Other than wireless infrastructure, the vertical market showing the strongest uptick in the RF power semiconductor business has been the military. While the producers of these devices are located in the major industrialized countries, the military market is now so global that equipment buyers may come from anywhere.
Military Spending and GaN Driving RF Power Markets
Although spending on RF power semiconductors in wireless infrastructure markets has continued to stagnate, according to ABI Research other markets � notably the military � are seeing increased activity. Also, according to a new study from ABI Research, Gallium Nitride � long seen as a promising new �material of choice� for RF power semiconductors � is continuing to gain some market traction. Gallium Nitride (GaN) increased its market share in 2010, and is expected to do the same in 2011. Although its adoption hasn�t been as rapid as originally expected, it is nonetheless forecast to be a significant force by 2016.
High Growth Electronics Drive Wireless Chipset Markets
According to ABI research, Surging sales of netbooks, media tablets, and other �always connected� consumer and industrial electronics products mean equally robust performance in markets for wireless connectivity ICs. ABI Research expects that when the final numbers for 2010 are gathered, shipments of wireless connectivity chipsets will reach a total of approximately two billion units, a 22% shipment increase compared to 2009.
"Market demand for wireless connectivity chipsets has been increasingly robust in recent years, a trend that will continue in the medium term," says industry analyst Celia Bo. �Total shipments of wireless connectivity chipsets are forecast to reach seven billion units in 2015, with a 2010-2015 CAGR of 30%.�
Bluetooth maintained its lead among all wireless connectivity chipset categories, accounting for almost 60% of all 2010 shipments. Wi-Fi chipsets take second place with approximately a 38% market share. They are expected to achieve the highest growth rate among connectivity chipsets, with a 22% CAGR between 2010 and 2015.
For technology applications, the increasing demand for Wi-Fi-enabled mobile and consumer electronics devices is a key engine driving market growth. Wi-Fi-enabled mobile handset shipments have increased as much as 50% since 2009, and the adoption rate of Wi-Fi technology in mobile handsets is set to reach 32% in 2015. Today almost every netbook, media tablet, and gaming console has Wi-Fi embedded, and 2010 shipments of Wi-Fi-enabled consumer devices showed an increase of about 18% compared to 2009.
Besides the already established segments, other Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronics devices such as digital still cameras (DSCs), digital camcorders, TVs, DVD players, DVRs and set-top boxes (STBs) are all set for strong growth in the coming years. Between 2010 and 2015, the CAGRs of Wi-Fi-enabled digital still cameras and TVs are expected to reach 63% and 65% respectively, followed by DVD players with a 47% CAGR.
"Market demand for wireless connectivity chipsets has been increasingly robust in recent years, a trend that will continue in the medium term," says industry analyst Celia Bo. �Total shipments of wireless connectivity chipsets are forecast to reach seven billion units in 2015, with a 2010-2015 CAGR of 30%.�
Bluetooth maintained its lead among all wireless connectivity chipset categories, accounting for almost 60% of all 2010 shipments. Wi-Fi chipsets take second place with approximately a 38% market share. They are expected to achieve the highest growth rate among connectivity chipsets, with a 22% CAGR between 2010 and 2015.
For technology applications, the increasing demand for Wi-Fi-enabled mobile and consumer electronics devices is a key engine driving market growth. Wi-Fi-enabled mobile handset shipments have increased as much as 50% since 2009, and the adoption rate of Wi-Fi technology in mobile handsets is set to reach 32% in 2015. Today almost every netbook, media tablet, and gaming console has Wi-Fi embedded, and 2010 shipments of Wi-Fi-enabled consumer devices showed an increase of about 18% compared to 2009.
Besides the already established segments, other Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronics devices such as digital still cameras (DSCs), digital camcorders, TVs, DVD players, DVRs and set-top boxes (STBs) are all set for strong growth in the coming years. Between 2010 and 2015, the CAGRs of Wi-Fi-enabled digital still cameras and TVs are expected to reach 63% and 65% respectively, followed by DVD players with a 47% CAGR.
Port your existing mobile number to Google Voice
(Cross-posted from the Google Voice Blog)
867-5309 could be one of the most iconic phone numbers of all time, but it’s not the only number that a lot of us remember by heart. Many of us have a phone number that we've shared with family, friends, and contacts over the years and are reluctant to let go.
One of the most frequent requests we hear from people who use (or want to use) Google Voice is that they’d like to get all of Google Voice’s features without having to give up their long-time phone numbers.
Today, we’re excited to announce that Number Porting is available for all existing Google Voice users. This means you can make the mobile number you’ve always used your Google Voice number, so it can ring any phone you want—or even your computer.
To get started with Number Porting, log in to your Google Voice account, visit the Settings page and click on “Change / Port” next to your Google Voice number.
Porting your number to Google Voice costs $20 and is usually completed within 24 hours. You may incur additional charges, including early termination fees, from your wireless carrier. Contact your carrier to get more details about the charges applicable to you.
