Samsung wants to put 128GB of fast storage in your next phone

http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/25/samsung-ufs-flash-memory/

It's no longer hard to get a hefty 128GB of storage in a smartphone, but that doesn't mean you'll enjoy it. What's the point of all that extra space if your phone chugs handling huge games and 4K videos? Samsung has clearly anticipated this problem, though -- it just outed the first 128GB flash memory chip based on the speedy Universal Flash Storage standard. The part uses tricks like command queuing and a serial interface to give you the kind of breakneck performance you'd expect from a solid-state drive in a PC, not a device that fits in your pocket. It's about 2.7 times faster at random data reads than the flash you see in many high-end phones, while its sequential speeds are "up to SSD levels." And that's while using 50 percent less power -- you won't have to take a hit to battery life.
Samsung hasn't named customers for the UFS chip, which is also available in 32GB and 64GB forms. With that said, it doesn't take a genius to see where it might go. It won't be at all shocking if this storage ends up in high-end Samsung phones (whether it's the Galaxy S6 or something else), and it wouldn't be a stretch to see interest from other top-tier companies that use Samsung's flash, like Apple. Whoever's on deck, you're likely to see more (and better) 128GB options the next time you go phone shopping.

IDT high-speed multiplexer for DDR4 NVDIMM technology selected as preferred supplier by Micron

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20150224PD208.html

Integrated Device Technology (IDT) recently introduced a high-speed multiplexer that expands the company's existing portfolio of DDR4 products targeting the nascent NVDIMM (non-volatile dual in-line memory module) ecosystem. Additionally, Micron Technology has selected IDT as its preferred supplier for NVDIMM multiplexers, which target the enterprise and cloud server markets.

NVDIMM is a new architecture that provides data persistence to DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) by allowing data to be backed up to non-volatile memory, such as flash memory, during special events including catastrophic power failure. Multiplexers are key components of NVDIMM architecture, isolating the host controller from the DRAM memory during "save" and "restore" operations between DRAM and non-volatile memory.

Multiplexers have traditionally placed a burden on the signal integrity of the memory channel, which can compromise the speed of the operation. IDT's high-speed multiplexer is designed to mitigate the signal integrity impact to the memory channel while enabling DDR4 NVDIMM applications to run at bus rates of up to 2133 MT/s (megatransfers per second) and beyond.

Chipmakers face big challenges at 10nm and beyond

ifty years after Gordon Moore first described the trend that has driven technology, Intel says scaling is same as it ever was. But other chipmakers, who are struggling to realize the same benefits from good old-fashioned scaling, are increasingly looking for less-expensive alternatives.

Here's the link to read the full article:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/chipmakers-face-big-challenges-at-10nm-and-beyond/

Budget smartphones to get 4K video, faster LTE with new Qualcomm chips

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2885714/budget-smartphones-to-get-4k-video-faster-lte-with-new-qualcomm-chips.html#tk.rss_all

Qualcomm is planting the seeds for 4K video and faster LTE speeds in more affordable smartphones with its new Snapdragon 620 and 618 processors, which will reach devices in the second half of this year.

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The new chips could be in smartphones priced at US$300 and above, and some performance and 4K features are being cascaded from the Snapdragon 810 chip, which goes into premium smartphones priced above $500.
Previous Snapdragon 600 series chips have appeared in a few handsets and phablets from HTC, Samsung and LG. Amazon’s Fire TV also uses a Snapdragon 600 chip and is able to deliver full high-definition video to TV sets.

MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 12 most powerful Internet of Things companies

