June 2000
CONTENTS
FEATURE
IT Firms
Wired For The Future
MARKET NEWS
Recruit
To Start ASP Service For Mobile Phones
Matsushita To Sell BS Digital Hi-Vision TV, Tuner
Internet Providers laying Broadband Foundations
Rival Methods Of Encryption Jostle For Lead
NEW TECHNOLOGY
Sanyo Electric, Kodak Jointly Develop OLED
Display
Fujitsu Announces Fastest UNIX Server
Power-Conservation
System For Home Appliances
MULTIMEDIA ALERT
Sony To Launch New Version Of High-End CD
System
DoCoMo, Sony Marrying I-Mode To Game Console
Matsushita
Develops PiE-OS V2.0 Operating System For Digital TV
BIOSCIENCE DEVELOPMENT
New Biosensor Can Measure Volume Of Biological
Molecules In Liquids
Daiichi And Microcide Execute New Research Collaboration
Research
Team Fights Flu With "Anti-Sense" RNA
ENVIRONMENT
Fujitsu Develops Environmentally Friendly
LSI Packing Material
Batter Maker Cuts Cost Of Fuel Cells
Magnesium
Casing Makes Casing Easier
SEMICONDUCTOR
Fujitsu Announces Sample Java Chip, Evaluation
Kit For PDAs
Toshiba, Samsung To Make Color STN LCD Driver Chips
For Cell Phones
Mitsubishi Electric, Intel To Develop
Cell Phone Chips
SPECIAL SECTION
New
Technologies Brighten TV Picture
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES
JAPAN
IN THE UNITED STATES
UNITED STATES IN JAPAN
IT Firms Wired For The Future
If you required further evidence that the Internet is seriously shaking up Japan's established IT companies, it's been arriving in e-normous bucketfuls recently. NEC is jumping into online stock trading; Sony, following in Fujitsu's footsteps, wants to become an e-banker and is also setting up an eHQ (e-headquarters) to oversee new and existing e-businesses; while Toshiba has just created a new business group to exploit opportunities in mobile Internet access.All of this is happening as the Internet inexorably carves out a position as the world's dominant form of electronic communication. As it does so, it's finishing off the job of demolishing barriers between industries that government deregulations began chipping away at last decade.Right now there's some thing of a free-for-all going on, with real estate in cyberspace up for grabs. No one is really sure what is going to work, much less who is going to win. So corporations around the globe are staking out claims willy-nilly -- just in case.Early adopters of new technologies and concepts believe they can get out in front in this new networked world that's still under construction, while latecomers say they're learning by counting the arrows in the backs of the pioneers. In other words, anything goes. If you fancy playing the money game but don't have a clue about banking or trading, no problem. You simply find a partner who does. Or vice versa if you are a bank and want to go electronic.Paris-based Societe Generale, one of the world's top 20 banks, is teaming up with NEC to bring its retail online trading system to the Japanese market. The synergy looks good. SG's Fimatex trading system has been operating in France since 1995 and in Germany since 1999. It offers nonprofessional investors all kinds of trading vehicles, including foreign exchange and derivatives, plus real-time access to world markets similar to that enjoyed by brokers.For its part, NEC brings local IT know-how and support, some financial investment and its Biglobe ISP operation, which includes almost 3 million subscribers. Fimatex will launch in autumn for PC users and eventually be available for i-mode phones and interactive TV. While there are already more than 50 online trading firms established in Japan, including Daiwa, Nomura and E-Trade, SG's target of 300,000 subscribers within three years looks reasonable. It's a similar story with Sony, which has teamed up with Sakura Bank, Japan's leading online bank, and J. P. Morgan, the U.S. investment banker, which will supply asset management services.Sakura Bank already has Net banking deals with Fujitsu and the Ito-Yokado supermarket chain, as well as its own major online efforts. For ultracautious bankers, those are indeed strong words. But right now every dot-com company appears to be a winner. Besides, Sony can expect to attract many of its subscribers to So-net, its ISP service. Meanwhile, Sony has established an eHQ to manage the company's overall online strategy and to develop new Net businesses. This is in preparation for the move into what Sony calls the "Broadband Era," where consumer online communication rates will speed up to 1 Mbit and then 10 Mbits a second.So while Sony isn't saying it, all of this indicates that it is transforming itself into an Internet company. But don't tell Matsushita Electric. Meanwhile, Toshiba has unveiled a three-year plan to get back on the profit track by exploiting Internet