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The technologies underpinning blogs, wikis and innovative sites like Google Maps and Wikipedia will transform the way productivity applications are developed, according to Rod Smith, IBM vice president of emerging Internet technologies.
It has the potential to put in-house corporate developers in more control by inventing on-the-spot applications " in some cases in just five minutes " to solve immediate business challenges, Smiths said in a speech to technology executives at the PHP conference in New York City Thursday.
IBM's new Enterprise Mashup uses Web services such as news feeds, weather reports, maps, traffic conditions and wiki technology to allow people to create a customized business applications in less than five minutes.
Rapid adoption of Web 2.0 components available free on the Internet is allowing clients to experiment by marrying combinations of online services with existing data and information from inside their businesses.
"The embrace of open standards and Web 2.0 technologies is forcing businesses to rethink the paradigm of the proprietary, one-size-fits-all productivity application," Smith said. ""Customers I talk to are abuzz about Web 2.0 and the creation of popular Internet services that seem to quickly appear out of nowhere, becoming instant global phenomena that are enjoyed by the masses -- including their employees. They want to apply that new paradigm to make their businesses act faster and grab new opportunities. There's no going back."
Smith said all middleware vendors will have mashup makers in their product portfolio within a few years, and he credited social networking sites for creating mashups.
IBM demonstrated its Enterprise Mashup technology, using resources like Ajax and instant messaging, with the National Association of Broadcasters. They linked sound crews, digital film crews, special effects experts and editors into one application for tracking progress, aligning staff, managing budgets and updating content.
Big Blue is developing mashups for a home improvement store that allows a logistic manager to drag and drop weather reports, maps and hardware inventory data into a mashup that shows which stores will need rock salt, shovels and snow blowers.
The Enterprise Mashup can also allow a stockbroker to drop a list of client names into the wiki-based Mashup maker and get a view of their interest areas with links to topical blogs, wikis and relevant news feeds. The dashboard shows which client interests overlap with other contacts in your address book, which allows expansion of professional networks and other insights.
IBM will make Enterprise Mashups available through its business representatives for selected customer and through its AlphaWorks Services website.

sa: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060616/tc_cmp/189401714

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The Internet2 Consortium, a group of universities, research centers, and companies exploring the possibilities of a very high-speed Internet, announced an agreement on Thursday with Level 3 Communications to deploy a nationwide backbone that initially will offer speeds up to 100 Gbps.
This rate is 10 times the current top speed of Internet2's Abilene backbone, but it's only the beginning.
Under the multiyear agreement, Level 3 will provide dedicated facilities for multiple 10-Gbps connections. The Consortium has said that it has plans to scale up the backbone to as much as 800 Gbps over time.
Network users at research facilities will be able to obtain dedicated 1-Gbps speeds for their projects, or, through scheduling, rates as high as 10 Gbps.

Moving Data

Dozens of projects across the U.S. and other countries already are experimenting with very high-speed connections through Internet2.
Astronomers are remotely controlling massive telescopes from their distant offices, or combining voluminous amounts of data from multiple telescopes into one virtual telescope.
Underwater explorers, such as Robert Ballard, the discoverer of the wreck of the Titanic, are broadcasting live, two-way video programs from the ocean floor.
Telesurgery is being conducted by such places as the Advanced Center for Telemedicine and Surgical Innovation of the University of Cincinnati, where the surgeon is thousands of miles away from the patient.
The new Level 3 backbone will allow researchers to obtain dedicated, very high-bandwidth connections when they need them.

Future Internet

"Some researchers, like astronomers, need large amounts of data to move at the same time," said Lauren Rotman, a spokesperson for the Internet2 Consortium. "The best way is to provide dedicated, optical circuits, which they can get now but can take days to set up. But, with the new backbone, they'll be able to provision these circuits on demand."
Will this Internet of the future, although a research test-bed that is not yet open to the public, impact consumers or businesses?
"What Level 3 is hoping," said Cindy Whelan, an analyst at technology firm Current Analysis, "is that they're going to get some experience with these special kinds of very high-speed applications and can parlay them into something that they can do with their regular customers."
The Internet2 Consortium includes more than 200 universities, research centers, and companies that are developing advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education.
Level 3 Communications is an international communications and information services company, operating one of the largest Internet backbones in the world.

