2012-05-26

Stuff to see at DAC: Blue Pearl Software

Stuff to see at DAC: Blue Pearl Software

If you are planning on attending DAC 2012, June 4-6, and if you’re involved in creating FPGA-based designs, then you really should bounce over to see the folks from Blue Pearl Software (Booth #714) to see how the Blue Pearl Software Suite can improve and accelerate your FPGA design flow and IP integration.

The Blue Pearl Software Suite works with the Xilinx Vivado Design Suite running on Windows and Linux platforms. Their solution for RTL analysis includes linting, clock domain crossing (CDC), and automatic Synopsys Design Constraint (SDC) generation. With regard to these SDCs, Blue Pearl makes the synthesis and place and route phases of FPGA design implementation more efficient. The Blue Pearl Visual Verification Environment makes it easy to use for any level of FPGA designers to validate their constraints.

Furthermore, the folks from Blue Pearl say that their collaboration with Synopsys has led to an optimized flow that works with Synplify Pro FPGA synthesis software. Verilog, VHDL and SystemVerilog designers can now automatically generate an exhaustive set of constraints that address false and multi-cycle paths that work with Synopsys’ Synplify Pro synthesis flow.

Blue Pearl’s software suite also accelerates embedded system development and improves design quality by their collaboration with ARM and IP providers.

So, once again, if you are planning on attending the 49the DAC in San Francisco, bounce over to Booth #714 to see the guys and gals from Blue Pearl demonstrate how their new Blue Pearl Software Suite addresses the needs of FPGA and ASIC designers for improving productivity and design quality. (If you see Shakeel, say “Max says Hi!”)

Click Here to schedule a meeting and demo, For more information, please visit Blue Pearl Software at www.bluepearlsoftware.com


If you found this article to be of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).

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Last but certainly not least, make sure you check out the daily discussions and other information resources at All Programmable Planet, where we cover everything of interest in "Programmable Space" for everyone from beginners to experts, hardware designers and software developers, and system designers.
TAG:DAC 2012 Blue Pearl Software

Designing Clothing The Chance to Touch the World! Fashion Designer

If you have a creative mind, then you might discover that you also have the capability and interest necessary to design clothes. Those who design fashions are able to use their natural talents and interests to produce some thing entirely new to share with the world. The opportunity to design clothes is also an opportunity to share your point of view and your distinctive perspective. Many individuals believe that they cannot use their natural enthusiasm to design clothes merely due to the fact they do not have a lot of artistic skill when it comes to drawing. After all, everybody knows that the initial step when you want to style fashions is to produce a sketch of the style, proper? 

In a lot of methods that is true, but there are items like Digital Fashion Pro that permit the would-be fashion designer to produce realistic “sketches” of their ideas without having ever picking up a pencil and paper. Instead, the software helps you translate your style thought from a thought into an actual picture on the personal computer screen. Use the included tools to attempt distinct fabrics, to add graphics, and to include accessories to your style concepts. Of course, there are other approaches to style fashions that set trends and share your artistic vision. If you select to use software to assist you style clothes, make sure that the product also permits you to make accessories. After all, what woman’s outfit is total without a handbag, belt, and a excellent pair of shoes? Whether you want to begin easy and design T-shirts, or you plan to start off your own clothing line complete with fashion accessories, products like Digital Fashion Pro can be instrumental in taking you to that expert level.

You can find Digital Fashion Pro and so numerous other useful resources at www.Startingaclothingline.com. Getting advice from those who have already been effective is a great way to gather the details that you need to have in order to get your own clothing line began, and the site provides some incredible goods and suggestions that help you do just that. Are you excellent at coming up with clever suggestions that you can use to design T-shirts? If so, use the internet site to uncover resources for acquiring them produced. Do you have the best tips for the next look in evening wear? The internet site will assist you understand how to get them manufactured as nicely as how to get them sold.

There are so many factors that the fashion industry is one of the most exciting locations to function. In addition to sharing your creative tips with the world, you also have the opportunity to work with some of the most interesting men and women out there. The chance to design clothes is unlike any other career. With clothing design, one has a opportunity to touch the world and that possibly is the greatest benefit of all.


Designing Clothing The Chance to Touch the World! Fashion Designer

TAG:

'Berthing' a commercial space industry

'Berthing' a commercial space industry


WASHINGTON -- The commercial space industry came of age at 9:56 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on May, 25, 2012.

The spectacular success of Space Exploration Technologies Inc.’s first attempt to send an unmanned cargo ship to the International Space Station has surprised nearly everyone. Indeed, SpaceX and NASA officials spent a lot of time prior to Tuesday’s (May 22) launch dampening expectations for the test flight, suggesting that merely getting the Dragon spacecraft to orbit for the second time would be considered a success.

Anything beyond that would be considered gravy.

SpaceX and its visionary founder Elon Musk took their time, validated all spacecraft systems before launch (especially navigation and communications units being flown to the space station for the first time), then quickly fixed a faulty main engine valve that delayed the first launch attempt last week. On Tuesday, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket hit a one-second instantaneous launch window and reached orbit without a hitch.

Friday’s climax, the “grappling and berthing” maneuver using the space station’s robotic arm had a few tense moments. Along with sunlight blinding two of Dragon’s thermal imagers, one of its two laser radars used to confirm its position relative to the space station was not functioning properly. Only one radar was needed for the capture maneuver, but mission controllers warned the space station crew that Dragon would abort if the second radar failed. It worked.

“There’s so much that could’ve gone wrong and it went right,” a weary Musk said during a celebratory mission status briefing. “We were able to overcome some last-minute issues with some fast thinking.” Musk said SpaceX had to recalibrate the radar to “tighten the beam, and it worked.”


SpaceX founder Elon Musk

TAG:Space Exploration Technologies Inc Commercial Space Elon Musk Space Station Cargo Mission SpaceX NASA

'Berthing' a commercial space industry

'Berthing' a commercial space industry


WASHINGTON -- The commercial space industry came of age at 9:56 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on May, 25, 2012.

The spectacular success of Space Exploration Technologies Inc.’s first attempt to send an unmanned cargo ship to the International Space Station has surprised nearly everyone. Indeed, SpaceX and NASA officials spent a lot of time prior to Tuesday’s (May 22) launch dampening expectations for the test flight, suggesting that merely getting the Dragon spacecraft to orbit for the second time would be considered a success.

Anything beyond that would be considered gravy.

SpaceX and its visionary founder Elon Musk took their time, validated all spacecraft systems before launch (especially navigation and communications units being flown to the space station for the first time), then quickly fixed a faulty main engine valve that delayed the first launch attempt last week. On Tuesday, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket hit a one-second instantaneous launch window and reached orbit without a hitch.

Friday’s climax, the “grappling and berthing” maneuver using the space station’s robotic arm had a few tense moments. Along with sunlight blinding two of Dragon’s thermal imagers, one of its two laser radars used to confirm its position relative to the space station was not functioning properly. Only one radar was needed for the capture maneuver, but mission controllers warned the space station crew that Dragon would abort if the second radar failed. It worked.

“There’s so much that could’ve gone wrong and it went right,” a weary Musk said during a celebratory mission status briefing. “We were able to overcome some last-minute issues with some fast thinking.” Musk said SpaceX had to recalibrate the radar to “tighten the beam, and it worked.”


SpaceX founder Elon Musk

TAG:Space Exploration Technologies Inc Commercial Space Elon Musk Space Station Cargo Mission SpaceX NASA

Former Conexant CEO tapped to lead Lantiq

Former Conexant CEO tapped to lead Lantiq

SAN FRANCISCO—German broadband and networking chip vendor Lantiq Friday (May 25) appointed Dan Artusi to the position of CEO. Artusi is a former CEO of both Silicon Laboratories Inc. and Conexant Systems Inc. and has been a member of Lantiq's board of directors since 2009.

Artusi replaces Christian Wolff as Lantiq CEO. Wolff will remain a member of Lantiq's board of directors, the company said. Wolff served as CEO of Lantiq since the company spun out of Infineon Technologies AG in 2009.