and networking opportunities. It has to do something, given its 30 billion-yen loss in 1999, following a 13 billion-yen loss the previous year. Toshiba will spend 2 trillion-yen over the next three years in realigning itself to the networked world and at the same time it plans to slash its domestic workforce by 8,500 through natural attrition.More than 1 trillion yen will go into establishing its new I-Value Creation Co., which will focus on developing services and content for i-mode, notebook PC users and the like.Toshiba intends to provide mobile applications, services and content. It will tap into its content businesses such as Toshiba-EMI music and its alliance with Time-Warner Entertainment Japan to help make this work. It is also gambling that the arrival of third-generation video phones next year will create vast new markets for consumers and businesspeople alike, and it's gearing up to be at the forefront of those developments. So just as Toshiba held the lead for many years in notebook computers, now it aims to do the same in the mobile Internet-access arena. Certainly with all the red ink it's swimming in right now, Toshiba needs to do something pretty dramatic and pretty soon.
Recruit to Start ASP Service for Mobile Phones
Recruit Co., Ltd. will start an application service provider business called "Mobile One-One Navigator (MO-ON)." MO-ON will be an information delivery service for mobile phones with Internet access.The targeted customers are companies expecting to wage effective sales promotions or to appeal to different customers by using content distribution to mobile phones.The company expects the service to be used by retailers hoping to notify users of scheduled bargains or brokerage services that distribute stock information. The service supports any Internet access service via mobile phone -- i-mode of NTT DoCoMo Inc., EZweb of DDI Cellular Group, EZaccess of IDO Corp. and J-Sky of J-Phone Group.Recruit is to operate proprietary software developed for MO-ON on servers located in data centers. The MO-ON user companies will use the software through the Internet for content creation and distribution for mobile phones. The user companies need to have a Windows PC with a Web browser to use the software.The content creation for mobile phones features user-friendliness so that people without knowledge of CHTML (a compact version of HTML) can create e-mail contents, Web sites designed for viewing via mobile phone or questionnaire formats prepared on such sites.
Matsushita to Sell BS Digital Hi-Vision TV, Tuner
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. would soon begin sales of a 36-in. TV "TH-36D10," and a tuner "TU-BHD100," for digital broadcasting. The products, that support Hi-Vision broadcasts by broadcast satellite (BS), will start appearing in special displays at stores, mainly large-scale outlets, and the company will take orders from customers at the same time. These two products will therefore be the first that Matsushita Electric makes available for the digital Hi-Vision broadcasting market. Both products will be compatible with upcoming BS digital broadcasting services -- Hi-Vision TV broadcasts, data broadcasts, radio broadcasts and others.
Internet Providers Laying Broadband Foundations
Looking for a cheaper, better faster Internet connection? Many Japanese are, and some are doing something about it. While the nation's Web surfers still mostly rely on expensive analog telephone lines to access the Internet, they are starting to switch to broadband alternatives such as cable TV and asymetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL).Internet service providers, from the powerful group of NTT Corp to affiliates of foreign firms to venture companies, are all eagerly eyeing ways to enter the broadband era, when vast amount of data will be exchanged at lightening speed through the Internet.Japan is following the trend in the U.S., where millions of households are expected to abandon their phone line and gain Internet access through broadband services. According to Seed Planning Inc., a research company, the number of Japanese accessing the Internet via cable TV will increase to 100,000 this year from 75,000 last year. The number of users of ADSL, which only started last winter, will also rise in the same period to 5,000-6,000 from a few hundred.The picture Seed Planning forecasts for 2010 looks even rosier. The Company's most optimistic scenario forecasts that Net users will total 10 million via cable and 5 million via ADSL. At that point, Japan is expected to have some 45 million Internet users. The technologies are not only faster, they are cheaper than Internet access via an ordinary phone connection, at least for the moment.