After porting your number to Google Voice your mobile service plan will be cancelled, and there are a couple of steps that you’ll have to take to continue making and receiving calls on your mobile device. For more detailed instructions on how Number Porting works and to find tips for making the process as smooth as possible, visit the Google Voice Help Center.
Number Porting is currently available for existing Google Voice users and will become available to new users within the next few weeks, and at this time, Google Voice is available in the U.S. only
Update (1:15PM): Included more details about the porting process.
867-5309 could be one of the most iconic phone numbers of all time, but it’s not the only number that a lot of us remember by heart. Many of us have a phone number that we've shared with family, friends, and contacts over the years and are reluctant to let go.
One of the most frequent requests we hear from people who use (or want to use) Google Voice is that they’d like to get all of Google Voice’s features without having to give up their long-time phone numbers.
Today, we’re excited to announce that Number Porting is available for all existing Google Voice users. This means you can make the mobile number you’ve always used your Google Voice number, so it can ring any phone you want—or even your computer.
To get started with Number Porting, log in to your Google Voice account, visit the Settings page and click on “Change / Port” next to your Google Voice number.
Porting your number to Google Voice costs $20 and is usually completed within 24 hours. You may incur additional charges, including early termination fees, from your wireless carrier. Contact your carrier to get more details about the charges applicable to you.
After porting your number to Google Voice your mobile service plan will be cancelled, and there are a couple of steps that you’ll have to take to continue making and receiving calls on your mobile device. For more detailed instructions on how Number Porting works and to find tips for making the process as smooth as possible, visit the Google Voice Help Center.
Number Porting is currently available for existing Google Voice users and will become available to new users within the next few weeks, and at this time, Google Voice is available in the U.S. only
Update (1:15PM): Included more details about the porting process.
Weather on your mobile phone, now with added fun
We’d been wanting to build a fun, useful, app-like way to display weather information on our search results pages in the mobile browser. So we pulled together a user experience designer and team of engineers and built a new weather search results snippet that lets you actually play with the results. To try it out, just go to google.com on your iPhone or Android-powered device and search for ‘weather’.At first glance, you’ll see content that we’d previously shown you before: current conditions and a forecast for the next few days. But by moving the slider over the next 12 hours, you can now see a detailed hour-by-hour breakdown of the changing weather conditions. As you do this, keep an eye on the temperature, wind speed and humidity and see how all these conditions are expected to trend across the day. You may also notice that the background color changes throughout the day. Of course, as you scroll further down you’ll see our regular web search results for your query.
This new weather search experience is available only in English, but we have more updates on the way. We hope you’ll enjoy using it!
Cloud printing on the go
(Cross-posted on the Docs Blog and Gmail Blog.)
Back in April 2010 we announced Google Cloud Print, a service that in Beta allows printing from any app on any device, OS or browser without the need to install any software. Just last month we opened Google Cloud Print to users in the Chrome notebook pilot program. Today we are very pleased to announce the beta launch of Google Cloud Print for mobile documents and Gmail for mobile, which we will be rolling out to users throughout the next few days.
Imagine printing an important document from your smartphone on the way to work and finding the printout waiting for you when you walk in the door. Just open a document in Google Docs or an email in Gmail in your mobile browser and choose “Print” from the dropdown menu in the top right corner. You can also print certain kinds of email attachments (such as .pdf or .doc) by clicking the “Print” link that appears next to them.
This feature will be rolling out today and tomorrow for English speaking users in the US and will work on most phones that support HTML5, such as devices running Android 2.1+ and iOS 3+. To get started, you’ll need to connect your printer to Google Cloud Print. This step requires a Windows PC for now, but Linux and Mac support are coming soon. You can learn more at the Google Cloud Print help center.
Happy printing!
Back in April 2010 we announced Google Cloud Print, a service that in Beta allows printing from any app on any device, OS or browser without the need to install any software. Just last month we opened Google Cloud Print to users in the Chrome notebook pilot program. Today we are very pleased to announce the beta launch of Google Cloud Print for mobile documents and Gmail for mobile, which we will be rolling out to users throughout the next few days.
Imagine printing an important document from your smartphone on the way to work and finding the printout waiting for you when you walk in the door. Just open a document in Google Docs or an email in Gmail in your mobile browser and choose “Print” from the dropdown menu in the top right corner. You can also print certain kinds of email attachments (such as .pdf or .doc) by clicking the “Print” link that appears next to them.
This feature will be rolling out today and tomorrow for English speaking users in the US and will work on most phones that support HTML5, such as devices running Android 2.1+ and iOS 3+. To get started, you’ll need to connect your printer to Google Cloud Print. This step requires a Windows PC for now, but Linux and Mac support are coming soon. You can learn more at the Google Cloud Print help center.
Happy printing!
Verizon iPhone 4 Antenna Better Than AT&T?
I am very happy the iPhone 4 is coming to Verizon soon as I have been with them for many years and would welcome the chance to get one. We have covered the antenna issues in a couple of previous posts and the Verizon iPhone brings some changes to the antenna design. Initially, Apple seemed to indicate that the changes to the antenna design were only to make it compatible with CMDA.
