Inside Electronics

In this episode of Inside Electronics, host Alix Paultre interviews Jeff Kring, Product Manager for Integrated Connector Modules at Bel, about Ethernet’s evolution. They discuss Base-T Ethernet’s ubiquity, how Power over Ethernet has extended its life, and the roles of cabling standards and IEEE speed standards.

Kring explains why 2.5G and 5G emerged as practical “fill-in” speeds that let buildings with Cat5e and Cat6 cabling gain more bandwidth without costly rewiring. He also covers PoE’s growing power needs for Wi-Fi base stations and security cameras, the importance of magnetics qualification, and how reference designs help ensure performance, emissions compliance, and interoperability.

The conversation closes with a look at future speeds like 25G and 40G Base-T, which exist as standards but lack market-ready chips.

In this episode, two of our editors, Bill Wong and Alix Paultre, discuss the current AI ecosystem and some of the issues involved in its expansion into the engineering community. They will also talk about some of the new AI-driven design tools available.

The electric grid is in a race to keep up with surging demand for power—and it's falling behind. The demand is driven by everything from the rapid growth of renewable energy to electricity-guzzling AI data centers. In this episode, Electronic Design Senior Editor James Morra and Editor-at-Large Alix Paultre explore these topics and more, including the growing role of spent EV batteries as a second source for energy storage.

The aspect of security has existed ever since the first human had something precious to them that they wanted to protect. Cyber threats and the organizations that perpetrate them are constantly evolving, and relying on reactive detection as a primary safeguard is no longer enough.  In this episode, we talk with Christophe Nicolas, SVP GTM at Kudelski Labs, about the current cybersecurity environment and its challenges.

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is growing in capability and utility in advanced systems. In the electronics industry, this is especially true with complex assemblies like connectors, which need to be made to high precision with many complex features.

In this episode, we talk to TE Connectivity's Benjamin Dopp about some of the challenges undertaken at TE, and the operations and production for 3D printing.