Security
Most Taiwan DRAM makers are expected to completely phase out commodity DRAM production at 8" fabs by 2009. Among all major DRAM makers in Taiwan, only Nanya Technology is expected to continue to house a single 8-inch fab producing DRAM.
Scottsdale (AZ)
Think gaming consoles are mere toys? Online content and services tied to Microsoftò€™s Xbox, Sonyò€™s PlayStation, and Nintendoò€™s Wii will generate more than $8 billion in revenue for those companies by 2013, according to a projection by industry analyst Michael Cai of Parks Associates.
In order to defend its entry-level notebook market, Intel is planning to launch two 65nm Merom-based processors for its Centrino 2 platform (Montevina), according to sources at motherboard makers.The CPUs include the Celeron 585 with a core frequency of 2.16 GHz priced at $107 in thousand-unit tray quantities, and Celeron 575 at 2 GHz and $86.
Framingham (MA) - NAND flash-based acceleration technologies for computers will beginning to surface with the release of Windows Vista and promise to shorten OS boot and applications load times as well as reduce the power consumption of mobile computers. But the first generation of the technology may not deliver on its promise, a report published by IDC suggests.
ATI today announced the Xpress 1100 chipset, which is specifically targeted at notebooks equipped with the Turion 64 X2 processor. ATI claims that the new chipset consumes less power and 33% more graphics performance than the Xpress 200M series, which is used in single-core Turion 64-based mobile computers.
Computer users tired of spyware and viruses should consider switching to Macintosh computers, says Sophos in its new "Security Threat Management Report." The report ranks the top ten malware threats of the past six months along with outline current and future security threats. Hacker primarily target Windows machines and the report claims the Macintosh will continue to be a "safer place," at least for a while.
Chicago (IL)
Westlake Village (CA) - Before today"s age of downloadable music, people used to sit around in old-town record stores discussing their favorite music amidst dusty album covers. In many cities these stores are a distant memory, but Bill Nguyen is trying to bring them back, albeit in an online format.
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Now here"s a nifty little device for those old hard drives stacking up and collecting dust like old nudie magazines. USB peripheral manufacturer Brando has devised of a way to connect those SATA HDDs by way of USB 3.0. via its new Unitek USB 3.0 to SATA adapter (Y-1034). The device can even be used with older IDE-based drives using an extra IDE to SATA docking converter.
Following the Intel chipset shortage, recent rumors among motherboard makers indicate that supplies of the Athlon 64 3000+ and dual-core Athlon 64 X2 3800+ CPU lines from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are already short of demand in the Asia-Pacific region. AMD has responded that the shortage should ease in 1-2 weeks.
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Dallas (TX)
By the end of June of this year, there were will be two billion subscribers worldwide for the GSM family of technologies-GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS and HSDPA, according to research firm 3G Americas and Informa Telecoms & Media. Globally, there are 2.29 billion cellular users encompassing all technologies, placing GSM as the dominant market leader, according to the firm.
Medication management and mobile cart solutions provider, Artromick International, launched a new mobile computing medication cart, incorporating latest mobile hardware and power system solutions.
Terrorists better put on their makeup because European researchers are developing small cameras to be mounted in the backs of airline seats. The cameras would profile suspicious movements and then transfer the information up to pilots and authorities. But it doesn"t stop there, microphones would also record speech.
Palo Alto (CA) - Hewlett-Packard (HP) today released first details about a "hybrid" nano-CMOS chips that could lead the way not only to much smaller chip structures and extend the physical limits of Moore"s law, but also continue the trend to a substantial decrease of power consumption in semiconductors.
San Francisco (CA) - One day after the announcement of the first Intel-based Apple computers, Intel follows up on its new relationship with Apple: The company and released software that is designed to help Apple developers to create multi-threaded applications for the Core Duo processor.
Bytescout Software has released Watermarking PRO, an easy-to-use Windows application that lets you protect your photos and images by watermarking them with custom text and images. Watermarking PRO makes watermarking really simple.
San Jose (CA) - The security software scene just got more interesting with Microsoft and its OneCare application and service package. It"s priced below competitive offers and may force other vendors to rethink their product strategy. Expect them to bank on their experience advantage, software features and try to pick up users while riding along with Microsoft"s marketing campaign.
While introducing several new fabrication tools at the ongoing SEMICON West, Applied Materials indicated that the first ICs manufactured on a 45nm process should be available in 2007, while chips produced at the 32nm node would only be seen after 2007, according to company president and CEO Michael Splinter.
