--------------------------------------
***Plug-In Support for 3D Studio MAX R3 Announced
(March 16)
Discreet, a division of Autodesk, has announced that nearly all commercial plug-ins will be available when the 3D Studio MAX R3 ships this summer. 3D Studio MAX R3 is expected be supported by the more than 300 commercial and public domain plug-ins currently available for 3D Studio MAX software.
3D Studio MAX R3 software has improved support for plug-in development. The new render API architecture makes possible advanced plug-ins by making the rendering steps -- including anti-aliasing, sampling, shaders, and shadows -- into plug-ins. The release takes a similar approach with shaders, enabling developers to create specialized shaders that can be installed as plug-ins.
Commercial 3D Studio MAX plug-ins will be available through individual developers and through Digimation, which provides Discreet customers with a simple process for locating and purchasing third-party plug-ins for Discreet software.
***AVS/Express Gets Expanded Animation Capabilities
(March 16)
Advanced Visual Systems announced that AVS/Express Release 4.2 is now shipping. It includes a Geometry Flipbook animation technique and new visualization techniques. The AVS/Express animator reduces time needed to create animations. Additional operating system and platform support including support for the n32 Application Binary Interface on the Silicon Graphics, Inc. IRIX platform and the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 development system.
Earlier versions of AVS/Express included key frame animation which enabled users to select key frames, attributes for each frame, and the interpolation methods to be used between each key frame. AVS/Express then generated the animation and played it back. Further enhanced versions of AVS/Express included the "Image Flipbook," which allowed animation results to be captured as a movie in either AVI or MPEG format. AVS/Express now allows the results of the animation capture as a series of geometry frames which can be played back. With Geometry Flipbook, users can fully interact with the visualization during playback.
***3dfx Launches Ad Campaign
(March 16)
3dfx Interactive has launched a $20 million consumer brand marketing campaign to roll out the 1st half of 1999. The company's efforts include a new corporate identity and product packaging, a targeted advertising campaign, and the launch of a new 3dfx Web site timed to coincide with the introduction of the first 3dfx-branded retail products, Voodoo3.
3dfx will combine print and Internet advertising with a television ad campaign aimed at drawing game and entertainment consumers to the 3dfx brand. The advertising campaign targets men, 18-34 years old, but was developed to be broad enough to appeal to a more general mainstream consumer. Using the tag line, "So powerful, it's kind of ridiculous," the advertising campaign uses humor to promote the power and performance of the award-winning 3dfx chip technology. 3dfx will unveil three television commercials which are scheduled to begin airing March 19. These ads deliver a series of "tongue-in-cheek" spoofs on corporate "save the world" advertisements. While the ads open by suggesting that 3dfx technology is powerful enough to benefit mankind, the punch line promises instead to use the power of the 3dfx chip to make 3D entertainment more interactive and compelling for PC gamers.
The ads will begin appearing on select networks including, MTV, Comedy Central, ESPN, Fox Sports, TNT and USA Network, as well as prime time spot broadcasts including the NCAA "March Madness" tournament on CBS. Additionally, a print ad campaign will begin appearing in the April issues of gaming, computer and lifestyle publications, such as PC Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Computer Gaming World and Details.
Voodoo3 is expected to be available in over 5,000 U.S. retail outlets including national chains such as Best Buy, CompUSA, Electronics Boutique (EB), Babbage's and Software Etc. Voodoo3 products also are expected to be available in Europe: at PC World, EB, and Game in the United Kingdom; at Media Markt, Saturn, ProMarkt, and PC Specialist in Germany; and at Carrefour, FNAC, Surcouf, and Boulanger in France.
***Creative Introduces EAX 3.0 API
(March 16)
Creative Labs has introduced EAX 3.0, a new version of its Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) application programming interface (API) for developers. EAX 3.0 provides sound design tools that produce additional realism for morphing between environments, localized reflection clusters, individual reflections for distant echoes and improved distance cues utilizing Creative's statistical reverberation model.
