With some 20 years of software development specifically for the improvement of PCB electronics manufacturing, I have seen a few things come and go. It was in those very early days, before the IBM PC, before LANs, and of course before email and the internet, the I set out with my initial team to resolve manufacturing issues with computers. We made our own crude LAN systems. We saved data on to cassette … Read More
Farnborough International Ltd. (FIL) officials, having hosted Farnborough International Airshow 2014 earlier this month in England, added a space component to the biennial aviation event. Their timing is perhaps right on, given that the commercial space vertical is growing faster than many aerospace industry segments—with the exception of commercial aviation, of course.
The commercial space industry … Read More
I had no idea, until I spoke earlier this week with Ian Wright, founder and CEO of a small San Jose California company called Wrightspeed, that a sizable percentage of garbage trucks (solid waste collection vehicles) in California no longer meet California Air Resources Board (ARB) emission standards and must be replaced. With new trucks costing in the vicinity of $500,000, that could be an expensive … Read More
More than $201 billion U.S.—that is the total sum of orders and commitments placed at Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) 2014 this month in Farnborough, England, according to Farnborough International Ltd. (FIL) officials.
The figure represents an extremely positive note for the global aerospace industry, an FIL spokesperson says. Exhibitors at FIA2014, over the course of five days, announced orders … Read More
A Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was severely damaged when it erupted in flames on the runway at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., on the morning of 23 June 2014. That singular event would have been enough to garner U.S. attention; yet, it has gained considerable attention among the global military and aerospace (mil/aero) market.
Pentagon officials in Washington grounded the entire fleet of F-35 … Read More
Every other July, military and aerospace (mil/aero) professionals and aviation enthusiasts from all over the globe flock to the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA). This month was no different, and this mil/aero geek found himself among a crowd of roughly 100,000 at FIA2014 in Farnborough, England.
Attendees, to both the trade days and the public days, were anxious to see several commercial and … Read More
Earlier this year I wrote an article on maximizing capacitor effectiveness. I have since received a number of inquiries on mounting capacitors directly to a power via on the opposite side of the board from the IC. This is actually a fairly common design practice that I have seen on many boards. And, the question is, is this better than mounting the capacitors around the outside of the IC on the top … Read More
The global aviation community gathered in the United Kingdom (U.K.) this month for the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA).
Leading up to the biennial event, the military and aerospace (mil/aero) industry was buzzing with excitement over several “firsts.” In fact, in advance of the show, Airshow Organizers Farnborough International Ltd. (FIL) announced that the 2014 static aircraft park and the … Read More
I often need to do a bit of programming – normally C or C++. I am not generally writing a real software application, as that is not my job, but I often need to produce chunks of code to illustrate a point in an article, presentation or blog post. This code can be anything from a single line to a few dozen. Obviously, all I need to do is create a text file for the code and build it using a suitable … Read More
Those of a certain age may remember what it was like to wait impatiently to turn 16 and be able to drive (legally). There was an excitement about driving and eventual car ownership that’s not there anymore, or at least not there to the same degree. Kids these days have other options, as do adults, especially those who live in urban areas.
And that’s okay according to Scott Belcher, president and CEO … Read More
Some time ago, I wrote about my view on the future of music. In a nutshell, I was saying that live performance was what it was all about. Time has moved on and I have further thoughts on the topic. Also, over that time, e-books have become quite mainstream and I question where that technology is taking us.
It seems that David Bowie has been having the same kind of thoughts …
Some time ago, Mr. … Read More
I went out to a dinner party this past Saturday. I sat next to an ex-colleague who I now consider among my dearest friends. I met him five jobs ago – a while back we decided that it was kinder to our psyche to talk about jobs as opposed to the number of years. He is a brilliant engineer and has many years of simulation software use under his belt. He leads a team of several junior engineers who work … Read More
If you’re designing large die such as a system-on-chip (SoC) with high power demands, you’d better be thinking about how to get the heat out. Poor heat dissipation can lead to a sub-optimal packaging solution from cost, size, weight and performance perspectives.
Historically, designers assumed the die temperature was uniform. Not any more. Heating due to current leakage makes power dissipation … Read More
The weather has been warm in Colorado this week, so that means the windows and doors are now off the jeep. When I’m enjoying the open air I prefer to go on the less used roads, even if my journey is longer. This means I have to turn off the automatic mindless driving mode and think about the journey. For example, I don’t automatically turn left to get on the main road, I want to go forward … Read More
Multicore continues to be a hot topic, as an ever-increasing number of embedded systems are designed with multiple CPUs – most commonly multiple cores on a chip. One of the challenges with understanding multicore is that the term actually covers a number of architectures and approaches to design. This is a topic that I have discussed somewhat before, but the increasing popularity of multicore … Read More
