Week of Sun, 2006-09-17 00:00 to Sat, 2006-09-23 23:59

Mandriva launches Corporate Server 4.0, a full, open solution that will let you deploy servers in any environment in just a few minutes.

Corporate Server 4.0 has been designed to be modular and customizable. With Corporate Server 4.0 it is easy to configure specialized servers, such as mail servers, file / print servers and directory servers. The configuration process is particularly easy to put to work thanks to FIBRIC, an installation assistant accessible by web browser. Even better, the complete Corporate Server 4.0 installation process takes less than 10 minutes.

Nokia reached an agreement with Microsoft to integrate Live Search capabilities into its Mobile Search platform, enabling consumers access to Live Search directly from their Nokia Nseries multimedia computers and other compatible Nokia S60 devices. Live Search will provide web search results in 14 languages.

Solar-B -- an international mission to study the sun -- launched Friday, Sept. 22 from Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima, Japan.

Solar-B is an international mission to study our nearest star, the sun. To accomplish this, the Solar-B mission includes a suite of three science instruments -- the Solar Optical Telescope, X-ray Telescope and Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer.

HP today announced that Patricia Dunn, chairman of the board and director, has resigned, effective immediately.

Statement from the HP board of directors:

“Pattie Dunn has been a valuable director of HP for many years. We acknowledge all of the good work that Pattie has accomplished on behalf of HP. She helped stabilize the business during the CEO transition. She led the search committee for our new chief executive officer, which led to our hiring of Mark Hurd and the outstanding performance of the business over the last 18 months. She served our board with distinction as chairman for the last year and a half. The board felt it was important to find the sources of the leaks of HP confidential information, and she informed the board that she had taken steps to do so. We have never questioned her intentions, her integrity or her ethics. To move forward, we believe it is in the company’s best interest that she now step aside given the distraction her presence on our board continues to create. We regret that we will lose her contributions to the board and appreciate that she has agreed to our request.”

MTV Networks has a definitive agreement to acquire Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. Under the terms of the transaction, MTV Networks will acquire all of the outstanding stock of Harmonix for $175 million in cash. In addition, Harmonix shareholders may be eligible for incremental earn-out payments through 2008, to the extent that financial results exceed specific targets.

What are newspapers around the world saying about the latest speech by President George W. Bush? More importantly, how much of what they are saying is factual and how much opinion? And down the line, are some of the opinions being presented as if they were facts?

A new research program by a Cornell computer scientist, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Utah, aims to teach computers to scan through text and sort opinion from fact. The research is funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has designated the consortium of three universities as one of four University Affiliate Centers (UAC) to conduct research on advanced methods for information analysis and to develop computational technologies that contribute to national security. Cornell will receive $850,000 of $2.4 million in funding provided for the consortium over three years.

Nokia has made the Carbide.c++ Developer Edition and Carbide.c++ Professional Edition available, two powerful, next-generation developer suites that will help drive the growth of smartphone application development for Symbian OS(TM), the industry leading operating system for millions of mobile devices in the market today.

SMSC has introduced its LAN9131, a high-performance network multimedia co-processor. Based on RipStream™ technology, which combines support of multiple high definition (HD) audio/video (A/V) streams, software protocol stack management and security, this industry first solution delivers time-to-market advantages and reduces development risk for customer designs. Target applications include network-enabled HD TVs, set-top boxes, digital video recorders and home media servers, among others.

Research led by the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School is challenging accusations of racism against Psychiatry services in England and Wales.

In 2005, the "Count me in" census for England and Wales showed higher rates of admission for mental illness and more adverse pathways to care for some black and minority ethnic groups and led to accusations of institutional racism within psychiatry. Several reports and inquiries have also alleged that psychiatry is institutionally racist.

Rice University chemist and nanocar inventor James Tour has been selected Innovator of the Year in Small Times magazine's Best of Small Tech Research Award competition. The awards recognize the best people, products and companies in nanotechnology, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and microsystems.

September 2006 marks the 50th anniversary of two aerospace milestones that involved both triumph and tragedy for the flight test community at Edwards Air Force Base. It was in September 1956 that the highest and fastest flights of the Bell X-2, a swept-wing, rocket-powered research aircraft were flown. Sadly, the latter of those two missions cost the life of Air Force Capt. Milburn "Mel" Apt, one of the test pilots assigned to the project.

IBM and the University of Georgia today launched a research initiative to find the answer to the question of what is key to innovation -- great inventions, business models, technology and profit.

The collaboration is part of IBM’s Shared University Research award program, created to exemplify the deep partnership between academia and the industry to explore research in areas essential to fuel innovation. IBM has donated $80,000 in systems and software to the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business where students will work together with IBM Research and Market Intelligence to delve into the topic of innovation.

A new technique for creating vertical alignment among liquid crystal molecules could allow development of less-costly flexible displays and lead to a better understanding of the factors that govern operation of the popular liquid crystal display systems.

Liquid crystals are a key component of the displays used in most laptop computers and the increasingly-popular flat panel televisions. Controlled by a network of transistors, the liquid crystals change their optical characteristics in response to electrical signals to create the text and images we see.

