NEWS, ETC.
October 2002
Thursday, 31 October 2002
Tiny
Chips, Everywhere. With petite sensors and radio transmitters,
every object can have an identity and even think for itself.
Wi-Fi
Alliance Takes Lead in Wireless LAN Security Features.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has taken steps to boost the security of wireless
LANs based on the IEEE's 802.11 standard by adding 802.1x authentication
and Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)-based encryption algorithms
to its Wi-Fi Protected Access initiative.
AMD
Chip Shipment Share Falls on Inventory Correction. AMD's
share of shipments fell to 11.6% of the market, down from 15.6% in
the second quarter and 20% in the third quarter last year. The
drop in second-quarter shipments can be attributed to AMD's decision
to ship fewer processors in the third quarter to relieve a large oversupply
of its processors in the channel.
Wal-Mart
Expands Linux PC Push. Retail giant Wal-Mart has added the Lycoris
version of Linux to its menu of budget PCs.
Flaw
Leaves Windows Open to DOS Attack. A
flaw in software code that implements a protocol for virtual private
networks (VPN) makes Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems vulnerable to
denial of service attacks...
Tuesday, 29 October 2002
NVIDIA
Delivers 3D Graphics and Digital Media Technologies To HP Media Center
PC. The GeForce4 MX 420 GPU provides features for watching
and recording TV, managing digital music, playing DVDs, etc.
AMD
Announces Opening Of AMD Developer Center.
Also, five volume set comprising the Hammer (AMD x86-64) Architecture
Programmer's Manual, which provides the definitive definition of architectural
details and instruction set, is available for download.
Is
AMD Slipping? Price and power long gave Athlon the edge, but
performance-minded PC buyers are turning to the P4.
EpoX
Factory Tour. Pictures of people making and prototyping motherboards.
First
Look: Palm's Power Play. A significant upgrade from the Palm
m515, the Palm Tungsten T is an impressive package with improvements
all around.
STMicro
Claims Light-emitting Silicon Breakthrough. The
development allows silicon light emitters to match the efficiency of
compound semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide and could allow
a number of applications in which optical and electrical functions are
combined on a single silicon chip.
Consumers'
Confidence Pummeled in October. Worries
about jobs and a possible U.S. attack on Iraq pummeled consumer confidence
to its lowest level in nine years in October.
Dell
Delivers Diddy Desktop. The
Optiplex SX260 weighs just 7.8lbs. Its dimensions - 3.3in wide by 9.5in
deep and 9.7in high. Press
release. Dell
to Enter Handheld Market Next Year.
SuSE
Linux to Launch Desktop Products. "One
of the big features of our desktop products is that users who have licensed
Microsoft Office will be able to continue using this software and thus
protect their software investments."
UnitedLinux
Completes BetaFirst
version of OS ready for release next month.
Real
Offers Source Code to Build Free Media Player. RealNetworks
will release the underlying software code for its open source media player,
a move that should allow developers to create free versions of the player
to run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.
The
OpenOffice Experiment. Although
OpenOffice's appeal may grow as Microsoft's licensing rules change and
its customers threaten to abandon ship, the transition remains costly
and time-consuming.
Promise
of P3P Stalls as Backers Regroup. Six
months after its recommendation as an Internet standard, a major privacy
initiative is entering an awkward adolescence as software heavyweights
adopt it and individual Web sites leave it to languish.
Cisco
Exec says Standards Can Bust I/O Bottleneck.
the Jedec standards organization needs to define a standard interface
that delivers 1 Gbit/second or faster signaling at 1 volt or less...
Adobe
Goes After Corporate E-forms. Adobe Systems this month will ship
two products designed to make it easier for corporations to create and
share interactive forms and documents and integrate them with data from
back-end systems.
Intel
Readies Hyperthreading Pentium 4. The
chip maker plans to release its fastest Pentium 4 processor yet for desktops
in mid-November.
Semiconductor
Group Cuts 2003 Chip Demand Forecast
VIA,
SiS to Launch New Chipsets in November
IBM
to Open Government Technology Center Near D.C.
Wyse
To Expand Thin-Client Computing To Wireless And Mira Devices
Microsoft
Offers Service Providers Several New Hosting Tools
Monday, 28 October 2002
Dell
Sees Big Impact From Mini-PC. The
computer maker is coming out with a dictionary-sized minidesktop for
businesses amid hopes that the trend toward small desktops will actually
take off this time.
