Headlines and summaries from the pages of Electronic Engineering Times . Previous editions are available from the 1994 , 1995 , 1996 , 1997 , and 1998 News Archives.

02/29/96

03/01/96

Lacking 8X CD-ROM drive parts, Japanese to offer 6X units

Memory prices plummeting in Taiwan

Synopsys laying plans to enter verification market

Satellite-ATM project seeks oil

Kodak unwraps Advanced Photo System
What's new(s) at EE Times-interactive

SGI to buy Cray Research

Performance Tech acquired by Bay Networks

Thomson consumer unit's fate uncertain

Lockheed Martin forms commercial 3-D graphics unit

Nikon spins off research operation

02/28/96

Accel's 'Sequoia' starts budding

HP adds 3-V RF chips, targeting wireless LANs, PCs

Puma focuses IR data-transfer technology on notebooks

Risq Modular taps NEC processor for internetwork board

Level One chip covers any T1/E1-line length

HP modeling package targets IC thermals

02/27/96

New connector puts four SCSI links on one PCI card

InSb may be perfect substrate for high-speed telecom ICs

Tech Corps troops start to deploy

Code library lets programmers embed fuzzy logic

Future is brighter for TI's light-to-frequency sensors

02/26/96

Smart TV may be here by Christmas

TI to sink $2 billion into DSP R&D and production

CD-ROM drive prices nosedive

Analog VHDL developers to duke it out at conference

Saturation of home PC market driving component prices lower

Seagate won't make Conner's SSA drives

GOP seeks to link digital-TV spectrum auction to budget bill

NEC's 'watermark' tech aimed at Web

Lacking 8X CD-ROM drive parts, Japanese to offer 6X units

By David Lammers and Yoshiko Hara

TOKYO -- Stung by a price collapse in 4X CD-ROM drives and facing apparent difficulties acquiring sophisticated new parts for 8X-speed units, some Japanese drive makers are pinning their hopes on 6X drives for the near future.

"Some companies, such as Mitsumi and Matsushita Kotobuki, may produce 6X drives [now] and then move to the 8X speed a few months later, perhaps in the third quarter," said Hiroshi Motohashi, storage analyst at Dataquest Japan. "But the 6X drive will have a very short life, perhaps only a few months."

The push toward higher-speed drives comes in the face of a market glut in 4X units, which has led all the major producers to announce they will halt 4X production this month or in April.

"I've heard that the key components for the 8X drives are hard to produce," Motohashi said. For example, the laser diode in the optical pickup is more sensitive than in earlier drives, and a new DSP chip set is required. "It is hard to predict market share for the 6X and 8X varieties," he added but estimated they could soon account for 30 or 40 percent each.

Memory prices plummeting in Taiwan

By Mark Carroll and David Lammers

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- PC makers here have turned to the memory spot market for bargain prices on 4- and 16-Mbit DRAMs, with reports of $30 tags on the sought-after 16-Mbit extended-data-out (EDO) DRAM.

The price of a 16-Mbit DRAM could fall to $20 this year, and the 4-Mbit density could drop to cost, which is estimated at $4 now, said a manager at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Last week in Tokyo, the 16-Mbit DRAM spot price declined to between $30 and $32, while contract prices remained at $37 to $38.

Production of 16-Mbit DRAMs will shoot up, from 50 million units/month now to 120 million/month by year-end, said Akira Minamikawa, senior semiconductor analyst at IDC Japan. By midyear, Minamikawa predicted, the 4-Mbit DRAM will cost $7 and the 16-Mbit $28 or less.

Generally, PC prices will ease as tags drop on memories, microprocessors, drives and other components, DRAM makers predicted. As a result, PC shipments would rise and absorb a portion of the sharp increase in 16-Mbit DRAM production, Minamikawa said.

Synopsys laying plans to enter verification market

By Richard Goering

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) is developing ambitious plans for new logic-verification technology, casting its eye toward such areas as cycle-based simulation, static-timing analysis and emulation.

