Gigabyte GrapeVine
SPECIAL BACK ISSUE (May, 1992)
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
(c)1992-2002 GKM Journals
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
This month's GrapeVine was acquired from segments of
information and articles published in selected computer and
electronics industry trade publications in addition to
several online sources. The information contained within is
comprised mostly of factual information, editorial comments,
and a few rumors from the electronics industry in general.
Each month, we will try to focus on items of interest related
to the computer/electronics industries as they become news-
worthy, and hopefully, the GrapeVine will be both informative
and entertaining to our readers.
Topical Index
1: MORE MFG. GROWTH CONFIRMED
2: AM386 CHIP PRODUCTION EXPANDED
3: BIG BLUE GETS NEW DRESS CODE
4: IS YOUR HEAD IN THE CLOUDS?
5: 1.8 VOLT SERIAL EEPROM
6: ISOLATED FIRES BLAMED ON SURGE PROTECTORS
7: SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE GOES PRO-USA
8: U.S. JUDGE DEALS BLOW TO APPLE
9: A REALLY RAD CHIP
10: DUPONT and OSU DEVELOP PLASTIC MAGNET
11: MORE FROM THE BUCKEYE STATE
12: APPLE NEWTON ANNOUNCED
13: TALKING WINDOWS (3.1)
14: NEURAL CHIP DEVELOPED
15: HDTV STANDARD NEAR
16: APPLE, IBM and MOTOROLA PACT
17: ANOTHER IBM JOINT VENTURE (XGA STANDARD)
18: 1.3-in. DRIVE FROM HP
1.
/// MORE MFG. GROWTH CONFIRMED ///
The National Association of Purchasing Managers (NAPM) index shows an increase in mfg. orders
for the second month in a row as the totals for March rose to54.1 (any points above 50.0 indicate growth) which is the highest rating since September 1991.
While electronics; automotive electronics in particular show
the greatest gain, U.S. manufacturing in other commodities also
are making a slow, but steady expansion.
2.
/// Am386 Chip Production Expanded ///
HOUSTON TEXAS -- AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) is moving ahead
at full speed and working longer hours to produce larger volumes
of their Am386 microprocessors to meet customer demand.
The FAB 15 operation runs 24 hrs. a day, seven days a week and
has most employees working 12 hr. shifts just to keep up with
orders.
3.
/// Big Blue Gets New Dress Code ///
AUSTIN, TEXAS -- Big Blue (IBM) is getting a little laid back
in their old age. The top brass at the Texas plant have approved
a new dress code policy that allows non sales personnel to wear
casual clothes on the job. No more white shirts & ties for
engineers and software designers.
The policy sort of evolved from an un-official practice by the
employees designation of Fridays as casual dress day for the past
several years and now the management have agreed to "Go With The
Flow".
4.
/// IS YOUR HEAD IN THE CLOUDS? ///
Just not having enough
disk space has been a complaint of computer users ever since the
early stages of drive development. One of the obstacles that has
stood in the way of density/capacity size of a disk drive is the
height above the platter that the head must maintain to clear it
and not jam.
Viscus Technology Inc. of San Jose, Calif., is about to take a
giant stride to overcome this problem with their liquid bearing
adaptation.
The older drives had their heads flying at an altitude of 20
microinches and most present day units fly at a distance of about
5 microinches (not bad in relation to the thickness of a human
hair measuring a whopping 200 microinches), but the liquid
bearing technology will bring that all down to a distance of only
one (1) microinch.
The reason for all the hair splitting is that the higher the
head above the platter, the magnetic spot has to cover a larger
area. To get higher density (smaller magnetic spot), you have to
really get down.
With a glass disk, coated with a fluid, Viscus Technology can
allow their heads to actually "float" on top of the fluid layer
or bearing. As you might suspect, the centrifugal force of the
rotating disk forces the fluid off the outer edge of the disk. To
overcome this problem, they have employed a wick to replace the
fluid as required.
Small volume production should begin by the end of 1992 as
predicted by Bill Schroeder, vice chairman of Conner Peripherals
Inc., who have just acquired Viscus Technology.
5.
/// 1.8 VOLT SERIAL EEPROM ///
Amtel Corp. of San Jose, Calif. has developed and is shipping the industry's
first 1.8v EEPROM (Electrically-Erasable Read Only Memory) chip as reported by a company spokesman.
