January 2005

As the January issue of Publitek Media News just makes it out of the door on the last day of the month, it gives you some idea of the way in which the year has started - it’s busy! Those of you who had time to read my ramblings at the start of Publitek Media News in December will remember that we announced a vacancy for a PR Account Director. From the tens of thousands of applications received, we selected two. The first for its entertainment value (see item 27) and the second because the applicant was the perfect fit for the job. Helen Duncan joins Publitek shortly from Microwave Engineering Europe, where she has been editor for some time. In addition to her writing skills, she brings a ton of marketing and PR experience and, like the rest of our account team, is a qualified electronics engineer. You see, advertising does work! Thanks to all our clients who have remained with us for 2005, and a warm welcome to those who are about to start working with Publitek. Onto the news....and our biggest issue ever!

Chip Design has announced the appointment of John Blyler as editor-in-chief, following the departure of founding editors Tets Maniwa.John brings 20 years of combined experience in the EDA and electronics markets both as an Editor and as an engineer. Formerly, he served as senior editor for Wireless Systems Design (WSD) magazine, covering hardware-software design issues and EDA tools. John was also the executive editor for the Wireless Watch e-Newsletter. He has been a frequent contributor to IEEE magazines, as well as serving on the editorial board for the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) magazine. Chip Design, published bi-monthly, provides in-depth coverage of EDA topics and peer-to-peer based content that demonstrate solutions to EDA-related issues. The publisher claims that each issue reaches over 25,000 design engineers and engineering managers throughout North America.

CONTACTS:

Editorial: John Blyler, editor-in-chief, jblyler@extensionmedia.com
Advertising: No information provided in the press release!
Web: http://www.extensionmedia.com

EDA editor Mike Santarini left EE Times on January 25 for a destination that’s yet to be announced.Colleague Richard Goering told us, “He will be missed. Mike has been covering the EDA industry at EE Times for the past seven years, and has probably worked with most of the people on this list at one time or another. In our new re-organization, as many of you know, Mike was focusing on web coverage. Our management is working to find a replacement as soon as possible. Meanwhile, after Jan. 25, you can contact George Leopold gleopold@cmp.com regarding possible web stories. I’ll be helping to provide some guidance, so continue to copy me as well. My focus continues to be on EE Times print.Please join me in wishing Mike well in his new venture.”

CONTACTS

EDA editorial for EE Times print version: Richard Goering, RGoering@cmp.com
EDA editorial for EE Times web: George Leopold, gleopold@cmp.com
Advertising: Paul Miller, publishing director, pmiller@cmp.com
Website: http://www.cmp.com

Lisa Maliniak has been announced as Electronic Design’s eMedia editor and contributing editor to sister publication, Wireless Systems Design. Lisa is an electrical engineer and experienced technology editor. She has both a solid understanding of electronics technology and extensive knowledge of the information needs of Electronic Design’s readers. Lisa will work to broaden the editorial scope of Electronic Design’s eMedia offerings while facilitating quicker response to readers and their online needs. A top priority for the new eMedia Editor will be to expand the site’s online component and packaging product coverage.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Lisa Maliniak, eMedia editor, lmaliniak@penton.com

EE Times has announced that 77 finalists have been selected for the inaugural EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards to be held at the Embedded Systems Conference on March 9, 2005, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This event will honor the people, companies and products that demonstrate leadership in the electronics industry with a series of company and product awards. There are still some sponsorship opporunities.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Christian Fahlen, cfahlen@cmp.com
Advertising/marketing: Steve Corrick, scorrick@cmp.com

