Category Archives: Laying It Out

Off-grid thoughts from a burned-out designer turned editor.

Do Fakes Count?

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The news today regarding the seizure by US Customs of nearly a quarter-million counterfeit electronics devices makes me wonder: Do the various industry market research data include all those faked goods?

Consider: Some reports claim as much as $100 billion a year worth of fake electronics products is trafficked. Given that the entire consumer electronics supply chain produces about $1.2 trillion worth of products per year, and most fakes are consumer goods, that’s a pretty good chunk to add to it.

Not all fakes work, of course. For years, “salesmen” would hawk counterfeit PCs outside the doors at Nepcon China. But they were missing most of the important parts — motherboard, CPU, memory, etc. Caveat emptor to those who fell for the scam.

But what’s changing is that in many instances, the knockoffs so closely resemble the look and functionality of the originals, it’s hard even for company officials to discern. And you don’t get there without using real parts, even if they are of lesser quality.

The wildest example I know of concerned NEC. A few years back, the Japanese computer and chip company learned of a massive multinational counterfeit ring which attempted to essentially recreate the entire company! More than 50 factories in China and Taiwan were producing faked NEC PCs and consumer handhelds.

Fifty factories is a scale that’s hard to hide. That’s a lot of production lines to buy, too. It makes you wonder if they were building them on knockoff SMT equipment.

Where’d Design East Go?

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As recently as February, United Business Media staff were promoting the then-upcoming Design East trade show.

Big changes and improvements were promised, and given last year’s flat turnout and buzz, they would have been a welcome shot in the arm.

We saw “would have been” because the show has been canceled, with the understated  message on the website telling visitors only, “Thank you for visiting the Design East site. Unfortunately, Design East will not be held in 2013.”

The fact is, it’s really tough to do a great show in certain markets. Even Boston, which has a thriving tech community, doesn’t go out of its way to support these events. Show producers wrestle with the question over whether it makes sense to undertake the expense, effort and risk involved, especially when it might cannibalize other convention offerings.

As an event organizer that has put on shows in the Boston area in the past, we can empathize with UBM’s decision. But we also understand the fragile nature of supplier loyalty, and when you open the door for customers to go somewhere else for their needs, they usually walk through it.

All Quiet on the Wilsonville Front

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A timely piece from the hometown paper of Mentor Graphics looks at how Carl Icahn has calmed down now that Mentor’s stock price has doubled since he started accumulating shares of the company a couple years ago.

The legendary investor is Mentor’s largest shareholder, at just under 15% of the company. Since he starting buying up shares, Icahn has been vocal about the need for the software company to shed its country club culture. He forced the issue in 2011, successfully getting three of his nominees elected to the company’s board. Last year, Mentor only nominated one of the three, which drew fire from Icahn, but with the stock price up 50% over the past 12 months, all is quiet in Wilsonville.

 

Collins Closing

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Count me among those sorry to hear the news that Rockwell is closing its printed circuit board fabrication plant.

I’ve been through that plant and this is sad to see. I wrote a profile of the plant for PC FAB in 2000. At the time, then GM Mike Driscoll was overseeing a major implementation of Lean manufacturing, making the site one of the early adopters of the practice.

I’m of the opinion (minority, probably) that OEMs retaining in-house knowledge and expertise of manufacturing processes is a good thing, even if they can’t necessarily generate a direct profit from it.

That, plus I knew several people who worked in that shop over the years and every one of them is a class act.

There are still a few major OEMs with in-house fab capacity. Let’s hope they see fit to keep it.

 

H-1B Free?

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Those in favor of lifting limits on the US government H-1B visas, which allow workers from other countries to take jobs in the US, might want to read this alternate view.

Tech companies in particular say the program is essential to filling critical job openings requiring math and science acumen that too few Americans have. Critics fire back that the program turns the foreign citizens into indentured servants — they generally receive significantly lower pay relative to their American counterparts and no benefits, and have no opportunity to leave the sponsor company for another (better) job.

There’s also commentary from the author of the H-1B visa program, too, who says it has evolved into something far afield from what was originally envisioned.

 

The Top 50 EMS Companies Chat

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The electronics manufacturing services industry in 2012 saw something of a changing of the guard as major European players like Elcoteq, ElectronicNetwork and SRI Radio Systems dropped off the map, and dependable stalwart industries like military and PCs experienced slow growth.

