Apple profits for hardware will drop but software sales and market share will climb
Last year when the first generation iPhone was announced by Apple, the bill of materials for the device was estimated to be in the area of $170. According to recent analysis the new iPhone 3G could be costing Apple significantly less to make than the original iPhone.
According to teardown analysis from Portelligent Inc., the new iPhone 3G could have a bill of materials as low as $100. This reduction in the cost to build the device takes into account the increased prices for the addition of a 3G chipset and a GPS chip.
“Gen2 iPhone pricing is aggressive enough that it made me think Apple's really taking the gloves off on this one," noted Portelligent president David Carey. "They are probably not as worried about iPhone hardware profits as they are about getting a piece of the action on service revenues and getting more Macs in homes and offices all around the globe.”
This aggressive pricing is taking some money out of Apple’s coffers on hardware sales. However, Apple will likely make up the losses on hardware sales in revenues for software sold via the App Store. DailyTech reported that the App Store could be a billion dollar business for Apple by 2009.
Will Strauss from Forward Concepts told EETimes that he believes the iPhone 3G is using an Infineon baseband and RF transceiver along with a Samsung applications processor. Samsung launched a handset with these same parts recently and pointed out that the cost of the Infineon chips were about 20% less than similar chips from Qualcomm.
According to Carey, the addition of the HSPDA chipset adds $15 and the addition of the GPS chip adds another $5. Those additional costs are offset in part by the reduced memory pricing compared to last year. These cost figures, of course, don't take into account development, marketing, and software costs.
6/19/08
Apple iPhone 3G May Only Cost $100 to Make
Palm Expects to Ship 2 Million Centro Smartphones
Palm hopes to keep seeing its Centro smartphones fly off store shelves
Palm Inc. may be stuck in a rut and facing difficult financial times, but it hopes selling 2 million units of the Centro smartphone in 2008 will help turn things around.
At least 1 million units have been shipped so far in the United States since the phone's launch in mid-October. The Centro is Palm's fastest selling smartphone in company history.
Palm's recent announcement that the phone is now available for Verizon Wireless will help the company ship even more units of the phone. Consumers can now purchase and use a Centro on the Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel phone networks.
Verizon customers can purchase the phone for $99.99 after a $70 MIR and two-year customer agreement or extension with Verizon.
Centro features a QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, digital camera, 64MB internal memory, and runs on Palm OS 5.4.9.
The phone is considered a smaller, easier to use Palm Treo smartphone, but it has some drawbacks. While it allows its users to e-mail, browse the internet, text and picture message, there isn't a built-in instant message program available.
The Centro's success can be attributed to new smartphone users, Palm indicated in a press release. The Apple iPhone 3G may have gotten a price cut, but the Centro remains cheap and easy to use, and Palm expects it will continue to draw in new smart phone owners.
Understanding its using an aging operating system and internet browser unlikely to please experienced smart phone owners, Palm is working on a new OS that should be available in 2009. The team of developers will be responsible solely for creating a new interactive platform aimed directly towards higher-end, more experienced phone users.
According to IDC, Palm increased its market share 5 percent, and now controls 13 percent of the global smartphone market.
Microsoft Announces NavReady Embedded Operating System for PNDs
NavReady is Microsoft's first category specific operating system
Microsoft announced a new embedded Windows operating system this week called NavReady. Microsoft says that NavReady is the first category-specific operating system it has released.
Some key features of NavReady are a small footprint that uses a componentized technology that allows the OS to be incorporated into CE 5.0 designs easily. The OS is designed to run on an ARM processor and it supports a 32-bit native real-time unified kernel.
Microsoft says that NavReady will help manufacturers build portable navigation devices (PNDs) with a highly connected design. The OS supports Bluetooth for rich hands-free usage, managed dial-up networking services and other Bluetooth features.
One key component is Live Search for devices that helps perform search quires to find points of interest. Desktop pass-though is also featured and allows the PND to establish connections to online services and the Internet when the device is connected to a Windows-based PC that has ActiveSync/WDMC installed along with an internet connection. PNDs using the NavReady OS can also act as SideShow display for Vista computers.
The internet connectivity of the new OS allows for use of MSN Direct for updates on traffic, gas prices and more. PC World reports that Mio Technology has already announced it will use the Windows Embedded NavReady 2009 operating system in its next line of Mio GPS devices.
XM, Sirius Merger Gets FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's Approval
Final vote on the merger could come at any time
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has recommended that the merger between Sirius and XM be approved according to the Associated Press. To get Martin’s approval, provisions were added to the merger deal that would turn over a portion of the available bandwidth from the satellite providers to noncommercial and minority programming.
The provisions for turning over portions of the satellite bandwidth require the two companies to donate 8% of their satellite capacity to noncommercial and minority broadcasts. That available bandwidth equates to about 12 channels each from Sirius and XM for a total of 24 channels.
Other provisions from Martin to his approval include an open radio agreement that would promote competition among manufacturers of satellite radios and a three year price freeze on all packages and an a la cart option to be available within three months of the close of the deal.
The AP quotes Martin from a statement, “As I've indicated before, this is an unusual situation. I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they (the companies) have offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest.”
Despite Martin’s approval the final vote to approve the merger is yet to happen and the other four commissioners could still say no to the merger. There is no clear indication on how the other commissioners feel on the merger at this time.
The approval of the merger has been long sought by Sirius and XM. The merger was approved by the U.S. Justice Department in March. When Sirius and XM first announced they intended to merge their two companies the deal was worth in the area of $13 billion.
The final vote on the merger could come any time after Martin’s recommendation is given to his fellow commissioners.
Phoenix Gets Some Dirt on Mars
After a short sticky situation, Phoenix returns some images to Earth.
After successfully reaching Mars at the end of a nine and a half month jaunt through interplanetary space, the Phoenix Lander landed safely on the surface and began broadcasting data back to Earth. Phoenix's well known mission is to study the Martian surface and air, scanning it for traces of life and help to discover how a planet once thought to be at least partially covered with water became an icy desert.
To examine the rust-colored soil, Phoenix uses a robotic arm which wields a small backhoe type bucket to scoop up soil and bring it to the various instruments aboard the lander. Presently, the probe has gathered at least one sample which has been imaged by its Optical Microscope instrument.
The soil sample surprised Phoenix mission crew, being somewhat more clumpy and sticky than was theorized. However, the particles that were imaged by the microscope were successfully deposited upon a custom silicone substrate. The substrate contains several different strips with different sizes and patterns of pegs and holes machined into them. The various patterns are designed to help capture and hold different sizes of particles for imaging not only by the Optical Microscope, but by Phoenix's onboard Atomic Force Microscope.
The images show various types of particles, most notably large particles of dark glassy appearance, probably volcanic in origin, and smaller particles which are more similar to the dust that swirls endlessly in the Martian atmosphere. Also in the mix are at least four different types of minerals.
No reports of life are flooding in from the Phoenix control center. Though the lander has been on Mars for nearly 20 days, data from the instruments is just starting to be collected and analyzed. It may be weeks or months before a sample of ice, what the mission planners are most enthusiastically seeking, is collected for analysis.
Mars may have an active, though slow climate. It may have once teemed with primordial life in liquid water. With any luck and a little work, thanks to the Phoenix lander, we may soon have answers to these unknowns.
Doctors Test Newly Invented Gestural Interface During Brain Surgery
The new and growing field of gestural computing got a serious field test during brain surgery
Gestural interfaces are a hot new field of computing. Microsoft announced that its upcoming OS -- Windows 7 -- will rely heavily on gestures and touch. In a most basic sense, a gestural interface is controlled by movements of the hands or arms, allowing users to gesture to literally scroll around images on screen. Sometimes this is coupled with touch in devices such as the iPhone, where a pinching gesture can shrink or expand items.
