ITEA'95 awards announced at EITC'95

The winners of this year's ITEA top awards were announced, by Commissioner Martin Bangemann, on 29 November 1995, during the last day of the EITC'95 conference and exhibition. Funded by the ESPRIT programme, the objectives of the ITEA awards are to promote standards of excell...

The winners of this year's ITEA top awards were announced, by Commissioner Martin Bangemann, on 29 November 1995, during the last day of the EITC'95 conference and exhibition.

Funded by the ESPRIT programme, the objectives of the ITEA awards are to promote standards of excellence in European information technology (IT) performance, and to stimulate innovation and competitiveness in industry. The theme for ITEA'95 is "Novel products with a high IT content and evident market potential".

Three prizes, of ECU 200,000 each, were awarded to:

- Ecash:

The growth of on-line services, most significantly the Internet, over the past five years has provided a new medium in which business can operate. Ecash, from Dutch company DigiCash bv., is an innovative software-based payment system that can be used to provide secure, anonymous, low-value funds transfer between buyer and seller over all electronic networks.

Currently available for many Internet-connected computer platforms, the Ecash software can store and transmit digital money using public key signatures to guarantee security. The money is issued by an on-line bank, using another component of the Ecash system, and, once in circulation, it works just like a paper or coin-based currency: it is not necessary for the consumer to go to the bank each time a transaction is made.

Ecash offers significant advantages over on-line payment using credit cards, where small-value transactions are not cost-effective, or payment using some form of account where the customer must set up an account in advance of purchasing goods or services. It is already being tested over the Internet, where DigiCash have issued one million Cyberbucks to Internet users.

For further information, please contact:

DigiCash
BV Kruislaan 419
NL-1098 VA Amsterdam
Tel. [phone]; Fax [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail] or E-mail: [e-mail] or E-mail: [e-mail]

- Vingmed System Five:

Ultrasound imaging is rapidly becoming a preferred diagnostic tool in hospitals, clinics and medical practices world-wide. With improved data acquisition technology, and advanced signal processing and analysis, all areas of the body can now be imaged.

Norwegian manufacturer, Vingmed, has established itself in this highly competitive market, and the Vingmed System Five represents a significant advance over existing systems. An ultrasound imaging system uses high frequency sound waves which echo from internal organs. It requires a great deal of computer processing to turn the pattern of echoes into useful pictures. The Vingmed System Five incorporates advanced technologies, including custom-designed microprocessors and parallel processing to provide high clinical value.

The System Five hardware is controlled by specially-written computer software. By changing this software new functionality can be added. Vingmed plan to improve their position in the US market and to extend the range of the System Five to new diagnostic areas over the coming years.

For further information, please contact:

Vingmed Sound A/S
Strandpromenaden 45
N-3190 Horten
Norway
Tel. [phone]; Fax [phone]

- New magnetic recording head for disk drive:

The hard disk drive represents the standard for data storage in today's computers: no computers are sold without a hard drive, and the size and speed of the hard drive is generally accepted as a major factor in judging a computer system.

The key component of the hard drive is the magnetic recording head, which can read and write patterns of magnetization on a spinning disk. Existing disk heads are complex to manufacture, using mechanical assembly prone to failure and apparently at the limit of theoretically achievable performance.

The SILMAG head is a radical departure from existing technologies, manufactured using the same processes as are used for integrated circuits. This enables drive heads manufacture to be automated to a much greater degree than has previously been possible, and also gives a significant improvement in performance.

The SILMAG drive head came from research at the French National Research Centre, LETI, and at SILMAG itself. SILMAG is a start-up created to manufacture these new heads. Drive heads are now being manufactured for export to the US and the Far East, bringing down costs, increasing performance and establishing European technology at the heart of the world-wide disk drive industry.

For further information, please contact:

SILMAG
17 rue des Martyrs
CENG
F-38054 Grenoble Cedex 9
Tel. [phone]; Fax [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]