Security
Intel today is announcing the annual update of its business desktop PC microprocessors, with this year"s version focusing heavily on features for easier management.
Intel"s has decided to extent the original naming scheme for its mobile CPUs and will add a P segment to CPUs targeting notebooks and an S class for small form factor PC CPUs to its upcoming Montevina range, which is scheduled to launch in June this year, according to sources at PC makers. Intel originally had four segments to separate the TDP levels of its notebook CPUs: X for the extreme segment, CPUs that have a TDP over 40W, T for mobile high-performance at 20-39W, L for mobile high energy efficient at 12-19W, and U for mobile ultra-high energy efficient with a TDP less or equal to 11.9W.
Pasadena (CA) - Astronomers believe methane could be on a far-away planet in the Vulpecula constellation. The organic molecule showed up after scientists aimed the Hubble Space Telescope at planet HD189733b after it had passed in front of a star. Methane can combine with water to form amino acids, the basic building blocks of life.
The production of blue-laser pick-up heads (PUHs) by only a few makers, including Pioneer, Philips, Hitachi and Sony, is insufficient to meet increasing global demand for blue-laser DVD players, recorders, drives and burners, and the shortage is expected to be significant in the fourth quarter of this year, according to industry sources in Taiwan. Although the global market for next-generation blue-laser drives, burners and players/recorders is still in its infancy, international vendors of desktop and notebook PCs as well as consumer electronics have placed OEM orders for such products to test the market during the traditional peak season next quarter, the sources indicated.
Graphics card makers including Micro-Star International (MSI), Albatron, Gigabyte Technology and Leadtek Research have launched graphics card based on Nvidia"s GeForce 9800 GTX GPU. The cards support Nvidia"s 3-way SLI technology, boasting up to 2.8 times more power than any single GPU system, and HybridPower technology to reduce power usage by switching from the GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card to a motherboard IGP when running less graphically-intensive applications.
Microsoft"s MSN search engine stopped working for about four hours Thursday morning, and the company couldn"t immediately say what caused the problem.
Markham (ON) - ATI today announced a new graphics chip that will replace the X1800 series as firm"s fastest desktop product. The new X1900 will be available in four flavors, carry 48 shader processors and offer substantially more performance than the preceding graphics chip. The company promises that X1900 cards will be available today - for suggested retail prices up to $650.
For about two hours, the virtual landscape of Second Life filled with golden rings and the distinctive two-tone ding of Sega"s popular Sonic the Hedgehog games. The rings" listed creator was the fictional "Dr. Robotnik," a character from the Sonic games. However, the deluge of rings was not some form of cross promotion, but a viral attack of self-replicating objects, known less than affectionately as "grey goo."
Cambridge (MA)
Sunnyvale (CA)
Supply of high-density NAND flash (4Gbit and above) from Samsung Electronics is falling short of supply, according to Samsung customers. With some customers having to source supply from memory traders, industry watchers believe the shortage of high-density NAND flash parts should persist through the end of the year.
In addition to its joint venture with Nanya Technology (Inotera Memories), Infineon Technologies" main partners for DRAM production have been Winbond Electronics and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). However, Infineon may find itself short of DRAM foundry capacity as Winbond and SMIC are shifting their focus to niche IC production, which means they do not have sufficient capacity to provide foundry services for the DRAM maker.
Prices for low-density SDRAM chips used in consumer-electronic devices may continue to plummet in the fourth quarter, amid increasing supply, according to sources with IC distributors.
The PC market in South Africa is expected to grow 45.5% on year to 1.6 million units, including 900,000 desktops and 600,000 notebooks, in 2006, according to sources at Rectron, a Taiwan-invested IT distributor in South Africa. Including demand in Northern Africa (about 800-900 thousand units) and the twenty-odd member countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) (about 30-40 thousand units), the total PC market in Africa will top 2.7-2.9 million units in 2006, the sources estimated.
United Keys, a maker of display-key input devices, announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry). As part of this partnership, Foxconn will build display-key input devices using United Keys technology. The first product, a keyboard tailored for PC gaming, will start shipping as early as summer. The company also announced new patents and patents pending in a number of countries, representing a portfolio of IP with broad application making use of display keys.
Using GPS (global positioning system) data to measure how points on land move following an undersea earthquake could help geologists decide if the tremor will cause an ocean-wide tsunami. Combined with existing tsunami warning systems, the data could speed up decisions about whether to issue an alert and avoid false alarms, say US researchers.
