With the advent of 5G mobile services by 2020 network operators will rely on a new type of flexible basestation called the small cell to meet dramatically increasing data traffic in mobile networks and this will bring its own requirements for testing, writes Juan Hidalgo With mobile data traffic predicted to grow at a yearly …
Leti 3D chip technology gets big push from Qualcomm
A 3D chip technology, which stacks active layers of transistors without the need for through-silicon vias (TSVs) has been developed by Leti and is the focus of a collaboration with Qualcomm. Dubbed CoolCube, the French research centre has developed a device scale-stacking technology for complex system-on-chips such as mobile processors which is why Qualcomm is …
PC Sales Carry On Falling
The PC collapse continues. IDC reports an 11.5% y-o-y drop in unit shipments in Q1 2016 compared to Q1 2015 to 60.6 million. Q4’s y-o-y drop was 10.6%. The main reason is because people are buying mobile devices not computers. As the market declines, the top players gain market share. Lenovo now has 19.3%, HP …
March Bounce For TSMC
Industry bellwether TSMC had a revenue bounce in March with sales of $2.26 billion which is 22.7% up on February’s sales of $1.86 billion. TSMC’s March revenue was pretty well flat with the $2.23 billion of March 2015. TSMC’s YTD revenues of $6.3 billion are 8.3% down on the Jan-March 2015 revenues of $6.9 billion. …
Lacroix puts French manufacturing in the Top 10
Lacroix Electronics has moved into the Top 10 European electronics subcontractors, according to Reed Electronics Research. The French manufacturer specialises in electronics subcontracting for the industrial, home automation, health, automobile, civil avionics and defence sectors. Its turnover in 2015 was €280m including intra-group sales. This represented a 21.7% increase on the previous year. Lacroix Electronics …
Gadget Watch: HTC 10 smartphone snaps dual OIS
The HTC 10 – HTC has announced its own new flagship smartphone, supporting optical image stabilisation (OIS) in both cameras
Five tablets that might just run MPLAB-X and DesignSpark
Oh my word, I have become obsessed. I have been trying to buy a lightweight PC for two things: A little home project involving microcontroller programming and 3D printing – so MPLAB-X and DesignSpark Mechanical. Going to shows and conferences for my day job – where USB sticks full of data are common. For various …
FTDI USB 2.0 Chips Support 480Mbit/s.
To provide engineers with a greater breadth of IO options and also address demands to conserve board real estate, FTDI has announced new versions of its highly popular FT2232H and FT4232H devices. These configurable USB 2.0 Hi-Speed (supporting 480Mbit/s operation) ICs are now available in 56-pin VQFN packages, which complement the 64-pin LQFP package format. …
Top 10 PCT Applicants 2015
Thanks to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) for this one – the top ten companies for PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patents: Huawei 3,898 Qualcomm 2,442 ZTE 2155 Samsung 1,683 Mitsubishi Electric 1,593 Ericsson 1481 LG 1457 Sony 1381 Philips 1378 HP 1310
LED business news: Philips and iGuzzini; Acuity, Cree, Plessey and more
In this LED business round-up, Philips announced iGuzzini as a licensee in the EnabLED SSL intellectual property program while Plessey has partnered with PhytoLux in horticultural lighting and LED sector financial results cross the board.