ATI Aims for Cellphone, Set-Top and Console
As dessert arrives, David Orton steps outside the hotel banquet room to make a quick cellphone call. The president of ATI Technologies Inc. wants to check whether he can make an announcement at the intimate press dinner he is hosting on the eve of the Game Developers Conference this week. It might be the company's first design win in a cellphone, or a deal to partner on a next-generation Xbox or GameCube console.

ST's Pocket Multimedia Platform Resurrected as MEDEA+ Project
Reports of the death of STMicroelectronics' Pocket Multimedia (PMM) platform have been greatly exaggerated. The company said the project that was thought to have been cancelled has instead been folded into MEDEA+, the pan-European technology effort.

ATI, Nvidia Go Toe-to-Toe in Desktop Graphics
PC graphics chip makers ATI Technologies Inc. and Nvidia Corp. are going head to head with updates of their latest desktop graphics chips, crafting versions of their latest cores to appeal to all segments of the PC market.

Sharp Licenses IP for Consumer Devices
Sharp has licensed IP from all three of UK-based Imagination Technologies' Metagence, Ensigma, and PowerVR divisions for use in devices for the consumer products market.

Debugger Supports Infineon Chip for 3G Phones
The Trace32 debugger from Lauterbach has added support for the Infineon's latest architecture, the S-Gold.

Bluetooth Interconnect to HID Standard
STMicroelectronics has developed a solution for keyboards and other input devices using the Human Interface Device (HID) standard. This allows them to automatically detect and connect to PDAs, PCs, set-top boxes, and cellular platforms.

Sony, Matsushita Prep Linux for Consumer Electronics
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Sony Corp. have agreed to jointly develop a version of the Linux operating system for use in digital consumer electronic devices. The companies intend to make the result of their collaboration public around next spring and are considering the formation of a Linux forum for digital consumer electronics with several supporters, including Hitachi, IBM, NEC Electronics, Philips Electronics, Samsung and Sharp.

Wi-Fi Chipset Sales Forecast to Boom
Shipments of chip sets for Wi-Fi wireless LANs are set to hit 23 million to 25 million units this year, up from 7.9 million in 2001, according to market research group Allied Business Intelligence Inc.

Copy Protection Logjam Shows Signs of Breaking
The five-year war over copy protection of digital content pitting Hollywood studios against technology companies may be winding down, now that key consumer electronics giants, including Philips Electronics, appear to be uniting behind the smart-card-based SmartRight technology originally developed by Thomson Multimedia.

Wireless Home Multimedia Networks Require Multiple Design Strategies
Implementing bandwidth-hungry and processing-intensive applications in a wireless network presents numerous challenges to design engineers. Until recently, real-time media and networking performance was achieved by using multi-chip solutions, with discrete processors to handle such things as MPEG2 decode or the DOCSYS cable modem. But today, to meet the requirement of newer standards such as MPEG4, WMV, and JVT (H26L) and maintain consumer level manufacturing costs, vendors are looking to ever larger-scale SoCs that contain several processors.

Philips looks to spur recordable DVD player production
Philips Semiconductors hopes to ignite production of DVD players featuring its write-once, rewriteable format by releasing a reference design that will help manufacturers build DVD+R/DVD+RW recorders in time for the Consumer Electronics Show.

ST lights up silicon LED for CMOS fab lines
Technologists have long sought a silicon light-emitting diode that could be integrated into standard CMOS fabrication lines. Now STMicroelectronics claims to have achieved this critical goal with a record-breaking silicon LED that has the same brightness and efficiency as the gallium arsenide variety.

802.11b spike reported as combo WLAN chips near
Some chip and systems makers are reporting an uptick in the growth rate of 802.11b wireless LAN capability in notebook computers, just as a transition to next-generation WLAN products nears. Some analysts say aggressive pricing may force a near-term shakeout among .11b chip suppliers.

Speech technology loses its kooky luster
Long considered a niche technology years from widespread adoption, speech recognition is becoming part of the pervasive computing strategies of IBM, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft, which intend to embed it into every future cell phone, PDA, car and consumer gadget.

Wi-Fi Alliance takes lead in wireless LAN security features
The Wi-Fi Alliance has taken steps to boost the security of wireless LANs based on the IEEE's 802.11 standard by adding 802.1x authentication and Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)-based encryption algorithms to its Wi-Fi Protected Access initiative. Both elements are drawn from the IEEE's draft specification for 802.11i, which won't be finalized until late next year.

