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Lane departure is being done all wrong. We need to get the various road authorities to start mixing something like this into the paint that they paint the lines with. Then vehicles could use RFID readers to no only know when they are departing a lane, but they could use this instead of GPS to identify where they are.

Bless you WD, for being enlightened and motivated ... Hey, what do you think about this http://www.hqrd.hitachi.co.jp/arle/optical.cfm http://www.hitachi-medical.co.jp/info/opt-e/genri-2.html http://www.hitachi-medical.co.jp/info/opt-e/index.html http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research/photonics/research/topics/tomog/tomog.htm http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/S.Arridge/ToastOverview.html http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/research/borg/research/topography/index.htm

What's the over/under that this technology will be bought by ford / gm and killed in development?

• Research, publications at Lund University
• Research at Chalmers University of Technology
• Research at Stanford University
• Research, publications at University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Research at University of California, Berkeley

RTFA FFS. It has a link to Hitachi, in English:

The mu-chip is Hitachi's response to resolving some of the issues associated with conventional RFID technology. The mu-hip uses the frequency of 2.45GHz. It has a 128-bit ROM for storing the ID with no write-read and no anti-collision capabilities. Its unique ID numbers can be used to individually identify trillions of trillions of objects with no duplication. Moreover with a size of 0.4mm square, the mu-chip is small enough to be attached to a variety of minute objects including embedding in paper.

Final name mirrors a number of terrible Japanese names. In particular, I'm reminded if Vaio and Wega from Sony. In particular, I'm reminded if Vaio and Wega from Sony. Wega, in particular, is actually supposed to be pronounced "vega".

I was immediately reminded of the Hitachi Woo. The logo is strikingly similar, too. Considering that they're both gray on white verbal logos, how could it not be? At any rate, "Wii" isn't going to stand out as bizzarre or particularly mockable in Japan, where most every new product has a pseudo-occidental names.

(By the way, I think the Wega "V" sound is because it was originally a German company. A common misconception is that all Japanese things written in the roman alphabet are supposed to be English. Or semi-English. Or whatever the heck you can call them.)

I can't help but think that since Nintendo is ultimately a Japanese company, any opposition to the name in world markets (especially English-speaking countries) was probably largely ignored by the mother company. And who are we to say that they're wrong? Being wacky and cute and Japanese has been Nintendo's model of success in the world market up until now.

From the articles I've read, this was accomplished using (some subset of) ASC Purple, which is full of a lot of either custom or IBM-proprietary stuff (or else stuff that nobody but IBM seems to be using).

According to the published/unclassified spec sheet:

"Purple has 2 million gigabytes of storage from more than 11,000 Serial ATA and Fibre Channel disks. ... Each login node has eight 10-gigabytes-per-second network connections for parallel file transfer protocol and two 1-gigabyte-per-second network connections for network file systems and secure shell protocol. The system has a three-stage 1,536 port dual plane Federation switch interconnect ..."

I think that it was this last thing, the Federation interconnect, that they were pushing the data over in this test, since it forms the backbone of the machine and links the storage nodes to the login node controllers, which then connect to the login nodes themselves (of which there are apparently over 1,400 of, according to this). I couldn't find much information on Federation, as it seems to only be used in a few systems, of which Purple is the most notable. One reference I found seems to put it at 1.49 GB/sec (11.92 Gbit/s) bandwidth, although it's not clear if that's "dual plane" Federation or not. 4X SDR Infiniband is around 10 Gbit/sec, IIRC, so Federation's a little faster.

Federation was the project name. HPS is the official product name. It was originally supposed to be a NUMA interconnect, but IBM changed their mind on NUMA. IBM's performance report is here:

http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/pseries/hard ware/whitepapers/pseries_hps_perf.pdf

The theoretical max banwidth is 2 gigabytes/sec for send and 2 gigabytes/sec for receive for each adapter, simultaneously. With the big Squadrons box, 16 adapters can be used to achieve a max of 64 gigabytes/sec/machine. Federation GA 1 was a rather bulky zero copy protocol stack. GA 2 was a return to the FIFO packet mode that was the basis of SP2 (colony/corsair) (yes, to save our asses because the zero copy architecture was horrible wrt latency). GA 3 added RDMA capabilities to the FIFO packet mode stack, which provided low latency __and__ high bandwidth.