Taking a close look at the exterior antenna, one can see that there are now 4 spaces between the antennas instead of 3 so there appears to be a 4th antenna or antenna component. There are now reports that Apple has addressed the "death grip" antenna problems that degrade reception when the antenna is held a certain way. When the antenna is covered by a hand in the right position, this can happen. Because the antenna is around the border of the phone, it can happen in normal use unlike other phone where it is embedded near the top of the phone where a person would not naturally hold it. Reports are that Apple has duplicated antennas so that when one is covered degrading reception, the other one should be unobstructed and function properly.
Let me know what you have heard and if you have other information about the antenna design. In the mean time, I am looking forward to getting my wife one and I may wait for the iPhone 5 which is rumored to be available this summer.
Taking a close look at the exterior antenna, one can see that there are now 4 spaces between the antennas instead of 3 so there appears to be a 4th antenna or antenna component. There are now reports that Apple has addressed the "death grip" antenna problems that degrade reception when the antenna is held a certain way. When the antenna is covered by a hand in the right position, this can happen. Because the antenna is around the border of the phone, it can happen in normal use unlike other phone where it is embedded near the top of the phone where a person would not naturally hold it. Reports are that Apple has duplicated antennas so that when one is covered degrading reception, the other one should be unobstructed and function properly.
Let me know what you have heard and if you have other information about the antenna design. In the mean time, I am looking forward to getting my wife one and I may wait for the iPhone 5 which is rumored to be available this summer.
Femtocell Applications Could be Key to Success
I have not seen that Femtocells have really caught on in the market as they seem to be only used for local range extenders. ABI Research says they are now attracting consumers� attention in other ways. Their initial use-case has been to enhance indoor cellular coverage, but it is now clear that their potential utility is much wider. It is based on �femtozone services� that use key attributes such as location and presence to trigger innovative applications residing on the mobile device, or in the access point, the core gateway, or the cloud.
A simple example: a family alert system. A young person arrives at the family home, and the femtocell there registers the presence of his or her mobile phone and sends out an SMS notification to the parents. Such systems are already in use in Japan. Other kinds of femtozone applications can turn on lights or activate security systems, while still others can be used to sync content between mobile phones and other devices in the home such as TVs, laptops and media players. Via the mobile network, they can even allow remote access to digital content stored at home.
ABI Research forecasts about 2.3 million femtozone subscribers in 2012, providing revenue of more than $100 million. These numbers rise sharply to 2015, when 45% of femtocell users will subscribe to femtozone services. Femtozone services will see initial adoption in the Asia-Pacific region, but ultimately the North American market will be by far the largest.
Practice director Aditya Kaul says, �Femtozone services will be bundled with femtocell subscriptions and will also be available individually, increasing the perceived value of having a femtocell in the home. Eventually, mobile apps available from Apple or Google App stores may be designed to work via a femtocell. The femtozone services market is expected to reach almost $2 billion in revenue by 2015, but operators need to act fast, as the popularity of Wi-Fi/GPS-based over the top applications could pose a hindrance.�
A simple example: a family alert system. A young person arrives at the family home, and the femtocell there registers the presence of his or her mobile phone and sends out an SMS notification to the parents. Such systems are already in use in Japan. Other kinds of femtozone applications can turn on lights or activate security systems, while still others can be used to sync content between mobile phones and other devices in the home such as TVs, laptops and media players. Via the mobile network, they can even allow remote access to digital content stored at home.
ABI Research forecasts about 2.3 million femtozone subscribers in 2012, providing revenue of more than $100 million. These numbers rise sharply to 2015, when 45% of femtocell users will subscribe to femtozone services. Femtozone services will see initial adoption in the Asia-Pacific region, but ultimately the North American market will be by far the largest.
Practice director Aditya Kaul says, �Femtozone services will be bundled with femtocell subscriptions and will also be available individually, increasing the perceived value of having a femtocell in the home. Eventually, mobile apps available from Apple or Google App stores may be designed to work via a femtocell. The femtozone services market is expected to reach almost $2 billion in revenue by 2015, but operators need to act fast, as the popularity of Wi-Fi/GPS-based over the top applications could pose a hindrance.�
App Engine team appearances Winter 2011
The Google App Engine team has launched some significant features recently, including: High Replication Datastore, Channel API, Always On, Warm Up requests, longer 10-minute (vs. 30-second) limit for tasks, and increased API call sizes. We are excited about these features and think you will be too, so team members will be appearing at a variety of events around the world this Winter to talk about some of these features and the platform as a whole!
One of the marquee events this quarter includes
PyCon, the largest gathering of Python developers from around the world, where several App Engine team members will be speaking:
Winter 2011 event appearances:
If these aren't close enough to you, keep an eye out on this list as we'll add new events as they materialize. There is also a separate calendar for events featuring other Google products/APIs. For App Engine, look for posts like this throughout the year. We look forward to meeting you in 2011!
