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March 07 Downloading MP3s: Like Taking Candy From Stranger
Downloading tunes seems to be relatively safe, but experts have discovered a vulnerability -- you leave the door open for hackers, who want to take that song you're downloading and add some sour notes, reported News 3's Corey Miller.
If you download music and use new versions of popular music players to play it back, you get the song and sometimes a little more.
"Instead of just running a wave file, it will also open up a Web browser to a band's Web site," said Chris Gerg of Berbee in Madison.
That's because new players allow for hidden commands inside music files. They could take you to the band's Web site or do just about anything else.
The problem is you don't know what commands are hidden behind the music, so you're essentially taking candy from a stranger.
"You don't know what you're getting," Gerg said. "Sure, it says BeastieBoys.mp3, and maybe it's Beastie Boys and maybe it's not. It took record companies to spell the doom of Napster (news - web sites), but this might be the final death bill."
The only real protection you have against this -- outside of not downloading from strangers -- is to increase your Internet security level.
How?
In your control panel, you can tell your computer not to launch anything, without asking you first.
Standards Controversy Comes to the Fore at the Telephony Voice User Interface Conference
Speakers Debate VoiceXML Versus SALT Initiatives, With Applications as the Bottom Line
TARZANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2002--Standards for Voice Web implementation were hotly debated at the recent TMA Associates' Telephony Voice User Interface Conference (TVUI) in Scottsdale, Arizona. The most controversial issue was the relatively new Speech and Language Tags (SALT) proposed standard, the importance of which was underscored by Microsoft's announcement at the conference that it would deliver a multimodal platform solution based on SALT and support SALT with its Visual Studio.NET and other development tools. Many vendors at the conference described products, applications, and services based on an older standard, VoiceXML, for which SALT is a direct competitor.
SALT vs. VoiceXML
The spirited discussion had two conflicting points of view:
(1) VoiceXML proponents worried that two standards had the potential to create market confusion, and that SALT is much less mature and untested than VoiceXML (with a preliminary SALT 0.9 release just last month)
(2) SALT proponents argued that VoiceXML is too inflexible and too much of a departure from current Web development tools to attract the ``millions'' of Web developers to speech.
Microsoft Speaks Out For SALT
Several comments on one conference panel reflected the debate. Xuedong Huang, general manager, .NET speech technologies at Microsoft, said, ``Microsoft's mission for speech is trying to speech-enable the Web and make speech mainstream for Web services. In order to make that happen, we have to embrace the Web programming model instead of developing a new language for Web developers. We're trying to extend languages familiar to Web developers.''
IBM and Nuance Support VoiceXML
William ``Ozzie'' Osborne, general manager, voice systems, IBM, said, ``I'd like to put this in perspective. The industry has been working on VoiceXML for over three years. They've been developing great applications, and building good assets. No new standards are needed. No new things need be developed. We just need to use those we have and continue to develop them ... VoiceXML is part of the Web model.''
Ron Croen, CEO of Nuance Communications, which provides core speech technology, said, ``A dominant trend remains -- and it is in the interest of the industry that it remain -- the evolution of VoiceXML as an industry standard. This is a real standard that has evolved ... This is a real technology in deployment and performing extremely well in challenging and scalable applications. It is also in front of a standards body. I think it is premature to call SALT either an evolved technology or a standard.'' Croen added that he welcomed Microsoft's support for speech recognition, and that the appropriate place for the standards issues to be resolved was a standards body like the W3C.
Telephony Speech Recognition Now Used in Many Applications
While the standards debate created the most buzz, most of the talks discussed successful applications and maturing delivery platforms. As John Donaldson, vice president, product management, InterVoice-Brite, a telephony solution provider, put it on the aforementioned TVUI panel, ``Both SALT and VoiceXML have a future, but the bottom line is that it's not just in what language an application is developed; it's about what applications the customers want. The key objective is to provide a consistent and reliable speech-enabled user interface across a wide variety of customers and a wide variety of applications.''
Emphasizing the bottom-line focus, the highest-ranked talk by attendees was a keynote entitled, ``Leading speech applications that are creating breakthrough results,'' given by Stuart R. Patterson, CEO of SpeechWorks, a core speech technology vendor. Patterson commented, ``As a principal sponsor, SpeechWorks views TVUI as an ideal venue to share knowledge with our peers in the speech industry. This year's conference agenda delivered valuable insight into the industry's most relevant issues and trends that will drive innovation in years to come such as industry standards, multimodal applications, distributed speech recognition and the overall market dynamics.''
The 2002 Telephony Voice User Interface Conference was the fourth annual gathering of industry leaders, analysts, and forward-looking companies that use the technology. The conference was created by William Meisel, president of TMA Associates and publisher of Speech Recognition Update, the industry's newsletter. The Principal Sponsors of this conference were Microsoft, Nuance Communications, SpeechWorks, and Enterprise Integration Group. AT&T Labs, IBM, InterVoice-Brite, Sound Advantage, Telera, VoiceGenie and West Interactive were Supporting Sponsors. The publication sponsors were Speech Recognition Update, the industry's newsletter, and Speech Technology Magazine.
Analysts Speak Out
Many industry analysts attended TVUI, and voiced the feeling that this is now the telephony speech recognition industry's premiere conference. According to Brian Strachman, senior analyst, Voice Applications, with Cahners In-Stat Group, ``The Telephony Voice User Interface conference is the best show I attend to get the latest information on the speech industry. Nothing even comes close. The information presented is timely and relevant and the level of attendees ensures that the meals and coffee breaks are not to be missed.''
Dan Miller, senior vice president, with The Kelsey Group, said, ``TVUI once again proved to be the place to gauge the stated direction and state-of-art of the technologies -- ASR, TTS and NLU -- underlying speech-enabled apps.''
Further information about the conference program and other information on speech recognition can be found at www.tmaa.com.
Mar 7, 2002 One-half billion homes now online
Nielsen/NetRatings said some 498 million people could surf the Web from home by the end of 2001, a jump of 5.1 percent from the figure in July-September.
People in Asia continued to hook up faster than anywhere else, with home Web access growing 5.6 percent in the last three months of the year from the previous quarter. Europeans were next, with connections up 4.9 percent, followed by computer users in Latin America and the United States, which had respective growth rates of 3.3 and 3.5 percent.
North America continued to have the largest share of the global Internet audience at 40 percent. Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for 27 percent and Asia 22 percent. --Reuters
Mar 7, 2002 Verizon planning for smart antennas /LU
Verizon Wireless has installed cell phone network equipment made by Lucent Technologies that, in the future, will allow for the use of smart antennas. Smart antennas increase the amount of voice and data traffic that flows over a cell phone network.
Carriers hope to use smart antennas to combat dead spots in their cell phone networks. Smart antennas are still being developed. A Lucent representative said he expects these new types of antennas to reach the United States by next year. --Ben Charny, Special to ZDNet News
gernb1-re cellphones-mosts roads lead back to TI's OMAP
Nokia and Texas Instruments To Offer Complete Open Reference Platforms for Next-Generation Smart Phones
(February 19, 2002)
By combining the Series 60(TM) platform and OMAP(TM) Processor-based platforms, the companies will offer their first Series 60-based open smart phone reference platforms.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK), and Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:TXN) (TI) announced they will offer mobile handset manufacturers and application developers a complete open and standards-based reference platform, combining Nokia's Series 60 terminal software platform and developer SDK (Software Development Kit), TI's OMAP processor-based reference platforms and development toolkit, and the Symbian OS. These Series 60-based open reference platforms will be delivered as solutions ready for manufacturing and integration into final products. The first Series 60-based Complete Smart Phone Reference Platform is expected to be available in the third quarter of 2002.
The complete reference platform will enable mobile handset manufacturers to introduce leading-edge 2.5 and 3G smart phones with a high level of integration, performance and power efficiency. The solution is highly cost-efficient and will significantly reduce the time-to-market. The openness and scalability of the reference platform, as well as the source code licensing terms of the Series 60 platform to Nokia licensees will give extra confidence to manufacturers, who want to secure their long-term hardware and software investments.
The open reference platforms by Nokia and TI will support a wide variety of wireless technologies compliant with common industry standards. This will enable network operators, and handset manufacturers to select the optimized solutions for their specific needs. The reference platforms will stimulate innovation and vigorous growth of interoperable mobile applications and services, thereby supporting the key principle of the Open Mobile Architecture Initiative. The open reference platform also will vastly benefit applications developers who will be able to write, test and validate end-to-end applications on a combined, optimized platform.
The Series 60 platform is a terminal-software platform for smart phones that Nokia licenses to other mobile-handset manufacturers as a source-code product. Manufacturers will be able to integrate the Series 60 platform into their own phone designs running on top of the Symbian OS. The Series 60 platform includes mobile browsing, multimedia messaging and content downloading, as well as a host of personal information management and telephony applications. In addition, it includes a complete and modifiable user interface - all designed to run on top of the Symbian OS, an operating system for advanced, data enabled mobile phones.
"The Series 60 Platform supports critical enabling technologies, such as XHTML, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and Java(TM) to ensure interoperability among mobile devices, different network infrastructures and content. Our long-term cooperation with TI has resulted in this new reference design platform that combines the Series 60 with TI's OMAP processors. This will offer both mobile handset manufacturers and applications developers the industry's best future-proof solution to develop very competitive and advanced products and solutions for a truly global mobile services market," said Pertti Korhonen, Senior Vice President, Mobile Software, Nokia.
The hardware reference platforms are based on TI's OMAP application processors and TI's industry leading 2.5G GPRS modem solutions including DSP-based digital baseband, analog and RF devices, complete software solutions with protocol stacks, as well as a comprehensive hardware and software development environment. TI's OMAP processors provide full compatibility with Nokia's Series 60 software and the Symbian OS, allowing developers to create advanced applications in a proven environment.
"Combining technologies from mobile industry leaders, Nokia and TI, in a single, ready-to-use solution will give a significant boost to the introduction of 2.5 G smart phones, said Gilles Delfassy, Senior Vice President, Wireless Terminal Business Unit General Manager,Texas Instruments. "The high-performance and the low power consumption of the complete system solutions will also enable application developers to fully exploit the possibilities offered by 2.5 and 3G services."
The reference platforms, which will support bandwidth-intensive and multimedia-rich wireless applications, will leverage TI's OMAP processor to enable services such as multimedia messaging, video and Internet audio downloads, e-mail, real-time Web browsing, advanced security, games and location-based services.
About Nokia:
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience, innovation, user-friendliness and secure solutions, the company has become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on six major exchanges.
About TI:
Texas Instruments Incorporated is the world leader in digital signal processing and analog technologies, the semiconductor engines of the Internet age. In addition to semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors and Controls, and Educational and Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries. Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the web site at www.ti.com
Trademarks:
OMAP is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For further information, please contact:
Nokia Mobile Phones
Communications
Tel. +358 7180 08000
nokia.mobile.phones@nokia.com
www.nokia.com
Nokia Inc.
Corporate Communications
Tel. + 1 972 894 4573
Texas Instruments:
Marie-Helene Raynaud
Tel. +33 (0) 4 93 22 26 44
mh-raynaud@ti.com
Posted by: cksla
In reply to: None Date: 9/5/2001 11:22:02 AM
Post # of 10319
OT-Delphi Automotive Systems' Mobile MultiMedia Business Continues Rapid Expansion
Delphi predicts growth of its MobileMedia business unit (9/4/2001)
Delphi(hardware for OnStar )Automotive Systems' (NYSE: DPH) Mobile MultiMedia business unit is now working with nine vehicle manufacturers, including Toyota, Honda, GM (including supplying hardware for the successful multi-brand OnStar system) and Subaru, as well as commercial vehicle customers. Growth is expected to continue annually (sales in 2000 were $322 million USD) in a market that UBS Warburg expects to be worth around $50 billion USD in 2010.
"Our strategy is to maintain Delphi's position as the world's leading provider of wireless and Mobile MultiMedia technologies," says Dr. Robert Schumacher, director of Delphi's Mobile MultiMedia business unit. "We are launching 18 new products in 2001-2002. It's a very exciting time with lots of opportunities."
In the U.S., Delphi has demonstrated innovative technologies such as the 802.11 wireless network and MP3 playback. Delphi has introduced the following products, technologies and initiatives in 2001: Communiport(R) Mobile Productivity Centre; telematics modules for Honda and Toyota Link; DVD Rear- Seat Entertainment System for factory installed and portable applications; Communiport(R) Integrated Navigation System Radio; Dedicated Short Range transponder, Satellite Digital Audio Radio receivers (SDARS), digital cellular phone integration unit, and a partnership in MobileAria, a wireless content company.
According to several studies, "consumers are spending more time in their vehicles and are seeking technologies that will help make that time more productive," Schumacher said. "Delphi is at the forefront in meeting that demand and we're evaluating trends so we'll be ready to satisfy demand for other solutions in the future
Delphi Demonstrates Latest Mobile MultiMedia Concepts
Release Date: October 16, 2001
Now more than ever, vehicles need to serve as more than just a means to get from one place to another. They are often expected to be an office away from home, to deliver entertainment, to offer navigation assistance, and to provide an increasing range of non-traditional automotive functions. Delphi is at the forefront of companies developing technologies to meet consumer demand for more productivity and connectivity in the vehicle and operates one of the world's most successful Mobile MultiMedia businesses.
TOKYO - "Mobile MultiMedia is giving Delphi access to new areas of business growth," said Dr. Robert Schumacher, director, Delphi Mobile MultiMedia business group. "We have identified opportunities in four broad product categories - telematics, advanced digital audio, rear-seat entertainment, smart receivers - and intend to maintain leading positions in each one."
Telematics combines the vehicle audio system with cellular telephone and a global positioning system to allow communications with off-board services. These may include pay-per-use access to services such as tickets to films and games or emergency services that in the event of an accident can immediately locate the vehicle and identify what types of injuries the occupants may have sustained.
"Telematics is creating new business models and new businesses," continued Schumacher. "Vehicle manufacturers can extend income streams, potentially for the entire life of the vehicle. It gives them a recurring revenue business that is comparable with wireless communications and cable TV."
Delphi already has considerable experience with telematics with almost 2 million units sold. Several vehicle manufacturers, including General Motors, Toyota, Lexus, Honda and Subaru, are also working with Delphi in this area.
Delphi is currently working on more advanced telematics products that offer enhanced features.
"The near future will bring automated information services such as e-mail, traffic, navigation and Internet access via voice recognition and text-to-speech in a few years," said Schumacher. "We even see entertainment services like audio downloads, video game software and even video downloads over high-speed wireless communication links. There are so many possibilities, but the killer application may well be entertainment."
Entertainment Exceeds Expectations
Demand for Delphi's new Rear-Seat Entertainment System already is exceeding expectations. The systems are especially popular among van and sport utility owners, where rear-seat passengers can now play games, listen to CDs or watch DVD movies.
Growth is also expected in smart receivers. Advanced radios are being developed with a PC card and a high-resolution display that provides the driver with features such as navigation, e-mail, integrated telephone and information from the Internet. Drivers can control all of these functions without taking their eyes off the road or their hands off the wheel by using voice recognition, text-to-speech and steering wheel controls.
Delphi's advanced digital audio system, Satellite Digital Audio Receiver Service (SDARS), is also set to take off this year in North America. Satellite radio will revolutionize traditional AM/FM radio by adding a satellite band that allows drivers to listen to 100 channels of music and entertainment with digital clarity. The satellite broadcast will provide coast-to-coast entertainment for a monthly fee via the XM and Sirius broadcast services being launched this quarter.
Travelling with Bluetooth
Bluetooth technology allows portable devices to communicate over a range of 10 meters without physical connections. Using this standard protocol, the vehicle could, for example, offer to dial from the telephone books of any of several mobile telephones in the pockets of occupants. It could even read (by text-to-speech) e-mails or other files from a laptop computer in a briefcase.
Demonstrating 'MOST'
The Mobile MultiMedia technology demonstration vehicle, on display at the Tokyo Motor Show, demonstrates Delphi's unique expertise in the integration of advanced MMM systems.
The vehicle is equipped with a wide range of Delphi's Communiport® Mobile MultiMedia products, with data integration and distribution provided via a MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) communications bus.
The demonstration vehicle is based on a Mercedes M-Class, for which Delphi supplies the integrated cockpit module. Features added to the vehicle include communication and telematics modules, a TV receiver, an AM/FM antenna receiver, a roof-mounted integrated antenna, a DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) system, a DVD-video (Digital Versatile Disk) and CD-Audio and navigation. All systems are controlled by a single "joy-stick" and large color LCD display in the cockpit module.
Delphi's Communiport® MMM systems support all commonly used input/output protocols and bus structures including CAN and IEEE J1850, as well as emerging standards like ITS Data Bus (IDB) and MOST.
Improving Mobile Television
Another interesting feature of the MOST vehicle is its Gen II Diversity Reception System. This technology is designed to solve the problem of signal shadows and reflections that can lead to poor reception while driving through urban and mountain areas. The Diversity Reception System constantly monitors and chooses between the strongest available signals in four separate antenna systems.
Delphi's Advancements In MMM Technologies Driving Growth
Delphi's MMM business unit is now working with nine vehicle manufacturers, including Toyota, Honda, GM, Subaru and Freightliner to meet consumer demand for connectivity in the vehicle. Growth is expected to continue annually in a market that UBS Warburg expects to be worth around $35 billion USD in 2010.
In the U.S., Delphi has demonstrated innovative technologies such as the 802.11 wireless network and MP3 playback. Delphi has introduced the following products, technologies and initiatives in 2001: Communiport® Mobile Productivity Center, telematics modules, DVD Rear-Seat Entertainment Systems for factory installed and portable applications; Communiport Integrated Navigation System Radio; Dedicated Short-Range transponder; Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service receivers; digital cellular phone integration units; and a venture partnership in MobileAria, a wireless content service company.
For additional information about Delphi Automotive Systems, visit www.delphiauto.com/vpr.
For more information contact:
Delphi Automotive Systems
Milton Beach
(765) 451-0655
milton.beach@delphiauto.com
Delphi Automotive Systems
Jennifer Zajac
(248) 813-2527
jennifer.l.zajac@delphiauto.com
Phone in 60 Seconds
by Jonathan Collins
tele.com
09/04/00, 3:00 a.m. ET
Telematics drives revenue home for wireless providers
A new market for wireless operators is emerging across America, and service providers aren't in the driver's seat for once. This time automobile manufacturers are in control, installing wireless connections in their cars to offer a range of services. They believe these services will not only attract new customers but also extend their relationship with the customer throughout the life of the car.
But telematics, as wireless services for cars have been dubbed, also offer a new and potentially sizable revenue stream for wireless operators. Early telematics services include one-button console access to roadside assistance, car diagnostics and maintenance alerts. In the near future, owners will be able to make hands-free wireless calls that will even include voice-activated access to some Internet data at a set price for a bucket of minutes.
Telematics is still in its early days, but the number of subscribers is expected to reach 820,000 by year's end. With car manufacturers equipping more and more cars with wireless connections, that number is set to explode. "By 2004, 16 million vehicles in the U.S. will have wireless connections as car manufacturers push telematics as a competitive differentiator," says Elliot Hamilton, senior vice president at The Strategis Group (Washington, D.C.), adding that wireless revenue from in-car connections is expected to be about $8 billion by then.
General Motors Corp. (GM, Detroit), one of the earliest players in the market, launched its telematics roadside assistance service, OnStar, in 1997. According to the company, the service has 375,000 subscribers today. GM projects 1 million OnStar-enabled vehicles will be on U.S. roads by year's end, with 35 of the company's 54 models carrying it as an option in 2001.
Building on an existing deal with GTE Corp., Verizon Wireless (New York) recently signed an exclusive agreement to supply all the wireless connectivity for the OnStar network. But Verizon isn't the only wireless operator looking to cash in on telematics. In March, Sprint PCS (Kansas City, Mo.) announced it will work with Ford Motor Co. (Dearborn, Mich.) to supply Sprint PCS-branded wireless services and handsets in 2001 model Lincolns. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (Kirkland, Wash.) currently has no deal in place but says it's looking to sign a telematics deal shortly.
But Verizon Wireless isn't playing up its exclusive deal with OnStar. "It's just a wholesale deal. It's as uncomplicated as that," says Verizon Wireless chief technology officer Dick Lynch. Verizon's attitude may stem from the fact that it won't be able to leverage the service to reach new customers directly, since all customer service, billing and branding will come from OnStar.
