The Week In Review: Manufacturing


China’s ambitious plan in the 1990s to create numerous foundries did not come to fruition. But in 2014, the Chinese government described new semiconductor industry programs that will utilize investments by both the Chinese national government ($19.5 billion) and local government and private equity investors ($97.4 billion). “IC Insights believes that these outlays have the potential to sign... » read more

Cross-Market Security Issues


The real attractiveness of the Internet of Things is the ability to leap across communications barriers. Roll back just 15 years ago and carmakers offered special car phones as an option on high-end vehicles. Roll back 20 years ago and connectivity was so slow that you could hear your modem connecting with the modem on the other end. The widespread adoption of the cell phone, and the pervas... » read more

Designing For Security


Stacked die may improve performance and lower power, but the use of [getkc id="203" kc_name="through-silicon vias"] (TSVs) could add new security risks. As IC structures go, the vertical component of these chip packages is both a boon and a bust. Three-dimensional geometries allow for much less complexity in design by stacking two-dimensional dies and interconnecting them in the third dimens... » read more

The Other IoT


What happens in the home, in the car, or in the tiny electronic devices people carry around with them or wear on their wrists or implant in their bodies is the focus of marketing by thousands of companies all over the globe. After all, the Internet of Things, in some shape or form, is widely expected to the "next big thing," or at least provide the foundation for many next big things. Far le... » read more

DNA For Cryptography Chips


Counterfeit chips are here to stay. There are all kinds of reasons they should never be used, but certain segments of the chip market have more critical fallout from such chips than others. In most cases counterfeit chip use is unintentional. It simply goes undetected in the vast supply chain, sometimes with life-threatening repercussions. But whether in life-safety or low-end consumer produ... » read more

Implantable Chips


Implanting RFID chips into people has been a subject for debate and experimentation for nearly two decades. Back in 1998, the first implantable RFID device was injected into the hand of Professor Kevin Warwick. His hand became a transponder, and he could open doors that were designed to work with smart cards. In smart buildings, he was also able to turn on lights simply by entering into the ro... » read more

A Robot In Every Home


Bill Gates, in a 2006 Scientific American article, described his vision of the future as, "A robot in every home." It's difficult to project that far ahead with technology, though. Since then, wireless has come a long way. So have microelectronics—nearly 24 orders of magnitude if you use Moore's Law. So the robot conceived in 2006 is now more like a gaggle of Internet dust particles that r... » read more

Americans Are Concerned About Privacy, Security, But Will Still Adopt It


As I wrote in my last blog post I have some concerns about the security and privacy aspects of some aspects of applications in the Internet of Things, and it seems I am not alone. According to NXP Semiconductors, which announced this week the findings of an IoT study it had Harris Poll conduct, 81% of respondents are concerned about their privacy and that this concern impacts their decision ... » read more

Talking Machines: NFC On The Factory Floor


The emergence of smart manufacturing facilities – what some term the fourth industrial revolution, or Industrial 4.0 – is creating a new level of automation in the factory, with intelligent object networking, independent process manufacturing, and frequent use of interactions between the real and virtual worlds. These trends are changing how manufacturers manage their production networks, a... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 7


Ansys' Justin Nescott has extracted the top 5 engineering technology articles for 2014. Check out the turbocharged Dyson hand vac and the suspended animation trials. Mentor's J. VanDomelen looks at on-demand additive manufacturing on the International Space Station, otherwise known as 3D modeling and printing. It's a lot faster than waiting for a delivery. Cadence's Brian Fuller sits dow... » read more

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