NEWS, ETC.
January 2002
1/31 AMD
and UMC To Collaborate on 300-MM Wafer Fabrication Facility in Singapore.
AMD and UMC today announced a comprehensive alliance under which the
two companies will establish a joint venture to own and operate a state-of-the-art,
300-mm wafer fabrication facility in Singapore for high-volume production
of PC processors and other logic products...
1/31 AMD
Confirms First Hammer Processor Silicon Out
1/31 Flaw
in Win2000, NT4.0 Makes Domains 'Too Trusting.' A FLAW
IN the way Microsoft's Windows 2000 and NT 4.0 server operating systems
authenticate users across domains could allow somebody with administrator
privileges to extend that power to other domains...
1/31 IBM:
Linux Can Take-on The World
1/31 EU
O.K.s HP-Compaq Merger
1/31 An
Internet And Network Connection At The Power Outlet. Adapters
and other products set to debut later this month will make it possible
to use existing electrical wiring to access the Internet, and to network
computers and computing devices such as printers. NETWORKING:
Power to the Home. The arrival of HomePlug is set to breathe
new life into the powerline home networking market...
1/31 Dell
Dude
1/31 Chipmaking
Deal in Works for AMD. AMD
and UMC have scheduled a joint a conference call at 2:15 PST this afternoon.
During the call, the companies are likely to say that UMC will manufacture
PC processors for AMD, sources said. AMD
Media Advisory and links for conference call. AMD
Taps UMC as Foundry Partner to Build Processors. UMC
would likely pick up Duron production, as AMD is transitioning its
Duron Fab 25 in Austin into making flash memories.
1/30 In
a Surprise, Report Says U.S. Economy Grew in Fourth Quarter. You
may have to log into the NY Times, but it is free and is well worth the
little effort that it takes.
1/30 Hynix
Says It Has Put all DRAMs On Allocation. It is putting all DRAMs
-- both single data rate and DDR products -- on allocation for the remainder
of the first quarter. The firm claimed that increased demand and a supply
shortfall prompted the action. DRAM
Makers Said to be Coordinating Production. "We are not talking
pricing because that is illegal, but we are talking about how to cooperate
— how to ensure that the supply side does not get crazy..." DDR
Module Prices Up on OEM market, Down on Clone Market.
1/30 Buyer's
Market: CD-RW Drives. Tough market for vendors benefits users--and
other bonuses are ahead. Sony plans to release a second CD-RW drive with
a Memory Stick slot, to simplify the task of copying photos taken with
a Sony digital camera to disc.
1/30 Smoking-Fast
Wireless LANs. Wireless Ethernet just got a boost: the first
batch of 54M bit/sec 802.11a products is shipping...
1/30 Wireless
Homes - Ready for the Big Time? Sales
of wireless home networks are expected to surge almost five-fold over
the next four years.
1/30 Scientists
Claim an Advance in Therapeutic Cloning. Mass. firm uses embryonic
cow cells to create kidney-like organs; transplant success reported.
1/30 The
Incredible Shrinking Hard Disk Drive. The
tech industry's story of the incredible shrinking hard-disk drive could
be entering a new chapter with Toshiba's
introduction of 1.8-inch embedded drives sporting storage capacities
of 10 GB and 20 GB -- roughly quadrupling the storage capacity currently
available on mini drives.
1/30 Passport
Flaw Diverts Hotmail Users. Instead of being taken to their own
account, users of the The Zone, the game portion of Microsoft's MSN online
service, were sent to a test account for "customer!@hotmail.com."
1/29 Watchdog:
MS Passport Lets Crooks In. The service has drawn the ire
of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and other privacy groups,
who say it allows Microsoft to track and profile Internet users and it
inadequately protects credit-card numbers.
1/29 XP
Successor Longhorn Goes SQL, P2P - Microsoft Leaks. Set to include
a new relational file store (database) at the core of its next version
of Windows... A new "sub-workgroup" network level - a
subset of the current "workgroup" - offers a finer granularity
of network access for ad hoc collaboration.
1/29 AMD
to Buy MIPS Processor Startup Alchemy. The acquisition will return
AMD to the embedded processor market.
