In engineering, it is imperative that all cogs of the wheel come together, so that the wheel rolls smoothly. Similarly, it is imperative that all key IT processes in an organization gel together and work as one.
Imagine the nightmare that enterprises, small and large, would have to go through should this did not happen!
The first basic IT asset is your company's network, or the intranet. We have seen several times that a company's network's down for some reason and mails can't be sent or received.
In such cases, the organizations or the enterprises who are 'stuck' with this situation, are literally crippled. Mails can't be received, mails can't be sent out, important mails are missed, business-critical processes are waylaid, and so on and so forth. I've been part of this nightmare several times.
Once, the undersea cable snapped during my stay in a company. I don't need to add the problem we had to face for at least half a day, as service providers worked furiously to rectify the cable and restore normal service.
Some advocate satellite as the best medium for managing data transmission. Maybe! Some others cite wireless. Perhaps!! Then, I hear from many that there are issues related with security and storage. However, those would only come into play once your basic network is operational smoothly.
In telecom, they have something called five nines, or 99.9999, which means the network is up and running for this percentage of time! You've noticed how people go beserk and start cursing their phones or the network, should they fail to receive a network, or are unable to connect to the network!
What they don't know or realize is the hard work that's involved in setting up, maintaining and operating a network! It's similar to what sometimes happens in offices when the network breaks down and we are unable to send/receive mails.
Maybe, it would be prudent to first manage the internal network as best as possible, before moving on to bigger, better things. The cogs in the wheel got to move smoothly.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Extreme targeting Ethernet networks
Extreme Networks recently launched a host of new Ethernet solutions aimed at global enterprises and service providers at its Partner Conference in Bali.
According to Mark Canepa, CEO, the company provide secure, converged Ethernet networks for enterprises and global service providers. The positioning is in the Ethernet space and Extreme does not worry about any other evolving or legacy technology for that matter. The solutions aim solve tough network challenges with meaningful insight and unprecedented control that simplifies networking operations.
Extreme announced a range of new solutions as well. Its BlackDiamond 12802R carrier Ethernet switch enables a wider range of metro deployments. It also announced some other new solutions as well. These include:
The Summit X250e Series, which has powerful application support in a 10/100 package; ExtremeXOS 12.0, which is a consistent, easy-to-manage stacking on every ExtremeXOS fixed configuration switch; Universal Port Manager, which allows simple automation for the entire enterprise policy lifecycle; and Summit WM200, Summit WM2000, which promise to deliver the future of wireless convergence today with modular, integrated WLAN.
Extreme's target markets for the year include WLAN, carrier Ethernet switches, security and L2+L3 Ethernet switches. The company's mission has been to provide secure, converged Ethernet networks for enterprises and global service providers who have complex networking needs.
Partnering with the channel is an essential part of Extreme Network's plan for success in Asia-Pacific. While Extreme builds great products and solutions, it also understands the network's big picture and the future path of technology. It extends the value of the infrastructure by developing key technology partnerships and helping customers learn how to use them.
The channels build great customer relationships and deep understanding. They, in turn, are able to understand the customer's big picture, and their future aspirations and plans. The channel extends the value of the customer's network by assembling the key components and delivering valuable services.
According to Mark Canepa, CEO, the company provide secure, converged Ethernet networks for enterprises and global service providers. The positioning is in the Ethernet space and Extreme does not worry about any other evolving or legacy technology for that matter. The solutions aim solve tough network challenges with meaningful insight and unprecedented control that simplifies networking operations.
Extreme announced a range of new solutions as well. Its BlackDiamond 12802R carrier Ethernet switch enables a wider range of metro deployments. It also announced some other new solutions as well. These include:
The Summit X250e Series, which has powerful application support in a 10/100 package; ExtremeXOS 12.0, which is a consistent, easy-to-manage stacking on every ExtremeXOS fixed configuration switch; Universal Port Manager, which allows simple automation for the entire enterprise policy lifecycle; and Summit WM200, Summit WM2000, which promise to deliver the future of wireless convergence today with modular, integrated WLAN.
Extreme's target markets for the year include WLAN, carrier Ethernet switches, security and L2+L3 Ethernet switches. The company's mission has been to provide secure, converged Ethernet networks for enterprises and global service providers who have complex networking needs.
Partnering with the channel is an essential part of Extreme Network's plan for success in Asia-Pacific. While Extreme builds great products and solutions, it also understands the network's big picture and the future path of technology. It extends the value of the infrastructure by developing key technology partnerships and helping customers learn how to use them.
