Technology has become an integral part of our life. But people, by nature, tend to not stick to a particular technology for long. They are always looking for new age technologies that truly meet their hi-tech needs. This article mainly highlights some technologies that will dominate the year and at the same time points to some issues that local ICT industry needs to resolve in 2008.
Smartphone
A study says there would be a surge of smartphone users this year. The rapid advancement of handheld phones has enabled users to enjoy multimedia contents, videoconferencing and other bandwidth-incentive activities.
Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) said 406 million handsets were shipped in 2002 and about 15 percent of them had colour displays. This number is expected to jump to 97 percent by 2008. The reason for the increase is the emergence of 3G networks and the convergence between cell phone and PDA (personal digital assistant).
Cutting edge CPU architecture
Chipmakers like Intel and Advance Micro Devices (AMD) this year will focus on developing ultra high-speed, cutting-edge processors by adopting new processor architecture and using different manufacturing material. Intel is about to unveil its new Penryn processor. Recently the chipmaker has successfully manufactured the prototype of a processor fabricated on 45nm process.
In addition, both IBM and Intel have lately announced the development of a new "high-k" insulating material that will enable the two chipmakers to shrink CPU die size to 45nm without losing thermal and electrical efficiencies. Intel also claimed that the Penryn processor has dramatically increased performance and conserves better power as well.
AMD is also trying to win the microprocessor race. Some experts give more credit to AMD than Intel for its new innovation in CPU design known as heterogeneous processing. AMD says it is going to acquire graphics-chip maker ATI to produce new category processor code-named "Fusion" that mainly combines traditional CPUs and graphics processing units into a dual or quad core central processing unit.
This integration allows desktop PC, laptop or server to use a standard CPU core to perform standard PC/OS functions while remaining cores handle 3D graphics or floating point calculations.
Processors based on multi-processing cores also throw challenges to software developers to develop applications that perfectly match with this new architecture. Programmers are now engrossed in developing multi-threaded applications because without this it is not possible to achieve optimum performance from multi-core processors.
Solid-state hard drive
Time has come to say good-bye to the conventional hard drives. Yes, nowadays several hard drive manufacturers have fallen in love with producing solid-state hard drive. This sort of storage device is lighter, faster, quicker and less power consuming than traditional hard drive used in notebooks.
Samsung first unveiled the 32GB NAND drive in 2006 and from then on several efforts were made to upgrade its technology. NAND is a type of flash memory technology that speeds up writing and erasing data from flash memory. NOR is another type of flash based storage and it is convenient for smaller devices like cell phones.
A recent report showed that solid-state hard drives are being built with data throughput capacity of up to 32MB/sec. It is nearly 100 times faster than traditional hard drives. SanDisk Corp has come up with a 32GB drive that is capable of achieving this speed. Due to their small size and lack of moving parts, NAND drives consumes less energy and produces small amount of heat compared to standard hard drives.
Ultra-wideband technology
Nowadays personal area network based on Bluetooth technology is not friendly enough to transfer wide amount of data. As a result, it prevents people from enjoying rich audio or video contents or transferring large files. In order to fix this problem, researchers are now considering a technology called ultra-wideband (UWB). This technology will wirelessly connect portable computer or PDA to multimedia projectors, play digital video from a camcorder onto an HDTV and transmit signal from PC to other portable devices.
UWB rapidly transfers data over 3.1-to-10.6 GHz frequency range and the data transfer rate is 500 Mbps whereas existing Bluetooth technology fixes at 2.1 Mbps. Another exciting feature of UWB is that it uses repeated data-rich pulse of energy in the radio spectrum to transmit data and cover distance up to 30 feet. It should be mentioned that most wireless system nowadays typically transmits data over a narrow band of frequencies.
Apple's iPhone
This year the hi-tech craze cannot gain momentum without Apple's iPhone. Apple has announced to release the iPhone to Asia Pacific region in 2008. Apple envisages that the introduction of iPhone in this region will have significant impact on cell-phone business. As iPhone comes with locked SIM, Apple will take measures against the retailers who sell hacked versions of the gadget.
IP telephony
In 2008 many companies will leave their private branch exchange (PBX) technology and migrate to IP telephony. More than 80 percent companies around the world are now on trail phase of IP telephony service. Gartner, a research firm, predicts that a majority of these companies will be using it within a couple of years.
Blade server technology
Blade sever technology will remain at the centre of talking in 2008. This sate-of-the art technology enables organisations to squeeze their existing IT installation by incorporating a server in their IT infrastructure. Blade server encompasses huge resources to run multiple OS and ensure security to resists interlopers.
Bangladesh in 2008
The new year holds the promise of strengthening the local ICT industry. According to experts, more people will be using internet in the country this year. Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) hopes that the government would be able to expedite the process by connecting us with the second submarine cable.
Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN) is also going on with its Mission 2011 strategy and has vowed to establish more telecentres and spread internet facilities in rural areas. Two more things can greatly influence the local tech industry -- WiMAX and 3G network.