The new features in EAX 3.0 leverage the EMU10K1 processor in the Sound Blaster Live! family of audio accelerators to deliver a better Environmental Audio entertainment experience. There are currently over seventy Environmental Audio titles, of which thirty-six are available today. For a complete list of titles available to date and titles in development, please visit Creative's Web site at
EAX 3.0 provides additional levels of realism to interactive audio applications. The new tools include the ability to use and tune localized reflection clusters or isolated individual reflections, to continuously "morph" between environments, and to further improve distance rendering and naturalness with Creative's statistical reverberation model. These features allow the developer to create dynamic reverberant environments with superior, more robust distance cues and enhanced control over each audio event in the virtual sound scene.
Creative plans to debut the EAX 3.0 SDK at its annual developer's conference, Creativity, taking place on May 17 and 18 in Universal City, CA.
***Intense3D Announces Workstation Design Wins
(March 17)
Intense3D announced that its Wildcat 3D Graphics, is available from four of the industry's top five workstation vendors in conjunction with the Pentium III Xeon processor-based workstations.
The workstation line-up includes
Compaq's Professional Workstation SP700;
Dell's Precision Workstation 610;
IBM's IntelliStation Z Pro; and
Intergraph Computer Systems' TDZ(R) 2000 GX1 ViZual Workstation.
***think3 Debuts Rolls out 3-D Rendering Software
(March 17)
think3 has announced 3-dimensional thinkreal which is an option for thinkdesign a 3-D design product, which began shipping. thinkreal is optimized for Pentium III Xeon microprocessor-based workstations.
thinkreal was developed by think3 in collaboration with rendering experts LightWork Design (Sheffield, U.K).
thinkreal makes it possible to preview without having any previous experience with photography, lighting or complex software settings. With thinkreal, it's as simple as selecting the type of photo studio they want to use, choosing from an extensive material library to create a "scene," then placing the object in the setting. QuickTime VR (virtual reality) files can be output and actually "spin around" the fully rendered model.
thinkreal, an option to the company's thinkdesign 3-D software package, is priced at $350 (U.S.) for an annual subscription. thinkdesign is priced at $1995 (U.S.) for an annual subscription. think3 products work on Intel Pentium-based PCs, or better, running Windows 95/98 or NT 4.0.
thinkreal is based on the LightWorks rendering engine from LightWork Design. LightWorks is used to provide photo-realism in computer-aided design and is used in more than 70 software applications.
http://www.lightwork.com
http://www.3zone.com
http://www.thinkthree.com
***3Dlabs updates Powerthreads Driver
(March 17)
3Dlabs announced PowerThreads SSE, an OpenGL driver for the 3Dlabs Oxygen family of 3D workstation graphics accelerators. PowerThreads SSE transparently uses the Streaming SIMD (Single Instructions, Multiple Data) Extensions for single or multiple Intel Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors in parallel with geometry hardware to deliver the highest 3D geometry and lighting performance on current and future Oxygen cards.
PowerThreads SSE is a geometry and lighting solution for Windows NT workstations, which combines 3Dlabs' multi-threading OpenGL drivers and hardware geometry processing with SSE-optimized, load- balancing technology that dynamically distributes the geometry and lighting workload in parallel across multiple Pentium III CPUs and on-board hardware geometry processors. A second CPU can boost performance by up to an additional 60%.
PowerThreads SSE performs real-time load balancing between the Gamma and the host CPUs for a dynamically balanced workload distribution for application performance. Due to load balancing, the combination of hardware and CPU processing power is additive and provides better performance when compared to CPUs alone.
***Breaking Down the Barriers: Part II
(March 25)
by Amanda Rogos
The second day of the USTA National Issues Conference promised FCC reform and universal service much like the first. Speakers included Senator Ted Stevens and Senator John McCain, as well as Scott Cleland from Legg Mason and counsel from various Senators' offices.