Continuing the progress in the field of gestural computing, researchers at Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) developed a new gestural computer system specially designed for medical use. In the past, doctors used touch screens or mice to navigate about images during surgeries. However, by touching the screen, they risk compromising sterility and introducing infection into the surgery site.
The new system is purely gestural and requires no touch. It allows doctors to scroll around images by moving their hands in front of the screen.
The system received an impressive field test at a Washington D.C. hospital and the results are detailed in the June article “A Gesture-based Tool for Sterile Browsing of Radiology Images" in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
Juan P. Wachs, a recent Ph.D. recipient from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at BGU lead the research, which he describes stating, "A sterile human-machine interface is of supreme importance because it is the means by which the surgeon controls medical information, avoiding patient contamination, the operating room (OR) and the other surgeons. This could replace touch screens now used in many hospital operating rooms which must be sealed to prevent accumulation or spreading of contaminants and requires smooth surfaces that must be thoroughly cleaned after each procedure – but sometimes aren't. With infection rates at U.S. hospitals now at unacceptably high rates, our system offers a possible alternative."
The new system, known as Gestix, eliminates the need for complex and largely ineffective sterilization procedures on today's OR touch screens. When surgeons first start with the system, they train it and learn to use it by learning to move their hand in one of eight directions away from a neutral area, fast. This movement scrolls the image. They also learn to zoom in and out by rotating their hand clockwise or counterclockwise. To avoid misleading signals, when the doctor is done, they drop their hand which triggers a sleep mode.
The hand motions are captured using a Canon VC-C4 camera and they are processed by an Intel Pentium processor and a Matrox Standard II Video Capture device. The system was tested to much success at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C during two "in vivo" neurosurgical brain biopsies. This may be the first time such a system was used with an "in vivo" procedure, according to the researchers.
Wachs worked with colleagues Professors Helman Stern and Yael Edan on the project and with a variety of M.S. students, who theses pertained to the topic. Ongoing research is focusing to expand the gestural interface for use in tele-robotic and tele-operated systems. By adding voice recognition, researchers hope to create a system with many control modes (multimodal).
Other additional research on the imaging side is being developed by Prof. Helman Stern and Dr. Tal Oren of the Dept. of Industrial Engineering and Management and Dr. Amir Shapiro of the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. They aim to help the vision impaired navigate better through use of this system and a tactile body display.
BGU's staff has not announced the current commercialization plans for the technology, but it seems likely that it will soon be finding its way into hospitals.
AP Uses DCMA Takedown on News Site; Riles Bloggers, Online News Community
Blogger remains defiant against AP, explores legal options
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provided a valuable tool for copyright owners such as artists and writers to defend their property online. However, in the ever evolving online community, the DMCA notices, as they are commonly known, are being used more and more often, at times threatening seemingly legitimate sites.
Some argue that the DMCA powers are being used to infringe upon users' online freedoms -- and frequently. The latest and perhaps most thought provoking DMCA battle is building between the Associate Press (AP) and The Drudge Retort, a social news/blog owned by Rogers Cadenhead, over the reposting of AP article snippets.
Interestingly, the AP is attacking both the owner for his news posts that occasionally contain small excerpts of AP text linked to the original story, and his users who similarly post snippets from various web stories on the internet in the contents. In both cases, the AP says this makes these pages in question DMCA takedown fodder.
Pursuit of action against the first alleged type of offense -- site-run reprints -- could threaten many news distribution sites such as Digg, Reddit, and Mixx, which bring news to millions of users a day. The second purported illegal offense -- users reposting comments is even more far-reaching as users on major news sites frequently have users post snippets from AP articles.
The second allegation in particular is raising a provocative question -- should commenters' actions result in punishment of a site? If so, this would mean news sites must scour every user post and try to determine if it contained copyrighted content. While The Drudge Retort is a relatively small fish, the questions raised by the AP's attack are salient to most of the online industry, from news sites, to the multitude of forums that see similar posts.
While it’s possible that major outlets like AP will only target minor, relatively weak targets like The Drudge Retort, some fear that they may begin to target multiple sites, similar to the RIAA's campaign against filesharers. In the AP lawyers' letter to Cadenhead, they state their belief that "The Drudge Retort users' use of AP content does not fall within the parameters of fair use."
They continue, "AP considers taking the headline and lead of a story without a proper license to be an infringement of its copyrights, and additionally constitutes 'hot news' misappropriation."
Seven takedown notices were filed in total against the site.
The AP is a wire service, both online and offline which writes news stories that are reprinted for heavy fees by member outlets. The service does not have its own "inbound links" or "search-juice", contrary a misconception held by some bloggers. Only its members do, which is why they are willing to pay a premium for it. The AP's stance, while a bit draconian does make sense from one perspective -- if writers could get the content for free, why would they pay AP so much for it?
The attack on the site is part of a growing campaign of legal actions from the AP. In October they targeted the news site Moreover owned by Verisign, which has similar type of service, but in its case charges users for it and a variety of other content. However the Moreover case was slightly more blatant as the site was allegedly reposting entire articles without paying.
The AP debate highlights the questions surrounding the rather ambiguous legal concept of "fair use" which is decided on a case by case basis on many determinates. Among these are whether the use is part of a commercial effort or if it’s for nonprofit. Other factors include the nature of the work and the size of the excerpted text in relation to the size of the full original text. Also considered is the effect on the owner of the copyright.
While Moreover is obviously violating fair use by the above definition, it’s harder to tell with The Drudge Retort. Its owner obviously sees his site and its commenters' use as fair use, while the AP disagrees.
While the AP has yet to wage full scale online war to similar occurrences which litter the web and online news, this latest case illustrates a more aggressive shift on its stance on fair use. The ramifications of the case and those that follow may be extremely significant to the future of the online world.
New Dielectric Material Promises Radiation Resistant Transistors, Flexible Computers
Roll-up, transparent computers and displays are just one of the neat sci-fi gadgets a new material from Northwestern University may lead to.
DailyTech has in the past covered research into the effects of long term exposure to space bound radiation on humans. Though mankind has spent many years in space, the effects of prolonged exposure, even under ideal circumstances, are as of yet unknown. Though the human part of space travel is the most important part of the equation for manned flight, radiation poses a series threat to other participants – especially electronics.
The effects of radiation on over-the-counter electronics are, in contrast, fairly well known. One of the most important parts of any electronic appliance, the transistor, is one of the most susceptible components to radiation. The problem comes from the absorptive properties of the silicon dioxide dielectrics that insulate a transistor's gate from its semiconductor components. Silicon dioxide captures radiation, which in turn creates electrons and holes. This process eventually builds up enough of a charge to short circuit the transistor, destroying it.
Not only do the human parts of a manned space odyssey need to be protected from the harsh environs of space, the fragile machinery that carries them will have to be as well. To address this concern, scientists at Northwestern University have delivered a new type of transistor to use in the International Space Station for testing. The prototype transistors were placed outside the space station where they will gain unprotected exposure to space radiation for the period of one year.
The transistors are based on a new material, dubbed SANDs for self-assembling nanodielectrics, and are the product of research into creating new types of dielectrics for future technology. The Northwestern group's goal was to create a dielectric material that was not only robust, but printable; something that could be used in transparent displays or flexible electronics. Ultimately they accomplished this by utilizing a dipping process to create thin films of self-assembled molecules.
Tobin Marks, Vladimir N. Ipatieff Research Professor of Chemistry at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences explains, “It’s not just that these transistors are only good for outer space -- that’s an illustration of just how tough they are. There is one technology on Earth, and only one, that will create as many features per unit time as a chip plant, and that’s a modern newspaper printing plant, since the paper flies at hundreds of feet per second. Every time Intel wants to make a new chip, it costs billions of dollars and takes years to do. And yet every day they print a new New York Times. So we thought, could you use printing to create electronic circuits?”
