Dennis B. Brophy, Director, Strategic Business Development, Mentor Graphics and IEEE-SA Corporate Advisory Chair.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Global Standards at IEEE seminar today in Bangalore, thanks largely to Veeresh Shetty at Mentor Graphics. It was also a pleasure to meet up again with Dennis B. Brophy, Director, Strategic Business Development, Mentor Graphics and IEEE-SA Corporate Advisory Chair.

Brophy kicked off proceedings with a presentation on the IEEE-SA Corporate Program and the IEEE Entity Standards Development (see image).

The IEEE-SA corporate program helps the industry to accomplish business objectives. It also provides a venue to nurture emerging and existing technologies. It fosters company based standardization as well. The IEEE also allows for networking within the IEEE-SA corporate constituency.

Brophy highlighted some examples of entity based projects such as batteries, design automation and cognitive radio. According to him, good standards are a blend of technology alternatives, economic needs and global requirements. The IEEE standards are developed throughout the world.

He cited an example of the IEEE P1888 draft standard for ubiquitous green community control networking protocol. This protocol had been proposed by Chinese companies. The corporate project is being developed entirely in Asia.

Brophy added that India is an ideal candidate to propose such types of standards for development.

IEEE on IPR

As part of its program to reach out to global technologists, the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) offered this seminar as part of a full outreach program in India. Bringing together leaders from industry, the seminar focused on global standards development at the IEEE and collaborative efforts among organizations and industry. It covered an overview of the IEEE standards development process, including discussion of the IEEE-SA Corporate Program and the IEEE standards intellectual property rights policy.

Karen Bartleson, Senior Director, Community Marketing, Synopsys, and Member, IEEE-SA Corporate Advisory Group.

One of the speakers, Karen Bartleson, Senior Director, Community Marketing, Synopsys and IEEE-SA Corporate Advisory Group member, had a presentation on IEEE Standards for Design Automation: Their Impact on an industry.

I managed to catch up with Karen alongside the IEEE seminar. We discussed a host of things, such as Synopsys’ activities in the social media, its role in the IEEE and the University program.

Synopsys@IEEE
One of Karen’s focus areas is the Synopsys standards program. The program is about ensuring the proper participation by Synopsys in the standards that its customers need.

She said: “We are involved in over 60 standards committees. We sit on the boards of several standard development organizations (SDOs). I am involved in four governing committees of the IEEE-SA. These are: Standards Board, Corporate Advisory Group, Procedures Committee (ProCom), and Audit Committee (AudCom) — they audit policies and procedures.”

Last year, Karen was a member of the New Standards Committee (NesCom). This committee approves of all the project authorization requests (PARs) made to the IEEE.

The IEEE 1800-2009 SystemVerilog standard has been recently approved. The new IEEE 1800 defines a single, comprehensive standard language that is designed to help boost the productivity of electronic system design and verification engineers and make possible broader and improved Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools to more quickly bring complex system-on-chip (SoC) devices to market.

1800-2009 changes from the previous version: The most important enhancement was the assertion “checker” blocks that encapsulate assertions and their supporting code, providing a mechanism for defining assertion libraries, and letting designers add assertions without needing to learn SVA (SystemVerilog assertions).

Synopsys’ university program
According to Karen Bartleson, Synopsys has a worldwide university program. She said: “We have approximately 1,000 universities globally under the program. We highlight is our rich curriculum. As we have actual course materials, etc., professors can start a brand new class or add to the existing or new material.” Synopsys’ goal is to prepare the next generation of engineers with hands-on experience.

The Indian university members in Synopsys’ worldwide university program: In the 2009 annual site update, there were a total of 119 sites in India up from 77 in 2008. This includes one site for D’gipro, who has about 20 universities getting tools through them and who do not have individual sites of their own. Of the 119, a total of 38 are Tier 1. This doesn’t include the ones who are joining the Seer/Synopsys program.

According to her, there are three aspects to build a global IT company. These are: a) A university system to train engineers; b) An industry — to hire graduates; and c) A government — that supports institutions and perhaps, provides incentives to the industry.

Synopsys currently works with some national governments, especially in places such as Armenia and Dubai — at the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), which I happened to visit during the International Electronics Forum (IEF) 2008.