Still, analysts maintain that telematics will prove to be a smart move for wireless operators. "Operators need ways to get more traffic on their networks, and in-car wireless is one good way to that," says Mark Zohar, industry analyst at Forrester Research Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.).
Next year's OnStar models will include two new services that will extend the service into more traditional mobile telephone services. The first will let OnStar subscribers dial any phone number, and the second will use voice recognition to deliver information from the Internet, such as stock quotes, news, weather and e-mail.
OnStar's original 1997 telematics service came with a wireless phone installed at the dealership. Customers had to set up their cellular service independently, which meant two bills for the same car every month. With its new service, OnStar isn't sharing the customer. Pricing details haven't been released, but the company says there will be no long-distance or roaming charges and that unused minutes will be carried over at the end of the month.
Adding the ability to call anyone anywhere from the OnStar service could affect the existing cell phone market drastically, analysts say. "Between 60 and 80 percent of all wireless calls are made from cars. With telematics providing the same calling services, there is certainly potential conflict over who owns the customer," says Strategis Group's Hamilton.
OnStar insists it isn't looking to get into the wireless market but adds that its voice-controlled connection may provide a safer way for drivers to make wireless calls, says Steve Schwinke, OnStar director of operations systems.
Despite being cut out of the customer relationship, telematics may still be a strong play for Verizon. "There is a huge volume play to be made in the wireless market. Verizon still gets access to additional revenue from OnStar subscribers," says Forrester's Zohar.
Sprint PCS has taken a different approach to telematics. Under its agreement with Ford, it will put Sprint phones into Ford's Lincoln automobiles and connect them for traditional telematics services like diagnostics and roadside assistance, as well as general wireless connectivity. This means connecting the Sprint PCS-branded Motorola StarTac phone with the Ford-developed Remote Emergency Satellite Cellular Unit (RESCU) assistance service, for example. Like OnStar, the Sprint PCS service also promises a range of Internet-based services.
One key difference between the two offerings is that Ford plans to use Sprint's all-digital network for connectivity while OnStar will use Verizon's older analog technology. "Analog is the only way to guarantee a nationwide footprint. Our subscribers need to be guaranteed a connection in every county across the country," says Schwinke.
Analysts are certain that services will shift to digital networks over time, opening up opportunities for a new set of in-car wireless data services. Until then, though, wireless operators and telematics providers still have work to do--like steering toward a better understanding of what types of content and applications apply to in-car use.
The Fortune 10 Companies... gmgc has a deal w/ one of
1. Exxon-Mobil
2. Walmart
3. General Motors
4. Ford
5. General Electric
6. Citigroup
7. Enron
8. IBM
9. AT&T
10. Verizon
Now which company can it logically be??
GM..we already got.
Exxon, Walmart and Citigroup I automatically cross off...don't fit the criteria.
Ford...no way due to GM's exclusivity clause.
Enron...sincerely hope not.
AT&T...working with Tellme.
That leaves GE, IBM, and Verizon.
GE appears to come out of left field...don't know what to make of this one.
IBM fits the criteria plus we already have some kind of relationship with them.
Verizon..does the wireless service for OnStar and also has the Dennis Strigl connection. If Verizon is the one...then GMGC has it's first Telco.
IBM and Verizon are the ones I tend to lean towards. If IBM, it would be a slight disappointment unless there is a pr showing the economic benefit.
Verizon has me the most excited.
Interview: Microsoft Automotive
Vincent Lau speaks to Gonzalo Bustillos, Director of Business Development & Marketing (3/7/2002)
The Automotive Business Unit at Microsoft has invested half a decade to provide the automotive industry with great software that delivers information, entertainment, communication and services in vehicles. The company works very closely with automakers, automotive electronics manufacturers and consumers to develop its telematics solutions. Microsoft Car .NET architecture, products and services support the delivery of end-to-end telematics solutions for the automotive industry and its customers. Microsoft Car.NET architecture, products and services support the delivery of end-to-end telematics solutions for the automotive industry and its customers.
Please tell me about your role at Microsoft Automotive.
I am Gonzalo Bustillos, Microsoft’s Director of Business Development & Marketing in the Emerging Technologies Group. I oversee the marketing and business development activities for the Automotive Business Unit. This business unit works with automakers, automotive electronics manufacturers and service providers to address the market for in-car computing devices and telematics services.
What is Microsoft’s automotive vision? How do you see this vision applied in the telematics space?
Microsoft’s automotive vision is an extension of the company’s overall vision: “Empower people through great software, any time, any place, and on any device.”
Microsoft envisions a fully integrated and connected lifestyle where services are integrated and easily accessible across the home, office and car. This will be delivered through smart devices, XML and a common set of interactions. For automakers and suppliers, this approach to enabling a connected lifestyle provides maximum flexibility and reliability to fit every type of price tag and car model. Microsoft’s Car.NET architecture, products and services support this vision.
What is the automotive .NET strategy all about?
The best way to understand Car.Net is to consider what it does. Car.Net makes it possible to provide integrated services to car owners and passengers in a safe, cost effective and manageable fashion. It is based upon Microsoft’s .Net strategy and family of products. The .Net strategy is a framework based on open computing standards and comprised of multiple in-vehicle products and services. By giving drivers the Web the way they want it, Microsoft Car.NET services, products and tools will safely provide an integrated, secure and easy-to-use Internet experience.
How is this technology different with your current systems, or is this a completely new technology?
Car.NET isn’t a technology, but rather an architecture. Car.Net calls out a client, server, services and an architectural framework whose components are available today. It promotes Windows CE for Automotive technology for the in-vehicle embedded client and also endorses portable devices based on Windows CE technology. Car.Net incorporates a number of core infrastructure .Net XML Web Services, such as Passport for authentication; MyServices.Net for end-user data management; MapPoint.Net for navigation and routing services and many more available in the near future. Further, Car.Net can take advantage of MSN services and a host of third party end user services.
Where does Windows CE fit in with your current strategy?
Windows CE is a key component of our automotive strategy and our Car.NET framework. It precedes the development cycle of Windows CE for Automotive. The technology we develop for the auto industry is based on Windows CE, a robust real-time embedded operating system. While it shares the same rich platform for dynamic applications and services of the Windows CE operating system, Windows CE for Automotive enables special automotive features such as voice recognition technology, automotive power management, a customizable GUI and many flexible developer options. Because of these enhancements, new versions of Windows CE for Automotive are introduced after the latest version of Windows CE.
How do you differentiate from your competitors?
Several ways:
First: Microsoft’s proven in-car technology is on the road today, reliably bringing real-time information to drivers and passengers. In Europe, Bosch, Siemens-VDO and BORG Electronics have ongoing development projects. In Japan and the US, Microsoft has several programs based on Windows CE for Automotive with companies such as DENSO, Alpine, Clarion, Kenwood, Fujitsu-Ten, Delphi, Visteon and others.
Second: Microsoft offers an end-to-end solution for telematics based on industry-wide open standards. We have a portfolio of client technologies anchored around Windows CE technology; we offer our .NET portfolio of Web services and an extensive .NET family of products and development tools. Microsoft also offers an unparalleled array of technology partnerships.
Third: Microsoft Windows CE for Automotive is evolving to include provisions for new services and service components while maintaining compatibility with earlier versions. Presently, Windows CE for Automotive 3.5 is a telematics software platform that provides developers with the building blocks to quickly and reliably create powerful in-vehicle computing devices. This newly upgraded open platform showcases dramatic enhancements in key areas such as hands-free, eyes-free communications; better speech recognition; safety; Internet access; faster startup times; cost-efficiency; flexible developer tools; and faster, more robust graphics capabilities.
How will this technology add value to your customers’ end users?
Car .NET delivers value in multiple tracks. Drivers and passengers benefit by obtaining access to personalized information and user-centric services anytime, anywhere in a safe, cost effective and manageable fashion using either portable or in-vehicle smart devices. The TSPs (telematics service providers) benefit from the ability to scale and provide a wider array of Web-based services. The carmakers and automotive electronic suppliers benefit by lowering development costs and shortening design cycles and accelerating time to market.
Windows CE for Automotive enables motorists to take advantage of new technology without compromising safety. The platform uses a flexible infrastructure to allow cellular phones, handheld computers, laptops and other devices to interact seamlessly. For example, cell phones can be used to unlock a car.
Microsoft's Windows CE for Automotive 3.5 uses advanced speech-recognition technology to allow users to make phone calls or hear information without taking their hands off the wheel or their eyes off the road. Driver distraction controls ensure that certain functions - such as typing or reading text - can be performed only when the car is stopped.
Which space does Microsoft compete in and whom do you consider your competitors?
Microsoft offers an end-to-end platform for telematics applications and services. Competitive offerings focus on particular segments or niche applications of the value chain. For example, Windows CE for Automotive is a software platform and as such any proprietary in-vehicle computing solutions could be considered competition.
What are some milestones that Microsoft has achieved?
Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit has achieved many milestones in its five-year history within the company. It delivered the first in vehicle smart computing device (AutoPC); developed the first in-car appliance with speech as primary user interface; developed the first automotive software platform (Windows CE for Automotive) and has sponsored automotive software development forums throughout the world. The group also won multiple programs with the top 10 automotive electronic suppliers worldwide, is shipping in 10 car models worldwide and has launched Car.NET as the end-to-end telematics platform based on Web infrastructure technology. Most recently, Microsoft partnered with Accenture, the largest consulting and integration services bureau, to offer telematics solutions to the automotive industry at large.
Can you tell me more about Microsoft’s experience with Clarion and the AutoPC? Will there be a second joint effort?
The Clarion AutoPC is a device that is built on the first version (v1) of Windows CE for Automotive. We shipped v1 - four years ago. Since then, we have been working closely with our partners in the automotive industry and have taken into account their valuable input to put forth the most comprehensive automotive centric operating system. We are currently shipping v3.5 and Clarion, Bosch, DENSO and many others are using this newer version to build a range of in car computing appliances, from simple telematics boxes to infotainment systems for the car. Clarion is currently shipping in the US their second generation device based on Windows CE for Automotive v2 – branded the Joyride.
What are the current product offerings?
For embedded automotive clients, our most current product offering is Windows CE for Automotive 3.5, which was introduced in December 2001. We also offer an array of Web based .NET services for authentication, authoring, personalization and location based services. Through our MSN groups, we also offer an array of mobile services and content.
When can we expect a product rollout?
Several automakers – soon to be announced – are currently using Windows CE for Automotive-based in-car computing solutions. Others will follow soon. In the aftermarket, Clarion (US and Japan), MELCO (Japan), BORG (Europe) and NextTech (Korea) have devices based on out-technology in the market.
I see that the new MSN provides traffic alerts. What other features can we expect?
Automotive is a strategic market segment for Microsoft, consequently MSN, the Automotive Business Unit, and third party ISPs and ASPs are developing a compelling portfolio of mobile services for motorist and passengers. From personalized information, instant messaging, personalized entertainment and location based services. Moreover, Windows CE for Automotive 3.5 showcases advanced automotive-centric features such as:
(a) New Streamlined Graphical User Interface: Powerful, hardware independent tools, functionality and “skinnable” graphics enable designers to easily customize the appearance of their systems to different car lines.
(b) New Hands-Free Communication Interface: Drivers and passengers can now speak more naturally and directly to devices using simple voice commands. The completely rebuilt speech engine supports the latest human-like text to speech technology.
(c) New Platform Foundation: With the new platform configuration, developers can create a compact solution for devices with limited storage capacity. Developers are able to start with a small base and from there, build as much or little as required by the automaker.
(d) New Microsoft Mobile Explorer: This full-featured compact and efficient Internet Explorer browser provides valuable access to the wireless Information Highway.
(e) New Power Management: Fast and reliable power management architecture ensures no backup battery is needed, and that rapid startup and shutdown can be done without data loss.
(f) New Customizable Developer Tools: Windows CE for Automotive 3.5 provides developers with flexible, scalable building blocks from which they can choose from a variety of APIs such as ActiveX Controls and Visual Basic, to create low-end to high-end applications based on car manufacturer requirements.
(g) Improved Graphics: High-performance features include faster graphics drawing, mapping API and DirectX support. Also included is GDI-Sub, a high-performance feature for the most demanding graphics applications, such as navigation applications.
Who are some of your partners that you are currently working with?
Microsoft and Accenture announced on January 10, 2002 they are working together to accelerate the industry’s ability to cost-effectively implement and maintain advanced automotive telematics solutions. The announcement, made at the North American International Auto Show, further advances the companies’ existing relationship.
Other partners include: Aisin AW Co. Ltd., Borg Instruments, Clarion Corp. of America, Delphi Automotive Systems, DENSO, Mitsui & Co. Ltd., NexTech Co. Ltd., Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens VDO Automotive, Visteon Corp. and XanaviCorp. In addition, European automaker Citroen has been shipping a Windows CE for Automotive-based device, the Citroen Auto PC, for over a year.
Are there other areas that Microsoft seeks new partnerships and alliances?
Car.Net calls out a client, server, and services architectural framework, as such it is an open platform supported by third parties contributing integration, consulting, and operational support services as well as software applications and hardware implementations for the in-vehicle device. Microsoft supports and encourages industry wide participation to bring value added solution to market. For instance, the Japanese Windows CE for Automotive development forum has currently a membership of 87 automotive industry players in Japan; from carmakers to tier one and two suppliers to software developers and telematics service providers.
What are some of the barriers that you anticipate in a telematics implementation?
A common barrier in the market comes when companies run up against the complexity of implementing a telematics solution. Telematics services are yet another flavor of mobile services. Service providers must leverage the most ubiquitous computing and communications platform: the Web. As such, the infrastructure deployed must be able to Web scale.
How do you expect to overcome these barriers?
A successful execution. This requires an end-to-end approach including: attention to both current and future customer needs, implementing a client-server architecture that includes a comprehensive family of products, built on vendor independent Internet standards such as XML and SOAP. Microsoft Car.Net supports each aspect of solution design and delivery: development tools; server technologies; and rich user experiences leveraging smart clients and consuming XML Web services.
Partnerships. Microsoft recently partnered with Accenture to form an end-to-end telematics solution that seeks to remove the complexity of a successful telematics implementation. There are two integral components to the joint offering:
1. Microsoft’s Car.NET technology
2. Accenture’s Services Bureau for Automotive Telematics
Together, with Microsoft’s deep technology background and Accenture’s service integration expertise, the two companies are stitching together elements that have been a challenge to their customers. This partnership extends the offerings each company has been providing the automotive industry for the past several years.
How do you see the telematics industry evolving?
Telematics will have a transformational effect on driving, the design and assembly of vehicles and the nature of services targeting the driving community. While delivering services to drivers differs in detail from the design and delivery of mobile services in the broader sense, it shares at least one fundamental characteristic therein: it must contribute to an integrated and connected lifestyle. The PDA market illustrates the point. Few customers would consider purchasing a PDA that did not share, at least, contact and schedule information with desktop applications. The analogy can be taken further. Before long, it will be more accurate to say that cars are “docked” in the garage. While docked, they will seamlessly communicate with the home or office sending and receiving a variety of personalized digital content.
What can we expect to see from Microsoft and when?
The Automotive Business Unit at Microsoft has invested half a decade to provide the automotive industry with great software that delivers information, entertainment, communication and services in vehicles. The company will continue to work very closely with top automakers, automotive electronics manufacturers and consumers to develop its telematics solutions.
Momentum for Windows CE for Automotive is growing. Microsoft recently hosted its second Windows CE for Automotive forum in Japan and it now has 87 member countries, from carmakers to automotive suppliers and ISV/IHVs. Windows CE for Automotive is rapidly becoming the platform of choice for in-car computing worldwide.
The most recent news from the Automotive Business Unit is a partnership with Accenture. The two companies are joining forces to accelerate the industry’s ability to cost-effectively implement and maintain advanced automotive telematics solutions. Based on Car.NET, Accenture and Microsoft are working together to build out this solution with partners such as MSN and have several interested prospects.
Microsoft is listed in Telematics Updates’s upcoming Telematics Business Directory. If you would like to list in our directory, contact Vincent Lau (vincent@telematicsupdate.com). Listing is free to all Telematics Update subscribers.
Interview: Microsoft Automotive
Vincent Lau speaks to Gonzalo Bustillos, Director of Business Development & Marketing (3/7/2002)
The Automotive Business Unit at Microsoft has invested half a decade to provide the automotive industry with great software that delivers information, entertainment, communication and services in vehicles. The company works very closely with automakers, automotive electronics manufacturers and consumers to develop its telematics solutions. Microsoft Car .NET architecture, products and services support the delivery of end-to-end telematics solutions for the automotive industry and its customers. Microsoft Car.NET architecture, products and services support the delivery of end-to-end telematics solutions for the automotive industry and its customers.
Please tell me about your role at Microsoft Automotive.
I am Gonzalo Bustillos, Microsoft’s Director of Business Development & Marketing in the Emerging Technologies Group. I oversee the marketing and business development activities for the Automotive Business Unit. This business unit works with automakers, automotive electronics manufacturers and service providers to address the market for in-car computing devices and telematics services.
What is Microsoft’s automotive vision? How do you see this vision applied in the telematics space?
Microsoft’s automotive vision is an extension of the company’s overall vision: “Empower people through great software, any time, any place, and on any device.”
Microsoft envisions a fully integrated and connected lifestyle where services are integrated and easily accessible across the home, office and car. This will be delivered through smart devices, XML and a common set of interactions. For automakers and suppliers, this approach to enabling a connected lifestyle provides maximum flexibility and reliability to fit every type of price tag and car model. Microsoft’s Car.NET architecture, products and services support this vision.
What is the automotive .NET strategy all about?
The best way to understand Car.Net is to consider what it does. Car.Net makes it possible to provide integrated services to car owners and passengers in a safe, cost effective and manageable fashion. It is based upon Microsoft’s .Net strategy and family of products. The .Net strategy is a framework based on open computing standards and comprised of multiple in-vehicle products and services. By giving drivers the Web the way they want it, Microsoft Car.NET services, products and tools will safely provide an integrated, secure and easy-to-use Internet experience.
How is this technology different with your current systems, or is this a completely new technology?
Car.NET isn’t a technology, but rather an architecture. Car.Net calls out a client, server, services and an architectural framework whose components are available today. It promotes Windows CE for Automotive technology for the in-vehicle embedded client and also endorses portable devices based on Windows CE technology. Car.Net incorporates a number of core infrastructure .Net XML Web Services, such as Passport for authentication; MyServices.Net for end-user data management; MapPoint.Net for navigation and routing services and many more available in the near future. Further, Car.Net can take advantage of MSN services and a host of third party end user services.
Where does Windows CE fit in with your current strategy?
Windows CE is a key component of our automotive strategy and our Car.NET framework. It precedes the development cycle of Windows CE for Automotive. The technology we develop for the auto industry is based on Windows CE, a robust real-time embedded operating system. While it shares the same rich platform for dynamic applications and services of the Windows CE operating system, Windows CE for Automotive enables special automotive features such as voice recognition technology, automotive power management, a customizable GUI and many flexible developer options. Because of these enhancements, new versions of Windows CE for Automotive are introduced after the latest version of Windows CE.
How do you differentiate from your competitors?
Several ways:
First: Microsoft’s proven in-car technology is on the road today, reliably bringing real-time information to drivers and passengers. In Europe, Bosch, Siemens-VDO and BORG Electronics have ongoing development projects. In Japan and the US, Microsoft has several programs based on Windows CE for Automotive with companies such as DENSO, Alpine, Clarion, Kenwood, Fujitsu-Ten, Delphi, Visteon and others.
Second: Microsoft offers an end-to-end solution for telematics based on industry-wide open standards. We have a portfolio of client technologies anchored around Windows CE technology; we offer our .NET portfolio of Web services and an extensive .NET family of products and development tools. Microsoft also offers an unparalleled array of technology partnerships.
Third: Microsoft Windows CE for Automotive is evolving to include provisions for new services and service components while maintaining compatibility with earlier versions. Presently, Windows CE for Automotive 3.5 is a telematics software platform that provides developers with the building blocks to quickly and reliably create powerful in-vehicle computing devices. This newly upgraded open platform showcases dramatic enhancements in key areas such as hands-free, eyes-free communications; better speech recognition; safety; Internet access; faster startup times; cost-efficiency; flexible developer tools; and faster, more robust graphics capabilities.
