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| Tech News for Friday September 8th 2000DiamondMAX
80GB hard drive review. Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Maxtor has released a 80GB ATA/100 hard drive and Storage Review has gotten their lucky hands on one of these beasts. The DM80 doesn't skimp when it comes to other specs. Seek time is specified at 9.0 milliseconds, compared to the Deskstar 40GV's 9.5 ms. The buffer remains at a now-standard 2 MB… again better than the 40GV, which has scaled back to just 512k. A three-year warranty backs the unit. In recent times, Maxtor has joined the fray in catering to users looking for quieter drive operation with its "Silent Store" operation. It modifies seek and cache patterns to minimize noise in favor of performance. The manufacturer initially intended to leave the option of toggling quiet operation at the factory level. Since then, however, they've decided to leave it to end-users. A utility may be downloaded from Maxtor's site to switch quiet mode on or off here. For the purposes of this review, quiet mode was disabled (amset /off in the utility). The DiamondMax 80 is the first of a new breed of drives that will ship exclusively with the ATA-100 interface. Remember that since IDE drives have yet to break sequential transfer rates greater than even 40 MB/se that ATA-66 (and in most cases, even ATA-33) interfaces will run the drive at optimal performance. Our testbed remains equipped with a Promise Ultra66 controller. Help
Wanted - Crack the Code. If your Friday's are slow (especially today) you may want to consider a challenge to break a new security system and win $10,000. Here are the details: An Open Letter to the Digital Community Sanyo
laser allows high-speed writing on DVD disks. This is very exciting news and now all we need to do is wait and watch the price of DVD recorders drop. If my memory serves me correctly, DVD disks hold as much 4.6GB of data per side which is substantial over standard CDR's. Not only is this a technological breakthrough but supposedly the technology will be available as early as next year. Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. has developed a 660-nanometer red laser that more than doubles the recording speed of writable, rewritable and read-only DVD disks over present technology. "Currently the CD-R drives market is expanding explosively," said Minoru Sawada, senior manager of opt-electronic devices department at Sanyo. "Soon manufacturers will begin competition in high-speed DVD-writable drives. Sanyo wants to establish an advantageous position in the laser market by introducing high-power lasers earlier [than competitors]." The AlGaInP laser steadily emits a 660-nm single-mode laser with 80-mW output power in pulsed operation, which enables it to write data onto writable DVD disks at more than double the normal speed, said Sawada. For reading data, the laser can emit continuously (as required for reading) because output power for this function is as low as 5 mW. A laser with high-output power enables DVD-writable drive manufacturers to use a simple optical system structure, Sawada said. The laser will come in a 5.6-mm diameter package. Sanyo plans to ship samples early next year. Volume production plans are not yet decided. Hacker
Attacks Over 100 Sites With Pro-Napster Notes
. I hope that this web site does not get hacked for making this comment: Pulling off hacks like this is only going to make people more upset with the Napster and focus more energy on shutting the service down. An anonymous hacker has reportedly defaced at least 50, and possibly as many as 110, Web sites with pro-Napster, anti-record industry graffiti and messages. A radio report today said the unknown intruder attacked sites ranging from NASA to the Communications Workers of America following the court ruling earlier this week that could force MP3.com to pay millions of dollars in damages to Universal Music Group. The hacker reportedly used the handle "Pimpshiz," while posting messages lambasting the recording industry for its lawsuit against Napster. "The (Recording Industry Association of America) does not represent your favorite music artists," Pimpshiz reportedly pasted on the Palminfocenter.com site. "They represent rich record executives. These are the fat cats who make profit from the other 95 percent of CD sales. All because you either wanted more money (not like you had enough to begin with, right!?) or because you wanted publicity." News reports said Pimpshiz claimed to have defaced a total of 110 sites in four attacks and used a little-known hole in the Windows NT platform. He threatened a bigger round of attacks to come. Lucent,
