Episode #3 - embedded world round-up

In the circumstances this was a decent effort, especially with the cancellation of Mobile World Congress hanging over proceedings.

As it was over 900 exhibitors decided to attend. The test and measurement, software, boards and modules and interconnect sectors were particularly well represented. 

The ranks of the semiconductor manufacturers and component distributors were heavily depleted.

No Texas Instruments, Microchip Technology, Analog Devices, NXP, Arrow, Avnet, Digi-Key and Mouser took its toll. These are the blue-chip companies of embedded world so understandably their absence had a knock-on effect on the attendance.

When the exhibition doors closed, visitors numbered 13,000, which while well down on the previous year did offer some benefits. 

“The good news,” one exhibitor told Electronic Specifier, “is that many visitors arrived with a specific purpose or project, and with fewer visitors we had more time to talk to them, so some serious discussions took place.”

There was of course no getting away from the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

"In recent years, we have been able to report increasing visitor numbers year after year at the end of the exhibition," commented Thomas Preutenborbeck, Member of the Management Board, NürnbergMesse. "Unfortunately, this is not possible for us this year. The discussion about exhibitor cancellations and the coronavirus has unsettled numerous exhibitors and visitors all over the world and had a strong impact on embedded world". 

What emerged were ambivalent views from exhibitors.

"On the one hand we received news from exhibitors who assessed the course of the exhibition as rather unsatisfactory for themselves, and on the other hand there was a positive response from companies who were able to hold many valuable discussions during the three days," said Preutenborbeck. "In the end more than 900 exhibitors and thousands of visitors came to Nuremberg. We would like to thank them for this and of course we missed all those who did not come or could not come.”

The stature of embedded world makes it an ideal platform to launch new products. Maxim Integrated Products introduced a secure IoT microcontroller and two LiDAR ICs, a high-bandwidth transimpedance amplifier and high-speed comparator.

UK-based Harwin arrived in Nuremberg with an extension to its Gecko-SL (Screw-Lok) product range that now includes horizontal male pitch connectors. 

Following up on its entry into the 3.5-inch SBC market in the middle of last year, congatec introduced a carrier board in this standardised footprint, which includes a socket for Arm based SMARC modules.

Dialog Semiconductor showed an IO-Link IC that expands the company’s reach into the Industrial IoT (IIoT) market. 

Semtech unveiled LoRa Smart Home, a device designed for LPWAN based smart home, community and consumer applications.

Two test and measurement introductions caught the eye. Pico Technology debuted its PicoScope 6000E Series FlexRes oscilloscopes, featuring eight channels with 500 MHz bandwidth, 16 digital channels, and resolution of eight, ten or 12 bits.

Centrepiece of the Rohde & Schwarz stand was a demonstration of its jitter analysis option for the R&S RTO and R&S RTP oscilloscopes.

There is of course no getting away from the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

"In recent years, we have been able to report increasing visitor numbers year after year at the end of the exhibition," says Thomas Preutenborbeck, Member of the Management Board, NürnbergMesse. "Unfortunately, this is not possible for us this year. The discussion about exhibitor cancellations and the coronavirus has unsettled numerous exhibitors and visitors all over the world and had a strong impact on embedded world". 

From NürnbergMesse's point of view, the international exhibition this year therefore painted an ambivalent picture. 

"On the one hand we received news from exhibitors who assessed the course of the exhibition as rather unsatisfactory for themselves, and on the other hand there was a positive response from companies who were able to hold many valuable discussions during the three days," says Preutenborbeck. "In the end more than 900 exhibitors and thousands of visitors came to Nuremberg. We would like to thank them for this and of course we missed all those who did not come or could not come.”