Week of Sun, 2006-08-27 00:00 to Sat, 2006-09-02 23:59

For years, game developers and marketers have focused only on two types of videogame players: hardcore gamers and casual players. Recent analysis from a survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. online gamers by Dallas-based market research firm Parks Associates (Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home) indicates that the gamer community has diversified to include six distinct groups and, most importantly, a new middle market has emerged, all with different motivations, gaming behaviors, and spending patterns.

Aviation major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and EADS signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further develop long-term cooperation and define joint strategies on different market segments. The MoU was signed on Friday, September 1, 2006, by HAL Chairman Mr Ashok K. Baweja and EADS CEO Tom Enders.

With this MoU, the two groups will expand their cooperation into new market segments. A joint analysis of mid-term and long-term strategies on the key segments of aerospace business will be conducted in the coming months to determine how both groups could team up and benefit from each other’s expertise to develop their activities.

In a unique collaboration, U.S. and French researchers are launching large, specialized balloons into the stratosphere to drop nearly 300 instrument packages over wide swaths of Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. The packages, designed by scientists and technicians at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), will gather detailed data over the next month from critical regions of the atmosphere where some of the most dangerous U.S. hurricanes develop.

Arizona's high desert is a long way from the moon and Mars, but its temperature extremes, gusty winds and dust make NASA's robots, rovers and latest space gear feel right at home.

The state's famed Meteor Crater and Cinder Lake area represents a surrogate planet surface for NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies team of scientists and engineers who test futuristic equipment.

The PC2-9000 Ti Alpha VX2 DFI Special Edition, an engineered series of memory optimized for the new DFI LANParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R, from OCZ Technology Group.

The PC2-9000 VX2 DFI Special series is custom-built for high-voltage operation and record-breaking speeds of 1120MHz on the DFI M2R motherboard.

The PC2-9000 Ti Alpha VX2 DFI Special will be available in 1024MB Modules and 2GB (2x1024MB) dual channel kits.

A new SD™ “Dual” series, from OCZ Technology Group, Inc.

OCZ’s SD Dual cards introduce the convenience of an SD card and USB adaptor in one unit. Unlike conventional SD memory, OCZ SD Dual converts into a high-speed USB 2.0 connector eliminating the need for an independent card reader to transfer or view pictures or data on any PC.

Carnegie Mellon University will partner with General Motors Corp. to form Tartan Racing, a team that will enter a driverless Chevy Tahoe in the $2 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge scheduled for November 2007.

The race will require autonomous vehicles to travel 60 miles of streets in a mock urban setting. To succeed, vehicles must drive completely on their own — without drivers or remote control — and finish the course within six hours. Cars must stay in their lanes, negotiate intersections, drive in traffic and follow rules of the road with only computers at the wheel.

CompuLab introduced the CM-iGLX, a new Computer-on-Module based on AMD's Geode LX800 processor. The CM-iGLX packs up-to-date 2006 technologies into the most compact, lightweight PC-on-module available. Its on-board resources suffice to smoothly run operating systems such as Linux and Windows XP / CE, while it is just as small as a credit card and can run on a battery. These, in addition to the module's low cost, make it an ideal building block for any embedded application.

The Sansa™ c200 series, from SanDisk® Corporation, a flash memory-based MP3 player that is loaded with features -- such as a bright LCD color screen and a microSD™ expansion slot – and smashes the $100 price threshold for a 2-gigabyte (GB) player.

The c200 is sold in two capacities – 1 gigabyte (GB) and 2GB. However, the memory can be expanded with the addition of an optional SanDisk microSD™ card, which currently is available in capacities of from 256 megabytes (MB) to 2GB**. For example, with a 2GB microSD card, a user can transform a 2GB player into a 4GB player to hold nearly 2,000 songs (at 64kbps). The c200 supports WMA, MP3 and the protected WMA DRM format that gives consumers the ability to purchase or subscribe to music from most music service providers.

Gold nanoparticles are highly efficient and sensitive "handles" for biological molecules being manipulated and tracked by lasers, but they also can heat up fast--by tens of degrees in just a few nanoseconds--which could either damage the molecules or help study them, according to scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado at Boulder.

