Recruitment start-up sees strength in manufacturing

Cubed i

Rob Fleming has worked with recruitment specialist Kate Hill

A co-founder of one of the UK’s most successful electronic manufacturing companies of the past 20 years is putting his weight behind a recruitment agency focused on  electronic manufacturing and related supply chain markets.

Rob Fleming has worked with recruitment specialist Kate Hill to create Cubed Resourcing in Wetherby, North Yorkshire.

The agency has set itself the the target of discovering emerging talent in middle management.

According to Kate Hill: ”With rising consumer demand, competition is intensifying for the key people and skills necessary to capitalise on the upturn. The clamour is for a finite resource and being able to attract and retain it is critical for employers to meet the capacity and capability challenge.”

The aim, said Hill, is to encourage companies to be more proactive in their recruitment plans. “Firms must establish themselves as destinations of choice before competitors do,” said Hill.

Fleming, who was a co- founder of set-top box firm Pace, said he is still active in tech start ups and his involvement in Cubed will be “more than financial enabling and mentoring”.

Fleming said: “Shaped by industry for industry, the Cubed approach is one of joint enterprise and consultancy. We have strategic, nuanced relationships with employers that see us working with them on long term programmes. As such, we’re definitely not going to be on the periphery of things, only to be called upon to fill short term gaps. We’re about adding value to a client’s five year business plan, as well as its day-to-day needs.”

 

Raspberry Pi upgrade to B+

Raspberry Pi B+

Raspberry Pi B+

Raspberry Pi has been updated. The new version, called B+, costs £20 and uses less power.

“We’ve been blown away by the projects that have been made possible through the original B boards and, with its new features, the B+ has massive potential to push the boundaries and drive further innovation,” says co-creator Eben Upton.

The B+ has a four-pole connector and can run four USB connected peripherals without needing mains power or an external hub.

It uses the same Broadcom IC as previous versions and has the same 512Mbit of memory.

Micron intros 8Gbit DDR3 SDRAM for social media

Micron - Robert FeurleMicron Technology has introduced a monolithic 8Gbit DDR3 SDRAM component based on its 25nm DRAM manufacturing process.

DDR3 DRAMs are targeted at the enterprise market.

“The ability to scale with our customers’ accelerating memory demand was a key driver in developing this 8Gb DDR3 design,” said Robert Feurle, vice president of compute and networking marketing at Micron.

“We are committed to working together with our partners to minimize risk, maximize flexibility and optimize total cost of ownership.”

 Micron’s DDR3 portfolio includes 8Gbit single-die and dual-die components, 32GB RDIMMs (dual rank), 64GB LRDIMMs, 32GB ECC SODIMMs and 16GB VLP ECC UDIMMs.

 

More on: Toshiba supplies UK with 1MW smart grid battery

Toshiba Sheffield lithium ionThe University of Sheffield is building a 2MW 1MWh smart grid energy store, using novel lithium ion batteries from Toshiba. It will be the UK’s largest grid-connected battery.

Funded by the EPSRC, the store will be a research facility for academics and power companies, and the biggest in the UK.

Is purpose it two-fold: power companies can study the use of energy storage on the grid, and it will allow lithium titanate (LiTiO), a relatively new Li-ion material championed by Toshiba, to be evaluated.

LiTiO cells have a longer life than any other Li-ion chemistry, project leader Professor David Stone told Electronics Weekly. And they can be charged far faster than phone batteries.

Toshiba claims over 10,000 cycles (to 20% lost capacity), six minutes to 80% charged, and 15 mins to full chage for the SCiB-branded cells selected by Sheffield. Energy density is 90Wh/kg and 177Wh/litre.

The UK facility is being built at a sub-station near Wolverhampton, owned by project supporter WPD. Aston University is another project partner.

Nishi-Sendai sub-station Toshiba Tohoku Electric PowerAlthough it will be the largest in the UK, there are several of similar size grid batteries around the world, and a 40MW 20MWh SCiB battery is due to be operating at Nishi-Sendai sub-station in Japan in 2018.

