2 January
2003
By:
Agitator!!
April
In
April, JEDEC was back in the spotlight when they approved
the specifications for Quad
Data Rate II (QDRII)/Double Data RateII (DDRII) SRAM product
architectures. Microvision demonstrated a display breakthrough
using an ultra-low
power scanning technique. Intel upped the speed race by
introducing the 2.4GHz Pentium 4 using new smaller circuits
and the larger 300mm wafers. Practical
quantum computing moved a step closer. IBM, Sony, Sony
Computer Entertainment and Toshiba signed an agreement to
jointly develop semiconductor technologies. Discreet announced
plasma
- its professional 3D animation software.
Also
in April, television
celebrated its 75th birthday. STMicroelectronics and 8x8
announced a partnership to develop Internet
protocol (IP) based video chip solutions. Big Brother
moved a step closer when the FDA said it would not be regulating
a tiny
wireless ID chip that can be implanted in humans for medical,
security and related applications. Codecult released a new
3D graphics benchmark based on their Codecreatures
3D Engine. Scientists found "intriguing" new evidence
that may indicate there is life
on Mars.
Liquid
Audio received a patent for its Secure
Portable Device Technology while SGI announced their 22"
F220
flat panel display. TSMC unveiled their Nexsys
90-nanometer technology for system-on-chip (SoC) semiconductor
design and manufacturing. TSMC insisted its 0.13-micron process
was ramping up despite snags with low-k version; later in
the year that would become an issue with NVIDIA's next GPU.
Marvell
announced an industry breakthrough with the first 10 Gigabit
Ethernet operation over 15 Meters of standard copper cable.
ViewSonic's
announced its first wireless monitor, the
airpanel 100. The G4
Television network, TV designed for gamers, was getting
ready to launch. The Sirius
Satellite Radio Service became available in eleven states.
e.Digital and DivXNetworks teamed to bring DivX to portable
devices. Motorola joined Philips and STMicroelectronics, in
conjunction with TSMC, in five-year alliance to provide 90nm
to 32nm chip technologies on 300mm wafers.
Mira
is a new set of Windows technologies that will enable users
to wirelessly connect to the Windows XP PC from anywhere in
the home via battery-operated smart display devices. Intel's
XScale technology was chosen by some manufacturers to power
the smart displays.Toshiba introduced the first 30GB
Per Platter 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drive Family. ATI introduced
the ATI
Remote Wonder. Maxtor was first to ship 10,000RPM Ultra
320 SCSI Drives.
Trident
hoped to regain share of the mobile market with their XP4
GPU - the first 3D graphics processor for notebooks in 0.13um
CMOS technology with a full-fledged DirectX 8.1 implementation
in hardware. Creative announced the NOMAD
Jukebox 3, the first digital audio player with SB1394
(IEEE-1394 compatible) connectivity to the PC.
Hitachi,
Matsushita, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson and Toshiba
formed a working group to define the digital connectivity
specification for Audio/Video Products, the High
Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) Specification.
Even though IBM's consumer disk drive division was under attack
for reliability problems, Hitachi and IBM planned to combine
their hard-disk drive operations into a joint venture company.
AMD announced their new mobile AMD Athlon XP processor - the
first AMD processor manufactured on its state-of-the-art 0.13
micron technology.
Intel
announced five mobile processors, the "M" processors,
designed for the industry's smallest mobile computers. A new
technology that could eliminate
rebooting was revealed. The upcoming PCI
Express Graphics Interface, part of Intel's 3GIO (third
generation I/O) initiative continued to gain industry support.
NVIDIA and Keyhole partnered to deliver Earthviewer
3D. AMD announced plans to phase out the Duron processors.
A Japanese laboratory created world's
fastest computer.
BiTMICRO
introduced the first and fastest UDMA Solid State Disk Storage
unit. NVIDIA introduced the Quadro4
500 Go GL Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) for mobole workstations.
Philips announced shipments of Polymer-Based OLED modules.
Intel accelerated their Xeon processor for two-way server
and workstation platforms to 2.4GHz. RealNetworks released
RealVideo
9 and RealAudio Surround. With Elsa in trouble, NVIDIA
announced that PNY Technologies would be providing Quadro
Professional Graphics solutions in the U.S. and Europe. SiS'
Xabre400 made its debut as the first high-speed graphics
chip with AGP 8x and DirectX 8.1 support.
AMD
finally announced their Opteron
64-bit processor, formerly called Sledgehammer while Microsoft
announced 64-bit support for the Opteron. In a "inspired"
bit of marketing, Intel announced the brand name for the second-generation
Itanium processor will be Itanium 2. Hector Ruiz replaced
Jerry Sanders as CEO of AMD. Zenasis
Technologies unveiled its "hybrid optimization" technology
for high-performance integrated circuit (IC) design. Removing
an obstacle to online film distribution, Kanakaris
Wireless announced that it had achieved a reduction in
downloadable movie file sizes of more than 30%.
NEC
introduced the VR7701 high-performance 64-bit MIPS processor.
Phoenix
Technologies announced FirstWare Rescue, a new family
of emergency tools engineered into a secure, tamper-resistant
"safe zone" in the foundation of the PC. Read-Rite
announced the achievement of a new areal density data storage
world record of 130 billion bits per square inch. Macromedia
announced Macromedia MX, a new integrated family of client,
tool, and server technologies. Sharp
introduced the first 10-Bit Gamma Corrected LCD Monitor capable
of displaying over 1 Billion colors. A company called TDV
Techologies announced a bunch of new products designed to
produce real three-dimensional
e-Commerce, information, education and entertainment.
The
month of April ended with Creative introducing the first 24-Bit
96kHz capable Digital PC Speaker System, the MegaWorks 510D
PC while Cyberlink
announced that PowerDVD Pro 6.1 will support Dolby Digital
EX.