The chips are being produced in 1,2,4,8 and 16Kbit densities
and are aimed at "smartcard" applications such as automated toll
booths, cellular telephones, laptop and palmtop computers and
will offer an 80% reduction in power consumption as compared to
the standard 5v versions now in use.
Other applications which are now in the works for the new chips
include a wristwatch-sized personal data bank.
6.
/// ISOLATED FIRES BLAMED ON SURGE PROTECTORS ///
An insurance investigator has determined the cause of two fires that
he encountered were due to faulty surge protector outlet strips
which use 130 volt metal oxide varistors (MOVs).
His theory is that 130v MOVs overheat when subjected to
continued surges. Along with the investigator's findings is the
five year study done by Best Power Technology Inc.'s National
Power Laboratory at Nedecdah, Wisconsin.
Their findings show that the use of 150v MOV's would be
preferable over the 130v devices. Some experts say that the
addition of a fuse in the surge protector also could help prevent
fires and mfrs. such as Zero Surge Inc. have applied storage
capacitors to "bleed" the energy off slowly and safely.
The Isobar line mfd. by Tripp Lite, employs high frequency
capacitors and choke coils along with their MOV's to provide a
very reliable version of surge protection also.
But as I mentioned above, these are only very rare and isolated
occurrences and should not be a cause for panic. I have printed
this only because it should be brought to light as a possible
source of trouble.
7.
/// Senate Finance Committee Goes Pro-USA ///
WASHINGTON -- The Senate Finance Committee led by Sen. Lloyd
Bensten, have gone to bat for the U.S. semiconductor industry in
its conflict with Japan even though trade tensions may increase
because of their vigil.
The committee is searching out just exactly what rights and
remedies exist under the 1991 U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement and what
course of action may be taken to put enough leverage on Japan to
live up to their part of the bargain.
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has recently
indicated the inevitability for possible retaliatory sanctions
against Japan if the goals of the agreement are not met.
The report will be forwarded to the United States Trade
Representatives (USTR) and the Senate Finance Committee and could
precede the next face to face meeting with the Electronic
Industries Association of Japan, scheduled for June 4th this year
in Tokyo.
A deeper penetration of the Japanese market is expected to be
the number one topic during the discussions.
8.
/// U.S. Judge Deals Blow To Apple ///
SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Computer Inc. had to take it on the chin
last month as U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker dismissed the key
segments of their law suit against Hewlet-Packard and Microsoft
for alleged software copyright violations pertaining to "Windows"
and "Icons" used in Microsoft programs which mimic too closely
the Macintosh format and H-P's New Wave software which Apple
claimed had a look and feel like their own object oriented
system.
After a battle that has gone on for four years now, it would
appear that Apple will have to make a retreat.
9.
/// IT'S REALLY RAD ///
Harris Corp.'s Semiconductor Sector is in
limited production of the HS-65758RH silicon on insulator (SOI)
256-Kb static RAM chip which is designed to withstand high doses
of radiation (1 megarad) and to be employed in both the military
and nonmilitary space applications.
10.
/// DUPONT and OSU DEVELOP PLASTIC MAGNET ///
COLUMBUS, OHIO -- DuPont and Ohio State University researchers
have developed a molecular plastic magnet that remains stable at
temperatures up to 179 deg. F.
The research team is working to make the compound more stable
when exposed to air to enable the magnets to be used as
electromagnetic shields to protect computers and mobile radio
telephones from stray signals and also to protect optical disks.
11.
/// MORE FROM THE BUCKEYE STATE ///
A new patent was awarded to inventer, Angelo L. Gattozzi of
Mentor, Ohio for a Superconducting power switch, assigned to Tyler
Power Systems of Mentor.
12.
/// APPLE NEWTON ANNOUNCED ///
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago
last month, Apple Computer Inc. announced the first in a series of
"personal digital assistants" ... small handheld pen-based devices
that will have built-in FAX image and wireless communication
capabilities with audio I/O in the planning for later models.
The introductory product, called the Intelligent Assistant (code
named Newton), will be a handheld unit powered by ARM Ltd's 32 bit
Acorn RISC chip, according to sources close to the two companies.
