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***3D PC Interface Shown by UK Company
(November 26)
VR Marketing based in England has a 3D interface for the PC called Buzz 3D-PC. The product analyzes your hard disk and reproduces the arrangement of drives, folders and files, as a 3D environment (a luxury hotel, comprising floors, corridors and rooms). VR Marketing feels that this product fills a gap in the market by appealing to a sector of the public which is technophobic, or to those who feel they need a helping hand before embarking on the perceived challenges afforded by a PC. They also see an ancillary benefit to PC experience individuals who would recommend software which teaches beginners the basics. A follow-on product to Buzz 3D-PC is Data Manager.
Contact:
Marc Foreman
Technical Director
VR Marketing Ltd.
http://www.vrmarketing.com
http://www.buzz3d.com
Phone : +44-(0)113-217-1800 (UK)
Fax : +44-(0)1608-652-533 (UK)
***Spatial Announces ACIS 4.3 With Enhanced Surface Modeling (November 25)
Spatial Technology announced ACIS 4.3 which includes enhanced surface modeling, a technology preview of a new visual manipulation component, and performance improvements.
Surface modeling techniques in ACIS 4.3 were enhanced through improvements to lofting, shelling, and sweeping. Both lofting and shelling are faster and benefit from improved handling of surfaces with tangent intersections. Lofting between complex curves now produces smoother shapes. Sweeping introduces simpler ways to achieve complex shapes, while at the same time boosting overall performance through a new means of handling derivative calculations.
The version features a technology preview of a object-oriented visual manipulation component. The component directly utilizes OpenGL for all 3D wireframe and shaded drawing. It also allows users to display and manipulate non-ACIS model data as easily as ACIS model data.
There is also advanced healing operations to provide users with the ability to handle more spline cases.
***REALAX Extends its Aggressive Price Offer (November 23)
REALAX will extend its special offers until 18th of December for Rxscene.
The Stand-alone version for Windows NT $995 (save $5,000) for Architecture, Engineering, Construction, CAD, Digital Prototyping and Visual Simulation, including data import/export DXF/VRML2.0 and kinematic engines.
University & Education - Version for Windows NT and SGI/IRIX $6,000,- / per 10 licences (save $14,000). This is a full version with polygon-reduction and all available import/export formats (Inventor, OpenFlight, DXF, VRML2.0, and 3DS.
REALAX Corporation
1540 Broadway, Suite 29 H New York, NY 10036
(212)782-5292
contact@realax.com
***Futuremark Corporation Announces 3Dmark 99 Results (November 18)
Futuremark Corporation released the 3DMark 99 results pages on http://www.3dmark.com.
The 3DInfobase represents an independent database of 3D performance analysis using the DirectX 6.0 platform. It allows users to see how their system measures up to others in the game market.
3DMark is a 3D benchmark that is aimed at the 3D gaming community. It is benchmarking 3D hardware, running on Microsoft's DirectX 6.0.
The benchmark is available for download from:http://www.3dmark.com
Futuremark Software Corporation, Ltd. (Canada)
1235 Bay Street, Suite 400,
Toronto, Ontario
M5R 3K4
CANADAAki Järvilehto, Managing Director
Futuremark - Helsinki, Finland
Futuremark Corporation, Ltd. (SF)
Niittykatu 6 C
02200 Espoo
FINLANDE aki.jarvilehto@futuremarkcorp.com,
T +358-9-435 50460
F +358-9-435 50444
***Vivid Semiconductor Gets Funding
(November 23)
Vivid Semiconductor has raised $15.4 million in late-stage private equity financing that will fund the company's growth as its pursues a strategy to capture 20 percent of the Japanese column driver market. Vivid's Trucolor8 technology brings 24-bit color depth to high-volume consumer products, including notebook personal computers and flat panel monitors that support graphics-intensive applications like DVD and video conferencing.
