Chip Inductors, Capacitors and EMI Filters Offer Solutions for

Broadband DSL Modems and Other High-Speed Devices

Murata Electronics North America , a world-leading innovator in electronics, today announced the expansion of their component line-up for several high-speed telecommunications, computer and automotive applications.

Murata’s Chip inductors (LQ series), capacitors (GRM/GA series) and EMI filters (BLM/NF series) combine passive components with Integrated Circuits (ICs) for use in telecommunications broadband Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modems, and other wired and wireless devices from car radios to Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

These electronic components are increasingly important to telecommunications equipment manufacturers, including local exchange companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), because they help meet the demands of faster, more reliable products for both residential and commercial users.

These expanded component series also allow designs for advanced technologies such as Voice over DSL (VoDSL) because of their compact size, speed and placement flexibility. Another benefit of these components is their ability to help telecommunications manufacturers meet FCC safety regulation approvals. This approval is important because without it, no product can be supplied to the open market.

“To meet the needs of these rapidly expanding markets, we’ve worked closely with equipment manufacturers to provide them with the best products designed to meet the growing demands of their end-users,” said Gerry Hubers, Market Segment Manager for Murata Electronics North America. “For example, Murata’s products are not only a good fit for DSL modems but for future electronic applications.”

The specific products used for DSL and other telecommunications equipment from cellular phones to cable modems and base stations, are Murata’s LQ series chip inductors, the GRM/GA series capacitors and the BLM and NF series EMI filters. These devices provide circuit tuning, circuit protection and signal conditioning to improve signal quality and integrity. They are also used heavily in automotive and computer equipment.

Cost for these products depend on quantity, size and availability.

About Murata Electronics North America

Murata Electronics North America, Inc. is one of 47 wholly-owned subsidiaries of the worldwide organization of Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. of Japan (NIKKEI:6981). Established in 1965, U.S operations are headquartered in Smyrna, Georgia, with a manufacturing facility in State College, Pennsylvania.

Murata is a leading patent holder and global manufacturer of ceramic electronic components for the telecommunications, computer/peripheral, automotive, communications and EDP markets.

Railroads run as much on paper as on steel rails, as all rail managers up to their necks in reports and other paperwork can readily attest. Computers have helped, but the “paperless railroad” remains far out of reach. A new system now entering service on CSX Transportation and the Alaska Railroad is not only making a dent in the mountain of paper, but is also giving railroad management a better handle to make sure the required tests are being done.

“CSX Transportation identified a need to improve its compliance with the requirements of federally-mandated routine tests and inspections,” said M. Michael Choat, assistant chief engineer signal maintenance, CSXT, and Lester Hightower, chief technology officer of 10East Corp., at the 2003 AREMA technical conference in Chicago. “Our goals were to provide superior management and oversight of FRA compliance across our entire infrastructure, while eliminating paperwork at all levels. Our approach integrates four key components to deliver a complete solution: Hand-held computers for field use, Secure Digital[TM] memory cards for each hand-held computer user, a cost-effective and reliable communications infrastructure and a central computer system to manage assets and test records, as well as to support the hand-held computers. CSXT has deployed more than 300 hand-held computers to signal supervisors, maintainers and inspectors on its Southern Region, and we have processed tens of thousands of test forms, representing many hundreds of thousands of FRA inspections, thus far.”

A recent project at CSXT is designed to provide and support electronic FRA test and inspection records, the paper noted. Test and inspection records are now fully electronic, end-to-end, originating on hand-held computers utilized by field forces and culminating in on-screen viewable and printable test records. A central computer system manages inspectable assets and test records and provides work-planning and scheduling.
SXT embarked upon this project for three primary reasons:The FRA Safety Assurance and Compliance Program at CSXT identified a need to improve compliance with the testing requirements of 49 CFR 234 and 236; existing processes placed all management of test and inspection records at the local level (paper in file cabinets at supervisor offices), which was burdensome, inefficient and error-prone; and, in the past, CSXT has proven that the reliability of its signal system improves directly with increased focus on proper and timely performance of the federally-mandated tests and inspections.

Representatives from both the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen and the Federal Railroad Administration were invited to planning meetings in the very early stages of the project.

“Both the BRS and the FRA have supported this project from the beginning, and both were heavily involved from the planning stages through the initial rollout of the project,” the two said. “This project has truly been a joint effort by CSXT, the FRA, the BRS and the technology vendor, 10East Corp.

“The primary goal of this project, initially, was to improve compliance with federal testing requirements by providing tools for work planning and management oversight,” they said. “Providing consistency in record-keeping across the entire system, while dramatically reducing or eliminating the paperwork and filing burden from field supervisors, was another important goal. CSXT also feels confident that it will benefit from improved signal system reliability as a result of improving its testing and inspection processes.”

Other project goals included the ability to accurately know what signal assets are in the field that need inspecting, who is responsible for inspecting them and when.

“Of utmost importance is the additional requirement to maintain correct and current data regarding those assets that require inspections,” Choat said. “Not only does this improve accountability and limit the chance of required tests being overlooked, but it also allows us to better balance assigned territories based on testing loads and, importantly, to rebalance territories as the equipment configuration on the CSXT infrastructure changes.”