The new 600 series chips are built to support Android and Windows, said Tim McDonough , vice president of marketing at the company.
Smartphones won’t have 4K screens, but they are being becoming devices through which ultra-high-definition videos or games can be streamed to larger screens, said Bob O’Donnell, principal analyst at Technalysis Research.
Qualcomm’s chips will bring those capabilities to mainstream smartphone users, who currently would have trouble finding 4K in handsets priced between $250 and $400, O’Donnell said.
Slowly but steadily, more 4K content is also becoming available, and demand for mobile devices that can handle that resolution will skyrocket, said Mike Feibus , principal analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies.
“If you don’t want it now, you’d want it in six to nine months. It’s proliferating fast,” Feibus said, adding that Qualcomm has been aggressive in pushing 4K into lower cost devices.
The new 64-bit Snapdragon 620 and 618 chips are based on the ARM Cortex-A72 design, which was announced just two weeks ago. The Cortex-A72 is considered ARM’s most powerful chip design and is roughly 3.5 times faster than the current 32-bit Cortex-A15 design.
The eight-core Snapdragon 620 has four Cortex-A72 CPUs and four Cortex-A53 cores. The six-core Snapdragon 618 combines two Cortex-A72 cores with four Cortex-A53 CPUs. The lower power Cortex-A53 cores are for background tasks like taking phone calls and playing MP3 songs.
The Snapdragon chips have the Adreno 405 graphics processor, which is able to process 4K video for display on larger screens connected to handsets. The chipset supports two 13-megapixel cameras and can capture and play 4K video based on the H.265 format.
An integrated LTE modem will work in different parts of the world. It will have maximum speeds of 300Mbps for downloads and 100Mbps for uploads. The Snapdragon 620 and 618 chips will support LTE Broadcast and VoLTE (Voice over LTE).
Qualcomm also announced new eight-core Snapdragon 425 and 415 chips, which are for “high-volume” smartphones, which could mean low-cost smartphones under $200. The chips are based on 64-bit ARM CPU cores and have faster LTE connectivity compared to previous Snapdragon 400 series chips, according to Qualcomm.
The chips are being released just after Qualcomm settled a $975 million [M] fine by the Chinese government for taking advantage of its dominant market position to overcharge customers.

The importance of properly reporting counterfeits

 http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/the-importance-of-properly-reporting-counterfeits/facilities-grounds

 

The Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) and Eaton teamed up in 2013 to determine the current state of counterfeit awareness among IEC members in a joint survey. The results of this survey showed where the industry has gotten smarter about electrical counterfeits, but it also identified areas where the industry can step up and help prevent these unsafe lookalikes from causing harm to people and property.

Danger recognized

Results of the survey confirmed that educational programs are helping to increase awareness of the dangers of counterfeit products. Furthermore, such educational campaigns are providing the tools needed to make informed purchasing decisions.
Surveyed contractors understand the potential safety dangers of counterfeit electrical products, including both the economic implications and the health hazards. They also recognize the liabilities of using counterfeit products and the higher risk of failure or malfunction, which could result in equipment failure, fires or explosions that can cost workers their lives and cause considerable property damage.
In addition, survey results conclude that IEC members also understand the sophistication of counterfeiters, which makes it difficult to identify a counterfeit electrical product. They also understand that the best way to avoid such products is by purchasing directly from the manufacturer's authorized distributors or resellers.

Next steps

However, while members are educated on the dangers of counterfeit electrical products, many respondents disclosed that if they encounter a product in the field they suspect to be counterfeit, they do not know where and how to report it.
An industrywide survey conducted by Electric Safety Foundation International (ESFi) backed up this finding. An overwhelming 96 percent of its 2014 Counterfeit Electrical Product Survey respondents believe that counterfeits are at least a moderate threat to safety, yet only half reported a counterfeit electrical product upon discovery.
Further, a strong majority of respondents reported that they do not have a process in place to report a counterfeit product.
By following these tips, electrical contractors can become more confident in their ability to properly report counterfeits.

1. Contact brand owner. If a product is believed to be counterfeit, it is recommended to contact the brand owner. This will allow authentication of the concerning product and ensure that the potentially unsafe product is removed from the market place.
2. Provide as much information as possible. The more information a brand has, the better chance it can find similar products and remove them from the marketplace to protect consumers. This includes: Name, business name, address, domain name and any other identifiers of vendor. It also includes a description of the commodity, including an explanation of why it is suspected to be counterfeit
3. Set-up reporting process. To protect yourself, your employees and your work environment, it is beneficial to establish a companywide process for reporting counterfeit electrical products. This provides a collaborative outlet for alerting fellow workers and protecting your property.
4. Default to International Property Rights (IPR) Center. If you cannot find brand contact information, don’t stop there. You can always contact the IPR Center, which will disseminate the information for appropriate response. Contact the IPR Center at IPRCenter@dhs.gov or 1-866-IPR-2060 FREE.
5. Buy authentic. The best way to avoid counterfeit electrical products in the first place is to purchase products from the manufacturer's authorized distributors or resellers. There is a higher risk of counterfeits if one cannot trace the path of commerce to the original manufacturer.

