Friday, November 03, 2006
Supercapacitors star in photo flash survey
Study compares flash solutions for their ability to provide the light energy that camera phones of 2Mpixel or more need to take digital-still-camera-quality pictures in low light.
Cap-XX has published the results of a study comparing flash solutions - xenon, standard LEDs and high-current LEDs powered by a supercapacitor, or Cap-XX's LED BriteFlash - for their ability to provide the light energy that camera phones of 2Mpixel or more need to take digital-still-camera-quality pictures in low light. Tests showed that the light energy from Cap-XX's LED BriteFlash exceeds most xenon flashes. Additionally, a thin supercapacitor fits a slim handset more easily than the electrolytic storage capacitor required for xenon, and can offload demands from the battery and handle all mobile-phone functions that need peak power - wireless voice and data, GPS readings, digital video, music and TV - improving talk time, battery life and audio quality.
'Camera phones are improving with more megapixels and better lenses, image-processing software and anti-handshake features', explained Pierre Mars, Cap-XX Vice President of Applications Engineering.
'The area that lags behind is the power and energy of the flash for taking pictures in low light'.
The key to clear pictures is light energy - the total amount of light that fills a camera's pixels during image-capture time.
On the other hand, light power refers to the intensity of a flash.
Light energy is determined as the product of light power (in lux) multiplied by the flash duration (in seconds).
A light energy of 10-15 lux-s is ideal for high-resolution pictures.
Xenon flash has excellent light power, but a very short flash exposure time.
An LED flash, powered by a supercapacitor, delivers lower light power over a longer flash exposure time for total light energy that exceeds or equals most xenon flashes.
'We have seen images taken with well-known camera-phone models both with and without Cap-XX's supercapacitor-enabled LED flash and the differences are dramatic', said Tony Henning, Mobile Imaging Analyst, 6Sight Future of Imaging.
'Subjects up to 10ft from the camera are well-illuminated with the Cap-XX solution and all but pitch black without'.
Cap-XX CEO Anthony Kongats said: 'We are working with key mobile-phone manufacturers and expect the first designs that are power-boosted by our Supercapacitors to hit the market late 2007 or 2008'.
The study, which is published on the Cap-XX website, compares light power and energy, shutter requirements, ease of design-in, safety and size of both solutions.
Cap-XX has published the results of a study comparing flash solutions - xenon, standard LEDs and high-current LEDs powered by a supercapacitor, or Cap-XX's LED BriteFlash - for their ability to provide the light energy that camera phones of 2Mpixel or more need to take digital-still-camera-quality pictures in low light. Tests showed that the light energy from Cap-XX's LED BriteFlash exceeds most xenon flashes. Additionally, a thin supercapacitor fits a slim handset more easily than the electrolytic storage capacitor required for xenon, and can offload demands from the battery and handle all mobile-phone functions that need peak power - wireless voice and data, GPS readings, digital video, music and TV - improving talk time, battery life and audio quality.
'Camera phones are improving with more megapixels and better lenses, image-processing software and anti-handshake features', explained Pierre Mars, Cap-XX Vice President of Applications Engineering.
'The area that lags behind is the power and energy of the flash for taking pictures in low light'.
The key to clear pictures is light energy - the total amount of light that fills a camera's pixels during image-capture time.
On the other hand, light power refers to the intensity of a flash.
Light energy is determined as the product of light power (in lux) multiplied by the flash duration (in seconds).
A light energy of 10-15 lux-s is ideal for high-resolution pictures.
Xenon flash has excellent light power, but a very short flash exposure time.
An LED flash, powered by a supercapacitor, delivers lower light power over a longer flash exposure time for total light energy that exceeds or equals most xenon flashes.
'We have seen images taken with well-known camera-phone models both with and without Cap-XX's supercapacitor-enabled LED flash and the differences are dramatic', said Tony Henning, Mobile Imaging Analyst, 6Sight Future of Imaging.
'Subjects up to 10ft from the camera are well-illuminated with the Cap-XX solution and all but pitch black without'.
Cap-XX CEO Anthony Kongats said: 'We are working with key mobile-phone manufacturers and expect the first designs that are power-boosted by our Supercapacitors to hit the market late 2007 or 2008'.
The study, which is published on the Cap-XX website, compares light power and energy, shutter requirements, ease of design-in, safety and size of both solutions.
# posted by Swathi @ 12:59 AM
Compact inductors handle the heat
Four new series of low-cost low-profile small-footprint high-power surface-mount inductors are ideal for compact high-density board configurations that run at high temperatures.
