29 March 2014

IR Blaster - 2




Reference:
http://www.power7.net/HTCIR.html
http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/codes
http://www.remotecentral.com/features/irdisp1.htm






11 March 2014

An insight to semiconductor business

An original equipment manufacturer manufactures products or components that are purchased by another company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product.

Broadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. It outsources all semiconductor manufacturing to Asian merchant foundries, such as GlobalFoundries, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, Silterra, TSMC, and United Microelectronics Corporation.

The top 5 sales leaders for fabless companies in 2011 were: Qualcomm, Broadcom, AMD, Nvidia and Marvell.

Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry.

Pure-play semiconductor foundry is a company that does not offer a significant amount of IC products of its own design, but instead operates semiconductor fabrication plants focused on producing ICs for other companies. Some of the top leaders in this segment are: TSMC, Globalfoundries, UMC, SMIC, PowerChip, Vanguard (VIS), Huahong Grace, Dongbu, TowerJazz, Win Semiconductors etc. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is world's first dedicated merchant foundry.

An integrated device manufacturer (IDM) is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit (IC) products. Integrated device manufacturer (IDM) semiconductor foundry is where companies such as Texas Instruments, IBM, and Samsung join in to provide foundry services as long as there is no conflict of interest between relevant parties. Some of the top leaders in this segment are: Samsung Semiconductor, IBM, MagnaChip etc.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_equipment_manufacturer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabless_manufacturing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcom
http://www.umc.com/English/class_300/c.asp

07 March 2014

IR blaster

An infrared blaster (or IR blaster) is a device that emulates an infrared remote control to autonomously control a device that is normally controlled only by remote control key presses.

I'm the type of television viewer that constantly has his smartphone or tablet in hand while watching shows, so having quick access to remote control functions is great.

While the infrared port has been missing from phones' spec sheets for a good five years or more, it seems to be a "must have" feature for high-end Android devices in 2013. Flagship devices from Samsung and HTC now include transmitters and apps that let you control your TV.


Reference:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/24/4262074/is-this-the-year-of-the-ir-blaster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_blaster
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=remote.control.samsung
http://mobilefomo.com/2014/01/mixing-mobile-tv-super-bowl/
http://www.thinktv.co.nz/insights/research/digital-device-usage-and-television-viewing-habits/