The channels build great customer relationships and deep understanding. They, in turn, are able to understand the customer's big picture, and their future aspirations and plans. The channel extends the value of the customer's network by assembling the key components and delivering valuable services.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Next-gen PCB design with Allegro
Cadence was kind enough to discuss its Allegro solution with me recently. The solution aims at enhancing the productivity for next-generation PCB designs.
According to Steve Kamin, Group Director, Cadence's Allegro systems division, customers face constraints such as higher frequency, power consumption, pin counts, packages, etc. The PCB designers also face challenges such as decreasing hole sizes, hole diameter, etc.
Features of the Allegro include GUI (graphical user interface) modernization, context sensitive editing paradigm, color and visibility improvements, integration of physical and spacing constraints into the Constraint Manager, and an interactive planning and global routing, respectively.
In a PCB design flow, Cadence has focused on usability and productivity. The Allegro has a modernized GUI. All of the tool bars have been completely refreshed. Cadence has also added foldaway windows.
Cadence has added context-sensitive editing and included an open GL graphics engine that improves the visibility of objects and components on a board. This release can handle all sorts of intricate designs.
It has also addressed the physical and spacing constraints, which has been included that into the Constraint Manager. This is a cockpit, a spreadsheet-based tool, which manages all of the properties. Cadence is selling this solution to OEMs, ODMs, PCB design services companies, etc.
The Allegro solution has an interactive planning and global routing facility. Cadence has also added an entry-level product in the OrCAD PCB Designer Basics. Its GRE is a new, next-generation technology, which has two new elements -- the interactive flow planner and the Global Route Environment.
The GRE cuts to 1-2 iteration of routing. Customers can control the direction of the routes. Fabricators sometimes have had to kill the design as they could not control the routing or it was not possible. Hence, Allegro takes care of this issue. It saves significant time, from 15 months to about three months.
Allegro facilitates an improved design creation and simulation as well. The Allegro System Architect has differential pairs support and improved schematic generation. Other features include physical and spacing constraints in Allegro Design Entry HDL, performance and convergence improvements in Cadence Pspice and Allegro AMS Simulator, etc. Cadence has improved the automatic schematic generator. Also, in the analog simulation product line, it has added the automated convergence capability.
Finally, the company has added Cadence Help across all of its products. This allows cross-linking across all Cadence's tools. Customers can also add their own content. Cadence integrates third-party thermal integration tools into the products.
According to Steve Kamin, Group Director, Cadence's Allegro systems division, customers face constraints such as higher frequency, power consumption, pin counts, packages, etc. The PCB designers also face challenges such as decreasing hole sizes, hole diameter, etc.
Features of the Allegro include GUI (graphical user interface) modernization, context sensitive editing paradigm, color and visibility improvements, integration of physical and spacing constraints into the Constraint Manager, and an interactive planning and global routing, respectively.
In a PCB design flow, Cadence has focused on usability and productivity. The Allegro has a modernized GUI. All of the tool bars have been completely refreshed. Cadence has also added foldaway windows.
Cadence has added context-sensitive editing and included an open GL graphics engine that improves the visibility of objects and components on a board. This release can handle all sorts of intricate designs.
It has also addressed the physical and spacing constraints, which has been included that into the Constraint Manager. This is a cockpit, a spreadsheet-based tool, which manages all of the properties. Cadence is selling this solution to OEMs, ODMs, PCB design services companies, etc.
The Allegro solution has an interactive planning and global routing facility. Cadence has also added an entry-level product in the OrCAD PCB Designer Basics. Its GRE is a new, next-generation technology, which has two new elements -- the interactive flow planner and the Global Route Environment.
The GRE cuts to 1-2 iteration of routing. Customers can control the direction of the routes. Fabricators sometimes have had to kill the design as they could not control the routing or it was not possible. Hence, Allegro takes care of this issue. It saves significant time, from 15 months to about three months.
Allegro facilitates an improved design creation and simulation as well. The Allegro System Architect has differential pairs support and improved schematic generation. Other features include physical and spacing constraints in Allegro Design Entry HDL, performance and convergence improvements in Cadence Pspice and Allegro AMS Simulator, etc. Cadence has improved the automatic schematic generator. Also, in the analog simulation product line, it has added the automated convergence capability.
Finally, the company has added Cadence Help across all of its products. This allows cross-linking across all Cadence's tools. Customers can also add their own content. Cadence integrates third-party thermal integration tools into the products.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Chipping away at wireless USB
I happened to meet up with MosChip Semiconductor Technology, a well known fabless semiconductor company, which is listed on the BSE (No. 532407). What attracted me was the fact that MosChip is said to be focusing on wireless USB. as well.
