Press Releases

Kawasaki, Japan, Feb 10, 2010 - (ACN Newswire) - Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. and the University of Toronto today announced their joint development of a new processing method for transceiver chips used in gigabit-class(1) high-speed data transmission over wirelines. The new technology employs digital circuitry to replace previously-required structures that used analog circuits. While analog processing require circuits that are adapted to the specifications of a signal being transmitted, such as transmission distance and amplitude, this new digital approach can perform these optimizations automatically, so that a single circuit could be used to accommodate a wide range of various wireline communications. Compared to conventional processing methods, this new digital-processing method makes it possible to shorten development periods by approximately half. It is anticipated that this new technology in the future could be applied to a variety of wireline communication applications, including 10 Gbps high-speed Ethernet in datacenters.

Details of this technology were presented at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2010 (ISSCC 2010) being held in San Francisco from February 7-11. (Presentation number: 8.7)

Background and Technological Challenges

File size data volumes for large photographic, audio, and video files are becoming increasingly larger, thus requiring a significant amount of bandwidth to transmit, leading to demand for ever-faster wireline data communications. Conventional transceiver chips rely on analog circuitry which needs to be optimized to accommodate specifications of the signal being transmitted - such as transmission distance and amplitude - and therefore require multiple transceiver chips to be designed in order to accommodate for various applications.

With a growing diversity of devices featuring high-speed data transmission, the need to optimize an existing technology for every new type of device or model has become a bottleneck in the development process. Efforts to develop transceiver chips within short development periods that can accommodate the wide range of different devices have been proven challenging.

Newly-developed Technology

Fujitsu Laboratories and the University of Toronto have developed a digital circuit-based transceiver chip. Featuring digital circuitry, the new transceiver chip can automatically optimize itself for a variety of high-speed communications circuits, thus significantly reducing development periods by approximately half compared with conventional methods.

This technology detects variations in the delay on the time axis of the input signal, caused during data transmission, and based on that can automatically adjust the timing it uses for judging whether an incoming signal is a 0 or 1 (Figure 1). Since variations in data transmissions increase along with faster transmission speeds, this new technology is essential for accurate data exchange. This is the world's first technology to achieve Gbps-class speeds without the use of analog circuitry elements, while offering fully-digital timing adjustments for signal-determination.

Results

As a world's first, by using digital circuitry-based high-speed transceiver technology, Fujitsu Laboratories and the University of Toronto's new technology makes it possible to reduce the design and development period for a gigabit-class transceiver chip by approximately one-half (1/2) compared with conventional methods. This suggests that transceiver chips for a wide range of communications devices could be offered in a timely manner.

Future Developments

Fujitsu Laboratories and the University of Toronto will continue with development of this technology to optimize the digital signal processing, to further reduce the transceiver's power consumption.

Glossary and Notes

1 Gigabit-class/Gigabits-per-second (Gbps):Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) expresses data rate and indicates how many gigabits can be transferred per second. 10 Gbps is 10 billion bits-per-second (10 billion bps) = 10,000 megabits-per-second (10,000 Mbps), and indicates that 10 billion bits of data can be transferred per second.

About University of Toronto

Established in 1827, the University of Toronto is Canada's largest university, recognized as a global leader in research and teaching. U of T's distinguished faculty, institutional record of groundbreaking scholarship and wealth of innovative academic opportunities continually attract outstanding students and academics from around the world. U of T is committed to providing a learning experience that benefits from both a scale almost unparalleled in North America and from the close-knit learning communities made possible through its college system and academic divisions. Located in and around Toronto, one of the world's most diverse regions, U of T's vibrant academic life is defined by a unique degree of cultural diversity in its learning community. The University is sustained environmentally by three green campuses, where renowned heritage buildings stand beside award-winning innovations in architectural design.

For more information: http://www.utoronto.ca/

About Fujitsu Ltd

Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 160,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$47 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009. For more information, please visit www.fujitsu.com.