Focus on social media
To my pleasant surprise, social media is high on the agenda at Synopsys. Karen said: “We are discovering that social media can be an extremely powerful medium for connecting with customers. On the Synopsys website, we currently have blogs as well as some forums. We call it as G2G (geek-to-geek communications.”

Synopsys started “The Buzz” at DAC 2009. It started ‘Conversation Central’ — where Synopsys set up 27 sessions. Synopsys also did the ‘Twitter Tower.” A 16-foot pedestal was set up with several monitors — all of those were displaying the various tweets being made during DAC.

If you stepped back and took a long, hard look at the Indian semiconductor industry, things look really fine. Design services and embedded are thriving, as always. Lot of senior executives from the overseas industry keep visiting the country every now and then.

However, India lacks in manufacturing, especially, electronics manufacturing. And here, the absence of a fab is glaring! Okay, I know, it is perhaps too late to wish for one, but I am a dreamer. Can’t help it!

To one of my earlier blog posts titles Union budget 2010: Solar, UIDs all the way, there have been several interesting comments on LinkedIn. I’m taking some of those, here, and try and determine what should India do!

First, a friend commended the Government of India’s NSM and focus on solar, and correctly so. India needs solar and the initiatives are great steps in the right direction. According to his calculations: Consider how much energy a 100 W solar panel will generate over its lifetime:
* Rated capacity: 100W.
* Power generated (at 50 percent efficiency) = 50W (because of dusty environments in which our panels live in).
* Number of hours sunlight stays: average of six hours per day.
* Days with no cloud/smog etc: 200 a year.
* Power generated over 25 years: 50x6x200x25=1.5 million watts!!

He says that even if India can store the power and use the power with 50 percent efficiency it will still clear 750 KW of power over 25 years. Is that a bad return for Rs 15000 of initial investment? Quite right! India has taken all the right steps so far that will help it to go on and become a global solar power player in the future.

Yet another friend feels that after 2005, India has had several opportunities for investment in semiconductor manufacturing. However, by the time an investment package was finally put in place, a few had already gone over to China and then it was followed by the economic crisis. He added that investment into semiconductor manufacturing is in terms of a few billion dollars, and therefore, it requires a very reliable and robust infrastructure (mainly power and water) in place. Today, infrastructure is seen as the biggest risk. Again, very valid points.

Notwithstanding the great initiatives made in solar PV in India, the fact remains that it is NOT semiconductors, and can never will be! Even though some say that many of the equipment and processes used in semiconductors are also used in solar, not to mention the personnel and the industry players.

However, how will all of this help the Indian semiconductor industry? We are still at design services and embedded! There are some product development companies, as most saw at the recent ISA Technovation Awards 2010. However, much more needs to be done to really have India on the global semicon map.

Another acquaintance from the US feels we would need a lot of investment for a 22nm fab. It is like building steel! We need semiconductor as the basis for infrastructure. G7 has it. The government of India should have an organization like the MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry), Japan, [now, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry). Semiconductor is used in every segment of the food chain. Now is the time to invest and make rapid progress in this field.

This is indeed, interesting! Will India ever have a METI? For that matter, how about having something like Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs?

I have my doubts as to whether a 22nm fab is even worth considering for India. First, India started rather late in its quest to build semicon ecosystem — by 16-17 years at least, and you may agree or disagree with my estimate. The best it can hope for is to focus on fabless and design services. Second, I’m not sure whether 22nm is the right node to target for, at least in India. India can and should have made some attempts — at least a decade ago, to develop 90nm and even 65nm space. I believe that the time is still not lost or gone!

Later, another friend, a Doctor in the solar/semicon field, said it takes a lot of investment to go to the 22nm node. Utilization of this technology is mostly for the memory market with a smaller subset in logic products with integrated memory (mostly NAND/NOR flash).

With so much glut in the memory market, ask yourself this question: does it make sense for the Indian semicon sector to go for billions of investment for a low pay back (memory) product? Or, would it make sense to implement slightly older technology with a roadmap to evolve to future ones, a la the 193nm node (Intel’s plan) migrating to 11nm node (it is not going to be a whole lot cheaper either). The answer is simple, since much of India’s IP and value addition is in the logic sector.

So what’s the solution for India? What should the Indian semiconductor industry do now?

