Brand as well as Confusion of "Basic Similarity"

The actual trademark lifestyle on services and products is very important. The brand is actually destined to provide a distinctiveness and attribute around the services and products. Like a choice of a brand the actual businessmen indeed desire to have a good name, simple to be remembered, easy to be obvious and good to be noticed. The ease as well as uniqueness of a brand is intended to attract the consumers around the products or services offered. Trademarks such as "Gucci", "Louis Vuitton", "Cartier" and "Salvatore Ferragamo" would be the well-liked trademarks among the youngster as well as rich girls. Carrying the "Louis Vuitton", "Cartier" or "Gucci" purse when you shop around the shopping mall certainly is the prestige for several culture and also the predicate as the wealthy individuals might be gained through all of them.

So with regard to entrepreneurs a brand is a vital factor. A trademark can be construed in lots of elements also it depends upon which argument it is becoming viewed. It is therefore common if your brand is actually possibly could create the turmoil associated with legislation. The brand can produce a person becomes wealthy as well as wealthy person however around the reverse it might additionally downgrade making a individual becomes inadequate.

The actual turmoil delivered to the Commercial Courtroom is among the examples in which a person files a case to the other since the part of the viewpoint which his/her trademark is being infringed through the other party and consequently this damage these products or even providers provided by the said individual. In many cases the reason for the lawsuits are based on the actual "existence associated with fundamental or entire similarity "between one person's items in order to other people. However in reality it is also difficult for all of us to determine regardless of whether a particular brand is comparable with the additional or otherwise.

What's the fundamental component of a "similarity"? Is it similar between the images "Burger King", "Burger Kids" or "Burger Queen"? The Explanation of Post six Law No. fifteen Year 2001 on Mark states which "similarity" is in situation associated with there's a strong element between a mark to another that creates an impression from the likeness within shape/form, placing or sound.

Then the real question is regardless of whether "Burger King" much like "Burger Kids" or even "Burger Queen"? Let us merely compare this. If we look at the 3 images then the strong aspects of the actual images are "King", "Kids" and "Queen". Are the ones images having similarity in shape/sound or the putting or definition? In plain look at, it is clearly not really. Then could it be allowable when there is a celebration wishes to make use of the images of "Burger Queen" or "Burger Kids" when the exact same isn't however registered by the "Burger King" celebration? Lawfully the actual utilizing associated with "Burger Queen" or "Burger Kids" by any party won't create any problem, will it? Since all of the 3 are that contains different description and there's no likeness whatsoever.

Nevertheless another argument can be arisen in line with the argumentation associated with "non information on great faith". The "Burger King" celebration together with his 11.100 outlets in the United States associated with The united states and sixty six additional countries might oppose in case there is every other celebration make use of "Burger Queen" or even "Burger Kids" that is linked with "Burger King" party. Even though we all know that the word "Burger" is a common word that cannot be of any celebration. Nevertheless "Burger King" may be within the viewpoint that the idea in making use of the actual name/the name's founder is within their aspect. Therefore any word adopted "Burger" in any shape/form won't be permitted. We all might be wrongly identified as the sun and rain associated with fundamental similarity.

All its evaluation is dependant on the actual subjective evaluation. For a brand becoming filed its software in the Brand Directorate then the role from the Brand Directorate is very prestigious within the figuring out the fundamental similarity. A trademark consists of some words for example "Caf?¡ì| Santai Malam Sepanjang Tahun" might be determined because the same with "Caf?¡ì| Santai" since the term element of "Santai" could be thought to be probably the most eminent component and for that reason as the effect the actual stated application can be rejected through the Trademark Directorate.

It is not different using the Brand Directorate, the Industrial Courtroom and also the Top Court will also be has no uniformity within the judging associated with fundamental likeness. For instance is the Top Court Choice No. 04/K/N/HAKI/2002 on "Berger Seidle" brand that was decided doesn't have likeness with "Berger" brand and "Berger Master" emblem. However in the situation associated with Top Court Absolutely no. 039/K/HAKI/2003 decided that trademark "Cannonmate" is comparable along with "Cannon" trademark.

The presence of multi meaning in determining basic similarity is not simplifying for that legal practitioners and it will not close the chance for the trademark examiners or idol judges that handle the actual stated application/case to accept individual interest. It's that a brand that isn't comparable is declined along with expectation to find the payment. Such practice is definitely occurred since there is no legislation consistency in deciding the actual similarity of the brand.

Therefore the law practitioners expect that the good Top Court Decision will be followed by the other legislation enforcers to be able to remove the misunderstandings in analyzing of fundamental similarity.
Brand as well as Confusion of "Basic Similarity"

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Artificial 'womb' unlocks secrets of early embryo development

A team led by Professor of Tissue Engineering, Kevin Shakesheff, has created a new device in the form of a soft polymer bowl which mimics the soft tissue of the mammalian uterus in which the embryo implants. The research has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

This new laboratory culture method has allowed scientists to see critical aspects of embryonic development that have never been seen in this way before. For the first time it has been possible to grow embryos outside the body of the mother, using a mouse model, for just long enough to observe in real time processes of growth during a crucial stage between the fourth and eighth days of development.

Professor Shakesheff said: "Using our unique materials and techniques we have been able to give our research colleagues a previously unseen view of the incredible behaviour of cells at this vital stage of an embryo's development. We hope this work will unlock further secrets which could improve medical treatments that require tissues to regenerate and also open up more opportunities to improve IVF. In the future we hope to develop more technologies which will allow developmental biologists to understand how our tissue forms."

In the past it has only been possible to culture a fertilised egg for four days as it grows from a single cell into a blastocyst, a ball of 64 cells comprising stem cells which will form the body, and extra-embryonic cells which form the placenta and control stem cell development as the embryo develops. But scientists' knowledge of events at a cellular level after four days, when, to survive, the blastocyst has to implant into the mother's womb, has up to now been limited. Scientists have had to rely on snap shots taken from embryos removed from the living uterus at different stages of development.

Now, thanks to The University of Nottingham team's newly developed culture environment, scientists at Cambridge University have been able to observe and record new aspects of the development of the embryo after four days. Most importantly they have been able to see at first hand the process which is the first step in the formation of the head, involving pioneer cells moving a large distance (for a cell) within the embryo. They have observed clusters of extra-embryonic cells which signal where the head of the embryo should form. To track these cells in mouse embryos they have used a gene expressed only in this 'head' signalling region marked by a protein which glows.

In this way they have been able to work out that these cells come from one or two cells at the blastocyst stage whose progeny ultimately cluster together in a specific part of the embryo, before collectively migrating to the position at which they signal head development. The cells that lead this migration appear to have an important role in leading the rest and acting as pioneers.

This new breakthrough is part of a major research effort at Nottingham to learn how the development of the embryo can teach us how to repair the adult body. The work is led by Professor Kevin Shakesheff with funding from European Research Council.

Professor Shakesheff added: "Everyone reading this article grew themselves from a single cell. With weeks of the embryo forming all of the major tissues and organs are formed and starting to function. If we could harness this remarkable ability of the human body to self-form then we could design new medical treatments that cure diseases that are currently untreatable. For example, diseases and defects of the heart could be reversed if we could recreate the process by which cardiac muscle forms and gets wired into the blood and nervous system."

Professor Shakesheff's work was carried out in collaboration with scientists led by Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz at the Gurdon Institute, Cambridge University.

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Oxygen detected in atmosphere of Saturn's moon Dione: Discovery could mean ingredients for life are abundant on icy space bodies

Dione -- discovered in 1684 by astronomer Giovanni Cassini (after whom the spacecraft was named) -- orbits Saturn at roughly the same distance as our own moon orbits Earth. The tiny moon is a mere 700 miles wide and appears to be a thick, pockmarked layer of water ice surrounding a smaller rock core. As it orbits Saturn every 2.7 days, Dione is bombarded by charged particles (ions) emanating from Saturn's very strong magnetosphere. These ions slam into the surface of Dione, displacing molecular oxygen ions into Dione's thin atmosphere through a process called sputtering.

Molecular oxygen ions are then stripped from Dione's exosphere by Saturn's strong magnetosphere.