According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Tracker, worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues grew 8.5% in the second quarter to $4.2 billion for the 13th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. The total disk storage systems market grew to $5.9 billion for the quarter, up 6.0% from the prior year's quarter. For the first time, total disk storage systems capacity shipped 704 petabytes, growing 51.5% from the same quarter one year ago.

Education can play a fundamental role in reducing poverty, but high-quality and up-to-date textbooks are often too expensive for most people in developing countries.

To make education more accessible, a professor in the University of Georgia Terry College of Business is spearheading an effort to produce free online textbooks using a modified version of the Wiki software that powers the Web site Wikipedia.

Alcatel has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with Nortel to acquire its UMTS radio access business (UTRAN) and related assets for USD 320 million.

With this deal, Alcatel should become one of the world's largest suppliers of UMTS radio access solutions, and further reinforce its technology edge at a time when the UMTS market is expanding rapidly. The proposed acquisition would enhance Alcatel's industry-leading mobile radio expertise and product portfolio with technology and products that enjoy strong recognition among leading operators such as the Vodafone and Orange groups. Alcatel also intends to benefit from significantly strengthened research and development capabilities, amongst the most advanced in the world, with the scale and know-how to lead innovation in broadband wireless access, especially in HSxPA and 3G Long-Term Evolution (3G LTE), fully leveraging Alcatel's expertise in multi-standard radio solutions and Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology.

Engineers have developed a system for taking anonymous cell-phone location information and turning it into an illuminated traffic map that identifies congestion in real time.The system takes advantage of the steady stream of positioning cues--untraced signals all cell phones produce, whether in use or not, as they seek towers with the strongest signals. It is the first traffic-solution technology that monitors patterns on rural roads and city streets as easily as on highways.

A total of 169,446 shares of Nokia Corporation ("Nokia") were subscribed for as of Aug 28, 2006 based on Nokia's 2003 and 2005 employee stock option plans. This resulted in an increase of EUR 10,166.76 in Nokia's share capital and an increase of EUR 2,358,813.55 in shareholders equity. The new shares carry full shareholder rights as from the registration date, September 1, 2006. The shares are admitted to public trading on the Helsinki Exchanges as of the same date together with the old Nokia share class (NOK1V).

Intergraph Corporation has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by an investor group led by Hellman & Friedman LLC and Texas Pacific Group in a transaction valued at approximately $1.3 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Intergraph stockholders will receive $44.00 in cash for each share of Intergraph common stock, representing a 22% premium over Intergraph's average closing share price for the last twenty trading days.

The California State Senate passed tough new privacy safeguards late yesterday for use of "tag and track" devices known as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips embedded in state identification cards. The bill helps ensure that Californians can control the personal information contained on their drivers' licenses, library cards and other important ID documents.

Carnegie Mellon University CyLab researchers have developed a new anti-phishing tool to protect users from online transactions at fraudulent Web sites.

A research team led by Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Adrian Perrig has created the Phoolproof Phishing Prevention system that protects users against all network-based attacks, even when they make mistakes. The innovative security system provides strong mutual authentication between the Web server and the user by leveraging a mobile device, such as the user's cell phone or PDA.

Two new automotive hard drives, from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. The Endurastar® J4K50 and N4K50 are Hitachi ’s fourth-generation hard drives geared for automotive applications, such as navigation, digital entertainment (music/books/video), telematics and truly mobile computing.

Featuring a wider temperature range and an industry-leading altitude range, the new Endurastar drives also incorporate leadership shock-absorption technologies to take on pot holes and other surface vibrations as far as a car can drive. The J4K50 and N4K50 feature the highest storage capacity in an automotive-class hard drive with a top capacity of 50 gigabytes (GB).

The BD-P1000, from Samsung, offers full 1080p output via HDMI for the best available resolution and up-conversion capabilities for improving the picture of standard DVDs. The player has been launched in U.S. market from June 25th and will be introduced in European market from mid-October.