How will this technology add value to your customers’ end users?
Car .NET delivers value in multiple tracks. Drivers and passengers benefit by obtaining access to personalized information and user-centric services anytime, anywhere in a safe, cost effective and manageable fashion using either portable or in-vehicle smart devices. The TSPs (telematics service providers) benefit from the ability to scale and provide a wider array of Web-based services. The carmakers and automotive electronic suppliers benefit by lowering development costs and shortening design cycles and accelerating time to market.
Windows CE for Automotive enables motorists to take advantage of new technology without compromising safety. The platform uses a flexible infrastructure to allow cellular phones, handheld computers, laptops and other devices to interact seamlessly. For example, cell phones can be used to unlock a car.
Microsoft's Windows CE for Automotive 3.5 uses advanced speech-recognition technology to allow users to make phone calls or hear information without taking their hands off the wheel or their eyes off the road. Driver distraction controls ensure that certain functions - such as typing or reading text - can be performed only when the car is stopped.
Which space does Microsoft compete in and whom do you consider your competitors?
Microsoft offers an end-to-end platform for telematics applications and services. Competitive offerings focus on particular segments or niche applications of the value chain. For example, Windows CE for Automotive is a software platform and as such any proprietary in-vehicle computing solutions could be considered competition.
What are some milestones that Microsoft has achieved?
Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit has achieved many milestones in its five-year history within the company. It delivered the first in vehicle smart computing device (AutoPC); developed the first in-car appliance with speech as primary user interface; developed the first automotive software platform (Windows CE for Automotive) and has sponsored automotive software development forums throughout the world. The group also won multiple programs with the top 10 automotive electronic suppliers worldwide, is shipping in 10 car models worldwide and has launched Car.NET as the end-to-end telematics platform based on Web infrastructure technology. Most recently, Microsoft partnered with Accenture, the largest consulting and integration services bureau, to offer telematics solutions to the automotive industry at large.
Can you tell me more about Microsoft’s experience with Clarion and the AutoPC? Will there be a second joint effort?
The Clarion AutoPC is a device that is built on the first version (v1) of Windows CE for Automotive. We shipped v1 - four years ago. Since then, we have been working closely with our partners in the automotive industry and have taken into account their valuable input to put forth the most comprehensive automotive centric operating system. We are currently shipping v3.5 and Clarion, Bosch, DENSO and many others are using this newer version to build a range of in car computing appliances, from simple telematics boxes to infotainment systems for the car. Clarion is currently shipping in the US their second generation device based on Windows CE for Automotive v2 – branded the Joyride.
What are the current product offerings?
For embedded automotive clients, our most current product offering is Windows CE for Automotive 3.5, which was introduced in December 2001. We also offer an array of Web based .NET services for authentication, authoring, personalization and location based services. Through our MSN groups, we also offer an array of mobile services and content.
When can we expect a product rollout?
Several automakers – soon to be announced – are currently using Windows CE for Automotive-based in-car computing solutions. Others will follow soon. In the aftermarket, Clarion (US and Japan), MELCO (Japan), BORG (Europe) and NextTech (Korea) have devices based on out-technology in the market.
I see that the new MSN provides traffic alerts. What other features can we expect?
Automotive is a strategic market segment for Microsoft, consequently MSN, the Automotive Business Unit, and third party ISPs and ASPs are developing a compelling portfolio of mobile services for motorist and passengers. From personalized information, instant messaging, personalized entertainment and location based services. Moreover, Windows CE for Automotive 3.5 showcases advanced automotive-centric features such as:
(a) New Streamlined Graphical User Interface: Powerful, hardware independent tools, functionality and “skinnable” graphics enable designers to easily customize the appearance of their systems to different car lines.
(b) New Hands-Free Communication Interface: Drivers and passengers can now speak more naturally and directly to devices using simple voice commands. The completely rebuilt speech engine supports the latest human-like text to speech technology.
(c) New Platform Foundation: With the new platform configuration, developers can create a compact solution for devices with limited storage capacity. Developers are able to start with a small base and from there, build as much or little as required by the automaker.
(d) New Microsoft Mobile Explorer: This full-featured compact and efficient Internet Explorer browser provides valuable access to the wireless Information Highway.
(e) New Power Management: Fast and reliable power management architecture ensures no backup battery is needed, and that rapid startup and shutdown can be done without data loss.
(f) New Customizable Developer Tools: Windows CE for Automotive 3.5 provides developers with flexible, scalable building blocks from which they can choose from a variety of APIs such as ActiveX Controls and Visual Basic, to create low-end to high-end applications based on car manufacturer requirements.
(g) Improved Graphics: High-performance features include faster graphics drawing, mapping API and DirectX support. Also included is GDI-Sub, a high-performance feature for the most demanding graphics applications, such as navigation applications.
Who are some of your partners that you are currently working with?
Microsoft and Accenture announced on January 10, 2002 they are working together to accelerate the industry’s ability to cost-effectively implement and maintain advanced automotive telematics solutions. The announcement, made at the North American International Auto Show, further advances the companies’ existing relationship.
Other partners include: Aisin AW Co. Ltd., Borg Instruments, Clarion Corp. of America, Delphi Automotive Systems, DENSO, Mitsui & Co. Ltd., NexTech Co. Ltd., Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens VDO Automotive, Visteon Corp. and XanaviCorp. In addition, European automaker Citroen has been shipping a Windows CE for Automotive-based device, the Citroen Auto PC, for over a year.
Are there other areas that Microsoft seeks new partnerships and alliances?
Car.Net calls out a client, server, and services architectural framework, as such it is an open platform supported by third parties contributing integration, consulting, and operational support services as well as software applications and hardware implementations for the in-vehicle device. Microsoft supports and encourages industry wide participation to bring value added solution to market. For instance, the Japanese Windows CE for Automotive development forum has currently a membership of 87 automotive industry players in Japan; from carmakers to tier one and two suppliers to software developers and telematics service providers.
What are some of the barriers that you anticipate in a telematics implementation?
A common barrier in the market comes when companies run up against the complexity of implementing a telematics solution. Telematics services are yet another flavor of mobile services. Service providers must leverage the most ubiquitous computing and communications platform: the Web. As such, the infrastructure deployed must be able to Web scale.
How do you expect to overcome these barriers?
A successful execution. This requires an end-to-end approach including: attention to both current and future customer needs, implementing a client-server architecture that includes a comprehensive family of products, built on vendor independent Internet standards such as XML and SOAP. Microsoft Car.Net supports each aspect of solution design and delivery: development tools; server technologies; and rich user experiences leveraging smart clients and consuming XML Web services.
Partnerships. Microsoft recently partnered with Accenture to form an end-to-end telematics solution that seeks to remove the complexity of a successful telematics implementation. There are two integral components to the joint offering:
1. Microsoft’s Car.NET technology
2. Accenture’s Services Bureau for Automotive Telematics
Together, with Microsoft’s deep technology background and Accenture’s service integration expertise, the two companies are stitching together elements that have been a challenge to their customers. This partnership extends the offerings each company has been providing the automotive industry for the past several years.
How do you see the telematics industry evolving?
Telematics will have a transformational effect on driving, the design and assembly of vehicles and the nature of services targeting the driving community. While delivering services to drivers differs in detail from the design and delivery of mobile services in the broader sense, it shares at least one fundamental characteristic therein: it must contribute to an integrated and connected lifestyle. The PDA market illustrates the point. Few customers would consider purchasing a PDA that did not share, at least, contact and schedule information with desktop applications. The analogy can be taken further. Before long, it will be more accurate to say that cars are “docked” in the garage. While docked, they will seamlessly communicate with the home or office sending and receiving a variety of personalized digital content.
What can we expect to see from Microsoft and when?
The Automotive Business Unit at Microsoft has invested half a decade to provide the automotive industry with great software that delivers information, entertainment, communication and services in vehicles. The company will continue to work very closely with top automakers, automotive electronics manufacturers and consumers to develop its telematics solutions.
Momentum for Windows CE for Automotive is growing. Microsoft recently hosted its second Windows CE for Automotive forum in Japan and it now has 87 member countries, from carmakers to automotive suppliers and ISV/IHVs. Windows CE for Automotive is rapidly becoming the platform of choice for in-car computing worldwide.
The most recent news from the Automotive Business Unit is a partnership with Accenture. The two companies are joining forces to accelerate the industry’s ability to cost-effectively implement and maintain advanced automotive telematics solutions. Based on Car.NET, Accenture and Microsoft are working together to build out this solution with partners such as MSN and have several interested prospects.
Microsoft is listed in Telematics Updates’s upcoming Telematics Business Directory. If you would like to list in our directory, contact Vincent Lau (vincent@telematicsupdate.com). Listing is free to all Telematics Update subscribers.
Hitachi RISC-Based Platforms Running IBM Speech Technology Allow Voice-Controlled Car Infotainment and Telematics
Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc. today announced that Hitachi's 32-bit SuperH(R) RISC-based platforms now support IBM's Embedded ViaVoice speech technology. (3/7/2002)
This will help accelerate the development of next-generation car infotainment and telematics applications built on the 32-bit SuperH RISC-based platforms.Hitachi and IBM plan to deliver additional platforms that are optimized with voice recognition technology.
This new capability is part of the memorandum of understanding signed between Hitachi, Ltd. and IBM's Pervasive Computing Division.
Hitachi's platforms for Embedded ViaVoice software currently include two system boards based on Hitachi's SH-4 series RISC microprocessors. These platforms are aimed at car infotainment system (CIS) and telematics applications, in-vehicle electronic products that provide occupants with navigation, safety and security, hands-free telephone, audio and video entertainment, Internet commerce, and location based functions and services, among others.
“Car infotainment and telematics systems are driving growth in the automotive industry” said Tatsuo Yamamoto, vice president of CIS/Telematics Business Unit at Hitachi (America) Inc.
"By offering a tested combination of hardware and software, we can make it easier to implement voice interface and control functions so our customers can boost the benefits their in-vehicle systems provide. Importantly, voice control may be able to reduce driver distractions and simplify system operation, a major safety advantage and a big selling point. Our SH-4 processors have speed to spare when running IBM's voice technology software, so they're powerful application enablers. To help customers design new applications, Hitachi would work with IBM to enable developers to have a flexible, reliable development environment with a complete set of hardware and software tools and voice-recognition middleware."
Two Hitachi development platforms, based on the Hardware Architecture Reference Platform (HARP), are helping system engineers jump-start car infotainment and telematics systems. Both use popular SuperH RISC processors. One (US7750-HRP1xA**) uses the 200-MHz/360-MIPS SH7750 32-bit RISC processor; the other (US7751-HRP1xA), the 167-MHz/300-MIPS SH7751R processor with on-chip PCI interface. The modular platforms accommodate add-on personality boards, including a general-purpose interface board with an HD64404 companion chip and a graphics board with an HD64413 graphics engine. For maximum system design flexibility, the platforms would be able to run all major operating systems. Hitachi plans future automotive-oriented development platforms based on a SuperH system-on-a-chip (SoC) device to reduce system chip count.
IBM's Embedded ViaVoice family of products includes solutions for many aspects of a voice-enabled Internet. The ViaVoice distributed voice technology includes embedded software for in-auto telematics devices, as well as server software for service providers. The Embedded ViaVoice software running on Hitachi's platforms includes robust voice recognition plus text-to-speech conversion. The IBM Embedded ViaVoice Standard Multiplatform Edition performs speaker independent voice command and control with an active 500-word vocabulary using just 50MIPS. However, applications can use multiple 500-word vocabularies, making the number of words or phrases limited only by the amount of memory in a system or device. IBM's Embedded Text-To-Speech vocabulary is unlimited.
Voice technology is rapidly increasing its presence in business and consumer products," said William S. "Ozzie" Osborne, vice president, Segment Management, IBM Pervasive Computing Division. "We are pleased to be working with Hitachi to provide a full range of applications -- from Internet appliances in cars to consumer electronics and telecommunications. Demand is increasing dramatically as telematics solution providers realize the value that voice technology adds."
IBM Computes a Stake in Digital Media
By KAREN BROWN
From The March 4, 2002 Edition Of Broadband Week
Venerable computer giant IBM Corp. has set its sights set squarely on digital media, with a major new initiative aimed at giving Big Blue an early claim in the grab for market share.
The White Plains, N.Y.-based computer software and hardware provider has unveiled Digital Media Factory, a division that offers standards-based technology and services to help digital content owners manage, store, protect and distribute their new media assets.
It will pull together an assembly line of IBM workstations, storage, middleware, applications and professional services.
The Digital Media Factory will also tap technology from IBM’s business partners. That initial lineup includes the video archiving specialist Virage Inc., media-asset management provider Ancept Inc. and Web publishing’s Divine.
Jurij Paraszczak IBM Digital Media
“I think what we’ve identified as the next big thing for us is digital media,” said IBM Digital Media chief technology officer Jurij Paraszczak.
That’s because digital media has become a big thing for plenty of enterprises, ranging from hospitals with computer health records to cable networks with reams of video files. IBM projects the market for digital content and management systems will reach $30 billion by 2004.
“What we are trying to say here is there is a convergence of many things,” Paraszczak said. “There is the desire to get to customers, the desire to reduce the infrastructure cost, there is an increase in processing power, there is an increase in bandwidth. There are all these things coming together, and basically the only way you are going to get this interactivity around all of these factors is Information Technology.”
The Digital Media Factory’s aim is to market standards-based products and to help companies assess their specific digital management needs. That includes not only encoding and digital storage systems, but also the integration plugs needed for billing and back-office systems.
“One thing that is always missing, or usually in these kind of systems, is, ‘How are the business systems connected to this?’ ” Paraszczak said. “If you can’t bill for it, how can you make money off it?
“For us, we’re trying to provide both infrastructure, provide partnerships, provide integration into the e-business processes of a company to help them generate revenue out of new media.”
Scott Burnett
IBM Digital Media
IBM is hardly alone in the hunt for digital media opportunity. But while other companies are fielding coordinated digital-media product lines — including Microsoft Corp. — IBM is setting itself apart by taking the standards-based approach, according to IBM Digital Media marketing director Scott Burnett.
“It really is looking at providing for this framework in this open architecture for which everybody is invited, from a partner perspective, as far as other third-party technologies that have best-of-class applications in their own right,” he said.
Choosing a standards-based route also gives customers some assurance that they won’t be stranded with proprietary technology.
“Customers look at your solutions from two perspectives: They say, ‘What does it cost?’ and they say, ‘What happens if I have to take it over or you are not there any more?’ ” Paraszczak said. “And, ‘What is the operating cost for this? What if I need to change something?’ Those are the questions that they ask.
“And the use of standards makes them very comfortable that even if one particular supplier might not be there or they may want to change something, that they can do that.”
For cable networks and other video providers, Digital Media Factory can put some order to digital chaos. That includes helping video content owners organize their filing system.
“Unless you know what your content is and where it is, it is of no value,” Paraszczak said. “For many of our customers, what they find is it costs them 10 times as much to recreate the same content as it does to find it.”
IBM can also help clients securely distribute that content and deliver it via streaming media for less expense, he added. But the digital-media market is not confined to video clips of Britney Spears concerts.
“A lot of people out there are missing what’s going on with digital media,” Paraszczak said. “They sort of still think it is in the entertainment space, and that it is proprietary. And true, right now, there is a lot of proprietary stuff out there.
“But at the same time, what is happening is, the business applications of media — ranging all the way from things like e-learning or just confidential content distribution or corporate education — all of these things are pushing the limits of Internet technology.”
Despite Patent, XM Plans No Local Content
By Renae Merle,
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 6, 2002
XM Satellite Radio Inc. said yesterday that it does not intend to offer local radio service, despite fears from the National Association of Broadcasters that a new patent would allow it to do just that.
"We are a national radio service," said spokesman Charles Robbins. "And we have no intention of broadcasting locally."
But a patent that XM received last month would allow the D.C.-based company, which uses satellites and land-based "repeaters" to provide 100 national channels of news and music, to offer weather, sports scores, advertising and other information specific to a local community using the repeaters. The National Association of Broadcasters said that patent conflicts with current rules that bar XM from competing with local broadcasters.
"We are astonished to learn that XM Radio has secretly acquired a patent that will allow the company to provide local programming," Edward Frittis, the association's president and chief executive, said in a statement.
The patent was hardly a secret and was obtained during the normal course of business, Robbins said. It is just one of "numerous" patents the company has, he said. The company agreed in 1997 not to compete for local advertising.
XM and its New York-based competitor, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., have been locked in battle with traditional local radio stations for years. Local stations fear the competition that satellite radio may bring, particularly for advertising dollars. XM and Sirius say they need the repeater network to offer quality service.
Both sides are awaiting a ruling from the Federal Communications Commission on whether to give XM and Sirius permanent approval to use its network of repeaters.
03/07/2002 -Napster judge to labels: Prove it
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge gave the record labels suing Napster until Thursday to produce documents proving they own the copyrights to 213 songs that once traded for free over the song-swap service.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered the labels to provide certificates of copyright registration, or applications for such proof, for top-selling artists such as the Beatles and Elvis Presley.
A special master, Neil Boorstyn, was appointed by Patel to examine the labels' documents. He will file a report to the court detailing whether the labels have sufficiently established copyright ownership rights.
Patel's latest order stems from her previous ruling, which was made public Feb. 22. At that time, she gave notice to the major labels that they would need to turn over documents proving they own the rights to the songs.
In that earlier ruling, Patel also opened the door to legal discovery on Napster's claims that the labels misused their copyrights to dominate the growing online music distribution industry.
The deadline for the record labels to turn the documents over to Boorstyn was made public Wednesday, though the labels have known since the February ruling that they would expected to produce them.
It's a last grasp by Napster to limit monetary damages in a case that has slowly gone against the Redwood City-based company since its service went offline in July. Napster is poised to return as a subscription music download service, but an official launch date has not been announced. It is in a limited beta testing mode.
The company remains convinced they've made a dent in the armor of the recording industry by convincing a judge to force the labels to turn over copyright ownership documents.
"It's rarely happened that the labels have been put through their paces in this way," said Jonathan Schwartz, Napster's general counsel.
Cary Sherman, general counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America, has said the labels stand ready to refute Napster's claims that they've worked in collusion to dominate the digital distribution market.
The case is A&M Records v. Napster, No. C99-5183
Sony Unveils Updated Clie Handheld
Company's latest PDA will be launched next week in Japan, but when will it be available in the U.S.?
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Thursday, March 07, 2002
Sony will take the wraps off a new version of its Clie personal digital assistant on Monday.
The company will announce details of the new device and launch plans at an event being held in Tokyo at which new versions of its Vaio line of computers will also be on display, says Mina Naito, a spokesperson for Sony.
The new Clie will be Sony's first in Japan since it launched the PEG-T400 and color-screen equipped PEG-T600 in November last year. A version of the former device was launched in the U.S. in October although North American consumers didn't see a version of the color model, called the PEG-T615, until February this year.
Palm's Plans
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Sony's announcement will come as Palm Computing, the Japanese unit of Palm, cuts the number of products it is selling in Japan's competitive PDA market.
The company is discontinuing the M100 and M105 models after a three-month promotion that saw the M100's price slashed to $38 and has no plans to sell the new M130, which was announced last week in the U.S., says Maki Hashizawa, a spokesperson for Palm Japan.
There are also no plans to sell the wireless-enabled i705, also announced last week, says Hashizawa, adding Palm plans at present to continue selling only the 500 and 505 models in the Japan market.
Sharp Competition
Palm's promotional prices and its decision to cut the range of PDAs offered in Japan comes in the face of fierce competition from many of Japan's largest electronics companies. Sharp had led the market with its Zaurus range of PDAs for some time and the entrance of Palm and Handspring provided the first sparks of competition.
When Sony backed Palm, things were looking good for the platform, but in the last year Microsoft's Pocket PC system has risen in significance after a number of companies entered the business with devices based on that OS. Casio Computer, NEC, Toshiba, and Fujitsu have launched Pocket PC-based devices, and Hitachi has just entered this market.
The most recent promotion by Palm was a success, says Hashizawa. While the company would not release sales figures, the spokesperson says sales were three times higher during the promotional period than in the three preceding months. "The market reaction was very positive," she says. "We have had lots of sales."
Gizmos increase costs, not sales
Automakers zap gadgets
By Joe Miller / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- At first glance, the 2003 Cadillac DeVille luxury sedan looks much like the '02 model.
