Search

The article discusses the database software which is preferred by some companies and as a good alternative to SQL. It states that the reason behind this is that different implementations of Web, enterprise and cloud computing applications have different requirements of their databases and this software is low cost but gives high performance. It notes five reasons why companies should choose for a NoSQL database. INSET: Economics Of Scaling, by Ken North.

The article examines the claims being made by vendors of configuration-management databases (CMDB) about their products. The two main architectural approaches to configuration management are stand-alone products and those embedded in management-suite components. A well-designed CMDB should access, as well as reconcile, information in many data repositories. A project to create a draft specification to integrate information from disparate resources is being carried out by the CMDB Federation Working Group in the U.S.

The article discusses the STRIDE approach in uncovering security design flaws. STRIDE is a systematic approach to threat modeling in the Security Engineering and Communications group at Microsoft which stands for Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service and Elevation of Privilege. Security properties including confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, authorization and non-repudiation are described and the corresponding threats threat is presented. The author states that using STRIDE model, designing secure software will be simplified. Importance of executive support, implementation, testing, building and delivering, and servicing and maintenance in the system security are also emphasized.

The article discusses the specifications of Class D amplifiers citing their suitability for portable audio systems and devices. Class D devices are designed to amplify over the whole of the input cycle, so that the output signal is a scaled-up version of the input without clipping. While class A devices are often used for small-signal amplifiers.

Delves into the techniques for handling exception throughout an application written with the Microsoft. NET Framework. Process of knowing your exceptions; Analysis of capturing exceptions; Guidelines to follow for creation of user-defined exceptions; Demonstration on the use of a custom exception; Discussion of logging the exceptions.

Announces the completion of PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) of its hot-swap spec for CompactPCI. Features of the CompactPCI Swap Spec; Difference between PCI Hot Plug and CompactPCI Hot Swap; Three levels of CompactPCI Hot Swap. INSET: Board makers queue up in droves to support CompactPCI.

Presents information on Pentium-based computers tested by `Byte' magazine. Vendors; Models; Price; Performance; Ease-of-use; Expansion bus; Case type; Maximum RAM; Secondary cache; Total slots; Drive bays; Hard drive; Graphics; Monitor; CD-ROM; FCC rating; Power supply; Switchable voltage; SCSI port; Contact information.

Presents the list of top rated hardware and software. Manufacturer; Price and specifications; Category and issue date; Rating.

The article offers information on the JESD204 standard for analog to digital converters (ADCs), which was developed by the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC). It says that the version of standard was released in April 2006, which describes a multi-gigabit serial data link between a receiver and converter (s). It mentions that the second speed grade in the standard specifies the electrical interface for lane data rates of up to 6.375 gigabits per second (Gbps).

The article focuses on the issue regarding the customization and configuration of enterprise application software in the U.S. According to the 2012 Enterprise Applications Survey, 49 percent of respondents think that changing, upgrading or optimizing existing applications is the biggest barrier to application and process management. The author mentions that the main difference between application customization and configuration is in the development.

The article discusses consuming JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) from Open Data Protocol (OData) and creating JSON-friendly Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Data Services. OData, already at version 2 and evolving, is a specification for ensuring that data service consumers can rely on a consistent experience from the services they consume. With its streamlined format, JSON has become an important format for developers in reading and writing to data services.

The article discusses how the Universal Serial Bus (USB) have been positioned in the market since 2007. It highlights the SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0), Thunderbolt technology (TBT) from Intel, and it's impact in the USB market and the personal computer (PC) interfaces. It also mentions the two initiatives from the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) such as the formation of work group for the specification of powder delivery and the release of video and audio device class specification.

The article focuses on understanding the length-matching requirements, which includes signal quality, flight time, and electrical length. It notes that length matching exist upon the need of data to arrive at the same time. Length matching makes sure that the signals are aligned and truly differential. Also, length itself is related to delay but varies from layer to layer and that delay is calculated using the propagation velocity of the signals.