Study:
Linux, .Net Will Dominate Server Market by 2009. Due
in large part to the lower cost of operation and the increasing quality
of service, Linux will make significant headway within the next three
years for file and print servers, either replacing Microsoft's NT operating
systems on the same box...
"Smart" Xarts
on a Roll at Safeway. New
in-store shopping cart technology traces shoppers' steps through its
stores and flashes personalized ads at them while they're shopping.
Friday, 25 October 2002
The
Secret World of Triangle Rendering Technology.
Video to the Nth Degree...
AMD
to Support DDR-II in Future Hammer Processors. Desktop
and server Hammer processors will have up to 1Mbit of L2 on-die cache.
Opteron will support up to 8Gbytes of single channel memory or 16Mbytes
dual channel. A special version can support 32Gbytes memory.
Cascading
Molecules Drive IBM's Smallest Computer. The
system relies on atomic forces to push a handful of carbon monoxide molecules
across a copper surface, nudging other molecules domino-style to perform
digital logic functions. News
release.
Powerline
Networking Could Hit 100 Mbit/s In 2004. One-hundred-megabit
connections through ordinary AC wall sockets within two years? Quite
possibly, if the HomePlug Powerline Alliance can meet its timetable. Press
release.
CPU
Cooling System Debuts. Active
Cool's system is based on a solid-state thermo-electric heat pump...
ATI
Debuts Radeon 9500 Series and Radeon 9700. Graphics chip designer
ATI Technologies on October 24 introduced three new chips, the Radeon
9700, Radeon 9500 PRO and Radeon 9500, aimed at the medium-range mainstream
market.
New
York City Goes After Microsoft for Spamming City With Butterflies
Thursday, 24 October 2002
Sharp,
SEL Integrate Processor Into System-on-glass Device. Integrated an
8-bit Z80 processor composed of 13,000 transistors onto a glass substrate
with a liquid-crystal display...
Nvidia
Chips to Make Tardy Debut. Graphics
chip leader Nvidia is expected to unveil the fastest PC graphics processor
yet at the Comdex trade show next month, but analysts say the new chip
may be too little, too late.
NASA
Prepares to Boldly Go. The
agency has quietly unveiled its blueprint for the future - a space station
near the Moon that will ultimately serve as a gateway to the Solar System.
More
Than One Internet Attack Occurred Monday.
MSN
to Halt 'Pop-Up' Ads
Wednesday, 23 October 2002
Deer
250 Watt ATX PC Power Supplies Exploding
Internet
Computer Servers Hit by Powerful Attack This Week. Nine
of the 13 computer servers that manage global Internet traffic were crippled
by a powerful electronic attack this week. Massive
DDoS Attack Hit DNS Root Servers.
Flat-panel
Monitors Pick up the Pace. Revenue
generated by sales of flat-panel displays is expected to outpace CRT
monitors this year.
Why
Pay for Your Database? smaller
businesses with less complex database needs are turning to open source
offerings, particularly when they need to run applications that require
database management systems.
Only
Nine New IE Vulnerabilities Uncovered Today
Tuesday, 22 October 2002
Penny
Wise, Tons Foolish. Low-quality low cost components are flooding
the consumer market and causing nightmares for OEMs.
Taiwan
to Launch HD-DVD Format. A
government-backed trade group in Taiwan is set to launch the world’s
third High-Definition DVD (HD-DVD) format next month.
Agere
Touts High-Speed Switching Chip. The
new PI-40SAX chip can switch voice, data, and video signals at least
four times faster than comparable chips.
DDR
Memory Spot Price in North America Jumps. Spot
prices for 256Mbit DDR SDRAM in North America have surged in the last
week on unexpectedly strong demand.
IBM
Cuts 2,800 Jobs. IBM is cutting 2,800
positions in its hard drive and Global Services businesses, the technology
giant confirmed Tuesday.
What's
the Name of That Tune? Ask
Captain Marvel...
Prototype
Glass Sheet Computer Unveiled. A
transparent computer processor has been printed on to a flat plate of
glass by researchers at Sharp's Japanese laboratory. Their success suggests
ultra-thin computers and televisions could in future be built entirely
on a single sheet of glass.
Top
10 19-Inch Monitors
Microsoft
Starts Testing New Version of Office
Asteroid
Follows Earth Around Orbit
Monday, 21 October 2002
AMD's
Opteron (Hammer) Processors to Power Cray Supercomputer. The
supercomputer, code-named Red Storm, will contain approximately
10,000 Opteron chips and be capable of churning 40 trillion calculations
per second (40 teraflops) when it becomes operational in 2004.