AMD"s long awaited ATI R600 graphics chip is getting delayed and is now expected to be available in May. The card was scheduled to be released in March and would have given Nvidia"s 8800 line of cards a run for their money.
El Segundo (CA)
Microsoft will acquire BigPark, a video game company co-founded and part-owned by Don Mattrick, the executive in charge of Microsoft"s videogame business.
A burst of international patent applications from China, Korea and Japan boosted global filings to a record high last year, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said on Friday.
Austin (TX)
DigiTimes is reporting this morning
Intel plans to cut the prices of its 90nm Celeron D CPUs on February 20, 2005, while keeping the prices of its Pentium 4 CPU lineup unchanged early next year, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers.
El Segundo (CA) - Who would have thought that? Market research firm iSuppli today said that Microsoft in fact is not meeting market demand for its Zune portable media player. However, the reason may not be just a jump in demand for certain models, but an overly cautious market strategy of Microsoft as well, the market research firm speculated.
London
ProcessPro, developers of ProcessPro Premier ERPsoftware, is expanding its sales force to meet current market demands. ProcessPro has recently added four new members to its sales team: two Business Development Representatives and two Regional Sales Managers.
Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC) announced at CES 2007 that it is offering a selection of four embedded NAND solutions developed by Toshiba: GB NAND, LBA-NAND, GB MCP and Package-on-Package (PoP). The GB NAND is a single-component solution combining a memory controller with an SD interface, error correction code (ECC), wear-leveling and block management with MLC NAND flash memory.
Microsoft and Google are in a "two-horse" race to strike an Internet advertising partnership with Time Warner"s America Online unit, sources familiar with the talks said.
Sharp Microelectronics has introduced a new 12.1" TFT LCD for outdoor and bright ambient applications in transportation, industrial, retail, medical and other markets. This new LCD pushes performance levels in viewing angle and sunlight readability while maintaining drop-in replacement for current Sharp designs.
Sunnyvale (CA) - Brain-controlled input devices appear to become the most interesting exotic gaming technology this year: Following the announcement of the Emotiv EPOC, performance memory maker OCZ today said that it is about to ship the first Brain-Computer-Interface product.
Readers can now download entire guides in a dynamic, 3-D page-flipping format
While Lite-On IT is expected to start shipping 18x DVD burners to Hewlett-Packard (HP) this month, the growing tension in competition between Lite-On IT, Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) and Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology (TSST) facilitated OEM prices to further drop, according to sources at Taiwan-based optical disk drive (ODD) makers. The sources detailed that this month, Lite-On IT starts shipping internal (940i) and external (model 940e) models of 18x DVD burners to HP.
Tritton, a provider of networking, storage, and peripheral products, said its SEE2 USB-to-SVGA adapter can handle resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 pixels at up to 16-bit color depth. Previously, the device supported a maximum of just 1024 x 768.
Las Vegas (NV) - All around Vegas there is to be found an enigmatic advertisement from Texas Instruments: "It"s all in the mirrors." They are referring to Digital Light Processing, something Texas Instruments invented in 1987 and which they are today putting to use in HD TV"s and projectors across the industry.
ViewSonic has showcased the world"s first "Made for Ipod" LCD monitor, which features an integrated Ipod dock, at the 2006 Apple Expo in Paris. The ViewDock series LCD monitor has received authorization from Apple, and the new monitors will hit US, Europe and Taiwan markets in November.
Security professionals warned developers on Thursday that they need to be aware that their open-source repositories can now be easily mined, allowing attackers to target programs that are likely to be flawed. While Google could previously be used to look for specific strings, now the search engine riffles through code that much better.
Fujitsui has developed a new optical drive element that could one day achieve one terabit per square inch recording. The element is for thermally assisted magnetic drives and helps focus heat onto a hard drive platter so that a magnetic head can record more data. The new head element, along with perpendicular recording technology, will help hard drive companies increase capacities.
California representative Jane Harman has submitted a bill to the House of Representatives that would ban inefficient lightbulbs. HR 1547 would ban all lightbulbs that produce less than 60 lumens per watt by 2012. The bill would also require that even more efficient lightbulbs be used in subsequent years.