The article offers information on various applications like load switch and switching power supplies relative to metal-oxide- semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET) specifications. It states that MOSFETs are switching components of power supplies, wherein communications equipment applications utilize multiple power supplies which are in continuous operation. It highlights the use of MOSFETs in various applications such as in the motor control and switching power-supply applications.

The article discusses some points to be considered in selecting plastics to be used for products and components manufacturing. It highlights common causes of plastic product failures, which includes poor material selection and poor specification. It explains the basic of polymers structure and polymer properties, which is the first step in the logical approach to material selection. The next step is determine properties such as creep rupture strength and creep module under worst-case-scenario operational conditions, so as to avoid under-designing.

The article provides information regarding the high-density (HD) DVD player technology by Toshiba. According to Colin Duggan, a product line director at Analog Devices, the reason why customers like their parts due to integrity of its product. Moreover, a powerful DSP was needed to fulfill the audio requirements of the HD DVD standards.

The article discusses the impact of total available market (TAM) and served total market (SAM) for embedded solutions presented in the project engineering level. According to the author, it is important that business decision for the corner suite discussions are data driven to validate their own conclusions from data set findings. In addition, TAM and SAM are visible constructs that may achieve data-driven decision making for continuous improvement and response to market changes.

The article reports on the publication of a draft of Mobile Trusted Module (MTM) specification which creates a security blueprint for device makers, mobile software makers and service providers by Trusted Computing Group's Mobile Phone Work Group. The draft MTM specification is designed to supply the core framework, commands and control specifications needed to provide the security building blocks within a mobile phone or one embedded in a PDA. Its aims is to create wireless security standards.

The article focuses on the virtualization project as an optimization technique of network architect Kelly Martin of Provident Bank. Martin began the project with a test and development program aimed at reducing the time and expense involved in adding new software. He uses VMware virtualization software on Hewlett-Packard ProLiant servers, Provident created virtualized servers for its test environments, saving about $70,000 in hardware purchases and cut power requirements for the company.

This article presents suggestions for the maintenance and repair of computer systems. While the marine environment is perhaps a bit extreme, every system built is subject to some level of mechanical and electrical failure. Even in the most benign laboratory conditions contacts get dirty. In situations where failures are likely or inevitable, a wise designer will devise software solutions, even if the system cannot continue to run with complete functionality. Given that dirty or corroded contacts are a perennial source of trouble, firmware should always check input bits for validity. Many systems use a debouncing algorithm that will loop forever if an input is shorted. Smarter software could help keep customers a lot happier. The engineering costs will be a bit higher, but the extra software costs nothing in production if ROM space is available. If it isn't, the company must weigh the cost of unhappy customers against a microcontroller with more program space. Still, the designers had addressed a similar problem, though perhaps more to satisfy their own internal production requirements than to deal with frantic mid-ocean repairs.

This article reports that most industrial design teams rarely make a complete leap of faith for new designs into IEEE 1149.1 (JTAG) standard. Most complex electronic systems take advantage of the JTAG standard in one way or another. If the system uses complex FPGM or CPLDs, then they are almost certainly configured using the JTAG port. JTAG supports not only structural test, but is now a well supported standard approach for enabling system-level access for configuration, programming, and mixed signal test. With all of these various JTAG access requirements, the development team must adopt a cross-discipline JTAG access strategy to maximize the capabilities of JTAG access.

The article provides information on the use of formal analysis in system design. Formal analysis holds the promise of reducing testbench development and simulation cycles while improving design verification. Formal analysis uses sophisticated algorithms to conclusively prove or disprove that a design behaves as desired for all possible operating states. When applied correctly, formal analysis improves productivity and reduces time-to-market. With formal analysis, many bugs can be found quickly and very early in the design process without the need to develop large sets of test vectors or random test generators. Formal analysis must be used in the context of a comprehensive assertion-based verification flow-which includes formal analysis and simulation-and can be extended to acceleration and emulation. Also, it should be used on parts of the design where the methodology's key advantages can be leveraged efficiently.