"There has been a substantial program for design verification at Synopsys, and we are setting the stage for what we hope will be some very exciting product announcements in coming months," said Pierre Wildman, director of marketing for design verification.

In private briefings at the International Verilog Conference here, Wildman declined to discuss specific developments but did outline requirements and prospects for various verification technologies. Extrapolating from Dataquest Inc. research, he predicted a verification market of $720 million in 1998, with the highest growth in cycle-based simulation, emulation and "advanced," or static, sign-off.

Satellite-ATM project seeks o il

By George Leopold

WASHINGTON -- A satellite hovering 22,300 miles above the earth could help oil companies find crude at the bottom of the sea if a NASA-industry partnership to deploy an ATM-based communications network pans out. Oil-industry executives and NASA officials gathered here to demonstrate the ATM Research & Industry Enterprise Study (Aries).

While the project is designed to show how Asynchronous Transfer Mode can be used in satellite communications to deliver real-time seismic data for energy exploration, the project is also being billed as the most ambitious demonstration yet of the much-hyped national information infrastructure.

The $1-billion Aries network has been demonstrated before, but this week's was the first to show that NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite, launched in 1993, could collect signals from a moving, pitching ship and relay that information to ground controllers. The satellite works with a terrestrial, ATM-backbone, fiber-optic ne twork capable of operating at 45 Mbits/second.

The demonstration provides a working prototype for a system that lets geologists "virtually steer" a data-collection ship to potential gushers using real-time data relayed by the satellite network, organizers said.

Kodak unwraps Advanced Photo System

By Junko Yoshida

LAS VEGAS -- Photography professionals got their first look under the hood of the Advanced Photo System at the recent Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show here this week.

Slated for market debut this spring, the system--a consumer photography standard developed by Eastman Kodak, Canon, Fuji, Minolta and Nikon--was announced a month ago. But the PMA show marked the official unveiling of the innovation's shapes and features.

The Advanced Photo System (APS) is based on a new film entirely coated with a thin layer of magnetic particles. The transparent layer allows recording of digital data--such as one of three preselected print formats and lighting conditions--that can be modified frame-by-frame. The APS camera, meanwhile, is packed with a number of newly developed logic ICs, allowing consumers to take advantage of built-in drop-in film loading, mid-roll change, autofocus and automatic exposure control.

Besides offering best-possible imaging content--thanks to silver halide--the APS can digitally record information, such as lighting conditions, subject distance, time and date exposure, onto the magnetic layer of the film.

SGI to buy Cray Research

By Alexander Wolfe

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- In a move that could give a big boost to the MIPS microprocessor architecture, workstation powerhouse Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) disclosed plans to buy supercomputer maker Cray Research Inc. (Eagen, Minn.) for some $783 million in cash and stock.

T he acquisition will expand SGI's product portfolio, which is already heavily tilted toward high-end, graphics-capable workstations, into the engineering and scientific markets served by Cray's parallel-processing and vector supercomputers.

Future versions of those supercomputers will incorporate the MIPS microprocessor, which is designed by the MIPS Technologies subsidiary of SGI. "Over the next two to five years, [we'll] bring these families together," said Robert Ewald, Cray's president and chief operating officer. The systems will be "oriented clearly around the MIPS chip," he added.

Cray's product line currently uses a mix of proprietary processors and Digital Equipment Co.'s Alpha chip. Specifically, the Cray T3E scalable parallel system uses the Alpha 21164, capable of 600 Mflops peak performance. Cray's T90 series uses CPUs fashioned from 50,000-gate emitter-collector-dotted logic chips, which were jointly designed by Cray and Motorola.

While Cray's addition to SGI should pump up the MIPS a rchitecture on the high-end, SGI executives last week also hinted at a low-end push that could boost the architecture on the desktop.

Performance Tech acquired by Bay Networks

SAN ANTONIO -- Bay Networks Inc. is coming to resemble its close competitor, Cisco Systems Inc., in acquisition strategy for Internet and ISDN specialists. Six months after acquiring remote-access specialist Xylogics Corp., Bay (Billerica, Mass.) has agreed to buy Performance Technology Inc. here for about $13 million in cash.

