Sunday, October 21, 2007

.Asia can be registered now

.Asia TLD top level domain image New top-level domain ".asia" is available for registration. Registration and control are entrusted to nonprofit organization DotAsia Organization Limited which consist of members from China, India and Japan.

So far registration available  only for companies located in Asia-Pacific region which have registered trademarks and for government offices. Regular people will be able to register .asia domains only in February 2008.

Currently Asia has 400 million users(for example 253 million in North America).

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Toshiba recalls 142 000 DVD player AC adapters

image Toshiba announce one more massive recall again, not a good sign for company.

AC Adapters sold with portable DVD players may overheat and even ignite when they fail, potentially threatening the user. This recall comes after two DVD players was burned, however, no injuries have been reported. You bought affected DVD player if it was between January 2005 and April 2006 at consumer electronics stores in US then and Your AC adapter has "ADPV16" mark. Don't use dangerous AC adapters and contact Toshiba service for replacement.

Affected AC adapter:
image

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Friday, October 12, 2007

Do You Want To Have Your Own Universe?

If you want to broadcast your messages to the whole world you can be builder of My PC Universe(or any another blog of MyUniverseRing). We are waiting for your contribution.

Contact us:my universe ring email       

 

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Sunday, October 7, 2007

Goog-411

Google started new service - Goog-411. This is search on the phone for US. You can call 1-800-GOOG-411, ask your query and operator will read the answer from Google. Of course this service is free.

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Vixta: Vista Look and Feel for Penguins

Vixta screenshot

Vixta - new Linux distributive with very strange target audience. It is supposed to be used by Linux users impressed with Windows Vista and wanted to have similar-looking desktop.

Vista based on Fedora with customized KDE. It has widgets, main menu and taskbar in Vista style but inside it's still Linux. So in that a la Vista main menu you'll find Konqueror instead of Explorer, OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office etc.

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WiFi everywhere

WiFi shirt

New shirt from ThinkGeek has animated WiFi and shows signal level to everyone. Now you can to find best place for WiFi just walking around. Detector placed on the shirt with stickers so you can wash it without harming electronics. I think it would be very nice present for a friend with IT interests.

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Saturday, October 6, 2007

Google gets Extra Large size

"Extra Large" option appeared in Google Image Search.  Now you can use it if you want to find really big pictures. For example querying "Ferrari" with that option you can get 3414 x 2968 photo found by Google. But I think it would be more interesting when Google implement feature that gives opportunity to set searching dimensions manually. Something like "300-500 wide and 200-250 height".

google extra large option

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

A case was disclosed by Flickr

 image Six computers were stolen from the office of WorkSpace company. It was regular thievery but only one thing - it was disclosed by thief himself and online photo sharing service Flickr, owned by Yahoo.

imageWorkSpace had a company account on Flickr and stolen computers were using for uploading pictures on it. Thief, who didn't know about flickr-server function of his new computers, decided to make photos of himself. After that some nice photo of man with scary tattoos appeared on WorkSpace company's Flickr account. Photos was titled "Me". One of the WorkSpace's managers, Dane Brown saw that photos and didn't believed in such an ignorance. But it was true - thief upload photos of himself and pointed in title that it was he, who stole the computers.

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Sunday, September 23, 2007

Intel Phone Announced

It looks like Phone Mania is spreading wider and wider among the top IT-companies. Next XPhone announced to be created by Intel. It is supposed to be innovative smartphone with sensor screen. You can see demonstration of Intel Phone in the video below:

By the way, don't You think Intel's phone can be called iPhone too? :)

PlayStation Store comes to PC

image

Sony's network services for games distribution now available on PC. CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Kaz Hirai announced that PlayStation store can be reached from PC in Japan now. Of course we thought that Sony will spread this feature in Europe and North America.

