Ushio sells its first EUV light source
Ushio has received the first acceptance of its laser-assisted discharge produced (LDP) EUV light source. After 15 years of development, the company may earn a place in the EUV arena after all – in the mask shops, not the fab, though.
Demcon acquires slice of FPGA specialist Qbaylogic
UT spin-off Qbaylogic intends to position its Clash language as the third language for programming FPGAs, in addition to and above VHDL and Verilog. Demcon’s involvement will enable the company to grow further and develop new products.
Variability and DevOps
Many companies that I work with are in the process of adopting continuous deployment of software – or DevOps. As part of that process, the notion of product variability comes up frequently because there often are multiple product variants out in the field. The software for each variant used to be created in a mostly manual process. As a consequence, most companies do not see a reasonable way to adopt DevOps with that many product variants requiring frequent software updates. This often results in significant pressure within the organization to start reducing the number of variants drastically in order to alleviate the DevOps challenge.
Merging mechatronic systems engineering and software engineering
Model-based design is a powerful method for developing high-tech products and systems. Traditionally at Demcon, the mechatronic systems engineer took the lead in developing the model, but the software engineer turned out to be indispensable in defining a software architecture that resulted in efficient and maintainable control code generated by that model. Therefore, over the years, both disciplines have come together.
NLR launches first drones beyond the visible line of sight
With swarms of drones now filling the sky, air traffic safety is identified as a primary challenge. In a joint European effort to address these concerns, NLR is ushering a public-private collaboration for the implementation of new regulations.
“We don’t distinguish ourselves by software alone”
Do Dutch high tech companies invest enough in software development? Bits&Chips poses the question to Guustaaf Savenije and Ton Peijnenburg of VDL ETG, the largest tier-1 high tech supplier and hardware company in the Netherlands. “Software is just one of the disciplines – no more, no less. Better participate in the multidisciplinary world!”
Software engineering: balancing what you make and how you make it
How does Itility view the software engineering discipline? Software engineers Aran Vink, Nick van der Veeken and Thom Koomen put that into words using three statements on topics such as best software practices, CI/CD, DevOps and consistent documentation.
Despite advances in technology, systems reliability is getting worse
With a steady increase in global product recalls, highly publicized fines for automotive companies and the recent Boeing tragedies, it’s clear that reliability is a major issue. According to world-renowned expert Michael Pecht, things are getting worse. In fact, he says many of these problems are completely self-created and entirely avoidable – that is, if companies are ready to get serious about reliability.
Billions from the gaming world give digital twin momentum
With a game engine under the hood of its digital twin toolbox, Unit040 is leveraging the developments in the gaming industry. The impact of gaming technology on simulation and visualization in high tech has taken the traditional CAD industry by surprise. “We’ve been tapping into the knowledge from the game engine development race for years,” says Guido van Gageldonk, the CTO of Unit040.
Low code is not no code
Today, the work of software developers influences every life on this planet. Every company is becoming a software company. Experts predict that the demand for application development will continue to grow exponentially. The problem of talent shortage has exploded in software development. In 2020, the available jobs for software developers in the US alone are expected to exceed qualified applicants by a million (!). The future is bright for software developers.
It’s not what AI can do for you
Virtually any company that I work with is exploring its data sets and business processes to identify opportunities for productivity improvements, higher accuracy or lower cost. The constant question that these companies struggle with is how can artificial intelligence, and specifically machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), support existing processes and ways of working. This results in a number of challenges.