ARM was jointly formed by Apple, VSLI Technology and Acorn
Computer group of England in Nov. 1990. With this joint venture,
ARM could gain a significant lead over some of their microprocessor
competitors attempting to break into the handheld-computer market.
The Apple system will recognize handwritten commands and can run
3rd party programs via plug-in memory cards and incorporate an
internal wireless FAX modem to allow communication with other
Apple/Macintosh units or other notebook and desktop computers via
AppleTalk network tools.
13.
/// TALKING WINDOWS (3.1) ///
A joint announcement by Analog Devices Inc.,
Compaq Computer Corp. and Microsoft Corp. last month confirmed
rumors about the new audio input/output capability that soon will
be added to the "Windows 3.1" environment.
The new development, called "Business Audio", gives PC hardware
and software suppliers a way to incorporate digital audio I/O
features into their products.
Analog Devices new SoundPort chip converts digital data to an
audio signal and vice versa at an 8 bit (low data rate) PC voice
quality and a 16 bit (high data rate) CD quality stereo.
Initially, the most prominent use of this technology is expected
to be voice annotation within "Windows 3.1" for spreadsheets, word
processing and electronic mail. Users will be able to record, edit
and play back audio, such as their own voices and leave audio notes
within their files.
14.
/// NEURAL CHIP DEVELOPED ///
2001 CHIP? -- Researchers at Kings College and University
College, London, have developed a neural chip they call
"probabilistic RAM", which mimics brain cell behavior more closely
than previous technology.
The neural chip combines 256 neural nodes with a conventional
DRAM and should run 30 to 80 times faster than the speed of
software. Vision systems and pattern recognition applications such
as robotics and speech recognition are but a few of the
possibilities for the new device.
15.
/// HDTV STANDARD NEAR ///
Four pioneers of the development of High
Definition Television (HDTV) have agreed to share any royalty
income which might result from the FCC selection of a HDTV
standard.
AT&T and Zenith are collaborating on one proposal for the
standard, General Instrument Corp. and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology are working on a second format. The FCC Advisory
Committee is expected to recommend a standard from these studies
and
others by early 1993. Most of all the technical recommendations
call
for a strictly digital format.
16.
/// APPLE, IBM and MOTOROLA PACT ///
AUSTIN TX. -- An important joint-development pact was
officially launched last month when IBM, Motorola and Apple
Computer opened their PowerPC research center.
Later this year, Motorola will introduce its first offering of
their 600 series PowerPC chip with the 601 single chip
configuration of the RS6000 RISC technology to be used in IBM's 220
series computers.
Next year, two more variations will be produced. The 603 for low
end desktop and laptop applications and the 604 to be implemented
in mid-range systems.
Future plans also include the 620 model, a 64 bit device for
high-end systems with production being switched to Motorola's newly
opened MOS 11 fab plant in Oak Hill, TX.
17.
/// ANOTHER IBM JOINT VENTURE (XGA STANDARD) ///
IBM has licensed Intel Corp. along with SGS
Thompson's Inmos Div. to implement new chip set applications for
IBM's new XGA (extended graphics array) and to establish XGA as a
more attractive standard of high resolution windowing graphics.
The XGA design allows a screen resolution of up to 1,024 x 768
pixels with 256 colors and it is IBM's desire to not only compete
with the Super VGA format, but to overtake it as the new standard.
18.
/// 1.3-in. DRIVE FROM HP ///
Hewlett-Packard is ready to take the covers off
their tiny 1.3" hard drive which was produced by their
micromachining techniques.
As they throw their wild card into the mass-storage market, they
are looking to bump the 1.8" drives of their competition and to
also take some of the sparkle out of flash cards.
With a capacity of 20 Mb and a price well below that of solid
state flash cards, the 1.3" technology is a natural for the ever
shrinking size of PC's and related applications.
One such application targeted by H-P is the cellular telephone.
The small size and toughness of the unit (will withstand 100 g's of
impact) will allow the 1.3" drive to go anywhere, anytime.
Wholesale prices should fall below $200 in about one year.
The miniature size of the drive may have weighed in the decision
to have them manufactured for H-P by the Citizen Watch Co. of
Japan.
Well, that will have to wrap it up for the May issue of my
letter, which happens to be the first posting done on my new
386SX-16.
As always, your input and comments are welcome.
Gary Miller
