Pc News

[Rasputin]

Hard-Drive Failures Surprisingly Frequent

Your hard drive may not be as reliable as manufacturers would like you to think. Recent studies by researchers at Carnegie Mellon and Google suggest that vendor Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) ratings for hard drives are a bit misleading.

The Carnegie Mellon study, conducted at several locations, found typical failure rates of 2 to 4 percent and a high of 13 percent, in contrast to the less than 1 percent you'd expect based on vendor MTTF ratings (see chart or click on the thumbnail image below). Google's study pegged the annual failure rate at about 3 percent.

Both studies were based on observations of approximately 100,000 drives, with Google looking at its own farm of consumer-grade disks and Carnegie Mellon examining both consumer-grade drives and the ostensibly more reliable enterprise variety; the latter have beefed-up actuator magnets, more-robust spindle motors, and advanced features such as rotational vibration safeguards.

Defining Failure
Vendors attribute part of the discrepancy between their ratings and the findings in these reports to differing definitions of disk failure. For vendors, it's when a drive fails on one read or write attempt within a set period--typically about 24 hours--on the test bench. Vendors say that, by that criterion, nearly 40 percent of returned drives have not actually failed.

The two new studies, however, consider failure to be any symptom that causes a user--presumably, in both cases, experienced IT types--to replace the drive. Such symptoms include software problems, driver conflicts, and the like, as well as drive failure as defined by vendors.

Also, vendors base MTTF numbers on the past performance of similar drives; no one tries running a new model for years to prove it will last.

Stay Cool
Surprisingly, Google's study found no correlation between drive failure and elevated heat and activity levels. The largest percentage of failures occurred on drives operating within a mild 77-to-88-degree range. However, desktop PCs typically operate at temperatures well over the maximum of 125 degrees reported in the Google study, so the findings do not support running hard drives without adequate airflow to cool them.

Google found that failure rates varied significantly according to make and model, but the company declined to identify failure-prone models. Carnegie Mellon points out that bad manufacturing runs occur and that improvements over the past few years may be yielding more-reliable drives.

Google's study relied in part on SMART (Self-Monitoring And Reporting Technology) data from drives that have this feature. But so many drives failed without any SMART warnings that Google concluded the feature was not helpful in predicting real-world failure patterns.

Google's findings do support one tip: If you encounter a scan error during a routine error check (by running Scandisk, for example), your drive is 39 times more likely to fail within 60 days than drives that don't show such errors. IT pros recommend replacing a drive with scan errors.

Fewer Figures
The most likely immediate fallout from these reports is that vendors will stop touting MTTF figures. In my online research, MTTF figures for consumer drives were already few and far between.

Corporate buyers might rethink purchasing plans in light of Carnegie Mellon's finding that fiber-channel and SCSI drives appear no more reliable than the cheaper SATA variety. But IDC analyst David Reinsel says fiber-channel and SCSI drives are still worthwhile when performance matters.

For most of us, these reports simply reemphasize the need for smart practices. Keep your drives cool and, most important, backed up so that if failure occurs, it's merely an inconvenience and not a financial or emotional disaster.

[Rasputin]

IBM Opens Market Doors for Partners

IBM Corp. is helping shepherd increasing numbers of local software companies onto the global stage as they move outside of the comfort zone of their home markets.

As well as software vendors looking to grow their revenue by developing an international business, increasingly customers are demanding that their technology providers can operate globally, according to Mark Hanny, vice president of ISV (independent software vendor) alliances with IBM. He was speaking this week at IBM's PartnerWorld conference in St. Louis.

IBM acts as a consultant to ISVs as they look to establish themselves in new markets. The vendor provides technical help, advice on the localization of their products, and how to get connected to local partners. IBM currently has 33 Innovation Centers around the world where partners can go to for such assistance or they can connect with the centers virtually. IBM expects to launch an additional three centers later this year, mostly likely in Eastern Europe.

In many cases, IBM has had a presence in countries for decades, for example, having in operations in China for 50 years and in Brazil for 90 years. In those markets, "We are a local company," Hanny said.

The key piece of advice from both Hanny and ISVs who've partnered with IBM to enter new markets is the importance of hiring local people from the get-go, particularly around providing presales and postsales support for the software.

Business applications vendor TOTVS/Microsiga, which already dominates its home Brazilian small to midsize business market, has teamed up with IBM to reach other countries in Latin America.