“With Lantiq’s carve-out from Infineon Technologies now complete, the company has entered a new, exciting period of its development,” Artusi said through a statement. “I’m thrilled to work with a great management team and a truly committed group of employees to capitalize on our unique breadth of technologies and deep customer relationships to grow the business.”

Lantiq (Neubiberg, Germany) said Artusi will be responsible for working with the company's senior management team to build on its success in broadband access and pursue exciting growth opportunities in the home networking arena.

Lantiq was formed in 2009, when private equity investor Golden Gate Capital purchased Infineon's wireline communications division.

Artusi has more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor and communications industries. Prior to serving as CEO of both Silicon Labs and Conexant, Artusi spent more than 20 years in various senior management positions at Motorola Semiconductor. He currently serves on the board of Conextant, Scintera Networks and Energy Micro AS and until recently was on the board of Atheros Communications Inc. (recently acquired by Qualcomm Inc.).

TAG:Dan Artusi Conexant Silicon Laboratories Lantiq Infineon Semiconductor

Former Conexant CEO tapped to lead Lantiq

Former Conexant CEO tapped to lead Lantiq

SAN FRANCISCO—German broadband and networking chip vendor Lantiq Friday (May 25) appointed Dan Artusi to the position of CEO. Artusi is a former CEO of both Silicon Laboratories Inc. and Conexant Systems Inc. and has been a member of Lantiq's board of directors since 2009.

Artusi replaces Christian Wolff as Lantiq CEO. Wolff will remain a member of Lantiq's board of directors, the company said. Wolff served as CEO of Lantiq since the company spun out of Infineon Technologies AG in 2009.

“With Lantiq’s carve-out from Infineon Technologies now complete, the company has entered a new, exciting period of its development,” Artusi said through a statement. “I’m thrilled to work with a great management team and a truly committed group of employees to capitalize on our unique breadth of technologies and deep customer relationships to grow the business.”

Lantiq (Neubiberg, Germany) said Artusi will be responsible for working with the company's senior management team to build on its success in broadband access and pursue exciting growth opportunities in the home networking arena.

Lantiq was formed in 2009, when private equity investor Golden Gate Capital purchased Infineon's wireline communications division.

Artusi has more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor and communications industries. Prior to serving as CEO of both Silicon Labs and Conexant, Artusi spent more than 20 years in various senior management positions at Motorola Semiconductor. He currently serves on the board of Conextant, Scintera Networks and Energy Micro AS and until recently was on the board of Atheros Communications Inc. (recently acquired by Qualcomm Inc.).

TAG:Dan Artusi Conexant Silicon Laboratories Lantiq Infineon Semiconductor

Slideshow: Sun shines on UMC's new fab

Slideshow: Sun shines on UMC's new fab

TAINAN, TAIWAN – It was a good day in a good year for United Microelectronics Corp.

Taiwan’s second largest foundry officially broke ground on its latest and largest fab to date. When complete, the $8 billion factory—known as Phase 5 and 6 of Fab 12A--will spit out up to 50,000 300 mm wafers per month starting at 28 nm and eventually moving to 20 and 14 nm processes. The company expects to start installing equipment in the second half of 2013.

The fab will contain 53,000 mm2 of clean room space—enough to house ten football fields. It will cost UMC as much as it has spent to date on two previous generation fabs that are part of the same complex here.

The new plant sits next to UMC’s current high-end fab where the company is ramping up a 28 nm Poly SiON process. The existing fab has already shipped thousands of sample parts using the process, and by the end of the year UMC will log as much as five percent of its sales in 28 nm technology, said chief executive Shi-Wei Sun.

The dynamics are driving the company’s upbeat forecast that sales will be up about 15 percent in its next quarter. That’s significant but less impressive than the 20 percent sales growth its rival, the much larger TSMC forecasts, said Bill McClean, president of IC Insights.

More than 300 vendors, partners and local dignitaries turned out to wish the island nation’s oldest foundry well on the latest chapter of its growth. Like all such high risk operations at the heart of the electronics industry, it will need all the luck it can get.

Although companies such as Nvidia and Qualcomm are crying for 28 nm technology today, they are mainly customers for rival TSMC due to their need for the latest technology. It’s not clear either would use the poly version UMC is ramping now or would prefer the high-K metal gate version it won’t have in pilot production until late this year.

It’s anyone’s guess what the demand could be like in two years when the $8 billion plant needs to start paying back on its investment. Larger questions hang over UMC’s long term horizon.

The company officially lost its position as a distant second to TSMC late last year when GlobalFoundries edged ahead in quarterly revenues. Market watchers like McClean believe the company will eventually slip to number four.

“I still see TSMC as the leader with GlobalFoundries and Samsung fighting it out for number two,” said McClean. “Over the long run, [UMC] is going to find it increasingly difficult to keep up with leading-edge technology,” he said.


More than 300 visitors gathered under tents next to UMC's current high-end fab for the groundbreaking ceremonies.
TAG:United Microelectronics Corp 28 Nm UMC Fabs Foundries Taiwan Tainan TSMC

ST's priorities: Sustain analog, expand into digital

ST's priorities: Sustain analog, expand into digital


NEW YORK -- If not for a pesky $1 billion loss from a “significant customer,” STMicroelectronics might be a much better financial and strategic shape.

That's according to Carlo Bozotti, ST's president and CEO, who was blunt in his remarks at the annual company analysts meeting here this week: “Losing the former largest customer is not sustainable.”

The customer, Nokia, is being squeezed by Apple iPhone and other mobile gear as more consumers are opting for anything that has a small letter “i” in its brand name. “The third quarter will be better across the board than was the second quarter,” Bozotti promised.

Referring to Nokia’s mobile woes and the repercussions for ST, Bozotti added: “We have two priorities this year, one of continuity and one of discontinuity.” Bozotti wants to protect ST's net financial position while at the same time redesign its VLSI strategy to infuse sustainability into the company’s DNA.

To that end, ST wants to boost market share for its sense/power product lines while embarking on a digital strategy with multimedia platform offerings. The latter has been tried by others with little success, but Bozzoti said the “time is right for multimedia convergence applications," which would combine its application processors and modems (ModAp) system solutions from ST Ericsson.

“We will combine ST and ST-Ericsson competencies in one team,” explained Didier Lamouche, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. “We chose to work with ST after evaluating four companies for the simple reason that one needs at least two years to do development with a third party.”

Lamouche that his company is on the road to efficiency. “We have [been] consolidating our diverse global sites to create five hubs based on specialized technologies. Operating 44 sites around the globe becomes too much when some customers are demanding turnaround times for new phones every nine months.”

He added that ST-Ericsson has an edge on radios for the upcoming 4G LTE phones: “Every ten years modems need to go through a revolution. LTE radios need to go back to square one, and we have done so earlier than our competitors, thus placing us in an advantageous market position," he claimed.

ST's analyst day presentations and a Web cast can be viewed here.
TAG:ST Micro Analog Digital

Murata completes takeover of VTI with name change

Murata completes takeover of VTI with name change


HELSINKI, Finland – The takeover of MEMS manufacturer VTI Technologies Oy here by Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. was completed with a name change to Murata Electronics Oy.

Japanese passives to power supplies giant Murata announced it was acquiring VTI for about 20 billion yen (about 190 million euro or $260 million) in cash back in October 2011 and VTI has been part of Murata since January 2012.

"Today is a memorable day: VTI Technologies Oy has become Murata Electronics Oy. The change of company name and visual identity clearly and strongly highlights the fact that this company is now an integral part of Murata," said Tsuneo Murata, president of Murata Manufacturing, in a statement. "Our aim is to strengthen the Murata brand worldwide, and this change supports our strategy. VTI has been recognized as a pioneer in MEMS technology, and now we want Murata to be the top-of-mind name also for high-quality MEMS sensors, in addition to other Murata products."

Shinji Ushiro, who becomes CEO and president of Murata Electronics Oy with effect from June 1, said it is Murata's objective to become one the world leading MEMS companies.

Murata, which manufactures passives to power supplies, MEMS and wireless modules, had annual revenues in the last financial year of 618 billion yen (about 6.1 billion euros or $7.9 billion).


