Author Archives: david manners

Manchester LED firm raising Indiegogo cash

August 12, 2014

Gigateq of Manchester, the smart LED specialist, seeks to raise $1000 on crowd-funding site Indiegogo by September 10 to begin production of its EasyBulb Plus which can be controlled from a smartphone or tablet app.

EasyBulb Plus can be changed to any colours, brightened or dimmed.

“The colour wheel on the app lets you easily match your lighting to your mood,” said Gigateq’s Henry Ofodieze. “Or, instead of using the color wheel, you can simply speak to your device to tell the app what color you want.”

EasyBulb Plus has proximity setting, signalling for lights to turn on upon arrival at home and turn off upon departure and can be synced with any music source, including iTunes, to integrate music and lights together and can give phone call and message alerts with a blinking green and white light.

EasyBulb plus on IndieGoGo

EasyBulb plus on IndieGoGo

EasyBulb Plus Has a 9 watt LED bulb and a lifespan of 50,000 hours (approximately 25 years of average use), the EasyBulb Plus is also compatible in every country. It is installed by replacing an existing bulb, downloading the app on any smart device, and connecting the EasyBulb Plus Wi-Fi box.

Low heat technology ensures EasyBulb will not burn skin, and lights can still be operated by a physical light switch as well.

There are two types of EasyBulb Plus. The first is the RGBW, which has the option of the full spectrum of color, including pure white. The second is the EasyBulb Plus White Light Only, which produces only white light but can be altered from warm to cool white according to preference. Access to lighting – either one bulb at a time or groups of lights – is completely secure with EasyBulb Plus’ built-in WPA2 encryption, so no unauthorized users can control the lights.

Those contributing to the crowdfunding campaign will receive special discounts on their EasyBulb Plus, which should be ready for shipment in November 2014. Those contributing $62 will receive one EasyBulb Plus with white or grey base with their choice of either RGBW or White Light Only.

A contribution of $99 will get a choice of two, $150 for a choice of three, $180 for a choice of four, and $240 for a choice of six. For contributors that want different color bases, they can get four EasyBulb Plus lights in either RGBW or White Light Only in the base color of their choosing for $220 or six in the base color of their choosing for $270.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzeh3BtJvNk

Cambridge VC fund makes first three investments

August 11, 2014

Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) has completed its first investments from a £50 million fund, backing three companies that address cloud-based video archiving, grid-scale energy management and generative music composition.

CIC aims to build leading businesses by removing the pressure to deliver the quick flips associated with a traditional venture capital model.

“The companies provide an excellent snapshot of the breadth of activity and quality of entrepreneurs in the Cambridge Cluster,” says CIC CEO Peter Keen, “we look forward to working with these teams.”

Cambridge Imaging Systems

Leading off CIC’s first investments is £1.5 million in growth funding for Cambridge Imaging Systems, which is developing cloud-based and on-premise software that enables owners of video to archive, deliver and bill for content.

Cambridge Imaging Systems has been at the forefront of media asset management for 20 years, developing technology used by corporate and government clients including the Ministry of Defence, IMG Sports, the BBC, the Imperial War Museum, the British Library and more than 60 universities. The investment from CIC allows Cambridge Imaging Systems to accelerate the market availability of its “ImagenCloud” technology, which offers highly secure video content hosting with managed access for staff and customers on any internet-enabled device.

Origami Energy

CIC provided £1.25 million in funding to grid-scale energy management developer Origami Energy as part of a £3.5 million round alongside Octopus Investments and two angel investors. Origami’s technology allows renewable energy generators, storage providers and energy users to trade with each other at a micro-grid level and maximise the value of their assets, creating a real-time marketplace for the distributed energy world.

Using its software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, Origami intelligently manages the flows of energy and capacity between physical sites with power generation, energy demand and electricity storage by bringing them all on-line with Origami’s technology platform. The new investment enables the company to accelerate its growth.

Jukedeck

CIC has also invested £100,000 in University of Cambridge spin-out Jukedeck, which is developing innovative software that allows users to generate their own original music for videos, online games and many other applications where real-time, responsive music is desired without copyright limitations. The investment was made alongside £400,000 in seed funding from Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, and the University EIS Fund managed by Parkwalk Advisors.

“Cambridge Innovation Capital was established with to provide long-term, follow-on capital to companies originating in the Cambridge Cluster. Jukedeck is the first of many spin-outs and we look forward to being a supportive partner as it grows,” says CIC’s Victor Christou.

Rising semi tide

European semiconductor sales in June rose to $3.185 billion, an increase of 12.1% from the same month one year ago, says the European Semiconductor Industry Association.

Q2 sales were $9.556 billion, an increase of 12.1% from Q2 2013 and of 3.5% from Q1 2014.

In the first half of 2014, European semiconductor sales grew by 10.2% compared with the first half of 2013.