Four new series of low-cost low-profile small-footprint high-power surface-mount inductors are ideal for compact high-density board configurations that run at high temperatures as they all have an extended operating temperature up to 130C. Each of the series has low DCR, high current ratings and excellent thermal efficiency, but the new PG0137 and PG0083 series have the smallest footprints of them all at just 6.8 x 6.8mm (industry standard 2525 footprint). There are two key design elements that separate the PG0137 and PG0083 series from competing parts.
One is the self-leaded product termination, where the ends of the coil form the solder termination point.
The second is the advanced core material that eliminates the risk of thermal aging.
All the series can be used in any high current rating low profile application.
The wide inductance range enables designers to customise the designs for different inductance needs.
Extended operating temperatures mean that all the devices can be used for high temperature systems, especially on voltage regulator modules used in P4 or higher microprocessors.
This family of series is designed to help manufacturers in lowering the component cost of AC/DC switched-mode power supplies and DC/DC convertors in distributed power architectures (DPA) for high-performance servers and workstations, telecom network switches, routers, basestation equipment, point of load (POL) systems and voltage regulator modules (VRMs).
Four new series of low-cost low-profile small-footprint high-power surface-mount inductors are ideal for compact high-density board configurations that run at high temperatures as they all have an extended operating temperature up to 130C. Each of the series has low DCR, high current ratings and excellent thermal efficiency, but the new PG0137 and PG0083 series have the smallest footprints of them all at just 6.8 x 6.8mm (industry standard 2525 footprint). There are two key design elements that separate the PG0137 and PG0083 series from competing parts.
One is the self-leaded product termination, where the ends of the coil form the solder termination point.
The second is the advanced core material that eliminates the risk of thermal aging.
All the series can be used in any high current rating low profile application.
The wide inductance range enables designers to customise the designs for different inductance needs.
Extended operating temperatures mean that all the devices can be used for high temperature systems, especially on voltage regulator modules used in P4 or higher microprocessors.
This family of series is designed to help manufacturers in lowering the component cost of AC/DC switched-mode power supplies and DC/DC convertors in distributed power architectures (DPA) for high-performance servers and workstations, telecom network switches, routers, basestation equipment, point of load (POL) systems and voltage regulator modules (VRMs).
# posted by Swathi @ 12:58 AM
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Toolbox eases distribution of computing tasks
The MathWorks Distributed Computing Toolbox 3 is billed as a major breakthrough for parallel algorithm development.
The MathWorks Distributed Computing Toolbox 3 is billed as a major breakthrough for parallel algorithm development by enabling engineers and scientists to prototype and develop parallel algorithms in Matlab interactively and without the need to program message passing. This streamlined workflow avoids the inefficiencies of parallel computing methods that involve low-level programming with languages such as Fortran or C and libraries such as the Message Passing Interface (MPI). Researchers using Distributed Computing Toolbox 3 to distribute their calculations across multiple processors can tackle more computationally and data-intensive problems faster than previously possible.
Today's engineers and scientists, faced with the demand to model increasingly complex systems in less time, are pursuing parallel solutions in high-performance computing (HPC) distributed environments made out of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) multiprocessor, multicore computers.
To take advantage of these distributed environments, however, they must keep track of message passing details such as synchronising data between processors and managing interprocessor communications, effort that competes with their research activities.
Distributed Computing Toolbox 3 simplifies the development of parallel applications in two significant ways.
First, the toolbox supports a parallel programming model known as global array semantics, which treats related data distributed across processors as a single distributed array rather than as independent arrays on different processors.
Through distributed arrays, researchers can perform operations directly on arrays without having to manage the tedious details of message passing.
The toolbox provides more than 150 Matlab functions for distributed arrays, including linear algebra routines based on Scalapack.
'Engineers and scientists who lack programming expertise can now take advantage of distributed arrays and easily convert a serial Matlab program to a parallel one', explained Silvina Grad-Freilich, Product Manager for Distributed Computing and Application Deployment Products at The MathWorks.
Second, the toolbox includes a new interactive parallel mode of execution so that researchers can work interactively with a parallel job running simultaneously on several processors or cores.
This mode facilitates iterative exploration, design development, and problem solving.
'We are excited by the new parallel computing capabilities in Matlab', said Robert Schreiber, Distinguished Technologist at HP Laboratories.
'By reducing the complexity of parallel computing, The MathWorks makes parallelism more accessible to application programmers creating technical computing applications'.
Distributed Computing Toolbox 3 supports the full Matlab language, most MathWorks products and all supported Matlab platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Solaris, Unix, Linux and Macintosh.
Matlab Distributed Computing Engine 3 is required to run the toolbox.