It has been concentrating more on the digital side and is talking with a company for providing the radio (analog) chip, for a licensing agreement. As and when the market for wireless USB picks up, MosChip would be ready and waiting! Now, this is great! An Indian company, chipping away at the wireless USB market, waiting for its time to pounce and capture it!
Its engineering team is capable of designing end products that work across different operating systems and multiple platforms of various hardware configurations. MosChip has engineering expertise in PCI, USB, IEEE 1394, serial–parallel, SoC, device drivers, embedded firmware, engineering and reference platforms, PLL, transceivers, and A/D and D/A.
It is also developing custom products and IP for customers. Although Moschip is currently working on USB, PCI and IPSec, it is now going toward the SoC, according to its CEO, Ram Reddy.
The company adds application packages as software platforms are required for people to plug in the board. MosChip has 45+ software engineers who work on both embedded and platform to support such activities.
MosChip can give the complete object code to companies and source code to bigger companies with an agreement in place. It focuses mostly on OEM and ODM companies in the Far East. MosChip has strong distribution ties in place in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan.
Moschip, being a fabless company, contracts work to UMC, TSMC, etc. As and when, proposed fabs comes up in Hyderabad, Moschip would partner with any one of them. MosChip also announced the MCS8140, a highly integrated network processor. This network processor can be used with USB, multiple servers, etc., rather, with everything that is on IP. A maximum of 16 devices can be supported on the USB ports via IP. It is a single-chip solution.
It has been concentrating more on the digital side and is talking with a company for providing the radio (analog) chip, for a licensing agreement. As and when the market for wireless USB picks up, MosChip would be ready and waiting! Now, this is great! An Indian company, chipping away at the wireless USB market, waiting for its time to pounce and capture it!
Its engineering team is capable of designing end products that work across different operating systems and multiple platforms of various hardware configurations. MosChip has engineering expertise in PCI, USB, IEEE 1394, serial–parallel, SoC, device drivers, embedded firmware, engineering and reference platforms, PLL, transceivers, and A/D and D/A.
It is also developing custom products and IP for customers. Although Moschip is currently working on USB, PCI and IPSec, it is now going toward the SoC, according to its CEO, Ram Reddy.
The company adds application packages as software platforms are required for people to plug in the board. MosChip has 45+ software engineers who work on both embedded and platform to support such activities.
MosChip can give the complete object code to companies and source code to bigger companies with an agreement in place. It focuses mostly on OEM and ODM companies in the Far East. MosChip has strong distribution ties in place in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan.
Moschip, being a fabless company, contracts work to UMC, TSMC, etc. As and when, proposed fabs comes up in Hyderabad, Moschip would partner with any one of them. MosChip also announced the MCS8140, a highly integrated network processor. This network processor can be used with USB, multiple servers, etc., rather, with everything that is on IP. A maximum of 16 devices can be supported on the USB ports via IP. It is a single-chip solution.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Indian semicon industry: Give it time, you will see the results
Continuing from my previous blog, I'd like to mention here that Gartner, as well as some others, do point out that the Indian semiconductor industry is still in a nascent stage. We are all well aware of that!
A semicon policy has recently been announced to attract investments in semiconductor manufacturing. About five players announced plans and some have submitted proposals to the government. It will be at least another two years before things start rolling.
S. Janakiraman, president, ISA, and president & CEO - R&D Services, Mindtree, elaborated that the Indian government had, for the first time, come out with an exclusive policy for the semiconductor industry. This policy should provide significant boost to the manufacturing sector.
The ISA had closely worked with the Indian government to structure the policy to meet the expectations of the industry, while protecting the countries interest in terms of the right size of investments as well as right technologies being deployed.
The impact of the policy on the manufacturing sector will take time, but when it does becomes reality, it will create significant positive impact for the semiconductor sector.
There is also a clear interest by all leading IDMs as well as fabless semiconductor companies in looking at India as a destination for complex design sourcing, as well as increase their market share in a growing market.
Manufacturing of electronics has seen remarkable progress in the last 18 months with majors such as Nokia, Motorola, Flextronics and Foxcon now investing in India. Similar thrust in investments in semiconductor fabrication, test and packaging is not far away.
Technologies are fast evolving and mixed signal is becoming reality. Geometries of semiconductor technology is also shrinking, from 90nm to 55nm and even 35nm. Not only that, India is now in a position to talk about a multilayered chip or a 3D chip.
Pradip Dutta, president, Synopsys, believes all local and global majors based in India are poised for growth. Global majors will likely continue to leverage on the talent available. There will likely be even more emphasis on high-end design as well as determining the go-to-market strategy.
