What's New @ IEEE in Circuits

March 2006 Volume 7, Number 3

IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Unsafe At Any Airspeed? "IEEE Spectrum" Reports
2. Intel Architect Chronicles Work on Pentium Project
3. Greece Home to May Circuits and Systems Symposium
4. Call for Papers: Compound Semiconductors
5. Two New IEEE Journals Premier Online
6. 3-D Technologies Focus of "Proceedings of the IEEE" Special Issue
7. Lower Temperature Process Boosts Gallium Nitride Film Uses
8. New Bipolar/BiCMOS Proceedings Available
9. Transistorless Chips the (Magnetic) Wave of the Future
10. FPGAs Popularity Dependant On Power
11. IEEE/Hewlett-Packard Telecenter Launches in Nigeria

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1. UNSAFE AT ANY AIRSPEED? "IEEE SPECTRUM" REPORTS
Is it safe to use cell phones on airplanes? Phones, PDAs, laptops, DVD players, and game machines all emit radiation and have the potential to interfere with aircraft instrumentation. Yet a recent study found that passengers are using cell phones, on the average, at least once per flight, and sometimes during the especially critical flight phases of takeoff and landing. "IEEE Spectrum" has more: www.spectrum.ieee.org/mar06/3069

2. INTEL ARCHITECT CHRONICLES WORK ON PENTIUM PROJECT
In a recent issue of "Computer" magazine (v. 39, no. 1), Robert P. Colwell, former Intel Corporation chief IA32 computer architect, chronicled his work on the P6 project, which came to represent a major event in the history of the computer industry and the internet boom. Highlights include an exploration of the competition between Complex Instruction Set Computers and Reduced Instruction Set Computers, the use of proliferation processes in chip design decisions, and his distillation of the four major project phases, which led to success for the P6 team. Read more: www.computer.org/portal/site/computer/menuitem.5d61c1d591162e4b0ef1bd108bcd45f3/index.jsp?&pName=computer_level1_article&TheCat=1005&path=computer/homepage/0106&file=cover.xml&xsl=article.xsl

3. GREECE HOME TO MAY CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS SYMPOSIUM
The 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems will be taking place from 21 to 24 May on the island of Kos, Greece. The conference will include cutting-edge oral and poster sessions, tutorials, forum sessions and panel discussions. Topics covered include analog signal processing, graph theory and computing, nonlinear circuits and systems as well as several others. For details, or to register to attend, visit: www.iscas06.org/

4. CALL FOR PAPERS: COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTORS
The 2006 IEEE Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium is now seeking paper submissions concerned with the utilization and application of InP, GaAs, SiGe, GaN and other compound semiconductors in military and commercial products. Sponsored by the IEEE Electron Device Society, the conference will take place from 12 to 15 November 2006 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Paper submissions are due 15 May. For details, visit: www.csics.org/

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5. TWO NEW IEEE JOURNALS PREMIER ONLINE
The first issues of "IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine" and "IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security" have been published and are now available online through the IEEE Xplore digital library. The first issue of "IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine" includes features on Evolutionary Computation and Evolvable Hardware. The first issue of "IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security" includes papers on human identification based on facial animation and signature verification, among others. The table of contents and abstracts for all papers in these issues can be found in the IEEE Xplore digital library, where subscribers may also access the full text of the articles:

"IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security"
ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=33588

"IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine"
ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=33585

6. 3-D TECHNOLOGIES FOCUS OF "PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE" SPECIAL ISSUE
The March 2006 special issue of "Proceedings of the IEEE" (v. 94, no. 3) examines the broad subject of three-dimensional (3-D) imaging, display and visualization technologies. Writing in their introduction to the issue, Guest Editors Bahram Javidi and Fumio Okano say that 3-D technologies are "important applications of information systems in a society that is increasingly dependent on the presentation of information." Overview papers in this issue present the fundamental ideas, theory, experiments and application of some leading 3-D technologies, illustrated with examples, simulations and experiment results. A preview is available online: www.ieee.org/web/publications/procieee/current.html

The entire issue is available through the IEEE Xplore digital library, where subscribers may access the full text of all articles: ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=33728

7. LOWER TEMPERATURE PROCESS BOOSTS GALLIUM NITRIDE FILM USES
A method for growing crystalline gallium nitride films at temperatures lower than current standards can broaden the types of substrates available and greatly increase the use of the films in optical-electronic devices like blue LEDs and laser diodes, high-density optical data storage devices, flat panel displays and solid state lighting, according to a team of scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory. By using of energetic neutral atom-beam lithography (ENABLE) at temperatures between 100 and 500 degrees Celsius, the Los Alamos team says it can grow gallium nitride films on many more types of inexpensive substrate materials, including glass and certain polymers. Read more: www.physorg.com/news11068.html

8. NEW BIPOLAR/BiCMOS PROCEEDINGS AVAILABLE
If you did not have the opportunity to attend the Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting 2005 in Santa Barbara, California, USA, the proceedings are now available through the IEEE Xplore digital library. The meeting covered a wide variety of topics including wireline communication, power devices, and process technology, among others. Institutions with subscriptions to IEEE online collections may have access to these proceedings, depending on their access rights: ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentCon.jsp?punumber=10419

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~ Epictetus

9. TRANSISTORLESS CHIPS THE (MAGNETIC) WAVE OF THE FUTURE
A chip using nanomagnets that can be assembled into arrays that store information and act as logic gates may replace conventional transistor chips, according to the group of electrical engineers at the University of Notre Dame who are developing the new design. Because the new chip has no wires, researchers say its device density and processing power may eventually be much higher than transistor-based devices while using less power and generating less waste heat. According to its developers, computers using the magnetic chip would boot up almost instantly, and the chip's memory is nonvolatile, making it impervious to power interruptions and retaining data when the device is switched off. Read more: www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70190-0.html

10. FPGAs POPULARITY DEPENDANT ON POWER
Power consumption was a hot topic at February's 2006 FPGA, most notably the difference between FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays) and ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits). Many researchers argued that ASICs are more practical than FPGAs, but not everyone agreed. One presenter, Tim Tuan of Xilinx Inc., said his company is building a low-power architecture based on the company's Spartan 3 fabric that will apply such optimizations as voltage scaling, power gating, low-leakage configuration memory and sleep mode. This Pika architecture is said to produce 46 percent less active power and 99 percent less standby power than the baseline Spartan 3. Pika claims to lessen the problem of dissipating standby power milliamps, bringing FPGAs into an acceptable range for mobile, battery-powered products. Despite the arguments that these advancements will improve the FPGAs marketability, other researchers were not so sure, arguing that despite the scaling, FPGAs are still 20 times more power-hungry than ASICs. For more on this and other topics discussed at the conference, visit: www.powermanagementdesignline.com/news/181400903

11. IEEE/HEWLETT-PACKARD TELECENTER LAUNCHES IN NIGERIA
Earlier this year, 2005 IEEE President W. Cleon Anderson and a representative from Hewlett-Packard Nigeria dedicated the new IEEE/Hewlett-Packard Telecenter with local dignitaries at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. The Telecenter, conceived by an "IEEE Spectrum" reporter in collaboration with the IEEE Nigeria Section, features 60 computer workstations with complimentary online access to more than 1.3 million articles in the IEEE Xplore digital library. The project was jointly funded by the IEEE, IEEE Foundation and Hewlett-Packard Foundation. www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/pages/tionline/legacy/inst2006/mar06/fnigeria.html

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Managing Editor: John Platt j.platt@ieee.org

Contributing Editors: Diana Fuksin, Robert J. Howe, Brian Pedersen, Ryan Thomas

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