Coming from a Portguese-speaking nation meant TOTVS could easily sell its software in Portugal and through that country also reach users in the Portuguese-speaking nations in Africa of Angola and Mozambique. However, moving into Spanish-speaking nations in Latin America wasn't so straightforward, according to Claudio Bessa, corporate marketing and business director at TOTVS/Microsiga.

The Spanish used in each country is different as is the style of negotiating business deals, another reason why having locals in place from day-one is so important, he said. Also, Latin American countries have a host of legal and financial issues relating to ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. "The rules change every day, every single hour," Bessa added, not entirely joking.

The Brazilian ISV's software previously only ran on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system, and TOTVS has worked with IBM to have it also run on Linux.

Many companies initially look to enter markets that are geographically close to them. For example, business applications vendor Ufida Software Co. Ltd., the largest ISV in China, is expanding its business elsewhere in Asia, notably Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. IBM is helping Ufida enter those markets.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Sun's Grid Computing Service Goes Global

Sun Microsystems Inc. is expanding its Network.com utility computing service from the U.S. to 23 countries in Europe and Asia, the company said Thursday.

Utility computing, in which customers pay an hourly rate for access to a Sun data center, began as a U.S. only pilot in March but is now ready for a large geographic expansion, said Rohit Valia, group product manager for the Sun Grid Compute Utility.

Sun charges US$1 per CPU (central processing unit), per hour to access a network of Sun x64 hardware running the Solaris 10 operating system. End users can now access the utility from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.

IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and other computer vendors provide similar utility services, also called on-demand computing or, more informally, computing "in the cloud." The services are for companies or other enterprises that have a short-term need for extra computing capacity but don't want to incur the expense of adding onto their own data centers. They only have to build out their own capacity for an average level of usage, not the occasional peak usage, said Valia.

"Our business model is around charging for CPU cycles, not idle CPUs. We only charge when your CPU is actually processing data," he said.

Sun is also adding a feature called Network.com Internet Access so that Sun customers can interact, through Sun's utility data center to the Internet, with other companies that have resources the customer might want to use for a particular project. And Sun is also offering a limited beta program for developers called Job Management Application Programming Interfaces, which allows users to perform production scale tests to build software applications using Network.com.

[Rasputin]

Internet Encyclopedia to List all 1.8 Million Species

From apples to zebras, all 1.8 million known plant and animal species will be listed in an Internet-based "Encyclopedia of Life" under a $100 million project, scientists said on Tuesday.

The 10-year scheme, launched with initial grants of $12.5 million from two U.S.-based foundations, could aid everyone from children with biology homework to governments planning how to protect endangered species.

"The Encyclopedia of Life plans to create an entry for every named species," James Edwards, executive director of the project which is backed by many leading research institutions, told Reuters. "At the moment that's 1.8 million."

The free Encyclopedia would focus mainly on animals, plants and fungi with microbes to follow, blending text, photographs, maps and videos in a common format for each. Expansion of the Internet in recent years made the multi-media project possible.

Demonstration pages at http://www.eol.org include entries about polar bears, rice, death cap mushrooms and a "yeti crab" with hairy claws recently found in the South Pacific.

"This is about giving access to information to everyone," Jesse Ausubel, chairman of the project who works at the Rockefeller University in New York City, told Reuters.

The Encyclopedia would draw on existing databases such as for mammals, fishes, birds, amphibians and plants. English would be used at the start with translations to other languages.

Edwards said the project would give an overview of life on earth via what he termed a "macroscope" -- the opposite of a microscope through which scientists usually peer.

Species would be added as they were identified. Edwards said there might be 8-10 million on earth, adding that estimates ranged from 5-100 million. Fossil species may also be added.

The encyclopedia, to be run by a team of about 25-35 people, could help chart threats to species from pollution, habitat destruction and global warming.

The project would be led by the U.S. Field Museum, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Missouri Botanical Garden, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library -- a group that includes London's Natural History Museum, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Royal Botanic Garden in Kew, England.

Initial funding comes from a $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Extra funds would be raised in coming years.

Ausubel noted that 2007 was the 300th anniversary of the birth of Sweden's Carl Linnaeus, influential in working out ways to classify species. "If he were alive today we think he'd be jumping up and down celebrating," he said.

[Rasputin]

I (Heart) My iPod -- or, Um, Maybe Not

Were you planning on getting your grandparents matching iPods for their anniversary? You might want to hold off. A recent study has shown that iPods can cause electrical interference with pacemakers.

