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McAfee called it the ‘biggest ever’ online bank heist. The loss of seven to eight million Swedish korna, the equivalent of $1.1 million dollars US, was a shock to the bank and its customers but security researchers said it was only a matter of time.
How it happened
The attack started with one of the most popular forms of attacks on the internet. Nordea is saying that close to two hundred fifty customers were targeted with phishing emails containing a custom-made Trojan program. The Trojan would use the name of the bank and encourage customers to download anti-spam software. Users downloaded the attached file named ‘raking.zip’ or ‘raking.exe’ and were infected with the Trojan some security companies like McAfee call ‘haxdoor.ki’.
haxdoor.ki’ is a keylogger. A program that will record keystrokes, and hides itself from anti-virus applications. The Trojan activated when users went to the Nordea online banking website. Once there users were redirected, as the Trojan took over, to a fake login page where their account information was recorded and sent to an offsite location for pick-up.
Police are able to confirm that the information recorded was sent to servers located in the United States and Russia. The connection to Russia is leading police officials to think this is the work of online Russian organized crime. This would not be the first time the Swedish bank was attacked in such a fashion. In 2005, it had to stop online banking operations due to a severe phishing attack on its users.
What happens next?
A Nordea spokesperson told the BBC News, “What is important is that none of our customers will have lost their money. We are doing all we can to stop this.” Nordea has refunded the money lost to the accounts, and is working closely to police and security companies to complete the investigation as soon as possible. Over one hundred people have been arrested in connection with the heist each of them believed to have connections to the Russian criminals.
Boo Ehlin, spokesperson for the bank is reported as saying the problem was most customers affected were not using anti-virus software and were open to attack. Social Engineering is the major factor involved he said, not a fault with the banks security policy.
"It is more of an information, rather than a security problem," said Ehlin. "Codes are a very important thing. Our customers have been cheated into giving out the keys to our security, which they have in good faith."
The bank will move to improve its information for customers, and alert them to possible fraud. Policy in place at the financial firm alerted them to possible fraud because of the volume, and types of transactions. Banks often used monitoring programs that notice out of the ordinary transactions of the customers. It was this type if system that alerted them to possible problems and allowed them time to act.
Nordea is reported to service over two million online customers, and those numbers is in all actuality a testament to its current security policy. Only two hundred fifty customers were affected, and that the fraud was stopped before it got any worse shows the bank was clearly demonstrative of the people, vigilant in protecting the account holders.
Security wise, this attack shows two things. First, it shows that online frauds and attacks are growing bolder, and taking on a larger scale. A trend that is only going to get worse before it gets better. The second is the fact that the victims were poorly protected because of the lack of virus software. This factor allowed the attack to happen in the first place, and might have been less damaging if not for the end user being poorly informed of the dangers that exist on the internet. No computer on the internet these days should be without Malware, and Virus software.

http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/n...on-dollar_loss

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One of the most influential groups to lobby for technology policy has laid out its plans for shaping the Internet and technology this year.
The Center for Democracy and Technology released its legislative recommendations Tuesday and plans to distribute them to Congress. The recommendations cover free expression, network neutrality, digital copyright protection, national security, identity management, and digital democracy. The guidelines, issued with a series of specific policy statements, include opinions on legislation that has already been introduced, as well as suggestions for new proposals.
"The Internet did not evolve to become the powerful engine for democracy, communication, and commerce that we now take for granted in a vacuum," says Leslie Harris, executive director of CDT. "The flexible, lightweight policy framework that facilitated its expansion has come under strain in recent years as lawmakers have sought to exert greater control over Internet content and design. This Congress has the opportunity to re-establish a balanced, cohesive approach to Internet policy-making that will help to ensure its continued growth."
CDT policy director Jim Dempsey says some current bills are well-intentioned but could have unintended consequences.
"Some policy makers seem to have forgotten what makes the Internet special," he said. "Proposals to stem the flow of objectionable content, protect intellectual property, and prevent crime online -- all important goals -- often overlook the Internet's history and the nature of its architecture. We're trying to remind lawmakers of the policy choices that made the Internet successful, so they do not abandon those policies."
The group is urging Congress to fund education for parental controls, such as Internet filtering, while blocking the Deleting Online Predators Act and similar efforts to stop children and teens from accessing specific sites at school or in libraries. The CDT opposes mandatory labeling, as outlined in a bill that would require Web sites to label some content "sexually explicit."
"In addition to doing nothing to protect children from harmful material on the Internet, such legislation would be challenged almost immediately upon passage," the CDT policy statements explain. "The courts have repeatedly struck down such laws, despite aggressive efforts by federal and state attorneys to preserve them."
The CDT also urges Congress to maintain the openness of the Internet, though the group stresses that it supports Internet neutrality, not network neutrality.
"In particular, since broadband networks often carry cable television and other non-Internet services over much of their bandwidth, legislation should focus specifically on the portion of each broadband network dedicated to the Internet and should leave the non-Internet portion alone," CDT states.
The group also wants to ensure that Web sites and service providers are not held responsible for materials posted by users.
CDT is calling for a privacy package, which includes technology-neutral protections for personally identifiable information collected by businesses and safeguards for government data. It also wants higher penalties for spyware distributors. The government should require all of its own agencies to tell people when personal information has been lost or stolen, increase privacy audits, add privacy officers and increase their power, while also controlling the government's use of commercial data.
Congress should create a higher legal threshold for "digital search and seizure," repeal the REAL ID Act, reject mandates on communications and Internet providers to more easily allow government surveillance, and resist calls to increase data retention requirements, CDT said. Congress should also reassert its oversight regarding surveillance and reject any attempts to end lawsuits challenging federal surveillance, the CDT said.
The group wants Congress to take a balanced approach to copyright protection, balancing fair use and innovation against piracy concerns. Finally, the CDT is asking Congress to take several steps to promote digital democracy, including using the Internet and technology to increase government transparency.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=196903062

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AMD has pinned its hopes for recovery in 2007 to its planned “Barcelona” quad-core Opteron server chip.