Contact: Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd.
Design Solutions Lab.
Platform Technologies Lab.
Tel: +81-44-754-2635
E-mail:hsio_adc_pr@ml.labs.fujitsu.com

University of Toronto
Prof. Ali Sheikholeslami
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tel: +1(416)978-1681
E-mail:ali@eecg.utoronto.ca
Address: 10 King's College Road, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G4

Copyright 2010 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved.

Kawasaki, Japan, Feb 10, 2010 - (ACN Newswire) - Fujitsu Laboratories Limited and the University of Toronto today announced that they have jointly developed the world's first high-reliability read-method for use with spin-torque-transfer (STT) MRAM(1) that is insusceptible to erroneous writes. STT MRAM is regarded as a potential future form of non-volatile memory(2) that could be used as an alternative to flash memory. NOR flash memory that is embedded in microcontrollers widely used in mobile phones and other electronic devices is expected to reach the limits of its feasible miniaturization in the near future, which has led to the search for an alternative low-power non-volatile memory that will allow continued necessary miniaturization. By resolving one of the major obstacles to using STT MRAM, Fujitsu and the University of Toronto's new read-method marks a major step towards the practical implementation of STT MRAM as a necessary replacement for flash memory, in view of future requirements that will be necessary for compact and low-power electronic devices.

Details of this technology were presented at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2010 (ISSCC 2010) being held in San Francisco from February 7-11. (Presentation number: 14.1)

Background

Many electronic devices such as mobile phones or PDAs use microcontrollers with embedded flash memory, which allows onboard software to be rewritten. However, NOR flash memory used in such microcontrollers is nearing the physical limits of its miniaturization, which has led to research on various types of memory that could replace NOR flash memory.

STT MRAM, which uses magnetic materials as the memory storage element, is gaining attention as an emerging potential candidate to replace flash memory, as STT MRAM meets the needs for speed, low power consumption, and miniaturization that would make it a good candidate to replace flash memory.

Technological Challenges

STT MRAM uses memory storage elements that take advantage of the effect in which a current that is passed through a magnetic material - such as a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ)(3) - reverses its direction of magnetization (Figure 1). Passing a current through the MTJ causes its direction of magnetization to switch between a parallel or anti-parallel state, which has the effect of switching between low resistance and high resistance. Because this can be used to represent the 1s and 0s of digital information, STT MRAM can be used as a non-volatile memory.

Reading STT MRAM involves applying a voltage to the MTJ to discover whether the MTJ offers high resistance to current ("1") or low ("0"). However, a relatively high voltage needs to be applied to the MTJ to correctly determine whether its resistance is high or low, and the current passed at this voltage leaves little difference between the read-current and the write-current. Any fluctuation in the electrical characteristics of individual MTJs could cause what was intended as a read-current, to have the effect of a write-current, thus reversing the direction of magnetization of the MTJ.

Newly-developed Technology

In a joint collaboration, Fujitsu Laboratories and the University of Toronto have developed an innovative circuit design (Figure 3) that for the first time resolves the issue of erroneous writes in STT MRAM during read operations.

The newly developed read-method uses a negative resistance(4) that is intermediate between the MTJ's high resistance and low resistance on a parallel circuit (Figure 4). If the MTJ is in a high-resistance state, this circuit exhibits negative-resistance characteristics. If the MTJ is in a low-resistance state, then it exhibits normal-resistance characteristics. These characteristics allow the resistance value to be read at lower voltages than before, suppressing the tendency of the read operation to reverse the direction of magnetization and avoiding the problem of erroneous write operations.

Results

The development of this new read circuit with negative resistance has resulted in STT MRAM that is insusceptible to erroneous writes caused by fluctuations in the electrical characteristics of the MTJs. It is anticipated that the STT MRAM used as miniaturized non-volatile memory would enable greater high-performance in mobile phones and other electronic devices.

Future Developments

Fujitsu Laboratories and the University of Toronto plan to continue with R&D related to STT MRAM to strive toward practical implementation, such as lowering write currents and developing process technologies for further miniaturization.