Related links and articles:

www.muratamems.fi

News articles:


High-G MEMS help detect concussions

IMU integrates accelerometer, gyro

Murata buys RF Monolithics for $22 million

Murata to buy MEMS firm for $260 million






ww

TAG:Murata VTI MEMS semiconductor

ST's priorities: Sustain analog, expand into digital

ST's priorities: Sustain analog, expand into digital


NEW YORK -- If not for a pesky $1 billion loss from a “significant customer,” STMicroelectronics might be a much better financial and strategic shape.

That's according to Carlo Bozotti, ST's president and CEO, who was blunt in his remarks at the annual company analysts meeting here this week: “Losing the former largest customer is not sustainable.”

The customer, Nokia, is being squeezed by Apple iPhone and other mobile gear as more consumers are opting for anything that has a small letter “i” in its brand name. “The third quarter will be better across the board than was the second quarter,” Bozotti promised.

Referring to Nokia’s mobile woes and the repercussions for ST, Bozotti added: “We have two priorities this year, one of continuity and one of discontinuity.” Bozotti wants to protect ST's net financial position while at the same time redesign its VLSI strategy to infuse sustainability into the company’s DNA.

To that end, ST wants to boost market share for its sense/power product lines while embarking on a digital strategy with multimedia platform offerings. The latter has been tried by others with little success, but Bozzoti said the “time is right for multimedia convergence applications," which would combine its application processors and modems (ModAp) system solutions from ST Ericsson.

“We will combine ST and ST-Ericsson competencies in one team,” explained Didier Lamouche, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. “We chose to work with ST after evaluating four companies for the simple reason that one needs at least two years to do development with a third party.”

Lamouche that his company is on the road to efficiency. “We have [been] consolidating our diverse global sites to create five hubs based on specialized technologies. Operating 44 sites around the globe becomes too much when some customers are demanding turnaround times for new phones every nine months.”

He added that ST-Ericsson has an edge on radios for the upcoming 4G LTE phones: “Every ten years modems need to go through a revolution. LTE radios need to go back to square one, and we have done so earlier than our competitors, thus placing us in an advantageous market position," he claimed.

ST's analyst day presentations and a Web cast can be viewed here.
TAG:ST Micro Analog Digital

Murata completes takeover of VTI with name change

Murata completes takeover of VTI with name change


HELSINKI, Finland – The takeover of MEMS manufacturer VTI Technologies Oy here by Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. was completed with a name change to Murata Electronics Oy.

Japanese passives to power supplies giant Murata announced it was acquiring VTI for about 20 billion yen (about 190 million euro or $260 million) in cash back in October 2011 and VTI has been part of Murata since January 2012.

"Today is a memorable day: VTI Technologies Oy has become Murata Electronics Oy. The change of company name and visual identity clearly and strongly highlights the fact that this company is now an integral part of Murata," said Tsuneo Murata, president of Murata Manufacturing, in a statement. "Our aim is to strengthen the Murata brand worldwide, and this change supports our strategy. VTI has been recognized as a pioneer in MEMS technology, and now we want Murata to be the top-of-mind name also for high-quality MEMS sensors, in addition to other Murata products."

Shinji Ushiro, who becomes CEO and president of Murata Electronics Oy with effect from June 1, said it is Murata's objective to become one the world leading MEMS companies.

Murata, which manufactures passives to power supplies, MEMS and wireless modules, had annual revenues in the last financial year of 618 billion yen (about 6.1 billion euros or $7.9 billion).


Related links and articles:

www.muratamems.fi

News articles:


High-G MEMS help detect concussions

IMU integrates accelerometer, gyro

Murata buys RF Monolithics for $22 million

Murata to buy MEMS firm for $260 million






ww

TAG:Murata VTI MEMS semiconductor

2012-05-25

Slideshow: Sun shines on UMC's new fab

Slideshow: Sun shines on UMC's new fab

TAINAN, TAIWAN – It was a good day in a good year for United Microelectronics Corp.

Taiwan’s second largest foundry officially broke ground on its latest and largest fab to date. When complete, the $8 billion factory—known as Phase 5 and 6 of Fab 12A--will spit out up to 50,000 300 mm wafers per month starting at 28 nm and eventually moving to 20 and 14 nm processes. The company expects to start installing equipment in the second half of 2013.

The fab will contain 53,000 mm2 of clean room space—enough to house ten football fields. It will cost UMC as much as it has spent to date on two previous generation fabs that are part of the same complex here.

The new plant sits next to UMC’s current high-end fab where the company is ramping up a 28 nm Poly SiON process. The existing fab has already shipped thousands of sample parts using the process, and by the end of the year UMC will log as much as five percent of its sales in 28 nm technology, said chief executive Shi-Wei Sun.

The dynamics are driving the company’s upbeat forecast that sales will be up about 15 percent in its next quarter. That’s significant but less impressive than the 20 percent sales growth its rival, the much larger TSMC forecasts, said Bill McClean, president of IC Insights.

More than 300 vendors, partners and local dignitaries turned out to wish the island nation’s oldest foundry well on the latest chapter of its growth. Like all such high risk operations at the heart of the electronics industry, it will need all the luck it can get.

Although companies such as Nvidia and Qualcomm are crying for 28 nm technology today, they are mainly customers for rival TSMC due to their need for the latest technology. It’s not clear either would use the poly version UMC is ramping now or would prefer the high-K metal gate version it won’t have in pilot production until late this year.

It’s anyone’s guess what the demand could be like in two years when the $8 billion plant needs to start paying back on its investment. Larger questions hang over UMC’s long term horizon.

The company officially lost its position as a distant second to TSMC late last year when GlobalFoundries edged ahead in quarterly revenues. Market watchers like McClean believe the company will eventually slip to number four.

“I still see TSMC as the leader with GlobalFoundries and Samsung fighting it out for number two,” said McClean. “Over the long run, [UMC] is going to find it increasingly difficult to keep up with leading-edge technology,” he said.


More than 300 visitors gathered under tents next to UMC's current high-end fab for the groundbreaking ceremonies.
TAG:United Microelectronics Corp 28 Nm UMC Fabs Foundries Taiwan Tainan TSMC

ST MIcro's priorities to sustain analog, expand into digital

ST MIcro's priorities to sustain analog, expand into digital

NEW YORK -- If it wasn’t for the pesky $1 billion loss of business from a “significant customer” recently ST Microelectronics might be a much better financial and strategic shape.

That is according to Carlo Bozotti, ST Micro president and CEO, who was blunt in his remarks at the annual company analysts meeting here this week: “Losing the former largest customer is not sustainable.”

The “pesky” customer, Nokia, is being squeezed out by Apple and all its portable wares as more consumers are opting for anything that has a small letter “i” in front of the product name than for any other brand. “The third quarter will be better across the board than was the second quarter,” said Bozotti.

Referring to Nokia’s troubles in the mobile arena and its repercussions on ST Micro not meeting the anticipated orders for the company’s chips: “We have two priorities this year: one of continuity and one of discontinuity,” said Bozotti who wants to protect the net financial position of the company while at the same time re-design its VLSI strategy to infuse sustainability into the company’s DNA.

To that end ST Micro wants to boost its market share for their sense/power product lines while making embarking on a strategy in the digital arena with offerings in multimedia platforms. The latter has been tried by other companies before and failed, but Bozzoti thinks the “time is right for multimedia convergence applications”, which would combine its initiative in application processors and modems (ModAp) system solutions from ST Ericsson.

“We will combine ST and ST-Ericsson competencies in one team,” explained Didier Lamouche, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. “And we chose to work with ST after evaluating four companies for the simple reason that one needs at least two years to do development with a third party.”

Lamouche said that his company is on the road to executing efficiency as a revenue lever. “We have consolidating our diverse global sites to create five hubs based on specialized technologies. Operating 44 sites around the globe becomes too much when some customers are demanding turnaround times for new phones every nine months.” He is confident that ST-Ericsson has an edge on radios for the upcoming 4G LTE phones: “Every ten years modems need to go thru a revolution. For LTE radios need to go back to square one; and we have done so earlier than our competitors, thus placing us in an advantageous market position.”

