NEC to supply SDH microwave system to China


Nec announced in july that the company has received a \1.5 billion order for its Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) microwave transmission system from China Telecom. The capacity of this SDH microwave transmission system equals 30,000 telephone lines. The trunk network, expected to be installed this year, stretches from Nanking to Guiyang.

NEC has been expanding its SDH microwave business in China. The company has already received orders for the Guangzhou-Nanking SDH microwave system in 1996 and for 2,200 kilometers of the Beijing-Wuhan-Guangzhou SDH microwave system in 1997. NEC holds about a 40% share of the microwave-communications system market in China. The company also supplies 7,000 kilometers of SDH fiber optic transmission systems (FOTS) in China.

Since 1972, NEC has been working in China in the fields of communications, computers and electronic devices. NEC's main telecommunication products for the Chinese market include FOTS, public switching systems, PBXs, microwave systems, mobile communications terminals, semiconductors, computers, and software. All of these products are produced in China.

For more information, contact NEC, PR Division, Akiko Shikimori, at 03-3798-6511.

Matsushita to ship high-speed DVD-ROM drives


Matsushita kotobuki electronics industries ltd., started shipping its new DVD-ROM drive in August to desktop PC manufacturers in Japan and the US. Technological advances enable the new drive, SR-8583, to feature 5x-speed reading of DVD-ROM discs and 32x-speed reading of CD-ROM discs. Matsushita said that demand for DVD-ROM drives is rapidly growing due to the increasing need for faster reading speeds. The company estimates worldwide-market demand for the drive, which is compatible with Microsoft Windows 98, will reach five million units this year.

The company shipped the industry's first DVD-ROM drives for desktop PCs in November in 1996, and shipped DVD-ROM drives for notebook PCs in October last year.

For more information in English, contact Matsushita Electric Industrial, International Publicity, at 03-3578-1237, or e-mail: lamascus@hqs.mei.co.jp.

Hitachi, Toppan Printing, and Asahi Shinbun to establish joint venture for digital data archives


Hitachi Ltd., Toppan Printing Co., and Asahi Shinbun have agreed to establish Image Mall Japan, a joint venture that will produce digital data archives beginning Oct. 1 of this year.

Since August '97, Hitachi and Toppan Printing have been collecting digitized data and operating an archiving and distribution system as a trial project. Market and industry conditions convinced the two companies that the time is ripe to turn the project into a business. In July the two companies announced that they are creating a commercial venture that also will include Asahi Shinbun.

Toppan Printing owns 51% of Image Mall, with Hitachi acquiring 44% and Asahi Shinbun holding a 5% stake. Image Mall will provide services such as construction of digitized database systems, delivery of digital data, publishing of multimedia titles, and creation of networked art and cyber museums. The joint venture is expected to earn ´6,000 million in total annual revenues after five years.

Hitachi will contribute support of technical system development. Toppan Printing will be in charge of collecting and digitizing data content from newspapers, publishers, advertising agencies, corporate public relations firms, and sales promotion departments. Asahi Shinbun will provide editorial and production support.

IBM, NEC to cooperate in digital watermarking standard


Computer companies IBM and NEC agreed in July to establish a digital watermarking standard to electronically protect the copyright of digital contents, such as digital video discs (DVD).

Electronic watermarks authenticate electronic images by embedding hidden data patterns within the video signal. Being invisible, electronic watermarks do not affect the quality of the video image. They can be detected using special chips that make the watermark visible to prove authenticity of a video image. A circuit for detecting electronic watermarks will be incorporated into LSI chips within DVD video players. Detectors in DVD drives of PCs will prevent the content from being illegally copied and make it impossible to playback illegally copied content. The technology will allow users to make a one-time copy, like to record television programs for later viewing with videotape recorders.

IBM and NEC said that their electronic watermark technology will supplement conventional copy protection technologies. A presentation of the new technology is planned for the Copyright Protection Technical Working Group, which promotes technology for preventing illegal copying of electronic copyrighted materials, for proposed adoption. Ultimately, the two companies intend to incorporate their electronic watermark technology into DVD content and also to enable DVD equipment to decode embedded information. Plans also include promoting the future application of this technology in digital broadcasts and digital videocassette tapes.

Cutting down translation costs


Trados, the German-based producer of computer translation memory tools, has just released the Translator's Workbench 2.0 Japanese Edition, a program for translation professionals. "If you use our product on a Japanese operating system, it looks like all Japanese software programs. But with a click of the mouse, you can change the language and online help to German, French or English," says Matthias Heyn, vice president of TRADOS Japan.

TRADOS' translation tools are targeted at businesses that need to translate updated materials, such as annual reports and updated brochures. "It memorizes translations, so you save money when you update old versions of documents because you don't have to re-translate the old stuff," Heyn says.

TRADOS also puts out a translation memory system (Translator's Workbench), a sentence alignment program (WinAlign), a terminology management program (MultiTerm) and DTP Filter packages (STagger).

Translator's Workbench costs \420,000 and comes on diskettes or CD-ROM. Workbench runs on Windows NT, Windows95 and Windows98. The product is fully integrated into Microsoft Word 95/97/98J and supports the translation of a variety of formats such as Microsoft Word, RTF Help, FrameMaker, Interleaf, HTML, SGML, RC and many more. System recommendations are Pentium 133 or faster, 64 Mbyte main memory and a 17" monitor. The program runs on all standard networks. For more information, contact TRADOS at 03-3568-7072 or e-mail info@japan.trados.com, or visit their website at www.trados.com or www.trados.co.jp.



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