What did we learn from the events of last year, and what will the future of the EMS industry look like? Come chat with me on April 23 over at PCB Chat from 12 noon to 1 pm (Eastern). I will also discuss the annual CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Top 50, which was released in April.

(Membership in PCB Chat is free, but you do need to register first.)

 

Robotics Competition an Eye-Opening Experience

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Ever wondered, as you survey the ever-greying and balding crowd at a trade show, where our next crop of engineers, technicians and scientists will come from? Gary Ferrari and I* had just this conversation at a recent Designers Council event –how do we attract young men and women to our industry?

One possible resource is FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics – a not-for-profit organization that helps students ages 6 to 18 to discover and develop a passion for science, technology, engineering and math.  (FIRST Robotics was founded by Dean Kamen, inventor and entrepreneur, whose inventions include the Segway PT and the first drug infusion pump.)

This past Friday, I had the privilege of attending the 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition Peachtree Regional, presented by Georgia FIRST Robotics. It’s one of 60+ competitions taking place throughout the country the next few weeks. Wow! What passion, creativity and inventiveness from public, private and home-schooled high school students.  They work in teams alongside professional engineers and mentors to design, build and program robots; they apply real-world math and science concepts; they learn and use sophisticated hardware and software. In the process, they develop critical skills such as design, project management, programming, teamwork, and strategic thinking – plus have the opportunity for college scholarships.

(A shout out to two of our PCD&F customers – National Instruments and Altium – for being Crown sponsors of First Robotics).

I was given a personal tour of the “Pit” – 10 x 10′ working spaces for each team – and the “Arena Floor” by the TERAdactyls team from Suwanee, GA. (There are some great team names, by the way. Two of my favorites were “CircuitRunners” and “GLAMbots”). On the Arena Floor I saw robots in action playing the Ultimate Ascent game involving pretty complicated maneuvers shooting Frisbees to hit specific targets and climbing pyramids.  Imagine a high school science fair with a heavy dose of DRAGONCON and WWE and you’ve got the picture.

The sheer creativity of the teams, the enthusiasm and obvious love for science and technology was so evident.  And young women – lots of them – just as engaged as their male counterparts.s

Cisco was lead sponsor for this event, and local high tech companies such as Rockwell Collins, Novelis and Lockheed Martin were among the sponsors.  NCR and Spectral Response were just two of many  companies providing judges.  (Note: The Atlanta SMTA Chapter has selected Georgia FIRST as its designated charity for its April 18 Expo and robot demonstrations will be held on the exhibit floor!)

If you get a chance to attend one of these events, go for it!  The passion, creativity, energy and enthusiasm of these kids will amaze you.  (And you might want to take some job applications with you just in case!)

*By Frances Stewart, vice president of marketing and sales at UP Media Group.

The March Issue of PCD&F/CA

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… is now out.

The cover story, “Bridging Technology between Conventional 3D and TSV 3D Stacking,” looks at two new multi-die DRAM packages with thin profiles that minimize wirebond length.

Among the other features:

  • My recap of the Apex Expo trade show in February.
  • Some key areas of the Benchmark Electronics’ Robotics manufacturing process, from a prototype or new-build stage to steady-state production.
  • The new IPC-2221B design standard.
  • Designing high-speed, small area boards.
  • Determining whether a process generate an electrostatic charge, and if so, how much.
  • We answer the question, Can a flex circuit be made with platinum or gold conductors rather than copper?
  • Selective soldering dwell times.
  • And the latest in a yearlong PCD&F series highlighting promising new enterprises in printed circuit board design looks at startup CircuitHub’s user-driven parts library.

Check it out.

 

What About PCB?

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As the major CAD vendors hold their quarterly conference calls, one thing to watch is whether analysts are asking about PCB design tools.

For the most part, they aren’t.

So while Cadence’s PCB and IC packaging software lines saw good growth in 2012, with revenue climbing 11%, its hour-long call on Jan. 30 was devoted to fielding analyst questions on semiconductor and emulation products.

OK, we get it, we aren’t the tail that wags the dog. But given the market size and relative  profitability PCB tools generate, it would be nice to get a little more notice.