| October 1999 CONTENTS: FEATURE MARKET NEWS NEW TECHNOLOGY MULTIMEDIA ALERT BIO-SCIENCE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT SEMICONDUCTORS SPECIAL SECTION STRATEGIC ALLIANCES Japanese automakers Honda Motor Co. Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp. are on the verge of lapping America's Big 3 automakers again. In coming months, they will launch gas-sipping cars powered by both traditional engines and electric batteries, passing rival automakers in the race for eco-friendly, high-mileage vehicles that still meet current consumer needs. General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, is quick to boast that it introduced the first electric car of the modern age. However, the EV1 has had dismal sales since its introduction in 1996 because of its very limited range, the hours needed to recharge its battery and the hefty price. Pressured by impending regulations for better fuel economy and cleaner burning vehicles, GM, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG are pouring billions of dollars into research of fuel cells, touted as the power source of the future. Fuel cells would convert some sort of fuel -- gasoline, methanol, and hydrogen are among those being studied -- into electricity, reducing pollution while giving consumers all the attributes they expect in a vehicle. However, fuel cells are now prohibitively expensive and the automakers say it will be at least 2004 before commercially viable vehicles are on the market. The distribution of methanol or hydrogen is another issue that needs to be addressed since gasoline stations dominate the country as the source of energy for automobiles Meanwhile, the Honda Insight two-seater and Toyota Prius sedan, which run on gasoline, will be on sale within months. Both the Insight and the Prius are expected to sell in decent numbers, be priced around $20,000 and able to travel more than 800 miles on a tank of gasoline while getting 65 to 70 miles per gallon. Another boost: they qualify for California's stringent ``super ultra low emission vehicle'' clean-air standards by emitting fewer pollutants. Both vehicles will be priced above comparably sized vehicles, but should generate strong interest among environmentally minded buyers. A study by J.D. Power and Associates found that nearly 75 percent of new-vehicle buyers had never heard of the hybrid-electric vehicles. However, after being given a brief explanation, 80 percent said they preferred the hybrid to traditional electric vehicles, according to the study of 500 consumers in California and the northeastern states. ELECTRIC VEHICLE FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE The Prius and Insight could spell the end of GM's EV1 electric car, which has leased just 600 since it's introduction in December 1996. The EV1 will get an optional nickel-metal hydride battery this fall, which increases its range to about 140 miles maximum from 80 to 90 miles before a 3-hour recharge becomes necessary. However, its price is still prohibitive -- about $424 a month under a 3-year lease, about the cost of a luxurious Cadillac or a BMW -- and it's only available in California and Arizona. Honda's aluminum-and-plastic-body Insight arrives in U.S. showrooms in December. The roadster is powered primarily by a 3-cylinder engine, backed by a battery to boost acceleration. The Insight's light weight and battery power help it get more than 70 miles per gallon of gas. Honda expects to sell about 5,000 of the cars in the United States, where it will be priced under $20,000. Honda and Toyota opted to keep the prices relatively low, and expect to lose money on the vehicles, at least initially. Toyota's four-door Prius arrives in U.S. dealerships in late spring, nearly a year and a half after it debuted in Japan, where it has enjoyed stronger-than-expected sales of more than 20,000 units since its introduction. Toyota expects to sell 12,000 of the Prius, slightly larger than the compact Corolla compact car, in the United States at a price of just over $20,000. The Prius averages about 66 miles per gallon of gas, getting a range of around 850 miles from a 13-gallon tank. MARKET NEWSFujitsu Network Services Installs Equipment For Adelphia's Major Network Expansion Fujitsu Network Services announced today that it is installing fiber-optic transmission equipment for Adelphia Business Solutions' major network expansion across the eastern half of the United States. Fujitsu estimates the value of the installation work at nearly $12 million. The engineering and installation services provided by Fujitsu Network Services are in addition to the equipment supplier contract awarded to Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc., earlier this year. Adelphia's network, which is expected to be completed in early 2000, will stretch from the Canadian border to Miami, and as far west as Wichita, Kansas. The