Before now You could to use PlayStation Store for downloading games, demos and media  only with PSP.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Google Phone to be released in Q1 2008


As mobile phone producers from Taiwan says Google will released its phone right after model specification works and OS planning. Google still don't have any contracts with distributors and other partners. Earlier it was known that Google will use hardware EDGE-solutions of Texas Instruments, but recently leaked out that 3G technologies can be used in Google Phone.

But this using of 3G technologies can delay Google's announce of Google Phone. There's suggestion that Google will do its best to start GPhone in bound with Google's own OS, which must be competitive with such OS as Windows Mobile and Symbian.

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Do You want to get inside Apple's product?


Apple CEO Steve Jobs met Volkswagen's chief Martin Winterkhorn few days ago. And they plan to meet again for discissions. That fact makes some experts think Apple and Volkswagen decided to create "iCar" - vehicle with significant amount of media device aboard. Such a proposition have an opportunity to get reality because Apple have partnership with a lot of automakers including VW. It can be great step for Apple to create a branded car but don't You think that Apple goes out from its territory?

Monday, August 20, 2007

Skype was attacked by... Microsoft


Skype is on at last. Numerous users of peer-to-peer phone service Skype was unable to use it for almost 2 days. It was greatest outage of Skype for all its history. There was a lot of gossips about reasons of this problem. Someone told about DDoS, someone told about hackers etc. But Skype recently revealed the real reason of crash. The attacker was Microsoft! Cause was the regular Window Update. Skype reports that update caused massive computers reboot and then massive sign in of Skype users. There were some error in program code and because of it chain reaction crashed whole the peer-to-peer system.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

iPhone's keyboard sucks

Usability study group User Centric shows in its study that iPhone's keyboard isn't as well as common QWERTY keyboards. Users on common keyboards make much less mistakes while typing texts or numbers and they are much quicker in typing texts. You can read more about it here.
Some pictures showing the difference between QWERTY keyboards and iPhone's keyboard:

Monday, July 23, 2007

Intel did it again!

Not so much time ago Intel seriously cut prices on its processors. And now Intel repeat its move. Great price cut on quad-core processors bring them much closer to the consumers.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Nanotechnology rapidly increases cooling efficiency

by Gabriel Ikram

The OCZ Hydrojet cooler uses an advanced heatsink material
The first heatsink to make use of directional carbon nanotubes, the OCZ Hydrojet, was on display at Computex 2007. Carbon nanotubes, an allotrope of carbon, are widely regarded as the next major thermal interface material because of their superior thermal conduction properties.

The contact base of the OCZ Hydrojet is made completely of carbon-nanotubes, which OCZ claims are five times more efficient than copper. Carbon nanotubes have been looked upon as a strong alternative to traditional copper based heatsinks. They are ideal for application in heat transfer products because of their impressive heat-conduction properties. Carbon nanotube based interfaces have been shown to conduct more heat than conventional thermal interface materials at the same temperatures. In addition, they have shown to be ballistic conductors at room temperature, which means electrons can flow through CNTs without collisions.

Carbon nanotubes are small wire-like structures made out of a sheet of graphene. The sheet of graphene used to construct CNTs is roughly one-atom thick, and is rolled up into a cylinder. The diameter of the cylinder ranges in the nanometers.

Unlike most other thermal materials, carbon nanotubes are able to move heat in one direction. On the other hand, copper, which is looked upon as one of the more superior thermal materials, moves heat radially. In the case of CNTs, heat is moved along the alignment of the nanotubes.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Quick and Dirty AMD K10 Cinebench

by Kristopher Kubicki

An early AMD "Barcelona" revision gets its first non-simulated benchmark


Earlier today, AMD announced that it successfully demonstrated Barcelona across the server market. The company did not publically state how fast the processor was running, the stepping of the processor, the processor thermal envelope or the eventual ship date.

We had the opportunity to benchmark the AMD Barcelona, native quad-core on an early stepping. We only had a few minutes to test the chip, but we were able to run a quick Cinebench before we were instructed to leave.

The AMD benchmark ran on a single-socket, K10 CPU running at 1.6 GHz on NVIDIA's nForce Professional 3400 chipset. According to the system properties, the AMD system used 4GB of DDR2-667.