PacketVideo optimize software for multimedia wireless ICs. It's not too difficult to see into the future and see that handheld devices will be streaming audio and video in real-time over a wireless protocol. ALLENTOWN, Pa.--Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Microelectronics Group here and PacketVideo Corp. of San Diego today announced plans to jointly optimize products for next-generation devices used in wireless products. Under a collaboration agreement, PacketVideo's wireless media software will be optimized for higher performance and low-power consumption when running on Lucent chip sets. The software will serve Lucent's chip solutions in General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications Services (UMTS)/Enhanced Data for Global Evolution (EDGE) applications. The targeted chip sets will include platforms based on the StarCore SC100 digital signal processor, said Lucent, which is jointly developing the basic DSP architecture with Motorola Inc. under a two-year-old alliance. Nokia
Launches New Internet Device for Homes. Don't you love the media hype? Read this piece from the clip below "Its) features...include full, fast Internet access......". If 56k modem connects is the best you can achieve at home then this box is not going to be of much help. HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish telecoms equipment maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE) said on Friday it had launched its Media Terminal, bringing Internet to the living room, the first in a range of products it was introducing for the ``connected home''. The new Linux-based product, which combines Internet media and digital broadcasting technologies giving access to entertainment on the Internet through any home display device, would be available in the second quarter of 2001, Nokia said. Nokia's Swedish archrival Ericsson (LMEb.ST) is also developing Internet-friendly home appliances in collaboration with Electrolux (ELUXb.ST). ``The Media Terminal enables full Internet access and push-type services over TV broadcast networks,'' Nokia said in a statement. ``(Its) features...include full, fast Internet access in the living room which provides for interactive digital services including home shopping and banking, as well as the possibility to pause and replay live broadcasts or split the screen between TV and Internet,'' it said. Telcos
Testing Video Services Over DSL. Now if only I could get DSL in my home...... U.S., European, and Asian telecommunications carriers are deploying or testing video services now that high-speed Internet access is attracting a critical mass of customers. Research from Cahners In-Stat Group, Scottsdale, Ariz., said telcos will leverage digital subscriber line (DSL) technology for video services, strengthening the demand for video gateway products and pushing the market to triple-digit annual growth rates through 2003. The gateway market is small now, but future features could include home networking connectivity, Web browsing on TV sets, video on demand, videoconferencing and personal video recording. Telcos and utilities are the largest buyers of video gateways, followed by service providers targeting niche markets such as multiple dwellings, hotels, cruise ships, senior housing, and hospitals, In-Stat said. Sony
Puts Video Onto PDA. When Sony announced their new PDA based on Palm's famous handheld OS there was nothing overly exciting about the new product until I stumbled on this article over at TechWeb. Now if only the price can be lowered enough to make it a sure winner then we would have an outstanding product on the market. The let down is that it will be only one of the later generations to offer video and sound. The CLIE, which comes pre-equipped to connect to the Internet via cell phones, will be sold in two versions. The colour-screen version is expected to retail for around 55,000 yen ($525) and the monochrome display model at 50,000 yen. Although the CLIE's video function doesn't include sound, Sony's Kanno said later generations are likely to include full music and video capability. That's the defining strategy for Sony's efforts to integrate its products into one-stop audio-visual entertainment centres, something it is already pushing hard with efforts focused around its line of VAIO personal computers. Heatsinks
that work by sound. Heat dissipation is always a major concern with computers these days even though chips are becoming smaller and are using less power simply because we are driving the internal clock speeds "through the roof". The Register reports that the University of Pennsylvania has developed a new technology for converting heat into sound. Sounds strange? It's a Friday today and it's always fun to read about something unusual. Take a look at this clip: The technique, which we
don't pretend to understand for a moment, centres on some dinky little gizmos
called carbon nanotubes. Intel's
