Ten technologies, seven predictions lead weekly story ranking
(02:30 PM EST, 11/20/09)
Here are the top five online stories for the week beginning Sunday, Nov. 15, as ranked by EE Times readers, up to and including Friday, Nov. 20. The ranking is based on the number of reader "views" or "hits" on a particular article.

Cisco seeks smart grid CTO
(06:33 PM EST, 11/19/09)
Cisco Systems is looking for a few good power engineers—including a chief technology officer for its new smart grid business unit.

Intel, Google take seats on smart grid board
(05:25 PM EST, 11/19/09)
Google, Honeywell, Intel and Panasonic are among the companies elected to a seat on the board of a broad new group chartered to help manage the evolution of smart electric grids.

Google open-sources operating system
(03:18 PM EST, 11/19/09)
Google announced the open-sourcing of code for Chrome OS, the cloud-based operating system the company is developing to power netbooks.

EVE leads design team, acceleration market, says Gary Smith EDA
(01:08 PM EST, 11/19/09)
EVE SA (Palaiseau, France) leads the design team acceleration and emulation market, according to market research firm Gary Smith EDA (Santa Clara, Calif.).

Printed programmable logic startup secures support
(10:51 AM EST, 11/19/09)
Nano ePrint Ltd., a spin off from the University of Manchester in England, has secured a grant to help it develop and demonstrate a printed programmable logic device.

Tanner EDA, Tower expand collaboration
(08:17 AM EST, 11/19/09)
Tanner EDA, a division of Tanner Research Inc. (Monrovia, Calif.), and Tower Semiconductor Ltd., which trades as TowerJazz, have joined forces to meet analog/mixed signal customers' needs for high quality power management ICs.

Avnet, Cinterion expand agreement
(03:40 AM EST, 11/19/09)
Avnet Embedded has expanded its distribution agreement with Cinterion Wireless Modules.

Ten emerging technologies to watch in 2010
(11:40 AM EST, 11/18/09)
EE Times has compiled a list of emerging technologies that we think will be worth watching out for in 2010.

Highest-density LatticeECP3 in volume production
(10:08 AM EST, 11/18/09)
Lattice Semiconductor announced that its LatticeECP-150 mid-range FPGA has been fully qualified and released to volume production.

Xilinx unveils platform for broadcast connectivity
(09:09 AM EST, 11/18/09)
Programmable logic vendor Xilinx introduced the latest of its targeted design platforms, this one targeting broadcast connectivity applications.

Butterfly research to improve RFID technology
(08:44 AM EST, 11/18/09)
QinetiQ and the University of Exeter have started a three-year project to develop new anti-counterfeit and radio-frequency technologies based on a portfolio of patented technology.

EC found guilty of maladministration in Intel antitrust case
(08:24 AM EST, 11/18/09)
The European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, has gone public in saying he has found the European Commission Competition Directorate guilty of maladministration on one count in a complaint brought by Intel Corp. However, the ruling is unlikely to alter case.

PicoChip raises $20 million
(07:40 AM EST, 11/18/09)
picoChip has unveiled its roadmap to include complete femtocell solutions, integrating PHY, stack and femtocell system software in a end-to-end femtocell reference solution.

Recovery remains uncertain but China is key, says survey
(07:04 AM EST, 11/18/09)
A recovery is coming in 2010 but many things about it remain uncertain, according to a global survey of semiconductor executives conducted by tax and advisory firm KPMG LLP during September and October.

Video: Duke Energy CTO calls for open smart grids
(09:24 PM EST, 11/17/09)
Electric utilities need to cut a path to open smart grid networks and China's burgeoning energy sector could lead the charge, said an executive from a large electric utility as the U.S. Department of Energy is gearing up to release details on a second round of grants for smart electric grids.

Smart cards buck economic trend
(07:11 AM EST, 11/17/09)
The smart card industry is demonstrating resilience to the economic downturn and continued to grow in volumes shipped.

Semiconductor industry close to sold out, says SICAS
(06:58 AM EST, 11/17/09)
Chip manufacturing capacity is falling and as demand is increasing the chip industry is becoming close to being sold-out. Manufacturing capacity utilization has climbed above 90 percent in several leading-edge sectors, according to the Semiconductor International Capacity Statistics organization.

Toshiba claims EUV photoresist breakthrough for 20-nm era
(05:12 AM EST, 11/17/09)
Toshiba Corp. has said it has developed a photoresist suitable for use with extreme ultraviolet lithography and proved its viability in the world's first 20-nm generation process technology.

Actel announces IP core enhancements
(04:49 AM EST, 11/17/09)
Following on from its acquisition of Pigeon Point Systems last year, Actel has announced IP core enhancements to its Fusion mixed-signal FPGAs that cater to platform management applications, particularly xTCA.

VESA updates embedded DisplayPort specification
(03:28 AM EST, 11/17/09)
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has issued its updated Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) specification, a companion standard to DisplayPort version 1.1a.

VESA updates embedded DisplayPort specification
(03:28 AM EST, 11/17/09)
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has issued its updated Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) specification, a companion standard to DisplayPort version 1.1a.

