Embargoed until 26-Nov-2003 until 5:00 PM ET
Newswise — You want one do-it-all device--something the size of an iPod that's a PDA, a cellphone, a GPS receiver, an MP3 player, an e-book reader, a digital camera, a portable television, a satellite radio, and a game player. It communicates with any wireless network it encounters, without prompting from you. It has lots of processing horsepower; it upgrades automatically; and it goes for days, not hours, on a battery charge. You might call it a universal digital assistant. What you've got now is more separate devices than you have pockets, with an equal number of chargers, cables, and nonstandard lithium-ion batteries that never last long enough and that die at the worst moment.
In the December issue of IEEE Spectrum, authors Nick Tredennick and Brion Shimamoto lay out their vision of how we get from what we've got to what we want. The key, they say, is not the microprocessor, but, instead, the Programmable Logic Device (PLD), a semiconductor containing a personalization memory and logic elements. Today's PLDs are not ready to take on the challenge, but, the authors argue, it is clear that they can be ready, and soon.
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