The ISA Vision Summit 2010 saw some ambitious numbers being thrown up. India is said to be sitting on an electronics consumption opportunity worth $400 billion by 2020. During the Summit, the Karnataka Semicon Policy was announced, and along with it, a state target of $120 billion by 2020 was mentioned.

It is not going to be easy to achieve this target, nor is it going to be easy to achieve the so-called national target of $400 billion by 2020. At least, not with the present state of things. I sincerely hope that at least 50 percent of this is achieved, as it will really help the country make giant strides in semicon.

To achieve these goals, it would require more initiatives on part of the Union government, the state governments, etc., besides the industry and the industry association. Simply announcing a policy and then sit back and wait for things to happen may not help!

For instance, the announcement of the Karnataka Semicon Policy could have been accompanied with news about several other initiatives such as setting up of local plants, or even granting of land to companeis — something that was handled very well during the Solarcon Inida 2009 in Hyderabad last November.

For instance, Solarcon India 2009 saw an MoU signed between the Fraunhofer Institute of Solar Energy ISE and the University of Hyderabad Knowledge and Innovation Park (UoH KIP), in association with the (ISA. SolarCity’s logo was also unveiled and allottment letters were handed to four companies, and later, Moser Baer was allotted land. This is what I mean! All of these were very powerful messages being sent out to the world during Solarcon India 2009. Something similar, though not completely, was repeated at the ISA Vision Summit 2010, where Indian startups were recognized at Technovation Awards 2010. Again, a very powerful message!

So you see, I really don’t have to touch solar PV! It is a different segment altogether that needs all of our support. Post Solarcon India 2009 and the National Solar Mission (NSM), the initiatives will hopefully trigger off a very significant and ground breaking solar revolution in the country and make India a leading power in the segment.

Solutions for semiconductors and electronics manufacturing in India
Coming back to the solutions for semiconductors and electronics manufacturing in India — first, we definitely need to start developing our markets, focus on developing local products, concentrate on developing a local components ecosystem, nurture inland manufacturing, promote startups, and so on and so forth. Activities such as these will start to attract a few foundry players, I hope.

Now, how do we go about developing our markets? Well, a way could be to identify local problems and develop products built to address those problems — a fact mentioned time and again by several industry players. The difference: these products should be developed and manufactured by Indian companies that are into electronics manufacturing.

Here, we would need the support of fabs and foundries. Perhaps, a foundry like Dongbu HiTek, whom I recently met, could bring an ecosystem to India that could include silicon manufacturing, product testing services, failure analysis service, assembly services and sales channels for the Indian fabless companies. This would allow Indian companies to develop and market products for the global markets. I am sure that other smaller (and bigger) foundry players could do the same. But, they would all need a starting point, and we now need to provide some starting point for such foundry players.

Look, I am not supporting Dongbu here. I was simply lucky to meet up when the company visited India! It could easily have been any other foundry player. Well, I did meet Israel’s Tower Semi back in 2007! But I’ve not heard much about its India plans. Will I? I hope so.

I have also seen what Cre8 Ventures recently had to say regarding their plans to help develop product companies in India. If they come here, and do that, or at least, achieve some of that, it will be absolutely brilliant! India will definitely need more such ventures.

Recently, I heard a bit about National Instruments’ Planet NI Foundation, which desires to solve the world’s problem through engineering by providing access to technology. Planet NI is a unique approach to help the SME’s in India achieve economic prosperity through access to technology. India will deinitely need more of such foundations.

One more thought, can the Indian CEOs of MNCs based in India come together and try and do something, or even put together a plan for developing local products and markets? At least, the like minded Indian CEOs of such companies should definitely have a discussion and see what can be done. I am sure and hopeful that something can always be done!

Okay! Was I able to suggest solutions? Or, am I still stuck on the problems?

Altera announced an industrial safety data package for automation applications at the Embedded World Exhibition and Conference in Nuremberg, Germany.

Then, Xilinx introduced the Xilinx automotive (XA) family of Spartan-6 field FPGAs optimized for applications requiring high-speed connectivity and high-resolution video performance. At the same conference, Xilinx and Inova Semiconductors introduced an Automotive Pixel Link (APIX) IP solution for the Xilinx automotive (XA) family of FPGAs.

World’s first intelligent mixed signal FPGA
The best one, I believe, has come from Actel. Also at the Embedded World 2010, Actel unveiled SmartFusion, the world’s first intelligent mixed signal FPGA.

