This move will up the data rate sufficiently until the standards for 3G devices are set. By 2002, these devices should begin to roll out with global roaming meeting the 2-Mbit/s rate guidelines set by the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS).
Portable, handheld devices are swooping down to take advantage of the upcoming megabit data rates. But what technology is going to display the exhilarating graphics that such rates are supposed to enable? Monochrome, passive-matrix, direct-view displays have their place on the latest web-enabled devices that connect to specially designed versions of popular web sites. They're particularly attractive from a cost and power-consumption point of view, while being very suited to the slow data rates of low-information-content images. But these displays will quickly lose their luster when color and higher-resolution images become the norm.
As an alternative, the large active-matrix LCDs that are over 4 in. in diagonal are out because they consume too much power. But help is on the way. Research into organic LEDs by a number of companies is finally paying dividends. Organic materials are readily patterned onto large surfaces and tend to hold their structural integrity better under stress, which makes them amenable to large displays. Unfortunately, success to date has been limited to the primary colors of red and green. Blue demands a higher voltage, which isn't what a portable device needs to be generating.
Electronic Ink For Low Power
Another interesting choice, albeit for monochrome, text-oriented displays or electronic newspapers, is "electronic ink." Essentially, it's a black ink in a clear plastic shell that gets deposited onto a surface. The ink particles are oriented for dark or clear positions using a potential difference applied across address electrodes. This technology promises extremely low-cost, low-power operation at just 12 mW for a 12.1-in. display.
For the handheld, graphics-intensive device, however, a whole range of microdisplay options will soon be available. Some have already hit the street in various shapes and forms. The most popular and widely accepted version clips onto a pair of glasses and presents a virtual display at high resolution (1024 by 768 pixels) with 16.7 million colors.
Using field-sequential color filtering, the displays have a refresh rate well beyond the 72 Hz required by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). They're sure to be a very popular solution over the coming years as graphics-intensive Internet portals go mobile. In a nutshell, expect poor graphics for now. But by late this year, high-information-content microdisplays will be well within the price range of most designs. These will be followed by organic LED displays by mid-2001. Electronic ink will find its niche in the portable, foldable, electronic newspaper-type device.
Over the next couple of years, then, portable devices and high-speed office and home connections will become widespread, dishing and receiving information to and from the backbone at phenomenal rates. This will put pressure on the links, or ribs, that have already grown to form that connection. New, faster links will be necessary. Metropolitan optical networks will rise with media-independent access gateways that will take DSL, cable, POTS, or wireless input and shovel it to the backbone at reliable, terabit-per-second rates (Fig. 2). The protocol or media will cease to be a bragging point. Look for the appearance of ICs that can handle multiple protocols, as well as optical switches that are now emerging from research labs.
These switches are mostly based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, in which microscopic mechanical mirrors route optical signals at terabit rates (Fig. 3). The ultimate goals are all-optical computers and networks that eliminate the need to constantly transition between optical and electrical signals for amplification, regeneration, and routing.
Until now, the LAN and wide-area network (WAN) have been almost completely separate entities with their own protocols. Typically, it was Ethernet for the LAN and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) for the WAN. This setup may soon change, however. The popularity of Ethernet in the LAN has been such that a 10-Gbit/s version is being worked on right now. It's likely to get somewhat of an identity crisis, because such data rates, when combined with its widespread acceptance and popularity, may make it a viable candidate for backbone applications.
SONET Will Lose Dominance
As the Internet continues its meteoric rise, the need for "packet-over-everything" may take its toll on the synchronous optical network (SONET), which has been the workhorse of high-speed data-transfer systems for many years. Unfortunately, SONET is optimized for circuit-switched data, making it less amenable to the increasing level of packet-switched data now being transmitted. It won't be going away anytime soon, but its dominance will wane.
On the entertainment front, a lot has happened that may well accelerate the delivery of quality digital-TV signals to both our homes and portable receivers. This may be the year that digital TV finally takes off, since the release of quality 8-VSB decoders and a recent FCC ruling thwarted any attempts to rekindle the coded OFDM/8-VSB debate. To date, though, the quality of the programming still doesn't bode too well. Better make it the year 2001 before the market surpasses the "curiosity" status.
Thanks to the massive strides made in the last 20 years, we enter this millennium with a barrage of communications media. Some will come and others may go, but many will become part of the fabric that will blanket and homogenize our society. Its effects have already been felt. Uncensored communication with the outside world, for example, has been largely responsible for crashing through the walls of silence and exposing dictators and tyrants for their true selves.
On the home front, the Internet has been beneficial. But many voice concern over its tendency to isolate heavy users from true, more "natural" interaction. These arguments may soon become meaningless. High-speed, untethered connections stand to make more realistic interactions possible in places other than our basements.