Performance, a small spin-off of Datapoint Corp., developed a range of network-backup software but moved into Internet access two years ago with special remote WAN access servers called Instant Internet. Performance added basic-rate ISDN to its line last fall and signed a bundling deal with UUNET Technologies Inc. to distribute Instant Internet.

Paul Finke, Performance Technology presid ent and chief executive, will remain with the company and serve as vice president and general manager of the Performance business unit, concentrating on small- and branch-office Internet access. He will report to Bruce Sachs, president and general manager of Bay's Xylogics business unit.

Thomson consumer unit's fate uncertain

PARIS -- The French government's decision to privatize Thomson SA isn't likely to have much effect on SGS-Thomson Microelectronics but does raise questions about the future of Thomson Multimedia.

The government said its plans to divest the state-owned electronics group is part of a big policy shakeup. Thomson comprises consumer-electronics company Thomson Multimedia SA and the professional and defense electronics equipment group Thomson CSF. Through the latter, the French government will also relinquish a minority stake in Franco-Italian chip maker SGS-Thomson Mic roelectronics (STM).

The move is unlikely to have a great effect on STM, which has been largely privatized over the last 15 months. But it does raise questions about whose hands Thomson Multimedia will eventually reside in.

The company's acquisition of RCA and the television operations of General Electric Corp. in 1988 have helped turn it into the leading maker of television sets for the U.S. market.

Lockheed Martin forms commercial 3-D graphics unit

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp. has accelerated its shift from military simulation to commercial 3-D graphics with the formation of a commercial products unit.

Gerald Stanley, co-founder of Apollo Computer, will head the new venture called Real 3D.

The company will sell graphics boards, standalone graphics engines, a new graphics chip set and real-time software applications based on Lockheed Martin's compu ter graphics technologies developed for military simulators.

Lockheed Martin's Commercial Systems Group here has developed arcade graphics boards for Sega, PRO/1000 graphics engines for commercial training and engineering workstation markets, and the R3D/100 chip set for the PC market.

Nikon spins off research operation

By Brian Fuller

Belmont, Calif. -- Nikon Corp. will announce Monday that it is creating a separate unit to conduct research for the company, springing from an operation that mainly handled R&D for front-end equipment.

Nikon Research Corporation of America (NRCA) is emerging from a division at Nikon Precision Inc., based here, to handle companywide research and development. While the operation may one day venture off into esoteric areas, its charter at first is to continue to develop products and technology for Nikon's steppers and equipment for flat-panel-d isplay manufacture.

"Of course, Nikon still has a corporate research effort, and the divisions do a lot of engineering and design, but what it means is we've added resources," said Gil Varnell, who ran the Nikon Precision R&D work and was named president and chief operating officer of the new company.

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Accel's 'Sequoia' starts budding

By Richard Goering

SAN DIEGO -- The long-awaited "Sequoia" project at Accel Technologies Inc. has come to fruition with Accel EDA, a line of pc-board CAD tools that merges P-CAD and Accel Tango technology. The line, which replaces the existing Tango Pro offering, includes two products--the high-end Accel P-CAD PCB and the low-cost Accel Tango PCB.

These products are not continuations of the existing P-CAD and Tango lines. "We basically created a new product and created two tiers between the two," said Ray Schnorr, vice president of mark eting at Accel. He said that Tango PCB is a subset of P-CAD PCB, and that both products share an identical Windows-based user interface and object-oriented database.

The new line merges the Tango Pro user interface and database with P-CAD Master Designer capabilities in such areas as design-rule checking (DRC) and mechanical dimensioning. It also adds in some capabilities that were not in either product line before, such as automated support for split ground planes.

The user interface is "more Windows 95ish" than the previous Tango Pro interface, but Accel EDA is still a 16-bit Windows 3.1 application, Schnorr said. It's been tested, however, on Windows 95 and Windows NT.

