The WAVE Report Issue #0414------------------04/16/04

The WAVE Report archive is available on http://www.wave-report.com

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***McAfee SpamKiller Makes 'Intelligent' Decisions About
Email With Bayesian Filtering

***CeBIT 2004

***New D-Link 802.11g Wireless Presentation Gateway Enables
Simultaneous Sharing of Presentations on VGA-Compatible
Devices

***New Processors Drive Lower Cost, Entry-Level Intel
Itanium 2-Based Systems

Bayesian Filtering -- The McAfee SpamAssassin engine Bayesian filtering comes pre-configured with an out-of-the -box filtering database, and features an innovative auto
-learning system which will adapt to the users' particular email stream

Integrity Analysis -- Examines the header, layout and organization of every incoming email message and applies thousands of algorithms to determine if the email is spam

Heuristic Detection -- With a set of automated rules based on known spam characteristics, McAfee SpamKiller works proactively to secure the network against spam

Content Filtering -- The administrator-defined set of words and phrases helps further identify unwanted email and inappropriate content

Personalized Black and White Lists -- A set of standards defined by the administrator and users utilizing white and black lists to determine both acceptable senders of email, as well as unwanted and unacceptable senders of email

Self-tuning -- With the ability to learn the characteristics of email received at the desktop, McAfee SpamKiller powered by McAfee SpamAssassin is able to adjust the overall spam score for messages received from known senders. This
functionality is provided in McAfee SpamKiller for Mail Servers

DNS-Blocklist Support -- The McAfee SpamKiller appliances are able to integrate with Internet-based DNS blocklists to ensure that email sent by known "spammers" is automatically blocked.

Availability

McAfee SpamKiller with Bayesian filtering is available immediately through Network Associates and its channel partners. For more information on McAfee SpamKiller, visit

http://us.mcafee.com/root/product.asp?productid=msk

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0414.2 Story of the Issue

***CeBIT 2004
By John Latta

Hannover, Germany
March 17 - 20, 2004

***Sony Defines Digital Home Market on its Own Terms

It was only a matter of time. Sony would turn every corporate screw in its business and skill chest to mold the home digital market to its maximum advantage. No less than Kunitake Ando, President and Chief Operating Officer, Sony, came to announce its strategic directions at a press event. He also gave the first keynote by a CE company that has ever opened CeBIT. In the past Sony called this the Ubiquitous "Value" Network now it is "Next Generation." He drove his points with:

Sony is creating an easy to use home networking environment.

Sony is revitalizing its products in a BB convergence era.

IT, Communications and CE are coming together. 2004 will be seen as the beginning of BB convergence.

Three key factors in our products are:

Digital
Wireless, and
Personal

With that, Sony announced a slew of products and a service to drive home these points.

Sony Announcements

Sony announced a service for cell phone operators that allows them to sell songs. It is called Personal Media Assistant, and there will be a name change at launch. This is a mobile music streaming service that is to be provided by mobile phone operators that use GPRS/3G. TeliaSonera Finland has been trials for 2 months and will be the launch operator in the second quarter of 2004. Sony stated they are in discussions with virtually every operator in Europe. Additional Nordic operators will roll out in the second half of 2004. A demo was shown of the user interface and it is very customer centric and includes many options for personalization. Note that the music is streamed from a server and not stored on the phone. This is a Symbian-based application that runs on Series 60 and UIQ phones. Financial details were not disclosed.

An electronic music service called Connect was announced which is very similar to iTunes. Songs from all music companies will be available. It will begin with 300,000 songs in the UK, France and Germany in June. The format is ATRAC3 and the cost is .99 Euro per track. Connect works with SonicStage 2.0. When asked about the support for ATRAC3 on other than Sony devices, the answer was not clear; but it was clearly stated that this will not work with iPod.

A memory disc technology called Hi-MD was announced that will provide 1GB of storage for 10 Euro. This appears to be Sony proprietary. A walkman that uses this media was also announced called Hi-MD Walkman.