The U.S. Army became the first customer of General Motors Corp.'s latest fuel cell technology today as the automaker deployed the first vehicle of its next generation Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicle fleet.

On Sunday, GM announced "Project Driveway", a comprehensive market test to place 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles with consumers in three key U.S. regions: California, Washington, D.C. and the New York City metropolitan area. A variety of drivers, including individual consumers, will begin driving the vehicles in the fall of 2007. The fuel cell vehicle the Army received today is a vehicle which will enable a direct performance assessment of GM's latest generation of fuel cell technology.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded an industry team led by The Boeing Company a contract for the department's technology component of its Secure Border Initiative (SBI) effort, SBInet. The contract work will be performed over a three-year period with three one-year options.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have developed a range of unique, shape-changing structures, which can be used as roll-up display screens (such as laptop screens), re-usable packaging, roll-up keyboards and self-erecting, temporary habitats.

These structures, also known as ‘morphing’ structures, afford multiple configurations without the need of complex parts or sophisticated manufacturing. Dr Keith Seffen, from the Department of Engineering, has developed the structures and is currently exploring various applications for their ingenious behaviour with co-worker Dr Simon Guest and graduate student Alex Norman.

A San Jose, Calif., executive of Samsung Semiconductor Inc. – the world’s largest manufacturer of a common computer component called dynamic random access memory or DRAM – has agreed to plead guilty and to serve jail time for participating in a global conspiracy to fix DRAM prices, the Department of Justice announced.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is inviting experts to participate in the "Mobile Web in Developing Countries" Workshop in Bangalore, India, on 5-6 December 2006. Participants will discuss the challenges, requirements, and use cases for mobile Web access in developing countries. The Workshop will bring together experts in mobile Web technologies and specialists on emerging countries and the digital divide. To participate in the Workshop, please submit a position paper by email before 1 November 2006.

VLSI Research Inc predicts chip production will increase 12% in 2006. Measured in terms of silicon consumption in millions of square inches, chip production will reach 5995 msi this year. It is in stark contrast to the previous year, when silicon consumption grew at a mere 2.8%, and reminiscent of the boom year of 2004 when it grew 14%.

On a quarterly basis, chip production fell close to 1% in 1Q06 from 4Q05, but grew almost 4% in 2Q06. VLSI Research expects a steady quarterly growth through the rest of the year given that the second half is seasonally strong due to the holiday season.

Chevron Corp. will fund up to $25 million in research at UC Davis in the next five years to develop affordable, renewable transportation fuels from farm and forest residues, urban wastes and crops grown specifically for energy.

The researchers will address the vast range of variables -- from genetics to thermochemical reactions to economics -- that will be involved if many of our cars and trucks are to be powered in the future by something other than gasoline and diesel fuel.

A group of mobile manufacturers, network operators, suppliers, recyclers, consumer and environmental organisations, led by Nokia, has committed to improve the environmental performance of mobile phones and to do more to raise consumer awareness and participation in take-back and recycling.

The group was created as part of a European Commission pilot project looking at how different industries could work with stakeholder groups to reduce the environmental impact of their products throughout their lifecycle.

HP today announced that Mark Hurd, HP chief executive officer and president, will lead a press conference on Friday, Sept. 22, at 1:05 p.m. PT, to discuss the actions HP is taking to address issues regarding the investigation of leaks from its boardroom.

The press conference, to be held in the company’s Palo Alto head office and also to be webcast, will include a representative from the outside law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. The representative will provide information regarding the investigation of the leaks.

Computer software systems are now among the most complex, expensive artifacts ever created by humans, and some of the most sophisticated are being built by teams of volunteers as "open source" projects, where any programmer can read the code and suggest changes. A group of UC Davis researchers has just received a three-year, $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how open source software such as the Apache Web server is built.

Fujitsu Laboratories Limited has developed image compression technology for automotive use that complies with the IDB-1394 (ITS Data Bus-1394)(1) standard for in-vehicle digital imaging transmission system networks. The new technology, SmartCODEC, features a compression rate of one-third (1/3), and a fast compression-decompression time of just 2 to 3 milliseconds that enables compression and multiplex transmission of images to inside the vehicle, such as images from multiple automotive cameras located externally on the vehicle. In addition to assisting facilitation of safer driving through these functions, Fujitsu's new technology also makes it possible to reduce the amount of cable required within the vehicle to achieve fast and high-quality image transmission of multiple images.

Space Shuttle Atlantis is Home

The orbiter landing convoy completed the process of "safing" the vehicle, and the six crew members took their first steps back on Earth as they exited Atlantis through the Crew Hatch Access Vehicle. After receiving a quick check by doctors, Commander Brent Jett was followed onto the runway by the entire crew. The astronauts performed a walk-around inspection of the vehicle to see how their ship fared through the 11-day mission.

