Bloging from US!

Today was the third day of IEEE SoC Conference (SoCC'05) and yesterday I had my presentation. Everything is going well and tomorrow the conference will be finished. I will go back to Sweden during this weekend and I should experience another jetlag again! This is a short story about my trip. Actually right now I don't have an easy and comfortable access to internet to write more. Next week (if I am still alive) I will write a little bit more with some interesting pics.

Data Conversion

Always data converters were interesting components for me from different perspectives. Although my research interest doesn't include areas related to data converters but DAC design was my first step when I entered IC design field. On those days I was involved with design of a 8-bit pipeline D/A converter for high data rates in 0.35 um CMOS process. Actually when I started my master in Sweden I had to leave that research and focus on my studies but this year, and after 3 years, I introduced a project for my "VLSI project" students to design the same DAC. They are going to measure it next week and I am very interested to see the results. On the other hand, in A/D design, I think still there are different challenging parts which should be solved.

The requirements for ADCs in software defined radio (SDR), also attracts many attentions in this area. This year in our summer school in Visby, Christer Svensson had an interesting talk about ADC requirements in SDR. The most interesting part was that, according to his calculations, power consumption of today's ADC can be reduced by the factor of 10000 ideally and say more than 100 practically which still is quite a lot. I think ADC design is a big challenge today.

Skype

Skype which is a global telephony company and is helping revolutionize the telecoms industry, has been started by Niklas Zennstrom. He is a Swedish citizen and 39 years old. He has a dual degree in business and MSc Engineering Physics, computer science from Uppsala University in Sweden. He spent his final year at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is also famous for creating "KaZaA" which was a peer-to-peer (p2p) program. The idea behind the Skype is that people shouldn't pay extra for telephone calls when they have already bought devices like computer. Using Skype software, call rates are reduced for users and that's why everyday 150000 people are joining to Skype users. Skype free software has been downloaded more than 165 million times since it was introduced in 2003 and just in 2005, it has about $60 million income for company.

Today's reports claim that eBay may pay between $2bn and $3bn for Skype. In 2003, when Niklas wanted to start Skype, it was difficult for him to convince sponsers to support his company. Perhaps people hardly could believe that in less than 3 years it would become a multi-billion dollar company!

Niklas Zennstrom

New Year!

During my elementary school time, September 23 had always special meaning for me and for other students. It was the beginning of new educational year in my country and it gave me two contrastive feelings. The first and dominant one was a sort of happiness, because I would meet new classmates and new friends. Also parents used to buy new stuff for students for new educational year, and it was another reason for being happy about this new start. The second feeling was somehow sadness! Because summer time had been passed and we should just focus on our studies rather than having fun.
Now after more than 20 years I have somehow the same feelings in September. When I want to start my teachings for new coming students I can feel again this contrast. Believe me that it is not because of restriction in having fun, but I think it has been become part of my feelings with respect to this time of year after several years. Maybe one of the most important reasons is that weather is going to be cold in this time of the year.

This year I have started a very busy September. First of all I had a summer school in Visby (I think it should be renamed to "fall school!"). It was my first time in Gotland and it was very beautiful. If you are living in Sweden I would recommend you to arrange a trip to Gotland. As a part of my teaching I have also one course which has been started. On the other hand we should measure the chip which we were involved with its design during this year. Also I need to prepare my presentation in IEEE SoC conference and all of these things need time. Anyway this lack of time could be another reason for me to have opposite feelings!