Ethernet Links Go Green

Everything that uses energy uses too much if it. Energy Efficient Ethernet reduces power in wired networks.



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EEVblog #658 – Mailbag

Mailbag Monday.

Dave opens his mail

Forum HERE

Spoilers:

Keithley 177 Multimeter teardown schmeatic and Manual

Commodore GL987R Calculator Teardown and VFD probing.

Sharpie Hanger Kickstarter

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EEVblog #657 – Maker Faire 2014 Interviews

Some interviews from the 2014 Sydney Mini Maker Faire at the powerhouse museum.

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3.5inch colour TFT has touch option

Winstar has introduced a 3.5in version of its M Series colour TFT LCDs.

WF35M measures 100x66mm and under 6mm thick (plus connector) has a built in RS-232 interface. The actual display is 70x53mm, and 320xRGBx240.

There is a resistive touch panel option, and an SPI interface version is on the way. The LED backlight is dimmable.

The built-in controller is a PIC 24, which can receive in-situ software up-grades.

At the same time, Winstar released a roadmap for the rest of the TFT M Series.

In Q3 it will be introducing a 4.3inch version, with RS-232 or SPI interfaces and both resistive and capacitive touch options.

Before the end of the year, and with the same features, there will also be 5.7inch M Series display.

The firm has demo software for user-interface development.

steve bush

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The Internet of Things Versus Slumlords

Smart thermostats are not only for the well-to-do. One group is developing them to help keep tenement dwellers warm.



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IBM Watson Speeds Drug Research

IBM Watson moves from supplying known answers to tough questions to making its own discoveries in life sciences and pharmaceutical research.



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Samsung Funds III-V FinFETs in US Lab

Samsung is funding Penn State researchers working to fabricate III-V indium gallium arsenide FinFETs for possible use at the seven-nanometer node.



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RFID Tags Track Bee Behavior

University of Illinois researchers have employed radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to track the activity of honeybees.

read more

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LG, Samsung Debut Smartwatches, Apple Lurks

LG's G Watch R and Samsung's Gear S do little to shake up the wearable market. Perhaps Apple's upcoming device will.



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White paper: Selecting the Right Components for Efficiency Gains-Protection in New and Retrofit Motor Systems

Sponsored by: Bourns

Electric motors account for more than half of all electrical energy produced so reducing manufacturing energy consumption is a critical goal. Bourns’ new white paper presents why selecting the right circuit protection components can make a huge impact on efficient functionality in retrofit and new motor systems.

read more

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White paper: Photovoltaic converters: Components that Meet the Performance Demands at All Points in the Design

Sponsored by: Bourns

Solar energy from photovoltaic (PV) systems is a prime example of a successful renewable energy form. However, continued consumer performance and efficiency demands place ongoing challenges for developers in each aspect of the design of a PV system.

read more

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Application Note: The Importance of Estimating Power Losses in Consumer Power Supply Magnetic Components

Sponsored by: Bourns

Consumer electronics power supply losses can be mitigated significantly with inductors. However, access to high frequency inductor performance information is scarce.

read more

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Imagination Takes On Raspberry Pi

Imagination Technologies has developed its own version of Raspberry Pi, using a MIPS-based processor from Ingenic.



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California Smartphone Kill-Switch Law: What It Means

Do you understand the consequences of California's new smartphone anti-theft law? Our FAQ will clear up the confusion.



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9 Insights From Hot Interconnects

Facebook described its network switch, while experts picked apart flaws in Ethernet, WiFi, InfiniBand, Linux, last-mile connections, and more at Hot Interconnects where one next-big-thing was silicon photonics.



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Microchip in Pursuit of CSR

Microchip confirmed Thursday that it has had preliminary mutual discussions with CSR.



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Are There Marsquakes on Mars?

A 2016 mission will investigate the stuff under the surface of Mars that the Curiosity Rover is currently investigating.



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Three-quarters of high resolution smartphone LCDs will ship to Apple and China vendors, says DisplaySearch

According to DisplaySearch, Apple and China-based vendors are expected to purchase nearly three-quarters (73%) of all high resolution LCDs using LTPS and oxide TFT technologies for smartphones. LTPS and oxide TFT LCDs will comprise 26% of all handset panel shipments in 2014, an increase of 8pp from 2013, while a-Si LCD is expected to continue losing share. Overall, 467 million LTPS and 42 million oxide LCD panels are forecast to ship in 2014.



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PC outlook improves, although shipments are still expected to fall 3.7% in 2014, says IDC

Worldwide PC shipments are expected to fall 3.7% in 2014, an improvement from the previous forecast of 6%, according to IDC. PC shipments in emerging regions remain constrained by ongoing competition from alternative devices and a number of economic/political challenges. However, commercial demand and even a rekindling of consumer interest in mature markets helped to boost results for the first half of 2014 as well as the outlook for the rest of the year.



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UMC makes investments in Fujitsu Semiconductor subsidiary

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) has said it will invest JPY5 billion (US$48.1 million) in a new subsidiary set up by Fujitsu Semiconductor. UMC will hold a 9.3% stake in the new company.

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Taiwan market: CHT, TWM, FET offer 4G pricing with unlimited use

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), Taiwan Mobile (TWM) and Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET), viewing that Taiwan Star Cellular has offered unlimited 4G mobile Internet bundled with a 24-month contract at a fixed monthly rate of NT$599 (US$19.97), on August 28 announced unlimited 4G price-plans of their own, according to the companies.



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Touch Taiwan 2014: ITRI features new one-step production method for touch panels

The Taiwan government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is showcasing its new metal mesh technology at Touch Taiwan 2014 that features a "one-step" roll-to-roll production method.



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ASPs for handset, touch controller, LCD driver ICs trending down in 3Q14

As IC design houses are competing for orders for the second half of 2014 as well as for the first half of 2015, ASPs for 3G/4G application processors, touch controller ICs and LCD driver ICs have begun to drop, according to industry sources.



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Digitimes Research: JDI WQHD technology gaining traction in China high-end smartphone market

Japan Display's (JDI) WQHD panel technology is furthering its way into the high-end panel segment, most notably in China, where high-end panel demand is continuing to grow. JDI has not only improved production capabilities, but has also expanded its business model through cooperation with its subsidiary Taiwan Display (TDI), and has decided to make Star World Technology Corporation (STC), a Taiwan-based manufacturer of LCD modules (LCMs), into a subsidiary of TDI by acquiring approximately 80% of STC's outstanding common shares.

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China market: Acer cooperates with retail chain Gome

Acer has partnered with Gome Electrical Appliances, an IT and consumer electronics retail chain in China, for the latter to sell Acer desktops, notebooks, AIO (all-in-one) PCs, tablets and projectors there, according to China-based tech.qq.com.



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Sony Mobile to adopt metal-alloy chassis for smartphones to be launched in 2015, say Taiwan makers

Sony Mobile Communications are developing smartphones to be launched in 2015 and will adopt metal-alloy chassis for high-end models, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.



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Digitimes Research: Shipments of 64-bit application processors to grow fast in 2H14

Shipments of 64-bit application processors (APs) are expected to start gaining momentum in the second half of 2014 due to combined efforts by chipmakers, system providers as well as the support from Google, according to Digitimes Research.



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Asustek expects to ship nearly 8 million ZenPhones in 2014

Asustek Computer has seen booming sales of ZenPhone and expects to ship 2.8-2.9 million units in the third quarter of 2014 and nearly eight million units in the whole year, according to company CEO Jerry Shen.



