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Nikkei Electronics

April 11 2005 Issue

What’s New. . . p. 22

• Toshiba Get a Black Mark for Stealing Trade Secrets in a NAND Flash Law Suit
• Toyota’s New Hybrid Car’s System Emphasizes Output Power
• A 2mm² “RFID Tag” with a Transmission Range Estimated to Be up to 10’s of Centimeters Is Realized
• Organic Devices in the Form of Ultra Sensitive Image Sensors, Blossom at an Applied Physics Conference
• The Patent Dispute between SCE and Immersion; “It’s Not Just About Game Devices”
• Mobile Phone Contents Industry in a Quandary over what Seems to Be a Notice Rejecting Full Song Downloads
• Nisshinbo Industries and Japan Radio to Mass Produce a Capacitor with the Highest Energy Capacity
  
  

Leading Trends

Starting with Mobile Phones, Manipulating Digital CE Devices by Using Acceleration Sensors . . . p. 51
Mobile phones that can perform a variety of functions just by shaking or tilting the handset are starting to multiply. Devices for detecting user movements, including acceleration sensors and angular rate sensors (gyroscopes), play a major role here.
These devices will likely be employed more even in applications other than mobile phones as further progress is made in miniaturization and lowering of prices.

Inkjet Printers into Replace Laser Printers . . . p. 61
Inkjet printers are renowned for the quality of their output, but in terms of printing speed nothing can beat a laser printer. This basic assumption may now become a thing of the past.
Using its newly-developed line head, Brother Industries, Ltd. has realized an inkjet printer capable of printing 150 sheets of A6-size color images per minute.

Cover Story

Engineers, Be Ambitious . . . p. 79

(Part 1)
Groups that have achieved technological breakthroughs in the past share a number of elements — lofty goals to drive on engineers, engineers highly-competent in a specific field, organizational flexibility to ensure the necessary human resources are available when required, and the continuity to persist over long periods until a development goal has been attained.
There have been many instances among earlier cases where the engineers, despite not enjoying the support of their companies, had managed to establish these requirements on their own, or were lucky to have favorable conditions fall into place.
Significant achievements could surely be made if such conditions were provided in an organized way.

(Part 2)
What is needed to develop a ground-breaking technology or product? Engineers do not hesitate to reply that “enthusiasm” is of utmost importance. However, it is not easy to construct a system for raising enthusiasm.
This is also obvious in the fact that performance-based ideas, which have spread rapidly in recent years, do not always function according to plan. Manufacturers use all kinds of tricks to overhaul current systems or establish new ones.
How to gauge ground-breaking development, how to structure an organization in order to breed innovation — these questions can be answered only through trial and error.

Guest Paper

40bit Key for RFID Authentication Can Be Broken in One Hour
. . . p. 99
A group of researchers is pointing out the vulnerabilities of wireless tag identification systems to be used in vehicle anti-theft devices. They have apparently proved that systems using the Digital Signature Transponder (DST), a wireless tag developed by Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI), can be fraudulently used. In response, TI is playing up the safety of the system: “We have not received one reported incident of fraud since 1997 when the DST was first used in immobilizers.”
As yet, no third party has verified the research group’s findings, but some encryption technology experts say, “The research results show up the fundamental weak points of the current DST.” Research groups at John Hopkins University and RSA Security Inc. in the U.S. reveal how the DST was cracked.

NET's Seminar

The History of Benchmark Testing (Part 2): Calling a Breakaway from the World of Floating Point Calculating, Gains Acceptance as the First Marketing Tools . . . p. 110
Benchmark testing first appeared back in 1970. A number of benchmark tests have simply come and gone between then and now. This installment looks at how benchmark testing evolved during its early years in the 1970s and 1980s.

How to Control Leak Current (Part 6): Reducing by Variable Threshold Voltage Employing Control Body Bias . . . p. 120
The previous installment explained the method of controlling LSI power supply voltage (Vdd) to reduce leakage current.
This time, we introduce the method of reducing leakage current by altering the substrate bias voltage to indirectly control threshold voltage. Compared to the method of controlling Vdd, this method has few ill effects, such as increases in delay time.

Tech Tale

DLP — the People Who Inherited Light (Part 4): “Please Wait to Buy It” . . . p. 181
People from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) raced around both inside and outside the U.S. trying to cultivate new applications for its digital micromirror device (DMD).
Naturally, the company put on grand demonstrations at Japanese expositions. It even exhibited a display and a projector using the DMD at the Japan Electronics Show held in Osaka in 1995. It was with this projector in mind that three men made the trip from Tokyo.

Interview

Shinsedai Co., Ltd., President & CEO, Katsuya Nakagawa: “Developing “Family Computer” That the Whole the Family Can Enjoy” . . . p. 186
SSD Company Limited — the company that teamed up with toy manufacturers to develop the home karaoke system, “e-kara,” and “Excite Bowling.” Most of the founding members were developers of the Nintendo Co., Ltd.’s Family Computer and they continue to take up the challenges of the home computer field.
SSD President & CEO, Katsuya Nakagawa, tells how he wants to give entertainment the whole family can enjoy back to the home.

What's New:	22	For further information, please contact: Nikkei Electronics 2-1-1, Hirakawacho Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8622, Japan Vox: +81-3-5210-8141, Fax: +81-3-5210-8510 http://ne.nikkeibp.co.jp/
Selected Shorts:	37
New Products:	45
Leading Trends:	51
Cover Story:	79
Guest Paper:	99
NET's Seminar:	110
Tech Tale:	181
Interview:	186
Coming Next:	173
From the Readers:	174
From the Editors:	175
Calendar:	176
Announcement:	179