A DVD Handycam model DCR-DVD201 was announced that uses DVD recordable media. The video format is 16:9. It is also a still camera.

A new digital camera was announced called Cyber-shot DSC-P100 with 5m pixels.

In a boastful announcement Sony claimed to be doing the next generation desktop PC, which they called the VAIO V1. This is a PC integrated into the TFT LCD display. It has an internal digital video recorder. Excellent ID.

At the center of the home network was the Vaio Home Server. One illustration showed this on a PC with connection in the home through either Ethernet or wireless.

A very impressive thin and light notebook was shown - the model x505 extreme.

Sony then showed how all these devices would interact together. This is Sony’s strength. Next it showed where broadband fits. This includes both home BB and mobile BB. From Sony Music to the home to the mobile phones by Sony Ericsson Sony has a product for every part of the market. In spite of the announcement that the Connect service is for music Ando-san stated video was coming.

Ando-San stated during the evening keynote that open standards are essential for this era of broadband. He specifically cited the Digital Home Working Group.

During all the Sony presentations, only once was PS2 mentioned and then obliquely.

NFC – DOA Press Conference

Sony pumped it up. Philips pumped it up. The room was packed. NFC is another wireless "standard" for Near Field Communications. It is to enable close proximity communications of two devices. This can enable commerce, control of devices, DRM validation, mutual exchange of information and many other applications. The intent is that many phones, read Nokia, will have this capability. A simple animation was shown of e-commerce with a NFC device that bought a hotel room on line, checked in, opened the room door and did this with apparent ease. Money just flowed seamlessly from the device. The presentation was devoid of technical details. In spite of the presence of 5 executives from these companies they could not answer simple questions.

How is authentication done?
Will another wireless standard confuse consumers?
Why cannot this be done with existing wireless technologies?
How much will this cost?
What is the bandwidth supported?
Will consumers have to learn another PIN number for their phones?

See: http://www.nfcforum.org/

Maybe they need another year to get their act together.

***Siemens

In the futures section of the Siemens booth they had:

GSM phone in the form of a pen that did character recognition;

A pen interface to the phone - same as above but without character recognition and phone;

A virtual keyboard, that is a projected keyboard on to a flat surface, with the projector build into the phone.

Finger Systems (Korea) provided the pen technology. It remains to be seen what will fly in this phone-HID category as Siemens was seeking feedback at CeBIT to determine product direction.

In a market where every penny counts, Siemens went against the grain, and showed creative use of technology applied to the phone. The most outstanding was the PenPhone. This integrates a pen, phone, character recognition and Bluetooth in one device that is slightly larger than an ordinary pen. The ID was well done. Details include:

The phone recognizes strokes that make up a character or number. The end of a character is determined by the distance between the pen tip and the surface. Above a certain threshold the character recognition process stops - this is probably 5mm as per the discussion with Finger Systems below. Note that the tracking engine is relative and not absolute thus the short distance and span of one character for recognition – no more. In this application, this does not seem to be a major limitation.

The primary application is the handwriting of phone numbers to be called or SMS messages.

There is an internal display at the top of the pen shell that shows the results of the stroke recognition. (In the booth, the recognition was shown on a PC monitor apparently using the Bluetooth interface). This is a simple problem compared to general handwriting recognition. But what we saw had a number of errors in recognition.

The surfaces that one can write on cannot include all white or all black because it confuses the tracking engine. It was claimed by Siemens that this will be improved in a few months.

Presently, if one wants to send information from the pen to a more traditional cell phone, this can only be accomplished by dialing from the PenPhone to the GSM phone; in other words, the Bluetooth interface does not work between the PenPhone and another phone. Siemens recognizes this as an issue but how it is resolved will await their evaluation of the potential for this product concept.

At the top end of the phone is a speaker that means that the phone does not need to be held to one’s ear to be heard. There is a microphone near the tip of the pen.

The phone was well integrated.

It took one year to develop the phone.

Right behind this display stand was virtually the same pen but without the character recognition. It was actually an input device for a Bluetooth cell phone. We saw illustrations being drawn on the face of the phone. It was quite good and we wonder is this is a better application of the pen than the PenPhone.