Jay Thaker tested 100 people using pacemakers, and discovered that holding an iPod just two inches from their chests generated enough interference to cause the pacemakers to misread the heart's pacing; interference was also observed in a few cases when the iPod was 18 inches away.

More testing would be needed for more definitive answers (testing other music players, determine the range of interference, and so on), but for now I'm enjoying some mild irony. One of the most common visual shortcuts that cartoonists use to say "unmotivated, know-nothing teenager" is to show him or her listening to an iPod; Thaker, who presented his findings at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Denver, is a 17-year-old high school student.

[Rasputin]

Red Hat Puts the Heat on Oracle

In a move that could help it fight foe Oracle Corp. but anger some longtime allies, Red Hat Inc. Thursday officially began selling and providing technical support for popular business software that runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The program, called Red Hat Exchange, lets companies using application "stacks" -- which consist of any of 14 mostly open-source applications -- deal with Red Hat as its "single throat to choke" when technical issues arise.

It also provides a new source of revenue for Red Hat at a time when it is being threatened by Oracle, which began competing with Red Hat directly by offering discount support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux last October. Last month, Oracle revealed it had won contracts from 26 Red Hat customers.

Red Hat has already provided support for some open-source applications for several years. The Exchange greatly expands that strategy and ensures that Red Hat gets its cut from vendors for any support work provided. It also allows the Raleigh, N.C., firm to avoid laying out cash, as it did last July when it spent US$350 million to buy application server vendor JBoss Inc.

"I see this as providing an intermediate alternative between Red Hat simply not playing beyond a specific section of the stack at all and doing an acquisition as with JBoss and Sistina," said Gordon Haff, an analyst at Nashua, N.H.-based Illuminata Inc.

Red Hat Exchange seen as 'logical'

Red Hat first announced the Exchange in mid-March.

Billy Marshall, CEO of Linux appliance vendor rPath Inc. and a former sales executive at Red Hat, argued at the time that for an operating system vendor to offer support for software it didn't develop or own made as much sense as "Emerson Electric announcing that they intend to sell and service Whirlpool washing machines, dryers and refrigerators. Why would a consumer buy a Whirlpool appliance from a manufacturer of appliance motors?"

Haff called the move a "logical" one for the company. "Red Hat has long ceased to be merely an operating system vendor in the narrow sense," he wrote. RHX "provides a vehicle for the company to both sell and support a broader portfolio of products -- thereby helping to counter the breadth developed in-house of mixed-source companies like Novell."

The move could have repercussions for Red Hat supporters. Longtime allies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. both make money reselling and supporting Red Hat and open-source applications that run on top of the operating system and the Exchange announcement could ratchet up the 'co-opetition' among the companies.

Smaller support providers such as OpenLogic Inc. and Optaros Inc. may also be unamused by Red Hat's incursion.

HP takes the view publicly that more players will create a bigger pie for everyone, rather than everyone being forced to take smaller slices. "We have a strong relationship with Red Hat and this will give our customers even more of what we ultimately aim to provide -- choice -- and we're energized when we see the open source software ecosystem growing in such dynamic ways," Doug Small, worldwide director of marketing for HP's Open Source & Linux Organization, wrote in response to questions from Computerworld. "Even with the launch of Red Hat Exchange, the depth of HP's resources for support, services and integration remain unparalleled. As the leading Linux platform vendor, we also look forward to the hardware revenue opportunities this will provide HP."

[Rasputin]

A Security Tool With a Message

Security experts will tell you that it isn't always about technology. While the latest tools help, more often than not security comes down to policy and staff education. If you can get employees to commit policy to memory and understand how threats may target or involve them, you've gone a long way toward locking down the organization.

But here's the rub: Policy puts folks to sleep, and security training isn't much more enthralling. So even if employees have no evil intent, they still may put the company at risk by forwarding information that violates policy or regulatory requirements.

This so-called data leakage problem has given rise to a number of new technology tools, but those from Orchestria also address the policy/training issue.

Orchestria started out on the regulatory compliance side of the messaging business with a tool financial firms could use to ensure all outbound e-mail contained disclaimers required by law. And it has evolved as regulatory, security and corporate governance issues have blossomed.

In a nutshell, the company's tools bolt onto messaging systems and examine all messages - e-mail, instant messages, blogs - for policy compliance before they are sent/posted. Scans generate risk scores by looking at everything from file size to the presence and proximity of certain words and context derived by considering who the sender is (title and department) and who the message is intended for, says Michael Rothschild, senior director of product marketing.

