52 research outputs found

    JTEC Panel report on electronic manufacturing and packaging in Japan

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    This report summarizes the status of electronic manufacturing and packaging technology in Japan in comparison to that in the United States, and its impact on competition in electronic manufacturing in general. In addition to electronic manufacturing technologies, the report covers technology and manufacturing infrastructure, electronics manufacturing and assembly, quality assurance and reliability in the Japanese electronics industry, and successful product realization strategies. The panel found that Japan leads the United States in almost every electronics packaging technology. Japan clearly has achieved a strategic advantage in electronics production and process technologies. Panel members believe that Japanese competitors could be leading U.S. firms by as much as a decade in some electronics process technologies

    I Am Error

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    I Am Error is a platform study of the Nintendo Family Computer (or Famicom), a videogame console first released in Japan in July 1983 and later exported to the rest of the world as the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES). The book investigates the underlying computational architecture of the console and its effects on the creative works (e.g. videogames) produced for the platform. I Am Error advances the concept of platform as a shifting configuration of hardware and software that extends even beyond its ‘native’ material construction. The book provides a deep technical understanding of how the platform was programmed and engineered, from code to silicon, including the design decisions that shaped both the expressive capabilities of the machine and the perception of videogames in general. The book also considers the platform beyond the console proper, including cartridges, controllers, peripherals, packaging, marketing, licensing, and play environments. Likewise, it analyzes the NES’s extension and afterlife in emulation and hacking, birthing new genres of creative expression such as ROM hacks and tool-assisted speed runs. I Am Error considers videogames and their platforms to be important objects of cultural expression, alongside cinema, dance, painting, theater and other media. It joins the discussion taking place in similar burgeoning disciplines—code studies, game studies, computational theory—that engage digital media with critical rigor and descriptive depth. But platform studies is not simply a technical discussion—it also keeps a keen eye on the cultural, social, and economic forces that influence videogames. No platform exists in a vacuum: circuits, code, and console alike are shaped by the currents of history, politics, economics, and culture—just as those currents are shaped in kind

    NASA Tech Briefs, February 1993

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    Topics include: Communication Technology; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery; Fabrication Technology; Mathematics and Information Sciences; Life Sciences

    Interfaces on Trial 2.0

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    The debate over the use of copyright law to prevent competition and interoperability in the global software industry.We live in an interoperable world. Computer hardware and software products from different manufacturers can exchange data within local networks and around the world using the Internet. The competition enabled by this compatibility between devices has led to fast-paced innovation and prices low enough to allow ordinary users to command extraordinary computing capacity. In Interfaces on Trial 2.0, Jonathan Band and Masanobu Katoh investigate an often overlooked factor in the development of today's interoperabilty: the evolution of copyright law. Because software is copyrightable, copyright law determines the rules for competition in the information technology industry. This book—a follow-up to Band and Katoh's successful 1995 book Interfaces on Trial—examines the debates surrounding the use of copyright law to prevent competition and interoperability in the global software industry in the last fifteen years.Band and Katoh are longtime advocates for interoperable devices but present a reasoned view of contentious issues related to interoperability issues in the United States, the European Union, and the Pacific Rim. They discuss such topics as the protectability of interface specifications, the permissibility of reverse engineering (and legislative and executive endorsement of pro-interoperability case law), the interoperability exception to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the interoperability cases decided under it, the enforceability of contractural restrictions on reverse engineering; and recent legal developments affecting the future of interoperability, including those related to open source-software and software patents

    NASA Tech Briefs, November 1990

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    Topics: New Product Ideas; NASA TU Services; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery; Fabrication Technology; Mathematics and Information Sciences

    Hands on Media History:A New Methodology in the Humanities and Social Sciences

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    Digital Rights Management and Consumer Acceptability: A Multi-Disciplinary Discussion of Consumer Concerns and Expectations

