Chips and dips, the latest from educom...
I Find Karma (adam@cs.caltech.edu)
Wed, 21 Aug 96 02:09:58 PDT
NEW SOFTWARE NEEDED TO RUN NEW CHIPS
As chipmakers strain to find new ways of packing even more power onto tiny
wafers of silicon, an industry consultant notes that more transistors per
chip is not all that's needed for improved performance. The real boost in
speed will come from combining into a single chip functions that previously
required several processors, such as memory and logic circuits. "As we push
below 0.25 micron, the software tools available to design integrated
circuits are not going to be able to keep up with the added complexity,"
says G. Dan Hutcheson. To avoid what it calls a "productivity gap,"
Sematech has signed a multimillion contract with Synopsys for an advanced
design system that can handle circuits of 0.25 microns and smaller.
(Scientific American Aug 96 p33)
PAYING PARKING TICKETS ONLINE
The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles has made paying speeding
tickets and renewing automobile registrations much easier - now motorists
with access to the Web can visit their site at < http://www.state.ma.us/rmv
> to conduct business. Other services, such as ordering vanity license
plates, will be available by fall. The state anticipates the move online
will eventually allow it cut back on the $6 million annual DMV allocation.
(Business Week 19 Aug 96 p6)