Whether it is the frequency, number of gates, high complexity, etc., all of those would be driven by applications. India is now ready for doing high-end
complex designs. All of this really augurs well for the Indian industry.
Kamal Aggarwal, VP - Marketing and Strategy, SoftJin Technologies, told me that the semiconductor market, globally, is likely to grow close to 10 percent during 2007. In India, it is likely to grow much faster due to the high growth in electronics consumption, maybe, around 30 percent.
Some observers feel that fabless is the best way to go for India, in order to tap our engineering talent in chip design and let the foundries in Mainland China and Taiwan give India the best wafer prices and help us keep up with ever reducing geometries.
These countries have the infrastructure for this R&D and we (India) have the engineering talent. Yes, I agree that this is a separate issue. There may not be several fabs as many think it would be. It'd probably be a mixture of maybe four or five fabs (my estimate) and lots of fabless companies, along with the ancillaries.
India should also encourage fabless semiconductor chip companies (product companies), give them concessions and tap into the US $300 billion semiconductor component market as well. All of this will happen, just give it some time folks!
A semicon policy has recently been announced to attract investments in semiconductor manufacturing. About five players announced plans and some have submitted proposals to the government. It will be at least another two years before things start rolling.
S. Janakiraman, president, ISA, and president & CEO - R&D Services, Mindtree, elaborated that the Indian government had, for the first time, come out with an exclusive policy for the semiconductor industry. This policy should provide significant boost to the manufacturing sector.
The ISA had closely worked with the Indian government to structure the policy to meet the expectations of the industry, while protecting the countries interest in terms of the right size of investments as well as right technologies being deployed.
The impact of the policy on the manufacturing sector will take time, but when it does becomes reality, it will create significant positive impact for the semiconductor sector.
There is also a clear interest by all leading IDMs as well as fabless semiconductor companies in looking at India as a destination for complex design sourcing, as well as increase their market share in a growing market.
Manufacturing of electronics has seen remarkable progress in the last 18 months with majors such as Nokia, Motorola, Flextronics and Foxcon now investing in India. Similar thrust in investments in semiconductor fabrication, test and packaging is not far away.
Technologies are fast evolving and mixed signal is becoming reality. Geometries of semiconductor technology is also shrinking, from 90nm to 55nm and even 35nm. Not only that, India is now in a position to talk about a multilayered chip or a 3D chip.
Pradip Dutta, president, Synopsys, believes all local and global majors based in India are poised for growth. Global majors will likely continue to leverage on the talent available. There will likely be even more emphasis on high-end design as well as determining the go-to-market strategy.
Whether it is the frequency, number of gates, high complexity, etc., all of those would be driven by applications. India is now ready for doing high-end
complex designs. All of this really augurs well for the Indian industry.
Kamal Aggarwal, VP - Marketing and Strategy, SoftJin Technologies, told me that the semiconductor market, globally, is likely to grow close to 10 percent during 2007. In India, it is likely to grow much faster due to the high growth in electronics consumption, maybe, around 30 percent.
Some observers feel that fabless is the best way to go for India, in order to tap our engineering talent in chip design and let the foundries in Mainland China and Taiwan give India the best wafer prices and help us keep up with ever reducing geometries.
These countries have the infrastructure for this R&D and we (India) have the engineering talent. Yes, I agree that this is a separate issue. There may not be several fabs as many think it would be. It'd probably be a mixture of maybe four or five fabs (my estimate) and lots of fabless companies, along with the ancillaries.
India should also encourage fabless semiconductor chip companies (product companies), give them concessions and tap into the US $300 billion semiconductor component market as well. All of this will happen, just give it some time folks!
Indian semicon industry: Good start's there for all to see, ain't it?
Our telecom and IT minister, Hon'ble Dayanidhi Maran resigned late last week. It prompted a friend to ask me whether this move would derail India's semicon policy and the path the industry had taken.
Of course not! We've made a good start, and there's still some way to go. The former minister has put us on a good path and the Indian semiconductor industry has been taking the right steps to figure among the top nations soon.
Take a look at some statistics. According to the India Semiconductor Association (ISA), India’s total semiconductor consumption in 2005 was about US $2.8 billion, met chiefly through imports. This demand is likely to exceed US $36 billion by 2015.
Electronics -- whether it is office automation, consumer electronics, medical electronics, telecom or industrial automation, will require more of the semiconductor industry in India.
