NEWS, ETC.
June 2001
6/30 Artificial
Intelligence for the New Millennium. For those wondering
when artificial intelligence will truly take root, here's a bulletin:
it already has... You
may have to log into the NY Times, but it is free and is well worth the
little effort that it takes.
6/30 Semiconductor
Alert! (June 25-29): Commentary & analysis of week's chip news. More
than 40 wafer fab shutdowns, varying in length from one to three weeks,
will take place by October... Samsung will continue to make the Alpha
chip for Compaq and others, but the processor is doomed. IBM promises
100 GHz silicon chips in 2 years, but silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology
may be even better. Median salary plus benefits for EE's rose to
$99,000 in 2000. Much more...
6/30 Intel,
AMD Say PC Remains Central in High-Tech. "The
PC is going to take on the role of the personal server..."
6/30 Linux
Server Fits in Your Pocket. Networked Linux device into
a three-inch aluminum cube... Comes with a wrist strap for carrying it
around.
6/29 Compaq
Terminates Desktop Orders to Mitac.
6/29 IBM
Sees 30% Hike in Apps Available for Linux. Linux-based
business applications available from independent software vendors stands
at 2,288 as listed in IBM's Global Services directory, up from 1,700
at the start of the year.
6/29 DRAM
Supply Steady Despite Price Collapse. Memory prices are a third
what they should be for manufacturers to make a profit, yet there is
still no sign of the oversupply being cut.
6/29 Group
Preps Protocols for 1394-based 'Hybrid' Storage. Manufacturers
would be able to build standalone 1394-based storage devices that "could
sit on a desk or TV, housed in a PC or stored in a closet as a home server" and
efficiently store both movies and data files.
6/29 This
PC Expo Lacks Drive Of Previous Exhibitions
6/29 Microsoft
Delays Office's Upgrade Deadline. Microsoft has
given business customers another six months to upgrade to the new Office
XP in a controversial new licensing plan.
6/29 Ruling
Ignites Furor Over Win XP
6/29 Turn
Your GeForce3 into Quadro DCC?
6/29 Seagate
Launches Virtually Silent Hard Disk Drive. The
Barracuda ATA IV one-disc model with a fluid dynamic bearing motor emits
only 2.0 bels while spinning and 2.4 bels while seeking; the human ear
can't hear sounds below 2.5 bels.
6/28 Yugoslavia
Hands Milosevic Over to War Crimes Tribunal
6/28 Microsoft
to Drop Smart Tags From Windows Software. The
concerns center around the fact that Smart Tag links appear on companies'
Web sites without those firms giving permission for them to be there.
Moreover, the links encourage users to leave the sites and move to ones
offering Microsoft services instead.
6/28 Microsoft:
Bolder Than Ever? With the company's recent initiatives, "they've
almost thrown a glove down in front of the Justice Department, because
they're really pursuing in practice the same thing they did with the
browser..." "The appropriately named HailStorm initiative is
raising eyebrows among people who previously never were concerned about
the Microsoft monopoly..."
6/28 Why
AOL Nixed a Microsoft Deal
6/28 Lucent
Pushes Optical Fiber 10 Times Faster. Bell Labs researchers
said the maximum amount of information that can theoretically be sent
over optical fiber is approximately 100 terabits of information over
a single strand -- roughly 20 billion one-page e-mails.
6/28 Dell
Throws its Weight Behind DVD+RW. Will begin shipping
computers with integrated DVD+RW drives later this year. HP will do the
same.
6/28 Russia
to Resurrect the Buran Space Shuttle
6/28 Appeals
Court Overturns Microsoft Breakup Order
6/28 Salaries
Spike for Top EEs
6/28 Intel
Prepares to Launch 1.8-GHz Pentium 4 in CPU Speed Battle.
6/28 Info
on Plastic Memory
6/28 IBM
Pushes The Silicon Edge
6/28 IBM
Introduces World's Highest-Resolution Monitor. 22.2 inch LCD;
12-times more detail than current monitors.