The BD player includes a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) output, an industry-supported, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface on a single cable, allowing users to easily connect the Blu-ray player to their existing home televisions. It will also decode standard multi-channel audio.

iTunes music files can be cracked by QTFairUse. The DRM crack is possible because FairUse writes to a dump file while to tune is being played.

We all knew that it was only a matter of time before someone was going to accomplish this and then release the crack for free.

QTFairUse6-1.0.zip.html

As launch preparations resumed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39B on Thursday, mission managers set Sept. 6 as the new date for the launch of Atlantis on Mission STS-115 to the International Space Station. Liftoff time would be 12:29 p.m. EDT.

Atlantis Weathers the Storm

No damage to facilities or flight hardware is reported at the Kennedy Space Center following the exit of Ernesto from Florida. As the tropical depression passed through the area on Wednesday, the peak wind recorded on Launch Pad 39B, where Space Shuttle Atlantis stands, was measured at 44 miles per hour at 4:45 p.m. EDT. The shuttle was surrounded by the rotating service structure as NASA decided to protect it in place when weather forecasts improved.

NASA has selected the Lockheed Martin team to design and build the agency’s next-generation human space flight crew transportation system known as Orion, with an initial contract value of approximately $4 billion.

Orion, an advanced crew capsule design utilizing state-of-the-art technology, is a key element of NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration, and will succeed the Space Shuttle in transporting a new generation of human explorers to and from the International Space Station, the Moon, and eventually to Mars and beyond.

Renesas Technology Corp. plans to develop a new facility at the Kumamoto plant of Renesas Kyushu Semiconductor Corp., a wholly-owned back-end process manufacturing subsidiary in Kyushu, Japan. The addition of the new building is intended to increase production capacity and improve efficiency, allowing Renesas to consolidate the operations of Renesas Kyushu Semiconductor’s Fukuoka plant at the new facility. The Kumamoto plant currently performs assembly and testing for microcontrollers, mixed-signal devices, and discrete devices.

Nokia and gate5 AG have an agreement for Nokia to acquire gate5. gate5 is a leading supplier of mapping, routing and navigation software and services. By acquiring gate5, Nokia will offer consumers maps, routing, navigation and other location based applications on its mobile devices.

A new study using NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data finds consistent evidence that Earth's ozone layer is on the mend.

A team led by Eun-Su Yang of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, analyzed 25 years of independent ozone observations at different altitudes in Earth's stratosphere, which lies between six and 31 miles above the surface. The observations were gathered from balloons, ground-based instruments, NASA and NOAA satellites.

A new research lab, launched this spring by MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, is bringing design and engineering together in an entirely new way.

The MIT Design Laboratory is drawing on such existing research groups as PlaceLab and SENSEable Cities to bring emerging technology to bear on problems of social, economic and cultural importance.

Sprint Nextel Corp., tglo.com, Inc and Theglobe.com Inc have resolved their pending patent infringement lawsuit by settlement. In October 2005, Sprint filed a lawsuit against VoiceGlo Holdings (now tglo.com, Inc) and Theglobe.com alleging that the providers of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone services and equipment infringed seven patents owned by Sprint. As part of the settlement, tglo.com and Theglobe.com have entered into a non-exclusive license under Sprint's patents.

Researchers are touting the use of liquid crystalline polymers (LCP) as a viable tool for use in devices such as the sought-after lab-on-a-chip technology.

University of Alberta researchers, collaborating with colleagues at the Eindhoven University of Technology and Phillips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands, have shown that LCP, when formed into a thin film on a glass backing, can be fabricated and patterned on a microscale. The research was published recently in the Journal of Material Chemistry.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. plans to demonstrate 4th Generation (4G) mobile technology at the annual Samsung 4G Forum in Jeju Island, Korea. The Demonstration will take place at the specially designed bus in mobile circumstances reaching 100 Mbps data transmission as well as at the display area inside forum venue to show speeds of 1Gbps of data transmission.