The Board of Directors, of Agilent Technologies Inc. has approved a share-repurchase program of up to $2 billion of its common stock over the next two years, bringing Agilent's total share repurchase commitment to $6.466 billion. In June, the company announced that it had completed its initial $4.466 billion share-repurchase program.

The AMD Torrenza Initiative is serving as a collaborative force toward achieving future processor socket compatibility in the server industry. By leveraging the advantages of AMD64 with Direct Connect Architecture and HyperTransport(TM) technology, OEMs will be able to standardize on a Torrenza Innovation Socket for many of their current and future server platforms. This game-changing approach to server design will enable OEMs to consolidate server offerings for multiple processors to potentially a single platform, reducing datacenter disruption and deployment costs.

The Federal Trade Commission today told the U.S. Senate that access to Whois databases – the directories that contain information about Web site operators – are "critical to the agency’s consumer protection mission, to other law enforcement agencies around the world, and to consumers.” In Commission testimony before the Subcommittee on Trade, Tourism and Economic Development of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Commissioner Jon Leibowitz said improvements should be made to the current Whois database system and the databases should be “kept open, transparent, and accessible.”

University of Queensland researchers are working on a process that could make the theory of clean coal a reality.

Dr Joe da Costa's research group, from the Division of Chemical Engineering in the School of Engineering, has developed unique hollow fibre technology that can separate oxygen from air, making the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, in coal-fired power stations much easier.

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. has announced a new plan to expand its monthly production capacity of 300mm silicon wafers to 1,000,000 by the fall of 2007. Construction to expand facilities has already started. This expansion will enable Shin-Etsu to establish a production system, which will meet the rapidly growing demand worldwide.

Shin-Etsu Chemical had been working to implement its plan to expand its Group’s total production capacity of 300mm silicon wafer to 500,000/month by the fall of 2006; however, due to the continuation of robust demand, this project was completed earlier than planned and its Group’s total production capacity has been currently increased to 700,000/month. Furthermore, since semiconductor customers are expected to newly construct or expand their production lines that make use of 300mm wafers, Shin-Etsu has now decided to establish a production system of 1,000,000 wafers/month by the fall of 2007. The investment amount made for an additional capacity of 300,000 wafers will be 120 billion yen, and the accumulated amount invested in the 300mm wafer business by Shin-Etsu, including that of this investment, is expected to reach about 400 billion yen, all amount of which is covered by Shin-Etsu’s own funds. As of the end of August 2006, Shin-Etsu Chemical had cash reserves of about 530 billion yen.

MoSys, Inc. and Fujitsu Limited have an agreement under which MoSys' IT-SRAM®technology is licensed to Fujitsu on its advanced 65 nanometer (nm) production process.

The companies' partnership already covers the 0.13-micron and 90nm semiconductor technologies. With the implementation of MoSys-patented 1T-SRAM memory technology and IT-Q bit cell to Fujitsu's 65nm process, Fujitsu is able to offer complex SoCs, that have a fraction of the die area devoted to embedded memory compared to other competing embedded memory technologies, while maintaining very high performance with extremely low power consumption. The cost savings derived from the smaller embedded memory die area can be allocated to other various uses, such as increasing functionality at the same cost, or significantly reducing unit costs while maintaining the same functionality.

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed and built ceramic microreactors for the on-site reforming of hydrocarbon fuels, such as propane, into hydrogen for use in fuel cells and other portable power sources.

Applications include power supplies for small appliances and laptop computers, and on-site rechargers for battery packs used by the military.

Research experts at FaceTime Security Labs™ have identified and reported a new worm known as W32.pipeline that is propagating over AOL Instant Messenger. The worm delivers an executable file disguised as a JPEG, which in turn calls out to various host computers that download a variety of infection files including rootkits and Trojans that may further propagate the worm through the user's AIM Buddy List. FaceTime researchers believe that the ultimate goal of the W32.pipeline is to create a sophisticated botnet that can be used for a range of malicious purposes.

New identification cards to be issued to Defense Department employees beginning next month will help standardize workforce identification and security access systems across the government, a senior Defense Department official said here Sept. 15.

The new common access card eventually will be issued to all federal employees and is part of a standardized, secure credentialing system that was mandated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Mary Dixon, deputy director of the Defense Manpower Data Center in Arlington, Va., said.

Torpark, an anonymous, fully portable Web browser based on Mozilla Firefox. Torpark comes pre-configured, requires no installation, can run off a USB memory stick, and leaves no tracks behind in the browser or computer. Torpark is a highly modified variant of Portable Firefox, that uses the TOR (The Onion Router) network to anonymize the connection between the user and the website that is being visited.

A new version of the Google Search Appliance that offers increased search capacity of up to 30 million documents, as well new advanced search functions and administrative support for 16 languages.

The 30 million document capacity is included as part of the largest Google Search Appliance, and requires no customization. Larger capacities are available upon request from Google.

Mark Harrower recalls a raging debate in his field in the 1970s, when some geographers worried that commercial map-making software would trigger the demise of cartography.

The argument went like this: "We are screwed, because now anyone without any technical knowledge or artistic skill can make a map."

