    |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|
 
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 22, 1998Clinton unveils cyber plan(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/22/98)President Clinton unveiled plans today to protect critical U.S. networks from cyber attacks, and pledged to reach out to industry to formulate a strategy to safeguard public and private networks. Sega's spins Dreamcast, its next-generation gaming system(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/22/98)Sega Enterprises Ltd. turned conventional thinking about gaming systems on its head with Dreamcast, its next-generation system based on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system. By opting for an open, expandable architecture, Sega has upended the proprietary platforms that currently hold sway. Toshiba puts progressive-scan tech on digital TV, DVD player(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/22/98)Toshiba Corp. gave progressive-scan technology a big boost this week when it announced apparently the first DVD player that outputs in a progressive format, along with a digital TV capable of supporting progressive scanning. Until now, DVD players have had to reformat the 480-line progressive-scan signal (480p) of DVD video disks into an interlaced NTSC image for display on conventional TV sets. That process results in the appearance of visible scan lines and flicker. Xilinx wraps up work at reconfigurable operation(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/22/98)Xilinx Inc. has stopped development work on its XC6200 line of partially reconfigurable field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and the founders of the the company's reconfigurable R&D group in Edinburgh, Scotland, John Gray and Tom Kean, have both left the company. The remaining engineering staff at Edinburgh has been reassigned to develop IP cores for use by Xilinx's customers within the company's FPGAs. Critics blast U.S. cyber plan(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/21/98)Critics of a federal plan to safeguard critical U.S. networks from cyber-terrorism are warning that a new presidential directive represents a "cyber-takeover" that will give the government broad control over cyberspace. Many in the bustling information-security business say the government has little to offer in preventing network attacks and is playing catch-up as it seeks to expand its network-security role. AMD working quietly on copper interconnects(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/21/98)Though overshadowed by IBM Corp.'s high-profile effort to field copper interconnects, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is quietly forging ahead with development work to take the next-generation semiconductor technology from the research lab into the real world, EE Times has learned. Smart cards advance on two technology fronts(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/21/98)Smart-card developers are hoping an infusion of technology will be the tonic that's needed to jolt a lethargic market into life. Manufacturers are extending capabilities so the cards can handle more than one task and don't have to be slid into a reader, but can be waved over one without physical contact. Coalitions push IMA, SDSL interoperability(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/21/98)The deadline of major demonstration testbeds at next month's ATM Year '98 and Supercomm show has spurred network-equipment vendors to form coalitions to insure interoperability of equipment. Several companies working on inverse multiplexing equipment for handling multiple T1 services over ATM have formed the IMA Interoperability Initiative, or I3. Thursday, May 21, 1998Combination chips threaten DSPs' turf(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/21/98)Medium-speed DSPs are likely to be replaced by chips that combine DSP and microcontroller functionality, according to a new study by Berkeley Design Technology Inc. (Berkeley, Calif.). High-end DSPs will not be challenged by the combination devices, however, the study said. TSMC plans to offer IP cores to fabless IC firms(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/21/98)Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), has outlined ambitious plan to spur system-on-a-chip development by assembling intellectual-property cores that will be offered to its customers, which are primarily U.S.-based fabless semiconductor houses. U.S. Supreme Court rejects Avant! appeal(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/21/98)The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected without comment Avant! Corp.'s appeal of a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that enjoined Avant! from making any further sales of its ArcCell place-and-route software. Quantum acquires high-end tape-library provider(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/20/98)Quantum Corp. is broadening its presence in the mass-storage market by acquiring tape-library provider ATL Products Inc. in a stock swap valued at $300 million. The acquisition highlights the growing importance of tape, especially in the budding field of network-attached storage, as a way to back up mission-critical data. Reflective LCD goes into Sharp notebook(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/20/98)Doing