STMicro and Fujitsu to develop contactless smartcards using FRAM technology
STMicroelectronics has teamed up with Fujitsu Limited to develop a contactless smart card IC with FRAM and ROM, but no standard RAM. According to the companies, the ST19ZR01 is aimed at applications including transport ticketing and personal ID cards as it combines ST's ST19 smart card platform with the high speed and lower power consumption benefits of Fujitsu's FRAM technology.

Chip sets seen lowering DVD recorder costs
Cheaper DVD recorders may not be under the tree this Christmas, but Taiwan chip makers hope to make the consumer machines the stocking stuffer of choice by next winter.

Nvidia's PC graphics chip set gets an upgrade
Nvidia Corp. has upgraded its integrated PC graphics chip set for Advanced Micro Devices' processors, expanding its drive to gain share from competitors such as Via Technologies in Taiwan. Analysts say the new chip set, which brings support for the 8x Accelerated Graphics Port and USB 2.0, will help the graphics-chip maker find growth in an otherwise flat PC market.

Promising prospects dim for Bluetooth
The future of Bluetooth wireless technology is becoming decidedly mixed as proponents and analysts continue to question not only how soon the short-range technology will take off, but also whether the technology is fundamentally sound.

Recordable-DVD standard ratified despite holdouts
After tussling over specifications for several years, proponents of the latest recordable-DVD standard claim that a near universal format is finally in place.

AMD debuts Athlon XP for notebooks
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today unveiled its 0.13-micron technology Athlon XP line for mobile applications.

The Changing face of cable modems
Potentially masquerading as a home router and/or a VoIP gateway, the humble cable modem will also soon capitalize on the latest Docsis 2.0-based silicon.

Thin-client market begins to heat up
Earlier this year, National Semiconductor Corp. considered cutting the price of its Geode microprocessor for thin-client PCs due to rising demand for the systems. Now that Intel and Via Technologies have set their sites on the market, a wave of CPU price reductions looks even more likely.

Plastic enclosures may impede Bluetooth signals
UK thermal and EMC simulation specialist Flomerics says serious problems could soon arise with enclosures used to house Bluetooth units.

Oak chip set supports recordable DVD drives
Oak Technology Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) is rolling out a highly integrated three-piece chip set for recordable DVD drives that can work in both PC and consumer applications.

CSR and Fujitsu forge closer links on flash memories
Bluetooth chip pioneer Cambridge Silicon Radio has forged a strategic partnership with Fujitsu on the supply of flash memories for Bluetooth applications.

LG.Philips LCD expand screen production
The joint venture LG.Philips LCD is investing more than $1bn to expand its production of TV and monitor displays. Early next year, it will start processing 1100 x 1250mm substrates in the TFT LCD plant it opened last month. It aims to ramp production to 120 000 sheets a month by the end of next year.

Scientist tips features of Bluetooth 2.0
A scientist at Ericsson Technology Licensing has leaked the basic features of the upcoming Bluetooth 2.0 wireless communications specification targeted at personal-area networks, which has been kept under wraps by the standards-setting Bluetooth Special Interest Group. The 2.0 spec is expected to support gross rates of 4, 8 and 12 Mbits per second, said chief scientist Jan Haartsen in a speech prior to the Bluetooth Congress here.

Features

Consumer Electronics Demands will Drive EDA Innovation
One of the most exciting areas of high technology to watch as the world rises out of the current economic downturn will be the consumer electronics industry. Predictions suggest that the general communications industry will lag somewhat in the recovery period, but it looks as though new, innovative product categories from the consumer segment will drive semiconductor volume.

Consumer Electronics Show 2003: A Jump-Start for the New Year.
Murray Slovick reports on the new and notable in Las Vegas.

Advanced DVD Players With MPEG-4 Part II. The Hardware Perspective

The Arrival of Advanced DVD Players with MPEG-4 (Part 1)

Gerry Dorman Catches the DVD Recording Bug

Guide to IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Standards

Chip Vendors Flock to Vegas for CES 2002
With computers--or at least MCUs or DSPs--in your TV set, DVD player, MP3 device, car stereo, cellular phone and PDA, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has become as important a show as Comdex for suppliers of ICs and intellectual property.

USB 2.0 Disk Drives-Technical Challenges to Achieve Ease of Use

Won't You Please, Please Help Me?
by Murray Slovick

Ten Months Until Christmas
by Murray Slovick

Interfacing to CompactFlash Cards
by Doug Wong and Jean Chao

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