Compiled by Kevin Smith
Nokia to Offer Wireless Games for Carries
Thanks to an agreement with Rage Software, the UK’s fourth largest games software house, and Nokia, mobile gaming facilities for wireless carries around the world are starting to be developed by Rage.
The deal will see the Liverpool-based software company developing mobile gaming services, with Nokia adding its mobile communications expertise to the mix.
The research and development (R&D) costs associated with mobile Internet games are relatively small, as Rage is developing its games for multiple environments other than just game consoles and PCs, according to the company.
Consumer Interests and Demographics Can Now be Tracked on the Web
URpower.com, Inc. announced the beta launch of its proprietary software that enables marketers and e-businesses to accurately track and target consumer interests and demographics on the Internet, without invading consumer privacy.
URpower has already formed deals with six Internet partners that will deploy the software
beginning next month, including e-Commerce Technology, Inc. (ec-t.com), Zpower.com, Luckycasino.com, consumerbenefits.com, Geaux.com and CaptureQuest.com.
The software package currently consists of two versions - Active Consumer Technology (A.C.T.(TM)), the "identifier" that resides on consumers' computers, and ReACT(TM), the "receiver" which is used by URpower's business partners.
Consumers download the free software by joining buying groups from a partner's Web site, entitling the consumer to special offers and discounts specific to their interests. The ReACT software gathers information about each consumer's preferences and demographics, such as age, gender, ethnic background, zip code (first 3 numbers only), interests and hobbies.
Personally identifiable information, such as name, email or mailing address, is never taken.
Transmeta Looks to Challenge Intel for Notebook Market
Seeking to challenge Intel Corp. as a supplier to the ultra-thin notebook market, Transmeta Corp. is revving its next-generation 256-bit VLIW processor, and aims to have a 0.13-micron 800-MHz part ready for introduction in the second half of this year.
Upstart Transmeta, trying to establish itself as a supplier of X86 microprocessors in an Intel-dominated world, said it is developing a low-power iteration of its Crusoe processor utilizing a 0.13-micron process. The migration to 0.13 micron should bring Crusoe up to the 800-MHz range and could be sampling in the second quarter.
According to the company, a system's thermal characteristics, which are significantly higher than its average power, are becoming an increasing focus in the fan-less notebook world. While average power influences battery life, thermal power dictates which components can fit into a system.
The current Crusoe takes around 6 to 6.5 watts of thermal power maximum, though ultra-light notebook OEMs are telling Transmeta to drive the thermals lower.
While the metrics of its next-generation 256-bit offering aren't yet available, thermal numbers look to be improved by the time the part is introduced next year.
Selling mainly into the notebook market, where battery life and lower thermals are of critical importance, Transmeta feels its software-based processing approach provides a number of advantages.
Graphical Tool Complements Text-Based Design
A graphical and design entry tool originally developed for 3Com has been upgraded to version 3 and is being made generally available by developer Expressive Systems Ltd.
Expressive Systems, formerly known as Vizef Ltd., developed Expressive-II for 3Com design groups in Ireland, where the tool has been used in the design of 12 ASICs.
The Expressive graphical entry tool is intended to complement existing text-based design flows. The company said the tool saves time and effort by simplifying the conception, visualization and maintenance of the design hierarchy.
At $1,800 for a network license and running on Windows 95/98/2000/NT, with Solaris scheduled to be available in the second quarter, the company hopes that the tool can become commonplace.
According to Expressive Systems, design groups should use Expressive-III instead of the combination of a text editor for structural HDL files and a general-purpose drawing package to create one-off diagrams.
English Firm Looks to Embed Light Bulbs with Internet Protocol Addresses
Foreseeing a time when individual light bulbs could have an Internet Protocol address, Northern Real-Time Applications Ltd. (York, England) has set up a division that will act as an Internet service provider to embedded systems. Its LiveDevices unit says it will provide the basic TCP/IP protocol stack for the embedded clients free of charge.
LiveDevices is setting up server farms that will take in data from devices around the Internet and has developed TCP/IP software and an operating system that, initially, will run on PIC18CXXX microcontrollers from Microchip Technology Inc.
A TCP/IP stack will occupy 12 kbytes of ROM and 274 bytes of RAM, the company said, with another 30 bytes per TCP connection on a PIC18CXXX controller.
The decision to attack both ends of the connection — device and server — puts LiveDevices in a strong position in the nascent embedded-systems ISP market.
Emware Inc. launched into the market for connected embedded systems four years ago with a technology that needs a paid gateway to hook devices to the Internet. Emware gives away the proprietary stack that runs on the client microcontroller. And PASW Inc. moved into the embedded-device ISP business in 2000 but has since suspended the subsidiary Alera Systems that handled the job.
Questions Still Remain on Future of Wireless Access to Web
Designers need to craft new kinds of applications and devices to harness the promise of wireless access to the Internet. But there is little agreement on just what those key apps and systems will be, according to analysts and presenters at the Mobile Insights 2001 conference this week.
Proprietary platforms were pitched by Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. Qualcomm provided further details about its Brew software environment for wireless-data apps on its third-generation CDMA chip sets, and Intel lobbied for its StrongARM-based hardware as the platform for wireless data.
But analysts and observers suggested there are as yet no sure winners, and said there is plenty of work ahead in building both an Internet-friendly wireless infrastructure and the tools to get the applications in place. "I see different people bringing different things to the party, but there is really no comprehensive solution or ensemble yet," said Charles Davis, chief technology officer for BarPoint.com, a wireless-application developer.
The so-called third-generation cellular infrastructure and devices promise multimedia interoperability, but so far no compelling applications have surfaced, Jacobs said in his presentation to about 300 executives here. Qualcomm's answer is Brew, the Binary Environment for Wireless, a platform that can be used to create applications for all cellular handsets based on Qualcomm CDMA chip sets.
India and China Teaming Up for Software Use
India and China, regional rivals who are considered competitors in providing software services to the world, are set to start using each other's software skills.
While Indian software companies such as Wipro and NIIT have been exploring the possibility of setting up software centers in China, China's largest telecommunications and network solutions company, Huawei Technologies (Shenzhen),said this week that it would set up a research and development center there.
Huawei is the first Chinese technology company to establish a software center in India. Huawei said the center will develop software for wide band switching, third-generation wireless, network management and voice-over-Internet Protocol applications.
The center is the largest outside China.
Technologies India Ltd. Huawei has similar centers in California and Texas in the United States; in Stockholm, Sweden; and in Moscow, along with many centers in China.
Huawei, with annual revenue of $2.6 billion, employs 280 people in Bangalore and will increase that number to 600 by the end of the year, based on an additional investment of $30 million.
Altera Increase Speed on Standard Products
Altera Corp. will extend its push in standard products to the data-communications market with ICs that combine programmable logic with transceivers and clock data recovery (CDR) channels that pump 1.25 Gbits/second.
High-speed transceivers are a fertile field for design, ranging from Altera's programmable parts to pure speed demons attacking the 10-Gbit/s-and-beyond realm. Standing-room-only crowds jammed sessions on high-speed transceivers at the recent International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. And several startups, including Accelerant Networks, are attacking the market for OC-192 and higher speeds.
The Mercury line of application-specific standard products (ASSPs) follows in the steps of the Excalibur family of programmable-logic devices with on-board microprocessor cores.
The Mercury design was particularly challenging, the company said, because the analog serialize-deserialize (Serdes) and CDR functions are sensitive to the noise generated by switching logic circuits.