"We analyze the message and, if something violates policy, present a pop-up that says, 'It looks like you're trying to send 10 Social Security numbers to an unauthorized user. Are you sure you want to do that?'" Rothschild says.

Alternatively, the tool can be configured to automatically block egregious violations - such as distributed financial data - or silently monitor and report activity, perhaps someone sending out their resume.

All violations are centrally tracked by the management server, which also is responsible for distributing policies to agents that run on messaging servers and endpoints.

A core benefit of Orchestria's approach: "If the message was never sent, it didn't happen," Rothschild says. "It is not in your archive and can't be discovered later."

Just as important, flagging policy violations before they happen serves as a real-time training tool. That's key, because most employees aren't intentionally out to hurt their employer, even if their actions violate policy. Rothschild says customers typically see alarms decrease with time as employees come to grips with policy.

The education value makes this technology worth a look.

[Rasputin]

Details on AMD's New Griffin CPU, Puma Mobile Platform

AMD has released details of its forthcoming mobile processor, code-named Griffin, as well as the platform that will support it, code-named Puma (aka the RS780 chip set). Both are due out in mid-2008, and mark the first time that AMD has designed a platform from the ground up for the mobile market.

The combination will also be a significant step in AMD's path to "Fusion," the code-name for the integrated CPU/GPU part planned for release sometime in 2009, says Maurice Steinman, AMD Fellow, and lead architect for the Griffin processor.

Although AMD plans to go 45-nm in 2008 as well, the Griffin CPU will still be 65-nm.

Griffin will boast several improvements that should help it serve the mobile market and increase performance. First, it has a larger 1MB L2 cache for each of the CPU's two processor cores. The CPU also integrates the Northbridge on-die to increase efficiency, and it's on its own power plane, so that it can be powered down to conserve battery life if it's not in use, while the cores continue to draw power as needed (see images below, first a diagram, then a picture of the die).

AMD already integrates the memory controller on-die, and plans to make it more efficient with Griffin. For example, it has a DRAM pre-fetcher, and like the Northbridge, it is on its own power plane at a lower voltage than the CPU cores.

The cores themselves are each on a separate power plane, and can operate at independent frequency and voltage, according to AMD. Its power management scheme allows Griffin to shut down parts of each core, or even shut one off completely in order to conserve power, and dynamically adjusts to demands of the operating system.

AMD has also added intelligence to the HyperTransport link, so that the CPU and chip set can adjust its bandwidth as needed, or even shut it completely. It also promises a 3X boost in peak I/O performance, according to Steinman.

The RS780 chip set/Puma platform (shown running below in a demo system), brings additional improvements. First, it offers PowerXPress, an intelligent power management system where the notebook not only goes into standard battery savings mode when it's not plugged in, it will dynamically switch to integrated motherboard graphics to conserve power instead of any performance enhanced graphics chip set you may have. Once you're back to an outlet, it will switch to the more powerful graphics. Users will, of course, have control and can disable this feature if desired.

[Rasputin]

Dell to Launch Convertible Tablet PC

Dell Inc. is planning to sell its first convertible tablet PC later this year.

The PC maker revealed that it is working on the machine and showed a prototype of it on a company blog.

"I'm here to confirm that we are entering the [tablet PC] market and we will enter the market later this year," said Jeff Clarke, senior vice president of Dell's business product group, during the minute-long video.

The tablet PC will be targeted at the education, health care and corporate markets, he said. Clarke didn't offer any technical specifications of the machine but said it will be "one of the lightest weight" tablet PCs in the market. The version shown in the video was running Windows Vista.

"The technology and customer and usage models have evolved to the point where it makes it right for Dell to enter the marketplace," he said. "We're excited and everybody, we're coming."

Tablet PCs still only account for a fraction of the portable PC market but growth in the sector is expected to outperform the overall market over the next few years, according to IDC.

Shipments of convertible tablet PCs like that planned by Dell are expected to total 1.5 million units this year, IDC said in a December 2006 report. That's 1.4 percent of the entire market, which is expected to total 100.5 million units in 2007. Between 2005 and 2010 the portable market will grow at an annual average of 18.9 percent, while the convertible tablet market grows at 45.9 percent per year, said IDC.