There"s something to say about liking your enemy. It"s important to know what they"re up to, what their plans are, and what they"re hiding. In this case, no one should be an enemy.
San Francisco (CA) - One day after the announcement of the first Intel-based Apple computers, Intel follows up on its new relationship with Apple: The company and released software that is designed to help Apple developers to create multi-threaded applications for the Core Duo processor.
Bytescout Software has released Watermarking PRO, an easy-to-use Windows application that lets you protect your photos and images by watermarking them with custom text and images. Watermarking PRO makes watermarking really simple.
The head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Dr. Tony Tether, says the Urban Challenge will have multiple cash prizes. Tether told Wired magazine that prizes from $500,000 to $2,000,000 will be given to the top teams that successfully complete the 60-mile urban course with robotic vehicles.
Although handset sub displays are the current major application for OLEDs (organic light-emitting diode), MP3 players may become the top application in terms of OLED panel shipments in 2006.
El Segundo (CA)
Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices today announced the development of a 7.1" direct-view full high-definition (HD) low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) LCD panel. Sanyo Epson intends to commercialize the LCD globally for use in such devices as professional video equipment, portable TVs for personal use and in-car systems with terrestrial digital TV (DTV) reception.
A team of researchers from two of Taiwan"s top universities has unveiled a new technology that they say can produce blue PLEDs (polymer light-emitting diodes) five times brighter than current ones, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News.
Yorktown Heights (NY)
Cambridge (MA) - Batteries provide power for most of our daily gadgets, but they are bulky and must be replaced often. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology"s Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) are studying a new breed of ultracapacitors, which use carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to generate and store energy at the atomic level. Their goal is to make use of the unique properties of CNTs to produce batteries that are both longer-lasting and faster-charging.
Chicago (IL) - When Nvidia announced in early July that it has noticed a higher than normal failure rate in some of its notebook chips, investors reacted concerned, sending the company stock down 22%. The stock recovered after Nvidia apparently demonstrated good control of the issue and a one-time charge of almost $200 million. But what seems to be a closed chapter and a black eye for the company could be a much more serious problem that is just taking off: Several industry sources confirmed to TG Daily what has been reported by some publications for some time: In contrast to Nvidiaò€™s claims that only a limited number of GPUs are affected, sources indicated that "most" recent Nvidia GPUs carry the problem and a chance of failure, pushing the potential damage into stratospheric regions.
The popularity of 19" widescreen LCD montiors will continue growing through the rest of this year, with the segment expected to acocunt for 15% of LCD monitor shipments in the fourth quarter, and 10% for the whole year, according to Hsiung Hui, executive vice president of AU Optronics (AUO).
Intel plans to cut the prices of its 90nm Celeron D CPUs on February 20, 2005, while keeping the prices of its Pentium 4 CPU lineup unchanged early next year, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers.
Boston (MA) - Microsoft is working on a trio of technologies that will utilize flash memory as supplemental memory rather than as storage devices. Collectively referred to as "PC performance accelerators," Microsoft will debut SuperFetch, ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive to store and access frequently used data from peripheral flash devices and hyrbid hard drives.
Intel is scheduled to restart production its entry-level 865GV chipset in the fourth quarter, as the chip giant has observed huge demand from the channel market, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers. In addition, the launch of Intel"s high-end 975X chipset will be pushed up from the first quarter of 2006 to the middle of this November, the sources indicated.
Intel provided a few more code-names of future processors during a briefing with financial analysts in New York. President and soon-to-be CEO Paul Otellini promised the desktop processor "Conroe" for the end of 2006. Conroe will succeed "Presler", which will debut as Intel"s first 65 nm desktop dual-core in early 2006.
OTOY demonstrated its game streaming service by running Crysis on an iPhone and using AMD"s latest GPU server-side.
Intel has scheduled to launch its quad-core processor, codenamed Kentsfield, in the first quarter of 2007, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers.
Santa Clara (IL)
Toshiba surprised IFA attendees with its new touch-screen tablet.
Grenoble (France) - Scientists working at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) may have discovered a practical storage mechanism for hydrogen gas. It"s a form of Lithium Borohydride, or LiBH4, and it contains 18% hydrogen by weight. Presently, it"s created under enormous pressure, but is showing extreme promise as a new candidate for permanent hydrogen storage through future chemical refinement and a lower pressure system.