UK list prices start at GBP 800 for the toolbox and GBP 4800 for the engine.
The MathWorks Distributed Computing Toolbox 3 is billed as a major breakthrough for parallel algorithm development by enabling engineers and scientists to prototype and develop parallel algorithms in Matlab interactively and without the need to program message passing. This streamlined workflow avoids the inefficiencies of parallel computing methods that involve low-level programming with languages such as Fortran or C and libraries such as the Message Passing Interface (MPI). Researchers using Distributed Computing Toolbox 3 to distribute their calculations across multiple processors can tackle more computationally and data-intensive problems faster than previously possible.
Today's engineers and scientists, faced with the demand to model increasingly complex systems in less time, are pursuing parallel solutions in high-performance computing (HPC) distributed environments made out of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) multiprocessor, multicore computers.
To take advantage of these distributed environments, however, they must keep track of message passing details such as synchronising data between processors and managing interprocessor communications, effort that competes with their research activities.
Distributed Computing Toolbox 3 simplifies the development of parallel applications in two significant ways.
First, the toolbox supports a parallel programming model known as global array semantics, which treats related data distributed across processors as a single distributed array rather than as independent arrays on different processors.
Through distributed arrays, researchers can perform operations directly on arrays without having to manage the tedious details of message passing.
The toolbox provides more than 150 Matlab functions for distributed arrays, including linear algebra routines based on Scalapack.
'Engineers and scientists who lack programming expertise can now take advantage of distributed arrays and easily convert a serial Matlab program to a parallel one', explained Silvina Grad-Freilich, Product Manager for Distributed Computing and Application Deployment Products at The MathWorks.
Second, the toolbox includes a new interactive parallel mode of execution so that researchers can work interactively with a parallel job running simultaneously on several processors or cores.
This mode facilitates iterative exploration, design development, and problem solving.
'We are excited by the new parallel computing capabilities in Matlab', said Robert Schreiber, Distinguished Technologist at HP Laboratories.
'By reducing the complexity of parallel computing, The MathWorks makes parallelism more accessible to application programmers creating technical computing applications'.
Distributed Computing Toolbox 3 supports the full Matlab language, most MathWorks products and all supported Matlab platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Solaris, Unix, Linux and Macintosh.
Matlab Distributed Computing Engine 3 is required to run the toolbox.
UK list prices start at GBP 800 for the toolbox and GBP 4800 for the engine.
# posted by Swathi @ 10:45 AM
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Bourns rewards European distributor of the year
TTI has achieved the 2003 Bourns European distributor of the year award in recognition of the outstanding growth and commitment to partnership.
TTI has achieved the 2003 Bourns European distributor of the year award in recognition of the outstanding growth and commitment to partnership. Commented Graham Maggs, Bourns' European Distribution Sales Manager: "TTI outperformed all partners within the Bourns distribution network, despite very difficult market conditions for everyone during the whole of 2003". Gisela Baker (Bourns' Distribution Sales Manager Central Europe) said that TTI is the fastest growing distributor, explaining that TTI has extended its POP (point of purchase) by 25%.
She commented: "Overall we are very satisfied with the performance of TTI, especially in Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany.
We hope that our good relationship will continue to the benefit of our customers".
Added Maggs: "TTI was chosen for this award as we feel that they have excelled during the past 12 months as a partner, in exceeding targets, creating and identifying new business, and in developing new products - such as magnetics, web activities and relationships".
TTI has achieved the 2003 Bourns European distributor of the year award in recognition of the outstanding growth and commitment to partnership. Commented Graham Maggs, Bourns' European Distribution Sales Manager: "TTI outperformed all partners within the Bourns distribution network, despite very difficult market conditions for everyone during the whole of 2003". Gisela Baker (Bourns' Distribution Sales Manager Central Europe) said that TTI is the fastest growing distributor, explaining that TTI has extended its POP (point of purchase) by 25%.
She commented: "Overall we are very satisfied with the performance of TTI, especially in Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany.
We hope that our good relationship will continue to the benefit of our customers".
Added Maggs: "TTI was chosen for this award as we feel that they have excelled during the past 12 months as a partner, in exceeding targets, creating and identifying new business, and in developing new products - such as magnetics, web activities and relationships".
# posted by Swathi @ 9:04 PM
Green strategy focuses on range expansion
Premier Farnell has announced the results of its strategic business review initiated following the appointment of Harriet Green as Group CEO .
Premier Farnell has announced the results of its strategic business review initiated following the appointment of Harriet Green as Group CEO in April 2006. This will see the distributor cement its position as a market leader in the fast growing electronic design engineering market, estimated at GBP 13 billion worldwide. Building on the success of its leadership position on RoHS, the organisation plans to further strengthen its proposition to engineers, by adding approximately 70,000 products to its current stocked range of approximately 300,000 over a three-year period.
