Been all around this world
SAN DIEGO–Somewhere along a sun-smooched stretch of road here in May, we circled the Earth. Our journey to hunt down innovation stories across the country in a Chevy Volt officially crossed 24,901 miles, one measure of the earth's circumference. We're [...]
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Written by Brian
When one foot’s on the dock… 
CLEARWATER, Fla.–In most technology-adoption periods, there's a time when users are require to straddle two worlds, old and new, with one foot on the dock and one on the boat. Innovation tends to slip into any vaccuum and make that [...]
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Written by Brian
Change of scenery
What does Led Zeppelin have to do with Shockley Semiconductor? Very little, unless you read, as I did the other day, a piece about the legendary rock band and your mind wandered. Peter Cook wrote a piece about Led Zeppelin [...]
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Written by Brian
‘It takes tenacity to become a female engineer’
PHOENIX–That was Eliza Nelson's take when we spoke with her at "Girls Have 'IT' Day" here at Xavier College Preparatory. More design resources Nelson, an Avnet FAE, was invited to speak at the event to help inspire girls gathered here [...]
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Written by Brian
Rugged challenges
HUNTSVILLE, Ala.–Sometimes you wonder why some people pursue the paths they do, why a good solid technology chases a crowded space, like a moth to flame, so brilliant one moment and vaporized the next. More design resources Take ruggedized computers [...]
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Written by Brian
Making the grid smart
RALEIGH, N.C.–Mike Sinclair stretches a faint smile and puts it plainly: "one of the issues you have with this new smart grid stuff is that it's not all quite ironed out." That's a good-news bad-news story: The bad news is [...]
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Written by Brian
What B.S. filter do you use for your own ideas?
You've no doubt heard the phrase your baby's ugly. You've probably used it to describe some piece of technology you've seen somewhere, or maybe had the courage to say so in a customer design meeting. But how do you come [...]
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Written by Brian
Innovation is dead (a panel discussion)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — You could be forgiven if your outlook for the long-term future of the North American electronics industry is dire. Mine once was. In fact, I went into this yearlong road trip hoping for good predictions but [...]
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Written by Brian
The vandal’s message
You know because you comment so diversely and passionately on this site that the Volt is a lightning rod for opinion. Apparently in my neighborhood in San Francisco, the car itself is magnet for commentary. Last week, I found someone [...]
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Written by Brian
A new direction for mixed-signal
AUSTIN, Texas–LED lighting is exploding (figuratively) these days, and IC vendors are jumping at the opportunity to get into new markets, either with LEDs themselves or supporting circuitry. More design resources In March, Cirrus Logic, long considered a major player [...]
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Written by Brian