EET-i Top of the News

Week of Jan. 23, 1995

Thursday, Jan. 26, 1995

System-level multimedia benchmark due
Microsoft transfers RMI development responsibility to Spectron
Flip chip, chip-scale standards emerging
What's new(s) at EE Times-interactive

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 1995

Har ris system guards against Internet `spoofing'
PictureTel debuts $2,500 video platform for ISDN
Dataquest reports world PC market grew 20 percent in 1994
Fore signs pact with Northern Telecom for WAN ATM
Extraction, calculation tools target submicron ICs

Tuesday, Jan. 24, 1995

Microsoft, Sony team on interactive network technology
HP reveals first phases of fault-tolerant cluster strategy
Cyclone targets embedded PCI with 8-slot 960 board
IBM sees better financials as mixed
Frost & Sullivan projects explosion of worldwide PCS markets
Digital, Alcatel, Apple in Belgian video trial
EE Times to host interactive satellite-TV ESDA conference

Monday, Jan. 23, 1995

Ford, GM, Chrysler to push open controller spec
FCC chairman expands digital vision beyond HDTV
Despite worries, Korea n semi makers doubling investments
Intel won't block 66-MHz PCI
SSA, Fiber Channel interfaces challenge designers
Videocon vendors to release APIs

System-level multimedia benchmark due

By Michele Clarke

TIGARD, Ore. -- A Windows multimedia consultancy here plans to release an "interactive" benchmark at the upcoming Windows Hardware Engineering Conference that will measure the playback performance of CD-based video and audio under various system conditions.

Since evaluating multimedia performance is heavily subjective, the company plans to incorporate a "talking head" benchmark guide that will walk users through the suite, explaining what performance characteristics to look for while the benchmark is running.

"Part of the goal is to produce good numbers, but we also want to educate people about their multimedia subsystems," said John Providenza, president of consultancy Providenza & Boekelheide Inc. "This is not just `Type in a command' and `Come back with a number.' "

Initially, though, the emphasis will be on measuring performance, he said. "We'll quantify those areas that are quantifiable, like how many frames are dropped during playback and what, if any, hardware assist is provided, at what level."

The benchmark's metric has yet to be named, but candidates include "mediastones" and "videostones."

Microsoft transfers RMI development responsibility to Spectron

By Ashok Bindra

REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft Corp. is backing away from the development of the long-promised DSP resource manager interface (RMI) for Windows 95, and is transferring the responsibility to Spectron Microsystems (Santa Barbara, Calif.).

The company embarked on this project about a year ago in a joint development activity with Spectron to ease the integration of DSPs in multimedia PCs. Now, to meet the needs of its customers, Microsoft said that it plans to further improve the architecture of 32-bit Windows 95 for a wider variety of hardware. Consequently, Microsoft's efforts will include extending existing Windows APIs, introducing new APIs and expanding the Windows 95 communications architecture to better support voice and telephony applications, Microsoft said. The already late Windows 95 is now slated to be released by August, according to Microsoft.

The DSP RMI was never meant to be a component of the Windows 95 operating system, and therefore it is in no way linked to the delay of Windows 95, said Blake Irving, group manager for Microsoft's Pers onal Systems Division. It was planned to be offered as a driver development kit after the release of Windows 95, Irving added.

Flip chip, chip-scale standards emerging

By Terry Costlow

TEMPE, Ariz. -- A group of engineers meeting here in two weeks will iron out the details of a specification that sets the stage for two emerging types of IC packages--flip chips and chip-scale packaging. Observers feel the specification will help speed the adoption of these technologies and may impact other packaging technologies.

The J-10 specification will tell engineers how to design and produce boards that use these packages and will list the standards needed so that an infrastructure can be put in place.

The specifications have moved forward quickly, since advocates feel that the two packaging technologies will move into production fairly quickly. Groups working under the joint auspices of the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council, the Electronic Industries Association and the Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits only began meeting in August, and the final draft will be put together the week of the meeting.

The two types of IC interconnections permit the utmost in packaging density, since they add no additional vertical size to the chips. Flip chips put solder bumps on the bottom of the IC, while chip-scale packages put only a minimal amount of encapsulation around the chip and spread solder bumps across the bottom of this slightly larger surface.

What's new(s) at EE Times-interactive

For a quick list and links to our most recently posted features, click here

Harris system guards against Internet `spoofing'

By Brian Santo

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is warning that hackers in increasing number are breaking into computer systems with a technique called "Internet Protocol (IP) spoofing."