The 17th annual Embedded Systems Conference takes place March 6-10 at the Moscone Center. As the largest systems design event in North America, ESC San Francisco is one of the few places that brings all players in the electronics systems design industry together with the newest technologies, claims orgainsers CMP. The technical program is comprised of 250 hardware and software sessions presented by 300 leading experts. This year’s event taps the roots of the Embedded Systems Conference by focusing on the learning, networking, and cutting-edge technologies on which the industry thrives. New to this year’s technical program are seven design seminars that will provide in-depth, future-looking and vital design information on specific end-markets and enabling technologies; and, the Microprocessor Summit that will introduce new embedded processor, microcontroller and digital signal processor architectures.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Robert Keenan, rkeenan@cmp.com
Advertising: Stuart Bowen, sbowen@cmp.com

EE Times announced the launch of the Wireless Networking DesignLine Web site on January 19 (www.WirelessNetDesignLine.com). It’s an online resource developed by engineers for engineers in the wireless communications industry. The site content consists of contributed articles and provides design solutions, news and industry standards. It provides information on WiFi (IEEE 802.11 specifications), WiMax (IEEE 802.16 specifications), Bluetooth, Ultrawideband (UWB) and ZigBee/Wireless Mesh Networking. Also featured is the TechLibrary section, which features a series of links to resources about communications system design and standards, including UWB and Bluetooth specifications, International Engineering Consortium (IEC) tutorials, Wireless LAN (WLAN) specifications and WiMAX specifications.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Robert Keenan, rkeenan@cmp.com
Advertising: Tim Avia, tavila@cmp.com
Website: http://www.WirelessNetDesignLine.com

Electronics Supply & Manufacturing-China (ESM-China) has released the results of its third annual survey outlining courier, logistics and supply-chain trends in China, which shows that many mainland electronics companies are considering a switch to new providers in the near future. The survey covered three sectors—courier services, freight forwarding and supply-chain management (SCM) software—and attracted a total of 428 managers working in leading China-based electronics companies. Courier services attracted 148 respondents; freight forwarding, 121; and SCM software, 159. Key findings are that 47 percent of respondents to the courier survey plan to select a new service provider in the next 12 months, 47 percent of respondents to the supply-chain survey will purchase or upgrade their SCM software, and 44 percent of respondents to the logistics survey will likely switch to a new freight forwarder.

CONTACTS

To order a copy contact:
Asia: Vivek Nanda, vnanda@globalsources.com
US: Chuck Armitage: cjarmitage@globalsources.com
Europe: Patrick Flynn, pflynn@cmp.com

CMP is shortly to launch web and print versions of EE Times Japan.

No further details have yet been announced.

CONTACTS

Paul Miller, publishing director, pmiller@cmp.com

Electronic Engineering Times-Asia and Gartner Dataquest have announced the results of 2005 Embedded Systems Development Trends: Asia, their annual joint study of Asia and China’s embedded systems development tools market. Survey results indicate that demand for embedded systems in the Asia-Pacific region is strongest in the consumer electronics sector, with 28 percent of the respondents citing it as the primary area of application. Communications was the second most important application segment, with 24 percent of respondents citing it as the area where their designs are most often used.This finding marks a shift from the 2004 survey, where 27 percent of those surveyed said communications was the main application area for their designs, and 22 percent cited consumer electronics. This year’s survey was conducted in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean. It attracted more than 900 engineers from the Asia-Pacific region—42 percent of the respondents were based in Taiwan, 37 percent in mainland China, 7 percent in South Korea, and 14 percent in India and Southeast Asia. The survey results also indicate a shift from 8-bit and 16-bit microprocessors usage toward 32-bit and 64-bit, a trend that is expected to intensify in the long term. Among the surveyed engineers, the proportion working with 64-bit architectures will increase from 6 percent at present to 12 percent over the next 12 months. Conversely, the percentage of engineers using 8-bit microcomponents is expected to decline to 16 percent, from 43 percent at present. C, C++ and Assembly are still the three most commonly used programming languages for embedded systems development across the region.

