Wave Report

Virtools will supply Virtools Xbox Kit which is an add-on library of 19 building blocks and an interface in Virtools Dev for managing the communication with the game console. Support is provided for handling game pads, memory units, saving or loading games using the Virtools schematic view. Specific features include:

Shaders used in a composition can be edited on the fly without reloading the composition. It enables the shader writer to develop shaders in a game situation and see the visual results immediately.

The Xbox Kit SDK includes the Virtools building blocks source code. This allows for the development of game loops, behaviors, managers and plugins. Scripting of gameplay is supported though Dev's VSL Virtools Scripting Language.

The specific editor offers the ability to export Virtools compositions and media according to Xbox features. Once a game has been created in Dev, testing it by transferring data or exporting to the Xbox is straightforward.

http://www.virtools.com

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0412.2 Story of the Issue

***GGF10
by John Latta

Berlin, Germany
March 10 - 12

Grid as a Fundamental Shift in Computing and Digital Infrastructure

Grid is a computer and network playground for academics? Wrong. Here at Global Grid Forum, which was only started in 1999, it is evident that a fundamental shift in computing is taking place. It will take years to unfold and only now are its impacts beginning to reach into the enterprise. Certainly IBM is a leader but Sun, HP, Oracle and others are in rapid chase. The potential to go into all facets of computing is obvious, even including the home. This GGF10 is devoted largely to the standards process but there are many insights and contacts. There are numerous mind shifts forced by the impact of grid and here is a sample:

A Grid infrastructure looks like an OS,

Software is infrastructure

Grid makes virtualization possible,

Where an application runs, data is kept or a service originates is transparent

Virtualization enables abstraction that distances physical entities from the user and the association with the
computer or OS upon which the application runs is much less important,

An effective Grid infrastructure is one where the application does not know the Grid is present, and

The notion of a dumb network and smart clients is turned upside down with Grid, as the network and computation are
inseparable.

The best way to think of GGF is IETF. GGF is largely a standards body and many of the policies and structures are patterned after the IETF. This is an open process. It is made up of working groups where the standards get drafted. In addition, other documents are published which are informational. The process of forming a working group is bubble up. It can begin with an ad-hoc meeting of interested parties then move to Birds of a Feather (BOF), and when a charter has been approved, it becomes a working group to draft a standard. Note that there are also less formal efforts under Research Groups. The IP policy follows that of the IETF and is based on RAND - reasonable and non-discriminatory with a strong emphasis on free IP licensing. Once a standard has been approved there is a period of time that runs from 6 - 24 months for independent implementations to be tested. Here at GGF10 there is little of the conference activities such as a plenary sessions and mostly meetings in support of the standards. As a result, it is technical but also full of insights.

There are two dynamics driving Grid. One is the on going Grid effort worldwide, mostly concentrated in academia. These networks are based on resource sharing across large databases or HPC (high performance computing) centers. In many respects, this is what might be called the application sector. It is the source of the experience base from which grid concepts and standards are emerging. The second dynamic is reflected in the efforts in the GGF to make grid a part of mainstream computing. This is beginning to happen with support coming from Intel, HP, IBM and Oracle. However, for this to directly impact many companies and individuals, everyone recognizes that grid cannot be outside of the directions that computing is going. Thus, there are significant forces to make grid the future of computing.

A review of the working groups and research groups illustrates how grid is like a distributed OS. These include:

Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA)
Grid User Services
Grid Security Infrastructure
Data Access and Integration Services
Grid Benchmarking
Grid Protocol Architecture
Grid File System
Grid Resource Allocation Agreement Protocol
Open Grid Service Common Management Model
Open Grid Services Interface
OGSA Resource Utilization
Relational Grid Information Services

Note that this is a short list of the efforts of the GGF, in the working groups.

Alexander Reinfeld, the local host at Humboldt University gave an interesting overview of grid. In it he stated:

The network bandwidth is available
The computing resources are available.

Thus, the challenge is to make grids

Reliable - autonomic - and
Provide high level software which supports grid
applications.

The key to value of grid is virtualization.