Stopping the sale of counterfeit electrical products benefits everyone, which is why it's important for industry professionals, including electrical contractors, to report suspect products, ultimately inhibiting potentially dangerous components from entering the marketplace.
It is crucial to continue to work together to prevent these unsafe counterfeit products from causing harm to people and property.

 

 

CMOS Image Sensors Surpassing Moore's Law

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325655

PORTLAND, Ore. — Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imaging chips are becoming the industry's leader in advanced process technology — instead of the traditional leaders (processors and memory) — thanks to strong demand for CMOS imaging chips in everything from smartphones to tablets to medical equipment and automobiles. Apparently, now the innovation surpasses Moore's Law, says analyst firm Yole Développement.

Imaging was once done by film, but with the advent of solid-state sensors the technology breakthroughs seem to be growing exponentially, doubling with each new innovation (see slide 1), thus surpassing the traditional interpretation of Moore's Law, argues Yole Développement (Lyon, France) in a new paper. Yole calls this effect "More than Moore." At the pinnacle of this growth is 3-D stacking, the allure of which for imaging chips is downsizing the chip while simultaneously packing more pixels per unit size, thus one-upping processors and memory, which are only now perfecting the through-silicon-via (TSV) notably with Micron's Hybrid Memory Cube. CMOS imaging chips, however, are one-step-ahead perfecting copper-to-copper bonding of wafers containing the interconnection metallization for pixel arrays and the digital processing layers of the imaging chip on separate layers below the top (pixel) level.
"The interconnection between the upper part of the 3D stack and the lower part is currently done using TSVs. Two vias are needed for each connection and act as a bridge between the two layers. The metal connection between the two vias is done at the surface of the chip," Pierre Cambou told EE Times, co-author of "Status of the CMOS Image Sensors Industry" with Jean-Luc Jaffard, both Yole Développement analysts.

S. Korea's share in mobile DRAM market falls in Q4

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2015/02/13/30/0503000000AEN20150213001000320F.html

SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea-based chipmakers saw their shares in the mobile dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market edge down in the fourth quarter of 2014 from the previous three-month period, data showed Friday, due to the rising presence of the U.S.-based Micron Group.
Top tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. garnered 46.1 percent of the mobile DRAM market in the October-December period, down 4.6 percentage points from a quarter earlier, the data compiled by industry tracker DRAMeXchange showed. SK hynix Inc. took up 28 percent, up 0.4 percentage point over the cited period.
The combined share of Samsung and SK moved down 4.2 percentage points to 74.1 percent in the fourth quarter. In contrast, Micron saw its share jump 4.3 percentage points to 23.3 percent over the cited period, narrowing its gap with the No. 2 player.
DRAMeXchange said the expanded presence of SK and Micron, meanwhile, came as they were the main mobile DRAM suppliers for Apple Inc.'s iPhone lineup.
"The strong iPhone demand hence led to revenue growth for both companies," the researcher said. SK and Micron saw their revenue increase 5.2 percent and 27.8 percent, respectively, on-quarter in the October-December period. That of Samsung shed 5.2 percent over the cited period.
Taiwan-based Nanya Technology Corp. and Winbond Electronics Corp. followed with a market share of 1.8 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, which all stood unchanged on-quarter, the data showed.

Intel to sell remaining stake in Apple partner & mobile GPU maker Imagination Technologies

http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/02/12/intel-to-sell-remaining-stake-in-apple-partner-mobile-gpu-maker-imagination-technologies

Once the sale is complete, the Intel Foundation and Intel Capital will no longer hold any shares in Imagination Technologies, according to J.P. Morgan Securities. Intel had been a licensee of the British chipmaker's 3D technology.

Apple, however, remains a shareholder and a licensee of Imagination Technologies, having renewed its agreement with the company a year ago. Terms of that deal were not announced, but Imagination did say in February 2014 that the agreement spans multiple years and covers a variety of uses.

In late 2008, Apple bought a 3.6 percent stake in Imagination Technologies, and has since upped its share to nearly 10 percent. The company's powerful PowerVR Series 6 chips have powered every Apple "iDevice" since the third-generation iPhone 3GS.