6/28 The
Rise and Fall of Compaq
6/28 03:05 AM Microsoft is Dropping Smart
Tags form Windows XP. Got this via E-Mail from Dave
Winer.
6/27 Electronic
Signature Law Working Well, FTC Says
6/27 ComTell
Data Center Could Create 200 Jobs in Downtown Portland, Maine
6/27 TECHXNY
(Technology Exchange Week New York - PC Expo) Starts
6/27 Two
New Top-Level Domains for the Internet: .biz and.info to be Activated
Today
6/27 Intel
to Develop Plastic Memory Prototype. Could see a polymer memory
that is ten times faster than current flash memories.
6/27 Windows
XP Marketing Tab To Hit $1 Billion
6/27 Microsoft's
XP: Hardware Changes a Turnoff. The company's
new product-activation technology, which locks Office XP or Windows XP
to a particular PC hardware configuration, can deactivate unexpectedly.
6/27 Intel,
IBM, PMC Reveal Hot Chips
6/27 Dean
Kent's June 2001 Industry Update
6/27 Net
Espionage Stirs Cold-War Tensions.
6/27 Solving
a Digital Jigsaw Puzzle. Computer programs that can sort images
by color, detail and texture could help restore medieval frescoes ruined
in an earthquake.
6/27 Messaging
Technology Offers New Options to Widen Web
6/26 DRAM
Sales to Plummet 55.1% in 2001. DDR memory expected to become
the market leader in 2003.
6/26 Global
Cable Modem Users up 178%. IDC predicts they will rise over eight-fold
by 2005 to reach 57.5 million.
6/26 A
Cold War in Cyberspace? The growing rivalry between AOL Time
Warner and Microsoft is spawning a web of deals and alliances, which
could mean good news for consumers.
6/26 Builders
of Light Pipes. Decision process that Corning uses to develop
and market fiber optic cable.
6/26 Yahoo
Messenger Goes Live With Webcam Option
6/26 Caution
Raised on Red-Light Cameras
6/26 Designed
for Other Worlds, Robot Is to Follow the Sun. Robot
will chase the Sun in Antarctica so that it never drops below the
horizon. You
may have to log into the NY Times, but it is free and is well worth the
little effort that it takes.
6/26 Power
Outlets May Feed Home Networking. The new HomePlug standard
will be marketed with data transfer rates of 14 megabits per second.
But analyst Michael Wolf, of market research firm Cahners In-Stat Group,
said data transfer rates will be closer to 8 megabits per second on average.
6/26 JEDEC
Solidifies DDR-II Specification. DDR-II chips with speeds
up to 533 MHz are expected in the 2004 to 2005 time frame.
6/26 Quantum
PC Employs Off-the-Shelf Optics
6/25 Device
Holds 'Key' to Computer Storage. Compact storage device called DiskOnKey,
plugs into any USB port and stores up to 32 megabytes of data. Larger
capacities of 64, 128, 256, and 512 MBytes expected in 2002.
6/25 Artificial
Intelligence Returns--For Now
6/25 Sony
to Boost Output of DVD Players
6/25 IBM
News Release on World's Fastest Silicon-based Transistor
6/25 IBM
Strikes Back At Intel R&D Claim
6/25 Compaq
and Intel to Accelerate Enterprise Server Roadmaps. Compaq to
transfer significant
Alpha microprocessor and compiler technology, tools and resources to
Intel and move Its 64-bit servers
to Intel Itanium processor family.
6/25 Compaq
to Concentrate on Software, Services
6/25 AMD'S
Mobile AMD Athlon 4 Processor Powers HP's Latest Notebook PCs
6/25 I.B.M.
to Announce Plans for Fast Transistor. 80 percent increase in
performance and a 50 percent reduction in power consumption over current
designs. You may have to log into the NY
Times, but it is free and is well worth the little effort that it takes.