HP adds 3-V RF chips, targeting wireless LANs, PCs

By Loring Wirbel

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co.'s communication components division brought out several RF/IF devices for wireless networks at t he recent Wireless Symposium, including a three-chip set for 1.5- to 2.5-GHz PCS and wireless-LAN applications. The introductions also included several mixer/modulator devices.

The three-chip set comprises the HPMX-5001 up/down-converter, HPMX-5002 IF modulator/demodulator and HPMX-5003 low-noise-amp/switch/power-amp device. The 5001 integrates a half-rate voltage-controlled oscillator and a 32/33 dual-modulus prescaler. Up-converter output power is 2 dBm; down-converter conversion gain is 14 dB. The 5002 includes VCO, prescalers, phase-frequency detector, down-converter, limiting amp chain, data slider and RSSI support circuitry. On receive, it interfaces to the 5001 in down-conversion and produces a demodulated output. On transmit, it receives data from baseband processors and produces a modulated signal for up-conversion by the 5001.

The HPMX-5003 is a GaAs RF device integrating three functions: a low-noise amp with a 13-dB gain at 2 GHz, a transmit/receive switch with a 55-dBm third-order intercep t point, and a power amp with +27.5-dBm output power and a 23.5-dB gain.

Puma focuses IR data-transfer technology on notebooks

By Rick Boyd-Merritt

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- After conquering the market for infrared-data software in the notebook OEM field, fast-rising Puma Technology Inc. is focusing its beam on the end user with a retail version of its file transfer and synchronization utilities.

Puma has signed some 40 OEM deals to bundle TranXit 2.0 utilities with notebook computers from companies such as Acer, AST Research, Compaq, Epson, IBM, NEC, Toshiba and Sharp. By December, Puma had shipped 2 million copies of the software.

TranXit 2.0 supports both the serial infrared (SIR) standard that runs at 115 kbits/second and Fast IR at 1.5 Mbits/s. The company is on the verge of seeing its OEMs, such as Sharp, ship this quarter a version of the software that supports the curren t 4-Mbit/s standard of the Infrared Data Association (IrDA).

On the eve of this next wave of its OEM business, Puma is launching a more feature-rich retail version of its software, called TranXit Pro. One of the unique features of the end-user version is a "virtual clipboard" that allows desktop and notebook users to share information over the infrared link by cutting and pasting it into a clipboard maintained by the program. Users pass data via a clipboard dialog box that appears on top of the application they are using.

Risq Modular taps NEC processor for internetwork board

By Loring Wirbel

NEWARK, Calif. -- Risq Modular Systems Inc. is using NEC Electronics Inc.'s VR4300 processor at the heart of its latest embedded internetworking board. The I-Net 43/PRO board uses the proprietary 132-Mbyte/second Risqbus to provide functions such as LAN interfaces, ISDN interfaces, and encry ption, through special add-in daughtercards.

The system uses a 100-MHz VR4300, though it can also be ordered with newer 133-MHz processors. Dual 82596 Ethernet controllers are included on the board, and can be expanded to offer support for up to eight 10 Base T ports. Memory can range from 2 to 128 Mbytes of two-way interleaved DRAM, 512 kbytes to 16 Mbytes of flash EPROM and 256 kbytes to 1 Mbyte of EPROM. Also standard on the board are 32 kbytes of nonvolatile RAM, two serial ports, three counter/timers and eight programmable LEDs.

Nageen Sharma, director of marketing at Risq, said that 64-bit processor widths were important for overall packet throughput. Risq had considered other embedded RISC architectures, but determined that "embedded Sparcs and other CPUs did not provide us with the needed performance, particularly in the price range we were examining."

Level One chip covers any T1/E1 -line length

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Level One Communications Inc. has eliminated the need for separate line-interface-unit ICs for short-haul and long-haul applications in T1 and E1 markets. The LXT360 and 361, capable of being used in any length of digital-line circuit, allow one device to be designed into a system .