U.K. design house offers configurable processor cores
(02:20 AM EST, 11/17/09)
EnSilica boosts its front-end IC design services with the launch of new eSi-RISC configurable processor cores, offering a scalable architecture for low-cost feature-rich embedded applications.

Indian IT group offers mobile TV based on DVB-H on OMAP
(01:43 AM EST, 11/17/09)
Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. (L&T Infotech) has announced its DVB-H-based mobile TV solution based on the TI OMAP3530 reference platform.

ARM, Aricent jump on Android bandwagon
(12:01 AM EST, 11/17/09)
In separate moves, ARM Ltd. has launched a new Web site and contract design company Aricent Inc. has announced a new development team both dedicated to helping engineers design systems with Google Android in further indications of the intense interest in Android and the challenges using it.

Powervation gains extra dollars from energy VC
(12:23 PM EST, 11/16/09)
Powervation Ltd. (Limerick Ireland) a provider of digital control ICs for power supplies, has said it has obtained additional funding from Braemar Energy Ventures of New York.

Dolphin Integration enhances ROM generator
(11:55 AM EST, 11/16/09)
EDA and IP company Dolphin Integration SA (Meylan, France) said it has enhanced its Cassiopeia architecture for single via programmable Read-only memory (ROM) with a capability to operate from nominal voltage down to 1.1 V in the TSMC 130 nm low power process.

Supercap material company gets grant and CEO
(11:27 AM EST, 11/16/09)
Y-Carbon Inc., a nanomaterials company founded in 2004, working on nanoporous carbon, has announced that it has been awarded research funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense under the SBIR grant program.

Sematech appoints former IBM executive to CEO post
(10:36 AM EST, 11/16/09)
Sematech, a consortium of semiconductor manufacturers, has announced the appointment of Daniel Armbrust to serve as its president and chief executive officer.

AMD, Asian packager license Irish micro-cooler
(07:52 AM EST, 11/16/09)
Researchers at the Stokes Institute in the University of Limerick have announced two licensing agreements that could see 'micro-cooler' technology used in computers and mobile phones; with AMD and Asian Vital Components.

NXP to ship sub-dollar Cortex-M0 MCUs through distribution
(06:15 AM EST, 11/16/09)
NXP BV (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) has said its Cortex-M0 based microcontroller will be available from distributors in December.

European distribution sees signs of improvement
(04:53 AM EST, 11/16/09)
The European electronic components distribution market is returning to growth according to the latest figures from the International Distribution of Electronics Association (IDEA).

Magma extends chip-based navigation to circuit, board-level debug
(04:35 AM EST, 11/16/09)
EDA vendor Magma Design Automation has introduced a software solution that is said to extend CAD navigation and circuit debug from ICs to PCBs and multichip modules.

Use formal, online communication to deliver design quality closure
(12:01 AM EST, 11/16/09)
If an integrated circuit design is to meet the need for high-quality/low-risk implementation, the need for formal communication among the participants in the design process is obviously necessary.

Multisite, collaborative hardware design calls for HCM
(12:01 AM EST, 11/16/09)
Software configuration management (SCM) systems have been used by software teams for decades to manage development, improve collaboration and coordinate releases.

Power source innovation-- batteries included
(12:01 AM EST, 11/16/09)
"Batteries not included." Remember when those words, printed on the side of a box, could quickly deflate your enthusiasm for a shiny new toy?

DRAM: the field for material and process innovation
(12:01 AM EST, 11/16/09)
Since its introduction, DRAM technology has been a commodity product driven by cost and razor-thin profits.

SaaS and EDA: Are designers ready?
(12:01 AM EST, 11/16/09)
EDA is not a newcomer to the world of hosted applications and services, known as software as a service (SaaS).

Internet re-evolution: collaborative design
(12:01 AM EST, 11/16/09)
Some 15 years after the Web became a household word, the Internet as a medium for collaborative design work is yet to be tested.

AMD tops, Intel dominates Top500 list
(12:01 AM EST, 11/16/09)
Advanced Micro Devices powers the world's three largest supercomputers according to the lasted version of the Top500 list, but archrival Intel Corp. still dominates the list with processors now in 80 percent of the systems.

IEEE revises membership rules
(12:01 AM EST, 11/16/09)
The IEEE Standards Association has revised its membership rules in an effort to ease the financial hurdles to participating in the group's many standards efforts.

ZigBee system is powered by harvested energy
(11:11 PM EST, 11/15/09)
Jennic has demonstrated the capability of its JN5148 to perform multiple Zigbee packet transmissions using only 100 microjoules per packet of energy harvested from an electro-mechanical switch using Proxy Server Routers.

VisualSim used to model ray tracing system
(10:22 PM EST, 11/15/09)
Designers at TOPS Systems here have used the Mirabilis Design VisualSim tools to model, simulate and analyze the performance of a Real-Time Ray Tracing system with distributed software and a heterogeneous Multi-Core processor.

Comment: Do the math OR those casual power extrapolations drive me crazy
(12:00 PM EST, 11/14/09)
The ease with which numbers are tossed around, especially those related to power and energy, really annoys me--and often leads to wrong conclusions

DAC launches call for contributions
(09:47 AM EST, 11/13/09)
The Design Automation Conference has made a call for contributions to the technical program.