network will use SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) equipment to connect the 22 cities that Adelphia currently serves, along with the more than 80 cities it is adding. Fujitsu's ability to preconfigure racks and stage the equipment off site helps Adelphia meet its network expansion timetable. When the equipment is brought to Adelphia's facilities, it can be installed quickly, allowing services to be turned on swiftly. Fujitsu Network Services is providing engineering and installation services at some 560 sites that Adelphia will use to provide its complete line of communications offerings, including local and long-distance calling, voice messaging, Internet, and enhanced data services. Fujitsu's services include project management, site surveying, and pre-assembly staging and testing of the multivendor equipment to be used in Adelphia's network.Adelphia uses SONET multiplexers from Fujitsu Network Communications of Richardson, Texas. Fujitsu's multiplexer products include the FLM 150 ADM, FLM 600 ADM, FLM 2400 ADM, and FLASH(TM)-192 add/drop multiplexers, which provide transmission rates of 155 megabits per second through 10 gigabits per second. Sagent Expands International Presence Through INTEC Partnership In JapanSagent Technology, Inc., a leading provider of Internet enterprise intelligence solutions, today announced plans with INTEC INC., a leading systems integrator and co-founder of Autobytel.com Japan, to deliver and implement Web-enabled, business solutions for telecommunications, banking, healthcare and e-business enterprises throughout Japan for managing disparate customer data and automating information delivery. Together the companies are offering an inclusive consultation, purchase, and installation package based on the Sagent Solution for implementing an automated data extraction, warehousing and reporting system ideal for enterprises with large volumes of data and demanding management requirements. By offering Sagent's proven architecture and data flow technology, INTEC is satisfying a demand from customers in banking, healthcare, telecommunications and e-business that need to consolidate disparate customer and prospect data for dissemination in automated reports over the Web. Through the intelligent design of Sagent's object oriented GUI, INTEC is able to decrease data warehouse installation times for on-site customer demonstrations that lock in key sales and marketing objectives. Matsushita Sets Up Unit To Support Digital Content ProductionMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. established Panasonic Digital NetworkServe Inc. (PDN), eyeing the launch of broadcast satellite (BS) digital data broadcasting at the end of 2000. PDN will provide business support services such as content planning and production targeting the end of 2000. It expects sales of 5 billion yen after five years. BS digital broadcasting, which is slated to be launched at the end of 2000, can broadcast video and data simultaneously. In addition, it can provide an interactive service in which users participate through standard telephone lines. Targeting broadcasting companies, telecom carriers and content producers, the new company will help such clients build up systems for interactive services. NEC Begins Electronic Authentication Service With VeriSign Japan NEC Corp. launched an outsourcing service to build and operate an electronic authentication system in partnership with VeriSign Japan KK. NEC plans to offer the service as part of a service menu for enterprise members of "BIGLOBE," the company's Internet connection service. The electronic authentication system consists of registration authority (RA) to receive an application for a digital certificate, and issuance authority (IA) to issue the certificate. NEC is responsible for building and operating the RA. NEC will also use a server which implements "PKI Server/Carassuit" to operate the system and manage the data. PKI Server/Carassuit is NEC's middleware for RA. IA will run with "VeriSign Onsite," an electronic authentication service provided by VeriSign Japan. Referring to the certificate that has been issued, the RA server provides a private key and public key and delivers them to the user companies together with the digital certificate. It is also possible to issue an IC card that contains both the certificate and keys by applying a function of Carassuit. NEC aims to generate revenues of 5 billion yen in three years from the service inauguration. NEC is configuring Carrasuit and VeriSign Onsite to build an in-house electronic authentication system. The company says that it will have a system that will enable all the company members stationed over the world to send/receive encrypted mails. Making the most of the experience of having built the internal system, NEC intends to offer support services. Matsushita To Use Windows Terminals As Thin