Glossary and Notes

1 Spin- Torque-Transfer MRAM:Spin-torque-transfer magnetoresistive (STT) random access memory. MRAM that uses the "spin-torque-transfer" effect to reverse the direction of magnetization of an element by passing current through it.

2 Non-volatile memory:Memory that persists even when electrical power is cut.

3 Magnetic tunnel junction (MJT):A tunnel junction that uses the magnetoresistive effect. Consists of a recording layer made of ferromagnetic material, an insulating film a few atoms thick, and a layer made of ferromagnetic material that will not change its direction of magnetization in the presence of a current.

4 Negative resistance:An element that has negative resistance value, in which its current decreases when voltage rises.

About University of Toronto

Established in 1827, the University of Toronto is Canada's largest university, recognized as a global leader in research and teaching. U of T's distinguished faculty, institutional record of groundbreaking scholarship and wealth of innovative academic opportunities continually attract outstanding students and academics from around the world. U of T is committed to providing a learning experience that benefits from both a scale almost unparalleled in North America and from the close-knit learning communities made possible through its college system and academic divisions. Located in and around Toronto, one of the world's most diverse regions, U of T's vibrant academic life is defined by a unique degree of cultural diversity in its learning community. The University is sustained environmentally by three green campuses, where renowned heritage buildings stand beside award-winning innovations in architectural design.

For more information: http://www.utoronto.ca/

About Fujitsu Ltd

Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 160,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$47 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009. For more information, please visit www.fujitsu.com.

Contact: Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd.
Technology Integration Lab.
Platform Technologies Lab.
Tel: +81(46)250-8379
E-mail:til-si@ml.labs.fujitsu.com

University of Toronto
Prof. Ali Sheikholeslami
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tel: +1(416)978-1681
E-mail:ali@eecg.utoronto.ca
Address: 10 King's College Road, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G4 Canada

Copyright 2010 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved.

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9178e1/medical_devices_ma) has announced the addition of the "Medical Devices Market in Latin America 2008-2012" report to their offering.

The Medical Devices market is introducing better therapies and solutions through the advancement in technology. The market holds a tremendous potential for devices offering minimal invasive treatment procedures, providing low cost diagnosis, monitoring and curing procedures with short recovery times. Further, the development of convergent products such as drug enhanced devices, next generation products (that enable organ regeneration) and advanced cellular therapy will offer potential opportunities within the market.

The Latin American market is witnessing a growth; especially in countries such as Brazil, Mexico, etc. The expansion of the healthcare sector in these markets will offer expansion opportunities for the Medical devices. Further, countries like Argentina, Columbia, and Cuba also represent the developing Medical devices market, which holds potential opportunities.

However, Chile, Peru and Venezuela are still in their phase of development; and therefore, the market in these countries is highly dependent on imports from the US and Europe.

The report by TechNavio Insights forecasts the size of the medical devices market in Latin America over the period 2008-2012. Further, it discusses the key market trends, drivers and challenges of the medical devices market in Latin America market and profiles some of the key vendors of this industry.

Key Topics Covered:

    --  Introduction
    --  Medical Devices in Latin America Market Size & Forecast
    --  Geographic Segmentation
    --  Market Trends of Medical Devices in Latin America
    --  Growth Drivers of Medical Devices in the Latin America
    --  Challenges for Medical Devices in Latin America
    --  Major Medical Devices Vendors
    --  Other Vendors
    --  Other Reports in this Series
    --  List of Exhibits
    --  Exhibit 2.1: Latin America Medical Devices Market Size and Forecast
        2008-2012 (In $ million)
    --  Exhibit 3.1: Latin America Medical Devices Market Segmentation by
        Geography -2008

Companies Mentioned:

    --  Baxter International Inc
    --  Boston Scientific Corporation
    --  GE Healthcare
    --  Johnson & Johnson
    --  Medtronic, Inc
    --  Baumer SA
    --  Biosensor IndComLtda
    --  Cmos Drake Do Nordeste Ltda
    --  KTakaoka IndComLtda
    --  XPRO Sistemas Ltda

