolve the seeming contradiction, or can virtualization temporarily—or even permanently—ease the translation?Studying the second-generation Apple iPod Touch 9/30/2008
Prying Eyes: A dissection reveals the inner workings of the touchscreen-driven iPod, including some thus-far-inactive functionality. Bluetooth and FM reception, anyone?Experts
The turn of Apple's worm: Success accelerates its stumbles 9/18/2008
Paranoia was perhaps acceptable when Apple sold its products to only a few-market-share-percentage points' worth of perennial loyalists.Hang up and drive; hang up and walk 8/21/2008
The cell-phone market is potentially huge. Sanjay K Jha, then chief operating officer of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technology, said in a June 11 Design Automation Conference keynote address that 2 billion people are wireless subscribers today and that, by 2020, 9 billion people will become potential customers.Fear of feature-itis 6/12/2008
Maybe teenagers like these little gizmos with a zillion functions, but I need a tool, not a toy.Consumer electronics: too daunting for our addled brains? 5/29/2008
My conclusion: If you make a product with a user interface so poor that the average consumer can’t figure it out, then your product is defective, even if all the transistors, buttons, displays, and other components work.Solid-state drives: HDD replacements? Huge disappointments? Neither. 5/1/2008
While the tit-for-tat over the relative merits of and prospects for traditional hard-disk drives versus flash-memory-based SSDs (solid-state drives) continues, our expert weighs in with a more pragmatic assessment. Economic and technical factors mean the two storage formats are more likely to coexist and thrive in specific niches.DesignIdeas
