Pc News

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Sprint Picks WiMax for Faster Mobile Data Network

Sprint Nextel, not satisfied with just 3G (third-generation) mobile data, will roll out a faster 4G network using WiMax later this year.

The network, which will start to be rolled out by the fourth quarter and reach as many as 100 million people around the U.S. by the end of next year, will offer downstream speeds of 2 megabits per second to 4 mbps, Sprint said Tuesday. Combined with fast uplinks, WiMax will offer enough bandwidth for mobile videoconferencing, transfers of large enterprise files and other applications, executives said.

Partners Intel, Motorola, and Samsung Electronics plan to help by equipping notebook PCs and a variety of mobile devices to use the 4G network.

First Carrier to Choose WiMax
Sprint Nextel is the third-largest U.S. mobile operator. Its choice of WiMax is the first endorsement of the metropolitan-area wireless data system by a major U.S. carrier. Sprint holds licenses around the country for radio spectrum in the 2.5GHz band and had considered other 4G technologies. The carrier said it chose WiMax because it believes it could build an ecosystem of equipment makers around the technology, which is based on the IEEE 802.16e standard.

The 4G service will complement Sprint Nextel's 3G EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) services, executives said at a New York press conference, monitored via Web cast. The carrier is already offering video, music and other multimedia services on 3G, but that technology doesn't deliver the economics Sprint needs, said Barry West, Sprint chief technology officer and president of Sprint's newly formed 4G business unit. The WiMax network can deliver four times the throughput at one-tenth the cost of 3G, he said.

Pricing of 4G services will easily meet Sprint Nextel's frequently stated goal of offering customers 1G byte of data per month for less than $20, West said. "We are significantly south of that," he said.

Sprint's embrace of WiMax along with its powerful hardware partners will have an impact far beyond U.S. shores, according to IDC analyst Shiv Bakhshi.

Implications
"That will create an ecosystem, trust me," Bakhshi said. Motorola and Samsung's position in the mobile device market, along with Intel's marketing power, will help make this a turning point for WiMax, he said.

"WiMax was in need of a major player signing on to it," he said, adding that Sprint's deployment will become a showcase to the rest of the world.

Backers of WiMax, especially Intel, have pushed it as a standards-based technology that will get less expensive as manufacturing volumes grow. Financial commitments by Sprint's hardware partners weren't detailed Tuesday, but Sprint said it plans to spend $1 billion this year and $1.5 billion to $2 billion next year on 4G.

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Could Your Keyboard Spy on You?

Researchers say that small devices called "JitterBugs" could piggyback onto network connections to discreetly send passwords and other sensitive data over the Internet.

Like the current keylogger hardware used by the FBI and criminals alike to record passwords and other data, JitterBugs are small devices that attach to a keyboard and record what users type. Unlike current keyloggers, which store the data to internal memory, JitterBugs do not have to be retrieved before captured data can be read.

Although no such device has been found "in the wild" yet, researchers have developed a working prototype, and they postulate that similar ideas may have already been used in unnoticed attacks.

Researchers Theorize
In a paper titled "Keyboards and Covert Channels," University of Pennsylvania grad students explain that the device could encode data in keystrokes by introducing an extra delay between when a key is pressed and when the keyboard tells the computer that the key has been pressed. (Read the paper in PDF format.)

In applications such as telnet and remote desktop, a packet is sent every time a user presses a key. By causing calculated "jitters" in keyboard input while such a program is running, a JitterBug could slightly delay data sent over the network. Certain amounts of delay could represent a 1 or a 0 in each packet that is linked to keyboard use, allowing an attacker to send secret information in otherwise innocuous data without modifying software or initiating any new connections.

Although 1 bit per packet is not a great deal of space, an application like telnet could send enough packets to transmit a password or another small, important piece of data.

To intercept this data, a spy would need to use a packet sniffer to intercept a connection from the target computer. This would require that the attacker have access to a network somewhere between the victim and the victim's destination--not a trivial goal, but probably easier than attaching the JitterBug in the first place.

Even if the connection were encrypted, data encoded in the delays would likely be visible to an attacker. Although additional delays could ruin the careful pattern introduced by the JitterBug, the device has some level of tolerance for this issue.