In response to recent comments from Microsoft"s VP of marketing, Peter Moore, the company has issued a formal statement clarifying its position on next-generation DVD support for the Xbox 360 console.
Japan-based Seiko Epson (Epson) has begun volume production of 0.74" and 0.56" high-temperature polysilicon (HTPS) TFT panels for 3LCD front projectors compatible with wide XGA (WXGA), according to the company. The new panels offer greater light efficiency by employing the latest D7 design rule process, which achieves higher aperture ratios, Epson said.
Driven by increasing demand for mobile phones and digital still cameras (DSCs), the market for all types of small-size LCD panels will swell to 3.2 billion units by 2008, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3 % from 2.8 billion in 2004, iSuppli predicts.
AMD has recently launched the first dual-core Sempron processors in China in a bid to counter Intel"s dual-core Celeron product line in the entry-level market, according to sources at motherboard makers. AMD Sempron 2100+ processors adopt a 65 nm process, and have a core frequency of 1.8 GHz.
The battle over what format will dominate when high-definition DVDs hit the market next year heated up on Friday after computer maker Hewlett-Packard said it will support the HD-DVD format backed by Toshiba in addition to the rival Blu-ray format.
Hannover (Germany) - Via today announced a series of C7-M ULV processors, which are claimed to be the lowest power CPUs available on the market today. The processors will be aiming for handheld products and will be available with clock speeds ranging from 1 to 1.5 GHz.
OCZ announced the release of the revision of PC2-4200 Enhanced Bandwidth DDR2 Platinum Edition series. According to the company, the memories deliver significantly lower latencies than standard 533 MHz DDR2 modules (3-2-2 timings).
Ò
Sandisk introduces 8 GB JEDEC-compatible iNAND
Ò
The new generation of flash cards is here, which, for the very first time, surpass the capacity of mini hard drives. Sandisk"s new Extreme III Compact Flash cards will ship with 12 GB and 16 GB capacity in December of this year.
Chicago (IL) - AMD will keep to its promise to ship its first 65 nm processors by the end of this year. The limited supply of the new chip generation, code-named "Brisbane", will be flanked by 90 nm dual-core CPUs with increased clock speed and more L2 cache: Three new processors, led by the Athlon 64 X2 6000+, will bring AMD closer to the performance of Intel"s Core 2 Duo.
PC related IC design houses Realtek Semiconductor, Anpec Electronics and Integrated Technology Express (ITE) have all reduced their sales growth targets for the third quarter because demand from motherboards in August has not been as strong as expected. Market watchers expect Richtek Technology will also reduce its third-quarter sales target.
Coggno"s learning management system offers a unique tool for medical e-learning course developers through MedMovie, one of Coggno"s Application Exchange Partners.
Ò
Scientists at Philips Research have developed a phase-change memory promising to match the speed, density, low-voltage and low-power consumption requirements of future deep sub-micron silicon chips.
Tyan Computer, which specializes in servers and workstations, expressed optimism about rising demand for cluster-based supercomputers in the coming years, according to company president and CEO Symon Chang. The supercomputer market is expected to hit US$5 billion annually in the future, said Chang, adding that half of Tyan"s barebone systems based on the AMD platform feature the cluster architecture.
Munich (Germany) - AMD today said that it is on track to ship its first 65 nm processors in the second half of this year. The company claims that it already has been producing a significant number of 65nm development test chips to lay the foundation for a volume conversion of its manufacturing process by mid-2007.
Austin (TX)
The Register learned this afternoon that Intel has informed some clients that it will be discontinuing eight classes of lower-end Itanium 2 processors, and three classes of Xeon MP processors.
The new NVIDIA graphics drivers v61.72 add support for GeForce 6800 series and all PCI Express models.
Silicon Graphics unveiled its SGI Infinite Storage TP9700 RAID storage array Tuesday, claiming it is the industry"s first Fibre Channel storage array equipped with a 4Gb/second interface. The company said the array doubles the speed of its previous offerings.
MXSave announces that its e-mail disaster recovery network processes over 1 million e-mails per day.
San Francisco (CA) - Web developers have some new tools to play with, as Google has opened up its entire collection of Youtube videos to allow other websites the opportunity to create customized video playback.
