The WAVE Report on Digital Media
3D --- Media Creation --- Shared Space
---Published by 4th Wave, Inc.---
Issue #0353 ------------------03/04/04

 

The WAVE Report is Searchable on

http://www.3dlinks.com
http://www.wave-report.com

--------------------------------------

0353.1 Hot Topics

0353.2 Story of the Issue

0353.3 3D

0353.4 Storage Systems

0353.5 Semiconductor

0353.1 Hot Topics

*** mental images Acquires Cycore Cult3D Technology
(March 1)

mental images and Cycore announced the acquisition by mental images of Cult3D, Cycore's interactive 3D software platform for e-business.

Cult3D is a 3D software application that brings interactive 3D to devices like PCs, PDAs and cell phones. Cult3D will be integrated into mental images's RealityServer, a server-based collaboration platform. The RealityServer Version 1.5, resulting from the integration, will be made commercially available in the fourth quarter of 2004. It will provide real time interaction on devices with 3D data of reduced complexity. These are automatically derived from the original CAD or design data contained in the RealityServer database.

Applications for the technology include remote collaborative training and teaching, collaborative design and engineering, collaborative medical diagnosis and surgery planning, oil and gas exploration, and other data analysis and visualization applications, and broad-band based, interactive on-line entertainment applications.

http://www.mentalimages.com
http://www.cycore.com


*** Zoran's Generation9 Digital TV ICs Power LCoS -Based HDTVs from Brillian
(March 1)

Brillian Corporation announced that it will use Zoran Corporation's Generation9 family of integrated DTV ICs, software and development platforms in its new 720p liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCoS) Gen II high-definition televisions (HDTVs).

Integration of the Zoran Generation9 ICs enables Brillian television products to comply with both the FCC mandate to integrate ATSC capability in terrestrial televisions and the CE-NCTA's Plug-n-Play Unidirectional OpenCable requirements.

Brillian will utilize Generation9 features such as CableCARD Copy protection, MPEG-II transport demultiplexing, MP@HL video decompression, ZDX deinterlacing & video post processing.

The HDTVs use Brillian's patent-pending LCoS Gen II technology and will offer image quality with contrast ratios up to 2000:1. Brillian's reflective, active-matrix-driven liquid crystal displays feature about one million, 12-micron-square picture elements, each of which displays more than 256 gray levels.
The technology supports a fill factor greater than 93% and has a three-panel architecture-based design, along with a response time less than 10 milliseconds.

http://www.zoran.com
http://www.brilliancorp.com


*** i.Tech introduces the Virtual Keyboard
(February 27)

i.Tech Dynamic Ltd., part of the Hutchison Harbour Ring Ltd. group has the worldwide license for manufacturing, marketing and sales for 'The Virtual Keyboard' based on technology developed by VKB Inc. i.Tech will be presenting the final commercial version of this mobile accessory at the 3GSM conference in Cannes February 23-26.

The Virtual Keyboard projects the image of standard size QWERTY keyboard onto practically any flat surface. An infrared system senses the letters and numbers typed by the users and communicates them by wire or radio frequency to a PDA, mobile phone or laptop PC.

http://www.vkb.co.il
http://www.itechdynamic.com
http://www.harbourring.com or enquires@hwel-hhr.co.uk

0353.2 Story of the Issue

*** WCA Technical Symposium
By John N. Latta

January 21 - 22
San Jose, CA

It has been some time since we have seen so much excitement about a technology. There have been multiple starts to make broadband wireless viable but the sense here is that its time has come. Over and over the words "what a difference a year makes" are used to contrast last year with today. Welcome to broadband wireless. Now the highlights of the event

Intel - The Future is Wireless:

The Wireless Revolution
A keynote by Sean Maloney, EVP and GM Intel Communications Group

The premise is that the 1990's was the Internet Era and 2000, beginning in 2003, will be seen as the Broadband Wireless Era. Sean stated quite simply that "Intel's Role is to Help Make this era Happen." The confidence for its thrust into broadband wireless access was shown in a drawing of the components of a fictitious city called Intel Sim City. The basis for this was both in-building tests and simulations. Intel had a vacant building in San Diego which was instrumented with wireless. As a result of these efforts Intel became convinced that DSL+ speeds would be possible in a dense urban area using WiMAX technology. They saw this as their 3rd generation of wireless learning. Sean stated that: "They do not see any problems with wireless that cannot be solved by enough engineers over time."

There are market forces which support wireless use and not the more traditional cable, DSL and fiber. He cited that it costs $300/foot for insurance to dig in San Francisco to protect from water main breakage. The VC money has exited the wired technologies including all of fiber optics. One of the reasons that Intel was slow to move into the WiFi space was the long internal debate over HomeRF vs. WiFi. All said, Intel is squarely in the open standards wireless technology arena that includes WiFi and WiMAX.
As important as all the other factors was the statement that Intel has invested $4B in wireless through 2004. This is a massive commitment to the technology. As Sean stated "We invested in companies in this space that can do better than we can."