Worked Great in Tests
Researchers say that in tests, the JitterBug was able to transmit data from the University of Pennsylvania to the National University of Singapore fairly reliably.

Researchers believe that such devices could pose a security threat not only because they are difficult to detect and they work across a wide variety of software and hardware, but also because they could be inconspicuously deployed on a large scale.

In what the paper's authors term a "supply chain attack," manufacturers would build a JitterBug into their keyboards. Such a vulnerability would be extremely difficult to detect--neither the keyboard nor the victim's computer would appear to be doing anything unusual--but anyone who knew of the devices could decode the data they sent, getting backdoor access to thousands of computers.

This threat, however far-fetched, seems particularly relevant in light of the U.S. government's decision in May use computers built by Lenovo only for processing unclassified data. The Chinese government owns 28 percent of Lenovo, information that sparked fears of espionage. As it turns out, numerous keyboards are also manufactured in China.

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Microsoft Updates Fix PowerPoint, Windows Flaws

Microsoft today issued nine security updates addressing critical flaws in its Office and Windows products. The updates patch two worrisome PowerPoint flaws that could allow attackers to seize control of a PC, the company said.

This month's security updates also include 3 patches for less-severe Windows problems, making a total of 12 software fixes system administrators must contend with.

Office Apps Under Fire
Office applications like PowerPoint have come under increasing scrutiny of late.

Last month, Microsoft patched 12 Office vulnerabilities in its security patch release. Days later Symantec discovered that hackers were trying to exploit a new one by sending e-mail with malicious PowerPoint attachments. This malware installed a Trojan horse program called Trojan.PPDDropper.B and a backdoor program called Backdoor.Bifrose.E on the PC of any user who opened the document.

The critical patches issued today cover a wide range of issues, including problems in Internet Explorer, the Windows kernel, the help system, and the Server service. Outlook Express, the Microsoft Management Console, Visual Basic, and the Windows DNS (Domain Name System) are also affected with critical flaws, Microsoft said.

The three less-serious patches fix problems in Windows Explorer, the Windows kernel, and the Windows Hyperlink Object Library.

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Sony Unveils Wi-Fi Personal Communicator

Sony Electronics has unveiled a wireless-enabled device aimed primarily at people who like to send text messages and make free calls over the Internet.

The new Mylo personal communicator, designed to operate on 802.11b wireless networks, will be priced at $350 and be available in September at Sony's retail stores and online shop at www.sonystyle.com.

Mylo, which stands for "my life online," will compete with a range of hybrid communication devices, including phones with cellular and Wi-Fi capabilities and a number of messaging and entertainment features.

Device Details
The device features a 2.4 inch color LCD with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for quick thumb typing. It comes with embedded with instant messaging applications from several companies, including Google, Yahoo, and Skype.

An Internet browser is also embedded, with Web mail service available through Google and Yahoo.

Also included is VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) software from Skype.

Mylo is equipped with 1G byte of flash memory to store music, photos and video clips, and contains a directory listing more than 20,000 hotspots in the U.S.

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Another PC With Veterans' Data Goes Missing

A desktop PC containing the personal information of up to 36,000 U.S. military veterans has gone missing from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) subcontractor Unisys, the VA announced yesterday.

The PC may have contained VA patients' names, addresses, Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, insurance carriers and billing information, dates of military service, and claims data that may include some medical information, the VA said. Unisys notified the VA on Thursday that the computer was missing from the subcontractor's Reston, Virginia, offices.

The VA immediately dispatched a team to Unisys to assist in the search for computer and to help determine what information it held, the VA said in a press release.

Similar Situation
The announcement comes after the VA said in late May that a laptop and hard drive containing the personal data of 26.5 million veterans and their spouses was stolen from a VA analysts' home. Police recovered the laptop and hard drive in late June, but the theft set off a series of hearings in the U.S. Congress about the VA's management and IT organization, with several lawmakers calling for an overhaul of the VA's decentralized IT reporting structure.

On Saturday, Montgomery County, Maryland, police announced they had arrested two Maryland men for the theft of the laptop and hard drive.

In the Unisys case, the VA believes the missing personal records belong to people who received treatment at the VA's two Pennsylvania medical centers during the past four years. The PC appears to have contained personal information for about 5000 patients treated at Philadelphia, about 11,000 patients treated at Pittsburgh, and it may have also contained information from another 20,000 people treated at the VA's Pittsburgh medical center. The PC appears to have also contained information on about 2000 deceased patients, the VA said.

