Get on the Drivetrain |
There are a lot of reasons for thinking of buying a hybrid electric car-ecological, economic, political, and just getting cheesed off at seeing all those hybrids with one passenger whiz by you in the Diamond/HOV lane. Besides, admit it-the technology is cool. So just what is the technology inside the Chevrolet Volt? The Chevy Volt-which GM refers to as "an extended range electric vehicle (EREV)"- is essentially a series hybrid, though with a twist that we'll describe in a moment. More |
Imagine no uninterruptible power supplies. I wonder if you can. A sad story of six fried hard disk drives |
This is the story of six fried hard disk drives and why they died needlessly of heat failure as told to me by my good friend Ron Sartore, founder and CEO of AgigA Tech, at this month's Flash Memory Summit. It's also the story of the disaster's aftermath and why it shouldn't happen again-to anyone. Finally, it's the story of why we just might need to reconsider our views regarding the use of uninterruptible power supplies to supply emergency back-up power to servers. Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. More |
The State of Voice User Interfaces |
The forms for interfacing between humans and the machines are constantly evolving, and the creation rate of new forms for human-machine interfacing seems to be increasing. Long gone are the days of using punch cards and card reader to tell a computer what to do. Most contemporary users are unaware of what a command line prompt and optional argument is. Contemporary touch, gesture, stylus, and spoken language interfaces threaten to make the traditional hand shaped mouse a quaint and obsolete idea. More |
AT&T's 3G MicroCell: A User-Friendliness Grade Of "Fail" |
As anyone who owns a GSM-based cellphone already knows, having it powered up while in a low-to-no coverage area is a highly effective way to rapidly drain its battery. The handset regularly searches for nearby towers, even when it's not in active use; "airplane mode" or, for that matter, full shutdown are the only meaningful means by which an average user can staunch the resultant steady current drain. More |
August Wireless Update: AllJoyn™ Enables Direct Connections Among Several Devices |
Qualcomm spends a lot of money on R&D, usually to improve their products; but in this case to engender new utility for cellphones, tablets and even PCs...even those that don't employ Qualcomm chips. AllJoyn ("all join") is a platform-neutral method of enabling ad hoc peer-to-peer connections between two nearby devices...or among several devices without the need for an intermediary server or even cellular connection. For example, Bluetooth� or Wi-Fi connections between devices would be sufficient for, say, multi-player gaming or project collaboration between colleagues and students in enterprise educational settings. But the technology could be employed for proximity-based services like distributing coupons or vcards. With AllJoyn, one could also Interact and share content with laptops and desktop computers in the area. More |
Texas Instruments TPS62730 |
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Training Courses |
Fundamentals of Solar: Off-Grid
This course covers the fundamentals of off-grid, stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems, with the aim of providing engineers with a good overview of the technologies, topologies and electronics that make up such systems. The course content includes: � Introduction to Photovoltaic Systems � Grid-Connected vs. Off-Grid Solar Systems � Solar Energy Storage � Charge Controllers � Power Conditioning � Energy Harvesting � Integration Issue.
Fundamentals of Solar: Grid Connected
Photovoltaic (PV) solar technology is at the heart of the multi-billion dollar clean/green/renewable energy industry, powering everything from road signs to entire cities. This course covers the fundamentals of grid-connected PV systems, with the aim of providing engineers with a good overview of the technologies, topologies and electronics that make up such systems.
Fundamentals of Microcontrollers
EE Times Fundamentals course provides an introduction to microcontrollers (MCUs) including usage and selection of the devices. The course also includes a video explaining showing how to get started with an mbed evaluation kit. |