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    The INDICARE project – the Informed Dialogue about Consumer Acceptability of DRM Solutions in Europe – has been set up to raise awareness about consumer and user issues of Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions. One of the main goals of the INDICARE project is to contribute to the consensus-building among multiple players with heterogeneous interests in the digital environment. To promote this process and to contribute to the creation of a common level of understanding is the aim of the present report. It provides an overview of consumer concerns and expectations regarding DRMs, and discusses the findings from a social, legal, technical and business perspective. A general overview of the existing EC initiatives shows that questions of consumer acceptability of DRM have only recently begun to draw wider attention. A review of the relevant statements, studies and reports confirms that awareness of consumer concerns is still at a low level. Five major categories of concerns have been distinguished so far: (1) fair conditions of use and access to digital content, (2) privacy, (3) interoperability, (4) transparency and (5) various aspects of consumer friendliness. From the legal point of view, many of the identified issues go beyond the scope of copyright law, i.e. the field of law where DRM was traditionally discussed. Often they are a matter of general or sector-specific consumer protection law. Furthermore, it is still unclear to what extent technology and an appropriate design of technical solutions can provide an answer to some of the concerns of consumers. One goal of the technical chapter was exactly to highlight some of these technical possibilities. Finally, it is shown that consumer acceptability of DRM is important for the economic success of different business models based on DRM. Fair and responsive DRM design can be a profitable strategy, however DRM-free alternatives do exist too.Digital Rights Management; consumers; Intellectual property; business models

    Clash of the Titans : impact of convergence and divergence on digital media

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    Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-153).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.In last decade, the world was bewildered by the dazzling array of choices and offerings of digital technology. While digital convergence has created new possibilities in digital media, it has also created great uncertainty, fragmentation and threats to traditional media. This blossoming of innovations, as I will examine in this thesis, originates not only from the conversion of analog media into the digital domain, but more from a convergence of industries which results in a clash of technologies and cultures. This thesis explores the phenomenon of digital convergence and divergence and examines their impact on digital media. The questions this thesis seeks to answer are: What exactly is digital convergence? Is digital technology a kind of unifying glue as some may claim, or is it turning out to be a catalyst for greater differentiation? What kinds of dynamics will emerge when traditional industries play in each other's familiar turfs? And what kinds of strategies should digital media producers adopt in response? Observations seem to point towards a trend of initial chaos, greater divergence and severe technological fragmentation in the market. However, in that light, the results of this study suggest that collaboration between industry players to establish common standards, as well as the production of content to fit the locality, context and the consumption experience will be the keys to success in the world of digital convergence.by William Chee-Leong Lee.S.M.M.O.T

    The role of institutional entrepreneurship in standard wars: the case of Blu-ray Disc

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    The study is to use institutional entrepreneurship perspective to complement the functionalist’s viewpoint to understand the process underlying collective action in a mature eco-system and how institutional entrepreneurs manage critical stakeholder relations, collective action and discursive activities in technical standard change processes. The standard war of Sony Blu-ray Disc vs. Toshiba HD DVD is used as a critical and intrinsic case. The functionalist’s viewpoints have paid much attentions to the numbers of customers adopting new technologies, and etc. By means of institutional entrepreneurship perspective, it claims that it does not matter about the number and amount, but it does matter about how focal firms make the markets believe that they have the abilities to win standard wars. The study further claims that the variables studied in functionalist’s viewpoint also have the meanings of institutional entrepreneurship perspective. Moreover, the BD and HD DVD standards are incremental innovations in a mature field where there are many things are settled down. Focal firms can easily forecast the expectations of the dominant institutional logics. The study contributes that institutional entrepreneurship perspective still provides the process insight to complement the functionalist’s viewpoint. This perspective can be applied in emerging field, where it is no dominant logics and the innovations are likely to be radical. The BD case represents a critical case. It can makes possible naturalistic generalization to other similar contexts. Eisenhardt’s principles are used to build theory from the case study. I borrowed techniques of open coding to analyze the data. The findings show that collective action (including critical stakeholder management and structuring collaboration capabilities) and discursive activities are the central features of institutional entrepreneurship. They have mutual relationship with the institutional entrepreneur’s resources (power and legitimacy). Furthermore, good collective action and discursive activities can lead to network effects and product performance
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