McCain was the most impassioned in his speech, stating that there was too much government "oversight" in the telecommunications sectors. The government, he said, could never, and should not try, to keep up with the technology markets as they are advancing much too quickly for regulation to remain current. He added that, the "FCC is hobbling the industries' ability to provide advanced data services..." and that the Commerce Committee, which he chairs, is scheduled to hold a hearing on April 13th to introduce legislation to address the FCC and their influence in these areas.
Roy Neel, President and CEO of the USTA also seemed anti-FCC in his remarks. A section of past speeches was played for the 200 attendees in which Neel graded the FCC with an "F" on dealing with mergers and telecom issues.
Scott Cleland, from Legg Mason attempted to lay the blame more on the Telecom Act itself than on the FCC. He voiced the opinion that Congress, in writing the Act, had moved the tough decisions over to the FCC and put them, "in the middle of a political minefield with no map." He classified the Act as a schizophrenic document because of its attempts to provide competition and universal service which are polar goals. Stating that the two are polar because, the goal of a competitive marketplace is company profit increases which opposes the idea of universal service that serves to narrow the profits and provide equal access.
The day ended with a panel of Congressional staffers who discussed initiatives for the current session. All three, Lauren "Pete" Belvin, senior counsel on the Senate Communications Subcommitttee, Paul Margie, counsel and legislative assistant to Senator Rockefeller, and Howard Waltzman, general counsel to Senator Brownback voiced confidence that this session would bring FCC "good government" reforms and significant telecommunications regulation although they admitted that the process would not be easy or see it's conclusion this year.
***NeoMagic in Toshiba's ultra-thin, ultra-light Portege
(March 4)
NeoMagic announced that the Computer Systems Division (CSD) of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. (TAIS) is using NeoMagic's MagicGraph128XD multimedia accelerator in the new Portege 3020CT and 3025CT notebook PC models. The 300MHz Pentium Portege is three-quarters of an inch thin, weighs 2.9 pounds and has nearly four hours of battery life.
***ARM and Northern Real-Time Applications (NRTA)
announce embedded RTOS initiative
(March 3)
ARM and Northern Real-Time Applications (NRTA) announced that they are working together to provide an advanced Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) for use in deeply embedded ARM Powered systems. NRTA will offer its SSX5 true RTOS to customers developing systems based on the ARM7TDMI processor core for automotive, consumer and communications applications requiring high performance and real time predictability.
Engineers from ARM and NRTA are working together to port and optimize the SSX5 RTOS for the ARM7TDMI processor. Each company brings complementary expertise and applications knowledge to meet the needs of the deeply embedded market place. NRTA becomes the latest member of the ARM Partnership, which provides developers with a wide range of proven software, development systems and EDA solutions for ARM based design. NRTA plans to ship the ARM optimized SSX5 RTOS early in Q2 1999.
NRTA is base in York, England company and specialises in predictable real-time operating system (RTOS) technology.
SSX5 provides true RTOS functionality and the smallest memory footprint on the market, so reducing the cost of silicon especially for high volume production. Unlike other RTOS', SSX5 supports predictability of timing performance for critical systems, and extremely efficient performance characteristics. SSX5 has been independently benchmarked as the fastest and smallest RTOS, provides exceptionally low overheads, and runs on 32, 16 and 8-bit microcontrollers.
***VLSI Announces Bluetooth Market Entry
(March 4)
VLSI Technology announced that it is incorporating Bluetooth into its industry-leading range of wireless capabilities, alongside its portfolio for standards such as GSM, CDMA, DECT, and future Third Generation (3G) protocols.
VLSI also announced today that it has co-developed with Ericsson the first Bluetooth baseband processor, and under a distribution agreement with Ericsson, VLSI will make this chip available on the open market. VLSI further announced today the availability of a development kit for Bluetooth hardware and software
development.The VLSI Bluetooth Developer's Kit enables customers to rapidly develop and market Bluetooth products by providing a full development environment and by offering access to low-risk, Ericsson-IP-based "standard silicon."