This article offers an overview of an approach to managing requirements, reflecting both extreme programming's planning game and the Scrum methodology. Scrum suggests that developers freeze the requirement for each iteration to provide a level of stability. New requirements, including defects identified as part of user testing activities, are prioritized by project stakeholders and added to the stack in the appropriate place. Project stakeholders can define new requirements, change their minds about existing ones, and even re-prioritize them. However, they must also be responsible for making decisions and providing information in a timely manner. Developers are responsible for estimating the effort required to implement the requirements that they will work on. Although they may initially lack the requisite skills, it does not take long for people to hone their estimation expertise. Active stakeholder participation throughout a project's lifecycle is key. Stakeholders must prioritize requirements, make decisions and provide information in a timely manner. Because they are the business experts, they should also be actively involved with any requirements and analysis modeling efforts.

Introduces the JTAG motherboard from Macraigor Systems LLC in Massachusetts. Product specifications; Assessment on the quality of the items; Number of distributors.

Focuses on the significance of various spreadsheet computer programs in monitoring the sales of several companies in the U.S. Improvement on the business performance of the firms; Product specifications; Enhancement on the quality of service.

Discusses several aspects of test-driven development (TDD) for computer software. Definition of TDD; Comparison with agile model-driven development; Information testing tools. INSET: Side by Side: Comparing TDD and AMDD.

Reports on the emerging specifications to improve the performance of power metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET) products. Advantages from the generation of power MOSFET; Much-sought specification for most power MOSFET; Information on two power n-channel MOSFET from STMicroelectronics Incorporated.

Reports on the fragmented data specifications faced by microprocessors for cellular telephones. Introduction of programmable processors at the Personal Communications Showcase in 1999; Factor that unified digital cellular vendors; Challenges faced by vendors that develop code-division multiple-access.

The article shows an advisory for designers and engineers in knowing the power usage of microcontroller units (MCUs) before purchasing. Designers and engineers must study the datasheets and notes of MCUs on their test conditions to determine the real power usage of those products as advertised numbers shown by vendors can be deceiving. They must also understand the meaning of low power modes on MCUs including CPU stopped, frozen in time, and RTC only.

Describes the recent boost that the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) got from Microsoft. How MPEG for Windows 95 enables a Pentium-class system to play MPEG-encoded videos without any additional hardware; MPEG as part of a Multimedia PC3, or MPC3, specification for multimedia computers; How MPEG II will offer four times the resolution, better than a television screen.

The article offers information on the launch of the new lightweight Audi A8, which also features an aluminum space frame. According to Martin Dobler, an expert in optical polycabon applications at Bayer MaterialScience LLC, their material complies with the high optical requirements for exposed headlamp parts and is within the narrow color tolerance range. Moreover, it notes that expanded use of polycarbonate in lighting, suits into plans by resin producers to seek new markets for replacement.

The article focuses on the power estimation of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) designs by designers. It suggests that designers should incorporate accurate power estimates in the whole design process so as to achieve power-management proficiencies. Raj Kothandaraman, Wipro Technologies' lead FPGA designer, remarks that power estimation begins at the specification phase.

The article provides information on the Parallel LINQ (PLINQ). According to the author, the LINQ is capable of tapping for additional power with a meager extra effort and cites that it is a part of the Parallel FX extensions, intended for .NET, that allows to utilize the rudimentary LINQ keywords. In addition, both PLINQ and the Task Parallel Library are the components of the Parallel FX Library. Inasmuch, PLINQ's basic utilization is to provide an additional reference to the downloaded System.Threading.dll.

The article provides information on how to supervise the virtual private clouds intended for the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). According to the article, it is defined as groups of private or public server pools either from public clouds like the Amazon EC2 or from corporate data center. In addition, several developers would like to apply and adapt some configuration or software stack for server pools. It highlights the practicable use case for the development in both private and public clouds.

