Prototype Boards facilitate hand-soldering of ICs.December 28, 2005 -
Designed to accommodate shrinking size of surface mount components, SchmartBoard|ez prototype boards enables users to hand solder integrated circuits (ICs), even BGA. In addition to being used as prototyping tool, products can be used as circuit board in mass-produced technologies.
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Original Press release
SchmartBoard
44081 Old Warm Springs Blvd.
Fremont, CA, 94538
USA
SchmartBoard Unveils SchmartBoard|ez at DEMOfall 2005
A Ten Year Old Can Now Do What 99% of Electrical Engineers Could Not ... Hand Solder Small ICs
FREMONT, Calif. and HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., DEMOFall 2005, Sept. 19/-- SchmartBoard, a company that develops products for prototyping electronic circuits, unveiled today a new line of prototype boards called SchmartBoard|ez. The new product line makes it possible for virtually anyone to hand solder integrated circuits (ICs), even BGA (Ball Grid Array). Based on surveys of companies and universities, SchmartBoard believes that this product will have a huge impact for both industry and academia.
"I enjoyed the privilege of a hands on demonstration of SchmartBoard, including soldering a small IC," said Chris Shipley, executive producer of the DEMO conferences. "The design of this system is brilliantly simple. If I can quickly and easily solder components, I'm convinced that electrical engineers will see a significant productivity boost from this approach."
"Engineers have historically used prototyping boards to test circuits and avoid costly custom printed circuit board (PCB) revisions," said Andrew Yaung, SchmartBoard's CEO. "Prototyping boards have existed for a long time, but as surface mount components have become smaller and smaller, these boards have not kept up with the technology and have not remained a practical tool for most applications. Because of this, engineers are forced to use custom PCBs and can spend large amounts of time and money on revision after revision of expensive custom PCBs before they finally have the circuit perfected. By making prototyping boards viable again, SchmartBoard|ez will save companies a tremendous amount of time and money." In addition to this need for an easy prototyping tool, SchmartBoard|ez can be used as the circuit board in mass- produced technologies.
In discussions with universities, SchmartBoard has found that hand soldering components is also a hindrance in teaching electrical engineering. Universities want to focus on teaching theory, not soldering skills. The ability for students to hand solder is a significant hurdle especially on "senior projects" in which students are expected to create a working circuit in order to graduate. SchmartBoard expects that students will develop an interest in electronics at an earlier age due to SchmartBoard|ez technology.
Details on SchmartBoard|ez, including a three-minute flash video can be seen at www.schmartboard.com
About SchmartBoard
SchmartBoard(TM) is committed to helping engineers, students, and hobbyists develop electronic circuits faster, easier, and less expensively than previously possible. At SchmartBoard, our three-word mission statement is "Electronics for Everyone." More information is available at http://www.schmartboard.com/
About DEMOfall 2005
The annual DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products, which are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies and have served as launch pad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring, and U.S. Robotics, helping them to secure funding, establish critical business relationships and influence early adopters. Each DEMO conference features approximately 70 new companies, products and technologies. For more information on the DEMO conferences, visit http://www.demo.com/ .
CONTACT: Neal Greenberg of SchmartBoard, Inc., +1-510-659-1549, ext. 13, or neal.greenberg@schmartboard.com
Web site: http://www.schmartboard.com/
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