Next to the PenPhone is a phone which has the projection module built into the top of the phone. When this Virtual Keyboard phone is stood up with its built in stand – the back of the phone just folds out – the typical projected red keyboard outline is seen on the table surface. Certainly one of the better uses of this technology that we have seen before – including our report at CES.

There was also shown PockServ. Actually, it is a hard disk with Bluetooth interface and USB. It thus can interface to the phone or can be a shared drive on the PC. This was quite small and likely used the MicroDrive. Even given all this, it was a slick application of a hard drive.

Overall, Siemens has to be given an A for trying to shake the phone human interface mind set. It remains to be seen if this goes anywhere. They tried two years ago with the OTM technology to mate a pen with the phone, and that died. The larger problem has nothing to do with technology, it is a business model. Buyers expect the phone price to be subsidized and basically cost next to nothing, i.e., $10. This makes it very difficult to bring creativity to the market. The major exception right now is the photo phones. We doubt that the same market momentum will happen with built-in HID.

***Finger Systems - Another A for Trying

For some reason Siemens would not state openly that Finger Systems did the technology for the PenPhone. They did say - go to building 24. That we did and Finger even had examples of the Siemens PenPhone on display. So much for CeBit secrets.

We took the opportunity to bore in more on the technology. Here are the details.

The tracking technology is similar to that used in the optical mouse. That is, a movement vector is formed based on the relative movement between looks at the surface. This, however, appears very simple and no-where as sophisticated as mouse tracking has become. For example, when we asked – do you have an ASIC for tracking and the answer was no. There was a "standard" IC used for the imaging and an I/F IC for USB.

It was claimed that the depth of focus is 5mm compared to most optical mice that will only operate to 1mm. The value of this is that tracking is still possible above the surface.

***Logitech - Charting its Future

Logitech discussed its future at a CeBIT press event.

We sold 65m mice last year.

It is important to recognize that the PC is a commodity. This is really a shrink wrap of Microsoft and Intel technology. The issue is - How can consumers make the PC personal again? Consumers make it personal by what they place around the PC.

To respond to this desire for personalization we have to make the decision very simple. This is where brand is critical. As the price points for the products decrease, brand becomes all the more critical. Customers want to be certain about the purchase. We also have a "super premium brand" in this a low price category.

In the past we have been a "last inch" company but we have grown into the living room. And we have entered the mobile market. But I am very concerned about diversification. We might lose our DNA. This means we much be focused on what consumers like and what are the hot markets. A testament to the success of our brand is that more than 90% of our consumers will recommend our products to friends.

Logitech is in high volume markets. There is a very important link between OEM and retail, and this has been reinforced in the last several months. OEMs want to see us driving retail. This provides a strong support for the OEMs selling. We have seen this in the Web cam market and the wireless products. Increasingly we see where OEMs want to associate with our name.

Logitech is most proud of its performance. We have sustained revenue growth for 5 consecutive years, and closed 2003 with $1.223b in sales, 16% above last year. Our profits have shown an even greater rise. Last year they rose 28% to $120m.

We have sold 500m mice. Given that the total number of PCs is 1.3b, since they were first manufactured, that is a lot of mice. In 2003 we sold 110m products. There are very few companies that have sold that many products. Of that 110m, more than 50m were under the Logitech brand.

We have extended our brand into the game console market.

We work in three types of markets:

Those that we develop.

Examples where this applies are cordless, webcam
and consoles;

Those that we take share.

This includes: audio, pointing devices and PC gaming. The PC gaming market is in decline but we feel that it will come back again. This is a cyclical market. With our market share we are in a very strong position when it returns.

New applications

Examples include digital writing and mobile headsets. We intend to grow the IO pen market and will have more on this in the future.

There is a huge opportunity for cordless. We estimate that 500 - 600m cordless devices will be sold. In 5 - 6 years all PC owners will want cordless.