T1 (1.54 Mbits/second) and E1 (2.048 Mbits/s) digital interfaces have proven continuously popular, even though many corporations are slowing their use of leased lines. Since carriers provide T1 and E1 for bearer services such as frame relay, the interface units continue to experience growth in WAN OEMs. And a single device capable of short-haul and long-haul applications helps feed Level One's interest in high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (HDSL), a technology that helps carriers offer "repeaterless T1."

Both devices support a combination of North American T1 and European E1 line rates ,and both support any length of cable. They differ only in microprocessor interface optio ns: The LXT360 provides hardware control and serial microprocessor interface, while the LXT361 offers a parallel microprocessor interface compatible with both Motorola and Intel architectures.

HP modeling package targets IC thermals

By Stan Runyon

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co.'s EESof division has developed a pulsed-modeling system that will help engineers create dynamic thermal models of discrete and integrated transistors.

The derived models should improve accuracies during circuit simulations because self-heating effects can be taken into account. By contrast, traditional models are static--a constant device temperature is assumed during operation.

The HP 85124A pulsed-modeling system consists of an RF network analyzer, a bias subsystem and a current-voltage (I-V) characterization subsystem--each operating on a pulsed basis. The system can take measurements at u p to 2 GHz, with pulse widths as narrow as 1 ýs.

EESof's IC-CAP modeling software completes the picture by automating the system's measurements and developing the model parameter-extraction techniques.

New connector puts four SCSI links on one PCI card

By Terry Costlow

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- The Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee, which sets standards for the disk-drive industry, has adopted a compact connector that makes it possible to put four SCSI connectors on a PCI card. This very high-density cabling-interconnect (VHDCI) specification will help parallel SCSI ward off serial interfaces.

The small connector, which links a disk drive to a computer, uses 0.8-mm spacing to cut its overall size to about one-third of that now used by SCSI connectors. Its small size also makes it much easier to put a SCSI port on a notebook.

"That gives you notebook-to-data-center connectivity ," said Bill Ham, manager of the Storage Bus Technical Office, a group that represents Digital Equipment Corp. (Shrewsbury, Mass.) on standards bodies. Ham detailed the connector at a RAID Advisory Board conference (RABcon) held here last month. "This is even small enough to fit on a PCMCIA card."

Beyond its benefits for portable-computer users, the new connector has important repercussions for vendors and users of the conventional parallel SCSI interface. Parallel SCSI has been under attack by serial links such as Fiber Channel, in large part because serial channels offer simpler, sleeker interconnection schemes.

"This connector will give incredible life to parallel SCSI beyond what people had expected," said Dal Allan, president of the SFF Committee, which created the standard.

InSb may be perfect substrate for high-speed telecom ICs

By Peter Clarke

MALVERN, England -- Multil ayer structures in a little-used III-V semiconductor material, indium antimonide (InSb), are being explored for their potential to yield ultra-high-speed, low-voltage transistors that could find use in telecommunications and portable applications. Researchers here at the British government's Defense Research Agency (DRA) say devices made from the narrow-bandgap material could operate at voltages down to 0.2 V--far lower than is possible with the more commonly used semiconductor materials.

Using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), researchers have fabricated InSb devices that they say operate faster than devices fabricated of silicon, silicon-germanium (SiGe) or gallium arsenide (GaAs).

MBE-deposited InSb structures are likely to appear first in infrared light-emitting diodes and photodetectors used in sensitive thermal imaging systems and gas sensors. The material will also stimulate the search for applications for "negative luminescence," a phenomenon that the structures can be made to display.

Tech Corps troops start to deploy

WASHINGTON -- Launched last fall with much fanfare, including endorsement from President Clinton, the Tech Corps program of technology volunteers will soon be up and running in 10 states, with more to follow.

Tech Corps is a national, nonprofit organization funded by the business community that helps improve K-12 education at the grass roots. The volunteers offer help that may range from technical aid, such as assisting in networking PCs, to aiding teachers in the classroom. "Whatever [the schools] request," said Tech Corps coordinator Nancy Clinton.