1/28 New
E-Mail Worm 'My Party' Surfaces, Begins to Grow. A
new computer bug that tries to trick computer users into clicking on
a virus-infected Web link masquerading as party photos emerged in Asia
on Monday and began spreading to Europe and North America...
1/28 Intel,
AMD Trim Prices. AMD also introduced a new mobile
Athlon 4 1500+ (1.3 GHz) chip.
1/28 Xerox
Reports Surprising Operating Profit
1/28 Computer
Attacks on Companies Up Sharply. There were 52,658 security breaches
and attacks last year, up 50% from the previous year.
1/28 A
Look at SYSmark 2001. "In the end, I would have to say that
SYSmark 2001 is probably not the best benchmark available for comparing
either systems or components, but not for the reasons that seem to be
popular."
1/25 Wireless
Workplaces Vulnerable to Hackers. "We came across a company
with one of these networks. All their source code, everything was available...
It basically had its Rolls-Royce parked in the driveway, engine running,
with a sign saying 'steal me.'"
1/25 Top
10 Graphics Boards for Gamers
1/25 Microsoft
Looks Beyond the Desktop. Microsoft is due to launch a key toolkit
for .Net in February which it hopes will start to extend the company's
reach far beyond its traditional stronghold of desktop computers.
1/25 New
Dedicated Linux Servers Introduced by IBM. IBM plans to deliver
two new dedicated Linux servers -- including a first-of-its-kind Linux-only
mainframe that requires no traditional mainframe operating system experience.
1/25 Intel
Regained Ground From AMD, Analyst Says. Intel grabbed an 80.6%
share of the PC market compared with AMD's 18.5% share...
1/25 Intel's
Plan B Chip Stirs Internal Debate. A small
team of Intel engineers has been quietly working on a chip technology
that the giant semiconductor maker hopes will never see the light of
day. Intel's Yamhill Technology is a secret weapon against upcoming chips
from rival Advanced Micro Devices...
1/24 Software
Tool From CNet Opens Security Hole. CNet Catchup, a popular Windows
software update utility, contains a security vulnerability that could
enable a remote attacker to run malicious code on the user's computer.
1/24 Antitrust
group to Sue Microsoft, DOJ. The
lawsuit set to be filed by the American Antitrust Institute (AAI) alleges
that Microsoft and the DOJ failed to reveal all the information required
under the Tunney Act...
1/24 Popeye
Pigs. Japanese researchers have inserted a spinach gene into
pigs to create 'healthy pork.'
1/23 Netscape
Sues Microsoft. AOL-owned
browser maker seeking monetary damages in antitrust filing.
1/23 HP
Says Atom-sized Computer Chips Alot Closer. HP
said it was ahead on designing a complex nanochip as well as the parts
and could be making nano-computers smaller than a bacterium...
1/23 Amtrak
Offers Passengers Free Surfing.
Passengers on three U.S. train routes will have free access
to the Internet using built-in computers in coach and cafe cars...
1/22 DVD
Players No Longer Go It Alone. To
prevent DVD players from becoming victims of their own popularity, manufacturers
are starting to combine basic movie playback with more advanced features.
1/22 AOL
Denies Bidding for Red Hat
1/21 AOL
In Negotiations To Acquire Red Hat. AOL
is in talks to buy Red Hat, a prominent distributor of Linux, an acquisition
that would position it to challenge archrival Microsoft, according to
sources familiar with the matter.
1/21 Vendors
tout Easier VPNs. A new breed of products is emerging to rival
traditional Internet-based Virtual Private Network offerings that give
remote users and business partners secure access to corporate networks.
1/21 AMD
Announces the 1.3 GHz Duron Desktop Processor
1/19 Semiconductor
Alert! (Jan. 14-18) Commentary & analysis of week's chip
news. Intel riles Wall Street, but quarter looks okay to me... AMD's
new strategy to keep up with Intel's production colossus...
1/18 Dell
Computer Raises Revenue, Earnings Outlook
1/18 Worldwide
PC Sales Fall 6.7 Percent in Q4
1/18 Slumping
Hardware Sales Cause IBM Revenue Drop
1/18 Stocks
Tumble on Outlooks From Microsoft, IBM
1/17 Slow
Ramp Expected for 333-MHz DDR DRAMs. Though
third-party chip set makers and motherboard companies will support DDR333
memories, the devices aren't expected to get their legs this year because
Intel and PC makers will be focusing on platforms with 200-MHz or 266-MHz
memories.