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Sales of branded smartphones from service providers such as Amazon, Facebook, and Alibaba lower than expected

Sales of own-brand smartphones launched by online retailers or social networking service companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent have been lower than expected, according to sources in Taiwan's handset supply chain.

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UL offers security surveillance system testing standard

US-based Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has offered UL 2802, a set of standards for testing the performance of security surveillance systems based on SMIA (Standard Mobile Imaging Architecture) jointly proposed by Nokia and STMicroelectronics as well as ISO standards, according to UL Taiwan.



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LED driver IC vendors look to flat performance in 3Q14

LED driver IC vendors including Silergy, Macroblock and On-Bright Electronics are expected to see their sales stay flat in the third quarter of 2014 before riding higher in the fourth quarter, according to industry sources.



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Panel makers see increased orders for vehicle applications

Panel makers are seeing new orders from vehicle vendors as they plan to release new vehicles with increased smart display features.



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Touch Taiwan 2014: GIS displays new whiteboard products

Touch panel maker GIS is displaying new Ultra HD whiteboard products at Touch Taiwan.



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Global notebook shipments may drop 20-30% in 4Q14, say component makers

As notebook vendors deceased orders in late August, global notebook shipments are likely to slip 20-30% on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to component makers.



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Fujitsu and UMC form Japanese foundry

UMC has paid $48 million for a 9.3% stake in a newly formed foundry company which is a subsidiary of Fujitsu Semiconductor including its 300mm wafer manufacturing facility located in Kuwana, Mie, Japan.

UMC’s 40nm technology will be licensed to Fujitsu.

“Partnering with a leading Japanese semiconductor company like Fujitsu Semiconductor for a local joint venture will not only offset the time, risk and cost of building a new fab, but also provide access to another 300mm manufacturing source in addition to UMC’s own 300mm operations in Taiwan and Singapore,” says UMC CEO Po Wen Yen, “with three 300mm operations in different regions throughout Asia, both parties will hold unique positions to be able to serve customers looking to mitigate manufacturing risk, such as Japan’s automotive chip makers, who vigorously seek suppliers that implement robust business continuity plans. UMC will also be able to leverage this strategic partnership to gain new foundry business within the Japanese market.”

“Fujitsu has been in search of a partner with whom to jointly operate a new foundry company based on its Mie 300mm wafer fab,” says Haruki Okada, President of Fujitsu Semiconductor, “Fujitsu Semiconductor and UMC have built up a good relationship while Fujitsu Semiconductor has outsourced its products to UMC for years. The joint venture will provide foundry services to customers, based on a wide variety of CMOS technologies, the 40nm process technology licensed by UMC and high quality manufacturing system certified by automotive customers.”

david manners

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Rohm Opens MEMS Foundry Operation

Rohm Co. Ltd. created a foundry business at the six-inch Miyazaki wafer fab of its Lapis Semiconductor subsidiary that integrates product design and manufacturing based on the combination of thin-film piezoelectric processes and MEMS.



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Touch Taiwan: Display Vendors' 10 Bold Forecasts

Display suppliers are in the know. The companies exhibiting at Touch Taiwan might not be willing to spill their best beans, but they know all about the specific screen sizes, thinness, and brightness demanded by Apple.



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LTE-A field tester supports carrier aggregation

Anite has added carrier aggregation and Category 6 device support to its Nemo Outdoor laptop-based drive wireless network tester.

Phone network operators worldwide are testing and trialling carrier aggregation, and are launching LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) networks with the first phase of Cat 6 devices, using two carrier components with down-link bandwidths of 20MHz.

“Demonstrating Cat 6 peak data rates shows Anite’s commitment to ensure that our products support the latest wireless broadband technologies,” said Anite CTO Kai Ojala. “We have achieved application data throughput of 293Mbit/s with a 40MHz bandwidth using two-component carrier aggregation and the latest test terminals with Anite’s Nemo Outdoor test solution in a laboratory environment.”

Nemo supports over 270 terminals and scanning receivers from a range of vendors, and many network technologies.

Carrier aggregation allows peak data rate to be increased by sharing a single data stream between more than one LTE-A frequency band.

steve bush

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The $10 Price Point Will Drive the Next Wave of Computing

Pushkar Ranade and Scott Thompson, SuVolta Inc.

Before the Internet of Things, wearable electronics, and other innovations gain mainstream success, the semiconductor industry will need to find the best way to support a $10 price point.

Before the Internet of Things, wearable electronics, and other innovations gain mainstream success, the semiconductor industry will need to find the best way to support a $10 price point.

read more

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9 Notorious Automotive Electronics Recalls

It's been a banner year so far for automotive recalls, including problems stemming from badly written code, flawed machinery and or flawed electronics. Here is a look at 8 of the recent automotive recalls involving electronics (hardware or software).



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Indoor Navigation: The Next Big Thing

Custom system-on-chip from parent company mCube enables Ten Degrees to tackle indoor navigation with higher probability of success.



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Data Centers May Ride on ASICs

Firebox, a research prototype in the works at UC Berkeley, aims to point the way to warehouse-scale computers for data centers in 2020 based on ASICs and optical links.



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CSR for sale, says FT

CSR has appointed a bank to advise it on offers from other semiconductor companies to take it over, reports the FT.

It is thought by the FT that the company could attract a bid of up to $3 billion.

After news of the sale was leaked, the shares shot up 23% to over £7, valuing the company at around $2 billion.

Two years ago, CSR sold its WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS chip development operations to Samsung for $310 million and Samsung paid £2.23 a share for a 5% stake in the company which it sold earlier this year, in January, for £6.60 a share.

david manners

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PC units to decline 3.7% this year, says IDC

Desktop PC shipments falling

PC unit shipments are expected to fall by 3.7% in 2014, says IDC.

PC shipments in mature regions are now projected to grow by 5.6% in 2014 – the highest since 2010 – with both consumer and commercial segments showing positive growth.

On the other hand, the outlook for emerging market has been lowered slightly to reflect reduced stability and economic conditions in Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMA).

PC market drivers for the short term still mainly rest on business spending in mature markets. However, other variables have also appeared. In addition to the stimulus from the end of support for Windows XP, competition from tablets has declined as tablet penetration rises and volume has shifted to smaller sizes that are less competitive with PCs.

At the same time, PCs have made some progress addressing tablet competition with more slim, touch, and low-cost models available.

Growth of Chromebook demand, particularly in education in mature markets, is also contributing to the PC outlook. In emerging regions, the competition from other devices remains a larger factor, and the boost from mature market drivers less pronounced.

Replacement of Windows XP-based systems should also decline over time as the installed base of XP systems shrinks.

“Programs to reduce PC prices, such as Windows 8.1 with Bing, have helped to improve PC shipments in some segments,” said IDC’s Jay Chou. “Coupled with a shift toward more mobile PCs, the market has seen a quickened pace of innovation and a focus on price points. Nevertheless, the prospects for significant PC growth in the long term remain tenuous, as users increasingly see PCs as only one of several computing devices.”