portable Timna to debut at 700MHz. After the major debacle with the last CPU release from Intel hopefully they are going to get it right this time. As a rule of thumb it's better in this industry to purchase the first release of any hardware/software product until all the problems are ironed out. Companies cut major corners, especially during testing to try and meet insane deadlines. Intel Corp.'s first Timna chip for mobile computers will be a 700MHz version released towards the end of the first half of next year, sources said.The news suggests that Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC) delayed plans for delivering Timna to reduce the cost of low-end PCs are back on track. Timna, the first integrated Celeron chip, combines several features on a single chip including a processor core, graphics engine and memory controller. The aim is to help computer makers by removing costs from the manufacturing bill of goods for low-end PCs. Savings could also be passed on to consumers. Tech News for Thursday September 7th 200016x
CD-R Drive From SKC. This is very impressive news considering that for over a year 8x recorders where the fastest you could find and now within two months we've doubled that speed. Let's not also forget how cheap the drives have become and major retailers are literally throwing recordable CD's at you. SKC Company (Korea) said it has independently developed a 16x CD-Recordable unit with a capacity of 650MB, which will be marketed this year. With this unit, it takes only 4 minutes and 38 seconds to write 650MB of data. Through the development, SKC has narrowed the technology gap with international companies and secured a foothold to compete in the storage media business, including DVD units later, the company said. Barracuda
ATA III - Fourth Generation Drives From Seagate. Seagate today announced its new
Barracuda ATA III, the industry's only fourth-generation 7,200-rpm ATA disc
drive. Barracuda ATA III is aimed at mainstream and high-performance commercial
desktop PCs and economical ATA RAID systems. Barracuda ATA III is provided with
Seagate’s 3D Defense System and can withstand 350Gs non-operating shock –
higher than any other 7,200-rpm drive. IBM
to Unveil New Wireless Devices. IBM Corp. will show that it is not messing around in the overwhelming tide of wireless growth this week at the DEMOmobile conference in Pasadena over the next few days. Big Blue (NYSE:IBM) figures to be a prominent player at the mobile party, where the giant will show off its latest PC division's notebook line Thursday. The firm will demonstrate its new ThinkPad i Series with new Intel-based notebooks that house wireless local area network (LAN) capabilities in the hopes of boosting what had been a rather slender market share of notebook sales. The new IBM ThinkPad I Series notebook computers will be the first Intel processor-based systems to offer integrated 802.11b wireless LAN capabilities. They are compatible with IBM's recently announced High Rate Wireless LAN Access Point, linking wireless ThinkPad notebooks to wired networks. As part of its planned rollout, IBM will initially target the hardware developments at the academic community, which is more likely to adopt the technology earlier as opposed to updating older wiring throughout many of the nation's school systems. The education sector also may not be as conservative in adopting LAN-enabled notebooks as corporations, which tend to be more concerned with security issues, said Ron Sperano, program director for mobile market development for IBM. Big Blue also plans to demonstrate PC Card options based on the Bluetooth standard, which it has developed in collaboration with other major technology giants. Through Bluetooth, notebooks, desktop computers and peripherals can exchange information so long as users maintain a distance of approximately 10 meters. Casio
WMP-1V MP3 Audio Wrist Watch Review. This is one of the most innovative gadgets I've seen in a long time but the technology still needs plenty of work. Casio has released a wrist based MP3 player that sports 32MB of RAM for around $250.00. No one can deny that unique and bizarre gadgets will always draw the attention, scrutiny, praise, and criticism of others, and in coming up with the MP3 Audio Wrist Watch, Casio must have had that single thought in mind. Indeed this “MP3 portable” player looks, feels, and functions just like any wrist watch, but I wouldn’t really term it either a watch or an MP3 player, being that it sort straddles the middle line between being a proper portable player and a regular watch. Judge
rules MP3.com Violated Universal's Copyrights. The amount of money to be awarded to Universal by MP3.com is simply obscene and will most like shut down the company. The court also set the
statutory damages amount that Universal could potentially recover from the case
at $25,000 per CD. MP3.com said it numbers about 4,700 Universal CDs, making
damages about $118 million. Universal has expected to collect about $450 million
from 10,000 CDs it says MP3.com copied. Tech News for Wednesday September 6th 2000P4
Mainboards From ASUS And Gigabyte In October. Here is an interesting bit from SI we came across today: Taiwan companies including Asustek Computer Inc. and Gigabyte Technology Co. will show computers running the P4 processor at the Comdex Fall computer show in Las Vegas in October. Judging by what it says we have every reason
to expect ASUS and Gigabyte mainboards for Pentium 4 to come out in October.
