Specifications

PIPELINE
PC MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 16, 2003 www.pcmag.com
26
I
t may be time to give a fare-
well nod to the wooden facial
expressions found in today’s
games. Half-Life 2, the sequel to
Half-Life—a groundbreaking
first-person shooter game—has
been in development for nearly
four years, and the realism in
the characters’ facial expres-
sions sets a new bar.
“We wanted AI characters to
become digital actors,” says
Doug Lombardi, director of
marketing at Valve.
To aid in the task, Valve went
online and found Paul Ekman, a
psychology professor who has
been studying facial expres-
sions for years. Valve integrated
Ekman’s set of around 60 estab-
lished expressions into the
characters’ faces. Judging from
recent demos, the results could
warrant an Oscar.
—Carol A. Mangis
Face TimeOrdered to
Pay Up
H
ad Robin Hood’s booty
of choice been copies of
Microsoft Office, he
might have been involved in
the largest recovery ever
achieved under California’s
antitrust laws—one that par-
tially benefits lower-income
students. A superior court
judge has granted preliminary
approval of a $1.1 billion settle-
ment between Microsoft and
California consumers and
businesses, and claimants
could begin collecting money
as soon as September. Micro-
soft must pay
claimants
vouchers
for cash after
buyers purchase
computing products from any
manufacturer.
Microsoft will give two-
thirds of the unclaimed settle-
ment to the California Depart-
ment of Education, which will
go to purchasing computer
products for public schools
with underprivileged students.
While critics charge that much
of the money could be funneled
back to Microsoft if the depart-
ment buys Microsoft products
for schools, court-appointed
counsel Eugene Crew dis-
agrees: “We’re antitrust,” he
says. “We gave buyers the bene-
fit of this settlement and they
are free to spend it in an open
marketplace, and on computers
and printers, which Microsoft
doesn’t sell.”
Consumers can request
claim forms at www
.microsoftcalsettlement.com or
by calling 1-800-203-9995.
—Alexandra Robbins
soon as expected.
Over the ten-year horizon,
CMOS (complementary metal-
oxide semiconductor)—the
technology used in most com-
puter chips today—may be
replaced with nanotechnology
techniques. Research into
nanowires, compatible with sili-
con technology, looks promis-
ing. “Once you get below the
100 nanometer mark, you’re in
the nanotechnology realm,”
says Linda Wilson, managing
editor for the
ITRS.
Of course, even the most dili-
gent research can’t account for
unforeseen innovations, and the
current version of the
ITRS
won’t be finalized until Decem-
ber. In other words, the road
map is subject to change with-
out notice.—John R. Quain
CHARTING THE COURSE of
computing’s future is like sail-
ing around Africa’s Cape of
Good Hope: Unpredictable
storms could capsize your ship.
Nevertheless, the latest Interna-
tional Technology Roadmap for
Semiconductors (
ITRS)— the
semiconductor industry’s
assessment of the future—is
nearly complete, and it fore-
casts some surprising things.
The
ITRS often inspires com-
pany collaboration. The previ-
ous version of the road map was
released in 2001, but a draft of a
new version was discussed in
July at the Semicon West confer-
ence in San Francisco.
The
ITRS committee
expects that current optical
lithography techniques for
chip designs will work down
to sizes as small as 45
nanometers. That’s a marked
improvement over previous
predictions and may mean that
newer technologies, such as
extreme ultraviolet lithography
(
EUVL), won’t be needed as
Locate backup data on the
Moon? Now that sounds like
a rock-solid business model.
However bizarre the idea
may sound, TransOrbital of
La Jolla, California, is taking
this idea and other proposals
for marrying high-tech and
the Earth’s only natural
satellite seriously. The com-
pany is getting ready to send
a commercial mission to the
Moon and intends to send servers, data, handheld
computers, and digital cameras along for the ride.
“We’re the only company licensed to send a
commercial mission right now,” says Dennis
Laurie, TransOrbital’s president and
CEO. “We’re
shooting for the first quarter of 2004.” On
December 20, 2002, the company launched a
rocket to test telemetry, positioning, and other
concerns in preparation for the upcoming mission.
TransOrbital had to obtain approval from the U.S.
State Department and the
military to gain its license.
Is there any point in stor-
ing data on the moon?
TransOrbital has drawn
interest from companies
that want to back up critical
data somewhere other than
Earth. “We’re trying to devel-
op some wider bandwidth
laser communications going
beyond the communication
protocols developed by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory that exist for use in space,” Laurie says.
In addition to bringing servers to the moon,
TransOrbital is seeking to use digital cameras
and the
HP iPAQ Pocket PC handheld as part of
its mission to provide pictures from space.
Laurie says his company is looking at self-heal-
ing server technology from various providers for
use on the Moon.
Talk about remote backup.—
SR
ILLUSTRATIONS BY BOB DALY
Backup data—on the Moon?
10-Year
Road Map
For Chips