Nokia plans to offer Sourcefire's Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) on its portfolio of high-performance IP Security Platforms. Nokia Intrusion Prevention with Sourcefire will provide enterprises with defense-in-depth by analyzing network traffic to discover risks, determine their business impact and take actions to defend the network. This complete network visibility allows companies not only to address existing threats, but to actually prevent some of the attacks that plague them.

Used smartphones and PDAs for sale on eBay are loaded with sensitive personal and corporate information ranging from banking records to text messages and corporate emails that can be easily retrieved by hackers and data thieves, according to a sampling by mobile security software provider Trust Digital.

Trust Digital engineers recovered nearly 27,000 pages of personal, corporate, and device data from nine of 10 mobile devices purchased through eBay for the project, including a smartphone sold by an employee of a major corporation. The salvaged data included personal banking and tax information, corporate sales activity notes, corporate client records, product roadmaps, contact address books, phone and Web logs, calendar records, personal and business correspondence, computer passwords, user medication information, and other private, competitive or potentially damaging material.

Using an off-the-shelf inkjet printer, a team of scientists has developed a simple technique for printing patterns of carbon nanotubes on paper and plastic surfaces. The method, which is described in the August 2006 issue of the journal Small, could lead to a new process for manufacturing a wide range of nanotube-based devices, from flexible electronics and conducting fabrics to sensors for detecting chemical agents.

The Irvine Sensors Corporation program, dubbed 3D MINT, is a multi-year contract, the first phase of which was completed earlier this year with the successful demonstration of processing speeds and packaging densities that are at least an order of magnitude improved over that achievable with conventional state-of-the-art electronics. The newly awarded contract option is intended to develop hardware that is potentially transferable to both military and commercial applications.

Smart systems based on microtechnology and nanotechnology hold great promise for future systems integration, with a variety of potential applications especially in medicine, automotive safety and aeronautics. However lack of coordination among European research institutions, industry and government means that research and product innovation are not advancing as fast as they could.

AT&T Inc. said that unauthorized persons illegally hacked into a computer system and accessed personal data, including credit card information, from several thousand customers who purchased DSL equipment through the company's online Web store.

The unauthorized electronic access took place over the weekend, was discovered within hours and the online store was shut down immediately. AT&T also quickly notified the major credit card companies whose customer accounts were involved. The company is also working with law enforcement to investigate the incident and pursue the perpetrators.

A test flight of a European Airbus's super jumbo A380 airliner from France to Tunisia was cut short Tuesday, because of a problem with the plane's landing gear controls.

The company says the plane was scheduled to fly from the Airbus factory in Toulouse to Tozeur in southern Tunisia, but returned to its base in southwestern France after just a half-hour of flight. Airbus officials say a problem in the controls made it impossible to know whether or not the landing gear was down.

Apple® announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, was elected to Apple’s board of directors at their meeting today. Eric also sits on Google’s board of directors and Princeton University’s board of trustees.

Eric Schmidt joined Google from Novell, where he was chairman and CEO. At Google, Eric shares responsibility for Google’s day-to-day operations, and is focused on building the corporate infrastructure needed to maintain Google’s rapid growth while ensuring that quality remains high and product development times are kept to a minimum. Eric’s 20 years of experience as an Internet strategist, entrepreneur and technologist give him a well-seasoned perspective which perfectly complements Google’s needs as a young and rapidly growing company with a unique corporate culture.

Linspire, Inc. has made an immediate change in pricing for its popular CNR ("Click 'N Run") Service from an annual subscription fee based offering to a completely free service. The CNR Service, with access to over 20,000 desktop Linux applications, has previously been available only with annual subscriptions, ranging from $20 to $50, but will now be offered as a free service for all Linspire and Freespire users.

3D graphics design has progressed in leaps and bounds in recent years; at least if the current boom in animated movies and computer games is any indication. But interoperability problems between the software tools used to create the content remain a bottleneck. Uni-Verse is helping unblock the content pipeline.

Nearly two-thirds of security executives believe they have no way to prevent a data breach, according to the latest industry research by privacy and information management research firm the Ponemon Institute. What's more, most respondents believe their organizations lack the accountability and resources necessary to enforce data security policy compliance.