"Schools need help," she explains. At some, the problem is lack of equipment. But even in the wealthier districts, "there are schools filled with computers that are not able to utilize the equipment in the best way." Tech Corps is one way to bring schools up to speed.

Since October, Tech Corps personnel have be en busy organizing state chapters. So far 22 states have begun the chartering process, said Clinton, and there's interest in another nine to 10 states. By April, Clinton expects approximately 10 state chapters of Tech Corps will be ready to actively recruit volunteers.

Also ongoing is a search for corporate sponsors to provide both funds and employee services, especially during the work day when schools are in session.

Code library lets programmers embed fuzzy logic

By R. Colin Johnson

CHELTENHAM, England -- Indigo Software Ltd. has released a code library that enables engineers to embed fuzzy logic into their own applications code. FuzzyExpert provides a C-language-based class system of fuzzy sets, membership functions and rule-based chaining for expert systems and fuzzy controllers.

FuzzyExpert is not a turnkey fuzzy-logic application but a C++ code library that is said to in clude all the elements needed to add fuzzy logic to conventional programs. Engineers can pick and choose from among the fuzzy-logic constructs to provide more robust and intelligent processing in otherwise conventional C++ programs.

A template-based class system is the heart of FuzzyExpert. More than 25 major fuzzy classes and 200 fuzzy functions provide the ability to create fuzzy variables, propositions and rules for fuzzifying a controller or expert system. The fuzzy class system allows engineers to manipulate fuzzy sets, membership functions and linguistic variables. Uncertainty can be modeled with multidimensional fuzzy collections and relations. Both object persistence and exception-based error handling are supported.

Future is brighter for TI's light-to-frequency sensors

By Gail Robinson

DALLAS -- Light-to-frequency conversion--the conversion of light-intensity information in to a digital format for direct connection to a digital signal processor (DSP) or microcontroller--could find a broader applications base than first expected, according to engineers at Texas Instruments Inc. who have been developing the technology.

In one of the latest applications, the technology is being put to use for energy conservation in General Electric's new Co.'s Profile dishwasher. TI's original light-to-frequency chip, the TSL 230, is employed in the machine to measure water clarity, enabling the machine to control the rinse cycle and adjust the amount of water and length of time between rinses.

"This is an unconventional way to use light technology, " said Jack Berlien, a TI applications engineer. "And it is a prime example of the rise in applications where light can be used to measure something else."

Since the development of the TSL 230 two years ago, the company has expanded the technology with scaled-down versions that offer smaller sizes at lower cost, though at the expense of som e features.

Smart TV may be here by Christmas

By Junko Yoshida

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- Television manufacturers are competing once again to change the way people receive information, this time plotting multiple scenarios to replace the boob tube with smart TVs in 1997 and beyond.

In fact, Christmas 1996--only 10 months from now--may mark the birth of a smart TV platform where "applications" can run, where "a back channel" is built in, where a graphics-rich icon-based "user interface" pops up and where "a storage device"--either in flash memories or HDD--is integrated for instant replays. That's the word from Hoyet Andrews III, director of Advanced Digital TV Product Planning at Philips Consumer Electronics Co. in Knoxville, Tenn.

Make no mistakes: this new device will not be a PC. Even though some new features may sound familiar to technology-savvy consumers with hands-on experience o n their $2,500 home PC, the new smart TV is designed from the ground up for the average TV viewer.

In the digital TV world, "things are moving at a lightning speed," said Al Moschner, president and CEO of Zenith Electronics Corp. in Glenview, Ill. The days when consumer electronics manufacturers are just "building TVs with new looks" and "scrambling to save pennies" are over, he said.

Driving consumer electronics vendors today is the fact that many of their products, such as digital video disks, camcorders and satellite decoder boxes are already turning to digital signals. It makes sense to design a common digital TV platform to which system vendors can easily connect a variety of new digital peripherals or even integrate some of those peripherals' core functionalities into a TV's main chassis.