sa: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060616/tc_nf/43938

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South Korea, home to the world's most sophisticated online games, is preparing an assault on North America, Japan and Europe, setting the stage for an international scrum in an industry poised to nearly triple in value in the coming years.
South Korea is one of the world's most Internet-connected nations and only recently began allowing sales of video game consoles that are so popular in Japan and the West.
As a result, all of the country's gaming efforts have gone into online games that offer open-ended stories set in virtual universes that can support tens of thousands of players.
South Korean Internet cafes, known as PC baangs, are the launching pad for online gamers and such a vital part of the social fabric that it is not unusual for youngsters in the throes of puppy love to visit one while on a date.
With domestic growth opportunities crimped by a relatively small and saturated market, South Korea's leading game makers, NCsoft Corp. (036570.KS) and Webzen Inc. (069080.KQ), are looking abroad.
Publisher NCsoft is already a contender in wealthy and comparatively red-tape-free Western markets with massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) like "City of Heroes," "City of Villains" and "Guild Wars Factions," but it has yet to have a cross-over hit with a home-grown game.

sa: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060616/...n_pluggedin_dc

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Microsoft Corp. picked two well-respected technical minds to fill the void from founder Bill Gates' pending departure in two years, but it also identified a next tier of leaders charged with reinventing the software giant to compete against younger, agile rivals.

Grabbing headlines in Thursday's announcements were Ray Ozzie, 50, who assumes the company's top technical mantle as chief software architect, and Craig Mundie, 56, who takes over some of Gates' role as long-term visionary.
But Microsoft also tapped a next tier of technical talent in J Allard, Steven Sinofsky and Bob Muglia -- executives in their 30s and 40s -- to play a larger role in shaping the company's future business and technology strategy.
Analysts said all three have won the respect of Microsoft's rank-and-file programmers with deep technical knowledge and an understanding that technology improvements cannot come at the expense of delays to new products, a problem that has plagued the company's mainstay Windows division.
"They have really good technical minds and really good experiences about what kind of decisions you have to make in order to ship a product," said Rob Horwitz, an analyst at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft.

"Those are the guys with their feet on the ground and not as much pie in the sky."
An ability to ship new products in a timely manner seems all the more important in light of investor perceptions that Microsoft has been outmaneuvered by aggressive and more agile competitors like Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
"Microsoft is at a crucial inflection point," said Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox. "The technologists are important for the company's future.
The decision by Gates to step back from Microsoft in two years follows longtime Windows guru Jim Allchin's plan to retire after Windows Vista ships in 2007, representing a changing of the guard at the Redmond, Washington-based company.
"The world has had a tendency to focus a disproportionate amount of attention on me. In reality, Microsoft has always had an unbelievable strong depth and breadth of technical talent," Gates said at a news conference on Thursday.

WHO'S NEXT

Sinofsky, 40, earned his stripes as the head of product development for the Microsoft Office business software team, gaining a reputation as a tough taskmaster with an ability to meet targeted release dates.
Earlier this year, he took on the role of leading the team of developers creating the next version of Windows after Vista. Sinofsky's responsibilities include integrating the operating system with a set of Windows Live Web-based services.
Allard, 37, gained prominence with a note he sent to Microsoft leaders about the looming importance of the Internet, which became the basis for the company's change of strategy to embrace the Internet in the mid 1990s.
An avid video game player, Allard now oversees the engineering and design of the Xbox game console. He pushed Microsoft into online gaming well before rivals Sony Corp. (6758.T) and Nintendo Co. Ltd. (7974.OS)
Muglia, 46, has the longest track record of the three at Microsoft, having joined the company in 1988. As the senior vice president of Microsoft's server and tools business, Muglia needs to keep outside developers happy with its tools and technology professionals using its servers.
All three executives were already considered stars in the company, but analysts said granting them more say over strategy and keeping them happy and motivated is a smart move.
"You have to keep these people motivated with new challenges," said Horwitz. "All three of them have been at Microsoft long enough that they could be on a 100-foot yacht in the Mediterranean sipping down Martinis all day."

sa: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060616/...rosoft_next_dc

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DRAM, FLASH, and Future

INTRODUCTION
There's been a lot of talk in the storage industry recently about solid-state disks (SSDs) and their ability to dramatically speed up a computing environment's performance. One thing that is rarely discussed is the difference between different types of solid-state technology. There are two basic types of memory used by SSDs: DRAM and flash memory. A general perception in the computing industry is that only DRAM is robust enough for enterprise use. That sentiment doesn't give enough credit to flash memory. As with any two different technologies, each has its advantages. This paper explains the differences in effort to help determine which technology is best suited for one's IT environment.