The VA is working with Unisys to offer credit monitoring and individual notifications to potential victims, the VA said.

"VA is making progress to reform its information technology and cybersecurity procedures, but this report of a missing computer at a subcontractor's secure building underscores the complexity of the work ahead as we establish VA as a leader in data and information security," VA Secretary R. James Nicholson said in a statement.

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Powerful New Mac Workstation, Leopard OS Features Announced

Apple CEO Steve Jobs's keynote address at Apple's annual developers conference here kicked off with announcements of a new Mac workstation and a description of new features in the next release of Mac OS X, also known as Leopard.

Apple vice president of worldwide sales and marketing Phil Schiller came to the stage with Jobs to introduce the Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro to the annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The processors that power the Mac Pro are Intel's "Woodcrest" design--dual-core processors with speeds of up to 3 GHz.

Schiller said the chips have 4MB shared Level 2 caches and 128-bit vector engines that replace the "Velocity Engines" found in Power Mac G5 systems. And the processors are 64-bit.

"These are great microprocessors, and they deliver tremendous performance per watt," said Schiller, who added that power consumption is important both in notebooks and thin desktops. Xeons, said Schiller, offer up to three times more performance per watt than a G5.

"In every Mac Pro we're going to put two of them," said Schiller. All Mac Pros, said Schiller, will feature quad Xeon performance.

(Read PCW's Techlog blog for a minute-by-minute account of Jobs's presentation today.)

Inside the New Mac Pro
Each microprocessor gets its own 1.33-GHz Front Side Bus (FSB), with 21-gigabytes-per-second (GB/s) processor bandwidth. The processors are fed by four-channel, 256-bit 667-MHz memory, up to 16GB in the system. That's twice as wide as the memory bus in a G5 and faster.

With better performance per watt, Apple can reduce the cooling inside the Mac Pro case, so the system now supports up to four drives for up to 2 terabytes (TB) of internal storage, as well as dual optical drive bays.

The Mac Pro also features two USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 ports on the front. And while the enclosure is clearly based on the Power Mac G5 chassis, the internal architecture is entirely new. The system features a new drive carrier that's similar in implementation to the Apple Xserve quad Xeon 64-bit server announced today--when you insert a drive, it snaps right in.

Mac Pro Configuration
The standard Mac Pro configuration features two 2.66-GHz dual-core Xeon processors, 1GB of 667-MHz memory, 250GB of storage, nVidia GeForce 7300GT graphics with 256MB of VRAM, and a 16X SuperDrive optical drive--all priced at $2499.

"This is a great product to bust the myth of Apple's computers being more expensive," said Schiller, who demonstrating the point by pricing a similar configuration from Dell for about $1000 more.

Apple is also offering build-to-order configurations clocked at 2 GHz, 2.6 GHz, and 3 GHz, with up to 16GB RAM, 2TB of storage, and upgraded Radeon X1900 XT or nVidia Quadro FX 4500 video.

The new Mac Pro is shipping Monday, said Schiller.

New Leopard Features: Time Machine
Jobs explained to developers that some top-secret features in Leopard, the newest version of the Mac operating system, won't be revealed, but Apple wants developers to know about them in preparation for a spring 2007 launch. "We don't want our friends in Redmond to start their photocopiers just yet," he added. With that, Jobs introduced Scott Forestall, Apple's vice president of platform experience.

Forestall told the crowd that Leopard will support 64-bit applications. "We've now got 64-bit Unix," he explained. "In Leopard, take this a giant leap forward with 64-bit Carbon and Cocoa, all the way to your applications. You can have fully native 64-bit UI Carbon or Cocoa applications."

"Time Machine" is Apple's second major feature for Leopard. Forestall explains that it was developed to help users back up their system effortlessly. He pointed to estimates that only about 4 percent of users are utilizing automated software for backing up important files--only a quarter of users back up at all on a regular basis.

Time Machine automatically backs up your Mac, said Forestall. "If you change a file, that file is backed up. We back up everything...that means we can restore everything. If your hard drive dies, you can buy a new hard drive, put it in your machine, and be right back where you were."