Preliminary tests with nuclear reactors show promising results for the SANDs. They appear to be highly resistant to radiation exposure, so NASA has taken a keen interest. Should the ISS tests return favorable results, the new material could revolutionize space electronics in terms of endurance and lifespan.
Aside from the obvious benefits in being radiation resistant, the group hopes to see the new material find use in many other fields -- wherever flexible, hardy and printable circuitry could find itself utilized. Some examples they cite range from solar panels to cell phones to flat-panel displays. One goal is to create inexpensive RFID tags to compliment or replace bar codes in stores. Cashiers could more easily interact with the tags, scanning an entire cart's contents at once along with alerting her if an item has reached its expiration date or informing her and the computer if the item is low on stock levels.
While the Northwestern group has already succeeded in making printed circuitry using their new material, they continue to research transistor materials that can be used as inks. The combination of a printable transistor with a highly durable dielectric substrate will likely lead to some very nifty electronics in the future.
Production Honda FCX Fuel Cell Cars Hit American Streets
The next generation fuel cell from Honda is trickling into the hands of a lucky few
Honda is among the automotive giants leading the charge to explore hydrogen technologies. The culmination of its efforts to date is the Honda FCX Clarity. The Clarity features a slick and curvy design, a 100 kW V Flow fuel cell stack that has shrunk 65 percent since Honda's initial design, 171-liter, 5,000-psi hydrogen fuel tank, a lithium ion battery pack, and a 95 kW (127 HP) electric motor. At 68 MPG and a range of 270 miles, the Clarity is very competitive with other sedans.
This week, the first mass-produced units of the hot new zero-emissions car rolled off a Japanese assembly line in Takanezawa, Japan. However, they're not going to stay in the land of the rising sun for long; they're headed for the U.S. The units are going primarily to Southern California, where a lucky few will receive them. Among these are movie stars and starlets, who will help give the car, and Honda's hybrid efforts, a high profile.
Among these VIPs are actress Jamie Lee Curtis and filmmaker husband Christopher Guest, actress Laura Harris, film producer Ron Yerxa, as well as businessmen Jon Spallino and Jim Salomon. The group was flown to a special ceremony where they were presented with the cars. Harris, who played villainess Marie Warner on the hit TV show "24" loves the car. She states, "It's so smooth. It's like a future machine, but it's not."
The new fuel cell vehicle is certainly promising. Its two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times as efficient as a traditional gas engine, brags Honda.
Honda is deploying a "few dozen" units this year to kick off production. By the end of 3 years, this number will have jumped to 200. The cars will be available to lease for $600 a month, which includes maintenance and collision coverage. The actors and others receiving the early shipments will be able to drive home their vehicles starting in July.
In California alone, Honda received 50,000 applications for the cars. Anyone living in the state could apply on the company's website. The vast majority of these people were rejected as they did not live close enough to the three hydrogen stations in Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine.
The enthusiasm from Honda was infectious. John Mendel, a senior vice president at America Honda Motor Co. cheered at the ceremony, "This is indeed a historic day for both Honda and American Honda - a new chapter in our nearly fifty-year history in America. It's an especially significant day for American Honda as we plant firm footsteps toward the mainstreaming of fuel cell cars."
Major obstacles remain, however, for fuel cell cars. First and foremost, there's a lack of hydrogen fuel stations and an infrastructure to pipe fuel around the country. Second are the issues surrounding the stack: high price and less than desirable lifetime. While advances have helped alleviate these problems slightly, they still exist.
To Honda, its fuel cell efforts are a new chance to win over its rivals. While Honda broke ground by releasing the first gas-electric hybrid in the States in 1999, Toyota quickly outpaced it with Toyota's Prius. Toyota recently announced the sale of its millionth hybrid Prius, while Honda ended up struggling, discontinuing two of its hybrids -- the Honda Insight, and the Accord hybrid.
Honda will be releasing the Clarity in Japan this fall, and it will also be going hybrid crazy, trying to battle back against Toyota. It will release a new gas-electric hybrid-only model and will be releasing hybrid editions of the slick CR-Z and Fit subcompact.
6/13/08
Apple Announces Second Generation iPhone 3G, 2.0 Software, iTunes App Store
Apple swings for the fences, again.
When it comes to announcing a new product, Apple knows how to set the stage and get people excited right up until the official announcement. Nowhere was this more obvious than with the launch of the original iPhone. The fervor surrounding the mobile handset didn't settle down when the first generation iPhone was announced in early January 2007 -- it continued until the eventual release of the phone in June of that year.
Speculation on the follow-up, the "3G iPhone", has been building ever since the first generation model was revealed -- but things really started getting a bit uproarious over the past few months. Case makers began leaking dimensions for the upcoming phone, supposed "leaked" pictures of the phone were drooled over by nearly ever gadget site on the web, and leaked firmware was picked over with a fine-tooth comb.
Apple today finally announced its next generation crowd pleaser. Apple is looking to address the shortcoming of its first effort this time around and further expand its popularity (Jobs previously stated that he wants 10 million iPhones sold within the first 18 months – it already surpassed the 6 million mark during its first year).
First things firsts – the worse kept secret about the second generation iPhone is its 3G capabilities. The first gen model was widely criticized for its slow EDGE cellular broadband capabilities. Apple is now matching the competition with the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G has tapered look with thinner edges, solid metal buttons, a black plastic backing, flush headphone jack [thank goodness], and vastly improved audio.
The faster cellular connectivity of the iPhone 3G allow for download speeds nearly as quick as WiFi and speeds that are 2.5 times as fast as EDGE. The iPhone 3G also sports better battery life than its predecessor. The iPhone 3G now supports 2G talk time of 10 hours, 3G talk time of 5 hours, 7 hours of video, 24 hours of audio, and 5-6 hours of high-speed web browsing.
Another big addition is fully integrated GPS tracking. IPhone 3G users can now get positioning information from WiFi, cell towers, and now the hardware GPS.
Apple also confirmed early speculation that price breaks would be in store for the new lineup of iPhones. The Cupertino, California-based company confirmed today that the new 8GB iPhone will be priced at $199 with a new two-year contract when it launches July 11, while the 16GB iPhone (which will be available in white at a later date) will set you back $299 under the same terms.
The iPhone 3G will be rolled out in 22 countries on July 11 (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the U.S.).
Apple first announced the Software Developer Kit (SDK) for the iPhone in early March along with the 2.0 firmware update. The SDK allows third-party manufacturers to create their own applications for the iPhone and iPod touch and upload them to the new iTunes App Store.
Developers are charged a $99 fee to publish each application to the iTunes App Store -- Apple also takes a 30% cut of the purchase price for each application sold to customers to cover hosting and processing fees. For generous developers that provide their apps for free on the iTunes App Store, the aforementioned hosting and processing fees are dropped.
Jobs noted that applications that are less than 10MB in size will be downloadable through the cell network – applications larger than 10MB will have to be downloaded through a WiFi connection of through the desktop iTunes application. Automatic updates for applications will also be pushed through to the device.
A number of applications were on display that were developed using the SDK including SEGA’s Super Monkey Ball (which will be available for $9.99 from the iTunes App Store), an integrated eBay tool complete with bidding and search, and a news reader provided for free by the Associated Press. The latter tool will send local news to you based on your location, save images, video, and text for offline viewing, and even allow you submit news as it happens.
The 2.0 software -- which is available not only for the iPhone 3G, but also to the original iPhone and iPod touch -- adds a number of new features to make the devices more corporate friendly. These include push email/calendar/contacts between an iPhone/Mac/PC via MobileMe, auto-discovery, global address lookup, Cisco IPsec VPN, Certificates and Identities, WPA2/802.11x, and remote wipe.
