Printed Circuit Design & Fab - August 2008 - (Page 10)

CircuitSpace PCB Productivity AROUND thE world German PCB Market Booming frankfurt – According to the German electronics industry association, ZVEI, April output was up 15.6% compared to the previous month; and up 13.5% compared to last April. Year-to-date the market was up 5.5% compared to 2007. Supply bottlenecks and quality problems in Asia are contributing to the increased volume of orders. April orders were the second highest (for an April) since 2000. Similarly, Excel 2008 year-to-date overall orders have been up to near record levels. Automotive and industrial electronics are particularly strong. Military and other secure supply orders and low volume runs for the industrial sector are being retained in Europe as companies reevaluate Asian outsourcing protocols. The book-to-bill ratio reached a value of 1.04; slightly lower than in previous months but still reflecting growth. Taiwan Equipment Exports Soar taiPEi – Taiwan exported US$8.227 billion in machinery in the first half of 2008. The shipments represent a 12.7% increase versus the same period in 2007, according to the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) who monitors exports. The current surge in demand for iron and steel coupled with the appreciation of N.T. dollar against the U.S. dollar have domestic manufacturers hesitant to commit to continued growth for the remainder of the year. The best performer in machinery exports in the first half of this year is Tongtai Machine & Tool Co. Orders for PCB drilling machines where up significantly. Tongtai sold NT$3.484 billion (~US$114.98 million) of equipment in June. Enhance your productivity “We are impressed with the productivity gains our designers achieve with CircuitSpace® by DesignAdvance.® TM Now with CircuitProbe, we see the combined solution being utilized by both our designers and engineers and adding value throughout our entire PCB design cycle.” Greg Bodi, Senior Manager NVIDIA Corporation Free CircuitSpace ROI calculator Calculate your potential return on investment using the free CircuitSpace ROI calculator from EMA, a Cadence Channel Partner, online at www.ema-eda.com/roi or call us at 800.813.7288. CircuitSpace and CircuitProbe are PCB productivity tools from DesignAdvance Systems. ©2008 EMA Design Automation, Inc. All rights reserved in the U.S. and other countries. All marks are the property of their respective owners. "Boss" Inventor to Keynote PCB West 2008 SMyrna, Ga – UP Media Group today announced that Dr. Chris Urmson, inventor of the self-navigating "Boss" vehicle and director of technology for the Urban Challenge at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, will keynote PCB West 2008. The keynote will be presented on Tuesday, September 16, at 11 a.m. in the Santa Clara Marriott, Santa Clara, CA, the headquarters hotel for PCB West 2008. The use of semiconductors to improve all aspects of the driving experience— from safety, entertainment, navigation and even steering—is on the rise. In this exciting keynote, "Boss" inventor Dr. Chris Urmson will discuss the challenges and solutions in building such an extremely complex automobile. He will include details of the DARPA Urban Challenge, describe "Boss's" overall system architecture and highlight the vehicle’s many component technologies. "Boss" is a Chevy Tahoe with more than 300,000 lines of code, capable of autonomously navigating in town and in traffic. It is equipped with more than a dozen lasers, cameras and radar systems to view the world. Dr. Urmson is director of technology for the Urban Challenge, part of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He has researched robotics for Science Applications International, Caterpillar, DARPA and several other organizations. His primary research is on autonomous vehicles that are capable of safely and reliably navigating urban traffic, and involves perception, behavioral reasoning, motion planning, and mechatronic design. His team won the DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007. Dr. Urmson has published more than two dozen papers and journal articles on robot applications. He has a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s in computer engineering from the University of Manitoba. For more information about the 17th annual PCB West or to register for the conference or exhibition, visit www.pcbwest.com. 10 printEd circuit dEsign & faB AUGUST 2008 http://www.ema-eda.com/roi http://www.ema-eda.com/roi?campaignID=147 http://www.pcbwest.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Printed Circuit Design & Fab - August 2008

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - July 2008 Contents Our Line Market Watch Around the World Happenings ROI Tip Jar Software Performance Interconnect Strategies Final Finish Forum Product Development Challenges in a Global Market Innovative Modeling Supports Co-Design of the Power Supply Chain, Part 2 Low-Loss Fluoropolymer Copper Clad Laminate Qualifying PCBs Outsourced in Asia Copper Plating and Microvia Fill for Advanced PCBs Off the Shelf Marketplace Ad Index BGA Bulletin

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - August 2008

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