Intel’s competing “Clovertown” quad-core Xeon chip has been adopted mainly for high-end research server platforms since it launched in November, hobbled in part by a lack of multi-threaded software needed to take full advantage of the new chip technology. But AMD hopes to sell its Barcelona chip to users ranging from managers of high-performance computing centers to SMBs.
AMD expects a bounce in revenue when it launches the processor by the middle of 2007 because many customers have delayed buying new systems until it comes out. The company hopes Barcelona will allow AMD to finally break into the low-end server segment, including one-chip and two-chip computers and tower PCs as well as rack-mounted servers.
“We’re not yet in the SMB segment; it represents for us a great volume opportunity because we have so little market share now,” said Kevin Knox, vice president of AMD’s commercial business, on Wednesday.
AMD’s share of the market for servers, blades, and workstations has grown from just 2.8 percent in 2003 — the year it launched the Opteron chip — to 6 percent in 2004, 12.2 percent in 2005, and 27 percent in 2006, the company claims. The only problem with that growth is that AMD has so few customers in the single-processor server segment. Its only products in that market include IBM’s System x3105 and Sun’s Sun Fire X2100.
AMD will also try to squeeze extra profits from denser chips as it transitions from 90-nanometer chip design to 65nm and from more efficient manufacturing as it changes from 200mm to 300mm silicon wafers. In the long term, the company also expects a return on its investment in making chips with even smaller, 45nm features, and on capitalizing on its 2006 acquisition of ATI to release a combined CPU and graphics processor called “Fusion” by 2009.
In the meantime, AMD’s success with Barcelona will be the quickest measure of its prospects. As the PC industry continues to see a change in customer demand from desktop to notebook PCs, AMD reported strong sales of its mobile processors and its top-end desktop chips. But sales of its workhorse Opteron server chip stayed flat while revenues sank under the pressure of a price war with Intel.
“Volume has not been the issue; we had a bigger challenge with ASPs,” Knox said in reference to average selling prices. “You get into these things when you have products that are very close to equal performance. That is where you get squeezed on the price side, because it’s your only leverage left.”
Barcelona could change all that as the new chip will perform so much better than Intel’s dual-core and quad-core Xeon offerings that AMD won’t need to slash prices to boost market share, AMD claims.
“From a sales perspective, we had a pretty good quarter,” Knox said. “Obviously, ASPs were an issue, but you saw the same thing last week when Intel reported its earnings. Originally, we had a big performance gap with Opteron. Woodcrest certainly narrowed that gap, but Barcelona will return us to a position where we have that big a gap again, if not bigger.”
However, analysts warn that the market may not be ready for quad-core processors, regardless of the vendor.
“We’re concerned about this whole rush to multiple-core processors, as if the technology could be the savior of AMD or anyone else. We’re concerned quad-core computing is coming up too fast,” said John Enck, an analyst with Gartner. “It’s basically an arms race between Intel and AMD, so we’re at the point where there’s more technology being offered, so they can keep up with each other, than we can actually use.”
The increasing popularity of virtualization is one sign of this glut of processing power as many enterprises try to find extra work to justify expensive servers that are often running at just 15 percent or 25 percent utilization, Enck said.
Still, AMD sees fertile ground in the entry-level server market and continues to pour its resources into planting seeds there. Barcelona will mark AMD’s first quad-core product and its first made with a 65nm manufacturing process. But it will gain the greatest advantage from improvements to its processor core architecture, enabling vastly better virtualization abilities, and an increase from 64-bit to 128-bit computing, all without growing above the current Opteron’s 68-watt and 95-watt thermal envelopes.
“They have this big engine, but they can’t get data to it fast enough,” Knox said about Intel’s chips. “This is going to be the biggest enhancement to the x86 architecture since we released Opteron. It will take the power-per-watt equation to levels people have never seen before.”

http://www.allfreesoftwares.com/free...lona-chip.html

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Developments in the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war kicked into high gear in the past couple of months. November and December saw the bulk of the long-delayed HD product lines finally hitting store shelves: Blu-ray players from Sony, Panasonic, and Philips; the PlayStation 3; the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on; and the second-generation Toshiba HD DVD players. In the new year, both camps came out swinging at CES 2007. With so much news to process, we've taken the opportunity to collect all the major developments into one easily digestible chunk.
Enter the combo player: LG officially unveiled the BH100, the first device to play both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. Despite the caveats--it's $1,200, and the HD DVD functionality lacks that format's HDi interactivity features--this breakthrough player is the first model that's essentially future-proof. High-definition cinephiles will be able to buy movies on either format without fear of backing the wrong horse. The best news? The BH100 is already on store shelves.
...and the combo discs: LG offered hardware détente, while Warner took the software angle. Warner's new Total HD format (THD) puts an HD DVD and a Blu-ray version of the same movie on a single disc, which Warner pledges will sell for the same price as its single-format counterpart. Like the LG, it's a great hedge against the uncertain HD future.
51GB triple-layer HD DVD disc: Size matters, and Blu-ray has long been trumpeting its 50GB dual-layer disc capacity over HD DVD's 30GB. The underdog struck back with news of a 51GB triple-layer prototype. That puts HD DVDs ahead by a nose--at least until Blu-ray's rumored quad-layer 100GB discs hit the streets.
New HD DVD players: To date, only Toshiba's been producing set-top HD DVD players, albeit sometimes relabeled under the RCA brand. Toshiba expanded its second-generation lineup by one--adding the HD-A20, a $600 player that offers 1080p output)--but the company will finally be getting some company. Chinese manufacturers Shinco, Alco, and Lite-On are set to offer more affordable players later in the year, and the more familiar Onkyo and luxury Meridian lines will also be joining the camp.
New Blu-ray players: Samsung announced that its second-generation Blu-ray player, the BD-P1200, will sport cutting-edge HDMI 1.3 output despite costing $800 when it debuts in March; that's a 20 percent discount from the first-generation BD-P1000, which hit stores just a few months ago. Sharp also pledged to release its first Blu-ray player in 2007, while Panasonic, Pioneer, and Philips continued to highlight their recently released first-generation models. Sony, meanwhile, showed off two "Sapphire" Blu-ray prototypes, follow-ups to its brand-new BDP-S1. Of course, the PlayStation 3 remains the most affordable Blu-ray player on the market, with none of the players announced at CES 2007 beating the $500 and $600 price points of the two PS3 models.
Sales figures--who's winning? Both HD DVD and Blu-ray are fledgling formats, but that doesn't stop each camp from bragging that they've already left the other in the dust. While the numbers should be taken with a huge grain of salt, it appears that the two game consoles seem to be leading the charge for HD movies: Microsoft is said to have sold about 100,000 Xbox 360 HD DVD peripherals. Meanwhile, almost 700,000 U.S. consumers have picked up Sony's Blu-ray-capable PlayStation 3. HD DVDs total install base stands at just 175,000 (including, presumably, those Xbox 360 drives), though the camp has pledged to ship 2.5 million players by the end of the year (1.8 million of them from Toshiba).
It's all about the content: Hardware's all fine and good, but these formats will live and die based on the available content. To that end, Team Blu-ray looks to be ramping up in 2007 after a slow start. Disney, Fox, and Sony Pictures announced a slew of titles that won't be available on HD DVD, while Paramount and Warner will be releasing HD versions of fan favorites--including Blade Runner and the Matrix and Harry Potter films--in both formats. Universal remains the lone major studio that's exclusively publishing on HD DVD. It's little surprise, then, that the total number of Blu-ray titles (currently around 150) will soon begin to surpass the available HD DVD catalog. In other words, the burden is on HD DVD to continue to offer compelling content in light of the forthcoming deluge of Blu-ray movies.
The porn factor: There was a lot of ink on the fact that the adult industry has chosen HD DVD over Blu-ray. It turns out that Blu-ray isn't totally giving porn the cold shoulder, but the industry does appear to be backing the easier-to-produce HD DVD format instead. As Bill Hunt points out at The Digital Bits, the analogy with VHS and Beta isn't likely to hold up here (the appearance of adult movies on VHS was said to be a key factor in that format's eventual victory over porn-free Beta): With digitized smut readily available online, the adult industry's apparent preference for HD DVD isn't the slam dunk that some are painting it to be.
Cracked security: HD DVD and Blu-ray were both supposed to include military-grade encryption that would keep the HD content safe from pirates. Apparently, however, it's taken hackers less than a year to crack open the AACS protection found on both formats, resulting in HD copies of Serenity appearing on BitTorrent within days. Now come rumors that Blu-ray--despite having an extra level of copy-protection--is ripe for the plundering as well. If true, it could mean that both formats could amp up their guard, activating heretofore dormant security measures such as the image constraint token (lower resolution via component video).
A plague on both their houses? Perhaps the biggest issue still facing HD DVD and Blu-ray is the fact that neither could win. After years of false promises, so-called digital delivery is finally becoming a reality. Industry heavy hitters Microsoft (Xbox 360 Video Marketplace) and Apple (iTunes Store) are already offering movies and TV shows in DVD and true HD quality, and the online options will only multiply as broadband bandwidth continues to expand. While they face a variety of their own challenges and shortfalls (restrictive digital rights management, rental versus "ownership" pricing models), such services seem to be the wave of the future, especially with devices like the Xbox 360 and the forthcoming Apple TV making it easy to watch the content on the big screen instead of a computer.
And that, in a nutshell, is the status of the Great HD Format War--just 17 days into 2007