"dual plane" means that each node is connected to 2 different Federation networks. They built the machine with 2 separate networks to reduce the number of hops that it takes to cross the network. Even with 2 planes it still can take 3 hops (they seem to always be chopping the machine up...).

There is more info here:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg246978 .pdf

Hitachi's SR11000 machines use POWER5, AIX5L, and Federation.

http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/comp/hpc/SR_e/11ktop _e.html

As one example, check out the Hitachi Mu chip, http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/mu-chip/ [hitachi.co.jp] The *only* thing it holds is a unique ID, like a serial number. That's it. All logic, all mapping, everything else has to happen from the back-end database.

The RFID tags that go on products are almost all EPC global gen2 tags. There is a taxonomy that all manufacturers use, as the poster above correctly guessed. For example, a class 0 tag must store:

• A 21-bit domain manager, effectively a code for each manufacturer. (Ex: gillette)
• A 17-bit object class, which is a code for each product a manufacturer makes. (Ex: men's mach three turbo razor in black)
• A 24-bit serial number, unique to that specific item. (Remember, kids, 2^24 = nearly 18 million unique IDs.)

So, not to be overly blunt, you're just wrong. Products do have unique codes, and there are increasingly sophesticated back-end databases to support tracking these codes.

See http://av.hitachi.co.jp/deck/product/dvdh1000w/ind ex.html.

Don't forget to check the roll of tinfoil before building your hat, just in case they put an RFID tag in the sheet!!!

That's no joke. Check out "the world's smallest RFID"

Novell is putting a lot of money and engineers behind Openswan. Other vendors are getting on board too.

Will it be as big as KAME's list of corporations? KAME's list:
Fujitsu Limited
Hitachi, Ltd.
Internet Initiative Japan Inc.
NEC Corporation
Toshiba Corporation
Yokogawa Electric Corporation

This chip doesn't have collision avoidance, though. So a stack of bills wouldn't be individually readable.

So the technology isn't quite here yet to do it right, but it's getting close. Currently, you can get collision avoidance or tiny size, but not both. Good collision avoidance combined with fast data transfers is hard, and it's wanted by retailers, who want to be able to read out each box in a carton individually. That could be thousands of items. That's do-able, but not with the low-cost tags yet. Retailers want to get tag costs down to around $0.02. Realistically, today RFID tags cost upwards of $0.25.

True public key challenge/response hasn't made it into the smallest tags, either. Challenge/response is available in keyring size and in credit card size, and is used for access control applications. But the low end tags can't do that yet.

Two more years, and this will really be happening. But not yet.

As can be seen, a screen spinning rapidly about a vertical axis reflects images generated sequentially by a single projector, pointing up. The images first reflect off the mirrored top cover, down onto smaller mirrors arranged around the base of the viewing chamber onto the spinning screen. The full 3-D cycle of images are projected once per revolution of the screen, so the screen sees a slightly different image as it aligns with each mirror.

The screen is near-transparent, so it is possible to look "through" a projected image. Suggested uses include an information display terminal, a video conferencing terminal or an arcade game.

Of course, 24 video cameras at the transmitting side won't be cheap.

In this image you can see that only 1 projector is used. The 24 views are encoded in a single image which is reflected by 24 mirrors around the central rotating one. So to have a 24fps animation you only need a 24fps projector. The drawback of course if that the resolution is divided by 24. As the final display is quite small, it's better to have lower resolution but not dividing the framerate by 24!

Transpost product homepage (Japanese w/ pictures) at Hitachi Human Interaction Lab.

Other products from this laboratory include Waterscape (English).

Transpost product homepage (Japanese w/ pictures) at Hitachi Human Interaction Lab.

Other products from this laboratory include Waterscape (English).