By the year 2000, Vivid estimates that the world-wide market for liquid crystal display (LCD) semiconductor products will reach $2 billion. Vivid currently holds five percent of the notebook column driver market, up from one percent last year, and is expanding into other LCD-related products. Fueling this growth is Vivid's May 1998 licensing agreement with Oki Electric Industries, Co., Ltd., which has increased Vivid's presence in Japan with design wins at top-tier LCD panel manufacturers, including LG Electronics.
The private placement was managed by NationsBanc Montgomery Securities Private Equity Group. The lead investor in this round of private financing is NMS Capital, L.P. NMS Capital is a $600 million private equity fund affiliated with NationsBanc Montgomery Securities.
Vivid Semiconductor
7400 W. Detroit Street,
Chandler, AZ 85226.
(602) 961-3200
Fax: (602) 961-1135
***RealiMation Announces Showcase
RealiMation announces its application RealiMation Showcase which is available at http://www.realimation.com.
Showcase is designed to demonstrate real time 3D capabilities of the RealiMation software suite. It shows real-time effects such as dynamic geometry morphing, reflection mapping, weather effects, smoke, fire, explosions, and video texturing.
***3Dlabs Oxygen GMX Selected for Dell Precision WorkStations
3Dlabs announced that Dell Computer has selected Oxygen GMX graphics accelerator board as the graphics option in the Dell Precision 410 and Dell Precision 610 WorkStations. This card uses the 3Dlabs' GLINT GMX 2000 chipset.
The Dell Precision 610 can be custom-configured with single or dual 400 or 450 MHz Intel Pentium II Xeon processors; the Dell Precision 410 can be custom-configured with single or dual 350, 400, or 450MHz Pentium II processors.
***Texture Limitation Issues Discussed
WAVE Report readers may find a very interesting assessment of the texture handling, compression and texture size issues for games by Alan Dang at: http://www.3dgaming.com/editorials/maxtex.html useful.
***Lucent Technologies' Inferno Venture Forms Strategic Alliance With InfoSpace.com (November 17)
Lucent Technologies announced that one of its business ventures, Inferno, has signed a strategic marketing agreement with InfoSpace.com, a leading provider of Internet content services. The agreement allows the companies to cooperate in the development, marketing, and promotion of Inferno's Internet appliance solutions. The companies will also pursue future business opportunities based on each other's existing technologies.
Under terms of the agreement, InfoSpace services will be marketed and sold as part of Inferno's turnkey Information Appliance Suite. This means a manufacturer will be able to create an Inferno-embedded appliance that offers consumers and businesses access to a broad variety of InfoSpace content services, including yellow pages, white pages, maps, real-time stock quotes, neighborhood city guides, and classified advertising.
InfoSpace's proprietary technology allows for its content services to be customized to fit the needs of virtually any vertical market - such as banking, healthcare, and hospitality and optimized for delivery through practically any type of information appliance or alternative access device, including screen phones, wireless handsets or set-top boxes.
The Philips IS2630 screen phone with Internet access, an Inferno-embedded information appliance, already incorporates InfoSpace Content Services. The IS2630 features an Inferno-enabled web browser. Inferno's compact browser has an exceptionally small footprint (240K, uncompressed).
Inferno is a business venture created by Lucent Technologies and the name of the venture's real-time operating system. In addition to serving the needs of the telecommunications market, Inferno's mission is to provide simple access to information services through non-PC Internet appliances. Inferno envisions that Internet appliances will be used for retrieving information quickly-such as phone numbers, stock quotes, news-as opposed to leisurely PC browsing.
***New Game Publication MCV
(November 24)
COMPUTEC MEDIA AG, a publisher of computer and videogame magazines in Germany, has entered the United States and Canada with the launch of MCV: The Market for Home Computing and Videogames.
The first issue will arrive on December 11. The publications will be a weekly computer and videogame trade magazine.