But take a closer look and you will find some onetime nifty features missing. Gone are the electronically tinted side mirrors, air filtration system and cargo net.
Welcome to Bob Lutz's new General Motors Corp.
After a major review of its massive North American model lineup, the automaker discovered what its new product chief already knew: GM's cars and trucks feature a lot of content that add dollars and cents to its manufacturing and materials tab but do little to attract buyers.
Just as the world's top automotive engineers gather in Detroit this week to unleash their latest gadgets and product advances, Detroit's automakers are taking a bigger ax to unnecessary equipment and scrutinizing the latest Buck Rogers-style offerings.
DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group and Ford Motor Co. blame their current financial woes in part on equipping and stocking new cars and lights trucks with excess features most consumers weren't willing to pay extra for.
At GM, Lutz has railed against the overuse of features such as rear-seat headrests and voice-activated radios ever since being hired as vice-chairman of product development last summer.
"Much of today's content is useless in terms of triggering purchase decisions," the 70-year-old industry veteran said in a well-publicized staff memo last fall.
"The thought that huge advances in voice-recognition, or screen-technology, or multifunction displays or ever-trickier consoles, or embroidered floormats ... will somehow override other (vehicle) deficiencies is wrong."
The backlash has implications for auto parts suppliers and electronics firms that see the automobile as the next entertainment frontier, mobile office or comfort zone.
Some analysts expect a shakeout among companies that build voice-recognition controls, electronic navigation devices and other products being showcased this week at the 2002 Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress.
"There's going to be greater definition (of the market) and greater consolidation over the next several months," said Myles Rush, vice-president of Phone-Or Ltd., a small technology company trying to market a state-of-the-art microphone for voice-recognition controls to automakers and suppliers.
"We're trying to cover all of our bases right now," Rush said.
The scramble to remove once standard equipment could backfire for automakers, some experts say. Automakers increasingly rely on new features to make new and aging models stand out from the crowd. And some customers want more.
"People basically are wanting more and more (in a vehicle), but are not necessarily willing to pay for it," said Rik Kinney, executive vice-president of the Dohring Co.
The California research firm says consumers put the highest priority on safety equipment, but are highly interested in in-vehicle entertainment, too.
If one car model doesn't have the right features, "they're likely to look at another vehicle," Kinney said.
Needs, wants weighed
For automakers, it's a constant act to weigh consumer needs and wants.
"We have to strike the right balance between what consumers really want and what they are truly willing to pay for," said Chrysler spokesman Bryan Zvibleman.
Under Lutz's direction, GM is taking some standard equipment on 2003 models -- such as air filtration and cargo nets on the DeVille -- and making it optional.
Other features are being eliminated altogether or being replaced by less expensive versions.
For example, the high-tech "electrochromatic" side mirrors on the DeVille will give way to simpler glare-resistant, blue-tinted mirrors.
The 2003 hit list includes sun visor extenders, excess power outlets, excess spare fuses and manual lumbar support controls.
"It all adds up," GM spokeswoman Julie Hamp said. "We benchmarked competitors to see what they offered. And in a lot of cases we were over-contented. There are some things we don't need to have as we put more money toward higher quality and better materials."
Automakers are under pressure to offset increased spending on mandatory new safety and fuel-saving technology to meet federal regulations and consumer demand.
"They are looking for some leeway to keep the actual vehicle costs the same," said Michael Robinet, an auto analyst with CSM Worldwide in Northville.
Telematics devices -- electronic navigation, accident avoidance devices and vehicle tracking features -- are facing some of the toughest scrutiny.
Suppliers say cost pressures, financial problems and uncertain customer demand have forced automakers to become more cautious when it comes to high-tech gear.
GM remains committed to OnStar, its subscription-based service that provides an electronic concierge and emergency services, satellite-based vehicle monitoring and other services, being rolled out across the automaker's car and truck lineup.
OnStar is also offered by Acura, Lexus and Audi.
Ford and Chrysler, with their telematics systems still in development, are taking slower approaches as the market evolves.
Ford has scaled back plans to launch the Wingcast system, and Chrysler is working with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. on the U-Connect system, which would let drivers use their existing cell phones.
Safety becomes priority
Three years ago, Sun Microsystems Inc. Chairman Scott McNealy touted cars as a potential Internet browser on wheels. Now, automakers and suppliers are shying away from that approach, focusing more on safety-and-security features such as video navigation and diagnostic checks, or entertainment features such as satellite radio and DVD systems.
Car companies were "very eager" to get driver information systems -- featuring Internet access, navigation and concierge services -- into their vehicles, said Thomas Dunn, marketing director for Panasonic Automotive Electronics.
"(But) after the dot-com bubble collapsed, people took a hard look at what's really the (customer) demand here," Dunn said.
At the SAE show, Panasonic is displaying its latest vehicle DVD video and audio systems. Intel Corp. is exhibiting a voice-activated system developed with Johnson Controls Inc. that wirelessly links a vehicle to a handheld cell phone. Denso International America Inc. is pushing its video navigation system.
Jim Ruthven, IBM Corp.'s program director of telematics for the Americas, believes technology must first be relevant to the consumer.
"I don't think delivering things like news, weather and stocks is. You can do that now," Ruthven said. "But wouldn't it be nice to know exactly why your Check Engine' light came on?"
Radio Free Intel
Henry Norr
Monday, March 4, 2002
Just weeks after Radio Free Afghanistan went on the air,
chipmaker Intel last week disclosed plans for Radio Free
Intel.
No, it's not a new vehicle for delivering propaganda to or
from the Santa Clara chipmaker -- the phrase itself is "just
a play on words," according to a company spokesman.
But the initiative it denotes is a big bet for the company,
and if successful it could have a major impact on the way
we live and work.
As described by Pat Gelsinger, the company's newly
anointed chief technical officer, in the closing keynote at
last week's Intel Developers Forum, Radio Free Intel is a
new plan to begin building into the company's chips
"silicon radios" for wireless networking.
And not just some of its chips, but all of them -- every last
processor and other product the company builds.
Starting from research it funded at several universities,
Intel thinks it has figured out a way to make complete
radios, including amplifiers, antennas and all other
necessary components, out of the same kind of silicon it
now uses to make Pentiums.
If so -- and Gelsinger acknowledged it's not a 100-percent
certainty yet -- such radios could be fully integrated into
Intel chips in as little as five years. "We want to get to the
point where the radio is nothing more than the corner of
the die," he said.
In case the all-silicon vision doesn't work out, there's a
back-up plan that's almost as neat: assemble the radio
out of futuristic minimachines -- MEMS, or
micro-electro-mechanical systems -- on a silicon
substrate, then build that device into a common ceramic
package with a conventional silicon chip.
Either way, these radios would be capable of three
different kinds of wireless networking, instantly switching
frequencies and protocols to handle each as needed:
-- PAN (personal-area networking), the industry term for
connecting devices about your person or around your
desk -- linking a handheld organizer or digital camera to a
mobile phone, say, or a PC to a printer or portable music
player.
That's a role played now mostly by wired USB
connections, and one Bluetooth hopes to take over. But
by the time integrated radios are ready, Gelsinger
suggested, the wireless technology of choice for such
applications could be a promising new type of wireless
known as ultra-wideband, which received initial,
limited approval from the Federal Communications
Commission just last month.
-- LAN (local-area networking), for connecting PCs
around the office or home to each other and thence to the
Internet. In this area several wireless technologies have
jockeyed for position in recent years, but one called Wi-Fi,
or 802.11, has emerged as the clear winner, and
throughout last week's conference Intel officials endorsed
it with enthusiasm.
Specifically, they are promoting dual-band 802.11 radios,
which would implement both the current 802.11b
standard and 802.11a, a much faster alternative that's just
now appearing in products.
(In fact, even before it can deliver integrated silicon
radios, Intel hopes to persuade PC-makers to build
dual-mode 802.11 radios into every PC, not just
notebooks but eventually also desktop models, beginning
next year.)
-- WAN (wide-area networking), or connecting to the
Internet with no wired connection at all. At this level,
Gelsinger said, Intel's radios will be designed to
communicate with the cellular networks, which by then
will presumably have advanced to full 3G, if not 4G,
technologies.
In Gelsinger's vision, all these connections would be
always on, and they would be automatically updated as
you roam from place to place.
If Intel succeeds in building radios that occupy just a
corner of a chip, the incremental cost of adding this whole
range of communications capabilities to digital devices
will be nearly nil -- that's where the "free" comes in.
That means not only computers and peripherals, but also
consumer electronics gear -- TVs, stereos and all the rest.
And beyond those devices, Gelsinger suggested some
exotic new applications for the technology -- baby
blankets that monitor an infant's breathing and
temperature and automatically send an alert in case of
any abnormality; motors that report when they are
wearing out; swimming pools that announce when
something has fallen in; even "smart farms" where
sensors wirelessly report on the growth and nutrition
needs of each plant.
Technology aside, such scenarios raise a host of social
issues -- about security, privacy, spectrum management
(will every product with a chip need FCC approval?), and,
by no means least, health (who knows what effect this
jumble of new radio signals might have).
Gelsinger and his colleagues admit they don't have
answers to these questions. But if the technology moves
as quickly as they predict, we as a society are going to
have to confront them in a hurry.
Why Moxi, darling of CES, might now be as good as dead
David Coursey,
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Thursday, March 7, 2002
It looks like BusinessWeek has stumbled onto Silicon Valley's latest version of "The Emperor's New Clothes," starring Moxi Digital as the emperor, a bunch of industry types who should have been smarter as the townspeople afraid of looking stupid, and BusinessWeek (and of course, yours truly) as those who saw the truth and told it.
You know the story, written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837, about the vain emperor who was hoodwinked by two swindlers into buying an exquisite coat that had but one problem--it didn't exist. Yet everyone, including the emperor, exclaimed over the coat's beauty, having been told that only intelligent people could see the special cloth. That continued until the emperor's procession passed a small child, who saw the emperor for what he was: naked.
OUR VERSION starts Jan. 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show where, to wild acclaim and a "Best of CES" award, Moxi introduced a box that combined TV, video, music, Internet, and home networking into a single device. Time magazine gushed over the new device and its first customer, EchoStar Communications, saying, "Can world domination be far behind?"
Well, yes, actually. On Feb. 20, Moxi founder Steve Perlman stepped down as CEO amid concerns the company, which last year raised $67 million for investors, is running short on cash. Into his place went Rita Brogley, the company's former VP of business development and marketing.
I happened to interview Brogley at CES and found her to be one of the more clueless senior executives I've ever met. If that interview is any indication, Moxi is as good as dead.
Which it may be anyway, at least according to the BusinessWeek investigation, which paints Moxi as a company that misled the media, paid Perlman (who remains on its board of directors) exorbitant rent on empty office space, overstated the commitment of EchoStar, and is on the ropes if more money or a buyer doesn't show up fast.
PERLMAN, YOU MAY remember, is the founder of WebTV, the first company to tie together the Internet and television. Perlman got out of that misadventure while the getting was good--Microsoft paid him $425 million for WebTV (probably some of the worst money ever spent).
Nevertheless, that cachet brought Perlman credibility when he brought out Moxi. Analysts swooned, at least in part because Moxi said EchoStar, which owns Dish Network and is trying to buy DirecTV, would do a major test of the device. More recently, EchoStar told BusinessWeek that no contract exists between the two firms.
Moxi also said its device could be sold to cable-television companies for $450 each. That number--which Moxi said would be covered by rental fees paid by customers--is much higher than cable companies are used to paying for set-top boxes. Now, insiders tell BusinessWeek the devices cost more like $750 to produce, which I think makes Moxi a non-starter.
There were only a few discouraging words said about Moxi at its introduction. I think this was partially because people wanted to believe in Perlman--why, considering his WebTV track record, I don't understand--and also needed to find something at the show to get revved up about.
In my column from CES, I was skeptical of Moxi. I was more so in private discussions with analysts and probably on my radio program. Given that Moxi wasn't supposed to show up in people's homes for more than a year, I figured I had plenty of time to complain in the future.
NOW IT LOOKS like I might not have to, for if BusinessWeek is right, the Moxi experiment could be over very soon. I'd caution any potential buyer that from what I've seen, Moxi's technology really isn't that special. Sure, they were there first--except that it's turned out there's no "there" there.
This may not be the last we hear of Moxi, but if it is, the company won't be missed. I feel sorry for the talented people who tried to make it fly, but have to express particular sympathy for Mr. Perlman, who today appears much more like a confidence man than the industry visionary he's usually portrayed as being. Which is sad, because Steve is actually a very bright guy--who should never be CEO of anything larger than a 7-11 ever again.
Samsung Unveils New Digital Music Player
Submitted by: Dave Conabree on March 1st, 2002
Source: Martyn Williams (IDG.NET) Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. unveiled at
the CeBIT trade show this week an upgraded version of its Photo Yepp
digital music player that sports built-in memory and a better display than
the original. Like the original, the new player can also display still
images while music or other audio is played.
The Photo Yepp II comes with 64M bytes of built-in memory and a Smart Media
memory card slot, meaning up to 192M bytes of memory is available when the
current maximum capacity Smart Media card is used. This is enough for
around three hours of digital music when encoded using MP3.
The screen has been changed from a 2.0 inch color reflective LCD (liquid
crystal display) to a 1.8 inch color TFT (thin film transistor) LCD. The
latter makes use of a backlight which means a much brighter display at the
expense of some battery life. Like the original, the Yepp II has a
rechargeable Lithium Ion battery which, according to Samsung, provides 7
hours of life with the LCD turned on and 11 hours with the LCD turned off.
Support for digital music formats has also been expanded with Samsung
adding Windows Media (WMA) support to the Yepp which originally supported
the MP3 format only.
In addition to a redesign, the other significant change is the removal of
the docking station. The device connects directly to a personal computer
via USB (Universal Serial Bus).
Samsung plans to begin shipping the Photo Yepp II to North America shortly
and expects it to hit shelves sometime in May priced at around US$449.
Sales in Europe and South Korea will also start at around the same time. It
is targeting first year sales in North America at 10,000 units.
Intel China Releases New Microchip for Handheld Wireless Devices
16:30 PM GMT on Mar 05, 2002
[Interfax Information Services, B.V.]
Yang Xu, the general manager, of Intel China has announced that the company will begin issuing microprocessors for wireless communication equipment.
The new-type processor uses Intel's XScale technology, and will be used in multimedia cell-phones, and PDA handheld computers. These and other wireless Internet products it is hoped will drive the market for new wireless devices and applications using the chips.
Intel's PXA 250 runs at up to 400 MHzs, the PXA 210 at 200 MHzs, and are low-energy consuming, reported Beijing Qingnian bao.
Yang expressed: "The new chips will bring more excellent performance to wireless handheld devices that need to carry out a large amount of data processing." Yang predicts that the trend for handheld devices is moving towards a greater need for sound and data, and is a great market opportunity for Intel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
poma is being sold at a loss (inital run) and hope to make $$ off services
sales & marketing exp jumped way up (17.7) mostly staff and new corp look
no problem maintaining nasdaq listing
EN said company NEVER lost a patent application. [Good news and certainly worth following those known appl]
also said that they have defended those patents in the patent & trademark office and in court when needed
taking steps to defend core patents
training 1000 salespeople (IBM?)
poma is obvious choice for providers to bundle with new 2.5/3G XYBR can make money from direct sales, royalties and a cut of the services bundle
(I Love BLUEBIRDS ;)
EN seemed to imply that it was XYBR equipment being used at Ft Benning and the Fox special
still involved in govt work, bid teams for weapon systems, soldier systems
Thats all for me. Great job all,
PM
He discussed the IBM relationship.
IP: wearable patents
Transferable core
POMA
Xyberkids.
Cash on hand 3M, Receivables 3M inventories up to 4.6 due to new product cycle
Fedex may take balance of order in late Q1 or Q2
Margins improved generally---software 42% services 34% (slight decrease)
Q2 much higher growth than Q1
rev spikes in software will happen during year
Fedex delay caused by need for some specail software?(Could be vest as MBTay said)
IBM contractual 18 month term not started yet as technical literature not complete...aslo renegotiating to defer the 24K units over next generation product..rest has been reported by others already
My impression was positive..no hype..happy again to be a long time shareholder(after some doubt was beginning to creep in through the back door LOL)
>>And to think........they gave guidance for Q1. <<
I REALLY liked that.
I REALLY didn't like that part of the call that put a little lump in my throat:
Shares will increase 120M to 200 million issued. Whoa baby.
They just did that so the big funds could invest, right? [/sarcasm]
Phil
4. Diane Hollander: Individual investor: Fedex delayed. Needed custom vest.
Also: 4 FedEx techs are there at Comdex to help show how they're using the units. These people are in addition to any FedEx execs that are there.
Biggest points to me were:
Clock on 25,000 unit obligation from IBM hasn't started yet.
Projection of 25% (?) to 50% increase from '01 quarters for quarters in '02 on hardware. Could be much more if any of the big fish bite.
Poma is shipping this week in US and Japan.
Bell Canada only took shipment of 150 units in 4Q. The other 150 units will be taken this quarter (I believe he said this quarter but he might've stated possible 2Q also? Not positive on that.)
IBM relationship will be clarified by IBM this week at Comdex.
I'm sure I'm missing several.
Phil
CC Notes --xybr
From MBTAY
PostID 170565 On Tuesday, March 05, 2002 (EST) at 9:15:19 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**500 to 600 mav's in field. 150 Bell Canada. (who has the rest?)
** 25 to 50% revenue increase quarter over quarter. 2.8 to 3.4 million revenue 1st quarter.
** Royalties could start 2nd or 3rd quarter.
** Hope to start sharing R&D expense with partners.
** Biggest thing said: IBM relationship to be clarified this week during IBM speeches.
** IP: 700 patents pending and granted.
** Xyberkids wasn't expected, but could be huge market. 4 to 6 million people.
Q&A session
1. Dana Poston: Legg Mason:
A. What went right in Q4: Strength with clients. MAV stabilized.
B. What was biggest challenge in Q4: Getting MAV stabilized. BC was largest deployment.
C. Xybr and IBM go out together to integrate. Cooperative process.
D. With new products has long term model changed? No, even though POMA is completely different direction for Xybr.
E. Now with multiple products will reporting revenues change? No, one hardware group....for now.
F. 25 to 50% overall growth Q1 to Q1.
2. Phil Johnson: ? Education Service: What manner will the IBM relationship be announced? Number of IBM speakers at ICWC. Doesn't want to interfere with IBM and believes they will clarify then.
3. Tony Karem?: Individual investor: 18 months to sell mav's. 18 months hasn't started yet. 10K out next couple weeks.
4. Diane Hollander: Individual investor: Fedex delayed. Needed custom vest.
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Sony Ericsson Aims to Entertain with New Phones
Tue Mar 5,11:49 AM ET
By Lucas van Grinsven
LONDON (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson (news - web sites) moved full force into mobile entertainment on Tuesday by launching new phones with color screens and cameras, along with movie clips, games and music specially designed for them.
The London-based handset joint venture between Sweden's Ericsson and Japan's Sony, the world's largest consumer electronics company, unveiled six new cellphones, which it believes will give it an edge over rivals.
Three of the models, one of which will be out next week, sport color screens. Three other models with monochrome displays were tailored to the American market. The new phones are the first sold globally to carry the Sony Ericsson logo.
Color screens and cameras will revitalize the mobile phone industry, its executives said at the first major product launch since the joint venture was established some six months ago.
"Color is the key driver for the handset replacement market this year," said President Katsumi Ihara, adding that taking pictures with a phone and sending them to handsets of friends is the logical next step from already popular text messaging.
Sony Ericsson joined Finland's Nokia (news - web sites), the world's largest cellphone maker, in embracing picture messaging as the key to the mobile future. But it got the jump on Nokia, which plans to introduce its color screen and camera phones in the second quarter.
The company will sell Sony services for the new phones, such as access to music, movie clips and games based on Sony-produced films, through wireless telecoms operators. Announcements with major operators are expected next week at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany.
Pictures taken with Sony digital cameras and camcorders could be downloaded onto the new phones through a Sony imaging Web site, or over Bluetooth wireless connections on all models.
Analysts applauded Sony Ericsson's initiative to pair Sony services with the new phones. The mixing of Ericsson's technical expertise and Sony's consumer focus has eagerly been awaited by industry watchers.