By the end of the three-year period Premier Farnell expects to be offering customers access to close to a million products.
This, coupled with improvements to the organisation's web platform - including an enhanced search engine and web front-end - will provide design engineers with a fast and efficient channel to access a comprehensive range of products and associated technical information.
Although there has been recent growth in web traffic, meeting customer demand to interact seamlessly either via the web, through call centres or in person will remain a key component of Premier Farnell's multichannel service offering.
As part of its strategic review, Premier Farnell will also continue to strengthen its global supplier portfolio, building on the successes of the last 18 months, which have included extending its offering to customers with 3000 new products, following global franchise deals with AVX, Cypress Semiconductor, Lumileds, STMicroelectonics and ZMD.
The distributor's product range now includes the majority of the world's leading semiconductor, passive and electromechanical brands, offering a compelling proposition to design engineers globally.
Premier Farnell is also pleased to announce that its product offering to customers will be further enhanced in the near future following the commitment of Analog Devices - a world leading manufacturer of analogue and digital signal processing products - to re-engauge with Newark InOne in the USA, continuing to strengthen the excellent trading relationship in Europe with Farnell InOne and starting to formulate longer term plans for working together to support customers in other regions around the world.
The electronics and automation maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) customer base will continue to be significant for Premier Farnell.
In addition, there are plans to invest in emerging markets, with immediate focus on China and Eastern Europe.
The Chinese market for small volume electronics is estimated at over GBP 1 billion annually and growing rapidly, offering a significant growth opportunity and potential to achieve market leadership.
By March 2007 Premier Farnell will have launched its Mandarin language catalogue containing over 30,000 products, 20,000 of which will be stocked in China, with the rest available on short lead times.
This coincides with the deadline for the introduction of the Chinese equivalent of the EU RoHS legislation and all of the products included in the Mandarin catalogue will be compliant with the first wave of legislative requirements.
Chinese customers already have access, via the web, to the full range of Farnell InOne products.
This access will be enhanced when a transactional website, with Mandarin content, goes live, also in early 2007.
Harriet Green, Chief Executive, commenting on the strategic business review, said: 'We believe that enhancing our market proposition in the fast growing global electronic design engineering sector is fundamental to our strategy to become a market leader in this segment'.
'We will continue to focus on the core distribution fundamentals of customer service, product range and reliability as we drive sales growth and operational efficiency'.
'The strategic business review process has demonstrated the quality of our people at all levels of the organisation and we will continue to invest in talent and skills development'.
Premier Farnell has announced the results of its strategic business review initiated following the appointment of Harriet Green as Group CEO in April 2006. This will see the distributor cement its position as a market leader in the fast growing electronic design engineering market, estimated at GBP 13 billion worldwide. Building on the success of its leadership position on RoHS, the organisation plans to further strengthen its proposition to engineers, by adding approximately 70,000 products to its current stocked range of approximately 300,000 over a three-year period.
By the end of the three-year period Premier Farnell expects to be offering customers access to close to a million products.
This, coupled with improvements to the organisation's web platform - including an enhanced search engine and web front-end - will provide design engineers with a fast and efficient channel to access a comprehensive range of products and associated technical information.
Although there has been recent growth in web traffic, meeting customer demand to interact seamlessly either via the web, through call centres or in person will remain a key component of Premier Farnell's multichannel service offering.
As part of its strategic review, Premier Farnell will also continue to strengthen its global supplier portfolio, building on the successes of the last 18 months, which have included extending its offering to customers with 3000 new products, following global franchise deals with AVX, Cypress Semiconductor, Lumileds, STMicroelectonics and ZMD.
The distributor's product range now includes the majority of the world's leading semiconductor, passive and electromechanical brands, offering a compelling proposition to design engineers globally.
Premier Farnell is also pleased to announce that its product offering to customers will be further enhanced in the near future following the commitment of Analog Devices - a world leading manufacturer of analogue and digital signal processing products - to re-engauge with Newark InOne in the USA, continuing to strengthen the excellent trading relationship in Europe with Farnell InOne and starting to formulate longer term plans for working together to support customers in other regions around the world.
The electronics and automation maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) customer base will continue to be significant for Premier Farnell.
In addition, there are plans to invest in emerging markets, with immediate focus on China and Eastern Europe.
The Chinese market for small volume electronics is estimated at over GBP 1 billion annually and growing rapidly, offering a significant growth opportunity and potential to achieve market leadership.