Last week Fujitsu Ltd. unveiled a convertible PC in Tokyo, aimed at business users. The FMV-U8240 is based on Intel Corp.'s "McCaslin" ultramobile PC platform and is intended to serve as a secondary PC when workers are on the move. The machine has a 5.6-inch display and is small enough to fit into a jacket pocket. It will go on sale in mid-June and cost from $1197.

[Rasputin]

Computer Nerds Coming to Prime-Time TV

Look out, Dr. McDreamy -- computer nerds could become the next heartthrobs on prime-time television.

Two new IT-themed TV series -- The IT Crowd, a comedy, and Chuck, a drama -- were announced this week by NBC Universal Inc. as part of its primetime lineup for this fall, adding casts of IT workers to the usual mix of doctors, lawyers, cops and parents found on network programming.

"It's the 'IT chic' season," said Robert J. Thompson, a trustee professor of television and popular culture at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y. "We could have probably seen this coming for a long time. We've rediscovered the office as a viable place for comedy with [NBC's ongoing hit show] The Office," which has been a boon for the network and garnered critical acclaim for its humor and themes.

It was only a matter of time, then, that a show like The Office would morph into an IT-focused sort of spinoff like The IT Crowd, Thompson said. "Virtually everyone who works in an office now -- sooner or later -- has to work with IT people," he said. "No matter what job you do, you need IT people. So here is a universe that everyone can get.

"The idea that the geeks shall inherit the earth is beginning to become clear," said Thompson, who is also the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse.

For years, there have been stereotypes of geeky characters in TV shows and movies -- the smart, plastic pocket-protector-equipped, socially-inept dweeb with funny clothes and thick glasses. But until now, they haven't been at the center of stories on TV.

"Clearly, we've now got a whole new genre of [TV] programming about a profession that didn't even exist a generation ago," Thompson said.

In Chuck, the main character is Chuck Bartowski, described by NBC as "just your average computer-whiz-next-door." Chuck works at the Buy-More retail electronics chain alongside "his band of nerdy cohorts, longing to find a woman who can appreciate him." Then one day, a mysterious encoded e-mail message is sent to him by an old friend who is a CIA agent, and the secrets in the message are subliminally embedded into Chuck's brain, according to NBC. Suddenly, he becomes a target for international terrorists and assassins.

The concept behind Chuck is interesting, Thompson said. "Here you turn him into a superhero, like the bionic tech-support guy."

The one-hour comedy/drama/spy thriller debuts at 9 p.m. EDT on Sept. 25.

The IT Crowd is slated as a midseason comedy, but no starting date has yet been announced.

Based on a hit British show of the same name, the U.S. version centers on a "behind-the-scenes peek" at the people who keep offices running while exhibiting all the classic geeky stereotypes, according to NBC.

An NBC spokesman couldn't be reached for comment about the upcoming shows.

Whether IT pros will someday join doctors, lawyers and police officers as similarly successful TV themes is still up in the air, Thompson said. "In the end, the idea is nothing -- it's the execution. So we'll see if it's a hit or not."

Rick Ellis, a TV critic for television review Web site AllYourTV.com, said it makes sense for NBC to try IT-themed shows as the networks seek to lure younger viewers away from iPods, video games and other distractions. And the move to IT-related shows isn't a surprise, he said, because technology has pervaded so much of our lives today.

"Once they started giving network executives BlackBerries, I think that it was only a matter of time that they'd think technology was cool" and should be brought into new TV shows, Ellis said.

With the arrival later this autumn of The IT Crowd, viewers will get to see how the U.S. version of the show compares to the critically-acclaimed U.K. version, he said. "It doesn't automatically mean that the U.S. version will be funny," Ellis said. "It will be interesting to see how that translates."

On the other hand, Ellis said, the show Chuck looks promising based on the pilot episode and several short clips he has seen. "It's about a hunky guy with weird circumstances that give him knowledge. It's a cute idea. It's more on the slapstick side than on the technology side."

[Rasputin]

Can America Get Charged on Electric Cars?

SANTA ROSA, California (Reuters) - The ZAP Xebra is a three-wheeler running on basic batteries, silent and easy to maneuver. It is more than a golf cart and less than a compact car and costs just under $10,000.

"They are cute in their own ugly way. They are the VW of the electric cars. They are the car of the people," said ZAP CEO Steve Schneider said, pointing to a Xebra fleet painted in Kiwi Green, Lipstick Red or Zebra Flash (with stripes).

