fujitsu

Fujitsu Ten, a subsidiary of the Japanese technology company, is demonstrating at CES its new car-computing technology using Google's Android operating system and Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 processor.

The subsidiary, which focuses on car electronics, home audio, and mobile radio technology, said today it's working on three themes for its car technology: "linking cars with society," "linking cars with people," and "linking cars with other other cars and with infrastructure."

"One of the ways we are meeting the challenge is considering the future adoption of Android to improve automobile connectivity, … Read more

Cisco, once again, was the leader of the pack as Greenpeace released its latest Cool IT Leaderboard on Tuesday.

The environmental watchdog group named Cisco, Ericsson, and Fujitsu, respectively, as the three most environmentally responsible IT companies. Cisco received 70 out of 100 possible points, while Ericsson received 57 points and Fujitsu 52 points. Greenpeace praised Cisco for "making IT climate solutions an increasingly core part of its business strategy."

Cisco was in first place in the group's previous list in April, despite Google upping its public support for climate change legislation in the U.S. at … Read more

CHIBA, Japan--It turns out digital signs don't have to be flat.

Here at Ceatec, Fujitsu turned what looked like your standard building column into an interactive display by wrapping it with a plasma display and a motion-sensing camera.

The display itself is 1 centimeter thick and is available in much larger sizes--see the 200-inch one that's been installed at Japan's Kansai Airport.

The display uses cameras to sense a person's location and movements in reaction to elements on the screen. The camera on one side displays the person's interactions on both sides of the column, … Read more

CHIBA, Japan--A handful of tablets are on display at Ceatec 2010, though most of them are still firmly in the idea stage.

Of the major consumer electronics manufacturers here showing touch-screen tablet devices, only Sharp's Galapagos seems close to being a real product. Fujitsu's was kept under glass and clearly labeled "prototype," and Toshiba's had few details beyond its use of Android as the OS.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab is here, though it is part of wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo's booth because Samsung does not display at Ceatec. Even without the manufacturer's presence, … Read more

Fujitsu has begun shipping the brains of a new Japanese supercomputer to be built at the government-funded RIKEN research institute and designed to perform 10 quadrillion mathematical calculations per second.

The system, called K, is massive. It's planned to have 800 racks of computing gear housing 80,000 of Fujitsu's SPARC 64 VIIIfx processors running at 2.2GHz, Fujitsu said. The processors will be interconnected with a high-capacity direct-connection network that permits fast communications between neighbors.

Although the system is under construction now, it won't be ready for production use until 2012, Fujitsu said.

The system initially … Read more

Wireless networks and Bluetooth keyboards can free people from some cable clutter, but Fujitsu believes new research could help whisk away some power cords, too.

Fujitsu said Monday that it's overcome design hurdles for a mechanism for wireless charging of electronic devices and that it plans to use the technology in products to be sold in 2012.

The general idea, which Intel, MIT, and other organizations have been researching for years, offers the prospect of a laptop or phone that charges when you set it on a desk or table, potentially getting rid of some cables and making travel easier. Fujitsu has bigger ideas in mind, too: transmitting power within a computer chassis and charging electric cars, for example. … Read more

TOKYO--Japanese suppliers of information and entertainment systems score highest in quality, says a recent study by J.D. Power and Associates.

These systems, including satellite radio and navigation devices, are increasingly must-have features in vehicles. About 66 percent of drivers now have satellite radio, up from 59 percent in 2009. Factory-installed navigation systems are in 30 percent of vehicles, up from 25 percent.

The findings, from J.D. Power's 2010 U.S. Multimedia Quality and Satisfaction Study, underscore the rapid penetration of such infotainment technology into the U.S. market.

High-tech onboard entertainment and navigation systems got an early … Read more

A recovery in global demand boosted second-quarter sales for computer servers by 11 percent to $10.9 billion, says a report released Wednesday by IDC.

Those numbers represent the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year sales growth and the fastest quarterly growth in the server market since 2003, according to the research firm's latest quarterly global server study. Server shipments also rose 23.8 percent from 2009's second quarter, a slight increase from the 23 percent gain seen in the first quarter but the fastest quarterly growth in more than five years.

Lower-end volume servers led the market with … Read more

Intel announced on Monday the first dual-core Atom processor targeted specifically at Netbooks, finally putting the same number of processing cores inside these tiny laptops as found on larger mainstream laptops.

Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and LG all announced new dual-core Netbooks Monday. Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, MSI, Samsung, and Toshiba, among others, are planning similar announcements in the coming weeks and months, according to Intel.

This is a big step for the Netbook market. Since their inception back in spring 2008, Netbooks have been powered by single-core processors. This allowed Netbook suppliers to design 10-inch-class laptops that were relatively power efficient and inexpensive, typically costing about $350.

The widely reported downside has been lackluster performance, since all processing must be funneled through one core. The Atom performance gap with mainstream Core 2 Duo and Core i laptop processors is also due to design differences. (Mainstream laptop processors have a different architecture, delivering higher-level performance.) But the fact that the Atom for Netbooks has always been single core has exacerbated the performance gap.

Intel has other reasons for moving to dual core. Low-power dual-core processors from rival Advanced Micro Devices are already appearing in Netbook-class laptops. The Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dm1z, an 11.6-inch Netbook, uses an AMD Turion II Neo dual-core K625 processor (1.5GHz) and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics processor, offering potentially stiff competition for single-core Atom Netbooks.

The new dual-core Intel N550 Atom runs at 1.5GHz and supports DDR3 memory, another performance benefit.

Despite the expected crush of updated models, the Netbook now has a new nemesis: the iPad. "The death of the Netbook has been greatly exaggerated," said Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at IDC, referring to the rise of the Apple iPad and its impact on Netbook sales. Though O'Donnell doesn't discount the iPad effect, Netbooks are principally for consumers who want to use Windows on a small device--virtually impossible on an iPad--and they're less expensive than an iPad, to boot. … Read more