VLSI is integrating the VLSI/Ericsson-developed Bluetooth blocks into the VLSI Velocity(TM) Rapid Silicon Prototyping design reuse methodology, thus becoming the first Bluetooth supplier capable of delivering embeddable and custom Bluetooth-enabled solutions based on highly reusable Intellectual Property (IP).
VLSI's leading-edge design-reuse methodology offers customers the ability to integrate Bluetooth functionality cost-effectively into their end products, via either Bluetooth-specific devices or custom ICs combining Bluetooth with other system functionality (GSM, DECT, USB, etc.).
The Developer's Kit will be integrated into VLSI's Velocity Rapid Silicon Prototyping System. It includes additional daughter-cards and software code for the Bluetooth communications protocol stack. The daughter-card is the key element of the Developer's Kit and contains the Bluetooth baseband processor chip. The daughter-card can work in stand-alone mode; users will also be able to plug it into one of several expansion slots on the Velocity Rapid Silicon Prototyping boards.
Each Bluetooth daughter-card includes a single-chip baseband device, embedded software stack, radio module, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and some discrete components. A radio module is connected to this daughter-card and provides a radio link between the two daughter-cards that form part of the kit.
The complete Developer's Kit delivers an application-focused version of VLSI's Rapid Silicon Prototyping methodology, accelerating development of core-based Bluetooth-enabled system-on-a-chip ICs, providing true hardware-software co-development and enabling fast, accurate debugging and verification of complex embedded systems. This shortens time-to-market, reduces development risk and lowers project costs.
The Developer's Kit enables rapid development of Bluetooth-compliant hardware and application software, advancing the Bluetooth Special Interest Group's (SIG) objective of driving a wave of industry-standard wireless local digital communications products into the marketplace by end of 1999.
Bluetooth is initially aimed at the cellular phone, laptop, personal digital assistant (PDA) and peripherals markets. The Bluetooth initiative replaces cables connecting computing and communications equipment with a universal, low-cost radio link. Computers, phones, printers, headsets, pagers, personal organizers, pointing devices, joysticks, remote controls -- even household appliances -- are all candidates for Bluetooth-enabled
communications.Founding members of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group include Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba; VLSI has been involved in this group since the beginning. The Bluetooth initiative has since attracted over 500 technology adopters committed to providing Bluetooth-based products, virtually guaranteeing that Bluetooth will become a new universal digital communications standard for a wide range of consumer electronic products.
The Bluetooth SIG's roadmap calls for Bluetooth end products to become available in 1999 from a wide variety of suppliers. Achieving the SIG's goals depends on end product manufacturer success in developing innovative, customer-valued Bluetooth-enabled products on schedule, on budget and with minimal risk. This is where the VLSI Bluetooth Development Kit comes into the picture.
VLSI will make the Developer's Kit available to customers committing to design Bluetooth end products incorporating VLSI silicon. VLSI will be shipping Developer's Kits by June 1999, following the release of Bluetooth Specification v1.0. The VLSI Developer's Kit is offered along with an upgrade subscription for a total price of $65,000.
***Lawmaker Wants FCC Revamped
(March 12)
The House Commerce telecommunications subcommittee is holding a hearing on the Federal Communications Commission this month. The panel's chairman, Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., said he hopes to have a bill drafted by June detailing some changes in the FCC's mission and structure.
For now, Tauzin said he doesn't have many specifics and is open to suggestions. FCC Chairman Bill Kennard has said he's interested in working with lawmakers to help the agency run effectively into the 21st century.
Republicans in the GOP-controlled Congress have criticized the FCC for acting too regulatory, particularly in its implementation of a 1996 law freeing cable, local and long-distance companies to get into each other's business. But it's not clear whether any measure to overhaul the FCC could pass Congress and be signed into law.