Wall
St. Leans Toward Linux. Linux
use will grow at an annual rate of 22% in the securities server market
between 2002 and 2005, outpacing growth in Windows 2000, NT and Unix
deployments, TowerGroup said.
IBM's
64-bit MPU is 32-bit Compatible. Although
the disparate processor architectures won't necessarily compete for the
same sockets, the fact that AMD and IBM are following similar paths could
apply pressure on Intel Corp., whose 64-bit Itanium chips run 32-bit
instructions using a slower emulation mode.
Agreement
enables deployment of Web services platform, Novell says. Novell
still is trying to determine the role that Pervasive.SQL (formerly
known as Btrieve), which has acted as a supporting database for NetWare.
Top
10 CD-RW Drives
More
Details on the Apple OS X 10.2.2 Update
World's
Fastest Data Network Approved
Bird
of Prey
Startup
Launches Peer-To-Peer Content Delivery Platform
Friday, 18 October 2002
Tiny
Optical Disc Could Store Five Movies. Two years from now the
world's smallest optical disc (3-cm) will let your cellphone store
five two-hour movies, squirrel away 25,000 digital photos or hoard
48 hours of MP3 music.
Optical
Recording Looks Bright. The rapid acceptance of DVD as the
new standard for home video players is spurring the next growth area
for this technology: recordable DVD.
Senate
Passes Cyber Research Bill Unanimously. The
bill authorizes hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for cybersecurity
programs...
Photo
Companies Focus on Wireless. The
technology industry thinks it has the answer to keeping digital photography
on its steep growth track--first do away with the PC, then dump the camera.
Microsoft
Posts Surprisingly Strong Q1. Microsoft's
new software licensing program propelled the software maker past Wall
Street earnings targets Thursday. More than 67 million copies
of Windows XP have been sold.
Sun
to Cut 4,400 Jobs Amid Computer Slump. 11%
of its workforce.
Chip
Sales Will Grow 18% Next Year, Says Research Firm
Thursday, 17 October 2002
DVD
Recording Hits Higher Speeds. Many vendors are showing drives that
write DVD-R and DVD-RW discs at faster speeds, but the price could pose
a problem.
AMD
Plans to Cut Operating Costs by $350 million. The company hopes
to reach break-even by the second quarter of 2003, and some of the cuts
will come in capital expenditures. AMD also said it was pushing out the
introduction of one of its new Hammer processors until the end of next
year. Hammer
Momentum Leaving Itanic Stranded.
New
KDE Linux Desktop: Tricks and Treats. The
KDE League is preparing to release the first major upgrade to its Linux
desktop software since last spring, including a lot of eye candy and
a raft of other tweaks and improvements.
Three
More Bugs Bite Microsoft. The three
latest bugs, which bring the total number of notifications this year
to 61, infect Windows XP, Office and SQL Server.
Dell
Takes No. 1 PC Maker Spot From HP
VIA
Ups the Ante With a KT 400 Revision
Wednesday, 16 October 2002
Is
Linux Really Going To Rule the Desktop? Analysts
said they still expect Linux to extend its desktop reach in the next
two years and beyond.
Intel
Describes Billion-transistor Four-core Itanium Processor. Intel
will be able to design and build a 1-billion-transistor microprocessor
using 65-nanometer process technology by 2007.
Microsoft
Standardizes Product Support Life Cycles.
Mainstream support will be available for five years from the date
of a product's general availability.
Windows
Messenger is New Spam Vector
Tuesday, 15 October 2002
Microsoft,
Linux Gaining Ground in Server Market. While
the battle between Microsoft and the open-source software movement dominates
headlines, another phenomenon is shaping the marketplace -- at least
for servers used by businesses.
Processors
Begin 64-bit Push. Indeed,
both IBM and AMD are taking advantage of Intel's decision to create separate
32-bit and 64-bit architectures with its Pentium and Itanium lines, leaving
a strategic hole for migrating desktops to 64 bits. Intel's
Itanium: Before Its Time or Just in Time?
Microsoft
Debuts Cable-Free Computing for Holidays. Hoping
to attract holiday season shoppers, on Tuesday Microsoft will debut a
$159 wireless keyboard and mouse combination, including a device that
could link computers to multiple electronic devices without using cables.
AOL
Hopes New Software Will Slow MSN Threat. MSN
8.0 will cost $21.95 monthly, vs. $23.90 for AOL for basic service. AOL
Launches 8.0, Drops Pop-up Ads.