Transpost product homepage (Japanese w/ pictures) at Hitachi Human Interaction Lab.

Other products from this laboratory include Waterscape (English).

http://hhil.hitachi.co.jp/products/transpost.htm

Here is more information on this laptop. It's in japanese, but the pictures speak a thousand words.

There are some reviews here. I've used the bulky but natural "virtual vision" goggles they mention, and yes, it's perfect for camcorders and mangles text. TekGear has some more modern displays, all of which look like your eyes are being attacked by a small piece of aluminum. They also carry the "best selling QUGA (?) monocule in the world" a one-eyed machine very close to what you describe except that the resolution is low and you look like a call center employee with the microphone stuck in your eye. There are also some in the Imac family, Bizrate has a list of several. Liteye puts out some sufficiently small displays of reasonable image integrity. Once again, still looks funky but in a funkytional sort of way. Plus, they are more of a parts supplier than a solutions provider. MicroOptical has several, with their tech briefly reviewed by about.com.

If you are looking to purchase one, the two buzzwords to use are head mounted display and wearable display. Hitachi even combined buzz and produced a wearable internet applicance, though only for the japanese and who knows if it was released.

I hope that gives you some ideas. I also hope some people post here who didn't just pick through google :).

The guy is typing with his thumbs! And the icons look pinhead-size. This is all very neat how we can shrink things smaller and smaller, but... ergonomics anyone? How about keeping your eyesight past your 20's?

I think the whole PDA/Tablet PC/Subnotebook thing is in general pretty silly. For general use they are horrible. Better to get something like the Hitachi WIA with an input device like the Twiddler and keep your wrists and eyes healthy.

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

First off, for those who mentioned this looks like the Xybernaut Poma, you are correct.

From the main english Hitachi page: FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, July 18, 2001 - Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) and Xybernaut Corporation (NASDAQ: XYBR), today announced that Hitachi has entered into a license agreement under Xybernaut's broad patents for wearable computing and communications to develop a Wearable Internet Appliance (WIA) for the consumer market.

That said, I played around with one of those for a little bit when I visited the Xybernaut booth at Comdex. My thoughts? They are ok items. The screen projection is not too bad. Until you can focus one eye on the screen and simultaneously focus the other eye on faraway objects, you'll still only either chew gum or walk...if you know what I mean. The screen does flip up so both eyes can be used to focus on the task at hand when needed.

Someone asked about the input device. The one I played with (and you can see in the photos) has a hand-held input device. It has a touch screen which you move your finger (or rather thumb) around on to move the mouse pointer. I don't remember a keyboard, but I think another model might have had small keyboard you strap to your forearm. Otherwise, I think the model I played with had an on-screen keyboard you can bring up and tap out virtual keystrokes with the mouse pointer. This of course was some what a pain in the arse for me...but I guess YMMV.

This will be fairly useful in warehouse situations. Maybe on an assembly line: you can work on your task, and if computer assistance is needed, just flip the screen down and look up a part number or whatever. These still aren't the best for long-term computing sessions.

-A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC

Here's a quick translation of the Japanese news release:

------

Industrial-use wearable Internet appliance launched in Japanese market
Hitachi, Ltd.'s venture company, Net-PDA, (CEO: Matsuoka Shigeru) will begin shipping the WIA-100NB wearable Internet appliance, with head-mounted display, from February 28.
Mobile computing needs are increasing with the spread of wireless communication infrastructure and Internet access from mobile phones.
The company completed an OEM licensing contract for wearable Internet appliances with the U.S. Xybernaut Corp. in June of 2001, and has conducted marketing in Japan. As a result, it judged that wearable Internet appliances are an effective solution for work environments such as clean rooms and machine rooms where printed materials cannot be used, as well as for hands-free viewing of blueprints and Internet/intranet access via PHS [a Japanese form of mobile phone] and wireless LAN.
The WIA-100NB, in order to meet these needs, weighs 310 grams for the main body, with the head-mounted display weighing a mere 80 grams, and the total package weighing less than 500 grams even with the addition of a pointing device. By rubbing the pointing device's optical sensor with a thumb, it is possible to move the cursor on the head-mounted display, allowing the operation of the unit in any position.
Used as terminals for improving work efficiency, wearable Internet applicances are predicted to form a major part of the market for portable information devices. The company aims to develop this valuable market further.

