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RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while typing up your telephone line, and a nice lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...

All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.

My Hobby Website:

AirplanesAndRockets.com

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Tech Smorgasbord Archives - 20

RF Cafe University "Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and "Tech Topics Smorgasbord" are all manifestations of my rantings on various subjects relevant (usually) to the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36

Nuclear Fission Event Reported in Earth Orbit
(source: Space.com)

A news report on February 11, 2009, told of a "very low-probability" impact between an expired Russian Cosmos satellite and one of the operational Iridium satellites. Both were traveling more than 16 kmph at an altitude of 491 miles. Total destruction ensued, with two clouds of debris to be added to the ESA's animation. The Iridium System originally was to consist of a constellation of 77 satellites - think Bohr atomic model of the 77th element in the periodic table. Budget cuts forced a reduction to just 66 satellites - the Dysprosium System. We now have the Terbium System (65). Can you hear me now?

2-12-2009

2009 Economic Freedom
World Rankings
(source: The Heritage Foundation)

Ten freedoms are factored in, from property rights to entrepreneurship.

Rank	Country	Score
1	Hong Kong	90.0
2	Singapore	87.1
3	Australia	82.6
4	Ireland	82.2
5	New Zealand	82.0
6	United States	80.7
7	Canada	80.5
8	Denmark	79.6
9	Switzerland	79.4
10	United Kingdom	79.0
19	Japan	72.8
25	Germany	70.5
35	Taiwan	69.5
40	South Korea	68.1
64	France	63.3
132	China	53.2
146	Russia	50.8
179	North Korea	2.0

100-80=Freest, <50=Most Repressed

2-5-2009

Conspiracy Uncovered
(source: Sky & Telescope)

Is there a common theme with these two images? Maybe that both are religious symbols seen all throughout the land? One is a church building, and the other is... a power distribution pole. I smell an ACLU lawsuit here demanding the removal of such blatant religious symbols as are these poles - at least those on public land. Separation of Church and State requires as much (is that really in the Constitution?). The source of the images? Sky & Telescope magazine; it is part of their monthly all-sky star chart. Those fanatics at S&T must be sending a subliminal message.
Remember, you heard it here first!

1-29-2009

More Print Tech Media Admits to e-Pain
(source: Military & Aerospace)

"...We've switched from a tabloid format... It fits easily into a briefcase... or even folded into a jacket pocket. This is what we're telling everybody, anyway. When we deliver this schpeil[sic] to friends at trade shows and other gatherings, they listen patiently and politely. Then comes ... 'Yeah, yeah, that's all nice; what's the REAL reason you're changing the book from a tabloid to standard magazine?' Here's the honest answer: We're keeping our print magazine relevant in the Internet age.
Some folks say print is dead. We say print is as important as it ever was–except that it has to reinvent itself to live happily and productively beside that 500-pound gorilla we know as the Internet."
- John Keller
Print might not be dead, but it is on life support.

1-22-2009

The Average Electronics Asian Engineer in 2008
(source: EDN)

When you boil down all of the statistics, here is what the average EE looked like in 2008:

• $47,585 salary
• 7.4% raise
• 4.7 yrs in current job
• 5.3 yrs w/employer
• 51 hours/week
• years of experience
• 32% ≥Master's degree
• Works at big company
• Wears many hats

1-15-2009

U.S. Trade Balance in High-Tech Goods 2000-2004
(source: NSF Website)

If you think that the U.S. has gotten into the bad habit of importing more high tech products than it exports... then you are correct.

RF Cafe: NSF chart of U.S. import vs. export of high tech products

It is not difficult to extrapolate to the next few points through 2007, but seeing the 2008 and 2009 data will be very interesting.

1-8-2009

30 Best Small Electronics Companies
(source: Electronic Business)

This list represents the 2004-2006 timeframe. Rankings are based on yr/yr revenue increases. I picked a few RF Cafe visitors might recognize.

	Company	Δ%
1	SunPower	370.1
2	Acme Packet	129.3
5	Tessera Technologies	69.4
9	IPG Photonics	53.6
12	Sirenza Microdevices	49.3
14	Hittite Microwave	45.3
15	Measurement Specialties	42.0
20	Volterra Semiconductor	30.4
26	Pericom Semiconductor	26.3
28	Spectrum Control	25.0

1-1-2009

Top 20 Semiconductor Suppliers of 2008
(source: iSuppli)

iSuppli released their preliminary list of the top IC producers in 2008. #1-5 are the same as in 2007. Total revenue was $267M, which is down 2% from 2007.

1	Intel
2	Samsung
3	Texas Instruments
4	Toshiba
5	STMicroelectronics
6	Renesas
7	Sony
8	Qualcomm
9	Hynix
10	Infineon

See the complete list here.

12-4-2008

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