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Technology Stocks : Lam Research (LRCX, NASDAQ): To the Insiders -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Duker who wrote (3799)	1/6/2000 6:35:00 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 5867

I won't sleep well until long-bond yields go back down, which may be awhile... Riding the DRAM Roller Coaster electronicnews.com Equipment Boom to Last? electronicnews.com Boom Market Pits Fabs Against Foundries electronicnews.com

To: Duker who wrote (3799)	1/6/2000 11:02:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 5867

20th-Century Concept of Information to Change Dramatically, EPA Chief Says January 6, 2000 (TOKYO) -- In an interview with Nikkei Communications, Taichi Sakaiya, director general of Japan's Economic Planning Agency (EPA), said a new concept of information is arising toward the 21st century. Following are excerpts of the interview with Sakaiya. At present, the general concept of information is undergoing a dramatic change. To date, information has been composed of two elements, "communication in the air" represented by television broadcasting, and "communication on the ground" represented by telephone conversation. In other words, there have been communications through the media and word-of-mouth. The 20th century was the age when these two types of communication networks were established and spread widely. In the 21st century, a new interactive communication network will emerge: all people can take hold of the means to transmit and receive information. In other words, we will have a three-dimensional information environment. To create the new concept on information, the first thing we must do is establish a new communications circuit, or infrastructure. We therefore will launch in the year 2000 a project to build an "information Shinkansen (bullet-train)" backbone called the "Petanet Project." According to this project, the current wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology will be improved drastically to achieve performance 250 times higher than the existing level. At present, the capacity of the Tokyo-Osaka trunk circuit is approximately 40 terabits per second. By using current optical fiber circuits, we will increase its capacity from the tera (the 12th power of 10) level to the peta (the 15th power of 10) level. This is, therefore, not a civil-engineering project to build another Shinkansen, but a project to develop new technology. At the same time, we will expedite the work to convert into optical fiber the communication cables which run through the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) underground tunnels and surface at 148,000 points throughout the country. We completed the work to change the cables into optical fiber at 36 percent of these access points before the end of 1999. This means that more than half of the nation's total population have gained access to optical-fiber cable. But we plan to convert the cable of 50 percent of all the points into optical fiber before the end of the year 2000. If this plan is implemented, 75 percent of the total population in Japan will gain access to the optical fiber cable. How to expand the total volume of information will be the key to the success of this project. If we can increase the information volume substantially, the telecommunication fees will go down without fail. Currently, there is a growing call for reduction of the Internet connection fee. But this is the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Because the Internet connection fee is high, the volume of transmitted information is limited, and because the volume of the information is limited, the connection fee is high. This is a vicious circle. To get out of this circle, the first thing we must do is boost the information volume dramatically. To achieve this goal, we have drawn up a plan to hold, from Dec. 31, 2000 through Dec. 31, 2001, a festival to cerebrate the arrival of the new millennium. During this one-year event, we will try to transmit all sorts of information. The government will propose this and provide servers. It will ask each prefectural government to propose an exciting theme and transmit information on the theme. The government will seek cooperation from private-sector businesses as well. One possible scheme in this festival would be that the Nara prefectural government will compile a contemporary "Man-yo-shu" (a famous collection of waka, a traditional style of Japanese poems in the Nara period (710-794)). This will not be composed of characters alone, but also made up of pictures, paintings and sound. The prefectural government will invite the public to enter the prize waka-poem contest, and call on them to provide photos, pictures and sound involving their poems. Millions of people will probably participate in this contest, including those who like to compose waka poems and those who like to take photos. Their poems and other artistic works will become part of the contemporary Man-yo-shu collection. Similar events will probably be proposed by other prefectural governments, for example, those pertaining to shogi (Japanese chess), pets such as dogs or street performers. These events will prompt many people to own a circuit exclusively for the use of the Internet, which will push up the information volume remarkably and eventually push down the Internet connection fee. (Nikkei Communications)