Phoenix Technologies Ltd., the global leader in UEFI firmware technology, products and tools, announced its active involvement in the Intel Developer Forum 2012 in San Francisco, from September 11 to 13, 2012. Located in booth number 611, Phoenix will present system demos that highlight the latest UEFI BIOS solutions with cross-device, cross-codebase compatibility, enhanced security defense, and a new Windows 8-style GUI BIOS Setup.Cross-device, cross-codebase compatibilityThe universal build system of Phoenix SecureCore Technology comes with native EDK II support and is compatible with EDK 1117, allowing system developers to use a single BIOS core across different silicon platforms and operating systems, saving customization and maintenance efforts while reducing time to market.Enhanced security defenseReady for Windows 8, Phoenix SecureCore Technology has an advanced BIOS core built upon innovative UEFI technologies to support safety and security features, such as Secure Boot, Secure Flash, Capsule Update and Safe Recovery BIOS2.Windows 8-style GUI BIOS SetupThe new Windows 8-style GUI BIOS Setup provides a seamless user experience that bridges Microsoft's next generation OS and Phoenix BIOS. Supporting devices with touch, stylus, mouse, or keyboard input, the new GUI BIOS Setup is not only aesthetically consistent with the Windows 8 tile system, it is also more intuitive to use than traditional text-based BIOS utilities.Phoenix at the Intel Developer Forum 2012 San FranciscoPhoenix Technologies will showcase these exciting new features on customer platforms at the Intel Developer Forum 2012 in San Francisco from September 11-13 at booth #611.

Canon on September 10 unveiled the PowerShot SX500 IS, a digital bridge camera for immediate launch in the Taiwan market at a recommended retail price of NT$11,990 (US$401), according to Canon Marketing (Taiwan).PowerShot SX500 IS features a 16-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CCD image sensor, 30x (24-720mm) optical zoom, a 3.0-inch 461,000-pixel TFT-LCD screen, dimensions of 104(W) by 70(H) by 80(D)mm and a weight (including battery) of 341g.Canon PowerShot SX500 ISPhoto: Company

Based on Nvidia's Kepler architecture, the Quadro K5000 for Mac is a powerful professional-class GPU for the Macintosh.The Nvidia Quadro K5000 GPU for Mac also features Cinema 4K display support (4096 by 2160 resolution), which enables content creators to process and view high resolution cinema content; a new display engine that can drive up to four displays simultaneously; 4GB graphics memory that provides faster interactivity when using design and content creation applications; support for up to two Quadro K5000 GPUs for Mac in a single Mac Pro; and support for OpenGL, OpenCL and Nvidia Cuda.Nvidia Quadro K5000 for Mac is ideal for professional applications such as video editing, color correction, compositing, design visualization and GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D rendering, said Nvidia. In addition, the Quadro K5000 for Mac retains its full performance and features when using Apple Boot Camp and running Microsoft Windows-based professional PC applications.Nvidia Quadro GPUs are designed, built and tested by Nvidia to provide the superb reliability, compatibility and dependability that professionals require, and Quadro GPUs are certified and recommended by leading software application providers worldwide.The Nvidia Quadro K5000 for Mac is planned to be available late 2012 from select Apple resellers and system integrators, and from authorized distribution partners, including PNY Technologies in the Americas and Europe, Elsa in Japan and Leadtek in Asia Pacific. Estimated pricing starts at US$2,249.Nvidia Quadro K5000 graphics cardPhoto: Company

Global electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corporation, recognized by design engineers as having the industry's largest selection of electronic components available for immediate shipment, today announced the signing of a global distribution agreement with Kionix, Inc., a top provider of MEMS inertial sensors.Kionix, based in Ithaca, NY, provides industry-leading 3-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes, as well as 6-axis combination products, to customers in the consumer electronics, automotive, industrial, and healthcare markets. Additionally, Kionix is a market leader in embedded algorithms and advanced software, such as sensor fusion, which provides added value to end applications through the power of motion.Kionix uses a proprietary deep-silicon plasma etching process (DRIE) which provides superior performance in the MEMS structure. The company's new "XAC" sense element delivers some of the highest stability, shock and temperature performance in the industry and minimizes reflow work for customers. Consumer product "tear-downs" have shown Kionix accelerometers in products ranging from the Xbox Kinect to Samsung Galaxy tablets to Motorola Droid mobile phones and the Barnes and Noble Nook. Kionix products also have a strong reputation for quality and performance in the automotive and health and fitness industries."Digi-Key is an important addition to our global distribution network," said Kenneth Salky, EVP of Sales and Marketing at Kionix. "Digi-Key's worldwide reach and reputation for customer service, logistics and design support, means that Kionix's cutting edge products now will be available quickly and easily to more design engineers than ever before.""MEMS sensor utilization has seen incredible growth in recent years," said Mark Zack, Vice President of Global Semiconductor Product at Digi-Key. "Adding a top-level supplier such as Kionix presents a great opportunity to provide new and innovative products to our customers. We are pleased to enter into this partnership."A full line of Kionix product is now available on Digi-Key's global websites (http://www.digikey.com/).