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9678699-1.html?tag=txt

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The following two stories are about the future of Intel...

Red on

2adv

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Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, has overhauled the basic building block of the information age, paving the way for a new generation of faster and more energy-efficient processors.
Company researchers said the advance represented the most significant change in the materials used to manufacture silicon chips since Intel pioneered the modern integrated-circuit transistor more than four decades ago.
The microprocessor chips, which Intel plans to begin making in the second half of this year, are designed for computers but they could also have applications in consumer devices. Their combination of processing power and energy efficiency could make it possible, for example, for cellphones to play video at length — a demanding digital task — with less battery drain.
The work by Intel overcomes a potentially crippling technical obstacle that has arisen as a transistor’s tiny switches are made ever smaller: their tendency to leak current as the insulating material gets thinner. The Intel advance uses new metallic alloys in the insulation itself and in adjacent components.
Word of the announcement, which is planned for Monday, touched off a war of dueling statements as I.B.M. rushed to announce that it was on the verge of a similar advance.
I.B.M. executives said their company was planning to introduce a comparable type of transistor in the first quarter of 2008.
Many industry analysts say that Intel retains a six-month to nine-month lead over the rest of the industry, but I.B.M. executives disputed the claim and said the two companies were focused on different markets in the computing industry.
The I.B.M. technology has been developed in partnership with Advanced Micro Devices, Intel’s main rival. Modern microprocessor and memory chips are created from an interconnected fabric of hundreds of millions and even billions of the tiny switches that process the ones and zeros that are the foundation of digital computing.
They are made using a manufacturing process that has been constantly improving for more than four decades. Today transistors, for example, are made with systems that can create wires and other features that are finer than the resolving power of a single wavelength of light.
The Intel announcement is new evidence that the chip maker is maintaining the pace of Moore’s Law, the technology axiom that states that the number of transistors on a chip doubles roughly every two years, giving rise to a constant escalation of computing power at lower costs.

“This is evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary, but it will generate a big sigh of relief,” said Vivek Subramanian, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.
For several decades there have been repeated warnings about the impending end of the Moore’s Law pace for chip makers. In response the semiconductor industry has repeatedly found its way around fundamental technical obstacles, inventing techniques that at times seem to defy basic laws of physics.
The chip industry measures its progress by manufacturing standards defined by a width of one of the smallest features of a transistor for each generation. Currently much of the industry is building chips in what is known as 90-nanometer technology. At that scale, about 1,000 transistors would fit in the width of a human hair. Intel began making chips at 65 nanometers in 2005, about nine months before its closest competitors.
Now the company is moving on to the next stage of refinement, defined by a minimum feature size of 45 nanometers. Other researchers have recently reported progress on molecular computing technologies that could reduce the scale even further by the end of the decade.
Intel’s imminent advance to 45 nanometers will have a huge impact on the industry, Mr. Subramanian said. “People have been working on it for over a decade, and this is tremendously significant that Intel has made it work,” he said.
Intel’s advance was in part in finding a new insulator composed of an alloy of hafnium, a metallic element that has previously been used in filaments and electrodes and as a neutron absorber in nuclear power plants. They will replace the use of silicon dioxide — essentially the material that window glass is made of, but only several atoms thick.
Intel is also shifting to new metallic alloy materials — it is not identifying them specifically — in transistor components known as gates, which sit directly on top of the insulator. These are ordinarily made from a particular form of silicon called polysilicon.
The new approach to insulation appears at least temporarily to conquer one of the most significant obstacles confronting the semiconductor industry: the tendency of tiny switches to leak electricity as they are reduced in size. The leakage makes chips run hotter and consume more power.
Many executives in the industry say that Intel is still recovering from a strategic wrong turn it made when the company pushed its chips to extremely high clock speeds — the ability of a processor to calculate more quickly. That obsession with speed at any cost left the company behind its competitors in shifting to low-power alternatives.
Now Intel is coming back. Although the chip maker led in the speed race for many years, the company has in recent years shifted its focus to low-power microprocessors that gain speed by breaking up each chip into multiple computing “cores.” In its new 45-nanometer generation, Intel will gain the freedom to seek either higher performance or substantially lower power, while at the same time increasing the number of cores per chip.

“They can adjust the transistor for high performance or low power,” said David Lammers, director of WeSRCH.com, a Web portal for technical professionals.