“Direct competition from tablets seems to be waning,” said Loren Loverde, vice-president of worldwide PC trackers. “However, PC replacement cycles have expanded as users have alternative computing platforms and places to spend money. The launch of Windows 9 Threshold in 2015 could potentially boost demand, although it will be hard to gauge the actual impact until the advantages to consumers and commercial users in functionality and integration with specific devices is more apparent. For the moment, we continue to see PC demand coming primarily from replacements with overall shipments declining slightly through the end of the forecast.”

david manners

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DRAM market oligopoly to face challenges in 2015 as makers expand capacity, says DRAMeXchange

An increasing number of DRAM makers are planning to expand their capacity in the fourth quarter of 2014 as DRAM market supply tightens, while bit supply could grow nearly 30% in 2015 following recent decreases in die size and capacity adjustments. As a result, the industry's oligolopy structure could face considerable challenges in 2015, among them oversupply that would eat into producers' profit margins, said Avril Wu, assistant vice president of DRAMeXchange.



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China Telecom records 1H14 revenues of CNY166.0 billion

China Telecom generated consolidated revenues of CNY166.0 billion (US$26.9 billion) for the first half of 2014, including revenues of CNY16.6 billion, and increasing 5.3% on year, according to China-based tech.qq.com.



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Digitimes Research: China small- to medium-size panel shipments to increase 12.9% in 2H14

China makers expect to see their small- to medium-size panel shipments increase 12.9% in the second half of 2014 compared to the first half of the year, according to Digitimes Research.The rise will represent a 13.5% on-year increase.

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China TV vendors changing product mixes to focus more on high-end units for 2H14

TV vendors in China are changing their product mix for the second half of 2014 in light of growing demand for high-end units, according to industry sources.



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EPA passes initial environmental impact assessment for TSMC planned 18-inch fab

A special panel of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has approved the environmental impact assessment for a piece of land designated for construction of an 18-inch fab by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in Taichung, central Taiwan.



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LTPS to become mainstream in handset industry, says CEO of Taiwan Display

LTPS-based panels currently account for 10% of handset shipments, but with Japan Display and China-based BOE's aggressive capacity expansions, LTPS panels are expected to become the mainstream in the handset industry in 2-3 years, according to chairman and CEO of Taiwan Display, a subsidiary of Japan Display, Jeff Hsu speaking at Touch Taiwan 2014.



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Handset brands launching more Android Wear-based devices

More handset brands are rolling out Android Wear-based smartwatches and smart bracelets, adding pressure on specialized wearable device vendors such as Jawbone, Fitbit and Pebble, according to industry sources.

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HTC unveils HTC Desire 510, Desire 820 expected in 4Q14

HTC has unveiled its new 4G LTE smartphone, the HTC Desire 510, further expanding the portfolio of its mid-range Desire-series family. The HTC Desire will be available in the US, Europe and Asia.



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Delta Electronics signs up Xander as Taiwan sales agent

Power supply maker and energy management solution provider Delta Electronics on August 26 signed with IT retail channel operator Xander International for Xander to become its Taiwan sales agent for Delta's InfraSuite, a data center solution consisting of power supply systems, rack and accessory modules, precision air-conditioning and environmental management, according to Delta Electronics.



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Production schedules at 12-inch fabs begin to loosen

While most 8-inch fabs of major foundries are expected to run at full capacity until the end of 2014, production schedules at 12-inch fabs, particularly those of second-tier foundry houses, are said to have begun to loosen as some IC players have been reducing their wafer start orders, according to industry sources.

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Innolux notebook panel supply currently faces 20% shortage

Innolux expects 1-2% growth on year in notebook panel shipments and currently faces a 20% shortage to meet current market demand.



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Motherboard price competition expands to Europe

The fierce price competition between Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology has recently expanded to Europe as demand in China is falling short of expectations and is putting strong pressure on ASRock and Micro-Star International (MSI), which have a large proportion of their shipments coming from Europe, according to sources from motherboard players.



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AUO, Innolux have order visibility until 4Q14

AU Optronics (AUO) and Innolux both have order visibility for TV panels until the fourth quarter of 2014, with Innolux until October and AUO December.



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Product Compatibility Is a Constant Dilemma

Because most new products are based on previous ones, engineers and product managers must decide the importance of new features versus compatibility.



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White Goods Consolidation Drives Power Deals

The power semiconductor industry has seen two key announcements this week, highlighting some serious consolidation, all driven by agitation in the white goods market.



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How I Hacked My Home, IoT Style

It didn't take long to find a score of vulnerabilities in my home entertainment, gaming, and network storage systems.



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The Internet of Overhyped Things

Vendors and analysts would have us believe that the Internet of Things is imminent. In fact it will be years before the obstacles it faces can be surmounted.



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Apple Preps Jumbo iPad

Apple is preparing a larger version of its iPad for release in 2015. The bigger iPad, with a screen as big as those of laptops, could help Apple stir up fresh interest in its tablets.



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Apple's iPhone 6: What to Expect

What will the iPhone 6 look like? And when will it be available? Current rumors and supposed-part leaks are incomplete and sometimes even contradictory. Here's another best guess.



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Windows Threshold May Merge Windows Phone, RT

Microsoft's upcoming Windows Threshold operating system reportedly will merge Windows Phone and Windows RT into one user interface for ARM-based mobile devices.



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Forget iPhone: 4 Megatrends in China's Smartphone Market

Touch Taiwan is exposing some of Asia's techno-political tensions, focused on one question: Who will own the display technologies likely to dominate the rapidly changing smartphone market in China?



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How Harvard’s 1,024 robot swarm does what it does

Researchers at Harvard University’s school of engineering have been puzzling over autonomous robot collaboration – in particular, how do you get robots that can only sense a short distance to make something big without an all-seeing eye or central control to direct them.

And recently they have had some success – getting 1,024 ‘Kilobots’ to huddle into pre-defined patterns, and three construction robots to make simple buildings.

Kilobots are extraordinarily simple, designed at Harvard to be ant-like and mass-produced cheaply – they are now available from a Swiss company called K-Team.

Each Kilobot is essentially a 33mm diameter PCB standing on three 20mm long rigid wire legs.

Intended for use on a smooth surface – Harvard has a 2.4×2.4m table – Kilobots are shaken forward by vibration from two phone-style vibrator motors on the PCB.

By spinning the motors at different speeds, Kilobots can creep forward, turn left, or turn right.

Power for three hours of travel comes from a Li-ion battery carried on top. Charge control is included on the PCB, with charge power coming from voltage applied between any leg and a spring on top of the battery.

On-board, an 8bit Atmel microcontroller (2kbyte RAM, 32kbyte ROM) does the thinking, and a top-mounted tri-colour LED displays status to human observers.

Perhaps the most crucial piece of equipment is a wide-angle infra-red transceiver mounted underneath in the centre of each Kilobot. Infra-red from this bounces off the white table top to be picked up by other nearby Kilobots.

Kilobots swarm following the map on the left.


Communication range is up to 10cm, and the intensity of received IR gives the robot some idea of the distance between it and its neighbours. Distance estimation varies somewhat from robot to robot, and is not identical in all directions, so control algorithms have to be tolerant of these vagaries.

This limited communication range gives swarm members their short-sightedness. If a neighbour is more than 10cm away, a robot cannot have any direct knowledge of it, only knowledge that has been passed via others.

For convenience, all members of the swarm can be programmed simultaneously by an over-head optical transmitter. All members of the swarm, except four in the pattern-forming experiment, get the same programme.

The universal programme includes a map of the required pattern in the form of a coarsely-pixelated grid (see photo), with pixels set to 0 (leave empty) or 1 (fill with robots). Pixels only indicate the pattern to be filled, not exact final robot positions – there is no intention to achieve one-robot-per-pixel in a square grid. Robots fill the required shape in a largely random arrangement with average inter-robot spacing determined by a pre-programmed value – more of this later.

