GlacialLight, a sub‐division of the experienced technology manufacturer GlacialTech, has announced the newly innovated GlacialPower LED driver that improves lumen and power‐saving performances, making available more compatible, more efficient and more reliable LED lighting products. The GlacialPower LED driver is already in use on GlacialLight's MR16 and AR111 LED bulbs.GlacialLight's R&D team has developed the GlacialPower LED driver to eliminate the need for an electronic transformer, aiming to provide more energy‐saving and environmentally‐friendly LED products. GlacialPower's LED driver technology is expected to lead a new trend in innovation and become an essential feature for all LED lighting products. Traditionally, LED chips are powered as follows: an electronic transformer is used to convert AC voltages (usually 110V or 220V) to the LED product's specified voltage (AC12V). This power then flows into an LED driver and is converted into DC voltage with constant current control. Finally, the power flows to the LED chip.With GlacialPower's innovative LED driver, the first step in this power conversion process is unnecessary. AC voltages flow directly into GlacialPower's LED driver and then provide a constant current to the LED chip, without any additional drivers needed in the bulb itself. This enhancement means that GlacialLight's LED products have a more optimized and streamlined powering process. The simplified process makes the power conversion efficient and enhances the reliability of the LED products.Design of LED lighting products is based on three core technologies including electrical design (LED drivers), mechanical design (cooling devices), and optical design (lamp holders), respectively performed by GlacialPower, GlacialTech, and GlacialLight in the GlacialTech family. With the three core technologies in hand, GlacialTech has integrated all the resources required for exceptional designs and manufactures excellent LED lighting products you can trust.
Memory module maker Power Quotient International (PQI) has announced a new 2.5-inch external hard disk drive (HDD) series, the H567L/V, which has both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 transfer capabilities.The H567L supports the current mainstream USB 2.0 transfer interface, with transfer speeds of up to 480Mbps/sec, while the H567V features a USB 3.0 interface with transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps/sec. Operating roughly 10 times faster than USB 2.0, USB 3.0 greatly reduces data transfer times and is backward compatible with USB 2.0.The new HDD series casts aside traditionally thick, heavy and inflexible exterior molds by utilizing precision engraving polishing technology to create an elegant mirror-like exterior on both the front and back plates. All sides are coated with an aluminum mist to give it a glossy finish and a surface as smooth as the skin of a newborn babe. With its contrasting diamond black and aurora white color scheme and diffusion of indiscernible yet dazzling radiance, the H567L/V captivates everyone around it.In addition, PQI demonstrates its close attention to fulfilling user wishes by installing four raised points on the back of the device to protect against scratches, prevent slippage, and reduce noise, all while offering protection from inadvertent and annoying scrapes and even cutting down on noise produced during use. By offering four storage options of 320GB, 500GB, 640GB and 750GB, different capacity requirements have also been addressed.Also, the exclusive bonus application software Ur Fortress provides users with complete data encryption functions, including confidential document security protection and personal image and video protection guarantees, enabling users to more effectively backup their data and manage confidential documents.PQI H567L/VPhoto: Company
Following the acknowledgment of the world's first LEED gold-certified TFT-LCD facility in 2009, AU Optronics (AUO) announced today that its 8.5G facility located in Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) has passed ISO 50001 standard for energy management. AUO is the world's first TFT-LCD manufacturer to have obtained this certification, again demonstrating the company's achievements in green practice.ISO 50001 is developed by the ISO/PC 242 energy management project committee of International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The standard establishes a framework for industrial plants or commercial facilities to manage energy, so that energy efficiency increases, costs are reduced and less impact is made on the environment.AUO has introduced ISO 50001, the latest international standard on energy management, to front-end TFT and back-end module facilities based on its obtained certifications such as ISO 14001, ISO 14064 and LEED. The goal is to achieve 25% energy savings in 2015, with 2010 as the base year. The focus of the ISO 50001 certification is on production energy management. A total of 66 energy-saving measures are raised in 2011, aiming at 10% energy conservation. An estimated 55 million kWh of electricity will be saved, and 35,000 tons of carbon emissions reduced, the equivalent effect of the afforestation of nine New York City 's Central Park .AUO has initiated AUO Green Solutions since 2008, and led the industry by developing the "Green 2010" eco-efficiency indexes , both of which formed important basis for the ISO 50001 certification. The "Green 2010" goals that included an 80% waste recovery rate, 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and 70% reduction in water consumption were successfully reached within the timeframe. In addition, AUO has also achieved the "carbon balance" milestone at the end of 2010. The accumulated potential carbon emissions reduced by the greener products from 2009 to 2010 far exceeded the actual emission amount of 1.41 million tons, approximately the consumption amount of 610,000 households in one year.In the future, AUO plans to advance the ISO 50001 energy management system to each fabrication. By means of energy source management, energy performance will also be taken into account in procurement to enhance value chain energy management. As an all-round, leading green solutions provider, AUO will dedicate itself to continuous innovations for better green competitiveness.