The Intel development effort has gone on in a vast automated factory in Hillsboro, Ore., that the company calls D1D. It features huge open manufacturing rooms that are kept surgically clean to prevent dust from contaminating the silicon wafers that are whisked around the factory by a robotic conveyor system.
The technology effort was led by Mark T. Bohr, a longtime Intel physicist who is director of process architecture and integration. The breakthrough, he said, was in finding a way to deal with the leakage of current. “Up until five years ago, leakage was thought to increase with each generation,” he said.
Several analysts said that the technology advance could give Intel a meaningful advantage over competitors in the race to build ever more powerful microprocessors.
“It’s going to be a nightmare for Intel’s competitors,” said G. Dan Hutcheson, chief executive of VLSI Research. “A lot of Mark Bohr’s counterparts are going to wake up in terror.”
An I.B.M. executive said yesterday that the company had also chosen hafnium as its primary insulator, but that it would not release details of its new process until technical papers are presented at coming conferences.
“It’s the difference between can openers and Ferraris,” said Bernard S. Meyerson, vice president and chief technologist for the systems and technology group at I.B.M. He insisted that industry analysts who have asserted that Intel has a technology lead are not accurate and that I.B.M. had simply chosen to deploy its new process in chips that are part of high-performance systems aimed at the high end of the computer industry.
Intel said it had already manufactured prototype microprocessor chips in the new 45-nanometer process that run on three major operating systems: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/te...rssnyt&emc=rss

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Intel Corp. and IBM have announced one of the biggest advances in transistors in four decades, overcoming a frustrating obstacle by ensuring microchips can get even smaller and more powerful.
The breakthrough, achieved via separate research efforts and announced on Friday, involves using an exotic new material to make transistors -- the tiny switches that are the building blocks of microchips.
The technology involves a layer of material that regulates the flow of electricity through transistors.
"At the transistor level, we haven't changed the basic materials since the 1960s. So it's a real big breakthrough," said Dan Hutcheson, head of VLSI Research, an industry consultancy.
"Moore's Law was coming to a grinding halt," he added, referring to the industry maxim laid down by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip doubles roughly every two years.
The result of Moore's Law has been smaller and faster chips and their spread into a wide array of consumer products that now account for the bulk of the industry's $250 billion in annual sales.
The latest breakthrough means Intel, IBM and others can proceed with technology roadmaps that call for the next generation of chips to be made with circuitry as small as 45 nanometers, about 1/2000th the width of a human hair.
Intel said it will use the technology, based on a silvery metal called hafnium, in new processors coming out later this year that the company hopes will give it a leg up on chips from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
"We do expect that those products will deliver higher performance levels than existing products," said Steve Smith, vice president of Intel's digital enterprise group operations. "What we're seeing is excellent double-digit performance gains on media applications."
International Business Machines Corp. expects its technique to debut next year in chips made by its partners, which include AMD and Japan's Toshiba Corp.
Researchers are optimistic the new technology can be used at least through two more technology generations out, when circuitry will be just 22 nanometers.
"We've been doing this for 40 years and we've got to the point where some of these layers you have to make smaller wouldn't scale anymore," said IBM Chief Technologist Bernie Meyerson.
"We are getting down to a stage of technology where people have wondered if you could really ever go there, and we have definitely shown a roadmap down to these unbelievably tiny dimensions," Meyerson said.
The problem with the previous technology is that the layer of silicon-based material is now just 5 atoms thick, meaning lots of electricity leaks out, resulting in wasted power and shorter battery life.
"It's like running two faucets when you only need one. You're actually wasting more water than you're actually using," said Jim McGregor, an analyst with technology market research firm In-Stat.
The benefits of the new technique can be tapped in a number of ways. Transistors can be made smaller, potentially doubling the total number in a given area, their speed can be increased by more than 20 percent, or power leakage can be cut by 80 percent or more.
"Consumers are going toward mobility and power-sensitive solutions. We need to not only make things smaller and more efficient but also use less power," McGregor said.
There are plenty of challenges in keeping Moore's Law on track. For instance, it is becoming harder to make beams of light narrow enough to etch circuitry on chips.
"But this takes out what has been considered the biggest number one roadblock," VLSI's Hutcheson said.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...1-ArticlePage3

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AMD's native quad-core design picks up more steam

In a series of memos forwarded to DailyTech, industry insiders discussed the upcoming launch frequencies regarding AMD's next-generation architecture, previously dubbed K8L by AMD's Executive Vice President Henri Richard. Since then, AMD has generally referred to the next-generation chips as the Barcelona family, although Barcelona specifically denotes the high-performance quad-core server processor codename.
Some details of next-generation AMD desktop processors, the Stars family, were revealed late last year.
The desktop equivalent of Barcelona, codenamed Agena, is the 65nm flagship of AMD's next-generation desktop processors. Launch frequencies were quoted at "2.4 - 2.6GHz." Previous roadmaps had indicated Agena would debut at 2.7 to 2.9 GHz. Agena will have a 2MB L2 and 2MB L3 cache per CPU. AMD's internal guidance denotes this as a 125W TDP processor. As the flagship, Agena will be the first next-generation desktop launch and is scheduled for Q3'07.
Kuma, the dual-core mainstream next-generation desktop processor was quoted as having launch frequencies of "2.0 - 2.9GHz." Unlike the quad-core Agena processors, Kuma will feature 1MB of L2 and 2MB of shared L3 cache. Kuma will launch with both 89W and 65W TDP variants, but Energy Efficient models scheduled for 35W TDP will follow shortly after.
Rana, the next-generation Sempron successor codename, will launch with frequencies in the 2.1 to 2.3 GHz range. The dual-core CPUs will feature 1MB of total L2 cache, but no L3 cache. Rana's TDP is rated at 65W. Rana will not launch with the Agena flagship; AMD roadmaps have the processor launching at the same time as the Energy Efficient Kuma processors, or approximately Q4'07 if the launch schedule holds together.
As previously reported on DailyTech, Stars processors will use AM2+ motherboards. These processors can plug into existing AM2 motherboards today given the proper BIOS updates, but without the AM2+ sockets Stars processors will drop down to the HyperTransport 1.0 bus speeds.
AMD's Agena FX codename also appears to still exist on the roadmap. The only difference at this point between Agena and Agena FX is that Agena FX will use the Socket 1207+ interface.

http://www.dailytech.com/More+AMD+Ne...rticle5874.htm

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Introduction

In response to the release of the new quad-core CPUs by Intel, AMD launched its Quad FX platform. Contrary to what many people could think, Quad FX isn’t a new AMD quad-core processor, but a platform, as we will describe in this article. Check it out.
Intel released their first quad-core processor, Core 2 Extreme QX6700, in November 2006. At the beginning of this year Intel has already announced three more quad-core CPUs: Core 2 Quad Q6600, Xeon X3220 and Xeon X3210. So far AMD didn’t release any quad-core CPU.
The solution found by AMD to counter-attack Intel’s quad-core CPUs was to release Quad FX platform, formerly known as 4x4. This platform uses two dual-core Athlon 64 FX CPUs and several other “heavy” specs, as we will see on the next pages. Thus a Quad FX PC has two dual-core physical processors working in parallel, for a total of four CPU cores on the system. These two CPUs are interconnected using a dedicated coherent HyperTransport bus. In summary, Quad FX platform is essentially a SMP (Symmetrical Multiprocessing) system with two dual-core Athlon 64 FX CPUs.
It is important to note that from the software point of view dual-core and quad-core technologies are also symmetrical multiprocessing technologies.
On Intel quad-core CPUs the cores are organized in pairs. The cores of each pair can exchange information directly between them – the same way it happens on dual-core CPUs from AMD and on Core 2 Duo CPUs from Intel – but in order to exchange information with any one of the cores located on the other pair they need to access the CPU external bus – what is exactly what happens on Quad FX platform, where the CPUs talk to each other using an external bus, the coherent HyperTransport bus.

