Posts Tagged ‘opinions’

Tech Focus: Non-Terrestrial Networks and the Era of Democratised Connectivity

Monday, September 18th, 2023

Dylan McGrath from Keysight Technologies shares how non-terrestrial networks (NTN) represent an exciting new frontier in communications because they extend the reach of 5G into regions lacking terrestrial infrastructure.

NTNs use both satellites and high-altitude platforms such as balloons, airships and pilotless aerial systems in the stratosphere to ensure coverage and reliability in virtually any scenario. Photo by NASA on Unsplash.

NTNs use both satellites and high-altitude platforms such as balloons, airships and pilotless aerial systems in the stratosphere to ensure coverage and reliability in virtually any scenario. Photo by NASA on Unsplash.

Decreased costs and new capabilities in terrestrial 5G are combining to make NTNs increasingly viable, ushering in a new era of true global connectivity and a space-based IoT that will permanently change our perception of communication.

3GPP’s 5G standards recognise NTNs as a part of the 5G connectivity infrastructure.

One of the network’s chief benefits is multi-connectivity, as users connect through both terrestrial and satellite links, with the former handling low-latency traffic and satellites reserved for high-latency traffic.

There are a multitude of fascinating use cases to explore here, including the following.

  1. Augmentation of terrestrial networks
  2. Whole-world connectivity
  3. Remote pipeline monitoring
  4. Image Intelligence

1. Augmentation of terrestrial networks

5G NTNs will fill gaps in cellular coverage, allowing operators to enhance the latter without driving up costs.

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Tech Focus: Energising the Electric Vehicle (EV) Era

Friday, August 11th, 2023

The countdown for automotive players to meet greener energy deadlines is powering towards the end of the decade, when they come into play. In this thought leadership opinion piece, Thomas Goetzl from Keysight Technologies looks at the road ahead in terms of what smart energy must encompass to support the EV future.

Energising the road to the EV Era.

Energising the road to the EV Era.

Accelerating adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and meeting the mandates require significant and sustainable changes.

One area that needs more attention is how to energise the transition to an electric-powered future.

With the demand for electricity expected to grow nearly 20% by 2050 due to EVs and other clean tech initiatives, grids are under immense pressure.

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Tech Focus: Three Trends Shaping the Future of EDA

Wednesday, October 19th, 2022

Niels Faché from Keysight Technologies shares his insights on the key EDA trends impacting the pace of innovation, as more systems companies move to design their own chips and electronic products.

The electronic design automation (EDA) industry is experiencing strong financial growth and is making a vital contribution to the success of much larger semiconductor and electronic systems industries.

The electronic design automation (EDA) industry is experiencing strong financial growth and is making a vital contribution to the success of much larger semiconductor and electronic systems industries.

Trend 1: Domain-Specific Design

Electronic product design is moving toward domain-specific orientation. What impact does domain-specific design have on EDA tool developers and users?

Niels Faché:

It is not enough anymore for product developers to just consider the traditional specifications for a chip or board.

They must also now consider the context in which their products will be integrated and used.

Drivers of design for context in product development teams include increased system complexity, more demanding performance and cost requirement tradeoffs, and shorter development lifecycles.

To address these issues, EDA vendors and users are seeing closer collaboration in the ecosystem from developers of components (such as an RFIC), to a sub-system (such as a radar), and a system (such as an autonomous drive system) to address integration challenges and optimise performance.

Design-for-context raises several challenges and opportunities for EDA tool providers such as:

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Star Buy for 10.10 Online Sale: Huawei MatePad Pro (10.8”) Tablet

Sunday, October 9th, 2022

Every month of the year, we see a major online sale eg. 9.9, 10.10, 11.11 sales. For October’s 10.10 sale, the bargain has got to be the Huawei MatePad Pro 10.8-inch tablet which is going for less than half its original launch pricing from a year ago.

The best bargain for Huawei’s 10.10 online sale and year-end promotions is the MatePad Pro 10.8-inch tablet.