Starting position

All the Kilobots are closely packed into one arbitrarily-shaped swarm, adjacent to where the final pattern is required (see photo).

The four unique robots are seeds, placed within range of each other on the edge of the starting swarm.

The seeds will not be moving, and will eventually be just inside the edge of the finished pattern. One of them is programmed to be the origin of the finished pattern: x=0, y=0.

How big is the swarm?

All robots transmit and receive frequently. When a message is received, as well as decoding it, the recipient estimates how far away the transmitting robot was.

One number passed between robots is ‘gradient’. All robots listen for gradient values coming from neighbours. They assume a gradient value one more then the lowest value they hear, and transmit this new value.

At the start, only the origin robot knows its gradient value, which is set to ’0′. This it transmits, and a neighbour receiving this 0 gradient value assumes its own gradient value ’1′, and transmits this. Depending on how they are positioned, neighbours of these two hear 0 or 1 as the lowest value in earshot, and assume 1 or 2 respectively.

The overall effect is that gradient numbers, on average, increment along straight lines away from the origin robot like spokes in a cartwheel. Lines drawn between robots with equal gradient values will form loops around the origin.

These loops are actually near to circular as there is a further restriction in gradient dissemination: robots have to ignore values sent from greater than a pre-programmed range. When this is set closer to 33mm, gradient value contour loops are closer to circular.

Any robot that can only hear robots of lower or equal gradient value, know they are on the edge of the swarm, and know roughly the size of the swarm, even though the centre is way beyond their 10cm communication range.

Off I go

Until now, all robots have also been transmitting an ‘I am stationary’ message.

Robots that know they are on the edge of the swarm start to move forwards and right, while staying a pre-programmed fixed distance from any neighbour they approach – it is this distance which will eventually govern final image inter-robot spacing.

This simple rule causes edge robots to orbit the coastline of the swarm, each performing a part-circle around every individual on the coast before passes on to its neighbour.

Where am I?

The four seeds have the beginnings of an x-y grid programmed into them and, by each measuring their distance to the other three (many times to reduce noise), they can calculate an estimate of their x-y coordinates on the required image pixel grid. Once they have estimated their position, they are ‘localised’ and transmit their x-y positions.

Triangulating on three neighbours gives three different positions on the plane. A simple mathematical algorithm gets best positional accuracy by ‘minimising the spread’ of the three positions, said Harvard.

Kilobots swarm following a different map.

Once the seeds have localised, their neighbours can also localise and the x-y grid spreads through the swarm as soon as any non-localised robot can triangulate on three localised neighbours.

Moving edge robots continually recalculate their position (and gradient value) to remain localised, and continue to transmit their position for the use of others.

Are we nearly there yet?

Eventually, an edge-following robot, comparing its estimated position to its internal pixel map, will know it has entered the required pattern. It will continue to edge-follow inside the image.

It will stop when it: is about to leave the required image, or it bumps into a robot of equal gradient value that has already stopped – which the moving robot knows because the stationary one will be sending out an ‘I have arrived’ message.

These two simple stopping rules cause the image to fill-out with approximately concentric arcs of stationary robots centred on the origin robot.

What could possibly go wrong

All sorts of mix-ups are possible – for example: too many robots moving off the starting coastline at the same time, sticking vibration motors, faster robots catching up with slower ones, or clumsy robots knocking others from their final resting place.

A few simple rules have been developed to sort these situations.

Where rules cause stalemate between two robots, the robot with the highest ID number wins.

These ID numbers are randomly self-allocated. If two robots with the same ID come into range, they both randomly recalculate – which can result in a ripple of re-calculation should a new number match another local. ID numbers are locally unique, but may not be globally unique.

Algorithms cause and cope with odd situations

In experiments, 1,000 Kilobot images (see K photo) have taken up to 11 hours to form.

Multiple attempts at forming identical shape and size rectangles with a smaller number of Kilobots have shown the algorithms are robust – the rectangle is always formed, even though the pattern of robots within each rectangle is different in each case.

Why not just simulate the whole thing?

“We can simulate the behaviour of large swarms of robots, but a simulation can only go so far,” says Professor Radhika Nagpal. “The real-world dynamics, the physical interactions and variability, make a difference, and having the Kilobots to test artificial intelligence algorithms on real robots has helped us better understand how to recognise and prevent the failures that occur at these large scales.”

3-D construction robots

In a separate project, called Termes, Harvard has taken inspiration from termites.

This involves 3-d rather than 2-d construction, and robots carrying and placing square tiles to make a structure rather than making a pattern out of their own bodies.

The tiles have the proportions of Scrabble tiles, although they are considerably larger.

Termes robots have four types of sensor and three actuators. They can travel horizontally, climb one tile, or descend one tile, while carrying another tile, which they can deposit in front of themselves – so they can make their own staircase of tiles.

Also, as they can turn around on the spot, they can also construct a staircase with right-angled bends.

The desired structure is described as an x-y-z grid of whole tiles.

Rather than provide each robot with a 3-d map of the finished structure and have it decide its own method of construction – with the inherent risk of one robot stranding another – an off-line compiler turns the structure definition into a construction plan, for any number of robots, which is a series of paths, consisting of flat sections and staircases. All directions are left, right or straight. There are no diagonal paths.

To avoid congestion, this plan has one or more routes up and one or more paths down.

Where ever a robot is, which it knows by always starting at tile 0,0,0 and counting whole tiles in x, y and z, its stored path information tells it which direction, or directions, it can move away from its current position.

When it come across a place where a tile should be, it deposits its load and moves down for another tile.

The exact set of rules followed by Termes robots are created by the compiler for the particular job. The compiler also rejects structures that are impossible to build.

Like Kilobots, once Termes robots leave the construction site they edge-follow the incomplete structure to the point that come across spare tiles, then edge follpw around to tile 0,0,0 whee the construction path always begins.

Harvard has proved that locally-collaborating robots can construct large pre-defined structures, rather than needing central control and long-distance communication.

And while centralised systems can have good group efficiency and fast recovery from problems, Harvard points out that central control fails when the central controller breaks, and it also proposes that central control might not be the best solution with large numbers of robots, over wide areas, or in remote locations.

“We’ve proven the extreme end of the scale: that it could be just like the termites. And from the termites’ point of view, it’s working out great,” says Nagpal. “It may be that, in the end, you want something in between the centralised and the decentralised system.”

The Kilobot experiment is described in the 15th August issue of Science, and Termes in the 14th February issue and at the AAAS 2014 Annual Meeting. Research was supported by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

There is a Harvard Kilobot swarm video. Scroll down.

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Google's Project Ara Is Science Fiction, Says Critic

Google's Project Ara to develop a modular mobile smartphone is destined to remain nothing more than a science project, warns blogger and former senior analyst Richard Windsor.



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Aging Brass: Cow Poop vs. Horse Doo-Doo

There are myriad ways to artificially age brass, including the use of salt, vinegar, ammonia, and temperature. The more daring among us may also consider cow and/or horse manure.



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FTDI Chip and MCCI Corp develop TrueTask USB

FTDI Chip and MCCI Corporation have developed TrueTask USB – an embedded USB host stack designed for use with FTDI Chip’s FT900 product family.

TrueTask USB is an embedded USB host stack supporting the FT900 series of MCUs. With today’s announcement, embedded product developers who select FT900 MCUs will have access to a USB platform capable of supporting a variety of USB peripherals – such as USB storage, portable media players, video/audio conferencing system peripherals, mobile phones, Wi-Fi dongles, etc.