1/17 MSI's
Upcoming nForce 415-D Motherboard & Next nFORCE Chipset
1/17 Hewlett-Packard
May Sell PC Plant to Sanmina-SCI
1/17 Goat
Milk Carries Spider Silk in Canada Experiment. Genetically
engineered goats may soon be producing milk loaded with spider silk tough
enough to make a new generation of body armor or the finest surgical
thread
1/17 Intel
Announces Intel Developer Forum, Spring 2002
Themed 'Advancing the Digital Universe'
1/17 Compaq
Reports Profit on Strong Sales. Net
income for the fourth quarter of US$92 million from quarterly revenue
of $8.5 billion, up 14 percent from the third quarter and down 26 percent
from last year.
1/17 Memory
Prices: What to Do? Part II
11/17 VIA
and SiS to Mass-produce New Athlon-based Chipsets in February.
Following the fierce battle in the Pentium 4 chipset market, VIA Technologies
and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) will again confront each other in
the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon-platform segment with their latest
chipsets, the KT333 from VIA and SiS745 from SiS.
1/17 AMD
Beats Estimates, Still Posts 4Q Loss
1/17 Two
Hefty Asteroids Pass Close to Earth
1/17 Gates:
Security a Top Priority
1/15 Pretzelgate
1/15 DRAM
Prices Triple Within Two Months. One
of the factors driving up prices, said Ong, is an anticipated merger
or joint venture between Micron Hynix... The analyst also cited market
acceptance of earlier price rises by manufacturers.
1/15 Botched
Update Puts Windows XP Fixes On Hold. Engineers are working to
fix a glitch in a Microsoft Web server that has prevented Windows XP
users from downloading software updates, including a patch for a new
security hole, a spokeswoman said Monday.
1/15 Security
Flaw Shuts Down Microsoft Store. Online developers store remains
closed after reports of vulnerability that could expose customer data.
1/15 Micron
Expected to Announce Low-power Memory. Will unveil a radical
new sub-1-volt non-volatile metalized memory chip that will cut power
consumption by 50-to-60%. The chip, programmable metalization cell
(PMC), will use a special silver-based chalcogenide metal compound for
the non-volatile memory cell, built on top of conventional CMOS chip
sensors and circuitry.
1/15 Flying
Robotic Insect Slated to Explore Mars. Toy-sized flying robots,
modeled on the entomology of insects, that can hover like helicopters.
Patented as "entomopters"... "We are looking mainly at
the dragonfly, the hummingbird and the fruit fly..."
1/15 Initiative
Looks to Drive 40-Gbit/s Optical Networks. The delayed but seemingly
inevitable deployment of optical communications networks operating at
40 Gbit/second received a major shot in the arm with the launch of the
40G collaborative, a business and technology alliance dedicated to speeding
the introduction of 40-Gbit/s solutions in the core public services network.
1/15 Tech
Lobby Pushes to Make Broadband a National Priority
1/14 Can
Philips Turn Digital TV Mainstream? For as
little as $18 new digital television chip when purchased in mass
quantities, manufacturers could produce low-price digital TV receivers
that by the end of the year make digital available to the masses for
free, analysts said.
1/14 Holiday
Lift Seen for Intel, AMD Results. Fourth-quarter
results this week will likely top their recently increased guidance as
holiday sales of personal computers were not as grim as most had expected.
1/14 Hey,
Where are the Post-Holiday PC Deals? The holiday rebates are
spent, and PC vendors aren't dropping prices.
1/14 LCDs
Boom While Price Hikes Loom. Will there be enough
flat-panel monitors to go around in 2002?
1/14 Instant
messaging a threat? If leading instant messaging service providers
such as AOL and Microsoft offer multimedia instant messaging services
to their millions of users, Internet communications could ground to a
halt.
1/14 Microsoft
Ushers Office XP Into Web Services World. Microsoft
will execute one of its first attempts to harness the desktop as a
strategic element of its Web services platform with the delivery of
its Office XP Web Services Toolkit.