Rival Methods Of Encryption Jostle For Lead
Competition among encryption technologies developed by Japanese companies is expected to intensify with the entry of Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. Toshiba's new encryption technology, known as Hierocrypt, divides transmission data into 128-bit units. The order of the characters contained in a unit is shuffled to make it virtually impossible to decipher. Hitachi's method, called Multi-SO1, cuts the time it takes to encrypt transmission data, making it suitable for encryption video data for online transmission in real time. The technology is also designed to alert users to a possible doctoring of transmission data by an unauthorized third party.
Sanyo Electric, Kodak Jointly Develop OLED Display
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. and Eastman Kodak Co. announced they have jointly developed a 5.5-in. full-color organic light emitting diode (OLED) display which is based on a low-temperature polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor. The screen size is the largest ever for an active matrix type OLED display.The new display has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, and is capable of reproducing full color, using the RGB stripe arrangement. It has a screen brightness of 150cd/m2 or more. Power consumption is 2.0 watt at 200cd/m2.Because OLED displays are based on self-luminous pixels, they offer brighter images and better contrast than LCD displays. They also offer advantages such as a fast response time that is around one-thousandth that of normal LCD displays and a wide viewing angle of about 170 degrees both in up-down and right-left directions. They also consume less electricity.In addition, they can be made thinner than plasma displays because they only need to be as thick as their glass substrate.Sanyo Electric and Eastman Kodak plan to start in the first quarter of 2002 volume production of the 2.4-in. active matrix OLED panel they developed in 1999. Their OLED panel volume production will then gradually expand to cover larger models. The 5.5-in. panel will likely become widely available in late 2002.Sanyo Electric believes low-temperature polycrystalline silicon-based OLED displays can be made as big as 15-in. The company aims to use the displays in mobile phones, PDAs and sub-notebook PCs.
Fujitsu Announces Fastest UNIX Server
Fujitsu Ltd. will announce a "GP7000F 2000" Solaris server that can realize a 128 SPARC64GP 64-bit RISC processors configuration. The company also has developed a 500MHz SPARC64GP chip to be loaded on a 128SMP (symmetric multi-processor) model, and plans to add a 500MHz model to the existing models. Shipments of the 128SMP model will start in October 2000. In fiscal 1999, 40 systems of the GP7000F 2000 were delivered and 120 systems are expected in fiscal 2000. According to Fujitsu, the new model 2000 with 128 500MHz SPARC64GP processors has proved to have transaction processing ability as three times as a model with 64 330MHz chips. This makes it the world's fastest UNIX server at about 450,000 transactions per minute (tpm).Competition for high-end UNIX server development is increasingly intense. In the fall of 1999, IBM Corp. introduced RS/6000 S80 with 126,000tpm to compete with Sun Microsystem Inc.'s industry leader Enterprise 10000 (Starfire) at 115,000tpm. Hewlett-Packard Co. introduced 121,000tpm HP9000 V2600 in 2000. The company will add high-end "Superdome" server lines by this fall.Sun also is developing a UltraSPARCIII processor and a large server after Starfire with that chip for delivery in October to December 2000. Fujitsu also is going to develop chips using the UltraSPARCIII architecture by the first half of 2001 and is planning to use them in the 128SMP model GP7000F 2000.
Power-Conservation System for Home Appliances
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Matsushita Refrigeration Co. and Matsushita Seiko Co., Ltd. jointly developed the "Hyperwave Inverter Technology," a new drive control technology that saves power consumption of motors for home electric appliances. Compared with conventional inverter control systems, this technology can reduce power consumption by 5-10 percent when applied to a typical motor. This will save energy of air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances. Matsushita group companies will start to sell household electric appliances using this system by fiscal 2001.The newly developed technology not only optimizes the frequency and amplitude of driving electric power like conventional inverter technologies, but also reduces power consumption through fine control of power waveforms, which the companies claim as a first in the industry. The technology accomplishes such fine control by generating a "hyperwave," a combination of 30-100 types of waveform elements suitable to the features of each motor. Conventional inverters have used fixed patterns of square waves or sinusoidal waves. In order to design waveform elements suitable for features of the motor, it utilizes a computer simulation technology with an automatic waveform generation system and an automatic efficiency measuring system. In addition, a digital inverter control system was developed and employed to generate the most applicable waveforms composed of those waveform elements by controlling waveforms with digital technologies.