Other features include contacts search, bulk delete/move for emails, a new scientific calculator, and the ability to save images to the Photo Library. Microsoft PowerPoint documents are now supported as well.
IPhone users will receive the 2.0 software update for free, while iPod touch users will have to pay $9.99. The update will be available next month.
IBM Scientists Demonstrate Liquid Cooling Process for 3D Stacked Chips
IBM scientists say stacked processors have higher power densities than nuclear reactors
As processors add processing cores, circuits, and other components, the amount of heat they generate increases exponentially. Researchers and chipmakers have found that the ability to dissipate heat will be one of the main challenges to making processors in the future.
Researchers from IBM Labs and the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin have demonstrated a prototype 3D chip that has a liquid cooling system built-in to deliver water directly between each layer of the stacked processor.
The 3D chip stacks take components in a traditional chip that sit side-by-side and stack them atop one another in a layer. While the process allows chipmakers to create more powerful chips, with shortened interconnects between components for data to travel, the process presents significant cooling challenges. With 3D stacked chip design data has to move only 1/1000th of the distance data needs to travel on a traditional 2D chip. In addition to the shortened pathways for data to traverse, the 3D process also allows for 100 times the amount of pathways for data to flow. Both techniques together greatly increase the potential performance of a 3D stacked chip.
The issue for researchers designing these 3D chips is that the stacked chips produce a very high level of aggregated heat dissipation of close to 1 kilowatt in a volume of only half a cubic centimeter. IBM researchers point out that that level of heat dissipation is 10 times higher than any other human-made device and that power densities in stacked processor designs are higher than in both nuclear and plasma reactors.
Thomas Brunschwiler, project leader at IBM’s Zurich Research Laboratory said in a statement, “As we package chips on top of each other to significantly speed a processor's capability to process data, we have found that conventional coolers attached to the back of a chip don't scale. In order to exploit the potential of high-performance 3-D chip stacking, we need interlayer cooling. Until now, nobody has demonstrated viable solutions to this problem.”
The solution to the problem the IBM team devised is to pipe water through cooling structures, as thin as 50 microns, between the individual layers of the stacked chip. The scientists were able to show cooling performance of up to 180 W/cm2 per layer in a stack with a footprint of 4 cm2. One IBM researcher says that the cooling performance is a significant breakthrough and that without the breakthrough the stacking of two or more high-density power layers would be impossible.
In experiments, the researchers passed water into a 1 by 1 cm test device made up of a cooling layer between two heat sources. The cooling layer was only 100 microns in height (about twice the thickness of a human hair) and has 10,000 vertical interconnects per square cm.
The interconnects were hermetically sealed to prevent the water from causing electrical shorts within the chip. Individual layers were built using existing 3D packaging fabrication methods to etch the holes for signal transmission from one layer to the next. Each interconnect had a silicon wall around it and a fine layer of silicon oxide to insulate the electrical connections from the water. A new thin-film soldering technique was developed by the researchers to provide the precision and robustness needed to provide thermal contact for the cooling film.
IBM first announced its 3D chip stacking process in April of 2007.
New Military Supercomputer Breaks Performance Record
Roadrunner supercomputer is first to break petaflop barrier
A new supercomputer in the U.S. has broken a barrier that many thought wouldn’t be broken for years to come. A new supercomputer-- dubbed Roadrunner-- has broken the petaflop barrier.
Roadrunner was designed by engineers and scientists at IBM and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Ultimately, Roadrunner will be placed into a classified environment where it will be used to simulate what effects aging has on the stockpile of nuclear weapons the U.S. has in its arsenal. The problem it will work on is modeling how aging nuclear weapons behave the first fraction of a second during an explosion. Before beginning its nuclear weapons research, Roadrunner will be used to model the effects of global warming.
The Roadrunner supercomputer costs $133 million and is built using chips from both consumer electronics and more common server processors.
Roadrunner has 12,960 chips that are an improved version of the Cell chip used in the PS3. These Cell processors act as a turbocharger for certain portions of the calculations the Roadrunner processes. The computer also uses a smaller, unspecified number of AMD Opteron processors.
A computer researcher from the University of Tennessee, Jack Dongarra told the New York Times, “This [breaking the petaflop barrier] is equivalent to the four-minute mile of supercomputing.”
Horst Simon from the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory said, “Roadrunner tells us about what will happen in the next decade. Technology is coming from the consumer electronics market and the innovation is happening first in terms of cell phones and embedded electronics.”
Technology first appearing in the consumer electronics market and then making its way into supercomputing is a stark contrast to a process that commonly works in the exact opposite manner.
In total, Roadrunner has 116,640 processing cores and the real challenge for programmers is figuring out how to keep all of those processing cores in use simultaneously to get the best performance. Roadrunner requires about 3 megawatts of power, or about enough electricity to run a large shopping center.
To put the processing power in perspective, Thomas P. D’Agostino of the National Nuclear Security Administration said that if all 6 billion people on Earth entered calculations on a calculator for 24 hours a day, seven days per week it would take 46 years to do what Roadrunner can do in one day.
How Roadrunner is cooled is unknown, IBM has recently moved to liquid cooling for its supercomputers, but Roadrunner appears to be air cooled.
Ballmer to Retire in 10 Years; Looks Back on Happy, Rocky Relationship With Gates
With Ballmer's new announcement that he will retire within 10 years and Gates' retirement this year, its worth a look at the pair's past, present, and future.
Microsoft has owned the privilege of being the world's largest software company for well over a decade and it has strong executive leadership to thank for that, largely. Love them or hate them, Microsoft's founder and current Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer, a key Microsoft veteran, have shaped the face and course of Microsoft and the tech industry as a whole.
When Gates stepped down as CEO in 2000 allowing Ballmer to step up, it was a historic moment for the company. That moment is nearing its finale this year, with Gates finally looking to fully retire. And as the future fast approaches, Ballmer just announced that he will follow Gates into retirement in just 10 years time or less.
With the departure of Gates and looking forward to the departure of Ballmer, it’s worth taking a look at how Microsoft has been shaped by the pair’s relationship – one that Ballmer once emotively compared to a marriage which produced many children. The Wall Street Journal provides inside insight into internal dealings that took place during the Gates-Ballmer transition and how their relationship survived its rockiest days.
Gates and Ballmer's story does not start with Microsoft; rather it begins far before that. They first met at Harvard University in the mid-1970s. They were the same age (both are now 52) and they shared a love for poker and intellectual challenges. One fond memory they hold is when they failed to attend a single economics class session, but through collaborative cramming managed to score near perfect marks -- 97 percent for Ballmer and 99 percent for Gates.
The scores were reflective of the pair’s early relationship and work at Microsoft. Both shared almost equal duties, but Gates always owned the dominant position by a hair. Gates took on the role of providing the chief software and business direction, while Ballmer filled in for other necessary top duties. There was no part of the business that the pair couldn't manage. Gates describes the time stating, "For a certain size organization, it was beautiful."
Like most pairs, the two had their share of heated arguments and fights, but they would quickly make up -- and get back to work. In the 90s Microsoft was forced to restructure, following government charges of monopoly and the threat of the burgeoning online industry. This culminated with Gates announcing Ballmer would replace him as CEO in 2000 and that he would begin the transition into retirement.
Bill Gates assumed the role of "Chief Software Architect" -- a role that was beneath Ballmer's. Gates, however, still thought of himself as top dog, and according to his own omission would offer sarcasm in important meetings, undermining Ballmer's leadership. Everything from personnel staffing to the Xbox to Windows itself became a battleground for the power struggle in which Gates refused to accept his subordinate role. The clashes had many casualties, among them the eventually defunct NetDocs program; elements of which survived to be incorporated into the Office program.
