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Electronics December 19 2005 Issue
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Nikkei Electronics |
December 19 2005
Issue
Keyword . . . p. 10
rootkit
What’s New . . . p. 30
- Panasonic Shikoku Electronics Comes Up with a Coating to Control
Whiskers on FPCs
- A Stream of 65nm and 45nm Generation CMOS Technologies for Low-Power
LSIs Appear
- QUALCOMM Lands Both Mobile WiMAX and MBWA
- Yagi Antenna Launches an Omnidirectional, Round-Surfaced OTA Digital
Broadcast Indoor Antenna
- Sony and NEC Merge Their Optical Disc Divisions into a Joint Venture
- NTT DoCoMo Invests Over $100 Million in Both ACCESS and Aplix
Leading Trends
The Next Generation of Fuel Cells for Mobile
Devices Aim for Commercial Viability in 2008. . . p.
51
Development of new types of fuel cell is intensifying. These
could be called the second generation of fuel cells following on
from first-generation direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), which will
be on the market as early as 2007.
All the new types will provide
for greater output and safety.
Looking Ahead of Post RoHS—Preemptive Measures to Lessen
Volatile Organic Compounds. . . p.
63
Volatile organic compounds are said to be a cause of sick building syndrome and
people are now voicing strong concern about their emission not only from building
materials for houses, but also from electronic devices.
With the possibility
of restrictions being implemented in the future, countermeasures are getting
under way.
Cover Story
The Destruction of the Common Sense Notion that Software “Can Be Easily
Fixed”. . . p.
87
The perception that software can be easily fixed is about to change. Software
will be seen to be “hard,” like hardware. Rather
than having to eliminate bugs that emerge in software, the robustness
of specifications will be ensured from the start so that bugs are
not allowed to develop.
One approach to achieve this has been
gaining attention—the “formal” approach.
What Does It Mean to Be “Rigorous”?. . . p.
90
Moving to a methodology of reducing interpretation errors prior to engineering
Be
thorough in testing and reviewing, and rigorous in project management. In
software development today, no one can describe quality assurance in terms
of anything but “rigorous.” Software development, as it
stands, is a far cry from the practice of engineering, and this needs to
be resolved so that software can rise to the status of an engineered product
alongside hardware.
The time has come to adopt “formal methods” as
tools to implement the necessary changes.
Frequently Asked Questions. . . p.
100
All about formal methods in 10 minutes
Case Studies. . . p.
102
Success stories even in Japan—the barriers of formal methods aren’t
all that high
In Europe, the birthplace of formal methods, scientific and
other institutions have been discussing common misconceptions about these
methods.
In
Japan, on the other hand, hardly anyone is aware that they even exist and
so common misconceptions are not yet in the position to be conceived.
Nevertheless,
there are companies in Japan that have pioneered achievements utilizing formal
methods. Once of interest only to researchers, formal methods are finally
being practiced in Japan.
We introduce the latest examples in the formal
method areas of specification description and formal verification (model
checking).
Formal Verification. . . p.
108
Combing for bugs for detailed checking of specifications and testing
One kind
of formal method, model checking, is showing signs of popularity. Spurred
on by algorithmic improvements and high-speed computers, model checking is
starting to be applied not only in the field of LSI design, but also to software.
When model checking technology, which automatically detects specification
bugs in upstream processes, is combined with testing and simulation that
rely a lot on human assistance, bugs can be destroyed from a wide variety
of perspectives.
Model
checking has developed into a technique that frontline software engineers
are able to readily employ.
Specification description. . . p.
118
Make it easy for the implementer—use formal specification description
language for detailsA lot of the time, software specifications are written
in natural language. With formal specification, too, each person has
their own preferences.
The ambiguities of natural language and the
lack of any methodology for specification description are conducive to interpretation
errors and lead to redevelopment of the software.
One tool used exclusively
for such description is formal specification description language. While
such languages have so far barely been acknowledged in Japan, now is the
time to use them amid calls for greater importance on upstream development
processes.
Interview
TDK’s Chief Technology Officer Minoru Takahashi: “To
Become an Engineer Who Can Say with Pride, ‘I Devoted My Life
to Technology’”. . . p.
123
Tech Tale
The Refrigerator that Increases Vitamin C Using LEDs (Part 1): “You
Don’t Need to Take Supplements”. . . p.
126
Guest Paper
UWB to Realize Low Cost and Extremely Low-Power Consumption to Last
5 Years without Changing Batteries
. . . p.
131
Hitachi, Ltd. and YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory have developed
a short-range wireless system that consumes extremely low levels of power
and can be manufactured at low cost.
The system was made compatible
with the IEEE802.15.4a wireless standard, which employs the ultra wideband
(UWB) technology applied in broadband wireless systems, and is intended
for use in sensor networks and other applications in which the main source
of power is a button cell battery.
The aim was to achieve large
reductions in power consumption and the cost of parts by connecting low-speed
AD converters in parallel within the receiving circuit.
Despite
a high radio frequency of several gigahertz, the main transceiver circuit
components can be mounted using CMOS technology.
With an unprecedented
battery life of around five years for each button cell, sensor network
terminals boasting low parts costs are expected to be realized. The
companies have also determined that it is possible to achieve a ranging
accuracy with a 30cm or less margin of error.
NETs Buyers’ Guide
Small Scale PLDs (programmable logic devices)
. . . p. 140
Small programmable logic devices (PLDs) have been used in glue logics, circuits
interconnecting LSI interfaces that differ according to manufacturer and type,
and for fixing bugs in hardware. Small PLDs include complex PLDs (CPLDs)
and antifuse field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), but many devices have chiefly
employed CPLDs because of their low price tag, their ability to reprogram logic
circuits, and the short start-up time.
Recently, however, demand for high-density
PLDs that can be used for the same applications as current small PLDs has been
met by a stream of proposals for small, reprogrammable FPGAs.
Their density
level falls somewhere between that of CPLDs and large FPGAs, or from around
128 to 2,000 macrocells. We are also seeing a growing lineup of CPLDs
with low power consumption and a smaller mounting area for use in portable devices.
NETs Seminar
Usability Seminar for Embedded Device Engineers (Part
3): Sending Proper Feedback to User’s Operation. . . p.
147
The third installment in our series introducing methods for improving the usability
of embedded devices deals with feedback, a device’s response to the user’s
operations.
The importance of generating an appropriate response to each
and every operation is explained in relation to improving device usability.
Technology to Reduce Power Consumption for SH-Mobile. . . p.
156
There is no limit to improvements in the processing capability of application
processors or the storage capacity of combination memory for mobile phones.
To
heighten performance and storage capacity when there is limited battery capacity,
however, it is essential to reduce the power consumed by the CPU core.
This
article introduces the power consumption reduction technology of Renesas Technology
Corp.
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| Keyword: |
10 |
| News Ranking |
12 |
| What's New: |
30 |
| Selected Shorts: |
41 |
| Leading Trends: |
51 |
| Cover Story: |
87 |
| Interview: |
123 |
| Tech Tale: |
126 |
| Guest Paper: |
131 |
| NETs: |
140 |
| Calendar: |
212 |
| From the Readers: |
216 |
| From the Editors: |
217 |
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