Clients Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. will introduce Windows-based Terminals (WBTs) associated with Microsoft Corp., the company said. Matsushita announced that it will drastically change the plan of introducing thin clients. Instead of using Network Computers (NCs) based on a standard proposed by Oracle Corp. of the United States, it will employ WBTs. It started introducing NC terminals in March 1999 and was expected to introduce 4,000 units by 2000. Instead, the company has already introduced 150 units of WBT and has used them as exclusive clients of host computers for receiving/placing orders and personnel/accounting. Its WBTs accommodate TCP Link for Windows CE, a terminal emulator from Chori Joho System Co., Ltd. Matsushita plans to increase the number of WBTs to 1,000 units within 1999. The company had introduced 30 units of NC terminals. The reason for this change is that, when applied as a terminal for a host computer, the WBT units provide a superior and more stable performance as compared to the NCs. However, more NC terminals may be introduced for limited applications. Olympus To Unveil 2.5M-Pixel SLR Digital Camera Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. unveiled a charge-coupled device (CCD), single-lens reflex (SLR) digital camera with 2.5 million pixels. It is called the CAMEDIA C-2500L, and it is an improved model of the CAMEDIA C-1400L/C-1400XL. It will hit the market on Sept. 15 and be priced at 148,000 yen. The company aims to produce 20,000-30,000 units per month. The product is equipped with a newly developed IC for processing images. It enables the product to record data with higher definition, even with less than 2.5 million pixels. So far, Olympus has been employing SmartMedia only as a recording media for digital cameras. The new model, however, also complies with a compact flash memory for the first time as a company product. Olympus has developed "TruePic" processing technology, an algorithm to compress/reduce an actual image shot at 2.5-million pixels, using all the information on the image's pixel, into an image recorded in a smaller number of pixels. The C-2500L is equipped with an IC for the TruePic processing. Previously, in the process to reduce an actual image into an image with a smaller number of pixels, a part of the original data was thinned out so the image with less information is apt to be rougher in quality than the actual image. Applying the TruePic processing, however, it is possible for the digital camera to record an image with a smaller number of pixels and, at the same time, to keep a lifelike quality. It is equipped with an AF illuminator under its lens to correctly operate its auto-focus function in the dark. With this lighting device, users can throw some amount of light and hence can focus this camera on an object three meters away even in places without any light, Olympus Optical says. This model adopts a 2/3-in., primary color progressive CCD. It has an optical 3x-zoom function, with an F2.8-3.9 lens equivalent to 36mm-110mm on a 35mm camera. It measures 109.5mm long x 129mm wide x 80.5mm high. It weighs 490g without batteries and recording media. It comes with a lens cap, a strap, four AA nickel-hydrogen batteries, a recharger, an 8MB SmartMedia, a video cable and a lithium-ion battery. MULTIMEDIA ALERTSanyo Electric To Launch Digital Camera For Female Users Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. unveiled the "DSC-X200," a digital camera aimed at female users. Its rounded body comes in platinum white. While keeping features of the existing model, "DSC-X110," Sanyo focused on user friendliness such as the feature to display the menu in Japanese. The main differences from the existing model is that the menu is in Japanese and the new text input feature. The product allows users to input hiragana/katakana (two different kinds of phonetic Japanese-language symbols) and alphanumerics in selected colors at any position of the filmed video. The main specifications remain the same as those of the existing model. The total number of picture elements of the charge-coupled device (CCD) is 850,000 pixels and its size is 1/3 inch. The camera allows users to film not only still pictures in the JPEG format, but also animated video in the QuickTime format (maximum 120 seconds). The high-speed continuous filming feature is capable of shooting maximum 40 frames in a 0.2 second or 0.13 second interval. It comes with the digital zoom feature of a maximum of 3.2x. SmartMedia is used as the recording media. The camera is expected to be compatible with 64MB SmartMedia. It comes with a 4MB SmartMedia. An RS-232C interface connects to the PC. The "PCK-X200," a connection kit is sold separately for 13,000 yen. Toshiba To Use SmartMedia, SD Memory Card For New Player Toshiba Corp. will use both SmartMedia and SD Memory Card as recording media for a portable