But rather than sully the field, Harrower says the new technology - combined with the explosion of availability of geospatial information - is fueling one of the most exciting eras in his profession, where map-making has become a populist pursuit.

The PhotonicLab™ Platform, from BIOIDENT Technologies Inc., combines printed organic semiconductor-based optoelectronics with microfluidics to create a new class of disposable lab-on-a-chip systems, which enable mobile, real-time and multi-parameter detection of chemical and biological substances.

The OpenAjax Alliance has almost doubled its membership since the launch in February of 2006. The newest OpenAjax Alliance members include: The Ajaxian, American Greetings, Bling Software, Curl, edge IPK, eLink Business Innovations, ENOVIA, MatrixOne, Finetooth, The Front Side, Ikivo, ILOG, IN2, IT Mill, Javeline, JWAX, Merced Systems, Nitobi, OpenLink Software, Seagull Software, Sitepen, Sun Microsystems, Vertex Logic, Vircon, Webtide and Zoho.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin entered their new home, the International Space Station, at 4:34 a.m. EDT today. They are in the early hours of a six-month stay at the orbital outpost, which began when the Soyuz TMA 9 spacecraft docked at 1:21 a.m.

They were greeted by the Expedition 13 crew members upon floating through the hatch between the station and the Soyuz spacecraft.

The STS-115 astronauts wrapped up inspections of Space Shuttle Atlantis' heat shield earlier today and are now preparing for the return to Earth. Atlantis' next landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., is at 6:21 a.m. EDT Thursday.

During the first inspection, the astronauts used cameras on the shuttle’s robotic arm to conduct the scans. Imagery specialists and engineers reviewed the data from today’s scan and from previous activities. They did not see any areas of concern from the first inspection.

The Intel Corporation has created a wireless, high-speed Internet network for residents to access vast resources of medical, educational and commercial knowledge through computers, in one of the most remote inhabited places on Earth, the Amazon. The project is part of the Intel World Ahead Program, an initiative in which Intel plans to invest more than $US 1 billion globally over the next 5 years to accelerate access to computers, the Internet and technology for people in developing communities.

European software developers have to stay technologically up-to-date if they are to maintain their competitive edge on world markets. Now an IST-sponsored research project has constructed a platform to help them deliver state-of-the-art software systems to end-users faster.

European software designers, often working in university laboratories, create some of the world's most sophisticated and reliable software systems. However, it usually falls to industrial software developers to incorporate these technological advances into marketable products. In fact, due to the growing complexity of software systems, developers find it increasingly difficult to keep pace with end-user demand for updated tools.

Available immediately, the PeakStream Platform™, from PeakStream, Inc., makes it possible to easily program new high performance processors such as multi-core CPUs, graphics processor units (GPUs) and Cell processors, converting them into radically powerful computing engines for exponentially increased application performance and decreased time-to-solution at reduced cost.

Research slated to appear in the October 2 edition of the Optical Society of America's (OSA) Optics Express will unveil that researchers have created a new laser-silicon hybrid computer chip that can produce laser beams that will make it possible to use laser light rather than wires to send data between chips, removing the most significant bottleneck in computer design.

A Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorders that can play back BD-Video discs, from Panasonic. The Blu-ray DIGA DMR-BW200 and DMR-BR100 can record high-definition imagery on BD-RE rewritable discs and dub from the built-in hard-disk drive (HDD) to BD discs at 4x speed without compromising video or audio quality. BD recorders will be available in Japan from November 15.

The President’s Identity Theft Task Force has adopted interim recommendations on measures that can be implemented immediately to help address the problem of identity theft, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras announced today. The Identity Theft Task Force, which was established by Executive Order of the President on May 10, 2006, and is now comprised of 17 federal agencies and departments, will deliver a final strategic plan to the President in November.

A few years ago, chemical analyses of deep sea muds that used a new X-ray technology were able to help explain why the Classic Mayan civilization collapsed more than a thousand years ago. At the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, a new tool will apply a similar technology to find answers to historic climate changes from earth and marine sediment core samples. The XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) Core Scanner is only the second to make its way to the United States, and the first of this new and improved model made by Avaatech, a company based in the Netherlands.

BIOIDENT Technologies Inc. has opened its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. The company also announced that it has appointed two executives who bring deep expertise in nanotechnology, printed organic semiconductors and biophotonics to BIOIDENT—Dr. Wasiq Bokhari, CEO and Dr. Max Sonnleitner, CTO.

BIOIDENT leverages printed optoelectronics and microfluidics to create a new class of photonic lab-on-a-chip systems, which enable real-time, multiparameter detection and analysis capability for mobile field, diagnostic and point of care applications. BIOIDENT’s lab-on-a-chip systems will be used for mobile water and food analysis, chemical and biological agent detection and in-vitro diagnostics. These combined markets currently represent a $ 7.5 billion addressable opportunity for BIOIDENT.

ITTIA, developer of database software for embedded systems and mobile handheld devices, today announced the availability of version 1.1 of ITTIA DB, its flagship database. New features include an enhanced C API, improved performance and additional configuration options.