It is the intent of the publication to provide coverage of the events that shape the global market for home computing and videogames, with particular emphasis on financial analysis of a growing $8 billion industry. To date, MCV has experienced success for its publications in Germany and the UK. The German version, launched four years ago, and MCV UK, introduced at ECTS in September 1998, are the leading interactive trade weeklies in their respective markets.
At launch, MCV USA will boast a circulation of 160,000, the largest monthly distribution of any videogame trade publication currently on the market, making MCV the most widely read computer and videogame trade publication in the world. MCV subscribers include retailers, wholesalers and distributors, as well as financial community members that determine the validity of the industry, such as analysts, researchers, venture capitalists and financial investors. MCV will report news and furnish expert analysis of electronic games, multimedia and related hardware, focusing on product sales potential.
***PIXEL Rolls Out New Web Site
Robi Roncarelli of PIXEL has announced his new web site. Check it out at: http://www.pixelnews.com.
PIXEL - the computer animation news people, inc
(416) 424-4657
Fax: (416) 424-1812
***WAVE Updates - Getting Blown Away at 160 mph
The Richard Petty Driving Experience provided some additional details on our article in WAVE#917.
1. The program that was experienced was a Winston Experience. The Winston consists of two 8-lap segments instead of 2 4-lap segments. WAVE Note - We had a hard time counting when driving.
2. There are actually six tiers of the RPDE experiences:
The Ride Along (passenger for 3 laps),
The Rookie Experience (you drive the car for 8-laps),
Experience of a Lifetime (a 30 lap program run in 3 10-lap
segments),
The Racing Experience (2 days, 80 laps in 8 10-lap segments)
and
Finally an Advanced Racing Experience (40 laps of very intense driving; a prerequisite of the EOL or Racing Experience is required).
3. The Racing Experience is not competitive - all programs are run in a lead-follow situation with no competition. All of the emphasis is on safety and increasing your speed gradually. In the Racing Experience, there are two 10-lap segments which allows students the opportunity to go out four at a time behind one instructor in order to get a feeling for having other students on the track with you,.however, no competitiveness is encouraged, we only want you to drive to your level.
4. It should be noted, the student who "scraped the wall" was on the Advanced Racing Experience. RPDE's safety record speeks for itself and we are very proud of the safety of our programs. As noted, no one was injured and it should be added that we have never had an accident in programs such as the one you experienced.
5. # of employees in Las Vegas - we have approximately 15 full time employees, the nine or so are track-side staff; we also have a very busy business office in Las Vegas.
6. Engine maintenance - engines are rebuilt and changed out of the cars at 5,000 miles.
***S3 and Hercules Announce New Multi-Function Savage3D Accelerator Card (November 16)
S3 and Hercules Computer announced the Savage3D-based Hercules Hydra BEAST accelerator.
The Hercules Hydra BEAST is a PC/TV graphics and video solution based on S3's Savage3D accelerator, the Hercules Hydra BEAST delivers seven multimedia functions on a single 2D/3D/video accelerator card for less than $200 USD.
***M-Systems' DiskOnChip Technology Is Chosen by COM One (November 16)
M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers announced that COM One, a leading European set-top box manufacturer, has chosen DiskOnChip for its DomoTV unit.
DiskOnChip family includes DiskOnChip Millennium, a single-chip monolithic flash disk. DomoTV is an all-in-one home appliance capable of offering a variety of services, including Internet access, electronic mail, fax transmission, speakerphone and telephone directory. Users can select the ISP of their choice and in France, the device also serves as a Minitel terminal. Through an integrated speakerphone, the DomoTV can store telephone numbers in a directory which users can use to automatically dial phone numbers.DiskOnChip Millennium combines the controller and flash memory on a single die. Offered in surface mount packaging thus making it the optimal data storage solution for Set-top boxes, storing both code and data. It is possible to store email, web pages, telephone lists and personal data.
DiskOnChip products offer a range and a non-volatile storage device that is 100% compatible with a hard disk, yet at a fraction of the size.
