The Automated Test Blog

Wireless mobile devices will fundamentally change the way we use and interact with the Internet. As I’ve posted before, I am a unabashed iPhone user. And I’ve started to notice some curious things about my use of the Internet now that its with me all the time and easily accessible. For one, my Internet usage has gone up by an order of magnitude. I don’t think I’m exaggerating - I literally mean 10x. And let’s be clear, I was already a heavy Internet user. Now I use it 10 times more. This also means I access the Internet on my phone at least 10 times more than I do on my PC. I’ve grown so accustomed to the device that I find myself surfing the web on it while sitting in front of my laptop. I have also noticed that my expectations for Internet content has changed. For example, my expectation for real time content has gone up dramitically. I check news sites like cnn.com several times each hour and expect news updates. No new headlines in the last 20 minutes? Maybe I should try another site. I also notice that I use the device to augment my own knowledge on the fly by searching acronyms, names, etc., while in conversation or in a meeting. I don’t think I’m at all alone in this trend: Google recently reported that 50 times more traffic from iPhone users than from other mobile devices. Think about that - 50 times! When you make a tool like Google more accessible, dramatic things can happen. I’ve also talked to several colleagues (NI has a density of iPhone users that I doubt is topped anywhere outside of Cupertino), and they report a similar phenomena.

So, the question is, what is driving this change? I think first and foremost, we’re starting to really see the impact of ubiquitous wireless connectivity. The iPhone happened to make the full Internet available in way that is as good or better than the experience on the PC. Once the Internet makes the jump to wireless devices, the dynamic of the Internet will really change. The PC will quickly become irrelevant as an Internet device - the number of mobile devices (>1 billion per year) dwarfs the number of PCs (about 250 million per year). As Bolaji Ojo of EEtimes recently stated in his article Wireless is everywhere, ignore it at your peril, “the search is over for the next killer app…it is wireless”.

As an extension of my own personal iPhone observations, I think the new wireless Internet will have some of the following attributes:

• Usage an order of magnitude greater than the current web;
• Significantly increased demand for real time information;
• A two way communication portal, not just an information source (Web 2.0);
• Optimized primarily for mobile devices, not PCs.

It will get even more interesting as the wireless data bandwidth explodes with standards such as WiMAX and LTE. 2008 should be a fascinating year for wireless, particularly, the wireless Internet.

As I stated in an earlier blog post, I’m planning to discuss one of five industry trends per blog entry over the next few weeks. My 4th trend is:

The Explosion of Wireless Standards
Test engineers are facing new challenges as the use of wireless technolgies is rapidly expanding. This was a hot topic during the recent CES 2008 conference. One article covering CES, stated “Today’s young people might be called the wired generation, but judging from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show they might not have to deal with actual wires for much longer.” Below are few examples of products that have traditionally been “wired”, but are now becoming “wireless” devices:

• • Apple Time Capsule, which is a 1 terabyte wireless hard-drive using 802.11n.
  • GM Vehicle-to-Vehicle technology, cars are becoming wireless network that can broadcast position, speed, heading to surrounding cars.
  • Samsung flat-panel wireless TV, that receives its data from an 802.11n transmitte

As Wireless transitions from a vertical industry into a horizontal application, more and more test engineers will be faced with the challenge of testing RF wireless capability. Soon, RF instrumentation could become as ubiquitous as general-purpose instruments such as digital multimeters. This growth in adoption requires test engineers to learn wireless protocols and keep pace with the rapid introduction of new standards. This trend was reflected in the 2007 Test & Measurement World Salary Survey (which I blogged about late last year), in which subscribers across engineering disciplines were asked to identify the top technologies they are being required to learn. Among the top responses were WLAN and WiMax.

As I stated in my last blog, I’m planning to discuss one trend per blog entry over the next few weeks. The second trend in Test and Measurement is:

Growth of Software-Defined Instrumentation

One issue facing test engineers is that test instrumentation is not updated as rapidly as the devices being tested. The functionality of these complex devices is being defined by the software embedded in them, such as the Apple iPhone, which gives design engineers the ability to add features faster than ever before. This is increasingly challenging for many test engineers because most stand-alone instruments often lack the measurement capabilities of the most recent standards due to the fixed user interface and firmware that must be developed and embedded in them.
Thus, test engineers are turning to a software-defined approach to instrumentation which gives them the ability to quickly customize their measurement algorithms and user interfaces to meet specific application needs and integrate testing directly into the design process, further reducing development time. PXI is the example of a widely used software-defined instrumentation standard for building modular, reconfigurable high-performance automated test systems.

Kiran Unni, Frost & Sullivan Measurement & Instrumentation research manager, recently confirmed that PXI is influencing this trend when she stated, “The adoption of tools such as PXI is an indicator that companies recognize the benefits of moving toward software-defined instruments. The savings being realized in capital equipment, system development and improvements in system efficiency all contribute to reducing the per-unit cost of test, directly influencing the bottom line.”

My friend and colleague Ian Bell, Marketing Manager of our UK office, has started a blog as part of the publication Electronics Weekly. I, of course, welcome him to the blogging community. In merely his third blog, however, Ian has picked a fight with me. Not intentionally, of course. He could have blogged about something slightly less polarizing, like politics or religion, but, no, he had to go after something really controversial - the iPhone. You see there are two types of people in world, those that enjoy the pleasures of ownership of one of the greatest electronic devices of the decade, and the jealous majority that haven’t seen the light and thus fill their days talking about how over-hyped and unoriginal the iPhone is. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am of the former camp, while Mr. Bell is of the later.

I’ve resisted blogging about the iPhone…its already over-hyped, nearly cliche. What else can I add? But I feel compelled to respond. Mr. Bell notes that “Apple invented nothing in the iPhone”. He couldn’t be more wrong. By this definition, anything built on top of pre-existing technology components is not invention. He also notes, like so many other iPhone haters before him, all the technical features it lacks. I think this is, in fact, Apple’s greatest contribution of all. As engineers, we are constantly tempted to add features into our designs. The products we use every day don’t have too few features, but rather too many. What we have too often lost is the elegance and simplicity that comes from making hard choices in our designs. The iPhone developers, for example, didn’t include 3G capability. A ridiculous oversight in 2007, you say? I say my phone is slimer with better battery life than any 3G phone I’ve seen - and WiFi hotspots are becoming more and more ubiquitous. They also ‘left off’ GPS. Yet, I have an software application on my iPhone that uses WiFi and cell phone towers to triangulate my position. Not perfect in wide open spaces, but on a recent trip to New York City, it gave me sub-block accuracy. It also can give me the position of my friends and family, by the way. As they have demonstrated many times before, Apple’s greatest contribution is their focus and restraint - the ability to understand what matters and sets them apart (Great software, a beautiful screen, the touch interface, sensors that works like magic, a slim design, and simple synchronization) and make the tough calls to not bloat the feature set with everything else.

I could go on all day…but I want to draw at least one parallel with the test industry. Apple made the decision to put a disproportionate amount of their resources in the software running on the phone - betting that through software they could deliver usability, integration, and features at a level never before available in a handheld device. My guess is that they have at least twice the number of software developers as their competitors. At NI, we have taken a similar approach to measurement and automation. We have placed our bet on the power of PC technology and software-defined measurement devices. We invest disproportionally in our drivers and application software and have been able to deliver a platform that continues to get more powerful and flexible through software.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Ian.