Figure 1: Architecture currently used by Intel quad-core CPUs.

Figure 2: Architecture used by Quad FX platform from AMD.

As you can see comparing Figures 1 and 2, Quad FX platform has some advantage on memory access. On Intel quad-core CPUs the CPU external bus (a.k.a. FSB, Front Side Bus) is used for accessing the RAM memory, other devices present on the PC and for the communication between each pair of cores. The communication between each pair of cores can be done up to 8 GB/s.
On Quad FX platform the CPUs use a dedicated communications channel (the coherent HyperTransport bus), which transfers data up to 4 GB/s in each direction. What is important here is that the HyperTransport bus provides two communications channels, one in each direction. Also, since on AMD processors the memory controller is embedded on the CPU, the memory is accessed using a dedicated bus, separated from the channel used by the CPU to access the rest of the PC.
As Quad FX platform uses symmetric multiprocessing architecture, each CPU accesses its own RAM memory. Processors used on Quad FX platform can also access the memory that is controlled by the other CPU, as we will explain (later, read on...)
Platform Details
As we have already said, the two processors used on Quad FX platform are interconnected using a HyperTransport bus. Because of that, a CPU to be compatible with Quad FX platform would need at least two HyperTransport busses: one for interconnecting the two CPUs and another to connect the CPU to the chipset. As Athlon 64 FX based on socket AM2 have only one HyperTransport bus, AMD had to launch a new version of Athlon 64 FX processors for Quad FX platform. These new Athlon FX models start with the number 7 and three models were released so far: FX-70, FX-72 and FX-74. These new processors use the new socket F (1,207 pins) pinout, which was originally targeted to the new Opteron processors, and three HyperTransport busses. The main technical specs of these new processors are:

* Dual-core technology
* 128 KB L1 cache (64 KB for data + 64 KB for instructions) per core
* 1 MB L2 cache per core
* 90 nm manufacturing process
* Socket F (1,207 pin)
* DDR2 memory controller supporting DDR2-533/667/800 under dual channel mode
* Three HyperTransport busses working at 1 GHz (4 GB/s) each. This clock can also be referred as “2.000 MHz”

Regarding the RAM memory, as we explained on the previous page, each processor controls its own RAM memory. Thus in order to configure dual channel mode correctly on the platform you will need at least four identical memory modules (two for each CPU) and not two as usual (in fact this is another reason this platform is called Quad FX or “4x4” as it was called before its official release). In theory the installation of more RAM memory would be done in multiples of four modules, but the reference motherboard for this platform has only four memory sockets.
Also, the memory controller found on Athlon 64 FX-7x CPUs support a technology called NUMA (Non-Unified Memory Architecture), which allows one processor to access the memory controlled by the other processor thru the coherent HyperTransport bus that interconnects the two CPUs. The difference between a coherent HyperTransport bus and a regular HyperTransport bus is exactly the ability of carrying memory information by the former.
The rest of the features found on Quad FX platform isn’t set by the processors but by the chipset. Let’s talk about it.
Chipset Details
The chipset chosen to be used on Quad FX platform was nForce 680a SLI from nVidia. The features described below are from this chipset, not being set by the Athlon 64 FX-7x processors. We don’t know if AMD plans to use a different chipset with this platform.
We commented previously that each Athlon 64 FX from 7x series has three HyperTranspor busses. One was used for the communication between the two processors but instead of using only one HyperTransport to connect the CPU to the chipset – and from the chipset to the other peripherals found on the PC that we didn’t mention so far, like the video card and the hard disk drive – AMD and nVidia decided to use two busses, each one connected to a nForce 680a SLI chip, allowing an amazing number of features

On Figures 3 and 4 you can see the block diagram of Quad FX platform showing all features available.

Figure 3: Quad FX plaform block diagram (AMD’s slide).

Figure 4: Quad FX plaform block diagram (nVidia’s slide).

The main features from Quad FX platform using nVidia nForce 680a chipset are:

* Two x16 PCI Express slots working at x16 and supporting SLI mode
* Two x16 PCI Express slots working at x8 and not supporting SLI mode
* One x1 PCI Express slot
* One regular PCI slot
* Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
* 12 SATA-300 ports
* Four ATA-133 ports
* 20 USB 2.0 ports
* RAID (0,1,0+1,5, JBOD)
* 7.1 high-definition audio

Even though QuadFX motherboard has for x16 PCI Express slots two of them work at x8. Besides that, only the ones that truly run at x16 support SLI mode. With four video cards installed, you can have a total of eight displays connected to the PC, four of them connected to two video cards running under SLI mode.
The first Quad FX-compatible motherboard released was ASUS L1N64-SLI WS.

You can see the details of this motherboard on Figure 5.

Conclusions
Quad FX platform is a provisory solution from AMD to compete with Intel quad-core CPUs, since AMD doesn’t have yet technology to build CPUs with more than two cores. Nowadays Quad FX platform supports two CPUs (four cores), but AMD has already announced their plans to release on the second half of this year an eight-core platform – probably using two four-core CPUs.
We haven’t the opportunity yet to benchmark AMD’s Quad FX platform in order to compare its performance to a system using Intel’s top quad-core CPU. This would be a very interesting review that would tell us what is the best buy, a Quad FX system or a quad-core Core 2 Extreme one.
Quad FX platform brings as advantage an amazing number of extra ports that today can’t be found on an out-of-the-box PC based on Intel’s quad-core CPU, like four PCI Express x16 slots, four Gigabit Ethernet ports, 20 USB 2.0 ports and 12 SATA-300 ports. Of course it is also possible to build an Intel-based PC with four Gigabit ports, 20 USB 2.0 ports and 12 SATA-300 ports, but you would need to install add-in cards to expand the number of ports available by your motherboard.
If Quad FX will be a winner or a flop isn’t certain, only time will tell.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/416/1

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NASA Creates Microscopic Technology for Webb Space Telescope

NASA engineers and scientists building the James Webb Space Telescope have created a new telescope technology called “microshutters.” Microshutters are tiny doorways the width of a few hairs that will allow the telescope to view the most distant stars and galaxies humans have ever seen.
The microshutters will enable scientists to mask unwanted light from foreground objects so the telescope can focus on the faint light of the first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe. Only the Webb Telescope has this technology. The Webb Telescope will launch in the next decade.
In December 2006, the microshutters passed crucial environmental testing to demonstrate that they can withstand the rigors of launching and placement in deep space. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., designed, tested and built the instrument technology. The microshutters will work in conjunction with the telescope’s Near Infrared Spectrograph that is being built by the European Space Agency.

