PICMG has approved and released three new CompactPCI (CPCI) specifications. The three new documents are PICMG 2.0 R3.0, an update of the core CPCI specification; PICMG 2.10 R1.0, Keying of CPCI Boards and Backplanes; and PICMG 2.11 R1.0, CPCI Power Interface.

Revision 3.0 of the CPCI Core Specification incorporates features from PICMG’s hot swap and computer telephony specifications. It also adds 66-MHz operation with up to five peripheral slots, support for hot swap at 3.3-V signaling levels, and a reservation of pins for system management functions.

PICMG’s keying specification was created to deal with overlapping uses of CPCI’s user-definable pins, where use of the keying mechanisms as defined in IEC 61076-4-101 for the J4/P4 connector and in IEEE 1101.10 for handle and cardguide hardware will be required. It reduces the risk of duplicated use. The PICMG technical and executive committees will centrally administer assignment of these keys.

The CPCI Power Interface specification defines the electrical and mechanical requirements relating to the functionality and interoperability of 3U and 6U form factor plug-in power modules in CPCI systems.
PICMG, www.picmgcom .

NeoCore, LLC was awarded US Patent #5,942,002, titled “Method and Apparatus for Generating a Transform,” by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The new patent describes the use of a transform to generate icons, which are a fundamental element of NeoCore’s digital patter processing (DPP) technology. DPP enables pattern matching and manipulation using NeoCore’s proprietary pattern-based associative processing technology.
NeoCore, LLC, www.neocore.com .

The ITU-R Task Group 8/1 has adopted the cdma2000 and Universal Wireless Communications (UWC)-136 radio interface specifications developed by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) TR-45 Engineering Committee.

The second step in the ITU approval process was the submission of the IMT-2000 radio interface Recommendation to an ITU-R Study Group 8 meeting. The final step in the process is formal approval at the ITU Radiocommunication Assembly in early May 2000. It is expected that IMT-2000 services will begin commercial operation in 2001 in some regions of the world.
TIA, www.tiaonline.org .

Qualcomm, Inc., DSP Communications, Inc., and In-tel Corp. (which recently acquired DSPC) announced that the companies have entered into an agreement for the continuation of a CDMA ASIC patent license signed by Qualcomm and DSPC in 1995. The 1995 agreement granted DSPC a royalty-bearing license under certain Qualcomm patents to make and sell CDMA ASICs to Qualcomm’s subscriber terminal licensees, and granted Qualcomm a cross-license for CDMA ASICs under DSPC’s patents. Under the new agreement, DSPC would continue to hold the royalty-bearing license as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel, and Qualcomm would be extended licenses under certain Intel patents.

Qualcomm and Intel have agreed to cooperate in exploring opportunities to expand the market for CDMA through the promotion and adoption of CDMA wireless connectivity for use in data and multimedia communication services.
Qualcomm, Inc., www.qualcomm.com .