While Royal Philips Electronics is still negotiating renewals of its Veeza patent licensing with leading Taiwan-based makers of blank CD-R discs, the makers have become more reluctant to accept the licensing terms due to decreasing global demand for CD-R discs, according to industry sources in Taiwan. Leading makers include CMC Magnetics, Ritek and Prodisc Technology, the sources noted.
Markham (ON)
SanDisk announced the availability of its FlashBack adapter as a backup storage media to protect against unexpected PC system failure or hard disk drive (HDD) crash. The FlashBack adapter fits into the ExpressCard slot where it will automatically and continuously back up and encrypt critical data onto a SecureDigital (SD) or SD HighCapacity (SDHC) card.
Samsung announced its 17" SyncMaster 711t LCD with a 1000:1 contrast ratio, one of the highest of any 17" LCDs in the marketplace today.
Optimus to promote TANDBERG"s world-class video conferencing and immersion solutions through its Middle East channel network
New York (NY) - Yes, even we thought it might never happen, but Sony BMG has apparently waved the white surrender flag on DRM and plans on distributing a portion of its music collection as DRM-free songs. According to Business Week, Sony has been testing out DRM-free songs for several months and plans on doing a major rollout starting with next month"s Super Bowl.
Bangkok (Thailand) - At TG Daily we strive to bring you the very best coverage of events around the world. Sometimes that means lugging a heavy digital camera, hi-def camcorder and a laptop around to steamy parts of the world like Thailand, but we do it for you, our loyal readers. For those of you who aren"t lucky enough to attend the 29th International Motor Show here are some videos to show you what you"re missing.
Markham (ON)
NEC LCD Technologies recently announced that it will begin shipping samples of its new 12.1" super video graphics array (SVGA) TFT-LCD module. The new LCD enables the display of vivid colors, even in environments with high ambient light, such as outdoors in sunny weather or indoors in direct sunlight.
Las Vegas (NV) - Male size competitions, that"s what the battle of 100"+ HD TVs is being termed here at CES. It"s also a battle of timing, as two companies raced to announce their 108" TV"s. LG has apparently got the first ever 108" to be announced to the world, though it was superceeded by their combo Blu-ray HD-DVD player. Sharp followed two hours later with their behamoth of a TV nobody bar vainglorious celebrities are ever going to buy.
Chicago (IL) - The move from a 90 nm to a 65 nm production process enables Intel to reduce the power consumption of its single-core Pentium 4 processors, Tom"s Hardware Guide has learned. Compared to the current generation with "Prescott" core, the new "Cedar Mill" will drop from 95 to 86 watts.
Hackers have succeeded in breaking into the computer systems of two of the U.S." most important science labs, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In what a spokesperson for the Oak Ridge facility described as a "sophisticated cyber attack," it appears that intruders accessed a database of visitors to the Tennessee lab between 1990 and 2004, which included their social security numbers and dates of birth.
Funding from KDK- Harman Foundation Supports Schools in Central Texas
Chicago (IL)
New enhancement for USB Monitor: Windows 7 and 64-bit OS support added. USB protocol capturing, decoding, displaying, filtering, errors detecting and much more.
SanDisk today announced that it expects to soon launch 56nm multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips with Toshiba at Toshiba"s 12" fab (Fab 3) at Yokkaichi, Nagoya, Japan. By spring 2007, SanDisk intends to ship the highest available density of single-chip MLC NAND flash memory.
For Taiwan"s motherboard industry there is no company more important than Intel. While other processor and chipset makers, as well as other component suppliers and valued customers play their important roles in the industry"s development. Every year, the world"s number one semiconductor company launches new technologies and issues new design guidelines, bringing more challenges to the motherboard industry. This year is no exception. In a recent talk with Sunil Kumar, Intel"s director of chipset marketing, DigiTimes.com discussed Intel"s latest desktop platform advances as well as current trends in PC technology.
Â
As promised by Intel, Presler will be the very first 65 nm processor available, apparently launching on Dec. 27, according to a report at the Inquirer. Presler will be also the last core based on Intel"s Netburst architecture that was introduced more than five years ago with the Pentium 4 "Willamette" core.
Although digital photo frames are in many ways still thought of as a geek accessory or as a gift to bestow on a less technically inclined loved one, the market continues to show strong growth. According to Taiwan"s Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK), demand is expected to grow from about 12 million units in 2007 to 20 million this year. Looking to drive growth further, players in the industry are now trying to leverage Internet services to make digital photo frames easier to manage while perhaps even redefining how the devices are used.