Santa Clara (CA) - Owners of a GeForce 8-series or higher graphics card can squeeze more eye candy out of their hardware as Nvidia has released a demo pack consisting of a full game, acceleration demos and Stanfordò€™s Folding@Home distributed computing client that showcase the physics and floating point horsepower of the companyò€™s graphics cards. Analysts expect a steep decline in revenue to overshadow the companyò€™s technology later today.
Despite achieving shipment growth of only 2.7% in the second quarter of 2006, the large-size TFT LCD panel market is in shape for an excellent second half of 2006, as tight supply and price increases bolster the market, according to iSuppli.
With NAND flash prices continuing to drop, makers including Samsung Electronics, Toshiba and Hynix are all focusing on accelerating their process technology transition to lower cost instead of increase storage density per chip. Samsung is planning to advance to 40 nm in the third quarter this year, while Toshiba is heading to 4 3nm and Hynix 48 nm.
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Following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on DRAM development, including the formation of a joint venture (JV), Micron Technology and Nanya Technology are said will officially sign a contract by April. Industry watchers generally acknowledge the stronger presence of the two companies in the DRAM industry, but also raised concerns about the potential conflict with Inotera Memories, the JV between Nanya and Qimonda that mainly fabricates DRAM on trench technology.
Mars, or very mear Mars - An asteroid dubbed 2007 WD5 is looking more and more like it will narrowly miss Mars when it flies by the planet on January 30, 2008. The chances had increased on readings taken December 28, 2007 to 1 in 25. However, newer readings have reduced the chances slightly to 1 in 28.
Micro-Star International (MSI) has launched the P7N Diamond and P7N SLI Platinum motherboards to support 45 nm Intel processors. The P7N Diamond utilizes the nForce 780i chipset with support for 3-way SLI technology, while the P7N SLI Platinum utilizes the nForce 750i chipset.
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In an effort to influence emerging standards for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) and ensure the interoperability of tools that support the programming methodology, Sun Microsystems announced plans Friday to join the OpenAjax Alliance and the Dojo Foundation.
Global content management leader establishes service center for North American clients
Taiwan"s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) recently debuted its latest flexible display technology, including a color 10.4" cholesteric LCD (Ch-LC) flexible display and a flexible LED backlighting unit (BLU). Instead of using glass substrate, the 10.4" color flexible display features two plastic substrates and a thickness of less than 10mm, ITRI said.
While leading DRAM makers from Japan and South Korea migrate their DRAM production to 6F array architecture, DRAM makers are also expected to follow suit in the second half of 2008, according to industry sources. Elpida Memory is to introduce the new array architecture on 68 nm from the third quarter of 2008, whereas Qimonda will also start using the new architecture design on its 65 nm process in the same period, according to the sources.
In a gift to those who want to be surrounded by work 24 hours a day, Hitachi said it had developed a thin electronic paper that can be posted on walls bringing in messages by remote control.
Taipei - Graphics cards manufacturers are gearing up to launch boards carrying Nvidia"s next-generation graphic processor, Tom"s Hardware Guide has learned. The chip, code-named G70, was shown behind closed doors at the Computex trade show today.
The key innovations are computer audit, enhancement of access permission features and sufficient increase of speed and efficiency of the program.
Gigabyte, more commonly known for its motherboards and graphics cards, is presenting a water cooling solution for RAM modules, dubbed Cool Rain.
Nvidia is going to announce the Geforce 6600GT and non GT AGP cards in just a bit more than two weeks. This means that ATI has to respond with something. This time, rather then going for a bridged X700 card, it will just lower the price of a well known card.
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Bangkok (Thailand) - At TG Daily we strive to bring you the very best coverage of events around the world. Sometimes that means lugging a heavy digital camera, hi-def camcorder and a laptop around to steamy parts of the world like Thailand, but we do it for you, our loyal readers. For those of you who aren"t lucky enough to attend the 29th International Motor Show here are some videos to show you what you"re missing.
Tom"s Hardware has posted a summary of its 500-hour test run of Windows Vista. The article provides a first impression of the operating system"s new user interface, the upcoming web browser Internet Explorer 7, network and security applications as well as DirectX and driver installation procedures.
Passports and other ID cards incorporating radio chips can be remotely spied on, jammed and even copied, computer experts revealed at a major conference that ended on Sunday.
Shuttle anticipates that demand for BTX (Balanced Technology Extended) systems will not pick up until next year, while projecting that 5% of the 750,000 XPCs it expects to ship this year will be BTX systems.