The latest-generation A8 processor found in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus boasts the PowerVR GX6450, a six-core graphics processor that boasts a performance improvement of up to 84 times greater than the first iPhone released in 2007. And the A8X chip found in the iPad Air 2 features even greater graphics performance, trouncing competing tablets on the market today.

Seagate and Micron Sign Multi-Year Agreement

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomcoughlin/2015/02/12/seagate-and-micron-sign-multi-year-agreement/

Micron Technology and Seagate Technology, both significant players in flash memory and HDDs, announced a strategic agreement that according to the press release “…establishes a framework for combining the innovation and expertise of both companies.” This agreement may exceed in its scope prior agreements on flash memory technology by a HDD company.
Seagate and Western Digital, the two biggest HDD companies, have made acquisition of various companies involved in flash memory technology. These have included Seagate’s acquisition of LSI’s flash memory controller business as well as Western Digital’s acquisition of Skyera and before that Virident. In addition Seagate obtained some flash memory supply as part of its acquisition of Samsung’s HDD business, while HGST (a division of WD) has a multi-year agreement with Intel on design and supply of flash chips for enterprise SSDs.

The Micron-Seagate agreement will have the two companies working on next-generation SAS SSDs and also supplies Seagate a strategic NAND supply. The companies believe that this agreement will lead to future collaboration on enterprise storage solutions featuring Micron NAND flash memory. Note that Micron is the third largest flash memory chip supplier after Samsung and Toshiba/SanDisk (who have joint fabrication facilities).

Considering Seagate’s recent announcements on storage systems (leveraging their acquisition of Xyratex’s storage systems business in 2013) this might include future offerings that combine SSDs and HDDs in interesting ways. The Seagate release includes quotes from EMC and HP indicating support by enterprise storage companies for joint development by Micron and Seagate for enterprise flash memory solutions.

While we are a few years away from SSD industry maturity, as the SSD industry matures the profit margins will decline and the number of suppliers will decrease.   This will put pressure leading to vertical integration of flash chip supplies (as well as flash controllers) with the SSD suppliers.   If the HDD companies are going to become leading SSD suppliers they must have access to low cost flash memory supplies.

So it should not be surprising to see additional partnerships and perhaps consolidation between HDD and flash memory companies in the next few years.   Digital storage for enterprise applications will likely require multiple technologies used together to create multi-tiered automated storage solutions and providing the best combination of cost and performance.

Massive $20B Components Waste Haunts Supply Chain

The electronics industry urgently needs an energetic components exchange program to help address an inventory imbalance that is distorting the supply chain and resulting in the wastage of parts valued in excess of $20 billion annually, says a top industry executive. While some companies are implementing programs for helping customers individually address the problem it would be better resolved at an industry level, according to an executive with a leading electronics components distributor.
A large chunk of components that aren’t used annually by OEMs and contract manufacturers are proprietary parts that cannot be swapped into other devices but the majority are standard or commodity products that could be easily used but that are wasted simply because of inefficiencies in the supply chain, said Lindsley Ruth, senior VP at Future Electronics Inc. Oftentimes, component suppliers keep churning out new products unaware their inventories are piling up elsewhere unused. This development is contributing to the devastating impact of electronic components and equipment on the global environment, he said.
“Semiconductors have a significant impact on the environment,” Ruth said in an interview with Bolaji Ojo, editor-in-chief of Electronics Purchasing Strategies. “We’ve got to be careful that we only produce what’s needed and when there’s excess inventory that exists around the world, we move it to the right place where there is demand and not build more product and create environmental waste and landfills.”
Ruth said the industry as a body needs to develop a comprehensive strategy for raising the level of visibility managers have into the supply chain, especially with regard to the availability of components in certain areas where they might not be needed so as to facilitate the transfer of such parts to where they might be required. Future Electronics is implementing an internal program for its customers to facilitate this, Ruth said.