6/25 Semiconductor
Alert! Commentary & analysis of week's chip news, June
18-22
6/22 German
Court Slaps Fees on CD Burners. The ongoing legal battle seeks
to determine whether buyers of the devices must pay a flat fee to offset
losses sustained by authors and artists whose work is duplicated without
their permission. HP is fighting the test case on behalf of all hardware
makers.
6/22 WinXP
Release Candidate Nearly Here
6/22 States
May Cite Windows XP in Microsoft Case. You
may have to log into the NY Times, but it is free and is well worth the
little effort that it takes.
6/22 Movies
Coming to a PC Near You, But Maybe Not Soon. Security
experts estimate that as many as 400,000 bootlegged films a day are already
swapped on the Internet.
6/22 Microsoft
Shutting Down ListBot E-Mail List Service
6/22 Precision
Vision. Tailor-made laser surgery could give eyesight that is
better than "perfect" 20/20
6/22 Intel
to Put Its Best Chips Forward at TechX. Intel will use TechX
(formerly called PC Expo) next week in New York to drum up interest in
its powerful new processors. AMD is expected to tout its dual Athlon
processor strategy for workstations and servers.
6/21 HP
to Announce Linux MP3 Stereo
6/21 Is
There Life After AOL? You may have
to log into the NY Times, but it is free and is well worth the little
effort that it takes.
6/21 Screw
6/21 Transmeta
Hammered on Sales Warning
6/21 Memory
Chip Market Faces Worst Ever Year
6/21 Intel,
AMD Feeling the Heat. Chipmakers
are likely to continue feeling the pinch until October, when Microsoft
releases Windows XP.
6/21 Integrated
PCs Need a New Home
6/21 Intel
To Break $100 Barrier With New Gigabit Ethernet Adapter. Unveils
Desktop and Server Adapters for Mainstream Copper-Based Networks; Produces
Single-Chip Gigabit Ethernet Controllers in Volume.
6/20 Intel's
Biggest Problem Isn't the Next Quarter. It's
what can the chipmaker do long-term to maintain its historic growth
rates now that the PC Age is passing?
6/20 Intel
Will Pursue Processor Price War - Barrett
6/20 Taiwan
Pentium 4 PC Market Opening Up.
6/20 Dell
Aims to Dominate Global PC Market. CEO Michael Dell offered no
details, but analysts are skeptical about his plans to capture up to
40 percent of world PC sales.
6/20 RealNetworks
Turns Up the Volume. It is providing a digital-rights-protection
system for music and video downloads to its RealPlayer product.
6/19 600,000
Jobs for the Taking. Annual survey of 500 large American corporations
finds businesses struggling to fill some 600,000 IT positions.
6/19 Warp-Speed
Storage. Imperial Technology
Inc.'s MegaRam units fall under the broad category of SSDs (solid-state
disks)...
6/19 IBM
Announces New Home Gateway Technology
6/19 Red
Hat Tux 2.0 Blows Away Apache. The server
sofware running a Linux 2.4 kernel performed nearly three times faster
than current Web server mainstay Apache in benchmark testing.
6/19 Internet
Tips: Create a Junk Mail Removal System
6/18 IBM
Enters Instant Messaging Battle. The company will include instant
messaging features in its Lotus Notes software.
6/18 Despite
Cutbacks, IT Jobs Go Begging. Nearly half of IT jobs available
will go unfilled...
6/18 Homing
Instinct. A Russian company plans to launch rocket boosters that
can glide back to base on extendable wings.
6/16 Semiconductor
Alert! Commentary & analysis of week's chip news, June 11-15. I
think he meant "...20
gigahertz microprocessors by 2007."
6/15 Slow
PC Sales Mean Brisk Fix-It Business
6/15 256Mbit
Chips Gaining Popularity
6/15 Fanless
Athlon Mystery Continues
6/15 IE
6 Beta Pushes Ad Networks on Privacy
6/15 Scientists
Grow Plants Without Sunlight or Water
6/15 Rambus
Broadens Memory, Module Bandwidth
6/15 VIA
Preps August Launch for Pentium 4 DDR Chipset
6/15 Straight From the Palomino's Mouth: AMD
News Bits
6/14 Tyan
Dual Mobo Gets Affordable. Non-SCSI version of the Tyan dual
motherboard for Athlon dual processors...