Both Bozotti and Lamouche thanked their respective teams for engaging with them on “this long and treacherous journey” at both companies.

The analyst day presentations details and webcast can be viewed here.
TAG:ST Micro Analog Digital

Update: Space station astronauts capture Dragon

Update: Space station astronauts capture Dragon


WASHINGTON – Astronauts on the International Space Station reached out and grabbed a U.S. commercial spacecraft in darkness about 250 statute miles over Australia at 9:56 a.m. EDT on Friday (May 25).

Expedition 31 flight engineer Don Pettit used the space station’s robotic arm to grab the Dragon cargo ship launched by SpaceX on Tuesday. “Capture is confirmed,” Pettit told NASA’s Mission Control in Houston. “We’ve got us a Dragon by the tail!”

The astronauts will next attempt to attach Dragon to the space station's earth-facing Harmony node later today. Mission controllers said they expect to complete the "berthing" of Dragon to the docking port by the end of the day. They informed the space station's Expedition 31 crew that Dragon's "mating surface" that will connect to the station looked good.

The "grappling" procedure was delayed by almost an hour while flight controllers worked out kinks in Dragon's laser range-finding radar.

If the current schedule holds, the space station's six-man crew will open Dragon's hatch on Saturday, then unload its approximately 1,000 pounds cargo of food, clothing and equipment. They will then fill Dragon with return cargo such as unneeded space-walking equipment.

NASA is scheduled to hold a status briefing on Dragon's historic mission to the International Space Station later today. Live video from the International Space Station can be viewed here.


The Dragon spacecraft as seen from the International Space Station on Friday (May 25) at a distance of about 30 meters. (NASA TV)

TAG:Dragon ISS

Intel to spend $40 million on international university research

Intel to spend $40 million on international university research

SAN FRANCISCO—Intel Corp. said Thursday (May 24) it plans to plough more than $40 million into a worldwide network of university research centers over the next five years in an international counterpart to the company's U.S.-based Intel Science and Technology Centers program (ISTCs).

The Intel Collaborative Research Institutes (ICRI) will bring together experts from academia and industry to help explore and invent next-generation technologies, Intel said.

"The institute’s goal is to bring together experts from both academia and industry to form a new collaborative research community," said Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, in remarks introducing the program in London. "As we join with our academic and other industrial collaborators, we see the opportunity to collectively research and create an evolutionary leap for cities in terms of resource efficiency, new services and ease of living."

Intel announced in January 2011 plans to invest $100 million in U.S. university research over five years to establish ISTCs. Since then, the company has established five ISTCs at four prestigious U.S. schools, with several other universities participating in the research.

Intel said Thursday the ICRIs would collaborate amongst earch other, with their own multi-university communities and with other ICRI to strenghten its global research network.


Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, announces the company's new international university research program at a speech at 10 Downing Street, London.
Source: Intel Corp.

TAG:Intel Europe University Research Labs

SRC clears path to 14-nm with directed self-assembly litho

SRC clears path to 14-nm with directed self-assembly litho

PORTLAND, Ore.—A novel self-assembly technique previously demonstrated only in the lab for regular test patterns, has been perfected for creating the irregular patterns necessary to fabricate real semiconductors down to 14-nanometers, according to researchers funded by Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC).

By solving one of the outstanding lithographic problems facing further scaling—the tiny contact holes that connect semiconductors to their substrate—researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated working circuits at 22-nanometer and a clear path to 14-nanometers, as well as a bee-line on the chemistry developments needed to scale to single digit sizes.

"Others have demonstrated self-assembly of regular patterns," said Philip Wong, lead researcher at Stanford for the SRC-guided research. "But this is the first time that directed self-assembly (DSA) has been successfully applied to create the critical contact holes needed for standard cell libraries on future sub-22-nanometer chips."

The semiconductors fabricated by Wong's group were real working circuits at 22-nanometer, not just test structures, demonstrating that DSA can be used for any irregular pattern required for future logic or memory chips. The group also demonstrated that they could heal imperfections in patterns and maintain high resolutions and ultra-fine features consistently across a wafer.

"At SRC, we view Wong's work as the critical breakthrough needed to pattern contact hole patterns at advanced nodes, which is one of the most difficult problems the industry is facing today," said Bob Havemann, director of nanomanufacturing sciences at SRC (Research Triangle, N.C.). "Wong was also able to achieve the patterning using environmentally green materials, which is another obstacle that needed to be surmounted."

Stanford's technique works by first using standard lithography techniques to pattern the general area where the contact hole will need to be, using features than can be more than twice the size of the final contact holes. For instance, if pair of contact holes been to be spaced 22 nanometers apart, then the template might be used to etch an oblong indentation that is 50 nanometers long. Then, in the second step, a self-assembling block-copolymer is deposited on the wafer, where it only activates within the indented areas. By carefully formulating the two parts of the co-polymer, it self assembles into precisely the placement pattern required to accurately etch closely spaced side-by-side 22 nanometer holes.

"Our current demonstration showed we could etch irregular patterns of 22 nanometer holes," said Linda He Yi, a researcher working on Wong’s team. "But our current copolymer can handle etching holes in patterns as small as 14 nanometers."

The solvents used in the coating and etching process were polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether acetates, which are considered a green alternative to conventional solvents. Other SRC projects underway are aiming to extend the green directed self-assembly technique to single-digit sizes below 10-nanometer, by perfecting different copolymer formulations.

Additional funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation.


TAG:Semiconductor 14 nm Nanoscale Microchip Fab EETimes NextGenLog Electronics

Dragon cargo ship, space station fly in formation

Dragon cargo ship, space station fly in formation


WASHINGTON – The International Space Station and a commercial cargo ship are now locked in an electronic embrace after a series of rendezvous maneuvers brought the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft within sight of the orbiting laboratory on Thursday (May 24).

John Couluris, SpaceX mission director for the Dragon test flight to the space station, said the pioneering commercial space company is now “cautiously optimistic” about Friday’s scheduled docking with the space station. “It’s a test flight,” stressed Couluris, echoing other company and NASA officials who cautioned before Tuesday’s successful launch how difficult the first commercial cargo mission would be. “But right now the mission is looking just like our simulations.”

To achieve rendezvous about 1.5 miles from the space station, NASA and SpaceX conducted about 20 joint simulations over the last 18 months, Couluris said.

The Dragon spacecraft used less thruster fuel than anticipated to catch up with the space station, SpaceX said. “We should be good” on fuel, Couluris added.



The unmanned Dragon spacecraft as seen from the International Space Station after a successful rendezvous on Thursday (May 24). The SpaceX cargo ship is parked about 1.5 miles from the station. (Source: NASA)


TAG:International Space Station Commercial Space Gwynne Shotwell SpaceX NASA XCOR Space

SRC clears path to 14-nm with directed self-assembly litho

SRC clears path to 14-nm with directed self-assembly litho

PORTLAND, Ore.—A novel self-assembly technique previously demonstrated only in the lab for regular test patterns, has been perfected for creating the irregular patterns necessary to fabricate real semiconductors down to 14-nanometers, according to researchers funded by Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC).

By solving one of the outstanding lithographic problems facing further scaling—the tiny contact holes that connect semiconductors to their substrate—researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated working circuits at 22-nanometer and a clear path to 14-nanometers, as well as a bee-line on the chemistry developments needed to scale to single digit sizes.

"Others have demonstrated self-assembly of regular patterns," said Philip Wong, lead researcher at Stanford for the SRC-guided research. "But this is the first time that directed self-assembly (DSA) has been successfully applied to create the critical contact holes needed for standard cell libraries on future sub-22-nanometer chips."

The semiconductors fabricated by Wong's group were real working circuits at 22-nanometer, not just test structures, demonstrating that DSA can be used for any irregular pattern required for future logic or memory chips. The group also demonstrated that they could heal imperfections in patterns and maintain high resolutions and ultra-fine features consistently across a wafer.