CONTACTS

More information: Vivek Nanda, vnanda@globalsources.com

AGS Media Group announces the launch of Power Systems Design China (PSDC) in March to coincide with “electronicaChina” and “PCIM China” trade shows in Shanghai. Power Systems Design China adds to the existing franchise and brand, consisting of Power Systems Design Europe (PSDE) print and online properties. “Using our strength and global understanding of the power electronics market, Power Systems Design China (PSDC) will be China’s premiere International publication focused exclusively on the technical needs of China’s power electronics industry” states Jim Graham, publishing director. In both a print and online format (www.powersystemsdesignchina.com) Power Systems Design China will provide the Chinese engineering community detailed global technology, applications, product and news relevant to China’s power, power management and motion control markets, says the publisher. Power Systems Design China will be published quarterly during 2005 and distributed to 10,000 of China’s power electronics engineering professionals.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Bodo Arlt, editorial director,
bodo.arlt@powersystemsdesign.com
Advertising: Julia Stocks, julia@powersystemsdesign.com
Web: http://www.powersystemsdesignchina.com/psdc/psdclogn.htm

Jean-Pierre Joosting has re-joined CMP as editorial director for its three pan-European publications: Electronics Express Europe (EXE), Embedded Systems Europe (ESE) and Microwave Engineering Europe (MEE). Jean-Pierre has previously held editorial posts on both Reed Business and CMP publications. He moves back into publishing after working in the technical PR industry.

CONTACTS

Editorial:
EXE: Henri Arnold, editor-in-chief, editorial@electronics-express.com
ESE: Colin Holland, editor, colin.holland@btinternet.com
MEE: Helen Duncan, editor, hduncan@mwemedia.com
Advertising: Tony Johnson, advertising director, tjohnson@mercuryin.es

On February 2nd Bits&Chips has an event about Software for Wireless Systems at the Dorint Cocagne Sofitel in Eindhoven. There will be presentations about narrow band, wide band, mobile and Dect. On April 21 the fourth Bits&Chips Embedded Conference will take place at the Koningshof in Veldhoven. This annual event is visited by 600 professionals from the embedded industry.

CONTACTS

Editorial: René Raaijmakers, rene@techwatch.nl
Advertising: Mirjam Maat, mirjam@techwatch.nl
Web: www.bits-chips.nl/events.asp

elektronikJOURNAL will publish a special issue about electronic production technologies prior to this year’s SMT/HYBRID/PACKAGING exhibition on April14th. Editorial will cover PCB-layout and assembly, ATE and test equipment, contract manufacturing, bonding, reflow soldering, SMD/SMT, connectors for PCBs and the latest news about the forthcoming exhibition. Targeted at production specialists, circulation will be 15,000 copies: Germany 11,000, Austria 2,000 and Switzerland 2,000.

CONTACTS

Editorial (production technologies): J. Fehlbaum, j.fehlbaum@elektronikjournal.ch
Advertising: Christoph Weiss,c.weiss@elektronikjournal.de

Electronics Express Europe (EXE) achieved 51% market share over EPN’s 49% overall during 2004 when comparing advertising pages, claims EXE sales director, Tony Johnson. He added that in 2003 EPN had 53% market share compared with our 47% and that comparing both January 2005 issues, Electronics Express had 57% market share compared with EPN’s 43%.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Henri Arnold, editor-in-chief, editorial@electronics-express.com
Advertising: Tony Johnson, advertising director, tjohnson@mercuryin.es

UML for Systems Engineering is an event for all the major systems industry people who want to keep abreast of the latest development in the UML sector and its applications on a wider scale.17 February 2005, The IEE, London, UK.