The University of Houston's annual Mars Rover Model Celebration and Exhibition is here again, and the Sept. 1 deadline to sign up for the preparatory teacher workshop is fast approaching.

This workshop, held 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Sept. 9 at UH, will train teachers who are considering entering their students in the 2006-07 UH Mars Rover Celebration and Exhibition.

Fujitsu Limited announced the new MHW2 BH series of hard disk drives (HDDs) for mobile PCs, its first 2.5" HDD offerings to incorporate advanced perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR)(1) technology for enhanced storage capacity. Two new models, the 160GB MHW2160BH (which boasts the industry's highest storage capacity for a 5,400 rpm HDD), and the 80GB MHW2080BH, will go on sale worldwide from October 2006.

NASA Mission Managers have decided to return Atlantis to Launch Pad 39B today. The space shuttle is expected to be back in place by about 8 p.m. EDT. The decision came as Tropical Storm Ernesto was predicted to skirt further west than first expected, allowing a sufficient decrease in winds to permit the shuttle to ride out the storm at the pad. Launch Director Mike Leinbach and the team made the determination at 2:40 p.m. EDT. Atlantis had begun its trek to the Vehicle Assembly Building, atop the crawler-transporter, at 10:04 a.m. this morning.

Citizens and legal practitioners in New Jersey and around the world now may access key New Jersey and federal documents online, thanks to a free service provided by the Rutgers University School of Law at Camden.

The Law Library at the Rutgers-Camden law school now offers the decisions of the New Jersey Supreme Court's Attorney Disciplinary Review Board from December, 1998 onward. These decisions are online at http://lawlibrary.rutgers.edu/drb/search.shtml.

Motorola Inc. to develop mobile WiMAX chipsets for use in Motorola’s next-generation WiMAX devices. The investment in chipset design demonstrates Motorola’s on-going commitment to WiMAX and expands the company’s role in end-to-end WiMAX solutions beyond infrastructure and handsets to the core implementation of WiMAX in chipsets.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, is sponsoring a workshop and a demonstration of urban search and rescue robots at the Montgomery County (Md.) Fire Rescue Training Academy in Rockville, Md., on Aug. 21, 2006.*

SpiralFrog has signed an agreement with Universal Music Group (UMG) to make UMG's extensive catalog available for legal downloading in the US and Canada via SpiralFrog's advertising-supported service.

SpiralFrog will offer users of its no-cost web-based service the ability to legally download music by many of the world's most popular and award-winning artists.

NASA decided to move Space Shuttle Atlantis off its launch pad and back inside the protection of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The roll back began at 10:05 a.m. EDT this morning.

The decision was made due to Tropical Storm Ernesto's track, which is expected to bring high winds as it passes Kennedy.

Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, say a visual aid they invented promises to improve the visual abilities of people with tunnel vision. In the first study to evaluate this small high tech device, the research team saw a significant increase in the effectiveness and speed with which visually impaired individuals found objects. The study -- in the September issue of the Journal of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science -- shows that this device, which combines a tiny camera, pocket-sized computer and transparent computer display on a pair of glasses, may offer the most effective assistance to date for this patient population.

The New York Times Company has completed the acquisition of Baseline StudioSystems, a leading online database and research service for information on the film and television industries, from Hollywood Media Corp. for $35.0 million in cash.

Baseline is the primary supplier of proprietary entertainment information in Hollywood, counting numerous studio and television production companies among its subscribers. It also has a growing syndication/licensing business that provides non-professional entertainment information to leading consumer-oriented Web sites.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced it plans to certify interoperability of Wi-Fi products that include baseline features from the developing IEEE 802.11n taskgroup of the IEEE 802.11 committee whose goal is to define a standard in the first half of 2007. This is the first phase in a certification program of the next generation of Wi-Fi products. A second phase brings full alignment with the ratified standard.

