As 2003 comes to a close, it's certain that this year was an improvement over 2002. Connector industry growth began to pick up, sales of computers and consumer electronics recovered lost ground, and the telecommunications industry began to show signs of stabilizing. Stocks began the long climb back up to forever-ago peaks. The economy seems to be headed in the right direction. Even so, is it too much to expect even better things in 2004?
Perhaps not. Interconnect technology is poised on the brink of a huge opportunity. According to George Gilder, technology author, editor, and chairman of Gilder Publishing (Great Barrington, MA), as much as 80% of the delay in computer systems is due to interconnections on- and off-chip. System interconnects are like chains and highways: as strong as their weakest link, and as narrow as their tightest bottleneck. Poor interconnects hurt chip performance. "The gates to system speed are less and less at Intel and more and more at connector companies," says Gilder. In other words, connectors are where it's at—a new frontier is on the horizon.
High-density interconnects are a reality at 3.125 Gbit/s data rates. At the Fleck Connection Congress (FCC) Oct. 27–30 in Las Vegas (see cover story), even Tbit/s backplanes were on the lips of Stanford Crane, chief technical officer of Silicon Bandwidth (San Jose, CA). Is the market ready to handle such a breakthrough in 2004? Time will tell.
Regarding the health of the connector industry, the signs are mostly positive, but negative trends do exist, according to Ken Fleck, chairman and founder of FCC. Price erosion in 2003 was 10% or $3 billion plus, the airline industry crisis is expected to continue in 2004, and the largest portion of the recovery is in China, where tens of thousands of jobs have moved from locations around the world.
Will 2004 be the year that the next "killer app" will come along and give the global economy a leg up? Just think—in 2005, companies might even start hiring again. (It doesn't hurt to dream!)
In this issue:
A terminal block is born. Product development requires involvement by the end customer, R&D experts, design engineering, sales and marketing, and manufacturing. On p. 12, Paul Silva, product manager for Molex's Industrial Division (Gilford, NH) presents the design process of a pluggable terminal block using this integrated approach.
Next, a newly patented genderless connection device and a manufacturing method may revolutionize the way wires are terminated to connector cables. Peter Guckenheimer, president, and Sam Sokolik, director of business development of PG Designs (Santa Rosa, CA), explain the method, its advantages, and disadvantages on p. 14.
On p. 16, three authors from FCI-BURNDY (Manchester, NH) get "back to basics" with this article on corrosion. Utility specialist Gary Ditroia, director of marketing Ken Woo, and senior engineer Whitey Zahlman review the types of corrosion in connectors and how to avoid it.
Don't miss our FOCUS ON: Medical Applications on p. 22.
Things are only beginning to get interesting. See you in 2004!
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Valerie Coffey, Editor-in-Chief
valeriec@pennwell.com
