Japan, the US and Europe are all working on improving driving safety through roadway-vehicle cooperative systems, making the development of road safety technology based on radio communication a key area of competition.
Thin, bendable batteries have become a hotly competitive area as more electronic products requiring their use emerge, such as E-paper, RFID tags and smart cards.
The Platinum Engine chipset from Sanyo Electric Co Ltd of Japan, which consists of two chips, is designed to handle image processing for digital camcorders recording in high-definition television (HDTV) format.
Next-generation cellular mobile video technology in the US is inching closer to deployment. This year the two leading mobile video technologies, DVB-H and MediaFLO from Qualcomm Inc of the US, have moved forward with late-stage testing.
Faster processor and system speeds combined with smaller, more complex IC packages mean that designers must carefully consider the mix of materials used for packages, IC substrates and printed circuit boards (PCB) to manage heat.
Compared to the so-called cell-based integrated circuits (IC), an application-specific IC (ASIC) can be developed for between one third and one fifth the cost, and in one quarter to one half the time.
Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are being developed with an eye toward use in mobile phones, but they are poorly suited to applications demanding high output. The potential for fuel cells using hydrogen fuel in these applications, however, has suddenly jumped.
The Multimedia Laboratories of NTT DoCoMo Inc of Japan have developed a technology to multiplex data into the audio signal of television (TV) or other broadcasting, dubbing it audio orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).
Sharp Corp of Japan has developed the Internet AQUOS, which integrates PC functions into the AQUOS LCD TV, for release in late May 2006.
Neomax Co Ltd of Japan and Nippon Kagaku Yakin Co Ltd of Japan have jointly developed a sintered isotropic Nd-Fe-B (neodymium) magnet combining excellent formability and magnetic characteristics.
Seiko Epson Corp of Japan and JSR Corp of Japan have succeeded in making a low-temperature poly-Si thin-film transistor (TFT) using inkjet technology. The technology is intriguing because it provides all the advantages of organic TFTs, which are widely considered to be the next-generation Si TFT technology.
Demand for energy-saving electrical appliances has increased due to energy and environmental concerns and the need to comply with new environmental regulations. For electrical appliance makers, a key challenge in terms of achieving efficiency gains and energy savings is in developing high-efficiency variable-speed motor control technology.
The official motto of this year's Spring Processor Forum (SPF), held May 15-17 in San Jose, California, was "power-efficient design", and in his opening keynote speech Chuck Moore, senior fellow at AMD, outlined the major problems in the processor world: "Our industry is driven by elements of balanced system performance."
Fuel cells are widely viewed as a potential solution to feed power-hungry portable devices. Fuel cells produce power by mixing fuel with air and water between reactive film membranes in an electrochemical reaction. They are expected to eventually be smaller, lighter, and more powerful than conventional batteries.
At Altera Corp's "Demo Day" in Hong Kong, held June 9, Robert Blake, vice president, Product Planning, Altera, outlined the company's approach to formulating its product roadmap, with particular emphasis on its move to the 65nm process node.
Computex Taipei 2006, held June 6 to 10 at the Taipei World Trade Center and the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC), now ranks among the two largest of such events in the world. More than 1,300 exhibitors were present, sharing over 2,900 booths - a new record - spread over five show floors.
Intermec Technologies Corp was one high-profile exhibitor at RFID World Asia, held in Singapore recently. The company offered a preview of its mobile RFID-equipped forklift, armed with real-time location capabilities.
SK Telecom has launched the world's first commercial HSDPA service. The new 3G mobile network service, dubbed 3G+, enables not only video calls but also ultra high-speed data transfer through an improved data rate which is up to seven times faster than WCDMA.
Redfern Integrated Optics Inc (RIO) has demonstrated the first directly-modulated 10-Gbps external cavity laser (ECL) transmitter optical sub-assembly (TOSA) for long reach, 40km and 80km DWDM, in an SFP+ form factor transceiver module. The technology was recently showcased at an optical communications event, the OFC/NFOEC 2006, in Anaheim, California.
Japanese electronics manufacturer and assembler NEC Tokin Electronics Vietnam has opened its second factory, at Loteco Industrial Park in the southern Dong Nai province, costing an estimated US$15.8 million. This brings NEC Tokin's total investment in Vietnam to US$21 million.
Dirk R Thomas is president, Greater China, Hitachi Global Storage Products (Shenzhen) Co Ltd (Hitachi GSP), and vice president of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST). He talks to NE Asia about the company's latest move to perpendicular recording.
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