In recent years, there have been a variety of technology trends relating to the digital home. The most important of these trends is the development of home network technology. Whether you look at externally connected broadband Internet technology, or network connectivity within the homes, the need for solid technological standards is obvious. Therefore interoperable standards for digital home connectivity have been adopted as wireless 802.11, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and HomePlug.Power line communication (PLC) technology has previously been difficult to popularize due to skepticism on transmitting IP packets across 110V or 220V power lines as well as how this technology would address electromagnetic interference (EMI). These difficulties have long been overcome and the technology has reached a stable and mature stage. Today, Ethernet adapters using PLC have easy plug and play installation onto electrical outlets in any room. This technology comes perfectly at a time when more homes are equipped with multiple digital devices and entertainment centers looking to share the same multimedia files amongst themselves.The broadband PLC market was split into three camps. Now, it has aligned behind the HomePlug Powerline Alliance (HomePlug) which has the longest history. Founded more than a decade ago, it consists of 65+ companies and has certified some 220 products. More than 90% of PLC products on the market make use of HomePlug technology. HomePlug also has been standardized by IEEE in 2010, becoming the IEEE1901 power line transmission standard.HomePlug technology has advanced from HomePlug 1.0 with the speed of just 14Mbps, to 200Mbps with the HomePlug AV standard, to the imminent launch of HomePlug AV2 with speeds in the Gigabit range. The wave of enthusiasm for digital home over the last few years has increased consumer demand for multimedia streaming applications, placing HomePlug AV, with its 200Mpbs bandwidth, as the perfect solution for such digitally-minded consumers. The HomePlug Alliance is also working on its new IEEE1901 compliant Green PHY standard for smart power grid applications. HomePlug Green PHY is aimed at smoothly integrating power management and high speed networking of various types of devices.According to Jay Cheng, CEO and chairman of GigaFast Ethernet, HomePlug Green PHY is used for low-speed signal transmission over the power grid. It will be integrated into household devices for reporting power consumption status using the PLC network, helping power companies and ordinary users properly manage power consumption. For example, a HomePlug Green PHY-compliant chip embedded in the electricity meter will automatically calculate consumers' power usage. The connected electricity meter will also allow power companies to create power usage plans for low-intensity and high-intensity periods, in order to balance power loading and increase efficiency of power delivery.GigaFast already has over a decade of experience in engineering and manufacturing HomePlug PLC products for OEM/ODM partners around the world. Having chosen to prioritize the development of PLC over wireless at an early stage, Cheng indicates that GigaFast was early to see the convenience of installing HomePlug products and the potential for developing the digital home. For this reason, nurturing the necessary technologies and talent has been at the heart of the company's mission from the very beginning.GigaFast exhibited two main products at the recent two consumer electronics shows: CES and CeBIT. Both products at these shows were very well received. The first was a 500Mbps HomePlug AV Powerline Ethernet Bridge, using Atheros chipset, to expand the transfer rate of HD signals, while the second was a HomePlug AV with Clearpath Technology by Sigma Designs that uses all three wires - phase, neutral, and ground to deliver improved performance and up to twice the throughput. More recently, GigaFast has responded to the increasing popularity of IPTV by working on ways of integrating HDMI signals and PLC systems. This will let more products make use of household power transfer to enable the reception of DVR signals in different rooms, allowing PLC to become a central nervous system for information, which integrates electricity, networking and multimedia.GigaFast demonstrates HomePlug PLC products at this year's CES and CeBIT Photo: Company
Electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corporation has announced its role as a founding member of the China Electronics Distributor Alliance (CEDA). CEDA is supported by the Chinese government and related industry associations, as well as corporate distributors of electronics that conduct business with Chinese companies.CEDA was established in order to promote franchised distributors' value-added services, to strengthen cooperation between suppliers and distributors of electronic components, and to encourage technological innovations with the support of government incentive policies."China has played a major role in the electronic component industry and Digi-Key is experiencing exponential sales growth in China," said Mark Larson, president and COO of Digi-Key Corporation. "It is appropriate that we join this alliance which facilitates the relationships between American companies and Chinese companies to develop a clear-cut understanding of distribution guidelines and to develop the marketing research that will benefit companies throughout the entire global industry."The establishment of CEDA was recently celebrated at a luncheon in Shenzhen, China. There the founding companies were thanked for their contributions to CEDA. Digi-Key Corporation, along with Arrow, Avnet, WPG, Future Electronics, Mouser, element 14, RS Components, Richardson Electronics, Comtech, SZCEAC, Techtronics, Asiacom, Honestar, Shanghai Linpo, Morusun, Letdo Electronics, Jiangsu Sunlord, CE-Power, Zetron, Alignment, and Interine were recognized as founding members.
As expansion of mobile Internet-access capacity is likely to catch up with fast growing demand due to increasing use of smartphones and tablet PCs, Taiwan's telecom carriers and equipment suppliers are urging the National Communications Commission (NCC) to adopt differential charge rates based on use volume to replace the current uniform pricing, according to industry sources.Uniform pricing not only is unfair to users willing to pay more for better quality but also discourages carriers from investment to expand capacities, the sources said. Uniform pricing without limits to use volume has resulted in an unreasonable situation where heavy users of mobile Internet services - 2% of all users - occupy almost 50% of the bandwidth available, the sources cited survey statistics as indicating.Philip Tseng, president for Ericsson Taiwan, and Mike Wang, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao general manager for Nokia Siemens Networks, emphasized the necessity of differential pricing to enable more efficient use of the mobile Internet-access resources.
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and RDA Microelectronics, a China-based RF IC company, have jointly announced that RDA5802N, an FM receiver chip using SMIC's 55nm low leakage (LL) logic process and adopting Innopower Technology's IP solution, is now in risk-production.The device is the result of a collaborative effort between RDA, SMIC and Innopower. RDA developed the chip's design, which integrates an FM stereo radio tuner with synthesizer, IF selectivity and MPX decoder. The product also leverages Innopower's IP solution and SMIC's advanced 55nm LL process technology. The successful joint development provides the RDA5802N with an excellent balance between high performance and low power-consumption that is well suited for performance-driven, power-conscious portable devices, the companies said."We are quite satisfied that SMIC is fully capable of tackling our leading-edge design challenges," said Vincent Tai, CEO of RDA."The success of the chip consolidates SMIC's leadership position as China's advanced technology provider, and demonstrates SMIC's commitment to bringing our clients world-class solutions with more reliability, stability and cost-effectiveness," said Chris Chi, senior VP and CBO of SMIC.
