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  Headlines and summaries from the pages of Electronic Engineering Times. Previous editions are available from the 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997 News Archives.
 Friday April 4, 1997Enhancements to Windows NT 'hack' could cause more problemsA firestorm of activity has erupted in the Windows NT security camp and the hacking community in reaction to last week's revelation of a security breach in the Microsoft operating system. The hackers maintain their position that stored passwords on an NT network are vulnerable to attack, and that a user trying to obtain them need not be an NT administrator to get in.
Two DARS licenses auctionedTwo firms--Satellite CD Radio Inc. and American Mobile Radio Corp.--were the top bidders this week in a government auction of spectrum for satellite digital audio radio services (DARS).
Wall St. descends on AscendAscend Communications Inc. and Cascade Communications Inc. are two networking OEMs thatare respected by Wall Street, and known for wise acquisitions and mergers. But when Ascend announced on Monday that it would acquire Cascade in a stock transaction, the market voted its displeasure by sending Ascend's stock down by more than 21 percent.
Open Verilog Int'l proposes library standardsOpen Verilog International (OVI) used the recent International Verilog Conference and VHDL International Users Forum (IVC-VIUF) to introduce a library standards initiative, update the status of ongoing developments, and kick off two proposed standards committees.
Cold cathode enables a pioneering flat displayPioneer Electric Corp. has developed an electron-emission device that could open the way for a flat-panel display with a conversion efficiency 150 times higher than that of a CRT.
Sharp minds eye system-level-IC capabilitySharp Electronics Corp. is casting about for ways to diversify its product line. That search will emphasize Sharp's growing role in the flash-memory market, and could transform Sharp from a company heavily oriented to manufacturing into a very different kind of semiconductor vendor.
Taiwanese shrink DRAMsTaiwan's new 8-inch DRAM is shrinking process size from 0.5 micron to 0.4 or 0.35 micron can reduce per-chip production costs by 25 to 60 percent. But it will take a few months for yields at the smaller processes to reach commercially viable rates.
Hitachi readies cores for 0.35-micron ASICsHitachi Ltd., which has hitched its star in the ASIC business to its microprocessor cores, disclosed that it soon will offer 0.35-micron cell-based ICs with either its 32-bit SH-3 RISC core or its 16-bit H8S MCU.
Thursday April 3, 1997Microbots aid shift to 3-D fabricationMicrolithography has been successfully adapted to building a variety of micromechanical systems. Nevertheless, some researchers are growing impatient with the limitations of lithography's inherently planar nature. Many scientists are now looking to "microbots"--small robots that can operate with micron or better precision---to do the construction work.
GaAs research looks to oxide layerA project at the University of California here could give gallium-arsenide technology the same versatility as silicon VLSI by allowing device designers to place insulating oxide layers at any point in the definition of a transistor.
622-Mbit/s ATM chips rollThe continuous growth in LAN traffic has yielded more-common use of 622-Mbit/second asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) backbones. Until recently, though, networking-equipment makers have had to use multiple 155-Mbit/s chips to achieve OC-12 transmission speeds. Now, silicon vendors are beginning to turn out single-chip 622-Mbit/s ATM devices.
Pumped polymers promise photonic techniqueAdding a photoactive-polymer layer to the top of a gallium-nitride laser diode has spawned a unique hybrid device that promises unprecedented efficiency across a broad spectrum of wavelengths. The new approach to optoelectronics was recently described at the spring meeting of the Materials Research Society.
3-D chip speeds geometry pipeline3Dlabs Inc. has unveiled a 3-D graphics chip, Glint Gamma, that's designed to accelerate the full 3-D geometry pipeline. Glint Gamma is said to be among the first hardwired 3-D chips to integrate complete 3-D geometry transform, lighting, clipping and setup acceleration.