“The FT900 is a powerful, truly embedded MCU with an elegant architecture and rich connectivity offerings,” said MCCI CEO Terry Moore,adding that it is field proven and comes with an extensive class driver portfolio. “By tightly integrating TrueTask USB with the FT900 MCU we were able to optimise performance and memory without compromising on quality and features,” said Moore.

“TrueTask USB from MCCI is known throughout the embedded industry for high quality USB,” said Fred Dart, CEO and founder of FTDI Chip. “Having a pre-integrated, best-in-class USB stack is aligned with our product strategy for rapid go-to-market of our customers. We have worked extensively to ensure both a technical and commercial alignment between TrueTask USB and the FT900 series, in order to ensure that our customers experience the best value for money.”

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Comment: Infineon aims for GaN leadership with IR acquisition

Infineon Technologies’ decision to pay $3bn for International Rectifier may have surprised the semiconductor industry, but the deal is all about acquiring a process technology.

That process technology is gallium nitride-on-silicon.

GaN-on-silicon, as it is called, is a hot commodity in the power electronics industry and IR has one of the few working GaN-on-silicon processes in production.

Why is the technology so hot at the moment?

For one thing it runs cool.

The recent NeuLandproject, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), concluded that SiC and GaN-on-silicon can halve the energy loss in switched mode power supplies for PCs and can increase the efficiency of power electronics by one third.

The project was directed by Infineon, which uses SiC in its Jfets and diodes for the 600V to 1700V voltage class primarily used in switched-mode power supplies for PCs or televisions and in motor drives.

With the IR acquisition, Infineon now has production ready GaN-on-silicon, the other piece in the jigsaw.

GaN-on-silicon technology is also a motivation behind Google’s $1m power inverter design challenge.

“We’re looking for someone to build a kW-scale inverter with a power density greater than 50W/inch³,” said the firm, which is suggesting wide bandgap semiconductors (GaN or SiC, for example) could be part of the answer.

The next big target application for GaN-on-silicon is to increase energy efficiency and reduce cost in the design of solar inverters.

However, the market is not ready for GaN-on-silicon yet. The cost of components will have to fall even more for wide-scale application in solar inverters, and that means further research is required on reliability, service lifetime and costs.

With the acquisition of IR, Infineon is making a statement that it believes in the future of GaN-on-silicon and sees an opportunity to become a market leader, but that will need a two-way fight with the other GaN powerhouse, Cree.

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Google Preps Virtual Network

Google described Andromeda, a central server-based controller users will be able to access to create, run, and extend virtual networks running in Google's data centers.



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Taiwan market: Surface Pro 3 to launch

Microsoft will launch the 12-inch Surface Pro 3 in the Taiwan market on August 29 at a starting retail price of NT$24,900 (US$830), according to Microsoft Taiwan.



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Smart card shipments to rise 2.1 billion units by 2019, says IHS

Global unit shipments of smart cards are expected to rise 2.1 billion from 2014-2019-about equal to the combined populations of China, the US, Indonesia and Brazil, according to IHS.



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Good Way Technology listed on OTC

USB docking station and peripheral maker Good Way Technology on August 26 started listing on Taiwan's over-the-counter stock market at an initial price of NT$105 (US$3.50) per share. The company said it is developing wireless docking stations and will offer products for testing in November.

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Commentary: Ultra HD still dominating in high-end TV segment

As TV vendors are looking to capture increased market shares in the TV market including the high-end segment, Ultra HD has become the mainstream choice for both TV vendors and panel makers due to the technology's quality, decreased pricing and improved yields.



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Worldwide server market revenues increase 2.5% in 2Q14 as infrastructure refresh cycle continues, says IDC

According to IDC, factory revenues in the worldwide server market increased 2.5% on year to US$12.6 billion in the second quarter of 2014. Server shipments improved 1.2% on year to 2.2 million units as investments in hyperscale datacenter capacity were largely offset by consolidation, which continued to be a strategic focus for many large and small customers around the globe.



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North American semiconductor equipment industry posts book-to-bill ratio of 1.07 in July, says SEMI

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted US$1.41 billion in orders worldwide in July 2014 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.07, according to SEMI. A book-to-bill of 1.07 means that US$107 worth of orders were received for every US$100 of product billed for the month.



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Foxconn adopts cloud computing-based security monitoring system

Foxconn Electronics has adopted a cloud computing-based security monitoring system equipped with in-house-developed hardware and software at its headquarters in northern Taiwan to monitor labor safety and environmental conditions at its main factories in Taiwan and China, according to industry sources.



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Digitimes Research: Greater China on-cell touch panel shipments expected to grow 91.4% in 2H14

On-cell touch panel shipments from makers in Greater China are expected to grow 91.4% in the second half of 2014 compared to the first half of the year as makers greatly improve production yields, leading to pricing and technological advancements. Of the percentage, about 80% will be from Taiwan makers, according to Digitimes Research.

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Allied Telesis to cease imports of Spansion devices alleged of infringement

Japan-based Allied Telesis has agreed to a consent order to cease all US imports of products containing Spansion devices alleged of patent infringement, according to a statement from Macronix International.



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Slimmer MacBook to launch in 4Q14 or 2015, say Taiwan makers

Apple plans to launch a thinner MacBook possibly at the end of 2014 or in 2015. Production of components has begun in small volumes, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.



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Intel sees proportion for entry-level notebook CPUs rise to 60-70%

Along with notebook vendors launching more inexpensive models, Intel has seen the shipment proportion of entry-level notebook CPUs, namely its Pentium and Celeron series, increase from 50-60% in the first half of 2014 to 60-70% currently, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.



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Cree to invest in Lextar Electronics

LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker and LED packaging service provider Lextar Electronics on August 27 announced that US-based Cree will invest US$83 million to acquire 13.32% of its stock through subscribing to 83 million new Lextar shares at NT$30 (US$1) per share via private placement.



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EEVblog #656 – Pacemaker Monitor Teardown

What’s inside a dial-in pacemaker monitor system?

Datasheets:

LMV824

MAX4330

CNY64 Optocoupler

ADSP-2185N DSP

CX88168 Smart Modem with Voice CODEC

MAX994 10bit ADC

Meder Reed Sensor

Probe shock video showing the piezoelectric effect

Forum HERE

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Getting Your First Sales Pick Right

A company needs to create a repeatable sales process to grow and thrive. This means a template for a successful customer engagement can be described and taught to new team members, who are expected to become productive in a few months.



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Voices from India: How can Taiwan best tap the booming India handset market

There will be an estimated 250 million handsets sold in the India market in 2014, 35% of which will be smartphones, an increase from the 23% in 2013. However, with a population of 1.2 billion and an underdeveloped infrastructure in India has resulted in a complicated system for marketing handsets and offering after-sale service. To collect direct information on the India market, Digitimes interviewed four India-based handset-marketing companies in Chennai and New Delhi and invited India-based enterprises and Taiwan-based MediaTek and Delta Electronics to attend two India-Taiwan business symposiums.



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Use of sapphire in smartphones may take off in 2015, say Taiwan makers

Following the use of sapphire to make covers for the home button and camera of the iPhone 5, China- and South Korea-based smartphone vendors are considering the adoption of sapphire, and therefore the application in smartphones is likely to take off in 2015, according to Taiwan-based sapphire makers.