WiMAX is invaluable for ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to establish long-haul data communication link and provide VoIP service. Considering cell phone penetration in the country, it is high time the government resolved frequency tangle and issued 3G licences to six cell phone carriers.
Smartphone
A study says there would be a surge of smartphone users this year. The rapid advancement of handheld phones has enabled users to enjoy multimedia contents, videoconferencing and other bandwidth-incentive activities.
Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) said 406 million handsets were shipped in 2002 and about 15 percent of them had colour displays. This number is expected to jump to 97 percent by 2008. The reason for the increase is the emergence of 3G networks and the convergence between cell phone and PDA (personal digital assistant).
Cutting edge CPU architecture
Chipmakers like Intel and Advance Micro Devices (AMD) this year will focus on developing ultra high-speed, cutting-edge processors by adopting new processor architecture and using different manufacturing material. Intel is about to unveil its new Penryn processor. Recently the chipmaker has successfully manufactured the prototype of a processor fabricated on 45nm process.
In addition, both IBM and Intel have lately announced the development of a new "high-k" insulating material that will enable the two chipmakers to shrink CPU die size to 45nm without losing thermal and electrical efficiencies. Intel also claimed that the Penryn processor has dramatically increased performance and conserves better power as well.
AMD is also trying to win the microprocessor race. Some experts give more credit to AMD than Intel for its new innovation in CPU design known as heterogeneous processing. AMD says it is going to acquire graphics-chip maker ATI to produce new category processor code-named "Fusion" that mainly combines traditional CPUs and graphics processing units into a dual or quad core central processing unit.
This integration allows desktop PC, laptop or server to use a standard CPU core to perform standard PC/OS functions while remaining cores handle 3D graphics or floating point calculations.
Processors based on multi-processing cores also throw challenges to software developers to develop applications that perfectly match with this new architecture. Programmers are now engrossed in developing multi-threaded applications because without this it is not possible to achieve optimum performance from multi-core processors.
Solid-state hard drive
Time has come to say good-bye to the conventional hard drives. Yes, nowadays several hard drive manufacturers have fallen in love with producing solid-state hard drive. This sort of storage device is lighter, faster, quicker and less power consuming than traditional hard drive used in notebooks.
Samsung first unveiled the 32GB NAND drive in 2006 and from then on several efforts were made to upgrade its technology. NAND is a type of flash memory technology that speeds up writing and erasing data from flash memory. NOR is another type of flash based storage and it is convenient for smaller devices like cell phones.
A recent report showed that solid-state hard drives are being built with data throughput capacity of up to 32MB/sec. It is nearly 100 times faster than traditional hard drives. SanDisk Corp has come up with a 32GB drive that is capable of achieving this speed. Due to their small size and lack of moving parts, NAND drives consumes less energy and produces small amount of heat compared to standard hard drives.
Ultra-wideband technology
Nowadays personal area network based on Bluetooth technology is not friendly enough to transfer wide amount of data. As a result, it prevents people from enjoying rich audio or video contents or transferring large files. In order to fix this problem, researchers are now considering a technology called ultra-wideband (UWB). This technology will wirelessly connect portable computer or PDA to multimedia projectors, play digital video from a camcorder onto an HDTV and transmit signal from PC to other portable devices.
UWB rapidly transfers data over 3.1-to-10.6 GHz frequency range and the data transfer rate is 500 Mbps whereas existing Bluetooth technology fixes at 2.1 Mbps. Another exciting feature of UWB is that it uses repeated data-rich pulse of energy in the radio spectrum to transmit data and cover distance up to 30 feet. It should be mentioned that most wireless system nowadays typically transmits data over a narrow band of frequencies.
Apple's iPhone
This year the hi-tech craze cannot gain momentum without Apple's iPhone. Apple has announced to release the iPhone to Asia Pacific region in 2008. Apple envisages that the introduction of iPhone in this region will have significant impact on cell-phone business. As iPhone comes with locked SIM, Apple will take measures against the retailers who sell hacked versions of the gadget.
IP telephony
In 2008 many companies will leave their private branch exchange (PBX) technology and migrate to IP telephony. More than 80 percent companies around the world are now on trail phase of IP telephony service. Gartner, a research firm, predicts that a majority of these companies will be using it within a couple of years.
Blade server technology
Blade sever technology will remain at the centre of talking in 2008. This sate-of-the art technology enables organisations to squeeze their existing IT installation by incorporating a server in their IT infrastructure. Blade server encompasses huge resources to run multiple OS and ensure security to resists interlopers.
Bangladesh in 2008
The new year holds the promise of strengthening the local ICT industry. According to experts, more people will be using internet in the country this year. Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) hopes that the government would be able to expedite the process by connecting us with the second submarine cable.
Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN) is also going on with its Mission 2011 strategy and has vowed to establish more telecentres and spread internet facilities in rural areas. Two more things can greatly influence the local tech industry -- WiMAX and 3G network.
WiMAX is invaluable for ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to establish long-haul data communication link and provide VoIP service. Considering cell phone penetration in the country, it is high time the government resolved frequency tangle and issued 3G licences to six cell phone carriers.