The DomoTV system is targeted at telephone and cable network operators, ISP's, TV broadcasting channels, hotel chains, schools and government agencies. Samples of DiskOnChip Millennium 8MB (64Mbit) are available now with mass production quantities scheduled for First Quarter of 1999.
***ShareWave Enters Wireless Home Networking (November 16)
Newsbytes reports that ShareWave has taken the wraps off its digital wireless technology.
ShareWave's Osprey technology supports data transfers of up to 4 megabits per second (Mbps). Plans call for an 11 Mbps version of the Osprey technology to be released later next year. The 2.4 gigahertz direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) technology has already being licensed by Philips.
The Osprey technology includes a highly integrated chipset, a low-cost consumer radio, and a supporting reference design. Samples of the technology will be available to third-party firms, and the first consumer products using the system are expected to show at the Consumer Electronics Show this coming January.
ShareWave is also linking up with Philips Electronics to develop a home wireless networking system known as Ambi that takes the video output from a PC and displays on the home TV-without wires.
***Dell Ships PCs With Cisco ADSL Modem (November 16)
Newsbytes reports that Dell Computer announced that it is ready to begin shipping desktop computers that feature factory- installed ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) modems this week.
The PCs factory-installed ADSL modems are built by Cisco.
Dell claims that the Dimension line PCs will provide access to the Internet from four to 125 times faster than traditional 56 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) modems, while allowing customers to use the same phone line to talk on the telephone.
Dell also introduced a program whereby buyers will be able to utilize its broadband services partner, US West, for a one-stop Internet access package. Service and support for the computers will be provided for the modems under Dell's standard system three-year limited warranty phone support. To receive the US West offering, customers must be in a selected US West coverage area and their Internet service providers must support US West ADSL.
Dell announced its first high-speed Internet initiative with US West and Cisco in May. Since then, the company has announced pacts with Bell Atlantic, SBC, @Home and 3Com. US West provides MegaBit ADSL services to customers in 40 cities and 13 states, including Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Salt Lake City. MegaBit services begin at $40 a month for both residential and business customers.
The Dimension PCs with the Cisco ADSL modem will start at $1,329 and include a 333 megahertz (MHz) Intel Celeron processor, 32 megabytes (MB) of memory, a 15-inch monitor, 8MB of video memory, and CD-ROM drive. For its part, Compaq introduced a 400MHz AMD K6-2 powered machine targeted at high-speed Internet capabilities which includes a built-in modem developed by Compaq and Lucent Technologies Inc.
***NDC Delivers Wireless Home Networking Solution (November 16)
NDC Communications announced the expansion of its SOHOware product family with the introduction of the CableFREE wireless home connectivity solutions for networking multiple PCs in the home, SOHO, small business, and corporate branch office.
CableFREE features a 2Mbps data rate and coverage radius up to 250 feet and is tailored to the home and small office, and exceeds the home network solution requirement criteria as determined by the independent Home Network Study of Intel and Wedbush Morgan Security.
CableFREE's 2.4GHz operating frequency band is an internationally endorsed unlicensed band that eliminates two key problem areas in older wireless home products that operate at 900MHz bands-potential interference from the cellular radio sources and lower data rates due to much narrower available bandwidths.
The flagship product in the CableFREE product line is the CableFREE Starter Kit, which provides two options for networking multiple PCs and/or laptop computers-two ISA cards or one ISA and 1 PC card (standard Type II PCMCIA). Both kits are bundled with Internet sharing software.
To upgrade additional computers with wireless connectivity, users can purchase individual ISA and PC cards. Future product additions to the CableFREE line will include:
· CableFREE EtherBridge that provides seamless interconnectivity between wireless and Ethernet LANs,
· CableFREE USB Adapter,
· CableFREE PCI Card.Introductory pricing for the CableFREE line is $199 for the CableFREE ISA card and PC card, and $395 for the CableFREE Starter Kit. All CableFREE products will be available through major U.S. retail superstore chains in the first quarter of 1999.