To read more:

http://electronicspurchasingstrategies.com/2015/02/09/massive-20b-components-waste-haunts-supply-chain/

Attacking Alzheimer’s with Ultrasound

http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2015/02/attacking-alzheimers-ultrasound?et_cid=4411098&et_rid=490548696&type=headline

For the first time, researchers have reversed some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in mice using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging-guided focused ultrasound.
MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound has been shown to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which allows for more effective delivery of drugs to the brain. In order to accomplish this, researchers use a microbubble contrast agent. The microbubbles vibrate when they pass through the ultrasound beam, temporarily creating an opening in the BBB for the drugs to pass through. In addition, this combination of ultrasound and microbubbles has been shown to increase the number of new neurons and the dendrite length.
In this study, Kullervo Hynynen, Ph.D., a medical physicist at Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto, and his collaborators studied the effects of using MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound on the hippocampus of transgenic (TgCRND8) mice. Mice with this genetic variant have increased plaque on their hippocampus, the part of the brain that helps convert information from short-term to long-term memory; they also display symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s such as memory impairment and learning reversal. Thus, transgenic mice are used as an animal model for Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers used MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound with microbubbles to open the BBB and treat the hippocampus of the mice. The researchers treated each side separately to be as accurate as possible in their focus of the ultrasound beam. They found the treatment led to improvements in cognition and spatial learning in the transgenic mice, potentially caused by reduced plaque and increased neuronal plasticity due to the focused ultrasound treatment. They found no tissue damage or negative behavioral changes in the mice due to the treatments in either the transgenic mice or the control (nontransgenic) mice. Both groups of mice benefited from increased neuronal plasticity, which confirms the previous research on the effects of MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound on plasticity in healthy mice.
An estimated 5.2 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and there is currently no treatment for the disease. “The results are an exciting step in the search for Alzheimer’s treatments,” said Steven Krosnick, M.D., Program Director for Image-Guided Interventions at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH, “but there is more to be done. There are limitations on the memory tests that can be done on mice, and human cognition is significantly more complex. Hopefully these results will open doors to more research on how MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound could benefit cognition and perhaps be magnified by using other therapeutics in conjunction with this method.”

SFU Lab Creates Potentially Life Saving Heart Cells

http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2015/02/sfu-lab-creates-potentially-life-saving-heart-cells?et_cid=4411098&et_rid=490548696&location=top

A group of Simon Fraser University researchers’ cultivation of dozens of beating heart cells in Petrie dishes could one day save or improve the lives of patients with inherited heart arrhythmias. They are genetic mutations that cause irregular heartbeats that can be lethal.
Elham Afshinmanesh and Sanam Shafaattalab, graduate students in SFU’s molecular cardiac physiology lab, have created the heart cells, also known as cardiomyocytes, beating in unison. They’ve been crafted from the skin of heart arrhythmia patients.
Because the beating heart cells share the same genomes as the patients, these cells also mimic the patients’ diseases, permitting scientists to experiment with potential drug therapies and interventions.
The students are working under the supervision of Glen Tibbits, an SFU professor and Canada Research Chair in Molecular Cardiac Physiology. They are collaborating with cardiologists, who specialize in inherited cardiac arrhythmias, at B.C. Children’s and St. Paul’s hospitals.
Their research is key to developing one of the first laboratories capable of testing cardiomyocytes in vitro and then recommending customized treatment for individuals who have these inherited heart diseases.
“It’s often very challenging for clinicians to assess risk in these patients,” explains Tibbits.
“It is frequently difficult to determine whether a patient has a high likelihood of suffering from cardiac arrest or will be okay by simply taking a beta blocker and/or other medications.
“The idea behind our work is to test, with the patient’s own cells, what therapies might work, or not.”
The research is new and complex, and they are optimizing the methods by which a patient’s blood cells can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells, which can then become any kind of cell. They have already mastered the ability to turn skin cells into this type of stem cell (iPSC), but would prefer to work with the patient’s blood, since this is more efficient and less invasive than using skin biopsies.
Says Afshinmanesh, “When we convert the blood and skin cells to stem cells not all of them can be further differentiated into heart cells. So we’re looking for markers that will predict which stem cells are good prospects for becoming heart cells.”
Tibbits expects that within the next few months his lab will be ready to begin testing the beating heart cells with therapeutic interventions to determine the efficacy of individual treatments.
“We have grants to support our work right now, but eventually we hope that these tests will become part of the Medical Services Program,” explains Tibbits. “Then we will isolate the skin or blood cells, convert them, determine the appropriate patient therapy and then be reimbursed.”
The Canadian Institutes for Health Research is funding the research.
As Canada's engaged university, SFU is defined by its dynamic integration of innovative education, cutting-edge research and far-reaching community engagement. SFU was founded almost 50 years ago with a mission to be a different kind of university—to bring an interdisciplinary approach to learning, embrace bold initiatives, and engage with communities near and far. Today, SFU is a leader amongst Canada's comprehensive research universities and is ranked one of the top universities in the world under 50 years of age. With campuses in British Columbia's three largest cities—Vancouver, Surrey and Burnaby—SFU has eight faculties, delivers almost 150 programs to over 30,000 students, and boasts more than 130,000 alumni in 130 countries around the world.