Keeping up-front and recurring costs to a minimum was another strategic goal.

Choat and Hightower continued: “This led to two important design decisions: First, the hand-held computers had to be self sufficient, not reliant upon a personal computer or laptop to accomplish their assigned tasks. Second, communications costs had to be kept low due to the sheer numbers of users and the associated volumes of tests being performed and transmitted to the central computer system.”

Project implementation

In 2001, CSXT asked 10East Corp. to investigate available options for this project.

10East, an applications services provider, has been providing technology services to CSXT’s signal department for many years.

During several months of research on various data-collection technologies, 10East checked virtually every brand of hand-held computer, Interactive Voice Response systems and even Image Character Recognition systems. Also, researchers looked at both wired and wireless communications options.

In the end, four key components were chosen:

1) Hand-held computer for field data collection: Sharp Electronics Zaurus SL-5500, Personal Mobile Tool.

2) Hand-held user identification, authentication and data storage: Secure Digital[TM] Memory Cards.

3) Communications Infrastructure: Encrypted and digitally-signed communications over the Internet.

4) Central computer to manage records and support the field devices: 10East’s RailDOCS[TM]–Railway Daily Operations Control Systems.

10East built and demonstrated a fully-working model of the system in early 2002.

CSXT wanted to quickly improve these processes, which resulted in an unusually-large pilot project. CSXT’s entire Southern Region was chosen to pilot this program. The Southern Region is CSXT’s largest region, and required more than 300 hand-held computers for deployment to signal supervisors, maintainers and inspectors.

The railroad opted to use “train the trainer” and “peer training” methods to deploy this project.

In early October of 2002, the initial trainers were chosen from CSXT’s Jacksonville Division and given the first of the project’s hand-held computers. Those trainers, with support from 10East, began rolling out the system to the entire Jacksonville Division on November 11, 2002. Peer trainers were then chosen for the other divisions in the Southern Region. Training on the entire Southern Region was completed in mid-February 2003.

Added benefits

“The FRA requires us to periodically perform and document tests on signal appliances. The test period can vary anywhere from monthly to every 10 years, based upon equipment and location type,” said Craig King, CSXT assistant chief engineer-signal operations. “The age-old method of recording tests prior to this was on multi-part paper forms. Signal maintainers performing the test, as well as the signal inspector, and their signal supervisor, each received a copy of the paper form. With 87 signal supervisors, representing almost 1,100 workers, maintaining paper records for their individual territories was challenging and costly. You can also imagine the issues we had in gathering quantitative data to support management decisions. Short of going to the supervisor’s office, or having the supervisor send the tests to Jacksonville, there really wasn’t a good way to aggregate data system-wide.

“With our new electronic mobile system, records are maintained in a centralized data warehouse,” King said. “Anyone with an Internet-connected computer and system access rights can view information in real time. We can see statistics that cover every signal asset in our entire infrastructure right down to an individual test on a single asset. And it’s available in seconds. Now we have a proactive way to manage a very tough job.

“In addition to eliminating the cost of paper forms, along with all the associated labor that a paper system commanded, we now have a higher level of intelligence at less cost. Now, through the normal course of business, I have records of every signal appliance we test, and the data is refreshed as of the day of my most recent test”, he said.

King noted that the transition from paper to electronic methods has been fairly smooth.

The electrical/electronics content in the average vehicle will increase from 22% of total value now to 35% in the next 10 to 15 years, projects Mike Gauthier, director, corporate technology, Siemens VDO Automotive. And a lot of that will come from an increase in sensors. “Sensors in the vehicle will increase at up to 25% annually,” he predicts. That’s just for vehicles with traditional internal combustion engine-based powertrains; add a hybrid electric system (Gauthier: “By 2015 most vehicles will be offered in a hybrid version.”) and the number could more than double. But most of the sensors used in the future will probably not be the comparatively bulky magnetic or proximity-type sensors found in cars today, but Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) that can be 0.001 the size. MEMS are made up of mechanical microstructures, sensors, actuators and microelectronics integrated together in the sealed environment of a silicon chip. Though they essentially mimic the workings of their larger predecessors, because the scale of the components is so tiny the response time to inputs is almost immediate. This makes MEMS good candidates for tasks that require reactions measured in milliseconds like air bag deployment. Their sealed configuration helps them withstand the temperature and vibration extremes of the engine compartment (some are already being employed in areas like engine knock detection). Because they are so small, MEMS can be put virtually anywhere in a vehicle without much concern for packaging problems. For example, some sensors used for stability control systems need to be placed as close to the central mass point of a vehicle as possible, which has often been a problem with larger sensors. According to Gauthier, using MEMS in this application effectively solves the problem by integrating the yaw, pitch and roll sensors into one tiny package.