In this release, the powerful C API is now the primary interface to ITTIA DB and the C++ API has been rewritten to use only C API calls, allowing it to be compiled separately or omitted when not needed. Now compilers from multiple vendors are compatible with a single DLL library release. In addition, the C API supports three kinds of data bindings, absolute, relative, and managed, providing efficient methods for applications to retrieve data while supporting full dynamic alteration of the database schema.

Scientists who worked on the Archimedes Palimpsest are using modern imaging technologies to digitally restore a 700-year-old palm-leaf manuscript containing the essence of Hindu philosophy.

The project led by P.R. Mukund and Roger Easton, professors at Rochester Institute of Technology, will digitally preserve the original Hindu writings known as the Sarvamoola granthas attributed to scholar Shri Madvacharya (1238-1317). The collection of 36 works contains commentaries written in Sanskrit on sacred Hindu scriptures and conveys the scholar’s Dvaita philosophy of the meaning of life and the role of God.

Thinking big already has led von Ahn, an assistant professor of computer science, to invent Internet games that harness the brainpower of thousands of people to accomplish useful tasks beyond the ken of any digital computer.

Von Ahn's ambition to further stretch this technique, called "human computation," got an unexpected boost last week when he received a call from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, notifying him that he is one of 25 new MacArthur fellows for 2006.

Solaria® completed $22 million in Series B financing. The funding round includes investments from Sigma Partners and NGEN Partners, two leading venture capital firms; Q-Cells AG, the world’s largest independent manufacturer of crystalline silicon solar cells; and Moser Baer, India’s largest and the world’s second-largest manufacturer of removable optical storage media.

General Motors will build more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles and will begin placing them with customers in the fall of 2007, as part of a comprehensive deployment plan dubbed “Project Driveway." Designed to gain comprehensive learnings on all aspects of the customer experience, Project Driveway constitutes the first meaningful market test of fuel cell vehicles anywhere. A variety of drivers – in differing driving environments – will operate these vehicles and refuel with hydrogen in three geographic areas: California, the New York metropolitan area and Washington D.C.

While new technologies have made information more accessible, they have yet to live up to their full potential when it comes to knowledge sharing. Two European projects in the field of collaborative learning are looking to change that.

The IST-funded COOPER and TENCompetence initiatives, which began in December 2005 and will run for two and four years respectively, are creating new tools and techniques for technology-enhanced collaborative learning. Part of the Professional Learning Cluster of IST research projects, the two initiatives are complementary in the way they are applying technology to the realm of collaborative learning, in which groups of teachers and pupils cooperate to share expertise and solve complex problems.

The LatticeMico32™, a 32-bit soft microprocessor, from Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, optimized for Lattice Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Lattice is releasing the Hardware Description Language (HDL) code of the microprocessor core and various peripheral components generated by the LatticeMico32 System, along with selected tools, in an open source format that provides visibility, flexibility and portability. The heart of the product is the LatticeMico32 System development tool suite, which provides a fast and easy way to implement microprocessor designs from platform definition to software development and debug. This flexible microprocessor will find application in a wide variety of markets including communications, consumer, computing, medical, industrial and automotive.

Masten Space Systems of Mojave, California is donating a trip to fly a U.S. teacher to space aboard a sub-orbital spaceship. The donation goes to the Space Frontier Foundation’s Teachers in Space (TIS) project, whose goal is to fly at least a hundred teachers into sub-orbital space in the next few years. With a price tag of between $150k and $200k, the seat aboard Masten’s proposed vehicle represents a valuable contribution to a project that promises to change the face of American science education.

According to information received by Nokia Corporation, the holdings of The Capital Group Companies, Inc. are below 5% of the share capital of Nokia.

The Capital Group Companies, Inc. is a holding company for several subsidiary companies engaged in investment management activities. As of September 15, 2006, The Capital Group Companies, Inc. and its subsidiaries hold through their clients the total of 200 020 102 Nokia shares consisting of both ADRs and ordinary shares.

Microsoft Corp. filed 20 lawsuits today against resellers allegedly engaged in the distribution of infringing software and software components. The company also announced research findings from its first large-scale forensic analysis of counterfeit versions of Microsoft® Windows® XP acquired in 17 countries around the world.

NEC Corporation announced the development of a new gate system that enables the collective scanning of multiple UHF RFID tags with a high degree of accuracy. The new gate system can be applied to inspection systems in manufacturing lines and inventory control systems in supply chain management, and will be launched world wide by the end of this year.

Existing UHF RFID gate systems show a 10 to 20% scanning error rate when multiple packages with RFID tags is scanned, making practical application difficult. However by employing proprietary technology that utilizes the reflection of radio waves, NEC has realized a new gate system, which achieves highly accurate scanning of multiple RFID tags and a reduction in scanning errors of RFID tags on adjacent manufacturing lines, dramatically enhancing the accuracy of collective RFID scanning.

iWatt, Inc. has acquired privately-held Simple Silicon, Inc. SSI designs industry-leading Analog Front Ends (AFEs) for products such as LCD TVs, digital cameras and DVD players, and analog building blocks such as power management, ADCs, DACs, PLLs. The combination of iWatt’s high-performance digital control technology and SSI’s precision analog expertise will enable further integration of analog and power functions in next generation ASICs as well as standard products for the computing, telecom and consumer markets.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in cooperation with the Standardization Administration of China (SAC), have launched a Standards Portal (www.StandardsPortal.org) that will facilitate the trade of goods and services between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.