On a month-to-month basis, the European market increased by 1.9% in June and performance remained robust across all the main product groups.

Some noteworthy improvement was seen in the areas of Discrete, Logic and Optoelectronics, up 4.8%, 4.1% and 2.5%, respectively from May.

Leading end use market segments in June were consumer, wired and wireless communication applications.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors in June 2014 were $27.567 billion, up 2.6% from May 2014 and up 10.8% from June 2013. It was the highest ever monthly sales figure for the industry.

Q2 sales were up 5.4% on Q1 and up 10.8% on Q2 2013.

Year-to-date sales during the first half of 2014 were 11.1% higher than they were at the same point in 2013, which was a record year for semiconductor revenues, reports the SIA.

“Through the first half of 2014, the global semiconductor market has demonstrated consistent, across-the-board growth, with the Americas region continuing to show particular strength,” says SIA CEO Brian Toohey, “the industry posted its highest-ever second quarter sales and outperformed the latest WSTS sales forecast. Looking forward, macroeconomic indicators – including solid U.S. GDP growth announced last week – bode well for continued growth in the second half of 2014 and beyond.”

Regionally, sales were up compared to last month in the Americas (4.9 percent), Asia Pacific (2.1 percent), Japan (2.1 percent), and Europe (1.9 percent). Compared to June 2013, sales increased in the Americas (12.1 percent), Europe (12.1 percent), Asia Pacific (10.5 percent), and Japan (8.5 percent).

All four regional markets have posted better year-to-date sales through the first half of than they did through the same point last year.

Altera issues 14nm design software

Altera has released design software for its 14nm Stratix 10 FPGAs which, says Altera, double the performance of 28nm FPGAs.

Fast Forward Compilation, the name for the 14nm software, pinpoints performance bottlenecks and provides step-by-step performance improvement recommendations.

Users also receive Fmax estimates of their design that can be achieved by applying the recommendations.

The aim is to give customers the opportunity to maximise overall design performance and achieve rapid timing closure.

“Fast Forward Compilation with the Stratix 10 HyperFlex architecture enables customers to double their performance while simultaneously shaving off weeks to months of engineering development time,” claims Altera’s Jordon Inkeles.

Stratix 10 chips have 4m+ logic elements, 10 TeraFLOPs of single-precision, hardened floating point DSP performance, 4X serial transceiver bandwidth compared to previous generation FPGAs, a high-performance, quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 processor system and multi-die packaging.

e2v to buy AnaFocus

e2v is to buy AnaFocus of Seville, the CMOS imaging sensor specialist, for €34 million.

The purpose of the deal is to accelerate e2v’s product development.

AnaFocus had revenues of €5.6 million and EBITA of €80,000 last year. Revenues are expected to be €11 million this year with a margin in the mid to high teens.

The price includes €26.5 million of cash and €2.7 million of assumed debt.

The management team has been given an earn-out deal worth €5 million over the next two years.

e2v will pay for the deal with a £90 million banking facility.

Q1 top 20 semi earners and growers

TSMC-fab

TSMC is 3rd largest chip maker with revenues of $4.9bn

The top 20 semiconductor companies grew 9% in Q1 compared to last year’s Q1. The placings were affected by an unusually high number of takeovers – Mediatek/MathStar, Panasonic/Fujitsu, Micron/Elpida and Avago/LSI.

Growth stars were Mediatek, Hynix, AMD, Micron, Infineon, Freescale, Avago and NXP. ST declined by 10% and was No.11 after 18 years in the Top 10.

The Top 20.

$bn

Intel 11.7

Samsung 8.8

TSMC. 4.9

Qualcomm 4.2

Micron 4.2

Hynix 3.5

Toshiba 2.8

TI. 2.8

Broadcom 2

Renesas 1.9

ST 1.8

MediaTek 1.6

Infineon1.4

AMD 1.4

Avago 1.3

NXP 1.2

Nvidia 1.1

Freescale 1.1

GloFo 1.0

UMC 1.0

Top 20 Growth League

%

MediaTek 48

Hynix. 36

AMD. 28

Micron. 27

Infineon 19

Freescale 15

Avago 15

NXP 15diaTek 48

Nvidia 14

UMC 12

Samsung 11

TSMC 9

Qualcomm 8

GloFo7

TI 3

Broadcom 1

Intel 1

Renesas -1

Toshiba -5

ST -10

Sheffield University spray paints solar cells

The two spray heads. (Picture by Alex Barrows)

The two spray heads. (Picture by Alex Barrows)

A team of scientists at the University of Sheffield are the first to fabricate perovskite solar cells using a spray-painting process – a discovery that could help cut the cost of solar electricity.

Experts from the university’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have previously used the spray-painting method to produce solar cells using organic semiconductors – but using perovskite is a major step forward.