1/14 How
Smart Cards Will Revolutionize E-commerce
1/14 Content
Protection Plan Targets Wireless Home Networks. Now that many
consumer electronics companies are beginning to see wireless home networking
as the wave of the future, developing a possible solution for copy protection
and digital rights management over the wirelessly connected home has
gained a sense of urgency.
1/14 PC
Wholesale Named First Distributor of MicronPC Desktops, Notebooks
1/14 Details
On Severe IE Hole Posted Online. Security experts said the Internet
Explorer file execution vulnerability, which was announced by Microsoft
on Dec. 13, is one of the most severe ever found, because it enables
an attacker to run a program on another user's computer simply by causing
the victim to view a Web page or open an HTML e-mail.
1/12 Semiconductor
Alert! (Jan. 7-11) Commentary & analysis of week's chip news.
1/12 Ring
of Truth to Old Wives' Tale? 'Feed
a cold, starve a fever'
1/12 The
Simputer: A Handheld for the Masses?. The finished
product, which will run the Linux operating system, will be slightly
larger than a Palm handheld but will operate as a simple portable computer.
It will use 32MB of flash memory and 32MB of RAM... Reminds
me somewhat of the Sinclair in
the old days. I have one up in the attic somewhere.
1/12 Gigger
Worm Attacks Hard Drive. This JavaScript worm
poses as a Microsoft Outlook upgrade.
1/11 Ruling
Near on Microsoft Class Action Settlement. A federal judge could
rule as early as Friday on a proposed.
1/11 Top
10 Monitors
1/11 New
Theory Enables Super-Enhanced Digital Media. Two mathematics
professors have developed a new theory that could, if implemented, pave
the way for dramatically more precise renditions of digital imaging and
audio...
1/10 Late
Shopping Aids Dec. Retail Sales. Shoppers
seeking last-minute gifts and bargains crowded U.S. stores in the days
before and after Christmas, helping to cushion a holiday season ravaged
by recession...
1/10 Galaxy's
`Downtown' a Star in Itself. Astronomers show a hub of activity
in clearest picture yet of Milky Way. Milky
Way's Image Comes into Sharper Focus.
1/10 Napster
Opens Beta Test of New Service. Offering a beta version of its
new service Thursday to some 20,000 people picked from the two million. Some
110,000 tracks will be available free, but none of it will come from
major labels.
1/10 Taiwan
Manufacturers Entering Home Powerline Networking. Ninety manufacturers,
including Cisco Systems, Intel, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard (HP), have
organized the HomePlug
Powerline Alliance and formulated the HomePlug1.0 standard, boasting
a maximum transmission speed of 14 mbps (megabits per second).
1/10 21st
Century Tech Strategy War: Apple vs. Microsoft
1/10 Micron
Said to Offer Up to $2 Billion for Hynix fabs
1/9 Shannon's
Law Challenged - High-Speed Data Discovery. The Florida-based
startup, ZeoSync,
said its discovery overcomes previous limits in data compression theory
and challenges theoretical assumptions that have been taken for granted
in the industry for more than 50 years. Press
release. If this isn't another
Cold Fusion, it is extremely significant. I am skeptical.
1/9 Google's
HQ Provides Blast From Silicon Valley Past. I'm in Google's headquarters,
otherwise known as the Googleplex, and it's sooo old-time Silicon Valley...
1/9 Athlons
Keep Pace. AMD
processor comparable to Pentium 4 despite 33 percent difference in
clock cycles.
1/8 NVIDIA
Extends nForce Product Family With nForce 415-D Motherboard Chipset
1/8 Northern
Light Takes Dim View of Public Search. As of Jan. 16, the Cambridge,
Mass., company will no longer offer free Web searches to the masses,
focusing instead on large companies and government organizations...
1/8 IBM
to Outsource Production of its NetVista Desktop PC Line.