The basic concept of spoofing is to learn the IP address of another computer that has open access to the target computer, then use that IP number to hack in to the target machine.

Harris Computer Systems Corp. said its CyberGuard FireWall prevents IP spoofing and protects the information on a company's internal network from unauthorized Internet access.

Katherine Hutchison, director of secure business for Harris Computer Systems Corp., said, "To prevent IP spoofing, the CyberGuard searches for discrepancies between IP addresses and the network from which the message originated. Any discrepancies indicate unauthorized access attempts."

PictureTel debuts $2,500 video platform for ISDN

By Loring Wirbel

WASHINGTON -- PictureTel Corp. (Danvers, Mass.) has significantly cut the price of videoconferencing, debuting a PC-based system with full H.320-based codec performance based on the AT&T Microelectronics AVS chip set. The Live PCS 50 system starts at $2,500, half the cost of the PCS 100 system. While PictureTel offers software-only codecs for Windows platforms, PictureTel's director of personal systems marketing, Tony Paradiso, said that hardware platforms will not compromise performance by offering anything other than H.320-compliant systems.

The PCS 50 requires basic-rate ISDN lines and does not include support for switched-56 services or V.35 modems. Other ways that PictureTel cut corners to implement the PCS 50 included replacing a document-quality, multiple-focus camera with a fixed-focus, off-the-shelf OEM camera for simpler desktop conferencing . Paradiso said that the PCS 50 will not replace the $5,000 100 system, but will represent a new low price point for corporations to enter the conferencing market.

Dataquest reports world PC market grew 20 percent in 1994

By Margaret Ryan

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Dataquest, releasing final numbers for 1994 personal computer shipments, reports that the worldwide personal computer market grew by about 20 percent last year.

PC makers shipped 46,520,000 units worldwide in 1994, according to Dataquest, compared with 38,843,000 units in 1993.

Not only did the market grow, Dataquest noted, but for the first time in more than 10 years a company other than IBM or Apple Computer lead the world in PC shipments.

According to Dataquest's estimates, Compaq Computer jumped ahead of IBM and Apple by shipping 847,000 more PCs than any other manufacturer last year. Last year Compaq shi pped 4,800,000 units, 53 percent more than in 1993.

Packard Bell was another company that experienced substantial growth in 1994. Packard Bell shipped 2,295,000 units, 101 percent more PCs in 1994 than in 1993, according to Dataquest's estimates.

Compaq and Packard Bell were also the only companies in the top five to increase their share of the market last year. Compaq's share climbed from 8.1 percent to 10.3 percent while Packard Bell's share jumped from 2.9 percent to 4.9 percent.

Fore signs pact with Northern Telecom for WAN ATM

By Loring Wirbel

WASHINGTON -- Fore Systems Inc. has signed a major Asynchronous Transfer Mode design and marketing pact with Northern Telecom. Fore, the ATM specialist based in Warrendale, Pa., will integrate its ForeRunner architecture with Northern's Magellan switch series, aimed at central telco office applications. Fore will also contribute elements of its SNMP-based ForeView network-management software for Northern's use, though Northern executives stressed they will continue to develop their own software.

The two companies will share engineering staffs in developing next-generation WAN switches, though Fore chairman and chief executive Eric Cooper stressed that "Fore going into the central office market ourselves would be pointless. That's why we look for partnerships, since developing our own large switches would not be a good use of our resources." Fore will continue to focus on customer-premises ATM switches, while Northern will work on large ATM switches for central and branch offices in the public network.

Extraction, calculation tools target submicron ICs

By Richard Goering

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- New standalone extraction and delay-calculation tools from High-Level Design (HLD) Systems promise a level of accuracy that's sufficient for deep submicron design. Meanwhile, Integrated Silicon Systems (Research Triangle Park, S.C.) is introducing two new extraction tools.

HLD Systems has introduced the Fastnet RC Extractor, which claims to extract distributed RC (resistance-capacitance) networks at speeds 2 to 10 times faster than Cadence's Dracula or Diva offerings. It works with the Fastnet Delay Calculator, which claims to provide accuracy to within 2 to 4 percent of Spice.

While HLD Systems already has extraction and delay-calculation capabilities inside its Design Planner products, it's not accurate enough for deep submicron, said Bob Wiederhold, executive vice president. The existing capability bases delay calculation on K-factor type gates, which provide a simple way to model capacitive loading.

