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Guangdong Mobile
takes wraps off wireless network Guangdong Mobile takes wraps off wireless network Chinese provincial mobile network operator, Guangdong Mobile Communication, has launched a high-speed wireless data service for customers in the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The network is a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) network based around equipment from Ericsson. It is being billed as China's largest "pre-commercial" GPRS network. GPRS is a packet-based system that allows GSM mobile network users to access higher-speed wireless data communications and Web-based applications. The services will be available to customers in the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Throughout its range, GMCC has over 10 million subscribers.
Dataquest - semiconductor biz up 37% in 2000 As semiconductor use expands beyond the personal computer, sales are expected to show double-digit growth over the next three years. According to a report by Dataquest Inc., a division of the Gartner Group, the world semiconductor industry is headed for 2000 revenues of nearly $231 billion, up 37 percent over last year, the biggest jump since 1995. In 2001, revenues will increase by 27 percent, followed by 14 percent growth in 2002, a 4.5 percent cyclical drop in 2003 and a nearly 6 percent rise in 2004. Sales are projected to exceed $339 billion in 2004, slightly more than twice last year's total of $169 billion. Demand for new semiconductor applications - cell phones, handhelds, game consoles, set-top boxes and other devices - is the chief driver of sales growth, the report said. This year's growth is seen in all categories - logic (36 percent), analog (27 percent), discrete (25 percent) and optical (31 percent). With shortages and high capacity for flash, microprocessors (MPUs) and some DRAM architectures, near-term spot pricing is reacting to inventory building and not part of the overall industry supply/demand factor, analyst Mark Giudici said. "Stronger demand and some product allocation in late 2000 will result in higher prices for DRAM, flash and some SRAM densities has forced lead times out beyond 20 weeks," he said. Worldwide semiconductor sales hit a record high of $17.3 billion in July, up 50 percent from July 1999, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Regionally, the Asia-Pacific market rose 57 percent, Japan was up 52 percent, Europe was up 46.5 percent and North and South America increased by 46 percent, SIA said.
Yahoo to launch
free phone service In other words, users of the new Yahoo portal will for now be required to enter numbers on a touch-tone telephone keypad to select the information they want to hear. AOL has yet to add a telephone-based version of its Internet service, but recently acquired a start-up voice portal named Quack and owns a stake in SpeechWorks, a developer of speech-recognition technology. While Yahoo and AOL weren't first to this arena, both are confident that their millions of loyal users will opt for the consistency of using the same service provider to access information by computer, phone or wireless device. One major advantage AOL and Yahoo! boast is that their users already have online profiles with personally tailored information preferences, making it unnecessary for those people to re-create everything from scratch for the telephone versions of those services.
Corning and
Sycamore team for fiber-optic switches Sycamore and rival equipment makers are racing to develop switches that let information be redirected through fiber-optic networks without converting light into electronic signals. By avoiding this conversion, phone companies can cut costs and speed up their networks. Corning already counts Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based Sycamore as a customer, Knight said. Corning is based in Corning, New York.
Cisco and Microsoft paid no federal income tax Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, recorded a $5.5 billion tax benefit by deducting its employees' profits from stock options during its last fiscal year. Microsoft reported federal and state tax liabilities of $4.74 billion in the year ending June 30. Cisco earned $2.7 billion in its last fiscal year ending July 29. Microsoft's profit totaled $9.4 billion. The San Francisco Chronicle detailed the tax relief received by both Cisco and Microsoft in Monday's editions, based on recently released financial statements. Corporations are allowed to deduct the gains of their workers' stock options because the profits are regarded as employee compensation, just like regular wages. Nevertheless, even a leading antitax group criticized the practice that allowed Cisco, a leading maker of computer-networking equipment, to skirt taxes. "For a company that makes that kind of money not to pay taxes raises serious tax-equity questions," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Four optical start-ups plan collaboration The Iris Group has amassed $100 million in investments from a variety of venture capital firms such as the Mayfield Fund and Sevin Rosen Funds, among others. As a result, Iris Group's research arm, Iris Labs, garnered $7.5 million; Metera Networks got $24 million in initial funding; and Latus Lightworks reaped a $28.1 million windfall. A fourth start-up, Coree Networks, is expected to close initial funding soon. Iris Group members will remain legally separate entities, according to the company. Though details are sparse, all the equipment start-ups will target various niches in optical networking, a market that has received unprecedented funding in recent years as telecommunications companies look to upgrade their networks with faster and more versatile technologies.