1/8 Gates
Talks-up the Future of the PC. Two
new technologies: Mira, a computer with a detachable flat-panel monitor
that can communicate with its base station over a wireless network. Freestyle
- software that will allow users to use a PC from anywhere in the house
via a remote control and control all the multimedia elements in the
home through one interface... Microsoft
Press Release
1/8 Ralph
Nader: MS Is a Huge Tax Dodge
1/8 Anthrax
Mail Cleaning Zaps Digital Data. Digital dream gadgets are being
irreparably zapped... Testing shows these systems, which operate in the
range of 55 kGy (gamma radiation), damage semiconductors, pharmaceuticals,
contact lenses, biological samples, photographic film...
1/8 Worst
Retail Holiday in a Decade Ends. Online
Holiday Shopping Spending Up 15%.
1/8 P4
Motherboard Shipments to Fall 20% Short of Targets Due to Chip Shortage.
Motherboard makers said that they still do not have enough processors.
They expect problem to continue until the end of the first quarter at
the earliest.
1/8 Intel
Uses 0.13-micron Process to Speed Pentium III to 1.4 GHz for New Servers
1/7 New
DVD Machines Expected to Fuel Sales Boom. Cheaper players packed
with a host of new features will help ensure that DVDs remain one of
the hottest-selling consumer electronics items in 2002. Whether OEMs
and chip suppliers can make a profit on the machines is another question.
 1/7 Apple
Shines Light on Desk Lamp-inspired iMac. Having
promised a new consumer product that is "innovative, revolutionary
and different," Apple Computer took the wraps off a redesigned iMac
on Monday, which looks more like a desk lamp than a desktop computer. Apple's
iMac Info
1/7 Intel
Ships Pentium 4 Processor Operating At 2.2 Billion Cycles Per Second
1/7 Intel
Debuts Fastest-Ever Pentium 4 Chips. Press
Release.
1/7 AMD
Launches Athlon XP 2000+ Processor
1/7 Microsoft
Breaks Netscape Rule In New Security Flaw. The security bug,
which affects all current versions of Internet Explorer for Windows,
including IE 5.5 and IE 6, provides attackers with a grab-bag of techniques
for stealing other users' browser cookies, reading some files on their
hard disks, and "spoofing" the content of legitimate sites.. This,
IE security problems and the time required to fix them, is becoming absolutely
ridiculous!
1/7 Getting
to Know Apple's OS X and Liking It More. "If I were an Apple
honcho, I'd be planning a version of Mac OS X Server that runs on Intel-compatible
computers... The most audacious step would be a consumer version of Mac
OS X running on Intel chips."
1/7 Gateway
Sees 4th Quarter Profit
1/7 Compaq
Says Will Post 4Q Profit, Not Loss
1/4 Rumors
Swirl Ahead of Macworld 2002: A Move to Intel?. Perhaps the most
compelling buzz surrounding the upcoming show, however, is the possibility
that Apple might move its platform from the Motorola PowerPC chip to
Intel chips. Doubtful, but it might
be smart... A PC alternative to Windows?... Macworld
Expo SF 2002 Events. Macworld
Conference & Expo 2001 web site.
1/4 AMD
Ratchets Up With Athlon XP 2000+ Processor. Monday, AMD
will unveil the Athlon XP 2000+, which will run at 1.67GHz. Also,
Intel will launch the 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 with 512K L2 cache versus the
384K cache' in the Athlon XP.
1/4 Hot-Selling
DVD Players Dim VCR's Once Bright Star. Penetration
of all DVD players, including those on personal computers, is expected
to have reached about 36% of U.S. households in 2001. Estimate 54.5%
in 2002. ...half of revenues from sales of movies to consumers in 2001
came from DVDs..."
1/4 Intel
Finally Takes Wraps Off DDR Chipset. Monday is D-Day for Intel,
or more specifically DDR-Day, as the firm introduces its long-awaited
845D double-data-rate chipset and the 0.13-micron design rule Northwood
Pentium 4 processor.
1/4 Intel
Readies Road Map for Billion-transistor Processors. Intel expects
its microprocessors to hit one-billion transistors by 2007, up from 42
million in the current Pentium 4. Plastic bumped organic land grid array
package will be replaced by a bumpless package with built-up layers. By
embedding a die inside the package and getting rid of the bumps, the
package thins down to the thinness of a dime...
1/4 Face
Recognition Technology a Proven Farce. The contraption has thus
far failed to identify one single crook or pervert listed in the department's
photographic database, while falsely identifying 'a large number' of
innocent citizens. The Tampa police started using the system in
June of this year, and abandoned it in August.