Miami (FL) - People in southern Florida were hit with a massive power outage after two nuclear reactors spontaneously shut down. The outage centered on the Miami-Dade area, but also extended to some parts of Broward County. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reps say the reactors were probably responding to a weird reading in the power grid and add that everything should be back to normal shortly.
Berlin (Germany) - Remember drawing images of magnetic fields in physics class? Scientists from Hahn-Meitner-Institute (HMI) and the University of Applied Sciences, both located in Berlin, Germany, in Berlin have developed a much more sophisticated way to show actual magnetic fields in solid materials by visualizing the quantum-mechanical spin state of neutrons.
Glendale (CA) - It took just three days for malware authors to release to exploit a critical security hole in Microsoft Office and Word. According to Panda Software Labs, 1Table.A arrives as seemingly harmless Word document, but unlocks a backdoor trojan that allows a hacker to run code on a victim"s computer.
First-tier motherboard makers, including Asustek Computer and Micro-Star International (MSI), have revealed their latest graphics cards adopting AMD"s Radeon HD 3000 series GPUs. Among the offerings are Asustek"s EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G and EAH3870X2/G/HTDI/1G graphics cards.
Jon Peddie Research is currently running a survey on "PC usage and desires." Participants can pick up several prizes, including a Gateway 21" widescreen LCD with HDCP support, one of Nvidia"s new 7600GT HDCP graphics cards, several TV tuner cards, TV software, backup drives and a 1-yr subscription to the firm"s research report. Click here to take part in the survey.
Agere Systems today announced a new highly integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC) for miniature hard disk drives (HDDs) used in portable consumer electronics (CE) devices. The low-power chip provides complete support for perpendicular recording and new interface standards that enable small-form-factor (SFF) system makers to offer three times the capacity of flash-based storage with lower cost, claims the company.
ATI has informed its clients in Taiwan that it will gradually begin volume shipments of its R-series GPUs, including the R520, RV530, RV515 and RV505 by the end of the third quarter. R-series GPUs are fabricated at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), using a 90nm processing technology, according to the sources.
Solid state drives (SSDs) are the latest in hot tech upgrades these days, and rightly so. SSDs add huge boosts in performance to a system that is HDD bound, and the storage subsystem of a computer is the weakest link in its performance.
Microsoft is preparing a total of seven security patches for Windows and Office in is security update package for July. According to an "advance notification" posted on the firm"s Security Bulletin website, the company will provide consumers four Windows and three Office updates. While details have not been released, the firm said that "critical" security issues will be addressed by the updates.
Microsoft has officially begun requesting that users running Windows 98, 98 SE and Millennium Edition (Me) upgrade their operating system as soon as possible. The Redmond company will cease all public and technical support for the products on July 11, 2006, including all security updates.
With rumors indicating that Intel has recently adjusted its capacity strategies by putting more effort on producing high-profit mobile chips and phasing out some lower-end desktop PC-use chipsets, Taiwan chipset makers including Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) have been pushing to ramp up their production to fill the gap in supply.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is expected to migrate all of its CPU production to 90nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) processes in early 2005, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers, citing AMD"s latest roadmap.
Eidos Interactive today officially announced the new name and release window for the game formerly titled Roll Call. The game has been redubbed Zero Tolerance - City Under Fire and is scheduled to be released sometime in during the second quarter of 2006 in Europe.
Las Vegas (NV) - This year"s Defcon computer security convention had a high-tech badge for an equally high-tech crowd. The circular badge was a colored circuit board complete with a small computer chip, battery and two blinking LED lights. Defcon staff wanted the badge to be difficult to counterfeit, but easy enough to add some interesting hacks.
AMD has not been very talkative about its future product recently. While rival Intel is aggressively educating industry, press and the public about its product plans for 2006 and 2007, there is little what we know today about upcoming products beyond the planned 65 nm transition late in 2006 or early 2007.
Barcelona (Spain) -Flags, like the checkered finish flag, have always served a critical part in any form of car racing, but drivers can sometimes miss those wavy pieces of fabric driving at 200+ MPH. In a bid to change the status quo between judges, race organization and the drivers themselves, FIA as the world"s automotive governing body recently tested digital flags on the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.