Wednesday April 2, 1997DVD decoding functions integrated in hardwareLuxSonor Inc. is about to begin sampling a Swiss-Army-knife approach to PC-based DVD decoding. Its LS220 chip packs an MPEG-2 audio and video decoder, Dolby AC-3 decoder, video processor for output filtering and scaling, DVD subpicture decoder and all the necessary PC interfaces.
Intergraph unveils MMX-based 3-D systemsAdding to its already strong presence in the Windows NT market, Intergraph Computer Systems last week unveiled a family of NT-based PCs powered by Intel's Pentium processors with MMX technology.
Synopsys, Motorola in DSP bidThe first fruits of a DSP design alliance between Motorola and Synopsys made their debut at the recent DSP World Spring Conference.
Tool tracks Verilog codeA Verilog code-coverage tool from Advanced Technology Center's CoverMeter Division runs alongside Verilog simulators and reports coverage of signal-transition "toggles," source-code lines, conditions and user expressions.
Tester relies on simulationThe Virtual Test division of Integrated Measurement Systems has introduced its TestDirect digital product for mixed-signal test. TestDirect is a tool for directly generating ATE patterns from a designer's original testbench-simulation environment.
Tuesday April 1, 1997Commerce finds NEC dumpingCray Research won a round in its legal battle with NEC Corp., when the Commerce Department issued a preliminary finding yesterday that Japanese companies are dumping supercomputers on the U.S. market.
Micro-drone aerial spies preparing for takeoffThe future of surveillance aircraft will take off next Saturday from a small hayfield in northern Florida, but observers will have to look hard to see it. The next generation of spy planes will be small--perhaps less than 6 inches in diameter--and agile as a hummingbird.
Cypress recasts logic chip set for embedded useCypress Semiconductor Inc. is recasting its hyperCache chip set, hoping that the blooming of embedded PCs can give the parts new life.
Cadence, Avant! to codevelop interfacesCadence Design Systems and Avant!, bitter competitive and legal rivals, have agreed to work together in at least one area. Customers of the two companies are receiving a joint letter wherein the companies pledge to collaborate on interfaces between their respective tools.
Delay shifts DVD burdenMicrosoft Corp.'s latest announcement on the delay in shipments of Memphis--the company's next upgraded OS originally planned for a 1997 launch--is having a ripple effect on those planning to offer DVD solutions on PCs.
NEC spinoff will create MIDI networkNEC Corp. has spun out a company, TeleMidic Ltd., that will provide a MIDI-based network for use by musicians.
Monday March 31, 1997'Hack' punches hole in Microsoft NT securityA major security flaw has been uncovered in the Microsoft Corp. NT network operating system that could enable a remote user to unscramble encrypted information -- including the entire registry of user passwords -- and display it as plain text. A pair of professional security technologists wrote the code for the "hack" that found the flaw. The code has been verified by several experts and is making the rounds on the Internet via an electronic mailing list frequented by skilled hackers with an interest in NT-security issues.
New designs thrust batteries into heat of portable debateBatteries and battery management pushed the envelope at the Portable by Design conference last week, as vendors described several new chemistries, each of which could make important contributions to portable equipment. Additional papers discussed the latest in battery management technology, much of it based on the Intel/Duracell Smart Battery Data Specification.
Philips hitches its MIPS lines to Windows CEPhilips Electronics has made a major commitment to Microsoft's Windows CE operating system for its MIPS-based digital consumer product lines, and is cutting a path that other manufacturers might follow, as CE changes the rules of the game in consumer electronics.
Microsoft launches multimedia assaultMicrosoft Corp. will unleash a three-pronged multimedia thrust, beginning Monday, when it unveils technology to turn Windows into a versatile platform for the creation and delivery of interactive 3-D content across the Internet, via arcade-game machines and through new devices like handheld DVD players.
Gateway 2000 bids for troubled AmigaPC maker Gateway 2000 Inc. has put in a bid to adopt the orphaned Amiga computer platform, which was originated by Commodore.
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