"At SRC, we view Wong's work as the critical breakthrough needed to pattern contact hole patterns at advanced nodes, which is one of the most difficult problems the industry is facing today," said Bob Havemann, director of nanomanufacturing sciences at SRC (Research Triangle, N.C.). "Wong was also able to achieve the patterning using environmentally green materials, which is another obstacle that needed to be surmounted."

Stanford's technique works by first using standard lithography techniques to pattern the general area where the contact hole will need to be, using features than can be more than twice the size of the final contact holes. For instance, if pair of contact holes been to be spaced 22 nanometers apart, then the template might be used to etch an oblong indentation that is 50 nanometers long. Then, in the second step, a self-assembling block-copolymer is deposited on the wafer, where it only activates within the indented areas. By carefully formulating the two parts of the co-polymer, it self assembles into precisely the placement pattern required to accurately etch closely spaced side-by-side 22 nanometer holes.

"Our current demonstration showed we could etch irregular patterns of 22 nanometer holes," said Linda He Yi, a researcher working on Wong’s team. "But our current copolymer can handle etching holes in patterns as small as 14 nanometers."

The solvents used in the coating and etching process were polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether acetates, which are considered a green alternative to conventional solvents. Other SRC projects underway are aiming to extend the green directed self-assembly technique to single-digit sizes below 10-nanometer, by perfecting different copolymer formulations.

Additional funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation.


TAG:Semiconductor 14 nm Nanoscale Microchip Fab EETimes NextGenLog Electronics

Inertial measurement unit integrates accelerometer, gyro

Inertial measurement unit integrates accelerometer, gyro

PORTLAND, Ore.—Inertial measurement units (IMUs) integrate a three-axis accelerometer and a three-axis gyroscope, which Bosch Sensortec now claims to have put into the smallest package yet available for consumer-grade applications such as mobile phones, tablets and digital cameras.

Frank Melzer, Bosch Sensortec CEO, announced the integration into a single inexpensive 3.5-by-4.5 millimeter package at the MEMS Business Forum Thursday (May 24) in Santa Clara, Calif.

Every smartphone today has a three-axis accelerometer to track motion—for automatically switching its screen from portrait to landscape—but for advanced gaming, gesture recognition and indoor navigational tasks, a three-axis gyroscope is needed, too. Accelerometers only track linear motion, but gyroscopes track rotation-in-place motion, thus providing a higher precision when tracking fine user movements. Packing both accelerometers and gyroscopes into a 3.5-by-4.5 millimeter package could enable any smartphone can upgrade to a full six-degree-of-freedom inertial measurement unit (IMU).

"Bosch Sensortec is now offering the smallest IMU available today," said Leopold Beer, director of global marketing at Bosch Sensortec. "We are the only MEMS manufacturer who makes accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and barometers in-house."

Bosch has both 6-inch and 8-inch MEMS fabs in Reutlingen, Germany, capable of building 1,500 wafers per day at 0.5 micron and 800 wafers a day at 0.18 micron, respectively. They are also the only manufacturer making two six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) parts with their own chips—an accelerometer/magentometer combo for e-compasses and navigation, and now an accelerometer/gyroscope combo for gaming and gesture recognition. With the addition of one of their barometer chips—for determining altitude—Bosch Sensortec now also has a complete 10-DoF intertial navigation unit (INU) as a two-chip solution.


Bosch Sensortec wire-bonds together into 3-D stacks the MEMS die and the ASIC holding its electronics all in a single package.
Source: Bosch Sensortech

TAG:Micro electro mechanical system MEMS Semiconductor Sensor Electronics

Dragon cargo ship, space station fly in formation

Dragon cargo ship, space station fly in formation


WASHINGTON – The International Space Station and a commercial cargo ship are now locked in an electronic embrace after a series of rendezvous maneuvers brought the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft within sight of the orbiting laboratory on Thursday (May 24).

John Couluris, SpaceX mission director for the Dragon test flight to the space station, said the pioneering commercial space company is now “cautiously optimistic” about Friday’s scheduled docking with the space station. “It’s a test flight,” stressed Couluris, echoing other company and NASA officials who cautioned before Tuesday’s successful launch how difficult the first commercial cargo mission would be. “But right now the mission is looking just like our simulations.”

To achieve rendezvous about 1.5 miles from the space station, NASA and SpaceX conducted about 20 joint simulations over the last 18 months, Couluris said.

The Dragon spacecraft used less thruster fuel than anticipated to catch up with the space station, SpaceX said. “We should be good” on fuel, Couluris added.



The unmanned Dragon spacecraft as seen from the International Space Station after a successful rendezvous on Thursday (May 24). The SpaceX cargo ship is parked about 1.5 miles from the station. (Source: NASA)


TAG:International Space Station Commercial Space Gwynne Shotwell SpaceX NASA XCOR Space

Inertial measurement unit integrates accelerometer, gyro

Inertial measurement unit integrates accelerometer, gyro

PORTLAND, Ore.—Inertial measurement units (IMUs) integrate a three-axis accelerometer and a three-axis gyroscope, which Bosch Sensortec now claims to have put into the smallest package yet available for consumer-grade applications such as mobile phones, tablets and digital cameras.

Frank Melzer, Bosch Sensortec CEO, announced the integration into a single inexpensive 3.5-by-4.5 millimeter package at the MEMS Business Forum Thursday (May 24) in Santa Clara, Calif.

Every smartphone today has a three-axis accelerometer to track motion—for automatically switching its screen from portrait to landscape—but for advanced gaming, gesture recognition and indoor navigational tasks, a three-axis gyroscope is needed, too. Accelerometers only track linear motion, but gyroscopes track rotation-in-place motion, thus providing a higher precision when tracking fine user movements. Packing both accelerometers and gyroscopes into a 3.5-by-4.5 millimeter package could enable any smartphone can upgrade to a full six-degree-of-freedom inertial measurement unit (IMU).

"Bosch Sensortec is now offering the smallest IMU available today," said Leopold Beer, director of global marketing at Bosch Sensortec. "We are the only MEMS manufacturer who makes accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and barometers in-house."

Bosch has both 6-inch and 8-inch MEMS fabs in Reutlingen, Germany, capable of building 1,500 wafers per day at 0.5 micron and 800 wafers a day at 0.18 micron, respectively. They are also the only manufacturer making two six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) parts with their own chips—an accelerometer/magentometer combo for e-compasses and navigation, and now an accelerometer/gyroscope combo for gaming and gesture recognition. With the addition of one of their barometer chips—for determining altitude—Bosch Sensortec now also has a complete 10-DoF intertial navigation unit (INU) as a two-chip solution.


Bosch Sensortec wire-bonds together into 3-D stacks the MEMS die and the ASIC holding its electronics all in a single package.
Source: Bosch Sensortech

TAG:Micro electro mechanical system MEMS Semiconductor Sensor Electronics

2012-05-24

ARM CTO looks at architecture scaling for 2020 solutions

ARM CTO looks at architecture scaling for 2020 solutions

BRUSSELS – Anticipating the propagation of the Internet of things, Mike Muller, chief technology officer at ARM Ltd., discussed the needs for architecture scaling at the annual IMEC Technology Forum this week at the Square meeting center in Brussels, Belgium.

In his keynote, Muller compared the original ARM design of 1983 to that of today’s microprocessors. Major advances have been made regarding systems, hardware, operating systems and applications but he outlined the needs of architecture scaling for 2020 solutions from tiny embedded sensors through to cloud based servers which together enable the Internet of things.

Muller provided a quick overview of the PC, from the very start when it was a hobby to when it became “the” platform for computing. “Then, we saw the beginning of the mobile dawn and mobile voice with the transition to 32-bit microcontrollers, meaning the advent of clean architecture,” he said. (See below)


Source: ARM and Asymco

TAG:Mike Muller ARM Architecture Scaling Internet of Things IoT Imec ITF Mobility Power

UMC breaks ground for $8-billion fab expansion

UMC breaks ground for $8-billion fab expansion


HELSINKI, Finland – Foundry chip company United Microelectronics Corp. has held a ground breaking ceremony for Phases 5 and 6 (P5 and P6) of its Fab 12A 300-mm wafer fab complex at Tainan, Taiwan.

