3D TV + 3D Printer + Nokia

choi

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(1) Grace Kuo, TSMC, NTU unveil 3-D TV chip breakthrough. Taiwan Today, Feb 17, 2011.
http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=151615&ctNode=445
(“'The chip allows viewers, regardless of their position, to look at the image of an object from various angles, as if it is right in front of them,' TSMC said. According to the company, current 3-D imaging techniques simulate what the human eye sees from different angles, but can only present images from fixed angles")

My comment: To be frank, I do not know what the quotation exactly means. But there are two clues.
(a) Peter Clarke, TSMC develops any-angle 3-D TV chip. EETimes, ‎Feb 17, 2011.

The content says less than the report of Taiwan Today, but "any angle" in the title sounds‎ like 3D hologram to me. (Taiwan Today is an internet-based news outlet, published by Government Information Office of Taiwan 中華民國行政院 新聞局.)
(b) Press release: 台積公司與國立臺灣大學攜手合作 成功開發全球首顆40奈米3D TV晶片. TSMC, Feb 16, 2011.
http://www.tsmc.com/tsmcdotcom/PRListingNewsAction.do?language=E
("該晶片也將在二月下旬於國際固態電路研討會上(ISSCC)正式發表")

(i) International Solid-State Circuits Conference - February 20-24 | San Francisco, CA
http://isscc.org/


(2) 3D printing  |  The Printed World: Three-dimensional printing from digital designs will transform manufacturing and allow more people to start making things. Economist, Feb 10, 2011.
http://www.economist.com/node/18114221?story_id=18114221&CFID=156718123&CFTOKEN=46004197

My comment:
(a) Bristol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol
(The town of Brycgstow (Old English, "the place at the bridge")[15] appears to have been founded in c.1000)

Compare
Cambridge (Granta- (river name) + O.E. brycg bridge)
where O.E. stands for Old English.
(b) Take a look at the photos and the graphic (whose caption reads, "Our TQ article explains the technology behind the 3-D printing process") before deciding if you want to read further. The graphic (where TQ represetns Technology Quarterly of the Economist) does not appear in the print, but it helps a lot to understand the process, in contrast with paragraph 7 of this article.
(c) The ARTICLE is introduced in the front pages of--labeled Leader in--the magazine by a one-page

Technology   |  Print me a Stradivarius; How a new manufacturing technology will change the world.

There is no need to read it, except, perhaps, a glance at the picture, which suggests that a high-end violin may someday be printed.
(i) Stradivarius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradivarius   
(The name Stradivarius is associated with violins built by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari [(1644-1737; Italian)])


(3) Nokia at the crossroads  l  Blazing Platforms: It is not just the world’s biggest handset-maker that has lost its edge. So has Europe’s whole mobile-phone industry. Economist, Feb 10, 2011.
http://www.economist.com/node/18114689?story_id=18114689

My comment:
(a) This article demonstrates the strength of the Economist--and explains why the Economist stands alone whereas other news magazines are under siege (losing both money and readership).
(b) There is no need to read the article, except a peep at the graphics, whose headings are "Mobile-phone makers' world handset market share, % ... and their share of profits, % of total"

I have never used a mobile (or cell) phone; I can not tell quality. All other reports so far talk about market share, based on which I did not feel the urgency of new Nokia CEO, an American and the first foreign CEO of Nokia. But the graphics explains Nokia is in a dire strait--and why HTC of Taiwan is prosperous, though its global market share of mobile phones is trivial (and its corresponding share of smarket phones is just 1.5%).

Note:
(i) No Japanese company is listed. Japan used to make terrific mobile phones which could do many things but somehow were not sold abroad. After introduction of iPhone, Japanese mobile phone makers are not heard of any more.
(ii) In 2010, white-box mobile phones 山寨手机 (most of which were made in China, with chipsets from Taiwan's MediaTek) made up 22.5% of global mobile phone market. I am surprised that white box account for negligible profits. MediaTek certainly makes a bundle.


------------------------------------Separately
Anton Shilov, Nvidia: 28nm Process Tech "Not Available" This Year; 28nm output in 2011 too low for Tegra "Kal El" - CEO of Nvidia. Xbit Laboratories, Feb 17, 2011.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20110217170315_Nvidia_28nm_Process_Tech_Not_Available_This_Year.html

Quote:

"'28nm is not available this year, not until the very end of the year. I think, for us to ship [Tegra 'Kal El'] production out in Q3, we have to start wafers in early Q2, right? So, 28nm is not an option. Secondly, 40nm is now in the third year of its production, and the yields are fabulous. [...] So 40nm process technology is absolutely the right approach. It is the most mature, and we can go into very high [volume] production very quickly because the yields are so great,' said Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia, during a conference call with financial analysts.

Note: Superboy (Kal-El)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superboy_(Kal-El)
(The name of Superman as a boy, Superboy has adventures that occur in the relative past to those of Superman and take place predominantly in his hometown of Smallville. Superboy is from the destroyed planet Krypton, where he was born under the name Kal-El, and lives on Earth under the secret identity of mild-mannered student Clark Kent)


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