Well, not so much time left already… "Ultrawideband"
wireless inches closer to market. Start-up Time Domain, which is developing "ultrawideband" technology for wireless data use, said today it has hired Titan subsidiary LinCom Wireless to help transform its high-speed technology into a working commercial system. Time Domain has been one of the leaders in developing the basic technology behind ultrawideband. But that company's expertise is in creating the microchips that allow the technology to function, rather than in building wireless communications systems. "This definitely helps us move more quickly from chipset to commercial products," said Peggy Sammon, a senior vice president for strategic planning at Time Domain. The Alabama-based company is still in the early stages of the development of its technology, but it has attracted strong interest and investments from the likes of Sony, Qwest Communications International, Siemens and WorldCom. Ultrawideband, which uses the wireless spectrum more efficiently than does ordinary wireless communications, has been spotlighted by Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard as one possible way of decreasing pressure on the portion of the airwaves dedicated to voice and data communications. Linux-Mandrake
7.2 Beta Released. MandrakeSoft has released the first beta version of Linux-Mandrake 7.2, code-named Ulysses. Linux-Mandrake is a pre-configured version of Linux which aims to provide simplicity through graphical interfaces. It makes use of KDE, GNOME, and the RPM package system, making it fully compatible with Red Hat Linux. New features in version 7.2 include Internet connection sharing, installation support for CABLE and DSL, increased hardware support, KDE 2 Beta 4, GNOME 1.2, and XFree86 4.01. Those interested in testing and debugging this beta may grab the release from the nearest FTP mirror. For more information, visit the Ulysses Beta page. CNRP
Nears Completion. Engineers have sent out a beta version of the Common Names Resolution Protocol to netizens around the globe today. This protocol will make it simple for Internet users to navigate the Web by replacing URLs with just what it sounds like, simple words. The protocol was developed by engineers for Network Solutions, RealNames, Netword, and AT&T and will roll out commercially this fall according to the report. The new system could make it easy for navigation by allowing a corporate executive to access his 401K information by simply entering "401K" in the address bar of the browser. Read the rest of the article on Network World Fusion News for more information. Philips
makes important breakthrough with plastic displays. Researchers at Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, have succeeded in making a 64-by-64-pixel display in which each pixel is turned on and off by a switch based on plastic electronics. This is a major step towards the realization of low-cost, flexible displays made in plastic. This kind of reloadable flexible display may even replace the daily newspaper one day. The results mentioned in this press release are research results and do not imply the introduction of a new product or technology. Breakthrough Advantages Microsoft
upgrades the X-Box with P3-733mhz. Not something to laugh at currently having at 733mhz gaming machine but when you consider the X-Box won't ship until later next year - the 733mhz will most likely be something to laugh at. Microsoft promises gamers will get all the power they need from its Xbox console with what is expected to be a 733MHz Pentium III processor under the hood. The company recently decided to increase processing power inside the Xbox from 600MHz after consultation with its Xbox advisory board. "Since then, the hardware has been fixed," said a Microsoft Xbox representative at ECTS. "This will make the Xbox run better and smoother." By the time the Xbox hits the shops, sometime at the end of next year, the processor inside the Xbox will be about half as fast as Intel's most powerful PC chip. Microsoft still expects the console to have a lifetime of at least two years. "We expect the same lifetime out of the hardware as other consoles," said a Microsoft representative. "It will have so much more processing power than any other console on the market. The graphics card will do so much that a 1GHz chip would probably sit idle for one third of the time." Tech News for Tuesday September 5th 2000World's
First Cellphone Radiation List Published
. SAR Data.com has published research that details the highest and lowest rated cellular phones according to their radiation testing reports. Richard Tenney, managing director of doMode.com, a US company that supplied the data for the research, and which also developed a database search engine for Japanese i-mode cellular service, told Newsbytes that the research is the first of its kind in the world. "You wouldn't believe the lengths we had to go to get access to this information," he said, adding that most vendors released the data when it became obvious that doMode.com would have eventually been able to research the data itself. "The specific absorption rate (SAR) of all mobile phones has to be detailed by the handset vendor, but their technique in many cases has been to either restrict the circulation and/or the model numbers which are tested," he said. Next-Generation