Speed
It's common knowledge that writing to flash memory is much slower than writing to DRAM. Isn't speed the main purpose of installing an SSD in the first place? Yes. However, to say that flash technology is "slower than DRAM" is to sell it short. First, reading data from flash memory is very similar to the speed of reading from DRAM. Second, the better manufacturers of flash SSDs incorporate a DRAM cache in the drives to speed up writes. The best of those manufacturers have algorithms inside the devices which are able to flush that data from cache to flash in the background without impacting performance. If we graph the relative performance of the two types of SSD and a traditional rotating disk, it looks like:

This graph is close to scale- one pixel width represents 10 microseconds (µs). Typical access times are: DRAM SSD: 10-50µs, Flash SSD: 35-100µs, Rotating Disk: 5000-10000µs (5-10ms). We can see from the above graph that the DRAM-based SSD is indeed faster than the flash-based SSD; it may even be three times as fast. However, we must ask the question: "Is that performance difference significant?" Considering how much faster each SSD technology is than rotating disk, the answer may well be "No." Chances are good that other differentiators below will be more important to many IT environments.

Longevity/Lifespan
Unlike DRAM, flash memory chips have a limited lifespan. Further, different flash chips have a different number of write cycles before errors start to occur. Flash chips with 300,000 write cycles are common, and currently the best flash chips are rated at 1,000,000 write cycles per block (with 8,000 blocks per chip). Now, just because a flash chip has a given write cycle rating, it doesn't mean that the chip will self-destruct as soon as that threshold is reached. It means that a flash chip with a 1 million Erase/Write endurance threshold limit will have only 0.02 percent of the sample population turn into a bad block when the write threshold is reached for that block. The better flash SSD manufacturers have two ways to increase the longevity of the drives: First, a "balancing" algorithm is used. This monitors how many times each disk block has been written. This will greatly extend the life of the drive. The better manufacturers have "wear-leveling" algorithms that balance the data intelligently, avoiding both exacerbating the wearing of the blocks and "thrashing" of the disk: When a given block has been written above a certain percentage threshold, the SSD will (in the background, avoiding performance decreases) swap the data in that block with the data in a block that has exhibited a "read-only-like" characteristic. Second, should bad blocks occur, they are mapped out as they would be on a rotating disk. With usage patterns of writing gigabytes per day, each flash-based SSD should last hundreds of years, depending on capacity. If it has a DRAM cache, it'll last even longer.

Data Integrity
Most flash SSD makers employ error-checking algorithms and are able to correct a few bytes in a 512-byte block. Some of the less-robust error-checking will miscorrect three byte errors about 20% of the time. The best flash SSD providers can correct six random byte errors (and detect nine) in a 512-byte block. They will also never miscorrect a three-byte error. This level of error-checking gives security that the data integrity of the drive will last much longer than we as IT professionals will have to worry about it.

Volatility
Unlike DRAM, flash is inherently non-volatile. There's an old axiom which states that "a computer's attention span is only as long as its power cord." This definitely holds true for DRAM as well. While flash memory will retain its data beyond 10 years without power, little more than 10 milliseconds without power will give DRAM a most annoying case of amnesia. To prevent this, DRAM-based SSD makers must add batteries and disks to keep the data from being lost during a power failure. Though rechargeable, these batteries must be maintained (replaced) on a regular basis (maintenance cycles vary; consult the SSD's manufacturer) to ensure their ability to completely backup the data in the SSD. The batteries maintain power to the memory and disk(s) long enough to transfer the data from DRAM to the non-volatile storage. Two things to consider are: Some power failures happen in rapid succession- This may cause the backup operation of the SSD to start over, which essentially drains the batteries prematurely. This may mean that the batteries will not retain enough power to complete a backup cycle. Second, backup and restoration of the data takes time. It can take 30 to 60 minutes or more to backup and restore the data. The backup time usually isn't painful, but the restoration can cause extended downtime. Consider the scenario of a power failure and successful data backup to disk. When power returns, the server(s) can be up and ready long before the SSD's data is restored from its backup disk. This can mean that the server will be unavailable for an extra hour or so. Depending on the application, this could range from a mere annoyance to a business-threatening outage.