The major end user segments have been communications, IT and consumer electronics. Together, the important product sub-categories that would drive the semiconductor market in India are mobile handsets, wireless equipment, especially BTS equipment, which is gaining momentum, set-top boxes, and smart card terminals.
With its growing middle class population of nearly 400 million people which will only increase over time, India’s electronic equipment consumption which was estimated at around US $28.2 billion in 2005, is likely to reach US $363 billion by 2015 growing at around CAGR 30 percent. The Indian electronics equipment domestic production was US $10.99 billion in 2005 and projects an opportunity to touch US $155 billion in 2015.
Statistically speaking, the Indian semiconductor design industry, comprising of VLSI design, board design and embedded software companies, has design companies across Bangalore, NCR Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Goa. All of the global top ten fabless design companies also have India operations and 19 of the top 25 semiconductor companies are already present here as of early May 2005.
The Indian semiconductor design industry (i.e. VLSI, hardware/board, embedded software) had a turnover of US $3.2 billion in 2005 with an engineering workforce of around 75,000. It is estimated to reach US $43 billion by 2015 and provide jobs to 780,000 professionals with a CAGR of around 30 percent for this period.
The ISA-EY Benchmarking Study 2007 benchmarks the semiconductor design sector in India with peer countries on factors of importance to the sector and identifies important high level focus areas and actions to facilitate sustainable growth. Peer countries are Canada, China, Czech Republic, India, Israel, Taiwan, UK and the USA.
Some of the main findings that clearly position as India as an attractive design hub are:
* Availability and scalability of talent
* Quality of talent
* Quality of technical education
* Talent cost advantage
The increased flow of international companies setting up their offshore design and development base and the ramping up of engineering human resource in the existing set up, including the non-captive companies is expected to drive the revenues for the total design market in India.
Second part follows in the next blog.
Of course not! We've made a good start, and there's still some way to go. The former minister has put us on a good path and the Indian semiconductor industry has been taking the right steps to figure among the top nations soon.
Take a look at some statistics. According to the India Semiconductor Association (ISA), India’s total semiconductor consumption in 2005 was about US $2.8 billion, met chiefly through imports. This demand is likely to exceed US $36 billion by 2015.
Electronics -- whether it is office automation, consumer electronics, medical electronics, telecom or industrial automation, will require more of the semiconductor industry in India.
The major end user segments have been communications, IT and consumer electronics. Together, the important product sub-categories that would drive the semiconductor market in India are mobile handsets, wireless equipment, especially BTS equipment, which is gaining momentum, set-top boxes, and smart card terminals.
With its growing middle class population of nearly 400 million people which will only increase over time, India’s electronic equipment consumption which was estimated at around US $28.2 billion in 2005, is likely to reach US $363 billion by 2015 growing at around CAGR 30 percent. The Indian electronics equipment domestic production was US $10.99 billion in 2005 and projects an opportunity to touch US $155 billion in 2015.
Statistically speaking, the Indian semiconductor design industry, comprising of VLSI design, board design and embedded software companies, has design companies across Bangalore, NCR Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Goa. All of the global top ten fabless design companies also have India operations and 19 of the top 25 semiconductor companies are already present here as of early May 2005.
The Indian semiconductor design industry (i.e. VLSI, hardware/board, embedded software) had a turnover of US $3.2 billion in 2005 with an engineering workforce of around 75,000. It is estimated to reach US $43 billion by 2015 and provide jobs to 780,000 professionals with a CAGR of around 30 percent for this period.
The ISA-EY Benchmarking Study 2007 benchmarks the semiconductor design sector in India with peer countries on factors of importance to the sector and identifies important high level focus areas and actions to facilitate sustainable growth. Peer countries are Canada, China, Czech Republic, India, Israel, Taiwan, UK and the USA.
Some of the main findings that clearly position as India as an attractive design hub are:
* Availability and scalability of talent
* Quality of talent
* Quality of technical education
* Talent cost advantage
The increased flow of international companies setting up their offshore design and development base and the ramping up of engineering human resource in the existing set up, including the non-captive companies is expected to drive the revenues for the total design market in India.
Second part follows in the next blog.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Trends in fixed-mobile convergence
Kudos to my colleague, Idhries Ahmad, for having put together a wonderful piece on fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). I would just like to highlight the trends on FMC in India. FMC is definitely at a very early stage in the Asia-Pacific region itself, and probably nascent in India.
Akshay Agarwal, Ecosystem Partner Manager - India & Korea, Texas Instruments, India forecasts that service providers in India may start with pre-IMS, skip UMA and may jump to IMS directly. Besides, the successful adoption of FMC would also depend on the deployment of 3G and Wi-Fi. Pre-IMS services could mainly be applications such as instant messaging and photo sharing.