While others hammer away at battery technology to make all-electric cars go further and cost less, ZAP (as in zero air pollution) believes it has the formula in its tiny Xebra cars made in China: Plug it in at home and go up to 40 miles per hour for up to 25 miles.

"The key is to keep the car simple," said Schneider, noting that a single-wheel front end is a crucial part of containing costs.

ZAP last month anchored a $79 million order from Chicago-based The Electric Vehicle Company, which aims to sell 10,000 ZAP electric cars and trucks to local governments, universities and companies like Domino's Pizza, which is testing the Xebra for deliveries.

That may be the largest order for electric vehicles in history. But even with increased awareness about global warming produced by carbon emissions and the high price of gasoline, America's masses may not be ready to jump on the electric vehicle.

"Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money for a limited function vehicle," said Ron Cogan, editor of Green Car Journal.

While all-electric vehicles emit no pollution when they are driven, they are still responsible for emissions at the power plants that generate the electricity to charge their batteries.

"If you are going to be living in a retirement community or if you are doing all your travel in a downtown area where the speed limits are appropriate, neighborhood electric vehicles or low-speed ones are great," Cogan added.

VOLT GIVES VOLTAGE

Indeed, America's urban areas have just sprawled too much to make a low-speed electric vehicle a viable option for many. While it could work wonderfully in Santa Rosa or even San Francisco, hardly anyone in freeway-mad Los Angeles could get by with one.

That is why electric car enthusiasts are placing their mass-market bets on General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in electric car with a small combustion "range extender" engine.

Now still a concept car, GM will begin production as soon as battery costs fall below $3,000 per car. Its experience with the EV1, its defunct electric car featured in the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?," has been instrumental in developing the Volt and its battery.

"We hope the battery can catch up to us and it is not too far out in the future," said Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for the Volt. "It is probably sooner than most people think."

GM plans to price the Volt at a premium over the standard compact price of $20,000 and make it "accessible to a larger volume of potential customers," Posawatz said.

The Volt will have a 40-mile range between charges, which covers most commutes in the United States, according to Sherry Boschert, author of the book "Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America."

But she said the idea to give it an engine as a back-up to those who fear getting stranded is a wise one.

"I love all-electric cars and I actually think they are much better in a lot of ways," said Boschert. "But I think most Americans who are unfamiliar with driving on electricity will be more comfortable starting out with a plug-in hybrid."

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Researchers Craft HDTV's Successor

High-definition TV may still be far from the norm in many countries, but that isn't stopping engineers at Japan's public broadcaster from pushing ahead with development of Super Hi-Vision, a system they hope will eventually replace HDTV. Last week engineers at NHK's (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) Science and Technical Research Laboratories showed off their most recent work on the technology.

A Super Hi-Vision (SHV) picture is made up of 4,320 horizontal picture lines and 7,680 vertical lines. That's four times the horizontal and vertical resolution of current HDTV or, put another way, a single Super Hi-Vision image is equivalent to 16 tiled HDTV screens.

In the year since it was last demonstrated, the company has developed an image sensor for use in TV cameras that can shoot an entire SHV screen.

Until now the sensors in NHK's prototype SHV camera had half the resolution of an SHV image. Three were used, one each for red, blue and green, and an extra green sensor was added to effectively double the resolution possible and match that of SHV.

Using the new sensor an entire SHV screen can be captured with a single sensor, as NHK demonstrated on Friday. A prototype SHV camera fitted with the sensor was set up about 3 meters away from a scene that included a newspaper. It was possible to read the stories printed on the newspaper on a monitor displaying the image. The same thing would be difficult on today's high-definition systems.

The first sensor is monochrome and NHK says a color image is possible by simply using three in a camera, one for each primary color. Today's TV cameras and some high-end consumer video cameras use three sensors for better image quality.

Shooting an image in Super Hi-Vision is only one of the challenges facing broadcasters before such a system can be introduced.

An uncompressed SHV signal has a bit-rate of 24G bps (bits per second) and that's unmanageable for broadcasting systems. It needs to be compressed. But real-time encoding and decoding of such a high-bandwidth signal is also a challenge.

NHK and Fujitsu Ltd. are working on the problem and have at least solved the real-time part. By linking 16 encoders in parallel an SHV signal can be compressed to around 1/200th of its size using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression. The result is a Super Hi-Vision image of 128M bps, which is still about six times the bandwidth of today's high-definition broadcasting in Japan but within the realms of possibility for future broadcasting systems.