The latest generation of heated and cooled seats in vehicles operate using Peltier devices that convert electricity into temperature differentials without resorting to compressors or liquid coolants. Thermotunneling diodes do just the opposite; they convert temperature differences between two surfaces into electricity; the greater the temperature variance the more electricity generated. Unlike Peltier devices which are only about 7 or 8% efficient, Gauthier says thermotunneling diodes can potentially recover up to 70% of the lost heat generated by a vehicle’s engine. To put that into perspective, Gauthier calculates that for every 100 kW of wheel-driving output, another 100 kW of waste heat goes through the exhaust and 60 kW more is dissipated by the radiator. Coat the radiator and exhaust system with thermotunneling diodes and you can more than double an engine’s efficiency. In fact, you can eliminate the pumping, friction and incomplete fuel combustion loss of an engine altogether by replacing it with a small furnace coated with diodes that generate the power needed to run an electric powertrain. Gas mileage would soar, emissions would plummet. Sound too good to be true? It is. At least at the technology’s current maturity level.

The problem with thermotunneling diodes is that in order for electrons to undergo the quantum physics effect of thermo-tunneling that generates electricity, the two surfaces involved must be consistently held about one nanometer apart without touching. A company based in Gibraltar called Power Chips plc has developed a method of electrode-positing layers of metals (silver and titanium are the cheapest ones used) on a substrate and then thermally shocking it so that it snaps at the interface of the two materials. This produces surfaces that are microscopically rough, but fit together perfectly and can be adjusted with piezo devices to achieve the necessary one-nanometer gap. Maintaining that gap cost-effectively in a mass production environment and then later in a moving vehicle is the biggest hurdle now. But if that can be overcome, Gauthier says it means, “Bye, bye internal combustion engine.”

ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTORS

Sometimes a technology can be less powerful or effective than the one it replaces but still succeed because it is really, really cheap. That is basically the case with organic semiconductors. Gauthier estimates that the manufacturing costs for these semiconductors, which use plastic as a substrate, could be as low as 0.01 that incurred by silicon-based semiconductors. One big reason is facility cost. Currently a silicon wafer fabrication plant costs around $3.5 billion because of the expensive photolithography and etching equipment needed to create the minute pathways that carry electrons through each chip, equipment sitting in large, assiduously monitored and maintained clean rooms. Organic semiconductor production would do away with all of that and substitute a process that resembles the continuous-feed printing of a newspaper. As it is currently envisioned, rolls of plastic substrate would be fed into presses and then printed with semiconductor “ink.” The resulting flexible chips would not be as powerful as their silicon counterparts because the electron pathways would have to be bigger and consequently fewer, but for low-demand computing tasks they could prove attractive low-cost alternatives. “If you are talking about something like an automatic air conditioning system you don’t exactly need a Pentium 4 to control it,” quips Gauthier, “You can get by with a Commodore 64 processor running at 2 gigahertz.” And with the number of microprocessors in vehicles growing rapidly, plastic Commodore 64-level processors may be just what automakers need to help keep electronics costs down.

Advances in microfabrication are bringing a new generation of sensors to the fore in automotive. Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems perform essentially the same functions as their larger counterparts, but are so small they can be packaged anywhere in a vehicle. In this gyroscope sensor designed and fabricated by Kionix, Inc. [Ithaca, NY] the “beams” in the structure are only 1 [micro]m to 2 [micro]m thick.

PHOTO CREDIT: PALO ALTO RESEARCH CENTER [PARC]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Proponents of organic semiconductors envision an inexpensive manufacturing process that substitutes a plastic substrate for silicon and print circuits like newspapers. If this process can be perfected, organic semiconductors like this one could greatly undercut the price of today’s microprocessors and take over low-demand applications from silicon chips.

A successful light bulb recycler saw its growth path in a new light recently, opening a facility in South Carolina and adding a computer and electronics recycling division to the company’s profile.Earth Protection Services Inc. (EPSI), Phoenix, has been recycling fluorescent lights since 1996, but company executives recently announced that their new location in Williamston, S.C., was constructed to recycle electronic and computer components as well.

According to published reports, the company spent $2 million to build the new facility in the western region of South Carolina and should bring 20 jobs to the area over the next five years.

EPSI constructed the facility to serve the southern United States and capitalize on the growing demand for viable electronics recycling around the country. EPSI also operates collection and disposal facilities in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Oregon and California.

The company’s investment into computer recycling illustrates a trend among traditional recyclers delving into alternate forms of scrap recycling.

Implementation will occur around some type of display device

The convergence of C3 (computer, communications, and consumer) electronics has been discussed for many years. While only an idea in the past, the convergence appears to be accelerating rapidly. Home users can obtain Internet access via traditional telephone or cable TV companies. Internet data can be viewed via personal computers or Web TV systems. The recent popularity of sub-$1,000 personal computers indicates that a PC in every home could become reality. Convergence centers on the personal computer or high-end television because of display and data entry capability.

A Graphical User Interface (GUI) or On-Screen Display (OSD) provides users better control of increasingly complex systems. Connectivity standards such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), IEEE 1394, IrBus, and CEBus are moving from paperwork inside a committee to end-user equipment installed in the field. Networks serve as an isolation mechanism allowing the individual system developers freedom to innovate with minimal effects on the other components. Each connectivity standard addresses a different class of applications having similar characteristics.