With the Fastnet calculator, HLD Systems has gone to table-lookup models that support input slew. Moreover, the tool uses "effective capacitance calculation, " a technology that takes into account resistive shielding of the capacitive load.

"As resistance increases, it shields the capacitance furthest away from the driving node, " Wiederhold said. "As a result, if you use lumped capacitance to drive the table model, you can get a very inaccurate calculation for the gate delay, and can be off by 50 percent. "

Effective capacitance calculation works with a two-piece approximation of the voltage waveform. This approximation is used to unify the non-linear table model with the response of the gate to the net load. The waveform is propagated through the interconnect to produce delays at the input pins on a net.

These two techniques were developed by Prof. Lawrence Pillage of the University of Texas in Austin. Pillage, however, said that his work has evolved considerably since he described these techniques. He noted that he never observed accuracy to within 2 to 4 percent of Spice.

"The whole notion of effective capacitance has evolved, " he said. "When we first did it two years ago, we took it to the industry and found some limitations. It's a model not easily embedded in a timing analyzer. " He added that two-piece approximation is not very effective for doing RC calculations, and that his current approach is a one-piece approximation method.

Weiderhold said that the Fastnet delay calculator is accurate to within 1 to 2 percent of Spice for most nets, and to within 4 percent for 98 percent of the nets in a circuit. "There will always be some strange case that's outside that 4 percent, " he acknowledged.

HLD Systems claims that the Fastnet calculator runs 10,000 times faster than Spice, allowing full-chip delay calculation on deep submicron designs. It supports linear and piecewise linear K-factor, non-linear table and CMOS gate delay models.

The Fastnet RC Extractor is specifically aimed at distributed RC delays. Area, fringe and coupling capacitances are also considered. The tool claims to be connectivity-driven, meaning that it associates geometry with nets. As a result, Weiderhold said, there's no need to run a layout-vs.-schematic comparison. As for the extraction itself, a 30,000-cell design will typically take about two hours, he said.

The extractor works on fully routed designs or on placed designs based on pre-layout estimates. After floor planning, estimates are based on Steiner trees, a methodology that estimates minimum-length lines based on 90ý angles.

While fast, the extraction is not at the cell level. "If you want to do full device-level extraction, you have to go with Dracula, " said Wiederhold.

The extractor can take distributed RC values from any placement and routing tool. The delay calculator outputs delays in the Standard Delay Format (SDF), which is accepted by most simulation and synthesis tools. However, HLD Systems currently has no ASIC vendor support for the delay calculator, though some future announcements are expected, Wiederhold said.

ISS, meanwhile, introduced HLPE, a fu ll-chip capacitance extractor, and RCE, a distributed RC network extractor. Both work from GDSII files and are intended for use after placement and routing.

HLPE is a hierarchical product aimed at capacitance only, noted Mark Basel, head of ISS's extraction group. "We operate on the full chip and do a complete capacitance extraction, and we create the I/O ports, " he said. RCE, in contrast, extracts both resistance and capacitance but works for user-selected nets only.

In addition to extracting resistance and capacitance, RCE provides detailed geometric information from selected nets that contain conducting, contact and terminal layers. The extraction produces a Spice subcircuit that has I/O pins reflecting net driving and loading devices.

While RCE does associate geometry with nets, users will need to run a schematic-vs.-layout comparison if they want to cross-reference between the layout and schematic nets, Basel said. "Connectivity-based doesn't really buy you a lot if you're lookin g at a particular net, " he said.

In mid-1995, ISS will introduce a hierarchical version of RCE, called HRCE. It will automatically walk through the physical hierarchy on a cell-by-cell basis. ISS also promises a delay-calculation tool for deep-submicron designs called PsiTime.

Fastnet RC Extractor and Delay Calculator are sold as a bundle starting at $20,000. HLPE starts at $50,000, and RCE at $30,000. All products are available immediately.

Microsoft, Sony team on interactive network technology

NEW YORK -- Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. said yesterday that they will cooperate on the development of continuous media servers, home terminals and navigation software for interactive broadband networks.

Sony has announced the formation of a project team, to be headed by Junichi Kodera, senior managing director of Sony.

The two said they will work together to "explore the creation of new markets in electronics for consumer and professional applications through the development of next-generation devices and services."

"The continuing convergence of the consumer electronics and computer markets makes Sony's strengths in building state-of-the-art products the perfect complement to our software expertise," said Bill Gates, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft.