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InnoDisk releases new series of industrial SSDs

NAND flash provider InnoDisk has unveiled a new 3MG2-P series of high-performance industrial SSDs. Available in standard 2.5-inch SATA III as well as SATA Slim formats, the 3MG2-P series uses a custom new ID201 controller, synchronous NAND flash and 19nm manufacturing process to produce high sequential speeds and random IOPS, according to the company.

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Diode maker Actron ramping production capacity

Automotive diode supplier Actron Technology has recently ramped up its diode production capacity to 36 million units a month from 28 million previously. The current capacity utilization rate has reached 80-85%, according to the company.



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China IC industry support fund looking for investment targets

The CNY120 billion (US$19.5 billion) investment fund set up by the China government in 2014 to support development of its IC industry reportedly has begun looking for investment targets, according to industry sources.



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Touch Taiwan: Corning to exhibit new display, glass products

Corning will feature Corning Eagle XG Slim Glass for a-Si displays in addition to its Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass, the world's first EPA-registered antimicrobial cover glass; and Corning Gorilla Glass NBT, designed especially for touch-enabled notebook displays, at Touch Taiwan 2014.



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Touch Taiwan: AUO to exhibit new Ultra HD curved TV displays

AUO will exhibit a full lineup of 42- to 85-inch Ultra HD curved LCD TV displays at Touch Taiwan 2014 featuring wide color gamut and boasting 4000R golden curvature. AUO's exhibition topics include Ultra HD curved LCD TV displays, public information displays, professional monitor displays, medical and car displays, integrated touch solutions, high-resolution panels for smartphones and tablets, and AMOLED.



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The People Who Created Our Jobs

Without the likes of Ohm, Faraday, Henry, and many others, we would not have the electrical engineering jobs we have today.



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Mobile Engineering: 10 Cheap, Mostly Android Apps

Whether Android- or Apple-based, your mobile phone can be an engineering design tool with the right apps. Here are a handful of popular apps that engineers use to tackle engineering tasks.



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Brazil's Path to Hardware Manufacturing at Home

John Hall, president of the Linux Foundation, lays out a scenario for how a clone of the Raspberry Pi, only better and much cheaper, could be made in Brazil. Call it the Plum Pi.



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Fairchild to Close 2 Manufacturing Facilities

Fairchild is eliminating its internal 5-in wafer fabrication lines and shuttering its fabs in West Jordan, Utah and Penang, Malaysia.



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JEDEC Unveils Low-Power Memory Standard

JEDEC published its LPDDR4 specification, which, with a redesigned architecture, operates twice as fast as LPDDR3, while still saving power.



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Live Chat Wednesday, Aug. 27: Is iPhone Relevant?

Join industry analysts and EE Times editors for a live online chat on Wednesday, Aug. 27, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, to discuss the iPhone 6 announcement and whether Apple phones are still relevant in a growing, Android-based, inexpensive market.



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SanDisk Bullish on SSD Adoption

Ultra II is aimed at consumers looking to upgrade HDD or first generation SSD with simple migration tools in a PC market that has experienced flat growth at best.



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Top 50 Employers in Electronic Design

Some companies took risks to put pieces in the right places—and in the end they spelled success.

This year's rankings were dominated by a suprise player.

read more

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The Method Behind Our Mathematics, 2014

Take a closer look at the methodology we employed in compiling the 2014 installment of our Top 50 Employers in Electronic Design rankings.

read more

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Live Chat Wednesday, Aug. 27: Is iPhone Relevant?

Join industry analysts and EE Times editors for a live online chat on Wednesday, Aug. 27, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, to discuss the iPhone 6 announcement and whether Apple phones are still relevant in a growing, Android-based, inexpensive market.



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Michigan EMS Provider to Add 171 Jobs

TROY, MI—Contract manufacturer Unified Business Technologies could add 171 jobs over the next three years after winning an Army contract to make components for surveillance and communications.

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Memory Design Articles: DDR4, LRDIMMs, MBIST, Embedded Flash

A roundup and summary of memory design articles across the network this month.



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US Launches Smart Cities Effort

The US has launched a challenge to municipal governments around the world to work with vendors in the Internet of Things to deploy smart cities applications.



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IoT Needs Open Discovery Scheme

The Internet of Things will require an open-source self-classification scheme if it is to scale to its full potential of trillions of nodes.



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Fairchild closing plants, laying off 15% of workforce

Fairchild CEO – Mark S Thompson

Fairchild is laying off about 15% of its workforce as it closes plants in Utah, Malaysia and Korea.

Fairchild is to stop five-inch silicon production in Bucheon, Korea and reduce its six-inch wafer capacity.

The closures are expected to take effect from Q2 2015 to Q4 2015.

“An adaptive supply chain must be the foundation of any global manufacturer’s operations in the increasingly dynamic semiconductor solutions market,” says Fairchild CEO Mark Thompson.

“The realignment we are announcing today will maximise the utilisation of eight-inch factories and reduce the complexity of our manufacturing footprint, while creating the flexibility to support ongoing customer demand through a greater use of external manufacturing sources. Fairchild will continue operating eight-inch wafer fabrication lines in South Portland, Maine and Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, as well as the Bucheon six- and eight-inch fabrication lines. Fairchild will also continue operating assembly and test facilities in Cebu, Philippines and Suzhou, China.”

Through the combined actions, Fairchild expects to incur approximately $36 million in cash restructuring and other costs. The company also plans to record during the closure process non-cash charges of approximately $25 million for accelerated depreciation.

Once completed, the company expects to realise annual savings of approximately $45 to $55 million from a second quarter of 2014 financial baseline. Of these estimated savings, approximately 75 percent are expected to be cash savings, with the balance attributable to lower depreciation costs. after the closures have been completed, and about 75% of that is expected to be cash savings.

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Cypress and Shanghai Huali develop Sonos embedded flash

Cypress and foundry Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Corporation (HLMC), have developed functioning silicon cells using Cypress’s Sonos (silicon oxide nitride oxide silicon) 55nm embedded flash.

The silicon cells are designed for smartcards and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The technology and design IP will be available for high-volume manufacturing by HLMC customers in the second half of 2015.

HLMC licensed Cypress’s 55nm Sonos embedded nonvolatile memory (NVM) process in January 2014.

Sonos only requires three mask layers to insert it into a standard CMOS process compared with the nine to 12 additional masks generally needed for other embedded Flash technologies. This mask reduction results in lower manufacturing costs.

Sonos does not alter standard device characteristics or models when it is added to baseline CMOS process, preserving existing design IP.

It promises high yields and reliability, 10 years of data retention, 100,000 program/erase endurance cycles, and resistance to soft errors.

Cypress has demonstrated the ability to scale Sonos to 40nm and 28nm nodes.

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Tablet market to decline in 2014 while notebook market expected to grow, says TrendForce

Branded tablets will experience negative growth in 2014 at 153 million units shipped, an on-year decrease of 1.8%. Notebook shipments, on the other hand, will increase 1% on year to 171 million, according to TrendForce.



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Acer unveils cloud-supported hearing device

Acer has unveiled a hearing device that leverages cloud computing resources to optimize settings at a convention in Shenzhen, China, which started on August 25. The device is able to connect with other personal mobile devices and apps to assist seniors and hearing impaired people to improve their quality of life.



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Consumer 3D printing is more than 5 years away, says Gartner

3D printing is evolving rapidly, although many technologies are still 5-10 years away from mainstream adoption. Consumer adoption will be outpaced by business and medical applications that have more compelling use cases in the short term, according to Gartner.