To be successful in the age of convergence, electronics OEMs must design with technologies that offer maximum flexibility and time to market. As these protocols evolve, OEMs using field programmable technology in microcontrollers and gate arrays, for example, can quickly adapt to changing market conditions. By isolating groups of similar devices, these connectivity protocols can be implemented in a simple manner without excess device overhead. Some of the leading protocols impacting embedded design in convergence applications are discussed below.
While the battle for control of the converging markets continues between personal computers or Web-connected televisions, the key enabling connectivity standards are moving forward. Most connectivity standards for PCs address the major complaint from users–opening the system and configuring hardware such as interrupt signals or direct memory access (DMA) requests. Many times devices must share signals and there is a potential for conflicts. The plug-and-play system developed for the PCI local bus allows the system software to detect and configure new hardware components. The overall connectivity goal for the PC would allow the user to add any new device without opening the system.

Many personal computers now have the support for USB connections. The USB addresses low-to-medium speed applications for serial type devices with a fully connected protocol (error detection and recovery). The low-speed devices operate at 1.5 megabits/second supporting asynchronous type traffic from interactive devices like keyboards, pointing devices, game peripherals, and monitor configuration. High-speed devices operate at 12Mb/sec that target devices such as telephony, audio, and compressed video. Using the isochronous mode, a high-speed device can obtain the entire channel bandwidth with guaranteed low latency for real-time data streams.

Up to 127 devices can be connected in a tiered star topology using expansion hubs. Devices can obtain power directly from the USB (bus powered) or via AC line (self powered). Hot insertion provides a large USB benefit allowing device attachment or removal to/from the bus while powered. Dynamic attach/detach allows a second game peripheral to be added to a system for another player without the power down and reboot sequence. Expansion hubs notify the host of the connection change and the device identifies itself to the system software for configuration. In addition, systems using all the USB connections could easily remove a device temporarily while a new device connection is required.

IEEE 1394 will begin appearing in personal computers this year. Operating at up to 400Mb/sec. the bus allows support for digital video from cameras or VCRs. Both asynchronous and isochronous transfers are supported, allowing system buffering to be minimized. IEEE 1394 supports the hot swapping (insertion/deletion under operation) of devices with automation configuration. Unlike USB, IEEE 1394 provides a peer-to-peer communication path allowing direct data transfers between devices without a host (PC or Web TV) attachment. IEEE 1394 allows mixing of devices at 100-, 200-, and 400Mb/sec. allowing new nodes into an existing network without upgrading all other devices. For the long-term, the IEEE 1394 addresses scalability up to 1 gigabit/sec.

Device Bay provides a standard mechanical form factor and electrical interface for adding peripheral devices into the system without opening the chassis. Three form factors are defined with specifications for size, power dissipation, and thermal characteristics. Each Device Bay unit communicates with the host via either USB or IEEE 1394 attachments. Device Bay applications include CD-ROM, DVD players or smart card readers for media or security enhancements to systems without opening the chassis.

Device Bay units support the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) mechanism already found in PCs today. Hot (system under power) insertion/deletion of Device Bay’s units with automatic configuration via plug-and-play allows easy customization by the user.

IrBus is an emerging standard for infrared bi-directional command and control communications for wireless devices. Possible users include pointing devices, gamepads, or remote controls interfacing to PCs. A single system can have up to eight devices attached simultaneously operating up to 75Kb/sec. For entertainment applications the system guarantees a 13-millisecond response time for time critical communication. IrBus supports communication up to eight meters distance between host and remote devices. Since infrared transmission has minimal governmental regulation the IrBus could achieve a worldwide standard.

Finally, CEBus is standard for home automation addressing low-cost networks in residential environments. A major factor for success is the ability to offer many cost alternatives (scalability) to allow the addition of network control to consumer appliances selling for $20 or less as well as to durable items such as air conditioners, washing machines, and dryers. The CEBus standard (EIA-600) was developed by the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) Consumer Electronics Group as a foundation for intelligent control within a residential environment.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) through its Advanced Technology Program (ATP) has revised and extended its ATP “focused program” competition in Computer-Integrated Manufacturing for Electronics for the 1995 competition being held this summer. ATP held a “proposers’ conference” here recently to coach companies on the requirements that a successful ATP project proposal must meet.NIST estimates that about $18 million will be available for first-year ATP funding of awards made in this summer’s competition. Under the new rules, proposers may submit two-page pre-proposals by July 6, for early feedback, and must submit final proposals by September 12. ATP officials said that two further competitions are planned, the next about 12-18 months from now.

The revised program has been increased in scope to include proposals dealing with discrete aspects of any manufactured product, but still excludes proposals that deal with process manufacturing alone. ATP officials emphasized, however, that proposals are welcome from process-based industries, and from suppliers to or customers of process-based industries, so long as each proposal treats a discrete-manufacturing situation, or the discrete aspects of making a process-manufactured product.

The revised focused program is re-named “Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing Applications (TIMA; competition 95-12).”

