The Vice President of the European Commission, Antonio Tajani, wrote today to Mark Durcan CEO of Micron Technology and Mark Adams, President of Micron, asking them to defer the lay-offs of 419 researchers planned for April 7th.

Having got into a browsing chain on EEVblog, I came across EEVblog 262 ‘World’s Simplest Soft Latching Power Switch Circuit’ (right), where David Jones makes a simple latching power supply switch operated by a single push button. He talks it through in an excellent thorough and educational way. Pondering this, I wonder if one more transistor could be removed with ...

Google has updated its developer policies for Google Play, with a general thrust of greater clarity on app behaviour, in terms of advertising, in-app payments and system modifications. As well as adding an App Promotion policy, and a new provision for disclosing in-app payments behind any app feature, it has also updated content policies and system interference policies…. We’ve updated ...

Mention was made in the office the other day of Claude Shannon (topics of sporting failure and celebrity chat having been exhausted), and up came mention of the Ultimate Machine. Intrigued, I headed to YouTube optimistically hoping to see such a machine in action… and bingo! (I believe the device below was part of a Claude Shannon Exhibition at the ...

An interesting  video blog was bought to my attention. EEVblog #202 is a trip around the largest EMC facility in the Southern hemisphere. And, having spent a small part of my life inside an RF test chamber with an expert, it made me once more admire the wizards who really understand this stuff – for RF fault-finding is surely the ...

The trial that is rocking Silicon Valley – the alleged conspiracy to hold down wages between Intel, Apple, Google and others – took an interesting twist last week when Apple’s lawyer argued that Apple CEO Tim Cook shouldn’t be asked to testify because he was only COO at the time of the alleged conspiracy.

Microchip has increased the number of analogue peripherals and added pin mapping to its general-purpose MCUs. “The PIC16F170x  – PIC16F171x family features core-Independent peripherals, such as the configurable logic cell [CLC], complementary output generator [COG] and numerically controlled oscillator [NCO].” said the firm. “These self-sustaining peripherals are designed to handle tasks with no code or supervision from the CPU to ...

The Technology Strategy Board and the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) are about to launch a £2.5 million competition to fund feasibility studies for graphene. Specifically, the call will support the development of Graphene in commercial products such as flexible printed electronics, batteries that charge in minutes, super strength composite materials, novel coatings and the next generation of ...

EnOcean has introduced its first energy harvesting wireless switch module for consumer applications such as the control of LED lighting systems. The device which operates in the 2.4GHz ISM band, has a form factor which allows it to fit in a standard light switch. The device’s electromechanical energy generator converts kinetic energy into electrical energy which is used to power to a wireless module. EnOcean also has a range ...

Berlin-based semiconductor research centre Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin is collaborating with Soitec subsidiary Altatech to develop materials for high-efficiency solar cells. Altatech is installing a single-substrate multi-chamber or materials deposition at HZB’s energy materials laboratory (EMIL) at the synchrotron light source BESSY II facility in Berlin. The vapour-deposition system will be used by HZB to deposit amorphous silicon, transparent conductive oxides and ultra-thin dielectrics used in fabricating solar energy devices. The two companies said ...