A sensor aboard the Cassini spacecraft called the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) detected the oxygen ions in Dione's wake during a flyby of the moon in 2010. Los Alamos researchers Robert Tokar and Michelle Thomsen noted the presence of the oxygen ions.

"The concentration of oxygen in Dione's atmosphere is roughly similar to what you would find in Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of about 300 miles," Tokar said. "It's not enough to sustain life, but -- together with similar observations of other moons around Saturn and Jupiter -- these are definitive examples of a process by which a lot of oxygen can be produced in icy celestial bodies that are bombarded by charged particles or photons from the Sun or whatever light source happens to be nearby."

Perhaps even more exciting is the possibility that on a moon with subsurface water, such as Jupiter's moon Europa, molecular oxygen could combine with carbon in subsurface lakes to form the building blocks of life. Future missions to Europa could help unravel questions about that moon's habitability.

Two sensors aboard Cassini built by Los Alamos National Laboratory are expected to come into play beginning later this month, and again in April and May, when the Cassini spacecraft flies by the moon Enceladus. The moon is one of the brightest objects in our solar system, reflecting back nearly all of the sunlight that strikes it, thanks to a shimmering surface of snowy ice crystals. The moon also unleashes plumes ofmaterial from its south polar region. Los Alamos' ion-beam spectrometer and ion-mass spectrometer may help answer key questions about the composition of these plumes.

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Free: National Instruments releases 2012 Embedded Systems Outlook

National Instruments has released its 2012 Embedded Systems Outlook report, which shares the company’s conclusions about the direction of the embedded systems market. The report lists technology and business-level trends that impact the development of next-generation embedded systems.

Companies can take advantage of this information in a wide variety of demanding embedded control and monitoring applications within industries such as energy, industrial control, life sciences and transportation.

With insight from the report, engineers and managers can strategically implement best practices for developing and maintaining innovative embedded systems. The 2012 report discusses the following major trends:

• Embedded Platforms: Technology providers are helping design teams build complex embedded systems faster by developing platforms that combine hardware with an integrated software framework.
• Reconfigurable Computing: Advanced embedded control and monitoring systems are driving an increase in designs that make the most of programmable logic.
• Mobile Devices and the Cloud: Design teams are taking advantage of the proliferation of new mobile devices and cloud technologies within next-generation embedded systems.
• Innovating With Smaller Teams: Smaller design teams around the world are creating a more efficient way for companies to bring disruptive innovations to market.
• Future Proofing Through Software: With the ever-changing requirements and standards for embedded systems, design teams are adopting a “software first” mindset for upgrading products over time.

Visit www.ni.com/eso to read the 2012 Embedded Systems Outlook.

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Free: National Instruments releases 2012 Embedded Systems Outlook

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New computers respond to students' emotions, boredom

The new technology, which matches the interaction of human tutors, not only offers tremendous learning possibilities for students, but also redefines human-computer interaction.

"AutoTutor" and "Affective AutoTutor" can gauge the student's level of knowledge by asking probing questions; analyzing the student's responses to those questions; proactively identifying and correcting misconceptions; responding to the student's own questions, gripes and comments; and even sensing a student's frustration or boredom through facial expression and body posture and dynamically changing its strategies to help the student conquer those negative emotions.

"Most of the 20th-century systems required humans to communicate with computers through windows, icons, menus and pointing devices," says D'Mello, who specializes in human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence in education.

"But humans have always communicated with each other through speech and a host of nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, eye contact, posture and gesture. In addition to enhancing the content of the message, the new technology provides information regarding the cognitive states, motivation levels and social dynamics of the students."

AutoTutor is an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) that helps students learn complex technical content in Newtonian physics, computer literacy and critical thinking by holding a conversation in natural language; simulating teaching and motivational strategies of human tutors; modeling students' cognitive states; using its student model to dynamically tailor the interaction to individual students; answering students' questions; identifying and correcting misconceptions; and keeping students engaged with images, animations and simulations. In addition to these capabilities, Affective AutoTutor adds emotion-sensitive capabilities by monitoring facial features, body language and conversational cues; regulating negative states such as frustration and boredom; and synthesizing emotions via the content of its verbal responses, speech intonation and facial expressions of an animated teacher.

D'Mello's study, titled "AutoTutor and Affective AutoTutor: Learning by Talking with Cognitively and Emotionally Intelligent Computers that Talk Back," that details this new technology will be published in special edition of ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems that highlights innovative technology of the last decade.

"Much like a gifted human tutor, AutoTutor and Affective AutoTutor attempt to keep the student balanced between the extremes of boredom and bewilderment by subtly modulating the pace, direction and complexity of the learning task," D'Mello says.

Considerable empirical evidence has shown that one-on-one human tutoring is extremely effective when compared to typical classroom environments, and AutoTutor and Affective AutoTutor closely model the pedagogical styles, dialogue patterns, language and gestures of human tutors. They are also one of the few ITSs that help learning by engaging students in natural language dialogues that closely mirror human-human tutorial dialogues.

Tested on more than 1,000 students, AutoTutor produces learning gains of approximately one letter grade -- gains that have proven to outperform novice human tutors and almost reach the bar of expert human tutors.

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Dark matter core, left behind from wreck between massive clusters of galaxies, defies explanation

Abell 520 is a gigantic merger of galaxy clusters located 2.4 billion light-years away. Dark matter is not visible, although its presence and distribution is found indirectly through its effects. Dark matter can act like a magnifying glass, bending and distorting light from galaxies and clusters behind it. Astronomers can use this effect, called gravitational lensing, to infer the presence of dark matter in massive galaxy clusters.

This technique revealed the dark matter in Abell 520 had collected into a "dark core," containing far fewer galaxies than would be expected if the dark matter and galaxies were anchored together. Most of the galaxies apparently have sailed far away from the collision.

"This result is a puzzle," said astronomer James Jee of the University of California in Davis, lead author of paper about the results available online in The Astrophysical Journal. "Dark matter is not behaving as predicted, and it's not obviously clear what is going on. It is difficult to explain this Hubble observation with the current theories of galaxy formation and dark matter."

Initial detections of dark matter in the cluster, made in 2007, were so unusual that astronomers shrugged them off as unreal, because of poor data. New results from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope confirm that dark matter and galaxies separated in Abell 520.

One way to study the overall properties of dark matter is by analyzing collisions between galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the universe. When galaxy clusters crash, astronomers expect galaxies to tag along with the dark matter, like a dog on a leash. Clouds of hot, X-ray emitting intergalactic gas, however, plow into one another, slow down, and lag behind the impact.

That theory was supported by visible-light and X-ray observations of a colossal collision between two galaxy clusters called the Bullet Cluster. The galactic grouping has become an example of how dark matter should behave.

Studies of Abell 520 showed that dark matter's behavior may not be so simple. Using the original observations, astronomers found the system's core was rich in dark matter and hot gas, but contained no luminous galaxies, which normally would be seen in the same location as the dark matter. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was used to detect the hot gas. Astronomers used the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea to infer the location of dark matter by measuring the gravitationally lensed light from more distant background galaxies.

The astronomers then turned to the Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which can detect subtle distortions in the images of background galaxies and use this information to map dark matter. To astronomers' surprise, the Hubble observations helped confirm the 2007 findings.

"We know of maybe six examples of high-speed galaxy cluster collisions where the dark matter has been mapped," Jee said. "But the Bullet Cluster and Abell 520 are the two that show the clearest evidence of recent mergers, and they are inconsistent with each other. No single theory explains the different behavior of dark matter in those two collisions. We need more examples."

The team proposed numerous explanations for the findings, but each is unsettling for astronomers. In one scenario, which would have staggering implications, some dark matter may be what astronomers call "sticky." Like two snowballs smashing together, normal matter slams together during a collision and slows down. However, dark matter blobs are thought to pass through each other during an encounter without slowing down. This scenario proposes that some dark matter interacts with itself and stays behind during an encounter.

Another possible explanation for the discrepancy is that Abell 520 has resulted from more complicated interaction than the Bullet Cluster encounter. Abell 520 may have formed from a collision between three galaxy clusters, instead of just two colliding systems in the case of the Bullet Cluster.