music player slated for release later this year. SmartMedia is meant for existing digital cameras and other devices, and SD Memory Card is a next-generation media now under development. The company will develop a slot to equip the player, which is switchable between SmartMedia and the SD Memory Card. The portable music player can be used like an MD player. A personal computer or other device is used to write music data into a recording media and the media is then attached to a portable player. Venture businesses and makers of PC peripheral equipment are marketing portable players that comply with SmartMedia, Multimedia Card (MMC) or other devices as a recording media. However, Toshiba, assumes that the diffusion of the SD Memory Card will require some time, so the company has enabled its first portable music player to handle both the SmartMedia and SD Memory Card. It will comply only with SmartMedia when the player is released, but will be capable of dual-use in the spring of 2000, when the SD Memory Card goes into production. Additionally, the portable player is designed to run with multiple formats of music data, in order to respond to various types of user needs. Toshiba already has decided to use music reproduction technology from Liquid Audio Inc. of the United States, and also is considering employing other technologies. Japan Telecom, DDI To Begin Phone/Fax Service For E-Mail Japan Telecom Co., Ltd. (JT) and DDI Corp. will launch a service that enables users to exchange Internet e-mail messages using a telephone and/or fax machine instead of a PC. JT is expected to begin the service this month and DDI in December, for users registered with each company's long-distance services. To utilize the new service, customers must have a terminal capable of handling the service. The service to be offered by JT, called Denwa de Mail, charges a registration fee of 500 yen per mail address, in addition to the usage fee of a flat 10 yen per minute for both receiving and sending. To send an e-mail message, the user first inputs text with the phone keypad, and then checks what is written on the liquid crystal display screen attached to the telephone. Next, the recipient's e-mail address is input and the message is sent. For receiving an e-mail message, the customer contacts a message center using the terminal. Although the service doesn't provide an automatic e-mail receiving feature, it is designed to automatically transmit un-read e-mail messages when a user sends an email. The service is designed to allow customers to receive only text (any attachments will be discarded). The e-mail address will consist of three alphabet letters and five numbers @dm.odn.ne.jp. As for JT, the telecom carrier, and not users, will set the address before the "at mark." The terminals for the service are Matsushita Graphic Communication Systems Inc.ís PANAFAX A5CL and Tottori Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.'s Facsimile. DDI's Alpha-E-Mail service does not require any initial registration fee. However, a monthly basic fee of 100 yen per address is charged. The communication fee of 10 yen per 30 seconds is slightly higher than JT's fee. The service features the following: (1) an automatic incoming e-mail notification function; (2) an automatic e-mail receiving and sending function; and (3) attached files can be sent and received. The incoming mail notification feature notifies an Alpha-E-Mail compatible terminal that e-mail has arrived. When a new e-mail is received in the empty mailbox, the center will notify users at no cost the name of the sender and subject of the first incoming e-mail. E-mail addresses of the Alpha-E-Mail consist of a subject telephone number, three alphabet letters@ae2.dion.ne.jp. Customers can set their mail address as they like. NEC Corp. is expected to announce a terminal for the Alpha service in December 1999. Special terminals from other makers also are expected to be available. Team Uses Enzymes To Turn Impure Plant Oil Into Diesel Fuel A group of researchers at Kobe University's Graduate School of Science and Technology have developed technology that uses enzymes to turn impure plant oil into fuel for diesel engines. The technology can make high-quality fuel from edible oil containing water and other impurities. The function of the enzyme does not change even after repeated use. The research team, which was led by Professor Hideki Fukuda, expects the new technology to help create a system to economically recycle cooking oil used at restaurants and households. The technology creates fatty acid methyl esters, which are used as diesel fuel. A small sponge in which yeast is installed is put into the equal mixture of plant oil and methanol. When the mixture is stirred up at 30 C (86 F), 95% of the plant oil turns into fatty acid methyl esters in about 30 hours. Lipase, an enzyme produced by the yeast, is the