Inspection System checks thermal seal quality

Utilizing infrared thermal imaging technologies, Maxline 2 inspects seals and generates control outputs with no negative effect on production time or speed. Inspection tool specifically monitors thermal seal signatures and generates pass/fail results with diagnostic codes. With image de-burring feature, system can inspect continuous motion items at up to 700/min, and for indexing applications without de-burring feature, it can perform up to 300 inspections/min.

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Ircon is pleased to introduce an innovative new solution designed to rapidly and automatically inspect thermal seal quality within production processes.

The Maxline 2 Thermal Seal Checking System applies infrared thermal imaging technologies in a unique and innovative way - instantly inspecting seals and generating control outputs with no negative effect to production time or speed.

The solution provides a flexible, in-process, non-destructive means for inspecting every seal in a production process, even if rapid and continuous. It provides an inspection tool that specifically monitors thermal seal signatures and generates "pass/fail" results with diagnostic codes

Hot Seal Defects -- that may result from contaminants in the sealing area or overheated or unevenly-heated seal bars or heaters. This may lead to seal weakness or failure due to seal bubbling or roll-off.

Cold Seal Defects -- that may result from under-heated seal bars or heaters. This may lead to seal weakness or failure due to weak spots, gaps or voids.

Seal Voids and Creases -- that may result due to defects in seal bar or heater areas, or misallignment of sealing equipment or materials.

As sealing errors are detected, the software can alert you to the type of error that is occurring, and can be programmed to automatically relay control signals to your process system(s) and equipment. Built-in TCP/IP networking capabilities also enables remote access -- to the system and the data it generates -- for those that need it.

Set-up of inspection parameters is highly flexible, designed for tailoring to a variety of production requirements, and settings can be saved and re-set for different production runs. The system also collects and stores data about every item inspected, for traceability and reporting purposes.

An advanced, rugged infrared sensing camera is included, designed to provide many years of reliable service placed in hostile production environments.

Targeted primarily to food, drug and medical equipment manufacturers, this system provides a quality control and process validation solution meant to increase inspection speed and coverage while lowering inspection costs and product recall risks.

Additional information on the Ircon Maxline 2 Thermal Seal Checking System can be found by registering on our web site a/sealcheck.

To discuss this system in further detail, and arrange a possible live demonstration of the system within your operations, please contact an Ircon representative or distributor near you.

Ircon specializes in the design, manufacture and marketing of a wide range of industrial, non-contact, temperature measuring solutions.

Products include infrared thermometers, line scanning systems, thermal imaging cameras and software, and related accessories.

High wire act: an installer can help juggle electronic systems and specialist

ust about any custom builder will tell you the days when new-home buyers were satisfied with a television in the den and a stereo in the living room are long gone. Clients planning custom homes are now likely to ask for a variety of electronic upgrades, from waterproof speakers in the shower to a dedicated home theater. Staying ahead of that technological wave during an extended design and construction schedule can be a challenge, requiring builders not only to know the right specialists but to keep track of what they're doing as well.

Home systems often include plasma televisions, complicated controls for lights and mechanical equipment, whole-house sound systems, and home offices complete with local area computer networks. Some features require complicated custom-made cabinetry, and linking all these components together requires enough cabling to leave even experienced designers agog. Minnesota--based architect Dale Mulfinger of SALA Architects is still amazed at how much extra wiring is required even though complex electronic systems are now routine. "The amount of spaghetti is truly amazing" he says.

Builders and architects can feel lost when it comes to recommending and installing the kind of hardware that buyers ask for. As a result, system installers are often invited to join the planning process, ideally before construction has actually started. These specialists can offer valuable advice to clients while overseeing the installation of special cabling and hardware. But with construction often taking a year or more, good communication, wire detailed planning, and clearly defined roles for everyone on the jobsite are essential lot keeping problems at bay

Builders, architects, and installers themselves are universal in suggesting that planning for electronic systems start early. "The biggest thing is that you need to get in on the ground floor, in the beginning, because all that pre-wiring needs to go in when the house is being wired," says Joe Stanton, a Rhode Island custom builder and owner of JMS Builders. "It's much cheaper to go in and pre-wire rooms than it is to go back in and try to retrofit something later. So even if the people didn't think they wanted to have the latest and the greatest for networking and computers, it's much easier to run big cable and have the option to do all that."

Even when clients don't appear interested in extensive home entertainment systems or lighting and HVAC controls, installing the cabling allows them to change their minds later. And it probably will make file house more attractive when owners want to sell.

Stanton connects his client with a specialist he knows lie Call count on, then suggests that his clients sign a separate contract with him. That saves Stanton from fielding weekend calls later about a balky television or light control panel. "I make the connection and I recommend who they could use," he says, "but they write their contract direct and I stay outside of it. It's no different than me recommending an appliance store where they can pick out their appliances. They don't actually buy them from me."

Other builders may sign on a specialist but still prefer a closer connection with the work. For example, Matthew Beardsley, a custom builder in Bozeman, Mont., relies on an outside specialist for the installation, but wants to handle any trouble calls once the client has moved in. "We typically do everything," he says. "If the client has a problem, they call us, and we then contact the appropriate person. It's part of our way of keeping the client happy." One advantage of his approach is that it makes it easier to spot areas where planning or construction could be improved next time.

Classroom and Group Extension of Family Systems Concepts

The focus of this article is the extension of family systems concepts into the classroom as well as into educational, support, and counseling groups held in schools for family members. Family systems concepts and methods can be used to pursue goals in both the cognitive/academic and affective/social domains. The article begins with information on the extension of family systems perspectives into the academic worlds of curriculum and then instruction. Those discussions are followed by information on techniques, including metaphor and retraining, as they relate to family systems concepts. The article concludes with a section on socialization, which discusses in detail a family systems method called temperature reading.

ACADEMIC CURRICULUM

This part initially focuses on Satir's (1988) five communication stances, which are characterizations of human behavior. Four of the five are dysfunctional; the last is a functional, congruent stance. Information on these stances could be considered a curriculum content area in its own right, and family members might also benefit from the information. Further, understanding the stances can help school professionals in networking, making referrals to groups, as well as in counseling families. In other words, school professionals should be familiar with the stances and how the knowledge can help them when interacting with at-risk and special-needs students and their families. Following this discussion a new focus is engaged-concerns of parents about new and controversial curricula that are being considered or have been implemented in the school

An understanding of communication stances (Satir, 1988) can help school professionals to refine their personal communication styles so that they present a single-level, congruent message. Professionals can also use knowledge about the stances to identity dysfunctional communication in the schools and then to intervene to help others recognize incongruent communication and begin to use congruent communication. Satir (1983b, 1988) provided many examples of ways in which trained professionals can help others recognize and change their communication stances so that they are congruent most of the time.

This section provides a brief background on Satir's communication stances, describes each of the five stances, and provides examples of the use of communication stances as a curricular area for students. The discussion then turns to the implementation of such a curriculum with suggestions given for exploring personal communication stances and ways to respond to the stances of students and family members

A Roadmap for the Successful Implementation of Competitive Intelligence Systems

THE SUCCESSFUL DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF A SUCCESSFUL CI system requires a good project plan. Much [ike a roadmap, this plan serves to identify important miLestones and provide information about alternative routes that can help the project team(s) avoid delays. According to a survey by the Delphi Group, 58% of the useful knowledge of an organization is recorded information (documents and databases) and 42% resides in employee brains (Hickens 1999). Integrating knowledge management and competitive intelligence encourages their use, improves their quality and allows the firm to respond more rapidly to changing business conditions (Senge 1994), so the best CI system uses what is already inside the organization. One of the first decisions is whether to improve access to the organization's recorded information or elicit knowledge that currently resides in employee brains. Regardless of format or location, an organization's knowledge is generally filtered through both a cognitive dimension and a relatio nship dimension.

The cognitive dimension focuses on the "stuff," but to identify the important attributes of the relevant "stuff," it is important to know how it is filtered through the relationship dimension. The relationship dimension has the following characteristics: Experienced consultants have identified the following critical failure indicators: (1) lack of informed consensus; (2) acceptance of the status quo; (3) unwarranted trust in the vendor; (4) failure to support the business purpose; (5) a short term, internal, myopic approach; (6) paralysis by analysis; (7) sabotage by external predators; (8) suicide through ignoring project constraints; and (9) failure to consider business, human or technology limitations imposed on the project (Tyson, 1998). Careful planning is the best form of failure prevention. There are both management constraints and technical constraints to be considered. Management constraints involve three key problem areas--time, money and scope. The flexibility needed to deliver a quality project is severely hampered if any one or two of these three are fixed. For example, project constraints impact deadline constraints. A fixed budget with deadline constraints generally kills any chance of success. Regarding technical constraints, is there any fle xibility in terms of the tools available? It is imperative to avoid getting caught up in the "trade rag" hype, so a warning is appropriate here: NEVER buy off vendor presentations! Other key factors to consider include experience, whether legacy systems are involved and whether the system will be "bleeding edge" or a patch. It helps to know if this system will be a pilot for knowledge-sharing in the organization.

Unlike failure, success can't be guaranteed, but it is much more likely if the project includes: (1) flexible design; (2) willingness to implement a mechanized "less than ideal" system; (3) use of an evolutionary approach with prototyping; (4) giving users substantial (to total) control; (5) coordination by individual business units; and (6) active networking. Though there are many factors contributing to software project success, the presence of a committed project sponsor is one of the most important early success factors (Proccacino and Verner 2001). A committed sponsor has a significant impact on many of the project phases and project functions, including the (1) schedule estimates, (2) quality of the project team members, and (3) degree of interaction with other stakeholders.