Intel's WiMAX vision has four components:
High Throughput Access for Business backhaul and some residential
Consumer Broadband Access
Mobil/Portable Broadband
Hotspot Backhaul

They expect that the indoor install will happen in H1 2005. Portability will take place in 2006/2007.

"WiMAX will be a big deal in 3 years."

A very interesting chart was shown based on analysis from RHK. It showed the normalized CapEx for Mobil NLOS as a function of frequency. The obvious implication is that the lowest frequency shown, 700MHz, was the least expensive. This, of course, links back to the statement made by Chairman Powell that some of the most valuable spectrum being held today is by the UHF broadcasters as they wait to move to HD and thus vacate the spectrum.

"We believe that the benefit of wireless to business is to drive time out of processes." A tape was shown of how this could be done in the construction industry and with police departments. "At Intel we expect that when this happens that there will be value in this and we should be able to get value for it."

NEXTEL - How Can You Help Us Make Money? :

Barry West, the EVP and CTO of Nextel

The theme was very simple: we bought the MMDS licenses at bargain basement prices from MCI. This investment included:

MCI
$144m for licenses for the 35 top 100 markets;
This sale is expected to close in Q2 2004
Nextel is accepting 59% of the spectrum leases

Nucentrix
Acquired the licenses which include 8 of the top markets for $51m

What is important to understand is how Nextel approaches the use of this spectrum.

We will do with this spectrum what we did with SMR. That is:

Innovation is in our DNA
Be First, Be Better, Be Different
Nextel has the most valuable, most loyal customers in wireless

Nextel has been running field trials. What is really important about the trial is that they want to understand what consumers will pay for and how satisfied they are.

They are evaluating "all" technologies. Nextel is further seeking via a NPRM the use of this spectrum for voice and data. The vision expressed is one where a consumer carries a WiMAX phone from inside to outside with seamless roaming. It is a VoIP phone with Nextel connectivity.

The most telling part of the presentation was:

Nextel believes that to succeed we must manufacture 1GB of data per user per month for $20 or less.

The logic behind this is that Nextel believes that for these advance broadband services consumers will use 1GB/month. If its wireless services are to be competitive they must price it less than DSL or cable. That price point is $20/month per subscriber. During the question session he stated that Nextel was open to proprietary technology in the same way that they launched the IDEN technology based on the Motorola proprietary technology. Barry said he felt that WiMAX was important but that the standards process was too slow. If someone could respond to the $20/month requirement they are interested. Put in another way "Don't talk to us unless you can meet this goal."

Barry had some humorous observations that included:

When we first sold the Motorola IDEN phones they were a brick that cost $399. This was too expensive for the market. I asked what it would take to price them at $199 and we could sell to our customers for $150 with a $50 subsidy. Motorola's response was 1m units. I ordered 1m units. We sold 950,000 that year. It is a testament to the importance of pricing for the consumer.

There is something wrong with the cellular business.

The cellular operators buy phones for $200 from the cell phone companies.

They are sold at deep subsidy for $10.

The public thinks the phones are worth $10.

The next year the public sees new models and wants one for when they go to the cell phone store to get the phone fixed or replaced.

In the store they see all the new models.

When they are told it costs $200 to get the phone fixed or replaced they just go to another carrier.

This is churn and very bad for the industry.

The only one that benefits from this, are the cellular phone companies.

It is a crazy business.

What's Hot, What's Not in Wireless:

The Wireless Communications Alliance, here in the Bay Area, ran its monthly meeting during a slot in the WCA (Association) Symposium program. Guy Kawasaki, of Apple note, was the moderator of this session that included VC's and investment bankers. Guy was very good in flushing out the panel. Here is a sample:

Hot
Consumer communities based on Mobil access
Consumer Peer-to-Peer
Making an order of magnitude improvement in the power for small devices

Over Hyped
WLAN - over invested, no money being made
Enterprise applications for WLAN
ASP have not surfaced
RFID - over 5 years away
WiMAX - where are the major carriers?
Where is money to be made when standards compliant HW prices drop like a stone?
UWB
SDR

FCC as an Innovator:

Edmond Thomas, Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, FCC.

His comments included:

There are 400m unlicensed spectrum devices in the US today.

Cognitive Radios sense the RF environment, and modifies frequency, power or modulation. It enables real time spectrum management and thus increases spectrum efficiency.

The Interference Temperature approach to regulating spectrum sets a maximum "threshold" for RF energy within a band which allows for the protection of incumbent operators. Thus, devices that stay below the threshold can share the spectrum. Key to this concept is cognitive radios. This is all a part of the new thinking at the FCC that all spectrum use is flexible. With the exception of public safety and some broadcasting, all other users of spectrum should not consider their ownership of the spectrum as absolute.

