News

Quote

Linux NetworX will use HP's Itanium 2 servers as components in its systems, while HP will use the start-up's ClusterworX software to help manage supercomputers made of interconnected smaller systems. ClusterworX handles tasks such as installing software simultaneously on several computers, monitoring processor usage, and taking automatic actions such as shutting off a computer if a fan fails.

Quote

The world's largest communications satellite has been ditched into the sea, two weeks after a Russian rocket failed to put it into the correct orbit.
Satellite controllers used the Astra-1K's engines to plunge it into the southern Pacific Ocean, says Russian space forces spokesman Vyacheslav Davidyenko.

Quote

Microsoft, which denied that it had any plans to develop software for Linux, is facing a growing threat from the open-source software standard as it gains share in the corporate server market used to manage networks and data.

META Group predicted that Linux will be used on nearly half of new servers by 2007, up from its current share of 15 to 20 percent, making it difficult for Microsoft to ignore Linux as a platform for its database, Web hosting and email server applications.

"We believe that, beginning in late 2004, Microsoft (and its partners) will begin moving some of its (to-date) proprietary application enablers (e.g., .Net components) to the Linux environment; this will gradually include the major Microsoft back-office products, such as SQL Server, IIS, and Exchange," META Group said.

In a further shift, META Group said that Microsoft will also re-price or separate its Windows server operating system "so that it can be favourably compared against 'free' Linux."

"I'm unaware of any efforts at this time to move any products onto Linux," said Peter Houston, senior director at Microsoft's server group, adding that there were no plans to detach or re-price its Windows server operating system.

Quote

Gateway's network of 8,000 PCs can deliver 14 teraflops (trillions of calculations per second) of power, very little of which is being used for in-store demos. That makes Gateway's available computing resources equivalent, at least in raw computing power, to some of the largest supercomputers.

Quote

However, the risks of the recent Linux data-loss bug are reduced because it only appears in a particular circumstance: First, an administrator has to select an unusual mode for Linux's ext3 file system software, which controls how data is stored on hard drives; then the administrator must disconnect the file system where the data is saved. In that case, all data that should have been saved on the hard drive in the previous 30 seconds could be lost.

Quote

IBM's new transistor, which is 10 times smaller than today's state-of-the-art transistors, proves that working transistors can continue to be made using current chip technology, or similar techniques, for 10 years or more into the future, IBM researchers said.

Quote

The solution is not actually entirely "wire free", however. The base station is plugged into an AC adapter and can deliver up to 30V DC to an individual device. It's also, according to Goren, completely safe, and if any charge were delivered to a person, it would be at the level of a low-voltage battery, virtually imperceptible to humans and certainly not harmful, he added. The final base units will also, he said, be waterproof and protected from electrostatic charges.

Quote

"It seems like Microsoft is deliberately downplaying the severity of the vulnerabilities in an attempt to gain less bad press. It sure would look bad to release two critical cumulative updates in just two weeks, but that is exactly what has been done," Larholm wrote.

Quote

North Bridges for Intel Pentium 4 Platform
RS250: An updated version of the current RADEON IGP340 with PC2700 DDR SDRAM support that is due in the first quarter 2003. Will also offer 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus, AGP4x and the same I/O capabilities as the predecessor.

RS300: Definitely a more interesting product for hardware enthusiasts than the previous one. It will support the Pentium 4 Northwood and Prescott processors with the Hyper-Threading technology and 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus. Besides, it will allow dual-channel memory configurations using PC2700 or DDR400 modules. What is very important, ATI will incorporate the RV250 (namely RADEON 9000) graphics core in this chip, hence, expect relatively high performance and DirectX 8.1 support from the part. As all the latest core-logic devices, this one will provide AGP 8x. The unit will appear in late Spring with mass-production to start a bit later.

I wonder about the performance of integrated graphics core: 6.4GB/s provided by dual-channel DDR400 is just enough for the CPU, but may not be enough for a powerful graphics core and a CPU; I remind that the original RADEON 9000-based graphics card requires 6.4GB/s peak bandwidth.

RS300VE: Simplified version of the RS300 with only one memory channel.

North Bridges for AMD Athlon 64 Platform
RS380: AGP 8x-supporting tunnel with integrated RV250 (RADEON 9000) DirectX 8.1 compliant graphics core. ATI will integrate additional 64-bit memory controller in the tunnel and will allow end-users to install a memory module as a frame-buffer.

RX380: An ordinary AGP-8x tunnel without integrated graphics capabilities.

Quote

Professor Yasumasa Kanada and nine other researchers at the Information Technology Center at Tokyo University calculated the value for pi with a Hitachi supercomputer over 400 hours in September, project team member Makoto Kudo said.

Quote

Using the exploit, a hacker could create a Web site that stores information in the browser's cache that would take the Internet user to a different Web address or domain. The hacker also could deliver this "Web object" in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)-formatted e-mail either opened by the user or simply displayed in Outlook Preview. Outlook Express 6 and Outlook 2002 are not vulnerable to this exploit when used in their default configurations.