Form Factor
Most DRAM-based SSDs are large, rack-mount devices. They require large internal power supplies, fans, batteries and disk drives to provide non-volatility. In comparison Flash-based SSDs are much smaller, usually the same form factor as a conventional disk.

Flexibility
Because the form factor of flash-based SSDs is so much smaller, they are inherently more flexible in their use. They can often be used in place of traditional disks in storage arrays or in a server's internal disk bays. Embedded applications or mobile systems often require the much smaller footprint of a flash-based SSD.

Reliability
Both types of SSD are quite reliable since there are few, if any, moving parts. Even the backup disks of the DRAM-based SSDs are typically spun down during normal operation. This means that both types of SSDs are much more reliable than a traditional disk. However, for more demanding environments the smaller, more rigid flash-based SSDs are often more desirable. They typically withstand greater vibration and temperature ranges than DRAM-based SSDs. Some flash-based SSDs are even considered "ruggedized" by NASA and the U.S. Military. These drives will withstand intense extremes that would reduce a rack-mount box to rubble.

Power Consumption/Heat Dissipation
One benefit of flash memory is that is uses much less power than DRAM chips. Because of this, flash-based SSDs generate much less heat than their DRAM counterparts. This also means that they don't need cooling fans, whereas the DRAM-based SSDs do. Again, fans take space and require power themselves, which in turn generates heat and noise.

Cost
No IT department would purchase a solution without looking at its price tag. While DRAM chips and flash memory chips are similar in price, the overall cost per megabyte is generally lower for flash-based SSDs. This is due to the simpler design, and the lack of need for backup batteries and disks, and the enclosures in which to hold them. Some of the cost of the DRAM-based SSDs is the extra sheet metal for holding the batteries and disks, as well as the labor involved in assembling it all.

SUMMARY
Now that we've taken an in-depth look at the different functionality and features, it should be clear to see that flash memory is useful for more than just consumer devices- it's also well-suited for the enterprise. Of course, one type of SSD will likely be better suited to the needs of your applications and IT environment than the other. Clearly though, it can be seen that flash memory has quite a list of capabilities that make it a "superstar" technology for many IT organizations.

sa: http://www.bitmicro.com/press_resources_flash_ssd.php

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Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) has gone on sale on the web despite not being launched until November this year.

The next generation consoles are on offer as "pre-orders" to Europeans for £550 ($1,020) at online shop, play.com. ,
The website says that because of an expected European shortage, it cannot guarantee delivery before Christmas.
The PS3 is the successor to the best-selling PlayStation 2 and will compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii.
The Xbox 360 is already available, while the Wii is due out later this year.
All three consoles promise cutting edge processing and graphical power.

Higher price
Sony currently dominates the console market with more than 100 million PlayStation 2s in homes around the world.
The electronics giant had originally planned to launch the new console in the spring, but was forced to delay because of technical problems with its high-definition Blu-ray DVD drive.

The PS3 comes in two different models. The basic model has a 20GB hard drive, while the more expensive model comes with a 60GB one.

The lower end model also lacks wi-fi, a slot for memory cards and a HDMI port for high-definition programmes.

The model for sale on play.com is the 60Gb model.

When Sony announced prices earlier this year it said that gamers would pay about £425 ($785) in the UK for the top end version of the machine.
play.com is also offering three games in its package. Driving simulator Formula One 06, flying game Warhawk and the karaoke-themed Singstar.
The website says the games shipped with the console may change due to availability.
Gamers will have to wait until later in the year to buy a console in the shops.
Japanese gamers will be the first to get their hands on the PS3 on 11 November while the console will arrive in the US and Europe on 17 November.

SA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5088154.stm

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Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB

Western Digital came late to the game with their 500 GB drive, but finally introduced it early this year to a minimum of fanfare. Despite having been on the market for nearly six months, the drive has hardly been noticed by the usual large review and news sites. The attitude seems to be that this drive is just another 500 GB, 7,200 RPM drive of which nothing special is expected. Ho hum.
It may be that Western Digital is aware of this. They have kept the usual our-drive-is-faster-than-your-drive marketing to a minimum; only one of three self-described "Key Features" relates to performance. The other two are about how cool and how quiet the drive is.

get the entire review here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article617-page1.html

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Standard Microsystems Corp. (SMSC) recently launched a line of intelligent network interface controllers (INIC) that is capable of doubling data bandwidth speeds to 50-Mbits/s in automotive infotainment applications.