Microsoft and Sony plan to evaluate the technology in Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., laboratory this year, and later in conjunction with network operators and systems integrators. In the past, Microsoft has worked on interactive networking with Tele-Communications Inc., the country's largest cable operator.

HP reveals first phases of fault-tolerant cluster strategy

By Loring Wirbel

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Hewlet t-Packard Co. unveiled the first phases of its transition to high-availability, mission-critical servers using cluster technology. The first phase marries new software for partitioning tasks with an OEM'd disk array connected via SCSI-2 channels. Future revisions will add Fiber Channel and possibly Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switching to the networked HP 9000 clusters.

Elements of volume management and file-system reboot are not being fully revealed yet, since they rely on operating-system details that will be unveiled in the second half of 1995, when HP-UX 10.0 is released. That OS will use a new file-system concept called the Journaled File System, or JFS. Dan Beringer, high-availability product manager at HP, said he could not discuss the architecture of JFS, but called it "a critical element of our server-cluster strategy."

The ServiceGuard software suite being introduced this week allows switching of applications across server nodes in less than 60 seconds in the event of a failure. W hen a server is configured with multiple LAN adapters, a local switch can immediately shift to an alternate LAN node when one adapter fails. ServiceGuard makes sure only one node has control over an application. Beringer said that this eliminates what is known as "split-brain syndrome" in some fault-tolerant architectures.

Split-brain is caused when a node fails, applications are transferred to a backup node, but the first node comes back up. The node assumes the application is still its responsibility, and two server nodes end up performing separate writes to the disk array, causing data inconsistencies between the two nodes.

For users who want one logical view of a unified database across many servers in a cluster, HP is introducing a LockManager to be used with Oracle Corp.'s Parallel Server software, providing one logical view of multiple Oracle databases. The ability to provide alternative logical views of one data structure will be enhanced with the new 10.0 OS release, which will featur e a Logical Volume Manager allowing the declaration of dual I/O paths to logical volumes.

The new HP-UX release will also feature a Process Resource Manager, which can dynamically allocate CPU resources to user groups, performing node balancing across clusters.

Cyclone targets embedded PCI with 8-slot 960 board

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Looking to break new ground in the embedded single-board computer market, Cyclone Microsystems Inc. this week will unveil the first in a series of "system boards" using the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) as the main subsystem bus.

The first in the family is the SB08-JF33-102, an eight-slot PCI system board built around a 33-MHz Intel Corp. i960 embedded RISC CPU. It makes use of two PLX960 bridge chips from PLX Technology that interface between the i960's CPU local bus and the 130-Mbyte/second PCI bus, to more than double the number of available PCI slots available on even PCI-based Pentium and X86 motherboards.

According to Peter Zacklin, vice president of sales at Cyclone, the SB08 signals a fundamental shift in how OEMs and systems integrators can now build embedded systems. "Until now, designers had to choose between price sensitivity and performance, and each choice came with compromises," he said.

Embedded PC environments using X86 or Pentium CPUs and ISA/PCI bus offer cost-effective solutions but have severe limitations in bus bandwidth. High-end industrial buses, such as VME offer high performance and the capacity to build large systems but are not cost-sensitive, he said.

Targeting this gap in the embedded SBC market, Cyclone will offer the SB08 in 1,000-piece quantities for $986 each. For embedded systems developers, the Zacklin said, the board opens up the much more cost-effective PCI add-in board market to OEMs who want to target specific applications and markets. "To build a system, using an Ethernet board would cost a VME board user about $1,700, vs. about $170 for the same function in a PCI format," he said.

Production quantities of the board will be available in April.

IBM sees better financials as mixed

By Michele Clarke

ARMONK, N.Y. -- Despite reporting its first revenue gain since 1990 and a near-doubling of its semiconductor and overall OEM business, IBM chairman Louis V. Gerstner Jr. expressed disappointment last week in the company's general performance and that of its flagship PC unit in particular.

In a prepared statement released with the financial report, Gerstner said the company is continuing "actions to improve the competitiveness of [the PC] unit on an aggressive basis."

Last year, the company more than halved its number of product lines and initiated plans to centralize its PC Co. operations in North Carolina. Still, personal-computer revenue declined, with part icular weakness in the United States. A bright spot: Demand continued to exceed supply for certain PC models, including mobile ThinkPads, the company said.