By March 2007 Premier Farnell will have launched its Mandarin language catalogue containing over 30,000 products, 20,000 of which will be stocked in China, with the rest available on short lead times.
This coincides with the deadline for the introduction of the Chinese equivalent of the EU RoHS legislation and all of the products included in the Mandarin catalogue will be compliant with the first wave of legislative requirements.
Chinese customers already have access, via the web, to the full range of Farnell InOne products.
This access will be enhanced when a transactional website, with Mandarin content, goes live, also in early 2007.
Harriet Green, Chief Executive, commenting on the strategic business review, said: 'We believe that enhancing our market proposition in the fast growing global electronic design engineering sector is fundamental to our strategy to become a market leader in this segment'.
'We will continue to focus on the core distribution fundamentals of customer service, product range and reliability as we drive sales growth and operational efficiency'.
'The strategic business review process has demonstrated the quality of our people at all levels of the organisation and we will continue to invest in talent and skills development'.
# posted by Swathi @ 9:02 PM
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
New HQ re-unites distribution and admin
Sager Electronics celebrated its move to new corporate headquarters by hosting its suppliers and manufacturers representatives at a two-day event.
Sager Electronics celebrated its move to new corporate headquarters by hosting its suppliers and manufacturers representatives at a two-day event. On Wednesday 27th September 2006 Sager held an open house to preview its newly expanded Middleborough, Massachusetts offices and main distribution centre. The following day guests played golf at the award-winning Poquoy Brook Golf Club in Lakeville, or cruised aboard the Pilgrim Belle on Plymouth Harbour.
At Sager's open house, CEO Ray Norton addressed the company's 200 invited guests: 'I am excited to know we are bringing our corporate functions back together with our distribution centre operations'.
'This union will make our company stronger and more nimble as we work to execute our growth plan'.
'Sager's two-day celebration marks another exciting milestone in the company's lengthy history', stated Frank Flynn, Sager's President.
'We were pleased to share this exciting time with those that have supported us and our customer strategy throughout the years'.
'We are excited to begin the next era of our business on such a successful note'.
Sager officially moved into its new corporate headquarters, located at 19 Leona Drive, in Middleborough, Massachusetts, on 21st October 2006.
The expansion will house the company's corporate offices, conference and meeting space, a state-of-the-art data centre and its southern New England sales service centre.
Sager Electronics celebrated its move to new corporate headquarters by hosting its suppliers and manufacturers representatives at a two-day event. On Wednesday 27th September 2006 Sager held an open house to preview its newly expanded Middleborough, Massachusetts offices and main distribution centre. The following day guests played golf at the award-winning Poquoy Brook Golf Club in Lakeville, or cruised aboard the Pilgrim Belle on Plymouth Harbour.
At Sager's open house, CEO Ray Norton addressed the company's 200 invited guests: 'I am excited to know we are bringing our corporate functions back together with our distribution centre operations'.
'This union will make our company stronger and more nimble as we work to execute our growth plan'.
'Sager's two-day celebration marks another exciting milestone in the company's lengthy history', stated Frank Flynn, Sager's President.
'We were pleased to share this exciting time with those that have supported us and our customer strategy throughout the years'.
'We are excited to begin the next era of our business on such a successful note'.
Sager officially moved into its new corporate headquarters, located at 19 Leona Drive, in Middleborough, Massachusetts, on 21st October 2006.
The expansion will house the company's corporate offices, conference and meeting space, a state-of-the-art data centre and its southern New England sales service centre.
# posted by Swathi @ 9:00 PM
Green strategy focuses on range expansion
Premier Farnell has announced the results of its strategic business review initiated following the appointment of Harriet Green as Group CEO.
Premier Farnell has announced the results of its strategic business review initiated following the appointment of Harriet Green as Group CEO in April 2006. This will see the distributor cement its position as a market leader in the fast growing electronic design engineering market, estimated at GBP 13 billion worldwide. Building on the success of its leadership position on RoHS, the organisation plans to further strengthen its proposition to engineers, by adding approximately 70,000 products to its current stocked range of approximately 300,000 over a three-year period.
By the end of the three-year period Premier Farnell expects to be offering customers access to close to a million products.
This, coupled with improvements to the organisation's web platform - including an enhanced search engine and web front-end - will provide design engineers with a fast and efficient channel to access a comprehensive range of products and associated technical information.
Although there has been recent growth in web traffic, meeting customer demand to interact seamlessly either via the web, through call centres or in person will remain a key component of Premier Farnell's multichannel service offering.