Dalal, the director of Iowa State's Microelectronics Research Center and the Thomas M. Whitney Professor in electrical and computer engineering, has spent more than three decades finding ways for that sunlight to generate more and more electricity. He thinks his latest project can boost the performance of an Iowa company's solar cells by 40 to 50 percent.

Motorola, Inc. and Symbol Technologies, Inc. have signed a merger agreement, under which Motorola has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Symbol for $15 per share in cash. The transaction has a total equity value of approximately $3.9 billion on a fully-diluted basis. As of June 30, 2006, Symbol had approximately $200 million of net cash.

MIT researchers are putting a tiny gas-turbine engine inside a silicon chip about the size of a quarter. The resulting device could run 10 times longer than a battery of the same weight can, powering laptops, cell phones, radios and other electronic devices.

It could also dramatically lighten the load for people who can't connect to a power grid, including soldiers who now must carry many pounds of batteries for a three-day mission -- all at a reasonable price.

An MIT researcher has a vision: Four hundred huge offshore wind turbines are providing onshore customers with enough electricity to power several hundred thousand homes, and nobody standing onshore can see them. The trick? The wind turbines are floating on platforms a hundred miles out to sea, where the winds are strong and steady.

RealNetworks®, Inc. today launched Rhapsody DNA, a new technology platform that enables device makers to deliver Rhapsody to consumers via a broad range of portable, mobile, and in-home devices. In conjunction, Real announced that it is teaming with SanDisk® Corporation to integrate Rhapsody DNA into Sansa MP3 players this fall in the United States.

The successful qualification of the 75nm DRAM Trench technology, and of the first 75nm product that Qimonda AG and Nanya Technology Corporation are offering to the market, a 512Mb DDR2 memory chip. This next generation technology platform features minimum structure sizes down to 70nm. The technology and 512Mb DDR2 product have been jointly developed at Qimonda’s Development Centers in Dresden and Munich, Germany. Volume production in the new DRAM technology generation has been started at Qimonda’s 300mm production line in Dresden.

New software developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign allows scientists to more effectively analyze and compare both sequence and structure data from a growing library of proteins and nucleic acids.

“MultiSeq (pronounced Multi-seek) allows you to bring in both structure and sequences without structure, and use the complementary information contained within them to investigate changes in the system,” said Zaida Luthey-Schulten, a professor of chemistry and a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I. “By placing bioinformatics in the context of evolution, we can also perform comparative dynamics studies of proteins from different domains of life.”

The Internet Security Alliance (ISAlliance) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have a joint program to provide business leaders with practical tools for managing information security. The collaboration was prompted by rising sentiment that not enough is being done by either government or industry to provide adequate response to rapidly increasing information security threats.

As of today, multi-platform JBoss enterprise middleware subscriptions are available to Red Hat channel partners globally, through major distributors. In addition, the new Red Hat Application Stack subscription, an integrated solution of leading open source technology, is available online on Red Hat Network.

As the open source alternative to integrated proprietary application platforms, the Red Hat Application Stack is perfect for running standards-based LAMP or Java-based applications. The Red Hat Application Stack includes end-to-end support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss Application Server, JBoss Hibernate and the leading open source databases, including MySQL & PostgreSQL. It is delivered in a clear and simple subscription model that includes the software, support, updates and upgrades, all delivered online through Red Hat Network. Future Red Hat stacks will seek to combine open source technologies into solutions specifically optimized for vertical markets, such as telecommunications and healthcare.

Eliminating gender bias in universities requires immediate, overarching reform and decisive action by university administrators, professional societies, government agencies, and Congress. Women face barriers to hiring and promotion in research universities in many fields of science and engineering -- a situation that deprives the United States of an important source of talent as the country faces increasingly stiff global competition in higher education, science and technology, and the marketplace, says a new report from the National Academies.

Like tiny nano-soldiers on parade, the cyclic tungsten trioxide clusters line up molecule-by-molecule on the titanium dioxide platform. One tungsten atom from each cluster is raised slightly, holding forth the potential to execute catalytic reactions.

The nanostructures constitute a new model system, a simplified version of a catalyst that would be used in an application. Such models reveal to chemists the exact structure and reaction mechanisms of metal oxides.

Based on a new theory, MIT scientists may be able to manipulate carbon nanotubes -- one of the strongest known materials and one of the trickiest to work with -- without destroying their extraordinary electrical properties.

The work is reported in the Sept. 15 issue of Physical Review Letters, the journal of the American Physical Society.