its best to jump-start the still-dormant market for color-reflective LCDs, Sharp Corp. introduced a notebook PC with an 11.3-inch SVGA reflective display and front light. Module maker aims to ease OEMs' DRAM transitions(9:00 p.m., EST, 5/20/98)Memory module provider Simple Technology Inc. has spun out a subsidiary to build memory modules and modem cards directly for OEMs. One of SiliconTech's first objectives will be to marshal an engineering design team that can guide customers through the increasingly complex task of configuring modules around the new memory types. Wednesday, May 20, 1998Cadence moves into embedded software services(8:00 p.m., EST, 5/19/98)Looking for new hardware and software design worlds to conquer, Cadence Design Systems Inc. will take the wraps off of its Embedded Software Services Group next Monday. The group, which employs over 100 engineers, has been a closely guarded secret for the past six months. Noise-analysis tool bows for deep-submicron(8:00 p.m., EST, 5/19/98)Cadmos Design Technology is readying a comprehensive noise-analysis tool for deep-submicron IC layout. The startup promises new analysis techniques that will help solve yield and reliability problems facing chip design at 0.25 micron and below. FPGA cores struggle against limitations(8:00 p.m., EST, 5/19/98)Despite a huge market potential encompassing many thousands of users, intellectual-property cores for FPGAs are just starting to emerge. The nascent FPGA-core market is struggling against device-density and performance limitations, the hesitation of cost-sensitive users and uncertain business models on the part of silicon and core providers. VLSI Technology launches set-top chip family(8:00 p.m., EST, 5/19/98)VLSI Technology Inc. has unveiled a family of front-end chips for digital cable, satellite and terrestrial set-top boxes at the Cable & Satellite Conference. The line includes a single-chip demodulator for European terrestrial digital TV broadcasting; an integrated cable set-top front-end chip that handles 64- and 256-QAM modulated signals; and a return-channel modem chip for two-way cable set-tops that is compatible with both the Davic 1.1 and Multimedia Cable Network Systems (MCNS) standards. Stubborn problems still dog plasma displays(8:00 p.m., EST, 5/19/98)At industry events like the Society for Information Display conference in Anaheim this week or Matsushita Electric Industrial's exhibition here in Tokyo last week, people most often line up three deep in front of the big, beautiful plasma display panels (PDP). Not many are lining up to buy, however, in these early days of what should be a highly promising product, and the expected ramp of PDP manufacturing has been delayed by both manufacturing challenges and economic difficulties. Tuesday, May 19, 1998U.S. Senate approves hike in import visas(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/19/98)The high-tech visa debate shifts to the House today after the Senate passed legislation on Monday that raised the H-1B visa cap from 65,000 to 95,000 this year. EDA groups approve contract on confidentiality(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/19/98)The Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC) and the EDA Industry Council (EDAIC) have approved a standard confidential disclosure agreement meant to expedite contract negotiations between EDA companies and their customers. ADI still bullish about PC market entrance(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/19/98)Despite a perceived downturn in the worldwide PC business, Analog Devices Inc. said it is seeing good order rates for its newly introduced PC products, and remains optimism about its efforts in that market. Revenue from the Norwood, Mass., company's analog product line is up 20 percent for the first half of fiscal 1998 over the same period last year, reported product-line director Dick Meaney in an interview here last week. X86 chip vendors diverge on the integration road map(1:30 p.m., EST, 5/19/98)Different X86 processor companies are taking different paths to integrating circuitry on the motherboard of a sub-$1,000 PC, and their divergent strategies are raising a number of design questions: Has the processor bus outlived its usefulness? Where should the graphics subsystem reside? Will it be cost effective to integrate L2 cache onto the processor? Two vendors push FPGA tools into ASIC domain(7:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)With FPGA densities climbing past the 100,000-gate range, FPGA tool sets are starting to more closely resemble those in the ASIC world. The latest evidence comes from Synplicity Inc. and Exemplar Logic (Fremont, Calif.). Synplicity, in fact, has linked floor planning with synthesis in a way that appears to transcend even high-end ASIC design tools. Microsoft comes out swinging in antitrust fight(7:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)Vowing to fight the antitrust charges filed on Monday by the U.S. Department of Justice and the attorneys general of 20 states, Microsoft Corp. executives called the DOJ's proposed remedies "unworkable" and a violation of its "right to innovate." Verplex joins the formal field(7:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)Formal equivalency checking is a well-established market with many players, but startup