TI to sink $2 billion into DSP R&D and production

By Martin Gold

DALLAS -- Texas I nstruments said it will invest a whopping $2 billion--the largest single investment ever--to develop and manufacture new digital signal processing components. The bulk of the investment, approximately $1.6 billion, will be for a new fab facility in Dallas. Much of the remaining $400 million will be for an R&D center to develop new semiconductor manufacturing processes at 0.18 micron, and eventually at 0.12 micron, for future generations of DSP-based systems on a chip.

The moves come amid intensifying competition in the DSP business and such high-growth applications for DSPs as two-way pagers, full-feature phones and telephone answering devices, set-top boxes, tape backup drives, color scanners, modems and digital cameras that are likely to use a DSP rather than the conventional microcontroller device. To remain be competitive in the exploding DSP arena, competitors Motorola, Analog Devices and Zilog, among others, are also investing in new fab capacity for new technology.

Future DSP-based chips must shrink to achieve the higher integration, higher speeds and lower power consumption, said Ashwin Shah, TI's director of the semiconductor process and device center, though he declined to specify what DSP products would be built in the new facility. Volume production is expected to begin by the end of 1997.

CD-ROM drive prices nosedive

By David Lammers and Terry Costlow

TOKYO -- The CD-ROM drive is the latest PC component to take a swift price plunge. Over the last two months, as the U.S. personal computer market softened, a huge inventory of the 4X-speed drives has developed, sending OEM prices from about $100 to as low as $40 per drive, well below the cost of production, said Hiroshi Motohashi, storage analyst at Dataquest Japan.

Following the 1995 halving of active-matrix LCD prices, and the December crash in the price of cache SRAMs, the pressures on DRAMs and CD-ROM drives are the latest evidence that a glut can develop quickly in mainstream commodities, with devastating impact on prices.

"In the fourth quarter all the CD-ROM drive producers were at full production, but PC sales slowed down in the U.S. market. Now all the drive makers have large inventories, with about 10 million drives in inventory," Motohashi estimated.

Officials at several of the largest CD-ROM makers agreed that although prices had plunged, the $40-per-drive figure did not apply to them, though they conceded that second-tier companies may have dropped prices that low to clear inventories.

Analog VHDL developers to duke it out at conference

By Richard Goering

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- A technical and political schism among analog VHDL developers will come to a head at this week's VHDL International Users Forum, where two competing proposals will be presented to the IEEE 1076.1 working g roup. In separate presentations, the "Jade" proposal from Mentor Graphics and its Anacad subsidiary will square off against the "Opal" proposal from Analogy and Compass Design Automation.

While disagreement over which approach to take has apparently delayed the standardization process, the 1076.1 group intends to select one proposal by the end of March and complete a language reference manual draft by June, said Jean-Michel Berge, 1076.1 chairman. A nonbinding technical review of both proposals by VHDL experts is under way.

The schism arose in the Language Design Subcommittee, where two of three co-chairmen happen to be authors of the Opal proposal. When objections were raised by Jade supporters, Berge asked both factions to prepare proposals that will be voted on by the entire 1076.1 working group.

To complicate things further, there may be a darkhorse proposal from the Verilog side. MetaSoftware will preview an analog Verilog compiler at this week's International Verilog Conference, also in San ta Clara, and the company argues that its approach can apply to both languages.

Saturation of home PC market driving component prices lower

By Craig Matsumoto

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- If manufacturers of DRAMs, SRAMs and CD-ROM drives are looking for reasons for the precipitous decline in the prices of their products, they should start in the home. The home PC business is drying up, and that is slowing growth in the overall PC market, according to market-research firm Dataquest Inc., which released its findings at its annual forecasting conference.

Dataquest expects 71 million personal computers to sell worldwide in 1996, up from 59.7 million in 1995. That represents a growth rate of around 19 percent, down from 24.7 percent last year and 23.3 percent in 1994.

