Electronic news from around the world. Today: Apple tries to free itself from the dictates of Samsung, modern wires, DDR5 of which does not exist and the first test run 5G in China.
The nervous system of automata
The means of production of electronics are becoming more and more complex, the variability of the actions of individual units, the speed and accuracy of their work, is growing. Each new machine concentrates more and more electronics, the weight and dimensions of which begin to cause difficulties for designers. Conventional power cables and signal loops can no longer withstand the loads when moving any manipulator and are destroyed by vibration or mechanical fatigue of the material. Classic PCB circuit boards are too heavy and not strong enough to meet the needs of modern manufacturing.
Akber Roy, who has 20 years of experience in developing electronics under contracts and is the CEO of the profile company RUSH PCB Inc.
At the moment, three types of flexible circuits solve the above problems – flexible (flex), rigid-flexible (rigid-flex) and high-density-interconnect (HDI). For each particular case, one or another type of board is used. The benefits of flexible boards are clear. The process of their manufacture is associated with the coating of planes with polyimides (a type of polymer), which are much stronger and more efficient than a layer of a standard varnish coating, protecting the board from any impact. By using the right construction material, millions of bending cycles can be achieved without breaking the chain. The low weight and high ductility of the flexible circuits makes it easy to withstand any acceleration and vibration. This is what a section of the 'nervous system' of a modern factory machine looks like:
As you can see, the circuit painfully resembles loops in old sliders or a disassembled cable iPhone. The main difference is a multi-layer polymer plume, versus a conventional polyethylene laminate, as it was before. Most likely, in the near future, flexible types of connections with integrated circuits (or without them) will replace the usual wires in all types of technology. And the reasons for this are that to make them cheaper (now the cost is growing exponentially with each new layer), mass production is necessary, and their exceptional necessity has already been proven by life.
09/18/2017 Original material.
Samsung wags Apple?
Friends, you know or not, but for every sold iPhone the company Apple pays Samsung $ 200 (cheat. EM). These are not royalties for the use of intellectual property (patents) or payments by court order, it is all the fault that iPhone largely consists of components manufactured by Samsung. Specialized resources have already reported on the opening of new smartphones Apple, where Samsung displays, Qualcomm modems, SK Hynix RAM and Toshiba flash memory were found. Стоит ли удивляться, что как только появились новости про банкротство производства флеш-накопителей Toshiba, как Apple со товарищи (Bain Capital, Dell Inc., SK Hynix Inc. и Japan’s Hoya Corp) не оставалось ничего другого, как redeem it? $ 18 billion was spent on the deal. The amount is huge, but the alternative is even worse, because Samsung owns 40% of the entire global flash memory market. If Apple did not do this, then in addition to the displays, they would have to buy flash memory from Samsung, bringing their share of the sale of each iPhone to indecent values.
With the purchase of a flash-made Toshiba, the Cupertino-based company is trying to rip its bitten apple out of the steel vice holding it by Samsung. Whether Apple succeeds, only time will tell. In your opinion, is the statement true: 'Samsung without Apple will be fine, but Apple cannot exist without Samsung'?
There is another important factor that increases the risks Apple – the company has no experience in the production of components. Her exposure to this market is limited to a customer-supplier relationship. And, in my humble opinion, the acquisition of this asset is a direct loss, because if Toshiba goes bankrupt again, then no one will return the lost investments of the company Apple, as the owner.
09/20/2017 Original material.
Battle for DDR5.
The world is so arranged that all electronics (and any other product) must be standardized. Through global standardization, the fundamental possibility of building electronic systems of any complexity and cooperation between manufacturers is realized. And a profit for the buyer, in the form of the ability to assemble (order) a computer, music system or home server from components from different manufacturers. Usually, a company developing a new technology submits an application to a specialized committee for standardization, subsequently this committee develops standards, already in line with which the laggards are producing their analogs. Basically, the first swallow sets the rules for everyone else. In the world of electronics, the largest 'standardizer' is JEDEC (and the standards group of the same name). One of its competitors is Rambus (SAN JOSE, Calif.). Rambus not only develops RAM itself, but also actively patents everything, for which it once bore the title of patent troll.
The intrigue is that no one has yet shown a working DDR5 memory module, but the battle has already begun for the right to be the first, founding father of the new standard. JEDEC announced the imminent standardization of such memory, after which Rambus protested and, in the person of Hemant Dhulla, vice president of the company, announced the alleged existence of working prototypes of such a memory in their secret laboratories. But they were not shown. The struggle for the still non-existent DDR5 standard is heating up, from the outside it all looks comical.
09/20/2017 Original material.
News from the front 5G
On September 21, 2017, in Beijing, companies MediaTek and Huawei completed test tests of the first connection under the protocol 5G. After the tests, it is planned to create an industrial environment, which will include the production of terminals, chipsets, tools and the networks themselves. The test involved a terminal of production MediaTek and a base tower 5G of production Huawei, the declared data transfer rate was 5 Gbit / s.
The fundamental point is that there are no chipsets with support 5G yet, but there is already a terminal with a set of antennas, the dimensions of which do not exceed the dimensions of the phone. Another fundamental point – as such, there is no strict standard 5G either, and it can easily happen that the paths of Qualcomm and the Chinese giants diverge again and we will see two incompatible standards in the final product. This has already happened in the past, from which everyone lost. But, unlike in the past, all Chinese telecom manufacturers have united in a development project 5G coordinated by China Mobile and, being united, have become more negotiable.
09/21/2017 Original material.
Friends, the title 'News From There' doesn't sound very good. At its core, the format repeats the publications of the Soviet magazine Tekhnika Molodoi, but to call it that would be the height of impudence. Let's come up with a new name together that would suit everyone. Write your options, we will discuss.