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

To: Math Junkie who wrote (29634)	4/20/1999 4:29:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Speaking of gifts..... ST demonstrates "multimedia car" in States, but Europe may be main market A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted 2:45 p.m. EST/11:45 a.m., PST, 4/20/99 By Jack Robertson WASHINGTON -- ST Microelectronics today showed its "multimedia car" at the Intelligent Transportation Society exhibition here, but is looking to Europe as the main market for the chip-laden auto.mobile. The prototype has all the electronics of a computer reseller's showroom, from a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) navigation display system to a back-seat entertainment center. Other features include a multifunction dashboard display, video camera, emergency rescue alert, voice-command digital cellular phone with infrared link to a computer, and rear-seat video and Internet PC with game player. The car comes with fingerprint ID security and smart-card access systems. Steve Sutton, business development manager for GPS and driver information systems for Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, said the U.S. market is much slower to adopt these electronic enhancement systems. "The average selling price of a car in the U.S. is less than in Europe, so customers are less likely to spend an additional $2,000 or more on navigation and entertainment systems," he explained. Sutton conceded, however, that the full electronic suite is likely to find a U.S. market in the luxury market. ST expects its chip-based Telematic GPS emergency alert system, costing about $200 for OEMs, will find the greater use in the States because Europeans don't do as much long-distance driving. The two-chip GPS chip set includes the 32-bit GPS microcontroller with embedded 64-Kbit synchronous graphica RAM and 128-Kbit mask ROM, and a radio chip that receives the navigation satellite signals to get a precise location fix.