THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY October 9, 2003 tin whisker
________________ SPONSORED BY: CA Unicenter(R) infrastructure management software INFRASTRUCTURE SELF-MANAGEMENT Unicenter infrastructure management software from CA enables your infrastructure to manage itself, enabling IT managers to focus more on the business of business - and not the business of maintenance. Unicenter ensures that your IT is always in sync with your business, so you can be more responsive than ever to a constantly changing marketplace. http://WhatIs.com/r/0,,18899,00.htm?track=NL-34&ca ________________ TODAY'S WORD: tin whisker See our complete definition with hyperlinks at http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci813318,00.html?track=NL-34 A tin whisker is a single crystal of tin that grows spontaneously from a tinned surface, a phenomenon that poses problems for manufacturers who would prefer using tin rather than lead for interconnections. As electronics manufacturers seek to make electronic interconnections lead-free, many are looking at pure tin soldering and coating as an economical alternative to traditional tin-lead alloys. This, in turn, has resulted in a renewed interest in the phenomenon of tin whiskers, which was first reported in the 1940s and is generally believed to occur as a result of stress. Tin whiskers are typically only a few millimeters (mm) long, but some grow to lengths of more than 10 mm. Tin whiskers can cause two serious problems in electronic assemblies: they can cause electrical shorts and they can break loose from their substrate and cause mechanical damage. A lack of industry understanding about tin whisker growth factors and a lack of testing methodology to identify whisker-prone products has made pure tin interconnections and plating risky for high reliability systems, such as satellites. However, it is generally thought that the market demand for environmentally friendly components will eventually outweigh the potential for tin whisker component failure. Other metals that may grow whiskers include zinc, cadmium, indium, and antimony. ______________________ RELATED TERMS: satellite http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci212939,00.html?track=NL-34 ______________________ SELECTED LINKS: The IPC encourages and supports research and development of lead-free materials and technologies. http://www.leadfree.org/ Members of the Capacitor and Resistor Technology Symposium examined the potential role of tin whiskers in component failure. http://www.e-insite.net/electronicnews/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA202968&industryid=2275 NASA reports that at least three orbiting commercial satellites have failed because of tin whisker problems. http://nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/ ______________________ TODAY'S TECH NEWS: IBM ADDS 'INTELLIGENCE' TO AUTONOMIC OFFERING IBM's on-demand strategy takes another step forward with a new autonomic offering based on technology it acquired recently from ThinkDynamics. http://search400.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid3_gci931290,00.html?track=NL-34 FLAWS FOUND IN IE AND ADOBE BROWSER UTILITY Three new vulnerabilities have been found in a popular browser plug-in from Adobe. Additionally, Internet Explorer 6 contains a flaw that is not patchable at this time. http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci931261,00.html?track=NL-34 PIVOTAL GETS ACQUIRED, MERGES WITH TALISMA A private equity firm will acquire midmarket CRM vendor Pivotal at the same time that Pivotal joins forces with customer service software firm Talisma. http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid11_gci931251,00.html?track=NL-34 >> Catch up on all the latest IT news at http://searchtechtarget.techtarget.com/?track=NL-34 ______________________ SECRET WORD-OF-THE-DAY | What is IT? If you only had a nibble it would contain four of these; it takes eight to make a byte. >> See if you're right! http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/gDefinition/0,294236,sid41_gci213816,00.html?track=NL-34 _____________________ QUIZ #43 | SQL Server 2000 Structured Query Language is a standard interactive and programming language for getting information from and updating a database. We bet you can use logic and common sense to figure out what these ten SQL statements mean. >> Take the quiz http://searchdatabase.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid13_gci929113,00.html?track=NL-34 _____________________ LEARN IT IN 10 EASY STEPS | Systems Management Here's how it works: We give you a little background about systems management, a glossary to look up related terms, some outside reading, and a self-assessment quiz. You spend as much (or as little) time as you like moving through the ten steps and exploring the content. http://whatis.techtarget.com/content/0,290959,sid9_gci921919,00.html?track=NL-34 _____________________ FREE WHITE PAPER | On-demand computing On-demand computing is an enterprise IT model in which computing resources are made available to the user as needed. In the next few years, industry insiders expect on-demand computing to become the most popular enterprise computing model. >> Click here for white paper http://www3.ca.com/Files/WhitePapers/next_generation_ondemand_wp.pdf >> Browse all our white papers http://whatis.techtarget.com/guideToWhitePaper/0,294410,sid9,00.html?track=NL-34 ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] UCCnet http://search400.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid3_gci930408,00.html?track=NL-34 [2] Excel http://search400.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid3_gci930155,00.html?track=NL-34 [3] virtual private LAN service http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci929892,00.html?track=NL-34 [4] penetration testing http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci929671,00.html?track=NL-34 [5] Capability Maturity Model http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci930057,00.html?track=NL-34 ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: MARGARET ROUSE, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) IVY WIGMORE, Consulting Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) LOWELL THING, Consulting Editor and Founder ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ::::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER :::::::::::::::::::::: This newsletter is published by TechTarget, the most targeted IT media. http://www.techtarget.com?track=NL-34 Copyright 2003 TechTarget. 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