In 2001, the board and senior executives intervened, calling Gates and Ballmer into a meeting about the destructive effect their relationship was having. Jon Shirley, a former Microsoft president states, "The board was really concerned about what was going to happen."
In February 2001, perhaps the most important meeting in Microsoft's history took place at the Polaris restaurant in the Bellevue Club Hotel a few miles from Microsoft's campus. Gates and Ballmer have never revealed the details of this meeting, so the world may never know, but the overall gist was to establish Mr. Gates as the "junior partner" to Mr. Ballmer's "senior partner."
Ballmer pledged to learn when to override Gates and when to "let things go". He stated that after the meeting, "We got it figured out."
Meanwhile Gates began to defer to Ballmer to the shock of many. Microsoft Vice President Mich Matthews recalls executives exchanging bewildered glances during such an instance in an important meeting. Gates says he needed to do most of the changing. He stated, "Steve is all about being on the team, and being committed to the mutual goals. So I had to figure out, what are my behaviors that don't reinforce that? What is it about sarcasm in a meeting? Or just going, 'This is completely screwed up'?"
The result was an enriched Microsoft. Ballmer kept the technical savvy, but moved towards a model in which the executives took a greater managerial role, as opposed to being involved greatly in tech development. Surprising to some, despite his reputation for ebullience he did a commendable job making peace with various regulators and patent disputes.
In recent years, despite its troubles, Microsoft has had its share of shining success, such as Windows XP, and its modest ones, such as the Xbox program. And after surviving their greatest trial, Gates and Ballmer became incredibly close once again, so much so that they would at times complete each other's sentences. In a recent interview Ballmer, teared up, discussing the creation of Microsoft.
He reminisced, "It is a little like giving birth to something. Bill gave birth but I was kind of an early nanny in raising this child. There are fun things we get to do together, that's all nice. I mean, it's important, but this is..."
"...this is what we did," Gates added grinning, a bit misty-eyed himself.
Doubts remain. Gates delivered his last major speech to employees and customers this week, and will now be semi-retired. However, some think that if Microsoft enters a crisis, such as failing to rebound from the Vista slump, Gates won't be able to resist the temptation of a second coming with the company, much like Apple's Steve Jobs. Others are concerned about Microsoft's future because they say that neither Ballmer nor Gates can offer the young blood needed to solve such a crisis.
And there's Ballmer's upcoming retirement, which he just announced. In an interview, Ballmer commented that he would stay with Microsoft "for another nine or 10 years ... until my last kid goes away to college." While this may seem like a long time, decades have a habit of quickly slipping by amidst the unfaltering passage of time. Microsoft's brass are aware and Ballmer's announcement leaves many pondering what will become of Microsoft in a post-Gates and then in a post-Ballmer-Gates era.
One possibility for Ballmer's replacement is Lotus Notes founder and current Microsoft chief tech visionary Ray Ozzie, whom Gates once described as "one of the top five programmers in the universe." Ozzie is replacing Gates in much of his roles he's held since stepping down as CEO. Moving up to the CEO position would not be an unmanageable transition. However, Ozzie is almost the same age as Ballmer and Gates, so he make look to retire himself.
If Ozzie does retire, the future for Microsoft really is a mystery and wide open. Much of the company's budding and veteran leadership -- Joanne Bradford, Rob Short, Jeff Raikes, and Bruce Jaffe to name a few -- has left either to manage elsewhere or to the greener pastures of retirement.
There is much uncertainty with Gates leaving and now with Ballmer's own retirement clock ticking. However, whatever the future may hold for Microsoft, it is truly salient to look at the indelible mark that the relationship between Ballmer and Gates -- rocky at times, warm at others -- left on both the field of electronics and the economy in general in the last two decades.
Microsoft Sees OOXML Stalled Due to International Appeals
"The more you tighten your grip the more star systems will slip through your fingers"
Microsoft's hopes of controlling the open document world were nearing fruition after the International Standards Organization finally certified its OOXML standard at the start of April. The ISO had already ratified ODF, the competitive open-source format from the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) used heavily in Linux, but Microsoft faced a lengthy struggle to try to get its own format recognized. Without certification it would be tough to push the format as a legitimate open document option.
Microsoft had good reason to want to control the world of open documents. As users switch platforms and software more and more, and use an increasing amount of open source solutions, the need for a non-software specific format has surfaced. Microsoft hoped that by making its own proprietary open-file format the preferred standard it could seize control of this budding field.
However, to Microsoft's anger, the process has now been held up by complaints. Following rumors that Microsoft pushed the vote through and used underhanded tactics to suppress dissent, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Venezuela lent such claims credence by filing complaints against the ratification.
The ratification cannot go forward until these complaints are heard, and they must be voiced before the end of June. The final decision of how to react to them will be handed to two management committees. India in particular was quite vocal in its opposition. An open letter, written by a member of the technical standardization committee in India, states that Microsoft's long and ambiguous proposed specification left it unclear what was being implemented. He says this means that Microsoft can implement the new format however it wants, ruining the whole reason for ISO -- to promote openness.
He also accuses Microsoft of running a careful concerted smear campaign that undercut the Indian concerns. He states:
Microsoft started filing complaints to various Indian authorities in early March 2008, claiming bias on part of several members of the committee because of their presumed membership of a group called ‘ODF Alliance India’. My Institution and its representatives are part of the group which has been falsely implicated in these complaints. Worse, the complaints have painted these organizations and their representatives, including the Indian delegation which attended the BRM, as acting against the Indian National interests. This is the most derogatory accusation to any Indian, amounting, personally for me at least, to intolerable blasphemy.
In the letter he alleges that Microsoft pressured the Indian national government to change its stance, and likely did so with other national governments as well. He states that Microsoft behaved in a way "amounting to interfering with the governance process of a sovereign country." He concludes, "I would like to assure all colleagues and other readers that my intentions are purely to respond to the grave provocation caused by the actions of Microsoft."
Meanwhile ODF creators OASIS tried to steal a bit of the spotlight calling for an "implementation, interoperability, and conformity" technical committee to continue ODF's openness and quality. The entity plans on trying to bring ISO or the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) into the project. Surprisingly Microsoft has expressed interest in joining the committee, igniting many conspiracy theories on the internet.
A Big Green Tax Cut; San Francisco Intensifies Solar Grant Efforts
San Francisco is looking to get off the grid and save money with a vast solar push
Independent solar power efforts are growing rapidly. With a number of businesses providing unique, online-coordinated installation options, individuals and small businesses are adopting the technology. And part of the new rate of adoption is thanks to local government grants.
Many cities and states give citizens large grants to bear some of the capital brunt of buying solar panels. These grants are in essence a big tax break as the consumer will typically make a good deal of money of the solar panels in their lifetime. They are the alternative energy version of the business world's small business grants.
This Tuesday, San Francisco looked to keep the good times rolling and put some green back its citizens' pockets with the approval of a massive new grant campaign. Solar panel manufacturers and installers received the news with giddy anticipation and are preparing for the new boom.
For the next ten years, citizens can get $3,000 to $6,000 in a one-time grant to install panels. Both businesses and charities are also receiving some solar love. Businesses and nonprofits can get $10,000 grants, while nonprofit affordable housing can get up to a whopping $30,000. Mayor Gavin Newsom states, "This rebate program further establishes San Francisco as America's solar energy leader and symbolizes the commitment of the city to make affordable solar power available to those who want it."
The mayor says the program should launch this July and will only cost the city $3 million yearly. He says the benefits are far reaching and go beyond just putting money back in the hands of consumers and businesses in energy cost savings. Newsom says the program will attract businesses and will grow green jobs.