"It is positive that Sony Ericsson pushes ahead on content such as games and media. That is good, it is a market mover," said Inger Soderbom, an analyst at SEB asset management.
NO IMMEDIATE THREAT TO NOKIA
Ihara reiterated he wants to become the world's largest cellphone maker in five years time, but analysts played down the immediate threat to Nokia, which is the dominant player in the market and makes almost four out of in every 10 handsets.
Sony Ericsson's share is less than 10 percent, and the phones that are announced now will cost hundreds of euros and are aimed at the high end of the market.
"Nokia is not really challenged in any big way because of (Sony Ericsson's) relatively small volumes expected and relatively expensive models," said Mika Paloranta of Nordea Securities.
Sony Ericsson would also have to prove its ability to ramp up production. Vice President Jan Wareby told Reuters in an interview the company needed a few more weeks before it could produce enough T68 phones to meet demand.
Building on the success of Europe's first color screen phone, the Ericsson T68, Sony Ericsson launched the T68i, an upgraded version with the ability to send picture and sound messages, called multimedia messaging (MMS).
It will be in shops in the next two weeks and available on wireless networks in Europe, Asia and the U.S. that use the existing GSM and new, always-on GPRS technologies.
The company said it was on course to launch high-speed third generation mobile phone handsets at the end of this year.
A phone with a large color screen and built-in camera, called P800 and due in the third quarter, is also a personal organizer and plays video clips. It runs on Symbian software and is a response to Nokia's 7650 camera phone due around June.
"It is almost the same size (as the Nokia rival) but has a much bigger screen," Ken Odaka, a Sony Ericsson vice president, told reporters.
The color-screen Z700, also on the market in the third quarter, can download games and comes with two preloaded games.
Of the three other U.S. phones, one features Global Positioning System (news - web sites) for emergency and location based services, capitalizing on security concerns after the U.S. attacks.
One other model will operate on two types of network, TDMA and GSM, to provide a smooth transition for clients of American operators, which are switching to the more popular GSM standard.
Sony Ericsson, loss-making in the fourth quarter of 2001 and in the first quarter of 2002, reiterated it expected to be profitable for the whole of 2002.
Intel Showcases New Telematics Products, Customers at Digital Car Conference; Intel XScale Technology Based Processors Power New In-Vehicle Systems;
Digital Car Conference
-- Business Wire, 3/4/2002
Intel Corporation displayed its new Intel(R) XScale(TM) technology based processors today for the telematics market segment. The new family of extended temperature microprocessors, called the Intel(R) PXA250 and Intel(R) PXA210 applications processors, is specifically designed to bring high-performance solutions to products that deliver wireless voice and data information to vehicles.
The new Intel processors come at a time when telematics terminals are increasingly being included as a feature in new cars. According to industry analyst firm Forrester Research, roughly 80 percent of all new vehicles will have built in telematics capable terminals by 2006. b
"Consumers today have experienced the benefit of initial telematics products and services such as emergency roadside assistance and basic navigation systems, but it's only the beginning," said Patrick Kerrigan, marketing director of Intel's Telematics Operation. "The new Intel processors, based on Intel XScale technology, will help deliver the increased computing performance and the scaleability needed to enable a full-range of products from integrated hands-free cellular phone kits to high-end multimedia 'infotainment' systems."
The new processors are key components of the Intel(R) Personal Internet Client Architecture (Intel PCA), Intel's development blueprint for designing wireless handheld communication devices that combine voice communications and Internet access capabilities. Products using the Intel PXA250 and Intel PXA210 applications processors include BlueConnect(TM), a hands-free cellular phone system from Johnson Controls, Inc. Through a hands-free module that has been integrated into the vehicle, drivers can conduct a wide-range of voice-activated activities with their Bluetooth-enabled cellphone.
Another application using the new processors is Yazaki's Multimedia Vehicle Platform. This platform enables rich multimedia content such as DVD video and MP3 audio to be independently accessed by passengers via the Media Oriented System Transport (MOST) network. In addition, consumers can connect portable devices, including cell phones and PDA's to Yazaki's vehicle network.
These products represent examples of how Intel technology is being used in devices to handle requirements for both low power and high performance to efficiently perform compute-intensive tasks such as speech recognition, text to speech, MP3 decode, route calculation, and map rendering.
Telematics Development Support
Intel has actively engaged with industry leaders to provide development systems and reference designs to help enable developers to build powerful multimedia and wireless products. The fully featured telematics reference design supports speech recognition software, Java a, and many real-time operating systems. Intel telematics reference designs based on the new processors will be available from Arcom Controls and Intrinsyc Software, Inc. Companies supporting the development environment for the Intel PXA250 and Intel PXA210 applications processors in telematics include Clarity, Fonix Corporation, IBM, Microsoft Corporation, MontaVista Software Inc., QNX Software Systems Inc., SpeechWorks International, Inc., Temic Sprachverarbeitung GmbH, Wavemakers and Wind River Systems, Inc.
Intel also provides support to the development community through its Intel Telematics Design Center. The online center offers wireless companies development, technical and marketing support -- including access to more than 300 tools -- for designing telematics devices and applications supporting Intel PCA.
About Intel
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.
a Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
b Forrester Research, June 2001
Note to Editors: Intel, Intel PXA, Intel XScale and Intel Personal Internet Client Architecture are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
CONTACT: Intel Corporation
Mark O. Miller, 916/356-3767; 916/717-5343
mark.o.miller@intel.com
URL: http://www.businesswire.com
Hitachi RISC-Based Platforms Running IBM Speech Technology Allow Voice-Controlled Car Infotainment and Telematics Products
-- Business Wire, 3/4/2002
Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc. today announced that Hitachi's 32-bit SuperH(R) RISC-based platforms now support IBM's Embedded ViaVoice speech technology. This will help accelerate the development of next-generation car infotainment and telematics applications built on the 32-bit SuperH RISC-based platforms. Hitachi and IBM plan to deliver additional platforms that are optimized with voice recognition technology. This new capability is part of the memorandum of understanding signed between Hitachi, Ltd. and IBM's Pervasive Computing Division.
Hitachi's platforms for Embedded ViaVoice software currently include two system boards based on Hitachi's SH-4 series RISC microprocessors. These platforms are aimed at car infotainment system (CIS) and telematics applications, in-vehicle electronic products that provide occupants with navigation, safety and security, hands-free telephone, audio and video entertainment, Internet commerce, and location based functions and services, among others.
"Car infotainment and telematics systems are driving growth in the automotive industry," said Tatsuo Yamamoto, vice president of CIS/Telematics Business Unit at Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc. "By offering a tested combination of hardware and software, we can make it easier to implement voice interface and control functions so our customers can boost the benefits their in-vehicle systems provide. Importantly, voice control may be able to reduce driver distractions and simplify system operation, a major safety advantage and a big selling point. Our SH-4 processors have speed to spare when running IBM's voice technology software, so they're powerful application enablers. To help customers design new applications, Hitachi would work with IBM to enable developers to have a flexible, reliable development environment with a complete set of hardware and software tools and voice-recognition middleware."
Two Hitachi development platforms, based on the Hardware Architecture Reference Platform (HARP), are helping system engineers jump-start car infotainment and telematics systems. Both use popular SuperH RISC processors. One (US7750-HRP1xA**) uses the 200-MHz/360-MIPS SH7750 32-bit RISC processor; the other (US7751-HRP1xA), the 167-MHz/300-MIPS SH7751R processor with on-chip PCI interface. The modular platforms accommodate add-on personality boards, including a general-purpose interface board with an HD64404 companion chip and a graphics board with an HD64413 graphics engine. For maximum system design flexibility, the platforms would be able to run all major operating systems. Hitachi plans future automotive-oriented development platforms based on a SuperH system-on-a-chip (SoC) device to reduce system chip count.
IBM's Embedded ViaVoice family of products includes solutions for many aspects of a voice-enabled Internet. The ViaVoice distributed voice technology includes embedded software for in-auto telematics devices, as well as server software for service providers. The Embedded ViaVoice software running on Hitachi's platforms includes robust voice recognition plus text-to-speech conversion. The IBM Embedded ViaVoice Standard Multiplatform Edition performs speaker independent voice command and control with an active 500-word vocabulary using just 50MIPS. However, applications can use multiple 500-word vocabularies, making the number of words or phrases limited only by the amount of memory in a system or device. IBM's Embedded Text-To-Speech vocabulary is unlimited.
"Voice technology is rapidly increasing its presence in business and consumer products," said William S. "Ozzie" Osborne, vice president, Segment Management, IBM Pervasive Computing Division. "We are pleased to be working with Hitachi to provide a full range of applications -- from Internet appliances in cars to consumer electronics and telecommunications. Demand is increasing dramatically as telematics solution providers realize the value that voice technology adds."
About Hitachi
Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc., a subsidiary of Hitachi America, Ltd., supports the requirements of the North American marketplace with a broad range of standard and low-power semiconductor solutions. Offering some of the industry's most popular memory components, microcontrollers, and microprocessors, among other semiconductor solutions, Hitachi provides chips to the world's leading device manufacturers within industrial, consumer and emerging market applications. Hitachi's substantial design engineering, research and development facilities in the United States help bring the world's best technology to U.S. customers. For more information, visit: www.hitachi.com/semiconductor.
Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, consumer electronics and semiconductors, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information, visit: www.hitachi.com.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($ 67.9 billion*) The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site: http://global.hitachi.com.
* At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.
About IBM
IBM is the world's leading e-business company offering a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that help businesses take full advantage of emerging innovation. IBM's pervasive computing and mobile Internet strategy is to extend e-business applications to the new class of connected client devices. This involves building, deploying and developing mobile applications by partnering with key players like Ericsson, Intel, Motorola, Nokia and Palm; developing groundbreaking initiatives to set open industry standards; and deploying a Business Innovation Services team with hundreds of wireless Consultants. IBM has also had more than 40 years of delivering voice solutions and more than 150 voice technology patents. IBM also makes chips for a wide range of devices from the world's most powerful computers to the smallest cell phones. IBM can be found on the Web at www.ibm.com.
** Note: "x" represents the generic identifier for various operating systems that run on HARP.
Note to Editors: SuperH is a U.S. registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd.
IBM and ViaVoice are registered trademarks of International Business Machine Corporation in the United States, other countries or both.
CONTACT: Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc.
Akiko Ishiyama, 408/456-2180
sakiko.ishiyama@hsa.hitachi.com
URL: http://www.businesswire.com
Special PDA Report (2/05/02)
By Mark Long, Wireless inSITE Editor -- 2/5/2002 12:57:00 PM
WIRELESS inSITE - SPECIAL PDA REPORT
Companies featured in this special report: Appforge, ATI Technologies, Copytalk, Extended Systems, GoAmerica, Handspring, HelloSoft, IXI Mobile, National Semiconductor, Nazomi Communications, Nokia, Palm, PR Newswire, PrinterOn, Sharp, Socket Communications, Sun Microsystems, Switchboard, Texas Instruments and Widevine Technologies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: ======================================================
1. Battle of the Hands
2. Firms Hop Aboard Palm i705 Bandwagon
3. TI Announces 90-nanometer Process Technology
4. Graphics Companies Target PDAs
5. AppForge Extends Visual Basic To Nokia Communicator Line
6. Bar Code Scanner Takes Pocket PCs To The Next Level
7. Palm OS 5 Beta Rolls Out To Expo Attendees
8. ExpressDSP-compliant Offerings Target Voice/Wireless Applications
9. Widevine Taps OMAP For Encrypting MPEG-4 Streams In Real Time
10. TDK Claims First Bluetooth Adapter For iPAQ
11. SwapDrive Delivers Online Storage Capabilities To Handhelds
12. Slow Charge: The Cry Goes Out For More Battery Life
13. Put an Instrument in Your Palm
14. EDN Hands-on Project: Building Pocket Power
15. Moving Mountains: Portable Digital Devices Take Over Comdex Floor
16. Fit or Miss: Will Java's Potential Be Fulfilled?
17. Java Accelerator Chip To Speed Up 3G Wireless Applications
18. Internet-based Resources for PDA Developers
======================================================
1. Battle of the Hands
By Wireless inSITE Editor Mark Long
The convergence of handheld computers with wireless technology proceeded full steam ahead last week as Palm announced its forthcoming release of its always-on i705 PDA with AOL Instant Messenger and Handspring rolled out its new Treo 180 and 180g pocket communicators in Singapore and Hong Kong. The new Treo handheld units make up for what the i705 currently lacks--the ability to function as a full-featured GSM/GPRS cell phone.
Sharp is also betting on the future of similar convergence products. The Seattle-based company recently entered into a licensing agreement with Parthus that will give Sharp the ability to use the Ireland-based IP company's MachStream Java acceleration platform in future iterations of its own SoC-based convergence designs.
Handspring's new Treo handhelds are compact communicators that combine the functions of a mobile phone and a PDA with Web browsing and text messaging. Weighing in at just 5.4 oz, the steel blue Treo integrates a dual-band GSM radio module, 16 MB of memory, a 33-MHz Dragonball processor, a rechargeable lithium ion battery, a travel charger with HotSync cable, and a headset for hands-free phone use. To read more, go to: ' Battle of the Hands.'
For another take on wireless PDA skirmishes to come, see 'Roamin' Warriors: PDAs and Pagers Wage Wireless Battle' by CommVerge Editor-in-Chief Maury Wright.
2. Firms Hop Aboard Palm i705 Bandwagon
Copytalk, Extended Systems, GoAmerica, PR Newswire, PrinterOn and Switchboard all announce new wireless initiatives in support of Palm's always-on i705 PDA, which features always-on wireless connectivity with Cingular Wireless' nationwide Mobitex-based packet data network as well as AOL instant messaging capabilties.
Copytalk will be providing support for the push capabilities of the Palm.Net wireless service, which allows email and other information dictated to Copytalk to be automatically forwarded to Palm's new i705 handheld device. Using Copytalk with the i705 allows i705 owners to use their cell-phones to call and dictate emails while on the go. Copytalk then pushes the transformed messages back to the owner's i705 to be confirmed and sent.
Copytalk subscribers download and install the free Copytalk software from the company's Web site after indicating that they have a Palm i705 wireless handheld. Then they call Copytalk's toll free number and dictate naturally, as though leaving a message for a personal assistant. Copytalk also integrates 'nicknames' that act as an on-line address book, allowing email to be sent by simply saying the recipient's name and then dictating the message. In addition, the speech recognition-to-text converter can be used to dictate memos, contacts, appointments, to-dos and expenses. To read more, go to: ' Firms Hop Aboard Palm i705 Bandwagon.'
3. TI Announces Move to 90-nanometer Process Technology
Texas Instruments has announced its move to a 90-nanometer (nm) logic manufacturing process that features the ability to pack more than 400 million transistors onto a single chip. Sporting gate widths as small as 37 nm, the transistors implemented in the 90-nm process will be about 2000 times narrower than the thickness of newsprint.
The company expects that its move to the 90-nm process will lead to the production of DSPs and ASICs featuring major performance and power savings. For example, low power TI DSP-based devices such as next generation 2.5 and 3G mobile handsets and wireless PDAs are expected to process voice, video and data two to three times faster without compromising battery life. To read more, go to: 'TI Announces Move to 90-nanometer Process Technology.'
4. Graphic Companies Target PDAs
As the PC market slows down, will demand for graphics accelerators in handheld devices pick up? One of the biggest names in traditional PC graphics is betting that it will. Canada’s ATI Technologies Inc. tipped its hand at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last month after quietly shopping around samples of its Imageon 100 chip to PDA and cell phone makers since last November. The Imageon 100 is a graphics and video co-processor designed for handheld devices. It is hardwired to perform advanced 2D graphics and MPEG-4 video decoding, and it is going into volume production this month. To read more, go to: 'Graphic Companies Target PDAs.'
5. AppForge Extends Visual Basic To Nokia Communicator Line
AppForge and Nokia are engaged in a cooperative effort that the two companies say will enable the Visual Basic developer community to create applications for the Nokia 9200 Communicator series of wireless handheld computing devices. The new AppForge software has been designed to assist Visual Basic developers in extending existing mobile applications to run on the Nokia 9200 Communicator series as well as develop entirely new applications for Nokia's hybrid cell phone/PDA product line. To read more, go to: 'AppForge Extends Visual Basic To Nokia Communicator Line.'
6. Bar Code Scanner Takes Pocket PCs To The Next Level
Socket Communications has released what it claims to be the world's first plug-in PDF417 laser bar code scanner for Pocket PCs and other handheld computers based on the Windows CE OS, including the Compaq iPAQ, HP Jornada and Casio Cassiopeia. Designed for 3.3-Volt operations, the In-Hand Scan Xtreme is a Type I CompactFlash plug-in card that integrates a high-speed, miniature laser scanning engine that has been designed to decode PDF417 bar codes as well as all other popular linear bar code symbologies. To read more, go to: 'Bar Code Scanner Takes Pocket PCs To The Next Level.'
7. Palm OS 5 Beta Rolls Out To Expo Attendees
Palm, Inc. subsidiary PalmSource is previewing a beta verison of the new Palm OS 5 at the PalmSource Expo in San Jose this week, where the company is providing developers with a preliminary version of Palm OS 5, tools, and 20 compatible software programs on CD-ROM. Conference attendees will also be able to test their applications on pre-release hardware from Intel, Motorola and Texas Instruments. An early Palm OS 5 seeding program for developers is currently underway with downloads available at www.palmos.com with final delivery to licensees scheduled to begin in early summer 2002. To read more, go to: 'Palm OS 5 Beta Rolls Out To Expo Attendees.'
8. ExpressDSP-compliant Offerings Target Voice/Wireless Applications
HelloSoft has released ExpressDSP-compliant voice and wireless communications components for the company's HelloVoice, HelloWireless, and HelloWLAN product lines. Targeted at next-generation VoIP Gateway, IP Phone, GPRS PDA/Handset and WLAN Adaptor/Access Point applications, the components are based on Texas Instruments' TMS320C5000 and TMS320C6000 DSP platforms. To read more, go to: 'ExpressDSP-compliant Offerings Target Voice/Wireless Applications.'
9. Widevine Taps OMAP For Encrypting MPEG-4 Streams In Real Time
Widevine Technologies has joined the Texas Instruments (TI) OMAP Developer Network in order to expedite the company's development of real-time encryption products for streaming MPEG-4 video to 2.5G and 3G mobile phone, and wireless PDAs. The companies say that they are working together to provide wireless device manufacturers with integrated secure MPEG-4 transmissions using the Widevine Cypher system in tandem with TI's OMAP application processor family. To read more, go to: 'Widevine Taps OMAP For Encrypting MPEG-4 Streams In Real Time.'
10. TDK Claims First Bluetooth Adapter For iPAQ
TDK Systems has unveiled what the company claims to be the first Bluetooth clip-on accessory for the Compaq iPAQ to give iPAQ users the freedom of wireless computing without having to upgrade to a new handheld unit. When equipped with the bluePAQ enabler, iPAQ owners can connect to other Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, laptops, PCs, PDAs and LAN access points. To read more, go to: 'TDK Claims First Bluetooth Adapter For iPAQ.'
11. SwapDrive Delivers Online Backup Capabilities To Handhelds
SwapDrive has announced the release a RIM interface for Blackberry handheld devices that has been designed to enable mobile users to log on to Internet-based Backup and FileShare accounts in order to access, view, and send files. SwapDrive Backup is an online data backup service that provides companies with all the tools required for safeguarding their critical business information. Featuring a Wizard-based installation, secure automatic backups, fast data recovery and ubiquitous service access via the Internet, SwapDrive Backup also integrates strong factor authentication, SSL or Triple-DES encryption options and redundant data storage. To read more go to: 'SwapDrive Delivers Online Backup Capabilities To Handhelds.'
12. Slow Charge: The Cry Goes Out For More Battery Life
By Richard A Quinnell, Contributing Editor, CommVerge 2/1/02
'More battery life' seems to be the universal cry among portable electronics users. All sorts of devices, from laptops to MP3 players, seem to have just enough battery life to be frustrating. That's not due to lack of effort from battery manufacturers, who have delivered substantial performance gains over the last decade. Thanks to them, today's power-hungry devices can run for roughly as long as their more miserly ancestors once did on batteries that weigh about the same and recharge faster.
By any rational measure, that's impressive. Trouble is, we're not the slightest bit rational about battery life--we want our cell phones and other devices to operate infinitely. Thus we yearn for a quantum leap in battery technology, an advance that will end our perpetual power shortage. To read more, go to: 'Slow Charge: The Cry Goes Out For More Battery Life.'