From this comes the foundation for NGG - next generation grids - that include the following points:

Grid Nodes are atomic units forming abstractions over resources,

NGGs will be able to provide services, functions or even new concepts that are unknown to the clients, and

NGGs will be able to organize on the fly to provide functionality and behavior that none of the individual
members has.

This has important implications that we will discuss later.

The big news from this event is that GGF and OASIS have combined their efforts in Web Services. A group of individuals, independent of but including individuals who have been working on the specifications for Open Grid Services Infrastructure (OGSI), began work with OASIS. They are crafting a set of specifications that will make OASIS more supportive of Grids and will allow OGSI to use the developing OASIS standards as the foundation web services. This will put GGF specification efforts at the center of web services and thus make Grid more mainstream. Steven Tuecke of Argonne National Labs gave an impressive presentation on these efforts. A press announcement was posted on the GGF site.

Another highlight of the event was a speech given by the Minister of the German Federal Government for Science and Education, Edelgard Bulmahn who was very supportive of Grid. She also announced the D-Grid initiative in Germany.

Following, Paul Messina, Argonne National Labs, gave a presentation on "Grid-Enables Computing Environments." He made a number of references to the report: NSF Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure that was published a year ago. This is at:

http://www.communitytechnology.org/nsf_ci_report

It is the so-called Allen Report who was the chair of this study panel. This study is influencing many efforts in grid including government research priorities.

One of the most important statements made by Paul is that we must think of

Software as Infrastructure

This has important implications when the network is totally dependent on the software that underlies it. Such a notion is the case with the PSTN and the role that SS7 plays. It could also be said for the OS in the Cisco routers. But the notion of a software infrastructure in IP networks goes well beyond these. Virtualization is accomplished when the computing hardware and network is abstracted by software. Thus, the role of GGF efforts to set the standards which look like an OS, as seen above, becomes all the more evident.

The context of the role of grids actually came from an unannounced session which explored the commercial implications of grid. Intel gave a talk and IBM gave a presentation. IBM described a number of grid applications. One was of a large Asia Pacific telecommunications company that is seeking to use Grid to handle DSL aggregation. The product foundation includes the IBM Grid Toolbox that is an enhanced version of the Globus Toolkit. This runs on the IBM WebSphere platform.

There is enough support for grid in enterprises that a conference will be held in Philadelphia called:

GT04 Commercial Grid Conference,
May 24 - 26, 2004

Further there is

IEEE CCGrid 2004 "Extreme Clusters, Grids, Networks,"
April 19 - 22, Chicago

18th Annual National HPCC Conference, High-End Computing in
the Wireless World - The Grid and Beyond,
March 30 - April 1, 2004, Newport, RI.

This conference illustrates the significant shifts beginning in the computing landscape.

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0412.3 Simulators

***AIS announces project to Provide Virtual Reality Training to Civilian Responder Community
(March 22)

The National Corrections & Law Enforcement Training & Technology Center at Moundsville, West Virginia has awarded the Reality Response Division of Advanced Interactive Systems a contract for SVS. The SVS virtual reality training system will be used as a pre-exercise training tool for participants in the upcoming Mock Disaster in September. SVS provides 3D virtual reality training for emergency response personnel.

The virtual reality simulation software supports the simulation of terrorist attacks or other dangerous situations. Synthetic environments are created that include location, a scenario and support for many individuals over broadband connections. Responders can participate simply by logging on to the LAN/WAN through their PCs.

In advance of the Mock Disaster, Reality Response will create a virtual model of Moundsville and insert training scenarios into it. Prior to the September exercise, participants will be able to train together in the virtual Moundsville without the need for physical travel.

http://www.ais-sim.com/

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0412.4 Information Appliances

***InnoMedia Announces MTA 5000 Videophones
(March 29)

The InnoMedia MTA 5000 videophones enable video telephony services, including wireless LAN and 3G compatibility. The phones are models MTA 5531 and MTA 5410. The MTA 5531 supports wireless LAN, PSTN connectivity, a 5-inch LCD and an optional video answering machine. The MTA 5410 is a basic video phone. Both models have a NAT router for PC internet access while the video telephony session is on. The phones also support the SIP protocol and H.323 and MGCP versions will be available in the later part of this year.