If San Francisco can really pull of the green transformation it will be a significant accomplishment. In the green-savvy California, San Francisco has traditionally been somewhat of a laughing stock of the alternative energy community. The city was ranked last in the Bay Area by a recent assessment by the San Francisco Solar Task Force. Of the city's 195,000 rooftops, only 744 had solar panels, less than 1 percent.
The mayor hopes that the new efforts will panel nearly 10,000 rooftops over the decade, or roughly 5 percent of the city's rooftops. If successful, this would produce around 50 MW of power.
Lyndon Rive, CEO of installer SolarCity, whom DailyTech recently reported on, is thrilled by the effort. He anticipates the number of panels tripling and as the city's largest solar installer; he's in prime position for success. With 40 current employees his company is expanding with a "green" job training initiative in a low-income part of the city. Rive complements the new program stating, "It's simple, easy to understand, and easy to implement."
While his company offered solar leasing, he acknowledges that this strategy was not as cost effective and that most citizens couldn't afford it. Now between city, state, and federal tax credits, rebates, and grants, an average consumer who would have paid $30,000 for panels can pay a mere $6,000. Kevin Gage, sales director for San Diego-based installer Borrego Solar states, "This is just gonna spur the industry. The market was essentially shut down in San Francisco. Now a lot of companies like ours are gonna move into San Francisco."
Ironically the approval was announced the same day San Francisco utility Pacific Gas & Electric announced a 6.5 percent electricity rate hiking on surging fossil fuel costs. San Franciscan Sylvia Ventura is excited about the relief the move may provide her fellow citizens, but she's a bit fearful that the myriad of installers will confuse them. She states, "This business was done for a long time in the shadows and some installers took advantage of people being intimidated by the data, not understanding metering, wattage, and what to pay."
She and her husband Dan Barahona launched a new effort, One Block Off The Grid, which aims to use collective bargaining and other subsidies to further reduce the cost of the panels to an attractive price of "free". She says that the first 50 homeowners that sign up for the program will receive panels free of cost, thanks to the effort's clever negotiating. However, corporate partners are still in the process of being secured and the list is currently only half full.
Whether the new grant program is a glowing success or just a modest one, at the end of the day its putting money back in the hands of the hardworking tax payer. With rising energy and food costs, the consumer in San Francisco will finally get to see some light.
Intel Responds to AMD, NVIDIA USB 3.0 Allegations
Intel says open host controller specifications have cost gazillions of dollars to develop
According to Intel’s Nick Knupffer, there are a lot of myths going around concerning USB 3.0 and Intel’s involvement in the development of the specification. Knupffer wrote a blog post on Intel’s website in an attempt to dispel these myths.
Knupffer points out that Intel is not developing the USB 3.0 specification. What Intel is developing is the host controller spec which Knupffer describes as a “Dummies Guide” to building a USB 3.0 compatible piece of silicon.
Knupffer says in the blog post that Intel has invested “gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours” in developing the open host controller and despite its significant investment still plans to give the specification to competing manufacturers for free. Knupffer also says that Intel loves it when CPU performance is used to the max and the huge increase in bandwidth of USB 3.0 will mean larger file transfers and more processor usage. This in turn is expected to lead to an increased demand for faster processors.
AMD and NVIDIA leveled allegations at Intel recently that claim Intel was withholding the open host controller specifications in an attempt to give itself a market advantage. Intel and AMD claim that by withholding the specification the lead Intel will have in bringing USB 3.0 compliant products to market will be in the six to nine month range.
Intel denied the allegations of withholding the open host controller specifications at the time AMD and NVIDIA made their charges public and announced they would be designing their own open host controller. In Knupffer’s blog post, he again says that Intel isn’t holding the open host controller specifications back from competitors.
According to Knupffer, the significant investment in the open host controller specifications is specifically to get USB 3.0 into the market faster, so why would it withhold the specification. Intel still maintains that the specifications aren’t ready and that it plans to give the specifications to other manufacturers in the second half of 2008.
The final myth that Knupffer addresses in his post is that USB 3.0 technology borrows heavily from technology used in PCI Express. Intel points out that it was involved with both the PCI-SIG and the USB-IF at the design stage for both PCI Express and for USB 3.0. The insinuation form Intel is that the technology that is similar in both devices was developed on its dime.
Evolution in Escherichia Coli Bacterium Observed During Lab Tests
E. Coli bacteria shows signs of evolution in lab testing
Despite an overwhelming body of scientific evidence, evolution is still a fiercely debate topic in some circles. Many people take evolution for granted, simply understanding that it is the theory accepted by the scientific community based on the strong supporting evidence, and remain relatively oblivious to the controversy. 
However, the fact remains that yearly there are many protests and court cases in the U.S. and abroad where people try to block educational attempts to teach the theory of evolution and replace them with religious-based theories.
Fortunately for evolutionary scientists they now have perhaps the greatest piece of evidence of all -- the largest evolutionary leap observed to date. The experiment started inconspicuously, with researchers at Michigan State University in East Lansing by using a single Escherichia coli bacterium and its descendants to found 12 populations.
Over 44,000 generations were observed and only minor mutations were observed, as is typical in these kinds of studies. Typical beneficial mutations -- larger cell size, faster growth rates, and lower peak population densities -- were observed.
Then at generation 31,500 something shocking happened. The bacteria evolved, gaining an entirely new gene that could process citrate, a nutrient that the bacteria could not previously use. To put this in context, lack of citrate metabolism is one of E. coli's identifying traits. And the newly evolved bacteria proceeded to dominate over their citrate-intolerant kin.
Says researcher Richard Lenski, "It's the most profound change we have seen during the experiment. This was clearly something quite different for them, and it's outside what was normally considered the bounds of E. coli as a species, which makes it especially interesting."
Lenski says the only two explanations are either an extremely improbable mutation such as a rare chromosomal inversion, or a series of small mutation adding up to a useful new gene. Was the trait inevitable, guided by some all powerful hand? Lenski turned to his freezer for the answer. Unthawing the bacteria, from early generations, he found that pure chance had guided the evolutionary leap and that the bacteria did not evolve the trait. He did find that the later generations after 20,000 did evolve the trait eventually, indicating something happened around this time that laid the groundwork for the evolution.
He and his fellow researchers are currently studying exactly what change allowed for the eventual evolution. This experiment, however, proves that evolution does not always lead to best possible outcome (in that other lines did not achieve the same optimal trait). This has been a major point of contention raised by creationists who point to structures in nature that serve ornamental or little purpose as proof of creationism.
Further, it goes to show that profound changes can happen, including the introduction of entirely new genes. A particularly harsh criticism leveled in the past by was that profound genetic changes, including the creation of new genes, were never observed. Considering a few genes can account for profound morphological differences in larger organism, this is a very salient piece of evidence for evolution's supporters.
Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago lauded the research and took a bit of an opportunity to poke fun at creationists saying, "The thing I like most is it says you can get these complex traits evolving by a combination of unlikely events. That's just what creationists say can't happen."
The findings are reported in the journal PNAS.
FCC to Hold Early Termination Fee Hearing Today
U.S. Customers Could Look Forward To Nicer Fees
The FCC will hold an open meeting today (PDF) on the topic of Early Termination Fees, bringing in a variety of panelists to discuss the future of a thorny practice that, while rankling consumers, is claimed as necessary by the cellular service industry.
Central to the discussion will be an industry-sponsored proposal that seeks to make massive changes in the way providers handle termination fees: under the proposed changes, customers would receive a 30-day grace period to cancel a contract after they sign it, and in the event of a terminated contract after that time, the applicable fees would be prorated down based on the contract's time remaining.
