Embedded Systems Design - Europe - August/September 2007 - (Page 5)

commentary Editor Colin Holland Tel +44 (0) 208 319 1324 email: cholland@cmp.com Editorial address: PO Box 32444, London SE18 3ZP Advertising Production Manager Lydia Gijsegom & Maggie Fleerackers Tel +32 (0) 2 740 00 50 email: production@eetimes.be Circulation Luc Desimpel Tel +32 (0) 2 740 0055 email: luc.desimpel@eetimes.be Art Manager Jean-Paul Speliers Tel +32 (0)2 740 0052 email: jean-paul.speliers@eetimes.be Finance Ricardo Pinto Ferreira Tel +32 (0)2 740 0051 email: ricardo.pintoferreira@eetimes.be Advertisement contacts see page 43 Editorial Director Jean-Pierre Joosting Tel +32 (0)2 740 0056 email: jean-pierre.joosting@eetimes.be Publisher Andre Rousselot Tel +32 (0)2 740 0053 email: aroussel@cmp.com European Business Press a CMP Company 144 Avenue Eugène Plasky 1030 Brussells - Belgium Tel: +32 (0)2 740 00 50 Fax: +32 (0)2 740 00 59 Email: andre.rousselot@eetimes.be www.embedded.com/europe VAT Registration: BE 461.357.437 RPM: Brussels Company Number: 0461357437 Electronics Group Paul Miller President, Electronics Group CMP Technolgy Steve Weitzner President and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer Adam Marder Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Ofﬁcer Tony Uphoff President, CMP Business Technology Group Roberta Faletra President, CMP Channel Paul Miller President, CMP Electronics Group Philip Chapnick President, CMP Game, Dobb’s, ICMI Group Ann Marie Miller Corporate Senior Vice President Sales Marlieu Jolla Hall Senior Vice President, Human Resources Marie Myers Senior Vice President, Manufacturing Alexandra Raine Senior Vice President, Communications © 2007 E.B.P. SA, a CMP Company • Embedded Systems Design Europe is published eight times a year. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The contents of Embedded Systems Design Europe are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems. º • Embedded Systems Design Europe is available free to qualiﬁed readers and to others for an annual subscription of €150. Refunds on cancelled subscriptions will only be provided at the Publisher’s discretion. Subscription queries tel: +32 2 740 00 50 • Printed by Perka. Do plugfests provide answer for MicroTCA? S o Europe is ﬁnally getting its own MicroTCA Interoperability Workshop and maybe the timing could not be better. As expectations have gone down for full-sized the Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA) there is a feeling that the smaller form factor could be a winner of high volume business. PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) Europe boasts that the testing to be conducted at the Schroff/Pentair facility in Straubenhardt, near Stuttgart, Germany on Sept 24-27 will be in a protected, conﬁdential environment, allowing participants to test and resolve any inconsistencies. And as the ﬁrst products hit the market and PICMG Europe and right to observe that interoperability is essential for multi-vendor products in one system need to be supported. It would be great to be a ﬂy-on-thewall during one of these interoperability tests, is it totally cordial or do things get heated as the chassis hot up and things don’t go as planned. Does anyone every fail the test or do they just withdraw their product to come back another day. Of course no one every advertises that that failed to come up to the mark but I guess if they tried to fudge the issue their ‘friends’ (aka competitors) would no doubt be more than happy to set the record straight. So is there a real need for the meetings. I guess that even the highest level of Colin Holland is editor of Embedded Systems Design Europe. He can be contacted at cholland@cmp. com. individual product testing cannot meet the demands of interoperability and no one would be silly enough to leave it till the products are being deployed in the ﬁeld would they. Mind you there is a story that has a DC powered escalator being installed at Tottenham Court Road tube station in London only for the installers to establish that the nearest source of this power to be at the next station along the line, several hundred yards away. There have been some unofﬁcial plugfests in Europe already. Back in February Emerson provided MicroTCA system management and video conferencing demos showcasing interoperable blades from GE Fanuc, Interphase, Intel, Surf, SANBlaze, X-ES, and BittWare at 3GSM in Barcelona. The U.S. is naturally ahead of the game with the ﬁrst MicroTCA interoperability workshop held in September 2006 in Boston. This had been followed by a joint Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA) and PICMG teaming up to host the ﬁrst joint interoperability workshop in Chicago in June 2007. At this inaugural event, 70 participants from 25 companies were able to test their products in a protected environment. I cannot wait to see what the level interest will be from companies in the European event and maybe there is someone out there who would like to share their experience of this or previous plugfests. www.embedded.com/europe | embedded systems design europe | AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2007 5 005_ESDE.indd 5 7/09/07 12:24:28 http://www.embedded.com/europe http://www.embedded.com/europe

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Contents News Cover Feature: Annual Study Uncovers the Embedded Market DSP Serves the Convergence Needs of Small Business Embedded Test Offers Unique Value for Serial I/O The Software Detective: First-Fault Data Capture Boards May Shrink But Performance Doesn't New Products Advertising Contacts

Embedded Systems Design - Europe - August/September 2007

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