Now, isn’t that interesting? There has been a lot of focus on analog/mixed-signal (AMS), and Actel’s SmartFusion could not have been timed better.

I recall a story I had done some time ago with Cosmic Circuits for the India Semiconductor Association’s (ISA) website. The company said that the AMS market in India is set to expand rapidly in the next several years — driven by consumer, communications, automotive and industrial. The variety of analog chips required and the complexity are no different from those needed in other regions of the world!

Why? About 18 months ago, when speaking with Synopsys regarding the Galaxy Custom Designer, I distinctly remember the company telling me that it improves AMS productivity!

By the way, I couldn’t find anything from Achronix! Maybe, something is on the way from this company as well!

Quantum cpmputing with photons @ APW2010, International School of Photonics, Cochin!

The workshop was on a subject — Quantum Optics — that is quite far removed from what we would generally get to see in the IT industry. It was targeted at the young researchers and teachers in the various colleges, universities and other research institutions.

How often does one get to see demonstrations of experiments like quantum eraser, thermal lens based logic gates, and so on and so forth? Or for that matter, get to hear about quantum cryptography using quantum and classical optics? Needless to say, there is lot of exciting young talent in the country, especially in the areas of photonics, lasers and optoelectronics.

Corporates working in these areas would do well to join hands with CUSAT for the forthcoming workshops, and help give the workshop the ‘true and real’ stature it deserves.

Now, I will be writing about some of the happenings at APW 2010 on my blog that is hosted by Photonics.com in the US, and would request all of you to kindly visit that particular blog to know more!

On a personal note, I am extremely grateful to Prof. VPN Nampoori and Prof. P. Radhakrishnan at the International School of Photonics, Cochin, and to Dr. Reji Philip at the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, for having me over at APW-2010, and making it an enjoyable experience.

Special thanks to my friends, Priya Ramachandran and Mr Q, for their very warm hospitality!

Jaswinder Ahuja, Corporate Vice President & Managing Director, Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt Ltd
The 2010-11 Union Budget announcements will find broad-based appeal due to the provisions for social reform and increased allocation for primary education, health and rural infrastructure. Raising the tax slabs should positively impact consumption and as a result the overall economy.

Late last week, I had said that it would be a great surprise if solar/PV was not part of the budget, given the NSM. Well, it now has a major role, as do UIDs. However, as I expected, there is hardly anything for the semiconductor/VLSI industry segments, and definitely not what the industry had proposed. Apparently, semiconductor/VLSI is not yet a critical sector, and will need to wait for its time. Therefore, I am not surprised! It didn’t happen last year, and well, no change this year either!

Key budget highlights
* The plan outay for new and renewable energy has been increased by 61 percent from Rs. 620 crores to Rs. 1,000 crores. This is following the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (NSM) announced last year, which aims for 20GW by 2022.
* Proposal to establish national clean energy fund.
* There are proposals for setting up solar and wind power projects in Ladakh region as well.
* Allocation for power sector doubled to Rs. 5,120 crores.
* Allocation of Rs. 1,900 crores for UAID scheme (UID projects).
* UID numbers are ready for take off. UID authority has been constituted, and it will issue the first set of UIDs by the end of this year.
* Smart cards extended to NREGA.
* The Unique Identification Authority of India to get an allocation of Rs. 1,900 crores.
*  An effective tax administration and financial governance system calls for creation of IT projects which are reliable, secure and efficient. IT projects like Tax Information Network, New Pension Scheme, National Treasury Management Agency, Expenditure Information Network, Goods and Service Tax, are in different stages of roll out. To look into various technological and systemic issues, the minister proposes to set up a Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) under the Chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani.
* The budget proposed to further simplify FDI.

