Convergence and Digitization

Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Daejeon, South


Abstract:

The trend of miniaturization of circuits and fusion of many subsystems of different technologies into one have become cynosure of the ongoing research and fast growing advancement in the said field has opened the door of human consciousness to a radically new and labyrinthine world within that embedded chip that has certainly affected and are affecting life of common mass making it simpler and easier. This paper discusses about trend of the convergence of technology, particularly networks based revolution and presents the techno- commercial and socio-economic aspect for the same.



Introduction

Convergence, As the name implies, means” Coming Together” and The primary driver of convergence of different forms of information is technological change, primarily the rapid diffusion of digital technology into an ever-wider array of information businesses. Beyond digitization, dramatic changes in the computing and telecommunications industries (primarily in faster microprocessors and increasing bandwidth) are also driving convergence.

The era of modern electronics started after 1947 when transistor invented, miniaturization of the circuit began, First small subsystem then micro-processors, micro controllers, DSP Processors, Embedded chips, SOCs, and many new comes into being and adding its presence play significant in making your systems smart, efficient, faster and more powerful than before. Technology wise, a successful Journey from SSI (12 Transistors into chip of one cm2) to VLSI (millions of transistors into one chip), micro technology to Nano technology and now femto technology really affected and open gate for productive areas of research and development.

Now the digital world is affecting mankind and has developed numerous technologies to store and manipulate digital data. Digital information is essentially distortion-free, perfectly and infinitely replicable, instantly transportable (given fiber, cable, and future communication bandwidths), highly translatable, inherently editable, readily amenable to various forms of processing to digital revolution. The convergence when used in the context of networking refers to the ability to transfer data and voice and or video traffic on a single network. VOIP (Voice over internet protocol) is one of the example for the transmission of the voice traffis in packets. It is also known as internet telephony,IP Telephony, packet voice,packetized voice. In VOIP network, the packetization of voice happens in real time. VOIP also decrease the bandwidth utilized significantly, since multiple packets can be transmitted simultaneously.

•Internet based lifestyle: Now a day, the use of Internet has become widespread, without Internet availability, email checking people feel some thing awkward, which takes his away from the world. The internet serves as technology platform that enables an entirely new generation of consumer applications, including voice and video communications, e- commerce solutions, personalized news services, home security and automation, utilities resource management and entertainment title distribution. The availability of such a wide variety of application is changing the way people relate to the Internet itself. The Internet lifestyle is a new way of thinking that has resulted in a formation of an organization called the Internet home alliance. The principle behind this new organization is that consumers want to enjoy the benefits of the Internet lifestyles without worrying about the technology that enables it to work. The alliance is bringing new level of comfort, convenience and security by creating the necessary infrastructure. Installation and support from the various companies provide integrated services, eliminating the need for multiple points of consumer contact.

•Deregulation: There is a heavy deregulation of the global infrastructure industries such as telecommunication, utilities and cable. These companies are developing new ways of improving their business by using the Internet and increasing revenues through additional services to the home.

•Digitalization of consumer products: a product that is digital one, which is synonymous with higher quality, greater accuracy, higher reliability, faster speed, lower power and lower cost. Simply stating anything digital is better. The digitization

connection bringing information to and from the houses. The ecosystem within the home will be connected enabling internet access to a multitude of digital devices.

Xilinx, the VLSI Based chip design company believes that the evolution of fully integrated digital home will take place in above mentioned graph in three separate stages. The stage 3 (in the fig 1), will be the stage of pure digital home with complex technologies but simple and easy handling of the system. This company is giving complete chip solution of all the technology involved in it.

Home Network Technologies

Home networking is basically a three-part equation offering entertainment, information and automation services that are distributed between appliances in the home.
It has four aspects which include, broad band access, residential gateways, a vast range of information appliances and the technologies that bind them all.—interconnectivity and home networking technologies. Table 1 shows the aspects of different home networking technologies as per their market requirements and the available solutions.

Market Analysis Data

Home networking is projected to be extremely fast growing sector and the following figure 2 presents the overview of the types of companies and organization involved in managing this change and developing the global home networking industry. Cahners In-stat predicted that the worldwide home networking and residential gateway market will exceed $ 5 billion by 2004.

The fig 3 and 4 shows the real picture about the growth of home networking technology from 1999 to 2004 and applications driving home networking technologies. The gradual exponential increase from 5 million household to 25 million household ,an increase of 500 % within 5 years and at the same time applications driving home networking technologies shows how people are now making their Home as Digital Home with all networking technologies features.



