The number of japanese households with at least one PC had reached 7.3 million by the end of August 1997, but home PC demand reversed its upward growth trend and slowed significantly in 1997. These were the findings of a survey by Access Media International, which conducts a twice-yearly (February and August) Home IT Usage Survey. The survey includes telephone interviews with some 20,000 randomly selected households throughout Japan and an in-depth questionnaire sent to 2,300 households nationwide.

Of the 19,639 households responding to the telephone survey in late August 1997, 3,153 households (16.1%) owned at least one PC. Extrapolating this to the total number of households in Japan, Access Media estimates that PCs are currently in use by 7.3 million households in Japan. This is only a 0.3% increase from the household penetration of the previous survey in February, and it is the lowest growth rate recorded since the survey started in February 1996.

Among other survey findings was a significant increase in the number of females among home PC users (up from 16.8% to 19.4%). By age, the largest proportion of home PC users are those in their 20s (26.6%), and people aged 40 to 49 (22.1%) followed by those aged 30 to 39 (21.7%).

Access Media estimates that it will be the end of the year 2000 before Japan's home PC penetration rate will exceed 20%. Particularly telling is the fact that the percentage of households planning first-time PC purchases has fallen to a pre-1996 level, evidence of a tough road ahead for PC vendors.

Access Media points to the government's April 1997 hike in consumption tax from 3% to 5% level as the largest external factor behind the sharp drop in consumer PC demand. The taxation increase adversely affected consumer demand not only in the PC industry, but in consumer-oriented industries across the board. Other growth-dampening factors included Microsoft's announced delay in the release of the next version of Windows, which left PC resellers in 1997 without a market driver of the same scale as the release of Windows 95 in 1995 and the Internet rush of 1996.

Moreover, as new PC owners struggle with the reality gap between actual PC usability and the media/advertising hype, their word-of-mouth negative opinions are chilling PC demand among those who have not yet purchased a PC. Despite the negative factors holding back consumer PC buying, however, demand in the business and education sectors continues to grow, thus expanding the number of PC users in the market overall.?

For more information about the Home IT Usage Survey, contact Access Media International at phone 03-5467-5772, fax 03-5467-5785.

Hitachi Licenses CPU Technology to Seiko Epson

Hitachi has announced an agree-ment concerning licensing of its 32-bit SH-3 (SuperH) RISC microprocessor core technology to Seiko Epson. By combining Seiko Epson's energy-saving and low-power semiconductor technologies with Hitachi's SH-3 core, this agreement should lead to new ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) and ASSPs (Application Specific Standard Products) that are better suited to modern system requirements.

The SuperH family of high-performance, low-power 32-bit RISC microprocessors is extensively used in portable information devices and multimedia products, such as car navigation systems and digital cameras. The SH-3 supports the Windows CE operating system released last year by Microsoft. This support includes memory management functions and a full complement of power management features.

Hitachi has been actively forming partnerships as part of its moves to establish its 32-bit SuperH RISC engine family as an industry standard. In 1996, Hitachi licensed SH-3 and SH-4 CPU core technology to US-based VLSI Technology Inc. The present agreement makes Seiko Epson the first Japanese partner. For customers, these agreements will mean the availability of more PC peripheral devices and portable information products built around SuperH microprocessors.

Regarding the agreement, Dr. Tsugio Makimoto, senior executive managing director of Hitachi, says, "We are very pleased that Seiko Epson is licensing our SuperH microprocessor technology. The combination of Hitachi's SuperH architecture and systems technology with Seiko Epson's ASIC technology will mean more options and flexibility for customers. The strengthening of our alliance will also further improve the position of the SuperH as the world's leading RISC processor."

Seiko Epson has developed 4-, 8-, and 32-bit CPUs. In the area of compact portable information products, one of Seiko Epson's target sectors, the demand is for CPUs that can run a standard operating system and offer a standard development environment. With the SH-3, Seiko Epson will address this need for products with a standard embedded CPU.

According to Mr. Saburo Kusama, executive vice-president of Seiko Epson, "The SH-3 becomes a means through which Hitachi and Seiko Epson can work together and further enhance the outstanding qualities of the SuperH microprocessors in the marketplace. Moreover, in our electronic device operations the theme of Ôenergy saving' is our way of helping to protect the environment."

[For more on Hitachi's SH series of RISC chips, see "Made-in-Japan Microprocessors" in our May 1997 issue, page 17.-Ed.]?

Pushing the Corporate Intranet

The general public may associate "push" technology with Web content that is automatically brought (pushed) to an Internet user's desktop, but this technology has long been positioned as a high-end business solution for corporate network users. In late October, BackWeb Technologies announced BackWeb Client 2.0J, the Japanese version of its latest push technology solution for corporate intranets/extranets.

BackWeb utilizes a client-server architecture in which the client accesses the BackWeb server to check for new or updated files. A Polite Agent enables "polite delivery" of information; that is, the information is pushed to the user's desktop only when the network connection is idle so as not to interfere with ongoing work. "Differential downloads" Ñ the transmission of only new or updated information Ñ is possible, and large files are divided and sent in sections (so that the system can pick up where it was stopped if the connection is interrupted in the middle of a transfer). An optional InfoPak compresses files into ZIP format before transmission to reduce the network load.