Posted by Wesley Chun, Google App Engine team
One of the marquee events this quarter includes
PyCon, the largest gathering of Python developers from around the world, where several App Engine team members will be speaking:
- Brett Slatkin will talk about the Pipeline API distributed workflow manager
- Guido van Rossum, creator of Python, will do his BDFL Q&A
- Wesley Chun will discuss running Django apps on App Engine
- Both Wesley & Ikai Lan will lead a half-day Google App Engine workshop tutorial
- (Planned) OpenSpace session: Fireside Chat with Google App Engineers
Winter 2011 event appearances:
- Jan 18 - ICT Meet Ethiopia 2011 - Addis Ababa - Richard Ngamita
- Jan 22 - Google Hackathon (Year One Labs) - Montréal - Sean Lynch
- Feb 1-3 - Strata - Santa Clara - Patrick Chanezon
- Feb 14-16 - Jfokus - Stockholm - Patrick Chanezon
- Feb 17-18 - Developer Summit - Tokyo - Takashi Matsuo
- Feb 28-Mar 4 - Game Developers Conference - San Francisco - Ikai Lan, Alfred Fuller
- Mar 7-10 - CloudConnect - Santa Clara - Chris Schalk
- Mar 9-17 - PyCon - Atlanta - Guido van Rossum, Wesley Chun, Ikai Lan, Brett Slatkin, Alfred Fuller
- Mar 11-15 - SXSW - Austin - Sean Lynch, Greg D'alesandre
- Mar 28-31 - Int'l WWW Conference - Hyderabad - Patrick Chanezon, Rajdeep Dua
If these aren't close enough to you, keep an eye out on this list as we'll add new events as they materialize. There is also a separate calendar for events featuring other Google products/APIs. For App Engine, look for posts like this throughout the year. We look forward to meeting you in 2011!
Posted by Wesley Chun, Google App Engine team
A new look for Google Translate for Android
(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog and Translate Blog.)
When we launched the first version of Google Translate for Android in January 2010, we were excited about the year ahead. For the first time, we were bringing the capabilities supported on Google Translate—like machine translation, romanization of non-Roman scripts and spoken translations—to the Android platform. We also offered voice input to let you speak the word or phrase you wanted to translate instead of typing it in, and SMS translation so you could translate SMS messages sent to you in foreign languages.
Today, we’re refreshing Translate for Android with several updates to make the app easier to interact with. Among other improvements, we’ve created better dropdown boxes to help select the languages you want to translate from and into, an improved input box, and cleaner icons and layout.
We also want to let you in on an experimental feature that’s still in its earliest stages—Conversation Mode. This is a new interface within Google Translate that’s optimized to allow you to communicate fluidly with a nearby person in another language. You may have seen an early demo a few months ago, and today you can try it yourself on your Android device.
Currently, you can only use Conversation Mode when translating between English and Spanish. In conversation mode, simply press the microphone for your language and start speaking. Google Translate will translate your speech and read the translation out loud. Your conversation partner can then respond in their language, and you’ll hear the translation spoken back to you. Because this technology is still in alpha, factors like regional accents, background noise or rapid speech may make it difficult to understand what you’re saying. Even with these caveats, we’re excited about the future promise of this technology to be able to help people connect across languages.
As Android devices have spread across the globe, we’ve seen Translate for Android used all over. The majority of our usage now comes from outside the United States, and we’ve seen daily usage from more than 150 countries, from Malaysia to Mexico to Mozambique. It’s really rewarding for us to see how this new platform is helping us break down language barriers the world over.
Translate supports 53 languages, from Afrikaans to Yiddish, and voice input for 15 languages. You can download the application, available for devices running Android 2.1 and above, by searching for “Google Translate” in Android Market or by scanning the QR Code below.
When we launched the first version of Google Translate for Android in January 2010, we were excited about the year ahead. For the first time, we were bringing the capabilities supported on Google Translate—like machine translation, romanization of non-Roman scripts and spoken translations—to the Android platform. We also offered voice input to let you speak the word or phrase you wanted to translate instead of typing it in, and SMS translation so you could translate SMS messages sent to you in foreign languages.Today, we’re refreshing Translate for Android with several updates to make the app easier to interact with. Among other improvements, we’ve created better dropdown boxes to help select the languages you want to translate from and into, an improved input box, and cleaner icons and layout.
We also want to let you in on an experimental feature that’s still in its earliest stages—Conversation Mode. This is a new interface within Google Translate that’s optimized to allow you to communicate fluidly with a nearby person in another language. You may have seen an early demo a few months ago, and today you can try it yourself on your Android device.
Currently, you can only use Conversation Mode when translating between English and Spanish. In conversation mode, simply press the microphone for your language and start speaking. Google Translate will translate your speech and read the translation out loud. Your conversation partner can then respond in their language, and you’ll hear the translation spoken back to you. Because this technology is still in alpha, factors like regional accents, background noise or rapid speech may make it difficult to understand what you’re saying. Even with these caveats, we’re excited about the future promise of this technology to be able to help people connect across languages.
