IEEE Spectrum July, 2008 - 5

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I

n "The Hunt for the
Kill Switch" [May],
Sally Adee describes
the threat of outside
forces taking control
of deployed chips away
from military users via
remote "kill switches."
But that's exactly the
purpose of the digitalrights management systems designed to block
copyrighted content
from playing on unauthorized hardware:
publishers want to take
control of deployed
chips away from media
users. When we have
an entire industry
working hard to build
external overrides
into electronics, it's no
wonder we end up with
external overrides built
into electronics.
Matthew Skala
IEEE Member
Waterloo, Ont., Canada

IT'S JUST
COMMON SENSE

T

he article by
Christensen, King,
Verlinden, and Yang,
"The New Economics
of Semiconductor
Manufacturing" [May],
implies that the Toyota
Production System (TPS)
has not been applied

10

NA * IEEE SPECTRUM * JULY 2008

outside the automotive
industries and that its
application to semiconductor manufacturing is novel. The article
provides an interesting
account of its effectiveness in the case described.
TPS was first
described for Western
readers by Womack,
Jones, and Roos in their
book, The Machine That
Changed the World, published in 1990 (the article
claimed by the authors
as the first description
appeared nine years
later). I described it, and
explained how its principles could be applied
to any engineering
manufacturing operation, in my books The
Practice of Engineering
Management in 1994 and
The New Management
of Engineering in 2005.
TPS is really commonsense management,
following the principles
taught by Peter Drucker
and W.E. Deming in the
1950s but applied effectively and uniquely by
Japanese industry long
before their competitors
woke up to the realities.
Since the 1980s these
principles have been
widely applied in other
countries and industries.
However, the article
should stimulate further
uptake, particularly by
electronics companies.
Patrick O'Connor
IEEE Member
Stevenage, England
MVS Venturi
Fetish

HOW GREEN
ARE THESE
MACHINES?

T

op 10 Tech Cars" by
John Voelcker [April]
is not acceptable. The
article was supposed to
value "green" machines'
being high-tech. Good
idea. So how can you
continue to value
machines like the
Corvette, big sedans,
and some SUVs? These
cars are ethically
unacceptable when
you consider that they
consume immense
amounts of fuel and are
driven at speeds that far
exceed the limits of most
highways. Even valuing
biofuel is very controversial-it impoverishes
developing countries,
and the true energy cost
of biofuel is not worth it.
Where are the true electric cars? Why not show
the serious green cars:
ZAP-X, MVS Venturi
Fetish, Tesla, SVE
Cleanova, or Peugeot's
hybrid car with diesel?
Finally, this article
values only cars you
can find in North
America. Here in the
United Kingdom, I can
see the superiority of
French and Italian cars.
Luc Rolland
Preston, England

The author responds:
This annual feature
appeals to our readers
as users of interesting and commer-

cially available technology. It is not intended
to be an uncritical
look at technologies
unlikely to penetrate
the mainstream market
within three to five years.
For this article, we define
automotive technology
broadly and include
developments to conventional, combustionengined cars because
that's what almost all
our readers are buying.
To address some
of Rolland's specific
points: we covered the
Tesla Roadster in last
year's Top 10 and the
Venturi Fetish back in
2005. As for the ZAP
company, it seems
unlikely to ever produce
and sell vehicles.
Rolland's assertion that
our list is U.S.-centric
is simply incorrect. Of
the eight production
cars on the list, three
cannot be purchased in
North America (they
are the Tata Nano,
Mazda2/Demio, and
VW Polo BlueMotion),
four more are globally
available (Jaguar XF,
Nissan GT-R, BMW X6,
Chevrolet Corvette ZR1),
and only one (Lincoln
MKS) is specific to
North America. We
will probably include
Peugeot's diesel
hybrid in our Top 10
if it becomes commercially available.
Finally, we cover
green machines regularly.
Our May issue, for example, featured a Toyota
Prius that had been converted into a plug-in
hybrid electric vehicle
with a 48-kilometer
electric range. ❏
WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

TOP: JAMES ARCHER/ANATOMYBLUE; BOTTOM: VENTURI AUTOMOBILES

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum July, 2008
