A.W. SangsterSILICON VALLEY in Northern California, is undergoing unprecedented prosperity. There is virtually no unemployment; employers are even taking to the shopping malls to recruit hands, particularly for the Christmas season.
It is an area of ideas, entrepreneurs and start-up companies. Some of these companies become giants almost overnight while others fail.
Developments in microchips
The microchip, one of the most significant features of modern electronics, continues to be a major area of interest in Silicon Valley. The San Jose Mercury News reported on the death of Dr. Victor H. Grinich, one of the eight co-founders of the Fairchild Semiconductor company which developed the first commercially viable integrated circuit that helped to spawn the computer revolution.
The eight were described as the 'traitorous eight' by William Shockley, the brilliant but difficult co-inventor of the transistor from whose company the men had fled to form Fairchild.
Two of them later established the Intel Corp., the maker of most chips in personal computers today. But like the proverbial mousetrap, people are always looking for better or different microchips.
A new company called Transmeta Corporation has developed a family of low-power-usage processors for mobile computers. Any device that will reduce the energy consumption of portable devices is regarded as important. Transmeta should receive a boost as Microsoft is expected to use the chip in one of its products geared to Internet access.
Another very significant chip development represents a totally new direction in chip-making. It is the DNA chip. The company that has pioneered this development is Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara. "President Susan E. Siegel is widely credited as a visionary- for its ingenious translation of computer chip-making technology to the world of biology".(1)
The development is particularly significant, as it is contemporaneous with the recent announcement of the make-up of the human genetic code. The gene chip is a small square of glass spotted with millions of pieces of DNA, the chemical of life the stuff that genes are made of.
"The master chip builders producing biochips start by putting millions of microscopic gene fragments probes in precise locations on a small piece of glass." Typically, the probes light up in the presence of activated genes. The pattern of light on the chip shows which genes are present and which are not. The system allows researchers to follow changes in gene activity over time as abnormal cells become cancerous or healthy cells weaken and die.
It can also be used to pick-out genetic variations from one individual to another - markers that may show a predisposition to disease, cancer and other disorders.
The same technology can be used to identify a particular strain of bacterium or virus- zeroing in on those that have become resistant to antibiotics" (1)
Already a number of significant discoveries have been made, one example being that; "Researchers from Whitehead and MIT were able to identify a gene in melanoma cells that appear to play a crucial role in the spread of cancer throughout the body." (1)
Computer
security
Affymetrix, the current leader in the DNA chip market, will be facing serious competition from the heavyweights in electronic chip making and industrial expertise such as Motorola, Corning and Agilent Technologies (a spin off from Hewlett -Packard).
These companies will bring their expertise and resources into the battle for market share.
The development potential is explosive and the market potential over the next few years is likely to be in the multi-billion dollar business. However, at this time Affymetrix is the leader in the field.
Biometric identification.
Biometric devices identify people by physical characteristics such as handprints or fingerprints, voice tones, and face and eye patterns. A common problem which biometric identification is intended to solve involves access to buildings or computer security systems via passwords. People forget passwords and passwords can be stolen so that any system that cannot be stolen or copied will be an advantage.
The use of fingerprints or eye (iris recognition) to identify an individual uniquely is now emerging as a real alternative. For example, an engineering professor at San Jose State University uses face-recognition software to enter his lab. City workers in Oceanside now need only to place a finger at a scanner to enter the computer network system.
The implications for ATM machines and other security devices are obvious and will clearly be a coming technology. This of course is the basis of the proposed voter identification system through fingerprint recognition in Jamaica.
The elections
The news and views are very much dominated by the current impasse with the Presidential Elections. Yet as one commentator said on Sunday last, people went to church, had their Sunday dinner and no one was panicking as the process of democracy was acted out in the country. There is however, a growing sense of voter fatigue and a hope that the matter will be speedily resolved. The battle lines are however, drawn and much of the dialogue is between lawyers from both sides who argue as to whether there should be manual counting of the votes in Florida or not. More of this later.
(1) Paul Jacobs, San Jose Mercury News, 7,Nov.2000
A.W. Sangster is former president of the University of Technology.