13. Put an Instrument in Your Palm
By Jon Titus, Test & Measurement World -- EDN, 1/10/02
By now, you've probably had a close look at a Palm Pilot, Handspring Visor, Sony Clié, or one of the other PDAs that use the Palm. I bet you've wondered how difficult it would be to develop your own software that would run on a Palm-like PDA. Palm OS device suppliers and many third parties offer an abundance of tools and a wealth of assistance. You just need to know where to look. To read more, go to: 'Put an Instrument in Your Palm.'
14. EDN Hands-on Project: Building Pocket Power
By Warren Webb, Technical Editor -- EDN, 10/25/01
Astonishing portable computing and growing popularity and power has lured legions of system developers to the Pocket PC platform. This hands-on project examines the software tools that you can use to build your own pocket applications. To read more, go to: 'EDN Hands-on Project: Building Pocket Power.'
15. Moving Mountains: Portable Digital Devices Take Over Comdex Floor
By Steven Fyffe, Contributing Editor, CommVerge 2/1/02
As Brian Halla walked the floor at the Comdex trade show last fall, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. Sure, the cavernous Las Vegas Convention Center was packed with weary attendees, high-volume sales pitches, and ubiquitous banners displaying vaguely silly slogans such as 'The technology you want.' Still, the president and CEO of National Semiconductor felt that something was absent.
'You couldn't find a PC there,' Halla observes, noting the irony that Comdex was originally created explicitly as a showcase for the personal computer. In other words, the PC was a no-show at its very own ball. Taking its place were legions of cell phones, PDAs, and other portable digital devices. The change signifies a significant shift in the electronics industry--one Halla is far from alone in noticing. To read more, go to: 'Moving Mountains: Portable Digital Devices Take Over Comdex Floor.'
16. Fit or Miss: Will Java's Potential Be Fulfilled?
By Margot Suydam, Technology Editor, CommVerge 2/1/02
With roots that go back to the heady days of the Internet boom, Java has been hyped as a panacea for cross-platform computing. The technology, invented by Sun Microsystems, garnered an extensive following among software developers with its central promise: write once, run anywhere. If fulfilled, that pledge would enable developers to deliver applications across the Internet without concern for what hardware or operating system might be on the receiving end.
Though best known as a PC technology, Java holds perhaps even more potential in the post-PC era. Computing is being extended to encompass a panoply of client devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, set-top boxes, and automotive platforms--all driven by different hardware and software. As the number of devices and network tentacles increases, Java could be a key piece of the puzzle, allowing the delivery of new applications and services to a diverse population of pervasive-computing devices.
However, today's client devices present a conundrum when it comes to deploying Java. They have less memory and slower processors than their PC big brothers, so they can't contend with what critics have called Java's bloated code. However, proponents counter that Java is surmounting these challenges, slimming down to become a good fit for resource-constrained convergence devices. To read more, go to: 'Fit or Miss: Will Java's Potential Be Fulfilled?'
(If you're more familiar with Java as an island in Indonesia than as a software technology, this article also provides a quick review of the Java basics).
17. Java Accelerator Chip To Speed Up 3G Wireless Applications
Nazomi Communications has taken the wraps off a new Java accelerator chip that is targeted at 2, 2.5 and 3G mobile applications. Designed to conserve battery life in handheld product applications, the JA108 is the first down the chute in the company's planned rollout of a series of KChip product offerings. To read more, go to: 'Java Accelerator Chip To Speed Up 3G Wireless Applications.'
18. Internet-based Resources For PDA Developers
The Sharp Linux/Java PDA Developer Community Site encourages the creation of Linux and Java software for use on any Linux/Java PDA. It includes downloads, operation manual, hardware specifications, peripheral information and other resources for the Zaurus SL-5000D.
http://more.sbc.co.jp/slj/index.asp
The Sharp Developer Alliance Program provides the latest news, specifications and images for the Zaurus SL-5000D handheld. http://developer.sharpsec.com/news.cfm?Blue=LA
The Handspring Developers Page features a download of Handspring's Development Kit as well the tools and resources for successfully developing wireless applications for Treo communicators and the VisorPhone Springboard module. http://handspring.com/developers/index.jhtml;jsessionid=V11CJ3Z520CPVQFIAE0SFFWAVAAUIIV0
Treo e-newsletter sign-up page: http://handspring.com/products/treo/signup.jhtml
Palm OS Tools and Downloads: http://www.palmos.com/dev/tools/
DivX 5.0 Software Suite Offers MPEG-4 Streaming Capabilities
By Mark Long -- e-inSITE, 3/5/2002
DivXNetworks has released a new version of its software suite of video technologies for the creation, production and streaming of DVD-quality digital video content over the Internet. Designed to enable interoperability with the international MPEG-4 multimedia standard, DivX 5.0 features the ability to encode and decode MPEG-4 Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile video.
"With the release of DivX 5.0, we've not only significantly improved every performance and visual quality metric across the board but also integrated into the technology state-of-art encoding and decoding tools and features previously available only in advanced research labs," said CEO Jordan Greenhall in a prepared statement. "The end result is a suite of video compression technologies that provides far better compression ratios than any other technology, while enabling higher quality digital video at over twice the encoding speed of any other compression technology available."
According to the company, the new standard version of DivX 5.0 features dramatic enhancements to the speed, performance and visual quality of streaming digital video in a compressed format. The standard version of DivX 5.0 is free for personal use and available for download from the company's Web site at www.divx.com/divx.
DivXNetworks has also released DivX Pro 5.0, a professional version of the suite that includes a set of advanced encoding techniques as well as built-in video processing tools. DivX Pro 5.0 is also available for download from the company's Web site under a one-time licensing fee for personal use or through a free ad-supported version of the product.
DivX 5.0 features a double real-time encoding capability that has been optimized for use with the AMD Athlon XP processor. Formulated to accelerate the encoding of high-quality digital video, DivX 5.0 reportedly can achieve up to triple real-time encoding under ideal conditions both at full-screen resolutions as well as at speeds that are up to 100 percent faster than previous versions of the technology, claims the company.
A high-speed decoding capability is also on tap for achieving a 20 percent boost in performance over previous DivX versions, or even scaling up to achieve real-time decoding of high-definition resolution video content without calling for any special hardware requirements. In addition, DivX offers significantly higher compression ratios, reducing file size by up to 41 percent over previous versions while improving visual quality through the use of a host of new features and encoding tools.
The DivX MPEG-4 Creator tool automatically converts AVI format video to a new DivX MPEG-4 compliant format, for a "create once, play anywhere" effect. Mac OS Support is also provided. In addition, the suite includes a new DivX Player Application that the company reports offers improved performance, greater reliability, new file format, and increased functionality as well as a new look and feel over previous iterations of the company's software-based technology.
Another unique feature of DivX 5.0 is its precise and intelligent allocation of data through a process called Psycho-visual Modeling that is based on knowledge of the Human Visual System (HVS). DivX 5.0 assigns a Psycho-visual Complexity Rating (PCR) to each video frame, removing data that can't be seen by human eyes in full-speed video sequences in order to improve the efficiency of the video data allocation process.
Fixed: Broken? The future of fixed-wireless broadband.
Margot Suydam, Technology Editor -- CommVerge, 3/1/2002
It seems only yesterday that the telecommunications industry was singing the praises of fixed-wireless broadband access. Service providers both large and small saw it as a fast and easy way to leapfrog last-mile deployment obstacles, not to mention the draconian control of the local loop by incumbent phone carriers. To many hopefuls, the technology looked like another path to high-speed Internet nirvana.
Instead, fixed wireless led to purgatory. First-generation products proved less mature than had been hoped. As the economy went bad, the heavyweight service providers who had planned massive rollouts abandoned their plans. A communications technology that had been hyped as the "third pipe" into the broadband home (after cable and DSL) ended up labeled as a disappointment.
However, proponents maintain that fixed wireless ain't broke. The technology has found some success in rural and international markets. Second-generation systems are starting to emerge, bringing the promise of better coverage and easy installation. And veteran and upstart companies alike see a bright future for the technology.
What befell this market, which was fueled by such high hopes and high investments? Obviously, these have been tough times for the broadband industry as a whole. Fixed-wireless efforts got hit by high infrastructure expenditures and installation challenges in a time when capital funding was quickly becoming scarce.
According to some, the immaturity of the technology itself also played a part. Many insiders now agree that so-called first-generation systems were too limited in where and how they could deliver coverage, which in turn limited their ability to support a viable business proposition for service providers.
As it stands now, vendors of first-generation products face a conundrum: upgrade their technology to play in the big leagues or be satisfied serving a niche in the US. On the other hand, these companies have found opportunities in international markets, where the lack of wired infrastructure makes wireless broadband an easier sell.
Meanwhile, a whole lineup of startups is entering the market with technology approaches that supposedly address key technical and market issues. The hot-button technical issues are self-installation and the ability of fixed-wireless systems to function without a clear line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver.
Dropping the ball
The fixed-wireless broadband access market is segmented by spectrum allocation, with services operating in a number of bands. The highest-profile activity has taken place in the 2.5-GHz MMDS (multichannel multipoint distribution service) band. Fueled by the FCC's 1999 decision to open up the MMDS band, which was originally slated for wireless delivery of cable TV, to two-way communications, Sprint and Worldcom threw their hats into the ring. Also with the aim of entering the local loop with voice and data services, AT&T Wireless, under the moniker Project Angel, invested in fixed-wireless technology and services. At the height of the optimism, big names in the convergence arena, including Cisco Systems, also placed bets on the technology.
With three major service providers signed on, one would have expected fixed wireless to take off in a big way. Today, however, the landscape looks bleak. AT&T recently sold its Project Angel assets to broadband equipment provided Nexio, and Cisco has pulled out of the market. Meanwhile, both Sprint, which targeted the residential market, and Worldcom, which set its sights on the business arena, have ceased their rollouts of fixed-wireless services.
“The first-generation equipment...just didn’t meet the expectations of the market from a user-experience, installation, and cost-model perspective. It just wasn’t mature, and so we are suffering from this black eye.”
Andy Kelm, Nokia
At a recent meeting of the Wireless Communications Association (WCA), Sprint identified cost and installation as the key challenges it faced and claimed that available products were not up to the task of delivering coverage in all its markets, according to Michael Greenbaum, president and CEO of Hybrid Networks, which supplied its fixed-wireless system to Sprint's venture.
"Line-of-sight technology was found wanting in the urban markets that dominated Sprint's footprint," Greenbaum says. The technology worked well in wide-open flat areas without foliage, but Sprint ran into problems in areas with more hills, according to Greenbaum. In addition, pine and fir trees, whose needles are approximately the same length as the MMDS signal wavelength, caused problems. Sprint subsequently challenged the industry to come up with a system that could deliver above 85 to 90 percent coverage and be self-installed by the consumer for under $500. "That's where the market is right now," Greenbaum says.
"Sprint said it would deploy in 50 markets by the end of 2000, and ended up stopping after 13, while Worldcom said it would go into 40 markets and after 14, it stopped," says Asif Naseem, vice president of business development at Iospan Wireless, a provider of wireless communications products and services based on multiple-antenna technology. "In those markets, they also gained experience as to what the potential issues were as they added subscribers. The three major issues were cost, capacity, and coverage."
Focused on the consumer market, Sprint found that it had to do three truck rolls on average to qualify a single subscriber, at a cost of anywhere from $1000 to $1600, according to Naseem. "Every time it rained and the channel characteristics changed, or something went wrong with the CPE [customer premise equipment], such as the wind or a child changed its direction, this required a truck roll," he says. "After a few years' experience, Sprint found that the truck rolls were breaking their business case. It was taking them 2.5 to three years to just break even and recoup the cost of acquiring the subscriber."
Moreover, the user experience wasn't all that great, with problems reminiscent of those associated with DSL installation. Customers not only had to wait for weeks for the truck roll, but also—in as many as one out of three cases—found that they could not get service, Naseem says. "The current-generation equipment had direct line-of-sight requirements between transmit and receive," he says. "And with that, the denser the area, the less coverage. Critical data shows that in an average neighborhood, Sprint was getting no more than 30 to 50 percent coverage. That provided a marketing challenge for a service provider. And so, non-line-of-sight technology becomes a primary requirement."
The third issue plaguing first-generation technology was capacity limitations, Naseem says. "If you use all your available spectrum in a market, you are capacity limited, he says. "And if you run out of capacity, you can not reuse the spectrum unless you have interference algorithms for spectrum reuse."
Iospan aims to address these issues with its AirBurst technology, which utilizes multiple-input, multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) to improve spectral efficiency. Based on cellular architecture and smart-antenna technology, AirBurst provides extended coverage, increases capacity, and provides quality-of-service features. The system helps service providers reduce the amount of infrastructure deployed while offering greater coverage than current systems, Naseem contends.
The company also claims that AirBurst offers residential and business customers multimegabit access via user-installable, desktop CPE. "For truck rolls to stop, CPE has to be user installable," Naseem says. "And that means it has to be an indoor install, not on the top of the roof or outside the house, which begs a professional. Since the subscriber unit has to be inside the house, it has to work in a non-line-of-sight environment. We have developed a system that addresses those requirements."
Iospan offers AirBurst chipsets, reference designs, and board-level systems. "We will sell to broadband system vendors who will then take our technology and commercialize products," Naseem says. "We have implemented reference designs at both ends of the network." The company has also begun a field demonstration of its technology in the San Francisco area using the MMDS frequency band. "We are working with service-provider technical teams and with system vendors, and we are bringing the two together," Naseem says.
Band aid
At BeamReach Networks, another fixed-wireless startup, vice president of marketing Bernard Aboussouan agrees that first-generation technology did not make sense from an economic point of view. "If you look at Sprint and what they are trying to offer, it's basically an alternative to DSL or cable modem," he says. "Yes, they were able to burst at a higher bit rate, but if you're charging the same tariff rate as some of the other large competitors, you need to have a technology that's ultimately less expensive. By the time they counted the capital cost of the equipment, the multiple truck rolls, and the installation costs, there was no way they could make money."
Aboussouan indicates that a number of elements make up a viable business proposition, and non-line-of-sight capabilities and self-installation are key. Because line-of-sight covers only a certain percentage of the users in an area, a certain percentage is automatically excluded, he points out. "You have to be able to cover more than 90 percent of the subscribers—and reliably, with good availability, where the link is connected a very high percentage of the time," he says. "And then, you have to address installation, which has to be simple enough that the customer can install it and the operator doesn't need numerous truck rolls."
“For truck rolls to stop, CPE has to be user installable. And that means it has to be an indoor install, not on the top of the roof or outside the house.”
Asif Naseem,
Iospan Wireless
BeamReach aims to solve these problems with adaptive beam-forming technology, which, the company claims, delivers both wide coverage and high spectral efficiency in supercell and multicell environments. "We are able to form a beam on a per-subscriber, per-packet basis in an adaptive way," Aboussouan explains. "We can also form multiple beams at the same time and address multiple subscribers within the cell. Moreover, we form that beam very directionally, toward each subscriber. That extends the coverage, reduces interference, and provides high frequency reuse. Because we can use the frequency over and over from a given cell and a limited amount of spectrum, we can serve a lot of subscribers."
While targeting all frequencies below 6 GHz, including MMDS, BeamReach is demonstrating its system in the WCS (wireless communication services) band at 2.3 GHz. Since this is considered one of the most challenging bands, it allows the company to prove the viability of the technology in every band. "Because we provide spectral efficiency and are able to reduce interference, we can operate in that narrow band and make it valuable," Aboussouan says. The band's license holders include some major telcos such as Verizon and BellSouth, as well as Worldcom, and AT&T Wireless.
Out of band
While eliminating line-of-sight requirements and enabling self-installation will certainly help improve the fixed-wireless business case, service providers will need to roll out other services, such as voice, to make the venture pay, according to Yatish Pathak, president and CEO of SOMA Networks. "With all of the money made off of voice services today, no one was offering carrier-quality voice," he says. "Trying to make a data system without a robust, high-quality voice offering will kill a carrier. It becomes a commodity war at $20 to $30 a month. It has to be broadband data so you can compete with DSL, has to be carrier-class voice, and has to be a converged network."
In this vein, SOMA has licensed Qualcomm's CDMA (code division multiple access) technology to deliver the SOMA Air Interface. "Earlier-generation fixed-wireless systems for data rely upon line-of-sight engineering with expensive customer equipment and costly installation, while offering limited network capacity," Pathak says. "Our next-generation fixed-wireless system leverages CDMA strengths in cellular deployment, network scalability, spectral efficiency, and trivial frequency planning with spectrum reuse between sectors and cells."
“You have to be able to cover more than 90 percent of the subscribers—and reliably, with good availability, where the link is connected a very high percentage of the time.”
Bernard Aboussouan,
BeamReach Networks
The SOMA Air Interface builds on CDMA, but is optimized for fixed multimedia broadband applications, with higher peak data rates, aggregate capacity, and spectral efficiency. SOMA Networks says that its Amosphere architecture combines wireless technology, QoS-enabled IP, and distributed computing, while its CPE hardware, SOMAport, can be installed and provisioned by end users. The Amosphere software-defined service environment enables multiple carrier-grade voice lines, advanced calling features, and high-speed Internet access.
"People get hung up on whether it's CDMA, OFDM, or even FM," Pathak says. "It really doesn't make a difference. It is only a tool. We settled on the 3G radio interface as the physical layer and then built on that, solving the issues of channel capacity. All of a sudden, the business case makes sense in terms of the kind of revenue you can drive from each user, because you can get voice and data and all kinds of other services."
Other opportunities
With the big players like Worldcom and Sprint finding limitations with first-generation technology, it's not surprising that suppliers of first-generation products are today crying "sour grapes" in regards to the potential mass market. These companies, including the likes of Hybrid Networks and Vyyo, however, have far from bowed out of the fixed-wireless arena.
"Sprint and Worldcom made large investments in fixed-wireless broadband, and were always trying to answer the question, 'Is the technology economical and is it scaleable to the level that is needed to serve large numbers of people on a very reliable basis?'" says Hybrid's Greenbaum. "We can say that the technology of our present-generation systems answered those questions with flying colors."
In fact, vendors like Hybrid have found success with smaller US service providers and in the international market. "The real interesting thing to me is that this is not a technology that is uniquely for the US market," Greenbaum says. "The international market presents an opportunity far greater than we have in the US. The reason is that low-cost, high-quality infrastructure or wireline platforms are not available if you go to Asia, Africa, or Latin America. We have quite a number of customers who are going to continue to invest this technology, and we will be a first-rate supplier."
Existing suppliers also caution that the claims of second-generation upstarts should be taken with a grain of salt. Second-generation systems are just beginning to make their debut, and some are farther along than others in the testing and trial process. Greenbaum questions whether such systems will be able to pass muster in the long run. "Some of the hype that some operators have placed on self-install is a little bit premature," he says. "No one that I know is able to deliver that without excessive cost. It's a very complex system, and all of the parts have to work together very well to deliver the kind of reliability we have already delivered."
“The international market presents an opportunity far greater than we have in the US. The reason is that low-cost, high-quality infrastructure or wireline platforms are not available if you go to Asia, Africa, or Latin America.”
Michael Greenbaum,
Hybrid Networks
Vyyo senior vice president of strategic relations Arnon Kohavi puts the point more strongly: While technical challenges such as non-line-of-sight and self-installation are important to grow the market, they're not the whole story. "We are developing non-line-of-sight, but we don't believe that by itself will solve the problem," Kohavi says. "Self-install is complex and expensive, and it requires that houses be very close to each other. It needs up-front capital spending for carriers to deploy it. With any new technology, there is an evolutionary process, and the cost goes down as volume goes up. But no one will get the cost down when there is no volume."
Consequently, Kohavi asserts, fixed-wireless broadband access has lost its chance to become a mass-market residential service in the US. "While a year ago, Sprint, Worldcom, and AT&T were very strong promoters for the new technology, today, there is no catalyst to a make this a mass-market deployment," he says. "There is a big international opportunity where there is no infrastructure of DSL and modems. In niche markets, it still can be done, but these dreams of millions of subscribers in US cities will not happen."