The most similar Intel system we could muster up on such short notice was an Intel Xeon 3220. The Xeon X3220 is clocked at 2.4 GHz, and ran on Intel's Garlow platform (Intel X38). This system property profile stated the system utilized 4GB of DDR2-800.

Cinebench completed the default benchmark in 27 seconds for the 1.6 GHz K10; 17 seconds for the Intel Xeon X3220. The Kentsfield Xeon was 58% faster with a 50% higher clock frequency for Cinebench.

Both systems ran Windows 2003 R2, 64-bit.

AMD partner engineers tell DailyTech the chip we tested was the latest revision silicon. The same engineers claim 2.0 GHz Barcelona chips are making the rounds, with 2.3 GHz already on the desktop and server roadmaps.

AMD's current guidance suggests a late July announcement for Barcelona. However, when DailyTech tracked down the individual partners named in AMD's press release, all cited "optimistic September" ship dates for motherboards.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Raytheon Develops World's First Polymorphic Computer

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 20, 2007 -- The world's first computers whose architecture can adopt different forms depending on their application have been developed by Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN).

The architecture of the MONARCH processor with key elements identified
The architecture of the MONARCH processor with key elements identified

Dubbed MONARCH (Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture) and developed to address the large data volume of sensor systems as well as their signal and data processing throughput requirements, it is the most adaptable processor ever built for the Department of Defense, reducing the number of processor types required. It performs as a single system on a chip, resulting in a significant reduction of the number of processors required for computing systems, and it performs in an array of chips for teraflop throughput.

"Typically, a chip is optimally designed either for front-end signal processing or back-end control and data processing," explained Nick Uros, vice president for the Advanced Concepts and Technology group of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. "The MONARCH micro-architecture is unique in its ability to reconfigure itself to optimize processing on the fly. MONARCH provides exceptional compute capacity and highly flexible data bandwidth capability with beyond state-of-the-art power efficiency, and it's fully programmable."

In addition to the ability to adapt its architecture for a particular objective, the MONARCH computer is also believed to be the most power- efficient processor available.

"In laboratory testing MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10," said Michael Vahey, the principal investigator for the company's MONARCH technology.

MONARCH's polymorphic capability and super efficiency enable the development of DoD systems that need very small size, low power, and in some cases radiation tolerance for such purposes as global positioning systems, airborne and space radar and video processing systems.

The company has begun tests on prototypes of the polymorphic MONARCH processors to verify they'll function as designed and to establish their maximum throughput and power efficiency. MONARCH, containing six microprocessors and a highly interconnected reconfigurable computing array, provides 64 gigaflops (floating point operations per second) with more than 60 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and more than 43 gigabytes per second of off-chip data bandwidth.

The MONARCH processor was developed under a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) polymorphous computing architecture contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems led an industry team with the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California to create the integrated large-scale system on a chip with a suite of software development tools for programs of high value to the Department of Defense and commercial applications. Besides USC major subcontractors included Georgia Institute of Technology, Mercury Computer Systems and IBM's Global Engineering Solutions division.

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems is the leading provider of sensor systems giving military forces the most accurate and timely information available for the network-centric battlefield. With 2006 revenues of $4.3 billion and 12,000 employees, SAS is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif. Additional facilities are in Goleta, Calif.; Forest, Miss.; Dallas, McKinney and Plano, Texas; and several international locations.

Raytheon Company, with 2006 sales of $20.3 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.

(c) www.shoutwire.com

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

DRAM prices continue to plummet

Mark LaPedus

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Prices for DRAMs continue to plummet, as the tags for mainstream devices have fallen by a staggering 44 percent since the beginning of 2007, according to a report from Gartner Inc.

Average DRAM spot prices across all densities were down 6.5 percent for the seven-day period ended March 16, compared to the previous period, according to Gartner. Average spot prices stood at $3.67 on a 512-megabit basis for the period, down 39 percent since the beginning of 2007, according to the firm.