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Then it lists the specs, and where to buy it (here, but you'd better know Japanese).

Here's a quick translation of the Japanese news release:

------

Industrial-use wearable Internet appliance launched in Japanese market
Hitachi, Ltd.'s venture company, Net-PDA, (CEO: Matsuoka Shigeru) will begin shipping the WIA-100NB wearable Internet appliance, with head-mounted display, from February 28.
Mobile computing needs are increasing with the spread of wireless communication infrastructure and Internet access from mobile phones.
The company completed an OEM licensing contract for wearable Internet appliances with the U.S. Xybernaut Corp. in June of 2001, and has conducted marketing in Japan. As a result, it judged that wearable Internet appliances are an effective solution for work environments such as clean rooms and machine rooms where printed materials cannot be used, as well as for hands-free viewing of blueprints and Internet/intranet access via PHS [a Japanese form of mobile phone] and wireless LAN.
The WIA-100NB, in order to meet these needs, weighs 310 grams for the main body, with the head-mounted display weighing a mere 80 grams, and the total package weighing less than 500 grams even with the addition of a pointing device. By rubbing the pointing device's optical sensor with a thumb, it is possible to move the cursor on the head-mounted display, allowing the operation of the unit in any position.
Used as terminals for improving work efficiency, wearable Internet applicances are predicted to form a major part of the market for portable information devices. The company aims to develop this valuable market further.

-------

Then it lists the specs, and where to buy it (here, but you'd better know Japanese).

The English FAQ, located here, contains some wonderful translations. Here are some examples:

"Therefore, you can get your desk-top PC level of images from PDA size and weight of control unit."

WIA will come with you and present all the images while you are relaxing in couch, sofa, or even in bed.

This device is specially designed for WIA.You will touch the window shining blue on the device, and move the finger to the direction you would like to move the pointer in the screen

You can use it upside down, which is preferable when you read books in bed

Dont get me wrong - this looks like a great product - it just brought back memories of "someone set up us the bomb."

You may wonder why anyone would launch a new tape format in 2002; but D-VHS has actually been around for several years.

If you can read Japanese you can read the press release for the launch of Hitachi's first D-VHS machine in August 1998 here; otherwise you might like to take a look at this press release from 1999 which announces the first HD consumer VCR, which used D-VHS and was manufactured by Panasonic.

When D-VHS kit was first being developed it was all but impossible for consumers to record to DVD, so D-VHS looked like it might have a future. But DVD recording technology started to become affordable very soon after, so I guess by the time the manufacturers were ready to really push D-VHS in the West it was a non-starter.

And I can't say I'm surprised the major studios are looking at it - for the time being at least, no-one's hacked the copy protection, which is more than can be said for DVDs!

Hitachi also has a webpad that uses the Crusoe and runs Midori, the FLORA-ie55mi. I have actually had the chance to play with one, it is really nifty. Great on screen keyboard.

Here is the link. It's in Japanese. Babelfish to the rescue?

Caino

Don't touch my .sig there!

Sorry, but who said microporcessors have to be made out of smi-conductors? Thet's NOT the only technology that allows the creation of logical circuits. There is an ATM switch, for example, made by Hitachi, that uses superconducting circuitry. The superconducting devices I know of, use the Josephson junction to operate as logical gates. Derivatives are Single Flux Quantum Logic and Quantum Magneto Flux Logic. And Josephson junctions are not new technology, actually. We studied them in Uni 7 years ago, from a book that was already 4 years old.

I am sure this only shows what is the difference between a self-proclaimed geek mentality, and a scientist: a true scientist is open-minded, while the others can't see over their nose. That's why most of ./ readers will claim Linux to be superior to anything, even if they don't know about the laternatives. Same thing here: there is a whole world of different solid-state technologies that are not based on silicon, you just have to open your mind to, arrgh, sciences like phisics and chemistry.