1/4 MS
Sounds Passport IE Patch Alarm. Microsoft is
pressing .Net Passport users to install a patch for some versions of
its browser nearly two months after it fixed a security flaw that threatens
customers' personal data online.
1/3 DRAM
Price Spike Could Bring Profits Soon. ``There hasn't really been
a rebound in the PC sector,'' said Marcus Weston, an analyst at HSBC
Securities in Singapore. ``I don't think (the sector) can be sustained
just based on increasing prices. It has to be some sort of consolidation
in the industry.'' And
history is repeating itself again...
1/3 Internet
Shrinks as Domain Numbers Fall. Number
of domains not renewed exceeds the number of new registrations, resulting
in 130,000 fewer Web sites...
1/3 PC
Vendors Ready 2.2GHz Pentium 4 Systems. Intel's
new 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 processor is expected to launch on Monday. 0.13-micron
process 0.18-micron for current P4's will reduce die size and production
costs. L2 cache' is upgraded from 256 to 512 KBytes. 1.5
vs. 1.75 volts should reduce heat.
1/3 Intel
Releases 1.34 Gz Celeron Processor
1/3 Liar,
Liar, Eyes on Fire?
1/3 Trojan
Horse Target File-swappers. Antivirus company
Symantec last week reported the
presence of "spyware" bundled with Grokster and Limewire, two
popular file-swapping downloads. The code evidently does not damage computers,
but it surreptitiously sends personal information such as user ID names
and the Internet address of computers to another Web address.
1/3 Body
Can Repair Heart Damage
1/3 AOL
Plugs Security Hole... in its instant messenger application that
experts say could have provided wiggle room for a widespread and destructive
worm.
1/2 Factory
Outlook Brightens in December. U.S.
manufacturers increased production in December as a wave of new orders
flowed in, an industry report showed on Wednesday, suggesting the factory
sector is well on its way to clawing out of a 17-month slump.
1/2 Hynix
Raises DRAM Prices 30%
1/2 XP's
Gotchas. A guide to Windows XP glitches and their fixes.
1/2 ZaCker
Worm Attacks Safeguards. A destructive new worm
destroys antivirus software... Subject: "ZaCker."
1/2 Scientists
Use Optics to Speed Data Transfer on Chips. The
new technique, called "silicon on sapphire," uses thin slices
of silicon placed on top of a layer of synthetic sapphire... Data transmitted
to the chip by a wire is turned into light and beamed through the sapphire
using a microscopic laser built onto the chip.
1/2 Chip
Sales Inch Up Again in November. Worldwide sales of semiconductors
in November rose to $10.6 billion, a month-to-month increase of 1.6%
from $10.44 billion in October making this the second month in a row
with sequential growth...
1/2 All-in-Wonders.
Can one peripheral do everything--and do it well? With the latest printer/copier/fax/scanners,
the answer is finally yes.
1/2 Looking
Forward to 2002. Although AMD will also migrate its K7 core to
0.13 um later in 2002 with both bulk and SOI versions, it is unlikely...
to regain the performance advantage over Intel until its new 64-bit Hammer
core ships.
1/2 Flaw
May Leave AOL Instant Messenger Open to Attack. This vulnerability
will allow remote penetration of the victim's system without any indication
as to who performed the attack... AOL said that it is working on a fix.
1/2 Many
Windows XP Users Slow to Patch Security Hole. Windows XP emits
a constant signal alerting other devices in a home network to the availability
of universal plug-and-play. However, eEye Digital Security, an Aliso
Viejo, Calif., network protection company, discovered that when a Windows
XP computer is connected to the Internet, hackers can easily spot the
signal and tap into it.
1/2 Too
Many Standards Spoil Wireless LAN Soup. Customers eager to move
to a 5GHz wireless LAN environment are facing a market splintered by
multiple standards for the fast networks.
1/2 Nvidia
Crowned Top Stock of 2001. Nvidia, which makes
graphics chips for Microsoft's new Xbox game console, saw its shares
more than quadruple, making it the year's best performer in the Standard & Poor's
500 index.
Index |