Sony To Launch New Version Of High-End CD System
Sony Corp. plans to launch a new version of its high-end audio system known as SACD next month at about one-fourth the current product price. The third version of its SACD (Super Audio CD) system will be priced at 80,000 yen , against 350,000 yen currently, aiming to reach mainstream CD consumers rather than an initial high-end target of audiophiles. SACD, jointly developed by Sony and Philips Electronics N.V. of the Netherlands, has a stronger sound quality than conventional compact-disks. It includes multiple channels, a wider bandwidth and a greater dynamic range. The new system will first be released in Japan on June 10 with plans for monthly production of 2,000 units. Launches are planned for Asia and Europe later this year and a U.S. release date has not been decided. The combined sales so far number around 2,000 units. Sony's launch coincides with the planned launch of a rival DVD audio player format by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd., the world's largest consumer electronics group. The format by Matsushita -- whose brands include Panasonic, National and Technics -- is similar in size, capacity and quality to Sony's but the two are incompatible with each other. Osaka-based Matsushita originally planned to release its new DVD audio player last year but postponed it to June due to a copyright protection issue. It plans to release two product lines -- one at 100,000 yen and another at 120,000 yen. Both disks, which are not recordable, look just like conventional CDs but pack in seven times more information and produce superior sound quality.
DoCoMo, Sony Marrying I-mode To Game Console
NTT DoCoMo Inc., and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. will combine the Internet-capable I-mode cellular-phone service and PlayStation 2 game console to develop audio and image distribution, payment services and other services. Via a private placement of shares, NTT DoCoMo will take a 2.02% stake in Sony Computer's wholly owned subsidiary PlayStation.com (Japan) Inc. PlayStation.com will market the game machine and software titles to subscribers to the leading mobile-phone company's I-mode services.In addition, by hooking up the game machine to I-mode, the partners plan to have the PlayStation 2 function as a terminal in a mobile network that does not need fixed lines. Linking I-mode handsets to the console will address a weak point of cell phones - the small size of the display. Sony's game machine will allow I-mode contents to be viewed on the screen of a television hooked up to it.NTT DoCoMo later this year plans to deploy U.S. company Sun MicroSystems Inc.'s Java networking technology on its I-mode services, the technology secures electronic-commerce transactions, allowing I-mode users to pay for purchases by accessing their bank accounts of by using credits cards.
Matsushita Develops PiE-OS V2.0 Operating System For Digital TV
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known by its Panasonic brand, announced the development of its PiE-OS V2.0 as a digital television (DTV) operating system. The PiE-OS operating system is designed specifically for DTV use and provides the reliability and ease of use that consumers associate with consumer electronics. It supports all of the world's DTV broadcasting formats, including High Definition digital formats. The availability of PiE-OS V2.0 is expected to accelerate the development of digital TV-related products. The PiE-OS V2.0 operating system provides a balance between the increasingly sophisticated functionality that customers desire from digital television products and the requirement that an operating system for an easy-to-use home appliance product be both compact and highly reliable. The PiE-OS is equipped with a real-time processing kernel enhanced for DTV, and includes the various libraries needed for DTV. It has proved to be highly reliable over three years of use in Matsushita DTV products, including set-top boxes for DirecTV Japan and the BSkyB service in the UK. The PiE-OS is a key element in the ``Global DTV Platform'' approach, which Matsushita Electric is using to accelerate the development of Panasonic DTV products worldwide. The PiE-OS operating system provides specific functions required supporting DTV-related products, including DTV receivers and network terminals with built-in DTV functionality. Based on proven technologies, the PiE-OS Kernel is equipped with multiple DTV extensions such as a dual scheduling mechanism that simultaneously processes real-time tasks like Audio/Video playback and non-real-time tasks like the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) and data broadcasting displays. PiE-OS has a rich set of DTV libraries such as those necessary to process and display U.S., European and Japanese standard high-definition and standard definition video and audio formats, as well as those to control program selection, receive data broadcast services, and display rich graphics. Benefiting from Matsushita Electric's history and expertise in TV technology, it allows the manufacturer to implement many features that promote ease of use, with an emphasis on a DTV window system that facilitates the development of interactive software that can be accessed by a TV remote control.
