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Nikkei Electronics

August 28 2006 Issue

Keyword .  .  .  p. 10

Japanese Patent Law Section 35

What’s New .  .  .  p. 28

• Sony and Sony Ericsson Jointly Develop a Mobile Phone LCD Panel Module
• A Proposal for a Sampling Mixer Type Tuner that Is Superior in Removing Close Range Interference
• NTT Develops a User Interface in which a User Feels a Pulling Force
• Sony Develops a Red Semiconductor Laser for Displays
• The Reason Why Samsung’s Financial Results Worsened
  
  

Leading Trends

43rd Design Automation Conference: An Analysis Method that Takes Dispersion into Account Spreads in the LSI Design Field.  .  .  p. 51
The introduction of methods for improving yield by predicting fluctuations in chip production is developing into a common challenge for many engineers involved in LSI development. Underlying this is the increasingly evident lengthening of the time required for design associated with the trend towards miniaturization.

Buyers’ Guide

In-Vehicle Camera Modules.  .  .  p. 61
Cameras for automotive-use are starting to spread very quickly. Some are used to project a view from the rear of the vehicle on to a car navigation screen during parking. Others provide the driver with views both left and right from the front of the car at blind intersections. Image recognition applications will increase, too, for sounding an alarm, for instance, when the white lines on the road are recognized and the driver tries to change lanes without indicating, or for preventing injury by detecting the position of a passenger’s head and adjusting airbag inflation settings accordingly. It is currently common practice to employ CCDs (charge-coupled devices), but CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensors are waiting eagerly in the wings. The majority of camera modules for automotive use are OEM supplies to automobile manufacturers and therefore detailed specifications remain undisclosed. Here we introduce the main characteristics of automotive camera modules in comparison to other applications, and future methods for achieving price reductions.

Cover Story

Attacking Medical and Health Applications.  .  .  p. 91
Following on from digital consumer electronics and cars, the health and medical field has emerged as an enormous market for electronics manufacturers that will be buoyed significantly by government measures, the easing of regulations and a health boom. The target market is going to expand from hospitals to encompass ordinary households, which will lead to demand for smaller, simplified health and medical equipment. Here lies a great opportunity to apply electronics technology.


Part 1        Trends.  .  .  p. 94
No longer a remote presence—IT provides an opportunity for market entry

Part 2        Health.  .  .  p. 100
Home is the battlefield—sparing users fuss

Part 3        Medical Care.  .  .  p. 109
“Whenever, wherever”—the spotlight goes on displays and electronic parts

Interview

Hitachi’s Kaoru Suzuki: “There Are Questions about Myself in a Large Company”.  .  .  p. 115
“Brilliant engineer”—the term fits Kaoru Suzuki nicely. In May 2006, Hitachi, Ltd. achieved practical application of an electronic paper display, and Suzuki is the one who originated and personally led the business through to commercialization. After joining Hitachi, he was involved in the development of large mainframe computers and had no connection whatsoever with electronic paper up until a few years ago. But on attending a training course, Suzuki started to question his own status as a member of a major corporation and set out to create a new line of business through his own efforts.

Tech Tale

Renewing Information Is the Key to a Car Navigation System (Part 4): 10 Years of Unswerving Devotion to Digital Map Navigation Systems.  .  .  p. 118

Guest Paper

Knowing the Reality of Formal Methods: From VDM, Z Notation, etc. Model Rule Types to Connecting to UML.  .  .  p. 123
“Formal methods” are grabbing attention as a means to improving the quality and reliability of software. Those words are appearing with increasing frequency, for example in the IEC 61508 international safety standard applied to industrial equipment and the like, and in the ISO 26262 standard, which sets out similar provisions for application to automobiles. In Japan, however, hardly anyone knows what they really are. Formal methods, as can be construed from the use of the plural, is a general term referring to a large variety of methods. Despite being such a broad, diverse field, there is very little literature providing an overview of the whole set of formal methods. We have now reached a point at which, rather than conduct broad arguments on whether formal methods are good or bad, we should be familiarizing ourselves with, and consider application of, the individual technologies that comprise them. Professor Shin Nakajima, who has been engaged in research in this field at the National Institute of Informatics, gives us an overview of the formal methods and the various technologies.

NETs Seminar

Interactive Interface Functionality for Next Generation Optical Disks (Part 2):
5 Frameworks with Distinctive Characteristics for Blu-ray Java .  .  p. 144
Previously we looked at the design concepts for the Blu-ray Disc standard to find out why Java was used in interactive operation functions. This installment explains the features of the Blu-ray Java specification, while comparing it to Java operating environments for other digital devices.

Smaller Server, Larger Performance .  .  .  p. 149
High-performance servers these days have a rapidly rising total number of CPU cores due to their incorporation of many multi-core microprocessors. Standardization of hardware and high-speed interfaces for connecting the microprocessors has also got underway. This article introduces these recent changes and implementation examples.

The Start of the IPTV Standardization Process (Part 2): Ensuring Anonymity and Limiting Service Areas.  .  .  p. 153
The first installment of this series explained about achieving uniformity, one of the four elements required for implementing an IPTV service. This second article explains about ensuring anonymity and the need to restrict areas of service, as well as methods to realize these aspects.

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Keyword:	10
News Ranking	12
What's New:	28
Selected Shorts:	39
Leading Trends:	51
Buyer's Guide:	61
Cover Story:	91
Interview:	115
Tech Tale:	118
Guest Paper:	123
NETs:	144
Calendar:	196
From the Readers:	200
From the Editors:	201