The expansion is intended to provide manufacturing capacity to extend the company's 28-nm production and to provide the basis for 20-nm and 14-nm production and will ultimately cost nearly $8 billion, the company said.

"UMC remains optimistic about the long-term outlook of the semiconductor and foundry industries. However, with increasing industry volatility, a clearly defined business strategy is needed in order to take full advantage of upcoming market opportunities," said Stan Hung, chairman of UMC, in a statement.

The first four phases of UMC's Fab 12A will have a cumulative capital expenditure of $8 billion. The next two phases will cost nearly $8 billion and there are plans for P7 and P8 in the future, Hung said in the same statement.

P5 and P6 will provide is scheduled for equipment move-in during the second half of 2013. Total cleanroom area is 53,000 square meters, about the size of 10 American football fields. This will contribute 50,000 wafers per month manufacturing capacity, bringing the total monthly design capacity for Fab 12A to 130,000 wafers. With the planned P7 and P8, the eight phase fab complex will have a total capacity of 180,000 wafers per month.

UMC is making a conventionally gated polysilicon SiON 28-nm and has plans to start pilot production of 28-nm gate-last high-K metal gate (HKMG) products in the second half of 2012.


Related links and articles:

Report: UMC benefits from TSMC 28-nm supply shortage

April foundry sales point upward

Time for a return to the customer-backed joint venture foundry?


TAG:UMC foundry Tainan Taiwan semiconductor

Spansion sampling single-level cell NAND for embedded apps

Spansion sampling single-level cell NAND for embedded apps

SAN FRANCISCO—Flash memory vendor Spansion Inc. said Wednesday (May 23) it began sampling the first single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory devices to emerge from a deal with South Korea's SK Hynix Inc. announced last month.

The devices, made by Hynix and tested and packaged by Spansion, are implemented in 4X-nm floating-gate technology and are aimed at data storage in automotive, consumer and networking applications, Spansion (Sunnyvale, Calif.) said.

Spansion SLC NAND will be offered in densities from 1 Gb to 8 Gb in 3.0V and 1.8V families that feature high performance, extended temperature range, long-term product support and stringent reliability demands, such as 1-bit error correction code, according to Spansion.

Spansion also unveiled its SLC NAND product roadmap through 2017. The company plans to continue producing the 4X-nm SLC devices through 2017. It plans to start sampling 3X-nm SLC NAND devices late this year and 2X-nm devices in 2014. All will be produced through 2017, according to the company's roadmap.



TAG:Spansion Sampling NAND SLD Hynix

Intersil to cut 11% of workforce

Intersil to cut 11% of workforce

SAN FRANCISCO—Analog chip vendor Intersil Corp. said Wednesday (May 23) it would cut about 11 percent of its workforce as part of a plan to reduce operating expenses by about $40 million per year.

Intersil (Milpitas, Calif.) said in a regulatory filing that its board of directors earlier this week approved the restructuring plan to focus the company on its top 10 growth drivers and revise its target operational model.

According to Intersil's website, the company has about 1,600 employees. As 11 percent layoff would cut about 176 jobs. The company provided no information about where the layoffs would come from within the company.

Intersil said it expects to recognize restructuring-related charges of approximately $9 million, consisting primarily of employee severance benefits, during the second quarter of 2012.


TAG:Semiconductor Analog Intersil Workforce

Intersil to cut 11% of workforce

Intersil to cut 11% of workforce

SAN FRANCISCO—Analog chip vendor Intersil Corp. said Wednesday (May 23) it would cut about 11 percent of its workforce as part of a plan to reduce operating expenses by about $40 million per year.

Intersil (Milpitas, Calif.) said in a regulatory filing that its board of directors earlier this week approved the restructuring plan to focus the company on its top 10 growth drivers and revise its target operational model.

According to Intersil's website, the company has about 1,600 employees. As 11 percent layoff would cut about 176 jobs. The company provided no information about where the layoffs would come from within the company.

Intersil said it expects to recognize restructuring-related charges of approximately $9 million, consisting primarily of employee severance benefits, during the second quarter of 2012.


TAG:Semiconductor Analog Intersil Workforce

Synopsys names co-CEO to join de Geus

Synopsys names co-CEO to join de Geus

SAN FRANCISCO—EDA and IP vendor Synopsys Inc. Wednesday (May 23) announced the promotion of longtime chief operating officer Chi-Foon Chan to the position of co-CEO, effective immediately.

With the promotion, Chan will formally share responsibility for managing the company with Aart de Geus, who co-founded Synopsys in 1986 and has been the company's CEO since 1992.

Synopsys (Mountain View, Calif.) said the promotion formally recognizes the contributions Chan has made in co-leading Synopsys for more than 10 years.

"Chi-Foon and I have worked successfully as a close-knit team for over a decade to help elevate Synopsys into its present leadership position," de Geus said through a statement.

Chan joined Synopsys in 1990 as vice president of applications and services from NEC Corp. USA, where he was general manager of the microprocessor group. Over the years, he pioneered many aspects of the company including the initiation of Synopsys' IP business, Synopsys said. He was appointed president and chief operating officer in 1998, at which time he also joined the Synopsys board of directors, the company said.

"I am excited about addressing the opportunities that we see ahead for our company," Chan said.

TAG:Chi Foo Chan Aart de Geus Synopsys EDA IP CEO

IndyCar safety harnesses MEMS

IndyCar safety harnesses MEMS


PORTLAND, Ore. - This weekend’s Indy 500 (May 27) could be one of the safest in U.S. auto racing history by combining 200-mph race cars with emerging MEMS technologies.

Along with new safety features created by IndyCar engineers, MEMS sensors like the three high-G accelerometers inside each driver’s earpiece will be used to detect concussions. The same high-G sensors may eventually be used by NASA to protect astronauts from hard splashdowns.

"We build from scratch all of the drivers earpieces, which plug into the ear canal," said IndyCar engineering director Jeff Horton. "In the event of a crash, Analog Device's accelerometers measure all the concussive forces exerted on the drivers head throughout the accident."

IndyCars are now equipped to stream data from three high-G accelerometers into black-box accident recorders looping through a 90-second memory. In an accident, the system shuts down on impact. After a crash, accelerometer data from 30 seconds before and 60 seconds after impact are correlated with head injuries. Accident data can then be used to improve IndyCar cockpit safety.


Jeff Horton, IndyCar engineering director, designs MEMS sensor earpieces at his work bench at the race track.

TAG:Micro electro mechanical system MEMS Sensors Automotive Space Military NASA Electronics

Teardown slideshow: The anatomy of the LED light bulb

Teardown slideshow: The anatomy of the LED light bulb

An LED lighting revolution is underway. LED light bulbs are rapidly increasing in performance capability and decreasing in price. Last year, A19 format LED light bulbs, the common household format, sold in the range of $20 to $60. There was a strong correlation between price and quality. This year, top-of-the-line bulbs, such as the LG bulb, can be purchased for $10.

LED light bulbs have about the same efficacy as compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), 50 to 60 lumens/watt. However, LEDs keep getting better while CFL technology has plateaued. The 7.5W LG bulb emits 485 lumens. This corresponds to 65 lm/W. It’s a 40W equivalent. At the same 485 lumens, the old fashioned 40 W light bulb would offer only 12 lm/W, five times less.


The LG 7.5W LED A19 Light Bulb LB08D830L0A.E50JWU0 in and out of itspackaging (click on image to enlarge).