New Biosensor Can Measure Volume Of Biological Molecules In Liquids
A quartz-oscillator biosensor that can measure the volume of biological molecules in blood samples and other water-based liquids has been developed by biotechnology start-up Initiam Inc.The Tokyo Company will begin test marketing shortly and full-scale sales through five agencies, targeting academic research laboratories as well as the private sector.The device is built around a specially processed quartz crystal that oscillates at a specific frequency. An electrode is fixed to this crystal, and when the target molecule attaches to the electrode, the crystal oscillates at a slower rate.Since the oscillation rate declines by 1 hertz when 1 nanogram of the target attaches to the electrode, the volume of the target can be calculated from the decline observed. Measurements are made by comparing the test with a standard that has been prepared ahead of time with the target molecule attached to an electrode. To protect the circuitry from shorting in water, the electrode is coated in silicon, thereby enabling direct measurement even in water-based solutions, which until now has been difficult.Biological molecules are now routinely measured using such techniques as liquid chromatography, which is time-consuming and labor intensive.The new biosensor also promises to speed up research in genomics, since it can be used to recognize molecules involved in antigen-antibody reactions and organic crystals, o quantify proteins and their receptor molecules, and to measure DNA transcription enzymes.
Daiichi and Microcide Execute New Research Collaboration
Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Microcide Pharmaceuticals, Inc. have executed a contract for research collaboration in bacterial efflux pump inhibitors. The research will focus on selecting inhibitors of efflux pumps, a mechanism by which bacteria exclude antibacterial agents, thereby potentiates activity of antibacterial agents*1. Since 1995, Daiichi and Microcide have been conducting joint research to find new efflux pump inhibitors, particularly those that inhibit the pumps of multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and refractory infectious diseases. The validity of such approach using drugs under development has been demonstrated in animal studies. These compounds have desirable profile of mode-of-action and pharmacokinetics and merit further probing.
Research Team Fights Flu With "Anti-Sense" RNA
A Chiba Institute of Technology research team has developed a promising way to fight the influenza virus and has already demonstrated the effectiveness of the technique in animal testing. It is currently filing for a patent in the U.S.Viruses are actually nothing more than genes sheathed in protein. They attach onto the surface of a cell, inject their genetic material and then hijack the cell's machinery to duplicate their gene, make their proteins and package numerous copies.Some viruses store their genetic information in DNA, while others such as influenza virus store their genes as RNA. One strategy being pursued to fight these kinds of viruses is to artificially synthesize a backward or "antisense" copy of RNA that can bind to the viral RNA and take it out of commission.This is the strategy employed by thee Chiba Institute of Technology group to fight the influenza virus, but with modifications designed to boost the rate at which anti-sense RNA successfully reaches the target cells inside the body.Specifically, they modified both ends of the anti-sense RNA to stabilize the molecules, and then they encapsulated the molecules in a fatty substance similar to the cell membrane.When anti-sense RNA is injected into the body in the normal way, enzymes in the serum decompose the molecules in around four hours, or before they have much chance of getting into the infected cells.But with these modifications, the anti-sense RNA can reach the target cell 10-20% more often.When the fatty membrane capsules are injected into the body they tend to accumulate in the lungs. Here they fuse with the same lung cells that are infected with the influenza virus, releasing their cargo of anti-sense RNA and throwing a monkey wrench into the workings of the virus.In tests using mice infected with the influenza virus, the survival rate was 55% after seven days with a 5mg dosage and 74% with a 25mg dosage. A control batch of mice that did not receive any treatment all died within three days.