Choosing Between Methodologies--Waterfall Lifecycle or Prototyping Lifecycle

Without early defined and agreed-upon acceptance criteria, there is no way to recognize when the project is completed or if it has been successful. Most project managers would prefer to use a waterfall lifecycle for project development as this ensures better control of the project and its schedule (Verner and Cerpa, 1997). A waterfall development methodology must begin with good requirements in order to ensure project success, as poor requirements are a major cause of project failure

Storage Changing So Fast It Even Obsoletes The Future - storage and networking planning - Industry Trend or Event

Just one year ago the IT industry was totally focused on the implications of the year 2000 and the effects that changing to a new century would have on computer systems. The impact of that event proved far less than anticipated and a year later we shift our focus to more strategic issues, trends, and observations shaping the computing industry. In particular the value of data continues to grow almost exponentially every day. Data (and storage) have become the center of the IT universe, as the computers are now satellites to the data storage infrastructure. Let's review some key trends and observations (factoids) from a variety of sources that may help with storage and networking planning as the New Year begins.

The worldwide Gigabit Ethernet packet switch market reached over 810,000 ports shipped in 2Q 2000, according to Cahners In-Stat Group. The high-tech market research firm expects the overall Gigabit Ethernet switch market to reach almost 4 million units in ports shipped and $4 billion in end-use revenue for 2000, resulting in an all time high: over 200 percent greater than the total number of ports shipped in 1999.

According to a recently published 2000 report "High Availability and Data Protection Practices" from Strategic Research, by 2003, databases will control access to more than 65% of the network's shared data. This further drives the requirement for true heterogeneous and homogeneous data-sharing.

Jupiter Research has released a study with pulse-quickening projections about the growth of the business-to-business commerce market. Jupiter's prediction that B-to-B commerce will expand from $336 million this year to $6.3 trillion in 2005 is likely to raise the heart rate of even the most composed IT administrators as they try to figure out how to accommodate such exponential expansion.

However, Seagate Technology Inc. reckons this time it's got a larger lead on the competition, having taken the capacity on its Barracuda drives from 73GB to 180GB.

Europe's application service provider market will jump from a $275.1M market in 1999 to a $13.7B market in 2005, according to international marketing consulting company Frost & Sullivan.

The picture changed in 2000, according to Internet statistics published in Tele-Geography 2001, this year's compendium of industry statistics from the Washington, DC-based firm. From 1999 to 2000, Internet bandwidth connecting Asian countries grew faster than any other region-to-region route in the world--including Internet bandwidth connected to the U.S. That meant that 13.5 percent of Asia's international Internet capacity was in-region, up from 6.2 percent the previous year. The Asian Internet is becoming less and less U.S.-centric and regional interconnection is on the upswing.

Storage Changing So Fast It Even Obsoletes The Future - storage and networking planning - Industry Trend or Event

Just one year ago the IT industry was totally focused on the implications of the year 2000 and the effects that changing to a new century would have on computer systems. The impact of that event proved far less than anticipated and a year later we shift our focus to more strategic issues, trends, and observations shaping the computing industry. In particular the value of data continues to grow almost exponentially every day. Data (and storage) have become the center of the IT universe, as the computers are now satellites to the data storage infrastructure. Let's review some key trends and observations (factoids) from a variety of sources that may help with storage and networking planning as the New Year begins.

The worldwide Gigabit Ethernet packet switch market reached over 810,000 ports shipped in 2Q 2000, according to Cahners In-Stat Group. The high-tech market research firm expects the overall Gigabit Ethernet switch market to reach almost 4 million units in ports shipped and $4 billion in end-use revenue for 2000, resulting in an all time high: over 200 percent greater than the total number of ports shipped in 1999.

According to a recently published 2000 report "High Availability and Data Protection Practices" from Strategic Research, by 2003, databases will control access to more than 65% of the network's shared data. This further drives the requirement for true heterogeneous and homogeneous data-sharing.

Jupiter Research has released a study with pulse-quickening projections about the growth of the business-to-business commerce market. Jupiter's prediction that B-to-B commerce will expand from $336 million this year to $6.3 trillion in 2005 is likely to raise the heart rate of even the most composed IT administrators as they try to figure out how to accommodate such exponential expansion.

However, Seagate Technology Inc. reckons this time it's got a larger lead on the competition, having taken the capacity on its Barracuda drives from 73GB to 180GB.

Europe's application service provider market will jump from a $275.1M market in 1999 to a $13.7B market in 2005, according to international marketing consulting company Frost & Sullivan.

The picture changed in 2000, according to Internet statistics published in Tele-Geography 2001, this year's compendium of industry statistics from the Washington, DC-based firm. From 1999 to 2000, Internet bandwidth connecting Asian countries grew faster than any other region-to-region route in the world--including Internet bandwidth connected to the U.S. That meant that 13.5 percent of Asia's international Internet capacity was in-region, up from 6.2 percent the previous year. The Asian Internet is becoming less and less U.S.-centric and regional interconnection is on the upswing.

Easy, Affordable Home Networking from D-Link

Wireless home networking just got a boost. D-Link Systems shipped its new DWL-120 USB Wireless Adapters—the first of several 802.11b USB adapters expected to hit the market—then., shortly after, slashed prices on its entire 802.11b line. The price reduction makes D-Link's 802.11b networking solution more cost competitive than other wireless standards, such as HomeRF, and the addition of USB components simplifies setup.

The D-Link DWL-120 adapters are available separately ($99 street) or in the DWL-920 USB Wireless Kit ($399 street). The kit includes two DWL-120 adapters and the DWL-1000AP Wireless Access Point, a device that acts as a transmitter, receiver, and network manager.

Wireless networking is a boon to the notebook crowd. With a wireless adapter in your notebook, you can maintain a network connection as long as you stay within about 300 feet of an access point indoors or 900 feet outdoors. This enables you to share files, printers, and Internet access. D-Link's introduction of a USB adapter benefits users of desktop PCs because installation consists of merely plugging in a connector rather than having to open the computer's case and struggle to insert a network card.

HomeRF, the other wireless standard for home networks, held an advantage for those with desktop systems because the adapters connected via USB plugs and the components were less expensive. D-Link's recent announcements, however, have cleared these barriers to widespread 802.11b adoption. What's more, 802.11b is faster than HomeRF (11 Mbps versus 1.6 Mbps) and is already the undisputed corporate and campus standard.

Installing the DWL-920 was a cinch. The DWL-120 adapters, at 0.75 by 4 by 2.75 inches (HWD) and with a two-inch antenna on the side, required little room and simply plugged into available USB ports. Windows then prompted us to pop in the included CD and quickly installed the drivers. We restarted the computer (leaving the default settings) and were good to go. We tested the two adapters included in the kit using Windows Me and Windows 98SE. In each case, installation took under a minute. After rebooting, a network status icon shows up on the Windows task bar; green signifies a good connection, red means no connection, and yellow indicates a so-so connection. You can bring up a utility for changing settings, or leave everything at the defaults, as we did.

The 5.3- by 1.6- by 4.8-inch (HWD) DWL-1000AP access point was even easier to install than the USB adapters: we just attached the AC cable and turned on the power. The access point started working immediately with our adapters set to their defaults, and the PCs were instantly able to communicate with one another. To connect to an existing wired network, you plug an Ethernet cable into both the DLW-1000AP's RJ-45 jack and a hub or PC equipped with an Ethernet adapter. We plugged the DWL-1000AP into a hub connected to a router that was in turn connected to a cable modem. After rebooting our PCs we were able to access the Internet via the network within minutes.

You're probably better off ignoring the user manuals that come with the D-Link devices or just reading the first few pages, though. (The manuals quickly get into much more technical information than most people setting up home networks will require.)

BMC pulls the plug, competitors pick up the pieces - Storage Networking

BMC has announced that they will stop development on Patrol Storage Manager 3.1 (PSM), its flagship open systems storage product. Their decision sent a tremor through the storage industry, upset existing PSM customers and canceled BMC's OEM partnership with out-of-luck Invio Software, a storage provisioning company. It also played havoc with payroll: BMC laid off 3.5 percent of its workforce--232 employees worldwide, 104 of them from BMC's Houston headquarters. All of this happened in spite of the fact that, in 2002, analyst firm Gartner tapped BMC as one of the three top SAN management software vendors.

Why the decision, why now, and what does this mean for storage development in general? Storage management remains a strong market and most vendors, analysts and even customers agree that it's a growth area. But the storage management space has not achieved the overall revenue levels that the analysts had predicted for it. Small and midrange companies are continuing to carefully watch their budgets and primarily invest in storage arrays and tape, not in management packages. Large data centers are spending big bucks on storage and storage management, but they tend to prefer the blue chip status and lengthy storage experience of IBM, HDS and EMC to companies who are less known in the storage field. (This includes both well-known companies like BMC in the networking and mainframe markets, as well as storage start-ups.)

BMC's initial reason for braving storage in open systems environments is understandable. The Aberdeen Group's David Hill, research director of Storage and Storage Management, lists three of the critical areas of F's reason for existence: attempting to control storage management costs, protecting company data, and increasing productivity in the face of flat or shrinking budgets. Accomplishing this, especially at an enterprise level, requires a certain level of intelligence in data management software, especially in the storage management market. Those companies who can fulfill their management promises stand to gain a great deal, especially if the economy improves and business releases its stranglehold on F budgets

In fact, BMC still doesn't doubt that storage management is a growth market. Dan Hoffmann, director of marketing for BMC said, 'This was not a decision based on pessimism about the industry. BMC believes storage is a growth market. It's just that in a world of tough choices, even good products can lose when they have to make a painful choice." Hoffman noted that BMC is not dumping the product. "We have stabilized this product; we have no plans to enhance it. BMC values its PSM customers, and will support them over the next two years."

For network expert BMC, getting into open systems storage management was a gamble. BMC's traditional expertise is in systems and database management, represented by hundreds of different products throughout multiple product lines. Given its undoubted network management expertise, it hoped to apply the same level of integration, management and reporting to the storage networking environment. The company acquired Boole & Babbage's mainframe storage management tools in December 1998, re-engineered the mainframe tools to suit open systems, and announced their Application Centric Storage Management (ACSM) initiative in 2000. BMC was headed in the right direction: application-centric storage management improved on device-only management by policing application service levels. And the ACSM announcement trumped competing introductions of similar initiatives, which gave BMC a head start on convincing the market of application-centric storage's value. (In this schema, storage management and provisioning is based on ap plication data and service levels. It's often integrated with policy applications that can relieve manual provisioning pressures on F departments, which can be intense.)

However, by BMC's new fiscal year in 2003, PSM had not achieved the level of return that senior management wanted to see in a tight economy. The flagship storage management line took intensive development effort, and salespeople struggled to penetrate the ranks of storage customers. Senior management concluded that their development, marketing and sales investments in PSM would better be invested in their network management products, which were the primary source of BMC's revenues.

The balancing act between services and budget - Tech Leadership - school systems

School systems are not immune to the ripples (or, in some cases, waves) surrounding economic tides. The effects of the economy tend to take a year or more to be felt within the education community due to funding cycles, but the effects inevitably come as the political discussions surrounding public policy highlight the education system.

In our current financial climate, we're seeing the effects of the last few years of economic slowdown make their way into education by way of lower state funding levels and local property values remaining constant or even decreasing to limit the local taxing power of school districts. As these cuts make their way into school districts, the rallying cry continues to be "keep the cuts away from the classroom." First, identify those investments that have had the most impact. Beyond the initial cost of equipment, you've probably provided professional development for staff, software applications to reach learning and business goals and perhaps staff to support the use of technology. If this sounds similar to your current environment, your teachers now trust that when they have prepared lessons that depend on the technology, it will be available and reliable.

Earning that trust of staff has been one of the major accomplishments of the last five years in most school districts. Reducing the support structure you've built for instructional technology carries the risk of losing the reliability of classroom technology, which may cause teachers to be more hesitant in their use of technology with students.

Protecting your investments in technology means maintaining the usability of those resources throughout the organization while employing strategies to lower costs where possible.

* What technology resources need to be preserved?

If you've implemented instructional or business systems that require network connectivity to operate successfully, maintaining a support strategy, either internal or outsourced, to keep network downtime to a minimum should be a first priority. Additionally, any resources necessary to provide support for these networked software applications should be held whole as long as possible.

* What expenditures can be deferred?

Typically, operating system upgrades and software application upgrades can be delayed with relatively little loss in productivity or usability. Yet older versions of software may no longer receive support from vendors so delays in upgrading should be planned as temporary.

In a similar fashion, replacement plans for hardware can be deferred while realizing that maintenance costs often rise with older equipment as warranties expire and replacement parts become more difficult to locate. This strategy also contributes to a loss of reliability--affecting how teachers, students and other staff members have come to rely on technology for daily activities.

* What can a school district simply eliminate (or not initiate)?

Examine those programs that have not embedded technology resources as a requirement yet (if any exist) and continue to delay investments in their progress. Resist the urge to purchase new hardware with grant dollars if no corresponding budget dollars will be available to provide adequate training and support. Eliminate spending on pilot programs or related research efforts if budget dollars will not be available for replication.

* What cost-cutting strategies can be considered?

While not strictly cost-cutting, determine which current expenditures in technology can be legitimately re-directed to existing bond dollars. Carefully evaluate your current student-to-teacher ratios. Even slight adjustments may free up significant funds to continue necessary technology support.

Compare the costs of outsourcing technology support with using internal staff. Budget reductions may mean giving up localized control for contracted services. Look for consortium purchase opportunities to reduce costs on commonly used items.

Finally, be prepared for future budget reductions by using zero-based budgeting for all operational activities in preparing for the next budget build.

As technology resources lead to more effective instruction, more productivity in business services and more timely information on student achievement, it becomes more difficult to pinpoint reductions in the technology portion of the budget due to ripple effects throughout the organization. Plan carefully and look for reductions in all possible areas before making what used to be automatic cuts in technology budgets.

Storage Networking World Honors U.S. Navy's Surface Combat Systems Center with ''Best Practices in Storage'' Award; U.S. Navy's SCSC Recognized by IDG

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Xiotech Corporation today announced that its customer the U.S. Navy's Surface Combat Systems Center (SCSC) has been recognized by Storage Networking World, the world's largest educational event on storage networking technologies, as an honoree in its "Best Practices in Storage" awards program for the category of Innovation and Promise. Storage Networking World is co-owned by Computerworld and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and produced by Computerworld. Les Martin of the SCSC accepted the award on behalf of the entire Tactical Load Management System team at the U.S. Navy's AEGIS Virginia sites.

The Innovation and Promise award honors organizations that have applied exemplary storage networking solutions to provide strategic advantage to their enterprise. The Navy replaced its existing storage system at the SCSC with a Xiotech(R) Magnitude 3D(R) storage area network (SAN) in August of 2004. The SAN dramatically transformed the way the SCSC supports, develops and maintains U.S. Navy AEGIS warship readiness. With Xiotech's Magnitude 3D system, the Navy's SCSC lab can quickly and cost effectively meet the technical needs of the crews that develop, tune and deploy national defense technology.

"We are honored to be recognized for our innovative storage deployment and view the award as a true testament to our capabilities and those of Xiotech's Magnitude 3D," said Les Martin, Tactical Systems Engineer and storage visionary at the Navy's SCSC. "Using Magnitude 3D has improved our daily operations and makes it possible for us to do a lot more for national security at much lower cost. Since August 2004, we have calculated initial defendable savings of $165,000,000, and this is just the beginning of the beginning of savings to come."

Recipients received recognition for their achievement during a special awards ceremony at Storage Networking World, an event co-owned by Computerworld and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), which was held from October 24 - 27, 2005, at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes Resort, Orlando, Fla.

A wide range of IT end-user companies and organizations responded to an initial "call for nominations," which was originally announced to multiple industry audiences, including Computerworld subscribers responsible for storage networking solutions. Finalists were evaluated by a panel of judges based on case study submissions that profiled the company, its IT department and storage networking challenges, as well as application deployment details, summaries of the key technology used and measurable solution outcomes.

About Computerworld

Computerworld, the "Voice of IT Management," is the most trusted source for the critical information needs of senior IT management. Computerworld's integrated offerings form the U.S.-based hub of the world's largest (58-edition) global IT media network through its weekly publication, Computerworld.com Web site, focused conference series and custom research. In the past five years alone, Computerworld has won more than 100 print and online awards for editorial and design excellence, surpassing its direct competition by an order of magnitude. Recognition includes the 2005 Magazine of the Year Award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and a Jesse H. Neal Award for "Best News Coverage." In print since 1967, Computerworld is the source for information technology management, with a guaranteed rate base of 180,050, a total print audience of 1,138,000 (IntelliQuest CIMS 2005 Business Influencer Study) and an online audience of over 1 million unique monthly visitors (DoubleClick).

CentrePath Customer Honored with Prestigious Best Practices in Storage Award; Community Health Network Recognized by Storage Networking World, IDG's C

WALTHAM, Mass. -- CentrePath, Inc., a leading provider of intelligent management solutions for optical and storage networks, today announced that one of its customers, Community Health Network, has been honored as the winner of the Storage Networking World (SNW) Best Practices In Storage award for the System Implementation category. Community Health is specifically recognized for the successful design, implementation and management of an optical and storage network to support the delivery of state-of-the-art patient care. Community Health uses CentrePath's Magellan technology to manage its private optical and storage network to high levels of availability on an ongoing basis.

Community Health leverages its optical and storage network for the transport of digitized medical images (e.g. PACS), electronic medical records, voice and video traffic, as well as for synchronous data replication for business continuity and disaster recovery. CentrePath's Magellan technology enables the IT team at Community Health to pinpoint the root cause of network events in real-time and identify the impact these events have on applications running over the network.

"The IT team at Community Health is honored to be recognized for our optical and storage network initiatives," said Rick Copple, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Community Health. "We have been able to operate our network at carrier-class service levels based on expertise and technology from CentrePath. They are a great partner to work with.We are continually impressed with the vision of Community Health's IT team to roll-out new applications, streamline business continuity initiatives, as well as converge data, voice, and video traffic over their network," said Jim Sullivan, CEO at CentrePath. "Community Health's IT initiatives are indicative of how hospitals and healthcare networks can cost-effectively improve their operations to deliver outstanding patient care. We are proud to work with Community Health to achieve this milestone."

More About SNW's Best Practices in Storage Awards

This prestigious industry award, backed by Storage Networking World, Computerworld, and the Storage Networking Industry Association, honors companies that have applied exemplary storage networking solutions to provide a strategic advantage to their organizations. Recipients were selected from approximately 100 entries from a wide range of IT users and system integrators across multiple industries.

"These awards serve to honor companies and organizations that have made significant contributions to the industry," said Ron Milton, Executive Vice President, Computerworld. "Each of this year's recipients has demonstrated innovation in their use of storage networking to help advance the larger goals of their organization. We are pleased to have formally recognized these successes in a public forum of their peers."

Eci Telecom's Lightscape Networks Continues Momentum With Its Xdm Optical Networking Platform

The XDM's pioneering single architecture approach converges intelligent metro/regional DWDM optical networking capabilities, multiple SONET/SDH rings, digital cross connects (DXC), carrier-class Gigabit Ethernet and on-demand network provisioning within a single device. The XDM's unique "Build-as-you-GrowTM" architecture allows service providers to expand their networks gradually and steadily according to customer bandwidth and service demands. With this approach, carriers can utilize the various technologies and features of the XDM that their network requires while allowing them to make a smooth, in-service transition to alternate network topologies and services in a cost-effective manner.

"Last year's tremendous growth in XDM sales and global customer deployments in such a competitive market shows that we are bucking the industry trend and highlights the fact that we have the most advanced and flexible metro solutions available today," said Ido Gur, Vice President of Marketing, Lightscape Networks. "Today's carriers are looking for an experienced company to meet their network needs and a product that can cost-effectively grow with their network to meet increased bandwidth and service demands. Lightscape Networks is now in extensive field trials with the major incumbent operators worldwide. We look forward to continuing our penetration of the North American, European and Asian markets throughout 2002."

Smart storage: Texas cancer center ensures continuous treatment by using emerging storage networking technology - Data storage: case history

Founded in 1974, San Antonio, Texas-based Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC) is a world leader in cancer treatment and research. Since its founding, the not-for-profit center has handled nearly 1 million patient visits, and in 2002, more than 120,000 visits. The CTRC is also actively involved in the discovery of the causes, prevention and cure of cancer, and is active in the promotion of cancer education and prevention practices.

The CTRC has seen a recent increase in the number of patients needing radiation oncology treatment, which has had a large impact on its computer storage strategy. This is because the CTRC's radiation oncology department relies on data-intensive diagnostics such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), CT and positron emission tomography (PET) scans for treatment that the CTRC stores in electronic format online.

The CTRC maintains eight radiation treatment vaults that provide radiation therapy for an average of 200 patients a day on four-week cycles. For each patient, the CTRC estimates that the radiation oncology department builds about a 100-MB treatment plan based on the MRI, CT and PET scans stored on the servers. Also stored on the servers is information on radiation treatments, treatment scheduling, medical transcripts, patient demographics and billing records Defining Storage Needs

In short, CTRC tripled its storage requirements from 1 TB to 3 TB. One terabyte is roughly equivalent to the aggregate storage capacity in 50 laptop computers, each with 20-GB disk drives. Two years ago, CTRC analyzed the cost and growth of its existing server-attached storage architecture and realized that it was difficult and costly to scale and also did not provide the level of availability that was necessary to its critical operations.

The CTRC can treat a patient every 10 minutes in each of its radiation vaults. To provide treatment, radiation oncology uses a number of online applications that automatically record and track chemotherapy radiation doses administered in the radiation vaults. This information provides a precise history of the dosage received by each patient, ensuring a correct treatment each visit. But if the server fails, the application goes offline and the CTRC loses the invaluable aid of the application to accurately track radiation therapy treatments.

"We are very dependent on the online servers," says Mike Luter, chief technology officer at the CTRC. "If a server is down, it can cause delayed or sometimes missed treatments altogether, and this can be very dangerous to our patients. Each vault is a $1.7 million capital asset that we can't afford to have sitting idle."

The Storage Challenge

CTRC installed a storage area network (SAN) and an EMC F4700 storage array at each of its key locations--its medical facility and main research facility--22 miles apart. While this provided each facility with centralized storage, the CTRC also wanted two other capabilities: the ability for the servers in each facility to be able to access resources in the other, and the ability to mirror the SANs so that the research facility could act as a backup to the primary site. This would allow efficient use of the existing storage and servers, avoiding the need to purchase additional servers and storage for dedicated backup.

The challenge was that 22 miles separated the medical center from the research facility. However, the CTRC learned that Fibre Channel, the most popular transport technology for interconnecting SAN devices, has a practical limit of 10 kilometers, with the option to use extenders to go beyond 10 kilometers being prohibitively expensive.

CTRC's solution was closer than first realized. It was already leasing a Gigabit IP Ethernet connection from a local supplier that provided it with pure Gigabit Ethernet across the 22 miles, and it had bandwidth to spare on the connection. To take advantage of this readily available transport, the CTRC chose iSCSI technology available through the Cisco SN 5428 Storage Router.

The Cisco SN 5428 is a multiprotocol platform that offered both the flexibility of low-cost storage connectivity using iSCSI technology and Fibre Channel connectivity for high-end or high-volume applications that require the absolute highest performance. To ensure highest availability, the CTRC installed redundant pairs of the routers at both the main site and the backup site.

To use iSCSI, the CTRC downloaded the iSCSI drivers from the Cisco Web site and installed them on various servers. The iSCSI drivers encapsulate the SCSI commands within IP packets, which are then sent onto the IP network and switched to the Gigabit Ethernet ports on the Cisco SN 5428 Storage Router. From here, traffic is transmitted out the Cisco SN 5428's Fibre Channel ports directly to the EMC F4700. Using iSCSI, CTRC was able to avoid installing costly Fibre Channel host bus adapters that are required when servers connect directly to SANs over Fibre Channel. Instead, it could use lower-cost Ethernet network interface cards.

Infineon adds industry's first RPR draft 2.1-compliant chips to optical networking product portfolio - New Products/New Services - Infineon Technologi

Infineon Technologies AG introduced a family of optical networking integrated circuits (ICs) that are the industry's first to comply with Draft 2.1 of the proposed IEEE 802.17 RPR standard. The new Frea PoS Framer/RPR MAC ICs are the latest addition to Infineon's extensive portfolio of optical network solutions. The single-chip Frea devices integrate functions previously requiring a minimum of four separate components. This is the highest degree of integration of any RPR chip, and can result in significant savings for manufacturers of switches and routers in terms of power consumption, board design complexity and space, software development, and overall system cost. For example, the bill of materials for a typical RPR node implementation, excluding memory, may be as high as $1,650, which is almost $300 greater than the high-end Frea chip. Even greater cost-of-ownership savings can be seen when the benefits of a smaller footprint, lower power, and use of a single software suite are considered. RPR technology i s used to support the use of high-speed Ethernet communications in optical network systems. The Frea chips perform the PoS (Packet-over-SONET) framer, RPR MAC (Media Access Control) and XAUI SerDes (serializer/deserializer) functions that are necessary to deploy RPR in metropolitan area networks (MANs) and wide area networks (WANs). These high integration ICs eliminate the need for external memory by including 1Megabyte of memory on-chip for RPR operation and also a 16-bit 800 MHz SPI-4.2 system interface and a 4-bit 3.125 GHz mate (XAUI) interface, eliminating the need for an external SerDes to link the two chips required for a full RPR implementation.

The RPR technology that is currently being standardized in the IEEE 802.17 committee is gaining wide acceptance in systems that extend Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) into the MAN and WAN environment. It is a Layer Two MAC technology that combines the simplicity and bandwidth efficiency of Ethernet-based networks with the carrier-class features of SONET networks. For carriers, the RPR architecture can provide greater than a 50 percent cost reduction over the traditional PoS architecture, for example, by reducing the number of core router ports required to implement a network. RPR technology will play a critical role in allowing service providers to create high-speed networks that efficiently transport voice and data traffic while lowering both capital and on-going operational expenses. During the early phases of the RPR standardization process, when the specifications were in a state of flux, solutions for the most part were in-house FPGA and network processor-based developments, with all the size, cost and other constraints typically associated with those approaches. However, the majority of the features that will appear in the final RPR specification have been firmed-up in Draft 2.1, so the move to cost-effective, high-integration, low-power ASSPs, such as the Frea PoS Framer/RPR MAC, is becoming very attractive to equipment manufacturers.

The Infineon PoS Framer/RPR MAC supports both the IEEE 802.17 RPR standard (Draft 2.1) and the RFC 2892 Spatial Reuse Protocol (SRP) protocol, and is ideally suited to applications using either. It can also operate in a PoS framer-only mode, which gives carriers unparalleled flexibility in building legacy PoS networks that can later be configured to RPR when the need arises through a simple software upgrade. This flexibility lowers the total cost of ownership for carriers deploying RPR networks.

Transmode closes $10 million round - Business - Transmode Systems AB - Brief Article

Transmode Systems AB, a supplier of transmission equipment for fiber optic networks, announced that it has closed an additional US$10 million round of funding, led by Pod Holding. Existing investors, Amadeus Capital Partners and European Equity Partners (EEP), also participated in the round. The financing round was completed on October 8, 2003 with a major share carried by Pod Holding, bringing the total funds collected to US$28 million since 2000. Pod Holding was attracted to Transmode based on the Company's strong business concept, its management and by its track record.

Transmode has grown over the past two years despite turbulent and tight market conditions, adding 25 new customers since Q1 2003. These developments further establish Transmode as a leading supplier of cost-effective, pay-as-you-grow optical access solutions. Additionally, the company recently strengthened its product portfolio releasing a family of aggregators and a next-generation transmission system based on managed pluggable transponders. These deliver dramatic cost efficiencies and redefine the price/ performance benchmark for metropolitan and access networking. Existing investors Amadeus and EEP have again demonstrated their confidence in Transmode's business plan and the company's ability to execute its strategies by participating in this supplemental round

Bronx Manhattan North holds networking event - Transcripts - Bronx-Manhattan North Association of Realtors

More than 700 members and professionals from throughout the New York area attended the formal networking and awards event sponsored by the Bronx-Manhattan North Association of Realtors. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was the guest speaker. Networking was enhanced for the 2003 banquet by the prominent guests and professionals in attendance. According to Nunzio Del Greco, chief executive officer of the organization, prior guest speakers have included Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion, former first lady and senator Hillary Clinton, Mayor Rudolph Guiliani and governor Nelson Rockerfeller. According to the banquet chairman Richard Giliotti, "the annual banquet is one of the best means of meeting some of the most successful professionals in the real estate industry."

Presentations were made by James Slattery, of Stuyvesant Fuel Service Corp., Distinguished Service Award; Joseph F. Limongelli, of Better Homes Realty, Inc., Realtor of the Year; Donna Murrell, of Silverman Realty, Realtor Associate of the Year; Honorable Madeline Provenzano, Councilwoman-District 13, Community Leadership Award; James Bluett, of Optimum Applied Systems Computer Heat; Affiliate Member of the Year; James Landy, of Hudson Valley Bank Institutional Member of the Year; Perry Gault, of Perry Gault Management Co., 40-Year Member; Donald Wolko, of Wolko Realty, hlc., 40 Year Member, Joseph Villani, of JAV Realty Corp., 25-Year Member; David Fiederlein, of D.F. Consultants, 25-Year Member; Walt Bonar and Chetiara Realty, hlc., 25-Year Member.The distinguished Dais Guests included: Honorable Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of the City of New York; Frank Korzekwinsb, Flushing Savings Bank; Michael Doncer, Citibank; Paul Rizzo, Emigrant Mortgage Co.; Allen Holzman, J.P. Mortgage Chase Bank; Michael Pollis, Emigrant Funding Corp.; Michael Laub, Bronx Realty Advisory Board; Richard Conley, Community Preservation Corp.; Jacqueline O'Garrow, Fannie Mae; James Landy, Hudson Valley Bank; Hon. Robert Johnson, Bronx District Attorney; Hon. G. Oliver Koppell, Councilman-District 11; Glen Newman, Tax Commissioner; Hon. Bertram Katz, Bronx Supreme Court Justice; Brother Thomas Scanlan, Manhattan College-President; Richard Giliotti, Banquet Chairman; Hon. Madeline Provenzano, City Council-woman-District 13; Joseph F. Limongelli, President BMAR; Nunzio Del Greco, Chief Executive Officer; William Schur, President Elect; Sandra L. Erickson, V .P. Owner-Management Division; George Boobs, Secretary; Joe Hasselt, Joe Hasselt Real Estate; Earl H. Washington, Treasur er; Michael Carrieri, V.P. Commercial Industrial Division and Eliot Cherson, Counsel to the Board.

CentrePath Customer Honored with Prestigious Best Practices in Storage Award; Community Health Network Recognized by Storage Networking World, IDG's C

WALTHAM, Mass. -- CentrePath, Inc., a leading provider of intelligent management solutions for optical and storage networks, today announced that one of its customers, Community Health Network, has been honored as the winner of the Storage Networking World (SNW) Best Practices In Storage award for the System Implementation category. Community Health is specifically recognized for the successful design, implementation and management of an optical and storage network to support the delivery of state-of-the-art patient care. Community Health uses CentrePath's Magellan technology to manage its private optical and storage network to high levels of availability on an ongoing basis.

Community Health leverages its optical and storage network for the transport of digitized medical images (e.g. PACS), electronic medical records, voice and video traffic, as well as for synchronous data replication for business continuity and disaster recovery. CentrePath's Magellan technology enables the IT team at Community Health to pinpoint the root cause of network events in real-time and identify the impact these events have on applications running over the network.

"The IT team at Community Health is honored to be recognized for our optical and storage network initiatives," said Rick Copple, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Community Health. "We have been able to operate our network at carrier-class service levels based on expertise and technology from CentrePath. They are a great partner to work with."We are continually impressed with the vision of Community Health's IT team to roll-out new applications, streamline business continuity initiatives, as well as converge data, voice, and video traffic over their network," said Jim Sullivan, CEO at CentrePath. "Community Health's IT initiatives are indicative of how hospitals and healthcare networks can cost-effectively improve their operations to deliver outstanding patient care. We are proud to work with Community Health to achieve this milestone."

More About SNW's Best Practices in Storage Awards

This prestigious industry award, backed by Storage Networking World, Computerworld, and the Storage Networking Industry Association, honors companies that have applied exemplary storage networking solutions to provide a strategic advantage to their organizations. Recipients were selected from approximately 100 entries from a wide range of IT users and system integrators across multiple industries.

"These awards serve to honor companies and organizations that have made significant contributions to the industry," said Ron Milton, Executive Vice President, Computerworld. "Each of this year's recipients has demonstrated innovation in their use of storage networking to help advance the larger goals of their organization. We are pleased to have formally recognized these successes in a public forum of their peers."

Mesh will grow mainly in new markets

Mesh networking will see strong growth over the coming five years, but mainly in markets where there is little existing broadband infrastructure.

According to a new study from ABI Research, the growth will mostly come from deployments by alternative service providers and municipalities, rather than incumbent carriers, and there will also be some campus deployments in academic, corporate and resort environments, as well as temporary roll-outs at conferences or fairs.

"I think that the growth rate will be dramatic," says Sam Lucero, senior analyst of wireless connectivity. "It's an interesting market that has a lot of potential for alternative service providers such as Earthlink--ISPs who don't have their own facilities at present. It is an essential means for them to remain viable in the provision of services. Wireless mesh networking allows them a relatively cost effective way to deploy their own facilities within targeted areas. But they're not positioning this as directly competitive to triple play services Mesh networking will see strong growth over the coming five years, but mainly in markets where there is little existing broadband infrastructure.

According to a new study from ABI Research, the growth will mostly come from deployments by alternative service providers and municipalities, rather than incumbent carriers, and there will also be some campus deployments in academic, corporate and resort environments, as well as temporary roll-outs at conferences or fairs.

"I think that the growth rate will be dramatic," says Sam Lucero, senior analyst of wireless connectivity. "It's an interesting market that has a lot of potential for alternative service providers such as Earthlink--ISPs who don't have their own facilities at present. It is an essential means for them to remain viable in the provision of services. Wireless mesh networking allows them a relatively cost effective way to deploy their own facilities within targeted areas. But they're not positioning this as directly competitive to triple play services

Transmode closes $10 million round - Business - Transmode Systems AB - Brief Article

Transmode Systems AB, a supplier of transmission equipment for fiber optic networks, announced that it has closed an additional US$10 million round of funding, led by Pod Holding. Existing investors, Amadeus Capital Partners and European Equity Partners (EEP), also participated in the round. The financing round was completed on October 8, 2003 with a major share carried by Pod Holding, bringing the total funds collected to US$28 million since 2000. Pod Holding was attracted to Transmode based on the Company's strong business concept, its management and by its track record.

Transmode has grown over the past two years despite turbulent and tight market conditions, adding 25 new customers since Q1 2003. These developments further establish Transmode as a leading supplier of cost-effective, pay-as-you-grow optical access solutions. Additionally, the company recently strengthened its product portfolio releasing a family of aggregators and a next-generation transmission system based on managed pluggable transponders. These deliver dramatic cost efficiencies and redefine the price/ performance benchmark for metropolitan and access networking. Existing investors Amadeus and EEP have again demonstrated their confidence in Transmode's business plan and the company's ability to execute its strategies by participating in this supplemental round.

Finally posts profit in Q4 - Financial Reports - Agere Systems

Agere Systems reported that revenues for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2003, ended September 30, 2003, were $504 million, up 11 percent from revenues in the June quarter, and up 3 percent from revenues in the year-ago quarter. The revenue increase was driven by an 18 percent sequential growth in the company's Client Systems business, with strength in sales of chips for cell phones, hard disk drives and other PC-related applications. For the full fiscal year 2003, Agere reported revenues of $1.84 billion, exceeding the company's July guidance. The company's revenues in fiscal 2002 were $1.92 billion.

The company reported its first profit since its IPO, with earnings of $11 million or $0.01 per share on a GAAP basis for the September quarter, compared with a loss of $78 million, or $0.05 per share in the June quarter, and a loss of $885 million, or $0.54 per share in the year-ago quarter. For the full fiscal year 2003, the company reported a net loss of $338 million, or $0.20 per share, compared to fiscal 2002 net loss of $1.81 billion, or $1.11 per share. The company also reported its first quarter of positive cash flow from operations, less capital expenditures, of $17 million. The company improved cash and cash in trust by $16 million sequentially to $765 million, the company's third consecutive quarterly increase.

The company was also profitable on a pro forma net income basis, with earnings of $47 million, or $0.03 per share in the September quarter, compared to a pro forma net loss of $74 million, or $0.04 per share in the June quarter, and pro forma net loss of $39 million, or $0.02 per share in the year-ago quarter. For the full fiscal year 2003, the company reported a pro forma net loss of $253 million, or $0.15 per share, compared to a pro forma net loss of $565 million or $0.35 per share in fiscal 2002. Pro forma net income excludes gain or loss from the sale of, and income or loss from, discontinued operations; net restructuring and other charges; amortization of goodwill and other acquired intangibles; net gain or loss from the sale of operating assets and cumulative effect of an accounting change The Client Systems Group reported revenues of $381 million for the September quarter, up 18 percent sequentially, and up 15 percent over year-ago quarter revenues of $330 million, driven by growth in chips for cell phones, hard disk drives and other PC-related applications. The Infrastructure Systems Group reported revenues of $123 million, down 7 percent from revenues of $132 million in the June quarter, related to continuing softness in the telecommunications networking market. The group posted revenues of $161 million in the year-ago quarter.

The company expects revenues in the December quarter to be in the range of $500 million to $510 million, with growth of about 5 percent in the Client Systems Group, offset by lower revenues in the Infrastructure Systems Group and a seasonal drop in intellectual property (IP) licensing. The company expects pro forma (non-GAAP) net income to be breakeven, plus or minus $0.01 per share in the December quarter. On a GAAP basis, the company expects net loss to be in the range of $0.01 to $0.04 per share, including restructuring costs related to the decommissioning of Agere's facilities in Pennsylvania.

SLA Geographic Information Systems awareness grant: final report - sla news

In November 2000. the Geography and Map Division of SLA was awarded a three year grant to promote awareness of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The grant was written to provide funds for the audiovisual materials needed at the SLA annual conferences for GIS presentations. While the Geography and Map Division took the lead role in writing the grant and organizing the programs regarding GIS, other divisions were invited to use the resources provided by this grant as well. Over the three years of grant funding, the Geography and Map Division has been able to sponsor and co-sponsor many successful programs. One of the presentations made possible by the grant, "GIS in Special Libraries" was recognized by the 2001 Conference Planning Committee for its broad appeal to the SLA membership. Three presentations and a continuing education program promoted GIS awareness at the 2003 New York City conference. The three programs included "The Role of GIS in the Aftermath of September 11," "International Government Mapping Update," and "Invasive Species and GIS," which was co-sponsored by the Biomedical and Life Sciences Division. The continuing education program was entitled "GIS for the Special Librarian: A Hands-on Introduction to ArcGIS." Angela Lee from ESRI presented this program. ESRI is the company that makes the ArcGIS software.

The most popular GIS session over the three years was "Applications of GIS," which was presented at the 2002 Los Angeles program, and was co-sponsored with four other divisions: Engineering, Environment and Resource Management, Petroleum and Energy Resources, and the Transportation Division. This program had a total of 51 attendees, representing 15 out of 25 divisions. Before the grant was written, the most popular GIS program offered at the 2000 Annual SLA Conference in Philadelphia was the "Business Uses of Geographic Information Systems," which was co-sponsored by the Insurance and Employee Benefits Division. The statistics taken at this program stated that there were eight divisions represented. Comparing the 2000 program to the 2002 program, we find that as a result of the grant, almost twice as many divisions were represented in the audience (15 in 2002; 8 in 2000). Further, in 2000, Geography and Map Division members accounted for 41.2 percent of the audience while in 2002, the Geography and Map members only accounted for 15.6 percent. Through the Endowment Funds Grant, the Geography and Map Division was able to inform more SLA members from a variety of divisions about GIS. This grant has also encouraged program sponsorship among the divisions. Since the grant, the Geography and Map Division has sponsored GIS-related programs with seven separate divisions. (1)

Today's information professionals are found in many work settings, with many titles, but all with one focus ... putting knowledge to work. As an SLA member, you realize the value and benefits of SLA membership for your career, for professional networking ... and to advance your profession. Now, SLA is asking you to spread the word and recruit others to join the SLA community of professionals all dedicated to putting knowledge to work! Participate in the 2003 SLA Membership Campaign-"SLA Keyword ... Recruit," and for each new member you refer who submits a complete SLA application no later than December 31, 2003, you will be eligible to win the Grand Prize! Get search specific ... find new members for SLA and you, your Chapter, and your Division can be eligible to win prizes! Members ... start your search engines!

Here are the basics about the 2003 SLA Membership Campaign:

The 2003 Campaign, "SLA Keyword ... Recruit" began in September 2003 and ends on December 31, 2003.

All new members recruited by current members must submit their paid applications no later than December 31, 2003, and the application must reference the recruiting member for the member to be eligible to win prizes.

Bundled up: security systems are becoming an integral part of the home automation package - Review: interior products

When Sam Sutherland pitches a new homeowner or builder on the GE Smart structured wiring system, he makes sure a systems integrator comes along for the ride.

"If consumers walk into a home and see one of our structured wiring cans, it means nothing," says Sutherland, Midwest regional sales manager for GE Smart. But if they can light a pathway into the house when they disarm the security system, have Internet capability all over the house, and be able to watch TV from every room without a visit from the cable company, "those are benefits they can understand."

When his visitors are suitably wowed by the benefits, he unveils the box that's at the heart of the system. The structured wiring center in the utility closet may not be as sexy as the tech tricks, but when consumers realize the various connection points it replaces, they're impressed by that too.

It's easy to focus on the communications, convenience, and entertainment aspects of a networked home. That's the fun part. Now security companies are seeing the advantages of networking, too, and are joining forces with structured wiring companies to present a complete package to homeowners. GE Smart isn't the only one. ADT has iCenter, which provides Internet control and monitoring via a residential broadband network and a touchscreen. iCenter manufacturer Ademco has its own version.

Home Automation is bundling security into its OmniPro II automation controller along with lighting and climate control. Home Director bundles security, too, into its new construction wiring solutions. And OnQ Technologies markets its HMS package of lighting, security, and environmental control that builds on the company's structured wiring framework.

Home security systems may not have the same wow factor--after all, people don't like to think about the need for surveillance cameras and fire and burglary alarms--but tying security in with home control can offer lifestyle enhancements too. The tie-in between security and lighting control is a natural, and in fact, high-end lighting companies have been doing it for years.

Opt for the garage-door interface with the Lutron RadioRA system, for example, and you can open the garage door, disarm the security system, and light a pathway into the house from a button on the car visor. Lighting companies also link their products with a home's security system as a means of warning. When an alarm is tripped, all lights inside and outside the home can be programmed to go on full bright or to flash.

Marquette, Wis., custom home builder Jorma Lankinen says his buyers ask for automated lighting and security systems more than any other home automation function. He describes a control panel, often located in the master bedroom, that alerts the owner when the front door or garage door opens. If he or she isn't home, a monitoring company gets the information.

ONE-STOP SHOPPING

GE Smart is a one-stop solution of products and services designed to make it simple for home builders and homeowners to have an Internet-ready, connected home. A structured wiring system like GE Smart lays the foundation with the Category 5 data wiring and RG6 cable wiring to each room. The average installed price for a system in the Dallas area, says Sutherland, is about $1,200.

Huntsville, Ala., custom builder Wayne Tackett of Smart Home Builders says a structured wiring system that "puts a lot of stuff into the home" will add between 5 percent and 8 percent to the total house price. OnQ Technologies promises a basic package for about $1 per square foot.

Other companies are climbing on board with products and services compatible with the CEBus communications standard on which GE Smart is based. Premise Systems, for instance, plans home automation software built on the Microsoft XP platform that will operate on a GE Smart home server.

The software can intelligently link home security and energy management systems. Rather than programming a thermostat, users might regulate the furnace by opening a door or walking into a room, because the security system's contact closures and motion sensors transmit occupancy information to the HVAC system.

Simply arming the security system on the way to work could set the HVAC system to an energy-saving "Away" mode. Disarming the alarm system when you come home tells the furnace to turn up the heat.

Home Automation built its OmniPro II family of residential control systems on a reliable security system platform. "A security system has a battery backup--it doesn't rely on a PC to operate and won't crash--so we built our home automation system around that type of architecture," says Jay McLellan, president of Home Automation. "It's humming away in a closet much like a security system but it's also attached to the light switches, thermostats, and phone line so you can call into the system and have it respond to you by voice.

Protecting against wireless threats: security risks abound in networking environments that allow untethered server access - Computers & Auditing

URING THE LAST TWO YEARS, wireless fidelity (WiFi) has become one of the fastest growing electronics technologies in history. Although much of this growth can be attributed to the consumer market, businesses have also begun to appreciate the value of beaming data through the airwaves and pulling the plug on conventional networks.

WiFi provides a degree of flexibility in the work environment that cannot be achieved with conventional, wired connections. Through the use of wireless local-area networks (WLAN), for example, manufacturers can reconfigure production facilities for increased efficiency, hospital staff members can use handheld devices to deliver patient information, warehouse workers can exchange inventory control information without crossing the warehouse floor, and students and teachers can communicate without being confined to a computer lab or dorm room.

At the same time, however, WiFi also presents greater risks and security challenges. For instance, whereas typical wired networks feature a limited number of fixed physical points of access, wireless networks can be used at any point within range of the system's antennas -- approximately 300 feet. WLANs can potentially provide access to individuals located outside the physical security perimeter of the network, such as the office parking lot, an adjacent floor, or a nearby building, creating a host of new vulnerabilities for hackers and other ill-intentioned users to exploit With the increased presence of wireless connectivity in today's businesses, internal audit professionals need to recognize this emerging technology's potential impact on their organization's risk environment and help protect against wireless threats. Auditors can play a valuable role in assisting with WLAN-related risk management during both the evaluation and implementation phases for these systems, as well as after the WLAN is fully operational.

EVALUATION

Before system implementation, internal auditors should focus their attention on issues related to the adoption of wireless technology. Vendor offerings can vary considerably, especially in terms of security, and poor decisions made during this phase can lead to unnecessary risk.

First, auditors should ensure the company focuses on wireless vendors that provide standards-based security solutions. Many vendor offerings deliver security features such as key exchange and encryption through the use of proprietary technology, which can affect WLAN compatibility with other network components and increase the complexity of managing security in a multi-vendor environment. Furthermore, proprietary solutions can compromise independent security experts' ability to analyze and remedy weaknesses throughout the network.

Next, the audit team should make sure the company thoroughly assesses the security features of each vendor's system, as well as vendor plans for improving the inherent weaknesses of wireless encryption protocol (WEP) -- a standard security feature found on most WiFi networks that helps to prevent casual "eavesdropping" by unauthorized parties. Because many experts believe WEP's encryption method provides inadequate protection against intruders, WEP is being replaced by WiFi Protected Access (WPA), which is a standards-based, interoperable security specification that significantly increases the level of data protection and access control. Therefore, auditors should ensure that the manufacturer of each system being considered for purchase has plans for upgrading to this new technology once its available and that its equipment can be adapted easily to WPA.

Until WPA is released, however, auditors should also ensure the company considers using extensible authentication protocol (EAP) to provide an additional layer of security to wireless systems. EAP is a method of conducting an authentication conversation between a user and an authentication server. Its role is to relay messages between the parties performing the authentication. In wireless communications using EAP, user connection requests are relayed from the WAP to an authentication server, which then requests proof of identity.

new world of IT networking, The

Recent announcements from HP,IBM and Sun all foretell a new and evolutionary concept in IT. The underpinning of this concept is the remolding of the vertical silos of technology within a company into a horizontal structure based on business imperatives. In the new world of IT, the main business tenets of the corporation become intertwined with the technology to form an operationally cohesive structure that will help a company achieve its revenue and profit goals. In this way, IT finally will return to its roots as an integral business profit tool rather than a business expense.

Too often in business presentations, the network is alluded to as a "cloud" but never made a part of the business integration effort. While the computing industry has focused on meeting customers' needs for application integration and increased availability the network industry has remained out of touch with customer demand.

The network community must begin to realize that it is not the center of the IT universe, but only a segment of its operational processes. Network applications, including management, operations, signaling, convergence and security; should be developed and interface with one another using software industry standards rather than proprietary network standards. Just like the TDM, hardware-based PBX, so should the software-based Internetwork Operating System become a proprietary networking legacy. Open standards "rule," with Linux becoming an operating system of choice for embedded systems and a viable option for servers, and XML-based messaging the lingua franca of all applications. Integration of legacy applications, databases, development tools and even operating environments now can be accomplished using XMLHeterogeneity is a way of life in IT. The new world of IT will kick it up a notch by taking the concept of heterogeneity into hybrid architectures of customer-owned applications networked with third-party services or partner equipment and software. IT environments such as IBM's on-demand architecture will not only accommodate legacy or hybrid structures, but also exploit them using XML.

Another tenet of the new world of IT is virtualization. One cannot implement this concept correctly without an optimized network. The IT community never addresses network issues such as latency. The assumption is that the customer's transport bandwidth is infinite, always will meet demand and availability and network techniques such as caching or quality of service (QoS) will be in place to control network latency problems. Unfortunately, carrier transport services are not free and on demand, nor are 10G bit/sec LAN upgrades. The network costs associated with achieving compute and storage virtualization are not minimal, nor is the task mundane. The complexity, from a LAN and WAN perspective, makes the issue of voice convergence seem simple.

Paramount to the success of this new world is the integration of IT and wired or wireless network management to form a single seamless entity within the corporate business structure. Policy associated with application workflow - coupled with network access security and QoS, and managed under a single service-level agreement - will be linked to its corporate business value, such as speed of revenue recognition and profitability of the transaction sequence. Distributed automation technology used in tasks such as resource allocation, workflow scheduling, capacity measurement, fault prediction/isolation and security is now part of integrated IT management rather than today's isolated islands of systems and network management.

The introduction of on-demand, adaptive and utility computing has changed the rules of networking. The development, integration, operations and management of this new IT environment must be viewed from a business perspective and therefore measured as an integral part of all corporate business practices. Times have changed; the phrase "the network is the computer" no longer will be valid in the new world of IT.

Bigger and Better Than Ever - bylaw change reunites memberships of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and Center for Healthcare Inf

If you're a conference-goer heading to Atlanta in January 2002, look for more--with a capital "M." In July, members of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) overwhelmingly approved a proposed bylaw change to officially reunite HIMSS' membership with that of the Center for Healthcare Information Management (CHIM). The reunification will take place in January 2002.

HIMSS President and CEO H. Stephen Lieber and CHIM CEO Carla Smith jointly made the announcement on behalf of their member-elected boards of directors. An impressive 95.5 percent of HIMSS members voted to amend the organization's bylaws and create a new corporate membership category for organizations providing goods and services in the healthcare IT and management systems space. Under the new organization, Lieber and HIMSS Executive Vice President/COO Norris Orms will maintain their same positions. Smith will become executive vice president for professional affairs and executive director of the HIMSS Foundation.

Since the proposed bylaw change was first announced in the spring, Lieber and Smith have enthusiastically and favorably described the enhanced educational, advocacy and networking opportunities that await the membership of a reunified organization.

The Holy Grail of Optical Networking

The Holy Grail of optical networking is the development and deployment of passive optical circuits, but the technology may have an impact on personal computing as well. Most optical circuits today are active, meaning that electrons and photons are converted back and forth. The passive optical circuits are designs that directly manipulate photons as if they were electrons.

It comes as no surprise that IBM, whose microcircuits division has been pioneering all sorts of developments, is a potential developer of passive optical circuits. When IBM's key invention, a material known as siliconoxynitride (SiON), is used as a "waveguide layer," passive optical switching circuits can be developed. If any of this can be standardized as the CMOS process was, it may become the basis for desktop computing of the future.

IBM has teamed up with Kymata, a fast-growing Scottish company specializing in optical technology. This company seems to have at its roots a technology transfer from British Telecom in the early 1990s. It is a DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) specialist with engineering and sales offices throughout the world. The company is privately held, and it boasts an elite list of investors, who have provided $160 million in funding so far. Kymata, showing signs of being a mini Cisco, has been buying up optical-circuit specialists, and it is one of a number of U.K. and European efforts to leapfrog American technologies at the highest levelUnfortunately for the Euros, the highest-level technologies always seem to boil down to ultraminiaturization. Hello, Switzerland! Even Kymata is involved with MEMS (microelectromechanical systems), for example. The company is part of a Pan-European consortium started by the EU called Europractice, which defines itself as "a European Union initiative to improve the competitiveness of European industry by the adoption of advanced electronics technologies." The conferences established by Europractice put an emphasis on sensors, transducers, MEMS, and nanotechnology. Europractice seems to be focused on collaboration between companies. Meanwhile, the European Union managed to quash the deal between GE and Honeywell. The way I see it, there will be trouble a-brewin' over all this, one of these days.

Another Kind of Optical Technology Dept.: On the other side of the globe, Fujitsu is bucking a trend by almost single-handedly maintaining a market for high-performance magneto-optical storage systems. (Remember MO?) The company just introduced a 2.3GB version of its 3.5-inch optical drive. It is fully backward-compatible with all the older 3.5-inch drives, including the once-jazzy 128MB drive. This is a technology I revisit every few years as I wait for its demise. What keeps it alive is the incredibly rugged nature of the storage media.

According to Fujitsu, the drives are still needed for reliable removable read/write systems such as those used for medical imaging. Also, the R/W performance can now be used for video editing and other high-end purposes. The newest technology employed by these drives is MSR (magnetic super resolution), which allows a bit to be written by a laser that is actually smaller than the beam itself. This was thought to be impossible a few years ago.

Genuinely Interesting Software Dept.: Although few of us will be using the magneto-optical drive, almost everyone has a CD burner. I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across the highly regarded NTI CD-Maker, from Newtech Infosystems. The new Professional Edition is a superbly elegant system that simplifies the process of CD creation and duplication to an extreme. This software is close to perfection. It also lets you make VCDs (video compact disks) that can be played in DVD players. Hot stuff. The Professional Edition sells for $70 boxed, or $50 downloadable from the Web site (www.ntius.com).

Dot-Com Doldrums Dept.: As you know, this column has not followed the faddish dot-com scene to any extent, since it always seems like an anomaly. But I couldn't help chuckling over the demise of Webvan and its ability to burn through $830 million without making a profit. The CEO then said that if the company had more money and more time it could have worked. How much money do you need? The stock finally collapsed to a few pennies. When the stock was selling for $6, almost all the analysts had it listed as a strong buy.

Since the demise of the milkman 20 or more years ago, I couldn't understand how anyone could think this idea—a glorified milkman without a fixed route—could ever work. And although Webvan's quality was good, its prices were high. This was point number two: What are the reference points for modern retail selling, groceries or otherwise? Megastores with low margins. People aren't packed into Costco and Wal-Mart because they are looking for high quality at high prices. All I can conclude is that somebody at some group-think meeting must have given one helluva sales pitch to suck out $830 million in investment money against all logic

It's 2003: do you know where your data is? The government is enforcing strict new guidelines on archived data. Is your company complying? - Storage Ne

In an era of diminishing trust and public skepticism, regulations are being enforced with greater vigor to enable regulatory authorities to accurately reconstruct past processes and events from electronic records. These sweeping initiatives are being targeted throughout the economy, with some regulations focusing on securities, broker-dealers, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organizations, major manufacturers and public corporations with more than $75 million in market capitalization.

Legislation now requires many of these U.S. organizations to retain certain records in a way that prevents them from being erased or modified for substantial time periods, sometimes 30 years or more. Steps must also be taken to prevent records from being accessed by those without authorization. Some of these regulations, like those based on the Sarbanes-Oxley law, are new. Others, such as SEC regulations applying to broker-dealers, have existed in one form or another since the 1930s. However, the common themes are broader regulatory purview over more types of records and substantially strengthened enforcement. The main thrust behind strengthened records-retention regulations is the government's desire to maintain an exact record of past activities in order to improve corporate governance, protect investors, enhance national security, ensure the safety of new drugs or medical devices, and modernize medical care, while protecting patient privacy As a result of some widely publicized Wall Street scandals, the SEC is now enforcing its Rule 17a--originally written in the 1930s--much more aggressively. The use of electronic communication in business has exploded, and brokerage houses are now heavily reliant on e-mail, instant messaging and electronic forms (tickets, statements, approvals, etc.) than before. The SEC now requires the retention of all electronic client communications and many other brokerage records on non-erasable, non-rewritable media (also known as write-once/read-many or "WORM" media). Additionally, the SEC is demanding increasingly rapid responses to more frequent and broader requests for information. A recent enforcement example of the new regulatory reality for broker/dealers is the $8.25 million fine levied on five Wall Street firms in December 2002 for failure to retain regulated e-mails for the proper amount of time. Other firms have been fined or forced to pay large fees because they were unable to find and recover archived e-mails from tapes in a timely fashion.