TAG:MuAnalysis LED Bulb Teardown

独特设计 3款婚戒突显新娘韵味

独特设计 3款婚戒突显新娘韵味

很经典设计的一款婚戒,颗粒红色钻石组成的戒环上面闪耀着迷人的光彩,整款戒指很有独特感的设计,这款婚戒适合手指修长型的新娘配戴,将新娘的手指衬托的很有闪耀的感觉。这款婚戒给人的感觉很大气。


这款新娘戒指具有很强的立体感设计,不同形状的颗粒钻石被戒指戒环所包围,三层层叠感的戒环环绕设计将新娘的指间衬托的无比的修长,长款型的新娘婚戒是近几年新娘婚饰非常流行的一种趋势。


很有设计感的一款新娘婚戒,经过细细抛光的戒指与外圈的镂空花纹设计相互闪耀衬托在一起,让新娘的指间无形中就散发着迷人的味道,将新娘的指间衬托的更为曼妙且修长,镂空戒指是主打的新娘最爱婚饰。




TAG:新娘戒指 新娘婚戒 新娘婚饰 婚戒 黄金

婉约灵动的中国元素新娘婚饰

婉约灵动的中国元素新娘婚饰

婚礼上的新娘除了美丽的婚纱和精致的妆容,新娘身上的灵动婚饰也是不可缺少的一抹元素,灵动婚饰将新娘衬托的更加美丽动人。

绿色中国结的玉石与钻石相搭配组成新娘的吊坠,让新娘的颈间焕发迷人的光彩,将新娘衬托的更加美丽动人。

将白色清透的珍珠与钻石相搭配组成花朵的形状变成新娘的吊坠,将新娘的美丽完美的展现出来,让新娘的颈间焕发迷人的光彩。


粉色和绿色的圆润珍珠所搭配组成的新娘戒指让新娘的指间焕发迷人的光彩,让新娘的美丽绽放的更加彻底和迷人。

具有浓厚中国元素的红色佛像与花朵配合起来所组成的新娘胸针,将新娘装扮的更加美丽动人,让新娘的美丽在胸针的点缀下显的更加美丽动人。




TAG:新娘珠宝 婚饰 珍珠 钻石

清新淡雅 时尚新娘度假珠宝

清新淡雅 时尚新娘度假珠宝

Erdem

清新脱俗的水粉淡彩将早春的暖景勾勒得诗情画意,同时舒缓了紧张的工作节奏,淡雅的印花提前宣告了春天的到来,为衣橱注入一年之初的愉悦和期待。


Anne Fontaine裸色金属手镯

清新脱俗的水粉淡彩将早春的暖景勾勒得诗情画意,同时舒缓了紧张的工作节奏,淡雅的印花提前宣告了春天的到来,为衣橱注入一年之初的愉悦和期待。


Prada水晶项链

清新脱俗的水粉淡彩将早春的暖景勾勒得诗情画意,同时舒缓了紧张的工作节奏,淡雅的印花提前宣告了春天的到来,为衣橱注入一年之初的愉悦和期待。


Tom Binns拼色繁复项链

清新脱俗的水粉淡彩将早春的暖景勾勒得诗情画意,同时舒缓了紧张的工作节奏,淡雅的印花提前宣告了春天的到来,为衣橱注入一年之初的愉悦和期待。


Kenneth Jay Lane粉彩水晶耳环

清新脱俗的水粉淡彩将早春的暖景勾勒得诗情画意,同时舒缓了紧张的工作节奏,淡雅的印花提前宣告了春天的到来,为衣橱注入一年之初的愉悦和期待。


Max & Co.花朵造型头饰

清新脱俗的水粉淡彩将早春的暖景勾勒得诗情画意,同时舒缓了紧张的工作节奏,淡雅的印花提前宣告了春天的到来,为衣橱注入一年之初的愉悦和期待。




TAG:时尚新娘 新娘珠宝 Prada 水晶项链

NI tips LabVIEW Electrical Power Suite for power monitoring

NI tips LabVIEW Electrical Power Suite for power monitoring

SAN FRANCISCO—National Instruments Corp. Wednesday (May 23) announced the LabVIEW Electrical Power Suite, a new toolkit specific to the power industry that enables engineers to combine an NI CompactRIO system for power measurement with more than 50 signal and sensor modules, according to the company.

NI's LabVIEW Electrical Power Suite features power analysis for graphical system design and ready-to-run example programs that integrate power analysis functions, NI (Austin, Texas) said. The suite also offers full, streaming access to raw, time-based waveform data to enable engineers to implement diagnostic algorithms that may be unique to a local power service, NI said.

"In the rapidly changing landscape of electrical power, traditional measurement hardware either offers limited functionality or requires a level of system design expertise that just isn't practical to keep pace," said Owen Golden, vice president of NI's energy segment, in a statement. "The LabVIEW Electrical Power Suite and CompactRIO help engineers effectively monitor and meet today's challenges with a fully programmable, modular, field-upgradable set of tools – which our customers see as a significant advantage."

Also Tuesday, NI announced it would collaborate with TU-Dresden, a technical university based in Dresden, Germany—on the exploration of new technologies for 5G wireless systems using NI LabVIEW system design software.


TAG:National Instruments LabView NI Power Monitoring

Dell's results seen as bad news for Intel

Dell's results seen as bad news for Intel

SAN FRANCISCO—Disappointing first quarter results and a lower-than-expected second quarter sales target by PC supplier Dell Inc. is bad news for Intel Corp., which has forecast growth above the seasonal average for the rest of the year, according to a Wall Street analyst.

In a conference call with analysts following its first quarter report, Dell (Round Rock, Texas) indicated that PC demand is slowing, tablets and smartphones are cannibalizing notebook sales and customers are delaying IT spending, according to Christopher Danely, an analyst at JP Morgan. In a report circulated late Tuesday (May 22), Danely said Dell's guidance and resulting commentary are a negative data point for Intel, which is roughly 85 percent exposed to the PC end market and derives about 15 percent of its revenue from Dell.

"Intel has in our opinion some of the most aggressive guidance in all of technology, with the company expecting above-seasonal growth every quarter for the rest of 2012 and also above-seasonal revenue growth in 2013, despite several large OEMs such as Cisco, Dell, SAP and Cognizant all pointing to slowing demand," Danely wrote. "We believe the cautious demand environment coupled with lack of exposure to smartphones and tablets puts Intel’s guidance at risk."

Dell reported sales of $14.4 billion for its first quarter of 2013, down 4 percent from the year-ago period. The company reported a net income in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) of $635 million, down 33 percent from the year-ago quarter. The company's GAAP earnings per share, 36 cents, was down 27 percent from the year-ago quarter.

Dell said it expects sales for the current quarter to increase by 2 to 4 percent from fiscal first quarter levels, short of consensus analysts' expectations.

Intel has said it expects its second quarter sales to increase to between $13.1 billion and $14.1 billion, up 2 to 9 percent compared to the first quarter. Danely estimates the company's sales for 2012 will be $56.6 billion, up about 5 percent from 2011.

Danely said Intel is one of the few semiconductor companies whose margins are close to peak and whose growth spending is expecting to outpace sales growth this year. He called Intel's consensus estimates among the most at risk for the year of any semiconductor company.

Despite the negative data from Dell, Danely maintained JP Morgan's "neutral" rating and $26 price target on Intel's stock. Intel traded at $35.18 in late morning trading Wednesday, down 3 percent from Tuesday's close.


TAG:Intel Dell PC Analyst Danely

Dell's results seen as bad news for Intel

Dell's results seen as bad news for Intel

SAN FRANCISCO—Disappointing first quarter results and a lower-than-expected second quarter sales target by PC supplier Dell Inc. is bad news for Intel Corp., which has forecast growth above the seasonal average for the rest of the year, according to a Wall Street analyst.

In a conference call with analysts following its first quarter report, Dell (Round Rock, Texas) indicated that PC demand is slowing, tablets and smartphones are cannibalizing notebook sales and customers are delaying IT spending, according to Christopher Danely, an analyst at JP Morgan. In a report circulated late Tuesday (May 22), Danely said Dell's guidance and resulting commentary are a negative data point for Intel, which is roughly 85 percent exposed to the PC end market and derives about 15 percent of its revenue from Dell.

"Intel has in our opinion some of the most aggressive guidance in all of technology, with the company expecting above-seasonal growth every quarter for the rest of 2012 and also above-seasonal revenue growth in 2013, despite several large OEMs such as Cisco, Dell, SAP and Cognizant all pointing to slowing demand," Danely wrote. "We believe the cautious demand environment coupled with lack of exposure to smartphones and tablets puts Intel’s guidance at risk."

Dell reported sales of $14.4 billion for its first quarter of 2013, down 4 percent from the year-ago period. The company reported a net income in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) of $635 million, down 33 percent from the year-ago quarter. The company's GAAP earnings per share, 36 cents, was down 27 percent from the year-ago quarter.