Fujitsu Develops Environmentally Friendly LSI Packing Material
Fujitsu Ltd. has jointly developed environmentally friendly emboss tape used in packing LSIs with Fujitsu Laboratory Ltd. and Fujitsu Tohoku Electronics Ltd. Plastics that have been used for packing do not decompose in land-fill disposal. When they are burned as waste, they are likely to cause serious damage to the furnace -- so much so that there are a number of problems to be solved.The company has developed disposable plastics made from biodegradable polylactic acid. The new plastics can be decomposed into water and carbon dioxide by microbes. When they are burned in a furnace, they will not cause damage to the furnace because their thermal energy is more or less the same as that of wood.Also there is not much difference in mechanical strength and anti-static measures compared to those of other plastics commonly used. It claims that the manufacturing cost will be comparable to that of currently used plastics once it starts mass-production.The company will start to use this new type of emboss tape for its LSI packing from July 2000.
Battery Maker Cuts Cost Of Fuel Cells
Japan Storage Battery Co. has developed a polymer-electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) that slashes the amount of platinum used to about 10% that of conventional models, yielding significantly lower material cost.Platinum is an essential catalyst for electrochemically converting hydrogen and oxygen at the electrodes of a fuel cell into electricity. Because the surface of each carbon electrode is coated with platinum, the element makes up more than 50% of the material cost of production conventional PEFCs.The Japanese battery maker reduced the amount of platinum needed by creating a porous ion-exchange membrane over the carbon electrodes and coating only the pore of the membrane. This cuts the amount of platinum in a 4-kilo-watt PEFC to just 0.1-0.2 gram from the usual 1-2 grams.
Magnesium Alloy Makes Casing Easy
A new magnesium alloy that is so incombustible it can be melted and cast in the same way as iron and aluminum has been developed at the Kyushu National Industrial Research Institute. The development opens the door to inexpensive casting, recycling and recasting of magnesium, which in turn opens up a broad range of new applications for the metal.Because magnesium is lighter than steel or aluminum but strong like titanium, manufacturers have begun making some use of the material for such items as notebook-computer cases and automotive parts.If magnesium were used for engines and structural parts, motor vehicles and airplanes could be made lighter and more fuel-efficient.However, magnesium self ignites at such a low temperature that it can only be melted and cast under special conditions, making it a very expensive material to use,The normal way to cast magnesium is to heat it to 700-800C and then pour the molten metal into a mold made of sand. When this process is done in the open air, magnesium comes in contact with oxygen and self-ignites, completely burning away before it even melts.In order to sand-cast the metal, the process is done in a sealed container filled with sulfur flouride-6 (SF6). Not only is this process costly, but SF6 has become the subject of restrictions because it is thousands of times more damaging as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.The newly developed magnesium alloy sidesteps all of these problems and enables magnesium to be cast in an open environment just like iron and aluminum. The secret is the addition of 5% calcium.The resulting magnesium-calcium alloy is nearly 300 times more fire-resistant than pure magnesium and will not ignite even when heated to 830C. This alloy can be melted and cast in the air and then heated and melted for reuse. The electron microscope reveals that the alloy is covered in a thin layer of magnesium oxide that prevents the magnesium from coming into contact with oxygen in the air.
Fujitsu Announces Sample Java Chip, Evaluation Kit for PDAs
Fujitsu Ltd. announced an engineering sample microchip called MB86799 that can directly run Java software codes. Also, Fujitsu unveiled an evaluation kit called J-StarterKit for picoJava-II, and the J-REALOS/PJ package containing an operating system and middleware designed for Java-based chips.The kit and the package will be offered in a single set for creating a development environment of Java applications, to be used in cellular phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs). The J-StarterKit for the picoJava-II kit will be available at 348,000 yen (including one license), and the J-REALOS/PJ package's price will depend on the software configuration. Fujitsu's MB86799 is a Java-based chip designed on the CPU core called picoJava-II, which was developed by Sun Microsystems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. It features low power consumption: 360mW at a power supply of 2.5V operating at 66MHz, and 90mW at 1.7V for a clock speed of 40MHz. The J-StarterKit for the picoJava-II is a board equipped with the engineering sample chip MB86799. The board also comprises 32MB of SDRAM, 16MB of flash memory, 64KB of SRAM and 2MB of VRAM. It features a range of interfaces, such as three PCI slots, a 10/100Mbps Ethernet port, a keyboard port, a mouse port, a serial port and a parallel port.The software package, called J-REALOS/PJ, contains all the necessary software for developing Java applications. The items are a real-time operating system based on JTRON, a Java run-time environment, a graphics library, device drivers corresponding to the evaluation board interfaces and other items.