Overall, Gerstner said, IBM cut some $3.5 billion in expenses last year and has completed "nearly 80 percent" of the $8 billion expense-reduction goal since the end of 1992.

Though demand continued to outpace supply for several major product categories (including mainframes and storage), overall revenue for many of the same lines declined.

IBM reported 1994 revenue of $64.1 billion, up 6 percent. Net earnings were $3 billion, compared with a 1993 net loss of $96 million. For the fourth quarter, IBM earned $1.2 billion on revenue of $19.9 billion, an increase of 6.6 percent over the same 1993 period. Gross margin was 40.6 percent. Total expenses fell 11 percent, or $729 million.

Frost & Sullivan projects explosion of worldwide P CS markets

By Margaret Ryan

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Markets for personal-communication services (PCS) and handsets will explode worldwide, growing to more than 200 times their present size in less than a decade_from $88 million in 1993 to over $8 billion by 2000 and over $19 billion by 2002_projects a study by Frost & Sullivan.

Services will form over 60 percent of market revenue during the next 10 years, the report said, during which growth will accelerate and peak at triple-digit levels in the late '90s as a PCS infrastructure is put in place across the world.

For 1995, Frost & Sullivan estimates there will be 300,000 new subscribers added and PCS revenue will hit $137 million.

Digital, Alcatel, Apple in Belgian video trial

By Michele Clarke

MAYNARD, Mass. -- Digital Equipment Corp. continues to rack up interactive-video trial wins. The company disclos ed late last week that its Alpha-based video servers will be paired with Apple Computer Inc. set-top boxes and Alcatel network switches to create an interactive video network for Belgium communications provider Belgacom.

In a prepared statement, Belgacom executives cited the ability of Digital and Alcatel to support both Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) and optical-network transmissions, as well as their ability to implement small trial systems that can be "scaled up to larger deployments."

Under a non-exclusive technology-exchange agreement, Digital and Alcatel will integrate the former's second-generation media server with the latter's network switches. Alcatel will also provide systems-integration expertise in both traditional phone and emerging broadband networks.

Belgacom officials described their company's Tectris project as a comprehensive technical trial aimed at creating a video-services network.

Alcatel supplies broadband ATM switching and access equipment. Dig ital's media-server technology has been popular among domestic and international cable and telephone companies. The company's Video and Interactive Information Services Architecture is a network-independent scheme that uses object-oriented middleware to deliver video over broadband and cable networks from its Storageworks disk and tape subsystems.

EE Times to host interactive satellite-TV ESDA conference

MANHASSET, N.Y. -- Electronic Engineering Times, along with co-sponsors Mentor Graphics Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., will host an interactive conference on Jan. 26 that will explore the status and future of Electronic Systems Design Automation (ESDA). The conference will be televised via satellite to about 40 locations in the United States. Attendance is free.

Panelists participating in the broadcast include:

Richard Wallace, editor in chief, EE Times;

Richard Goering, s enior EDA editor, EE Times;

Mark Noneman, system architect/CAD manager, TRW;

Bill Dittenhofer, senior engineer, Storage Technology;

Rita Glover, industry analyst, EDA Today.

The broadcast will also provide four ESDA users' perspectives on the system-design requirements of the computer and telecommunications industries. The perspectives will come from AT&T, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard's Computer Division and Italian radar-communications company Alenia Spazio.

Register by calling (800) 274-0924 or by sending an e-mail message with your full name, company, address and phone number to anna_leonard@kvo.com. We will then reserve a space at the location nearest you.

Ford, GM, Chrysler to push open controller spec

By Terry Costlow

DETROIT -- Driving toward the modular factory of the future, the Big Three automakers will unveil next month a new specification shifting vehicle manufacturing technologies from today's proprietary programmable logic controllers to an industrywide standard based on plug-and-play designs.

Chrysler, Ford and GM are nearing completion of the spec, called Open Modular Architecture Controllers (OMAC), which is expected to launch lucrative new markets for the suppliers of VME boards, real-time kernels and other off-the-shelf computer technologies.

"There can be hundreds or even thousands of controllers in a large automotive plant," said Ray Alderman, technical director at the VME/Futurebus International Trade Association (Vita, Scottsdale, Ariz.). "Today, PLCs control the conveyor belts, the robots painting bodies, the robots welding parts together. When they move to standards, all these OMACs can be tied together using a field bus, which also links the OMAC to all the robots and sensors it controls. On the other side of the OMAC is Ethernet, which go es to the business and accounting computers."

