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March 31, 2003
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Sony Electronics makes changes at top
Sony continues to revamp its management structure with changes in its electronics division and its Tokyo-based corporate executive ranks.
U.S.-based Sony Electronics on Monday announced Hideki "Dick" Komiyama as its new president and chief operating officer, as his predecessor, Fujio Nishida, moves on to Tokyo-based parent company Sony to become chief marketing officer and corporate senior vice president. The executive changes will be effective Tuesday.
Nishida, a 31-year Sony veteran, will report directly to Sony's chief operating officer, Kunitake Ando. He will develop global marketing strategies throughout Sony and will head up the company's worldwide Memory Stick business. Komiyama has been with Sony for 36 years and will be responsible for the daily operations of the electronics division. Sir Howard Stringer is the chief executive of the electronics division.
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Shuttle temp spiked earlier than thought
Tape from the shattered Columbia shows temperatures surging inside the left wing three minutes earlier -- and hundreds of degrees higher -- than previously detected during the final portion of the doomed shuttle flight, the chief investigator said Monday.
The preliminary finding is based on "just two little data points out of the hundreds that we're going to get here," said Harold Gehman Jr., chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Nonetheless, it indicates "the orbiter probably had this problem before she ever started her entry" and that this problem was on or very near the leading edge of the left wing and allowed deadly hot gases to penetrate and burn their way through.
This same area was struck by foam and possibly other debris that broke off Columbia's external fuel tank during the January liftoff. Gehman said he's hoping the tape from the salvaged data recorder provides clues as to the vibration and forces exerted on the left wing, as well as an unusually strong wind shear experienced by the space shuttle moments before the debris scraped the wing at 500 mph.
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Xilinx nears 90-nanometer finish line
Xilinx has 90-nanometer chips in hand.
The chipmaker said on Monday that it has begun shipping its first new 90-nanometer field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips in small quantities. Xilinx is one of the first few chipmakers to start down the road toward the chipmaking milestone--mass production of the 90-nanometer chip.
Xilinx appears to be on track to mass producing the new programmable chips, which are often used in markets such as communications, where device standards aren't finalized yet. Programmable chips are more flexible than other chips--such as purpose-built chip--because companies can program them to do specific tasks.
Last December, the company and manufacturing partner IBM said it would ship test versions of the chip during the first quarter of 2003, and begin mass production in the second half of 2003.
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Intel Celeron 2.30 and 2.40GHz for Sale!
It becomes a good tradition of Intel Corporation to start selling not-yet-released Intel Celeron processors before the actual official announcement. Last September Intel began to sell its Celeron 2.0GHz a number of days before the launch in Japan, now the same happens to Celeron 2.30 and 2.40GHz chips: both were seen for sale in Tokyo, Japan, by Akiba PC Watch this weekend.
Intel Celeron processors 2.30 and 2.40GHz are based on the Northwood core made using 0.13 micron process technology. The CPUs utilize the Socket 478-pin packaging and feature 400MHz Quad Pumped Bus. Like all current-generation Celeron processors, the novelties are equipped with 128KB of L2 cache, their Vcore is 1.525V.
Celeron 2.30GHz chips are priced from approximately $119 to $129, while the elder 2.40GHz Celeron CPUs cost from roughly $129 to $140.
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MelbIT admits domain breach
Australia's biggest and oldest domain name registrar, Melbourne IT, has been rapped over the knuckles for breaching its agreement with the domain name authority, auDA.
The .au Domain Authority (auDA) also actions by Melbourne IT, which is the registrar for most of the popular .com.au domain names, were "not in the spirit of the .au Domain Name Suppliers' Code of Conduct" - which Melbourne IT helped to develop.
The breach was related to a mailout to 1,500 .au domain name registrants on February 18 and 19. The letters were a marketing effort by Melbourne IT, targeted at registrants of .au names who used other registrars. Melbourne IT contravened the Registrar Agreement by using the authoritative Ausregistry database to check the recipients did not already use Melbourne IT's services.
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How the future looked in 1950
The post-World War II optimism that pervaded the nation extended to the not-too-distant future, with its promise of spaceship-traveled skyways whirring in a utopia of streamlined cityscapes.
Now, the works of A.C. Radebaugh -- a top illustrator of the day whose works helped define that future-vision -- are being shown in a retrospective at a quirky art gallery obsessed with Americana of the mid-20th century.
"Radebaugh: The Future We Were Promised" is the latest exhibit from Lost Highways Archive & Research Library, an art gallery and repository of advertising materials, brochures, books and ephemera borne from Todd Kimmell's love of vintage travel trailers and recreational vehicles. Recent exhibits include 1950s and 1960s station wagon design and the RV craze of the 1920s and 1930s.
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AMD, Fujitsu cut fat from flash
Advanced Micro Devices and Fujitsu will combine their flash memory operations in a new company to cut costs, lower prices and speed up production in a difficult market.
The new company, announced Monday, essentially streamlines the 10-year-old joint venture for flash memory between AMD and Fujitsu. Currently, the two companies cooperate on chip development and manufacturing but split the output from the factories and sell their allotment of chips independently.
Maintaining two separate sales channels, though, comes at a price. Both companies have to maintain separate sales teams, and geographic restrictions built into the agreement prevent AMD from selling chips into Japan while restricting Fujitsu elsewhere. The two companies also have often undercut each other in the past when trying to sell to the same customers, said Kevin Krewell, senior editor of the Microprocessor Report.
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