Toshiba, Samsung to Make Color STN LCD Driver Chips for Cell Phones
Toshiba Corp., Optrex Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. will jointly develop driver microchips for super twisted nematic (STN) liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with 256-color display technology for use in mobile products. Initially, the new driver ICs will be installed on Optrex's reflective color STN LCD panels. The ICs will support panels with 128 x 168 dot matrix displays, supporting eight-level gray scale for R and G, four-level for B, in 256 colors. Multi-line addressing (MLA) technology developed by Optrex will be used as the driving method. The MLA features high-speed response times suitable for displaying moving images. Also, it will improve the contrast ratio of LCD panels as well as power saving. The drivers to be commercialized are a scanning line driver IC (common driver IC) and data line driver ICs (segment driver ICs). Toshiba will make and market the common driver chip called T6K34 using the company's process technology for high voltage devices, while Samsung will be in charge of the segment driver chips S6B0021/S6B0022 incorporating its fine process technology.
Mitsubishi Elec, Intel To Develop Cell Phone Chips
Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and the Japanese unit of Intel Corp. will jointly develop semiconductors for next-generation mobile phones, a business area that is expected to stage a solid expansion in the coming years, company sources said on Wednesday.The two firms will hold a joint news conference to announce their joint development project. The companies gave no details about the project. Japanese media have reported that Mitsubishi will provide Intel with the technology to link cell phones and base stations while the U.S. giant will supply Mitsubishi with its microprocessors and other chips.
New Technologies Brighten TV Picture
With the impending launch of digital high-definition television broadcasting, the market for large-screen television sets is poised for rapid growth. Manufacturers have introduced a variety for new technologies to spur consumer interest. One promising format is rear-projection television, which is popular in the U.S. However, rear-projection TV faces stiff challenges from competing technologies such as plasma-display panels.The appeal of rear projection TV is that prices don't rise as screens get larger. This is in contrast to plasma displays, which become more expensive as screen size increases. The difference is slight among smaller models with screens of less than 30 inches, but once the screen goes beyond that the price difference can become large. For example, the price of a 50- inch plasma-display model exceeds 1 million-yen, while some rear-projection models of the same size sell for around 400,000 yen.Industry observers say that this price advantage guarantees rear-projection models a market niche. Rear-projection TV sets are similar in some ways to movie projectors. There are two ways to employ rear projection. One method employs a bright cathode ray tube; the other uses a technique that illuminates a circuit element such as a liquid crystal, using a lamp as a light source.Most recent products in Japan have opted for the latter approach. In the fall of 1998, Sony Corp., a pioneer in rear-projection TVs, launched Wega Screen, which uses thin-film transistors (TFTs) to achieve a resolution equivalent to 1,618-by-480 pixels. It is priced at 580,000 yen in an attempt to attract a broad market. In July 1999, Hitachi Ltd. responded with Big Slim 52, which boasts dramatic gains in screen contrast and is as thin as a regular 29-inch model.The circuit-element technique is preferred in Japan because the sets can be made smaller. There is a lot of room for the market to grow. It was estimated at 40,000 units in fiscal 1999. The U.S. market, which accounts for 1.4 million of the 1.7-million projection-TV units sold worldwide in 1999, is driven by models using cathode-ray tubes, a cheaper approach that has kept prices of 40-inch models between $2000 and $3,000.In Japan, where there is less space in homes to install the larger cathode-ray tube models, screen-resolution problems have hurt acceptance among consumers. Local manufacturers have responded by switching to the circuit-element approach, which offers better resolution by improving the lamp. Also, while all products using circuit elements have the same basic design, manufacturers are adding their own technology.In November last year, for example, Victor Co. of Japan Ltd. (JVC) launched its 50-inch Panorama Vision HV-D50LA1. This model uses a circuit element called Direct Drive Image Light Amplifier, which gives a 1,280-by-1,028 pixel resolution. JVC has also placed the lamp vertically and upgraded the screen so that it is bright from all viewing angles. Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. are planning to release models this year that will use a circuit element developed by U.S. company Texas Instruments Inc., known as Digital Light Processing. The circuit-element technique is now poised to surpass the cathode -ray-tube method in resolution, and even makers of rival technologies are enthusiastic. Many observers expect rear-projection TV to rival products using plasma or liquid crystal displays. But falling plasma-display prices will erode the price advantage of bigger rear-projection models. If price differences decline, rear-projection TV will need better resolution.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES — JAPAN IN THE UNITED STATES