NIST says that the overall technical goal of the TIMA competition is “to develop and demonstrate the technologies needed to create affordable, ‘integratable’ manufacturing software applications–those that can be rapidly integrated and reconfigured and, in the long run, that can automatically adjust their performance in response to changing conditions and requirements.”

The overall scope of the revised program competition allows the size of the enterprise to range from “single shop” to “multi-site” manufacturing. It covers a range of possible software categories, including ‘applications, infrastructure, tools, (and) environments.’ The software-technology components could include software “agents, objects, request brokers, (and) relational databases.”

The portion of the manufactured product’s life cycle that is allowed, as the subject for a proposal entered in the competition, is limited in scope to the “manufacturing execution” stage only–excluding “order placement, engineering, (and) production management,” and the product’s “maintenance” and “disposal.”

Finally, the allowable scope in the business hierarchy is limited to the “factory site, shop floor, (and) workcell,” excluding both “corporate offices” at one end and “equipment” and “sensors” at the other.

The allowable breadth (or generality) of the technical solution proposed to be undertaken could range widely. At one end, a firm or joint-venture could propose filling a gap in software infrastructure with a proof-of-concept application in a manufacturing execution software (MES) system. At the other end, a company propose to develop a new software-development environment or testbed. In between, one could propose development of an–adaptable–MES system or a factory integration tool.

At the proposers’ conference, Barbara Goldstein, program manager for the TIMA focused program competition, said that ATP’s ranking of the proposals will be based on a weighted scoring system in which the experience and qualifications of the proposed project staff are 10 percent, the scientific and technical merit of the proposed project is 30 percent, and the economic and business merit is 60 percent.

Within the 60-percent weight assigned to the project’s economic and business merit, equal weight is given to: the adequacy of the proposers’ commercialization plans (contingent on technical success); the estimated potential benefits to the U.S. economy that could result from the project’s technical and commercial success; and the viability of the proposed project’s organizational structure together with the level of commitment to the project that is evident in the proposing organization.

In his remarks of welcome and introduction to the proposers’ conference, ATP Acting Director Brian Belanger summarized the ATP’s budget outlook. At the start of fiscal year 1995 the ATP had an appropriation of $431 million for the year. The new Congress–through the defense supplemental appropriations and rescissions bill–took away $90 million and left $341 million, a 21-percent cut (EN, Feb. 27, Mar. 6, 13 & 20, Apr. 17).

President Clinton, in his FY 1996 budget proposal, has requested $491 million, a substantial increase. In Congress, both the House and Senate have passed budget resolutions calling for zeroing out the ATP, but the appropriations bills, still to come, are what really count. White House staff say the chances of getting the President’s ATP increase are pretty slim, reported Mr. Belanger, expressing the belief that the chances are also slim that the final legislation would say “don’t fund any more projects, and start cancelling the ones you have.”

He indicated there is, however, a significant probability of being instructed to phase out the ATP, in which case the Congress might say, “finish the competitions that you’ve already announced; fund those projects. After that, its all over.” That would mean that ATP could complete the competition discussed here, but there would be no third competition of its type. Another possibility is some compromise on a leveling out of funding for ATP, Mr. Belanger said.

A final possibility is a presidential veto of the appropriations bill, in which case ATP would probably operate under a “continuing resolution,” allowing funding in FY 1996 at the (reduced) level now in force for FY 1995. “Which actually, in the present climate,” said Mr. Belanger, “is not a bad outcome.”

Companies could be deterred, due to all this uncertainty, from investing time and money in writing and submitting a proposal, said Mr. Belanger, adding:

“If nobody writes any proposals to the ATP, then for sure the ATP is going to die, because Congress is going to say, ‘why should we give you any money? Nobody wants to participate.’ In order to go to the Congress and say ‘Look, this is a very important program. Industry believes in it; look at all the good proposals we’ve got,’ we have to have proposals. If you here, in this audience, think this is an important program, then we really need to have you write proposals. So don’t stop writing those proposals.”

All awards under the ATP are made on a matching basis only. Applicants may be single, profit-seeking firms, or joint ventures of at least two profit-seeking firms, which venture may also include non-profit independent research and development institutions, universities, or state or federal laboratories, ATP officials said.

Individual company applicants may receive up to $2 million total over no more than three years, with the ATP paying only the project’s direct costs. Indirect or overhead costs must be paid by the company.

Joint-venture applicants may receive funding for no more than five years, with no pre-set limit on total ATP funding except that it must be less than 50 percent of the total project cost.

No direct funding is allowed to universities or government agencies, but a nonprofit independent research and development institute may submit a joint-venture proposal and administer the project resulting from an award, so long as two profit-seeking firms are included in the venture.

The ATP officials said that their program’s mission is to stimulate U.S. economic growth by developing highrisk and enabling technologies through programs and projects proposed, conducted, and cost-shared by industry. While each project, if successful, must result in overall economic benefits to the U.S., the ideas in the proposals must come from the proposing organizations.

Government officials say the ATP is not a way to manage industry from Washington, and it does not coach applicants on what to propose. In fact, its structure is designed to ensure that the industrial leadership in each project comes from industry. But once an award is made, the scientific and technical expertise of NIST is on tap to help make the industry-led project a success.