Prices for mainstream 512-Mbit DDR2-based chips are down 44 percent since the beginning of this year. ''Ample supply in the market and little fear of a tightening of supply gave the overall market a negative outlook,'' said Andrew Norwood, an analyst with Gartner.

At the beginning of February, the DRAM market crashed, as average selling prices (ASPs) had already fallen by 30 percent since the beginning of this year. DRAM ASPs were projected to fall by 30 percent for the entire year.

At that time, vendors insisted that the DRAM free-fall was temporary, claiming that a rebound is due in the second half of 2007, thanks in part to Microsoft's Vista operating system software.

In general, the memory market is lousy. The NAND flash market is also "brutal," according to Intel Corp. Some believe the ASPs on NAND chips will decline 65 percent this year.

(c) www.eetimes.com

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Thursday, March 15, 2007

NVIDIA GeForce 8600-Series Details Unveiled

by Anh Huynh

NVIDIA prepares its next-generation mid-range and mainstream DirectX 10 GPUs

Earlier today DailyTech received it's briefiing on NVIDIA’s upcoming GeForce 8600GTS, 8600GT and 8500GT graphics processors. NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600GTS and 8600GT are G84-based GPUs and target the mid-range markets. The lower-positioned G86-based GeForce 8500GT serves as the flagship low to mid-range graphics card.
The budget-priced trio feature full support for DirectX 10 features including pixel and vertex shader model 4.0. NVIDIA has yet to reveal the amount of shaders or shader clocks though. Nevertheless, the trio supports NVIDIA SLI and PureVideo technologies.


NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS

 


NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT

NVIDIA touts three dedicated video engines on the G84 and G86-based graphics cards for PureVideo processing. The video engines provide MPEG-2 high-definition and WMV HD video playback up to resolutions of 1080p. G84 and G86 support hardware accelerated decoding of H.264 video as well; however, NVIDIA makes no mention of VC-1 decoding. G84 and G86 also feature advanced post-processing video algorithms. Supported algorithms include spatial-temporal de-interlacing, inverse 2:2, 3:2 pull-down and 4-tap horizontal, and 5-tap vertical video scaling.
At the top of the mid-range lineup is the GeForce 8600GTS. The G84-based graphics core clocks in at 675 MHz. NVIDIA pairs the GeForce 8600GTS with 256MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1000 MHz. The memory interfaces with the GPU via a 128-bit bus. The GeForce 8600GTS does not integrate HDCP keys on the GPU. Add-in board partners will have to purchase separate EEPROMs with HDCP keys; however, all GeForce 8600GTS-based graphics cards feature support for HDCP.
GeForce 8600GTS-based graphics cards require an eight-layer PCB. Physically, the cards measure in at 7.2 x 4.376 inches and available in full-height only. NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS graphics cards feature a PCIe x16 interface, unlike ATI’s upcoming RV630. GeForce 8600GTS-based cards still require external PCIe power. NVIDIA estimates total board power consumption at around 71-watts.
Supported video output connectors include dual dual-link DVI, VGA, SDTV and HDTV outputs, and analog video inputs. G84-based GPUs do not support a native HDMI output. Manufacturers can adapt one of the DVI-outputs for HDMI.
NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600GT is not as performance oriented as the 8600GTS. The GeForce 8600GT GPU clocks in at a more conservative 540 MHz. The memory configuration has more flexibility, letting manufacturers decide between 256MB or 128MB of GDDR3 memory. NVIDIA specifies the memory clock at 700 MHz. The GeForce 8600GT shares the same 128-bit memory interface as the 8600GTS. HDCP support on GeForce 8600GT is optional. The GPU and reference board design support the required HDCP keys EEPROM, however, the implementation is up to NVIDIA’s add-in board partners.
GeForce 8600GT-based graphics cards only require a six-layer PCB instead of the eight-layer PCB of the 8600GTS. The physical board size is also smaller too – measuring in at 6.9 x 4.376 inches. GeForce 8600GT-based cards do not require external PCIe power. NVIDIA rates the maximum board power consumption at 43-watts – 28-watts less than the 8600GTS.
The GeForce 8600GT supports similar video outputs as the 8600GTS, however, the 8600GT does not support video input features.
NVIDIA has revealed very little information on the GeForce 8500GT besides support for GDDR3 and DDR2 memory. It supports dual dual-link DVI, VGA and TV outputs as well.
Expect NVIDIA to pull the wraps off its GeForce 8600GTS, 8600GT and 8500GT next quarter in time to take on AMD’s upcoming RV630 and RV610.

