Tech News for Wednesday December 22nd
1999.
"Afterburner" overclocking adapter for AMD K7
processors.
Posted: 12/22/1999 Source: HotHardware
Added by: Kim Heise
The company "Outside
Loop" has released a add-on hardware card called the
"Afterburner" that physically connects to the AMD K7 processor that
allows you to very easily overclock. The team over at HotHardware were able to
easily overclock a 500mhz AMD K7 to 800mhz. The price: USD $80.
"Overclocking" is when the processor is running at higher frequencies
than the chip was originally designed to run at. This does void the warranty.
Palm IIIC color to ship in February 2000.
Posted: 12/22/1999 Source: The
Register
Added by: Kim Heise
The first color Palm Pilot will be available by 3COM
sometime in February 2000. The new Palm IIIC will feature 3COM's latest Palm OS
3.5 which supports color displays. With the release of the color Palm IIIC, the
company will also be releasing a 8MB version called the Palm IIIX
Tech News for Tuesday December 21st
1999.
Red Hat to split stock 2 for 1.
Posted: 12/21/1999 Source: TechWeb
Added by: Kim Heise
This TechWeb article reports that despite an operating
loss of $3.6 million (5 cents per share), revenue is up for the quarter ($5.4
million, compared to $3.3 million last year). Additionally, the company
announced it's stock will split two-for-one on January 7.
Additionally, Red Hat is considering filing for another public offering of
common stock.
Cisco buys into optical communications.
Posted: 12/21/1999 Source: The
Register
Added by: Kim Heise
Pirelli today announced a strategic alliance with
Cisco Systems in optical communications. Cisco will make a 10 per cent equity
investment of $100 million in Pirelli's optical components division and
submarine optical transmission systems division.
The agreement includes the sale of Pirelli's terrestrial optical systems
business to Cisco for $2.15 billion, of which about twenty per cent is
contingent on revenue targets and other performance milestones.
The deal means that Cisco will inherit Pirelli's new bag of optical ticks,
including its multi-wavelength optical amplifier system which the company says
can amplify up to eight channels at bit rates of up to 2.5 Gbit/S.
The package will help to flesh out Cisco's growing stable of networking
technologies, in this case with an eye toward high-bandwidth Net access, a goal
for which Cisco is of course well geared.
Last month, Nortel unveiled its New World routing and IP technologies in the
wake of its own optical networking developments. The Cisco/Pirelli deal will be
seen by many as a response to Nortel's move by the giant of the networking
industry.
Sun To Release New Fiber Channel RAID.
Posted: 12/21/1999 Source: TechWeb
Added by: Kim Heise
Sun Microsystems on Tuesday is expected to introduce a new Fibre Channel RAID
storage array.
The Sun StorEdge A3500FC is targeted at
data warehousing and decision support applications, according to Sun officials.
The array can be connected up to 500 meters from the server.
The A3500FC is a cached RAID
solution with dual redundant controllers, dual power supplies, dual power cords,
and mirrored cache. Sun's new StorEdge Instant Image data management software
can be used with the unit to provide snapshots of online data and provide
instant data recovery during system interruptions.
It is priced from $91,850 for a 91-gigabyte
configuration to about $560,000 for a 4.3-terabyte configuration. It can use
9-Gbyte, 18-Gbyte, and 36-Gbyte, 10,000-rpm hard disk drives.
Currently installed A3500 arrays can be
upgraded to the A3500FC, Sun officials said
Intel creates wireless division.
Posted: 12/21/1999 Source: TechWeb
Added by: Kim Heise
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 20 -
Intel, the world's No. 1 computer chipmaker, said it formed a new business group
focused on wireless communications, and gave its chief financial officer Andy
Bryant additional duties.
The company said its Computing and
Enhancement Group would become the Wireless Communications and Computing Group,
to focus on cellular and wireless communications.
FreeBSD 3.4 released.
Posted: 12/21/1999 Source: FreeBSD
Added by: Kim Heise
FreeBSD has released the latest version of the UNIX
operating system for your PC. As the name suggests the OS is free and can be
downloaded from FreeBSD.org. I use FreeBSD at home as a proxy server because the
OS supports full NAT (Network Address Translation).
S3 acquires Number Nine.
Posted: 12/21/1999 Source: Various
Added by: Kim Heise
It seems like it was just last week when S3 purchased
Diamond Multimedia and now the company has acquired Number Nine. Number Nine is
another video card manufacturer.
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 1999--In a move to strengthen
the competitive position of its Multimedia Division, S3(R) Incorporated (Nasdaq:SIII)
announced today that it has begun the process to acquire substantially all of
the assets of Number Nine Visual Technology Corporation.
The acquisition of Number Nine, a contract supplier of S3-based products to IBM,
will allow S3 to consolidate its graphics business with IBM into a single source
distribution model, while also adding highly skilled hardware and software
engineering resources to S3's existing teams.
"Over the past year, we have been working with IBM to build a long-term
business relationship based on a supplier agreement with Number Nine," said
Ken Potashner, chief executive officer for S3 Incorporated. "We expect that
our acquisition of Number Nine's assets will enable us to streamline this
business model and further strengthen our direct relationship with IBM."
Top Four Y2K Viruses.
Posted: 12/21/1999 Source: Riva3D
Added by: Kim Heise
Riva3D has posted a list outlining the top 4 virus
threats that could disable (to say the least) your PC. Here they are in no
particular order.
W97M.CHANTALA
This virus utilizes DOS batch scripting and changes the Windows registered user
to Chantel 4ever! Will delete all files in the C: root directory on Jan. 1,
2000, and occassionally the directory where the virus resides.
W32.MYPICS.WORM
Works through the Microsoft Outlook address book by sending copies out to up to
50 adressees from your personal list. The forwarded mail contains a file
attachment called "pics4you.exe" with the message "Here's some
pics for you!". Will reformat your hard drive on Jan. 1, 2000. It is an
especially virulent strain as it often appears to come from trusted associates
due to its replication scheme.
W95.BABYLONIA
This recently discovered (Dec. 7) virus spreads primarily through IRC chat
sessions. Infected users in turn infect everyone in the chat room they log into
by sending a file disguised as a year 2000 fix. When executed, this program
polls a web site in Japan for plug-ins. This action allows the author to create
any type of patch for the virus, from deleting files to gathering sensitive
information, including credit card numbers. Potentially very serious as this guy
could customize plug-ins that could do virtually anything.
Make sure your virus definition files have been updated before the big rollover.
Tech News for Monday December 20th
1999.
Intel announces P3-750, P3-800 and P3-800B.
Posted: 12/20/1999 Source: SharkExtreme
Added by: Kim Heise
In an effort to keep the competition, Intel has
released three new processors. All three new processors are based on the new
"Coppermine" architecture. The news chips are two basic P3's both
running at 750 and 800mhz with the standard 100mhz Front-Side-Bus and a 800B
chip running at 800mhz with a 133mhz Front-Side-Bus. Visit SharkExtreme for a
full review on these new chips. Don't hold your breath waiting for these chips
to show up on the consumer level any time soon as the older 700 & 750mhz
P3's are extremely rare.
Whether or not Intel and AMD can continue down this profit margin-eating,
production squeezing, high-technology slugfest is uncertain. All that is certain
is that between August and December of this year available processor speeds have
gone up by over 25%. That's almost as much as the unprecedented rise in the
Internet-propelled American NASDAQ financial index over the same time frame.
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