Mass-market maybe
Others haven't given up on the dream. Andy Kelm, head of marketing in the Americas for the Nokia Wireless Routing group, agrees that the failures of AT&T, Sprint, and Worldcom didn't bode well for the industry. "Nobody saw the massive deployments they expected," he says. "The first-generation equipment—line-of-sight, point-to-multipoint equipment—just didn't meet the expectations of the market from a user-experience, installation, and cost-model perspective. It just wasn't mature, and so we are suffering from this black eye."
However, Kelm is confident that fixed wireless is a viable play in the broadband market. "The promise of broadband is still as large as it ever has been," he says. "Subscriber numbers are not slowing down, and demand is still robust. At the same time, carriers are backing off on their wired deployments because of capital budget restraints. So we're seeing renewed interest from WISPs [wireless ISPs] and carriers. The next generation of non-line-of-sight products, of which ours is a part, does meet customer needs in terms of services provided and business model. There was just a lot of hype that the industry wasn't able to live up to. But it's now on track to do so."
Nokia offers the 2.4-GHz RoofTop Wireless Routing system, a wireless mesh network that, according to the company, solves the line-of-sight difficulties typically associated with residential neighborhoods. Each node requires only a connection to neighboring nodes, not all the way to a central basestation. Each subscriber is a full IP router, routing traffic around trees, hills, and buildings and enabling deployment in diverse locations, according to Nokia.
Despite his optimism, Kelm acknowledges that without the big players on board, the fixed-wireless arena will be relegated to niche status for some time to come. "This market will not happen without large carriers, but there is an evolution path," he says. "It can survive for a while on CLECs [competitive local exchange carriers] and WISPs, while the carriers are a little slow to spend. There are a lot of startups promising all kinds of technology, and so the market has to digest those technologies and see which ones are viable and which aren't. There is still a lot of noise out there, so carriers are sorting through what's real and what's not."
BeamReach's Aboussouan agrees that the major carriers will not jump back on the bandwagon overnight. "There is a lot of suspicion in the market right now," he says. "If you look at all of the failures, the market has to get confident that the technology can be deployed economically and does make sense." A marginal improvement won't do the trick, he continues; only a significant improvement that makes it clear to operators that they can make money deploying fixed wireless.
DTS Expands Pro Audio Dealer Network in U.S. and Abroad; DTS Encoding / Decoding in DVDs Reaches New High
AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Mar. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- DTS (Digital Theater Systems, Inc.), the digital audio technology company dedicated to delivering the ultimate entertainment experience, has added seven new professional audio dealers / distributors across the United States, Australia, and Canada. Serving DVD authoring and mastering facilities as well as high-end music recording studios, the dealers distribute DTS' CAE-4 encoder / CAD-4 decoder units.
With encoder/decoder sales reaching a new high in 2001, DTS-encoded DVDs for film, music and television content increased by over 300 percent.
Bringing the total number of dealers in DTS' worldwide network to 22, the following dealers are now also selling DTS pro audio products:
-- Cutting Edge Audio Group (San Francisco / Northern California)
-- Michael Chaffee Enterprises (Florida)
-- Next Generation Marketing (Chicago / upper Midwest)
-- Parsons Pro Audio (Boston / New England)
-- Washington Pro Audio (mid-Atlantic U.S.)
-- HHB (Canada)
-- Eureka Digital (Australia)
``DTS dealers and distributors represent the most seasoned veterans in pro audio sales who are experts in their regions, and we are proud to add these companies to our network,'' said Jon Kirchner, President and CEO of DTS. ``As demand for DTS-encoded content increases in the entertainment industry, we will continue to grow and support this network.''
About DTS Consumer / Pro-Audio Division
DTS is an innovator in the development of multi-channel digital sound solutions for the consumer electronics and professional audio markets, including home A/V, video games and consoles, personal computers and mobile and portable audio systems. Today, every major consumer electronics manufacturer supports DTS technology. Addressing the demand for DTS-encoded content worldwide, DTS also offers hardware and software encoders to the professional audio communities, allowing them to produce DTS audio content directly.
About DTS
DTS (Digital Theater Systems, Inc.) is a digital technology company dedicated to delivering the ultimate entertainment experience. A pioneer in multi-channel audio, DTS is featured on more than 20,000 motion picture screens worldwide; in home theater, car audio, PC and game console products, as well as 5.1 Music, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio and DVD-ROM software. DTS decoders are in every major brand of 5.1-channel surround processors, and in more than 16 million consumer electronics products. Founded in 1993, the company is headquartered in Agoura Hills, California and has offices in the United Kingdom and Japan. For further information, please visit www.dtsonline.com .
DTS, DTS-ES and Neo:6 are trademarks of Digital Theater Systems, Inc.
Sensoria and Hitachi Semiconductor America to Market the First Turnkey Telematics Platform to the Automotive Industry
mGate Development Platform Includes Gateway Hardware Configured With Peripherals, Operating System, Middleware And APIs
DETROIT--(AutomotiveWire)--March 5, 2002-- Sensoria Corp., a leader in wireless and wire-line connectivity solutions, and Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc., a leading provider for automotive semiconductor solutions, today announced that the two companies will jointly market the mGate Development Platform, an open in-vehicle telematics platform based on Hitachi's SuperH® RISC architecture.
As a result, Hitachi Semiconductor (America) will add mGate to its development portfolio, making sure that OEMs can benefit from the industry's first open platform for developing next-generation in-vehicle computing services. Both companies are jointly demonstrating mGate at the SAE Digital Car Conference in Detroit March 4 to 7, 2002.
The mGate Development Platform adds to Hitachi's line of development systems for Car Infotainment Systems and telematics applications. Hitachi's SH-4 processor provides the high processing power needed to host next-generation telematics applications such as voice recognition, text-to-speech, navigation, media players, remote Web services and mobile workforce productivity in addition to traditional safety and security applications. The mGate platform comes with built-in GPS receiver, cellular phone, vehicle bus interface, mass storage and wireless LAN functionality. Supporting a robust programming environment is a high performance embedded Linux operating system with drivers and APIs for telematics related peripherals such as the vehicle bus, GPS, and cellular modem. A Java Virtual Machine is included for development of Java-based applications. The mGate Development Platform comes complete with development tools, APIs, and remote software management framework.
``The mGate Development Platform is a fully-integrated development environment that reduces development risk and allows extensive code re-use so that OEM and Tier 1 telematics projects progress smoothly from proto-type to pilot to actual deployment,'' explained Brian Davis, vice president of marketing for Sensoria Corp. ``Hitachi's support of the mGate platform opens up access to organizations that are ready to take next-generation functionality to production.''
``With a solid product roadmap and diverse third-party support for development tools, the combination of mGate and Hitachi's SH-4 processor offers seamless solutions for developing telematics and car infotainment applications,'' said Tatsuo Yamamoto, vice president of CIS/telematics Business Unit at Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc. ``With Hitachi offering the mGate development platform, automakers and Tier 1 suppliers can focus on their core competencies -- such as developing automotive applications, integrating services into the vehicle and taking care of drivers.''
Developers evaluating between coding applications in Java or in the machine's native code are often limited to one or the other based on the platform capabilities. The mGate Development Platform supports APIs and software management frameworks for both Java/OSGi and C Code application implementations. This allows the developer to decide the best language for the application.
Sensoria has developed several partnerships with innovative value-added application providers who have ported to the mGate including ALK Technologies Inc., CustomWeather, Destiny Media Technologies Inc., Fonix Corp., Go2 Systems Inc., MechanicNet Group, Mobility Technologies Inc., ScreamingMedia Inc., SportsTicker, WCITIES and Webraska.
About Sensoria Corp.
Sensoria Corp. is a leader in wireless and wire-line connectivity solutions that network the systems embedded in vehicles, homes and industry with the Internet. Sensoria's technology enables access to advanced telematics, telemetry and location-based services from the car, workplace or home. Founded in 1998, Sensoria Corp. is a private company based in San Diego. For more information, visit www.sensoria.com or call 858/673-4460 ext. 11.
About Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc.
Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc., a subsidiary of Hitachi America Ltd., supports the requirements of the North American marketplace with a broad range of standard and low-power semiconductor solutions. Offering some of the industry's most popular semiconductor solutions, including flash memory chips, flash cards, and other memory devices, plus microcontrollers, microprocessors and much more, Hitachi provides chips to the world's leading device manufacturers within industrial, consumer and emerging market applications. Hitachi's substantial design engineering and research and development facilities in the United States help bring the world's best technology to U.S. customers. For more information, visit: www.hitachi.com/semiconductor.
Hitachi America Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE: HIT - news), markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, consumer electronics and semiconductors, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information, visit: www.hitachi.com.
Hitachi Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion(1)) The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.
QNX Launches "Future Ready" Automotive Platform for In-Car Computing
-- News at a Glance... * Enables in-car computing products to dynamically support new services and applications. * Leverages automotive-grade QNX RTOS to ensure high level of reliability and fault tolerance. * Platform components already being integrated into in-car products by Johnson Controls, Hyundai and others.
DIGITAL CAR CONFERENCE, DETROIT, March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Responding to the demands of vendors building in-car computing devices -- systems that integrate applications like navigation, wireless Internet access, and location-based services -- QNX Software Systems today launched its ``future ready'' QNX automotive platform at the Digital Car Conference & Exhibition. Combining an automotive-grade operating system with software development tools and applications, the QNX automotive platform gives automakers unparalleled flexibility in deploying in-car infotainment systems and next-generation telematics products.
``Our automotive customers tell us that they need OS technology suited for the safety and reliability needs of a car, not of a desktop,'' said Alec Saunders, vice president of marketing at QNX Software Systems. ``The new QNX automotive platform is ideal for this market, because its dynamically upgradable architecture lets automakers update or add features to an in-car computing system, without sacrificing reliability, long after the vehicle has left the production line.''
Components of the platform are already being integrated into products being developed by IBM, LG Electronics, Johnson Controls, Hyundai, and other customers. These products include Hyundai Autonet's mobile office and Johnson Controls' voice-enabled mobile communications system for the Chrysler Group.
Increasingly, car manufacturers are asking tier one automotive electronics suppliers for ``end-to-end'' suites of applications and hardware that can be quickly integrated to create intelligent dashboards, infotainment radios, and other in-car applications. To provide suppliers with this range of technology, QNX has established close alliances with a variety of silicon vendors and with application vendors for Java, voice recognition and synthesis, and networking protocols such as MOST, 1394, Bluetooth, and 802.11.
``By 2010 there will be over 60 million telematics-enabled vehicles in the US and over 150 million worldwide,'' according to Phil Magney, principal analyst, Telematics Research Group. ``This creates substantial opportunities for developers of embedded software and services. From navigation, to vehicle monitoring, to feature-rich infotainment systems, these telematics-enabled vehicles will require a real-time operating system that is highly reliable and offers scalability to support new applications.''
Platform Components
The QNX automotive platform includes a number of toolkits and applications to streamline the development process for tier one automotive suppliers. These include:
QNX RTOS -- A microkernel OS that allows almost any process - protocol stack, driver, or application -- to be added or upgraded dynamically. Proven in thousands of life-critical applications, the QNX RTOS can recover from errors ``on the fly'' without a system shutdown. QNX supports industry-standard POSIX APIs and a Java virtual machine from IBM so that auto manufacturers can leverage a large pool of software vendors and applications.
QNX High Availability Toolkit (HAT) -- Extends the QNX RTOS's inherent ability to tolerate faults by providing mechanisms that automate fault recovery. Can detect faults before they have a chance to escalate and allows the system designer to create automatic recovery operations that are transparent to the user.
MOST for QNX -- The Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST), a fiber- optic network optimized for the automobile industry, is a standard for building multimedia in-vehicle products. Most for QNX supports all the features defined for MOST, allowing automotive designers and developers to quickly integrate e-radios, backseat entertainment systems, Web-enabled dashboards, and other in-car infotainment devices.
QNX Infotainment Kit -- Allows the auto manufacturer to create a branded look-and-feel for in-car infotainment devices. Includes user-interface source code for browsers and media players.
Support for Automotive Hardware Platforms -- Includes board support packages (BSPs) for the leading telematics boards and processors from Hitachi, Intel, Motorola, and others.
Availability
The QNX automotive platform will be available in Q2 2002.
About QNX Software Systems
Founded in 1980, QNX Software Systems is the industry leader in realtime, microkernel OS technology. The inherent reliability, scalable architecture, and small memory footprint of the QNX RTOS make it the most trusted foundation for future-ready applications in the networking, automotive, industrial, and smart device markets. Customers worldwide like Cisco, Delphi, Siemens, Alcatel, Sony, Texaco, and Ford already depend on the QNX RTOS for network routers, medical devices, intelligent transportation systems, safety and security systems, next-generation robotics, and other mission-critical applications. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, QNX Software Systems maintains offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, and distributes its products in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Power-sensitive design techniques on FPGA devices-actel
Hichem Belhadj
Behrooz Zahiri
Albert Tai
Actel Corporation
Abstract
Power budgets are more and more stringent and need higher attention
in the early stages of the design cycle. Battery-powered,
handheld, medical and networking applications are the most obvious
power-sensitive systems. Autonomy is one of the distinguishing
factors that sales forces use to convince customers.
The focus of this paper will be on the design techniques that
need to be considered for power saving. The set of design practices
and rules cover various aspects of the design cycle. Their
scope covers the system level, the register transfer level (RTL)
architectural decisions as well the low-level techniques. All over
the presentation, the authors will focus on the links between
these techniques and the considerations related to the timing
optimization. Another important parameter that plays an important
role is the target technology, i.e. the process, the architecture
and the power-friendly features.
The paper is organized in 5 sections. The first section introduces
and analyzes the common theoretical models used to estimate
both static and dynamic power. The analysis will demonstrate
and explain the discrepancy between the theory and
the real measures of power on silicon. The second section presents
the system-level design practices that help to reduce the
power consumption. Various assumptions about the amount of
the power saving will be analyzed and validated. The third section
covers the RTL design rules that have a direct impact on
both the power and the timing budgets. The key interaction between
these two optimization criteria is studied in details. The
fourth section is dedicated to the applicability and particle examples
of the aforementioned techniques and their sensitivity
to the architecture of the target technology. The anti-fuse and
the flash-based FPGA are considered for this purpose. The last
section concludes the paper and presents the ongoing studies
and work.
1. Power Models
The most common components of power covered in the literature
include array, and I/O leakage, and dynamic power. Array
leakage and dynamic power varies greatly and will be detailed
a little more. As we address power-sensitive applications, there
are various power modes that need to be addressed as part of a
complete power study. Besides normal operation, there are two
other modes called standby power modes, namely the quiescent
and the power-down modes. In quiescent mode, inputs are
hold at a stable value and the resulting current is measure. The
power-down mode involves special pin that causes internal logic
as well as charge pumps and sense amps to shut down which
results in the loss of register data. The standby current is measured
when the device is forced into this mode.
1.1. Static vs. Dynamic Power
The main distinguishing factor between the two is that dynamic
power is frequency dependent, while static is not. Static power
is defined as the product of the power supply voltage and static
current, which itself has two dual components: leakage current
and through current. Leakage currents are parasitic effects and
are small in magnitude Through currents occur in normal operation
and are due to transistors being continuously operated
in their saturation region.
Dynamic power has two components: the “capacitive” load
power and the cell power. The latter is consumed internally by
the cell primitives. This component accounts for the power that
is required to mainly charge and discharge the internal cell capacitance.
“Capacitive” load power represents the currents required
to charge the external loads driven by each cell. The
overall dynamic power for an entire chip is given by
Where,
and
The total power dissipation is the sum of the dynamic and
the static components.
1.2. Average Power Dissipation
When computed over a number of clock cycles, the previous
equations produce time-averaged power used to analyze the
effect of power on battery life, junction temperature, etc. Temperature
analysis also relies on the same analysis, i.e. steadystate
temperature estimates.
1.3. Peak Power Dissipation
Performing the same analysis on a cycle-by-cycle basis produces
peak-power value, which is most useful in determining
the power and the number of ground pins needed to minimize
ground-bounce effects as well as to check noise limits.
1.4. Measured and estimated values
Even if the theoretical models are pessimistic, the experience
showed that the difference between estimated and measured
power is high. This may mislead chip and board designers and
may lead to a mandatory re-spin of the design or the board. In
some cases, careful power measurement is mandatory to avoid
unnecessary expenses and waste of time. In the following sections,
all the power figures are actual measured on silicon power
dissipation.
2. Power-Reduction Techniques
2.1. Static Power Reduction
Static current, though typically less significant compared to
dynamic current, becomes important for battery-operated or
power sensitive systems. Reducing the static current is beneficial
especially when the device is powered-up but not active.
The process technology has inherent attributes that require or
not static current. In the case of non-volatile technologies, such
as anti-fuse and Flash based FPGAs, no static current is required
for configuration storage. Such a current is mandatory
in the case of SRAM-based technologies.
At the design-level, the main contributors to the static current
include I/Os and internal transistors that have not fully
switched on or off, resistance on internal routing resources, pullups
or pull-downs on inputs, and three-state drivers. Additionally,
users can significantly reduce static current when applying
the following recommendations.
• Drive inputs to the full voltage level so that all transistors
are turned on or off completely
• Avoid using pull-ups and pull-downs on I/Os because these
resistors draw current
• Ground unused clock pins because floating clock inputs can
add substantially to static currents
2.2. Dynamic Power Reduction
In the following dynamic power consumption is defined as the
power consumed while the clock is running and the external inputs
are switching. Dynamic power has several components,
mainly capacitive-load charging and discharging (internal and I/
Os) and short-circuit current. Most of the dynamic power is consumed
by charging and discharging capacitance, internal and
external to the device. If the device is driving heavily with many
I/O loads, the dynamic current due to the I/Os becomes a substantial
part of the entire power consumption. Since the voltage
VDD is fixed, internal dynamic power reduction is achieved by
• Decreasing the average logic-switching frequency,
• Reducing the amount of logic switching at each clock edge,
• Reducing the propagation of the switching activity, and lowering
the capacitance of the routing network, especially for
high-frequency signals.
For low-power designs, precautions need to be taken at each
abstraction level, from system level to technology process level.
The higher in the abstraction level an appropriate decision is
taken to reduce power, the higher the impact will be.
3. Design Practices to Reduce Switching Activity
Switching-activity reduction can be controlled at various levels
of the design flow. Architectural decisions in the early design
phases have the greatest impact. In [BAZ2000], the authors provide
motivations for considering main RTL and architectural
options such as clock gating, time multiplexing for wide busses,
selection of power-friendly data-path elements, and state
encoding for counters and state machines. For high switching
signals, delay balancing and reduction of the number of logiclevels
are among the most efficient techniques to tackle power
penalty. The following sub-sections provide details and
experimental results measured on real silicon, namely using
Actel eX, SX-A or ProASIC FPGAs.
3.1. Clock Gating
This is the most widely used design practice for power reduction.
The principle is to stop the clock whenever the device is
not in use. Clock gating can be applied to sub-blocks of the
design as well as to the whole device. However, correctly stopping
the clock is very important. Knowing that the gating logic
adds a delay to the clock signal, the effects on setup and hold
times must be analyzed. While using clock gating, on FPGAs
in particular, the user should take care of the placement of gating
logic to minimize delay in the clock network. All the Actel
technologies offer an internal clock buffer, called CLKINT for
anti-fuse and GLINT for ProASIC family. This buffer can be
connected to the gated signal. A typical clock gating logic is
depicted in Figure 1.
The gating signal should be clean and synchronous with the
clock to avoid any glitch on the clock network. When targeting
Actel eX or SX-A, the extra delay due to the MUX and the
routing delay will be less than 2 ns if the pad and the MUX are
placed adjacent to the clock pins. This placement helps with
the power consumed by gating logic because it uses very short
and local routing resources. When targeting ProASIC, the clock
gating is even easier and more flexible. The user has the possibility
to split the global clock network into spines and infer
these spines (segments) as gated local clocks. Figure 2 illustrates
the distribution of the ProASIC global clock network and
its split.
3.2. Pipelining and Re-timing for Glitch Reduction
Both pipelining and re-timing are common design techniques
often used to tackle timing hurdle faced when designing on
FPGAs. Understanding the effect of these techniques on the
design structure stimulates the study of their effect on power
dissipation as well.
Figure 1. Typical Clock Gating Logic
Figure 2. ProASIC Global Network and Global and Local Clocks Gating
International IC – Taipei • Conference Proceedings 3
3.2.1. Pipelining and Re-timing Effects on the Design
Structure
Pipelining a design adds more registers and reduces the depth
of the combinatorial logic parts of the design. Re-timing shuffles
registers through the combinatorial logic blocks, but the number
of added registers is less than in the case of pipelining. On
the other hand, these techniques affect the fanout distribution
for the internal nets. They both lower the number of nets with a
high fanout.