Now is the time to reexamine broadband over power line. Yes, prior attempts at this have failed due to the interference caused by broadband transmission over power lines that can serve as radiators. But technology has changed the potential for broadband over power and now is the time to reexamine it. We feel that power line is no longer a technical issue but one of business economics.

Unlicensed spectrum has 660MHz of spectrum and this is 5X what cellular has.

White spots are spectrum in a geographic area not being used. An example of this are channels 3,6,10 and 12 in New York City. The opportunity is that this spectrum could be used by cognitive radios. These radios would have to not only be radio aware but location aware so as not to interfere with these channels that are filled in New Jersey and Connecticut. This spectrum is of significant importance due to the propagation characteristics.

There are fundamental issues which the commission must face. For example, will the use of unlicensed spectrum create an asymmetric environment for licensed spectrum holders? That is, what happens when unlicensed devices begin to provide the same services as license holders? One issue which concerns me is "unlicensed spectrum squatters rights." That is, unlicensed spectrum users establish such a presence with their presence that they will come and demand licenses for the spectrum, and thus invalidate the value of unlicensed spectrum.

Interference Temperature - Rethinking Spectrum "ownership" and Use:

Right after Edmond Thomas's presentation he chaired a session on disruptive technologies, of which much of the focus was on Interference Temperature. An excellent overview of the proceeding was given by Harry Perlow, Sprint.

This is radical thinking as reflected in the NPRM.

It is possible that unlicensed operators could be permitted to use licensed spectrum if their operations do not push their market's overall interference temperature over the pre-designated interference limit or "cap" for that service.

One of the most important issues is to determine compliance. It is even being suggested that a "monitoring grid" be put in place to determine if interference is taking place. Another is to only allow sharing when the shared devices have cognitive radios.

In the discussion some in the audience took this as a given because the FCC has already started the NPRM process. Yet, Edmond stated that nothing is final. The concept is new and they must be assured it is viable.

In a subsequent presentation David Schafer of Harris stated that the interference temperature concept changes everything. Further, he stated that this might only happen when all the radios in use meet the cognitive radio standards.

Alvarion - The CEO Speaks:

Alvarion is an Israeli company which has 40 - 45% market share in BWA. Its revenue is $150m per year and the total market is about $320m to $350m. Alvarion has one of the largest research operations in the industry - 300 engineers.

Some comments by the CEO

The value proposition of BWA is like DSL - broadband to the home. But we see the current major opportunity being the supply of a range of telecommunications services over wireless. For example, it is very important that we provide TDM voice service. Yes, VoIP is hot but the companies that we deal with want us to provide wireless delivery of dial tone to homes and businesses. Vendors in this business must have a full solution for the carriers to win their business. 50% of our current installations are for voice.

We do not believe that WiMAX will support Mobil for 3 years. With WiMAX we can focus our efforts on applications for our hardware and not ASIC chip development (by implication Intel will supply the chips.)

The WAVE Repot asked the question:

With the strong Alvarion market share why did you decide to support WiMAX which will only create competition to your business and possibly lower your market share?

Response

We recognized that to grow this business it will only happen with the wide availability of network components that interoperate together and at much lower prices. It will be very had for us to expand the market from its current $350m base. In our strategic meetings we considered if we should go into other businesses, such as DSL, or seek to expand the core business in wireless. The decision was made to support WiMAX and this standard/process as a means to simulate the market.

It was our decision that the market could go to $2B with standards. We believe it better to fight to keep our 40% market share under these conditions than try to build the market ourselves.

Wave Comments:

In times of chaos there is a quest for stability. Familiarly is an anchor but there may be none. The expectations are in the eyes of the beholder. There are great wonders associated with what this technology can do and it is all the more evident today. It is all true but the venture capitalists are saying it is over invested and hyped.

WiMAX wants to look like WiFi in emulating success. Intel is all over this technology and market. They are bound and determined to make it happen. The veteran Sprint, long in its investment in MMDS, is more cautious. Nextel is making a big bet on broadband wireless and they are driven by the prospect of making a profit - standards being secondary.

But the early stages of this market are no different than any other early high expectation markets. Before it lies, the Internet, color television, PVRs and other technologies. In this chaos one cannot lose sight of a simple fundamental:

'The technology must deliver a sustainable economic business proposition'

0353.3 3D

*** Cedara introduces its Web-Ready Medical Imaging Solutions at the European Congress of Radiology 2004
(March 1)

Cedara Software Corp. announced plans to present its healthcare imaging products at the 2004 ECR Conference in Vienna,
Austria, March 5-9, 2004.