SMSC is calling its latest INIC family MOST50 since it employs the MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) standard. MOST50 products are capable of transmitting signals over unshielded twisted pair (UTP) of copper wires.
The MOST50 INIC, part number OS81082, features a signal processing technology known as ePHY, which enables it to communicate over shielded or unshielded copper cables, as well as plastic optical fiber. To date, only signals with a bandwidth of 1-Mbits/s have been transported over unshielded cables in the radiation-sensitive environment of cars currently in production.
ePHY technology enables MOST50 devices to send a signal over the cables that is 50 times faster than current implementations, according to the company.

SA: http://www.eetimeseurope.cmp.com/189500238

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IBM Corp. and the Georgia Institute of Technology Tuesday (June 20) claimed they have broken the silicon speed record, thanks in part to a "frozen chip."
IBM (Armonk, N.Y.) and Georgia Tech (Atlanta) claimed that they have demonstrated the first silicon-based chip capable of operating at frequencies above 500 GHz by cryogenically "freezing" the circuit to minus 451 degrees Fahrenheit (4.5 Kelvins).

By comparison, 500 GHz is more than 250 times faster than today's cell phones, which typically operate at approximately 2 GHz, according to the organizations.
The experiments, conducted jointly by IBM and Georgia Tech, are part of a project to explore the ultimate speed limits of silicon germanium (SiGe) devices, which are said to operate faster at cold temperatures.
Ultrahigh-frequency SiGe circuits have potential applications in commercial communications systems, military electronics, space and remote sensing. The research could make possible a new class of powerful, low-energy chips that will deliver future applications like HDTV and movie-quality video to cellphones, automobiles and other devices.
The chips used in the research are from a prototype fourth-generation SiGe technology fabricated by IBM on 200-mm wafers. At room temperature, the circuits operated at approximately 350 GHz.
"For the first time, Georgia Tech and IBM have demonstrated that speeds of half a trillion cycles per second can be achieved in a commercial silicon-based technology, using large wafers and silicon-compatible low-cost manufacturing techniques," John Cressler, Byers Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a researcher in the Georgia Electronic Design Center at Georgia Tech, said in a statement.
"This groundbreaking collaborative research by Georgia Tech and IBM redefines the performance limits of silicon-based semiconductors," Bernie Meyerson, vice president and chief technologist at IBM Systems and Technology Group, said in the same statement.
In addition to Cressler, the team included Georgia Tech PhD students Ramkumar Krithivasan and Yuan Lu; Jae-Sun Rieh of Korea University in Seoul (formerly with IBM); and Marwan Khater, David Ahlgren and Greg Freeman of IBM Microelectronics (East Fishkill, N.Y.) The accomplishment will be reported in the July issue of the journal IEEE Electron Device Letters.

sa: http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/sho...leID=189500692

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Nokia and Siemens on Monday said that they intend to merge the networks business group of Nokia and the carrier-related operations of Siemens into a new company, to be called Nokia Siemens Networks. The 50-50 joint venture will create a communication company with strong positions in important growth segments of fixed and mobile network infrastructure and services.
Based on the 2005 calendar year, the combined company had €15.8 billion in pro forma annual revenues and is expected to start operations with 60 000 employees. Based on current market share data, it will be the second largest company in mobile infrastructure, second in services, third in fixed infrastructure, and the third largest in the overall telecommunications infrastructure market.
Nokia Siemens Networks will be able to offer its operator customers a comprehensive portfolio of fixed and mobile network products supported by a full range of professional services. The company’s portfolio will include next generation network convergence products like IMS, 2G GSM/EDGE access, 3G WCDMA/HSDPA access, extensive mobile core, fixed broadband, transport, IPTV, LTE, WiMAX and low-cost mobile voice products tailored for emerging market operators.
By combining network businesses, Nokia and Siemens will be able to cut-down workforce by 10% to 15% from 60 000, increase efficiency of research and development (R&D) and realign product lineup to become more competitive.
Nokia Siemens Networks will have its operational headquarters in the Helsinki, Finland metropolitan area, and have strong regional headquarters in Munich, Germany, where three of the future five divisions of the new company will be based. Simon Beresford-Wylie, currently executive vice president and general manager of Networks at Nokia, will assume the position of chief executive officer immediately upon the closing of the merger.The transaction closing is expected to take place before January 1, 2007 and is subject to customary regulatory approvals, the completion of standard closing conditions, and the agreement of a number of detailed implementation steps. After closing, the financial results of Nokia Siemens Networks will be consolidated by Nokia and accounted for at equity by Siemens.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/d...619232056.html