As Android devices have spread across the globe, we’ve seen Translate for Android used all over. The majority of our usage now comes from outside the United States, and we’ve seen daily usage from more than 150 countries, from Malaysia to Mexico to Mozambique. It’s really rewarding for us to see how this new platform is helping us break down language barriers the world over.Translate supports 53 languages, from Afrikaans to Yiddish, and voice input for 15 languages. You can download the application, available for devices running Android 2.1 and above, by searching for “Google Translate” in Android Market or by scanning the QR Code below.
Now available: Google Places with Hotpot for iPhone
We recently released Google Places with Hotpot in Google Maps for Android, and starting now, you can have that same great experience as an iPhone app. We realize the importance of finding places you’ll love while you’re out and about, no matter what mobile device you use. And Places with Hotpot not only helps you find places near where you are, it gives you the best places to go for you by personalizing your search results.
In case you aren’t familiar with Google Places, it lets you quickly search for places nearby and personalizes the results based on places you’ve rated. We get you started with a few popular search categories, but you can also tailor the list by adding your own favorite searches. This makes it fast and easy to find the best places for you with little fuss.
It can be pretty rewarding to discover a new place you love, but we also realize that there are some experiences you just can’t wait to share. So Places makes it super simple to rate a place with your iPhone while you’re there. Just fire up the app and hit “Rate now.” It will use your location to guess your current place and let you post a Hotpot review right from your phone. But it’s not just about getting to say what you think—the more you rate places, the more you’re sharing about your tastes and the more we can give you personally tailored recommendations.
If you want to make things even tastier, just visit google.com/hotpot from your desktop computer. Here you can add friends to the mix and quickly rate all the places you already know. Once you’ve added friends, you’ll find your results seasoned not just with reviews from around the web and recommendations based on your own personal taste, but also with your friends’ opinions too.
Get the Places app on your iPhone now by searching for Google Places in the App Store or going here.
This first version of Places is available for all iOS devices in English only. However, expect more features and improvements to roll out soon, including localization in many new languages. We’re hard at work to make Places with Hotpot more and more delicious.
In case you aren’t familiar with Google Places, it lets you quickly search for places nearby and personalizes the results based on places you’ve rated. We get you started with a few popular search categories, but you can also tailor the list by adding your own favorite searches. This makes it fast and easy to find the best places for you with little fuss.
Use a default search category, save your own, or rate the nearest place quickly.
It can be pretty rewarding to discover a new place you love, but we also realize that there are some experiences you just can’t wait to share. So Places makes it super simple to rate a place with your iPhone while you’re there. Just fire up the app and hit “Rate now.” It will use your location to guess your current place and let you post a Hotpot review right from your phone. But it’s not just about getting to say what you think—the more you rate places, the more you’re sharing about your tastes and the more we can give you personally tailored recommendations.
Give your star rating and add optional details or a review so Hotpot knows your taste.
If you want to make things even tastier, just visit google.com/hotpot from your desktop computer. Here you can add friends to the mix and quickly rate all the places you already know. Once you’ve added friends, you’ll find your results seasoned not just with reviews from around the web and recommendations based on your own personal taste, but also with your friends’ opinions too.
Once you start rating and add friends, Places can give you personalized recommendations.
Get the Places app on your iPhone now by searching for Google Places in the App Store or going here.
This first version of Places is available for all iOS devices in English only. However, expect more features and improvements to roll out soon, including localization in many new languages. We’re hard at work to make Places with Hotpot more and more delicious.
Google Goggles gets faster, smarter and solves Sudoku
Today we’re launching a new version of Google Goggles that’s faster and smarter than ever before. The new Goggles 1.3 client for Android can scan barcodes almost instantly. All versions of Goggles can now recognize print ads in popular magazines and newspapers. Finally, Goggles has also learned a fun new trick for Sudoku fans.
Google Goggles 1.3 with improved barcode scanning is available for download in Android Market. Recognition of print ads and Sudoku solver is now enabled for the Google Goggles app on Android, as well as the Goggles component of the Google Mobile App on iPhone.
Barcodes
When shopping offline, it’s helpful to be able to learn more about a product by scanning its barcode. With the new Android version of Google Goggles, scanning barcodes is much faster. Open Goggles and hover over the barcode or QR code. Within a second the phone gently vibrates and presents results, without requiring a button press. Simply tap on the result to read product reviews, check in-store availability and compare prices.
Print ads in magazines and newspapers
We’re excited to take another step in our vision of connecting offline media to online media. The next time you're flipping through the pages of your favorite magazine, try taking a picture of an ad with Goggles. Goggles will recognize print ad and return web search results about the product or brand. This new feature of Goggles is enabled for print ads appearing in major U.S. magazines and newspapers from August 2010 onwards.
This feature is different from the marketing experiment that we announced in November. We're now recognizing a much broader range of ads than we initially included in our marketing experiment. And when we recognize a print ad, we return web search results. While in the experiment, we return a specific link to an external website.