This move will up the data rate sufficiently until the standards for 3G devices are set. By 2002, these devices should begin to roll out with global roaming meeting the 2-Mbit/s rate guidelines set by the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS).
Portable, handheld devices are swooping down to take advantage of the upcoming megabit data rates. But what technology is going to display the exhilarating graphics that such rates are supposed to enable? Monochrome, passive-matrix, direct-view displays have their place on the latest web-enabled devices that connect to specially designed versions of popular web sites. They're particularly attractive from a cost and power-consumption point of view, while being very suited to the slow data rates of low-information-content images. But these displays will quickly lose their luster when color and higher-resolution images become the norm.
As an alternative, the large active-matrix LCDs that are over 4 in. in diagonal are out because they consume too much power. But help is on the way. Research into organic LEDs by a number of companies is finally paying dividends. Organic materials are readily patterned onto large surfaces and tend to hold their structural integrity better under stress, which makes them amenable to large displays. Unfortunately, success to date has been limited to the primary colors of red and green. Blue demands a higher voltage, which isn't what a portable device needs to be generating.
Electronic Ink For Low Power
Another interesting choice, albeit for monochrome, text-oriented displays or electronic newspapers, is "electronic ink." Essentially, it's a black ink in a clear plastic shell that gets deposited onto a surface. The ink particles are oriented for dark or clear positions using a potential difference applied across address electrodes. This technology promises extremely low-cost, low-power operation at just 12 mW for a 12.1-in. display.
For the handheld, graphics-intensive device, however, a whole range of microdisplay options will soon be available. Some have already hit the street in various shapes and forms. The most popular and widely accepted version clips onto a pair of glasses and presents a virtual display at high resolution (1024 by 768 pixels) with 16.7 million colors.
Using field-sequential color filtering, the displays have a refresh rate well beyond the 72 Hz required by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). They're sure to be a very popular solution over the coming years as graphics-intensive Internet portals go mobile. In a nutshell, expect poor graphics for now. But by late this year, high-information-content microdisplays will be well within the price range of most designs. These will be followed by organic LED displays by mid-2001. Electronic ink will find its niche in the portable, foldable, electronic newspaper-type device.
Over the next couple of years, then, portable devices and high-speed office and home connections will become widespread, dishing and receiving information to and from the backbone at phenomenal rates. This will put pressure on the links, or ribs, that have already grown to form that connection. New, faster links will be necessary. Metropolitan optical networks will rise with media-independent access gateways that will take DSL, cable, POTS, or wireless input and shovel it to the backbone at reliable, terabit-per-second rates (Fig. 2). The protocol or media will cease to be a bragging point. Look for the appearance of ICs that can handle multiple protocols, as well as optical switches that are now emerging from research labs.
These switches are mostly based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, in which microscopic mechanical mirrors route optical signals at terabit rates (Fig. 3). The ultimate goals are all-optical computers and networks that eliminate the need to constantly transition between optical and electrical signals for amplification, regeneration, and routing.
Until now, the LAN and wide-area network (WAN) have been almost completely separate entities with their own protocols. Typically, it was Ethernet for the LAN and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) for the WAN. This setup may soon change, however. The popularity of Ethernet in the LAN has been such that a 10-Gbit/s version is being worked on right now. It's likely to get somewhat of an identity crisis, because such data rates, when combined with its widespread acceptance and popularity, may make it a viable candidate for backbone applications.
SONET Will Lose Dominance
As the Internet continues its meteoric rise, the need for "packet-over-everything" may take its toll on the synchronous optical network (SONET), which has been the workhorse of high-speed data-transfer systems for many years. Unfortunately, SONET is optimized for circuit-switched data, making it less amenable to the increasing level of packet-switched data now being transmitted. It won't be going away anytime soon, but its dominance will wane.
On the entertainment front, a lot has happened that may well accelerate the delivery of quality digital-TV signals to both our homes and portable receivers. This may be the year that digital TV finally takes off, since the release of quality 8-VSB decoders and a recent FCC ruling thwarted any attempts to rekindle the coded OFDM/8-VSB debate. To date, though, the quality of the programming still doesn't bode too well. Better make it the year 2001 before the market surpasses the "curiosity" status.
Thanks to the massive strides made in the last 20 years, we enter this millennium with a barrage of communications media. Some will come and others may go, but many will become part of the fabric that will blanket and homogenize our society. Its effects have already been felt. Uncensored communication with the outside world, for example, has been largely responsible for crashing through the walls of silence and exposing dictators and tyrants for their true selves.
On the home front, the Internet has been beneficial. But many voice concern over its tendency to isolate heavy users from true, more "natural" interaction. These arguments may soon become meaningless. High-speed, untethered connections stand to make more realistic interactions possible in places other than our basements.