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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 16yearcycle who wrote (33854)	1/18/2000 5:29:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Gene, I know what you mean and let's hope it doesn't come to that. We have a ways to go in the equipment sector, with many 300mm projects yet to be announced. For better or for worse, I don't plan on sell anytime soon. Because of the run we have had in all of my positions, I have a HUGE buffer if we do fall. I am not adding to margin, but not selling yet either. Brian

To: 16yearcycle who wrote (33854)	1/18/2000 7:19:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Smart appliances hit the Net By David Lammers EE Times (01/18/00, 6:50 p.m. EST) CHICAGO ? Sunbeam Corp. and other housewares vendors came to the International Housewares 2000 show this week with smart electric blankets, coffee makers and other appliances that link to each other and to the Internet in some cases. On a cold winter morning, the electric blanket could turn itself off and communicate over home power lines to tell the coffee maker to start perking. The movement to embed networking capabilities into consumer appliances for the home has been hailed as a major business opportunity for hardware vendors and service providers alike. To date, however, those products have been costly and used mainly in demonstrations at concept homes. At the show here, Sunbeam launched a new division, Thalia Products Inc., that has been working with silicon vendor Zilog Inc. (Campbell, Calif.) and software provider emWare Inc. (Salt Lake City) to create a line of smart appliances that break new ground. Thalia's plug-in devices communicate over power lines in a home, while battery-operated devices such as smoke detectors communicate via RF devices to either notify their owner of a fire or warn of a low battery. Sunbeam also developed a "HomeHelper" kitchen console, a HandHelper personal digital assistant, and an intelligent alarm clock that will interface with the company's various smart appliances, including a bathroom scale and blood pressure monitor that maintain ongoing records for individuals. Those records can either be stored locally or transmitted to a remote computer via the Internet. General Electric Co. also showed a line of concept appliances that would link to the Internet, including refrigerators and microwave ovens. The refrigerator features a WebPad that can be stored on a holder mounted to the fridge's door, and which can share info on what foods need to be restocked with an online grocery store. Sharp Corp. demonstrated an intelligent microwave oven that can download recipes from the Internet and cook food according to the instructions it receives remotely. Also at the Housewares show, Motorola and Invensys Network Systems demonstrated a home control server, based on Motorola's MCore processor and emWare software. The ControlServer would allow users to connect kitchen appliances, cooling and heating systems, home entertainment equipment, lighting, and security systems, either from within the home or remotely by using the Internet. ControlServer prototypes will be available by the end of March. Michael Nelson, chief executive officer of emWare, said the Embed the Internet Alliance led by his company is bringing real solutions to the challenge of local-area connectivity and wide-area networking to non-PC devices. Zilog, as part of its Digital Home initiative, said it was creating several product families, including a new line of DSP-based chips for wireless communications devices called Wave chips. Zilog has worked with emWare to enable the emWare software on its line of Z80 MCUs, calling those products "the Extreme Exprezzway" family of controllers. Zilog also is building a series of wireless modules, called Wave Communicators, which combine a cordless phone and remote control for handheld computing devices. eetimes.com