The Hubble Space Telescope in orbit over Africa and pointing towards the edge of the Galaxy

“To build a telescope that can peer farther than the Hubble Space Telescope can, we needed brand new technology,” said Murzy Jhabvala, chief engineer of Goddard’s Instrument Technology and Systems Division. “We’ve worked on this design for more than six years, opening and closing the tiny shutters tens of thousands of times to perfect the technology.”..

http://press-releases.techwhack.com/...ic-technology/

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the information is not very consise or even obvious to the layman,
but nuclear level reprogramming of human tissue is extreme technology
for sure...I'll try to find simpler versions of the material describing this
process in future posts on the subject

Stem Cell Biology
Embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent stem cells derived from inner cell mass of mammalian blastocysts. Pluripotency an rapid proliferation make human ES cells attractive sources for cell therapy. However, clinical application of ES cells is confronted with ethical objections against utilizing human embryos. The ultimate goal of our laboratory is to generate ES-like cells directly from somatic cells by nuclear reprogramming. To this end, we are trying to understand molecular mechanisms underlying pluripotency and rapid proliferation of ES cells and to identify factors that induce reprogramming.

http://www.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp/E/grad_...oduction/1517/

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Computer cooling is a really advanced technology. Its purpose is to relieve heat from electronic components. There are many components in a computer that produce an enormous amount of heat during operation. These include components such as processors, chipsets, graphics cards, power supply units, hard drives, and optical devices.
When these components are produced they are rated and have a relatively long lifespan. This should be more than enough for everybody, not just the casual user, but this only happens when the components operate under their ideal working conditions and this certainly does not include overheating. Overheating generally reduces a component's maximum lifespan.
The most common cooling method is air cooling. This is done primarily using heat sinks to simply increase the surface area of the component which allows heat to dissipate more quickly. Then a simple fan can speed up the exchange of air. These fans can be either very loud, very quiet, or somewhere in between. Air cooling without the use of fans is known as passive cooling.
Obviously, these methods are dependent upon the ambient air, which should be cooler, to help this procedure. Otherwise, the warm air would only recycle. It's not the most effective way to cool down a system, but it shouldn't be underrated. It should satisfy the needs of an average user.
The second way is water cooling. It's exotic and still considered to be for enthusiasts. The components needed for water cooling are one or more water blocks, one or more pumps, sometimes a reservoir, and at least one radiator. This again is not the best cooling solution, but it is more effective for the average computer user.
Other methods include chilled water cooling using a standard water cooling setup, Peltier cooling (or TECs, as they are also known), phase-change cooling, cascades, and dry ice or liquid nitrogen. These are cooling methods for enthusiasts and extreme overclockers. Let's move on and discuss these solutions in greater detail so you can understand them and determine which will perform most effectively in your system without the need for overkill.
Deciding What Kind of Cooling to Use
Since air cooling is the most common method, I'm sure everybody is familiar with it. Heat sinks are placed on the component producing heat to increase the surface area. Then a fan is helps to recycle the air. It is possible to use air cooling without fans, too. This is known as passive cooling.
When building or upgrading a system, we must decide what type of cooling we want to use for our system. This is a relatively easy question, but some people skimp on cooling and others go overboard. The best ways are rarely ever used by an average computer user, and very few pre-built systems use adequate setups. Stock coolers (supplied by AMD/Intel) aren't enough when strain is put on system or in case of overclocking.
Now the question is how to decide what kind of cooling to use. Well, first, we must think about the purpose of the computer, how it will be used (as a casual system or a 24/7 file server, for instance) and of course the load which will be put on it. There's a difference between a file server running 24/7 but barely reaching 10 percent CPU load and using almost no video processing power when compared with a hardcore gaming system running only six hours per day with 100 percent processor load using an SLi or Crossfire setup with two video cards. The dissipated heat will be significantly higher on the second setup.
When we've decided the system's purpose, the next question is whether you want an 'ultra quiet', 'somewhat silent', or 'I don't care about noise' setup. If you want an ultra quiet one, then I'd suggest going with water or passive cooling, although there are a wide variety of fans currently on the market that claim they are noiseless and quiet. When the system will not carry a constant load, so the amount of heat produced will be significantly lower, passive cooling is often enough.
Air Cooling.
We want air cooling, great, but now how do we pick an efficient heat sink and a fan for it? The first component is the heat sink. There are more than a few heat sinks currently on the market made by different companies, with different construction methods, made of different materials, and available in all sizes. The heat conductivity of metal is much better than air. The increase in surface area will dissipate heat better, and it can radiate heat from its whole body. Commonly used metals are aluminum and copper. Between the two, copper's ability to radiate, transfer, and dissipate heat is better. There are quite a few ways heat sinks can be built using these materials. There are pure aluminum-only heat sinks, copper-based heat sinks, and pure copper-only heat sinks.
Today there is also a really important feature used to build newer heat sinks. This feature employs the use of Heat Pipes. These are heat transfer mechanisms which can transport quantities of heat in a tube-like design consisting of thermo-conductive metal, aluminum or copper, filled with some sort of coolant (such as water or ethanol) to improve its performance. This technology helps to transfer heat through the heat sink's body resulting in significantly better efficiency.
Let's discuss the heat sink's size. A heat sink with a larger body can dissipate more heat than a smaller one, so the rule of thumb is the bigger, the better - but don't forget to consider the space. Some people order extreme heat sinks via online shops, and then when the product arrives they are shocked that they can't fit the sink into their computer case.
Now that you understand these attributes, you know that picking a copper or copper-based heat sink is better. Get one that is 80mm in size, or 90mm/120mm if you have the space required for it, and don't forget about Heat Pipe technology.
The second important component for an air cooling setup is/are fan(s). First of all, there are a few attributes used in rating fans that we must understand. The first attribute is the size. Fan sizes are abbreviated in the following form: ##X##. The first is the fan's length and width, and the last represents its height.
The second attribute is the air flow. I bet you've noticed those 'CFM' inscriptions. Their values are stated in cubic feet per meters. It's quite clear that the higher the value is better because that means the fan can move, or cycle, more air which results in better flow.