catalyst. In the experiments, the conversion efficiency did not drop at all after the reaction had been repeated 50 times. The fuel created from plant oil including such impurities as water and free fatty acid had the same quality as the fuel created from pure plant oil. When an alkaline catalyst is used in the reaction, the catalyst must be removed from the created fuel. The fatty acid methyl esters, which are free of sulfur, help reduce the black smoke contained in exhaust fumes. The esters dissolve naturally in the earth after they are discarded. Japan's Takara Shuzo To Sell U.S. Made Soybean Gene Test KitTakara Shuzo Co. said Thursday that it will import and market a test kit made by U.S. firm Strategic Diagnostics Inc. for identifying genetically modified soybeans. The maker of alcoholic beverages will also use the kit to test soy beans for other companies. SDI's kit handles Roundup Ready soybeans from Monsanto Co., which account for most of the gene-altered soybeans imported into Japan. When an antibody that reacts to a protein created by a modified gene is added to samples, the kit indicates the proportion of genetically modified beans by changing color. Targeted products include raw soybeans and powdered soybeans that are not heat-treated. Takara Shuzo will sell the kit for 180,000 yen, including the antibody and coloring agents. Strategic Diagnostics Signs Laboratory Services Agreement With JOSICStrategic Diagnostics Inc. announced that it has entered into a laboratory licensing agreement with Japan Oilstuff Inspector's Corporation (JOSIC) for the Company's GMO Check (TM) Soya Test Kits, used for the detection of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in grain and food ingredients. The agreement gives JOSIC a non-exclusive laboratory certification for the test kits within Japan. JOSIC is the leading Japanese inspection organization for the analysis of imported oilstuffs and raw agricultural products and serves the major trading companies and oilseed crushing companies in Japan. Founded in 1952, JOSIC is licensed by both the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Transport as an official laboratory to conduct analyses of imported products such as oilstuffs, soybeans, canola and other seeds and grains. In 1975, the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare has licensed JOSIC to do mandatory food safety testing. The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), as part of a process to enable labeling of GM foods, will require that an Identity Preservation Handling (IPH) program be in place to ensure that the GM content of raw agricultural products is known. This certification process will allow labeling of qualified foods as GMO free. In the absence of this certification, foods must be labeled as containing GMOs. MAFF further identified immunoassay as one of the acceptable testing technologies for use with IPH, based partially on the availability of SDI's GMO Check (TM) Soya Test Kit. SDI is a leading provider of biotechnology-based diagnostic tests for a broad range of agricultural, industrial and water-treatment applications. Through its antibody division, Strategic BioSolutions, the company also provides antibody and immunoreagent research and development services. SDI test kits are produced in a variety of formats suitable for field and laboratory use, offering advantages of accuracy, cost-effectiveness, portability, and rapid response. System Gives Cheaper Access To Ocean DepthsTaisei Corp. announced that it has developed a low-cost mechanical system to pump out seawater more than 200 meters deep. Deep-layer water is used in fish farming as well as for producing cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The new system has reduced construction costs by as much as 30% compared with existing systems. The cost of constructing a system that is 2,600 meters long and has a daily water output of about 3.000 metric tons is 10-30% cheaper when Taisei's mechanical system is used. Their method of using air pressure to siphon seawater will allow for more efficient operations, thus reducing operating costs. The new system employs an inexpensive intake pipe made of synthetic resin. Conventional pipes are made of braided iron wire, which is more expensive than synthetic resin. Conventional systems use the mechanics of siphons that capitalize on the gap in height between the surface of the sea and the level of the seawater intake. The system needs to be buried deeper in the ground than the surface of the sea, which adds to installation costs. The new system is comprised of two intake tanks, a vacuum pump, a compressor and a water storage tank. The vacuum pump lowers pressure inside the intake tanks to pump up a certain amount of seawater from the deep layers of the sea; then the seawater is brought into a storage tank through pressure added by a compressor. The two tanks are used