December 18, 2006

Keyword .  .  .  p. 10

Triangular Merger Framework

Whats New p. 32

Taking Apart a Fuel Cell (Part 2): It Used KBH4 for Fuel

ITU TELECOM WORLD: The Rise of Chinese Manufacturers Stands Out

Tokyo University and Others Develop a 512 GFLOPS Accelerator LS

Matsushita and Panasonic Electronic Devices Develop the Worlds Thinnest Speaker for Use in Mobile Phones

Consumer Products Safety Law Will Be Revised Next Spring to Require Notification of Product Incidents

Leading Trends

Printable Electronics Move to Practical Use p. 55

Printable electronics—the manufacturing of various kinds of electronic parts using printing technology.  Expectations that the method will provide a way to reduce costs are high, but large issues remain over performance and life span in comparison with silicon-based products.  However, moves to start commercializing the technology from simple applications are picking up speed, especially in Europe.

With No Need to Just Rely on Automobiles, Fuel Cells Start from Niche Products p. 67

Slow-moving development of fuel cell vehicles is spurring research into solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and cultivation of new fields of application worldwide.  Japans development scenario, focusing on commercializing of a common technology, polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFC), for both fuel cell vehicles and home cogeneration systems, is reaching a turning point.

Buyers Guide

Audio LSIs p. 77
Dispose of your trash here, The bath is ready, Press the button again—white goods, household fixtures and industrial machines that can talk are on the increase.  Most of these devices contain an audio LSI for producing voice, with multiple audio fragments recorded by voice actors being added to memory ready for playback in the required combination.  Now that more LSI manufacturers are entering the audio LSI business, we have access to a greater choice of function and available services.  Here we explain such things as the main criteria for selection of an audio LSI.

Cover Story

Improving the Lexus p. 107
Increasing automotive electronics systems; oversized software—auto manufacturers are putting the knife to the issues that have surfaced with the advance of electronics use in vehicles, and the Lexus is the advance guard.  Development will be structured more on horizontal division of labor as opposed to vertical integration and relationships between auto manufacturers and their suppliers seem set to change.  The electronics industry will also feel the effects.

The Impact p. 110
Automakers facing change—vertically integrated development is beginning to falter

The Ripple Effect p. 120
Model-based development and functional safety—vehicles are driving embedded technology

The Battle Plan p. 130
Finding ways to differentiate oneself from competitors when theres not much in it

Interview

Murata Manufacturings Executive Deputy President Tsuneo Murata: I Want to Change the Company to Be More Outward Looking p. 135

Tech Tale

Making W-ZERO3 in 8 Months (Final): Were to Redo the Whole Thing from Right Now? p. 138

Guest Paper

As Camera Stabilization Spreads to Other Areas, a Look Back at Its History and Technology p. 143
Image stabilization technology, used to control camera shake in an image, is beginning to permeate a wide variety of cameras.  The technology can be used in affordably-priced camcorders, single-lens reflex cameras and compact digital cameras and is already recognized as a basic camera function.  Image stabilization emerged through a number of different approaches and several of those methods are now actually employed in products.  In this article, engineers from Canon Inc. who have spent many years engaged in development of image stabilization technology provide us with an overview and history of the technology.  Of the different methods, lens shift image stabilization is used often recently as a way to reduce size and weight.  In the second half of the article, we compare the lens shift method with other approaches and explain the background to the former becoming the predominant method.

NETs Seminar

Below the Surface, Damage from Cracking Is Increasing (1st Half): Even with Hardware Control, You Cant Be Inattentive p. 156
The leaking of intellectual property and copyright infringements through the cracking of software are becoming serious problems.  HyperTech Co., Ltd., a security-related venture, has developed CrackProof, a powerful tool used in the prevention of cracking.  Over two installments, we take a look at the prevalence of cracking and the countermeasures applied.

Learning New Methods of Eliminating Power Supply Noise (Part 3): 4 Terminal Capacitors Are Being Implemented in Servers and Notebook Computers p. 164
The Proadlizer four-terminal capacitor was employed as a decoupling capacitor for the Cell microprocessor and the RSX image processing LSI inside the PlayStation 3 console, which went on sale in November 2006.  In this installment, we look at packaging methods for the four-terminal capacitor.