A third possibility is that the core contained many galaxies, but they were too dim to be seen, even by Hubble. Those galaxies would have to have formed dramatically fewer stars than other normal galaxies. Armed with the Hubble data, the group will try to create a computer simulation to reconstruct the collision and see if it yields some answers to dark matter's weird behavior.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, D.C.

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Pasta-shaped radio waves beamed across Venice

Furthermore, the researchers have demonstrated this in real-life conditions by beaming two twisted radio waves across the waters of Venice.

Their results have been reported on March 2, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics.

As the world continues to adapt in the digital age, the introduction of new mobile smartphones, wireless internet and digital TVs means the number of radio frequency bands available to broadcast information gets smaller and smaller.

"You just have to try sending a text message at midnight on New Year's Eve to realise how congested the bands are," said lead author Dr Fabrizio Tamburini. The researchers, from the University of Padova, Italy, and the Angstrom Laboratory, Sweden, devised a solution to this by manipulating waves so that they can hold more than one channel of information.

A wave can twist about its axis a certain number of times in either a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction, meaning there are several configurations that it can adopt.

"In a three-dimensional perspective, this phase twist looks like a fusillli-pasta-shaped beam. Each of these twisted beams can be independently generated, propagated and detected even in the very same frequency band, behaving as independent communication channels," Tamburini continued.

To demonstrate this, the researchers transmitted two twisted radio waves, in the 2.4 GHz band, over a distance of 442 metres from a lighthouse on San Georgio Island to a satellite dish on a balcony of Palazzo Ducale on the mainland of Venice, where it was able to pick up the two separate channels.

"Within reasonable economic boundaries, one can think about using five orbital angular momentum states, from -5 (counter-clockwise) up to 5 (clockwise), including untwisted waves. In this instance, we can have 11 channels in one frequency band.

"It is possible to use multiplexing, like in digital TV, on each of these to implement even more channels on the same states, which means one could obtain 55 channels in the same frequency band," said Tamburini.

In addition to increasing the quantity of information being passed around our planet, this new discovery could also help lend an insight into objects far out in our galaxy. Black holes, for example, are constantly rotating and as waves pass them, they are forced to twist in line with the black hole.

According to Tamburini, analysing the incoming waves from the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A, could help astronomers obtain crucial information about the rotation of this "million-solar mass monster."

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First evidence of hunting by prehistoric people in what is now Ohio

Dr. Brian Redmond, curator of archaeology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, was lead author on research published in the Feb. 22, 2012 online issue of the journal World Archaeology.

Redmond and researchers analyzed 10 animal bones found in 1998 in the collections of the Firelands Historical Society Museum in Norwalk, Ohio. Found by society member and co-author Matthew Burr, the bones were from a Jefferson's Ground Sloth. This large plant-eating animal became extinct at the end of the Ice Age around 10,000 years ago.

"This research provides the first scientific evidence for hunting or scavenging of Ice Age sloth in North America," said Redmond. "The significant age of the remains makes them the oldest evidence of prehistoric human activity in Ohio, occurring in the Late Pleistocene period."

A series of 41 incisions appear on the animal's left femur. Radiocarbon dating of the femur bone estimates its age to be between 13,435 to 13,738 years old. Microscopic analyses of the cut marks revealed that stone tools made the marks. The pattern and location of the distinct incisions indicate the filleting of leg muscles. No traces of the use of modern, metal cutting tools were found, so the marks are not the result of damage incurred during their unearthing. Instead, the morphology of the marks reveals that they were made by sharp-edged stone flakes or blades.

The "Firelands Ground Sloth," as the specimen is named, is one of only three specimens of Megalonyx jeffersonii known from Ohio. Based on measurements of the femur, tibia and other bones, it is one of the largest individuals of this species on record. It had an estimated body mass of 1,295 kilograms (2,855 pounds).

The sloth bones were first described in a 1915 scientific paper by geologist Oliver Hay. The collection was made known to Hay by Roe Niver, a University of Illinois student who lived in Huron County and died in July 1915. The bones were donated to the Firelands Museum before 1915. The only documentation with the remains indicates they were found in a swamp in Norwich Township. The exact locality where the bones were first discovered is uncertain.

Other co-authors of the research are Dr. H. Gregory McDonald of the National Park Service and Dr. Haskel J. Greenfield of the University of Manitoba.

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Smart appliance shipments to exceed 24 Million units by 2017, but high prices remain a barrier

Like the closely-linked market for home energy management systems (HEMS), the smart appliances market has, so far, failed to take off as many had expected. Many products are still involved in small pilots and have failed to hit retail outlets in any large number. However, shipments will soon begin to pick up and exceed 24 million units by 2017.

With smart meter deployment growing apace, energy costs following a seemingly upward trajectory, and progress made on improving interoperability of all aspects of the smart grid, it is only a matter of time before shipments gather momentum. However, it is likely that it will take a couple of years for ultra-premium price tags to erode and for dynamic pricing structures to become more widely implemented in order to titillate consumer demand.

The number of major appliance manufacturers that have used recent trade shows as launch pads for new products is a sure sign that the market may soon see substantial growth. "LG Electronics, for example, along with fellow South Korean appliance manufacturer, Samsung Electronics, are two of the first companies to have already brought a comprehensive range of smart appliances to market," says Craig Foster, senior analyst, home automation and M2M. "Whirlpool, BSH, Miele, and Electrolux are among the other leading players to have unveiled one or more smart products."

Additionally, the number of households with utility-provided HEMS will increase from an estimated 2.5 million households in 2011 to 36 million households in 2017. Foster says, "In the early stages of the HEMS market, an almost unanimous perception existed that utilities would lead the way in terms of the deployment of these solutions. However, utilities are now widely considered to have acted much slower than many anticipated, allowing many other routes to market to develop."

ABI Research's two reports, "Smart Appliances" and "Utility-Provided Home Energy Management Services," provide six-year forecasts for the smart appliance market and the utility-led HEMS market, respectively.

Visit ABI Research at http://www.abiresearch.com.

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

Smart appliance shipments to exceed 24 Million units by 2017, but high prices remain a barrier

TAG:Smart appliance shipments smart energy home energy management systems ABI Research

Green Hills, Jungo bring connectivity to automotive infotainment

Green Hills Software and Jungo Ltd, have announced a strategic collaboration that focuses on the creation of a comprehensive connectivity, device media and internet management platform for next-generation automotive infotainment systems.

The platform will be based on Green Hills Software's secure operating system, Integrity Multivisor technologies, and Jungo's Automotive Connectivity Middleware. This solution will enable automotive infotainment manufacturers to bring scalable, connectivity-rich products to market rapidly and cost-effectively with high levels of security and reliability.

Jungo's connectivity and media management suite provides infotainment manufacturers with end-to-end support for the widest range of media for the most popular mobile devices, including Apple devices, Android smartphones and tablets, Blackberry devices, Nokia phones and Microsoft Windows Phone smartphones.

Based on Jungo's USB and Bluetooth software modules, and with support for all popular protocols, including Wi-Fi, iPod Out and DLNA, Jungo's Automotive Connectivity Middleware provides vertical consolidation of media sources with a powerful device manager, integrated database and input/output streaming engine. It enables a comprehensive range of in-car activities, including phone management, Internet connectivity, networking, file browsing, media playing, telephony and text messaging.

The integration of Jungo's and Green Hills Software's solutions provides a platform for addressing the rapidly growing security and safety challenges facing the automotive community as consumer-centric features and technologies make their way into the safety-critical realm of the automobile.

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

Green Hills, Jungo bring connectivity to automotive infotainment

TAG:In vehicle infotainment infotainment platform infotainment automotive Internet connectivity security

Telecom operators successfully complete next generation Wi-Fi hotspot trials

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the industry association focused on driving the next generation Wi-Fi experience, has announced that many of the world's largest operators and vendors have successfully participated in trials of Next Generation Hotspots (NGH) that drastically simplify Wi-Fi hotspot access. The WBA expects the first NGH deployments to take place over the next 12 months and will be organizing trials of more advanced technology features in second half of 2012.

