Debugging I/O pin conflicts can be a time-consuming process and so Energy Micro® has introduced a free software tool designed to tackle the problem. It supports the complete EFM32 Gecko low power MCU family, and ensures correct pin configuration and automatically generates set-up code and documentation.

I just heard that the folks at The MathWorks have announced Release 2010b (R2010b) of their MATLAB and Simulink product families.

While there are several high-profile companies who are betting on solar-thermal technology for utility-scale systems, Kalahari Greentech, Inc. is one of the few, and perhaps the only company intent on applying it to small-scale residential, agricultural, and small commercial markets. The company has announced its intention of demonstrating a production prototype of a rugged, inexpensive and scalable solar thermal generating system that uses a common automotive refrigerant as it working fluid some time in mid-2011. Kalahari contends that the lack of any moving parts in its passive tracking solar collector and the Rankine-style turbine system will enable their "Tri-Brid" solar-thermal...

New Tool Draws from Extensive Library of LEDs, Drivers and Heat Sinks to Create Complete Systems up to 100,000 Lumens in Minutes.National’s LED Architect is an excellent application of its venerable WEBENCH platform. The web-based design tool helps a designer navigate some of the more subtle aspects of solid state lighting to produce a highly highly-optimized design (for up to 100,000 lumens in output) in a fraction of the time it takes to do by hand. LED Architect delivers complete solid-state lighting designs based on a library of 350 of the latest LEDs from 12 leading manufacturers, 30 heat sinks,...

I love the experts at the table series that system-level design has been doing. In general they are well put together and have some interesting points that come out. Often there are differences of opinion, but they are handled in an amicable way. Today I read one that almost made me laugh rather than anything else. If refreshments had been served, I am sure they would have been thrown across the table at each other.

(www.nag.com, www.nag.co.uk, www.nag-gc.com, www.nag-j.co.jp)   Electronics engineers designing embedded systems and other electronics design projects Electronics engineers designing embedded systems and other electronics design projects who need speed, accuracy and portability for their Fortran code can now obtain the newest release of what is widely regarded as one of the best checking compilers --- Fortran Builder 5.2 (www.nag.com/market/np/fortranbuilder) from the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG).  This release features a virtually complete implementation of the latest Fortran 2003 standard and an integrated development environment.

Here's something you don’t see every day... It seems that firefighters had to be called when a man suffered flash burns while hunting a spider (why am I thinking of the kangaroo-hunting scene in the first Crocodile Dundee movie?)

Ideal for ultra-low standby power supply applications;  essential for designs targeting EuP Lots 6 and 7, and similar energy-efficiency standards  Power Integrations has  introduced SENZero, a family of ICs that disconnect sense resistors from high-voltage rails during standby or remote-off conditions. SENZero devices eliminate sense resistor power losses in standby mode and reduce total system power consumption, helping power supply engineers to comply with increasingly stringent efficiency requirements, such as EuP Lots 6 and 7, and 80 PLUS.

I just heard from the folks at LMS Recruiting, who specialize in Talent Acquisition for Sales – Marketing – Operations – Finance – Engineering – and Research & Development Roles for High-Technology, Bio-Technology, Medical Devices, Pharmaceutical, and Health Care Enterprises... (phew!)

The folks at Interface Masters Technologies, who specialize in networking solutions, have announced an addition to their established family of 1G server adapters based on Intel's Ethernet controller, 82576.