***Enikia Electrifies Home Networking Market (November 16)
Enikia offers the technology platform to convert common household power lines to home networks that operate at the 10 Mbps (megabits-per-second) speed of Ethernet.
Enikia's technology will allow computers, cable modems, DSL modems, peripherals, and consumer electronics devices to be interconnected in a home via a network that resides on standard household electrical wiring. The Enikia-based home network will serve as a common household host for Internet, telephony, and communications services that can be distributed to any device connected to the home network.
Early market entrants in home networking dismissed AC power lines as a reliable environment for data, voice, and video communication due to speed, noise and security constraints.
Enikia invested two years of research and development efforts in actual household settings to solve the problems originally deemed insurmountable by early market entrants. This allowed the company to develop a home networking solution with distinct advantages. As virtually every home is equipped with multiple electrical outlets in every room, an Enikia home network can leverage the unparalleled ubiquity offered by the power line. In addition, a power line-based home networking solution can leverage the increasing intelligence incorporated into appliances and consumer electronics. Every electrical device has access to the Enikia-based network, allowing for a vast array of application possibilities.
Enikia's products will center around its Ethernet-compatible transceiver that works with off-the-shelf Ethernet controllers (MACs). By embodying the technology in an Ethernet transceiver, existing hardware and software built around the Ethernet standard is compatible without the need for modification.
The company anticipates product delivery in 1999.
***Credo Interactive Announces StudioPro for Life Forms (November 17)
Credo Interactive announced their StudioPro plug-in for Life Forms 3.0 Developed in conjunction with Strata. The "Strata Hierarchical Motion" (SHM) format plug-in will provide both motion capture support and an intuitive toolset for key framing and editing character movement to StudioPro 2.5.3 users.
Life Forms users can create movement with a figure editor, plus an instant walk generator, quicker than before. Life Forms 3.0 users can export movement data directly from both Life Forms 3.0 and Life Forms Studio 3.0 to StudioPro 2.5.3.
Life Forms 3.0 features:
· Range editing: allows movement sequences to be edited over a series of keyframes with one single action-including real time walk generation.
· Support for Motion Capture Data provides a method for editing mocap sequences, applying mocap data to different models, or converting between mocap file formats.
· Blend Editing: allows user to copy/paste individual body part movements between different models.
· Built-in rendering: provides an environment to preview animations or export for use on the web.
· The walk generator: creates instant, natural, and fully customized walk sequences with parameters such as velocity, distance, and step count.
· Inverse and Forward Kinematics: provides two options for posing characters.
· The file browser: saves time by allowing users to preview animation and extract movement without opening extra files.The StudioPro plug-in for Life Forms 3.0 is now available.
Current Life Forms 3.0 users can download the plug-in free from the Credo Interactive website. Versions of Life Forms 3.0 shipping in the fourth quarter 1998 and will include the plug-in at no extra cost.
Life Forms 3.0 Pricing: SRP - $299 US.
Life Forms Studio 3.0 Pricing: SRP - $495 US (special introductory offer. List price - $695 US)Available now for Mac + Win 95/98/NT Compatibility.
***Ligos Technology and Dazzle Multimedia Sign Agreement (November 16)
Ligos Technology and Dazzle Multimedia announce that Dazzle will license Ligos Technology's GoMotion MPEG encoding technology for a number of products for both immediate release and in the near future.
The first product will be Dazzle's Digital Video Creator, which gives personal and business PC users the ability to capture, edit, manage and distribute digital MPEG video files. The product features one-button web publishing and one-button video e-mail along with an analog video output for users who wish to output their edited MPEG video to VHS tape. Other features include a detachable media manager database, which displays thumbnails of the user's video, audio, and still image files.
Dazzle Multimedia will use Ligos' encoding technology in a number of future offerings. The two companies will work together to meet the emerging needs of digital video users, including evolving interface standards to IEEE-1394, migrating from MPEG-1 to MPEG-2, and identifying and addressing other areas that will bring users a number of new capabilities. The agreement also allows the companies to move the digital video experience from the technology stage to an application.