An IBM-led (NYSE: IBM) consortium, the newly formed International Technology Alliance (ITA) in Network and Information Sciences, has been selected by the The United States Army Research Laboratory and United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, to undertake a research program exploring advanced technology for secure wireless and sensor networks to support future coalition operations, over a potential 10 year period, with a value of up to $135.8 million.

The EMC Corporation has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Massachusetts-based Network Intelligence, which will create the new information security division of EMC. The acquisition of Network Intelligence is expected to close by the end of business on September 18, 2006.

Joe Tucci, EMC’s Chairman, President and CEO, said, “Information security continues to dominate the spending intentions of CIO’s around the world. The battlefront in security has quickly shifted from securing the network perimeter to protecting and securing the information itself—wherever that information lives and wherever it moves.”

Intel Corporation today announced a new integrated branding campaign named “Multiply,” which is focused on Intel® Core™2 Duo, the world’s best processor.

The “Multiply” campaign includes primetime and cable TV, print, online, outdoor and other ad placement and marketing efforts. Print ads begin appearing later this month, with TV and online ads launching at the end of September and outdoor ads in October. The campaign, created by McCann Worldgroup in New York, will run through the 2006 winter holiday season.

In an effort to provide safer and more reliable components for aircraft, researchers have invented an optical on-off switch that can replace electrical wiring on airplanes with fiber optics for controlling elevators, rudders, and other flight-critical elements. Fiber-optics technology has already transformed life on the ground by replacing copper wire to transmit voice calls, Internet traffic, and other telecommunications. Now, engineers are preparing an important new fiber-optics application for liftoff, with their prototype switch ready for testing on real-life aircraft. The technology also has potential applications on the nation's highways, as a "weigh-in-motion" sensor for measuring the weight of fast-moving commercial trucks without requiring them to stop on a scale. The research is described by Zhaoxia Xie and Henry F. Taylor of Texas A&M University in the current issue of Optics Letters, a journal of the Optical Society of America.

YouTube, Inc. and Warner Music Group Corp. have an agreement to distribute on YouTube the library of music videos from WMG's roster of artists as well as behind-the-scenes footage, artist interviews, original programming and other special content. In a first-of-its-kind arrangement, YouTube users will be able to incorporate music from WMG's recorded music catalog into the videos they create and upload onto YouTube.

The National Science Foundation’s Cyber Trust Program has awarded Stevens Professor K.P. (Suba) Subbalakshmi a grant to further her research on wireless network security, in particular, the fundamental trade-offs in wireless security, power consumption and error-resilient encryption code design. Subbalakshmi, an Assistant Professor in Stevens’ Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, is researching concepts from algebraic coding theory, cryptography, renewal/reward theory and stochastic modeling, among other areas, that will address these trade-offs in areas such as the design of error-correcting encryption systems, wireless link status and battery-power adaptive encryption. The practical aspects of her research include implementing and testing the theoretical results in battery-power constrained devices, which will have a profound effect on low-power wireless technology for secure communications.

After more than three years as vice president of Microsoft Corp.’s Enterprise and Partner Group in the western United States, Ralph Young is taking on new global responsibilities for Microsoft. He has assumed the role of vice president of its worldwide public sector business.

In this newly created position, Young will manage Microsoft’s efforts around government, education and healthcare industries as well as the teams responsible for public sector programs, partnerships, partners, services and marketing.

IBM today announced its researchers have developed technology to translate Arabic media broadcasts into English in near real-time and has licensed the technology to Critical Mention, Inc., the leading Web-based real-time television news search and broadcast monitoring service.

Codenamed "TALES" (for Translingual Automatic Language Exploitation System), the IBM technology processes the audio signal from Arabic television and radio stations and translates its spoken content into English text. Once this text is indexed by the CriticalTV platform, Critical Mention's clients will be able to conduct real-time searches of Arabic media, and receive alerts instantly when a search term is detected.

Cool design creates hot profits, and although really great design is an art rather than a craft, the EVaN project has developed some best-practice design tools to help companies maximise their potential. EVaN aims to usher in a new wave of design that allies form with function.

"Business is waking up to the enormous potential that compelling design offers," says Alessio Marchesi of Politecnico di Milano, EVaN's coordinator. Great design such as Apple's iconic iPod for example has enabled the company to draw profits from the two opposing revenue generators on the supply-demand curve: margin and volume. Great design can charge a premium and still shift millions of units, because it adds value to a product and protects it from commoditisation.

Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin of the 14th International Space Station crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:09 a.m. EDT Monday to begin a six-month stay in space.

With them is American Anousheh Ansari, the first female spaceflight participant to visit the orbiting laboratory. She is flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Intel Corporation have built the world’s first electrically powered Hybrid Silicon Laser using standard silicon manufacturing processes. This breakthrough addresses one of the last major barriers to producing low-cost, high-bandwidth silicon photonics devices for use inside and around future computers and data centers.

Gov. Schwarzenegger signed bill 1613 by Sen. Joseph Simitian (D-Palo Alto) that would prohibit the use of a cell phone in a moving vehicle unless the driver is using a hands free device.

