Seven Wonders Electronics

[Epicuro Kishore]

SimilarlyInSe can be nearly as thin as graphene while exhibiting electronic properties higher than that of silicon. Most importantly, InSe has a large energy gap, which could open the door to super-fast, next-gen electronic devices.

For the scientists, the trick is in the utilization of a material other than silicon in semiconductors for power electronics. With extremely high efficiency levels that could potentially reduce worldwide energy consumption, some believe that material could be gallium nitride (GaN).

MIT spin-out Cambridge Electronics Inc. (CEI) has recently produced a line of GaN transistors and power electronic circuits. The goal is to cut energy usage in data centers, electric cars, and consumer devices by 10 to 20 percent worldwide by 2025.

The new ultra-dense chip hosts seven-nanometer transistors, which yields about four times the capacity of our current computer chip. Like many other researchers in the field, IBM decided to move away for the traditional and expensive pure silicon toward a silicon-germanium hybrid material to produce the new chip.

The success of the high-capacity chip relies on the utilization of this new material. The use of silicon-germanium has made it possible for faster transistor switching and lower power requirements. And did we mention how impossibly small these transistors are?

The researchers have unveiled a process to develop ultra-thin transistors made from TMD, otherwise known as transition metal dichalcogenide. This material is novel in the fact that it possesses properties that make it a perfect fit for solar cells, light detectors, or semiconductors.

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Well... Free Day has come and gone. It was most definitely not without some hiccups (ok... ok... full belly burps). We apologize for anyone who was unable to take part in the $100k give away. But let's revisit the goals of the Free Day (from the original announcement) and see how we did:

"First and foremost, we want to give back. We've had a stellar year in 2009, and it's all because of you. So please, have a beer (or a Stepper Motor Driver) on us."

Did we accomplish this? We think so. This was Free Day's primary goal because our customers are the biggest part of what makes SparkFun work. Their innovation and creativity makes this "world" turn. In our opinion, the beauty of DIY electronics is its openness - this type of technology should be available to everyone to play around with. We thought limiting the promotion to just our prior customers would really be going against this notion. So we opened it up - to everyone. This left some people feeling jilted and some people ecstatic - but overall, we think this was a good thing not just for the people who got their order through, but for the whole DIY electronics community.

"Second: We wish we could sponsor more groups but we don't have a sound way of selecting appropriate projects. Because we can't afford to say yes to everyone, we have to say no to everyone. It pains us every time we have to do it. So this is a way for us to evenly enable all the students and great minds of the world to pickup a $100 worth of free gear. Go for it!"

I think the answer to the first questions answers this as well. We hope we helped a few people accomplish projects they've been dreaming up!

"Third: Free Day will possibly create a maelstrom of site traffic, the likes of which our servers have not seen. At the beginning of December, 2009, SparkFun will be graduating out of its high-chair and moving into a server cluster. We are excited to have the breathing room, and Free Day will help us evaluate just how much breathing room we're getting. We'll do everything in our power to keep the site up but please understand that the site may go down."

This was, of course, more than just a test for our servers - we could've done that virtually and I think anyone who participated in Free Day knows how this worked. Our server went down three times during this ordeal. Once, it really broke on its own (the day before Free Day). Yikes. The other two times, we took it down on purpose before Free Day started to make upgrades we knew we'd need to have even a fighting chance of completing the day. Did our upgrades work? Yes and no. Yes, we were able to finish Free Day. No, it didn't go as smoothly as we hoped. Our site was slow as molasseses. We learned a ton in the IT realm of things and will use that information down the line. We hope in the meantime your F5 key is still intact and functioning.

"Fourth: We turn 7 years old! SparkFun is now over 70 employees and is the ripe old age of 49 (in business and dog years). We'd like to celebrate our birthday with a party."

Was it fun? Sure! But what we are really looking forward to is what comes down the line a week, a month, a year from now. We hope someone out there got a few things from Free Day and will create something really cool, or just start down the path of DIY electronics and get the same enjoyment we do out of this cool stuff.

So now let's look at some graphs and stats!

The SparkFun IRC chat room nearly took down Freenode! We love you Freenode!

"Nice job IT".

That sums it up. So does the upbeat tone of your message. You guys really dropped the ball and there is no white washing it.

Seriously you guys need to stick to embedded stuff if you think that was a nice job. Do you realize that most people could not access the main page much less place an order. I suspect the only orders that got in were logged in and had a full cart way before the thing started.

You may have made 1000 customers happy or one in every 70 that tried to get in.

Nice job?

I'm still totally amazed at how poorly implemented this spectacle was.

Wow. Just. Wow.

"I suspect the only orders that got in were logged in and had a full cart way before the thing started. "

Actually not the case and...I had a full cart, logged in and have been a customer for several years...it wasn't a favorites game......it was just luck...

It wouldn't make sense for them to beef up their servers to the point where they could easily accommodate free day -- most of that capacity would go unused after it was over.

1 in 70 is actually pretty good compared to how Amazon fared when they initially put the Wii on sale, and they have so much capacity that they sell the excess to others.

If Sparkfun ever goes to something like EC2 for their hosting, they should try this again... :)

I have to say this was a very frustrating experience. This was the worst shopping experience I have ever faced in all of my life, to tell the truth. I had everything ready for checkout the day prior to the event, but after hours this morning hopelessly trying to checkout, I gave up.

I am very disappointed on how this was all planned out. And I keep wondering if this really did "give back to the community" in a meaningful way and not a huge publicity stunt.

Congratulation to the people who did get the freebies. I will be turning my business back towards Digikey and Robotshop.

To be honest: if you thought this was a guaranteed $100 for you then you majorly misunderstood what was going on. There were waaaaaayyyyy more people trying to order than orders to go around.

Yes, this did give back to the community. There are other people in the community than just you.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, I'm not angry I didn't "win". I'm angry that this whole thing was such a mess. In my previous post, I emphasized on the "shopping experience", not on the contest itself.

And there must have been better ways to give back to the community... Free classes in impoverished schools, random contests with applications or bursaries. But I guess those don't give enough publicity...

Apricat: And I keep wondering if this really did "give back to the community" in a meaningful way and not a huge publicity stunt.

Dude, how long have you had a SparkFun account? 15 minutes?

Apricat: And there must have been better ways to give back to the community... Free classes in impoverished schools, random contests with applications or bursaries. But I guess those don't give enough publicity...

If you'd been around here for more than just Free Day you'd know SparkFun does stuff like this: =299

Don't complain that they're not giving anything back when you're one of the people who just showed up for a handout.

I can't believe people are being so negative. I've been looking forward to this for weeks, and spent all morning without getting past the loading page, but I still think it was a cool concept. Thanks Sparkfun. Congrats to those who made the cut.

As a customer and a supporter on various hardware forums, I have known about today for a while.

I had my cart ready to go, I was up at 6:30 SF time,I was going to get this! But every time I tried to get on, the site did not time out, it did not give blank pages, all it did was flat out refused to connect, connection refused, server reset loop, for 3 hours.

When I was able to get logged in, most of what I had in my cart was replaced with random items.Well by then the event balance was well over 70k so no chance in hell for me.

Congrats on clearing out 100 grand of stuff right before tax season, and letting 40% of this event wind up on ebay.Also thanks for nothing, When we needed you, you opted to let every ebay leech and 1 time freebee hunter artificially inflate your numbers for 1 day.

I will not be recommending or visiting SF any more, NOT! because "i didnt get my free swag" but it gave me more insight to the "little effort as possible to make a buck, from anyone dumb enough to let us" attitude that appears in most aspects of SF.

From the questionable quality of the items, to the drag ass shipping response time.

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