Entegris, Inc. will feature the 10 nanometer-rated Intercept HPM liquid filter, its latest generation of advanced filtration solutions for very demanding advanced semiconductor manufacturing, at the SEMICON Taiwan tradeshow being held in Taipei, Taiwan, on September 5 - 7, 2012.This new version of the Intercept HPM family of filters is designed to remove particles and other contaminants from dilute liquid chemistries and solutions used in the wet etch and clean process at leading edge semiconductor fabs. The new filter uses surface modified, asymmetric UPE (ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene) membrane which is hydrophilic to provide the highest level of cleanliness and particle retention while maintaining high process flows."As the semiconductor industry continues to develop more advanced chip designs using sub-20 nanometer process technologies, more advanced filtration is needed to achieve the desired defectivity levels," said Todd Edlund, vice president and general manager of the Entegris Contamination Solutions Division. "The 10 nanometer-rated Intercept HPM filter expands our broad offering of liquid filters, and complements our Torrento line of advanced high-flow filters used for aggressive chemistries."For more information about the Intercept HPM or other Entegris filtration, purification, and wafer and reticle handling solutions, come visit our booth #174 at TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall.Entegris Intercept cartridge and disposable filters

Taiwan is located in a subtropical zone with high temperatures and large rainfall. On average, between three and four typhoons hit Taiwan every year, providing much of the island's water supply, but also causing damage, flooding, and landslides.Project IntroductionIn order to reduce the occurrence of disasters and protect all citizens, the government commissioned an academic institution to conduct the long-term monitoring of debris flow by using technological products to detect changes in the environment. However, these expensive devices must be placed in mountainous areas or at the upper reaches of the river, often resulting in damage when a disaster occurs, and sometimes causes millions of NT dollars of loss. With this in mind, the Taiwanese research institute plans to adopt wireless devices with distributed architecture to more accurately acquire real-time data as well as reducing the risk of equipment loss.System RequirementsThe monitoring systems were set up close to the potential sources of debris flow. The previous system used fiber optic equipment with several sensors which, whilst achieving high data transmission speeds, have the problem of using physical cables. To solve this problem, a wireless solution becomes the first choice for the Debris Flow Monitoring System. Since they would be installed in sparsely populated areas which lack electricity, the new system needed to consume very little power. In addition to requiring a stable operation and real-time data collection, all of the devices must be industrial-grade to meet the challenges of the harsh environment.System DescriptionAdvantech's wireless solution consists of low power consuming devices and a fanless PC with high speed PCI acquisition card. Through the use of an ADAM-2017Z wireless 6-ch Analog Input Node, the signals from the temperature and humidity sensor, anemometer, rainfall meter, and soil moisture sensor can be transmitted to the measurement center which is equipped with a computer and the ADAM-2520Z Wireless Modbus RTU Gateway to receive real-time data.The ADAM-2000Z modules support Over The Air (OTA) firmware updates, which integrate a stable backup buffer and secure mechanism allowing wireless module firmware updates during operation. Due to the low power features of the wireless modules, IEEE 802.15.4 network standard and OTA firmware update functionality, Advantech's ADAM-2000Z input/output and sensor modules powered by two AA Alkaline batteries consume very little power, making them perfect for the remote monitoring application.As for the high-speed data acquisition, Advantech used an UNO-1172A with a PCM-3810I Multifunction PCI-104 Module to collect the vibration signals. With an IntelR Atom D510 as its core processor, the UNO-1172A offers high-performance computing and low power consumption to satisfy the customer's needs. Meanwhile, unlike other sensors, the displacement sensor receives thousands of pieces of data of per second so the PCM-3810I with its high sampling rate is the ideal product to meet the demanding requirements. The products also support wide operating temperature ranges and are moisture proof to meet the demands of the harsh environment.ConclusionFacing the challenge of climate change, soil and water conservation is a priority for many countries. By assembling the above-mentioned devices into a box, Advantech's wireless solution is not only suitable for quick installation in difficult areas, but can also be used as a distributed architecture to implement the monitoring system. Through this solution, the monitoring system no longer needs to be attached in one place but can be flexibly deployed according to the weather conditions. During typhoon and flood seasons, the system can sustain the operation for several weeks by using batteries and taking advantage of the low power features. Furthermore, Advantech is capable of providing various products and expertise to support environmental monitoring projects as well as being willing to cooperate with government and academic institutions to protect the public and preserve the environment.Advantech wireless solution consists of low power consuming devices and a fanless PC with high speed PCI acquisition card.Finding more case study articles