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Manz and other equipment suppliers to showcase latest production solutions at Touch Taiwan 2014

Germany-based Manz AG and a number of Taiwan-based PCB and LCD panel equipment suppliers will showcase their latest production equipment for the PCB and flat panel industries at Touch Taiwan 2014 to be held in Taipei from August 27-29.

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Intel aims to ship 25 million tablet processors in 2H14

Intel is aggressively cooperating with Taiwan and China-based tablet players, looking to push its tablet processor shipments to 25 million units in the second half of the year in order to achieve its annual shipment goal of 40 million units, according to sources from the upstream supply chain. Intel shipped less than 15 million tablet processors in the first half of the year.



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Overview: Rising pan-Indian Ocean regional smartphone market represents huge potential for Taiwan firms

Approximately eight years ago, Digitimes ran a special topic, entitled "To go, or not to go," to explore whether India is a market worth investing in for Taiwan-based businesses. While major cultural differences and complicated labor regulations are of great concern for Taiwan-based companies to set up factories in India, Digitimes has always believed that India is a market worth cultivating for Taiwan businesses. And this opinion has not changed, particularly at a time when the focus of the electronics industry is shifting from PC products to mobile devices and the India market, with its 1.21 billion consumers, is a market that will be hotly contested in this area.



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Taiwan market: FET and TWM add 390,000 4G users in two months

Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) and Taiwan Mobile (TWM), two of the six next-generation (4G) mobile communication licensees in Taiwan, kicked off commercial operations in early June 2014 and on August 25 announced that the number of subscribers increased to more than 200,000 and 190,000, respectively.



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Digitimes Research: All-in-one PC shipments to decline in 2014

Desktop shipments are expected to enjoy growth in 2014 with Microsoft ending its support for Windows XP, but the all-in-one PC market, which focuses mainly on the consumer market and did not start enjoying demand until recent years, may not be able to benefit from the growth.



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Component makers take measures to prevent gross margins from dropping

With notebook vendors becoming more aggressive in releasing low-price notebooks and leaning toward adopting cheaper components for these devices, components makers have started taking measures to ensure their gross margins do not drop.



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Taiwan July manufacturing production index up on month, year, says MOEA

Taiwan reported a manufacturing production index (2011 as a base year) of 112.27 for July 2014, increasing by 3.85% on month and by 6.77% on year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on August 25.



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Lenovo looking for help from Taiwan server players

Following its acquisition of IBM's x86 server business, Lenovo is looking to establish partnerships with Taiwan-based server players such as Quanta Computer, Mitac International and Wistron for assistance from the hardware design segment, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

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Touch Taiwan: Innolux to feature new technologies

Innolux will showcase high-end mobile device display technology on August 27-29 at Touch Taiwan 2014, including new optimized touch screen panel solutions.



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Taiwan market: Taiwan Star Cellular kicks off 4G operation

Taiwan Star Cellular, one of the six next-generation (4G) mobile communication licensees in Taiwan, on August 25 announced the launch of commercial operations and is offering a fixed monthly charge of NT$599 (US$19.97) bundled with a 24-month contract with unlimited use, with the price available until the end of October 2014, according to the company.



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Bitcoin Bill Begs Questions

A California law passed in late June attempted to legalize the use of alternative currencies such as Bitcoin, but the law falls short in at least one area and raises questions in others.



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Breadboard for Lunch, Conclusion

In the conclusion, you'll see why there's a difference between short-term and long-term variations in a clock's edge.



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Intel Shrinks 3G Chip for IoT

Intel's latest modem for the mobile Internet of Things, the XMM 6225, aims to grow into the market with cellular communications and high levels of integration. The company is touting the platform as the industry's smallest, with a 300 mm2 footprint.



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Murata to Buy RF IC Vendor Peregrine for $471M

Passive component powerhouse, Japan's Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd., has taken a major step to expand its RF component and wireless business with a $471 million deal to acquire fabless RF IC maker Peregrine Semiconductor Corp.



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NAND, DRAM 3D-Transition Roadmaps

IC Insights has done its best to encapsulate the latest information from DRAM and NAND vendors to provide a roadmap for the transition to finer geometry processes and to multi-layered memories.



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China Launching Its Own OS, Seriously?

China's news agency reports that China's home-grown operating system will be unveiled in October this year, first on desktop devices and later expanded to smartphones and other mobile devices.



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Making Wearable Tech Tactile

The Creators Project is back with its Concept Video Series for wearables, and this one is all about haptic feedback.



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Startup May Disrupt Mobile Graphics

Startup SiliconArts promises a disruptive mobile graphics capability using ray tracing geared for mobile application processors, says analyst Jon Peddie.



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All Aboard for the EETimes Road Trip to the May 2015 Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio

In May 2015, a bunch of us (including wives, husbands, and significant others) are going to the biggest Hamfest in the world in Dayton, Ohio -- do you want to join us?



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Video Codecs in Close Battle

The next-generation video codecs - HEVC H.265 and Google's VP9 - are in a close battle, one that will play out as the age of 4K video is just starting to dawn.



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Touch Taiwan: Innolux to showcase latest Ultra HD display technology

Innolux will participate in Touch Taiwan 2014 where it will showcase a series of new Ultra HD display panels and integrated touch screen solutions.



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China software industry posts January-July revenues of nearly CNY2 trillion, says MIIT

China's software industry generated total revenues of CNY1.999 trillion (US$324 billion) in January-July 2014, growing 21.4% on year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).



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TSMC to start 16nm volume production in 1Q15, says report

Taiwan Semiconductor Mnufacturing Company (TSMC) will advance volume production on its 16nm process to the first quarter of 2015 with monthly output of 50,000 wafers in order to meet demand for Apple's A9 processors, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) has reported.



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Worldwide hardcopy peripherals market declines in 2Q14, says IDC

The worldwide hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market declined for the first time in three quarters to 25.5 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2014, resulting in a 2.3% on-year decrease, according to IDC.

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Mobile Internet will continue to drive mobile revenues, contributing to 31% of global service revenues in 1Q14, says ABI Research

In the first quarter of 2014, worldwide mobile service revenues increased 0.58% on year to US$264 billion, according to ABI Research. Revenues for 2014 will grow 2.9% on year to US$1.01 trillion, mainly driven by the robust growth of the mobile Internet market.



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AUO to showcase high resolution a-Si TFT-LCDs for mobile devices at Touch Taiwan 2014

AU Optronics (AUO) has announced its ultra high resolution display technologies and applications for mobile devices, including 5-inch Full HD and 8-inch WQXGA (1600x2560) LCD panels adopting a-Si (amorphous silicon) display technology, AHVA high resolution car and medical displays, the full series of oTP (On-cell Touch Panel) integrated touch solutions for 5- to 15.6-inch smartphones, tablets and notebook PCs, 4.3-inch ultra thin LTPS TFT-LCD, and 5.5-inch Full HD in-cell touch AMOLED panel. The products and technologies will all be present from August 27 to 29 at Touch Taiwan 2014 (International Touch Panel and Optical Film Exhibition 2014), held in Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall.



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Innolux pushes mid-range Ultra HD TV panels to maintain market share

Innolux is continuing to see steady shipments of mid-range Ultra HD TV panels, with supply going mostly to customers in China, according to industry sources.