Cedara will exhibit its technologies:

-Cedara I-Report CT is a CT (Computed Tomography)-focused reporting workstation. The software features navigation tools for multi-slice data sets, 3D volume rendering, MPR, and measurement tools, support for orthopedic templates, and soon to be released software for PET/CT and lung CAD (Computer Assisted Diagnosis).

-Cedara I-ReadMammo is a digital mammography screening and diagnostic workstation.

-Cedara OrthoWorks is a PACS treatment solution for orthopedic surgeons. The application includes Computed Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Image, Computed Radiography, Digital Radiography and film digitizers.

-Cedara's new Tissue Type Segmentation software provides automatic and semi-automatic identification of tissue structures and organs for 2D and 3D MRI and CT data.

http://www.cedara.com/

0353.4 Storage Systems

*** Broadcom introduces BCM4780
(March 1)

Broadcom Corporation announced the availability of a new network storage processor chip BCM4780 enabling network attached storage (NAS) devices.

Entry-level storage products based on the Broadcom BCM4780 NASoC controller require no CD installation process.

Adding a Broadcom-enabled NAS unit to an existing Ethernet-based home network will allow users to share files; gain "always-on" access to data, regardless of whether or not other computers on the network are active; and add additional storage to the network without hard disk drive replacement on any of the attached desktop or notebook PCs.

BCM4780-based NAS systems' setup procedure requires no user configuration or knowledge of IP addresses. An auto-discovery feature automatically adds the NAS device to the attached clients upon connection to the network.

BCM4780-based storage products will offer security and configuration modes, and features, such as RAID 0, 1 and 10 functionality with support for up to four hard disk drives in a single system. The RAID software engine can create multiple RAID partitions across two disk drives including drives that are attached to the built-in USB ports of the BCM4780. Each disk drive can be made "hot-swappable," allowing the user to replace or upgrade drives, with built-in features for online repair capability.

Data on the drives can be encrypted, selectively or in total, with real-time encryption powered by a hardware AES
(Advanced Encryption System) engine integrated into the processor.

The BCM4780 features a MIPS32 CPU core on a 10/100Base-T Ethernet connection. Support for Network File System (NFS) and Common Internet File System (CIFS) are built into the BCM4780, supporting computers running Windows as well as MacOS and Linux operating systems.

Standard features built into the system design include automatic network discovery, support for streaming multiple HDTV- quality streams, and a RAID implementation that configures the device for automatic data mirroring.

The BCM4780 processor and BCM94780 reference design are currently sampling to Broadcom's early access partners. The BCM4780 is priced at under $20 in quantities of 1 million units per year or more.

http://www.broadcom.com

0353.5 Semiconductor

*** Toshiba introduces Industrial Temperature Network FCRAM Memory ICs
(February 27)

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. announced the introduction of the industrial temperature Network Fast Cycle Random Access Memory (FCRAM) with operating case temperatures extending from -40 degrees Celsius up to 100 degrees Celsius.

Toshiba's industrial temperature FCRAM2 memory ICs, designated TC59LM818DMBI, support clock frequencies up to 267MHz (533Mbps) and random cycle times down to 25ns. The 18-bit device is organized as 4M words x 4 banks x 18 bits, and possesses an operating case temperature range of -40 degrees C to 100 degrees C.

Toshiba's industrial temperature Network FCRAM1 memory ICs, designated TC59LM814CFTI and TC59LM806CFTI, support clock frequencies up to 167MHz (333Mbps) and random cycle times down to 30ns. The TC59LM814CFTI IC is organized as 4M words x 4 banks x 16 bits, while the TC59LM806CFTI is organized as 8M words x 4 banks x 8 bits. The new devices have an operating ambient temperature range of 85 degrees C down to -40 degrees C.

Toshiba's industrial temperature Network FCRAM2 (TC59LM818DMBI) chips are available now, priced at $30.00 each in sample quantities. The industrial temperature Network FCRAM1 (TC59LM814CFTI/TC59LM806CFTI) devices will be available 2Q04, priced at $24.00 each in sample quantities.

http://www.chips.toshiba.com

--------------------------------------

Copyright 2005 4th WAVE, Inc.

To subscribe to WAVE go to

http://www.wave-report.com

To unsubscribe also use the Wave Report Home page or send the preformatted UNSUBSCRIBE message:

List Management - Unsubscribe

Previous issues of WAVE, as well as other info can be found at

http://www.wave-report.com
http://www.3dlinks.com

Comments on or questions about the WAVE may be sent to:

Fourthwave Staff

or the below individuals below:

John N. Latta - Editor-In-Chief

Michael Robertson - Web Editor

The WAVE Report may be redistributed in full for individual readership and posted to newsgroups, Web, and FTP sites. This publication may not be reprinted or redistributed for profit. Short quotes are permitted but must be attributed to the WAVE Report. 4th Wave retains the copyright to the WAVE Report.