One Man’s Tale Of EMC Compliance Testing

If you turn over almost any electronic device, you should find all those compliance logos: CE, FCC, UL, TÜV, and friends. They mean that the device meets required standards set by a particular region or testing organisation, and is safe for you, the consumer.

Among those standards are those concerning EMC, or ElectroMagnetic Compatibility. These ensure that the device neither emits RF radiation such that it might interfere with anything in its surroundings, nor is it unusually susceptible to radiation from those surroundings. Achieving a pass in those tests is something of a black art, and …read more

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RF Noise Floor Concerns From Both Sides Of The Atlantic

Our feed is full of stories about the RF noise floor today, and with good reason. The ARRL reports on the International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 president, [Don Beattie, G3BJ] warning that in densely populated parts of Europe there is a danger that parts of the RF spectrum have become so swamped with noise as to be rendered unusable, while on the other side of the Atlantic we have RadioWorld reporting on similar problems facing AM broadcasting in the USA.

At issue are the usual suspects, interference from poorly shielded or suppressed domestic electronic devices, VDSL broadband, power-over-Ethernet, solar …read more

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An Overview Of The Dreaded EMC Tests

There is one man whose hour-long sessions in my company give me days of stress and worry. He can be found in a soundless and windowless room deep in the bowels of an anonymous building in a town on the outskirts of London. You’ve probably driven past it or others like it worldwide, without being aware of the sinister instruments  that lie within.

The man in question is sometimes there to please the demands of the State, but there’s nothing too scary about him. Instead he’s an engineer and expert in electromagnetic compatibility, and the windowless room is a metal-walled …read more

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$67 billion Dell-EMC deal closes today

dell-emc Last Fall, rumors began circulating that Dell was interested in acquiring EMC. On October 12th, the rumors proved true when Dell announced it was buying EMC for an astonishing $67 billion, a record price for a tech acquisition. Almost a year later, for better or worse (richer or poorer), that deal is official today. While the parties might like to frame this as a deal with little drama, the… Read More Continue reading $67 billion Dell-EMC deal closes today

Police Baffled? Send For The Radio Amateurs!

The police force in Evanston, Illinois had a problem on their hands. A mystery transmitter was blocking legal use of radio devices, car key fobs, cellphones, and other transmitters in an area of their city, and since it was also blocking 911 calls they decided to investigate it. Their first call for help went to the FCC who weren’t much use, telling them to talk to the manufacturers of the devices affected.

Eventually they approached the ARRL, the USA’s national amateur radio organisation, who sent along [Kermit Carlson, W9XA] to investigate. He fairly quickly identified the frequencies with the strongest …read more

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Confirmed: Dell sells software division to Francisco Partners and Elliott Management

Dell headquarters TechCrunch has confirmed that Francisco Partners and Elliott Management have agreed to acquire Dell’s software division.
Elliott Management, Francisco Partners and Dell issued a joint press release confirming the acquisition this morning.
Rumors about this acquisition were first reported by Reuters over night. The deal involves Quest Software and SonicWall and could include other… Read More Continue reading Confirmed: Dell sells software division to Francisco Partners and Elliott Management

Pivotal confirms Series C round is actually over $650 million

Paul Maritz from Pivotal Pivotal filed a Form D last week with the SEC, indicating that last week’s $253 million round was actually closer to $653 million. Where did the extra money come from? Well, existing investors EMC converted $400 million in debt to equity to account for the additional money recorded in the SEC form, according to a Pivotal spokesperson. It’s actually quite interesting that EMC, which… Read More Continue reading Pivotal confirms Series C round is actually over $650 million

Pivotal scores $253 million Series C led by Ford on hefty $2.8 billion valuation

ford-edge Pivotal has a couple of new friends with big wallets. Today it announced that Ford and Microsoft were joining EMC, VMware and GE as investment partners on a massive $253 million Series C investment with a whopping $2.8 billion valuation. It’s not a coincidence that Pivotal has been working closely with Ford over the last year to help it in its own transformation from a car company to… Read More Continue reading Pivotal scores $253 million Series C led by Ford on hefty $2.8 billion valuation

Michael Dell reveals new branding scheme for the Dell-EMC conglomeration

Michael Dell in front of a Dell-EMC mainframe. Michael Dell today revealed the new names, and yes we are talking multiple names, for the artist formerly known as the Dell-EMC deal. EMC will be deprecated for the main branding Dell Technologies, but will live on for the enterprise brand Dell EMC while the client services business will be called Dell, Inc. according to multiple reports. Confused? I’m sure you’re not… Read More Continue reading Michael Dell reveals new branding scheme for the Dell-EMC conglomeration