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Headlines and summaries from the pages of Electronic Engineering Times . Previous editions are available from the 1994 , 1995 , 1996 , 1997 , and 1998 News Archives.
Friday, May 15, 1998Intel's Katmai 3-D instructions cracked, programmer claims(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)Intel Corp.'s closely held instruction set for its upcoming Katmai processor has been cracked, an independent software expert claimed today. Architectural gap narrows between FPGAs and CPLDs(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)A raft of novel architectural approaches is blurring the boundaries separating CPLDs, FPGAs and ASICs. If Philips Semiconductors and Cypress Semiconductor have their way, CPLDs will be able to become denser while retaining the speed and ease-of-use advantages they have held over FPGAs. EE panel proposes new ways to lure students to the profession(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)Electrical-engineering education is indeed up to the task of preparing engineers for today's design challenges, but it has to be crafty to lure talented students to the EE fold, according to a consensus of panelists here at the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference. Electronics firms unveil APIs for digital appliances(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)Eight leading consumer electronics companies have unveiled standards for a set of core APIs that would allow digital consumer appliances to be connected in a home network without requiring a PC. Synopsys president lists key design challenges(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)Managing physical side effects and design complexity are going to be key challenges for the IC design and EDA communities in the coming years, Synopsys Inc.'s Aart de Geus said in his keynote address at the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference. Atmel's FPGA strategy builds on IP design centers(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)As part of a new sy stem-oriented approach to the FPGA market, Atmel Corp. is going to set up a network of system-level design and IP-generation centers around the world to help get design wins for its parts. At the same time the company is preparing to introduce a line of field-programmable system chips that will combine its SRAM-based FPGA technology with microcontroller, processor and DSP cores, and with non-volatile flash memory. Tanner debuts "system-level" MEMS tool(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)An integrated, system-level design tool suite for micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) devices was announced by Tanner EDA at the recent Custom Integrated Circuits Conference. Tanner said its MEMS Pro lays the groundwork for the first tool suite that will target both device-level and system-level design. TriTech to exit 3-D graphics chip business(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/14/98)TriTech Microelectronics I nc. is exiting the already crowded, but yet-to-develop market for 3-D graphics chips. IP also stands for "intense pain"(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/14/98)Chip designers and vendors acknowledged the challenges of designing silicon with third-party intellectual property (IP) at a panel session at this week's Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC). In a discussion titled "IP — Intellectual Property or intense pain," both sides said there's a bit too much of the latter. Analysts clash over chip industry forecasts(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/14/98)Though friends, the respective European analysts for Dataquest Inc. and World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) appear to clash on the directions the semiconductor industry should take in light of currently declining orders and falling prices, which spell a gloomy industry forecast for 1998 and '99. Vivid forms column-driver alliance with Oki(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/14/98)Vivid Semiconductor Inc., seeking to increase its share of the LCD column driver market in Japan to 20 percent by 2000, has forged an alliance with Oki Electric Industry Co. Thursday, May 14, 1998Bookham prepares to license its optical IC technology(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/14/98)Bookham Technology Ltd., a U.K. chip startup, plans to license its pioneering active silicon optical circuit (ASOC) technology, with which it makes optical ICs in standard silicon processes on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. The decision comes as Bookham nears the completion of its $10 million production facility, which it calls the first wafer fab built specifically to make optical circuits in silicon. Blue Tooth group readies short-range RF LAN(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/14/98)Major PC, chip and cellular phone makers will disclose a new short-range, wireless networking technology next week that they plan to make widely available and to build into their products starting next year. The approach — backed by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba — could face competition from a separate effort by the IEEE 802.11 wireless-LAN committee, which is in an early stage of defining a so-called personal-area network. Actel buys seller of place-and-route software(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/14/98)Programmable-logic vendor Actel Corp. is acquiring a place-and-route software startup, AutoGate Logic Inc. (Fremont, Calif.), in a move that Actel sees as a having long-term value as PLDs increasingly encroach on the turf of ASICs. Tech grads basically sure to get signing bonuses(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/13/98)Signing