How can an 85-year-old Hungarian help car navigate the crowded streets of London, Shanghai or New York? It turns out that a talented gentleman's work in mathematics is becoming increasingly important in many different areas of transportation and navigation. Th...

By Nick Pummell | 23-07-2015

The straight answer to that is an unequivocal no. But black arsenic phosphorus (BAP) could provide an extremely interesting alternative when it comes to producing infinitesimally thin layers of atoms that could be used in transistors. However, graphene has alr...

By Paul Whytock | 16-07-2015

Today’s high-end cars contain more lines of software code than modern jet fighters, with luxury models running up to 100 million lines of code compared to a mere 6 million in jumbo-sized passenger aircraft. Moreover, the amount of in-car software can only incr...

By Paul Whytock | 08-07-2015

The increasing need for speed in high-end consumer electronics such as gaming and entertainment systems shows little sign of slowing down. Faster and faster computer and smartphone processing rates mean data exchange is accelerating. Maintaining signal integri...

By Marco Enge | 07-07-2015

Expensive to buy and run, lack of range, slow charging from inadequate networks and environmentally not the saviours of the planet we are led to believe. These are just some of the reasons why sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are still plodding along in the sl...

By Paul Whytock | 02-07-2015

Unlike national newspapers, corporate collaborations and technical joint ventures (JVs) don’t have a silly summer season. In fact, where national media can sometimes struggle for hard news during the balmy sunshine months, it seems that the electronics busines...

By Paul Whytock | 24-06-2015

As a committed consumer of dark Swiss chocolate, research saying that downing a daily helping could reduce the risk of cardiac disease and increase stroke prevention came as very good news to me. Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have concluded that ea...

By Paul Whytock | 17-06-2015

Financially Intel is no slouch, with its market capitalisation of close to $148 billion, but the amount it’s paid to get its hands on Altera’s programmable logic expertise is serious stuff. You’ve got to want something very badly to splash out close to $17 bil...

By Paul Whytock | 10-06-2015

Electrical safety for medical devices is governed by IEC/EN 60601-1, which details measures to guard against electric shock. Since the introduction of the 3rd edition of the standard, this situation has become a lot more complicated. Here’s a quick guide which...

By Philip Lechner | 02-06-2015

Hot on the heels of its recent tie-up with the Large Hadron Collider people at Cern, Switzerland, Integrated Device Technology (IDT) has announced its latest collaboration. The Californian chip company is teaming up with Efficient Power Conversion (EPC), a lea...

By Paul Whytock | 27-05-2015

According to industry analysts IHS the power semiconductor sector has not had a terrific time in recent years with less than impressive market growth in 2013. Admittedly this was followed by a stronger performance in 2014 and if my discussion with exhibiting c...

By Paul Whytock | 21-05-2015

Widespread adoption of Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors as silicon MOSFET replacements is now an economic reality, says California-based power semiconductor company Efficient Power Conversion (EPC). This bold proclamation follows the launch of its 60V EPC2035...

By Paul Whytock | 14-05-2015

Power supplies for modern digital ICs have stringent requirements for performance, demanding high capacitance and compact capacitors that are also cost-effective. Electrolytic capacitors are the most obvious choice, but when specifying these devices, it’s impo...

By Ekaterina Rachel | 12-05-2015

Death by PowerPoint has now reached epidemic proportions. Here are some stats. There are approx 30 million presentations made daily throughout the world and whilst you're reading this close on a million are happening now. And the sad fact is most of the audien...

By Paul Whytock | 07-05-2015