6/14 Researchers
Pass Electron Spin from One Semiconductor to Another. Scientists
hope to exploit electron spin to create a distinct class of electronics:
spin transistors.
6/14 Optics,
Electronics Learn to Waltz in Digicams
6/14 Sony
Adds Digital Photos to Its Field of Vision. Sony
wants the number-one share of the fast-growing digital camera market,
a title it shared last year with Olympus.
6/14 Xerox
Dumps SOHO Business. Over
the next six months it will discontinue its line of personal inkjet and
xerographic products, which are mostly sold through retail channels.
6/14 Thomson
Multimedia Launches New MP3 Capable of Higher Audio Qaulity
6/13 California
Power Grid Hack Underscores Threat to U.S.
6/13 Studies
Forecast Quadrupling Of Broadband By 2005
6/13 Creative
Labs Accused of Spying. newsupd.exe, installed
with the software that comes with most Creative products is connecting
customers to the Internet without their authorization and relaying data
secretly back to Creative servers.
6/13 Rambus
Announces RDRAM and RIMM Module Roadmap Through 2005
6/13 Top
Tech Salaries Drop for First Time Since 1985
6/13 HP
Shifts Chip Design Work to Computers. Program In Chip Out
(PICO).
6/13 May
Motherboard Sales Less Than April, But Exceed Forecasts
6/13 Transmeta
to Release New Crusoe Processor on June 26
6/13 Japan
Camera Makers Jostle to Catch Digital Wave
6/12 Microsoft
Is Ready to Supply a Phone in Every Computer. High-quality
telephone and directory features in Windows XP to exploit Internet telephony
with better-quality voice and more powerful features than the traditional
phone. You may have to log into the
NY Times, but it is free and is well worth the little effort that it
takes.
6/12 AMD
Sees 30 Percent World Market Share by End 2001
6/12 Samsung
Shows 4-Gbit DRAM Prototype. 0.11-micron
technology.
6/12 The
Battle in 64 bit Land Revisited
6/12 HP
Shoots New Broadside Into Price War. HP
is cutting prices on Intel-based NetServers from 3 percent to 22 percent.
6/12 Microsoft
Tries To Get Smart
6/11 MP3
Gone From WinXP, and It's Not Coming Back
6/11 VIA
Hopes to Take Half of Market with DDR Chipsets
6/11 Consumers
Upset with Online Shipping Prices
6/11 Vendors
Focus on Spreading DSL From City Centers
6/11 Infineon:
DDR Memory Will be the Mainstream Product in 2003
6/11 Frozen
Light. Slowing a beam of light to a halt may pave the way for
new optical communications technology, tabletop black holes and quantum
computers.
6/11 Seagate
Breaks Areal Density Record with New U Series; Ships First Hard Drive
with 40 Gbytes per Disc
6/11 Read
All About It: electronic paper now works in full colour, thanks
to a fine filter.
6/11 Messaging
May Boost Windows XP Sales
6/11 Smallest
PC in the World. Cool! 6.2x5.8x1.8" (157x146x45mm)
including socket 370 CPU, CD-RW/DVD, 2.5" hard disk, and lots of
I/O.
6/11 IBM
Building World's Biggest Computer. Size of a tennis court. Cost
$100 million U.S.
6/11 Semiconductor
Alert! (June 4-8). Commentary & analysis of week's chip news.
6/10 Intel
Transistor Claims Speed Record. World's
smallest transistor... Switches 1,000 times faster than those that power
today's microprocessors.
6/10 Microsoft
'Smart Tags' Could Violate Law - Attorney. Technology embedded
in the upcoming version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser
could run afoul of the law by placing unauthorized links on privately
owned Web sites.