3.2.2. Pipelining and Re-timing Impact on Power Consumption
Added registers not only speed-up the design but also help to
reduce the switching activity as well as the glitching1 propagation.
This happens because the depth of the logic blocks and
the number of glitchy high fanout nets are reduced. As a result,
power consumption through the combinatorial logic is significantly
reduced.
The side effect of adding register is the increase of the clock
load and the parallel execution that may increase the switching.
Figure 3 shows the difference of power consumption of a
16-bit multiplier mapped on Actel SX-A antifuse devices
[SXA2000]. As dynamic power consumption is proportional to
the clock frequency, the difference becomes more important at
higher frequencies.
3.2.3. How Many Pipeline Stages Are Needed?
As for timing optimization, the power consumption reduction
significantly with the first 1 or 2 stages and then becomes less
significant. Figure 4 shows experimental results obtained for a
16-bit multiplier mapped on ProASIC with various pipeline
stages. As expected, the power consumption is slashed substantially
with the number of stages.
3.2.4. Pipelining Recommendations
Pipelining and re-timing are recommended for both timing and
power reduction on Actel antifuse and flash-based FPGAs. Even
the targeted timing is met; the recommendation is to seriously
investigate pipelined configuration of arithmetic blocks and retiming
logic blocks when possible.
3.3. Guarded Evaluation
This technique is used to stop inputs switching to propagate
through blocks whose outputs are not used. For example, consider
a multiplier whose outputs are used only under certain
conditions. In this case, input to a multiplier can be stopped
from toggling whenever outputs are not used (Figure 5-a). Adding
a Latch with the same “Enable” condition will stop unnecessary
switching from entering into the multiplier. Knowing
that Latch is mapped using only one cell in antifuse or flashbased
Actel FPGA, thereby the area overhead is really minimal
and the saving of the switching propagation and thus the power
dissipation is important.
3.4. Delay Balancing and Logic Depth Reduction
High-switching input, external or internal, signals to the combinatorial
logic blocks can be modeled as late-arrival signals to
force the synthesis tool to reduce number of logic levels. The
reduction of the logic depth minimizes the switching-activity
propagation. In case, all the inputs have the same switching
probability, it is better to synthesize the logic as a balanced
tree. This is applicable for both chained arithmetic blocks or
pure combinatorial logic. In the examples of Figure 6, the first
implementation is suitable for uniform switching probabilities
and/or arrival time for all the inputs. The second implementation
gives the input X higher priority in terms of timing. If X
has the highest switching activity, then the second implementation
will have less propagation and will burn less power. Notice
that even if there is no area penalty, the timing for inputs “T”
and “Z” increases.
Figure 3. Power Consumption of Pipelined and Non-Pipelined 16-bit
Multipliers
Figure 4. Power Dissipation Reduction and Number of Pipeline Stages
Figure 5. Principle of Guarded Evaluation
Figure 6. Delay Balancing for Uniform and Non-Uniform Switching Activity
inputs
1 Glitches are undefined and unpredictable switching activities that occur
before a signal settles to its intended value.
4 International IC – Taipei • Conference Proceedings
This concept can be generalized to handle expressions and
qualify them as either “glitchy” or “stable”. The idea is to provide
enough implicit or explicit hints to the synthesis in order to
reduce the propagation of the switching activity, induced by
“glitchy” expressions, and lower the power dissipation. Explicit
hints are provided in the HDL code as illustrated in Figure 7.
Both the priority encoded multiplexor-trees is inferred using an
“if ... elsif ... elsif ... else” statement. The explicit hint to the synthesis
would be to reorder “if... then... elsif...” expressions in order
to move glitchy or fast-changing signals down the logic cone.
3.4. Time multiplexing
3.4.1. Bus Time Multiplexing
Heavily bussed designed are often highly congested design and
tend to burn more power due to higher wire lengths. There are
various ways to handle the congestion, but the issue faced in
this context is to reduce the waste of power while assessing the
congestion and timing. To tackle these last two; the placement
of the hierarchical blocks has to be porous and more spread in
order to ease the route the design. Unfortunately this leads to
higher wire lengths and more switches per wire and for sure to
higher power consumption. . Moreover, logic in a block tends
to be clustered together implying busses to run across distinct
blocks for quite long distances. Another technique consists of
investigating the architecture and revisiting architectural decisions
such as the needed width and number of busses in the
design. There are various techniques to reduce the number of
needed busses. Time multiplexing of a sub-set of these busses
is recommended in case the data correlation shows a minimal
impact on the switching on the various inputs of the multiplexed
busses. This also minimizes the switching activity of the Mux/
De-multiplexors. Figure 8 introduces the principle of time multiplexing.
Notice that the multiplexed busses are not necessarily
with the same width. However, the closer the bus widths
and the data correlation on the considered busses, the higher
the power saving.
3.4.2. I/O Multiplexing
Similarly the same principle of time multiplexing can be used
to reduce the number of I/Os when partitioning a design over
various FPGAs. Several publications have pointed out the benefits
of IO multiplexing in terms of reducing the number of
devices, timing and power penalties [Hwang99].
3.5. Pre-Computation for Switching Avoidance
The basic idea behind pre-computation for lower power is to
identify input transitions of a logic block that can be disabled
without affecting its output behavior, i.e. the output is independent
of these input transitions. This needs the identification of
conditions on inputs of a logic block that is invariant to the
output [Alidina94]. To illustrate this principle, consider an Nbit
comparator that compares two N-bit registers. If the most
significant bits are different, there is no need to compute the
(N-1) comparisons on the (N-1) least significant bits. This can
be implemented using the result of the most significant bit comparison
as the enable of the (N-1) least significant registers as
depicted in the Figure 9.
4. Other Power Driven RTL Options
4.1. Power-friendly Arithmetic Blocks Selection
Arithmetic block architectures have an impact on the power
consumption. The studies presented in [Belhadj2001] and
[Aggarwal2000] cover the most common architectures for
adders and multipliers. For adders Ripple, Carry Look-Ahead,
Brent and Kung [BK82], Carry Look-Forward and other eX
specific architectures have been compared and various selection
rules have been suggested. Power dissipation of larger computation-
intensive blocks such as ModuleCompiler designs
[BGLS2000] has been extended and included in [BAZ2000].
4.2. Counter and State Machine Encoding
Several studies have compared the impact of encoding options
on performance and area results when targeting FPGAs
[Belhadj94]. When considering lower dynamic power as an
optimization criterion, the number of possible state registers
and their transitions is a credible metric to use when comparing
encoding options. To make this measure more accurate, it must
be combined with the impact of the state register transitions on
the output and next state logic.
When targeting FPGAs, both the number of state registers,
i.e. clock loads, and the number of state code bits changing per
clock cycle are considered. Table 1 compares one-hot, Gray,
binary and LFSR codes for a counter with 8-states. It turns out
that one-hot and linear-feedback shift-register (LFSR) exhibit
a large clock load due to the number of flip-flops or a high
average number of flip-flops toggling at each clock cycle. The
comparison also shows that the Gray technique reduces both
average number of logic transitions per clock and the overall
number of transitions for a cycle of the counter. Probabilistic
studies determining the most frequent paths in the state machine
also help to save more power [Bde94].
The experimental power measures on silicon confirm the
conclusions based on the criteria introduced earlier.
Figure 7. Reduction of Glitching Activity Propagation
Figure 8. Bus Multiplexing Principles
Figure 9. Pre-Computation Principle
International IC – Taipei • Conference Proceedings 5
The main difference between counters and FSMs is that
predicates on transitions between FSM states are not always
“true”, which complicates next state and output functions. The
power consumed by the combinatorial next state and output
logic is of importance and can counter-balance savings implied
by reduced clock load and transitions of the state register itself.
In [BAZ2001], an original characterization, called cubical compactness,
of the state encoding itself has been introduced. Figure
10 shows the cubical compactness of Gray and sequential
binary codes. This property has been combined with the complexity
of the state machine to predict timing, area and power
dissipation attributes for a given state machines.
In this context, the study focused more on the output logic.
Unlike in the case of counters, the minimal number of registers
implies also a more complex decoding of the output logic. At
the opposite, the one hot encoding implied output logic is a
simple “or” of the product terms associated with the active states
for each of the outputs of the Moore FSM. The power measures
on silicon has validated this point as the selected state machine
has 170 states and as large number of outputs. Even if the clock
load is higher for the one hot configuration, the switching activity
of the next state and output logic is by far smaller than in
the case of a Gray or binary sequential codes.
4.3. Design Goals Separation
Generally congestion, timing criticality, high fanout net distribution,
clock distribution and other design difficulties are generally
not global to all the sub-blocks of the design. Partitioning
the designs into parts that have dissimilar design goals is a
source of power savings. As an example, if timing is not critical
for a block, an area-oriented mapping can drastically save
area, thus routing capacitance and power dissipation. For other
blocks, it may be possible to consider performing things in
parallel at lower clock frequencies than implementing them
sequentially at a higher frequency.
Similarly mapping options and inherent optimization efficiency
can be enhanced by grouping small blocks into an artificial
hierarchy and flatten their contents. This allows the synthesis
tool explore various logic and technology mapping techniques.
5. Conclusion
Antifuse and Flash-based FPGA devices have inherently low
resistance and capacitance. Also, the architecture is a “sea of
module” type using virtually no silicon for routing. This makes
them power friendly. Apart from being low power, switch resistance
provides very high speed so the user can enjoy lowpower
advantages without suffering a penalty in regards to speed.
The user also can influence power consumption by applying
different techniques. This paper suggested several ways to
mainly reduce dynamic power with a focus on switching activity
and its propagation reduction.
Ongoing work is towards analysis and implementation of
power estimation tools into the design flow.
6. References
[Aggrawal2000] Vishal Aggarwal, “Design for Low Power in
Actel Antifuse FPGAs”, App. Note, http://
www.actel.com/appnotes/lowpower.pdf,
December. 2000.
[Alidina94 M. Alidina et al. “Pre-Computation
Sequential Logic Optimization for Low
Power”, IEEE Trans. On VLSI Systems, vol.
2, #4, December 1994.
[Belhadj94] H. Belhadj et al., “State Assignment
Selection for FSMs Implementation on
FPGAs”, IFIP Workshop on Logic
Synthesis, December 1994.
[Belhadj2001] Hichem Belhadj, “Power Conscious Design
on ProASIC”, Application Note, http://
www.actel.com/appnotes/
PowerConscious.pdf, January 2001.
[BASZ99] H. Belhadj, V. Aggarwal, N. Soria, B. Zahiri,
“Power Conscious Design on A500K”,
International Workshop on Low Power
Design, Moscow, September 1999.
[BGLS2000] H. Belhadj, S. Goette, J. Lofgren, S. Sharif,
“Mapping Module Compiler Designs into
FPGAs”, In SNUG’2000 Proceedings,
San Jose, Marsh, 2000.
http://www.synopsys.com/news/pubs/snug/
snug00/lofgren_final.pdf
[BK82] R.T. Brent and H. Kung, “A Regular Layout
for Parallel Adders”, IEEE Trans. on
computers, Vol. 39, pp. 260-264, March1982.
[BZ99] H. Belhadj and B. Zahiri, “Programmable
ASIC Design Methodology Using Synopsys”
SNUG Boston’99, Boston, October 1999.
Table 1. State codes and number of transitions and clock loads per clock
Figure 10. Cubical Compactness of Gray and Binary Sequential Encoding
Figure 11. Power Measure on ProASIC of 170-states Moore FSM
6 International IC – Taipei • Conference Proceedings
[Cha95] Chandrakasan et al., “Low Power Digital
CMOS Design”, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, 1995.
[DS98] A. Dauman and B. Small, “Putting the
Design Back in HDL Design”,
In Proceedings of PLD-Conference,
January 1998.
[Gailhard97] S. Gailhard et al, “Area/Time/Power Space
Exploration in DSP High Level Synthesis”,
In Proceeding IP and Prototyping Workshop,
December 1997.
[Ghosh92] A. Ghosh et al., “Estimation of Average
Switching Activity in Combinatorial and
Sequential Circuits”, In Proceedings of
DAC’92, pp:249-299, 1992.
[HC87] T. Han and D.A. Carlson, “Fast Area Efficient
VLSI Adders”, 8th Symposium on Computer
Arithmetic, pp: 49-56, May 1987.
[Hwang99] E.O. Hwang, “Functional Partitioning for
Low Power”, PhD dissertation, University of
California Riverside, June 1999.
[IA96] M. Ikeda and K. Asada, “Bus Data Coding
with Zero Suppression for Low Power Chip
Interface”, In Proceeding of Int’l Workshop
in Logic Synthesis, 1996.
[ProASIC99] ProASIC TM 500K Family Data Sheet,
December 1999, Actel Corporation.
http://www.actel.com/docs/datasheets/
ProasicDS.pdf
[Rabe96] D. Rabe et al., “A New Approach to Gate
Level Glitch Modeling”, In Proceedings of
IWLAS, Grenoble, December 1996.
[SXA2000] A54SXA Family Data Sheet,
September 2000, Actel Corporation,
[Tsui94] C. Tsui et al., “Technology Decomposition
and Mapping Targeting Low Power
Dissipation”, In Proceedings of Design
Automation Conference, San Diego,
June 1994.
[Tiwari93] V. Tiwari et al., “Technology Mapping for
Low Power”, In Proceedings of Design
Automation Conference, June 1993.
[Zafalon97] Roberto Zafalon, “Power Estimation and
Synthesis: An Industrial Perspective”,
Invited Talk at PATMOS, September 1997.
Authors’ contact details
Hichem Belhadj
Actel Corporation
955 East Arques Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA
Phone: (1-408) 522 7588
Fax: (1-408) 739 1540
E-mail: hichem.belhadj@actel.com
Behrooz Zahiri
955 East Arques Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA
Phone: (1-408) 522 4525
Fax: (1-408) 739 1540
E-mail: behrooz.zahiri@actel.com
Albert Tai
Actel Corporation
Phone: (852) 3161 1419
Fax: (852) 3161 1420
E-mail: albert.tai@actel.com
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"voice recognition will be a boon for users on GSM GPRS networks."
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2850332,00.html
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GSM: Poised for U.S. breakthrough
By Lee Schlesinger
February 25, 2002
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) may have the lion's share of wireless telephone traffic worldwide, but in the United States, GSM currently lags behind more widely deployed Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technologies. That may not be the case for long, however.
Major vendor VoiceStream has a nationwide GSM network in the U.S., and both Cingular and AT&T are in the process of switching their TDMA networks to GSM general packet radio service (GPRS), a 2.5G technology that promises data transmission speeds of up to 144Kbps. Cingular and AT&T eventually plan to switch to a standard called Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), which will increase data rates to 384Kbps. Meanwhile, Verizon, whose network is built on CDMA, is moving to a standard called CDMA 1xRTT to enable high-speed data services. Like EDGE, CDMA 1xRTT is a 2.5G technology that is an interim step on the road to 2Mbps mobile data services.
It looks like the technology is moving into place for the next generation of wireless services, but in support of what improvements over today's phones? Clearly, better data services are the prime advantage, but there are advantages for talkers, too.
Because of its convenience and ease of use, voice recognition will be a boon for users on GSM GPRS networks. While some wireless providers support voice recognition applications today, all GPRS networks will build it in from the start. Application developers need to learn about the VoXML application for tying voice to XML-encoded data. And they need to consider how to make available a suitable set of public information resources for mobile access, the same way they now offer access for telephone and Web users.
While the new opportunities are exciting, network providers need to keep an eye out for new perils, too. As GSM becomes a universal standard, it will become more popular with virus writers and even spammers. But at the same time, vendors will step up to block unwanted calls and messages. A company called WhiteCell already has an application called SMSafe that lets network providers screen for spam the way e-mail providers currently can on data networks.
How much should all this affect your mobile phone purchasing plans? That depends on your time horizon. I'm not expecting major developments for about a year, at which time 2.5G features--which means simply technology for sending packet data over existing cellular networks originally designed for voice transmissions--should be more widely available through GSM GPRS. Most service contracts last a minimum of one year--don't lock yourself in for more than that. Try to get the cheapest phones you can buy, too, because by the time your contract is up for renewal, your phones may be obsolete. Consider purchasing a combination PDA-phone, such as the Handspring Treo, today if GPRS is already available in your area. But be aware that as EDGE technologies unfold, even today's cutting-edge phones will become obsolete; you'll want new handsets that can take advantage of the new services' features.
3G mobile networks, which promise high-speed, always-on voice, data, and multimedia services over an IP network, are even further down the road. IBM has an excellent white paper on the road map for 2.5G and 3G.
If you're building mobile applications at the network level, be sure to consider how to migrate users from older technology, but plan for CDMA and TDMA to co-exist with GSM-based GPRS and its coming descendent EDGE for a long time.
IDF: Intel touts a sleek, wireless computing future
By Ashlee Vance
February 27, 2002 1:57 pm PT
SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel will work more with hardware makers to design smaller computers and mobile devices that will be linked via wireless technology, the chip maker said Wednesday.
Executives from Intel's PC and mobile computing divisions during keynote speeches here at the Intel Developer Forum shed light on various projects both inside the company and with partners to pack more processing power into a smaller space. Major industry-wide moves are under way to create compact PCs and mobile computers that will always be linked by an array of wireless networks.
Intel will try to do its part to bring about this vision of mobile computing by providing its next-generation Pentium 4 processor, code named "Prescott," to PC makers. Powerful desktops using the Prescott chips could server as a connection hub for other devices in the home, acting almost like a server for wireless stereos, laptops, writing tablets and other products, said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager for Intel's Desktop Platforms Group.
Prescott should ship in the second half of next year and will use Intel's Netburst architecture and hyper-threading technology to increase chip performance. Hyper-threading technology can make a single chip appear as two processors to the operating system, which can help a PC run a number of applications at once.
Intel claims it will be able to make chips run up to 10GHz with its current architecture and demonstrated what it called the first 4GHz PC.
Faster chips are just one part of the equation for Intel, as the company is working with PC makers to embed technology such as wireless support in every PC. Compact PCs using the 802.11 wireless standard and gigabit Ethernet support will be out in 2003, Burns said.
Intel is also working on a concept program called Big Water. The company will provide more details about the project in the third quarter of this year. Big Water PCs will be about the size of a large encyclopedia volume and could be mounted on walls or other parts of a home. Parts of Big Water PCs, such as hard drives, could also be easily removed and swapped with newer technology. This would allow users to buy one piece of hardware that could be constantly upgraded, Burns said.
"We believe that this will be the platform in the (2004) timeframe," Burns said.
Intel, Microsoft and Acer are also working on a laptop that works as a writing pad. The top of the laptop's lid is actually a tablet PC, running Microsoft's Tablet PC operating system, which can recognize handwriting.
Intel and Microsoft are additionally working together on the Mobility Enablement Program, announced Wednesday by Anand Chandrasekher, vice president and general manager of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group.
"We need to identify the key hurdles with wireless technology so we can work together to remove them for the good of the industry at large," Chandrasekher said.
Intel is trying to encourage partners to build out wireless networks that provide enough security and widespread connections to make wireless communication feasible for large businesses. Over the next few months, Intel will lay out its framework for creating a network that would let users move around offices or cities and always stay connected to the network.
Ron Smith, senior vice president and general manger for Intel's Communications and Computing Group, was the last keynote speaker of the morning. Brown made two significant announcements.
Along with Microsoft's Todd Warren, manager of the Embedded Platforms Group, he announced that Intel's PCA (Personal Internet Client Architecture) Developer Kit will include Microsoft's Platform Builder for developers with optimizations for Intel's X-scale architecture.
The Intel Developer Kit will support Symbian's Linux and Palm's operating systems, but only the Microsoft component is optimized with an Arm compiler to take advantage of Intel's extensions to the Arm instruction set as well as additional optimizations for the X-scale system board.
Finally, Smith announced Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel's intention to build what he called "wireless Internet on a chip." The future product will integrate X-scale, flash memory and a GSM (Global Standard for Mobile Communications)/GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) wireless subsystem on the chip core. The chip is targeted at 2.5G (2.5 generation) and 3G (third-generation) converged data and voice devices.