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GarageGames on Wednesday announced the release of two new tools to make it easier for people with an idea to create their own games: Torque Game Builder and Torque Game Builder Pro. Both are available for Mac OS X and Windows, with prices starting at $100.
Torque Game Builder features tools for making animated sprites, flexible tiles, a special effects system, collision detection, physics and hardware-accelerated 2D rendering. Editors help you manage interface creation, effects, tiles, level building and packaging.
The software is primarily designed for 2D game creation, though GarageGames notes that you can create “pseudo-3D games” akin to Civilization using the software as well.
“Much the same way that anyone can pick up an instrument and learn to play music, we want them to be able to pick up one of our engines and learn to make games,” said GarageGames President Mark Frohnmayer in a statement. “Torque Game Builder goes a long way towards making that a reality.”
GarageGames sells the software to independent developers and hobbyists for $100; that price doesn’t require developers to pay any royalities. The Pro version costs indie developers $250 and includes C++ and TorqueScript source code. Versions for commercial developers are available for $495 and $1,250 respectively. A 30-day trial version is available.
System requirements call for a G4 or better, 512MB RAM, Mac OS X v10.3 and Nvidia or ATI 3D graphics

SA:http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/200...JlYmhvBHNlYwM-

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The 2.5-Gbit/ second PCI Express interconnect is slowly shifting gears into a 2.0 version expected by the end of the year that will rev data rates to 5 Gbits/s. Details were discussed at the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG) annual meeting here recently. Generally, doubling speed in a given design means halving distance. Thus, engineers have several open questions on whether some connectors, board materials or other aspects of existing designs may have to change to accommodate the new speeds in the existing form factors.
"One of the big concerns is, can version 2.0 handle all the Express form factors? There's a whole new round of simulations going on to check that right now," said Michael Krause, an interconnect expert in Hewlett-Packard Co.'s X86 server group. The simulations may take two months, he added.
What's clear is that "all the design budgets for 2.0 will be very tight," said Ramin Neshati, a technical program manager from Intel Corp. who has worked on version 2.0 from its inception.
The 400-picosecond jitter margin of the 2.5-Gbit/s version 1.1 will shrink to 200 ps for version 2.0. Clocks and phase-locked loops will have to handle most of the narrowing restrictions, Neshati added.
One recent proposal suggests limiting Express 2.0 implementations to 85-ohm impedance on a pc board. However, simulation tests may show that the existing 100-ohm levels are adequate, at least in some implementations.
Meanwhile, design- ers have identified a handful of new features they will add to the 5-Gbit/s version. They include an access control feature that allows software to control packet routing on the interconnect and prevents hackers from spoofing and rerouting data, primarily for peer-to-peer traffic. The feature will be implemented for PCI Express chip sets, switches and multifunction devices.
Another new feature will notify software in cases where a link automatically shifts to a lower speed or width. An update to the link-training state machine for Express will let software also control the configuration and adjust the speed of Express 2.0 links.
Besides obtaining higher performance, graphics chips will use the fast channels of version 2.0 to eliminate graphics memory in favor of using the system's main memory--even when graphics are on a card, off the motherboard. However, desktop and notebook computers may implement a mix of 5-Gbit Express for graphics and 2.5-Gbit Express for everything else for a few product generations.
In servers, both Serial ATA and serial-attached SCSI standards are preparing a move up from 3- to 6-Gbit/s speeds that will want Express 2.0. In addition, multiport controllers for Ethernet, Infiniband and Fibre Channel will demand the faster system link as well.

sa: sa: http://www.embedded.com/showArticle....leID=189500487

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Each year Embedded Systems Design conducts a large-scale survey of embedded systems developers. We poll thousands of engineers, programmers, and managers to see what they're doing and how they're doing it. Starting this month we'll be publishing the results of our brand new 2006 research. This first month's installment reveals how developers choose and use operating systems in their embedded projects. In future issues we'll reveal some surprising data about microprocessors, development tools, favorite suppliers, programming languages, schedules, budgets, and more. This survey embodies the work of many people; it was complicated and expensive to conduct but we hope you enjoy the results.
More on methodology used in survey

Operating systems. Nothing cuts to the heart of a development project like the choice of OS. Whether it's a tiny scheduler or kernel, an open-source distribution, a tightly wound real-time operating system, a fully featured commercial RTOS, or no OS at all, it drives all downstream software decisions and many hardware decisions as well.