The best bargain for Huawei’s 10.10 online sale and year-end promotions is the MatePad Pro 10.8-inch tablet.

My wife has been using the Huawei MatePad Pro 10.8” tablet since it was launched in August last year.

At launch, its RRP was S$998, excluding S$206 for the optional Flip Cover (S$58) and Huawei M-Pencil (2nd generation, S$148).

Check out Huawei’s promotional discounts for 10.10 sale on Shopee and Lazada. Click to enlarge.

Check out Huawei’s promotional discounts for 10.10 sale on Shopee and Lazada. Click to enlarge.

For this year’s 10.10 online sale, Huawei is selling the MatePad Pro (10.8”) on Shopee and Lazada at only S$498 from 10-12 October 2022.

And if you head down to Huawei Authorised Stores at 313@Somerset and Westgate, you get the Flip Cover and M-Pencil free as part of Huawei’s year-end promotions which last for the entire months of October and November.

Huawei also has a year-end promotion for the months of October and November 2022. Click to enlarge.

Huawei also has a year-end promotion for the months of October and November 2022. Click to enlarge.

Besides the MatePad Pro, many other Huawei devices are also on offer at steep discounts (up to 50% off) accompanied by freebies (up to S$496) – for both the 10.10 online sale and the year-end promotions.

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Tech Focus: Electric Vehicles On the Road to Industry Adoption

Tuesday, September 13th, 2022

The advent of electric vehicles represents a seismic shift in thinking as well as operations. In this thought leadership opinion piece, Thomas Goetzl from Keysight Technologies shares his insights on how this introduces several challenges like pressure on the power grid and a need for sustainable and environmentally friendly material.

Automakers need to reimagine a decade-old industry to meet modern challenges.

Automakers need to reimagine a decade-old industry to meet modern challenges.

Over the next decade, many automakers plan to transform their fleets to electric power, with some announcing goals for fully electric lineups within five years.

Automakers are making products that meet evolving industry standards for safety, emissions testing, and energy efficiency.

The surge in electric vehicles comes with infrastructure, manufacturing, and regulatory challenges that will impact the automotive industry.

The surge in electric vehicles comes with infrastructure, manufacturing, and regulatory challenges that will impact the automotive industry.

They require Electric Powertrain and HEV/EV solutions that address safety, regulatory, and environmental issues.

This significant transformation represents a seismic shift in thinking as well as operations and introduces several challenges like pressure on the power grid and a need for sustainable, environmentally friendly material.

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Interview: Gigamon President & CEO on Winning the Cybersecurity Cat-and-Mouse Game

Monday, May 9th, 2022

One week into being promoted to the top job of President and CEO of Gigamon, Shane Buckley sat down with tech4tea.com to share his strategy for Gigamon and how Deep Observability can help enterprises turn the table on sophisticated hackers in the cat-and-mouse game that is Cybersecurity.

Shane Buckley, President and CEO of Gigamon.

Shane Buckley, President and CEO of Gigamon.

Cloud adoption has come into its own in recent years, with the COVID-19 pandemic spurring more digital transformation around the world in two years than the preceding 10 years.

“Here in Asia, the growth of hybrid cloud is phenomenal. 73% of organisations in Asia Pacific that were surveyed will deploy hybrid cloud – more than just a multi public cloud solution – because they want to leverage the existing infrastructure and data centres they have; and to enjoy the flexibility, scale, automation, orchestration, that you get from any of these different cloud based technologies, such as Nutanix, VMware and others,” Buckley said.

This growth and move to the cloud is the driver behind the increased challenges of cybersecurity in this era – because of the complexities of operating on hybrid multi cloud IT infrastructure, and the increased sophistication of hackers.

Buckley shares that “one of the biggest lessons from 2021 is that the nature of the threat is continuing to get more sophisticated, with nation state actors, as well as nefarious groups that have become extremely adept at hacking into some of the world’s supposedly most secure networks and infrastructures”.