NEC to Enter U.S. ASP Market Via Corporate Accounting Services
NEC Corp. is planning to enter the U.S. application service provider (ASP) market as early as this summer. The Tokyo-based company unveiled an ASP solutions suite, called iBestSolutions/ASP, designed for the Japanese market. However, ASP services based on that product will actually be provided through software-related affiliates, such as NEC Soft Ltd. NEC offers mostly e-commerce services via the Biglobe Internet service provider (ISP) business that it operates. Thus, the new ASP business that NEC intends to set up in the United States will represent a pilot case for the company. It will be the first over which NEC will have direct control. NEC's ASP service in the United States will focus on providing corporate accounting products to small and midsize firms. Work to set up the service's data center, as well as the running of its day-to-day operations, will be outsourced to specialty firms. Also, NEC plans to employ the Protean enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package developed by U.S.-based Marcam Solutions Inc., a company to which NEC has had links. NEC Systems Inc., which serves as the core of NEC's software and business services operations in the United States, has been studying the feasibility of launching an ASP service since last summer. Soon the company will start raising venture capital (VC) and use it to establish a specialty ASP subsidiary that will operate as a full-fledged U.S. business. The new ASP firm won't sell services directly to all its small and mid-sized clients, but will aim to enlist partners, such as banks, to help handle sales. Financial institutions provide small and midsize client businesses with value-added services, including support for corporate accounting operations. These types of accounting services are now being offered over the Internet. And the potential exists that the scope of services available will expand to cover a variety of personnel and payroll operations. Additionally, the United States venture businesses are thriving, which means that it is possible for an ASP targeting smaller firms to be successful. In Japan, it is users of office processors, who will become the main market for ASP services.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES — UNITED STATES IN JAPAN
Sagent, NEC Plan Web-Based CRM Scheme For Japan
US-based Sagent Technology Inc. and Japan's NEC Corporation announced a partnership to deliver a customer relationship management (CRM) solution via the Web. Under terms of the partnership, NEC will integrate Sagent's technology into NEC's iBestSolutions, a CRM solution targeted at e-business customers in the Asia-Pacific market. Tthe new scheme will allow NEC customers to collect and analyze customer and operational data from existing systems. They will also to be able incorporate the most current geographic, B2B and demographic information from third-party content providers in real time, made available over the Web via a secure connection. Using this information, NEC customers can create precise one-to-one marketing campaigns, identify profitable sales opportunities, and improve operational efficiencies. Their e-business customers come to NEC seeking a comprehensive CRM solution that can be implemented quickly and easily. Together, Sagent and NEC are able to offer a powerful and complete CRM solution that will directly impact our customers' e-business. The partnership with NEC represents a critical step in Sagent's mission to deliver e-business solutions to customers in the Asia-Pacific region," said Sagent president and chief executive officer Ken Gardner.
Mitsubishi Paper To Set Up JV With Kodak Japan
Mitsubishi Paper Mills Ltd and the Japanese subsidiary of U.S. photo products giant Eastman Kodak Co plan to jointly sell photo-related products in Japan, creating the second-largest photo printing paper supplier in the country. Mitsubishi Paper, Japan's fifth-largest paper manufacturer, and Kodak Japan Ltd. now each separately control about 10 percent of the photo printing paper market in Japan. The two companies have agreed to jointly sell products such as photo film, printing paper, chemicals for printing, and printers beginning as soon as September. The companies also plan to cooperate in other areas such as procurement and technology development to reduce costs and boost competitiveness. The capital and other details of the joint venture have yet to be decided.
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