***VLSI Shipping Chip-Scale Packaging
(November 16)
VLSI Technology announced that it is shipping in production volumes semiconductors which are targeted for the wireless and portable markets using a 0.8mm ball pitch, chip-scale package. The Fine Pitched Ball Grid Array (FPBGA) package is suited for applications requiring improved portability, form-factor size and reliability such as cellular phones, PDAs, pagers, camcorders, PCMCIA cards and global positioning systems. The new package is 70 Percent Smaller than Current TQFP Technology. The flexible tape substrate FPBGA technology is the smallest package size for lead counts between 100 to 280 leads, and is 70 percent smaller than current Thin Quad Flat Pack (TQFP) technology.
VLSI's second generation FPBGA will be implemented in 0.5mm ball pitch, which represents an 80 percent size reduction over TQFP technology, and is anticipated to be available for volume production in the second half of 1999.
Working with packaging sub-contractors, such as Amkor, VLSI is helping to establish an open-tooled, chip-scale packaging infrastructure that will make the new packaging technology more broadly available at a lower cost.
VLSI's contributions to this effort include:
· Matching the package footprints to affordable system board technology
· Identifying the best combinations of package body size, pin count and die size
· Defining variables to meet reliability requirements of the wireless and portable markets such as solder volume, design features, board thickness, and pad size.The 100 to 280 pin count FPBGA package family, with 0.8mm ball pitch and 0.48mm ball size, is optimized for wireless and portable applications that require high density I/O and a small footprint. The package utilizes a chip-up, wirebonded configuration with a flexible tape circuit substrate that is over- molded. The fine line features of the tape substrate offer greater density for smaller packages and systems, and also has a future ability to allow for greater reductions in size.
VLSI is currently using the new chip-scale packaging in several of its wireless standard products. These include the OneC GSM platform, and the single- chip CDMA+ dual-core baseband solution. Both products are packaged in a 180 FPBGA with a board area of only 12x12mm.
***Business Picture For Digital Television Gets Descrambled (November 16)
PricewaterhouseCoopers reports that industry executives are painting dramatically different pictures of the digital future in 2009 -- one in which consumer technologies are seamlessly interconnected, and one in which television is stalled between analog and digital technology.
Digital Television '99: Navigating the Transition in the US offers a framework for making strategic business decisions during this time. The authors examine the impact of DTV on traditional television business models, and across related industries, mapping out a range of probable outcomes and opportunities in light of the changes the new technology makes possible.
Ten Years From Now - If Everything Goes Right, many executives interviewed for the study, believe the transition will be nearly complete by 2009, at which time nearly 85 percent of U.S. households will have digital receivers and many others will have inexpensive digital-to-analog converters attached to their analog TV sets. These receivers will cost between $400 and several thousand dollars, and will be available at every price point in between.
Consumers will receive digital television over a variety of reception devices and from a plethora of services. Video on demand over the Internet will be very popular, and mobile users will have small screens on their portable telephones that let them access video from the Internet or satellites.
Nearly half of TV households will have some form of networking that links TVs, PCs, phones and appliances throughout the house. The hub will be located in the PC or the set-top box, depending on how much customization the customer wants.
Ten Years From Now - On the other hand, a more pragmatic group of executives see a future where broadcasters are forced to conduct business in a gray area somewhere between analog and digital. A number of them question whether DTV will be able to pass a 55 percent penetration level of U.S. households within 10 years. In this view, the price of a digital TV is still too costly for the mass market, or the content is just not compelling enough for consumers to upgrade. Some make the analogy that the equivalent of AM-FM in the radio business could happen in television. They view this scenario as fragmenting their current business and revenue streams while adding the increased costs of running two systems.