The contribution of value-added services (VAS) has been steadily increasing and is likely to form a major portion of FMC revenues in the near future. Even as the FMC services market gains traction, the go-to-market strategy of service providers should be to provide a variety of FMC-compliant dual-mode handsets to customers.
At this point, the Indian telcos are still focused on meeting the high demand for basic voice services, and are gradually opening up to generating demand for converged service offerings.
Rising income, declining handset prices, and an increased awareness of viable mobile services among masses has led to the growing adoption of mobility solutions. The major areas of growth will be the youth segment and the rural areas.
FMC could be the solution to provide rich media services to the end customers. It may facilitate both fixed and mobile operators a magical solution to provide high-end services to subscribers, further entail the convergence of access networks, and help the operators to integrate their forces to tap the huge potential of rural India.
Akshay Agarwal, Ecosystem Partner Manager - India & Korea, Texas Instruments, India forecasts that service providers in India may start with pre-IMS, skip UMA and may jump to IMS directly. Besides, the successful adoption of FMC would also depend on the deployment of 3G and Wi-Fi. Pre-IMS services could mainly be applications such as instant messaging and photo sharing.
The contribution of value-added services (VAS) has been steadily increasing and is likely to form a major portion of FMC revenues in the near future. Even as the FMC services market gains traction, the go-to-market strategy of service providers should be to provide a variety of FMC-compliant dual-mode handsets to customers.
At this point, the Indian telcos are still focused on meeting the high demand for basic voice services, and are gradually opening up to generating demand for converged service offerings.
Rising income, declining handset prices, and an increased awareness of viable mobile services among masses has led to the growing adoption of mobility solutions. The major areas of growth will be the youth segment and the rural areas.
FMC could be the solution to provide rich media services to the end customers. It may facilitate both fixed and mobile operators a magical solution to provide high-end services to subscribers, further entail the convergence of access networks, and help the operators to integrate their forces to tap the huge potential of rural India.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Solar and wind solutions, micro fuel cells as energy alternatives
Precisely! That's the way the future of energy would likely be, should the industry manage to pull it off. These folks are really working hard to develop alternative energy sources to power a whole lot of equipment and devices.
The other day, we were discussing energy, when the subject of fuel cells cropped up. With electronics items and other equipment constantly undergoing design changes, thereby putting even more demand on battery power. Several alternative energy solutions are constantly being developed.
In fact, Motorola reports to have successfully conducted a year-long wind- and solar-powered cell site at its Swindon R&D facility in the UK. The trial concluded that an optimized solar and wind solution can generate enough power to drive a mid-sized base station (BTS) plus ancillaries. The next step would be a commercial customer trial using a six-carrier BTS cell site, being implemented in the first half of 2007.
I believe, nearly all mobile phone manufacturers, including Motorola, are also developing solar-powered handsets.
Coming back to power, the existing battery chemistries are constantly challenged to maintain performance levels or maybe, extend beyong the existing levels. While solar and wind solutions are among the options, fuel cells and even micro fuel cells are also in the fray.
Now, Frost & Sullivan's report titled World Micro Fuel Cell Market for Industrial Portable Devices, finds that the market is likely to produce 75 million units by 2013, demonstrating a high market growth rate due to a ramp-up in commercialization. The micro fuel cell market for industrial portable devices has gained a boost with the significant growth of the heavy-duty device markets.
The report says that fuel cells for such devices should be able to operate safely for long periods under inclement weather and dusty conditions. They must be resistant to high shock and vibration, while surviving drops on hard surfaces as well.
The market is addressing the fuel cell standard concern by forming groups within prominent international standards organizations such as the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies.
The other day, we were discussing energy, when the subject of fuel cells cropped up. With electronics items and other equipment constantly undergoing design changes, thereby putting even more demand on battery power. Several alternative energy solutions are constantly being developed.
In fact, Motorola reports to have successfully conducted a year-long wind- and solar-powered cell site at its Swindon R&D facility in the UK. The trial concluded that an optimized solar and wind solution can generate enough power to drive a mid-sized base station (BTS) plus ancillaries. The next step would be a commercial customer trial using a six-carrier BTS cell site, being implemented in the first half of 2007.
I believe, nearly all mobile phone manufacturers, including Motorola, are also developing solar-powered handsets.
Coming back to power, the existing battery chemistries are constantly challenged to maintain performance levels or maybe, extend beyong the existing levels. While solar and wind solutions are among the options, fuel cells and even micro fuel cells are also in the fray.