For its installation, Sheffield is buying-in a 2MW bi-directional converter from ABB to match the 800V battery to an 11kV power line,

Toshiba is providing the low-level cell and battery monitoring electronics, while Stone’s team and Toshiba are developing the controller that sits between low-level monitoring and the converter.

Experiments are not yet funded, although discussions with electricity suppliers have started.

According to Stone, control strategies for such a battery can be as simple as locally keeping the substation voltage or frequency within specified limits. Remote control will also be possible to allow the national grid to pull its strings.

With a statistically-significant number of cells in the system, experiments could include determining what effects power demand has on the cells and cell balancing, said Stone, as well as how much stabilisation is possible form such a battery, and discovering if there really are business opportunities around grid stabilisation.

Up and running by the end of October, this will only ever be a research tool, said Stone, estimating that the smallest commercial battery would need to deliver 10MW and store 10-20MWh.

Toshiba’s lithium titanate batteries

SCiB batteries are already used in four Japanese grid storage projects, excluding Nishi-Sendai, as well as in two Mitsubishi electric cars and a Honda electric motorbike.

They are built around a 115x103x22mm 20Ah (0.2C) cell for which Toshiba has built a factory with 6GWh/year capacity.

Cell voltage is 2.3V nominal and 1.5-2.7V operating, and internal impedance is 530µΩ.

Continuous discharge is up to 160A, and is “nearly equivalent to ultra-capacitors”, says Toshiba. Discharge is possible from -30 to +55°C.

Charging temperature information is so easy to come by. Automotive versions have been demonstrated charging at 1C at -40°C. Standard laptop Li-ion cells cannot be charged below 0°C.

Unlike laptop cells, they can be crushed with only a low risk of thermal run-away.

The firm takes a modular approach to supplying cells and batteries:

  • 24 cells are packed into a 1.1kWh module.
  • 22 modules go into a 24kW rack
  • 84 racks go into a 1MW 2MWh battery, which occupies 110m2 including switch gear.

 

At module level, voltage and temperature data is provided to the controller over a CAN bus.

Second batch of O3B comms satellites successfully launched

O3b satellitesFour more O3B satellites have been launched, to help provide telco services in emerging markets.

The Ka-band satellites are positioned at an altitude of 8,063 kilometers – four times closer to the earth than geostationary satellites, notes Thales Alenia Space - and they are intended to support “high speed, low cost, low-latency Internet and telecommunications services”.

“O3b Networks will supply trunking and mobile backhaul connectivity to telecom operators and service providers at speeds comparable to those offered by fiber-optic networks,” says Thales Alenia Space, the prime contractor.

A year ago the first four such satellites were launched, and a third batch will follow.

“Today is an important step towards further completion of the constellation with the launch of the 2nd batch that will be followed by third batch in early 2015,” said Jean Loïc Galle, CEO of Thales Alenia Space.

“We are very proud to be part of this endeavour, with its unprecedented operational and beam flexibility, and its potential to connect billions of people who have, so far, had limited access to broadband”.

The satellites were launched from French Guiana by Arianespace using a Soyouz rocket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZIpH7gQ1Rs

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Synopsys upgrades auto grade NVM IP

NVM IP block diagram

NVM IP block diagram

Synopsys has introduced non-volatile memory (NVM) IP for high-voltage processes used typically for automotive ICs.

Called DesignWare AEON Trim, NVM IP is designed to be compact and is available in standard 180nm 5V CMOS and Bipolar CMOS DMOS (BCD) processes without a need for additional masks or process steps.

The IP supports the wide temperature range required for automotive Grade 0 applications and exceeds AEC-Q100 quality standards.

The NVM IP incorporates special test modes to increase programming speed. This includes bulk operations that enable designers to program the entire array in a single operation.

“Designers developing automotive ICs increasingly expect NVM IP providers to support the Grade 0 temperature range and AEC-Q100 standards while reducing IP area and cutting test times,” said John Koeter, vice president of marketing for IP and prototyping at Synopsys.