CONTACTS

Web: http://www.iee.org/events/uml05.cfm

The IEE has launched Flipside, a unique glossy magazine targeted at young teens aged 11-15, to show them the exciting and glamorous side of science, engineering and technology (SET). The new title is edited by IEE Editor in Chief Dickon Ross. The IEE, industry, academia and government have long running concerns that, if left unchecked, the falling level of SET take-up among young people could lead to a major SET skills gap impacting businesses and the UK economy. Flipside has been developed to address these concerns. Presented in a picture-led, consumer-style that makes these subjects fun, factual and engaging, Flipside provides new emphasis on science-based subjects and brings them up to date with verve, colour and relevance, claim the IEE. Initially each secondary school library in the UK will receive three free copies of the magazine. The first of eight issues in 2005 will come out on 10 January 2005. Flipside’s website will complement the magazine by providing more information on features, career advice, quizzes and puzzles. Readers will be able to subscribe to the magazine on the website at £20 for eight issues. Flipside is supported by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and other charitable organisations including the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Institution, Institute of Physics, The Royal Society, Science Museum, Women Into Science and Engineering and the Natural History Museum.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Dickon Ross, flipside@flipside.org.uk
Advertising: Steph Pomphrey, adsales@flipside.org.uk
Website: www.flipside.org.uk

Dickon Ross has been appointed Editor in Chief at IEE Publishing, responsible for the editorial content of a portfolio of titles that includes flagship monthly IEE Review, seven sector-specific professional magazines and the weekly Network News. Dickon joined the IEE in 2003 as News Editor for the relaunched IEE Review and has been responsible for the development of Flipside, a technology magazine for teenagers launched this month by the IEE. He was formerly News Editor of Electronics Times.

CONTACTS

Editorial:Dickon Ross, dmross@iee.org.uk
Advertising: Steve Diprose, sdiprose@iee.org.uk
Website: www.iee.org

IEE Review has emerged as the UK’s electronics sector’s most popular journal for technical articles in a media readership research survey sponsored by Altera and Mentor Graphics. In addition The IEE was ranked as the second best read publication, out scored only by Electronics Weekly. IEE Sales Director Steve Diprose said the results of the research recognise the significant progress made by The IEE since its relaunch at the start of 2003. “We’ve made a significant investment in overhauling all our publications, including our sector specific titles and online content,” he commented. “This shows that the Review is a magazine that’s really relevant to its readers working in the electronics industry.”

CONTACTS

Editorial: Dominic Lenton, dlenton@iee.org.uk
Advertising: Steve Diprose, sdiprose@iee.org.uk
Website: www.iee.org/review

The IEE has announced plans for a major new industry awards event in London this year that will recognise achievements in a wide range of sectors. The IEE Innovation in Engineering Awards will be held at the IEE’s Savoy Place building on 14 September to coincide with a major conference on Commercialising Future Technologies, which will have six tracks, organised over two days on the 14-15 September. There will be 15 awards in total including the Faraday Medal for leadership, and the presentations will be followed by a dinner for shortlisted companies and award sponsors in the Riverside Dining Room overlooking the Thames. Awards will be presented in 14 categories: manufacturing, electronics, transport , IT, security, telecommunications, power, robotics and control, sustainability, electrical technologies, best project team, emerging technologies, product design and leadership. Judging panels will consist of members of IEE Professional Network Executive Teams, prominent IEE members such as Sir Robin Saxby, sponsors and magazine editors.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Barrie Ross-Dow, brossdow@iee.org.uk
Advertising: Steve Diprose, sdiprose@iee.org.uk
Website: www.iee.org

The organising committee invites offers of contributions to the ‘largest optical communications conference in Europe’. ECOC 2005 is to be held in the impressive surroundings of the SECC, Glasgow, Scotland from 25 - 29 September 2005. Greater Glasgow & Clyde Valley is one of Europe’s most exciting and beautiful destinations, which combines the energy and sophistication of a great international city with some of Scotland’s most spectacular scenery, claim the organisers. Diary dates: receipt of regular papers by Thursday, 28 April 2005; post deadline receipt of papers by Thursday, 8 September 2005.

CONTACTS

Web: http://www.ecoc.co.uk.