Sudoku
Our favorite weekend distraction is a quiet 15 minutes spent solving a Sudoku puzzle. But even that can be an frustrating experience if (like us) you make a mistake and are unable to solve the puzzle. Now, Goggles on Android and iPhone can recognize puzzles and provide answers to help make you faster than a Sudoku champ. So if you ever get stuck, take a clear picture of the entire puzzle with Goggles and we’ll tell you the correct solution. Check out this video to see how it works.
Top Ten Viewed Technical Articles for 2010 in Microwave Journal
Below is a list of the Top 10 most viewed technical articles for 2010. Many of these articles are from ealier in the year or 2009 as they had more time to be read than articles published toward the end of this time frame so don't miss our Nov cover story, The State of RF/microwave Switches, and Dec cover story, Smart Grid Communications Evolution, as they have been quite popular over the limited time they have been onilne. Here is the list:
- Fundamentally Changing Nonlinear Microwave Design (March 2010 Cover Story)
- RFID: The Next Generation Auto-ID Technology
- The Current State of Technology and Future Trends in Wireless Communications and Applications (2006 article)
- RF Design of Avionics L-band Integrated Systems (Leo's articles are always very informative)
- Supporting the Warfighter: Adapting to the Changing Paradigm of the Defense Market (Jan 2010 cover story)
- The Missing Link in Ethernet Cellular Backhaul: IEEE 1588-2008, Precision Time Protocol
- A Compact, Omni-directional, Circularly Polarized Microstrip Antenna
- Development Report of Power FETs for Solid-state Power Amplifiers from GaAs to GaN Devices
- The Distances Chart: A New Approach to Spurs Calculation (very innovative approach)
- RFID Reader Architectures and Applications
For a complete list of 2010 articles (categorized by type), see our 2010 Editorial Index. RFID was the only topic that had 2 of the top ten in 2010 (both were written in 2009) - what do you think? What would you like to see covered in 2011??
ABI Research Expects Adaptive Cruise Control for Most Cars
Adaptive cruise control (ACC) has been an option on high-end luxury vehicles for more than a decade, but in the next few years ABI research says it will become available on mid-size and family vehicles. Costs have been falling slowly but steadily over the years, and now a new development promises to bring significant price reductions for the consumer.
�The highest cost component of ACC has always been the radar sensor,� says ABI Research principal analyst David Alexander, �and now the cost advantages of silicon technology are going to take effect. We project that, by 2016, the lower costs will play a big part in increasing volumes and push the global market value up to $30 billion.�
While cameras and lidar sensors are still contributing to ACC systems, especially for the low-speed and stop-and-go features, the core component is still the radar sensor. With Freescale Semiconductor announcing in November 2010 that its Xtrinsic chipset is going into production, the new silicon-germanium technology will allow automotive radar sensors to benefit from the efficiency of the latest CMOS manufacturing techniques. Other suppliers are likely to follow.
�We also expect intelligent speed assistance (ISA) systems to begin appearing in 2013,� says research director Larry Fisher. �However, rather than being pushed as the next big thing, ISA will take the form of an add-on feature to increase the value of existing packages that include navigation systems and forward-looking camera sensors.�
ABI Research still doesn�t see any proposed financial incentives to encourage the public to invest in speed control systems, but the latest NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) assessments are now including driver assistance systems, and manufacturers will have to start offering them to maintain high star ratings. Research has shown that both ACC and ISA can have beneficial effects on traffic flow when used in sufficient numbers.
A few years ago at M/A-COM (now part of Autoliv), the automotive group was making good in-roads into SiGe designs which has been used in their latest generation ACC modules. This really drove the cost down along with lower cost packaging/antenna materials so I can see this being more widely available on mid-range vehicles as an option.
�The highest cost component of ACC has always been the radar sensor,� says ABI Research principal analyst David Alexander, �and now the cost advantages of silicon technology are going to take effect. We project that, by 2016, the lower costs will play a big part in increasing volumes and push the global market value up to $30 billion.�
While cameras and lidar sensors are still contributing to ACC systems, especially for the low-speed and stop-and-go features, the core component is still the radar sensor. With Freescale Semiconductor announcing in November 2010 that its Xtrinsic chipset is going into production, the new silicon-germanium technology will allow automotive radar sensors to benefit from the efficiency of the latest CMOS manufacturing techniques. Other suppliers are likely to follow.
�We also expect intelligent speed assistance (ISA) systems to begin appearing in 2013,� says research director Larry Fisher. �However, rather than being pushed as the next big thing, ISA will take the form of an add-on feature to increase the value of existing packages that include navigation systems and forward-looking camera sensors.�
ABI Research still doesn�t see any proposed financial incentives to encourage the public to invest in speed control systems, but the latest NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) assessments are now including driver assistance systems, and manufacturers will have to start offering them to maintain high star ratings. Research has shown that both ACC and ISA can have beneficial effects on traffic flow when used in sufficient numbers.
A few years ago at M/A-COM (now part of Autoliv), the automotive group was making good in-roads into SiGe designs which has been used in their latest generation ACC modules. This really drove the cost down along with lower cost packaging/antenna materials so I can see this being more widely available on mid-range vehicles as an option.