Dash Navigation™, Inc. (www.dash.net) emerged from stealth-mode today. The company is developing a new consumer product and service that will, for the first time, give drivers timely and relevant local information on their dashboards. Backed by venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, Dash will unveil its first product on Sept. 26 at the DEMOfall conference.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking for comments on new guidelines aimed at helping end-users, in particular telecommuting federal employees, improve the security of their personally owned desktop and laptop computers that run Windows XP Home Edition in a small office or home office environment. Like their larger office counterparts, home computers increasingly are the target of attackers looking to damage or disrupt files, steal identities or commit fraud.

The Omron Corporation has just revealed more specific plans related to the November, 2005, announcement of a $20 million worldwide investment in the RFID business over a two-year period.

The company announced that RFID inlay manufacturing capacity will be increased to support production of more than 250 million inlays per year at its Minakuchi factory in Shiga, Japan. This factory location was chosen to take advantage of its more than 30 years of experience with semiconductors and class 10000 clean room standards. The inlays produced at Minakuchi are marketed and distributed globally by Omron's RFID division (www.omronrfid.com).

As gas prices continue to soar, the Navy will be eager to learn of research underway at Rutgers University—Camden.

“Barnacles that attach to naval ships are a huge cost to the Navy. Imagine if you drove a car with a parachute attached; this extra drag force requires more gas,” says Daniel Bubb, an assistant professor of physics at Rutgers-Camden, who has developed a new method for coating polymers.

QUALCOMM Incorporated has introduced the QSC1100™ single-chip solution. The QSC1100 is designed to enable CDMA2000® handsets that break new industry price barriers for emerging markets worldwide. In addition to supporting features such as downloadable polyphonic ringtones and color displays, the QSC1100 doubles talk time compared to currently available CDMA2000 handsets. Addressing the dramatic subscriber growth anticipated in emerging markets around the world, the QSC1100 solution features multiple technologies to dramatically improve network capacity by up to 100 percent.

Eight new Dual-Core Intel Xeon® 7100 series processors designed for multi-processor servers. Previously codenamed “Tulsa,” the Dual-Core Intel Xeon processor 7100 series delivers on key requirements to support the demands of enterprise applications: top performance and reliability. The processor family also includes lower-power, 95 watt options that reduce associated energy costs.

IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Infineon Technologies, and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced first silicon-functional circuits and the availability of design kits based on their collaboration for 45nm low-power process technology. The early characterization of key design elements in silicon, coupled with the availability of early design kits, provide designers with a significant head start in moving to the latest process from the industry-leading CMOS technology research and development alliance. The early design kits are developed through a collaborative effort by all four companies and are immediately available for select customers.

Researchers at Purdue University have made a discovery about the behavior of tiny structures called nanocantilevers that could be crucial in designing a new class of ultra-small sensors for detecting viruses, bacteria and other pathogens.

The nanocantilevers, which resemble tiny diving boards made of silicon, could be used in future detectors because they vibrate at different frequencies when contaminants stick to them, revealing the presence of dangerous substances. Because of the nanocantilever's minute size, it is more sensitive than larger devices, promising the development of advanced sensors that detect minute quantities of a contaminant to provide an early warning that a dangerous pathogen is present.

Phoenix Technologies Ltd. has released the findings of a landmark study on Department of Justice network crime prosecutions that reveals most attacks used stolen IDs and passwords, resulting in far greater damages to affected organizations than previously thought: up to $10 million per occurrence and on average more than $1.5 million per occurrence. The report, "Network Attacks: Analysis of Department of Justice Prosecutions 1999-2006," concludes that 84 percent of attacks could have been prevented if, in addition to checking the user ID and password, the organization had verified the identity of the computer connecting to their networks and accounts.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. will mass produce 1Gigabit (Gb) DDR2 DRAM memory using 80 nanometer (nm) process technology. While monolithic 1Gb DDR2 is available today, it is produced with more costly and less efficient 90 nm technology.

By applying 80nm process technology, Samsung will produce the world’s smallest DRAM package (11x11.5mm). This is 36% smaller than the 11x18mm package required for a DRAM chip utilizing 90nm and nearly as small as the 512Mb DRAM, which is half the size of a 90nm 1Gb chip.