6/8 IBM
Alters Silicon to Boost Chip Cpeeds Up to 35%. Called "Strained
Silicon," the technology stretches the material, speeding the flow
of electrons through transistors to increase performance and decrease
power consumption in semiconductors.
6/8 Chip
Makers See Light Ahead
6/8 Cable
Giants Refuse to Sell Ads to Internet Competitors. You
may have to log into the NY Times, but it is free and is well worth the
little effort that it takes.
6/8 17-inch
TFT LCD Prices Still Have Room to Fall
6/7 New
Windows XP Feature Can Re-Edit Others' Sites
6/7 3Com
Warns, Exits Cable & DSL MODEM Business . 3Com
becomes the second networking company on Thursday to exit the high-speed
modem business.
6/7 AMD's
1.4-GHz Athlon Sets Benchmark Record
6/7 Not
With A Bang, But A Whimper. 'The
Itanium introduction is a break away from the Microsoft-Intel hegemony
that has ruled the digital world for 15 years. It is a serious assault
on Sun's control of workstations. It sets the clock once again
on Moore's Law, this time down a different path. And it fires
a new salvo in the Intel-AMD war.'
6/7 AMD
Expects to Grab Double-digit Share in Server and Workstation Market by
Year-end
6/7 Intel
spurns Via, Nvidia Chipsets. Intel VP Chandrasekher
when questioned about the nVIDIA nForce chipset: ""Is the product
cool? Yes... Does it meet the needs of the market? I don't think
so."
6/6 US
PC Sales to Decline in 2001. IDC says market will drop 6.3 percent.
6/6 Microsoft
Has an (Instant) Message for AOL. The software giant is preparing
to launch a new instant-messaging service as a direct challenge to AOL's
Instant Messenger.
6/6 Microsoft’s
new Windows Sparks a Real-estate Rush on Desktop
6/6 Via
Demos Pentium 4 DDR Chipset
6/6 Napster
Signs Deal with MusicNet
6/6 HP
Takes Top Spot in Home PC Sales. ...despite losing
market share overall.
6/6 AMD
Faces Tough Fight with Dual Athlons. AMD's launches its first
chipset able to handle dual Athlon processors, but the Palomino-based
Duron could be the real winner.
6/6 AMD
Introduces 1.4 GHz Athlon and 950 MHz Duron Processors
6/5 ASUS
Announces A7N266 NVIDIA nForce Based Motherboard
6/5 Who
Needs More Than a Gigahertz? Chipmakers are locked in arms race
of producing ever-faster processors, but many consumers are shunning
the speed demons in favor of slower, budget-priced PCs.
6/5 The
Optical Computer. University of
Rochester researchers demonstrate a light-based system that searches
databases with lightning quickness.
6/5 Napster
Close to Distribution Deal with Major Labels
6/5 AMD
Mad Dogging Intel On Corporate Block
6/5 Intel
Samples 0.13-micron Pentium 4 in Taiwan
6/5 Athlon
MP: Redefining the Workstation
6/5 NVIDIA
nForce DDR Chipset. Picture of ASUS
A7N266-V motherboard with nForce 420 chipset.
6/5 VIA
Unveils 0.13 Micron Version VIA C3 Processor. Formally
codenamed of Ezra, the new C3 is the world's first processor to go into
volume production using a 0.13 micron process
6/5 Tyan
Announces Thunder K7 Dual-Athlon MP Motherboard with AMD-760 MP Chipset
6/5 ABIT
@ Computex 2001: New Products, New Innovation
6/5 AMD
Introduces Athlon MP Processor and AMD-760 MP Chipset for Servers and
Workstations
6/5 Nvidia
Rolls Out nForce Chipset for AMD Motherboards. nForce
chips will be available in production this summer and desktop motherboards
with the chipset will ship in the fall. To date, motherboard makers Abit,
ASUStek, Gigabyte, Mitac, and MSI said they will build motherboards with
the new nForce chipset.