Foreign-owned companies may participate in the ATP, as long as the research, development and manufacturing of the project is done in the U.S. and the company’s home country offers reciprocal treatment to U.S.-owned companies operating abroad. In the ATP, U.S.-owned companies must meet the same requirements as foreign ones.

Joint venture applicants must provide in their organization structure that any intellectual property developed in an ATP project will reside in companies incorporated in the U.S. Such companies may license their intellectual property and must present a plan for protection of such property, as part of their project application.

Not much usually happens in Washington, D.C., in midsummer. But this year, despite a heat wave, the Senate held hearings about an equally hot issue: the potential for environmental contamination from toxins in electronic scrap. Further hearings were held in September with the object of forming a national e-waste recycling policy.

Some states are already ahead of the federal government. California, for example, enacted a tax earlier this year to pay for the disposal of computer toxins. A few smaller Eastern states have collection or dumping regulations already in place. (See page 40).

The benchmark study in the field is now a little out of date, but gives a good sense of the scale of the issue. The Electronic Product Recovery and Recycling Baseline Report, issued in 1999 by the Environmental Health Center of the National Safety Council, found that only 6 percent of computers were recycled in 1998. By 2004, the center projected there would be more than 315 million obsolete computers in the United States. Some experts estimate that number could easily doubled due to toxins from televisions, cellular telephones and personal digital devices.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent data, consumer electronics accounted for slightly more than 1 percent of the municipal solid waste stream in 2003:2.79 million tons out of a total of 236.1 million tons. Used components are e-scrap; after precious metals and other valuable materials are removed through physical and chemical processes, the remainder is e-waste. E-toxics are present at each stage, but usually in small amounts.

Awareness of the potential environmental exposures, as well as the need for risk management and insurance coverage, is spreading rapidly. Underwriters estimate the entire pollution legal liability market at about $2 billion to $3 billion in annual premiums. Specific e-toxics coverage is a very small percentage of that so far. But for the Senate chambers to be filled in late July, the issue is starting to appear on many radar screens.

Rick Goss, director of environmental affairs for the Electronic Industries Alliance, a Herndon, Va-based association representing the $400-billion U.S. high-tech and electronics industries, says the lead, mercury and other chemicals in question are used in devices “for very specific performance reasons.”

Most importantly, Goss told senators that “EIA member companies are on target to be in compliance with the European Union Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances, which will take effect on July 1, 2006.” The EIA is made up of 1,300 member companies.

Those rules sharply restrict lead, hexavalent chromium, mercury, polybrominated biphenyl, cadmium and polybrominated diphenyl ether. Goss notes those voluntary reductions, along with improvements in energy efficiency and durability, will help reduce future volumes into the waste stream.

Goss stresses that the relative risks remain low for e-toxics. “EPA has made it clear going in that they do not think (electronics) represent a health risk in appropriate land fills. Absent an exposure threat, there is no risk. That point often gets lost. However, that does not solve the problem. I have had numerous discussions with member companies–your household names–and they are very aware of both their legal liability and their public-relations liability.”

THE DUMPING DIVIDE

The other side of that awareness, and one reason why EIA is so active in this issue, is that the original equipment manufacturers do not want to touch it.

Dell, the largest computer maker, ignored repeated inquiries about its programs and coverage. IBM, which has an extensive “asset recovery program,” said its expert was away for several weeks, and a representative for Hewlett-Packard said flatly that the R&I inquiry was “not relevant to what HP is doing in this space.”

Similarly, the big national solid-waste companies–Allied Waste, Republic Services, Waste Management and Safety-Kleen–ignored or declined repeated inquiries.

In contrast, however, the specialized electronics recyclers were proud of their practices and relationships with brokers and underwriters. Later this month the International Association of Electronics Recyclers, based in Albany, N.Y., will issue a new benchmark report on its industry. The last report, issued in 2003, estimated industry revenues at $700 million.

Peter Muscanelli, president and founder of IAER, says, “We recognize that anything we do has risk, and we work with insurers to minimize those risks for both parties.” The association has established a certification process to examine environmental, health and safety, and management practices. Five companies have been certified, and 15 more are in the process, according to Museanelli.

Two of those certified are Metech International, based in Worcester, Mass., and Earth Protection Services, based in Phoenix.

“The three pillars of our business are: environmental responsibility, intellectual property protection and maximum asset recovery,” says Sam Advani, president of Metech, which handles about 500 tons per month at two processing centers. “We have a standard pollution liability policy, nothing out of the ordinary. Coverage is not cheap, but it is certainly available.”

“We are ISO 9001 and 14001 certified,” adds Jim Gardner, director of business development. “And we audit all the people we send hazardous materials to. That gives a high comfort level to our underwriters.”

Metech and Earth Protection Services, which has processing facilities in California, Oregon, Texas, South Carolina and Pennsylvania, are large.