We asked users about more than 25 different commercial OSes—plus Linux, in-house, and proprietary alternatives—and got as many different answers. There isn't much that all embedded systems have in common but some clear trends were revealed nonetheless. First off, more than a quarter of embedded systems now in development won't have an OS at all. None. As the pie chart in Figure 1 shows, a little over 28% of all our survey-takers said the system they're designing now won't have so much as a tiny scheduler or task switcher. That's the average across all the age groups, industries, company sizes, and experience levels we polled.



Continued... http://www.embedded.com/showArticle....leID=187203732

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After a longer-than-expected gestation period, Pioneer is now shipping the BDR-101A Blu-ray recorder for the PC. Before we dive into the specs and performance testing, let's take a quick look at Blu-ray, what it is, and what it's not.
Blu-ray Disc is an optical storage medium with capacities of 25GB (single layer) and 50GB (double layer). The standard was jointly developed by members of the Blu-ray Disc Association, though Sony and Philips were the chief technology drivers in the organization. The Blu-ray Disc Association now consists of some 170 companies, including hardware, software and media manufacturers.
Most of the recent attention on Blu-ray has been focused on the ongoing format war for high-definition movie discs that's been going on between the HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc Association. Less attention has been paid to either drive as a PC storage device, even though both sides of the format fight are planning on releasing PC drives capable of recording discs.
While HD-DVD beat Blu-ray to market in the consumer player arena, with the Toshiba HD-A1, the first PC recordable drive on the market is Pioneer's BDR-101A Blu-ray recorder.

Continued... http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1980096,00.asp

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As the CIO Council and Office of Management and Budget help map out the June 2008 transition to IP Version 6, perhaps the biggest challenge is that they’re entering unfamiliar territory.
In the newest additions to the IPv6 Transition Guidance, the council’s Architecture and Infrastructure Committee has provided a list of best practices and transition elements that agencies should use as they work to meet the deadline.
“The big takeaway is to get to that consistent set of definitions and terminology so we’re all working on the same problem and scope,” said John McManus, NASA’s chief technology officer and chairman of AIC’s subcommittee on emerging technology.
The document “gives people a common structure and common set of terms.”
But the document itself stated that there are few success stories to draw from because of the limited experience in IPv6 transition, meaning that, for the most part, agencies could be on their own.
“Since IPv6 is the ‘next generation’ Internet protocol and introduces new standards, agencies are faced with the challenge of limited IPv6 transition ‘success stories’ on which to model their enterprise transformation strategy,” the document said.
These unknowns have some industry officials concerned that the definitions in the guidebook are not specific enough and do not connect with the initial guidebook’s release tying agency transition plans to their enterprise architectures.
The transition elements are more a list of concerns and what to look out for instead of specific solutions, said Walt Grabowski, senior director of network solutions at SI International of Reston, Va., the company managing the Defense Department’s transition.
OMB and the council released the first chapter of the guidance last November, urging agencies to incorporate the transition to IPv6 in their enterprise architectures. OMB also required agencies to complete IPv6 progress reports in February. By June 30, they are to complete an inventory of IP-aware applications and peripherals on their network backbones, and produce an IPv6 transition impact analysis [GCN, Dec. 12, 2005, Page 1].
The latest additions, released in May, are a compilation of existing recommendations and best practices gathered from the Defense Department, which has been testing and preparing for the transition for years, the private sector, and the Internet research and development community.
For instance, the document urged agencies to perform adequate testing and training to ensure that the transition is successful.
Also, agencies must start developing an information security plan in accordance with the Federal Information Security Management Act and other government statutes, the council said.
Agencies will need to replicate security applications being used in the current IPv4, the council said, and agencies must identify public-key infrastructure, key management and policy management infrastructures that meet the scalability and security verification requirements for intra-network communications.
But the document lacks specifics, Grabowski said, which could leave agencies hanging as they incorporate IPv6 transition plans into their EAs.

sa: http://www.gcn.com/print/25_16/41051-1.html