alternately or constant water intake-when either tank is pressurized; the other is depressurized and vice versa. The system is meant to be used in factories that process drugs and food from deep-layer seawater. The system will be marketed to local governments planning to set up such factories. Much progress had been made for research on deep-layer water in Kochi Toyama and Okinawa prefectures. Several reports claim that such water is effective in activating growth of fish and in curing atopic dermatitis. Spray-On Microlenses Promise Cheaper Optoelectronic Chips Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. said it has developed a way to fabricate microlenses using a technology similar to one used by inkjet printers, in which a fine mist of ink is squirted onto paper. In its variation on the inkjet process, NTT sprays a fine mist of liquid resin onto a substrate, forming droplets that are then hardened into semispherical microlenses. The company said this technique allows it to make high-precision microlenses at a rate of over 10,000 lenses per second. The lenses can be fabricated directly on semiconductors, offering a low-cost way of building optoelectronic-communications equipment. The new method uses a kind of liquid resin that hardens when exposed to ultraviolet light. The resin is sprayed onto the substrate, then exposed to UV light for 15-300 seconds. The resin droplets harden into hemispheres that can focus light and act as lenses. These lenses can be made in diameters ranging from 20 microns to more than 1mm, and with a precision error of less than 1%. NTT said in the future it should be possible to fabricate lenses of less than a micron in diameter. The size and shape of the finished lenses can be adjusted by changing the volume and viscosity of the liquid resin, making it possible to produce lenses that are made to order. The F-value, indicating lens performance, ranges from 1.8 to 15, depending on the diameter, which is similar to other high-quality lenses. In most modern electronic applications, data is sent over wires between semiconductor chips. For large-volume, high-speed communications, however, the data needs to be sent optically using lenses. Until now, those lenses have been made separately and then attached to the semiconductors. But with NTT's new inkjet technology, the resin lenses can be built directly on the chips, helping to trim manufacturing costs. Toshiba To Market DSP Chips For MP3, AAC Formats Toshiba Corp. announced the TC9446F-004, a digital signal processor (DSP) chip that decodes audio data conforming to the MPEG Layer-3 (MP3) and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format audio compression technologies. Sampling the product will begin this month. Mass production is slated to begin in November. Audio compression technologies MP3 and AAC enable compression of audio data as much as to one-tenth or more in volume while maintaining an audio quality equivalent to that of music CDs. To achieve the high-speed decoding performance necessary for MP3 and AAC formats, Toshiba increased the number of the DSP's data bus lines from its previous model's from one to three, and decreased steps of the fast Fourier transform to four from conventional 14-15, updating its algorithm. These modifications have raised its decoding speed as much as four times over that of the previous model. The power supply is 3.3V with a range of 0.3V more or less. Its design rule is 0.35 micron. As for audio output and input interfaces, it has two input and two output ports. A 100-pin quad flat package is used for the DSP chip. Its sample price will be 2,000 yen. Japan Firms Design Sensor For Wafer Surface Temperature Industrial measuring equipment maker Netsushin Co. and a firm in the city of Kawasaki have jointly developed one of the world's smallest devices for sensing the surface temperature of silicon wafers. The NDR-SW100 is more sensitive and stable than comparable devices. It can be used in temperatures of up to 300 C. The device also utilizes an independently developed adhesive, to improve its holding power and reduce the affects of gases resulting from high temperatures. The sensor is priced between 100,000 and 300,000 yen. Computers Storm Language Barricades Computer technology capable of lowering the highest hurdle impeding international communications, the language barrier, is making rapid advances these days as machine-translation systems are combined with voice-recognition technology. In Japan, which has great potential demand for such systems, a private research institute and consumer-electronic makers are developing computer systems that can function as translators between Japanese and English, although still in rather limited ways. One of the largest private research institutes in the field, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR-I), and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. demonstrated