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9178e1/medical_devices_ma

    Source: Research and Markets

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

FUND                       db x-trackers MSCI Russia capped Index ETF

DEALING DATE               09-Feb-10

NAV PER SHARE              USD27.3798

NUMBER OF SHARES IN ISSUE  6,399,195

CODE

    Source: db x-trackers MSCI Russia 25% capped Index ETF

German Car Manufacturer to Rely on Multiphysics Engineering Simulation Solutions from ANSYS

SOUTHPOINTE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS), a global innovator of simulation software and technologies designed to optimize product development processes, today announced that Volkswagen AG, one of the world's largest car producers, has signed a master agreement with ANSYS and intends to widen its use of the most comprehensive engineering simulation solution available today. The strategic decision to use ANSYS(R) software was due both to the bandwidth of applications that can be addressed as well as to the innovative ANSYS(R) Workbench(TM) platform that allows for a substantial process compression.

In its research and development, Volkswagen uses structural mechanics, fluid dynamics and explicit analysis tools from ANSYS to perform, among other applications, studies on climate control, headlights and engine internal flow.

"Simulation Driven Product Development(TM) is applied in nearly every industry to drive product development and accelerate time to market," said Dr. Albrecht Gill, regional sales director at ANSYS Germany. "Mere experience and prototyping is not sufficient in today's dynamic environment. Forward-looking companies like Volkswagen are increasing their use of simulation technology to lower their development costs and gain more confidence in designs."

"The automotive market is highly competitive, and technological advances are being incorporated in modern cars at an ever-faster pace. To stay at the top, there is no way around applying simulation tools to drive product development and innovation. Our decision for simulation software from ANSYS is based on the depth and breadth of the solution we needed to cover our simulation needs," said Dr. Ralph Sundermeier, head of the Department for CAE-methods at Volkswagen AG. "The ANSYS Workbench concept is convincing because we can easily do coupled simulations and, in this way, accurately account for the entire range of physics."

For downloadable images, visit http://www.ansys.com/newsimages.

Volkswagen AG

The Volkswagen Group, headquartered in Wolfsburg (Germany), is one of the world's leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. In 2008, the Group increased the number of vehicles delivered to customers to 6.257 million (2007: 6.190 million), corresponding to a 10.3 percent share of the world passenger car market. In Western Europe, the largest car market in the world, just over one in five new cars (20.3 percent) comes from the Volkswagen Group. Group sales rose in 2008 to 113.8 billion euros (2007: 108.9 billion). Profit after tax in the 2008 financial year amounted to 4.69 billion euros (2007: 4.12 billion).

The Group operates 61 production plants in fifteen European countries and a further six countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa. Around the world, nearly 370,000 employees produce more than 26,600 vehicles or are involved in vehicle-related services each working day. The Volkswagen Group sells its vehicles in more than 150 countries. It is the goal of the Group to offer attractive, safe and environmentally sound vehicles which are competitive on an increasingly tough market and which set world standards in their respective classes.

http://www.volkswagen.com

ANSYS, Inc.

ANSYS, Inc., founded in 1970, develops and globally markets engineering simulation software and technologies widely used by engineers, designers, researchers and students across a broad spectrum of industries and academia. The Company focuses on the development of open and flexible solutions that enable users to analyze designs directly on the desktop, providing a common platform for fast, efficient and cost-conscious product development, from design concept to final-stage testing and validation. The Company and its global network of channel partners provide sales, support and training for customers. Headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, with more than 60 strategic sales locations throughout the world, ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries employ over 1,600 people and distribute ANSYS products through a network of channel partners in over 40 countries.

www.ansys.com

ANSYS, ANSYS Workbench, Ansoft, AUTODYN, CFX, FLUENT, and any and all ANSYS, Inc. brand, product, service and feature names, logos and slogans are registered trademarks or trademarks of ANSYS, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries. All other brand, product, service and feature names or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Customer: ANSS-C

    Source: ANSYS, Inc.