Next Generation Hotspots are vastly easier for users to find and use because, like the cellular network, devices can securely automatically connect with no need for users manually entering usernames or passwords. This overcomes the issue of users knowing which hotspots they can access or how to connect. It also allows mobile operators, who increasingly have their own or partner hotspot networks, to 'offload' many more users from their busy mobile broadband networks. The new hotspots feature similar levels of security to the cellular network including end-to-end radio link encryption and SIM authentication.

The aim of the WBA trials was to test the NGH requirements for network discovery and selection, security, automatic authentication in a production environment on, and between, different operators' actual networks using equipment and devices from various vendors. It also aimed to identify and recommend how best to implement automatic authentication and the measures needed to upgrade home networks to NGH.

The trials also made the NGH service requirements, developed by the operator-led WBA, available to vendors who use the 'HotSpot 2.0' device standards from the vendor led Wi-Fi alliance. Together these help to define how to practically turn the latest Wi-Fi technology into the best possible operator hotspot services.

The WBA will continue this effort during 2012, putting in place a new stage of the trials to pursue and test additional features of NGH, bringing to Wi-Fi a cellular like experience to customers.

http://www.wballiance.com.

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

Telecom operators successfully complete next generation Wi-Fi hotspot trials

TAG:Wireless Broadband Alliance Wi Fi hotspot Next Generation Hotspots broadband WBA NGH

Multi-standard transceiver for sensor networks sets record for low power

Imec and Holst Centre announce a 2.3-/2.4-GHz transmitter for wireless sensor applications compliant with 4 wireless standards (IEEE802.15.6/4/4g and Bluetooth Low Energy).

The transmitter has been fabricated in a 90-nm CMOS process, and consumes only 5.4mW from a 1.2 V supply (2.7 nJ/bit) at 0 dBm output. This is 3 to 5 times more power-efficient than the current state-of-the-art Bluetooth-LE solutions. These results have been obtained in collaboration with Panasonic, within imec and Holst Centre's program for ultralow-power wireless communication.

Applications for wireless sensor networks, personal healthcare, remote monitoring, smart building and logistics all require wireless low-power solutions. A common requirement is that they can operate for a reasonable long period on a small battery or harvester source. For such applications, standardization bodies have defined 2.4-GHz wireless standards in the worldwide available ISM band, including IEEE802.15.6 (BAN) for body area networks, IEEE802.15.4 (ZigBee) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). But all recent transmitters that comply to these standards use in the range of 20 to 50 mW, which is still too high for use in autonomous and semi-autonomous sensor nodes.

Imec's latest transmitter saves at least 75% of power consumption by replacing several power-hungry analog blocks with digitally-assisted circuits. The result is a transceiver that is compliant with all 4 of the standards, but that runs on a mere 4.5 mA from a 1.2 V supply (2.7 nJ/bit). The multi-standard transceiver is highly reconfigurable; it has been demonstrated to support the required modulations and data rates from 50 kbps to 2 Mbps. With the SD-DPA for the generation of the time-variant signal envelope, it is also the first published ultralow-power 2.4-GHz-ISM band IEEE802.15.6-compliant transceiver.

This innovative transceiver is presented at the 2012 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco.

http://www.imec.be.

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

Multi-standard transceiver for sensor networks sets record for low power

TAG:Multi standard transceiver wireless sensor networks low power Bluetooth Low Energy BLE Zigbee BAN 802 15 6

LSI, TI, Freescale in 28nm base station battle

BARCELONA – Freescale Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and LSI Corp. are competing head-to-head with new integrated 28 nm base station processors as the Mobile World Congress opens here. All three are attacking the lucrative high end of the infrastructure business.

TI announced its first base station chip to use the ARM Cortex A15 core. Freesacale countered with an SoC using Starcore DSPs it claims beat TI’s C66x cores. LSI rolled its first multi-core PowerPC device with embedded security and Layer 2 switching and said it will license the ARM A15 for use in products starting next year.

Ironically, the big growth in base stations is expected to come from a wide range of small cell base stations still being defined. LSI has yet to release chips for this emerging segment, but Freescale and TI have existing parts that address it.

The moves come at a time when a rising tsunami of smartphones and tablets is flooding wireless carrier networks with mobile data. Carriers are moving in many directions at once to keep up, but some say the pace is not nearly fast enough.

TI announced the TCI6636, the first of a planned family of parts based on a second-generation of its Keystone architecture. The new chip shifts from 40 nm ARM A8 to 28 nm A15 cores.

The chip comes in versions with a total of up to 32 ARM and c66x DSP cores, compared to a max of eight A8 and DSP cores in the prior generation. Low end versions dissipate about 20W, high-end chips have up to 18 Mbytes memory

TI will initially release three members of the family. They range from a part targeting HSPA+ systems for small cells that support up to 64 users to a carrier-grade device supporting 40 MHz LTE-Advanced channels for up to 256 users.

The chips integrate a mix of packet-processing functions as well as Layer 1-3 antenna, Ethernet and serial RapidIO switching. Clusters of the chips can power high-end base stations.

Freescale’s new QorIQ B4860 uses dual-threaded Power e6500 cores with an 128-bit Altivec SIMD unit. The SoC also includes dual-threaded 1.2 GHz SC3900 Starcore DSP cores that execute up to eight instructions per cycle.

The Freescale DSP cores hit 37.46 on the BDTIsimMark 2000 benchmark, outperforming 1.5 GHz versions of the TI c66x that weigh in at 20.03 on the benchmark.

The B4860 supports from 5 to 60 MHz channels, covering GSM and WCDMA to LTE-Advanced networks. It includes accelerators for a handful of Layer 1 and 2 transport, security and MIMO antenna functions.

The chip will sample by June and be in production early next year. Freescale plans to announce soon lower-end versions for so-called metro base stations.

For its part, LSI announced the AXM2500, its first base station part to support integrated security and Gbit and 10Gbit Ethernet switching. Versions of the device cost less than $50 and dissipate less than 10W with all functions turned on.

The AXM2500 uses PowerPC 476FP cores running at greater than a GHz. The chip is about to tape out with sampling expected by June.

“We see it used in Gbit ring aggregation, transport cards in base stations and in line card traffic management for CPU edge routers,” said Tareq Bustami, a product line director in LSI’s networking group.

LSI has licensed the ARM A15 core for use in its next-generation products and ASICs. The company expects to roll PowerPC and A15 SoCs in parallel, Bustami said. He suggested the A15 is a more efficient core but “we have other PowerPC solutions on the road map,” he said.

Other chip vendors are also angling for sockets in base stations. For example, Cavium Networks plans to show at Mobile World Congress (MWC) versions of its Octeon Fusion family running LTE base station functions at full bandwidth.

For more on MWC news, see our coverage of the event online.
LSI, TI, Freescale in 28nm base station battle

TAG:Mobile World Congress Base Stations Wireless Networks Cellular Networks LSI TI Freescale Mobile SoCs Wireless LTE ARM PowerPC Cores Infrastructure C66x Starcore DSPs A15 MWC

Blue Pearl is offering free hands-on workshops…

A couple of weeks ago the folks from Blue Pearl announced that the latest generation of their EDA tools boast a plethora of SystemVerilog and FPGA enhancements (Click Here to see that announcement).

Well, I just heard that they are offering free hands-on workshops at their facility in Santa Clara, California. Currently there are three dates: February 21, March 15, and April 19, but I wouldn’t be surprised if more were offered later.

The official notification was as follows:

Hello Designers, we are excited to announce Release 6.0 of Blue Pearl Software Suite which includes comprehensive RTL analysis, clock-domain crossing (CDC) checks, and automatic SDC generation for SoC designs. Blue Pearl Software Suite is easy to use for any level of ASIC/FPGA designers.

Our Software Suite which runs on Windows and Linux, offers multi- language (Verilog, SystemVerilog and VHDL) support, and supports major synthesis flows. Designers can mix and match hardware languages in the same design with language checking that matches downstream tools. Its visualization and validation technology gives immediate feedback for validating its automatically generated timing constraints.

We would like to invite you to our SoC Design Workshop. At our Workshop, we will share information about how our tools specifically address the needs of designers and improve productivity and design quality.

