EDEX2004: newest display panels showcased in Tokyo

Intel stands up for lead-free chips

IDF Spring 2004 Japan: mobile technologies loose

Crucial DDR2-400/533 SDRAM DIMM available for orders

I-O Data unveils Ricoh RW5240A-based DVD+R/RW drive and EasyDisk Light USB dongles

Spansion prepares a flash series in less than a year

IBM celebrates 40 years of mainframes by announcing z890

EDEX2004: newest display panels showcased in Tokyo

Currently the Japanese capital hosts such an interesting show dedicated to the new display technologies. There´s much to look at, besides, most exhibits showcased will be used in products to go on sale in the near future.

In the spotlight is Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology´s miniature 5.6" WSVGA (1024x600) at 221 ppi LCD panel for ultra compact notebooks — LTD056ET0S.

At the same booth there´s also a number of hi-res novelties showcased.

15.4" WUXGA (1920 x 1200) LTD154EZ0S notebook panel

12.1" WXGA (1280 x 768) LTD121EX1S notebook panel

12.1" SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) LTD121KM2S Tablet PC panel

10.4" sensor XGA (1024 x 768) LTD104KA3S Tablet PC panel

Hitachi also introduced a lot of interesting exhibits, including mobile handset LCD panels on low-temperature polycrystalline silicon. One of them is an IPS (In-Plane Switching) solution that, having 2.2" diagonal, supports 960x240 x 16M colors resolution, 0.064x0.192mm pixel pitch (VxH) at 1:200 contrast and up to 200cd/m² brightness.

Another Hitachi´s interesting product is a 2.5" EL (OLED) display, just 1.8mm thick, supporting 680x220 x 262K colors, 1:1000 contrast and <10ms response time.

Epson showcased a number of low-temperature polycrystalline silicon panels integrated into various prototypes. For example, below is a 2.5" LTPS 256 ppi digital camera display supporting 512x384 x 262K colors.

Also take a look at this 3.9" XGA matrix used in P-1000 portable storage.

Besides, Epson showed a prototype of a 1.6" OLED mobile handset display:

Intel stands up for lead-free chips

Intel informed on plans to reduce the amount of lead in its chips by 95% starting this year. Though no specific dates were disclosed.

According to the press release, some of these "lead-free" processors will be shipping in Q3 2004, while some of the embedded processors are to be shipped in Q2 2004.

In particular, the initiative is focused on not using lead on CPU package pins and reduce its amount between the core and the package.

The first lead-free package, Plastic Ball Grid Array was introduced as far back as in 2001 for flash memory, while the first solutions in such packages became available in 2002 having copper-tin-silver alloy instead of tin and lead.

But the Flip Chip Ball Grid Array still has 0.02g of lead, as the industry has yet to certify a reliable replacement.

IDF Spring 2004 Japan: mobile technologies loose

As you know, IDF Spring 2004 Japan started yesterday in Tokyo. Despite that some basics are usually introduced at the USA IDF session, some regional forums still gather lots of interesting exhibits, a number of which is described below.

Traditionally Japan strongly focuses on mobile technogies, but this time they paid much attention to wireless technologies, including 3G, WiMAX, Wi-Fi and UWB/Bluetooth. In particular, Intel introduced WiMAX roadmap and plans to implement its support into notebooks (similar to Wi-Fi) already by 2006.

As for the closest Centrino evolution, in particular, marking of Pentium M Dothan products, Pentium M Dothan will be introduced in May. products with 755, 745 and 735 ratings and 400MHz FSB are to be one of the first offered.

P.S. At Intel´s comm and wireless presentation, the company showcased a working prototype of a W-CDMA/UMTS communicator based on Hermon mobile processor with a video phone and IEEE 802.11g + Bluetooth.

Source: PC Watch

Crucial DDR2-400/533 SDRAM DIMM available for orders

Crucial Technology informed on the availability of its PC2-3200 (DDR2-400) and PC2-4300 (DDR2-533) 240-pin memory modules:

According to the press release, the modules are based on Micron components and are naturally designed for desktops and servers.

Thus this months users will be able to select between Kingston (one of the first to introduce such modules), Viking (since late March), Samsung (though modules are not for sale yet), and Hynix (that promises DDR2-550 mass production this month).

I-O Data unveils Ricoh RW5240A-based DVD+R/RW drive and EasyDisk Light USB dongles

I-O Data unveiled the new external DVD+R/RW drive, DVS-iUR4P, to go on sale late in April for $120. Besides, the company unveiled the new EasyDisk Light (64, 128, 256, 512 MB) that will cost $35, $52, $88, respectively (512MB price wasn´t disclosed.)

The drive support 4x DVD+R write, 4x DVD+RW rewrite, 8x DVD-ROM read, 24x CD-R write, 10x CD-RW rewrite, 40x CD-ROM read. All internal are identical to Ricoh RW5240A. DVS-iUR4P has USB2.0 and proprietary i-CONNECT (FireWire via an adapter) interfaces and powers from USB or AC adapter. Other features are: 2MB buffer, vertical/horizontal installation, 162x268x50mm size, 1.9kg weight (w/o adapter).

EasyDisk Light dongles are usual products with TrueFFS support. Sized 19.8x70.8x10mm, each of them weighs 13g, and also requires 5V and consumes 200mA.

Source: ASCII24

Spansion prepares a flash series in less than a year

Spansion Memory Products, NOR flash maker, a product of Fujitsu and AMD flash business merge, launched the production of its first flash product series, namely Spansion S29AL/GLxxxM, based on the MirrorBIT technology. Created in July 2003, the company succeeded to complete the production cycle, from development to manufacture launch in less than a year.

If you remember this memory series is designed for consumer electronics like DVD players, recorders, Internet consoles, and also comms, automation systems, etc. S29AL/GLxxxM series offers 16Mbit to 256Mbit chips made using 230nm process. According to the experts, price/architecture ratio of 230nm MirrorBit is comparable with that of 180nm MLC and 130nm floating gate. It´s clear that this architecture will be a better competitor, when 0.11µm process will be used to make such chips. According to provisional information, this production should be launched in Q4 2004.

As for the new chip features and backward compatibility, the novelties are pin-compatible with Am29LVxxxM and MBM29PLxxxM and have write time reduced by 35% and block erase time reduced by 75% comparing to the previous similar solutions.

IBM celebrates 40 years of mainframes by announcing z890

IBM announced its new eServer zSeries 890 also to celebrate 40th anniversary of IBM System/360 release. Designed for mid-end server, zSeries 890 has a number of features found in high-end zSeries 990.

Simultaneously with z890 the company introduced TotalStorage ESS 750 (Enterprise Storage Server).

Similar to z990, z890 supports zAAP (zSeries Application Assist Processor) that creates z/OS Java special environment. zAAP solutions cost about $125,000 per processor, 1 to 4 processors (8 to 32 GB memory) configurations available. Besides zAAP, z890 supports On/Off CoD (Capacity on Demand) for creating temporary Parallel Sysplex clusters to withstand load peaks. It supports up to 1,024 logical I/O channels and up to 120 console sessions.

As for ESS 750, it ranges in capacity from 1.1 to 4.6 TB and allows paralellizing of some mainframe tasks.

Both novelties were introduced together with a new version of IBM z/OS 1.6.

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