Broadcasters are concerned that they are being forced today to invest in a technology for a slowly developing market in which the returns are still unclear. This contrasts with innovative broadcasters who are willing to invest early in DTV in order to grab audience share in their highly competitive local television markets. And while 67% of the households receive their television signal through their local cable operator, the cable industry is undecided about how or when it will be able to distribute new local digital channels to its customers. This will force early DTV households to install special antennas for digital reception.
In 1998, 42 U.S. television stations will begin some form of DTV transmission, and an another 35-50 stations will begin transmitting DTV in 1999.For broadcasters, the PricewaterhouseCoopers study revealed that the next three to five years will be a period of investment as they upgrade their technical operations and begin to understand a new business model.
***Data Broadcasting Reports Results For First Fiscal Quarter (November 16)
Data Broadcasting reported results for its first fiscal quarter ended September 30, 1998.
For the three-month period, the company reported revenues of $22.5 million, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $4.8 million and income from operations of $0.8 million.
Net income from continuing operations was $0.1 million, or $0.00 per share, after giving effect to losses of $1.0 million, or $0.01 per share, from CBS MarketWatch, the company's 50/50 joint venture with CBS Broadcasting, Inc., and losses of $1.7 million, or $0.02 per share, from the rollout of the company's InSite products and the continued development of AgCast.
In the prior-year period, income from continuing operations totaled $1.7 million, or $0.05 per share, and net income was $925,000, or $0.03 per share, on revenues of $23.1 million. The prior year's first quarter included a loss of $767,000, or $0.02 per share, from discontinued operations.
Data Broadcasting continued to generate strong cash flow, finishing the quarter with $19.4 million in cash. During the quarter, the company used $2 million for the continued development of CBS MarketWatch, including expenses associated with the filing of a Registration Statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also used $3.9 million to acquire Global Treasury Information Systems (GTIS) and $1.2 million to repurchase Data Broadcasting Corporation common stock.
The company attributes the decrease in revenues and operating income for the first fiscal quarter to declines in net subscribers on its older FM and cable-delivered services, partially offset by the rapid acceleration of Internet subscribers and one month's results from recently acquired Global Treasury Information Services (GTIS).
***ixla Digital Camera Interface (SDK) v2.0 now available (November 16)
ixla Digital Camera Interface (DCI) Software Developer's Kit (SDK) v2.0 is now available from IXLA Limited.
The SDK enables software developers to integrate digital cameras into their software applications. New features in version 2.0 include direct support for 125 digital cameras and the ability to connect digital cameras directly to Web sites without any additional end-user software.
Using the ixla DCI SDK, software developers can integrate digital camera features into PC or Web-based business and consumer applications.
IXLA's DCI technology has been developed in partnership with digital camera manufacturers as an alternative to TWAIN as the standard means for connecting digital cameras to PCs and the Internet.
Using the latest ActiveX and plug-in technologies, the Web components of the ixla DCI SDK are fully compatible with the latest Internet drivers from Microsoft and Netscape. Digital cameras supported include models by Agfa, Casio, Chinon, Epson, Fuji, HP, Kodak, Konica, NEC, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Ricoh, Sanyo and Sharp.
The ixla DCI SDK v2.0 is currently available for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 platforms. The product is available directly through IXLA Limited. Prices are tiered and range from $2,000 to $100,000. All prices are given in U.S. dollars.
***Mentor Graphics Acquires OPC Technology (November 16)
Mentor Graphics announced it has signed an agreement to acquire OPC Technology. OPC technology provides system-on-chip (SOC) engineers and fabrication facilities with increased silicon yield, performance and reliability.
The acquisition permits Mentor Graphics to extend its industry-standard Calibre physical verification product line through integration with OPCT's optical rule-checking (ORC) and OPC software, SignaMask OPC. OPCT operations will be merged into Mentor Graphics' Physical Verification Business Unit in San Jose. The combined team has also created two new products for optical-process rule-checking called Calibre ORC, and Calibre ORCreporter, available in December, along with a new, enhanced version of SignaMask OPC.
---------------------------------------------------
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