Gateway
Leaves Office for WordPerfect. Gateway's
move follows similar decisions by Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer and
Sony, which in recent months have chosen Corel's WordPerfect over Microsoft's
Office for some of their consumer machines.
SiS
Fights Ban of Its chipsets, Graphics ICs Into U.S. The
U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that SiS had violated a semiconductor
processing patent claim held by Taiwan foundry services provider United
Microelectronics Corp. As part of its finding, the ITC ruled that all
of SiS' chips should be excluded from the U.S. market. Motherboards containing
SiS chips also were included as part of the ITC order.
IT
Users Lack Loyalty to Vendors
Earth's
New Center May Be The Seed Of Our Planet's Formation
Yet
Another Use for Duct Tape
Monday, 14 October 2002
IBM
Debuts 64-Bit Chip - Will Apple Bite? IBM
has unveiled a 64-bit chip that can process data at twice the rate
of current PC processors. According to published reports, the new chip
may be used in Apple desktop computers and servers in the future.
Open
Source: Rebels at the Gate. After
years of scorn and dismissal, the communal movement is forcing
Microsoft to take action to protect the Windows franchise.
Japan
Tackles High-definition Storage, Transmission.
Interesting DVD developments to accommodate a project called e-Japan
that sets up one of the world's most sophisticated broadband networks.
Cetek
Licenses Nanotube Tech for Flat Panel Display. The
company claims that prototype displays demonstrate the potential of a
process that could produce 60-inch panels as easily as 2.5-inch displays. One
third the manufacturing cost...
Windows
XP From A to Z
Spacewoman
Stuck in Orbit with Too Much Shrimp
Friday, 11 October 2002
Micron:
DDR400 Only Transitional, DDRII the Real Heir. DDR400
faces bottlenecks in speed and frequency that only dual-channel DDRII
will overcome.
Pentium
4 Successor Planned for 2004. Code-named
Nehalem, the new processor is designed from scratch and will not have
anything in common with Pentium 4.
Radio
Enters Digital Era with U.S. Ruling. In
a move that brings radio into the digital era, the Federal Communications
Commission has approved a technology for broadcasting digital radio
within current analog channels. This new technology will enable FM
radio to be near-CD quality...
Henpeck
Worm Cons MSN Chat Crowd. The
worm used MSN's chat network to send messages containing a link to a
malicious online file, called BR2002.exe...
Microsoft
Warns of 'Critical' Flaw in Outlook Express
Lucent
Issues Warning, to Cut More Jobs
Thursday, 10 October 2002
Maxtor
Announces External Hard Drives With The Touch Of A Button. Maxtor's
5000XT, 5000DV and 5000LE external Firewire and USB 2.0 drives allow
users to copy files and applications on their desktop or laptop computer
with the push of its OneTouch button.
Data
Recovery Services Can Give New Life to Lost or Deleted Information. Some
of the DriveSavers' most fantastic cases include rescuing information
on a PowerBook that sat underwater for two days and situations where
laptops were crushed by moving vehicles.
Job
Loss Rate Slows for U.S. High-tech Industry. The
industry lost 437,000 jobs in the 18 months starting January 2001... Only
700 high-tech jobs were lost between May and June, the smallest monthly
drop in the last year and a half.
A
Way to Revolutionize x86 CPU Performance
China
Says Viruses Infect 80 Percent of Computers
India
Moving to Linux
Wednesday, 9 October 2002
Microsoft
Nixes TV Copy Protection. Microsoft
has bowed to consumer pressure and pulled back from a controversial
plan that would have encrypted TV shows recorded on forthcoming digital
media PCs.
Microsoft
Will Not Drop Windows OEM Pricing. CEO
Steve Ballmer told IT executives Wednesday not to expect the software
giant to drop the price of Windows to white-box builders or PC OEMs even
by as little as $20.
Microsoft
to Add New Web Product to Office Suite. XDocs
allows users without in-depth knowledge of XML to create forms to record,
store and retrieve information more efficiently.
IBM
Processor Hints at Apple's 64-bit Future. IBM Corp. may give a peek
next week into Apple Computer Inc.'s 64-bit future when it details a
new version of its Power4 microprocessor, a PowerPC-compatible chip that
will apparently support the Altivec multimedia instruction extensions
defined by Apple and Motorola Inc.
New
Linux Versions Follow Standard Path. Four
new versions of Linux have been certified to comply with guidelines set
down by the Linux Standard Base, a group trying to make it easier for
software to run on different companies' versions of the Unix clone.
