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Technology Tomorrow

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Net-savvy Mars



In an amazing development, NASA has announced that it would be deploying a
fleet of satellites around Mars, giving the planet its own Internet. The

Martian "Local Area Network" would be extensively used in research

projects on the red planet.

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Deep

Space tracking from Earth can pinpoint the location of a Mars probe to

within 15 kilometers as it enters the Martian atmosphere, and 75 kilometers

when the probe lands. NASA predicts a data transfer rate of 1 Mbps, which is

enough for a detailed virtual-reality representation of the Martian surface

or for a continuous video feed to a Mars-only HD-TV channel. But of course,

one can’t avoid practical drawbacks. A communications satellite in Earth’s

orbit is a mere 40,000 kilometers up, but a satellite transmitting from Mars

is at least 55 million kilometers further away. Signal strength drops off

exponentially, so that communication is 100 million times more difficult and

messages traveling at the speed of light take up to 20 minutes to bridge the

interplanetary gap.

Mind-boggling Millipede



"We’re at the stage where if everything works out, the potential is
huge, but we don’t know if it’ll work out", was all that Mark

Lutwyche, an enthusiastic IBM researcher had to say about a technology that,

in a few years, may lead to minute devices with 100 times the density of

today’s hard drives. The Millipede system uses an array of minute sensor

arms to read the pattern of indentations in a tiny square of plastic, which

resembles one of the earliest storage media in computing–punch cards.

Millipede technology could increase the density of data storage by

unthinkable dimensions. The system can store 400 GB per square inch. A

prototype, measuring 3 square mm, stores just under 1 GB of data.

Intelligent mobile-phone

keypad




The increasing popularity of wireless application protocol (WAP) services,
mobile e-mail, mobile micro-browsers, and short messaging service (SMS) has

left mobile phone manufacturers craving for technological developments which

could make cellphones more useful for these applications. Now, they have

something to look forward to. Motorola’s Lexicus Division recently

announced the general availability of its ITAP Intelligent Keypad Entry

System. ITAP is an application that manufacturers can install on mobile

phones and wireless devices to let end-users key in words with the telephone’s

keypad, without needing the cumbersome multiple-key pressing system that’s

currently used. On a typical mobile phone, to type in a word, say

"GURU", the user presses the "4" button once,

"8" twice, "7" twice and "8" twice again. ITAP

enables the user to type in "GURU" simply by pressing

"4878". If the word appearing on the screen is not the required

word, you can select some other combination out of a customizable loaded

diction
ary of over 40,000 words. ITAP has enough potential to take

the field of mobile networking by storm. More information is available at:

www.mot.com/MIMS/lexicus.

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After Myst and Riven



It’s a well-known fact that Cyan Technologies’ Myst is the best-selling
game ever. They followed it up with another mega-selling game–Riven.

However, it’s now been nearly two years since Cyan has come up with

anything. Ever wondered what they were up to? Well, people at Cyan have been

busy writing novels–about the fantasy land D’ni which was the focal

point in both Myst and Riven. If you remember, D’Ni was referred to as

Dunny in Myst. These novels–three in number–tell the stories preceding

Myst. The novels are so well researched that Cyan has created a completely

new D’Ni script to make it appear original. Cyan is still tightlipped

about a sequel to Riven, which was promised in the last scenes of the game.

They are meanwhile, releasing Myst Millennium Edition, which is essentially

Myst with enhanced graphics and sound and more animation sequences. Watch

this space for further developments.Broadband through

satellite





Ever got irritated with the excruciatingly long delay between action and
reaction when playing online? There’s a solution for it round the corner–satellites

that would have two-way broadband services. Two-way broadband Web-access isn’t

new. Both cable and DSL support this feature, but this is the first time

that Web-access through satellites would support it.

MSN and Gilat Satellite are

among the companies who plan to go live by the year-end. Whereas the

downstream access will reach speeds of 400 kbps, upstream (information you

send to the Internet) speeds would be limited to 56 kbps. The first truly

two-way broadband satellite Internet service won’t be available until the

end of 2001. The service, produced by iSky, would offer 1.5 Mbps downstream

and 0.5-1.0 Mbps upstream access speeds. Other companies in the fray include

Hughes, Astrolink and Teledesic. Hughes Electronics, working in conjunction

with AOL, plans to introduce an interactive DirecTV/AOL TV set-top box with

AOL Internet service. Speeds would be similar to the MSN/Gilat service.

Hughes is also developing a two-way broadband satellite service called

Spaceway, to be launched in 2003.

Astrolink’s two-way

broadband satellite service is scheduled to go live in 2003. Service speeds

will vary but are expected to go as high as 226 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps

upstream. However, it’ll be far more expensive than the other services,

with installation prices ranging from around $1,000 to $8,000, plus monthly

fees.

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Teledesic, in the meantime,

is targeting its two-way broadband satellite Internet service for 2004. The

speeds could range from 64 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream.

Convergence all the way…



Convergence is a hot

word today. Integration of the Internet and mobile computing, and of various

services related to voice, data, and visual communications, is assuming

realistic proportions. Carrying forward the trend of forming companies which

provide seamless integration of such services to customers, two of the

largest players in the US market recently unveiled plans to merge into a

single company, which provides what they call an "All-Distance

Carrier".

The idea is quite simple. If

you have a number of independent players providing services that can finally

be converged, you’ll have to deal with issues like compatibility in

protocols, problems in switching, and above all–market competition, when

you try to converge them. The solution is to form a single service provider,

which combines together all these under a common umbrella, and caters to the

needs of customers on the move. This means integrating local, long distance,

and international calls, data, Internet, wireline and wireless services.

MCI and Sprint, the number

two and the number three long-distance service providers in the United

States, are carrying this idea forward through a possible merger. Steps

taken under such a plan would include providing broadband services to rural

areas, convenient service packages to infrequent callers, etc. This scheme

of things could be of importance to Indian customers, since it’s likely to

encourage mergers between players in the Indian market as well, more so

after the handshake between AT&T and Time-Warner.Network your home




You get to hear about it in science fiction, but the promise of a home
strewn with intelligent appliances—all networked together seamlessly

through a central home PC, has come a step closer to reality with the

release of MediaWire. MediaWire is designed to solve the problems of

distributing broadband multimedia content throughout the home, while also

meeting the needs of the more casual user seeking to network PCs and

peripherals. The technology uses the familiar RJ-45 (the type that your

modem uses) connectors and is fully self-configuring. Examples of products

that will be a part of this system are mid- to high-end consumer electronics

devices, including DVD video and audio players, televisions, and stereo

systems.

Developed by Avio Digital,

MediaWire is essentially a phone-line home network, which would support both

high-quality categorized UTP wire (category 3 and category 5 phone wire) as

well as many types of existing in-wall phone wiring. When used with

categorized wiring, the first-generation MediaWire chipset delivers 100 Mbps

full duplex throughput—more bandwidth than 100BaseT corporate networks and

up to 100 times faster than alternative home networking solutions. The

bandwidth of this scheme enables a single telephone line to simultaneously

multiplex 32 24-bit audio channels, eight MPEG-2 video channels (6 Mbps

each), 16 digital phone or ISDN lines, and over 12 Mbps of serial control or

TCP/IP data. MediaWire is designed to network devices anywhere in the home

up to 33 meters apart, and is based on a logical ring topology, which is

both synchronous and stream-based.

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