PolyIC said it has created "the world"s fastest (600 kilohertz) integrated circuit made of organic material". Iyalso claims to have have succeeded in using printing techniques to produce highly stable circuits made of polymers.
Miami (FL) - Alienware, a specialty maker of top-end gaming PCs, has thrown its hat into the big Vista ring, now offering the new operating system on its compatible PCs as part of the large-scale Vista launch.
Professional Service Automation and Project Portfolio Management Software provider Atlantic Global announce major enhancements to the market-leading solution Atlantic Global OnDemand.
SanDisk today announced that it expects to soon launch 56nm multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips with Toshiba at Toshiba"s 12" fab (Fab 3) at Yokkaichi, Nagoya, Japan. By spring 2007, SanDisk intends to ship the highest available density of single-chip MLC NAND flash memory.
Seoul (Korea) - Samsung engineers managed to squeeze a fully functional CMOS module providing 8 megapixels of image resolution or cellphone cameras in an area measuring just 28 x 15.3 x 8.5mm. Samsung said cellphones using this chip may surface by the end of the year, but we are not holding our breath, especially not for U.S. availability.
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Intel has silently improved its Core 2 Duo line-up.
With DrainStar(R), the smart design and calculation software for siphonic roof drainage, benefits are double: up to 60% of building costs can be saved, while reducing CO2 emissions at the same time.
Apple Computer is one of few high-tech companies which may have been responsible for a recent market survey that asked participants to rate their preference of form factor designs for a next-generation Internet handheld device. The study, conducted earlier this spring by a private firm, placed approximately ten mock portable devices of different overall size, shape, screen size and weight, in front of participants and asked that they rate those devices based on which offered the most appealing structural design.
Microsoft has made available a new Community Technology Preview (CTP) of its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.
Texas Instruments (TI) said it has been notified of an unsolicited "mini-tender offer" by TRC Capital Corporation to purchase up to 3,000,000 shares of TIò€™s common stock, representing approximately 0.23% of TIò€™s outstanding shares.
Meraki hopes it can succeed where larger players such as Earthlink and Google failed: Making a business out of providing the infrastructure for citywide Wi-Fi systems.
Santa Clara (CA) - Sun"s Project Blackbox is shipping, literally: Now called the Modular Datacenter S20, Blackbox is a datacenter built into a 20 ft container that is sent to customers via ship or airplane. Sun promises that the S20 not only can bring deployment time down to as little as 22 days, but can also reduce cooling needs by as much as 40%.
ATI Technologies expects to begin volume shipments of its 90nm graphics processing units (GPUs), the R520, R530 and RV515, in the middle of the third quarter, as unspecified issues for manufacturing on 90nm technology will soon be solved, according to ATI Taiwan. ATI also plans to introduce another flagship chip, the R580, in early 2006.
San Jose (CA) - If it"s the number of cores that gets computers excited these days, then IBM may have its hands on the ultimate processor. Together with Rapport, a Silicon Valley startup, the company previewed the Kilocore1025, a processor with a total of 1025 cores that promises not only to boost processing speed but also to operate at low power levels.
Chicago (IL)
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Excess semiconductor inventory in the electronics supply chain declined significantly in the fourth quarter of 2004, marking the end of a nine-month run-up in surplus stockpiles and putting the industry on track to eliminate its chip over-inventory in 2005, iSuppli said in a January 28 email.
Taiwan-based G-Shank Enterprise stated that stamping parts it manufactured for Sony"s PlayStation 3 (PS3) game consoles have no defects and should not cause malfunction of the console"s card reader, according to a November 20 filing the company made with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE).
Intel today disclosed key technical details of its upcoming wireless broadband chip for WiMax products, which will enable long-distance, high-speed wireless Internet access for homes and businesses.
Major electronic voting machine problems occurred in at least six U.S. states during the country"s midterm elections, underscoring that system failure, not fraud, is the biggest issue facing future races, voting-rights activists and technologists said this week.
Las Vegas (NV) - This year"s Defcon computer security convention had a high-tech badge for an equally high-tech crowd. The circular badge was a colored circuit board complete with a small computer chip, battery and two blinking LED lights. Defcon staff wanted the badge to be difficult to counterfeit, but easy enough to add some interesting hacks.
Guess how many candy corns are in this case!