Forestall said that Time Machine supports hard drives and servers, and will automatically configure a hard drive for backup once it's plugged in. What's more, it gives you version control, so you can recover specifically saved versions of files as well (hence the name Time Machine).

Forestall demonstrated Time Machine as an application resident in the Dock that displays your time line. Sliding the time line reveals your machine as it was--one, two, or more days ago--flying you through Finder windows so you can locate the document you're working with. Double-clicking the file shows a preview; clicking the Restore button brings that file back to your Mac. In addition to the Finder, Time Machine can work with other applications, such as Address Book. Time Machine will also be open to third-party developers. (The demo gods didn't smile on Forestall unequivocally, however: His demo crashed.)

"We're going to deliver the complete package," said Jobs of the third major item on the list of Leopard's new features.

"We've got applications as beta, applications as separate downloads--we're going to ship all of them with Leopard," he added.

Front Row, Photo Booth, Spaces
Jobs told the developers that Boot Camp, Apple's software that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows, "...is going to be even better than the beta, and it's going to ship as part of Leopard."

Leopard will also include Front Row, Apple's software for accessing media such as photos, music, movies, and downloaded videos from a single interface that's easy to view in a living room or media room. Apple's Photo Booth--software that turns the iSight Webcam into a fun and creative imaging tool--will expand the number of cameras it works with.

"Four--this is a big one," said Jobs. "We call it Spaces."

Jobs described Spaces as "a new way of working on your Mac" that lets you take collections of applications that you use to accomplish tasks and "create a space for them to be in," and then rapidly switch between them. It sits as an icon in the Dock.

Jobs demonstrated Spaces being used with a collection of apps such as Mail, Safari, GarageBand, and iTunes. With the press of a key, the entire user interface slid left, right, up, and down. Another Space contained Final Cut--clicking on an icon in the Dock automatically switched to its layer.

Forestall told developers that Leopard's implementation of Spotlight expands the search engine's scope to other Macs on the network--with users' permission, of course. Leopard Spotlight will also gain advanced syntax searches with support for Boolean expressions and file types in search queries. Leopard Spotlight adds an application launcher, as well.

Front Row, Photo Booth
Core Animation is the sixth major bullet point for Leopard that Apple revealed to developers at WWDC. Using Core Animation, developers can create a "Scene" comprising layers that contain text, images, video, or OpenGL content. "You define a start state, a goal state, and possibly keyframes in between."

Forestall demonstrated Core Animation by using it to create a demo using iTunes album art flipping around--similar to an effect in Apple's recent iTunes television ad--showing a city being built of album art and then funneling into an iPod. He created the demo live, using Core Animation.

Apple is improving Leopard's universal access, for users with physical disabilities, said Jobs. The OS is gaining Braille support, along with closed captioning support in QuickTime. VoiceOver has been overhauled, according to Jobs, who demonstrated dramatically improved text-to-speech technology.

Mail is getting some major enhancements in Leopard, said Jobs. It will add Stationery--HTML-based mail templates; Notes, which lets you add a special message type that lives in a special Notes mailbox; and a feature called To Do--which lets you select anything and make it a To Do item, complete with a priority setting, a due date, an alarm, and more.

The To Do feature is, in fact, a new type of service offered in Leopard that any application can tie into. It provides "one systemwide to-do service, where everything is kept track of," said Jobs.

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Dashboard, iChat

Dashboard, iChat

Leopard's implementation of Dashboard is also getting some improvements. The first is a developer tool called Dashcode that helps developers design, develop, and debug widgets. Dashcode includes templates that can help developers incorporate RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and podcast support, images, and more. Those templates can be modified to the developer's liking. Dashcode has a "Parts" library that includes search fields, button controls, and more that users can simply drag out to their own widget. Also included is a full JavaScript editor and debugger.

A more user-oriented feature in Leopard Dashboard is called Web Clip. "We've come up with a way where anyone can take any part of a Web page into a widget," explained Forestall. He demonstrated the technology by using Web Clip to make an automatically updating comic strip panel widget, an eBay auction, and more.

Once again Jobs took the stage to introduce the tenth new Leopard feature--what he called "a seriously enhanced iChat."

iChat will support multiple log-ins, invisibility, animated Buddy icons, and video recording, said Jobs, as well as tabbed chat.