AMD has launched its latest dual-GPU graphics card, the Radeon HD 6990, supporting DirectX 11 and AMD's exclusive PowerTune intelligent technology to enable higher clock speeds and faster gaming.The AMD Radeon HD 6990 can natively support up to five displays using AMD's Eyefinity multi-display technology, with six display support possible via DisplayPort 1.2 components available for purchase later this year.The AMD Radeon HD 6990 graphics cards also feature a dual-BIOS toggle switch, allowing enthusiast gamers to unlock the card and rev up the clocks and voltages for even more performance; as well as AMD's HD3D technology, providing a cutting-edge stereoscopic 3D gaming and movie experience with HDMI 1.4a support.AMD dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990 graphics cardPhoto: Company
National Semiconductor has introduced what the company claims is the industry's first full-bridge pulse width modulation (PWM) controllers to integrate all four primary-side bridge MOSFET gate drivers. The LM5045 and LM5046 are well-suited for delivering higher efficiency and higher power density in quarter-brick and eighth-brick power modules used in a variety of high input voltage communications infrastructure applications.The new LM5045 and LM5046 PWM controllers ease the design of full-bridge topology-based power converters into small-form-factor power supplies by reducing the number of external power components needed with existing full-bridge solutions. The LM5045 contains all of the features necessary to implement a conventional full-bridge topology power converter using either current mode or voltage mode control. For applications requiring zero-voltage switching to minimize electro-magnetic interference (EMI) due to switching noise, the LM5046 contains all the features necessary to implement a phase-shifted full-bridge topology.Offered in small, thermally enhanced 5.0mm by 5.0mm by 0.8mm LLP and 4.4mm by 9.7mm by 0.9mm TSSOP packages, the full-bridge controllers operate on the primary side of an isolated DC-DC converter with input voltage up to 100V. These highly-integrated controllers provide robust 2A high and low side gate drivers for the four external bridge MOSFETs in addition to the control signals for the secondary side synchronous rectifier MOSFETs and an internal high voltage start-up regulator. Intelligent startup of the synchronous rectifiers (SR) allows monotonic turn-on of the power converter, even with pre-bias load conditions. The synchronous rectifier control signals offer independent and programmable leading/trailing edge dead-times between the primary and secondary MOSFET control signals for optimizing efficiency, and the SR signals are limited to 5V for use with digital isolators. Additional features include dual mode over-current protection featuring both cycle-by-cycle current limiting and hiccup mode restart, programmable soft-start, timing for both primary and synchronous rectifiers, programmable line UVLO and OVP, a synchronizable 2MHz oscillator and thermal shutdown.National's new LM5045 and LM5046, together with secondary side FET drivers such as the LM5110, LM5111 and LM5112, provide a complete controller solution to implement a highly efficient, small form factor full-bridge power converter.National's new full-bridge PWM controllers are available now and offered in 28-pin LLP and thermally-enhanced TSSOP packages. Priced in quantities of 1,000, the LM5045 is US$2.25 and the LM5046 is US$2.45.
Gigabyte Technology has announced the launch of the world's first motherboard designed from the ground up for extreme overclockers, the GA-X58A-OC. Its overclocking specific performance design defines a whole new category of enthusiast focused motherboards that introduces never-seen-before tweaking and insulating features.Based on the Intel X58 chipset (Tylersburg) and supporting LGA 1366 socket CPUs such as Intel's new top of the range Core i7 990X Extreme Edition CPU, the X58A-OC takes advantage of all the performance benefits that the X58 platform has to offer including triple channel DDR3 memory support, 6 core 12 thread CPU support, and enough PCIe Gen 2.0 bandwidth to support 4-way CrossFireX and 3-way SLI for the best graphics performance in the world.Gigabyte has listened closely to the overclocking community to make sure the X58A-OC has all of the overclocking features enthusiasts have been asking for, without some of the features that are unnecessary while overclocking, or can negatively impact performance - similar to a stripped down sports car where the aircon, radio, passenger seats, etc have been removed to reduce weight. Layout was a critical aspect of the design, not only in choice of components used, but also spacing of the components so that insulation of the board is as easy as possible, while still maintaining the most efficient data pathways between the various components. Gigabyte is also introducing five new main overclocking features on the X58A-OC that help to push the performance envelope of the X58A-OC even further including OC-VRM, OC-Touch, OC-PEG, OC-Cool and OC-DualBIOS.Gigabyte X58A-OC overclocking motherboardPhoto: Company
