Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.tech From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: tech Tue, Jul 14 1992 Date: Tue, 14 Jul 92 05:08:58 EDT Message-ID: 07-14 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update July 14, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network FIJITSU, AMD SIGN DEAL: Japan's Fujitsu and the USA's Advanced Micro Devices have joined forces to make flash-memory chips. The two companies said Monday they have agreed to invest equally in a $700 million factory in Japan that will make erasable, programmable read-only memories - EPROMs - and flash-memory chips. EPROMs and flash chips retain data even after being disconnected from the power supply. FLASH CHIPS EXPECTED TO SOAR: The world market for EPROMs and flash chips is expected to rise to about $5 billion a year by 2000 from an estimated $2 billion this year. Fujitsu and Advanced Micro Devices say they will join forces to make the chips. The tie-in with Fujitsu also is a chance for AMD to get a manufacturing foothold in Japan, the world's largest semiconductor market. NASA CHIDED FOR PLAYING IT SAFE: The shuttle commander who engineered an unprecedented three-astronaut rescue of a satellite adrift in space, chided NASA Monday for letting a fear of failure keep the agency from taking risks. Daniel Brandenstein, chief of NASA's astronaut office, plans to retire Oct. 1. "We may occasionally fail, but we should be willing to try new things," he said. (For more, see special NASA package below.) SAMSUNG DEVELOPS MEMORY CHIP: The Samsung Group said Monday that its Samsung Electronics Co. unit has developed its own version of a 32-megabit mask read only memory (ROM) chip. SEC says it chip is 20% smaller, and significantly faster than chips currently on the market. It operates at a speed of 150 nanoseconds. It is in the product sampling stage in Korea and will be available next year. SEMICONDUCTOR RATIO UP: The semiconductor industry's book-to-bill ratio rose to 1.14 in June from a revised 1.11 in May, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Monday. Bookings - orders based on a three-month moving average - rose 3.6 to $1.67 billion in June from $1.61 billion in May. Bookings were 27.8% above year-earlier levels. Billings increased 0.4% to $1.47 billion from $1.46 billion. DESKTOP TASK FORCE EXPANDS: Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard and IBM Corp. said Monday they have joined a group that is working to address PC workstation management issues. Desktop Management Task Force now has eight members. The group's goal is to take a unified approach to solving node management problems. ZEOS INTRODUCES NOTEBOOK: Zeos International Ltd. introduced its new Zeos Freestyle:SL Notebook computer Monday. Starting at $1,895 the Intel 386-based system features a "floating" screen. The design allows the video screen to both tilt and swivel, Zeos said. It comes with two megabytes of random access memory. It has a 3.5-inch 1.44 MB internal diskette drive and a 64-kilobyte internal processor cache. CRTS TO USE TRINITON TECHNOLOGY: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said Monday it will begin manufacturing Aperture-Grille cathode-ray tubes (CRT) incorporating Trinitron technology acquired in an agreement with Sony Corp. Mitsubishi said it will become the first company to acquire Sony's patents for the Trinitron design and manufacture CRTs based on this technology. NEW PHOTO SYSTEM OUT: Polaroid Corp. and DataCard Corp. said Monday they will begin selling a system that allows banks and other companies to place color photos on credit cards without the use of lamination. Pictures are converted to digital images by a Polaroid digital scanner. The images are then embossed directly onto the cards by a DataCard device. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON NASA: RISKS SHOULD BE TAKEN: Daniel Brandenstein, chief of NASA's astronaut office, says the space agency doesn't take enough risks. "I'm concerned that upper management at NASA may not be trying to push the envelope in the areas of experimentation and space operations - and we should be," said Daniel Brandenstein. Brandenstein stressed, however, he doesn't think safety should be compromised. COMMANDER ENGINEERED RESCUE: As commander of the shuttle Endeavour during its maiden voyage in May, Brandenstein proved his pluck by pressing for a daring three-person space walk to retrieve an errant communications satellite. Three astronauts on the flight set a record of 8 hours and 29 minutes for spacewalking during the first triple space walk in history. EXPERIENCE COULD BE USEFUL: Brandenstein said the crew's experience "is now in our bag of tricks" and may prove useful in devising better training methods. Brandenstein is on a post-flight speaking tour that takes him to his hometown, Watertown, Wis., Tuesday. Brandenstein, a Navy captain, joined NASA in 1978 after flying 192 combat missions in Vietnam and serving as a test pilot. (End of package.) Technology Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM