| Editor's Note |
| The electronics and entertainment industries have been singing the praises of 3-D TV, citing a compelling new user experience that they hope will translate into meaningful revenue. Now Samsung Electronics, one of the company's that is pushing 3-D TV aggressively, is issuing warnings about health hazards potentially associated with watching 3-D TV. Samsung, which has not been reached for comment on the warning, is doing this presumably to cover its back to avoid potential lawsuits. Some of the issues, like eye strain, are relatively mundane and could easily be caused by watching standard television. But other potential maladies from watching 3-D TV contained in Samsung's warning are considerably more serious, particularly stroke or epileptic seizure.
The Samsung warning raises a host of questions. How significant is the risk that viewers of 3-D TV may suffer these aliments? Can anything be done to mitigate or remove that risk?
The grand vision shared by the electronics and entertainment industries is that one day 3-D TV will be ubiquitous, found in nearly every home. But if questions about potential health dangers remain unanswered, 3-D TV will never achieve anything close to this kind of proliferation.
|
| Top Story |
Samsung warns of 3-D TV health hazards
Samsung posted on its Australian web site a warning about health hazards associated with watching 3-D TV.
|
| |
| Semiconductor News |
TSMC's LED move seen as major shift
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.'s move into the LED market leaves some to wonder if the foundry giant is looking for new markets. Or, perhaps TSMC is making a huge strategic shift by taking a step as an integrated device manufacturer (IDM).
|
| |
Microsoft job ad hints at ARM-based servers
Microsoft is looking for a senior software development engineer to help with its Bing data centers, potentially running them on ARM hardware.
|
| |
Bluetooth backers explore 60 GHz future
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is expected to create a study group to help pick a transport for a future gigabit-class version of the short-range wireless technology, and the leading candidates are the two rival flavors of 60 GHz technology promoted by the WirelessHD Consortium and the Wireless Gigabit Alliance.
|
| |
| Sponsored by
ESC Silicon Valley
In this economy, you have to take advantage of the professional
development and education at ESC. This is your opportunity to
get hands-on training.
Register for ESC Silicon Valley today!
|
|
| |
| Business News |
ST samples low-power ARM microcontrollers
STMicroelectronics NV has announced it is sampling the STM32L series of ultra-low-power ARM Cortex-M3 microcontrollers
|
| |
Asian consumer networking startup raises $10.5 million
Synerchip Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan), a fabless chip company providing high-speed digital interface semiconductors, has announced it has closed a $10.5 million Series C round of financing.
|
| |
Japan's fab tool book-to-bill slips
Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a book-to-bill ratio of 1.17 in March, down from 1.34 in February and 1.36 in January, according to the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan.
|
| |
| Reader Forum |
Email: Monitoring can drive 25% power savings
A reader writes about his experience installing a power monitoring system across three states in the U.S. northwest.
|
| |
| Design News |
Samplify introduces ultrasound beamformer IC
Samplify Systems Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has announced an autofocus beamforming technology for ultrasound imaging.
|
| |
IP&E: RCA = Really Cringeful Audio
Audio is a field with its own share of standard connectors, including line-in/out and headphone TRS connectors, binding posts and banana plugs for connecting loudspeakers to amplifiers in consumer applications, and the balanced XLRs used in professional audio.
|
| |
IP&E: Data rates, mobile drive high-speed connector innovation
Advances in design, technology and materials science have pushed connectors to unprecedented performance.
|
| |
| ESC Silicon Valley |
ESC: Tech experts deliver no fluff, all substance
Technical experts from Freescale, Micrium, Green Hills Software and more will answer questions at the Embedded Systems Conference and ESC Expo.
|
| |
| Course: From FPGA to ASIC |
| There are two reasons for migrating from FPGAs to ASICs, and many more reasons why that migration could easily go astray. The Fundamentals of FPGA-to-ASIC conversion presents the principles and the tools available to do it right, including a real-world example using Altera's HardCopy ASICs.
|
Dylan McGrath is editor of the EE Times Newsletter, which brings you the latest semiconductor and design news.
--