New and Renewable Energy
* The Finance Minster proposed to increase the Plan Outlay for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy by 61 percent  from  Rs. 620 crores  in 2009-10 to  Rs. 1,000 crores in 2010-11.
* To address the problem of energy deficiency in the Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir which faces extremely hard climate, the government proposes to set up solar, small hydro and micro power projects at a cost of Rs.500 crores.
* The Ministry of new and Renewable Energy (MNRE), which aims to develop and utilise new and renewable sources of energy fur supplementing energy requirements of the country in an eco-friendly and sustainable manner, has got a total Plan Outlay of Rs. 1,950 crores, which includes Rs.950 crores as IEBR in the annual plan for the year.  The following physical targets/activities have been set during the financial year:
* 2972 MW Grid-Interactive Power capacity addition from Wind, Small Hydro, Biomass, Power/Cogeneration, Urban & Industrial Waste to Energy and Solar Power; 142 MW eq. Off grid / Distributed Renewable Power Systems.
* Provision of basic electricity/lighting facility through SPV/other RE systems and devices, including DRPS in 1500 remote villages/hamlets; and Family type Biogass Plants of capacity of 0.30 million m2 (1.5 lakhs nos.).
* Deployment of Solar Water Heating Systems of 1.00 million m2; Promotion of Energy – efficient Buildings (1 million sqm. Floor area) and Development of Solar Cities.
* R&D activities on different aspects of new and renewable energy technologies; support to MNRE Centres /institutions and Standard and Testing; Renewable Energy Resource Assessment.
* Information, Publicity and Extension (IPE) of Renewable Energy systems; International  Relations; Administration and Monitoring including HRD and Training; Support to States, Public Enterprises and Industry  including HRD and training activities to be undertaken under Solar Mission.

Tax proposals
* GST to be rolled out by April 2011.
* Rs 1133 crores outlay for launch of GST.
* SARAL – II form for individuals ready for the coming year in a simple format in only two pages.
* Computerisation of commecial tax collection in states.
* Automation of central excise and service tax already rolled out.

Direct taxes
* Corporate tax hiked; MAT increased from 15 percent to 18 percent
* Current income tax slabs extended as follow:
Rs 1.6 lacs — nil
Rs. 1.6 lacs – Rs. 5 lacs – 10 percent
Rs. 5 lacs – Rs 8 lacs – 20 percent
Above Rs 8 lacs — 30 percent

Indirect taxes
* Under the NSM — concessional customs duty to machinery, equipment, applicances etc., required for setting up PV and thermal power units.
* Wind energy generators exempted from central excise duty.
* LED lights — central exicse duty reduced from 8 percent to 4 percent.
* To waive excise duty and solar and PV panels.
* Concessional 5 percent duty on set up of solar power unit.
* Excise duty on CFL halved to 4 percent.
* 4 percent duty on electric cars and vehicles.
* Mobile phone domestic production picking up. To encourage manufaturers of accessories, exemptions extended.
* Tax exemptions have been announced for equipment used in solar systems and wind energy system, LED lights, electric cars, cycle rickshaw, mobile phone components and certain medical equipment.

In detail, some of them are as follow:
* In pursuance of Government’s resolve to implement the National Solar Mission, there is a proposal to provide a concessional customs duty of 5 percent to machinery, instruments, equipment and appliances etc. required for the initial setting up of photovoltaic and solar thermal power generating units. I also propose to exempt them from Central Excise duty. Similarly, ground source heat pumps used to tap geo-thermal energy would be exempt from basic customs duty and special additional duty.

* Wind energy has shown promising growth in the country in recent years. As a measure of further relief, it is proposed to exempt a few more specified inputs required for the manufacture of rotor blades for wind energy generators from Central Excise duty.

* LED lights are staging a debut as a highly energy-efficient source of lighting for streets, homes and offices. Central Excise duty on these is being reduced from 8 per cent to 4 percent at par with Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs).

* Full exemption from Central Excise duty was provided to electric cars and vehicles that offer an eco-friendly alternative to petrol or diesel vehicles. The manufacturers of such vehicles have expressed difficulty in neutralising the duty paid on their inputs and components. It is proposed to remedy this by imposing a nominal duty of 4 percent on such vehicles. It is also proposed to exempt some critical parts or sub-assemblies of such vehicles from basic customs duty and special additional duty subject to actual user condition. These parts would also enjoy a concessional CVD of 4 percent.

* With the subscriber base growing at 14 million per month, India is one of the fastest growing markets for mobile phone connections in the world. Domestic production of mobile phones is now picking up in view of exemptions from basic, CVD and special additional duties granted to their parts, components and accessories. To encourage the domestic manufacture of accessories, these exemptions are now being extended to parts of battery chargers and handsfree headphones. Also, the validity of the exemption from special additional duty is being extended till March 31, 2011.