Natural User Interface multi-touch software product Snowflake Suite has earned a Certificate of Finalist Recognition in Best New Product or Service of the Year - Media & Entertainment.
Epox announced two new SLI-capable mainboards. The EP-9NPA+ SLI aims at Socket 939 AMD processors, while the EP-5NVA+SLI will accommodate Socket 775 Intel CPUs (FSB 800 and 1066). The devices support up to four GByte dual-channel DDR memory, integrate a Realtek sound solution with up to eight audio channels. Other standard equipment includes ten USB 2.0 connects, two P-ATA and four SATA II ports.
It"s all about tablets today! Asus" Eee Pad is rumored to be based on Tegra.
Taiwan-based industrial PC (IPC) maker Diamond Flower Electric Instrument (DFI) plans to add AMD embedded processors in its product lineup later in the year, according to sources at the company. Aside from Advantech and ICP Electronics, which already include AMD processors in their lineup, DFI also plans to use AMD processors in its IPC products starting from the third quarter of this year with a focus on the Micro ATX platform.
Although the shift to HD (high definition) resolution has started among flat TV manufacturers, the era of HD TV is expected to begin taking off in 2006, according to statements made at the recent HDTV Conference 2005 held by DisplaySearch Taiwan.
Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has announced the production of a series of 14" full color PLED (polymer organic light-emitting diode) displays using ink jet printing.
Matrox Graphics has released a free desktop management utility that lets users organize and save application positions. Matrox PowerSpace works with Matrox multi-display cards and can create up to nine workspaces per display. Workspaces can be toggled on or off via keyboard shortcuts or the PowerSpace task-bar icon.
Matrox Graphics has announced its DualHead2Go Digital Edition external multi-display upgrade device featuring digital outputs. The DualHead2Go Digital Edition connects to the VGA output of compatible notebook or desktop computers allowing display across two digital displays, according to the company.
A judge has thrown out a $30 million dollar lawsuit against MySpace that was filed by parents of a 13-year-old Austin girl that was molested by someone she met on the world"s most popular social networking website. U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks ruled that MySpace was protected under the 1996 Communications Decency Act and couldn"t reasonably be expected to verify everyone"s age.
Los Angeles (CA)
As you already know, Tom"s Hardware has updated its reference test platform for 2009 with Asus" P6T X58-based motherboard and Intel"s Core i7-965 Extreme processor.
Las Vegas (NV) - One of the first major events at CES 2007 was the Storage Visions 2007 Conference, which focused not only on hard drive technologies, but featured an interesting exhibit as well: Join us to see Hitachi"s Terabyte hard drive, Seagate"s hybrid hard drive, Sandisk"s solid state disk, HP"s external HD DVD drive and a very effective disk crusher.
Those with fancy video cards be proud!
Irvine (CA) - Emachines today introduced four new entry-level systems that sport double-layer DVD burners.
The new 2 TByte (2048 GByte) "÷µcard," developed by Taiwan"s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and seven local-industry players, is now waiting for marketable solutions to be developed, based on the initial specifications established in early October. The developers have formed the Mu-Card Alliance to promote the new standard.
The worldwide demand for single-side dual-layer DVD+R/-R discs will increase in 2008, according to sources at disc makers and research firms. Since Ritek and CMC Magnetics expanded their 2.4x dual-layer DVD production capacity starting in 2007, pricing has dropped from NT$70-80 (US$2.17-2.48) to NT$55-60, which has helped to boost market demand, according the market sources.
The ozone hole over Antarctica might persist until 2065, which is two decades longer than predicted, because ozone-destroying chemicals are still being released by developed nations more than a decade after their production and importation was banned.
The Photobook Company is a new website launched by leading London digital agency Cyber-Duck, which allows people to design and order a luxury handmade photo album online.
Taiwan-based DRAM makers expect the upcoming price cuts
A capsule carrying dust particles from the tail of a comet parachuted to Earth on Sunday, and elated NASA scientists were eager to examine the samples for clues about how the solar system formed.
SecurityFocus is reporting this morning that a Venezuelan native already convicted for defacing a US Air Force Web site, and who is facing deportation, may be detained in the US as NASA considers whether to press charges against him, for the possible theft of documents relating to next-generation launch vehicles:
Cypress (CA) - Eizo is adding two widescreen models to its ColorEdge series of professional LCD monitors. The new 21" and 24" models offer a 16:10 aspect ratio and include the firm"s 10-bit hardware calibration technology and 14-bit color processing capability.