A joint collaboration between Northwestern University and BBN Technologies of Cambridge, Mass., has led to the first demonstration of a truly quantum cryptographic data network. By integrating quantum noise protected data encryption (quantum data encryption or QDE for short) with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), the researchers have developed a complete data communication system with extraordinary resilience to eavesdropping.

Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology are now shipping with Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processors inside, Intel Corporation announced today.

More than 200 Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology-based designs from PC manufacturers, resellers and integrators around the world will incorporate the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor (formerly codenamed “Merom”) this year. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor, launched last month, is already shipping in the company’s other premium platform for consumers, Intel® Viiv™ technology-based entertainment PCs.

TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) offered the following statement on the court stay of EchoStar Technology Corporation's lawsuit against TiVo and Humax USA. On July 14, 2006, United States Magistrate Judge Caroline M. Craven for the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, issued a stay order, which is now final.

NASA mission managers announced at a midmorning briefing today that rollback preparations are proceeding, ensuring that Space Shuttle Atlantis would be safely back in the Vehicle Assembly Building before effects from Tropical Storm Ernesto would be felt at the Kennedy Space Center on Florida's east coast.

Leroy Cain, mission management team chairman, explained, "We pretty much did what we said we were going to do. We got together this morning and talked about it and didn't see any significant change for the good."

Researchers at the Advanced Technology Institute, University of Surrey have reversed the growth of carbon nanotubes from catalysts, using electron beam irradiation in an electron microscope. High resolution imaging of this reverse process led to the conclusion that carbon nanotube growth is essentially a surface-driven process.

Carbon nanotubes – tubes formed from a repeating arrangement of carbon atoms with diameter of the order of a billionth of a meter – have remarkable mechanical, electronic and optical properties. Their potential applications range from ultra-strong ropes to ultra-small transistors, as well as field-emission displays, biosensors and optical switches. Unfortunately it is not yet possible to produce carbon nanotubes on a large scale with controlled properties (such as diameter and chirality – the degree of spiral in the arrangement of the carbon atoms). One important method for producing tubes is to use small particles of a metal such as nickel, which at high temperatures catalyse the decomposition of a carbon-containing gas forming carbon nanotubes which ‘grow’ on each metal particle. This process has not yet been fully understood, but recent work at the University of Surrey sheds new light on the interaction between the catalysts and the carbon atoms involved in the growth.

Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed a microchip-based test that may allow more labs to diagnose influenza infections and learn more about the viruses causing illness. The FluChip successfully distinguished among 72 influenza strains-including the H5N1 avian influenza strain-in less than 12 hours. The research was led by University of Colorado scientist Kathy L. Rowlen, Ph.D., and was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It appears in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Google Inc. and eBay Inc. have an advertisering agreement which consists of two primary components involving text-based advertising and "click-to-call" advertising functionality.

Specifically, Google will become the exclusive text-based advertising provider for eBay outside the United States. In addition, eBay and Google plan to integrate and launch "click-to-call" advertising functionality that leverage both Skype and Google Talk globally in each company's respective shopping and search platforms. The companies said the financial terms for certain components of the deal involve revenue sharing, but did not disclose specific details.

With the acquisition of WinZip®, Corel Corporation will have an estimated installed base of over 40 million users worldwide. The company provides high quality, affordable and easy-to-use productivity, graphics and digital imaging software and enjoys a favorable market position among value-conscious consumers and small businesses. Its products are sold in over 75 countries through a scalable distribution platform comprised of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Corel’s domestic and international websites, and a global network of resellers and retailers. The Company’s product portfolio features well-established, globally recognized brands including CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, Corel® WordPerfect® Office, Corel Paint Shop® Pro, and Corel Painter™.

The Boeing Company has signed a contract to provide 600,000 solar concentrator cells to SolFocus, Inc., a California-based renewable energy company that is developing renewable terrestrial energy alternatives.