bonuses have become "practically de rigueur for employers who recruit at the top MBA schools and [are] an expected part of salary negotiations for graduates holding computer-science and other technology-related degrees," according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. LSI Logic exec bullish on integration beyond the system-on-a-chip(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/13/98)Despite fears that a malaise may envelop the semiconductor industry if it's bitten by the Asian flu, some companies aren't feeling blue at all. At Tuesday's annual shareholders meeting of LSI Logic Corp., chairman and chief executive Wilfred J. Corrigan said the company is seeing a very fine first quarter, thank you, and is looking for more positive returns through the end of the year. He credited the company's success to being in the right business with the right products. Grove chides Japan on technology investment(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/13/98)Japan's competitiveness is imperiled by a relative lack of venture capital as well as rates of corporate investment in information technology that are barely half those of the United States. That warning was delivered by Intel Corp. chairman Andrew Grove on a stop here after 10 days in China and Taiwan. Pentagon shakes up C3I office(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/13/98)Seeking to shore up its information security apparatus, the Pentagon announced a shakeup on Wednesday of its command, control, communications and information (C3I) office. Companies urged to fight worker shortages at a regional level(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/13/98)High-tech worker shortages in the United States should be overcome regionally by leveraging local and state resources to boost education, retrain workers and bring more women and minorities to careers in engineering and science, according to a recent gathering of government and industry officials. Intel improves speed, security of boot-block flash(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/13/98)Tapping its latest 0.25-micron process technology, Intel Corp. is rolling out two boot-block flash memory families that will serve the fledgling market for handheld systems and set-top boxes, as well as the more traditional cell phone market. Intel's products are meant to address two areas that the company considers to be flash memory's weakest — speed and security. Wednesday, May 13, 1998Apple ties Mac's future to AltiVec instructions(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/13/98)Apple Computer Inc. will use the AltiVec instruction set in Macintosh computers and expects to have AltiVec-enabled Macs for sale in the first half of next year, the company said at its Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday. Hewlett-Packard announces four more Java licen sees(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/13/98)Hewlett-Packard Co. today gathered significant momentum for its embedded Java implementation when it announced four new licensees for the technology. Lucent venture delves into digital radio broadcasts(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/13/98)Lucent Technologies and its research arm, Bell Laboratories, is developing digital audio broadcast systems that will be offered as an enhancement to current analog radio broadcasting systems. HP, Sun jockey for Java position(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/12/98)New moves from Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc. are roiling the Java landscape. Thaad missile fails again(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/12/98)The eighth test of a U.S. theater missile defense interceptor resulted in another failure on Tuesday, the Pentagon said. 'Movies' capture lattice growth(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/12/98)Researchers at a German university have adapted a scanning tunneling microscope to a high-temperature growth chamber to create live "movies" of germanium atoms that can be seen attaching themselves to a silicon substrate. The method for directly viewing atomic lattice growth was devised by researchers at the Institut fur Grenzflachenforschung und Vakuumphysik Forschungszentrum (Jurlich, Germany). One of the movies can be viewed on the Web. The approach was presented by Bert Voigtlander at last month's Materials Research Society meeting. Software directs Net surfers to interesting content(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/12/98)Optimatch software from Neural Applications Corp. (Coralville, Iowa) uses neural learning, fuzzy logic and advanced statistical analysis to collect information that can be used to target Net surfers with relevant content. Offered as a pl ug-in for Microsoft's Site Server, Optimatch is billed by its seller as a smart solution for Web site presentation software. Tuesday, May 12, 1998Set-top boxes may fill "sub-$1,000" slots(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/12/98)The machine that fills consumer expectations for a "sub-$1,000 PC" may resemble a set-top box more than an X86-based PC, according to Darryn McDade, software manager for the Advanced R&D group of SGS-Thomson Microelectronics. "Home terminals" will be used more for Web browsing and entertainment than for traditional computer functions, McDade said. Commerce will aid companies' Year 2000 efforts(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/12/98)Secretary of Commerce William Daley said on Monday that the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership will help small manufacturers fix Year 2000 programming problems. Apple overhauls MAC OS strategy(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/12/98)Revealing what interim chief executive Steve Jobs called