"But we want to go further than this," Jobs added. With many new Macs shipping with iSight cameras and videoconferencing available right out of the box, Apple wants users to have fun, too. So with Leopard iChat, users can add Photo Booth effects to videoconferencing. What's more, iChat Theater lets you show slides as you're talking; Phil Schiller, offstage, demonstrated the new technology by conducting a videoconference with Jobs via iChat--playing an iPhoto slide show, a Keynote presentation, and video. In each case, his image slid to the left, while a large area next to him displayed the slide show.

Backdrops is another new iChat feature similar to video blue- or green-screening. You step out of the frame, and iChat "learns" your background. When you step back in, you can replace the background with anything you want. You can also insert video-based backgrounds.

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Sprint Picks WiMax for Faster Mobile Data Network

Sprint Nextel, not satisfied with just 3G (third-generation) mobile data, will roll out a faster 4G network using WiMax later this year.

The network, which will start to be rolled out by the fourth quarter and reach as many as 100 million people around the U.S. by the end of next year, will offer downstream speeds of 2 megabits per second to 4 mbps, Sprint said Tuesday. Combined with fast uplinks, WiMax will offer enough bandwidth for mobile videoconferencing, transfers of large enterprise files and other applications, executives said.

Partners Intel, Motorola, and Samsung Electronics plan to help by equipping notebook PCs and a variety of mobile devices to use the 4G network.

First Carrier to Choose WiMax
Sprint Nextel is the third-largest U.S. mobile operator. Its choice of WiMax is the first endorsement of the metropolitan-area wireless data system by a major U.S. carrier. Sprint holds licenses around the country for radio spectrum in the 2.5GHz band and had considered other 4G technologies. The carrier said it chose WiMax because it believes it could build an ecosystem of equipment makers around the technology, which is based on the IEEE 802.16e standard.

The 4G service will complement Sprint Nextel's 3G EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) services, executives said at a New York press conference, monitored via Web cast. The carrier is already offering video, music and other multimedia services on 3G, but that technology doesn't deliver the economics Sprint needs, said Barry West, Sprint chief technology officer and president of Sprint's newly formed 4G business unit. The WiMax network can deliver four times the throughput at one-tenth the cost of 3G, he said.

Pricing of 4G services will easily meet Sprint Nextel's frequently stated goal of offering customers 1G byte of data per month for less than $20, West said. "We are significantly south of that," he said.

Sprint's embrace of WiMax along with its powerful hardware partners will have an impact far beyond U.S. shores, according to IDC analyst Shiv Bakhshi.

Implications
"That will create an ecosystem, trust me," Bakhshi said. Motorola and Samsung's position in the mobile device market, along with Intel's marketing power, will help make this a turning point for WiMax, he said.

"WiMax was in need of a major player signing on to it," he said, adding that Sprint's deployment will become a showcase to the rest of the world.

Backers of WiMax, especially Intel, have pushed it as a standards-based technology that will get less expensive as manufacturing volumes grow. Financial commitments by Sprint's hardware partners weren't detailed Tuesday, but Sprint said it plans to spend $1 billion this year and $1.5 billion to $2 billion next year on 4G.

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Utah Man Charged With Intercepting E-Mail

A Salt Lake City man faces up to 15 years in prison for allegedly intercepting the e-mail of two of his former bosses, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

William K. Dobson, 55, is charged with surreptitiously accessing the e-mail system of a Utah technology firm after he left the company. He has been indicted on two counts of intercepting electronic communications and one count of illegally obtaining information from a protected computer, the DOJ announced late Wednesday.

The DOJ did not release the name of Dobson's former employer.

Messages Rerouted
After Dobson left the company over business and financial disagreements, he accessed the company's e-mail system twice to program it to send e-mail to an unauthorized inbox he created on the company's system, the DOJ said.

Dobson allegedly routed the e-mail of the company's chief executive officer and its vice president of engineering to this inbox.

He programmed his home computer to download the e-mail for longer than a month, until the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation searched his home in connection with the investigation, the DOJ said.

Dobson allegedly read many of the e-mail messages, containing both business and personal information, the DOJ said.

If convicted, Dobson faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and restitution to the victims.