Under the 12-month contract from SolFocus, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., Spectrolab will build and deliver 600,000 solar concentrator cells that will be used to convert the sun's rays into affordable electricity for homes and businesses. The cells produced for SolFocus will be capable of generating more than 10 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 4,000 U.S. homes. With the average solar cell efficiency above 35 percent at concentration, Spectrolab's concentrator photovoltaic cells generate electricity at a rate that can be more economical than electricity generated from conventional, flat panel photovoltaic systems.

RF Monolithics, Inc. (“RFM” or the “Company”) [NASDAQ:RFMI] has signed definitive agreements for the acquisition of Cirronet Inc. (“Cirronet”), a wireless data communications and networking company, and Caver-Morehead Systems, Inc. (“Caver-Morehead”), which offers computerized maintenance management system (“CMMS”) software. RFM will offer a comprehensive suite of hardware, protocols, software, and related services necessary to enable customers to readily implement and deploy value added applications and smart services in their operations.

NEC Electronics Corporation ("NEC Electronics") and NEC Corporation ("NEC"), with support from Toyota Motor Corporation ("Toyota") and Denso Corporation ("Denso"), introduced the IMAPCAR® image processor for automobiles, which can detect nearby objects such as vehicles, pedestrians, and lane markers in real-time, enabling automobile manufacturers to easily implement safety mechanisms and collision prevention systems. IMAPCAR will be featured in the pre-crash safety system of the new Lexus LS460 developed by Toyota, scheduled to be available this autumn.

Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. has introduced the its latest fingerprint sensor IC technology, the Fujitsu MBF320 Sweep Sensor™. The new MBF320 features TrustedCore pre-boot authentication (PBA), fingerprint-matching algorithms and biometric software from Cogent Systems (NASDAQ:COGT), and a USB 2.0 full-speed interface. The combination of the TrustedCore PBA with the MBF320 fingerprint sensor IC adds a vital new layer of security to PCs, notebooks and tablet PCs.

The Get Net Safe tour will kick off tomorrow in Dallas, designed to help people learn how to become more safe and secure on the Internet. The multiple-stop tour — with events Aug. 29–31 in the Dallas metropolitan area — will give children, teens, parents, business owners and people over 50 the opportunity to participate in unique forums about how to be better protected online.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have conducted successful test flights of a hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft believed to be the largest to fly on a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell using compressed hydrogen.

The fuel-cell system that powers the 22-foot wingspan aircraft generates only 500 watts. “That raises a lot of eyebrows,” said Adam Broughton, a research engineer who is working on the project in Georgia Tech’s Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL). “Five hundred watts is plenty of power for a light bulb, but not for the propulsion system of an aircraft this size.” In fact, 500 watts represents about 1/100th the power of a hybrid car like a Toyota Prius.

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. has provided Pantech Co., Ltd. with FaceSensingEnginge™ (FSE), Oki’s face image processing middleware is to be used in their mobile phones. FSE is embedded into Pantech’s SKY brand mobile phone, "SKY IM-R100," that was launched in August 1, 2006.

SKY IM-R100 is Pantech’s first mobile phone to be equipped with Oki’s FSE. When taking a picture, the FSE automatically controls the camera direction based on the facial feature tracking function, and always adjusts the face to the middle of the screen. In addition, FSE can synthesize images in real-time synchronized to facial movements, and can save the result as a photo using the image synthesis function.

Linux GigE Vision SDK, from Prosilica, for GigE Vision cameras. The Linux GigE Vision SDK provides programmers the means to control, and capture images from, Prosilica gigabit Ethernet cameras. These GigE Vision gigabit Ethernet cameras, which have been used in wide range of Windows-based computer vision applications, can now also be easily used on Linux computers. The SDK also includes sample code to help programmers more easily use Prosilica's cameras into their Linux-based applications.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has licensed its carbon nanotube technology to a new commercial partner, Seattle-based CNT Technologies Inc. (CNT Tech). The ultrastrong, lightweight carbon-nanotube fiber, branded SuperThread(tm) by the company, can have better properties than steel for many applications and could soon be the primary substance from which airplanes, automobile parts, and sports equipment are made. Initial tests show that SuperThread is pound for pound (for the same weight) one-hundred times stronger than steel and less than one-fortieth the weight.