The industrial automation and control field is an ever-changing mish-mash of protocols, standards, and conventions.  Recently, there has been a wave of replacement sweeping the networking standards space as proprietary and legacy standards give way to more cost-effective off-the-shelf solutions such as Ethernet.  The advantages of Ethernet-based networking are probably obvious – high availability of low-cost, high-reliability infrastructure, built-in future-proofing, very high bandwidth by industrial control standards, and the ability to integrate more smoothly with other types of equipment that are not part of the traditional industrial automation ecosystem.

As these standards shift, however, we … Read More → "Industrial Revolution"

The rack of heavy-iron blade servers whirrs away, dishing up data and mashing myriad algorithms for hundreds of users throughout the corporate campus.  Most of them have no awareness whatsoever of the physical location of the computing resources doing their dirty work.  Day by day and week by week the blades and racks are removed, replaced, upgraded, and re-tasked.  One capacity increase is accomplished by stacking in additional blades, the next by replacing an outdated rack with a new, smaller one with fewer blades and vastly more processing power.

Those of us who have … Read More → "From Servers to Smartphones"

Embedded Technology Journal turns a terrific two years old today.  What does this mean?  For us, two years of your loyal patronage means that we’re doing something right.  It means that we were right about you, our readers – that engineers are intelligent, worldly, interesting people who want more than a datasheet, a press release, or a marketing pitch to satisfy their curiosity about the industry in which they work.  Surviving and thriving for two years in the competitive world of publishing shows that our approach to technology journalism – chronicling the technological … Read More → "Happy Birthday"

Usually, when we attend a major conference, we run a “pre-conference” piece ahead of time – just to whet your appetite.  This time, however, we decided to try something new.  We are, after all, a new media publication.  We want to show off some more of that new-media capability by covering this year’s ARM Developers’ Conference by webcast rather than by feature articles.

The idea started simply enough – On October 2nd, we celebrate Embedded Technology Journal’s second anniversary – a landmark event to be sure (at … Read More → "Breaking New Ground"

The ring is to be worn on the pinkie, its sharp barbs meant possibly to irritate the wearer slightly – a constant reminder of its presence and its symbolic meaning.  The piece is neither presumptuous nor ornate – the original material being iron (which rusted), and most current versions being made of stainless steel for practicality.  The twelve half-circle facets cut into the top and bottom are staggered, emulating a hand-tooled look.  Every aspect of the ring’s design is meant to make it utilitarian – devoid of any aesthetic value that might move it … Read More → "Ritual Ring"