Here is some more info from the Japanese site:

Hitachi DVD (Camera and Drive, et al) Home Page The Camera's (the DZ-MV100) Home Page "Information" Accessories Specifications Editing ("Play-List") Demo Still Samples Other Hitachi DVD and DVD-RAM Related Products

-AP

Here is some more info from the Japanese site:

Hitachi DVD (Camera and Drive, et al) Home Page The Camera's (the DZ-MV100) Home Page "Information" Accessories Specifications Editing ("Play-List") Demo Still Samples Other Hitachi DVD and DVD-RAM Related Products

-AP

Here is some more info from the Japanese site:

Hitachi DVD (Camera and Drive, et al) Home Page The Camera's (the DZ-MV100) Home Page "Information" Accessories Specifications Editing ("Play-List") Demo Still Samples Other Hitachi DVD and DVD-RAM Related Products

-AP

Here is some more info from the Japanese site:

Hitachi DVD (Camera and Drive, et al) Home Page The Camera's (the DZ-MV100) Home Page "Information" Accessories Specifications Editing ("Play-List") Demo Still Samples Other Hitachi DVD and DVD-RAM Related Products

-AP

Here is some more info from the Japanese site:

Hitachi DVD (Camera and Drive, et al) Home Page The Camera's (the DZ-MV100) Home Page "Information" Accessories Specifications Editing ("Play-List") Demo Still Samples Other Hitachi DVD and DVD-RAM Related Products

-AP

Here is some more info from the Japanese site:

Hitachi DVD (Camera and Drive, et al) Home Page The Camera's (the DZ-MV100) Home Page "Information" Accessories Specifications Editing ("Play-List") Demo Still Samples Other Hitachi DVD and DVD-RAM Related Products

-AP

Here is some more info from the Japanese site:

Hitachi DVD (Camera and Drive, et al) Home Page The Camera's (the DZ-MV100) Home Page "Information" Accessories Specifications Editing ("Play-List") Demo Still Samples Other Hitachi DVD and DVD-RAM Related Products

-AP

Here is some more info from the Japanese site:

Hitachi DVD (Camera and Drive, et al) Home Page The Camera's (the DZ-MV100) Home Page "Information" Accessories Specifications Editing ("Play-List") Demo Still Samples Other Hitachi DVD and DVD-RAM Related Products

-AP

"Hitachi preps first DVD-RAM camcorder" on ZDNet
"Hitachi to hit market with first DVD-RAM camcorder" on ZDNet
"Hitachi shows DVD-RAM camcorder" on IDG
The Google search I used to find all this stuff
I can't find a hitachi mirror on their global or japanese sites.

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It's some hitachi software, but if you need some MS IPv6 here is your answer.

Hitachi's IPv6 Stuff

True though microsoft themselves are behind the bandwagon.

The Hitachi machine can achieve these figures for two reasons:

1) Their Interconnect
2) Their Processors

The interconnect is a hyper-bar crossbar network, with a bandwidth of 1GByte. Also they are able to get sustained message passing performance of about 90% like they did on their previous machine the SR2201. Other vendors would provide 60-65% of peak.

The number listed in the Top500 for processors is a bit mis-leading, this is in fact the number of nodes. The Hitachi nodes are made up of a number of processors, each with pseudo-vector optimisation (allowing them to miss the cache when loading large memory blocks). This optimisation means the chip can have a high sustained performance on large scale numeric problems. The nodes can be configured as either SMP of vector. This allows the machine to address a much wider range of domain problems.

Hitachi have a very brief page describing their machines SR8000 Product Page

I would love to see what a fully configured machine could do (6 TFlops!).

BTW, Linpack is not a great gauge of a Supercomputers performance. When there a lot of nodes it becomes message bound and does not reflect the true performance of the machine. When looking at machines like this it is important to look at benchmarks related to domain problems. e.g. It does not really matter what interconnect you have if you are doing ray-tracing, but it matters a great deal when doing astro-physics.