Enterprises need all the help they can get securing their IT infrastructure and fending off attacks arising from the increased exposure of the cloud environment.

Buckley observes that this battle is like a “cat-and-mouse” game in which – unfortunately – the mouse is winning. His role at Gigamon is to make sure the nefarious actors don’t win, by teaching and equipping companies and organisations with the ability to better provide security for their infrastructure.

“Gigamon is the leader in visibility and analytics for organisations worldwide, we help secure some of the most secure, most complex, most challenging networks on the planet. Our ability to see, control and secure workloads, no matter where they sit in the hybrid, multi cloud is what we’ve delivered through the Gigamon labs,” says Shane Buckley, President and CEO, Gigamon.

Research has shown that in 2021, 68% of all US organisations were hacked, which was up from over 50% in 2020. Many of those cases – some 25-30 percent – are ransomware attacks where organisations have to pay literally billions of dollars to these actors to release data that had been illegally encrypted and beyond use for those organisations.

“In that environment, where the nature of the threat is getting more sophisticated, we companies who actually provide protection for customers, we’ve got to move faster, because the level of sophistication of these people is becoming exponentially higher. We have to make sure that we can respond,” said Buckley.

“We’re in a unique position to provide those customers with the foundational visibility analytics they need to enhance their security posture and ensure they can minimise risk, maximise compliance, and try as much as we can to get the bad actors out,” Buckley added.

More details from the interview below.

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Review: Huawei P50 Pocket Fashionista Folding Smartphone

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022

The Huawei P50 Pocket is part of the latest flagship P-series lineup of smartphones from the Chinese phone maker. The folding smartphone offers a large display when unfolded yet offers a compact form factor when folded into half.

When folded, the Huawei P50 Pocket becomes compact and fits snugly in the trouser pocket or a ladies purse.

When folded, the Huawei P50 Pocket becomes compact and fits snugly in the trouser pocket or a ladies purse.

The design of top-end smartphones is fraught with trade-offs between desirable characteristics that tend to contradict each other in terms of manifestation.

Most of us desire a large display and long battery life yet baulk at the resultant bulkiness and weight.

My Take

The Huawei P50 Pocket is a head-turning flagship smartphone that offers a large display when unfolded and a compact form factor when folded – along with a stunning design that befits any fashionista.

We desire powerful performance and beautiful design yet keel over at the higher price tag.

So the design process by the phone maker and the buying decision often comprises a set of trade-offs between the things we desire in a smartphone.

The Huawei P50 Pocket removes the need for some of these trade-offs.

It offers a large 6.9-inch display when unfolded yet folds into a compact form factor that fits snugly in the trouser pocket without poking at uncomfortable places and threatening to slip out.

At 190g, it is not particularly heavy and has a large 4000mAh battery with 40W Huawei SuperCharge capability. Only wired charging is supported.

And as a flagship smartphone, has top-tier hardware for top-notch performance, including Huawei’s forte in smartphone cameras.

 

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A post shared by John Tan (@tech4tea)

Freshly unboxed Huawei P50 Pocket. Even the box is exquisitely designed.

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Tech Focus: Spot Your Security Vulnerability Before Hackers Do

Friday, March 18th, 2022

Every network has a security vulnerability – where is yours? In this guest commentary, Keith Bromley from Keysight Technologies shares a three-point plan on how to find your security vulnerability before hackers beat you to it.

Keith Bromley from Keysight Technologies shares his 3-step plan to help you discover your network security vulnerability before hackers do it for you.

Keith Bromley from Keysight Technologies shares his 3-step plan to help you discover your network security vulnerability before hackers do it for you.

One of the top questions on the minds of network security personnel is “how do I reduce my security risk?”

Even for smaller organisations this is important because every network has a weakness. But, do you know where you are the most vulnerable? Wouldn’t you like to fix the problem now, before a hacker exploits it?

Here is a three-point plan that works to expose intrusions and decrease network security risk.

Network security – It all starts with prevention

Inline security solutions are a high impact technique that businesses can deploy to address security threats. These solutions can eliminate 90% or more of incoming security threats before they even enter your network.

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Tech Focus: Raising the Bar on Autonomous Vehicle Safety

Thursday, February 10th, 2022

The fully autonomous vehicles of the not-so-distant future promise tremendous gains in automotive safety and transportation efficiency.

In this guest commentary, Thomas Goetzl from Keysight Technologies shares his insights on how automotive OEMs must move beyond contemporary levels of vehicle autonomy to fulfill this promise.

Keysight's Radar Scene Emulator (RSE) closes the gap between software simulation and roadway testing, and training ADAS and autonomous driving algorithms to real-world conditions.

Keysight’s Radar Scene Emulator (RSE) closes the gap between software simulation and roadway testing, and training ADAS and autonomous driving algorithms to real-world conditions.

SAE International (formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers) defines six levels of vehicle autonomy, with Level 0 representing fully manual and Level 5 representing fully autonomous.

Today’s most advanced autonomous vehicle systems rate only Level 3, which means they are capable of making some decisions such as acceleration or braking without human intervention.

“In order to make the leap to the tremendous gains in automotive safety and transportation efficiency that fully autonomous vehicles promise, OEMs will need to overcome a unique set of challenges for testing automotive radar sensors in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving systems, as well as developing new methodologies for training algorithms that conventional solutions are ill-equipped to address,” says Thomas Goetzl, vice president of automotive and energy solutions at Keysight Technologies.

Getting from Level 3 to Level 5 will require many breakthroughs, including closing the gap between software simulation and roadway testing, and training ADAS and autonomous driving algorithms to real-world conditions.

Keysight’s latest innovation, the Radar Scene Emulator (RSE), goes a long way toward bridging these gaps.

Software simulation plays an important role in autonomous vehicle development.

Simulating environments through software can help validate the capabilities of ADAS and autonomous driving systems.

But simulation cannot fully replicate real-world driving conditions or the potential for imperfect sensor response — something that fully autonomous vehicles will inevitably have to contend with.

OEMs rely on road testing to validate ADAS and autonomous driving systems prior to bringing them to market.

While road testing is and will continue to be a vital and necessary component of the development process, it is time-consuming, costly, and difficult to repeat specifically in the area of controlling environmental conditions.

Relying on road testing alone to develop vehicles reliable enough to navigate urban and rural roadways safely 100% of the time would take decades.

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Tech Focus: Monitoring Battery Temperature by Using a Data Acquisition System or Specialised Battery Test System

Wednesday, January 19th, 2022

In today’s electronics applications, batteries power nearly all of our portable electronic devices. Batteries also serve as emergency power backup systems on large premises. And all-electric vehicles use large cascading battery packs to meet the expected power for the required performance.

In this guest commentary, Bernard Ang from Keysight Technologies shares his insights on specialised battery testing.

Batteries are the key to our portable/mobile electronic gadgets in this digital era.

Batteries are the key to our portable/mobile electronic gadgets in this digital era.

Battery packs need the required specific power (W/kg) to be able to dispense enough current to achieve the electric vehicle speed performance.

They also need the required specific energy (Wh/kg) to achieve longer runtime or travel range.

Why is it important to monitor battery temperature?

Most rechargeable batteries today are lithium ion and have an operating range between 15 °C and 35 °C at which their full performance and capacity kicks in.

  • If the battery and its ambient temperature is below 15 °C, you may experience sluggish electrochemical reactions within the battery and as a result, lower battery performance and reduced charge capacity.
  • If the battery or battery pack operates above 35 °C in ambient temperature, battery degradation can accelerate over time. As a result, you may notice shorter battery life, non-uniform aging due to thermal gradients, greater exposure to safety issues, and higher life cycle costs. At extremely hot temperatures, batteries can break down and cause leakage, smoke, fire, and even explosions.

The power map chart below shows the power limits of your lithium-ion battery or battery packs across the temperature range.

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