Inside Electronics

The electronic design industry is always in a pattern of development and re-development as it forges into the future. But what about the communities involved? There are two sides to that story: the customers in the community, who use the products and services created, and the municipalities and governments looking for investment and development. In this episode, we talk to Don Cunningham, President and CEO of Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, about the challenges and opportunities communities face in an evolving industrial environment. 

Our connected and intelligent world is based on advanced embedded systems that are in a state of disruptive evolution and upward migration. In this podcast, we sit down with Jim Beneke, who is with Tria, an Avnet company. Tria develops embedded compute solutions and was formerly MSC Technologies.

The Robot Operating System (ROS) is middleware that can be used for almost any type of robotic platform including self-driving cars. ROS is an open-source system hosted at ROS.org. It runs a top conventional operating systems like Linux and Windows and has been used in many robotic applications.  
In this episode of Inside Electronics, we talk with Jan Becker, CEO at Apex.ai, about ROS and how it is being used in automotive applications including issues related to certification.  

Today’s cloud is a polylingual, multi-spectral, multiple-methodology ecosystem, meaning that devices must become more intelligent to encompass it and operate in an optimal fashion. Today, one must have a wireless strategy for Wi-Fi, public cellular, private cellular, and IoT wireless backhaul. Companies like Nextivity offer solutions that enable wireless functionality for voice and data, with systems that are network safe and have a no-noise guarantee.

Residential energy storage is undergoing rapid innovation, driven by the need for efficient solar energy utilization and dynamic grid participation. Texas Instruments' Henrik Magnesson emphasizes that as feed-in tariffs decline and market-driven energy pricing becomes prevalent, homeowners will increasingly turn to battery energy storage systems (ESS) to store excess solar generation for use during peak demand, to charge EVs, or to exploit profitable energy arbitrage opportunities. Click here to listen to Part 1 of this chat.

This first, of a two part series, Inside Electronics podcast, guest-hosted by technology editor Andy Turudic of Electronic Design, features Henrik Mannesson, General Manager of Grid Infrastructure and Power Delivery Industrial Systems at Texas Instruments (TI), discussing the evolving landscape of energy infrastructure with a focus on the pivotal role of semiconductors in the renewable energy transition.

Not every microcontroller can handle artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) chores. Simplifying the models is one way to squeeze algorithms into a more compact embedded compute engine. Another way is to pair it with an AI accelerator like Femtosense’s Sparse Processing Unit (SPU) SPU-001 and take advantage of sparsity in AI/ML models.
In this episode, Sam Fok, CEO at Femtosense, talks about AI/ML on the edge, the company's dual sparsity design, and how the small, low power SPU-001 can augment a host processor. 

As navigation becomes increasingly vulnerable to jamming, spoofing, or complete denial, military forces operating in contested environments face significant challenges, not just in navigation, but in coordination, safety, and mission success. ANELLO Photonics has developed an innovative Silicon Photonics Optical Gyroscope (SiPhOG) to serve autonomous vehicles using silicon photonics, accelerometers, and gyroscopes for accurate and reliable positioning and navigation.

In this episode, we talk to Jerry Twomey, an engineering consultant with a deep background in electronics design, medical devices, electro-mechanical systems, and board-level integrated circuits. He is the author of the book “Applied Embedded Electronics – Design Essentials for Robust Systems," a comprehensive reference that covers the design process from initial concept to final PCB, for all embedded system electronics.

Mike Engelhardt is an American computer programmer, author, and entrepreneur who is renowned for developing the SPICE-based analog electronic circuit simulator computer software. Known for his wide-brimmed hat and bow tie, Mike is the innovative mind behind Qorvo’s simulator, QSPICE, and is not just known for his technical acumen, but also for his often unconventional approach to engineering. In this podcast, we get to sit down with him and talk about electronics and engineering from his point of view.