in July a jointly developed speech translation system that worked as an interpreter between Japanese and English. The system, installed in a laptop computer, is able to recognize 4,000 words that are frequently used for basic conversation on travel abroad. In the demonstration, a European engineer playing a waiter at a restaurant asked a customer: "Do you have a reservation?" The computer needed just a couple of seconds to come up with the Japanese translation: "Yoyaku wa arimasuka?" A Japanese engineer, acting as the customer, answered in Japanese that he had made a reservation on the telephone, which took the computer a bit longer to translate into English as the sentence was more complicated. The system generally worked quite well; making only two mistakes in the 15-minute demonstration. However, it should be considered that the engineers who had developed the system, and thus are best aware of its strengths and weaknesses, conducted the demonstration. Matsushita intends to commercialize the technology in some form, although it has not yet determined when or how. Japan is a forerunner in research on automatic translation, mainly because of strong demand for the technology; even among university graduates, who have studied English for eight years, there are many that lack confidence in their English-language abilities. Some major consumer-electronics manufacturers, including Hitachi Ltd. and NEC Corp., began research on automatic-translation systems back in the early 1980s focusing on Japanese-to-English translation. But it was very difficult to choose suitable words for different situations and needs a practically infinite number of rules. A statistical approach was developed to compensate, which chooses the most likely words or sentence patterns based on statistical analysis of massive volumes of text. A combination of the two methods has remarkably improved the quality of translation. Hitachi sells software packages that translate between Japanese and English or Japanese and Korean and is preparing a Japanese-Chinese package for the market. Another important part of the electronic interpreter is voice-recognition technology, which analyzes the sound of speech. The phonetic approach runs into difficulties when trying to "read" the many ranges of sounds used to form the same syllables. That's why voice-recognition technology also employs linguistic analysis to try to choose words based on context. ATR-I collected several thousand examples of speech from various people to develop models for Spoken Japanese and English that allow for distorted sounds, inverted sentences and even the hemming and hawing of natural speech. Some companies have taken voice-recognition technology and combined it with automatic translation to come up with exploratory commercial products, which are analogous to mechanical interpreters with narrowly defined functions. In May, NEC started selling an upgraded version of its automatic-translation software Crossroad, which incorporates a voice-recognition system. The software recognizes users' speech in Japanese and turns it into text, then translates it into English for oral delivery by a synthesized voice. NEC's software recognizes some 120,000 words, forty times the volume of ATR-I's prototype. However, the wider coverage complicated recognition; the system has particular trouble recognizing long sentences accurately. Users need to correct some mistakes on the display before going on to the translation.Hitachi is getting ready to market a simpler machine, which says some basic things English on behalf of Japanese users. STRATEGIC ALLIANCES JAPAN IN THE UNITED STATES Integrated Systems To Tie Up With Four Japanese Semiconductor Makers U.S.-based Integrated Systems Inc. will form a business alliance with four Japanese semiconductor makers -- Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Hitachi, Ltd., NEC Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. -- to promote the business of mobile information devices equipped with ISI's real-time operating system. The move reflects the intentions of Sun Microsystems Inc. The company aims to make a full-force entry into the embedded equipment market such as mobile information devices, with its Java technology as an effective business weapon. ISI has already made plans to sell an embedded software development board with "M32R/D," Mitsubishi's microprocessor, to run "pSOS," ISI's real-time operating system featuring Sun's Java execution environment. With this alliance, ISI will make a development board with semiconductors in Hitachi's "SH" series, NEC's "V800" series and Fujitsu's "SPARClite" so that ISI can increase relevant microprocessors to make pSOS with Java execution environment widespread in the mobile device market. The alliance will allow ISI to spread its real-time operating system. It will be an advantage for the semiconductor makers as well because they will be able to sell their microprocessors to the users of ISI's development board and also ask ISI to offer the necessary technical support. Sun Microsystems may be the one to benefit most from the alliance. By combining microprocessors with the real-time operating system, Sun expects Java to be used more extensively. That environment is widespread in the market of electronic appliances with embedded software. In order to make Java widespread among the electronics industry with embedded software, Sun Microsystems entrusted U.S.