The industry, however, is mostly composed of small operations and that presents a challenge and an opportunity to underwriters. “We are a full-service environmental management company,” says Andy Ewing, environmental compliance manager of EPS, “so we have coverage to protect ourselves and our clients. For us pollution liability is a must. And that is a strategic advantage for us, because some processors do not (carry coverage).” EPS works with a local broker, Brown & Brown.

Gary Rodrigues, senior vice president and managing director at Willis North America’s environmental practice, says, he is “not aware of any major toxic torts, but I find it almost hard to believe. Of course, there is a big potential for liability, and a dump would aggregate the problem. The full potential of exposure has not really hit yet.”

BROKERS A DRIVING FORCE

Basic coverage in the field starts with pollution and legal liability, or PALL, coverage. “Specific risks are covered by a manuscripted policy or endorsement,” says Rodrigues. “That may cover specific sites or blanket exposures for multiple production or waste services sites. AIG also offers a contractors operations professional combined policy beyond pollution liability, as well as environmental and general liability that is much more limited than PALL, but offers some protection. It is the lower-priced option.”

Coverage is widely offered, “but in truth it is bought weekly more than daily,” says Rodrigues. “People buy coverage when they become aware of exposure.” While some large OEMs may have broad coverage, or may self-insure some exposures, one of the most popular policies in the market is for smaller companies, particularly waste handlers. The underwriter is Ace insurance of Philadelphia. Called Recycle Guard, it is sold out of Willis’s Program Group, and handlers who are members of certain trade associations can buy coverage at the program rate.

Ace is actually the second underwriter for that policy. “Willis had managed the program with another carrier and about a year ago brought the opportunity to us,” says Gerry Rojewski, vice president of the commercial market division for Ace Environmental Risk. “We looked at the potential client base and the need in the market and were able to develop the coverage.”

He says Ace figured that the sector would become profitable quickly and also that the policy would be a way for the company to get into a growing market. “We are responding to industry’s pull as carriers back off on other areas of coverage, like mold and silica. There are good pieces of business out there.”

Lana F. Keppel, product line manager and vice president at AIG Environmental, agrees that the brokers have been an important factor in driving the growth in covering e-scrap. “We only sell through brokers, and the exposures are really not so mystical. The technology is very easy for a broker to examine–we don’t need them to be experts–that is what they come to us for.”

Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:ARW) and Pioneer-Standard Electronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PIOS) announced that they have signed a definitive agreement under which Arrow will acquire substantially all of the assets of Pioneer-Standard’s Industrial Electronics Division (IED) for a purchase price of approximately $285 million in cash (subject to various adjustments, including an audit of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed).

Arrow will utilize a portion of its cash and short-term investments on hand (approximately $650 million at year-end) to fund the purchase price and will not incur additional borrowings.

Pioneer-Standard will remain a public company, focused on its computer systems business and headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Sales of the portion of the IED business being acquired by Arrow (which does not include the high volume CPU business) are estimated to be approximately $700 million per annum. As such, IED is one of the largest distributors of electronic components to industrial customers in North America.

The IED business will be integrated into Arrow’s North American Components businesses, and the combination is expected to generate cost savings and other synergies of at least $60 million per year (principally reflecting warehousing, facilities, IT systems, and other support functions not being acquired by Arrow, coupled with reductions in headcount in response to multiple people performing similar functions). As a result, the acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings for Arrow (even if one were to assume sales attrition of as much as 20 or 25 percent). It is currently estimated that the transaction will add approximately $.20 per share to Arrow’s earnings in the first full year following the integration.

“We are delighted to be adding IED’s customers, suppliers, and employees to the Arrow family,” said Daniel W. Duval, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arrow, “and we believe that our strong global presence and broad value-added capabilities position us well to serve the needs of those suppliers and customers, whether here in North America or elsewhere around the world.” “Arrow has long been recognized as our industry’s leader in integrating companies,” he added, “and we have confidence in the ability of our management team to integrate IED into our customer focused selling groups in North America and achieve the targeted cost savings and synergies.”

“This is the beginning of an exciting transformation of Pioneer-Standard into a computer systems company,” said Arthur Rhein, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pioneer-Standard. “After several months of analyzing the industries we serve, the long-term market trends and our future growth prospects, we made the decision that the best opportunities for future growth with the greatest returns on investment reside with our $1.3 billion computer systems business. Exiting the electronic components industry by selling our components business to Arrow, a leading global distributor, will monetize the value we have established in our Industrial Electronics Division and create the financial flexibility for Pioneer-Standard to pursue the significant growth opportunities available in the computer industry.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including obtaining necessary government approvals, and is expected to be completed within the next several months.

Arrow Electronics is one of the world’s largest distributors of electronic components and computer products and a leading provider of services to the electronics industry. Headquartered in Melville, New York, Arrow serves as a supply channel partner for more than 600 suppliers and over 175,000 original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, and commercial customers through more than 200 sales facilities and 23 distribution centers in 40 countries. Detailed information about Arrow’s operations can be found at www.arrow.com.