Traditionally, cell phone companies charge the same termination fee regardless of where a customer is in their contract -- fees stay the same regardless of whether they are 60 days in, or only have 60 days left. This policy, combined with an increasingly skyward rise in the fees themselves, recently resulted in a phalanx of class-action lawsuits against the industry as consumers become bitter over what they perceive to be company lock-in. Providers say the fees are necessary in order to subsidize customers' phones, which are frequently sold far below cost in order to make service plans more appealing.
The new iPhone 3G, with its $199/$299 price point in the United States, will be one of the first phones offered under these new rules. While AT&T customers are still required to sign a two-year agreement to buy the phone, if a customer chooses to terminate his or her contract they will only pay a prorated fee calculated from the time remaining on their contract. Purchasers of the original iPhone will remain bound to the old rules.
Meanwhile, a series of e-mail messages recently revealed by the Associated Press showed that some, if not all, providers in the cell phone industry exempt the government from termination charges.
"The government will never, never accept [a termination penalty] and for the most part I think a lot of the [complaining] is real," wrote Nextel (now Sprint Nextel) former marketing vice president Scott Weiner, in an "confidential" e-mail dated January 2004. It regarded a question of whether or not to assess termination fees for government subscribers that canceled their contract.
As it exists currently, cellular service regulation is handled in a "patchwork" fashion at the state level; industry representatives want the FCC to establish a national regulatory framework instead.
Appearing at the hearing are representatives from the trade group CTIA, DIRECTV, and Verizon, as well as a variety of professors, lawyers, and ordinary consumers.
Microsoft Exec,No Plans for iPhone Clone
Microsoft will keep focus on Windows Mobile and not worry about creating an iPhone clone
Microsoft has mobile operating systems designed for mobile phones and the Zune MP3 player, but does not have any plans to roll both services into a Microsoft-branded phone any time soon.
During an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Robbie Bach, Entertainment and Devices division president, said the company has no concrete plans to release an Apple iPhone clone in the future.
"We don't make phones ourselves. We don't have any plans to make phones ourselves. Our focus is on the belief that a phone is a very personal thing. Different people want different types of phones," Bach said during the interview.
Microsoft will instead focus on Windows Mobile, which has shipped on 20 million mobile devices already. When asked about Steve Jobs' announcement of the new 3G iPhone, Bach said Microsoft already ships "lots" of 3G phones that are powered by the Windows Mobile operating system.
Furthermore, Microsoft expects cell phones shipping with Windows Mobile will outsell the iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry smart phones, which use the OS X and a proprietary OS provided by RIM.
The demand for more interactive software will increase while the cell phone market, most notably smart phones, continues to rise.
"In general, what you are seeing in that phone space is tremendous growth in what people have called smart phones. (It's) growing dramatically. That means more opportunity for us. There is more opportunity for services on top of those phones. There is more opportunity for a richer experience. It's not just about the phone. It's about browsing. It's about music. It's about video. It's about e-mails, text messaging and photos."
Keeping the Zune simply a multimedia device may seem risky since many music listeners internationally are listening to music using their cell phone, but Microsoft believes the MP3 player market is still big enough to justify making stand alone MP3 players. Software is becoming increasingly important for owners of MP3 players, as Zune owners can already play TV episodes and Microsoft may add movies to its portfolio in the future.
In the rest of the interview, Bach discusses Blu-ray and the Nintendo Wii's international dominance and popularity.
Microsoft reached the 10 million consoles sold level before Nintendo or Sony, but the Wii is quickly catching up and is expected to overtake Microsoft in overall sales numbers shortly. But Microsoft understands that even though the consoles are competing in the same market.
Toshiba Boosts 1.8", 5400 RPM HDDs to 160GB
Toshiba takes the fight to SSDs with an expanded lineup of 5400RPM 1.8" HDDs
Back in late February, DailyTech reported on Toshiba's introduction of 5400 RPM 1.8" HDDs into the marketplace. Traditionally, 1.8" HDDs were only available with a 4200 RPM spindle speed, but the boost to 5400 RPM was a welcome addition to help improve performance on the smallest notebooks and UMPCs.
At the time of the announcement, Toshiba announced the availability of 80GB and 120GB models. Today, Toshiba's 5400 RPM 1.8" lineup is expanding to include a 160GB model and a revamped 80GB model.
The new 160GB (MK1617GSG) drive uses two platters while its new 80GB (MK8017GSG) counterpart used a single platter -- Toshiba's 80GB offering launched in February required two platters to reach the same capacity. Both drives feature 8MB of cache, 15ms average seek time, a micro-SATA connectors and comply with SATA 2.6 specifications.
"Toshiba's eight years in perfecting 1.8-inch HDD technology puts us in a unique position to address explosive growth in the mobility segment with proven products that deliver the performance and capacity that system manufacturers need," said Toshiba Storage Device Division Marketing VP, Maciek Brzeski.
At these capacities, our 1.8-inch HDDs are enabling the miniaturization of mobile PCs by providing better power consumption efficiency and improved ruggedness over larger form factors."
Toshiba’s new mobile HDDs will be available to OEMs in August of this year.
Toshiba's recent development in the area of 1.8" HDDs should give it more ammunition to go up against the increasing performance and falling costs of solid state drives (SSDs). Super Talent is currently leading all players in the SSD field by further driving down costs and recently introduced 30GB, 60GB, and 120GB 1.8" SSDs priced at $299, $449, and $679 respectively.
5/24/08
Apple Hopes to Cash in With Ringtones, Music Downloads For iPhone
Apple and music label have high hopes that new music offerings will yield big profits.
There's some moving and shaking going on between Apple and the major music labels. Preceding the release of the new 3G iPhone, Apple is looking for new ways to cash in on its growing popularity. And music labels are hoping to get perks of their own, by haggling with Apple to loosen some of its long time policies which have irked the labels.
First, Apple and the labels are in talks for possible over-the-air downloads. Previously, the iPhone could not directly download songs via its cellular broadband network. However, thanks to faster speeds from the 3G networks, it should be possible at last to download songs on the go.
Standing in the way are the music labels who are arguing that Apple needs to pay a higher price for over-the-air downloads, as opposed to standard downloads. The labels current sell standard downloads wholesale for 70 cents, which Apple in turn resells on its iTunes store for 99 cents.
Both Apple and the labels are eager to cut a deal, though. Apple's recent deals have grown the total number of users reached by its carrier networks from 153 million to 575 million. Even if just a scant fraction of these users purchase the iPhone, it will represent an even more significant market to the labels as time goes on.
And Apple has concerns of its own. Many phone manufacturers are moving aggressively to push music compatible phones, many of which come with music packages. If Apple falls behind in its quality of offerings, it will likely pay the price in market share. Having already struggled with poor sales in the European market, Apple is eager to safeguard its back against competitors such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson.
Both Apple and the labels are also eager to expand their offerings for ringtones, a particularly lucrative market. Currently Apple offers a limited selection of ringtones via a 99-cent ringtone upgrade to various tracks on its iTunes store.
Apple also looks to expand its ringback selection. Ringbacks are like ringtones, except they play for the person calling your phone, in place of the standard "ring ring" noise. Ringbacks may command an even higher premium wholesale price than ringtones, raising the possibility of ring backs in the range of $2.49 or more. Some complain about the recording industry's creative pricing tactics for ringtones and ringbacks, but they keep selling relatively well.
The labels say that Apple is very eager to work towards a deal. Says one label executive involved in the talks, "They want a big launch in June."
Labels are taking the chance to use the negotiations as an opportunity to try to push Apple to let them adopt a more flexible price structure, as opposed to the current model, a flat price of 99 cents per song. Some fear this would lead to price gouging, but the major labels insist they would only charge more for new hit tracks, and would charge less than 99 cents for older tracks.
