The Highs and Lows of EuMW 2008

Managing Editor, Keith Moore rides the train back to Schiphol Airport

I imagine most US attendees to EuMW 08 left on Friday unless they were going sightseeing after the show. The MWJ crew left early Friday morning, while several Horizon House staff members stayed behind to address lingering show duties. Thursday night was a last chance to take in this wonderful host city and sample some of its world cuisine. After eating Indonesian, traditional Dutch, and Thai earlier in the week, we settled on one of the many Argentenia restaurants downtown for our final supper in Amsterdam. I must admit it was quite a good steak.


Hey - look its a horsey. Hmmm - Ever wonder what kind of steaks they were serving at the El Rancho?

Some highlights from the Show:

I saw some very impressive demos from the T&M sector: Agilent with their PNA-X and multiple demos (I like the new IMD measurement system), Anritsu's medium priced fast-switching frequency synthesizer, R&S's mm-wave converter bringing their VNA up to 325 GHz, Keithley's SignalMeister and Tektronix's SignalVu. Lots of new RFIC/MMIC devices from Integrated Device Manufacturer's such as Skyworks, Analog Devices, Mimix, TriQuint, Hittite, and others. Time spent talking to HVVi Semiconductor about their new high voltage power devices, David Hall at National Instrument's always has an interesting demo (multi-protocol test system), meeting Joe Thomas, VP at M/A-Com Technology Solutions. All the major and minor EDA vendors were on hand as were all the major foundries (TriQuint, Win, Ommic, UMS).

The lows - rainy, cold weather, dinner at the "Vermont" restaurant and the rather loud public announcement system. Other than that, I can't really complain.

Where can we get a hot bowl of Cream of Mushroom soup in this town?

The Online Show will wrap-up with our final word on the exhibition and conference as well as product wrap-up and pick of the papers.