IBM Develops Robot To Read E-mail
Acknowledging that its prodigal robot pet did little more than talk back and eat batteries every couple of hours, Sony Corp. unveiled software that will enable its Aibo robots to read e-mail messages and Web pages. The company's Aibo Messenger applications software gives Sony's two-year-old robot the ability to inform owners that e-mail has arrived, to read the contents of a message and to convey text-based information such as news and weather from home pages, Sony said. The software is delivered on a CD-ROM and is uploaded onto the PC of an Aibo owner. The software converts e-mail or Web files into sound files, which can be played through the robot's audio speakers when activated by a key word spoken
to the dog, a Sony spokeswoman said.
Transilica Develops Cost Efficient Bluetooth Chip Set
Careful to state it won't pile more empty promises onto Bluetooth, the prodigal portable networking technology, Transilica Inc. has announced what it calls the world's smallest and most cost efficient Bluetooth chip set. Acknowledging that Bluetooth faces an uphill battle in the wake of Bluetooth silicon that doesn't actually allow gadgets to talk to each other, Transilica Chairman and CEO Hock Law said that the Transilica module was both cheap and communicative. Noting the $5 cost that's been described as a necessary precedent for the mass-market acceptance of Bluetooth, Law said that "there is nothing magical about $5. We know we can hit $5 if the yield is right." Transilica's 8mm two-die multi-chip module includes one 64-kb die of embedded flash, and a second die that integrates an RF radio transceiver, a digital baseband modem; 4 kb of SRAM, codec, serial and USB interfaces; and an enhanced 8051 processor that operates on 2.3 to 3.5 volts.
Virata Plans System-on-Chip Platform
Virata Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) is planning a system-on-chip platform for broadband communications under the codename "Claudius." The company is also developing a partnering strategy to extend its capabilities into wireless broadband applications, a departure from its traditional strength in wired communications. Under the partnership program, Virata will work with Proxim Inc., Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd. and Intersil Corp. to address the HomeRF, Bluetooth and 802.11b wireless LAN communications standards, respectively. The Nasdaq-listed company, which has its engineering base in Cambridge, England, is developing Claudius as a platform of software and hardware intended to address residential and business gateway applications and as a step up from its series of devices based on dual ARM 32-bit RISC processors.
Company Develops Cheap Computer for Third World Nations
While western companies have been searching for the "next big thing" in computer technology, researchers and a company in India have unveiled a cheap pocket device they hope will introduce computing to users in developing countries. Dubbed "Simputer" (short for "simple computer"), the sub-$200 pocket computer is the result of 2 1/2 years of research and design work conducted at the prestigious India Institute of Science, in collaboration with Encore Software Ltd. Simputer can support applications ranging from electronic cash transactions to Internet browsing and is designed so several people can share the machine--even users who can't read. The Simputer Trust, a non-profit group that backed the Simputer's development, opted to bypass the Windows operating system after determining that it was unsuitable for a low-cost machine.
Wolfson Launches Chip For PDAs
Wolfson Microelectronics Ltd., known for supplying components for high-end audio equipment, will dip its toe in the portable computing market with an integrated mixed-signal chip that combines pen-input functionality with high-performance audio. Geared to next-generation portable multimedia devices, the WM9705 targets a growing class of Palm OS- and Windows CE-based convergence systems that will need integrated chips to save costs, reduce board space and increase power consumption efficiency while providing superior audio and portable computing functions. Wolfson plans to provide samples to customers in eight weeks and to ramp production volumes in the fall.
TI Boost Makes Hardware Improvements
Texas Instruments Inc. has done some heavy lifting to further its advance on cable, wireless and embedded communications. The company has piled on two low-power DSPs, a high-speed cable modem head-end solution that's said to yield a 50 percent increase in upstream data rates. In addition TI has increased wireless security to its Open Multimedia Applications Platform (Omap), Omap extensions for Symbian's Epoc operating system and a C6000-based TCP/IP stack for embedded applications. The low-power DSPs target cost-sensitive portable Internet devices and are the second and third entries in the
TMS320-C55X line, introduced last year. The low-cost 5502 weighs in at 400 Mips and costs $9.95 each in quantities of 10,000. The highly integrated 5509 targets general-purpose applications with a host of on-board functions and interfaces.
Samsung Provides High-Speed Interface Device
Samsung Semiconductor Inc. said it now provides a high-speed gigabit serializer/deserializer interface device for the IEEE 802.3z Gigabit Ethernet and the XT10 ANSI Fibre Channel specifications. The device is based on 0.25-micron CMOS process technology, which enabled the company to keep power consumption down to 425 milliwatts. Operating at speeds between 1 Gbit/second and 2.5 Gbits/s, the device is designed to transmit and receive 10-bit parallel data in local-area networks and storage-area networks. The company expects a 10-Gbit/s version of the chip to ship by year's end.