(c)  www.dailytech.com

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Gates: Vista Has Been "Incredibly Well Received"

by Brandon Hill

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates lays praise on Windows Vista

Windows VistaYesterday, DailyTech reported that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was cautious about "overly aggressive" forecasts for Windows Vista. Ballmer went on to say that Vista’s slow retail start can be attributed to piracy which has become increasingly popular in emerging markets.

It appears that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Ballmer haven't had much communication on the matter recently. Reuters asked Gates about any trepidation Microsoft might have about the outlook for Vista to which he responded "I don't know what you mean. Vista's had an incredible reception."

Gates deflected the questioning and instead decided to focus on what he sees as positive progress for Microsoft's newest consumer operating system. "The reviews have been fantastic. This is a big, big advance in the Windows platform. It's the world's most used piece of software... Overall, the reliability feedback has been well better than we expected," said Gates.

"People who sell PCs have seen a very nice lift in their sales. People have come in and wanted to buy Vista," Gates continued.

Gates is right about the lift in PC sales. According to NPD, PC unit shipments were up 67% the week Vista launched in comparison to the same period in 2006. That is a key measure for Microsoft as 80% of its OS revenue comes from PC OEMs. Vista's retail performance, however, was down 60% in comparison to Windows XP's opening week in 2001.

(c) www.dalilytech.com

Intel Pulls 45nm Xeon Launch Into 2007

by Kristopher Kubicki

Intel promises 45nm server processors this yearIntel Logo

Earlier today, Intel revealed to DailyTech more details regarding 45nm server products, including launch windows and compatibility.
Kirk Skaugen, general manager of Intel's Server Platform Group, opened his statements with "We were originally in the Q1'08 timeframe. Today I'm happy to announce to report for the first time that our server 45nm Xeon products based on the Penryn core will be available into production for the second half of 2007."
Intel's latest desktop guidance claims 45nm desktop SKUs will also launch in late 2007, with volume shipments occurring in 2008.  As it stands right now, only the mobile 45nm SKUs are expected to launch in 2008.
Skaugen also confirmed that Penryn-based Xeon processors will utilize the same server platform as Xeon 5000, 5100 and 5300.  Nehalem, Intel's next-generation micro architecture on the 45nm node slated for 2008, will require new platform technology and is not compatible with the Penryn platform. 
45nm quad-core Harpertown and dual-core Wolfdale were originally slated to spearhead the next-generation Xeon launch in Q1 2008.  The existing Bensley platform, Intel 5000P chipset, will still provide the heavy lifting for volume dual-socket on 45nm Xeon.  A new platform, Cranberry Lake, will replace Bensley-VS for value dual-socket Intel platforms, and will support Harpertown and Wolfdale
Intel hinted earlier this year it might pull some of its launches in after the Penryn tape-out proved slightly more successful than anticipated.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Asus launches XG Station, the world’s first external graphics card for laptops

by Doug Berger

Asus XG Station

Today at CES Unveiled, we had a chance to look at Asus’ new XG Station - an external graphics card station for your laptop. The unit includes USB 2.0 ports, and a Dolby headphone jack, and supports both HDCP and HDMI for all of your high-def enjoyment. You get that? You can plug your regular laptop into the XG Station, plug the XG Station into an HD monitor, then watch your screen in awe. According to Asus, “Lab experiments on a notebook based on Intel 945GM graphics connected to the XG station with an ASUS EN7900GS graphics card showed an astounding 9 times increase in acceleration.”