WIMAX & MESH NETWORKS will take place from 14 - 15 June 2005 at the IEE, Savoy Place, London. This two-day event is organised by the IEE Communications Professional Network, and will bring together industry leaders and experts in these two rapidly emerging technologies. This event will give key insights into the technical challenges and the value proposition of WiMax and Mesh Networking implementation, says the IEE. Through case studies and keynote presentations, industry leaders will share first-hand experience and provide knowledge of the latest developments. The workshop will examine critical issues such as the competition and market segments between Mesh and WiMax, and how, or if, they can co-exist. Speakers include Paul Senior, Board Member, WiMax Forum; Jim Baker, CEO/Founder,Telabria Wireless Networks; Malcolm Corbett, Director, Community Broadband Network.

CONTACTS

Web: http://www.iee.org/OnComms/PN/communications/Futureevents.cfm

Power Systems Design Europe (PSDE) has claimed that, after just one year, it has overtaken rival publication Power Electronics Europe (PEE) in terms of both number of advertising and editorial pages. PEE claims to have published 557 pages in total in 2004, against 394 pages for PEE. Editorial pages are said to be higher too, at 353.20 against 228.74. (I must confess, I struggle to see how measurement gets down to 0.74 of a page unless 0.26 of a page is a new advertising size? We haven’t heard from PEE this month, but expect to next month and will let you know the response! Ed.)

CONTACTS

Editorial: Bodo Arlt, editorial director, bodo.arlt@powersystemsdesign.com
Advertising: Julia Stocks, julia@powersystemsdesign.com

After years of stagnation the leading German electronics titles are in good spirit again. The third party ad volume statistics media analysis by Vertriebsunion Meynen puts growth of ad pages of 9.5 per cent to 5,241 pages in 2004, amounting to 33.6 million Euro, an increase of 10.2 per cent over 2003. WEKA titles did well: Markt & Technik grew by 167 pages to a total sum of 1,510 pages. Elektronik grew 70 pages to 1,089 pages, and Design & Elekctronik grew by 26.5 per cent.

CONTACTS

Editorial:
M&T: Peter Wintermayr, editor-in-chief, pwintermayr@elektroniknet.de
Elektronik: Guenther Klasche, editor-in-chief, gklasche@elektronik.de
Design & Elektronik: Caspar Grote, editor-in-chief, cgrote@design-elektronik.de
Advertising: Matthaeus Hose, director marketing, mhose@elektroniknet.de

According to independent IVW-Online organisation elektroniknet.de is by far the leading site in the category “electronics” with 3.224 million page impressions (+41%) in 2004 and 1.078 million visits (+28%). elektroniknet.de achieves 3.4 times more page impressions and 2.3 times more visits than the next competitor in the fields of professional electronics, according to IVW-Online organisation.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Peter Wintermayr, editor-in-chief, pwintermayr@elektroniknet.de
Advertising: Burkhard Bock, media sales, bbock@elektroniknet.de

The death has been announced of veteran Swedish Editor, Thore Rösnes. The following announcement from his friend and colleague, Gunnar Lilliesköld, is published unedited: Thore Rösnes has passed away. The very well known editor of Elektronik i Norden, Thore Rösnes, has passed away Januari 13. He was only 69 years old when a severe cancer took his life. Under four decades he formed the scene for electronic magazines in Nordic countries. Starting his career at the magazine Radio & Television 1962 - 1966 he then decided to form his own publishing company: in 1970 the titles Stereo HiFi and Modern Elektronik appeared. Modern Elektronik ran until 1991 when it was sold and discontinued by the new owner. The year after he, together with the former staff from Modern Elektronik, started a new publishing company, this time aiming for a complete Nordic coverage. The new title was named Elektronik i Norden and it was an immediate success. During the years Thore also started up several other magazines as “test balloons”: TME (Tidningen Modern elektronik) and Elektronic World (published in California). The magazine Datornytt ran for ten years. Seven years ago Thore moved to the west coast of Sweden, sold his shares of Elektronik i Norden AB and planned for a more relaxed life to get more time for his big interest: Music. He launched a magazine for jazz and modern chamber music, but continued all the time for Elektronik i Norden as leader writer and covering several important special subject fields. His followed his intention, to write until the end. Sadly we bid farwell of an old friend, inspiring editor and entrepreneur.

