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Nikkei Electronics

August 14 2006 Issue

Keyword .  .  .  p. 10

Mickey Mouse Protection Law

What’s New .  .  .  p. 28

• Over the Air Broadcast Copy Control to Be Changed to “EPN”
• The Japanese Ban on UWB Is Finally Lifted but Many Constraints Will Prevent the Realization of Its Full Power
• Matsushita and NEC Create a New Company to Restructure Their Mobile Phone Businesses
• NTT Releases an Interface for NGN Testing
• The Latest Draft of the GPL Revises DRM and Patent Wording
  
  

Leading Trends

Making Inroads into Intel’s Stronghold, AMD Increases Its Strength in the x86 Market.  .  .  p. 47
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) fought an uphill battle in the x86 microprocessor market for many years, but the company now has a spring in its step. It has caught up with Intel Corp. in terms of retail market share in the US and is taking full advantage of its acquisition of major Canadian graphics LSI supplier, ATI Technologies Inc. Underlying this strength is a change in the company’s design philosophy made in mid 1990s.


Flash Memory—The Meaning of the Lawsuit over Invention versus Value. . . p. 57
A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit in which former Toshiba Corp. engineer, Fujio Masuoka, was claiming compensation from that company for flash memories he had invented. What effect has the case had on electronics engineers and corporations?


Increasing the Light Emission Effectiveness of Green Light LEDs by Reformation of GaN Crystals. . . p. 65
Green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are employed as light sources for LCD televisions and LED displays. Research into new methods for manufacturing the LEDs is starting to heat up as players seek to raise luminous efficiency and output, which are lower compared to other LEDs.

Cover Story

Bringing the Millimeter-Wave Technology to the Home.  .  .  p. 77
Realizing gigabit-order wireless communication with just one transceiver circuit—milliwave communication is the ultimate wireless technology, enabling adequate transmission of HDTV baseband signals without having to compress them. Thanks to advances in miniaturization, CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductors) have milliwaves within range. Distinguished Japanese and foreign universities and research bodies of semiconductor manufacturers engaged in research into RF CMOS technology are starting to get serious about related development.


Part 1        Overview.  .  .  p. 78
The attraction of multi-gigabit wireless communication—realizing a pipe dream

Glossary: Living with milliwaves . . . p. 88

Part 2        Roadmap.  .  .  p. 90
The target is 2009—overcoming challenges with design technology

Tech Tale

Renewing Information Is the Key to a Car Navigation System (Part 3): It Is Probably More about Traffic Information than Entertainment.  .  .  p. 100

Guest Paper

Implementing Real Time Software Handling of Encryption for 4K x 2K Moving Images at 40 Mbps  .  .  p. 105
KDDI R&D Laboratories has developed a system for encoding 4K x 2K high-definition video using MPEG-2 technology. The main feature is processing with software, achieved by connecting up a nine CPU board cluster. The new system is expected to be applied to high-grade video delivery systems used for distribution of movie content via digital broadcasting or broadband. The systems can also be used with other encoding protocols such as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and MPEG-4. Enabling real-time encoding using software cuts development time to one half to one quarter of the time required when using hardware. The main issue in development now is the connection between CPU boards, which makes the real-time encoding possible.
In this article, we receive a detailed explanation of the technology that enabled real-time encoding using software, as well as upcoming applications.

NETs Buyers’ Guide

Oscillators.  .  .  p. 114
Here we explain what to look for when choosing an oscillator, which are said to be found inside almost all electronic devices and are produced in volumes exceeding 10 billion units each year. The indicators to look at are oscillating frequency and accuracy in response to temperature changes. Ceramic oscillators are most used for comparatively low frequencies, such as microcontroller clock signals. For wireless communication and other high frequency applications requiring greater precision, crystal oscillators are often used. In the high frequency field, where fine adjustments need to be made with the oscillating circuit, oscillators with an integrated oscillating circuit become a popular choice. When designing your own oscillating circuit, you need to pay attention to the compatibility between semiconductor and oscillator. Mention must also be made of the growing interest in the application of silicon MEMS oscillators, samples of which have been shipped recently.

NETs Seminar

Interactive Interface Functionality for Next Generation Optical Disks (Part 1):
Creating the “Blu-ray Java” Specification from a Study of the Success of DVD.  .  .  p. 122
Appliance manufacturers hold high hopes that the interactive operation functions that help realize content distribution and games will be key to the popularization of packaged media using next-generation optical discs. In the first half of this series, we clarify all the facts about the Blue-ray Java specification for Blu-ray Discs, while the second half will look at the iHD specification for HD DVD.

The Start of the IPTV Standardization Process (Part 1): The 4 Elements for Implementing a Service .  .  .  p. 130
Telecommunications technology standardization body, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has commenced work to standardize IPTV, which is the provision of broadcasting services along IP networks set up for communication purposes. In this series, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) engineers participating in the IPTV standardization process explain in detail about four elements that will be necessary to realize an IPTV service.

The Latest on Quantum Encryption (Final): Transmitted Text Is Encrypted by Using Quantum Properties.  .  .  p. 136
This series has looked at quantum cryptography, a quantum key distribution technology that makes use of quantum properties to allow the secure sharing of keys between sender and receiver. The final installment introduces the Y-00 quantum protocol proposed in the year 2000. Y-00 uses the “quantum noise” property to securely deliver the communication data itself.

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Keyword:	10
News Ranking	12
What's New:	28
Selected Shorts:	37
Leading Trends :	47
Cover Story:	77
Tech Tale:	100
Guest Paper:	105
NETs:	114
Calendar:	146
From the Readers:	150
From the Editors:	151