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Electronix Express Newsletter

June 2005 Issue

Welcome to the June, 2005 issue of the Electronix Express Newsletter.

STORIES

1. Automakers Adapt New Ways to Control Power
2. IBM and Nortel Team-up for Joint Development Center
3. TI is back
4. Microsoft Pushing VoIP
5. Low power radio for in-body medicine
6. Atmel GPS IC has 3 meter accuracy
7. Researchers grow carbon nanotubes in lab using faster, cheaper means

1. Automakers Adapt New Ways to Control Power

The increasing complexity of electronic systems in cars has led automotive companies and their suppliers to explore new ways of doing things. Traditionally, automotive electronics suppliers have used custom semiconductors for much of their designs. But due to shorter design cycles and the need to verify the entire system hardware as soon as possible, different design methods are required, especially for the power control portion. These new market realities are causing a transition to application specific standard products (ASSPs) for automotive systems.

2. IBM and Nortel Team-up for Joint Development Center

IBM and Nortel signed an agreement on customized products across a range of market segments. The first step is a development center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., for joint work on new products and services.

Specific activities at the center are to include work on current products from within the companies; research on new product creation; and a new type of server that combines IBM's server technology and Nortel's communications expertise to enhance, reliability and security or network equipment providers.

3. TI is back

Twenty years ago, Texas Instruments was on the ropes. Its memory chip business was marginal, its personal computers were a bust, and even their calculators were being pushed out by cheap imports.

Today TI is the dominant player in DSPs (digital signal processors) that are used everywhere including digital cameras; wireless modems; and cell phones. TI is now the third-largest semiconductor company in the world.

The second is the clinical diagnostics. These chips speed up diagnosis of disease and can be used in a clinical lab rather than in a hospital. Rather than waiting for days to get results back from a lab, doctors and nurses could use such a chip to see quickly what a patient has contracted and then treat it earlier.

Estimates are that this market could grow from $515 million in 2003 to $2 billion by 2008.

4. Microsoft Pushing VoIP

After building a voice over Internet protocol strategy , Microsoft is now ready for major initiatives in both the enterprise and carrier spaces.

While Microsoft has kept a low profile on VoIP, they have now developed partnerships with major IP-PBX vendors such as Siemens and Alcatel to move into enterprise IP telephony.

Competition for the enterprise desktop between major IT and telecom vendors is leading to innovative types of user-defined communications and the joining of telecom-based and IT-based desktop technology.

5. Low power radio for in-body medicine

Cambridge Consultants has designed an intelligent radio transceiver architecture for in-body medical diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The device will operate in the Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) frequencies a band now emerging as a global standard for use in medicine. The system would consume an average current of less than 1uA (less than 1.7mA peak) using a 0.05% duty-cycle, 400kbit per second bi-directional communications link. The US demand for implantable medical devices is projected to increase nearly 11% annually to $24.4 billion by 2007.

6. Atmel GPS IC has 3 meter accuracy

Atmel Corporation has introduced the ATR0640, the industry's first 14-channel, GPS baseband IC to carry a $5 price tag and three-meter accuracy. The IC achieves horizontal resolution of one meter (corrected) and three meters (autonomous). Vertical resolution is five meters (corrected) and velocity is measured to within 0.1 meters/second. The maximum position update rate is once per second. Developed for portable handheld applications, the device dissipates 70 mW under continuous operation at 16 MHz, and 18 mW in power-saving mode. Time-to-first-fix (TTFF) signal acquisition is less than 90 seconds from a cold start, 30 seconds from a warm start and 15 seconds from a hot start. Once fixed, signal reacquisition takes less than a second.

7. Researchers grow carbon nanotubes in lab using faster, cheaper means

As basic building blocks of nano-technology, carbon nano-tubes are expected to help carry the $850 billion electronics industry forward. A Case Western Reserve University engineer, Massood Tabib-Azar, has created "seeds" for growing carbon nanotube bridges in the lab that automatically attach themselves to other components without the help of an applied electrical current.

Carbon nanotubes, discovered 14 years ago, are stronger than steel and as flexible as plastic. They conduct energy better than most other materials, and can be made from raw materials such as methane gas. Nanotubes - thin tubes of carbon atoms - have emerged as a material that could revolutionize the electronics industry. Nanotube bridges may allow manufacturers to build tinier computer and communication chips. Carbon nanotubes are being explored for many applications in nanoelectronics, nano-electromechanical systems, biosensors, nano-composites, and new functional "meta-materials".

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