The Hindu : Karnataka News : Getting set for tomorrow’s solutions today

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Saturday, Aug 09, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Getting set for tomorrow’s solutions today

Remember what the Red Queen said in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”

“It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

The global wireless technology “maidan” is like this: Technology change is so furiously fast that developers who want to stay ahead cannot afford to rest on their past laurels. Bangalore-based brains already fuel dozens of new products in the global wireless device and service space: academics who create new algorithms; chip-makers who put entire systems-on-a-chip for compact handheld devices; “fables” designers who create the application specific integrated circuits ( ASICs) or the Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) that original equipment manufacturers use to fuel tomorrow’s must-have consumer devices….

The challenge is the time between concept and working design; between design and prototype; between prototype and product rollout: typically 12 to 18 months across the entire product lifecycle.

Canny designers have to anticipate what the technology status will be a year down the road — and build for that. We in India are still to get our hands on the so-called 3G or third generation wireless cellular technology, while the Government dithers like Hamlet, to go or not go…. and how to go about it. But like the Red Queen’s country, mobile wireless is a game of shifting goalpost; for an Indian designer to sell a product today, must work in tomorrow’s high speed arena: HSPA or High Speed Packet Access; Long Term Evolution (LTE); Mobile WiMax….How can a small or medium industry player even begin designing for these environments, when the technology is unavailable in India?

That is where T&M – Test and Measuring – systems come in…. mix-n-match set-ups where one can swing together, power sources, signal generators, wave form synthesizers to create the precise communication environment that the global customer will experience, a year or two down the road.

The market leader in this niche, Agilent Technologies, suggested how it could help developers leap ahead of the technology chasm, last week when it brought the Pan Asia Wireless Test World event to Bangalore. Over 200 of India’s best and brightest brains in radio frequency design, project and engineering management, came together to “touch-and-feel” an array of new T&M tools.

“India is the preferred destination for global network equipment manufacturers, design houses and chip vendors, where cutting edge research is being undertaken,” says Agilent Technologies India’s General Manager for Application Engineering Operations, Naresh Kumar. “The world is already looking to her designers for solutions in tomorrow’s technologies like Digital Video Broadcast and Location-sensitive personal devices.”

Agilent’s range of T&M includes wireless test benches like the 8960, which can generate any test transmission across a very wide band of current applications to help designers simulate the working environment of their products. There are other tools for digital TV; still others which help engineers recreate an environment where multiple satellites communicating in a Global Positioning System (GPS) can be simulated.

“We go beyond test and measurement,” adds Sunil Motwani, General Manager, Electronics Measurements Group. “We can help to create reference designs and test complete working prototypes so that designers are confident their product will work under all conditions before committing them to manufacturing.”

“Testing times ahead” used to be a downbeat phrase; a signal of troubles ahead. But in the world of digital and wireless product design, it’s a glad sign that research is ready to face its ultimate challenge… a test of a product’s usability by the customer.

ANAND PARTHASARATHY

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