February 2006

Our lead story this month indicates further globalisation of media brands in electronics and shows that publishers still feel Europe is a key market worthy of further investment. CMP believes that the market will polarise with just two leading brands - EE Times and Reed’s EDN taking the lion’s share of advertising, the rest going to a limited number of the better local titles in each region. I would be interested to hear Penton’s view on this. They have just moved Electronic Design Europe to a new online format, abandoning the print version, but launched print and online versions of Electronic Design China at the same time. The history of imposing English language, pan-European newspapers and magazines on multi-lingual Europe has been littered with failures, although EDN Europe, EPN and Electronics Express Europe are notable exceptions. It will be interesting so see how CMP takes on the challenge of raising the EE Times brand here. We’ll keep you posted with developments.

In an exclusive announcement for Publitek Media News, CMP has revealed that it is considering major changes to its European web offering and may launch a pan-European version of EE Times in print towards the end of this year. The publisher has recently carried out a ‘landmark’ in-depth study amongst 4000 design engineers across the globe. The research looked at how engineers in each region prefer to receive various types of technical and business information related to the electronics industry. Following analysis of the findings, the company has consulted with potential advertisers in both the US and Europe. Paul Miller, Senior VP of CMP’s Media Electronics & SDMG Groups, told us that there are no concrete plans in place yet but said ‘the time appears to be right to further extend the EE Times brand globally.’ He also confirmed that the company does not intend to lose the Electronics Express brand, but he did not comment on the format in which it might continue. Online changes are likely to be completed by the end of Q2.

CONTACTS
Editorial: Brian Fuller, publisher & editor-in-chief, bfuller@cmp.com
Advertising Asia: Bennie Hui, bennie@globalsources.com
Advertising USA: Steve Corrick, scorrick@cmp.com
Advertising Europe: Patrick Flynn, pflynn@cmp.com

Starting February, engineers can access the latest information on power management, embedded solutions and other core technologies through six specialized newsletters from EE Times-China and EE Times-Taiwan. Topics are: power management, embedded systems, amplifiers and converters, digital signal processing, programmable logic, and RF/Wireless. Published biweekly in simplified and traditional Chinese, each newsletter reaches 40,000 engineers in mainland China and 15,000 in Taiwan, claims the publisher. Five promotional formats are available including banners, advertorials and downloadable white papers.

CONTACTS
Editorial: Yorbe Zhang, yzhang@globalsources.com
Advertising Asia: Bennie Hui, bennie@globalsources.com
Advertising USA: Steve Corrick, scorrick@cmp.com
Advertising Europe: Patrick Flynn, pflynn@cmp.com

This event is to be held at the Hyatt Regency on Town Lake, Austin, Texas, US from 6-9 March 2006. It aims to bring together designers and users of test structures to discuss recent developments and future directions. Papers presenting new developments in silicon, III-V compounds, and nanotechnology microelectronics test structure research, implementation, and applications as well as test structures aimed at new materials and devices characterisation will be presented. There will also be an equipment exhibition relating to test structure measurements.

CONTACT
Web: http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/ICMTS

Electronic Design’s ex-editor-at-large Dave Bursky joined CMP’s EE Times yesterday, taking over from semiconductor editor Ron Wilson who moved to EDN last month. Dave was at Electronic Design for nearly 33 years, serving in a variety of editorial roles. He will contribute to both the print and online versions of EE Times. This is major coup for the publisher. Dave is a widely respected journalist who has been awarded the Jesse H. Neal Award for editorial excellence and was described by the San Jose Mercury News as one of the 100 most influential people in Silicon Valley.

CONTACTS
Editorial: Dave Bursky, dbursky@cmp.com
Advertising Asia: Bennie Hui, bennie@globalsources.com
Advertising USA: Craig Pitcher, cpitcher@globalsources.com
Advertising Europe: Patrick Flynn, pflynn@cmp.com

This March sees the rollout of the inaugural issue of Electronic Design-China. To celebrate the milestone, Global Sources will host a cocktail reception on March 6 in Shanghai at the Shanghai Mart. More than 300 senior managers in the Chinese and global technology industry are expected to attend the event, including ED-China advertisers, International IC-China exhibitors and executives of industry associations.Electronic Design-China is written in simplified Chinese. It is published monthly as part of a strategic alliance between the Global Sources-CMP Media joint venture, and Penton Media, publishers of Electronic Design in the United States. Claimed circulation is 40,000 engineers across China and, according to the publisher, more than 30 leading technology companies have booked space in the title including TI, Philips, Cypress Semiconductor, Analog Devices and Freescale. The ED-China launch also caps the first day of International IC-China Conference & Exhibition, China’s largest showcase of IC technologies and embedded solutions which runs March 6 to 7 at the Shanghai Mart. With more than 800 booths, this year’s IIC-China is the largest to date. Global Sources now boasts complementary relationships with ED-China, EE Times-Asia, Electronics Supply & Manufacturing-China, and their associated websites and technical events.

CONTACTS
Web: http://www.ed-china.com; http://www.english.china.iicexpo.com

Darnell’s Portable Power Developers Conference (PPDC ’06) will be held in April 3-5, 2006 in Richardson, Texas. This three-day international conference, sponsored this year by EDN magazine, will serve an audience of decision makers who are interested in learning about and contributing to the latest commercial advancements and anticipated future developments related to advanced power management and efficient energy utilisation. Speakers will have an opportunity to present to top executives and technical professionals of leading portable device makers as well as key technical and management professionals in the power conversion and semiconductor industries, and leading researchers from industry, academia and government laboratories, claims the organiser.

CONTACT
Web: http://www.darnell.com/ppdc

The IEE conference entitled ‘RF for DVB-H/DMB Mobile Broadcast: Handset and Infrastructure Challenges’ takes place on 30th June 2006 at The IEE, Savoy Place, London, UK. There is currently significant interest in providing broadcast services to mobile handsets and terminals. This Conference will focus upon the critical radio frequency challenges relating to design, network coverage and spectrum availability within this rapidly emerging and disruptive technology. Submissions for papers or poster presentations are requested. Relevant topics include: receiver architectures and system analysis, tuner/RFIC design, RF component design, antenna design, infrastructure radio implementations, spectrum allocation issues, coverage analyses and infrastructure implications, handset integration issues, co-existence with the cellular network, and bearer technology comparisons. An area will be allocated for Poster presentations and relevant demonstration systems will be welcomed: the nature of the proposed demonstration should be highlighted within the paper/poster summary. Prospective authors should submit a summary of their proposed paper or poster contribution (one side of A4 plus any supporting figures) by Friday 7th April 2006.

CONTACT
Submissions: Chris Clifton, chris.clifton@eu.sony.com

Effective from February 1st, Siegfried Best became editor-in-chief of Automotive Elektronik, while still retaining the same role for Elektronik Industrie.

CONTACT
Editorial: Siegfried Best, sbest@t-online.de
Advertising: Britta Dolch, britta.dolch@huethig.de