IBM researchers advance in chip-making

IBM researchers plan to describe an advance in chip-making that could pave the way for new generations of superchips. The development, which comes from materials research in the design of advanced lenses and related technologies, will make it possible to create semiconductors with wires thinner than 30 nanometers, one-third the width in today's industry-standard chips.

The New York Times reports (20 February) that the advance potentially clears one of the biggest hurdles facing the progress of Moore's Law, the observation of Gordon E. Moore, a co-founder of the Intel Corporation, that the density of chips doubles roughly every two years. Mr. Moore made the observation about chip-making technology in 1965, and most semiconductor engineers now believe that the doubling rate will continue through at least the middle of the next decade.

According to the newspaper, currently, the densest computer memory chips store 4 billion bits of information; the extension of Moore's Law might make possible a generation storing 64 billion bits by 2013. Such a chip could store roughly 2,000 songs based on today's storage standards.

The NYT says that the industry now uses advanced laser light sources to photo-etch wire lines that are finer than the wavelength of light itself. This is done by generating interference patterns that allow subwavelength resolution. But there had been a general consensus in the industry that this technology would fail below 40 nanometers, requiring a shift to X-ray light sources or other printing technologies.

A group of IBM researchers who collaborated with a team from JSR Micro, an advanced materials company, will present papers describing the advances at an industry technical conference on photolithography beginning Monday.

{mospagebreaktitle=Sony PS3 launch could be delayed}Sony PS3 launch could be delayed

Sony's launch of its next-generation PlayStation 3 video game console could be delayed if industry specifications for some of its technology are not finalised soon, although it is still aiming for a spring rollout.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (20 February) that the launch of PlayStation 3 (PS3) has been the subject of heavy speculation in the industry as expectations are high for the powerful machine, which will feature cutting-edge technology in its DVD player, processors and graphics.

PS3 will be competing with Microsoft's Xbox 360, which went on sale last November, and Nintendo's Revolution, which is expected later this year.

The Reuters report says that Sony has been promising a spring launch but has been deliberately vague about exactly when that would be. Analysts have said it could mean anytime between March and the end of Japan's rainy season in June.

Sony's shares fell as much as 4.4 percent on Monday after Merrill Lynch said in a research note last week that the PS3's launch might be delayed by six to 12 months and the cost of production could initially approach US$900 per unit.

According to to Reuters, manufacturers typically sell new game consoles at a loss initially to gain market share so they can later make money by selling software -- a US$25 billion global market.

Sony currently has about 70 percent of the global market for game consoles, but some analysts have said it could lose as much as 20 percentage points to Microsoft, which is making an aggressive push to increase its 15 percent share.

Nintendo, which also has a 15 percent market share, is taking a different strategy as it aims to increase the number of game players with a unique console and original games.

Reuters says that having led the worldwide console gaming market for the last decade, Sony is counting on the new machine to dominate in all aspects of networked home entertainment -- games, movies, music and more.

{mospagebreaktitle=UK research into 'pervasive computing zones'}UK research into 'pervasive computing zones'

In the UK., technology firms are backing a University of Bath investigation into city-wide 'pervasive computing zones'. The £1.6 million Cityware project has backing from IBM, Nokia, HP and Vodafone.

The Register reports (20 February) that it's hoped the conclusions will help guide future mobile application development. Project leader Dr Eamonn O' Neill said: "Pervasive technology that is available to everyone, everywhere and at all times promises to be the next big leap in mobile computing technology.'

The publication says that selected local volunteers will be handed 30 top-spec mobile phones and will work with researchers over the next three years to see how the technologies affect their lives.

Cityware will make use of wireless networks, Bluetooth and Near Field Communication at different locations across the city. Among the first new services available to volunteers is a photo recognition server that recognises images of places around the historic city centre and returns tourist information about the site.

{mospagebreaktitle=Judge weighs injunction in BlackBerry case}Judge weighs injunction in BlackBerry case

In the US., a federal judge, clearly impatient with the long-running case, could issue an injunction soon on US sales and service of the wireless e-mail device, the Blackberry, according to a report by The Assocviazted Press in The Mercury News (19 February).

The AP report says that most patent suits are dismissed or settled long before they reach this stage. Remarkably, neither BlackBerry maker Research In Motion nor tiny patent holder NTP have shown signs of backing down. In effect, they're daring each other to blink first and settle, says AP.

According to the AP report, governments, businesses and individual users are growing unnerved by the standoff. Although the odds of an actual shutdown are low, conflicting opinions about the possible outcomes and the spin from both sides have created a confusing picture.

James R. Spencer, a no-nonsense US district judge widely respected in the legal community, now finds himself in the unusual position of weighing an injunction against RIM even as the US Patent and Trademark Office is expected to finally rescind NTP's patents, says AP.

The AP report adds that Spencer has signaled that he is unwilling to delay his proceedings while awaiting final word from the patent office, which lags far behind the court system. A case that could change the practice of granting injunctions in patent cases, eBay v. MercExchange, will be taken up by the Supreme Court, but no decision is expected until the spring at the earliest. Spencer, meanwhile, has scheduled a hearing for 24 Feb. on the injunction and damages.

According to AP.,because patent infringement cases don't often rise to this level of importance and even fewer make it this far in the courts, it's hard to tell how Spencer will rule. An injunction he once issued on a sediment-control device, for instance, interested few people outside the construction industry.

RIM v. NTP, on the other hand, could affect many of the more than 3 million BlackBerry users in the United States, says AP.

{mospagebreaktitle=Teens at risk on web sites, experts say}Teens at risk on web sites, experts say

On MySpace.com, US teenagers can find kindred spirits who share their love of sports, their passion for photography or their crush on a Hollywood star. They can also find out where their online friends live, where they attend school, even what they look like.

And so can adults.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (19 February) that parents, school administrators and police are increasingly worried that teens are finding trouble online at sites like MySpace, the leader of the social-networking sites that encourage users to build larger and larger circles of friends.

Police in one US state are investigating recent reports that as many as seven local girls were sexually assaulted by men in their 20s who contacted them through MySpace pretending to be teenagers.

One girl allowed a man into her room while her parents were home, police said, underscoring just how in the dark parents often are about one of the most popular Web activities for teens today.

According to AP., there are other reports like these scattered around the country, prompting some parents and schools to equate the likes of MySpace with the internet's red-light district, even as many experts believe that the worries are greater than the actual dangers.

And the horror stories are indeed terrifying.

AP says that last month, for example, 14-year-old Judy Cajuste was found strangled and naked in a Newark, N.J., garbage bin. Police seized a computer from her bedroom after friends said she told them of a man in his 20s she met on MySpace. The death remains unsolved.

In a statement, MySpace said it has developed safety tips for parents and children and devotes scores of employees to monitoring the site around the clock. The site also has ways for users to report inappropriate behavior. The company says it removes inappropriate images and closes accounts that violate its rules.

{mospagebreaktitle=Disney to use web, dispensing with catalogues}Disney to use web, dispensing with catalogues

The Walt Disney Company, an icon of mainstream America, will move against the grain of conventional business strategy this spring when it stops distributing a catalog that has filled the mailboxes of tens of millions of households for the last decade, and instead embarks on a Web-only initiative, reports The New York Times (20 February).

According to the newspaper, the move bucks a trend that has practically become gospel in online commerce in the past several years '” namely, that retailers who sell through the combined channels of catalogs, web sites and physical stores engender more customer loyalty and bigger profits than those that do not.

Many online retailers lack the means to open traditional stores, so this so-called multichannel approach has been beyond their reach. But they still have the photos, call centers and warehouses needed to put together a decent catalog operation, reports the NYT.