Rumors are again circulating that Intel plans to exit the entry-level chipset market amid tight supply of flip chip (FC) substrates, with chipset makers such as ATI Technologies, Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS), VIA Technologies to benefit from Intel"s exit, according to market sources. Intel declined to comment on the rumors but said it has never "exited" or "returned" to the chipset market, as its products are allotted according to the most efficient arrangement.
San Francisco (CA)
Chicago (IL) - After launching its 3D1 graphics card last December, Gigabyte will announce a second dual-GPU board next week, Tom"s Hardware Guide has learned. The card will be based on two GeForce 6600 processors and be priced around $400.
San Francisxo (CA) - Intel continues its aggressive pace on the way to the introduction of its first dual-core proessor. On the first day of the Intel Developer Forum, the company provided nuts and bolts on its processor roadmap, formally announcing new brandnames, upcoming platforms and new chipset features such as integrated support for dual graphics cards.
Epox announced two new SLI-capable mainboards. The EP-9NPA+ SLI aims at Socket 939 AMD processors, while the EP-5NVA+SLI will accommodate Socket 775 Intel CPUs (FSB 800 and 1066). The devices support up to four GByte dual-channel DDR memory, integrate a Realtek sound solution with up to eight audio channels. Other standard equipment includes ten USB 2.0 connects, two P-ATA and four SATA II ports.
Nvidia"s nForce platform for Intel-based systems was was shown for the first time at the Intel Developer Forum. The company did not say when actual systems would be shipping, but after receiving PCI Express certification it is certainly just a matter of a few weeks until the Intel nForce will appear on the market.
Las Vegas (NV) - Thousands of computer security gurus and hackers are returning to Las Vegas this week for the Blackhat and Defcon conventions. Defcon"s new home hotel, the Riviera, is bracing for computer problems and appears to have taken some pre-emptive action.
Clearspeed had announced in June of this year plans to introduce an add-in card carrying two co-processors that are capable of adding 50 GFlops of performance to a workstation. The card, based on PCI-X, is likely to ship in the fourth quarter of this year. In Q1 of 2006, Clearspeed will add a PCI Express version of the card - also carrying two co-processors delivering 25 GFlops each.
Edward Chou, marketing director of ATI Technologies Asia-Pacific division, responded to earlier reports that its 80-nanometer (80nm) production has been delayed by saying that ATI has succeeded in completing trial production of its 80nm graphics chips.
BetaNews is reporting this morning that embattled pioneer DVR manufacturer TiVo has entered into a partnership agreement with search engine giant Yahoo. The partnership enables TiVo users to program their units remotely through a Web site provided by Yahoo, which will include Yahoo advertising. In return, Yahoo services will be made available through TiVo.
With motherboard makers maintaining a conservative outlook for the second quarter, a shortage of Nvidia G71 (GeForce 7900 GTX/GT) graphics chips may have emerged in both Europe and the US market.
Chicago (IL) - AMD may be closer to a Centrino competitor than many may have expected. According to a media report, AMD and ATI may be introducing a notebook platform, code-named "Yokohama," in the fourth quarter of this year to compete with Intel"s recently launched Napa64 platform, which includes the Core 2 Duo processor.
Dutch researcher Johan Hoogboom has developed a technique for making LCDs (liquid crystal displays) without the need for cleanrooms. This technique is simpler and cheaper than current methods and is based entirely upon the self-ordering of molecules on a surface. Furthermore, the chemist has shown that these LCDs can be used to make DNA visible to the naked eye.
Via today released the PT890 chipset, which the firm claims is able to run the top performance tier of Microsoft"s upcoming operating system. In combination with a DX9-capable graphics card, the chipset can serve as the foundation of a "Vista Premium" system, the company said.
Intel reduced pricing of its Pentium 4 600 series in a move to phase out the 500 series. The biggest drop occurred for the 660 model (3.6 GHz), which fell 34 percent from $605 to $401. New prices for the remaining models are $605 for the 670 (3.8 GHz, minus 29 percent), $273 for the 650 (3.4 GHz, minus 32 percent), $218 for the 640 (3.2 GHz, minus 20 percent and $178 for the 630 (3 GHz, minus 21 percent).
Epic has released a new update for Unreal Tournament 2004 It patches the game to version 3236 and includes gameplay and engine related fixes and improvements. Here"s a snip from the engine related updates:
Basketball vests (singlets) with electroluminescent displays that show a player"s score, and number of fouls, are being trialled in Australia.
As of January 20th 2010, Aalund NetSearch A/S, a leading provider of global business and market intelligence, is renamed as MarketScape A/S.