Now, Frost & Sullivan's report titled World Micro Fuel Cell Market for Industrial Portable Devices, finds that the market is likely to produce 75 million units by 2013, demonstrating a high market growth rate due to a ramp-up in commercialization. The micro fuel cell market for industrial portable devices has gained a boost with the significant growth of the heavy-duty device markets.
The report says that fuel cells for such devices should be able to operate safely for long periods under inclement weather and dusty conditions. They must be resistant to high shock and vibration, while surviving drops on hard surfaces as well.
The market is addressing the fuel cell standard concern by forming groups within prominent international standards organizations such as the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wherever you may roam!
I recall editing an article of this name during my days at DiSyCom, way back in late 1994. Those were the early days of cellular/mobile telephony in India. At a seminar on mobility at the Taj Palace in New Delhi in early 1995, I had the first-hand experience to learn what roaming was all about, thanks to a nice gentleman from the ITU.
Today, 13 years down the road, roaming is hardly the subject to discuss. People take it for granted that if they are carrying a mobile phone, they MUST be roaming. Its also one of the safest bets for operators to make money.
I recall, in December 2002, in Hong Kong, some colleagues from India were unable to call home as they weren't on roaming, and I had to lend them my phone to call. On the contrary, I was once stuck in Munich as I wasn't on roaming and couldn't call, and had to seek help from a 'friend' at the airport.
Of course, I've noticed in places across the Asia Pacific, such as Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Singapore, that people buy local SIM cards in order to save on roaming costs. Even I've done the same on several occasions.
Today, we have come a long, long way as far as mobility is concerned. Soon, video roaming or the ability to make video calls, while roaming, would be upon us. I wonder how people would take to that experience! Also, it'd be interesting to see how the operators charge consumers on video calls and especially, video roaming.
Today, 13 years down the road, roaming is hardly the subject to discuss. People take it for granted that if they are carrying a mobile phone, they MUST be roaming. Its also one of the safest bets for operators to make money.
I recall, in December 2002, in Hong Kong, some colleagues from India were unable to call home as they weren't on roaming, and I had to lend them my phone to call. On the contrary, I was once stuck in Munich as I wasn't on roaming and couldn't call, and had to seek help from a 'friend' at the airport.
Of course, I've noticed in places across the Asia Pacific, such as Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Singapore, that people buy local SIM cards in order to save on roaming costs. Even I've done the same on several occasions.
Today, we have come a long, long way as far as mobility is concerned. Soon, video roaming or the ability to make video calls, while roaming, would be upon us. I wonder how people would take to that experience! Also, it'd be interesting to see how the operators charge consumers on video calls and especially, video roaming.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
New developments in FPGAs, EDA
Couple of announcements today caught one's eye! The first was GateRocket Inc.'s announcment of the availability of its Device Native verification product that gives the designers of FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) the power to validate designs with one to two orders of magnitude faster simulation, and realize actual device behavior early in the design process.
Its RocketDrive is a hardware and software solution that adds significant value to existing design verification environments without a change in design flow or verification methodology.
GateRocket’s software allows the verification engineer to place any portions of the FPGA design into the RocketDrive and link it to his or her existing simulation platform. This allows the FPGA to be used natively to speed verification by replacing FPGA models with actual hardware, investigate hardware bugs and test alternatives, and run application level software against a Device Native representation of the design.
The other announcement was from Synopsys, who announced the availability of the latest release of its Design Compiler synthesis solution, Design Compiler 2007.
The new release extends topographical technology to accelerate design closure for designs utilizing advanced low-power and test techniques, boosting designers' productivity and IC performance.
Topographical technology allows designers to accurately estimate a chip’s power consumption during synthesis and address any power issues early in the design cycle. Moreover, topographical technology supports new test compression technology in Design Compiler 2007 to achieve high test quality while reducing test time and test data volume by more than 100x. This alleviates potential wire-routing congestion later during routing due to test implementation.
Topographical technology also delivers tight correlation between performance results seen during synthesis and what is achieved after layout. This eliminates the need for time-consuming iterations between RTL synthesis and physical layout to achieve design closure.
Those interested to know more can log on to the company pages via this blog posting.
Its RocketDrive is a hardware and software solution that adds significant value to existing design verification environments without a change in design flow or verification methodology.
GateRocket’s software allows the verification engineer to place any portions of the FPGA design into the RocketDrive and link it to his or her existing simulation platform. This allows the FPGA to be used natively to speed verification by replacing FPGA models with actual hardware, investigate hardware bugs and test alternatives, and run application level software against a Device Native representation of the design.