We believe that the market is ready for mass adoption of cordless. This is also what we hear from OEMs. Our product introductions are consistent with this to drive to increase the adoption of cordless.

The video IM market is growing rapidly.

As of 2/04 there have been 4.5m video sessions per day and growing, and

There are 16m unique users per month.

***Nokia -

We were impressed with the depth of product at Nokia. Here are some examples.

7610
This has a 1mp camera and will take both stills and video. The camera has a 4X zoom. It supports multimedia messaging and has Bluetooth built in. The keyboard is of a new more modern design - not sure it is easier to use however.

6230
Active Matrix TFT display and with Bluetooth. Email client. Support for streaming video and includes an MP3 player. Built in FM stereo radio. Also includes a voice
recorder.

6600
Integrated camera and video recorder. GUI interaction on the TFT LCD screen.

Medallion I & II
Neck jewelry. Will store pictures and display them on a screen which hang around the neck. Resolution is 96 X 96. Price is 289 Euro. Very surprised that the picture transfer means between the bracelet and the phone is IR, not Bluetooth.

7600
This hardly looks like a phone but more like a square hockey puck. However, it has a built in camera and video recorder. Support video and audio streaming. Has an XHTM browser and e-mail client.

***SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG - Selling the First Fuel Cells

Tucked away in a small booth was this company with a product called SFC A25, one of the first fuel cells on the market. It sells for $2800 and has an output of 50Ah per day. The down side is that it will only last 1,000 hours. They have plans to sell the SFC PowerBoy for notebooks, portable TVs and PDAs. This is expected to go on sale in 2005.

Is Wireless CE the Future?

The CE story line of digital home networking is not new. We have been to the best early market indicator event, CEATEC, and noted the emergence of home networking technology for the past 2 years. Certainly Sony has been one of the most vocal. There was extensive home networking show at ITU Telecom World in Geneva.

We took the opportunity at CeBIT to test the reality - what are these CE companies showing or selling in the way of home networking.

We were surprised.

Sony
There was a demonstration of a Windows Media PC that had 802.11g for wireless. We saw no wireless televisions, only a converter that took the RF signal and then provided the signal to the television.

It is important to note that in the past Sony was showing 802.11a and this shift to g is only quite recent.

Also note that one of the first wireless products, the Sony Airboard, was not present here.

Panasonic
There was a demonstration area for Home Networking\Ideas. Most of the communications about the home were using power lines. There were some 802.11a bridges present but these were only used for extended room wireless access, not between rooms. Wireless was not integrated into any device but security cameras. Media server is of Panasonic design.

Panasonic has long been showing 802.11a technology and this goes back as far as 2 years ago at CEATEC.

Samsung
Shown was one LCD TV being fed with 802.11a but the wireless interface box was next to the display and nearly as large as it. Also shown was the "First wireless plasma display" but no one could say what the wireless technology was. This is due to be sold in a few weeks.

In a demonstration, Samsung was showing an AV Home center. This basically has a Samsung media box connected via wires to AV clients around the house. The only value of this network was the concentration of content in the media center.

It should be noted that Samsung was showing wireless embedded into to a plasma panel at CES 2003 using the chips of Magis Networks. But Magis Networks Inc. filed for Chapter 11 in late December 2003 and as of January was going into Chapter 7 in spite of raising $62m.

Thus, if we compare what was seen here at CeBIT with what was noted at ITU Telecom in Geneva, just last December, the digital home networking is not as well developed as the talks and press events would indicate. Certainly, Sony is farther along with the wireless story but there are still important components missing - such as embedded wireless. The trials of Samsung are a good example as cited above.

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0414.3 Wireless

***New D-Link 802.11g Wireless Presentation Gateway Enables Simultaneous Sharing of Presentations on VGA-Compatible Devices

Fountain Valley, California
Apr 14, 2004 09:01 ET

D-Link announced the D-Link AirPlus G Wireless Presentation Gateway (DPG-2000W) which enables the delivery of presentations via high-speed 802.11g wireless from desktop or notebook PCs to multimedia projectors, LCD panels, monitors or other VGA compatible devices. The D-Link Wireless Presentation Gateway eliminates the cables between the projector and the PC, providing contiguous access for multiple presenters to deliver presentations in a group environment.