Specifically, bill 1613 will:

* Prohibit the use of cell phones by drivers unless the driver is using a hands-free device starting July 1, 2008.

It could bring a whole new meaning to the term ‘reality television’. After the introduction of colour displays and high definition images, 3D promises to be the next revolution in visual technology. 3D television offers users an infinitely richer and more entertaining viewing experience without the need to wear headache-inducing special glasses.

AXIOMTEK designed a GOT series of fanless touch panel computers for HMI solutions. The new 12.1” fanless touch panel computer, the GOT-3120T, which supports a wide temperature range of -20°C to + 55°C, is equipped with a 12.1-inch SVGA TFT LCD display. With its fanless cooling system design, the GOT-3120T also supports an ultra low power consumption CPU, an onboard Intel® Celeron® M 1GHz processor. The modern and sleek HMI platform also supports a wireless antenna and provides expandable design with one mini PCI connector and dual LAN ports.

Verdiem has been awarded a master contract by the State of Washington's Department of Information Services (DIS). The master contract, issued as a result of a competitive solicitation run by the DIS, satisfies the state's competitive acquisition requirements and enables state organizations to simplify purchasing decisions and processes. The master contract is valid through 2009.

Boeing celebrated the arrival of the first of three specially modified 747-400 passenger jets that will be used to transport the large composite sections and wings of the all-new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter (LCF) touched down at Seattle's Boeing Field at 8:08 a.m. PDT, ending a non-stop, 13-hour, 17-minute flight from Taipei, Taiwan.

GE Energy will establish a European Cleaner Coal "center of excellence" in Warsaw, Poland.

According to John Krenicki, GE Energy President and CEO, the new center will provide GE with a base for expanding the use of its state-of-the-art cleaner coal, or IGCC (integrated gasification combined-cycle), technology across Europe. The facility also will provide engineering support for GE Energy's environmental services and optimization and controls businesses, to supply the region with a broad range of offerings for the coal industry.

Space Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station at 8:50 a.m. EDT today, ending STS-115’s successful stay and setting the stage for future assembly missions.

Atlantis delivered the P3/P4 integrated truss to the station. The STS-115 and Expedition 13 crews used the shuttle and station robotic arms to attach the truss to the orbital outpost. Then, STS-115 astronauts conducted three spacewalks in four days to prepare the truss and its solar arrays for operation.

The OASIS international standards consortium has launched a new web site, OpenDocument XML.org (http://opendocument.xml.org), designed to serve as the official community gathering place and information resource for the OpenDocument Format (ODF). An international standard approved by OASIS, ISO and IEC, OpenDocument enables users of varying office products to freely exchange documents.

STMicroelectronics published a new issue of the ST Journal of Research focusing on MEMS. Previous issues, similarly built around a particular technology theme, have presented details on the Company’s advanced research efforts on Processor Architecture and Compilation and Networked Multimedia. Written by STMicroelectronics’ researchers, in cooperation with top scientists and researchers at leading universities and research partners around the world, the ST Journal of Research hosts technical papers and discussions on selected themes. All papers are peer-reviewed and coverage is coordinated by an expert in the relevant field.

Seagate Technology demonstrated magnetic recording technology, setting a world record of 421 Gbits per square inch (421 Gbit/in2). The demonstration used perpendicular recording heads and media created with currently available production equipment that validates the ability to scale the technology for the foreseeable future without major technology changes or capital additions. Dr. Mark Kryder of Seagate unveiled the findings during his keynote presentation at the IDEMA DISKCON show in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the hard drive.

The board of directors of Nortel Networks Limited declared a dividend on each of the outstanding Cumulative Redeemable Class A Preferred Shares Series 5 [TSX: NTL.PR.F] and the outstanding Non-cumulative Redeemable Class A Preferred Shares Series 7 [TSX: NTL.PR.G]. The dividend amount for each series is calculated in accordance with the terms and conditions applicable to each respective series, as set out in the Company's articles. The annual dividend rate for each series floats in relation to changes in the average of the prime rate of Royal Bank of Canada and The Toronto-Dominion Bank during the preceding month ("Prime") and is adjusted upwards or downwards on a monthly basis by an adjustment factor which is based on the weighted average daily trading price of each of the series for the preceding month, respectively. The maximum monthly adjustment for changes in the weighted average daily trading price of each of the series will be plus or minus 4.0% of Prime. The annual floating dividend rate applicable for a month will in no event be less than 50% of Prime or greater than Prime. The dividend on each series is payable on November 13, 2006 to shareholders of record of such series at the close of business on October 31, 2006.

An Erie, Pa. man pleaded guilty to copyright infringement in U.S. District Court in Erie, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan of the Western District of Pennsylvania announced today.

Scott R. McCausland, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and one count of criminal copyright infringement in violation of the Family Entertainment Copyright Act. His guilty plea stems from his involvement in the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) network previously known as Elite Torrents. The plea was entered before U.S. District Court Judge Sean J. McLaughlin for the Western District of Pennsylvania. McCausland, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec.12, 2006, faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release.