Tuesday, 8 October 2002
Top
10 Ink Jet Printers. "We
factor in not only the purchase price but also the ink costs, which can
make a cheap printer no bargain."
Intel
Leaves AMD in the 'Dust' in CPU Share Race
Monday, 7 October 2002
Robots
Try Humble Path to Success. Engineers
at a handful of companies are finally turning out machines that promise
to be useful from the ground up: smart, economically priced robots that
can vacuum floors and mow lawns.
Intel
Enters DDR-333 Arena With New PC Chipsets. The
chip sets from Intel include the 850E, 845GE, 845PE and 845GV. All devices
support the company's Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology...
Micron
Demos DDR-II Platform in Taiwan. Micron
said its next-generation DDR memory type is running at 533 Mbit/sec.
per pin and achieves system bandwidth of 4300 MBytes/sec.
New
Solar System Body Revealed. The largest object
found since 1930 is half the size of Pluto, and calls that object's planetary
status into question.
Chess
Champion Kramnik Beats 'Deep Fritz' Computer
Friday, 4 October 2002
Wal-Mart
Delivers a Sub-$200 PC. Based
on the 800-MHz Via C3 processor and comes bundled with the Linux-based
operating system LindowsOS 2.0.
Internet
Creaks After Huge Network Crash. Millions
of people who use services powered by UUNet were left with poor or dead
net connections on Thursday after the company suffered a huge network
failure. Reports suggest many users experienced several hours delay
in email delivery, with some messages not being delivered at all.
Thursday, 3 October 2002
AMD
Anticipates Substantial Operating Loss for the Quarter. Company
may need additional financing to survive beyond mid-2003. AMD
Shares Fall to 10-Year Low.
Electronic
Circuits Created in a Flash. A material that turns into a conductor
at the flash of a light promises to reduce the cost of large LCD displays
and optical data storage.
Bugbear
Virus Spreading--Worse Than Klez. MessageLabs says it intercepted
more than 21,000 copies of the Bugbear virus on Thursday.
Internet
Problems Tied to WorldCom's UUNet Unit. WorldCom
Inc. acknowledged this morning that a network problem in its Internet
backbone was tripping up Web traffic across the country.
A
Rosy Outlook for Holiday E-Commerce. With
only six official Christmas's under its belt, e-commerce is finally
finding a place in consumer holiday shopping plans, say analysts, and
despite the ailing economy, sales are expected to ring in at an all-time
high.
Windows
help tool has 'critical' flaw, Microsoft warns. Security
flaws in the help facility of most versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows
operating system could allow an attacker to take control of a user's
PC, Microsoft warned late Wednesday.
World's
Funniest Joke Revealed
Tuesday, 2 October 2002
U.S.
Tech Shipments Docked. A contract
dispute that left cargo stranded on West Coast freighters over the
weekend and Monday is forcing Hewlett-Packard and Gateway to consider
their alternatives.
nVIDIA
nFORCE2 Motherboard Chipset Now in Production, So they say. Reality
check: the nVIDIA nForce2 hype has been going-on since about July 16th,
if not longer. I guess that's better than what VIA is doing:
hype plus releasing half-baked chipsets like the KT400. I have
heard from a reliable source that nVIDIA has an arrangement with AMD
where they will not release a new motherboard chipset more than once
a year. That seems like a very good idea to me: slow-down the
pace and get it (chipsets, processors, memory, motherboards, documentation,
testing, etc.) right before putting it in the customer's hands instead
of applying band aids after the fact. Of course, there are many
positive things to be said about competition and rapid technological
progress... if it is real and not hype and the old numbers game...
AMD
Announces 2700+ and 2800+ XP Processors With a 333 MHz Front Side Bus. More
hype. See below.
Athlon
XP 2800+ and nForce 2 Reviewed. While
the introduction comes today, the Athlon XP 2700+ will only be available
to OEMs in November, with the Athlon XP 2800+ available in small quantities
in Q4. Volume is estimated to ramp up by the first quarter of next year. Contrary
to popular belief, the Athlon can benefit quite a bit from a FSB at 166
MHz FSB. The nForce 2 shows that an aggressively optimized chipset can
push the performance of the Athlon XP up to 15% higher.
XML
to Drive Office Update. Next
version of Microsoft's Office productivity suite will allow developers
to use Word as a development platform to create XML templates and solutions. "This
would give you something like a live Web site where up-to-date information
is displayed but without the Web browser."
Pioneers
on Edge of Solar-sail Era
Index |