The D-Link Wireless Presentation Gateway is a powerful presentation tool that connects through a standard VGA connector to a projector or LCD panel to receive and display images wirelessly from any 802.11g- or 802.11b-enabled desktop or notebook PC within the range of the wireless network. The Presentation Gateway is compatible with virtually all presentation projectors, supporting multiple resolution settings up to 1024x768 pixels and up to 24-bit color depth. The device includes an intuitive Presentation Session Manager Software that allows multiple presenters one-click access to the monitor or projector.

The D-Link AirPlus G 802.11g Wireless Presentation Gateway Features:

Support for displays with up to 1024x768 resolution and 24-bit color

D-Link One-Click Session Manager Software for seamless group presentation delivery

Plug and Play installation for instant IP assignment and Configuration

Customizable Display Screen for customization of displays before, between and after presentations

Web-based utility with advanced features including device settings and firmware upgrades

Enhanced security with up to 128-bit WEP encryption

With plug-and-play IP configuration, the D-Link 802.11g Wireless Presentation Gateway matches wireless network settings automatically for simple access and setup. The D-Link Wireless Presentation Gateway features a Web-based utility for advanced option features including banner page customization for images including meeting agendas and conference logos before and between presentations, wireless settings such as SSID and 64/128-bit WEP encryption, and firmware updates for future enhancements.

The D-Link AirPlus G Wireless Presentation Gateway (DPG-2000W) will be available in April.

http://www.dlink.com/products/

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0414.4 Microprocessors

***New Processors Drive Lower Cost, Entry-Level Intel Itanium
2-Based Systems

Intel Developer Forum
April 13, 2004

Intel Corporation announced two Intel Itanium 2 processors. Servers based on the new processors are approximately 28 percent lower in price and up to 25 percent higher performing than previous dual processor Itanium 2-based servers.

The new processors broaden the Itanium processor family support of lower-cost server solutions for front-end applications and complement existing Itanium 2-based systems in large scale deployments. A wide range of Itanium 2-based dual processor servers are offered by more than 50 system manufacturers worldwide.

The price/performance improvements of these new processors are the next step toward achieving Intel's goal of delivering Itanium 2-based systems with up to twice the performance as Intel(R) Xeon(TM) processor based systems for the same system cost in 2007.

Intel has two server architectures, which makes up approximately 85 percent of the server market segment share. The Itanium 2 processor family is targeted at business critical enterprise servers and technical computing clusters while the Intel Xeon processor family is broadly used for general purpose IT infrastructure.

Audi AG, the international high-quality car manufacturer, recently switched from RISC-based servers to HP Integrity dual processor servers running Itanium 2 processors.

The Itanium 2 processor at 1.40 GHz with 3 MB level three (L3) cache is available worldwide today and the Itanium 2 processor at 1.6 GHz with 3 MB L3 cache is expected to be available worldwide in May. Both processors enable systems for technical computing clusters and entry-level, front-end enterprise systems. In addition, Intel offers to manufacturers a rack-optimized, dual processor Intel server platform for both of these new Itanium 2 processors.

The Itanium 2 processor at 1.40 GHz with 3MB of cache improves the performance up to 25 percent over the Itanium 2 processor at 1.40 GHz with 1.5 MB of cache. Furthermore it delivers up to twice the price/performance of comparable RISC-based systems. The increased performance will enhance the speed and efficiency of technical computing applications such as computer aided engineering (CAE), which enables faster product design and more accurate simulations.

The Itanium 2 processor at 1.60 GHz with 3MB of cache delivers outstanding floating point performance per compute node, resulting in an industry-leading DP performance based on Linpack measurements (or floating point operations per second).

New dual processor systems are available from a variety of system manufacturers including Bull, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HCL, IBM, Kraftway, Lenovo, Maxdata, Samsung, and Transtec AG.

http://www.intel.com/

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