The third attribute is the speed, measured in RPMs (=rotation per minutes). Obviously smaller fans need to spin at higher speeds than a bigger fan with larger, longer blades. Then, of course, if a fan is spinning at insanely high speeds, it causes noise, so it's really important to find a great ratio-perfect synergy between size, cfm, rpm and dBs (the last abbreviation is for decibels, which I will also mention separately).
The fourth attribute is the power consumption. It's usually stated as an inscription on the fan label-the fan's amperage. Most computer fans are running on the 12v rail, so to calculate the required wattage we must multiply the amperage value with 12. For a fan which requires 0.30A, for example, the required wattage would be 0.30*12=3.6W. You should check out a fan's power requirement before plugging into your motherboard. Fans can be powered up with a minimum of two and a maximum of four wires. When there are 3 wires, the last one is for RPM monitoring so that you can monitor your fan's speeds through BIOS or monitoring software. When there are 4 wires, the last one basically does nothing. It's just to make things easier because the fan can then be powered up with a simple Molex 4-pin connector.
The fifth attribute is a fan's noise level, usually stated in dB- meaning decibels. Now, let's take into consideration that a fan will never operate at 100 percent of its performance so it will never work at the rated air flow, because it is measured and stated assuming ideal conditions. The same thing happens with a fan's noise level, the dB rating. Even though the fan's performance should match or at least be close to the stated values, sometimes there is quite a difference.
Also, there are numerous cases when cables and other components inside your case can and will block the air flow. We can't forget about the dust which will decrease a fan's efficiency. Considering these points, it's advisable to clean the fans once every 3 months and check cables (rounded cables are amazing, and worth their price) which may block airflow. Check any other situations that may block airflow as well.
Summing up, you can make your own air cooler by buying a special heat sink and a fan for it. It would work and you could customize it the way you wanted, or you could buy aftermarket CPU coolers, which are already supplied with a heat sink and fan.
Water Cooling
It's quite obvious that water cooling is more effective than air cooling due to the fact that water's heat conductivity is 25 times better than air's. There are also a few disadvantages: high cost, weight, reliability, installation, and aesthetics. People are usually afraid to have water recycling in their electrically powered computer. Still, current pre-built water cooling kits are getting cheaper, more compact, and more reliable than they used to be.
It's important to understand how water cooling works. First of all there are water blocks, preferably made of copper, that will be placed on the integrated circuitry that needs to be cooled down like processors, chipsets, and video cards. Another material used for water blocks is silver, but those are way too expensive even though I won't question their effectiveness. I'm sure they are amazing.
The second important part in a water cooling setup is the pump-it pumps the water into a loop, or cycle. A pump must have enough power to handle your designed loop. A reservoir is optional because it just helps maintain the water level.
The radiator is another component that is quite important. You can pick up retail ones or use a car radiator, if you are eager to spend more than a few hours with modding and construction. The last needed component is tubing. It is available in several sizes, 1/2", 1/4", 3/8", etc., with 1/2" tubing said to perform the best.
If you plan to build your own water cooling setup, read several guides and articles about water cooling. There is plenty of information available. On the market there are pre-built, ready-to-run kits that are reliable enough; unfortunately the rule of thumb with pre-built kits is "the more expensive, the better." You must pay for their value, the brand name (which matters if you don't want to end up with a leaky setup or something malfunctioning), and quality.
Extreme Cooling
Phase-Change, Refrigeration Cooling
Phase change, refrigeration units, cascades, Peltier TECs, submersion setups, and chilled water cooling kits are becoming quite popular. They are high end and considered to be needed only by enthusiasts. Peltier is also based on a modified water cooling loop, where there is something between the integrated circuitry which gets hot and the water block (hot on one side, and cold on the other side).
The purpose of chilled water cooling setups, or modified loops with Peltiers, is to cool down the water, so a radiator may not be needed in these cases. They are a bit harder to install and maintain but they are more effective. You can keep your temperature below zero degrees Celsius easily.
Just a tip if you're interested in these cooling methods: don't forget about antifreeze (frozen water won't cycle in your loop) and insulation. Vapor chase refrigeration systems and phase changes are difficult to build on your own if you don't know what you're doing. There is currently a "Prometeia Mach II GT Phase Change Cooler" on the market that is really expensive, but it's amazing. If you are an enthusiast into overclocking, and you can afford one, pick it up and you will be satisfied. The Mach II GT will lower your temps down to -20 ~ -30C range, giving you headroom for aggressive overclocking. Here's a photo of the Prometeia Mach II GT:
Dry Ice, Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) Cooling
These are the most effective cooling methods currently available. Keep in mind that you can't use these methods all the time, 24/7. Dry ice and LN2 will both evaporate so refilling is necessary. These are strictly for the enthusiast. Basically, you need to be very careful with these. Otherwise you can do harm not only to your system but to yourself as well. Safety measures must be taken before using either of these methods; also, you must get a LOT of information, because you must know what you are doing when handling dry ice or LN2. Read up on these things. Liquid nitrogen evaporates at -196C, while dry ice has a temperature near -78C. You need both special tubes and insulation to be ready. Then fill the tube with LN2 or dry ice and do your benchmark as quickly as possible. Otherwise you can run out of LN2 or dry ice in the middle of benchmarking which is annoying and quite dangerous.
Conclusions
Now I'm sure you can decide on a cooling method and pick the most suitable one for your system and your budget. There are also a few points that you should not forget. First, a good ventilated case is a necessary component if you don't plan to run your system on a workbench/desk without a case, which is quite common nowadays. Then you could use literally huge heat sinks that otherwise wouldn't fit into your case like the Noctua NH-U12, Thermalright Ultra 120, Big Typhoon, Cooler Master Hyper 6+ and so on.
A mid-tower or larger case is recommended if you want to have enough room for stuff inside and for ventilation. You can also mod a case if you own a dremel and you enjoy fiddling with computer stuff. Otherwise an aftermarket case with a blowhole and a few intake and exhaust fans will really help your overall airflow. You could also pick up 80mm/120mm fans as I explained, choosing the best for your budget, and then mount them your way.
The second important consideration is the thermal compound.
If there will be a serious load on your hard drives, then you may consider picking up an aftermarket hard drive cooler or fan. Let's face it, a really ventilated case with good air flow is enough to keep hard drives cool (depending on drives, of course; Maxtor's tend to produce more heat). Rounded IDE cables are also a great way to improve air flow.
My last piece of advice is to remember to open up your system and clean it once every 3-6 months. Clean out the dust, reseat the heat sinks if needed, reapply thermal compound, and do a complete check. It's a good way to prevent computer problems.