Wondering why you need to attend this workshop? We understand the challenges of designing SOCs that run at >150MHz, with more than 10 clocks. You should attend this workshop if you are interested in learning about at least one of the following:

• How to reduce your design iterations and close timing faster
• How to improve performance of your designs
• How to apply advanced techniques to close timing
• How to reduce the pain points in today’s methodologies using the latest innovations in EDA
• How to address these hard to find clock domain crossing issues
• How to clean your RTL code

Click Here to register and join us at our Workshop.

Click Here to learn more about the Blue Pearl Software Suite. .

Join us at DV Con Expo (Feb 28-29) to participate in a draw for an Apple TV.

---

If you found this article to be of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).

Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).
Blue Pearl is offering free hands-on workshops…

TAG:Blue Pearl Workshop

LDRA Certification Services assures IEC 61508 certification for safety-critical industrial products

Embedded World, Nürnberg - LDRA has created a certification services division that helps companies achieve compliance with IEC 61508 - Industrial Safety certification. Led by industry certification experts, LDRA Certification Services (LCS) assists engineering teams in creating, automating and following a process through to regulatory approval. The synergistic integration of the LDRA tools and the LCS expert IEC 61508 services make up the LCS solution.

IEC 61508 governs a broad range of electric, electronic, and programmable electronic (E/E/PE) safety equipment, whether for controlling life-support systems in tough environments like submarines, or monitoring equipment performance or noxious gas levels in industrial plants. While the standard has always required risk assessment and safety analysis, the 2010 revision to IEC 61508 now requires bidirectional traceability, greatly increasing the regulatory burden on project managers. While LDRA’s tool suite tracks and automates the links between requirements, code, and tests, the mandate extends beyond software and represents a new discipline for many development teams. Missteps in interpreting the standard can result in compliance failure, leading to cost overruns and product delays.

The strength of the LCS solution is reinforced by a team of industry experts with experience in hundreds of certifications. Leading the LCS team is Todd R. White, a systems and equipment FAA Designated Engineering Representative (DER) with Level A authority on all aircraft systems and equipment for both software and airborne electronic hardware according to DO-254. White, whose expertise extends into industrial electronic systems and standards, including IEC 61508, is flanked by Dr. Holly Hildreth, a safety engineer with expertise in a wide range of international standards. Dr. Hildreth provides certification expertise in IEC 61508 and related safety disciplines, including complete safety analysis from system-level Preliminary Hazard List, Preliminary Hazard Analysis and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) to software FTA/Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). These analyses of safety requirements, design, code and test are then flowed back up into system-level analysis. The LCS team’s collective expertise in all phases of software, hardware and system development, including the pending IEC 61508 TÜV certification, assures IEC 61508 certification applicants predictable and cost-effective success.

“When it comes to high-quality, within budget and on schedule system development, many believe you can only achieve two of these three essential components,” noted Ian Hennell, LDRA Operations Director. “LDRA absolutely believes all three are obtainable and has created the LCS division to ensure that companies have the industry’s most reliable experts and best-of-breed tools to help attain certification as easily as possible.”

LCS manages the software component of its certification services using its certification technology integrated within the LDRA tool suite. From requirements traceability to analysis, unit testing and validation, the LDRA tool suite delivers a broad range of qualifiable verification capabilities that support IEC 61508 certification objectives at all SIL levels.

The LDRA tool suite manages and tracks all artifacts to achieve complete bidirectional traceability from requirements to model, code, test and verification, extending all the way down to object code and on-target testing. An IEC 61508-specific template streamlines industrial safety regulatory processes, outlining necessary certification processes and requirements. Modules within the LDRA tool suite manage and graphically depict the complex relationships between objectives, requirements, code and tests, automatically documenting all aspects of analysis, code verification and validation.

The full capabilities of the LDRA IEC 61508 certifiable support package will be demonstrated at Embedded World in Nürnberg, Germany from February 28 to March 1 in Hall 4. Visit booth 410 to see how a software project can achieve certifiable readiness via lifecycle traceability from requirements creation through development and validation for the certification standard needed.
LDRA Certification Services assures IEC 61508 certification for safety-critical industrial products

TAG:LDRA Certification Services IEC 61508

All the latest from Embedded World in Nuremberg

This year's Embedded World has grown with around 880 exhibitors from 35 countries. On this page we provide links to the latest stories from the event.

Freescale initiative supports board designers

FRAM helps TI cut power for Wolverine MSP430 platform

Silicon Labs takes Cortex-M3 route for 32-bit MCUs




All the latest from Embedded World in Nuremberg

TAG:All the latest from Embedded World in Nuremberg

In space and on Earth, why build it, when a robot can build it for you?

That's just one thing researchers in Hod Lipson's Creative Machines Lab envision with their latest robot prototype. It can autonomously traverse and manipulate a 3-D truss structure, using specially designed gears and joints to assemble and disassemble the structure as it climbs. Lipson is an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and of computing and information science at Cornell University.

The robot's design is detailed in a paper accepted by IEEE Robotics and Automation, to appear soon online and in print. Its co-authors include former visiting scientist Franz Nigl, former visiting Ph.D. student Shuguang Li, and undergraduate Jeremy Blum.

"What gets me most excited is this idea of safety," said Blum, a student researcher working on the project. Having a robot able to climb and reconfigure building structures, even just to deliver materials, would be a step toward making construction zones safer for humans, he said.

The researchers also point to space-exploration applications. Instead of sending astronauts out on a dangerous spacewalk at the International Space Station, a robot could be deployed to repair a damaged truss.

The robot is equipped with an onboard power system, as well as reflectivity sensors so it can identify where it is on the structure. This allows it to maneuver accurately without explicit commands, Blum added.

Lipson said he envisions transforming the built environment with the help of these kinds of technologies. Instead of making buildings out of concrete or other non-recyclable materials, components designed specifically for robots could be used to build or reconfigure structures more efficiently -- for example, after an earthquake, or if an outdated building needed to be torn down in favor of something better.

"Right now, we are very bad at recycling construction materials," Lipson said. "We are exploring a smarter way to allow the assembly, disassembly and reconfiguration of structures."

The project is part of a National Science Foundation Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation grant jointly awarded to Lipson at Cornell, Daniela Rus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mark Yim of the University of Pennsylvania, and Eric Klavins of the University of Washington.

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In space and on Earth, why build it, when a robot can build it for you?

TAG:Civil Engineering Robotics Research Engineering Robotics Artificial Intelligence Computer Science

Report details Apple's patent holdings

SAN FRANCISCO—Apple Inc. has roughly 15,500 patents, about 8.500 of which are U.S. patents, according to a new report detailing the tech giant's patent portfolio.

Apple is named as the assignee of 84 percent of its patents, according to the report, which was published by UBM TechInsights. UBM TechInsights is owned by the same parent company that owns EE Times, UBM plc.

The assignee field is left blank in about 10 percent of Apple's patents, although most appear to be Apple-generated, according to the report. Third-party acquisitions account for just over 5 percent of Apple's patents, while individual investors account for less than 0.5 percent, the report found.

Among Apple's top 25 inventors is co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, according to the report.

"What is interesting to note about the acquisitions is the understanding it provides into the direction Apple is going with the removal of hard drives from all of its systems," said Gordon Holstead, a senior business analyst at UBM TechInsights, in a statement. "This change is already evident in current generations of Apple's iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air series.Apple will probably become the first company to move completely to solid-state solutions."

The report delves into litigation activities that involve Apple with a total of 41 plaintiff cases and 242 defendant cases, UBM TechInsights said. Litigation activities involving Apple have steadily increased since 2008, with 2011 being a record year, the firm said.

The report covers standards—a critical area in trying to understand the patent landscape, UBM TechInsights said. "We identify all patents that Apple has volunteered to be part of the standards, as well as how many times a particular patent has been used in a certain standard" said Holstead. "While none of these patents are used in litigation, it is possible that a follow-up patent could find itself in use in future cases."

The report can be obtained through UBM TechInsights' website.

Report details Apple's patent holdings

TAG:Apple Patents UBM TechInsights

What makes a robot fish attractive? Robot fish moves to the head of the school

Through a series of experiments, researchers from Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) aimed to increase understanding of collective animal behavior, including learning how robots might someday steer fish away from environmental disasters. Nature is a growing source of inspiration for engineers, and the researchers were intrigued to find that their biomimetic robotic fish could not only infiltrate and be accepted by the swimmers, but actually assume a leadership role.

