Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide

Thomas M. Coughlin

Aug 2011 · Newnes

About this ebook

Can you imagine life without your cell phone, laptop, digital camera, iPod, BlackBerry, flat-screen TV, or DVD player? The skyrocketing demand for devices that provide simple, immediate access to large amounts of content is driving required digital storage capacity to unprecedented levels. Designing digital storage into consumer electronics is crucial to the performance and cost of these devices. However, as our requirements for digital content storage grow, so does the formidable difficulty of implementing design solutions that are rugged, long-lasting, power-miserly, secure, network-accessible and can still fit in the palm of your hand!This book provides the background necessary to understand common digital storage devices and media. It helps readers decide which methods of storage work best for which kinds of devices, and then teaches designers how to successfully integrate them into consumer products. - Presents best practices for selecting, integrating, and using storage devices to achieve higher performance, greater reliability and lower cost - Teardown photos provide rare visuals of the "guts" of the devices discussed - Covers hot topics including flash memory, DVRs, Apple iPods, home networks, and automotive electronics, from basic layouts to standards, advanced features, and exciting growth opportunities

About the author

Tom Coughlin is a 25-year veteran of the digital storage industry. He has worked at several companies (including Ampex, Seagate, Maxtor, and Polaroid) designing and managing the design of digital storage products. He is the founder and organizer of the Storage Visions Conference, the leading annual event on digital storage in consumer electronics. Attendance at Storage Visions has increased about 70% annually in recent years, and includes all the major worldwide players in the technology. Tom is also a market analyst in the storage area and the author of annual reports on entertainment content creation and distribution and on the integration of digital storage into consumer electronics. He has extensive industry contacts and a broad base of support for the research required to complete this book. He has over 50 publications and six patents to his credit and is active in the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society (current chairman of the Santa Clara Valley IEEE CE Society), the IDEMA Consumer Electronics Committee (co-chair), and other professional organizations. Tom has a bachelor of science in Physics and a Masters in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Materials Science.