Clifton's NJ Micro-Electronic Testing sued over bad plane brakes

http://www.northjersey.com/news/clifton-s-nj-micro-electronic-testing-sued-over-bad-plane-brakes-1.1265108

CLIFTON — An electronics testing lab is for a second time the subject of a lawsuit that alleges the company produced false test reports for products that it said were properly working.
New Jersey Micro-Electronic Testing Inc. of Clifton is being sued by a distributor in Dover that sold thousands of airplane brake parts judged by the lab to be functional but that later proved to be defective.
Electrospec, the parts distributor, claims in its suit that the testing lab improperly tested the brake parts or never performed the tests, and that it falsified the test reports. A similar claim was made in 2005 by a former lab employee who said his superiors directed him to fabricate test reports, but the company said those allegations were not proved.
In the new case, none of the flawed brake parts were installed in airplanes, but the fallout for Electrospec was massive, said Darren Summer, the company's vice president. After an investigation by federal inspectors, he said, the company lost millions of dollars in business and was forced to shrink its workforce of 30 employees to eight.
Summer said he hopes the lawsuit, filed in March 2014 in Passaic County Superior Court, will vindicate his business and shine a light on the testing lab's practices.
"The damage is done on my end," Summer said. "Others that have used testing from NJMET, they need to know this. These parts could be in aircraft, in equipment that could fail."
The testing lab's attorney, Jerry Gallagher, said the company denied the new allegations and was "completely confident that it properly tested and thoroughly tested these parts."
Electrospec bought the brake parts from a Chinese supplier in 2008 and sent them for testing to ensure that they were authentic, new and functional, Summer said. The lab said 13,000 of the 20,000 parts passed its tests, and Electrospec sold them to Hydro-Aire, a California-based company that installs aircraft brake systems.
But Hydro-Aire's parent company performed tests of its own, revealing that some of the parts were not working and that they likely had been used and refurbished, said Richard Vrhovc, Electrospec's attorney.
The Federal Aviation Administration sent an alert to the airline manufacturing industry about the faulty parts in 2012 that said they were "not properly tested and could be counterfeit."
Vrhovc said the FAA laid the blame on Electrospec when it should rest with the testing lab.
"NJMET has been skating free on this for three years with no repercussions," he said.
Based on recent testimony from a lab test engineering manager, Vrhovc said, Electrospec plans to amend its suit this month to include an allegation that the lab violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.
The manager, Thomas Farinella, said in a deposition that he either could not or did not test at least two of the criteria that the lab agreed to review for the brake parts. Test reports show that the parts passed in those areas anyway.
Vrhovc also questioned whether it was possible for the tests to be performed as quickly as the lab reports said they were. One showed that a single worker tested 6,000 parts one day and 2,500 on another, he said.
Gallagher said the lab was reviewing Farinella's testimony. He said the untested areas would not have made a difference in determining whether the parts were faulty. He also said the tests were performed in three to five seconds and often by multiple operators.
Gallagher said Electrospec was using the lab as a "scapegoat" and that Electrospec never represented that the bake parts came from China, where counterfeits often originate. The company could have asked for a specific authenticity test, but it did not do so, he said.
"When you buy parts like this, they can pass today and fail tomorrow," Gallagher said. "If they had disclosed the source of the parts, it really would have been a game changer."
The testing lab was sued in 2005 by a former employee, Mark Williams, who also was represented by Vrhovc. Williams said he was instructed to falsify product-testing reports and that company engineers told him they could not or did not know how to test parts the company agreed to test for clients.
Gallagher denied Williams' allegations and contended that Williams' claims were never proved. The case was resolved in a confidential settlement in 2007.