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Nikkei Electronics

May 08 2006 Issue

Keyword .  .  .  p. 10

DLNA

What’s New .  .  .  p. 32

• A Myriad of Fuel Cells for Mobile Devices Aim for Commercialization
• NTT DoCoMo Develops OFDM Technology Able to Send URL and Other Text Information over an Audio Signal
• Sharp Brings to Market an LCD TV Containing PC Functionality
• Why Matsushita Electric Industrial and SQUARE ENIX Cooperated on a Platform for Digital CE Devices
• Sharp Brings to Market Solar Cells with Improved Reliability
• NEOMAX and Nippon Kagaku Yakin Develop Neodymium Type Magnets that Can Be Miniaturized without Using Resin
  
  

Leading Trends

As Embedded Linux Marks Time, Engineers Need to Change Their Way of Thinking.  .  .  p. 51
Concern is rising about the future of embedded Linux, the reason being the successive departure of highly capable engineers from MontaVista Software Inc., which has led development in the field.
MontaVista says it is not concerned, but it seems as if the incident is going to force engineers working on embedded Linux to rethink their stance of dependence on a specific company.

Disney, TV and Carriers Compete over “Entertainment in the Palm of Your Hand”.  .  .  p. 59
Compared to Japan and South Korea, the U.S. is taking a strikingly different approach in exploring new applications for mobile phones, as seen at the largest mobile phone related event in all of the U.S., CTIA WIRELESS 2006, held April 5-7, 2006 in Las Vegas. The focus is on entertainment.

Cover Story

Automobiles Will Become Safe through Wireless.  .  .  p. 81
Moves are getting well underway in Japan, Europe and the U.S. towards practical application of driving safety support systems that make use of wireless communication.
This comes from the realization that safety measures incorporated into the vehicles themselves, such as airbags and anti-lock braking systems (ABS), are limited in the extent to which they can reduce the number of traffic accidents and casualties on the road.
Accidents can be prevented through the relaying of detailed traffic and vehicle position monitoring information between vehicles, either directly or via roadside repeaters. Thought is also going into future communication with pedestrians that will prevent their getting caught up in road accidents.


Part 1 Strategy Formulation.  .  .  p. 84
Commercialization competition on the world stage—mistakes made with mobile phones must not be repeated

Part2 The Star of 2010.  .  .  p. 92
Using existing infrastructure—road-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle data to pass via roadside repeaters

Part 3 An Expanding Network.  .  .  p. 98
Diverse frequency ranges to allow communication with pedestrians

Part 4 Under Development.  .  .  p. 103
More detailed traffic data gathered via “sensors on wheels”

Interview

Texas Instruments’ Senior Vice President, General Manager, WW Wireless Terminal Business Unit, Gilles Delfassy: “Chip Manufacturers Are Completely Focused on the Advancement of the Mobile Phone”.  .  .  p. 109

Tech Tale

The 30 Year Struggle for Vertical Magnetic Recording (Part 2): “Even that Prototype Must Also Be Shelved”.  .  .  p. 112
The September 30, 1991 edition of Nikkei Electronics ran the article, “Compact HDDs Advancing Quickly Towards Gigabit-density Recording.” It claimed that magnetoresistive (MR) head and partial response, maximum likelihood (PRML) technology made it possible to see 10 years ahead in terms of technology for increasing the hard disk drive (HDD) capacity. At the time, 5.25-inch HDDs were considered compact.

Guest Paper

Electronic Technology Will Make Automobiles Safer and Easier on the Environment.  .  .  p. 117
In many respects, automotive research and development is different to that for televisions, cameras and other digital consumer electronics. Two aspects that automakers have been putting effort into recently are response to environmental concerns and safety improvements.
The manufacturers are engaged in the development of a wide range of vehicle and system designs, including hybrid, fuel cell and electric cars, and a major role in that development is filled by electronics. The importance of electronics is increasing with each coming year. As electronics are assimilated more and more into systems that were once mechanical, we are seeing greater functional improvements.
But advancement is set to continue for some time yet, with moves towards practical application of technology used in airplanes even being initiated. In comparison to the hardware, however, the developers are still not quite used to dealing with software. Nobuo Okubo of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. refers to the historical background in explaining the development trends in automotive electronics.

NETs Buyers’ Guide

NOR Flash Memory.  .  .  p. 126
Compared to NAND flash memory, for which the sole pursuit has been to expand capacity, NOR flash memories come in an extremely broad range of capacities and functions. Demand is diverse, from 16Mbit products for storing boot software or for super low price mobile phones, to 512Mbit products for higher-end mobile phone models.
Particularly notable has been the large capacity of products for mobile phones, which has been on the rise ever since the popularization of third generation (3G) phones. A 1Gbit product is expected on the market some time from the end of 2006.

NETs Seminar

Making Organic Electronics by Printing (Part 1): It is Possible to Create Highly Reliable Elements Using Coating Techniques.  .  .  p. 131
Accumulation of organic semiconductor fabrication know-how has progressed well, meaning organic electronic devices are taking over from amorphous silicon in the area of mobility.
The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) is developing a variety of printing devices, including organic thin film transistor (TFT) displays. We receive an explanation of the current situation surrounding organic semiconductors.

Dynamically Controlling Body Bias and Power Supply Voltage (Part 3): Embed Several Voltage Control Circuits in an SoC .  .  .  p. 139
This series explains the low power consumption technology for LSI, based on voltage control, which was developed by NEC Electronics Corp.
This final installment looks at circuit technology for autonomous voltage control and design technology that makes it easy for SoC (system-on-a-chip) developers to incorporate such circuit technology.

Next 2 Weeks	8	For further information, please contact: Nikkei Electronics 1-17-3, Shirokane, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8646, Japan Vox: +81-3-6811-8141, Fax: +81-3-5421-9100 http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/
Keyword:	10
News Ranking	12
What's New:	32
Selected Shorts:	41
Leading Trends:	51
Cover Story:	81
Interview:	109
Tech Tale:	112
Guest Paper:	117
NETs:	126
Calendar:	164
From the Readers:	168
From the Editors:	169