TV venture is criticized for promises to investors

Article Abstract:

Reston, VA-based TV Answer Inc faces criticism from industry and US government observers in the wake of an aggressive marketing campaign to sell interactive television system franchises to unsophisticated investors. The technology uses local radio frequencies to transmit instructions to television sets, allowing consumers to access interactive television programming. TV Answer is seeking local vendors, who will be linked by satellite to a nationwide network. Potential investors will be required to apply to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for licenses that will be awarded by lottery. The FCC believes that TV Answer's advertising overstates the potential profitability of the technology, and does not adequately address the inherent risks of participating in the lottery. Observers also note that the $700 price tag for the home control units will prevent many consumers from subscribing to the service.

Household audio and video equipment, Marketing, United States. Federal Communications Commission, Investments, Licensing agreements, Digital television, Interactive television, Licensing, Interactive Systems, Advertising (Industry), TV Answer Inc.

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Simplifying a computing procedure

Article Abstract:

Alan Huang is patenting a process using the paper folding technique origami to simplify the coordination of multiple parallel processors for very large computing problems. Complex software usually is written to divide and coordinate the work and arrange for the many processors to produce one coherent solution. Huang, the chief of the optical research department at AT&T Bell Laboratories Inc, uses the mathematical logic of origami's folding process. For example, a sheet of paper can be marked with an evenly distributed number of squares to represent the microprocessors affixed to a plane's fuselage to measure the flow of wind across the surface. The paper is folded into the shape of the aircraft and microprocessors are assigned responsibilities based on their locations. The paper, now a map of the computing process, is then refolded into a simple accordion shape to simplify the coordinating pattern.

Research, Usage, Intellectual property, Parallel processing, Origami, Lucent Technologies Inc. Bell Laboratories, column, Patent, Huang, Alan

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For chips that overheat: a tiny radiator

Article Abstract:

Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp (MCC) develops a tiny radiator for supercomputer chips that allegedly offers 10 times the cooling power of other methods. The cooling system works on the same principles as an automobile radiator, but rather than pumping cool water around every chip, the system lies on top of a circuit board like a plate. Hundreds of tiny microchannels on the bottom of the plate carry water across each chip and absorb its heat. In order to ensure that cool water reaches each chip evenly, and that chips farther along are not exposed to water heated by the chips before it, the cooling package was modeled on a human's circulatory system, where large arteries carry blood to major regions and is then distributed through a network of progressively smaller blood vessels.

Motorcycles, bicycles, and parts, Semiconductor devices, Product information, Electronic components, Supercomputers, Supercomputer, Semiconductors, Heating, cooling and ventilation, Heating, Semiconductor Device, Cooling System, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp.

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