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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 11, 1997Network game one of big risks, big rewardsWhen Cisco Systems invested $2.7 million in startup Cascade Communications in December 1993, the networking colossus thought it would have the inside track to acquire Cascade if the new company became a success. As it turned out, Cascade was very successful indeed, but rather than making Cascade acquisition bait for Cisco, the $2.7 million helped ignite a chain reaction of furious mergers among networking companies.
Upgradable-PC effort takes divergent pathsAn ad hoc group driven by Compaq Computer, Intel and Microsoft recently released preliminary details of planned specifications for what it calls Device Bay, a universal slot into which a wide variety of computer add-ons could be plugged.
Simulator startup takes aim at billion-gate designFTL Systems, a small startup with a giant vision, is planning multiprocessing HDL simulators that can tackle as many as a billion gates. The company is starting on a more modest scale, however, with an HDL analyzer it introduced at the recent International Verilog Conference/VHDL International User's Group.
Digital Link, NetScout team on WAN accessDigital Link will be able to bring the advantages of remote monitoring (RMON) probes to WAN-interface hardware through a deal signed with NetScout Systems, the company formerly known as Frontier Software Development.
Raytheon taps wireless LANAfter serving as a component-level power behind the throne in wireless-LAN markets for several years, Raytheon Wireless Solutions is launching its own 2.4-MHz frequency-hopping product for horizontal computing markets.
Post-merger Microtec widens embedded focusMicrotec Research has been a sleeping giant in the embedded-software and -tools environment since being acquired by Mentor Graphics, but its strategic plans are now complete, and the company is unveiling products that it believes will move it solidly forward.
Thursday April 10, 1997Continuous-dictation system aims at the PCA new product from Dragon Systems, NaturallySpeaking, a continuous-speech dictation product packaged for the PC, boasts a 30,000-word vocabulary and a 230,000-word backup dictionary.
Employee group attacks Intel labor practicesA group of former Intel Corp. employees with grievances against the company recently set up a Web site where they accuse Intel of systemic discrimination. On the time-tested theory that there is strength in numbers, these individuals have joined in an organization called Former and Current Employees of Intel, or FACE Intel.
Cabletron moves switch management to the WebCabletron Systems has fulfilled its promise to make the World Wide Web central to its plans for Spectrum network-management products. The company has launched Java-based tools for managing ATM and frame-based LAN switches, and has outlined a plan for moving to Corba standards.
Research rolling on spherical lasersWhile a sphere represents the ideal shape for lasers, for practical reasons other geometric shapes are traditionally used. But that may change in the submicron-design realm, where spheres occur naturally. A project at Shinshu University is leveraging those basic physical facts to create a versatile submicron laser technology.
Silicon carbide transistor hits 880 VUsing a double-implant process, researchers here have fabricated silicon carbide (SiC) transistors boasting breakdown voltages of up to 880 V. The MOS transistors are claimed to have three times the voltage-breakdown level of previous record-setting SiC MOSFETs and may prove to be a significant step in the quest for high-voltage devices.
Quantum squeeze locks atoms with laser pulsesThe application of force to a crystal lattice to compress its constituent atoms into a smaller area, thus leaving less room for oscillations, was part of a demonstration at the University of Michigan of a quantum principle called "squeezed matter." Recently reported by physicists here, the experiment marked the first time the technique--which has already been proven out for particles of light--was successfully used on solid matter.
Wednesday April 9, 1997Chip vendors target premium-notebook featuresNow that the battle lines are established in the market for midrange notebook computers, silicon vendors are turning their attention to premium notebook computers.
Crystal puts audio accelerator around DSP coreCirrus Logic subsidiary Crystal Semiconductor Corp. has fielded an audio-accelerator chip for the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus that integrates a mix of interfaces and peripherals around a high-performance programmable DSP core.
MCM houses Pentium with MMX technologyMicroModule Systems Inc. has packaged a Pentium CPU with MMX technology into a multichip module. The MCM is designed for compact systems that need the power of the newer processors.
Netstations tuned for JavaHewlett-Packard Co.'s Panacom Automation division has added Java Virtual Machine capabilities to its latest families of "netstations": Envizex II and Entria II.
Object repository tracks constantly changing dataSoftlab Enabling Technologies is offering an object repository‹software called the "Enabler," that makes it easier for designers and users to link different tools and keep track of constantly changing data.
Similar MIPS processors target separate marketsBoth NEC Electronics Inc. and Quantum Effect Designs Inc. have announced MIPS microprocessors with many similarities but very different target markets. This move illustrates one benefit of the MIPS business model, with a number of very independent licensees, the MIPS architecture can evolve in several ways at once.
Tuesday April 8, 1997Bell Labs goes formal with design verificationBell Labs Design Automation this week will launch a formal model-checking tool that parent Lucent Technologies hopes will be the flagship of a push into the commercial EDA market.
Moto invests in virtual processor software houseMotorola Inc. has taken a small minority stake in the British Tao Group Ltd. and will use the company's virtual processor and Java-like OS technology in portable communications and computing gear, Internet appliances and digital-imaging products.
Continuous blue laser demo'dNichia Chemical Industries Ltd. is pacing a pack of well-funded electronics household names in the race to achieve a viable blue laser. At a meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics here last week, Nichia demonstrated a continuously emitting blue laser diode that operates at room temperature.
ARM warms to 32-bit async-logic RISC coreThe launch of Amulet-3, an asynchronous-logic implementation of the ARM 32-bit RISC architecture, has been set for sometime in 1999. Availability of such a core could mark the first significant use of asynchronous logic in a large commercial design.
Group agrees on DVD-RAM formatThe DVD-RAM working group of the DVD Consortium has agreed in principle on DVD-RAM, the recording format of DVD. The contents of the specification will be publicized some time this month as the DVD-RAM book version 0.9.
Quickturn, Cadence link productsIn a strategic link between the market leaders in logic emulation and Verilog simulation, Quickturn Design and Cadence Design have signed a technology and marketing partnership aimed at a combined verification solution. Separately, Quickturn has announced its own Affinity Partnership Program.
Monday April 7, 1997Industries collide as digital TV advancesDigital TV could hit the airwaves in 18 months if a compromise negotiated last week between regulators and broadcasters holds up. The deal cleared the way for final FCC approval of the last two steps in the tortuous, decade-long effort to bring digital TV to consumers.
Intel to shift EDA from Unix to Windows NTIntel Corp. will move the complete base of EDA technology it uses to develop its leading-edge microprocessors off Unix and onto Windows NT, a company executive said last week. The decision amounts to a ringing endorsement of Microsoft Corp.'s operating system
K6 raises hopes and questions for AMDAdvanced Micro Devices' K6 microprocessor will be judged a success only "if it is the largest revenue-producing product in our history," chairman W.J. Sanders III said last week of what may be the company's make-or-break product.
Launch services mission-critical to telecom liftoffRemote sensing and imaging applications may spice up the satellite business, but telecom is its bread and butter. So aerospace executives who gathered at last week's Space Symposium warned that a vast expansion of available launch services must soon be undertaken if the industry is to meet global demand.
HP in Singapore foundry deal, eyes 0.25-micron ICsHewlett-Packard has formed a semiconductor-foundry joint venture with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. Chartered will build a wafer fab here and, by mid-1999, the venture will supply HP with 0.35- and 0.25-micron ASICs and be a commercial foundry for customers worldwide.
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