News

Memory chips always break new barriers at ISSCC, and 2005 is no exception with flash and SRAM both featuring. Perhaps most notable are the two 8Gbit flash devices detailed by Samsung and by Toshiba/Sandisk, which take flash beyond DRAM density. The Toshiba/Sandisk single die integrates two multi-level cell arrays which could each operate as a separate 4Gbit memory. Each cell, ...

A portable eye-tracking system, aimed at sporting and marketing applications, is being produced by US firm Applied Science Laboratories. Developed by UK research group Qinetiq, the system is attached to a pair of sunglasses, and does not restrict the user’s movements. “People can become so highly skilled at tasks they become automatic,” said Qinetiq’s business group manager Adrian Huggins. “The ...

Apache is a rugged robot from White Box Robotics of Pennsylvania. The firm’s machines are PC chassis with standard PC components, sensors and a means of moving. “The Apache is one of our concept robots designed to illustrate the flexibility of our 912 platform,” company president Thomas Burick told Electronics Weekly, “but offers tread drive, instead of differential [wheeled] drive, ...

Distributors’ share of the components market is as large as it has been at any time for as long as we can remember. The 2001 downturn in the electronics market took its toll in the distribution market, but one positive outcome has been an increase in distribution’s share of the total market. With market growth predicted, the passives and electromechanical ...

The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC), a group of satellites built by Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), is in use to aid Tsunami victims. Five charities including Oxfam are using the data, provided through the European Space Agency funded Respond organisation. DMC satellites, of which there are currently four, scan a swath of ground 600km wide with a resolution of 32m at ...

Cambridge Display Technologies, the OLED pioneering company which recently launched on the Nasdaq stock exchange, is rapidly advancing its technology but sees no solution yet to the problems of producing a roll-up, or fold-up, display. “Blue is the most difficult colour. We’ve now got the lifetime of blue up to 80,000 hours. A couple of years ago it was 8,000 ...

A researcher at Georgia’s Mercer University claims to be able to cut the cost of seismometers. “Results point to the possibility of a volcanic eruption and earthquake detector for the masses,” said the university. Based around a suspended pendulum, “it is sensitive to Rayleigh waves,” Professor Randall Peters told Electronics Weekly. Rayleigh waves are surface ripples in the Earth. They ...

Electronics Weekly takes a look at five key players in the power semiconductor market as we move into 2005 For the first time distributed power bus design attracted both semiconductor and power module suppliers last year and there is no reason for the situation to change in 2005. Complex rack-based boards frequently use distributed power, with a board-edge converter producing ...

Mobile network operator Orange plans to take advantage of the expected growth in the machine-to-machine (M2M) telemetry communications market with what, it claims, is the “best data network in the country”. “Our network was configured for voice and when we used it for data we found it had all manner of quirks,” said Clive Richardson, head of product development at ...

David Carew-Jones from Tektronix foresees an RF future, fuelling demand for more test gear I have already referred to the growing demand for wireless in the home. In fact, the appetite for compelling and fun consumer electronics of all kinds appears to be insatiable. Two years ago, digital photography was the big thing – next year I think it’s going ...