Industry observers said OMAC will have a major impact on the industrial automation and factory control markets. "I see this as being as historic a document as the Hydramatic [a type of automobile transmission] spec in 1968 that led to the creation of the programmable logic controller," said Bob Lyons, executive vice president at Transys Inc. (Scottsdale), which makes applications packages for industrial control systems.

FCC chairman expands digital vision beyond HDTV

By George Leopold

WASHINGTON -- As federal regulators await industry recommendations on a high-definition television (HDTV) transmission standard, they have begun promoting an ambitious vision in which HDTV is more than just an enhanced version of existing broadcast services. Instead, they say, the era of digital television --a more advanced, flexible system that harnesses a b it stream in a 6-MHz channel -- is upon us.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has maintained a low profile as the U.S. HDTV Grand Alliance struggles to complete a transmission standard by late summer, is adopting a more activist approach to push digital television as industry develops standards and new services. FCC Chairman Reed Hundt unveiled the government's hands-on approach in early January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The DTV model links digital video to other converging media, making HDTV a subset of more advanced technology. "We've got this digital stream," an FCC engineer explained. "Why limit ourselves to saying it's going to be HDTV?"

Hundt's aides say his speech was meant to light a fire under the consumer-electronics industry, noting that the pending standard goes far beyond what was imagined possible when HDTV deliberations began.

Despite worries, Korean semi makers doubling investments

By David Lammers

SEOUL, South Korea -- Heeding expectations that memory demand will soar for Pentium-based systems, the top three Korean DRAM makers -- Goldstar, Samsung and Hyundai -- are doubling capital investments this year, fueling their already fired-up competition.

Each is planning to build 8-inch-wafer fabs in 1995. By the second half, all will be pumping out 16-Mbit DRAMs in a by-16 configuration -- a part that's difficult to make but offers the advantage of being a drop-in replacement for the standard 4-Mbit DRAM.

To do that, they will invest a staggering sum. Dataquest estimates that the three, with total 1994 revenues of slightly more than $8 billion, will spend in excess of $6 billion this year, doubling spending over 1994.

By contrast, the 20 Japanese semiconductor producers tracked by Dataquest Japan will spend about $7.5 billion this year, but only about 55 percent of that will be for additional memory pr oduction.

But the Koreans are not the only big spenders in Asia. Taiwan-based companies are building another wave of 8-inch fabs as well. "What is going on here in Korea and in Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park is just unbelievable," said Bob Chamberlain, senior vice president at Watkins-Johnson Co. (Scotts Valley, Calif.). "The Taiwanese are getting into DRAMs in a big way. The Japanese companies are spending, but you get the feeling some of it is a defensive kind of spending, because they don't want the Koreans to run away with the market."

Intel won't block 66-MHz PCI

By Michele Clarke

SALT LAKE CITY -- Intel Corp. says it won't block a 66-MHz variant of the Peripheral Component Interconnect specification now under final review by PCI Special Interest Group technical subcommittees. That will free the SIG's steering committee to tackle two other issues when it meets here in early Febru ary: whether to adopt a small-form-factor variant of the PCI mechanical spec and what to do about smoldering interest in live-insertion extensions.

"Initially, we had a problem with 66 MHz," conceded Tim Mostad, an Intel Architecture Labs staffer. "We thought it was unnecessary and a niche solution not needed for the volume desktop, which is what we care about. But some people were adamant about needing it, so it's in. It won't be blocked." Mostad also serves as the PCI SIG technical marketing manager.

Originally proposed by a group of workstation makers led by IBM Corp.'s Power Personal Systems Division, the extension is contained in the overdue PCI Revision 2.1, now scheduled for release in February. The revision is the first major update of the PCI spec since the May 1993 release of version 2.0, which defined 64-bit and 3.3-V alternatives.

But some still are skeptical about the 66-MHz proposal. "The trick will be to implement it without adding wait states," said Intel's Mostad. "If you have to add even one wait state to each data transfer, you have cut your performance in half.

SSA, Fiber Channel interfaces challenge designers

By Terry Costlow

CHICAGO -- An intense battle for the hearts and minds of system designers is erupting in the computer industry between proponents of two high-end serial interfaces -- the Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) and Fiber Channel. But regardless of who wins, designers will be forced to come to grips with a number of issues that don't arise with the slower, parallel interfaces they've used for decades.

