“This workshop serves as an important reality check for the teams writing the various roadmap chapters and helps us enhance the quality of the final product. It also gives industry a ‘sneak peak’ at what will be featured in the final roadmap,” says Jim Arnold, director of roadmapping for NEMI and a fellow of the Motorola technical staff. “The June workshop is a critical part of the roadmapping process, as it gives us the opportunity to broaden our reach in soliciting input from industry. And, this year, we are expanding our scope even further by actively soliciting global participation in this review as we begin the first steps toward internationalizing the NEMI roadmap. For example, we have already secured commitments from IEEE/CPMT and IMAPS Europe to participate. In addition, we have had positive interactions with JEITA, and representatives from Japan will be involved in the 2004 roadmap.”

(May 11, 2004) Gainesville, Fla.&#8212University of Florida electrical engineers have installed a radio antenna less than one-tenth of an inch long on a computer chip and demonstrated that it can send and receive signals across a room. The achievement is another step in the team’s continuing efforts to build an “ultrasmall radio chip” &#8212 a transceiver, processor and battery all placed on a chip not much larger than a pinhead &#8212 and one that could one day be used for applications ranging from detecting illegal border crossing to ensuring bridge and tunnel safety.