A Sneak Peek of Android 3.0, Honeycomb
The past few weeks have been exciting ones for the Android team: we recently released Nexus S and Android 2.3, Gingerbread, and we’ve even had some of our most popular team members take a trip to space. But we haven’t stopped buzzing with excitement: today at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, we previewed Android 3.0, Honeycomb.
Honeycomb is the next version of the Android platform, designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. We’ve spent a lot of time refining the user experience in Honeycomb, and we’ve developed a brand new, truly virtual and holographic user interface. Many of Android’s existing features will really shine on Honeycomb: refined multi-tasking, elegant notifications, access to over 100,000 apps on Android Market, home screen customization with a new 3D experience and redesigned widgets that are richer and more interactive. We’ve also made some powerful upgrades to the web browser, including tabbed browsing, form auto-fill, syncing with your Google Chrome bookmarks, and incognito mode for private browsing.
Honeycomb also features the latest Google Mobile innovations including Google Maps 5 with 3D interactions and offline reliability, access to over 3 million Google eBooks, and Google Talk, which now allows you to video and voice chat with any other Google Talk enabled device (PC, tablet, etc).
Please stay tuned for more Honeycomb news from the Android team. For now, you can get a taste of Honeycomb by checking out this video.
Honeycomb is the next version of the Android platform, designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. We’ve spent a lot of time refining the user experience in Honeycomb, and we’ve developed a brand new, truly virtual and holographic user interface. Many of Android’s existing features will really shine on Honeycomb: refined multi-tasking, elegant notifications, access to over 100,000 apps on Android Market, home screen customization with a new 3D experience and redesigned widgets that are richer and more interactive. We’ve also made some powerful upgrades to the web browser, including tabbed browsing, form auto-fill, syncing with your Google Chrome bookmarks, and incognito mode for private browsing.
Honeycomb also features the latest Google Mobile innovations including Google Maps 5 with 3D interactions and offline reliability, access to over 3 million Google eBooks, and Google Talk, which now allows you to video and voice chat with any other Google Talk enabled device (PC, tablet, etc).
Please stay tuned for more Honeycomb news from the Android team. For now, you can get a taste of Honeycomb by checking out this video.
Announcing the High Replication Datastore for App Engine
When App Engine launched over two years ago, we offered a Datastore that was designed for quick, strongly consistent reads. It was based on a Master/Slave replication topology, designed for fast writes while still allowing applications to see data immediately after it was written. For the past six months, as you are probably aware, we’ve been struggling with some reliability issues with the App Engine Datastore. Over the course of the past few months, we’ve made major strides in fixing these issues. However, our experience with these issues has made us rethink some of our design assumptions. As we promised you in some of our outage reports earlier this year, we wanted to give you a more fundamental solution to the problem.
Today I’m proud to announce the availability of a new Datastore configuration option, the High Replication Datastore. The High Replication Datastore provides the highest level of availability for your reads and writes, at the cost of increased latency for writes and changes in consistency guarantees in the API. The High Replication Datastore increases the number of data centers that maintain replicas of your data by using the Paxos algorithm to synchronize that data across datacenters in real time. One of the most significant benefits is that all functionality of your application will remain fully available during planned maintenance periods, as well as during most unplanned infrastructure issues. A more detailed comparison between these two options is available in our documentation.
From now on, when creating a new application, you will be able to select the Datastore configuration for your application. While the current Datastore configuration default remains Master/Slave, this may change in the future.
Datastore configuration options when creating an app.
The datastore configuration option can not be changed once an application is created, and all existing applications today are using the Master/Slave configuration. To help existing apps migrate their data to an app using the High Replication Datastore, we are providing some migration tools to assist you. First, we have introduced an option in the Admin Console that allows an application to serve in read-only mode so that the data may be reliably copied between apps. Secondly, we are providing a migration tool with the Python SDK that allows you to copy from one app to another. Directions on how to use this tool for Python and Java apps is documented here.
Now, a word on pricing: Because the amount of data replication significantly increases with the High Replication datastore, the price of this datastore configuration is different. But because we believe that this new configuration offers a significantly improved experience for some applications, we wanted to make it available to you as soon as possible, even though we haven’t finalized the pricing details. Thus, we are releasing the High Replication Datastore with introductory pricing of 3x that of the Master/Slave Datastore until the end of July 2011. After July, we expect that pricing of this feature will change. We’ll let you know more about the pricing details as soon as they are available, and remember, you are always protected when pricing changes occur by our Terms of Service. Due to the higher cost, we thus recommend the High Replication Datastore primarily for those developers building critical applications on App Engine who want the highest possible level of availability for their application.
Thank you, everyone, for all the work you’ve put into building applications on App Engine for the past two years. We’re excited to have High Replication Datastore as the first of many exciting launches in the new year, and hope you’re excited about the other things we’ve got in store for App Engine in 2011.