On one side, IBM Corp. is putting its considerable muscle behind SSA, which it developed. On the other, several key vendors have worked together for years to create Fiber Channel, which can be used for both a network and a peripheral link. There is a third contender, IEEE 1394, or FireWire, but it is lower in performance and is aimed primarily at PCs.

Perhaps the first issue is speed. SSA runs at 80 Mbytes/second, Fiber Channel at up to 100 Mbytes/s. The promise of those speeds gets many designers' hearts pumping a bit faster. But the price tags on disk drives equipped to keep pace with the new interfaces may cause a rise in the design community's collective blood pressure.

"Bursting data out of a buffer at 100 Mbytes/s is very difficult," said Chuck Nielsen, engineering vice president at Conner Peripherals Inc. (San Jose, Calif.). "Currently, bandwidth for the buffer in a disk drive is 30 to 40 Mbytes. To run at 100 Mbytes/s might require more expensive memory and might even mean a shift to newer RAM technologies."

Then there is noise. "When you do your packaging, you have to worry about radiated energy, and you have to be thinking about FCC compliance," said Shyam Parikh, engineering vice president at Quantum Corp. (Shrewsbury, Mass.).

Videocon vendors to release APIs

By Michele Clarke

WASHINGTON -- Cross-platform desktop videoconferencing and data-sharing products will begin their move from applications to infrastructures thisweek when Insoft Inc. (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) becomes the first to release its application programming interfaces and developers' kit.

In doing so, the privately held company is getting the jump on Intel Corp.'s Personal Conferencing Working Group (PCWG), which released its baseline video/audio conferencing architecture specification last week. Group chairman Michael Glancy said his APIs and software development kits will be released in version 2.0 of the Personal Conferencing Specification, expected this summer. Major portions of the specs are already out for review to group members, he added.

Though the initial PCWG spec defines only 80X86-based machines using Intel's Indeo codec and connecting over ISDN WAN links or IPX/SPX LANs, Glancy reiterated the group's intent ion to ultimately support multiple codecs, platforms and communications protocols.

"We've stepped in on ISDN and the H.320 space, but we're aggressively moving to LANs and POTS [plain old telephone service]," he said. "And we're working to let people use whatever system they want, whether it's Intel-Windows, PowerMac-Quicktime, whatever."

Also in the hunt (on PCs, Macs and Sun machines) is tiny Avistar Systems (Palo Alto, Calif.). The company announced a cross-platform architecture last month that moves uncompressed video over an unshielded twisted-pair shadow LAN and moves compressed versions over various WANs using any codec. Marketing vice president Stuart Reed said the company will share its APIs with anyone that asks to see them.

And in the wings: Creative Labs Inc.'s Sharevision unit, which is showing an unannounced Macintosh version of its product, and even smaller Philadelphia-based Intelligence At Large, which has a Mac product but is porting to Windows, HP and Sun machines.

All of the products offer videoconferencing, audioconferencing, shared whiteboards and application-sharing. But it's the opportunity for third-party application providers to write add-on modules that excites market watchers.

"There are many other applications that can be plugged into these infrastructures," said Sarah Dickinson, a desktop videoconferencing analyst with Personal Technology Research (Waltham, Mass.). "These systems will need bridges to fax machines, pagers, other application programs. It's a significant market."

Dickinson expects the desktop videoconferencing market to grow to $4.7 billion in 1997.

But even if the smaller companies release their APIs and offer development kits, it will be tough for them to compete, analysts agree.

"These smaller companies on the fringes don't have the clout to get onto the PCWG and they don't have the relationships that Insoft does," said Richard Doherty, director of The Envisioneering Group Inc., a market-analysis house and testi ng lab.

Intel's PCWG has broad support from global telecommunications, data-communications and computer suppliers and Insoft continues to quietly rack up powerful OEM agreements and development partnerships (especially with RISC-system companies like Hewlett-Packard Co. and networking concerns like Newbridge Networks Inc.).

And one source familiar with Intel's plans said discussions between Insoft and the PCWG leader are scheduled for this week to see if any common ground can be reached between the two competitors.

Also this week, Insoft will move to consolidate its gains. In addition to releasing its APIs, the company will announce its Intel port. The company now supports every major platform, network type and codec on the market.

And Doherty sees Intel's Pentium debacle as further hurting the company. "They're not invincible anymore. They just don't have the same clout to push through PCS as they did last year," he said.

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