Most large metropolitan cities rely on integrated public transportation systems like buses, subways or railways to move people efficiently around. The Challenge Transportation systems need to reliably run 24/7 no matter if it's sunny, snowing or raining. Weather and harsh environments cause systems to slowly wear and deteriorate, and system malfunctions are unavoidable, but continuous system monitoring and maintenance can make systems operate longer and run more safely and reliably. Subway systems and tunnels can typically span hundreds of kilometers, so if one part malfunctions, it can be very difficult to diagnose the source of a problem. Without proper monitoring, control centers are powerless, and if problems occur during rush hours, it could be chaotic and dangerous. The Solution To overcome this, Advantech developed SUSIAccess. SUSIAccess is an integrated API utility suite that provides system control, monitoring and recovery functions. It can be a stand-alone utility or communicate between systems becoming a network information utility. Most transportation applications are highly integrated and complex, making it very difficult to analyze potential problems without detailed feedback information. Design Engineers are always looking for more efficient ways to remotely control and monitor their systems, and this is where SUSIAccess comes in. SUSIAccess can provide in-depth monitoring of circuit voltage levels, temperatures, as well as the status and reports of all devices and components in the system. It can even determine wireless transmission strengths. How SUSIAccess Helps Most subway systems are designed to monitor and record the whole system 24/7 and transmit all that information to the control center. If an unfortunate accident happens, management will then have all the relevant data on hand to analyze and remedy the problem. These systems need massive storage capacities to fulfill the huge data requirements. However, it is a fact of life that storage devices occasionally go bad during read and write phases, and writing errors or complete crashes happen from time to time. So far, there are no 100% reliable long life storage solutions for transportation. Traditional storage devices like HDD have natural limitations especially when operating in harsh environments with high vibration or high temperatures. Solid state storage devices like CF cards or SD cards are more suitable to operate in harsh environments, but they have finite read/write times and life spans. Frequently changing and updating storage devices are critical to balance system reliability and cost. One of the outstanding features of SUSIAccess is that it is able to see the status of all peripheral devices. Currently SUSIAccess provides CF card usage status and functions like S.M.A.R.T information, which shows wear levels and life cycles. With this feature, management can easily schedule maintenance or send out technicians to check a system. Another special feature is that SUSIAccess has the ability to monitor wireless signal strengths. Reliable wireless communications are essential in modern transit systems, and clear communication relies on solid signal strength, but many factors can affect their quality especially in concrete underground tunnels. Monitoring signal quality and dynamically adjusting signal output strength can secure data integrity. With SUSIAccess, the control center manager is able to monitor wireless strength and even improve the communication quality in dead spots so that important data never gets lost. SUSIAccess system health monitoring reduces maintenance times, and prevents system malfunctions in advance Finding more case study articles

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) introduced the industry's first fully-integrated, seven-channel relay driver that can support low-voltage relays from as low as 1.8 V up to 5 V. The ULN2003LV relay driver replaces a handful of discrete components with a single device to drive lower voltages for data relays and rails within telecommunications equipment. Using the ULN2003LV integrated circuit (IC), customers can reduce board space by up to 80 percent, while lowering power consumption and cost.Key features and benefits of the ULN2003LV*High performance in noisy environments: Input resistor capacitor (RC) snubber greatly improves the driver performance in noisy operating conditions. *Channel grouping for higher current loads: Internal input pull-down resistor allows input logic to be tri-stated for greater efficiency at higher loads. *Lower power: Seven low-output impedance drivers minimize on-chip power dissipation, providing five times lower power consumption versus the competition. *Wider device compatibility: The relay's 1.8-V to 5-V CMOS logic input interface is compatible with a wider range of microcontrollers and other logic interfaces compared to the competition.Availability, packaging and pricingThe ULN2003LV is available in 10-mm x 4-mm, 16-pin SOIC and 5.1-mm x 4.5-mm, 16-pin TSSOP packages. Suggested retail pricing in 100-unit quantities is $0.15. For more information and to order samples, visit www.ti.com/uln2003lv-pr.TI ULN2003LV