Specifically, Tauzin expressed concerns that the FCC takes too much time to decide various requests made by businesses, including requests for corporate mergers. As a result, his bill could include "reasonable time limits" for the FCC to act on such applications.
Tauzin also didn't rule out trying to limit the FCC's authority to review mergers.
Currently, the Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission conducts antitrust reviews on mergers involving telecommunications companies to determine whether they would be good for competition and consumers.
The FCC has a broader legal standard involving the public interest, which can include antitrust considerations.
***Alcatel readies home basestation
(March 1)
Alcatel aims to introduce GSM home basestation, bringing a full range of data and voice services to any household from a mobile terminal by 2000.
The switch, based on the company's cordless telephony system (CTS) technology, will be compatible with GSM handsets, and deliver a one phone, one service product, although some software modification will be required.
The CTS standard has just been adopted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and is based on the wireless access protocol (WAP), which is designed to provide mobile access to the Internet.
The CTS home station forms part of an Alcatel strategy based on the increasing reliance of the handset sector on renewals, which it expects to account for more than 50% of sales in a 120 million unit-plus market by 2001.
The company is also pushing ahead with the introduction of Internet and e-commerce, among other services, for the handset-only market
***AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and Motorola create
VXML Forum
(March 2)
AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and Motorola announced today the formation of the Voice eXtensible Markup Language Forum (VXML Forum) to make the resources of the World Wide Web accessible by telephone. The Forum aims to drive the market for voice- and phone-enabled Internet access by promoting a standard specification for VXML, a computer language used to create Web content and services that can be accessed by phone.
AT&T, Lucent and Motorola will contribute their markup language technologies to the development of the open VXML specification. Seventeen other leading companies from the speech, Internet and communications markets have agreed to support the VXML Forum and play an active role in reviewing or contributing to the VXML specification. Industry supporters include 3Com Corporation, Blue Diamond, British Telecommunications plc, Dragon Systems, General Magic, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lernout & Hauspie, Nortel Networks, Nuance Communications, Online Anywhere, Philips, Registry Magic, SpeechWorks, Unisys, Vocalis and Vogo. The initial specification will be available for public comment and contribution next month, with the goal of submitting a final proposed specification for standardization to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) later this year.
The VXML Forum seeks to promote a broadly supported standard that creates an open, platform-independent environment and enables equipment and infrastructure providers, speech technology providers, speech application developers and content providers, and communications service providers to participate in the growth of this market. In addition to giving users the option of voice-enabled Internet and intranet access, expected benefits include new business opportunities for content developers, greater ease of application development - and thus an expanded developer base- for the speech community, and more rapid creation of differentiated services for carriers.
Other companies interested in seeing access to Internet information and content become voice- and phone-enabled may join as supporters, contributors or adopters. The initial VXML specification will be based on AT&T's and Lucent Technologies' phone markup languages and Motorola's VoxML language, which have common roots but have been developed independently in the three companies. The aim of the VXML specification is to leverage the best of the companies' approaches for the benefit of the entire industry.
http://www.vxmlforum.org
http://www.att.com
http://www.lucent.com
http://www.bell-labs.com
http://www.motorola.com
http://www.voxml.com
***Alcatel Creates a New Internet Division to Focus On
Carrier IP Market
(March 4)
Alcatel has set up a new division which consists of business units, either already existing within Alcatel, or wholly owned companies, including Assured Access and Packet Engines. It offers a complete access and edge data solution allowing carriers to connect residential and business customers.
The creation of the Internet Division reflects Alcatel's vision of the evolution of the market in three broad segments: new carriers, existing operators and enterprise. The new division will address in particular new "greenfield" operators segment, such as internet service providers (ISP's), competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC's) or the newly created data operations of existing operators. The Internet Division will also be a center of expertise for IP technology for other parts of Alcatel networking activities.