Pioneer-Standard is a broad-line distributor of electronic components and mid-range computer products. The Company reported revenues of $2.3 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002, which were nearly evenly split between the Industrial Electronics Division and the Computer Systems Division. A Fortune 1000 company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Pioneer-Standard also serves international customers in Europe and Asia through its strategic partners: Taiwan-based World Peace Industrial Co. Ltd.; U.K.-based Eurodis Electron PLC; and Germany-based Magirus AG. Additional information about Pioneer-Standard can be found at www.pioneerstandard.com.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a “safe harbor” for forward-looking statements. This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or facts to differ materially from such statements for a variety of reasons including, but are not limited to: industry conditions, changes in product supply, pricing, and customer demand, competition, other vagaries in the computer and electronic components markets, changes in relationships with key suppliers and the other risks described from time to time in the company’s reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (including the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K). Such statements are subject to additional risks, including, but not limited to, the company’s ability to achieve anticipated cost savings and other synergies, the level of sales attrition experienced by the IED business following consummation of the transaction, and changes to the IED business following the announcement of the transaction. Shareholders and other readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements.

An array of options is available for companies that choose to upgrade their PCs rather than replace them with new models.

The components most commonly upgraded are processors memory and hard drives.

Other items often upgraded are graphics accelerators, data-backup devices, and CD-ROMs.

Information about PC components can be found in many computer magazines and mail-order catalogs and on the Internet. Following are a few companies that manufacture computer components for upgrades.

Processors

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.  AMD’s Pentium-class K6 processor features the same multimedia extension technology as Intel’s Pentium processors for fast graphics handling. It is available at speeds up to 300 megahertz (MHz).

Cyrix Corp.  Cyrix has come out with a competitor to the Pentium II, which it calls M II, available at speeds up to 300MHz.

Intel Corp. Pentium II is Intel’s most advanced processor, with speeds up to 400Mhz.

Memory

Kinston Technology Co.  Kinston makes memory for most major brands and configurations of PCs. Memory is available in increments of up to 64 megabytes.

Simple Technology Inc.  Simple is another longtime maker of reliable memory of all types and sizes for mainstream PCs.

Hard Drivers

Maxtor Corp.  Maxtor’s Diamond-Max hard drives have capacities of up to 11.5 gigabytes (GB).

Seagate Technology Inc.  Seagate sells its Medalist, Cheetah, and Barracuda hard drives with capacities of up to 18GB.

PowerQuest Corp.  Replacing a hard drive is much easier using PowerQuest’s DriveCopy and Drive Image software. DriveCopy ($29.95) copies the contents of one hard drive to another. Drive Image ($69.95) allows companies to copy the configuration and contents of one hard drive to multiple drives.

Graphics Accelerators

ATI Technologies Inc. The All-in Wonder Pro-graphics card offers several graphics features, including 3-D and 2-D graphics and video, a stereo television tuner, and video capture capabilities. Retail price $279.

Number Nine Visual Technology  Number Nine’s Revolution 3D graphics card greatly increases the processing speed and clarity of computer graphics and video. It handles 3-D and 2-D graphics and video. Retail prices start at $129, depending on the amount of memory.

Backup Devices

Iomega Corp.  Iomega offers a number of solutions for backing up data, including the internal Zip drive ($99)-which uses small cassettes that each can store up to 100MB of data-and the internal Jaz tape drive ($279.95), which has up to 2GB of capacity.

SyQuest Technology Inc.  SyQuest’s fast SparQ internal drive ($1999) for PCs stores 1GB of data. The SyJet tape drive ($249) for PCs and Macs provides fast data storage of 15GB of data.

CD-ROM/DVD

Panasonic Computer Peripheral Co. CD-ROM drives have become indispensable for landing software and using multimedia and reference materials stored on CD-ROMs. Panasonic’s LK-MC682BP internal 32-speed CD-ROM provide blazing playback and fast response times Retail price is $99.

Sony Electronics Inc.  Digital videodisc players allow users to play back full-motion video off high-capacity discs as well as conventional audio CDs and CD-ROMs. Sony’s DDU220E/H DVD drive comes bundled with an MPEG decoder card that takes much of the burden of playing video off the PC’s processor, allowing users to play videos while working on other tasks. Retail price is S349.

Creative Labs Inc.  One type of DVD drive, known as DVD-RAM, enables users to record a whopping 5.2GB of data per double-sided disk. Like other varieties of DVD drives, Creative Labs’ DVD-ROM drives also enable playback of audio CDs, and pre-recorded DVD videos. Price direct from Creative Labs: $499.99.

TERADYNE INC.’S ASSEMBLY TEST DIVISION has upgraded its Design-to-Build (D2B) Software to version 3.0, featuring an enhanced version of D2B Strategist, its distributed test management software. D2B provides distributed test management across multiple test and inspection platforms, such as automated optical inspection, automated X-ray inspection, flying probe and in-circuit test platforms. Principal upgrades include accurate predictability of test time and test yields; feedback from Teradyne test and inspection platforms that verifies fault coverage; calculation and analysis of test strategy effectiveness in catching defects; and D2B/ECO, a completely new module that can compare two revisions of a PCB assembly by performing checks to see if components have been added, removed or modified.