The XG Station not only adds extra graphics, but it’s easy on the eyes with its LED information display - showing volume, clock speed, GPU temperature, Dolby status, Frames Per Second (FPS) and more.

(c) www.gadgetell.com

Dell's Black Ice Finds Home in New Quad-Core XPS Desktop?

Dell%20Black%20Ice%20flyer.JPGAn anonymous tipster sent us this flyer of Dell's mysterious Black Ice technology. Apparently it's a two-stage thermoelectric liquid cooling solution that will be a part of Dell's forthcoming XPS 710 H2C, which our tipster says will come with an Inel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU and two GeForce 8800 GTX cards (in SLI configuration). We'll keep our eyes peeled for the full scoop as the show progresses. – Louis Ramirez

(c) www.gizmodo.com

Duracell FM transmitter, extended battery combo for iPod Video

by Christopher Grant

Already available for the iPod nano, Battery-Biz is rolling out their Duracell PowerFM line to the iPod Video, complete with FM transmitter, extended battery, and bonus protective silicon case. The extended battery more than doubles the iPod's run-time while powering the FM transmitter, with unlimited channel selection. It also replicates the iPod's dock connector, so you can still use all those other accessories without unplugging your 'Pod. No date yet (they're saying end of Q1, early Q2) but expect a retail price of $79.99.

(c) www.engadget.com

Asus S6 Pink Leather Limited Edition

Asus S6 Pink Leather Limited Edition

CES Unveiled – I am posting this article because none of the guys wanted to write about a pink laptop… We published about this cute notebook last year during the CES Unveiled: This time, Asus released the matching mouse ? Even if I do not believe that technology in pink is the real way to attract female customers, I do appreciate the creative effort of designing computers in other colors and texture than black or gray. By the way, it won an IF award and a G-Mark award – Eliane.

(c) www.uberzigmo.com

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Toshiba unveils world's first HD DVD writer

toshibaHDDVD.jpg

Always expect firsts from Toshiba America, the maker of computers/storage/projectors and so much more. The company announced the world's first HD DVD burner for desktop computers. (Wondering what HD DVDs are? Catch up on a story I wrote last year)

We knew this was coming. High-def DVD players has been available for since April 2006 (mostly thanks to Toshiba's computer and consumer electronics divisions). Toshiba says more than 1.5 million HD DVD movies have been sold. But who can resist using the same discs for storage purposes? Since high-definition video needs oodles of gigabytes, the discs can hold 30 GBs of digital files (that's approximately up to five full-length standard DVD films, up to 7,500 MP3 songs or up to 30,000 high-quality images, according to Toshiba).

The SD-H903A internal drive will be sold to computer companies and manufacturers beginning in February. The good news for consumers, we may start seeing PCs with HD DVD burners in the spring or summer.

Other specs:
It only writes HD DVD content in real time (that's 1x speed)
Also compatible with all older DVD and CD formats.

(c) blogs.ocregister.com

Three Intel quad-cores coming Monday

http://www.idc.com.tw/Event/InfrastructureVision2005/Intel%20logo.gifIntel plans to launch three quad-core processors on Monday, covering two Xeons for lower-end servers and one mainstream model for desktop computers, sources familiar with the plan said.

As expected, the desktop chip is called the Core 2 Quad 6600 and will join the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 model Intel already ships. The new processor will run at 2.4GHz, and the front-side bus that links the chip to the rest of the system will run at 1066MHz, the company is expected to announce at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week.

Also set to arrive are two low-end Xeons, the 2.13GHz 3210 and 2.4GHz 3220. Both are designed for single-processor servers. The chips have 8MB cache and a 1066MHz front-side bus.

Intel declined to comment for this story.

The chipmaker began its quad-core product launch in November but now is fleshing out the lineup. It often launches desktop products with extreme models geared for demanding video game systems, then adds more moderately priced mainstream models later.