Pat's Predictions for 2011
Last year was my first year of predictions for the RF and microwave industry. So what are my predictions for 2011 and how did I do last year?2011 Industry predictions:
- Tunable devices and circuits like RF MEMS and switched capacitor banks will be adopted in cell phones and alleviate some of the antenna reception issues that plagued phones like the iPhone 4.
- Smart Grid applications will take off this year with ISM and Zigbee wireless applications being widely implemented around the world.
- LTE will dominate the 4G networks as it is implemented around the world and zooms past WiMAX in deployments.
- Femtocells, WiFi and other shorter range wireless technologies will be implemented to get around cellular dead spots instead of just deploying more basestations to fill in coverage.
- Metamaterials will start to be used in real world devices for filters and other passive devices (maybe even radar cloaking for the military).
- Adaptive/Cognitive radar and commnication systems will go into real development programs.
- Millimeterwave frequency solutions will dominate the new backhaul and satellite communications deployments.
- SOI and SOS based switches will start taking market share from the traditional dominant GaAs markets.
- The confusion of the definition of 4G technologies will continue while someone will define and start using the term 5G.
- Microwave applications will see significant use in medical technologies to enhance cures for diseases such as cancer.
And here are my 2010 Predictions and Outcomes:
- The US Gov�t Broadband Initiative Stimulus money will be slow to come but even with the many hundreds of millions given out, it will have little or no affect on rural broadband access penetration (see our Oct 09 article on the Broadband Stimulus Program) - I would say this was right as millions were poured into the Broadband Initiative but it seemed to have little effect on market penetration.
- LDMOS and GaN will gain major market share in the power product applications and become the leading materials for high power applications in their respective frequency sweet spots (see our June 09 article on the Power Brokers) - I think this was pretty close as LDMOS has dominated the basestation and lower frequency high power products in several areas and GaN has taken a significant hold in many new military and other high power markets.
- We will see some control components integrated on GaN MMICs (i.e. switches, limiters, etc.) - I am doing well as at least 2 suppliers (Cree and TriQuint) released GaN switch products (See the end of the Nov cover story on Switches) so this one is also correct.
- Nonlinear characterization advancements in the last couple of years will take hold in the marketplace as widely accepted techniques (X-parameters, S-functions, etc.) - Well, I don't think this was totally correct as these new techniques did become more widely known, but I not sure how widely used that are but this year should complete the task. We plan on trying to have a panel session on this subject at IMS 2011.
- Several amplifiers with greater than 80% efficiency above 1 GHz will be developed as new high efficiency design techniques are exploited - This goes along with the previous prediction and while there are several examples of power amps over 60 and 70% efficiency, I could not find any over 80%. Have you seen any?
- LTE will make large gains in deployments but not come close to exceeding WiMAX in the number of users (in 2011 I predict LTE will overtake WiMAX) - LTE was all the rage in 2010 and will continue to be in 2011 but I was correct that there were far more WiMAX deployments than LTE by the end of 2010. In an ABI report in Dec 2010, it was stated that at the end of 2010, mobile WiMAX will cover about 8% of the world�s population, while LTE will cover about 2%
- SoC and SiP solutions will start to take hold in several applications where discrete solutions used to rule (WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, etc.) - see our Feb 09 article on SoC/SiP - There are several companies supplying single chip solutions for WiFi, Bluetooth and ZigBee so I think this one is mostly correct (TI, RFMD, BroadCom, SiGe, etc.)
- Wireless HDTV products will be released into the mass market and one protocol will distance its self as the leading solution of the 4 vying for acceptance (see our Aug 09 article on Wireless HDTV) - This market did not really mature yet (maybe this year) so I think I got this one wrong.
- RFID will finally take off and see significant growth in multiple markets including front of the store (POS) applications - Same thing as above prediction so this one was wrong also.
- As a result of the terrorists taping into our UAV video signals, new funding and significant resources will be spent on wireless encryption for the US military - This was somewhat true as there was emphasis to improve wireless security but I don't recall any major programs to do it so maybe I was only half correct here.
- As a result of the failed terrorist attack on the Detroit bound plane, there will be renewed interest and purchases of mmWave and Terahertz body scanners for airport security - This was a hot topic as several groups and many individuals made a big fuss about going through the mmWave and X-ray scanning machines as they were widely deployed so I got this one correct!
- As the military backs off the Future Combat Systems approach as being too expensive, advanced software defined radios will be demonstrated for near future systems - This was somewhat correct but again, I don't recall any major programs in this area so maybe it is only partially correct.
- Smart IED jammers will be developed that actively adapt to different frequencies via software control as IED attacks continue to dominate our attention (see our August 08 supplement article on IED Jammers) - I think this one was correct and a new program was just announced that BAE Systems will develop electronic warfare machine learning to jam enemy adaptive communications automatically
- A new military broadband satellite communications program will be proposed to ease the capacity crunch for bandwidth (see our August 09 article on the SATCOM Capacity Crunch) - I think this one was wrong as I did not hear about any such programs.
So if you count half points, I got 8 out of 14 correct!
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