Renesas re-org

Renesas will implement a re-org on August 1st which has three aims:

(1) Reform businesses to better utilise market intelligence during product development;

(2) Reform into a profit-oriented organisation;

(3) Reform to a global management and organisational structure,

The company has ‘identified fields and regions where growth is expected in the medium to long term and areas where it can outpace the competition, and will focus on three fields where it has strengths and can compete effectively’

Renesas has shifted from a product-orientation to an application-orientation to better address customer demand.

It has also completed the reorganisation of its manufacturing sites in Japan, the consolidation of the manufacturing business engaged in semiconductor front-end and back-end production as well as the reorganisation of manufacturing-related Renesas Group companies, realigning production facilities in Japan and manufacturing-related group companies in Japan.

The company will focus on two areas:

Device solutions; Kit solutions combining microcontrollers (MCUs) and Analog & Power semiconductor devices;

Platform solutions including options such as software developed in collaboration with the Resents ecosystem’s partner companies to address the customers’ more complex and highly-functional systems.

Functions essential for the development of device solutions (mainly hardware), such as device development, sales promotion infrastructure, and device applied technology, will be consolidated at Renesas System Design.

The development of kits and platform solutions (mainly software), and business promotion functions, will be consolidated at Renesas Electronics.

Renesas Engineering Services will provide development and technical support.

Renesas Solutions will be transferred to Renesas Electronics and Renesas System Design.

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Plessey and CODICO team up

Plessey High Brightness LEDs - MAGIC

Plessey High Brightness LEDs – MAGIC

Plessey has signed a distribution agreement with CODICO of Perchtoldsdorf, Austria.

With CODICO, Plessey will be expanding its European network with coverage in Central and East European, Italian and Danish market for its GaN-on-Si LED products.

‘We are convinced that the innovative technology of Plessey and CODICO’s deep knowledge of the market will enable both companies to turn on a bright light within the solid state lighting market,” says CODICO CEO Sven Krumpel, “GaN-on-Si technology is going to be the next revolution in the lighting field and that Plessey and CODICO will be driving it.”

“Plessey is very pleased to work with a distributor that has a wide coverage in the region. CODICO’s line card complements the Plessey LED portfolio in the lighting segment and together with its focused team that brings considerable knowledge of the lighting industry and customer base, will accelerate the time to market for Plessey GaN-on-Si LEDs in the region” says Plessey’s David Owen.

Plessey’s MaGIC (Manufactured on GaN-on-Si I/C) High Brightness LED (HBLED) technology cuts the cost of LED lighting by using standard silicon manufacturing techniques (pictured).

Mentor buys automotive embedded hardware firm

xse-axsb

AXSB automotive-ready reference board

Mentor Graphics has acquired a German company specialising in hardware reference platforms for the automotive sector.

XS Embedded (XSe) is an established company which has developed an approach to accelerate system design and verification by providing automotive-grade hardware and software to reduce the time to SOP.

Mentor said thi swill allow it to address the cross-functional collaboration needs required to address the trends towards integration of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), driver information and infotainment domains.

According to Mentor, automotive systems now require the development of advanced embedded systems and the design challenges “are tremendous with millions of lines of code per vehicle, cross-domain function consolidation, mixed safety criticality, security, and the use of heterogeneous multi-core SoCs,” said the EDA firm.

“XS Embedded is recognised for its deep automotive domain expertise and unique IP including the AXSB automotive-ready reference board and software modules,” stated Glenn Perry, Mentor Graphics Embedded System Division general manager.

According to Perry, XSe’s hardware design and architecture expertise fits well with Mentor’s own automotive technology suite, including Android, Linux, AUTOSAR, Security and Hypervisor.

“By combining Mentor’s Android, hypervisor, security, AUTOSAR & Nucleus solutions with XSe automotive-ready solutions, we are able to address the entire vehicle software infrastructure requirements of the most sophisticated vehicles in design today,” said Rainer Oder, managing director of XS Embedded.

The firm’s automotive-ready reference platforms include automotive-grade hardware, such as XS AXSB based on the Texas Instruments Jacinto 6 platform. IP includes the XS OPTstack software stack.