Apple does currently allow the labels to set their own prices for full album downloads. This allows the labels to employ a favored tactic, throwing in art, bonus tracks, and other content, in order to raise the price a few more dollars.
There is some evidence that Apple may consider loosening its price structure. It has allowed HBO to charge $2.99 for its TV episode downloads. All other TV downloads are priced at $1.99.
In a more unlikely side of talks, it is reported that Universal Music Group is pushing Apple to offer subscription music services. Such a plan could allow iPhone users with unlimited music from the labels for a one or two-year subscription period. Sources familiar with the talks say that the labels think the service is worth much more than Apple does, and they're unlikely to reach a compromise. However, if they did it could provide a competitor to the similar Nokia "Comes With Music" service that offers unlimited free downloads to keep. Apple will likely eye the success of this risky program, which has been criticized as unprofitable, before it makes any big moves.
ASUS Looks to Tame Rivals With Atom-based Eee PC 901
ASUS readies yet another addition to the Eee PC family
Yesterday, DailyTech reported on MSI's new Wind notebook which will do battle with ASUS' Eee PC 900. The MSI Wind has a slightly larger footprint than the Eee PC 900, but adds such features as an 80GB 2.5" SATA HDD, 10" display, and Bluetooth (on the high-end version).
These features can all be had for the starting price of $399 according to MSI Director of U.S. Sales, Andy Tung. The pricing puts serious pressure on the 8.9" Eee PC 900 which is priced at $549.99.
With all the buzz on the internet turning towards MSI's Wind, it's not too surprising that pictures of a reinvigorated Eee PC 901 have "leaked" to the internet. Blogeee.net posted a number of new images depicting a more rounded and chrome-laden model.
As the name suggest, it appears that the Eee PC 901 will still soldier on with an 8.9" display instead of the forthcoming 10" display -- this would continue the precedent set by the Eee PC 701 (7" display) and the Eee PC 900 (8.9" display).
No other new information was provided other than the fact that the Eee PC 901 is equipped with Intel's Atom processor -- presumably the same 1.6GHz unit found under the hood of the MSI Wind. The pictures also show that ASUS finally wised up and moved the Kensington lock from directly adjacent to the VGA port to the opposite side of the machine unhindered. The dual-array microphone is now positioned under the screen (instead of on top like the Eee PC 900), and the machine also appears to have gained a few quick launch buttons above the keyboard.
Hopefully, the new Eee PC 901 will come with a lower price tag to compete with upcoming notebooks from MSI and Dell. However, ASUS may have to do some serious component and model shuffling to erase the $150 deficit between the current Eee PC 900 and the base $399 MSI Wind.
Building An "Iron Man" Pt. II: Jet-powered, Winged Flight
"It's just my job five days a week, A rocket man, a rocket man"; New technology brings superstrength, can more new technology bring exoskeleton based flight to complete the "Iron Man"?
The summer's hottest blockbuster is the superhero flick "Iron Man" which stars Robert Downey Jr. as weapons designer turned superhero Tony Stark. In part one of this two part series, we looked at the advances made in building exoskeletons, particularly Sarcos Inc.'s new Sarcos suit which can lift over 500 lbs, is maneuverable enough to handle stairs, and can run 30 minutes untethered.
Having a super-powered suit is great, but aside from his power, the comic book character "Iron Man" had two other key attributes -- speed and flight. Without it, Iron Man would go from a superhero, to just plain super slow.
Fortunately there are some promising technologies to give the exoskeleton fighting suit of the future super speed and flight. This article, the second part of this two part series, seeks to examine a couple of them.
First in the category of super speed comes the "rocket boots" from Russia, which after decades is nearing perfection. Videos of the boots can be viewed here (in Russian language) [1][2][3].
The boots also go by the names "Power Boots", "Seven League Boots", "Quickwalker Boots", or commonly "Saigak Boots". Saigak is Russian for a fast kind of elk.
The boots allow the user to run at up to 22 mph, with little fatigue, yet are delicate enough to climb stairs quickly. They also get 70 MPG. The boots are powered by tiny diesel/gas burning pistons. They can carry 1/3 of a cup of fuel and propel the user 3 miles. Using the boots, you can also jump much higher than the standard man.
Viktor Gordyev, a Russian who attended the University at Ufa in the Southern Urals, originally got the idea for the boots when sweating out laps in his college's physical education requirement in 1974. It is unclear exactly when they were invented and perfected, except that Gordyev's work was classified by the Soviet government. In 1994 the project was finally declassified, and Gordyev was able to market his work.
Unfortunately, his company went under in 2006, after a lack of interest from investors. A demonstration at Disney World in 1998 went nowhere due to safety concerns. Says a woeful Gardyev, "They don’t have characteristics that would allow an ordinary person to use them.... [using the shoes involves] taking certain risks. They should work like a Kalashnikov. Reliable in anybody’s hands."
Still, hopefully the U.S. military and/or investors might find some promise in the shoes. The future remains wide open.
Next up is the rocket pack. The rocket belt was originally invented in the 1960s by researcher William Suitor at Bell Aerosystems. The pack had a 21 second fuel limit, as well as weight restrictions, rendering it mostly useless. The first test flight was made by pioneer aviator Herald Graham in 1961.
After decades of little progress, a new company, Go Fast Sports and Beverage Company, is designing and marketing improved jetpacks. Their latest model will retail at $200,000, will have a flight time of 9 minutes, a maximum speed of 85 MPH, a service ceiling of 250 ft, and a pilot weight limit of 180 lbs. It is estimated that it will allow you to fly 11 miles on its 5-gallon tank and is powered by a T-73 turbine engine. As pilot Troy Widgery says, who tested the pack at a recent arena show, "Not bad."
While the pack obviously would not be sufficient for flight and additional weight tolerance would be needed to handle the 100+ lbs from the exoskeleton and other apparatus (boots), it would at least get you in the air and allow you to briefly hover.
Need to really fly like a jet, like Iron Man? That's where the third and fourth inventions this article details comes in. French inventor Yves Rossy, a former Swiss jet fighter pilot, and current commercial pilot has invented a human-mounted mini jet, earning him the title "Fusion Man".
The jet features carbon fiber wings spanning 2.5 m, with four mini jet engines using kerosene fuel. The engines have reached speeds of 190 MPH over the Swiss Alps, after a 8,000 ft jump out a plane.
The wings helped him fly for over 4 minutes, landing by parachute. Rossy describes it in French stating, roughly, "It's like there's a big handle in your back, and the good Lord takes you by it and shoves you through the air, it's fantastic!!"
At a recent demonstration flight for CNN.com he elated, "It's one thing to do it on one's own, but to be able to share it live today that's extraordinary."
Rossy plans to use the wings to cross the English Channel next year.
Finnish inventors first developed the wing suit, allow men to glide along through the air. The company that produces the suits Birdman Inc. has launched a new project, the Birdman Rocket Team. Their lead pilot Visa Parviainen in 2005 and since has donned rocket boots for test flights. The two jet engines attach burn a butane/propane mix, at a rate of half a liter per minute. They provide 16kgs of thrust.
The engines allow level flights as well as climbing. Stalls are no problem to recover from for the skilled pilot, such as Parviainen, thanks to the agility of the human body. Flights could last half a minute or more at high speeds.
While the Russian Rocket boots, the Go Fast Jetpack, the Jet Man wings, and the Finnish Bird suit/rocket boots represent disparate inventions that would add extra weight and complexity, if combined, together perhaps their successors could combine to provide an exoskeleton with flight capabilities, much like Iron Man in the movies. It certainly wouldn't be cheap, and obviously the extra weight from the exoskeleton would be extremely difficult to compensate for but the rate of recent advances its look more and more doable. Here's hoping.