As part of its strategic review, Premier Farnell will also continue to strengthen its global supplier portfolio, building on the successes of the last 18 months, which have included extending its offering to customers with 3000 new products, following global franchise deals with AVX, Cypress Semiconductor, Lumileds, STMicroelectonics and ZMD.
The distributor's product range now includes the majority of the world's leading semiconductor, passive and electromechanical brands, offering a compelling proposition to design engineers globally.
Premier Farnell is also pleased to announce that its product offering to customers will be further enhanced in the near future following the commitment of Analog Devices - a world leading manufacturer of analogue and digital signal processing products - to re-engauge with Newark InOne in the USA, continuing to strengthen the excellent trading relationship in Europe with Farnell InOne and starting to formulate longer term plans for working together to support customers in other regions around the world.
The electronics and automation maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) customer base will continue to be significant for Premier Farnell.
In addition, there are plans to invest in emerging markets, with immediate focus on China and Eastern Europe.
The Chinese market for small volume electronics is estimated at over GBP 1 billion annually and growing rapidly, offering a significant growth opportunity and potential to achieve market leadership.
By March 2007 Premier Farnell will have launched its Mandarin language catalogue containing over 30,000 products, 20,000 of which will be stocked in China, with the rest available on short lead times.
This coincides with the deadline for the introduction of the Chinese equivalent of the EU RoHS legislation and all of the products included in the Mandarin catalogue will be compliant with the first wave of legislative requirements.
Chinese customers already have access, via the web, to the full range of Farnell InOne products.
This access will be enhanced when a transactional website, with Mandarin content, goes live, also in early 2007.
Harriet Green, Chief Executive, commenting on the strategic business review, said: 'We believe that enhancing our market proposition in the fast growing global electronic design engineering sector is fundamental to our strategy to become a market leader in this segment'.
'We will continue to focus on the core distribution fundamentals of customer service, product range and reliability as we drive sales growth and operational efficiency'.
'The strategic business review process has demonstrated the quality of our people at all levels of the organisation and we will continue to invest in talent and skills development'.
Premier Farnell has announced the results of its strategic business review initiated following the appointment of Harriet Green as Group CEO in April 2006. This will see the distributor cement its position as a market leader in the fast growing electronic design engineering market, estimated at GBP 13 billion worldwide. Building on the success of its leadership position on RoHS, the organisation plans to further strengthen its proposition to engineers, by adding approximately 70,000 products to its current stocked range of approximately 300,000 over a three-year period.
By the end of the three-year period Premier Farnell expects to be offering customers access to close to a million products.
This, coupled with improvements to the organisation's web platform - including an enhanced search engine and web front-end - will provide design engineers with a fast and efficient channel to access a comprehensive range of products and associated technical information.
Although there has been recent growth in web traffic, meeting customer demand to interact seamlessly either via the web, through call centres or in person will remain a key component of Premier Farnell's multichannel service offering.
As part of its strategic review, Premier Farnell will also continue to strengthen its global supplier portfolio, building on the successes of the last 18 months, which have included extending its offering to customers with 3000 new products, following global franchise deals with AVX, Cypress Semiconductor, Lumileds, STMicroelectonics and ZMD.
The distributor's product range now includes the majority of the world's leading semiconductor, passive and electromechanical brands, offering a compelling proposition to design engineers globally.
Premier Farnell is also pleased to announce that its product offering to customers will be further enhanced in the near future following the commitment of Analog Devices - a world leading manufacturer of analogue and digital signal processing products - to re-engauge with Newark InOne in the USA, continuing to strengthen the excellent trading relationship in Europe with Farnell InOne and starting to formulate longer term plans for working together to support customers in other regions around the world.
The electronics and automation maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) customer base will continue to be significant for Premier Farnell.
In addition, there are plans to invest in emerging markets, with immediate focus on China and Eastern Europe.
The Chinese market for small volume electronics is estimated at over GBP 1 billion annually and growing rapidly, offering a significant growth opportunity and potential to achieve market leadership.
By March 2007 Premier Farnell will have launched its Mandarin language catalogue containing over 30,000 products, 20,000 of which will be stocked in China, with the rest available on short lead times.
This coincides with the deadline for the introduction of the Chinese equivalent of the EU RoHS legislation and all of the products included in the Mandarin catalogue will be compliant with the first wave of legislative requirements.
Chinese customers already have access, via the web, to the full range of Farnell InOne products.
This access will be enhanced when a transactional website, with Mandarin content, goes live, also in early 2007.
Harriet Green, Chief Executive, commenting on the strategic business review, said: 'We believe that enhancing our market proposition in the fast growing global electronic design engineering sector is fundamental to our strategy to become a market leader in this segment'.