The article provides information of cloud computing. According to the article, several developers are currently adapting the establishment of cloud computing and cites its accessibility in abstracting the aspects of creating rich scalable Internet applications (RIAs). Such Internet applications include, purchase management services and critical nonfunctional requirements, particularly in predictable performance and scalability. Inasmuch, cloud computing is providing an unlimited and on-demand computing resources.

The article focuses on selecting and designing of operational amplifiers. According to the author, designing operational amplifiers involve five pins that has a puzzling array of specifications which make the job for analog system engineers a hard one. Furthermore , Tim Green, linear-applications manager at Texas Instruments Inc., states that there are three important elements in selecting amplifiers which include the voltage, current and the bandwidth.

The article focuses on establishing bug criteria in a game project designed to minimize unnecessary bug reports. Interacting with a bug report costs time, wherein the project team would verify the issue, write a bug report and assign the bug to the appropriate developer. Establishing a bug criteria or a bug bar that would help the project team to assess bugs are worth the time and effort to fix and those that are not worth fixing. The bug bar is a measure for common issues related to the game such as clipping, performance, lip-syncing, realism and audio quality.

The article focuses on the importance to consumers the understanding of the waveform-generator operation and specifications before buying. It was stated that choosing a waveform generator can be confusing because vendors use different terminology to describe their instruments' architecture. The paper stresses that it is needed to carefully study the data sheet to determine an instrument's important characteristics.

The article presents the comparison of on-line motor tools using 2 different approaches by suppliers to direct an increasing system complexity. Engineers are provided by suppliers with an access to on-line motor⁄motion control tools including Alpha gear's Cymex 3.0 and Rockwell Automation's Motion Analyzer 4.0. These tools let the user to input system data and determine the impact on the system's gear box, motor and other sub-system. The system requirements and the details are discussed.

The article discusses specifications when designing an electronic system. According to Ken Karnofsky of The MathWorks, design flaws are introduce at the specification stage and typically not detected until the validation phase. Increasing design complexity requires better system-design tools. Furthermore, hardware designers needs retraining to become proficient system designers.

Introduces the new outboard engines from Mercury Marine Ltd. Product specifications; Assessment on the quality of the engines; Durability of the products.

Presents several adhesive products from various companies in the U.S. Assessment on the quality of the EP45HTMed epoxy products; Prices of the medical adhesives; Product specifications.

Presents the challenge of E. P. Industries to design and construct a personal, air-powered submarine with a digitally controlled closed circuit diving system in just four weeks. Efforts of the company under an impossibly tight timetable; Technical dimensions of the skeletal frame of the project; Details of information on the specifications of the shark design.

Discusses the building support for enumerating collection types. Information on the manipulation of collections and enumeration in software engineering; Details on the Standard Template Library; Details on the enumeration in D; Cooperating types of registry module. INSET: Std.windows.registry.

Delves into the issue of compliance in the U.S. Discussion of the consequences of not complying with regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; Benefits of using the enterprise content management and business process management technologies; Recommendations for compliance with regulations.

Part I. Explores Bluetooth, an specification for wireless communications. Access Code of a Bluetooth packet; Initial state of a Bluetooth radio on power-up; Conclusion.

Focuses on Boxster, the sports car from automobile manufacturer Porsche AG. Dimensions of the automobile; Specifications of the automobile; Performance of the automobile; Fuel economy of the automobile; Technology deployed in the automobile.

The article features the significance of plotters on engineering functions. Plotting technologies does not only simplify purchase process, but plotter's features and functions will best match the engineer's specific output requirements. The article also cites the different kinds of plotters, their specific functions and cost.

Focuses on the significance of the two-stroke engines in various automobile companies in Detroit, Michigan. Assessment on the quality of the products; Improvement of fuel delivery; Product specifications. INSET: Testing the two-storkes.

Describes the integration of recyclability and green revolution in design and engineering. Environmental legislation influencing the design and engineering industry; Market demand for green products; Product specifications and requirements. INSETS: From potatoes to plastics;Eight tips for 'green' design.