Gunnar Lilliesköld
Göte Fagerfjäll
Tommy Jägermo
Erik Boman

When we advertised for a new PR director in Publitek Media News, December, this interesting application was sent in from an old friend and PR professional. It’s published here in the hope that it may inspire others to write more effective job applications:

Dear Bob,

I refer to the latest edition of the Publitek Media News. I must confess I skipped all the self-important claptrap about fellow publishing professionals and went straight to Item 20 - your advertisement for a new account director. I am your man. Young(ish), fairly enthusiastic and driven by a keen desire to maximise my earnings while maintaining a relaxed, not to say decadent, lifestyle, I think you need to look no further. I offer many advantages over the callow youths hat may be tempted to respond to your advertisement. For instance, having worked for myself since 1982, I am totally inflexible and set in my ways so you know exactly what you are getting from the start. In addition, I am proud to say that I buck the modern and depressing trend in that I do lunch - everyday. I am sure you will find this an attractive attribute, well worth the odd missing afternoon. As you are aware I’m highly professional in that I never do anything for nothing and I am flexible in my approach and will tackle any client anywhere with maximum enthusiasm. I do, naturally, put some limitations on the scope of my work. For obvious reasons I never venture more than an hour or so drive from West Berkshire Golf Club and I think it only fair to make it clear at the outset that I only work for cheery and co-operative people. I simply cannot tolerate young smart alecs who think they know better than I do! I am perfectly willing to deal with lady clients providing they are charming and attractive. If they are very charming they don’t have to be all that attractive and if they are extremely attractive they don’t have be charming at all, but you get my gist.

As for hours, of course I’m willing to work quite a few hours every week. In addition, on the couple of days a week I am obliged to play golf you may rest assured that I will be available on my mobile telephone for a few minutes between the 18th and 19th holes to deal with those critical telephone calls. Naturally such dedication comes at a price! I am also sparing on holiday demands. I would only require six weeks or so paid leave a year, assuming of course that my normal winter and spring golfing breaks in Portugal are honoured. Well, I find the weather this time of year so depressing in this country. I’m sure you will agree I’m just the sort of person you are seeking. I’m afraid I don’t do CVs or interviews but would ask you to forward the details of your outrageously competitive remuneration package for my consideration and we can commence negotiations. I can start any time you like, once the weather has warmed up a bit. Towards the end of March will suit me fine as I could do with a bit of a cash injection for my holiday planned in early May. I look forward to hearing from you. Dave

DANISH POWER-DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES SPENDS A £BILLION(!) ON OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE

The Danish power-grid has become completely privatized after a model similar to what happened for the telecom-infrastructure some years ago. There is however a major difference: Power-lines are often physically changed leading to a lot of digging and replacing cables. Now the various power-distribution companies are planning to place fiberoptics along with the power-cables. Within a eyar or two this should lead to a complete, nationwide fiber-to-the-home solution. The infrastructure in itself should be worth more than a billion GBP leading to massive spendings in optical fibres, routers and drops. All of the Danish users will then get access to Gbit-connections literally on their doorstep, leading to the implementation on completely new services. Denmark is likely to be the first nation where the whole infrastructure will be based on fibreoptics and Gigabit-communication and it’s quite possible that the infrastructure will open up for completely new businesses within the optical communications and services. (It’s worth mentioning that the Danish Intel-subsidiary has split-up into numerous small start-up companies working with optical communication - and companies like Giga, and before that NKT, are frontrunners in the development on fibreoptical solutions). Aktuel Elektronik will of course keep a keen eye on the development of the changes in the national infrastructure.

CONTACTS

Editorial: Rolf Sylvester-Hvid, editor-in-chief
Advertising: Ulla Molter, sales-manager

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