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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 25, 1997Upstart, Centaur, readies competition for Intel's P55CA new alternative will hit the Pentium-compatible microprocessor market May 20, when stealth startup Centaur Technology announces its X86 CPU. The chip will go after the heart of the desktop and notebook P55C market--a target already chosen by Advanced Micro Devices, with its K6 CPU, and Cyrix, with the as yet unreleased M2.
Report raps computer industry on immigrationA new report on immigration blasts the computer industry for hiring practices that discriminate not only against U.S. engineers but also against older employees--U.S.- and foreign-born. The report, "A Critical Look at Immigration's Role in the U.S. Computer Industry," was published this month by Norman Matloff, a professor in the department of computer science at University of California at Davis.
Abstract Hardware names CEO, maps U.S. thrustArmed with a step-by-step plan for bringing formal verification to a worldwide market, Abstract Hardware Ltd. (AHL) has hired its first chief executive and has decided to become a U.S. corporation. The new CEO, Mek Rahmani, was formerly vice president of Viewlogic's European operations.
Mitsubishi cranks up 40-inch plasma displaysIt's a little behind schedule, but mass production of a 40-inch-diagonal color plasma display has just kicked in at Mitsubishi Electric Corp.'s new display operation here, the tip of an iceberg of plasma development activity in Asia.
"Pilot lines for 300-mm wafers expected in '98Lithography equipment, one of the most crucial and difficult pieces to engineer in the semiconductor manufacturing-equipment chain, will be ready when it comes time to switch to 300-mm wafer processing. But wafer cost and availability could be an issue, at least in the early years of the transition. These were two of the conclusions drawn at the Semicon Europa exhibition here this month.
Leaner Zycad shifts focusZycad Corp. hopes to refocus its business following the recent sale of its LightSpeed logic acceleration product line, but it remains to be seen whether the deal is enough to sustain Zycad.
Brooks assesses Taiwan at close of TSMC stintDon Brooks looks forward to "semi-retirement" after six years as president of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC).
Thursday April 24, 1997Team uses groupware to build nanocomputer on the NetAn ad hoc group of scientists has come together on the Internet to build the world's first nanocomputer using groupware in cyberspace. The professed goal of the "Nanocomputer Dream Team" is to build, by the year 2011, a computer that's essentially made out of molecules--one "grown" from tiny adding machines that consist of just hundreds of atoms.
"Microbridges" at heart of new MEMS displaysInitial technical reports are filtering out of two young companies--Silicon Light Machines and Iridigm Display--that are working on flat-panel displays based on microelectromechanical-system (MEMS) technology.
TI, Motorola broaden USB supportIn separate efforts, Texas Instruments and Motorola are prepping a slew of silicon that should slake designers' growing thirst for support for the emerging Universal Serial Bus (USB) scheme for linking low-speed peripherals.
HP shows portable first-level troubleshooterHewlett-Packard Co.'s palm-sized, battery-operated LogicDart Advanced Logic Probe is a personal tool for bringing up a board for the first time or for troubleshooting digital equipment on the bench or in the factory or field.
Fujitsu, Toshiba agree on specs for multichip BGAFujitsu Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. have jointly agreed on common specifications for a 48-pad ball-grid-array (BGA) package housing multiple memory chips.
Wednesday April 23, 1997Intel spins flash for data storageIntel Corp. has developed a flash-memory family designed to take over for E2PROMs in certain systems. The Smart 3 Advanced Boot Block family, unveiled this week, uses Intel-developed software to allow a flash IC to read code and write data in real-time systems.
VHDL synthesis gets more affordableIn an effort to spread VHDL synthesis to thousands of programmable-logic designers, Minc will unveil a $495 VHDL synthesis package this week at PLDCon. The product, called VHDL Easy, supports most FPGA families and is claimed to have many of the features provided by tools costing $10,000 or more.
Startup, Fore move to cut ATM costs for LANsA few brave souls are keeping the promise of asynchronous-transfer-mode switching for private internetworking alive. Newcomer Switched Network Technologies and ATM pioneer Fore Systems are promoting common architectures and fixed configurations to cut the cost of ATM in the local-area network.
Switched-Ethernet chip rollsPMC-Sierra's EtherDirector is the first of a broad, planned family based on switched-Ethernet work done by BIT Inc., the company PMC-Sierra acquired last fall. But in the PM3350 eight-port switch chip and PM3351 100-Mbit uplink chip, PMC designers did far more than revamp BIT designs under a new name.
Analog-test options expandThe market for analog and mixed-signal fault simulation is heating up. Intusoft has released Test Designer, an EDA tool that automates simulation as well as fault diagnostics, test development and test generation.
Tuesday April 22, 1997Race kicks off to set digital TV in siliconSemiconductor executives returned home last week from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual convention with a renewed commitment to the market for digital-TV silicon and a resolve to work with leading TV makers on chip development.
Immigrant execs to Senate: Don't close bordersImmigrant entrepreneurs told Congress last week that America's system of legal immigration works and shouldn't fall victim to a tide of anti-immigration sentiment.
MoSys strategy shifts to conventional DRAMsAfter five years of struggling to build acceptance for a radical DRAM architecture with a non-Jedec interface, MoSys Inc. has changed its tune. The company is set to enter two major pin-compatible markets that have huge upside potential, require no missionary work, and will still lever the advantages of the MoSys technology.
Reporter's Notebook: Space -- intelligence technology's embattled frontierTechnology's tentacles are reaching farther into our private lives as the electronics industry pushes deeper into submicron design. Telecom and networking advances allow us to reach one another via phone, fax, pager, e-mail or videoconference at any time, from almost anywhere. With that expanded access, of course, comes an expanded potential for civil-liberties abuse.
Cadence opens Europe design factoryCadence Design Systems Inc. is expanding its "design factory" approach, as it adds design services to its EDA-tools business. Specifically, Cadence is taking over the employment of a team of IC designers from ICL plc, a subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd., based in England, as part of a chip-design outsourcing contract.
Monday April 21, 1997I2O, Intel's PC I/O architecture, gains ground at conferenceIntel Corp.'s Intelligent I/O architecture (I2O) got a big vote of confidence at last week at PCI+ conference. Attendees seemed surprised by computing's rapid acceptance of what has been a relatively obscure I/O concept, which shows signs of quickly migrating from servers to the desktop, and even to embedded computing.
Code-theft charges filed against Hsu, 5 others at Avant!President and chief executive officer Gerry Hsu and five other employees of Avant! Corp. have been charged with stealing source code from Cadence Design Systems Inc. in an indictment filed April 11 by the Santa Clara County district attorney's office. Avant!, officials last week maintained their innocence and expressed confidence that the company and its employees would be acquitted.
Tera sees 'super' future in multithreadingConvinced that its innovative multithreaded architecture (MTA) promises a big advance in supercomputer performance, Tera Computer Co. last week outlined plans to develop a multichip microprocessor that implements its design.
DVD Forum spins a 'reliable' recording formatAvoiding the trap that has long bedeviled compact disks -- namely, lack of a way to record with the technology --the masterminds behind the digital videodisk have already added a recordable format to the newly minted standard.
Taiwanese SRAM makers deny U.S. dumping chargesXilinx Inc. has unveiled an online Java-based tool that lets designers access, customize and download optimized Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) cores.
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