"I expect, with respect to the desktop quad-core, it's mostly a matter of maintaining a certain cadence, even if, practically speaking, there won't be a whole lot of near-term buyers," Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff said.

Intel's quad-core processors combine two dual-core chips into a single package. Rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices has a quad-core processor code-named Barcelona under development that puts all four cores on a single slice of silicon. However, that chip won't arrive until midway through this year.

Servers, which often juggle multiple independent tasks, are well-suited to taking advantage of multiple processing cores. With desktop machines, however, the benefits aren't as clear because software often isn't able to use all the cores effectively.

(c) news.com.com

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Month of Apple Bugs Releases QuickTime Flaw

Month of Apple Bugs Releases QuickTime Flaw

The Month of Apple Bugs project promised to unveil security flaws in Mac OS X and Apple programs during January...and it's started with a Mac and Windows QuickTime bug.

The Month of Apple Bugs project—a follow up to a Month of Kernel Bugs and A Month of Browser Bugs—vowed to release details of bugs and securty exploits in Apple's Mac OS X operating system and popular Mac OS X applications…and the project is off and running, publicizing the details of a possible security exploit in Apple's QuickTime software by overflowing buffers with specially crafted rtsp:// URLs. The bug impacts QuickTime 7.1.3 for both Mac OS X and Windows.

The Month of Bugs projects have been the center of some controversy; many software developers and security analysts feel it is irresponsible to publish the details of working security vulnerabilities in widely-available software, arguing that only feeds the ever-active malware communities lurking on the Internet's dark underbelly and the possibility of real-world exploits. The responsible thing to do, they argue, is report the issues to the software vendors and security agencies, and publicize the details only when a patch or fix is available.

On the other hand, the "report and keep quiet" methodology rubs some people the wrong way: if their computers are vulnerable, they want to know the details now, regardless of whether a patch or fix is available, so at least they know what they're up against. The participants in the Bug a Month projects—such as the "mysterious" programmer operating under the tag "LMH"—have also expressed frustration at the amount of time software developers like Apple and Microsoft take to patch seemingly trivial vulnerabilities.

In any case, it would appear that Apple's Mac OS X and key applications—certainly not immune to security problems but thusfar spared the malware pain of the Windows world—are under a very public microscope.

(c) news.digitaltrends.com

WiFi on the highway: Avis to offer 3G-to-802.11 bridge

by Eric Bangeman

WiFi on the highway: Avis to offer 3G-to-802.11 bridgeBusiness travellers will soon have another option for connectivity when they are on the road. Start-up Autonet Mobile and car rental giant Avis are partnering to offer renters a device that will provide laptop users with WiFi access on the road. You can take "on the road" literally in this case, as the device is designed to create a WiFi hot spot accessible from within 100 feet of the car.

Autonet Mobile's In-Car Router is about the size of a laptop and draws power from the car's cigarette lighter outlet. The hardware itself is a bridge for a cellular provider's 3G network (Avis will likely have contracts with 3G providers around the country), acting as a WiFi gateway for those connected to it. Other 3G-WiFi bridges are already available from the likes of Linksys and Kyocera, but this appears to be the first targeted exclusively at vehicles.

Autonet Mobile CEO Sterling Pratz told the International Herald Tribune that the In-Car Router will function in around 95 percent of the country, including all major US cities. Pratz claims to have minimized the problem of dropped signals with a technology similar to that used by the space shuttles to maintain an Internet connection.

In the absence of a WiFi network, laptop users can already get on the Internet at faster-than-dial-up speeds via 3G PCMCIA cards from the major cellular provides. Should you need to share that connection, it's easy enough to do so without using additional hardware via functionality built into your favorite modern OS.