For the enterprise market, a major initiative has been made with the recently announced acquisition of Xylan, allowing Alcatel to offer customers leading converged corporate communications solutions.
With the new Internet Division a range of integrated Internet technologies is now available to Alcatel customers. High speed Internet access is available through Alcatel's ADSL and HFC solutions. The company is the worldwide leader in ADSL with over 35% market share worldwide and 52% in the U.S.
Remote access node technology for dial is available through the newly acquired Assured Access company, which also integrates voice over IP (VoIP) gateway functions.
The Xylan acquisition, with its edge and aggregation routers, will provide seamless transitions solutions for points of presence (POP's).
Packet Engines brings wire speed gigabit routers, providing high performance IP switching, with its WAN and MAN technology applicable as a core routing device.
Alcatel network and service management products will provide customers additional service features such as billing and service level agreements, as well as convergence with the traditional telephone network and services through signaling gateways and a powerful IN platform. Start-up Style Management With International Reach
The Internet Division will have a common sales, marketing and customer service team with strong regional focus to ensure that well integrated end-to-end solutions are offered to carriers and service providers around the world.
***Britain sets chip-card plan to beat fraudsters
(March 14)
Britain's banking system will launch a 303 million pound ($494.8 million) plan next month to roll out over 100 million computer chip-equipped credit and debt cards to customers in an attempt to beat card fraudsters.
From the beginning of April the members of Britain's Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), which includes all major bank and credit card groups, will start replacing their magnetic stripe cards with cards impregnated with computer chips known as "smart" or "chip" cards.
These cards, which use encryption techniques, are much harder to counterfeit by fraudsters who "skim" or copy a card's magnetic stripe and put it onto another card.
The banks have already started upgrading their Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) to take the chip cards and expect to have converted 12,000 of their 24,000 ATMs to the system by mid-1999.
APACs members also aim to upgrade half of Britain's 500,000 point of sale (POS) terminals within three years.
This CVM (Cardholder Verification Method) system allows the use of personal identification numbers (PINs) at the point of sale and further reduces the prospect of credit and debit card fraud.Chip cards also allow banks and credit card groups to incorporate loyalty programs with the cards or introduce other services like electronic ticketing and electronic purses.
A test of the system using 120,000 cards was carried out in July 1998 in the British cities of Northamption and Dunfermline. France uses a different type of smart card system but recently agreed to bring in the EMV standard.
***GM Unveils Virtual Car Showroom
(March 10)
General Motors has put car buying online so consumers can escape the traditional haggling with auto dealers.
The site offers access to details for about 350,000 GM make and models, independent, third party price comparisons, vehicle inventory, GMAC financing and the ability to talk electronically to dealers of their choice.
About 75 percent of GM's 7,800 dealers nationwide have enrolled in the GM BuyPower site.
Online shopping boomed during the Christmas holiday season, and consumers spent about $17 billion on Internet purchases in 1998. E-commerce is expected to surge to more than $1 trillion by 2003, according to Internet researcher Forrest Research.GM BuyPower debuted as a pilot service in four Western states in October 1997. A positive response led to the national roll-out.
GM BuyPower is available 24 hours a day, and will offer consumers access to GM-certified used vehicles through its dealer page. Trained and certified GM BuyPower managers will respond to consumers' electronic inquiries within 24 hours.
***Cable Providers Argue Competition Will Replace
Regulation
(March 9)
The Federal Communications Commission's authority to regulate cable television rates expires March 31, but cable companies say it will have little impact on their businesses or their decisions on raising rates.
Many cable providers say competition from satellite television services is forcing them to improve service and hold rates down. But that's a different view from some members of Congress and consumer groups, who point out that cable rates have risen faster than inflation and that promised competition for cable operators from telephone companies has failed to develop.