The PCMCIA Wireless LAN means that the phone can be deployed using existing WLANs. These phones are also compatible with 3G mobile systems which means that calls can be made to 3G video-enabled cellular telephones.
InnoMedia videophones are currently in use throughout Hong Kong through a video telephony service called VFone, offered by CK Communications and Hutchison Global Communications. VFone service subscribers are making video calls to Hutchison 3's mobile 3G users.

The MTA 5000 series of videophones will be available worldwide starting next month.

http://www.innomedia.com/

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0412.5 Displays

***DisplaySearch Launches New Quarterly Plasma Panel Report: Q4'03 Shipments Rise 36% Q/Q & 176% Y/Y to Record High 613K Units
(March 22)

DisplaySearch has launched a new quarterly report on shipments of plasma display panels (PDPs) with the first issue now available. The DisplaySearch Quarterly Plasma Display Panel Shipment and Forecast Report covers PDP shipments, prices, supply, demand, supply/demand, design wins and a specification database. Included are:

* Historical PDP shipments by supplier, application, size and resolution;

* ASPs by size, resolution and supplier;

* Unit, revenue and ASP forecasts by application, size and resolution on a rolling 8-quarter basis;

* A rolling 8-quarter look at capacity by supplier by fab and supply/demand;

* Design wins for each supplier by size and resolution;

* A module specification database.

Some of the highlights from the first issue include:

PDP shipments rose 36% Q/Q and 176% Y/Y in Q4'03 to a record 613K units. Revenues rose 34% Q/Q and 160% Y/Y to $846 million. TVs drove the growth rising 41% with Public Display up 9%.

By size, 40"- 43" accounted for the dominant share of the total PDP market at 66%, up from 61% in Q3'03, due to its broad availability and attractive price points.

FHP had the highest unit and revenue share, but is losing ground to Samsung SDI and LGE. Samsung SDI remained #2 and LGE overtook Panasonic in Q4'03 to reach #3.

Samsung SDI was #1 in TV panels in Q4'03 with LGE overtaking FHP to rise from #3 to #2. Panasonic was #1 in Public Display panels followed by FHP.

By size, CPT led at 46", FHP led at 32", 37" and 55", Pioneer led at 50" and NEC led at 60"+. At 40"-43", Samsung SDI led overall with LGE the top 480P supplier, Pioneer the leading 720/768P supplier and FHP the leading HD supplier with its 1024 ALIS panel.

Looking forward, PDP capacity is expected to rise more than 220% from Q4'03 to Q4'05. Samsung SDI is expected to lead in 42" equivalent capacity from Q3'03 through Q4'05.

PDP shipments are expected to rise at double-digit rates each quarter on healthy demand as prices continue to fall.

Larger TV panels expected to drive demand with the 50" share expected to rise from 16% to 30%. The <40" share is expected to fall from 17% to 10%.

HD panels are expected to gain ground as the price gap and absolute price difference falls and buyers demand HD performance. 720/768P panels are expected to overtake 480P panels in Q1'05 and the HD share is expected to rise from 53% in Q4'03 to 66% in Q4'05.

http://www.displaysearch.com/

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0412.6 Communications

***Level 3 Announces Residential VoIP Phone Services

Level 3 Communications has launched two new residential VoIP services in 300 markets in the US. Service will begin in Q2 of 2004 and the full availability by the end of 2004.

The services are called (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service and HomeTone and will use a broadband connection. (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service is a building block service for service providers. HomeTone is a turnkey solution.

(3)VoIP Enhanced Local Service

(3)VoIP Enhanced Local Service is targeted to cable operators, and IXCs and others who are seeking to offer residential voice services but prefer to operate their own switching infrastructure. The building blocks include local phone numbers, interconnection with the PSTN for local and long distance services, local number portability and E911 emergency services. The service provides these components while enabling the voice service provider to retain the flexibility to manage and control the features offered to the residential market.

HomeTone

HomeTone is a turnkey, hosted VoIP alternative to traditional residential local and long distance phone service. It offers the what (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service and calling features such as voice mail, call waiting, three-way conferencing, unified messaging, and a personal locator function that forwards the call until it reaches the designated party.

http://www.level3.com/

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