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IC packaging material distributor Niching looks to 5-10% sequential revenue growth in 3Q14

IC packaging material and tool distributor Niching Industrial is expected to see its revenues grow 5-10% sequentially in the third quarter of 2014, buoyed by rising capacity utilization rates at IC testing/packaging service companies, according to industry sources.

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Sony Mobile to roll out more waterproof smartphones, say sources

Sony Mobile Communications is enhancing the competitiveness of its the mid-range smartphones by rolling-out more water-resistant models and is likely to make waterproof a standard for its mid-range models in 2015, according to industry sources.



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Tera Xtal to expand PSS capacity, says paper

Sapphire maker Tera Xtal Technology will expand its PSS (patterned sapphire substrate) monthly production capacity from 100,000 units currently to 200,000 units by the end of 2014 due to fast growing demand for LED lighting, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.



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China July mobile phone user base grows to 1.263 billion, says MIIT

There were 1.263 billion subscribers of mobile communication services in China as of the end of July 2014, growing 0.24% on month and 6.60% on year. Of the subscribers, 476.90 million (37.75%) were 3G users and 872.21 million (69.04%) were mobile Internet-access users, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).



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Intel, CHT ink IoT cooperation pact

Intel and Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) have signed an MOU for cooperation in the fields of Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and software-defined network (SDN).



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Breadboard for Lunch

Who needs to eat lunch when you can use the time to build and study a digital clocking circuit?



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When Is a Subsystem Not Like an IP?

CPU and GPU subsystems are not just "bigger IP" because they have to be wrapped and they have to be optimized to the nth degree to be competitive on PPAR.



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Microsoft, Opera Partner On Phone Browser

Opera Software's Opera Mini browser will replace Nokia's Xpress on Nokia feature phones, but Microsoft's long-term plan for old Nokia products is unclear.



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US Military To Launch Open Source Academy

Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center in Mississippi will offer open source training and Linux certification for military personnel and civilians in groundbreaking new program.



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iPhone 6 Production Delays May Hurt Availability

Apple's iPhone manufacturing partners are struggling to produce displays for the upcoming iPhone 6 after a last-minute design change caused widespread delays.



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Creating New Faceplates for Antique Analog Meters

If you wish to use antique meters as part of your hobby projects, one task will be to replace the existing faceplate annotations, but what's the best way to do this?



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DDR4 LRDIMMs: Ready for Enterprise Memory

Here's a look at the advances the industry has made with the latest memory technology DDR4 and, more specifically, on DDR4 LRDIMM.



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New Technology Prints Sensors Inside Jet Engines, Turbines

FAIRFIELD, CT—Scientists at GE are experimenting with a technology, called Direct Write, that uses special “inks” to print miniature sensors directly inside jet engines, gas turbines and other hot, harsh and hard-to-reach places.

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iPhone 6 Facts – Finally

Top 10 app developer separates fact from rumors about Apple's coming iPhone 6.



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Vehicle-to-Vehicle: 7 Things to Know About Uncle Sam's Plan

Now that more new cars are equipped with ADAS, the NHTSA plan, unveiled this week, to require V2V communications technologies in all new passenger cars might seem too little, too late.



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SEMI’s July book-to-bill is 1.07

The SEMI book-to-bill ratio for July was 1:07, down from the 1.10 of a June but an improvement on the 1.00 of May, the1.03 of April, the 1.06 of March and the 1.01 of February.

July bookings were $1.41 billion which is 2.8% lower than June’s $1.46 billion, and is 17.1% higher than the July order level of $1.21 billion.

July billings were $1.32 billion which is 0.7% lower than June’s $1.33 billion and 9.4%?higher than the July 2013 billings level of $1.20 billion.

“Order activity for semiconductor equipment has held at a steady level so far for 2014,” says Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI, “this trend, along with improvements in semiconductor device sales and unit shipments, is consistent with our outlook for strong equipment sales growth this year.”

david manners

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IoT to drive wireless connected devices to 40.9 billion in 2020, says ABI Research

According to ABI Research, the installed base of active wireless connected devices will exceed 16 billion in 2014, about 20% more than in 2013. The number of devices will more than double from the current level, with 40.9 billion forecast for 2020.



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Acer unveils 8-core 4G LTE smartphone in Taiwan

Acer has announced its eight-core 4G LTE smartphone, the Liquid X1, featuring a 13-megapixel camera with Acer's Zoom Fit, Rapid and Float user interfaces, and Acer's Extend cross-platform display feature in Taiwan.



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Peripheral chip makers preparing inventories for 100 million new iPhones

Peripheral chip suppliers for the next-generation iPhone reportedly are preparing to build up combined inventories of related ICs equivalent for the production of 100 million units in the second half of 2014, according to industry sources.



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Taiwan market: Internet penetration reached 77.66% in 1H14, says TWNIC

An estimated 16.22 million Taiwan citizens aged 12 or above used fixed-line or wireless Internet services during the first half of 2014, equivalent to a penetration rate of 77.66%, according the latest survey undertaken by the government-sponsored Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC) during May 5-26, 2014.

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Change in US anti-dumping duty may boost capacity utilization rates of Taiwan solar firms, says EnergyTrend

On August 19, 2014, the US Department of Commerce announced it had revised the preliminary anti-dumping duty on solar products produced by Motech Industries in Taiwan, causing Motech's tariff rate to drop from 44.18% - the highest among Taiwan producers - to 20.86%, the lowest. For other Taiwan photovoltaic (PV) makers, the average duty rate has fallen to 24.23%, according to EnergyTrend.



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Foxconn sets up rental electric car joint venture in China

Foxconn Electronics has established a joint venture with Beijing Electric Vehicle (BEV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC), to offer electric vehicles for rent on an hourly basis. The joint venture is capitalized at CNY100 million (US$16.2 million) and will begin pilot operations in Beijing and Hangzhou in September 2014.



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Digitimes Research: Replacement demand for low-cost smartphones growing in Southeast Asia

Since the penetration rates of 3G/4G smartphones in most Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, are currently hovering around 20%, there will be a vast replacement demand for smartphones in the region, according to Digitimes Research.

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Samsung reportedly resumes supply of mobile RAM for new iPhone

Samsung Electronics reportedly has made a comeback into the supplier list for mobile RAM chips for Apple's next-generation iPhone slated for release in September, according to industry sources.

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Notebook shipment results improve after 7 consecutive quarters of decline, says DisplaySearch

After seven consecutive quarters of shipment declines, the global notebook market improved in the second quarter of 2014. According to NPD DisplaySearch, notebook PC shipments reached 45.1 million units, up 1% on year.



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Perfect Optronics cooperation with Potevio reportedly to pave way for Foxconn marketing in China

China-based Perfect Optronics, a sales agent for panels, LCD driver ICs and polarizers produced by Foxconn Group members, Innolux, Himax Technologies and Chi Mei Materials Technology in the China market, will enter strategic cooperation with telecom equipment trading company Potevio, which will reportedly help Foxconn market smartphones and networking/communication devices in China through Potevio's well-established channels, according to industry sources.



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Delta Electronics to showcase DLP video wall at Integrate 2014

Power supply maker and energy management solution provider Delta Electronics will exhibit an in-house-developed ultra-bright Laser-based DLP video wall with brightness of 1,800 lumens and contrast ratio of 2,000:1 at Integrate 2014 in Sydney, Australia, August 26-28, according to the company.



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China TV vendors extending promotion abroad

China-based TV vendors are extending efforts to promote their products in markets abroad, and expect lower-priced units will be most popular in China during the second half of 2014.



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