6/5 NVIDIA
Launches nForce. Thanks to its excellent bandwidth characteristics,
nForce 420 can run intense 3D games at 1024x768x32 about 30% faster than
the GeForce2 MX200. When compared with the Intel i815, nForce 420
is completely dominating. In fact, the nForce 420 is five to ten times
faster than its nearest competitors on some synthetic 3d graphics benchmarks.
6/4 It
was necessary for NVIDIA to depart from the traditional “Northbridge/Southbridge”
chipset architectures to create an entirely new class of PC platform...
the world’s fastest PC platform architecture ever designed... Five
to 10 times the graphics performance of any other integrated PC graphics
accelerator...' You can download the nForce
Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP) chip instead of the GeForce 3
GPU? Ah, I get it... Could it be that Microsoft's Xbox game
console, which uses a custom nVIDIA chip, is mForce and the rest
or the world is nForce or noForce that will compete?
6/4 Nvidia
nForce
6/4 AMD
Announces the World's First Hypertransport Implementation - NVIDIA'S
nForce Chipset. More
AMD News, etc.
6/4 Nvidia
Moves into the Chipset Arena
6/4 Dell
Pegs New PC Price Point Below $600. The GX50 starts at $579 for
a sealed-bay option that contains no floppy or optical drive.
6/4 Leaving
AOL? Here Are Some Ideas
6/4 Microsoft
to Offer Peek at Windows XP
6/4 Windows
Messenger Feature in Windows XP Will Usher In the Age of "Real-Time
Communication"
6/4
Intel Offers Non-Rambus Chipsets for Pentium 4. Brookdale,
now 845 chipset support PC133 memory.
6/4 Computex starts in
Taipei, Taiwan. Primarily a hardware
manufactures’ fest, there is the typical flurry of new product
announcements. There will be over 100 motherboard manufactures
at Computex. Many of them have product info with pictures on the Computex
web site. Click “See All Category” on the left menu of the
site to find them and much more.
6/4 Two
Hours with the Thunder. A Preview of Tyan's "Thunder" Dual
Socket A Motherboard.
6/4 ALi
Previews Pentium 4 DDR Chipset at Computex
6/2 Semiconductor
Alert! (May 28-June 1). Commentary & analysis of week's chip
news.
6/2 The
Tax Cut: Now You See It, Now You Don't. Phase-outs, phase-ins,
and expiration of the entire bill mean people won't really be getting
the relief they're expecting.
6/2 Top
5 CD-RW Drives. Falling prices, faster drives take center stage.
6/2 Smartcards
Get Smarter
6/2 DRAM
Prices Wilt to Record Lows.
6/2 Dell
Gets Ready for Key Itanium Releases
6/1 Web
Access at Wal-Mart Prices.
6/1 How
Big Is Your Slice of the Tax-Cut Pie?
6/1 Tech
Spending Drops for Sixth Straight Month
6/1 Intel
Feels Cool Response to Pentium 4. The Pentium 4 is not selling
as well as it should, and some analysts believe that Intel may fill only
half its quota for this year.
6/1 Microsoft
Aims To Conquer The Net. Microsoft has fashioned XP into its
weapon of choice for subjugating the Internet...
6/1 Solar
Power Gets New Respect
6/1 Big
Four In Storage Ready To Interoperate. Compaq, EMC, Hitachi Data
Systems, and IBM say they will cooperate to make managing heterogeneous
storage networks easier.
6/1 Wow! MSI is really cranking-up big
time for Computex which
starts next Monday in Taipei, Taiwan. 12
product announcements, including seven new motherboards. The MS-6367
Socket A Athlon/Duron motherboard is the first motherboard I've
seen with the new nVIDIA Crush chipset (now called nForce)... 'When
used with 2 DDR memory modules, the 128-bit TwinBank Architecture is twice
as fast as other DDR platforms. It also implements AMD's HyperTransport...'
Index |