Verplex Systems Inc. hopes there's room for one more. The company will announce plans this week to field a fast, thorough, easy-to-use equivalency checker in the third quarter of 1998. Crawford cuts a narrow path for Zilog(7:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)The revitalization of Zilog Inc. is slowly taking shape as Curtis Crawford, the company's new chief executive, has identified a corporate strategy centered on reining in Zilog's ambitions and locating markets where the its Z8 and Z80 microcontrollers can thrive. Monday, May 18, 1998Displaytech signs Samsung as minidisplay collaborator(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)Displaytech Inc., the first company to come to market with a high-resolution, color miniature display, will make several significant announcements at this week's Society for Information Display (SID) conference. U.S. and 20 states begin antitrust clash with Microsoft(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)The Justice Department and 20 states on Monday filed landmark antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft Corp. that charged the software giant with unlawfully extending its monopoly in PC operating systems to the Internet. Iridium completes satellite constellation(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)After suffering two delays due to launch-vehicle and range problems, Iridium LLC has finally completed its constellation of 66 communication satellites. With Sunday's launch of five satellites on a Delta II rocket, the Iridium consortium will be able to conduct gateway and inter-satellite link tests this summer. Those tests will pave the way to begin commercial services planned to start on September 23. Industry serves up embedded-friendly intelligent I/O(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)Two companies are set to announce products at the PCI Developers Conference here this week that they say will facilitate implementation of the Intelligent I/O communications standard in embedded systems. The moves come as the I2O scheme struggles to extend its reach beyond servers. Minidisplay startup chases promising, but unproven, market(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)Yet another new miniature-display company will emerge from the woodwork at this week's Society for Information Display conference, where it will join an increasingly crowded field of wannabes seeking elusive design wins. While 1996 startup Colorado MicroDisplay Inc. (Boulder, Colo.) seems demonstrably different in both its technology and business plan, analysts say it's just one of many chasing markets that have yet to be convinced of the value of minidisplays. Minidisplay makers troll for viable markets(3:00 p.m., EST, 5/18/98)The common operating procedure among most of the 20 or so companies making miniature displays is to develop a technology and then find an OEM partner to help tailor the device for a particular market. Colorado MicroDisplay Inc. has built a complex matrix of market opportunities in entertainment gear, computers, and medical, industrial and military equipment, but it acknowledges that some of those markets are not yet ready for prime time. Visa loophole opens crack in IT-jobs crisis(11:45 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)A visa program designed to bring foreign research scholars to U.S. universities is coming under renewed scrutiny as lawmakers debate whether to increase the annual number of visas issued to high-tech workers. Criticism of the J-visa program, which first drew fire in the early 1990s, stems from concern that Chinese and other foreign scientists doing research here may exploit loopholes in the program to remain in the United States if they fail to obtain H-1B work visas before the annual cap on those visas is reached. Copper upends the semiconductor design landscape(11:45 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)Copper interconnects — the heavily hyped next-generation semiconductor technology that promises gigahertz speeds — are having profound, unintended consequences for manufacturing and design. Electronics firms mull impact of India sanctions(11:45 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)U.S. export-control officials and the software and computer companies whose products they oversee are scrambling to determine how new U.S. economic sanctions against India will affect the flow of U.S. technologies to the world's newest demonstrated nuclear power. Processor puts sluggish DVD back in game(11:45 p.m., EST, 5/15/98)In a bold move that could send ripples through both the hotly competitive videogame industry and the sluggish market for DVD, a small startup will disclose a media processor that aims to turn DVD players into videogame consoles. VM Labs will unveil its processor as part of its Project X platform at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Atlanta next week. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
RSS
 |
Home | About | Editorial Calendar | Feedback | Subscriptions | Newsletter | Media Kit | Contact | Reprints|  RSS| 
Digital|  Mobile |
|
| Network Websites |
|
|
International |
|
|
Network Features |
|
|
|
All materials on this site Copyright © 2009 TechInsights, a Division of United Business Media LLC All rights reserved. Privacy Statement | Terms of Service | About |