The culprit simply may be saturation. "In the U.S., we think we're running out of users to sell to," Dataquest analyst Kimbal l Brown said.

In fact, the home market could see unit sales decline in the long haul, Dataquest analyst Van Baker said. But the industry could avoid that trap by changing its marketing methods--making computers interesting enough to attract new buyers--but even then Baker sees growth in the home market falling between 8.5 percent and 12 percent a year.

Baker's conclusions stem from a 10,000-household survey conducted by Dataquest and A.C. Nielsen last summer. The companies found many consumers just aren't convinced they need a computer. As a result, home sales could stagnate, even though only 27 percent of all U.S. households own computers, Baker said.

--Additional reporting by Brian Fuller

Seagate won't make Conner's SSA drives

By Terry Costlow

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Seagate Technology Inc.'s acquisition of Conner Peripherals is rippling far afield, reaching all the way into IBM and several other companies that have rallied around the Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) interface. Seagate has decided not to move Conner's SSA-compatible drives into production, causing much concern in the SSA camp.

Conner was the only major drive maker other than IBM to rally behind the emerging serial interface, so Seagate's decision makes IBM all but a sole source for SSA drives. Financially troubled Micropolis Corp. of Chatsworth, Calif., the only other SSA drive supplier, recently sold its drive operations to Singapore Technologies, so the future of its drives is also being questioned.

Seagate, which, like most other high-end disk drive vendors is supporting the Fiber Channel interface, has not formally announced that it won't move ahead with Conner's SSA drives. But executives at the Rabcon conference on storage technology here last week didn't deny it.

"In general, the customers for SSA and Fiber Channel are the same," said Gene Milligan, director of development strategy at Seagate 's Oklahoma City operation. "Our input from them says that our resources should be channeled into Fiber Channel."

GOP seeks to link digital-TV spectrum auction to budget bill

By George Leopold

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans are turning up the heat to force broadcasters to bid for digital TV licenses by tying an auction proposal to critical budget legislation that must be approved in the coming weeks.

Broadcasters are meanwhile crying foul, claiming the effort to link spectrum auctions with a budget deal breaks an earlier promise to settle the issue after a series of congressional hearings.

GOP lawmakers led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., want to attach a spectrum-auction provision to a debt-limit bill that could come up for a vote this week. McCain's plan reportedly includes auctioning both VHF and UHF licenses for digital TV to raise more than $30 billion for the U.S. treasury. A bout one-third of the total would come from auctioning 6-MHz channels designated for broadcasters' transition to digital TV.

Industry sources said another possibility is attaching the auction measure to an extension of the continuing budget resolution that is funding federal agencies through March 15.

Either way, broadcasters are circling the wagons. They said McCain's effort to put the auction issue on a fast track would scuttle a deal between Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kans., and the FCC to delay issuing digital TV licenses until hearings are held on the spectrum-auction issue. The deal cleared the way for final passage of telecommunications overhaul legislation.

NEC's 'watermark' tech aimed at Web

By George Leopold

PRINCETON, N.J. -- A digital watermarking technique developed by NEC researchers here is being touted as an effective method of protecting copyrighted materia l on the Internet.

A digital watermark is an invisible identification code permanently embedded in audio, video and other multimedia data. Unlike encryption techniques, watermarks can't prevent copying. But they can be used to trace copied material, thereby deterring illegal copying.

While previous methods concealed watermarks in an image or signal, NEC places a digital-watermarking algorithm in "perceptually significant" components of a signal or image. An attempt to remove the watermark from an image on the Internet would add noise to a signal, degrading the watermark as well as image quality, said Ingemar Cox, senior research scientist at the NEC laboratory.

"It's counter-intuitive," added Cox, because the mark can be easily retrieved, and removing it damages the images in which it is embedded.

Since modifying signal components can degrade signals, NEC used spread-spectrum communications techniques to insert the watermark into the spectral components of data. Cox added that the watermark s tands up to distortions caused by digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversions and resampling.

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