Under a provision of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC will lose its authority to regulate rates for some cable television programming. That programming generally includes satellite channels such as TBS, ESPN, CNN, Lifetime and MTV.
Local governments will continue to regulate rates for the lowest service level, which includes local broadcast, educational and government channels. Pay-per-program and pay-per-channel services such as HBO are already unregulated.
Congress deregulated the telecommunications industry and cable television operators with the 1996 law. Competition would lead to better service at cheaper rates, lawmakers reasoned. They delayed deregulation of rates for three years to allow competition to develop.
But some congressmen and consumer groups worry the FCC is losing authority to regulate rates before effective competition exists.
The FCC reported that between June 1997 and June 1998 cable prices rose 7.3 percent while the inflation rate increased 1.7 percent. A portion of the rate increases can be attributed to the expense of upgrading cable systems, with those costs up 21 percent since 1996, the FCC said. But programming accounts for a fourth of a cable system's rates and, not including inflation, was the most significant factor in rate increases, the FCC said.
***A phone you can send e-mails and faxes on
(March 13)
British Telecom has launched the Easicom 1000, a phone that sends and receives e-mail. The Easicom is designed to make e-mail an everyday activity and is specifically aimed at those who may not be PC-literate (research shows that while 57 per cent of people want e-mail, 63 per cent are not interested in buying a PC). The Easicom 1000 comes with five free e-mail addresses, so the user can have one for each member of the family or split between business and domestic use. There is no complicated registration or logging on. Operation is straightforward, a matter of composing a message on the slide-out keyboard, and entering the e-mail address. It can also be used with some existing e-mail accounts (they must be POP3- compatible).
The company will employ a pay-as-you-go system instead of a monthly subscription, charging 25p for every minute the user is on-line. Mail can be read off-line though, and then the user only pays for the time it takes to send and retrieve messages. One restriction is that the 1000 lacks any graphics capability and cannot receive e-mail attachments.
The Easicom also sends (but won't receive) faxes. It has a 150-number directory, calendar, calculator, notepad, currency and unit (ie weights and measures) conversion, international dialling codes, and it can provide access to weather and other information services.
Other services services offered through the phone are access to book and CD shops, which allow you to read reviews or listen to selections before purchasing. Services are expected to expand to include other retailers, banking and insurance.
***NeoMagic acquires optical drive development group from
Mitel Semiconductor
(February 18)
NeoMagic announced that it has acquired the Optical Drive Development Group and associated DVD intellectual properties from Mitel Semiconductor, for an undisclosed sum. This group, located in Manchester, England, is a team of 16 professionals with significant experience in mixed-signal analog design and a DVD optical storage read-channel product line. The technology and products of this team complement NeoMagic's development activities, underway for several quarters, to bring embedded DRAM to DVD electronics.
Prakash Agarwal, president and chief executive officer at NeoMagic said, "We are pursuing a multi-market strategy extending beyond the notebook arena and into other markets and applications that benefit from mobility, small form factor, battery life, and the multimedia performance enhancements that come from our MagicWare DRAM integration. As internet bandwidth grows, end-users are demanding more multimedia content in their web experience. DVD is the technology of choice for the storage of multimedia content in the internet age, and so is a significant market opportunity. We believe the Optical Drive Development Group's expertise, coupled with NeoMagic's embedded DRAM technology, will offer compelling solutions to DVD drive manufacturers. "
Amnon Fisher, vice president and general manager of NeoMagic's Consumer Products Division said, "DVD is rapidly emerging as a single media that will span home video, home audio, and computer data storage applications. The value of this cross-platform standardization is quite significant. NeoMagic has worked with Mitel's Optical Drive Development Group for well over a year, and their capabilities are well known to us. The work they've done in DVD analog signal processing and read-channel technologies is important for delivering the best performance and setting the standards for DVDs. We look forward to leveraging this group's expertise with our own activities and providing our OEM customers a complete solution for building high-performance, low-power DVD drives and DVD players."
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