'We will continue to focus on the core distribution fundamentals of customer service, product range and reliability as we drive sales growth and operational efficiency'.
'The strategic business review process has demonstrated the quality of our people at all levels of the organisation and we will continue to invest in talent and skills development'.
# posted by Swathi @ 8:59 PM
Monday, October 30, 2006
Thick-film resistors aid product miniaturisation
The VRW series has been developed to provide design engineers with a compact high voltage resistor with working voltage ratings of 1.6 and 3.5kV, and high pulse withstand capability of 10kV.
TT Electronics Welwyn Components has re-affirmed its commitment to thick-film technology with the launch of its VRW series, a range of compact, RoHS compliant, high voltage thick-film resistors. The VRW series has been developed to provide design engineers with a compact high voltage resistor with working voltage ratings of 1.6 and 3.5kV, and high pulse withstand capability of 10kV. Suited to harsh operating environments, the VRW series is flameproof and available in power ratings of 0.25 and 0.5W at 70C.
It is RoHS compliant, has an ambient temperature range of -55 to +155C and the series boasts a wide value range from 100kohm to 30Mohm.
The VRW series meets all BS/EN/IEC60065 safety requirements, and all resistors within the range have a robust thick film construction with a cement coating that will not burn under any condition of applied temperature or overload.
The series is ideal for bleed resistor, mains motor control and lighting ballast applications.
The launch of the new VRW series is the first after Welwyn TT's recent announcement of a Eur 1.2 million investment in research and development of thick- and thin-film technology.
Further new product launches are expected to follow over the coming months.
John Graham, Marketing and Sales Director said: 'The VRW series provides an excellent solution for design engineers looking for a compact product with high voltage capabilities to enable them to design within the current trend for smaller products'.
TT Electronics Welwyn Components has re-affirmed its commitment to thick-film technology with the launch of its VRW series, a range of compact, RoHS compliant, high voltage thick-film resistors. The VRW series has been developed to provide design engineers with a compact high voltage resistor with working voltage ratings of 1.6 and 3.5kV, and high pulse withstand capability of 10kV. Suited to harsh operating environments, the VRW series is flameproof and available in power ratings of 0.25 and 0.5W at 70C.
It is RoHS compliant, has an ambient temperature range of -55 to +155C and the series boasts a wide value range from 100kohm to 30Mohm.
The VRW series meets all BS/EN/IEC60065 safety requirements, and all resistors within the range have a robust thick film construction with a cement coating that will not burn under any condition of applied temperature or overload.
The series is ideal for bleed resistor, mains motor control and lighting ballast applications.
The launch of the new VRW series is the first after Welwyn TT's recent announcement of a Eur 1.2 million investment in research and development of thick- and thin-film technology.
Further new product launches are expected to follow over the coming months.
John Graham, Marketing and Sales Director said: 'The VRW series provides an excellent solution for design engineers looking for a compact product with high voltage capabilities to enable them to design within the current trend for smaller products'.
# posted by Swathi @ 9:43 PM
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Keryell focuses on in-house products
Link Microtek has strengthened its manufacturing division by appointing Mick Keryell as National Sales Engineer with exclusive responsibility for promoting its range of in-house manufactured products.
Link Microtek has strengthened its manufacturing division by appointing Mick Keryell as National Sales Engineer with exclusive responsibility for promoting the company's range of in-house manufactured products. Formerly known as Advanced Microtek, the manufacturing division produces a wide variety of waveguide and ancillary products, including horn antennas, rotary joints, swivel joints and TEM cells. Keryell joined Link Microtek last year as Sales Engineer for the North and Midlands, a role in which he handled Link's own product portfolio as well as the broad range of RF and microwave components, instruments and subsystems manufactured by the company's principals in the USA, Europe and the Far East.
Commenting on Keryell's new appointment, Link Microtek's Managing Director Steve Cranstone said: "This is the first time that our manufacturing division has had its own dedicated sales engineer, and we are confident that this move will focus more attention on our waveguide and associated products and accelerate the expansion of this part of the business".
Link Microtek has strengthened its manufacturing division by appointing Mick Keryell as National Sales Engineer with exclusive responsibility for promoting the company's range of in-house manufactured products. Formerly known as Advanced Microtek, the manufacturing division produces a wide variety of waveguide and ancillary products, including horn antennas, rotary joints, swivel joints and TEM cells. Keryell joined Link Microtek last year as Sales Engineer for the North and Midlands, a role in which he handled Link's own product portfolio as well as the broad range of RF and microwave components, instruments and subsystems manufactured by the company's principals in the USA, Europe and the Far East.
