Monday, September 11, 2006

Sensor supplier now offers motor control This is an interesting piece of news. Turck, known for various sensing products and now for hardware interconnect products after its absorption of Interlink-BT, now is selling motor control. Wonder what this means for the motor control market. Called the BL20 xStart, the motor starter modules allow 3-phase motor control to be connected to the same rack as standard I/O. This allows motors to be controlled via DeviceNet, Profibus-DP or CANopen. They contain a base and a power module and are available in direct online and reversing versions. The power module contains a motor-protective circuit breaker and one or two contactors. Power modules are hot-swappable and enable connection of motors up to 7 horsepower at 480 Vac. 10:08:32 AM    comment []

New memory chip Saw this news item on Yahoo News from AP about a new type of memory chip invented by Samsung Electronics that it says will allow digital devices to work faster by saving new data more quickly. The phase-change random access memory, or PRAM, chip is nonvolatile and is about 30 times faster than conventional flash memory. Availability is expected in 2008. Samsung unveiled a 512-megabit prototype at a news conference today in Seoul. Samsung said the PRAM chips use vertical diodes and a three-dimensional transistor structure to create a small cell size. They also do not need to first erase old data in a separate step before storing any new data. The company also unveiled a 32-gigabit NAND flash memory chip based on 40-nanometer process technology, much smaller than the typical 70-nanometer used now. 9:54:22 AM    comment []

Design tools I just love to see the improvements in these helpful tools.  I sold something like this in the early-mid 90s. But all the file standards, PC improvements and the like have really made these useful. I just saw that Bosch Rexroth has a Tools and Downloads site with downloadable CAD files, calculators, configurators, literature, software and other things to assist design engineers. The resources cover electric drive and control, pneumatic, linear motion and assembly technologies. 7:26:32 AM    comment []