Fontana (CA) - The Blue Team"s autonomous motorcycle "GhostRider" has always been an underdog at the Grand Challenge as no one expects a two-wheeled vehicle to successfully compete against SUVs, ATVs, and other off-road vehicles. GhostRider put up a good fight by going through about 50 percent of the course the first time and a little bit farther the second.
Panasonic will halt its development of analog TV systems and focus on the production of digital TV, starting from next month.
A rocket funded by PayPal founder Elon Musk roared into space this morning and almost reached orbital velocity. The Falcon 1 rocket completed its five minute 200 mile journey and met "95%" of its objectives, according to Musk"s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.
San Francisco (CA) - Integrated circuit designers will come together next month in San Francisco to get updates on hardware developments at the annual IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). Among the more visible presentations will be a next-generation Cell processor as well as AMD"s quad-core Opteron and Intel"s 80-core Teraflop processor.
It makes Flashy things run smoother.
Sony has held an olive branch out to proponents of the HD DVD blue-laser optical disc format, inviting them to discuss how their preferred format could come together with its choice, Blu-ray Disc.
The LCD-monitor market rose slightly higher in the second quarter than had been forecast, jumping 3.1% to 29.8 million units, according to Displaysearch. Significant shipment growth in Latin America (up 37% on-month) and Greater China (up 26% on-month), along with growth in the market for widescreen monitors, especially in China, helped boost shipments above the forecast level of 29.6 million units, said the research firm.
Chipping away from former and current hardware partners Intel IBM, Microsoft has decided to develop game console processors itself, reports The New York Times. Design and testing of new chips is headed to Microsoft"s own internal labs in Redmond, WA and Mountain View, CA.
Chicago (IL) - Plextor today announced the availability of a new compact DVD burner to date. The PX-608CU is less than 16 millimeters thick and weighs about 0.5 pounds.
A cross-site scripting vulnerability on the popular SourceForge.net website shows how Extended Validation SSL certificates could be exploited by fraudsters. Piggybacking on the anticipated extra trust instilled by the presence of an EV SSL certificate, arbitrary content could be injected onto the secure page at SourceForge to create a very convincing phishing attack.
The Photobook Company is a new website launched by leading London digital agency Cyber-Duck, which allows people to design and order a luxury handmade photo album online.
People wanting to experience World War II, without the real-life bloodshed, can now buy Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. Players will fight along side the U.S. Army"s 1st Infantry Division, also known as "The Big Red One". Missions take place around the world and players can even engage in online human versus human combat.
SecurityFocus is reporting this morning that a Venezuelan native already convicted for defacing a US Air Force Web site, and who is facing deportation, may be detained in the US as NASA considers whether to press charges against him, for the possible theft of documents relating to next-generation launch vehicles:
Seiko Epson said it has developed an A6-size (7.1") electronic paper (e-paper) using a plastic substrate. Drawing on Epson"s SUFTLA1 technology, the new electronic paper achieves QXGA resolution (1,536 ç—2,048 pixels) - which the company claims is the world"s highest - and shows the potential for e-paper on larger screen sizes.
Manchester based IT solutions company, JMC, is celebrating after being recognised for the fourth year running as the best Northern Partner at the 2009 Pegasus Partner Excellence Awards.
OCZ said it has added the PC-4800 Platinum Elite Edition (EE) to its memory lineup. As a unique feature, the devices integrate Samsung TCCD ICs, which according to the company, enhance performance and reliability. OCZ guarantees the PC-4800 Platinum Elite Edition to run at both DDR400 with 2-2-2-5 timings and DDR600 with 2.5-4-4-10 timings. (THG)
Unigine Corp"s latest demo is supposedly the first DirectX 11 benchmark.
Anticipating that 16x DVD+R/-R discs will soon become the mainstream optical-disc product, leading optical-disc makers have begun lowering OEM quotations for 8x DVD+R/-R discs to US$0.30 and for 4x DVD+R/-R discs to US$0.22-0.24, which is lower than production cost for other makers as the price of the key component polycarbonate (PC) has been driven up to US$3.1 per kilogram, according to Taiwan optical-disc makers.
Palm Desert (CA) - Database administration and creation has always been relegated to pointy head techie types, but start-up company Blist claims to have developed the world"s easiest database. The web application makes database creation as simple as dragging data types like pictures, lists or even documents into the creation page. Watch our video of Blist"s demonstration from the DEMO Conference in Palm Desert California.