http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/PC-Co...oling-Methods/

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University College London and Imperial College London Use Sun Visualization System Software to Further Nanotechnology Research
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), the creator of the Solaris(TM) Operating System (OS), today announced that the newly opened London Centre of Nanotechnology (LCN - www.lcn.ucl.ac.uk) and the Bio-Nano Centre (BNC), funded by the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) and London Development Agency (LDA), are using components of Sun Visualization System software to harness the world-class expertise of researchers across the physical, engineering and biomedical sciences, from University College London and Imperial College, to help meet the needs of society and industry. In essence, LCN and the BNC combine London's leading technology and medical research institutions.
Sun has delivered innovative 3D visualization hardware and software solutions as part of an overall 30 million pound investment in world class bio- and non-bio facilities and over 200 multi-disciplinary staff. The Sun Visualization System combines the best aspects of high performance 3D graphics technology with new ultra high-speed networking and system architectures. In practice, these systems are used to predictively model the precise manipulation and control of atoms and molecules, which is central to the science of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology can deliver a wide variety of benefits to society, ranging from the design of minute doses of breakthrough drugs, real-time clinical diagnostics to the exotic, such as self assembling bio-structures.
LCN's use of leading edge modelling and visualization technologies is enabling researchers from a wide array of scientific disciplines to work together on collaborative projects in a way that no traditional department or individual scientist could previously work. This combination of resources and skills positions the LCN as a serious participant on the global stage to tackle challenges in industries such as energy, healthcare and information technology.
Gabriel Aeppli, Director of the LCN said, "There are tremendous needs and opportunities for in silico biotechnology, especially as the costs of in vivo and even in vitro development of solutions for bio medicine are rapidly escalating. At the same time, data, design and security are even more important as the stakes for the biomedical industry rise to meet the challenges of nothing less than global personalized medicine. To take advantage of these rapidly crystallizing opportunities in the UCL and Imperial complex, Sun has collaborated with the DTI to co-develop with UCL and Imperial the systems and software to underpin what we see as the merger of the information and biosciences. The first steps have already been taken in the form of the delivery of a beta version of an advanced visualization system that has already changed our thinking about the 'plumbing' of osteoclasts - responsible for degrading bone in the human body."
"The cutting edge research that is taking place at the London Centre of Nanotechnology is helping to raise the profile of UK research on the international stage. Sun's involvement in facilitating collaboration between research institutions and industry demonstrates its commitment to delivering projects that allow educational institutions to undertake this ground-breaking research," said Neil Hadfield, Business Unit Manager for Education, Sun Microsystems UK.
The Sun Scalable Visualization Software deployed at LCN represents the first time Sun N1(TM) software has been used, in conjunction with Chromium Open Source Software, to manage the vast quantities of data and compute power required to deliver interactive and graphically intensive results.
The Sun Visualization System will significantly increase the computing power previously available to LCN, which will now be able to manipulate larger volumes of numerical and visual data, helping the researchers to interpret their findings more rapidly. In addition to the Sun Scalable Visualization Software, Sun also offers Sun Shared Visualization Software, which allows for local and remote users to interactively share centralized 3D graphics resources across a wide array of client platforms.
For LCN, powerful computer clusters, built using Sun Fire(TM) X4600 servers and Sun Ultra(TM) 40 Workstations, combine to drive multiple displays which in turn deliver high-quality, high-resolution, stereographic 3D displays with exceptional rendering performance for 2D, 3D and textured surfaces. The Sun N1 software automates servers and applications life-cycle management and manages grid services across heterogeneous environments to help ensure an even distribution of computing power across multiple users.
About The London Centre of Nanotechnology and the Bio-Nano Centre
LCN is a new UK-based multidisciplinary research centre, purpose-built to enable work at the forefront of science and technology. The LCN brings together two of the world's leading institutions, namely University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London, with strong capabilities in the underlying disciplines - engineering, physical sciences and biomedicine - which are bridged by nanotechnology. Its aim is to provide the nanoscience and nanotechnology needed to solve major problems in information processing, health care, and energy and environment. The LCN, together with Imperial's Institute for Biomedical Engineering and funding from the DTI and LDA, are creating the Bio-Nano Centre - offering concept development, rapid prototyping, and product validation services to translate research concepts to prototypes, ready for manufacture. The objective is to provide small to large companies with easy and economical access to prototyping facilities and multidisciplinary capabilities for the early-stages of bio-nano product development.
Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.


http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...+PRN&type=qcna

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Samsung 1.8-inch 60GB hard disk : Samsung Electronics, the worldwide digital consumer electronics and information technology leader, has introduced the first 1.8-inch hard drive with a 60GB per disk capacity and a super-slim form factor that is just 5-millimeters tall. Samsung’s sleek new 1.8-inch N-series features 20GB, 30GB, 40GB and 60GB per disk capacities - the largest one-disk storage capacity offered by any drive on the market today. Samsung’s 1.8-inch N-series is currently shipping. Samsung’s new 60GB 1.8-inch hard disk can store data equivalent to 60 135-minute movies, 1,500 40MB music videos, or 15,000 4MB MP3 music files. Samsung’s 1.8-inch N-series hard disk drives are available in both internal and external HDD type.


Samsung 60GB hard disk - 1.8-inch N-series
“Samsung is offering cutting-edge technology from an aerial density standpoint with the new 1.8-inch N-series. Given the same amount of hard drive space, Samsung is able to offer 60GB per disk where our competitors can only offer 40GB,” comments Albert Kim, national sales manager, Storage Systems for Samsung Semiconductor. “This enables us to produce more compact hard drives that will fit into smaller, more portable electronic devices.” Samsung’s 1.8-inch hard drives are among the quietest on the market today, with just 1.8 Bel, a measurement of sound. As the sound level detectable by the human ear is 2 Bel, this makes the operating sound of the new drives undetectable to the human ear. In addition, the N-series features ultra-low power consumption that is just .3 watts in low power idle.
Samsung’s 1.8-inch drives - 60 GB hard disk
Samsung’s N-series utilize PMR technology to achieve such a high level of storage capacity per disk. Unlike traditional longitudinal recording technology, which lays data bits end to end where they can flip and corrupt data on the disc, PMR technology places the data bits perpendicular to the disc, which reduces the corruption factor. In addition, by placing the data bits standing on end, more data can fit onto a disc, allowing for greater storage capacity. Samsung’s 1.8-inch drives feature an ultra low power mobile SoC, a quiet and robust platform design, fast drive ready time, high efficient hybrid latch system, shock sensor and free fall sensor which is optional. All are equipped with a 4,200-rpm spindle speed, and 7.14-millisecond average seek time and a 2MB data buffer.

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/1245...60gb_harddisk/

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Broadcom has put Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an FM radio on a single 65nm CMOS chip. Which changes the world of mobile phones for a small cost in a big way. This is a major step towards converged phone services and strengthens the argument that eventually we only carry one electronic device — the mobile cellphone.
At the moment I carry two plus an MP3 player which is damn silly.
This is not totally fresh news in a sense for it has been done, sort of, before. Marvell announced Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on a chip last year but that was much larger using a fair amount of power.
The new Broadcom’s BMC4325 (which is the successor to the BCM2048 seen above: how do they think of such romantic names?) is smaller and uses less power.
Ask any mobile phone user what they want the most? Batteries that last days rather than hours.
Take it as a given that his chip will rapidly become both a standard and a benchmark that other chip makers have to exceed. Stuart Carlaw, wireless research director at ABI Research, put it a little more formally: ‘Integrating multiple wireless technologies onto a single chip will be welcomed by mobile device manufacturers due to the inherent cost, space and power savings it will enable.’
There was a major snag in making this work. What you have, in effect, are multiple radios in one chip which can, if you will excuse the expression, interfere with each other. Wi-Fi b/g and Bluetooth both operate in the 2.4GHz range.
Broadcom believes it has cracked this through what it calls InConcert algorithms (excellent name there, lads) that run the two in tandem, either with separate antennas, or sharing an antenna to save space.
The most important part is that power demands are 40 percent less than on competing chips and everything still works at the same strength. Dammit, the FM radio is wider ranging than the one I have by my Bangkok hotel bed — it supports both US and European standards.
How far can this sort of thing go? In truth, there is no limit. The mobile phone will become, I am now fairly certain, the total electronics device we have all been waiting for.

http://dewantoro.org/2007/02/03/wifi...broadcom-chip/