The other announcement was from Synopsys, who announced the availability of the latest release of its Design Compiler synthesis solution, Design Compiler 2007.
The new release extends topographical technology to accelerate design closure for designs utilizing advanced low-power and test techniques, boosting designers' productivity and IC performance.
Topographical technology allows designers to accurately estimate a chip’s power consumption during synthesis and address any power issues early in the design cycle. Moreover, topographical technology supports new test compression technology in Design Compiler 2007 to achieve high test quality while reducing test time and test data volume by more than 100x. This alleviates potential wire-routing congestion later during routing due to test implementation.
Topographical technology also delivers tight correlation between performance results seen during synthesis and what is achieved after layout. This eliminates the need for time-consuming iterations between RTL synthesis and physical layout to achieve design closure.
Those interested to know more can log on to the company pages via this blog posting.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Shake-up for Internet radios?
My good friend, Steven Yang, informed me this morning about a certain development happening in the realm of Internet radios.
He told me that there's been quite a shake to the market. Song royalties are jumping three-fold, which is going to increase the cost of operation so high that most stations will be forced to shut down.
The new royalty fee takes effect in September, but stations are already shutting down daily. Stephen pointed me to a noteworthy article on USA Today that speaks about all of this. The URL is pasted below for those interested.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-07-21-radio_x.htm
Now, it'll be interesting to see how makers of portable Internet radios ride this so-called storm.
And, thanks Steven!
He told me that there's been quite a shake to the market. Song royalties are jumping three-fold, which is going to increase the cost of operation so high that most stations will be forced to shut down.
The new royalty fee takes effect in September, but stations are already shutting down daily. Stephen pointed me to a noteworthy article on USA Today that speaks about all of this. The URL is pasted below for those interested.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-07-21-radio_x.htm
Now, it'll be interesting to see how makers of portable Internet radios ride this so-called storm.
And, thanks Steven!
Impact of RoHS
If any one of you has had the opportunity of attending any major electronics trade show across the Asia Pacific region, you cannot remain untouched by the impact that the RoHS (removal of hazardous substances) directive has had on suppliers.
The RoHS directive, which aims to restrict the level of hazardous substances used within new electronic and electrical equipment in the European Union (EU), is said to have had a "huge effect" on the industry so far, according to an expert.
It reminds me of a discussion I had with Man Yue, said to the seventh largest supplier of aluminum electrolytic capacitors late last year. Now Man Yue is huge and has the capability to invest in the expensive machinery required for RoHS.
Man Yue's competitive edge is strengthened by its compliance with RoHS. It has been RoHS compliant since Q2-2004. The supplier had placed orders for ICPE-9000 machine, which was scheduled for delivery by end of 2006. This machine grinds the capacitor into powder and checks for banned substances.
The spokesman told me Man Yue has a RoHS lab as well. Man Yue has four XRF machines. It was planning to purchase the GCMS-QP2010 Plus, another high-end testing machine, which checks for banned substances. It will purchase the UVmini-1240 machine as well.
Now, I understand that investing in such machinery needs substantial amount of capital. Having seen suppliers across Asia Pac at close up, I hope many have managed to make the transition to buying and maintaining expensive machinery to check for banned substances.
I haven't seen any leading articles on RoHS in India so far. However, I'm sure that the Indian manufacturers of electronics products have also made the shift.
The RoHS directive, which aims to restrict the level of hazardous substances used within new electronic and electrical equipment in the European Union (EU), is said to have had a "huge effect" on the industry so far, according to an expert.
It reminds me of a discussion I had with Man Yue, said to the seventh largest supplier of aluminum electrolytic capacitors late last year. Now Man Yue is huge and has the capability to invest in the expensive machinery required for RoHS.
Man Yue's competitive edge is strengthened by its compliance with RoHS. It has been RoHS compliant since Q2-2004. The supplier had placed orders for ICPE-9000 machine, which was scheduled for delivery by end of 2006. This machine grinds the capacitor into powder and checks for banned substances.
The spokesman told me Man Yue has a RoHS lab as well. Man Yue has four XRF machines. It was planning to purchase the GCMS-QP2010 Plus, another high-end testing machine, which checks for banned substances. It will purchase the UVmini-1240 machine as well.
Now, I understand that investing in such machinery needs substantial amount of capital. Having seen suppliers across Asia Pac at close up, I hope many have managed to make the transition to buying and maintaining expensive machinery to check for banned substances.
I haven't seen any leading articles on RoHS in India so far. However, I'm sure that the Indian manufacturers of electronics products have also made the shift.
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