To Alpha. Index To Manuf. Index To Category Index Part No. Index

WEB-ONLY SPECIALS! NEW PRODUCTS FREE CATALOG VIEW CART

Electronix Express Newsletter

February, 2005 Issue

*****************************************************************************

Welcome to the Electronix Express Newsletter. We hope you find it to be both interesting and useful. Also, we invite you to submit any hints, tips, news-bits or articles of your own.

To subscribe to this newsletter, go to our Subscription page

NOTE: We do not sell or share our list of subscribers.

*****************************************************************************

STORIES

1. NI Buys EWB
2. Super-Cell
3. STB vs. DTV
4. Fun and Games from Agilent?
5. Next-Generation 802.11
6. Microchips: End of Moore's Law?
7. Robots: What's in a name?
8. Robots: It's the law!
9. Robots: Some links

1. NI BUYS EWB

Test and system tool vendor National Instruments (Austin, Texas) announced that it has bought privately held Canadian tool vendor Electronics Workbench for an undisclosed amount. President and CEO Bill Wignall of Electronics Workbench said users will be able to develop a "virtual instrument" with NI's LabVIEW software and then simulate it in EWB's Multisim software. Electronics Workbench has a customer base of about 180,000 users. Wignall said that National Instruments plans to fully support all Multisim customers and will honor all of Electronics Workbench's current OEM agreements. NI also gains the Multicap schematic-capture tool, Ultiboard board-layout tool, and Ultiroute board autorouter. Plans are to keep running the circuit-board operation from Electronics Workbench's offices in Toronto.

2. SUPER-CELL

IBM, Sony, and Toshiba unveiled a multi-core processor, called the Cell, at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). With clock speeds in excess of 4GHz, it's claimed to perform like a supercomputer. The Cell contains eight 64-bit floating point processors along with a 64-bit processor capable of running two program threads. A prototype of the device contains 234 million transistors using 90nm process technology. The Cell is slated to be used in the PlayStation 3 as well as in other applications including digital televisions.

3. STB vs. DTV

In a move to counter competition from integrated Digital TV (DTV), digital Set-Top Boxes (STB) are incorporating additional features. Digital TVs are now coming to market with built-in decoding and demodulation electronics, functions that have been provided by Set-Top Boxes. To fight back, STBs are coming out with features like personal video recorders (PVRs) and support for high-definition TV (HDTV) resolutions. Most HDTV sets sold today do not include electronics for processing digital signals. But, due to U.S. government mandates, all televisions in the United States must have integrated receivers built in by 2007. Hence the pressure on STB makers to add features to keep their products alive.

4. FUN and GAMES FROM AGILENT?

Split off from Hewlett-Packard in 1999, Agilent is known for its top-quality test and measurement equipment. But it also has a strong and growing (12% a year) semiconductor operation with revenues of $1.7 billion in 2004. At the January 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Agilent discussed its plans for chips aimed at the consumer market. In fact, Agilent claims that 60 percent of its semiconductor business today is in the consumer sector citing opto-isolators in HDTV sets, film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) filters in CDMA cell phones, CMOS sensors used in camera phones, and LED optoelectronics used everywhere. Agilent's goal for their semiconductor division is to achieve $3 billion in revenue by 2008.

5. Next-Generation 802.11

The new 802.11n is a wireless LAN follow-up to 802.11g and runs at 100 Mbps minimum throughput. It uses MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology, in which multiple antennas are used at both the transmitter and the receiver to speed data flow. It works at a higher power than UWB giving it greater range; it should easily cover the average home. Experts agree that 802.11n and UWB will not be in direct competition since 802.11n is meant for local area networks while UWB is meant for personal area networks. Both technologies could exist in the same home.

6. Microchips: End of Moore's Law?

No, Moore's Law still holds; transistors continue to shrink, and more can be put on a chip. But in its November 2004 issue, Scientific American reports that, for both physical and financial reasons, chip makers are slowing down the trend toward more transistors on one chip. When Intel upgraded their Pentium 4 from 55 million transistors to 125 million, they ran into many problems. After that experience, Intel has decided that the performance of future processors will be increased, not by squeezing more onto one chip, but by using two or more "cores" (chips) in one package. Divide and conquer; an old idea in a new package.

7. Robots: What's in a name?

According to the Robot Institute of America (1979 definition) a robot is: "A Reprogramable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks".

The Czech playwright Karel Capek (1890-1938) first used the word 'robot', from a Czech word meaning 'forced worker' in his 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) .In R.U.R. the machines are initially seen as creating a paradise for people, but in the end bring unemployment and social unrest. R.U.R's theme was the dehumanization of man in a technological civilization. The play was an enormous success and was put on throughout Europe and the U.S.

It may have been Karel's brother Josef, also a writer, who came up with 'Robot'. Karel Capek wrote later that he asked Josef what he should call the artificial workers in his play. Karel had the word 'Labori', but thought it was too 'bookish'. So his brother said "then call them Robots".

8. Robots: It's the law!

The great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992) first used the word 'robotics'. In his collection of stories called I, Robot Asimov listed his famous "Three laws of robotics":

A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, unless this would violate a higher order law.
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with a higher order law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with a higher order law.

9. Robots: Some links

A few links to interesting sites with information on robot-related topics:
http://www.thetech.org/exhibits_events/online/robots/intro/
http://www.galileo.org/robotics/index.html
http://robots.net/
http://www.robotics.utexas.edu/rrg/
http://www.aaai.org/

****************************** ADVERTISEMENT ********************************

Quotes On Custom Electronics Kits
Individually Packaged ...Ready to Issue to Your Students

YOU WILL RECEIVE YOUR QUOTE WITHIN 2 WORKING DAYS! There is absolutely no obligation to buy! Minimum Order: 10 Kits (Quantity Pricing Available)

R.S.R. Electronics (the parent company of Electronix Express), is an industry leader in Custom Component and Custom Tool Kits specializing in kits for educators and OEM's.

*****************************************************************************

Email:
electron@elexp.com - General Questions and Comments
technical@elexp.com - Technical Questions

Copyright © 1996-2004 Electronix Express
A Division of R.S.R. Electronics, Inc.
365 Blair Road
Avenel, New Jersey 07001
Phone 1-800-972-2225 (In NJ 1-732-381-8020)
Fax 1-732-381-1006; 1-732-381-1572