Altera Corporation announced its OpenCL (Open Computing Language) for FPGAs Early Access Program (EAP), enabling customers to get a first look at Altera's OpenCL for FPGA solution. Leveraging the open standard dramatically simplifies FPGA development by enabling teams to design their systems and algorithms in a high-level C-based framework when targeting FPGAs. As part of the EAP program, customers will be able to preview Altera's OpenCL solution and receive access to an OpenCL for FPGA training course, collateral and technical demonstrations.OpenCL is an open standard for writing programs that execute across heterogeneous platforms, including CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs. OpenCL provides customers a significant time-to-market advantage compared to traditional FPGA development flows that require the user to design in a lower-level HDL (hardware description language). Customers joining the EAP program will see how OpenCL can simplify many of the time-consuming details of hardware design by allowing users to operate in a C-based environment and automatically generate the FPGA implementation.In addition to simplifying FPGA development, EAP customers will also discover how using an OpenCL in an FPGA implementation provides dramatic system performance advantages. Combining an inherently parallel language with the massively parallel performance capabilities of FPGAs delivers significantly higher performance compared to alternate hardware architectures."There has been a tremendous amount of excitement from designers interested in integrating an OpenCL development flow with FPGAs. With very positive results from initial customers we are pleased to be able to give more customers early access to preview the solution," said Jeff Waters, senior vice president and GM of Altera's Military, Industrial and Computing division. "OpenCL enables a broad segment of designers in a variety of end markets including high performance computing, military, medical and broadcast to dramatically increase the performance of their end systems using the latest generation of FPGAs and a highly productive development flow."Altera is currently engaged with a variety of customers to implement designs in FPGAs using an OpenCL flow. These customers have seen the productivity and performance benefits that can be achieved using OpenCL for FPGA development.Koumei Tomida, Manager, Controller Platform Development V, Controller Development Group, at Fuji Xerox commented, "Using an OpenCL flow for FPGAs is intriguing as it gives us access to the latest generation of high-performance FPGAs, while providing us a significant reduction in time to market. Based on our initial use of Altera's OpenCL tool, we have been able to quickly and easily optimize our OpenCL kernels to target Altera FPGAs for higher performance and seamlessly integrate our design into the high-performance fabric of an FPGA."OpenCL for Altera FPGAs training now availableAltera has partnered with Acceleware, the industry leader in OpenCL and parallel programming training, to offer a course titled "OpenCL for Altera FPGAs" which provides detailed training on the OpenCL language and how to use it with Altera FPGAs. The course is available for OpenCL EAP customers only and will be held in a variety of regions. Contact your local Altera sales representative to schedule a training session.Joining the OpenCL for FPGA Early Access ProgramCustomers who join the OpenCL EAP will receive the latest information from Altera representatives on the OpenCL tool and how it works. Customers will also receive early access to product documentation and periodic information from Altera about the OpenCL program. To join, contact your local Altera sales representative: http://www.altera.com/corporate/contact/sales/worldwide/con-sales-ww.jspLearn more about Altera's OpenCL Program for FPGAs: www.altera.com/b/opencl.html

Mega Fluid Systems, Inc., recently announced the opening of its new worldwide headquarters located at 9398 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Rd. in Tualatin, OR. The new facility is 24,000 square feet with space for Engineering, Manufacturing, and a state-of-the-art Research and Development laboratory. In addition, the new headquarters will serve as the hub for the company's worldwide expansion goals over the next few years."We are very excited about our new world class facility," said Jack McCann, Mega Fluid System's President. "It is yet another indication that Mega is committed to not only maintaining, but furthering our current position as the world's leading resource for slurry blend and delivery equipment."Founded in 1990, Mega Fluid Systems has extensive experience offering leading-edge chemical and slurry blend and delivery equipment to the global semiconductor, LED, pharmaceutical, specialty chemicals, and solar/PV industries. With a global installed base in Asia, Europe, and North America, Mega's industry leading systems continue to be the choice of high technology companies to deliver the most difficult chemistries and sensitive slurries to their CMP tools and processes.Mega Fluid Systems offers unsurpassed excellence in engineering, manufacturing, and testing capabilities. Mega's partners benefit from high-level customer service and support from its program management, sales, engineering, service, and executive management teams.The company's new headquarters will reside at 9398 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Rd. in Tualatin, OR, as of July 30, 2012. Additional Sales, Engineering, and Service offices are located in Saugerties, NY, Hsinchu, Taiwan, as well as a strong Field Service Engineering presence in Chandler, AZ.For further information about Mega Fluid Systems or its new headquarters, please visit http://www.megafluidsystems.com.