The Mac Observer reports about more Apple patent filings. Particularly interesting is a "zooming controller" describing the feature of the zoom/slider mechanism used in iPhoto. Also, Apple filed a patent application for "Apparatuses and methods for illuminating a keyboard" on November 19, 2002, which was issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as US Patent on August 17, 2004.
Boston (MA) - Oasis has approved version 1.1 of the Open Document Format (ODF), which provides an alternative and open file format for documents created with office applications. ODF 1.1 includes accessibility improvements for users with disabilities.
Amherst (MA)
Not everything at Computex happens in the convention center. Yesterday the folks at EVGA kidnapped one of our onsite editors to show him the companyò€™s latest motherboards and video cards.
AMD today unveiled its fastest ever 64-bit notebook processor, the Mobile Athlon 64 processor 4000+.
Lacie has upgraded its biometrically-protected SAFE hard drive line with a desktop edition, adding an internal firmware lock to help prevent data from being accessed if the actual hard drive is removed from the chassis.
ATI today confirmed that it is shipping samples of "all next generation mobile parts" to ODMs and OEMs for qualification purposes. The company indicated that more than one mobile chip is heading into the market, but did not say which actual models the product line will include. While it was unclear when notebooks will be available with processors of the X1000 family, ATI said that vendors currently are "readying for production".
AMD is planning to launch B3 stepping quad-core Phenom 9050 series CPUs including 9850, 9750, 9650, 9550 and 9150 within the next 1-2 weeks, however the top-end 9850 will only reach a core frequency of 2.5 GHz, instead of the original goal of 2.6 GHz. The company expects to be able to deliver higher core frequencies in the third quarter this year, according to sources at motherboard makers.
Optodisc Technology, a producer of DVD discs in Taiwan, has denied a rumor that the company extended the use of Maxell"s DVD-R code from OEM production of DVD-R discs for Maxell to production for other purposes. The company also denied that Maxell is planning to sue Optodisc for patent infringement.
Chyang Fun Industry (CFI) is showcasing its CF-B4042 hard disk drive (HDD) case for the SOHO and SMB (small and medium business) markets at Computex Taipei. The new product joins the company"s full line of custom solutions for PC cases and housings for systems, storage and servers.
QStrat, the leading provider of Quotation Lifecycle Management Solutions, is pleased to announce the release of QLM Sales version 5.0.
Microsoft has released a bumper batches of 12 security updates - eight of them critical - as part of its regular Patch Tuesday update cycle.
Round Rock (TX) - Dell received the honor of unveiling the first quad-core desktop computer. Just hours before Intel will formally announce its Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor, Dell announced the XPS 710, which looks like a regular XPS gaming system but hides one of the first quad-core CPUs you can buy - for at least $3700.
Core 2 Duo in detail: Past, present and future (22 images) ..
Yesterday, ULi Electronics officially launched its M1697 single-chip solution for the AMD K8 platform. The company started sampling this product in September, and the chip recently entered mass production, ULi associate vice president Bruce Tai said.
Intel today released the latest Pentium M chip in the form of the Pentium M model 765. The Pentium M 765 clocks in at 2.10 GHz, contains 2 MB cache and a 400 MHz system bus. It is part of the latest Intel Pentium M chipset using the "Dothan" core technology.
A former Sharp employee has sued the Japanese consumer electronics maker for $US4.6 million over key technology he claims to have developed for use in flat screen products, reports have said. A court official only confirmed today that the ÷¥ 500 million ($4.6 million) suit was filed Tuesday with the Osaka District Court.
San Francisco (CA) - Intel will be extending its efforts to reduce the power consumption PCs beyond the processor, chief technology officer Justin Rattner said. Speaking at the developer conference of the company he said that currently, a processor is responsible for about 48% of the power within a platform. When Woodcrest will be introduced, the processor will consume only one third of the total power - other platform components such as chipsets will swallow the remianing two thirds.
Bolide Software is launching a new version of All My Movies, which introduces a new interface design - the virtual shelves with DVD cases. Now users can browse through the movie collection more intuitively.
Iomega said that it will acquire ExcelStor, a maker of hard disk drives, security storage and external storage. Iomega said that it will be issuing 84 million shares of common stock in exchange for all outstanding ExcelStor common shares, representing 60% of the fully diluted capitalization of Iomega. Iomega was valued at about $200 million at the time of this writing.