* Medical equipment, instruments and appliances are subjected to a very complex import duty regime based on several long lists that describe individual items. Multiple rates coupled with descriptions not aligned with tariff lines, result in disputes and at times prevent state-of-art equipment from getting the benefit of exemption. It is proposed to prescribe a uniform, concessional basic duty of 5 percent, CVD of 4 percent with full exemption from special additional duty on all medical equipment. A concessional basic duty of 5 percent is being prescribed on parts and accessories for the manufacture of such equipment while they would be exempt from CVD and special additional duty. Full exemption currently available to medical equipment and devices such as assistive devices, rehabilitation aids etc. is being retained. The concession available to Government hospitals or hospitals set up under a statute is also being retained.

* The manufacturers of orthopaedic implants have represented that their inputs attract a higher rate of duty than the finished product. I propose to exempt specified inputs for the manufacture of such implants from import duty.

* Cable transmission of infotainment is undergoing a transformation with the adoption of digital technology. The multi-service operators need to invest in “Digital Head End” equipment. To enable this, it is proposed to provide project import status at a concessional customs duty of 5 percent with full exemption from special additional duty to the initial setting up of such projects.

Service tax
* Export of services, especially in the area of Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing, generates substantial employment and brings in foreign exchange. It is proposed to ease the process of refund of accumulated credit to exporters of services by making necessary changes in the definition of export of services and procedures.

Nothing for semicon/VLSI, components or electronics manufacturing!
There you have it! The union budget 2010 has lots of good news for new and renewable energy, solar PV and UIDs — all on expected lines. Perhaps, these are on the national agenda, as is telecom, and hence, they have rightly bagged pride of place in the budget document. One hopes the players in the solar PV field do not have much to complain after this!

However, there is no place for semiconductors/VLSI, components, electronics manufacturing, as of now, which is a bit of a surprise. At least, some thought should have been given to electronic components and electronics manufacturing, as these are the need of the hour as well. The budget has been quiet on these fronts! But, no point in pointing fingers at the budget — it has simply taken care of what’s critical and top priority in the national agenda! On that count alone, the budget scores 100/100! If there is no place for the other segments, it is simply because we don’t have enough success stories, nor a good track record, at least, not so far!

There will be a need to build a solid ecosystem around solar PV. I hope that happens, now that so many goodies have been allocated to the sector.  However, one wishes that a wee bit more could have been done for boosting local manufacturing of LEDs in India.

In fact, barring solar/PV and UIDs, which are on the national agenda, there is hardly anything else! Those, who may feel that these measures would be adequate to trigger electronics manufacturing in the country and help the country, could be in for a surprise. And well, solar PV NEVER was and is semiconductors, hence, it would be unwise to tag it so!

A few questions: How many Indian manufacturers will really benefit from these proposals? Okay, how many MCUs are being produced in India, by Indian companies, for smart cards? Is this really enough to increase the consumption of electronics in the country? Is the excise duty on LEDs enough to boost its manufacturing? How many Indian companies are currently producing LEDs? And, at end of the day, are, we as a nation, serious enough to consider electronics manufacturing important and nurture such companies?

These are all tough questions, for now, and there are many others. One hopes, and continues to live in hopes, that these questions would be answered adequately in the years ahead. But, before the budget answers these, the Indian industry itself needs to find solutions first to these questions, and then expect answers from any budget.

Overall, a good budget from the solar/PV and energy perspectives, but really down on electronics manufacturing, for now. Perhaps, we have to wait for some other time to see this segment get a real boost!

The verdict: those who wish to invest in India’s new and renewable energy sector, and especially, solar PV, the time is now!

There were several live demonstrations on systems with acquisition from various sensor types with in-built signal condition on different buses and form factors, building management system, sun tracker demo, and high speed audio recorder. There are much more applications and demos, but I shall only touch upon a few here.

National Instruments' Sun tracker demo at its DAQ showcase and workshop.

First, I quite liked the Sun Tracker demo (see picture here). This solution should be of considerable interest for folks in the solar photovoltaics (PV) space, especially in India. A solar tracker is a device for orienting a daylight reflector, solar PV panel or concentrating solar reflector or lens toward the sun. The sun’s position in the sky varies with the seasons and times of the day.