Virus Streams To Win2K. The first iteration of this new "Stream Companion" generation of virus, called W2K.Stream, takes advantage of the Windows 2000 NTFS file system, which allows multiple simultaneous data streams to execute. Some of the potential streams that could be used for malicious purposes include independent executable program modules, as well as various service streams to manipulate file access rights, encryption data, processing time, and more. The virus - and others like it - is expected to be difficult to detect as anti-virus programs only check the main data stream. "Many anti-virus products will become obsolete, and their vendors will be forced to urgently redesign their anti-virus engines," says Eugene Kaspersky, head of anti-virus research at Kaspersky Lab. "This virus begins a new era in computer virus creation," says Kaspersky. "The 'Stream Companion' technology the virus uses to plant itself into files makes its detection and disinfection extremely difficult to complete." Hackers "Benny" and "Ratter" created the W2K.Stream virus in the Czech Republic at the end of August. The W2K.Stream virus is a Windows application compressed by a Petite PE EXE file compressor and is about four kilobytes in size. When it runs, it infects all EXE files in the current directory and then returns control to the host file. While infecting a file, the virus creates a new stream associated with the victim file. This stream has "STR" as its name. The virus then moves the victim file body to the STR stream and then overwrites the victim file body with its own virus code. As a result, when an infected file is executed, Windows reads the default stream and executes it. Windows also reports the same file size - the virus length - for all infected files. Kaspersky Lab has added protection against the "Stream" virus to its daily update of AntiViral Toolkit Pro. Sun
finally to unveil UltraSPARC III server. Nearly four years after launching the UltraSPARC II, Sun (Nasdaq: SUNW) next month will finally introduce its successor, a 64-bit RISC processor clocked at 750MHz, sources close to the company said. Cisco,
Nortel Battle For Switching Core. DENVER -- With the introduction of its Wavelength Router this past week, Cisco Systems Inc. tossed the gauntlet to Nortel Networks Corp. in a battle for the high-speed switching core of newly installed networks. But Nortel may still hold a trump card with its yet-unproven all-optical switching scheme. Regardless of the outcome of this clash between Cisco (stock: CSCO) and Nortel (stock: NT), all players at the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC) here agreed that the core of thenetwork must be a mesh, rather than a series of rings. Just outside the network core, metropolitan applications for optical transport have matured during the past two years, to the point where metro and long-haul systems are swapping some characteristics, as NFOEC made clear. The drive to push intelligence to the edge of the public network has forced edge-access systems to gain nearly as much bandwidth as core transport devices, even as they gain electronic-domain complexity in order to assign services to wavelengths. Traditionally, the fiber-optic networks that span the United States have been based on rings -- circles of fiber that can span single cities or multiple states depending on the amount of bandwidth required. Developed to handle telephone traffic, rings circumvented the problem of connecting every city to every other city: Signals could travel around the loop until hitting their destinations, and could provide backup connections simply by sending signals in the other direction. But, speaker after speaker at NFOEC asserted that the increase in data traffic has rendered rings obsolete for the network core. A ring must have the same bandwidth all around, a requirement that can prove wasteful if the ring traverses both metropolitan and rural regions. And a signal traversing the country has to touch several rings, getting converted to electricity and back into light at every juncture. AMD
Announces 750-MHz Duron. On Tuesday, Advanced Micro Devices announced a 750-MHz version of its Duron processor, as part of a bid to stay one up on Intel. While the release of the 750-MHz speed grade means little for OEM purchasers, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., still continues to push clock speeds higher. To date, Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., has not introduced a 750-MHz Celeron microprocessor. On a clock-to-clock basis, the public pricing of AMD's Duron chips is identical to Intel's Celeron processor, part of AMD's strategy to "offer a superior product at a fair price," according to the company. DDR
Chipsets/Motherboards In October. A huge thanks to KH for letting me know
about this Ctech
Taiwan article regarding DDR SDRAM platform development by AMD, VIA, and
ALI. The article includes some major news regarding production schedules and
roadmaps for DDR chipsets and motherboards, here are the highlights:
TOP New
AMD processors. Mustang. This CPU should become a rival to Intel Pentium III Xeon (512KB/2MB L2 cache working at the full core speed). Mustang will feature:
Palomino. This CPU will be AMD’s response to Intel Pentium 4. However, it may also threaten the positions of elder Intel Pentium III models (of course, if the cost is appropriate). It will be available for desktop PCs and for mobile ones. The key features include:
Morgan. This CPU will come to replace AMD Duron. In fact, replacing Duron won’t make much sense, because it is anyway more attractive that Intel Celeron. However, this move is not ungrounded: it is easier to manufacture CPUs on one and the same core. Like in case of Palomino, there will be also two versions: desktop and mobile. Here are the key features:
The manufacturing of these processors is also expected to be transferred to 0.13 micron technology approximately in Q3 2001 (AMD is most likely to involve IBM’s productive capacities). This transfer will help reduce power consumption and increase the core clock frequencies. |
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