Dell said it expects sales for the current quarter to increase by 2 to 4 percent from fiscal first quarter levels, short of consensus analysts' expectations.

Intel has said it expects its second quarter sales to increase to between $13.1 billion and $14.1 billion, up 2 to 9 percent compared to the first quarter. Danely estimates the company's sales for 2012 will be $56.6 billion, up about 5 percent from 2011.

Danely said Intel is one of the few semiconductor companies whose margins are close to peak and whose growth spending is expecting to outpace sales growth this year. He called Intel's consensus estimates among the most at risk for the year of any semiconductor company.

Despite the negative data from Dell, Danely maintained JP Morgan's "neutral" rating and $26 price target on Intel's stock. Intel traded at $35.18 in late morning trading Wednesday, down 3 percent from Tuesday's close.


TAG:Intel Dell PC Analyst Danely

2012-05-23

TCL to launch motion-controlled Android TV first in China

TCL to launch motion-controlled Android TV first in China


TOKYO – One of the most commonly-held misconceptions about China (and its CE market) in the West is that the role of local vendors is to build cut-rate TV sets with fewer bells and whistles to offer the lower prices that Chinese consumers can afford.

Well, that “understanding” is turning out to be so wrong on so many levels.

First, according to an announcement from Hillcrest Labs (Rockville, MD) Wednesday, TCL – one of the leading consumer brands in China – will start this month shipping in China Android-based smart TVs featuring Hillcrest’s patented motion software, Freespace. The surprise here is that China gets first dibs on TCL’s gesture-controlled smart TVs. They will become available in other markets later this year.

Second, at a time when Google TVs by Sony or others have yet to take either in the United States, Europe or Japan by storm, TCL is eagerly positioning itself to mine the Chinese smart TV market. TCL is demonstrating its second-to-none speed in becoming a leading vendor of smart TVs with advanced features. Keys to that speed are licensable software and readily available smart TV SoCs. TCL pulled it off first by partnering with Hillcrest, and second, leveraging an Android TV SoC developed by one of the biggest Taiwanese consumer chip companies -- either MediaTek or MStar. MediaTek showed off its motion-controlled Android TV SoC at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year in an invitation-only hotel ball room in Las Vegas. Asked about a design with TCL, MediaTek, however, declined to comment. By using Hillcrest’s motion software, TCL is bringing motion, gesture and cursor control to Android-powered Smart TVs.

Third, never underestimate the growing affluence of the middle class in China. According to a 2011 Accenture survey focused on usage and spending on consumer electronics technologies in eight countries (Brazil, China, India, Russia, France, Germany, Japan and the United States), Chinese consumers were among the most enthusiastic purchasers of the latest consumer technologies including 3-D TV and smart phones.

Fourth, it’s important to recognize that as of the first quarter in 2012, TCL has become the first Chinese TV company to be ranked in the top five in global LCD TV market share, according to the latest market research report by DisplaySearch. The Chinese company didn’t make this rapid ascent simply by making no-frills TV sets.

TCL has made its great leap forward by continuing to improve its product mix and proportion of high-end products, according to the company. In April 2012, TCL’s sales volume of LED-backlight LCD TVs as a percentage of total LCD TV sales volume was 72%. The sales volume of smart & internet TV and 3D TV in the Chinese market reached 339,279 sets and 145,064 sets, representing 45.9% and 19.6% of total LCD TV shipments in China.


Hillcrest’s software

Differentiation among smart TVs comes more from software rather than hardware. In this light, Hillcrest has offered just the right kind of help TCL needed to make its motion-controlled smart TVs easy, quick and at high quality performance.


TAG:TCL Motion Controlled Android TV Samart TV Hillcrest Labs

Report reveals fake chips in U.S. military hardware

Report reveals fake chips in U.S. military hardware


LONDON – More than a million suspect counterfeit electronic components have been used in 1,800 separate cases of bogus parts affecting U.S. military hardware, according to a report produced by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The instances affect a number of military airplanes, helicopters, missile and electronic warfare systems.

The year-long investigation, chaired by Carl Levin, senator for Michigan, found large numbers of counterfeit parts – mainly from China – have been making their way into critical defense systems. A 112-report produced by the committee highlights cases in the U.S. Air Force's largest cargo plane and in assemblies intended to go in special operations helicopters and U.S. Navy surveillance planes.

"Our report outlines how this flood of counterfeit parts, overwhelmingly from China, threatens national security, the safety of our troops and American jobs," Levin said, in a statement. "It underscores China's failure to police the blatant market in counterfeit parts – a failure China should rectify," he added.

The report concludes that China is responsible for more than 70 percent of the suspect components. The next two largest sources are the United Kingdom and Canada, although the committee identified instances were both these countries were reselling suspect counterfeit electronic components that originated in China.

Another conclusion was that the use of unvetted distributors to supply electronic parts meant that the Department of Defense (DoD) and defense contractors are frequently unaware of the ultimate source of parts used in defense systems and that this "results in unacceptable risks to national security and the safety of U.S. military personnel."

The report also concluded that known instances of the use of suspected counterfeit components were not reported promptly to the DoD by contractors.

In one example the report says electronic parts supplier Hong Dark Electronic Trade (Shenzhen, China) supplied 84,000 suspect parts into the DoD supply chain. These components were then used in Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) intended to be deployed on a number of platforms; into assemblies for the Excalibur artillery projectile, for Navy submarine imaging systems, and the Army Stryker mobile gun.


Related links and articles:

Statement from the office of Carl Levin

Report of the Senate Armed Services Committee

News articles:


IHS projects rise in counterfeit chips

Counterfeit chip R&D launched for DoD suppliers

IHS: Counterfeit parts represent $169 billion annual risk


Chip counterfeiting case exposes defense supply chain flaw


TAG:Senate Committee United States Army Navy DoD Democrat Republican counterfeit components China semiconductor

Report reveals fake chips in U.S. military hardware

Report reveals fake chips in U.S. military hardware


LONDON – More than a million suspect counterfeit electronic components have been used in 1,800 separate cases of bogus parts affecting U.S. military hardware, according to a report produced by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The instances affect a number of military airplanes, helicopters, missile and electronic warfare systems.

The year-long investigation, chaired by Carl Levin, senator for Michigan, found large numbers of counterfeit parts – mainly from China – have been making their way into critical defense systems. A 112-report produced by the committee highlights cases in the U.S. Air Force's largest cargo plane and in assemblies intended to go in special operations helicopters and U.S. Navy surveillance planes.

"Our report outlines how this flood of counterfeit parts, overwhelmingly from China, threatens national security, the safety of our troops and American jobs," Levin said, in a statement. "It underscores China's failure to police the blatant market in counterfeit parts – a failure China should rectify," he added.

The report concludes that China is responsible for more than 70 percent of the suspect components. The next two largest sources are the United Kingdom and Canada, although the committee identified instances were both these countries were reselling suspect counterfeit electronic components that originated in China.

Another conclusion was that the use of unvetted distributors to supply electronic parts meant that the Department of Defense (DoD) and defense contractors are frequently unaware of the ultimate source of parts used in defense systems and that this "results in unacceptable risks to national security and the safety of U.S. military personnel."

The report also concluded that known instances of the use of suspected counterfeit components were not reported promptly to the DoD by contractors.

In one example the report says electronic parts supplier Hong Dark Electronic Trade (Shenzhen, China) supplied 84,000 suspect parts into the DoD supply chain. These components were then used in Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) intended to be deployed on a number of platforms; into assemblies for the Excalibur artillery projectile, for Navy submarine imaging systems, and the Army Stryker mobile gun.


Related links and articles:

Statement from the office of Carl Levin

Report of the Senate Armed Services Committee

News articles:


IHS projects rise in counterfeit chips

Counterfeit chip R&D launched for DoD suppliers

IHS: Counterfeit parts represent $169 billion annual risk


Chip counterfeiting case exposes defense supply chain flaw


TAG:Senate Committee United States Army Navy DoD Democrat Republican counterfeit components China semiconductor