Efficient organometal halide perovskite-based photovoltaics were first demonstrated in 2012. They are now a very promising new material for solar cells as they combine high efficiency with low materials costs.

The spray-painting process wastes very little of the perovskite material and can be scaled to high volume manufacturing – similar to applying paint to cars and graphic printing.

Lead researcher professor David Lidzey says: “Perovskite-based photovoltaics combine the high performance of mature solar cell technologies with the low embedded energy costs of production of organic photovoltaics.”

While most solar cells are manufactured using energy intensive materials like silicon, perovskites, by comparison, requires much less energy to make. By spray-painting the perovskite layer in air the team hopes the overall energy used to make a solar cell can be reduced further.

Lidzey adds: “The best certified efficiencies from organic solar cells are around 10%. Perovskite cells now have efficiencies of up to 19%. This is not so far behind that of silicon at 25% – the material that dominates the world-wide solar market.”

“The perovskite devices we have created still use similar structures to organic cells. What we have done is replace the key light absorbing layer – the organic layer – with a spray-painted perovskite,” says Lidzey. “Using a perovskite absorber instead of an organic absorber gives a significant boost in terms of efficiency.”

The Sheffield team found that by spray-painting the perovskite they could make prototype solar cells with efficiency of up to 11%.

“This study advances existing work where the perovskite layer has been deposited from solution using laboratory scale techniques. It’s a significant step towards efficient, low-cost solar cell devices made using high volume roll-to-roll processing methods,” Says Lidzey.

Mobile to be biggest consumer of DRAM, says IC Insights

This year, for the first time ever, mobile applications will use more DRAM than computers, reports IC Insights.

“In 2014 mobile systems are forecast to become the largest application for DRAM bit volume, surpassing the desktop/notebook segment, which has long been the essential driver for DRAM bit consumption,” says IC Insights.

The slowdown in PC shipments has considerably affected where DRAM bit volume is being consumed.

The desktop/notebook computer segment represented less than half of total DRAM bit volume for the first time in 2012 and its share is forecast to fall to 31% in 2014 — half its market share from 2010.

DRAM bit growth, which averaged 83% annually between 1995 and 1999, has been running at 36% annually since 2010.

Wearable wireless goes Bluetooth Smart

Shipments this year for wireless semiconductors in health and fitness will reach a projected 61.2 million units, up 11% from 55 million in 2013, and will increase to 95.78 million units in 2018, says IHS, while shipments of consumer health and fitness devices with integrated wireless connectivity will grow to an estimated 75.7 million units in 2018, up from 23.0 million units in 2011.

Bluetooth Smart is the main medium for wireless connectivity in this market.

Wireless connectivity in sports and fitness applications is often used to provide a link to remote sensors when wired connectivity is too cumbersome, like linking heart-rate chest straps to wrist-worn heart-rate monitors, or linking wheel-speed sensors to cycling computers.

Another use is for data uploading, with wireless connectivity employed to upload fitness and performance data to PCs, smartphones, tablets or online communities for analysis and sharing.

Bluetooth Smart I, says IHS,is the only major low-power wireless technology able to communicate with all the chief mobile platforms, including Apple iOs, Google Android, Microsoft Windows 8 and the BlackBerry operating system, says IHS.

Moreover, the dongle-free connectivity of Bluetooth Smart gives it an edge..

A wireless technology specifically designed for the health and fitness market and popular with heart-rate monitors, ANT/ANT+, is a low-power technology that, however, does not enjoy the same broad support in mobile platforms.

A PC or dongle is also required for ANT/ANT+, unlike Bluetooth Smart. Still, ANT/ANT+ enjoys a significant market share and seems to have a defensible position, especially in products designed for serious fitness enthusiasts and in cycling electronics.

A big driver of growth in health and fitness devices is the desire among consumers to track and analyse personal data, in pursuit of what is known as “the quantified self,” says IHS. Consumers can then share such data via social media and online communities, often via apps like RunKeeper of Runtastic.

Other drivers for the market include the increased use of wearable devices; decreasing component costs; an ageing demographic concerned about preserving health; and the rising use of remote healthcare systems.

Applied Micro ships 64-bit ARM server ICs

Applied Micro Circuits is shipping its 64-bit server ICs for microservers.

“We are very pleased to report that we have shipped initial production X-Gene units,” said Applied Micro CEO Paramedh Gopi. “Purchase orders continue to grow and backlog is building. The creation of the ARM 64-bit based server category is under way.”

Q2 saw Applied Micro take $1m in revenue from X-Gene shipments and the company said it expects meaningfu’ revenue in Q4 2014 and Q1 2015.

“There is backlog today on the books for X-Gene, both in the September quarter and December quarter, as well as the March quarter,” said Gopi.