Test & Measurement World Blogs
Welcome to Outside the Box!
Welcome to the “Outside the Box” blog-site! “Outside the Box” will add frequent commentary about the modular instrument industry, embedded test, and other topics outside the domain of traditional box instrumentation. Of course, there’s a second meaning to the phrase “Outside the Box”, which means to think creatively or from new perspectives. I ... More
About this blog
Larry Desjardin provides commentary and insight on topics outside that of traditional box instruments, including modular instrumentation, embedded test, and alternative test techniques.
A new face
In his article “User Interface—The next battlefield–Part 1,” Alvin Wong predicts that user interfaces and ease-of-use will become a consumer’s primary reason for selecting an electronic product (Ref. 1). In making his point, Wong argues that well-designed features will become ubiquitous. He points to the touch screen and speech recognition as the two interfaces t ... More
About this blog
Senior Technical Editor Martin Rowe covers topics relating to general-purpose instrumentation, compliance, communications test, and anything else that comes along
High Performance Computing at the IOL
High Performance Computing (HPC) is no longer exclusively the realm of uber-expensive “Super-Computers” with proprietary transport technologies and software. High Performance, as implied, requires significant compute power and high speed memory, storage, and network interconnect. To achieve High Performance, each processor must communicate rapidly, and with little CPU/ker ... More
About this blog
The technical staff of the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL) gives insight into interoperability & standards conformance for data communications, telecom, and storage technologies.
Serial standards keep test engineers on edge...
…the cutting edge, that is. Clocks are embedded. Measurements of the jitter alphabet soup never seem to agree. Good old logic buses have become waveguides. Bit-error-rate contour measurements look like tie-dye designs. And the eye is as closed as the box office in Green Bay the day after the Giants visited. In the last decade, HSS (high-speed-serial) specifications have taken us on a thrill ... More
About this blog
In Eye on Standards, Ransom Stephens will be tracking the developments with current, evolving, new, and emerging technology standards and what they mean for you, the test engineer. From the IEEE to ANSI, IEC, and consortiums such as LXI, PXIe, USB, and others, Stephens will be there to help you close the ‘eye’ on your next test project.
Welcome to Everyday Measurements
Welcome to Everyday Measurements, the newest blog at Test & Measurement World. My thanks to the editors of T&M World for giving me the opportunity and platform to discuss the latest trends in test and measurement and how they affect us in both our professional and personal lives. About me For about the last 10 years I have worked at National Instruments as a product manager and have ... More
About this blog
Matthew Friedman is a product manager at National Instruments. In "Everyday Measurements," he discusses the latest trends in test and measurement and how they affect both the professional and personal lives of engineers.
DesignCon 2012 Panel: Test gurus share vision to accelerate your ‘time to answer’
The countdown begins: On Wednesday next at DesignCon 2012 I’ll be moderating a panel comprising four of the sharpest minds in the electronics industry as they explore the cutting edge of technology and what it means for you, the test engineer. It’s important to note at this point that this panel is a new addition to DesignCon, and its primary purpose is to be an interactive forum for ... More
About this blog
Patrick Mannion, editor in chief of Test & Measurement World and EDN, comments on test, globalization, measurement, machine vision, economics, nanotechnology, the engineering profession, and topics of general interest.
Old dog, newer trick
Although mostly obsolete, the vacuum tube still has its adherents among audiophiles, test-instrument collectors, amateur-radio fans, and those curious about the physics of active devices. Given that a family of characteristic curves is worth a thousand data points, being able to view a device’s behavior enhances a small laboratory’s capability. Vacuum-tube curve tracers are expensive ... More
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Brad Thompson reports on the life of a hobbyist engineer who tries to keep vintage test instruments running as long as possible.
Space design challenge 2011
2011 will ring in another year for a NASA space design competition. For students who wish to help further space exploration and development, ASA is searching for college and graduate level students In the US who are interested in devising technology for the 2011 Space Tech Engineering Design Challenge. ASA has requested that those who have competed in other NASA contests, such as Lunabotics or RAS ... More
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In this blog, Test & Measurement World contributing editors comment on the state of engineering education and careers for recent engineering graduates.
Team Hyper has another strong showing at Arizona Regional
Despite another strong performance at the Arizona Regional last week, Team Hyper 69 came up just short again, and was eliminated in the semifinals of the First Robotics Competition on Saturday. The team’s overall record is now 17-7 in 2009 Lunacy competition. The team opened competition with an impressive 8-1 record in the qualifying round, putting them in second place out of 44 t ... More
About this blog
Test & Measurement World contributing editor Jessica MacNeil profiles the various engineering internships and education opportunities available to students and their experiences in the industry. Jessica is a senior Journalism major at Northeastern University.