In a paper published online in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Stefano Marras, at the time a postdoctoral fellow in mechanical engineering at NYU-Poly and currently a researcher at Italy's Institute for the Marine and Coastal Environment-National Research Council, and Maurizio Porfiri, NYU-Poly associate professor of mechanical engineering, found conditions that induced golden shiners to follow in the wake of the biomimetic robot fish, taking advantage of the energy savings generated by the robot.

The researchers designed their bio-inspired robotic fish to mimic the tail propulsion of a swimming fish, and conducted experiments at varying tail beat frequencies and flow speeds. In nature, fish positioned at the front of a school beat their tails with greater frequency, creating a wake in which their followers gather. The followers display a notably slower frequency of tail movement, leading researchers to believe that the followers are enjoying a hydrodynamic advantage from the leaders' efforts.

In an attempt to create a robotic leader, Marras and Porfiri placed their robot in a water tunnel with a golden shiner school. First, they allowed the robot to remain still, and unsurprisingly, the "dummy" fish attracted little attention. When the robot simulated the familiar tail movement of a leader fish, however, members of the school assumed the behavior patterns they exhibit in the wild, slowing their tails and following the robotic leader.

"These experiments may open up new channels for us to explore the possibilities for robotic interactions with live animals -- an area that is largely untapped," explained Porfiri. "By looking to nature to guide our design, and creating robots that tap into animals' natural cues, we may be able to influence collective animal behavior to aid environmental conservation and disaster recovery efforts."

The researchers posit that robotic leaders could help lead fish and other wildlife that behave collectively -- including birds -- away from toxic situations such as oil or chemical spills or human-made dangers such as dams. Other experimenters have found success in prompting wildlife to move using non-living attractants, but the researchers believe this is the first time that anyone has used biomimetics to such effect.

Marras and Porfiri conducted their experiments with support from the National Science Foundation.

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What makes a robot fish attractive? Robot fish moves to the head of the school

TAG:Fish Fisheries Wild Animals Environmental Issues Sustainability Environmental Policy

MWC Talk: Nokia and HTC CEOs discuss what it take to transform the mobile experience

BARCELONA -- Transforming the mobile experience.

That's what many of the Mobile World Congress keynotes are honing in this year. And, the panel discussion on Wednesday took the topic in the direction of how rapidly changing market dynamics are influencing the entire ecosystem, hardware design, software and app integration and the end-user integrated lifestyle.

Restating Nokia's 2011 MWC message about becoming a viable third player in what has been clearly become an Apple-Android race, chief executive officer and president Stephen Elop said the company's partnership with Microsoft and the recent arrival of Windows-based mobile phones in market now offer a real, alternative platform.

"One year ago, we shared our vision. We recognized that the industry had shifted. It has become a battle of ecosystems, and ecosystems will transform the mobile experience," Elop said. "Nokia is bringing a unique point of view to the mobile industry."

The company, which has been struggling financially these last several quarters as it's tried to bring back the shine it once had as a market leader, is banking on its Lumia line to help re-establish credibility. The Lumia 610, a Windows phone aimed at hyper-social young people, was unveiled this week at the Barcelona industry event, and comes on the heels of the Lumia 900, which came out last month in U.S.

When asked by panel moderator Rajeev Chand, managing director and head of research, Rutberg & Co. about Lumia's sales targets and Nokia's potential to grab share from competitors, Elop said the company's main objective was to go directly after Google's Android market and build a user base, country by country, outside the dominant U.S. smartphone market.

"We're starting from a small base. We're just making our first sales... and there's a very large untapped market of people who haven't bought smartphones yet," Elop said. "We're changing the clock speed of Nokia. That's what we're focused on. With our Windows phones, we want to make sure people see a consistent pattern of breath-taking devices."

But, while hardware has to look sleek enough to win consumer favor, it's not just the device that will give any one mobile handset maker an edge anymore. How well software and apps are designed and integrated will catch the eye of consumers who "want it all," said Peter Chou, chief executive officer at HTC.

"Five years ago, before smartphones came out, all of the focus was on hardware and which processors were being used. Remember the first time a camera was integrated into phone? And the race to see who had the thinner phone?" said Chou. "Then the discussion went to OS and who has the coolest app, and two years ago it moved to mobile services. Today, consumers want all of this. We have the responsibility to nurture these ecosystems in a way that all the users can enjoy their mobile experience."

"When you talk about integration, you're talking about hardware, OS, services, and apps. Ultimately, you're talking about design," he continued. "How do you get this whole thing to work?"

For HTC, which announced its Android-based One series this week, an element of integration involves having all your music in one go-to place, something Chou says the Sense 4 phone does well.

It goes much further than that, though. Location-based pinning and sharing is something both Nokia and foursquare talked about as a trend that will only grow as users look to converge all aspects of their lives.

Foursquare, which build tools so users can keep up with friend and discover what’s going on around them, has a community of 15 million people worldwide, and more than 1.5 billion total check-ins. Eventually, what foursquare -- and others are working towards -- is using technology and the data it generates "to make people passively aware of what's going on around them without being on their phones all day," said Dennis Crowley, foursquare' CEO.

For full coverage of the Mobile World Congress, see our online page on the event.
MWC Talk: Nokia and HTC CEOs discuss what it take to transform the mobile experience

TAG:Mobile World Congress Windows Android foursquare Nokia HTC MWC

MWC Talk: Build mobile ecosystems,design great products and integrate consumer lifestyles

BARCELONA -- Transforming the mobile experience.

That's what many of the Mobile World Congress keynotes are honing in this year. And, the panel discussion on Wednesday (Feb. 29th) took the topic in the direction of how rapidly changing market dynamics are influencing the entire ecosystem, hardware design, software and app integration and the end-user integrated lifestyle.

Restating Nokia's 2011 MWC message about becoming a viable third player in what has been clearly become an Apple-Android race, chief executive officer and president Stephen Elop said the company's partnership with Microsoft and the recent arrival of Windows-based mobile phones in market now offer a real, alternative platform.

"One year ago, we shared our vision. We recognized that the industry had shifted. It has become a battle of ecosystems, and ecosystems will transform the mobile experience," Elop said. "Nokia is bringing a unique point of view to the mobile industry."

The company, which has been struggling financially these last several quarters as it's tried to bring back the shine it once had as a market leader, is banking on its Lumia line to help re-establish credibility. The Lumia 610, a Windows phone aimed at hyper-social young people, was unveiled this week at the Barcelona industry event, and comes on the heels of the Lumia 900, which came out last month in U.S.

When asked by panel moderator Rajeev Chand, managing director and head of research, Rutberg & Co. about Lumia's sales targets and Nokia's potential to grab share from competitors, Elop said the company's main objective was to go directly after Google's Android market and build a user base, country by country, outside the dominant U.S. smartphone market.

"We're starting from a small base. We're just making our first sales... and there's a very large untapped market of people who haven't bought smartphones yet," Elop said. "We're changing the clock speed of Nokia. That's what we're focused on. With our Windows phones, we want to make sure people see a consistent pattern of breath-taking devices."

But, while hardware has to look sleek enough to win consumer favor, it's not just the device that will give any one mobile handset maker an edge anymore. How well software and apps are designed and integrated will catch the eye of consumers who "want it all," said Peter Chou, chief executive officer at HTC.

"Five years ago, before smartphones came out, all of the focus was on hardware and which processors were being used. Remember the first time a camera was integrated into phone? And the race to see who had the thinner phone?" said Chou. "Then the discussion went to OS and who has the coolest app, and two years ago it moved to mobile services. Today, consumers want all of this. We have the responsibility to nurture these ecosystems in a way that all the users can enjoy their mobile experience."

"When you talk about integration, you're talking about hardware, OS, services, and apps. Ultimately, you're talking about design," he continued. "How do you get this whole thing to work?"

For HTC, which announced its One series this week, an element of integration involves having all your music in one go-to place, something Chou says the Sense 4 phone does well.

It goes much further than that, though. Location-based pinning and sharing is something both Nokia and foursquare talked about as a trend that will only grow as users look to converge all aspects of their lives.