the biggest Macintosh improvement since 1984, Apple Computer Inc. on Monday announced plans for Mac OS X, an ambitious upgrade to the Macintosh operating system intended to eliminate outdated OS code, preserve support for existing applications, and deliver long-promised features such as multitasking. Fernandez named new Darpa chief(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/12/98)Fernando Fernandez, an aerospace-industry veteran with no previous Defense Department experience, has been named the new director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). SGS-Thomson announces $1 billion research plan(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/12/98)SGS-Thomson Microelectronics will create a 300-mm (12-inch) wafer research fab and pilot line in Crolles, France. The research site will be shared with French government agencies such as France Telecom's Centre National d'Etude Telecommunications (CNET), LETI and the Commissariat Energie Atomique. Although SGS-Thomson currently conducts joint process research with Philips Semiconductors in Crolles, Philips will not share its 300-mm pilot line with the Dutch company, a spokesman said. I 2 O architecture finds it slow going in the OEM world(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/11/98)The Intelligent I/O (I 2 O) architecture has gotten plenty of attention this year, with several system makers touting its benefits in servers. But while I 2 O is seeing acceptance at vertically integrated server companies, its success in the broader OEM world remains sluggish, with some observers saying it won't pick up until a new version emerges. SGS-Thomson describes new partnership as 'virtual join t venture'(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/11/98)As part of its thrust into systems-on-silicon, SGS-Thomson Microelectronics (STM) is pioneering a new form of strategic customer-supplier partnership that it calls a "virtual joint venture." STM has been working with one partner in such an arrangement since the end of 1996, said Andrea Cuomo, vice president of strategic marketing. Tape brings new challenges to networked storage(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/11/98)Even as the Intelligent I/O specification slowly rolls to market as a new form of I/O inside tomorrow's systems, another approach to I/O — one that lives outside the box and takes the form of a new kind of business network — is muscling into the picture: the storage area network. Monday, May 11, 1998Sharp intros stacked chip-scale packaging technology(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/11/98)Sharp Corp. has introduc ed a stacked chip-scale package (CSP) technology that can reduce the mounting space on a printed-circuit board to a fifth or a tenth of what's required for conventional plastic packages. Tera Systems touts structured-ASIC design(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/11/98)EDA startup Tera Systems is taking structured-ASIC design methodology to new grounds with its TeraForm product. Tera Systems will compete with newcomer Aristo Technology, as well as with such established vendors as Avant!, Cadence and Synopsys, in the nascent market for "silicon virtual prototyping," which seeks to bring physical information into the design cycle early. The crucial need to predict delay, power consumption and signal integrity for 0.25-micron and deeper-submicron devices may make virtual prototyping the centerpoint of the logical-design process. Microware picks up HitchHiker for smart-phone RTOS(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/11/98)Microware Systems Corp. (Des Moines, Iowa) will use the HitchHiker smart phone software suite from STNC Ltd, based here, alongside its own OS-9 real-time operating system. Aldec offers behavioral simulation models(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/11/98)Simulator vendor Aldec Inc. has entered the cores market with its EZ-core program and will offer behavioral-level models at no cost to users of its Active-VHDL behavioral-level simulator. Motorola, IBM split on direction for PowerPC(11:45 p.m., EST, 5/8/98)Motorola's new Networking and Computer Systems Group chose the recent NetWorld+Interop to reveal the first major extension to the PowerPC instruction set — and the first major rift in the PowerPC architectural family. Microsoft preps embedded NT for communications push(11:45 p.m., EST, 5/8/98)Accelerating its push into the communications market, Microsoft Corp. said it is developing an embedded version of Windows NT that's expected to be formally launched next month. The streamlined form of the operating system, called NT Embedded or NTE, could quicken the pace at which the company is extending its reach beyond PCs into a range of systems that include routers, switches, private branch exchanges and remote-access servers. 3-D graphics chips butt heads with Intel's CPU plans(11:45 p.m., EST, 5/8/98)A simmering conflict between Intel Corp. and graphics-accelerator companies over how the 3-D graphics pipeline should be partitioned bubbled up at the recent Computer Game Developers Conference. The debate centers on the geometry front end of the 3-D pipeline, where transforms and lighting are calculated. Internet Protocol gets rules for good behavior(11:45 p.m., EST, 5/8/98)Now that it seems the Internet Protocol is everywhere, designers of systems that span the gamut from cable modems to wide-area network switches are finding it's time the protocol actually grew up and became manageable. At the NetWorld+Interop show in Las Vegas and at Cable '98 in Atlanta, internetworking specialists and cable-TV operators hammered out mechanisms to create controllable networks from a protocol designed for connectionless traffic. |
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