Is it time to add surfing the Internet to the already-alarming list of distractions facing drivers? Actually, we're already way past that point. I've used my cell phone and laptop to check e-mail and get on IRC or even engage in some light browsing while on the road (only when someone else was behind the wheel). Autonet Mobile's solution—assuming it has indeed overcome the technical obstacles inherent in maintaining connectivity while travelling at high speeds—seems targeted at a niche market. Once Mobile WiMAX (802.16e) and 802.20 networks—which will provide broadband-class connections on the go—come online in the next few years, the shelf life for devices like the In-Car Router may prove to be relatively brief.

If the In-Car Router comes with a vanilla AC adapter for use outside of the car, it could at the very least provide an additional marketing hook for Avis as it battles for rental customers. Will it offset the increase in insurance premiums due to accidents caused by drivers distracted by YouTube?

(c) www.arstechnica.com

Monday, January 1, 2007

Early AMD ATI "R600" Specs, Benchmarks Leaked

ATI logo

Details of AMD's next generation Radeon hit the web

Newly created site Level 505 has leaked benchmarks and specifications of AMD’s upcoming ATI R600 graphics processor. The upcoming graphics processor is expected to launch in January 2007 with an expected revision arriving in March 2007. These early specifications and launch dates line up with what DailyTech has already published and are present on ATI internal roadmaps as of workweek 49.

Preliminary specifications from Level 505 of the ATI R600 are as follows:

  • 64 4-Way SIMD Unified Shaders, 128 Shader Operations/Cycle
  • 32 TMUs, 16 ROPs
  • 512 bit Memory Controller, full 32 bit per chip connection
  • GDDR3 at 900 MHz clock speed (January)
  • GDDR4 at 1.1 GHz clock speed (March, revised edition)
  • Total bandwidth 115 GB/s on GDDR3
  • Total bandwidth 140 GB/s on GDDR4
  • Consumer memory support 1024 MB
  • DX10 full compatibility with draft DX10.1 vendor-specific cap removal (unified programming)
  • 32FP [sic] internal processing
  • Hardware support for GPU clustering (any x^2 [sic] number, not limited to Dual or Quad-GPU)
  • Hardware DVI-HDCP support (High Definition Copy Protocol)
  • Hardware Quad-DVI output support (Limited to workstation editions)
  • 230W TDP PCI-SIG compliant

This time around it appears AMD is going for a different approach by equipping the ATI R600 with less unified shaders than NVIDIA’s recently launched GeForce 8800 GTX. However, the unified shaders found on the ATI R600 can complete more shader operations per clock cycle.

Level505 claims AMD is expected to equip the ATI R600 with GDDR3 and GDDR4 memory with the GDDR3 endowed model launching in January. Memory clocks have been set at 900 MHz for GDDR3 models and 1.1 GHz for GDDR4 models. As recent as two weeks ago, ATI roadmaps had said this GDDR3 launch was canceled. These same roadmaps claim the production date for R600 is February 2007, which would be after a January 22nd launch.

Memory bandwidth of the ATI R600 is significantly higher than NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800-series. Total memory bandwidth varies from 115GB/s on GDDR3 equipped models to 140GB/s on GDDR4 equipped models.

Other notable hardware features include hardware support for quad DVI outputs, but utilizing all four outputs are limited to FireGL workstation edition cards.

There’s also integrated support for multi-GPU clustering technologies such as CrossFire too. The implementation on the ATI R600 allows any amount of ATI R600 GPUs to operate together in powers of two. Expect multi-GPU configurations with greater than two GPUs to only be available for the workstation markets though.

The published results are very promising with AMD’s ATI R600 beating out NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTX in most benchmarks. The performance delta varies from 8% up to 42% depending on the game benchmark.

When DailyTech contacted the site owner to get verification of the benchmarks, the owner replied that the benchmark screenshots could not be published due to origin-specific markers that would trace the card back to its source -- the author mentioned the card is part of the Microsoft Vista driver certification program.

If Level505's comments seem a little too pro-ATI, don't be too surprised. When asked if the site was affiliated in any way to ATI or AMD, the owner replied to DailyTech with the statement that "two staff members of ours are directly affiliated with AMD's business [development] division."

(c) www.dailytech.com

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