Currently, BackWeb Client is distributed in Japan through local distributors, such as Kanematsu Computer Systems. BackWeb Technologies plans on opening a Japanese subsidiary this month (January), however. Additional value-added end user services and applications are being developed in tandem with several Japanese firms, including Daiwa Research Institute (economic and financial data), NTT (a fiber-optic cable information service), Recruit (Internet-based computer requests), IMC, Inc. (comics), TV Tokyo (animated programs), and ZDNet Japan (Internet-based IT data services).

The Japanese BackWeb for intranets is priced at ´1,980,000 for up to 250 licensed users (or 180,000 InfoPaks per year over the Internet), and a special entry model package for up to 25 users is priced at ´498,000.?

NEC, SanDisk Develop Improved Flash Memory Nec and sanDisk have jointly developed an 80-megabit multilevel-cell flash memory device that is able to store two logical bits of data (instead of the traditional one bit) in each cell. Shipments are to begin this month (January), marking NEC's commitment to being a leader in the flash memory market.

Unlike conventional RAM, flash memory is able to retain data even when no power is supplied. Further, flash memory allows the writing, reading, and deletion of stored data at much faster access speeds than current hard disk drive technology, and it is more resistant to shock (sharp impacts). These features, together with its low power requirements, make flash memory an invaluable component of modern laptop computers.

The new NEC/SanDisk flash memory features a smaller chip size than an equivalent DRAM (dynamic random access memory) capacity. This was achieved by focusing on design of the flash device for file memory applications, thus allowing for miniaturization of the peripheral circuitry.

In 1996, flash memory was the third largest memory market, with digital cellular telephones and personal computers accounting for about 60% of flash memory usage. Future growth, however, is expected in Internet routers, file memory for mobile computing, and large-capacity memory for digital still cameras. By 2000, NEC believes flash memory devices will account for 10% ($5 billion) of what is expected to be a $50 billion global memory market. This would be double the current flash memory market size.

SanDisk's CompactFlash, launched in October 1995, is the world's de facto flash memory standard. NEC and SanDisk have been involved in joint development of large-capacity flash memory since 1994; this 80Mbit flash memory is the first result of that effort.?

ASCII Withdraws from ISP Business

In late october, ascii announced that the company would terminate its ASCII Internet Freeway (AIF) on December 24, 1997, and its ASCII Internet Exchange (AIX) service on January 24, 1998. ASCII has asked Matsushita Electric Industry to accommodate the affected subscribers on its Panasonic Hi-HO Internet service.

AIF was a free-of-charge Internet connection service that relied on advertising support, while AIX was a paid Internet connection service. As of October 1997, AIF had 55,000 registered users and that AIX had some 260,000 subscribers.

ASCII says that the company will focus in the future on Internet content services as well as other Internet-related services, such as server rentals, content hosting, ASCII Rapid Commerce Service online shopping, and the ASCII 24 news service. Industry observers say that ASCII decided to withdraw from the Internet connection business because it considers the investment required for facility and equipment upgrades to be too great, and is doubtful whether it could continue to be successful in today's harshly competitive ISP (Internet service provider) environment.

Following the announcement of the termination of ASCII's AIF, HyperNet, which was providing AIF with its Hot Caf? Internet advertisement system, announced in late November that it would provide Hot Caf? to Teleway's Sirius Internet dial-up service. AIF was its biggest user of the Hot Caf? system. Other users of the Hot Caf? system include SANNET (a subsidiary of Sanyo Electric), Inter-Q, and Aichi Internet Free Service. [Editor's update: In early December, HyperNet filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo District Court.]?

NEC Enhances Memory Technology

In mid-november, nec unveiled its Virtual Channel Memory (VCM), a memory core technology that enhances existing memory architectures to realize dramatic performance increases. On PCs, workstations, and servers, VCM is capable of doubling graphics performance and boosting system performance by up to 20%.

VCM is an open technology that requires no design changes in memory input/output architectures, chip packaging, or board design. Only minimal circuit modifications in the core logic controller are necessary for incorporation of VCM technology into a product.

The increasing demands of multimedia applications and rapid innovations in microprocessors are placing ever stronger emphasis on speedy memory. But while innovations have significantly raised memory interface performance, memory core performance has remained relatively static. Neither memory latency (the time spent waiting for a memory device to read or write data) nor internal operation (pre-charge and refresh times) have been improved significantly in recent years, meaning no performance gains in this area for the overall system.

VCM technology adds performance efficiencies in current memory cores by improving latency and throughput performance. It temporarily stores data in multiple channels between the input/output terminals and the memory cells, and allows the memory chip to handle other memory data requests in a separate channel while it is reading or writing current data. The result is a significant increase in data transfer speeds.

NEC will authorize use of the VCM technology by a number of memory vendors beginning in early 1998. As an open standard, NEC will not charge licensing fees for use, aiming to make VCM the de facto industry standard. VCM fully complements existing memory architectures, including Extended Data Out (EDO) DRAM, Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM,) flash memory, and mask ROM. NEC expects to see more than half of all new memory products utilize VCM by 2000.

As the first product to utilize VCM, NEC has developed a 64Mbit Virtual Channel SDRAM. The company will sample ship this product from April.?

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