Siemens
Optisphere tops DWDM record at 7.04 tbps per fiber Optisphere Networks, a subsidiary of Siemens Information and Communication Networks, claimed a new DWDM capacity record by transmitting 7.04 Tbps over a single fiber. The laboratory demonstration carried 176 wavelengths at 40 Gbps with 50 GHz spacing over 50km over fiber. The company said it used a special bi-directional transmission system to ensure a spectral efficiency of 0.8 bit/s per Hz bandwidth.
Oni
Systems introduces a longer reach optical transport system ONI Systems introduced a new regional optical transport platform designed to transmit signals up to 640 km between source and destination without electrical regeneration. The new ONLINE11000 chassis could be deployed in rings ranging from a few hundred kilometers to more than 1,000 km. The new platform shares the line cards, client interfaces and management system as ONI System's existing metro core and metro access solutions. It features full optical add/drop capabilities, line-based optical or path-based rerouting of channels in the event of optical fiber failure, and support for 33 protected and 66 unprotected wavelengths. Client interfaces include OC3, OC12, OC48, (OC192 expected Q4 2000), Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel and ESCON.
BT to break up
Cisco introduces IPsec VPN platform solution
Stepping Into the 5-GHz Spectrum Other good news about the 802.11a LAN: It will operate in the 5-GHz spectrum instead of the crowded 2.4-GHz spectrum. Good news to anyone who would like to use Bluetooth and a wireless LAN at the same time. (Currently, Bluetooth and 802.11b LANs don't work well together because they have to share the 2.4-GHz spectrum.) Before we know it, multimedia and new high-bandwidth applications will become as much of a second thought as viewing Web pages is now.
Intel
cancels cheap chip Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., confirmed on 1 October that, because of recurring design flaws, it will discontinue production of a low-end processor chip aimed at making it possible for PC makers to introduce computers that cost less than $600. The chip, called Timna, had problems with its memory translator hub (MTH), the component that would allow it to work in concert with the Rambus memory it was designed for or any other standard memory technology. It was discovered in May that under certain conditions, the MTH would cause computers to crash, prompting a recall of nearly a million chipsets and a delay (until early 2001) of their inclusion in PCs. Further delays related to the component’s compatibility with its companion microprocessor, combined with the reduced cost of other components, have conspired to lower demand for the chip as PC makers grew to believe they can make sub-$600 computers without it.
Cell
phones enter a two-way street
Artificial
intelligence may heal computer networks
MS pulls wraps off Exchange 2000 Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday, October 9 finally launched its long-awaited Exchange 2000 messaging and collaboration platform, at the same time introducing, in typical Microsoft style, a host of features and capabilities that won't be available until next year. The launch, which took place at the Exchange Collaboration and Solutions conference here amid rock music and pyrotechnics, provided few surprises, except for the introduction of a new Mobile Information Server that will appear sometime in the first half of 2001. The MIS will give users access to their Exchange e-mail, contacts, tasks, and calendar functions on any web-enabled mobile device. The server will also enable users to receive instant notifications of selected events on their wireless devices. The product will also ship with a software development kit. It is in limited beta right now and will move into a larger test phase later this fall, Microsoft officials said.
Cisco unveils VPN gear Cisco Systems has introduced a batch of networking equipment aimed at helping companies sell enhanced dataservices to businesses. Of greatest interest to companies is the new Cisco VPN 5000 concentrator and client, which will let providers sell outsourced, network-based virtual private network services to businesses that don't want to build and manage their own VPNs. The VPN 5000 "allows a carrier to offer IP Sec-based VPN services without having to deploy hardware at every site," says Ron Westfall, an analyst at Current Analysis. Shipping now, the VPN 5000 costs $10 for each of the many thousands of IP sessions supported by each of the devices. It supports as many as 40,000 IP Sec sessions, and it enables throughput of 768 Mbps of triple-DES traffic, Cisco execs say.
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