Commenting on Keryell's new appointment, Link Microtek's Managing Director Steve Cranstone said: "This is the first time that our manufacturing division has had its own dedicated sales engineer, and we are confident that this move will focus more attention on our waveguide and associated products and accelerate the expansion of this part of the business".
# posted by Swathi @ 8:59 PM
Hat-trick of distribution awards
Farnell InOne has been voted distributor of the year 2003 three times in as many months.
Farnell InOne has been voted distributor of the year 2003 three times in as many months. Named with its parent company, Premier Farnell EAP, as the industry's distributor of the year at the prestigious European Electronics Awards in September, Farnell InOne has subsequently been awarded the same title by two major suppliers, Tyco Electronics and Epcos UK. Tyco Electronics has named Farnell In One its distributor of the year - UK and Ireland for the second time as a result of the highly successful working relationship the two companies have shared for over 15 years.
Ian McFadyen, Industry Manager of Distribution UK/Ireland for Tyco Electronics, comments: "For 2003 Farnell InOne were clear winners.
Tyco and Farnell InOne enjoy an excellent relationship across all market sectors, and in 2003 they added over 300 new lines to their catalogue, bringing the total number of Tyco lines to over 8000".
Another large passive component supplier, Epcos UK, has named Farnell In One its distributor of the year 2003 after 12 months in which its annual sales recorded an impressive 30% growth.
Farnell InOne was particularly commended for its dedicated and hard working product and supply chain team.
Epcos UK Distribution Manager, Keith Rogers, says: "We have worked with Farnell InOne for over a decade and always received enthusiastic support when launching new product lines into the market.
Its active marketing campaigns ensure that products are readily accepted by customers while its product and supply chain team work constantly to enhance our relationship and sales, and the results have been clearly demonstrated through fantastic sales growth this year".
The crowning of Premier Farnell EAP as the European Electronics Distributor of the Year 2003 in September was an overall mark of recognition for how the parent group, to which Farnell InOne belongs and operates as a part of, is achieving the highest standards and driving the electronics industry forward.
Judged on a myriad of elements from commercial success to effective marketing and supplier partnerships it was the ultimate accolade for a business which has been pushing the boundaries of distribution service in recent years - and succeeding.
Steve Canham, Managing Director, Premier Farnell EAP, concludes: "The award of three successive distributor of the year titles for Farnell InOne and its parent company reflect the group's achievements and ongoing commitment to developing the best possible services and partnerships with our customers and suppliers, and is a fitting tribute to our team of hardworking and dedicated staff".
Farnell InOne has been voted distributor of the year 2003 three times in as many months. Named with its parent company, Premier Farnell EAP, as the industry's distributor of the year at the prestigious European Electronics Awards in September, Farnell InOne has subsequently been awarded the same title by two major suppliers, Tyco Electronics and Epcos UK. Tyco Electronics has named Farnell In One its distributor of the year - UK and Ireland for the second time as a result of the highly successful working relationship the two companies have shared for over 15 years.
Ian McFadyen, Industry Manager of Distribution UK/Ireland for Tyco Electronics, comments: "For 2003 Farnell InOne were clear winners.
Tyco and Farnell InOne enjoy an excellent relationship across all market sectors, and in 2003 they added over 300 new lines to their catalogue, bringing the total number of Tyco lines to over 8000".
Another large passive component supplier, Epcos UK, has named Farnell In One its distributor of the year 2003 after 12 months in which its annual sales recorded an impressive 30% growth.
Farnell InOne was particularly commended for its dedicated and hard working product and supply chain team.
Epcos UK Distribution Manager, Keith Rogers, says: "We have worked with Farnell InOne for over a decade and always received enthusiastic support when launching new product lines into the market.
Its active marketing campaigns ensure that products are readily accepted by customers while its product and supply chain team work constantly to enhance our relationship and sales, and the results have been clearly demonstrated through fantastic sales growth this year".
The crowning of Premier Farnell EAP as the European Electronics Distributor of the Year 2003 in September was an overall mark of recognition for how the parent group, to which Farnell InOne belongs and operates as a part of, is achieving the highest standards and driving the electronics industry forward.
Judged on a myriad of elements from commercial success to effective marketing and supplier partnerships it was the ultimate accolade for a business which has been pushing the boundaries of distribution service in recent years - and succeeding.
Steve Canham, Managing Director, Premier Farnell EAP, concludes: "The award of three successive distributor of the year titles for Farnell InOne and its parent company reflect the group's achievements and ongoing commitment to developing the best possible services and partnerships with our customers and suppliers, and is a fitting tribute to our team of hardworking and dedicated staff".
# posted by Swathi @ 8:58 PM
