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Electronix Express Newsletter
August 2007 Issue
Welcome to the August 2007 Issue of the Electronix Express Newsletter
1. Purdue University Touts Hydrogen Energy Breakthrough
Jerry Woodall, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University has developed a significant source of alternative energy. The method involves using an aluminum-gallium alloy to turn water into hydrogen which in turn can be used to run fuel cells or internal combustion engines. According to its inventor, the new technique could eventually be used to replace gasoline. In the method, aluminum pellets are mixed into liquid gallium to produce a liquid aluminum-gallium alloy. When water is introduced to the alloy, the aluminum and oxygen pair up and form a gel; the free-standing hydrogen is then able to be collected for further use. Meanwhile, the gallium is rendered inert, and can be recovered along with the aluminum oxide gel to be reused in other applications.
The hydrogen collected in such a system could be used to power automobiles with hybrid gasoline and aluminum internal combustion engines or fuel cells with an electric motor. It could also potentially be used for fuel cells powering an array of personal electronic devices, or to provide heating and electricity for homes. The technique is especially attractive because aluminum, unlike oil, is cheap and abundant in the United States and produces no hydrocarbons in its reaction products. Woodall enthusiastically claims, "There are a whole host of ways to go with this that need to be engineered, and with the right kind of engineering and choices of application, this could be a very significant source for alternate energy in the coming years."
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2. Supercapacitors Provide Capacitance to 220 Farads?
The DLR series of super capacitors from Illinois Capacitor offers capacitance values up to 220 Farads and even higher in custom packs. The packs combine multiple capacitors for combinations of higher voltage ratings or capacitance. The series includes 14 values, ranging in capacitance from 4 F (Farads) to 220 F with voltage ratings from 2W VDC to 2.5W VDC. Operating temperature ranges from -20 degrees C to +70 degrees C for extended life performance in countless applications. At 2.5V, DLR life is rated at 500,000 cycles at less than 30% of initial value. Applications for these super capacitors include: battery pack alternatives, memory backup, battery/capacitor hybrids, UPS systems, emergency lighting, solar lighting, car stereo power boost and more. All values in the series are radial leaded, with case diameters of 10 mm, 12.5 mm, 16 mm, 18 mm. The parts are also fully RoHS compliant, and 100% burn-in tested. Prices start at $1 in lots of 1,000 pieces.
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3. Happy 40th Birthday ATM
While sitting in his bathtub in the spring of 1965, John Shepherd-Barron thought of the idea of having a machine that would automatically dispense money so people would have enough cash for the weekend. When he got out of the bath, Shepherd-Barron started to work on his idea and by June 27, 1967, the first automated teller machine (ATM) was unveiled at Barclays Bank's north London location. There were initially six ATMs developed and were known as DACS (De La Rue Cash Systems) or robot tellers. As the story goes, Shepherd-Barron gave a talk in 1968 to the Banker's Association of America and out of the 2000 brochures printed, only 12 were taken. When the ATM inventor returned to the UK, he received a phone call from a bank in Pennsylvania that was interested in the technology so that the financial institution would appear that they were doing something innovative for its customers. Soon after installing some ATMs at that bank in Pennsylvania, the machines took off from there.
Forty years later, there are now over 1.5 million ATMs in 183 countries and it is a $14 billion industry. As well, a new ATM is installed every seven minutes and in 2006, there were 59 billion withdraws totaling $9.5 trillion worldwide. By the year 2017, it is predicted that there will be 2.4 million ATMs worldwide. The countries seeing the most proliferation will be China, the U.S. and Russia.
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4. Advances in Biometrics Make Identification Faster and More Accurate
Ever since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the use of biometrics, the characterization of human beings based on physiological and behavioral features and traits has grown. Such techniques are not all new. Photographs and fingerprints have been used for a century. More recently, systems have been devised for measuring the geometry of the palm or hand, recognizing the pattern of blood vessels in a retina or the flecks of color in an iris, or marking the pattern in a person's DNA. And there are still other techniques, including ones that recognize voices or the way people walk. There are two basic concerns about the technologies used to screen large numbers of people. One is storing and retrieving the data which only now is becoming less difficult as computers get faster and more capable. The other is error tolerance, how much you let the machine err in identifying someone.
Multimodal biometrics addresses those concerns. Multimodal biometrics authenticates a person's identity by matching four or five different biometric measurements instead of just one. It involves security screening that goes beyond a human guard or a machine matching a person's face to the photograph in, say, a passport. Instead, the person's iris or retina also might be scanned to see if stored patterns match a given identity, and the inside of a cheek might be scraped for a fast DNA test. The hope is that in the future people will simply walk through a security checkpoint while monitoring devices chug away in the background, taking the identifying measurements of their bodies and comparing them with readings on a passport or boarding pass with little or no delay. Stay tuned.
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5. Tech World Unites to Save the Planet - and Make Your Supply Chain Greener
A group calling themselves the Climate Savers Computing Initiative emerged this week with some massive environmental goals and enough tech and government pull to make a significant difference to the planet - and to your supply chain. Heavy hitters AMD, IBM, Intel, Dell, EDS, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), HP, Google, Lenovo, Microsoft, PG and E, the World Wildlife Fund and more than 25 additional organizations plan to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting aggressive new targets for energy-efficient computers and components, and promoting the adoption of energy-efficient computers and power management tools worldwide.
How are they going to do it? By reworking electronics supply chain regulations. Their first supply chain target is the PC industry, which the Semiconductor Industry Association today confirmed is continuing to be the largest single end market for semiconductors with PC sales on track to reach 10 percent unit growth in 2007 for approximately 255 million units. According to the group, the average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, and the average server wastes one-third of its power. So, in turn, the Climate Savers Computing Initiative is setting a new 90 percent efficiency target for power supplies, which would get the group to the two above noted targets, equal to removing more than 11 million cars from the road or shutting down 20 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.
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6. India's Reliance Scoops Up Ethernet Firm Yipes for $300M
The Indian telecom firm Reliance Communications announced that it will buy San Francisco-based Ethernet services provider Yipes for $300 million in cash. Yipes will operate as a strategic business unit within Flag Telecom, an affiliate of Reliance. Yipes, set up in 1999, has an annual growth rate of more than 30 percent. The move would accelerate Reliance Communications' penetration into the fast-growing $100 billion global enterprise data market.
Ethernet, a network wiring scheme, is a high-growth segment in the U.S. datacom market. Yipes is a major player with about 40 percent market share and provides communications platforms to at least 1,000 enterprises. Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani said Reliance Communication would spend 10 billion rupees (about $247 million) over the next one year to extend Yipes services in 40 new markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Reliance said its latest acquisition would make it one of the top three global Ethernet service providers in a market projected to reach $25 billion by 2010.
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