Farhad Rostamian, the strategic marketing director of Micron Technology, explained to DigiTimes in a recent interview how he believes that more applications are going to help boost demand for CMOS image sensors over the next three to four years. Rostamian said that the applications have already expanded from digital cameras, camera-equipped mobile phones and digital camcorders to car-use and medical devices.
Manchester based IT solutions company, JMC, is celebrating after being recognised for the fourth year running as the best Northern Partner at the 2009 Pegasus Partner Excellence Awards.
Intel is taking its StrataFlash technology to the next level with the introduction of new flash memory products aimed at embedded applications in markets ranging from consumer electronics to wired communications.
Hot off the burner!
An 18-month old toddler in Calgary, Canada, died after it took two ambulances 40 minutes to get to him thanks to one ambulance being dispatched to the wrong city as the VOIP phone used to make the 911 call gave emergency services the wrong idea as to the location of the caller.
Hacked patch saved the day for multi-GPU PhysX fans.
Detroit (MI) - Infiniti announced its second car that will use a 2.5" hard drive to store digital music. The firm"s refreshed SUV monster, the QX model, will offer a hard drive as storage unit for digital music as standard equipment for the 2008 model year, which will go on sale in April.
Revenues Grew 17 Percent in 2008; New Client Wins Comprised 28 Percent of Growth
Washington (DC) - Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA) has written a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. In it, he voices concerns over the looming XM/Sirius merger, saying that he believes it would cause harm to satellite radio subscribers.
The iHomeopath Mini app as well as an update for teh iHomeopath app for the iPhone and iPod touch are now available.
Symantec expects to begin offering a new consumer security service similar to Microsoft"s Windows OneCare Live by September of this year, a company executive said this week. Code-named "Genesis," the service will integrate components of Symantec"s security, PC tuning, and backup software into a single service that is accessible over the Internet.
Includes BREAK signal transmission from real device and SDK: NET-control installation fix.
This week Nvidia held a press event here at Computex in order to show off its technology and talk about its direction for future technology.
Sanyo Epson today said that it has developed a 2.2" cellphone display that is just 1.1 mm thick and can display QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) resolution. The new device is based on amorphous silicon (a-Si) technology and reaches a brightness of 350 candelas per square meter.
ATI Technologies has begun showcasing its new Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire edition at Computex 2005 today, with the official launch set for June 1 and mass production beginning in July, according to sources at the company. Intel and AMD versions will be available, and the chipset will be initially manufactured on 130nm processes at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and then moved to 110nm, the sources said.
Intel has quietly extended its "Grantsdale" Pentium 4 chipset family with a pair of low-end products, as anticipated.
Get your latest Windows 7 drivers here!
Round Rock (TX) - Dell received the honor of unveiling the first quad-core desktop computer. Just hours before Intel will formally announce its Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor, Dell announced the XPS 710, which looks like a regular XPS gaming system but hides one of the first quad-core CPUs you can buy - for at least $3700.
Core 2 Duo in detail: Past, present and future (22 images) ..
Corsair said it is now shipping its blinking and text-scrolling memory modules, dubbed Xpert.
Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC) general manager Brian Shieh expects the company to triple its output of DDR2 in the second quarter, with its proportion of production climbing to 50-60% in late second quarter.
Cadac Group BV continues her Microsoft partnership with the competencies ISV/Software Solutions, Information Worker Solutions and Learning Solutions
A previous Microsoft VP blasts Microsoft for its uncreative environment.
1DCutX calculates how to cut linear materials (bars, pipes, etc) with minimal waste without leaving the Excel. It reads spreadsheets, generates reports and graphical layouts within your workbook.
Bolide Software is launching a new version of All My Movies, which introduces a new interface design - the virtual shelves with DVD cases. Now users can browse through the movie collection more intuitively.
Asus released two graphics cards that utilize Super ML Caps for higher GPU overclocking and 15°C cooler GPU temperatures.
With oversupply and increased competition dragging down the prices for handset keypad-use blue LEDs by an average of 50 percent annually over the past five years, Taiwan LED makers are eying new market segments, such as LEDs for 15- and 17" monitor-panel backlighting in order to boost their margins, according to LED maker Unity Opto Technology.