Foursquare, which build tools so users can keep up with friend and discover what’s going on around them, has a community of 15 million people worldwide, and more than 1.5 billion total check-ins. Eventually, what foursquare -- and others are working towards -- is using technology and the data it generates "to make people passively aware of what's going on around them without being on their phones all day," said Dennis Crowley, foursquare' CEO.

For full coverage of the Mobile World Congress, see our online page on the event.
MWC Talk: Build mobile ecosystems,design great products and integrate consumer lifestyles

TAG:Mobile World Congress Nokia HTC

How marijuana impairs memory

The findings offer important new insight into the brain and raise the possibility that marijuana's benefits for the treatment of pain, seizures and other ailments might some day be attained without hurting memory, the researchers say.

With these experiments in mice, "we have found that the starting point for this phenomenon -- the effect of marijuana on working memory -- is the astroglial cells," said Giovanni Marsicano of INSERM in France.

"This is the first direct evidence that astrocytes modulate working memory," added Xia Zhang of the University of Ottawa in Canada.

The new findings aren't the first to suggest astroglia had been given short shrift. Astroglial cells (also known as astrocytes) have been viewed as cells that support, protect and feed neurons for the last 100 to 150 years, Marsicano explained. Over the last decade, evidence has accumulated that these cells play a more active role in forging the connections from one neuron to another.

The researchers didn't set out to discover how marijuana causes its cognitive side effects. Rather, they wanted to learn why receptors that respond to both THC and signals naturally produced in the brain are found on astroglial cells. These cannabinoid type-1 (CB1R) receptors are very abundant in the brain, primarily on neurons of various types.

Zhang and Marsicano now show that mice lacking CB1Rs only on astroglial cells of the brain are protected from the impairments to spatial working memory that usually follow a dose of THC. In contrast, animals lacking CB1Rs in neurons still suffer the usual lapses. Given that different cell types express different variants of CB1Rs, there might be a way to therapeutically activate the receptors on neurons while leaving the astroglial cells out, Marsicano said.

"The study shows that one of the most common effects of cannabinoid intoxication is due to activation of astroglial CB1Rs," the researchers wrote.

The findings further suggest that astrocytes might be playing unexpected roles in other forms of memory in addition to spatial working memory, Zhang said.

The researchers hope to explore the activities of endogenous endocannabinoids, which naturally trigger CB1Rs, on astroglial and other cells. The endocannabinoid system is involved in appetite, pain, mood, memory and many other functions. "Just about any physiological function you can think of in the body, it's likely at some point endocannabinoids are involved," Marsicano said.

And that means an understanding of how those natural signaling molecules act on astroglial and other cells could have a real impact. For instance, Zhang said, "we may find a way to deal with working memory problems in Alzheimer's."

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How marijuana impairs memory

TAG:Nervous System Stem Cells Controlled Substances Memory Marijuana Dementia

Mentor achieves first $1 billion sales year

SAN FRANCISCO—As expected, EDA vendor Mentor Graphics Corp. reported Tuesday (Feb. 28) that its annual sales eclipsed $1 billion for the first time ever, as the company reported sales and earnings that beat analysts' expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Walden Rhines, Mentor's chairman and CEO, told analysts in a conference call following the quarterly report that Mentor's growth in the fiscal year was driven by customers' adoption of 28- and 20-nm technology, driving growth in verification. He also cited Mentor's success in diversifying its business outside of its core EDA space.

Mentor (Wilsonville, Ore.) reported sales of $320.4 million for the quarter ended Jan. 31, up 28 percent from the previous quarter and up 4 percent from the year-ago quarter. The company reported a net income in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) of $57.8 million, up 140 percent from the previous quarter and up 14 percent compared to the year ago quarter.

On a non-GAAP, excluding charges, Mentor reported a net income of $64.7 million, or 58 cents per share, compared to a non-GAAP net income of $54.2 million, or 45 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Mentor's quarterly results exceeded consensus analysts' expectations, which called for sales of $316.4 million and non-GAAP earnings of 50 cents per share, according to Yahoo Finance.

For the full year, Mentor reported sales of $1.014 billion, up 11 percent from the previous fiscal year. The company reported a GAAP net income for the year of $83.9 million, up 193 percent from the previous year.

Mentor said it expects growth to continue in the current year, the company's fiscal 2013. Mentor expects sales for the current quarter to decline to about $255 million, with GAAP earnings per share of about 19 cents. For fiscal 2013, Mentor said it expects sales to grow to about $1.1 billion, with GAAP earnings per share of about $1.13.

Rhines said growth of Mentor's core EDA business, as well as growth in adjacent areas such as embedded software, automotive and aerospace, coupled with new applications in system design such as thermal analysis "all point to continuing momentum in the future."

Mentor achieves first $1 billion sales year

TAG:Mentor Graphics EDA Billion

Commentary:Why it’s wrong for Intel and AMD to abandon WSTS

NEW YORK – The news that Intel is pulling out of the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) – after AMD took the same powder last year – should set off alarms for everyone in the industry.

Clearly, this action tends to cast doubt on the validity of all future data published by WSTS. That sort of uncertainty has a huge ripple effect. It will impact chip companies doing planning and forecasting, market research analysts who depend on WSTS numbers — interpret them and predict market trends, and broad-spectrum media outlets like EE Times.

But beyond these obvious implications, Intel deserves censure for its wrongheaded, short-sighted and arrogant desertion of WSTS – for two reasons: “disclosure” and “bargaining power.”

In my opinion, any industry, whether it’s automobiles, semiconductor or veeblefetzers, will begin — once it stops collecting data within the industry — to lose a significant measure of its economic and political power in the greater world. Without a credible trade association backed up credible industry data, the industry has no legitimate representation beyond its own membership, this compromising its bargaining power.

OK. You may say that this is just about WSTS; it’s not like Intel is leaving Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). True. And yet, the WSTS activities do go hand in hand with SIA’s mission. In fact, we are also hearing some disturbing stories about a few companies beginning to leave SIA. (But that’s for another story)

Rank-and-file members of an industry that does not publish and distribute credible data that demonstrate its size, sales and social significance — the semiconductor industry, for example — place themselves at the mercy of the largest, loudest and most powerful companies within the industry. This usually means that only the interests of the largest, loudest and most powerful companies end up being served.

Disclosure of data among members is the basic, first step in building an industry association. Once shared, these vital statistics allow members to see where the industry is going. They help members take the necessary actions. That often forestalls problems and assures a higher level of mutual prosperity.

Without trusted data, every company is left to its own devices, to fend for itself. Of course, if your company is already the largest and the richest, you probably don’t care about that.

I can’t help recall the time of trade disputes – in the 1980’s and early 1990’s – specifically the Japan-U.S. semiconductor negotiations.

As EE Times’ Washington correspondent George Leopold called it, this was “the defining moment” for Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in the United States. Without all the monthly book-to-bill ratios and other stats put together by WSTS, the SIA had virtually no ammunition for the U.S. government’s negotiations with Japan.

No credible industry data and no credible industry representation equal no bargaining power.

The enemy for the U.S. semiconductor then was Japan. As Leopold said then, a trade association always needs a good enemy to thrive, and right now no “good enemy” is evident. But who’s to say that the U.S. industry will never see another enemy in the future?

Of course, in an age of “globalization,” and in an era when almost everyone is either “fab-lite” or no longer interested in “manufacturing,” the industry association seems increasingly to be a thing of the past.

Really?

I beg to differ. We are standing at a crossroads for U.S.-based companies and American policymakers, where the way lies open to restore a measure of our historic manufacturing growth. Possibly, the chip industry isn’t interested in joining such a revival. Perhaps, as I’ve heard suggested, it’s already too late for the semiconductor industry to come back.

In the face of such pessimism, however, I offer this assurance. With the first sight, on the horizon of any viable new nano-technologies, the chip industry — aided by the U.S. government and academia — is going to seize the opportunity. When that golden goose hatches, this industry will need, more than ever, a good effective trade association — rather than one big, rich, winner-take-all company — to negotiate the resulting deals and spread the wealth.
Commentary:Why it’s wrong for Intel and AMD to abandon WSTS

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First evidence of hunting by prehistoric Ohioans (U.S.)