Healthcare

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), whose privacy rules came into effect April 14, 2003 (with more rules to follow), is designed to improve the efficiency of healthcare through improved access to patient records while simultaneously protecting patient privacy. The government's position is that the quality of medical care can be improved through rapid online access to patient records, but that strong protections must be in place to guard against malfeasance and misuse of confidential patient data. While HIPAA does not mandate how data is stored, the requirements are effectively forcing healthcare payer/providers (hospitals, insurance companies and HMOs) to manage all patient records electronically using secure systems and secure media.

Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Industries

Federal regulation 21 CFR Part 11 is designed to streamline the process that brings drugs to market, a major interest of the Bush administration. The goal is a well-designed, well-managed flow of information about drug development, testing and batch manufacturing so that the accelerated path from discovery to market will be simultaneously fast and safe--not to mention well-documented. Rigorous records retention is essential to both verify each drug has been thoroughly tested before approval and to ensure a proper investigation should something go wrong with a drug. Since most pharmaceutical companies also maintain clinical trials data, they must also carefully guard the privacy of such data for HIPAA compliance. Enforcement of 21CFR Part 11 has been temporarily suspended because drug companies objected that it was applied too broadly and that compliance was too unwieldy. The government is now recasting the regulation to make it more specific, but it's clear that the regulation will still require careful retention and safeguarding of records for many years.

Corporate Financial Statements

Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in response to a series of major corporate financial scandals where C-level executives claimed that they were not accountable for--or even not aware of--faulty financial statements. The new legislation, which affects U.S. public companies with more than $75 million in equity market capitalization and quarterly reporting requirements to the SEC, specifies that CEOs and CFOs must personally certify financial statements as accurate, under penalty of jail time. Additionally, "all audit or review workpapers" must be retained for five years from the end of the corresponding fiscal period. Sarbanes-Oxley specifies significant criminal penalties for "whoever knowingly alters, destroy, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object." Although open to interpretation, such wording implies great care as to how records associated with the production of financial statements are archived. Many organizations will no doubt conclude that implementing secure WORM storage for such key business records is much simpler and less expensive than risking a financial scandal or losing executives to prison terms

and Controlware Communications Systems announce strategic partnership - International - Partnership between Atrica Inc. and Controlware Communications

Atrica, a provider of Optical Ethernet equipment for the rapidly expanding Metro networking market, and Controlware Communications Systems, one of Europe's largest and most experienced Systems Integrators, announced a strategic partnership.

Under the terms of the agreement, which combines the strength of Attica's Optical Ethernet Systems with Controlware's world-class reputation and global presence, Controlware will provide local

Systems Integration services to Metro carders as they deploy Atrica's proven solutions.

In addition to supporting joint customers as they deploy Atrica's Carrier-class solutions, the two industry leaders will work together to identify and pursue joint Metro networking opportunities in Europe. Demonstrating increasing market support for utilizing Ethernet to solve metro carriers' business and technical challenges, this agreement represents Controlware's entry into the Optical Ethernet marketplace. Working with Atrica, Controlware will leverage its comprehensive knowledge of local markets to provide fulfillment and delivery services as well as second level support to Metro carriers as they build-out, expand, and/or upgrade their telecommunications infrastructures with Optical Ethernet technology.

The first solutions purpose-built for next generation Metro networks, Attica's Optical Ethernet Systems meld Ethernet with optical switching and networking technology and combine this with Carrier-class traffic engineering capabilities to enable carriers to dramatically simplify their Metro network operations, significantly reduce their capital and operational expenditures, and scale their networks to deliver advanced, profitable Ethernet-based services Atrica, a provider of Optical Ethernet equipment for the rapidly expanding Metro networking market, and Controlware Communications Systems, one of Europe's largest and most experienced Systems Integrators, announced a strategic partnership.

Under the terms of the agreement, which combines the strength of Attica's Optical Ethernet Systems with Controlware's world-class reputation and global presence, Controlware will provide local

Systems Integration services to Metro carders as they deploy Atrica's proven solutions.

In addition to supporting joint customers as they deploy Atrica's Carrier-class solutions, the two industry leaders will work together to identify and pursue joint Metro networking opportunities in Europe. Demonstrating increasing market support for utilizing Ethernet to solve metro carriers' business and technical challenges, this agreement represents Controlware's entry into the Optical Ethernet marketplace. Working with Atrica, Controlware will leverage its comprehensive knowledge of local markets to provide fulfillment and delivery services as well as second level support to Metro carriers as they build-out, expand, and/or upgrade their telecommunications infrastructures with Optical Ethernet technology.

The first solutions purpose-built for next generation Metro networks, Attica's Optical Ethernet Systems meld Ethernet with optical switching and networking technology and combine this with Carrier-class traffic engineering capabilities to enable carriers to dramatically simplify their Metro network operations, significantly reduce their capital and operational expenditures, and scale their networks to deliver advanced, profitable Ethernet-based services

Silicon & Software Systems Introduces 90nm IP Portfolio for Consumer and Enterprise Networking Applications; S3 to Demonstrate Mixed-Signal Expertise

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Silicon & Software Systems Ltd (S3), a leading supplier of licensable mixed-signal intellectual property building blocks, today announced the availability of silicon-proven data converter IP for designs in the 90nm process technology node. The company will demonstrate these new IP cores to customers gathering here at the TSMC Technology Symposium, Wednesday, May 17.

S3's extensive 90nm IP portfolio includes ADCs, DACs and associated PLL components, optimized for integration in System ICs targeting consumer and broadband communication applications. Some of the end markets served by S3 customers include WLAN and WiMAX, digital broadcast standards (e.g. DVB-T and DVB-H) and High-Definition (HD) video applications.

Last August, Gartner Dataquest reported that the "analog and mixed signal IP grew by 36 percent in 2004, almost twice as much as the total IP market. We expect market growth to be equally impressive in 2005. This growth is being enabled by new tools and methodologies that aim to increase the value of the IP relative to the cost of integrating it into a SOC (system-on-a-chip)."(1) "S3's successful R&D investments in 90nm process technology services and products have already generated considerable interest from the company's global customer base of IDM and fabless suppliers," said Mike Murray, S3 Mixed Signal IP general manager. "Customers recognize the significant benefits of increased levels of product integration available to them at 90nm and they are repeatedly validating this point by incorporating our proven IP in their advanced SoC designs."

S3 has already taped out solutions, integrating its IP into single-chip systems, and has leveraged its considerable experience at 90nm with more than 20 SoC designs in the 90nm process technology node.

A major attraction for customers is access to S3's engineering design expertise in combination with proven silicon IP. The advantage of a one-stop-shop for IP and design services at the 90nm node is clear to customers who need to ensure confidence that their product will meet shrinking market windows and will speed time to revenue for their end-customers.

S3 will discuss its design services capabilities and the advantages of incorporating its mixed-signal IP blocks into single-chip systems at its display at the TSMC Technology Symposium at the San Jose Convention Center, Wednesday, May 17.

(1) Gartner, Inc., "Analog and Mixed Signal IP Is Growing in Importance" by Christian Heidarson. August 8, 2005.

About Silicon & Software Systems Ltd. (S3):

S3 delivers innovative System IC design solutions based on a unique combination of semiconductor engineering expertise, advanced methodologies, customizable IP and application knowledge. The company addresses complete System IC design processes from architecture to verification to system verified silicon. S3 focuses on leading-edge IC designs, including products at the 90nm and 65nm process technology nodes. S3's global customer base includes the world's leading semiconductor companies (both IDMs and fabless suppliers) and the company teams with major foundry partners.

S3 offers an extensive portfolio of silicon-proven customizable Mixed Signal IP, featuring high-performance analog building blocks such as ADCs, DACs and PLLs for a wide variety of technically demanding System IC, Digital Consumer, Network Infrastructure and Medical System applications including Wireless LAN, Broadband Communications, Imaging and Video. S3 was founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1986 and has operations in six countries: Ireland, USA, the Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic and the UK

D-Link Systems Inc.

D-Link Systems was one of the first companies to take home networking seriously. Along with its archrivals Linksys Group and Netgear, the company has produced increasingly versatile networking products at ever-decreasing prices. And it has made great strides to improve its setup tools, particularly those that help beginners.

The inexpensive D-Link DI-704P is a complete and well-conceived product. Housed in a stackable plastic case (with all connections on the rear panel), the DI-704P includes four 10/100 Ethernet ports, one WAN port, a parallel printer port for a print server, and a serial modem connector for dial-up backup or connection to the unit's command line interface. D-Link also packs two Ethernet cables in the box, which is a nice touch for a bargain-priced product. The browser-based configuration interface helps get new users started quickly.

Thanks to a clever auto-sensing feature, you can use any of the four ports to connect the DI-704P to another switch, eliminating the need for special crossover cables.The DI-704P's firewall features let you control inbound and outbound traffic by IP address or port number. The print server provides Microsoft Windows–based sharing with others on the LAN, but users must install a special driver (included on the provided CD) to gain access to the shared printer.

Like the DI-704P, the D-Link DI-714 is a four-port Ethernet switch and router, but it also has an 802.11b wireless access point. It offers both 64- and 128-bit WEP encryption. The DI-714 doesn't have the DI-704P's Ethernet auto-sensing feature, so D-Link provides a crossover cable.

The DI-714's browser-based interface is much more polished than the DI-704P's and includes an excellent setup wizard. Each product comes with an above-average manual and a CD-ROM with a helpful video geared to first-time networkers.

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