-based Doctor Design Inc., an affiliated company of ISI, with development support for the electric manufacturers. In this way, ISI and Sun Microsystems are collaborating in promoting Java. As for the mobile terminals market, Microsoft Corp. hopes to popularize "Windows CE" and UK-based Symbian Ltd. hopes to popularize "EPOC." In this respect, it is essential for Sun and ISI to be backed by many semiconductor makers to counter the competition.Further, the alliance is likely to involve other Japanese semiconductor makers in future, such as Sharp Corp. and Toshiba Corp. Short News
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES THE UNITED STATES IN JAPAN ObjectSpace and Tomen Information Systems Corporation Sign Japanese Distribution Agreement ObjectSpace Inc., a leading provider of award-winning products and services focused on enterprise-level distributed computing, has announced a distribution agreement with Tomen Information Systems Corp. (TISCO) to bring ObjectSpace's VoyagerÆ products to Japan. This marks the initial entry of Dallas-based ObjectSpace into the Japanese distribution market, bringing its 100% Pure Java-based product technology to business application programmers in the Asia-Pacific region. TISCO, of Tokyo, will employ Voyager and ObjectSpace C++ tools for its customers' client/server systems and provide technical support for the products. Voyager Application Server enables the construction of industrial-strength, scalable distributed applications through its advanced directory service replication, load-balancing capabilities and connection management. Voyager Application Server supports the EJB, JDBC, JNDI, RMI and JTA Enterprise Java API's, as well as the industry-standard CORBA 2 ORB, Naming and Object Transaction Services. Voyager offers a true EJB development environment for business-application programmers and EJB-component builders and, through its ``universal container,'' simultaneously supports RMI, CORBA and COM clients. ObjectSpace Voyager products include Voyager Applications Server, Voyager ORB Professional, Voyager Transactions and Voyager Securities. Brio Technology Japan Seeks Top Share In Japan's Data Warehouse Market Brio Technology Inc. announced that Akiko Okushima was installed as country manager of Brio Technology Japan KK, which was established on July 1, 1999. She had been a general manager of the dataware house planning department of Digital Equipment Corp. Japan. The company is slated in December 1999 to release "Brio.Enterprise 6.0J," a new version of Brio.Enterprise 6.0 that integrates query, analysis and reporting client tools and an enterprise server solution. After that, it plans to release a report-creating tool, "Brio.Report," and a plug-in module, "Brio.Portal," which allow data created using other application software to be displayed on a Web browser. Brio Technology of the United States has been selling products through Japanese dealers Sharp System Products Co., Ltd. and Canon Sales Co., Inc. Even with the establishment of the Japanese company, it will continue the current sales system. It will expand sales of new products by enhancing technology support. It provides technology support directly to secondary dealers, SI vendors that develop application software to be installed and consulting companies. Brio Technology of the United States has had Canon Sales and Sharp System Products provide technology support to users. Electric Car For Senior Citizens Developed Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed jointly with a Yokohama-based manufacturer a compact electric car in which drivers control the brakes and accelerator with their hands. The car was designed for senior citizens with poor leg reflexes. The 290kg Kappo is 2.3 meters long, 1.2 meters wide and 1.6 meters high. It can run for about 30km on a full charge and is suited for short trips and errands. Instead of using a steering wheel, the driver moves a lever with the right hand to guide the car. The left hand manipulates the lever to control speed. Sources said the maximum speed was limited to 20km per hour for safety reasons. Most electric vehicles have top speeds of around 40km per hour. Testing is scheduled to begin in Takanosumachi, Akita Prefecture, this month. Short News
|
| Contact Information: Morgen, Evan & Company, Inc. Copyright 1999 |