Dr. Brian Redmond, curator of archaeology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, was lead author on research published in the Feb. 22, 2012 online issue of the journal World Archaeology.

Redmond and researchers analyzed 10 animal bones found in 1998 in the collections of the Firelands Historical Society Museum in Norwalk, Ohio. Found by society member and co-author Matthew Burr, the bones were from a Jefferson's Ground Sloth. This large plant-eating animal became extinct at the end of the Ice Age around 10,000 years ago.

"This research provides the first scientific evidence for hunting or scavenging of Ice Age sloth in North America," said Redmond. "The significant age of the remains makes them the oldest evidence of prehistoric human activity in Ohio, occurring in the Late Pleistocene period."

A series of 41 incisions appear on the animal's left femur. Radiocarbon dating of the femur bone estimates its age to be between 13,435 to 13,738 years old. Microscopic analyses of the cut marks revealed that stone tools made the marks. The pattern and location of the distinct incisions indicate the filleting of leg muscles. No traces of the use of modern, metal cutting tools were found, so the marks are not the result of damage incurred during their unearthing. Instead, the morphology of the marks reveals that they were made by sharp-edged stone flakes or blades.

The "Firelands Ground Sloth," as the specimen is named, is one of only three specimens of Megalonyx jeffersonii known from Ohio. Based on measurements of the femur, tibia and other bones, it is one of the largest individuals of this species on record. It had an estimated body mass of 1,295 kilograms (2,855 pounds).

The sloth bones were first described in a 1915 scientific paper by geologist Oliver Hay. The collection was made known to Hay by Roe Niver, a University of Illinois student who lived in Huron County and died in July 1915. The bones were donated to the Firelands Museum before 1915. The only documentation with the remains indicates they were found in a swamp in Norwich Township. The exact locality where the bones were first discovered is uncertain.

Other co-authors of the research are Dr. H. Gregory McDonald of the National Park Service and Dr. Haskel J. Greenfield of the University of Manitoba.

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Scientists develop biological computer to encrypt and decipher images

The study was published in a recent online-before-print edition of the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Instead of using traditional computer hardware, a group led by Professor Ehud Keinan of Scripps Research and the Technion created a computing system using bio-molecules. When suitable software was applied to the biological computer, it could decrypt, separately, fluorescent images of The Scripps Research Institute and Technion logos.

A Union Between Biology and Computer Science

In explaining the work's union of the often-disparate fields of biology and computer science, Keinan notes that a computer is, by definition, a machine made of four components -- hardware, software, input, and output. Traditional computers have always been electronic, machines in which both input and output are electronic signals. The hardware is a complex composition of metallic and plastic components, wires, and transistors, and the software is a sequence of instructions given to the machine in the form of electronic signals.

"In contrast to electronic computers, there are computing machines in which all four components are nothing but molecules," Keinan said. "For example, all biological systems and even entire living organisms are such computers. Every one of us is a biomolecular computer, a machine in which all four components are molecules that 'talk' to one another logically."

The hardware and software in these devices, Keinan notes, are complex biological molecules that activate one another to carry out some predetermined chemical work. The input is a molecule that undergoes specific, predetermined changes, following a specific set of rules (software), and the output of this chemical computation process is another well-defined molecule.

"Building" a Biological Computer

When asked what a biological computer looks like, Keinan laughs.

"Well," he said, "it's not exactly photogenic." This computer is "built" by combining chemical components into a solution in a tube. Various small DNA molecules are mixed in solution with selected DNA enzymes and ATP. The latter is used as the energy source of the device.

"It's a clear solution -- you don't really see anything," Keinan said. "The molecules start interacting upon one another, and we step back and watch what happens." And by tinkering with the type of DNA and enzymes in the mix, scientists can fine-tune the process to a desired result.

"Our biological computing device is based on the 75-year-old design by the English mathematician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist Alan Turing," Keinan said. "He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation, and he played a significant role in the creation of the modern computer. Turing showed convincingly that using this model you can do all the calculations in the world. The input of the Turing machine is a long tape containing a series of symbols and letters, which is reminiscent of a DNA string. A reading head runs from one letter to another, and on each station it does four actions: 1) reading the letter; 2) replacing that letter with another letter; 3) changing its internal state; and 4) moving to next position. A table of instructions, known as the transitional rules, or software, dictates these actions. Our device is based on the model of a finite state automaton, which is a simplified version of the Turing machine. "

Unique Biological Properties

Now that he has shown the viability of a biological computer, does Keinan hope that this model will compete with its electronic counterpart?

"The ever-increasing interest in biomolecular computing devices has not arisen from the hope that such machines could ever compete with electronic computers, which offer greater speed, fidelity, and power in traditional computing tasks," Keinan said. "The main advantages of biomolecular computing devices over electronic computers have to do with other properties."

As shown in this work, he continues, a wealth of information can be stored and encrypted in DNA molecules. Although each computing step is slower than the flow of electrons in an electronic computer, the fact that trillions of such chemical steps are done in parallel makes the entire computing process fast. "Considering the fact that current microarray technology allows for printing millions of pixels on a single chip, the numbers of possible images that can be encrypted on such chips is astronomically large," he said.

"Also, as shown in our previous work and other projects carried out in our lab, these devices can interact directly with biological systems and even with living organisms," Keinan explained. "No interface is required since all components of molecular computers, including hardware, software, input, and output, are molecules that interact in solution along a cascade of programmable chemical events." He adds that because of DNA's ability to store information, major computer companies have been extremely interested in the development of DNA-based computing systems.

The first author of the study, "A Molecular Cryptosystem for Images by DNA Computing," is graduate student Sivan Shoshani of Technion. In addition to Keinan and Shoshani, authors include postdoctoral fellow Ron Piran of Scripps Research and Yoav Arava of the Technion.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Israel-US Binational Science Foundation, and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, as well as graduate fellowships from the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Foundation, the Fine Foundation, the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, and the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology.

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Unusual 'collapsing' iron superconductor sets record for its class

Iron-based superconductors, which were discovered only about four years ago, are a hot research topic, in part because they are more amenable to commercial applications than copper-based superconductors, which are more difficult to make and are frequently brittle. Of the four broad classes of iron-based superconductors, the 1:2:2 class -- so named because their crystals are built around a hub of one atom of calcium, two of iron and two of arsenic -- is particularly promising because these superconductors' properties can be custom-tailored by substituting other atoms for these basic elements.

Magnets made with low-temperature superconductors have already found use in hospital MRI machines, but less expensive MRI machines and other applications, such as superconducting cables for resistance-free power transmission over long distances, become closer to reality the more choices manufacturers have among superconductors.

Working at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) and the University of Maryland, the team found that a particular type of 1:2:2 superconductor possesses some unexpected properties. Of perhaps greatest value to manufacturers is that its threshold temperature of superconductivity is 47 degrees Kelvin, the highest yet for the 1:2:2 class, whose previous record was 38K.

But the crystal also has a highly curious property: It can superconduct at this record temperature when a smaller atom is substituted for the crystal's original calcium in some of its hubs, and when this substitution is performed, the overall crystal actually shrinks by about 10 percent, a dramatic size change. "It's almost like what would happen if you cut off a few inches from the bottom of your chair's legs," says the NCNR's Jeff Lynn. "The crystal just collapses. The change is quite visible in neutron scans."

This effect is likely one that manufacturers will want to avoid. But Lynn says the group's research has determined how to make the substitution while eluding the collapsed state altogether, so that as it is cooled, the potential mechanical instabilities associated with the collapse are sidestepped. "This understanding should enable manufacturers to use the superconductor in electronic devices," he says.

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Report: Taiwan seeks merger with restructured Elpida

SAN FRANCISCO—Taiwan's government said it would continue to push for Taiwanese DRAM makers to consolidate with Japan's Elpida Memory Inc. if the firm is restructured after filing for bankruptcy, according to an Associated Press report.

The report quoted sources at Taiwan's Economics Ministry saying that Micron Technology Inc. is expected to be a key part in any possible consolidation plan involving Elpida. Micron has reportedly been in talks for several months with Elpida, which filed for bankruptcy protection Monday.



Report: Taiwan seeks merger with restructured Elpida

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