 

and compatible with other forms of digital information. Now gone are the days when information was created, stored, manipulated, and transformed by its form. Textual information existed mostly as hard copy or as metallic templates used by printers to make copies. Audio information existed mostly as analog waveforms, captured on vinyl or magnetic tape. Still and moving images were rendered in chemical form; later on, moving images shifted to analog form through the development of videotape technology.

The trend in technology is growing very rapidly. Now the different technology, subsystems, softwares combined together become one system which economically viable showing better performance with good processing speed, consuming very less power (scientists are even thinking about zero voltage) with less area. Convergence factors

We are now in the phase of industrial based analog economy to an information based digital economy. The momentum for this transition is being fueled by no of converging factors— •Converging media: digitalization of voice, data, video and communication is driving consumer products convergence. Convergence is happenings in everybody backyard with incredible computer power being embedded within everyday consumer appliances. The digital revolution be it from vinyl players changing to MP3 Players or for analog TV to digital TV,is occurring very rapidly. Data,voice and video can now be transmitted over the same backbone due

of the consumer products has not only led to the improvements of existing products but it has also lead to creation of whole new class of products that has never existed before. The PVR (personal Video recording) are revolutionizing the way we watch TV, satellites. The camera, audio and video features of mobile communication have certainly revolutionized this industry and growing by leaps and bounds. Modems are faster internet access to the home and MP3 has revolutions other portable digital music

Home networking revolution

The Home networking is all about the convergence of voice, video and data and their associated appliances. The integration and inter-operation of different electronics appliances, entertainment devices, PC hardware, and telecommunication devices in general revolutionized the industry and has been projected as one of the fast growing industry in the world.
The ultimate goal of the home network is to provide access to the information such as audio, voice, data and entertainment between different digital devices around the house. This technology allows users to communicate and interact at anywhere at anytime and bringing the Internet to the hands of the consumers, to every appliance in the house and help interconnect people across the globe. It allows access to homes via Internet when one is away, enabling security and energy management.

With the expansion of Internet application, more homes are moving towards using multiple PCs and other types of network appliances. The demand for bandwidth is bringing broadband connectivity to the houses. Homes today are having following facilities:

a. PC centric eco system that comprise of modems, scanners, digital cameras, and printers connected to a localized network. b. Multimedia centric ecosystems that comprise of set up boxes ,digital television, digital video recorders, spaeakers,stereos and DVD players. c. Wireless centric ecosystems that comprise of Personal Digital Assistant(PDA)and mobile phone sets. It is presumed that in the near future homes will have single broadband

Sociology of Convergence

The primary focus of convergence industries to date has been on the technologies that make it possible to combine different forms of information. Growing market and reach to the every house hold with every kind of data transfer has opened the door for its sociological implications.

Though, the sociological implications of an interactive broadband communications infrastructure are not yet fully understood but will undoubtedly be profound. This interactive broadband technology cause the most dramatic shift in behavioral patterns of even common human being since the introduction of the automobile, mobile communication, video conferencing that has affected even people shopkeepers, hotels etc… in terms of socialize, entertained, conduct business, and handle finances.

Critical to such adoption is nature of the interface particularly dehumanizing and Internet based crime, personal privacy cynosure the world to make some laws. Increasing crime based on sex videotape and uploading into different sex related websites for the clear views to all is really a bad part of it, many instances has already come out and made public, this is certainly against the humanity need to be stopped.

Concluding remarks: As we are crossing centuries, growth in all sectors can be visualized and that must be. The recent technological advancement in the convergence of technologies and digitization certainly made us feel into one global family and easy access of global knowledge and information. We can expect many more advancements in the near future. Can we design our dream also? Yes it is possible now. Two years before, made chip for that, means if you insert this chip into your nerves, it will control your whole nervous system and the status of mind and in that way you can design your dream. Let us see how much more technological advancement this century has stored in for us.



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(About the author: The author is R&D Engineer in Seoul (south Korea) based company working in the field of image processing based chip design and technology having exp of over 6.5 years in the Electronic Industry. Formerly he worked with Pune based Indian Chip Design Company as Project Manger also. He is associated with Science for society, under NCSTC Network, Dept of Science & Technology, Govt.Of India. He started one organization called “BiharBrains (www.biharbrains.org) in Oct 4, 2004 for the certain objectives, goal and mission. For more details please visit (www.bibhutibikramaditya.com)

 

 

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