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Google CEO: AOL Breach Won't Happen Here

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA -- The release of a database of online search histories that has gotten AOL into so much hot water could never happen at Google, CEO Eric Schmidt said this week.

"Our number one priority is the trust our users have in us," Schmidt said, speaking at a press conference during the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in San Jose, California. "The answer is, it won't happen."

Without going into details, Schmidt said there are security measures in place at Google that would prevent a company employee from releasing information about user search histories. "We have very sophisticated security plans for an attack on information," he said.

Schmidt added that Google is compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley and other legislation that mandates how information within the company can be shared, so there are strict controls that prevent someone from inside Google from leaking private information.

Not an Attack
The AOL incident was not the result of an attack, however.

On Monday, a researcher at AOL accidentally released a database that contained search histories of more than 650,000 AOL users, histories that provided details into the users' personal lives. The user names or online identities were not released, however. The company has apologized for making the database public.

Though Schmidt stressed several times that AOL's release of search histories was a "bad thing," he said that such an event can serve to raise awareness about what can happen if private online user information is shared without a user's permission.

"The awareness that bad things can happen is a good thing ... especially with [threats] like identity fraud," Schmidt said.

Keeping with Google's recent vow to be more open with the press, Schmidt hosted yesterday's informal press conference after a public appearance at SES. In addition to addressing the AOL debacle, he also divulged more details of how Google plans to expand its lucrative advertising business into radio, television, and online video.

"We're thinking of using our advertising system [AdSense] for every form of advertising," Schmidt said. "Why? It's a great opportunity to provide more opportunity for advertisers, and it's a great opportunity to provide better value for end users."

To this end, Google recently struck a deal with Viacom International's MTV Networks to distribute ad-supported video content from Web sites in its advertising network. Earlier this year, the company purchased radio ad provider dMarc Broadcasting, and expects to begin targeted radio advertising in the next two months, he said.

"Radio is going to be very, very big advertising business," Schmidt said.

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Nvidia Ups Graphics Ante With Quad SLI Driver

Nvidia gave graphics enthusiasts the ability to build their own Quad SLI systems with the release today of a driver for the four-way graphics system.

Quad SLI is a technology that allows a PC to run four Nvidia graphics chips simultaneously, producing extremely high-quality images.

But the technology is not for everyone. To see the benefits of Quad SLI, the user must have a monitor with a resolution of 2560 pixels by 1600 pixels--far beyond the capability of the average desktop monitor.

Movie-Quality Images
The graphics produced by Quad SLI are stunning. A Quad SLI system demonstrated by Nvidia at the Computex exhibition in Taipei during June produced near movie-quality images.

For enthusiasts that wanted this kind of graphics power, Nvidia is offering them the ability to build their own systems with the release of a Quad SLI driver.

The driver can be downloaded online from Nvidia's Web site.

To build a Quad SLI system, users will need two Nvidia GeForce 7950 graphics cards, each packing two graphics processors and 1GB of memory, well as a Quad SLI-compatible motherboard and power supply.

A list of compatible products is available online.

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GeekTech: AMD Buys ATI: Should You Care?

Corporate mergers typically are not fodder for this column, since few actually lead to stuff that matters to PC enthusiasts. Go ahead, try to name one good product-related thing that emerged from HP's acquisition of Compaq--it can't be done. However, when AMD finally announced its long-rumored plans to buy ATI, well, that qualified as GeekTech news.

That's because do-it-yourselfers have long had a soft spot for both companies. AMD has always been the scrappy processor underdog fighting the good fight against the corporate behemoth Intel. (Mind you, AMD is a billion-dollar-earning underdog that has owned the high-performance desktop CPU crown for several years.)

Meanwhile, ATI was that Canadian graphics company that garnered notable affection from enthusiasts back in 2002 when it surprised everyone--including its brash competitor nVidia--with a fantastic little GPU called the Radeon 9700. That chip helped set off a back-and-forth battle for graphics supremacy that continues today--much to the delight of performance nuts.

So why are these two companies tying the knot? Will the merger impact AMD's longstanding and fruitful relationship with nVidia, which makes the chip sets enthusiasts love to use with AMD processors? What kind of processor and graphics innovations can we expect from the new company? And what do we call it?

AMD + ATI = AMD?
Here's what we know for sure: The deal will close in about 90 days (roughly late October). The merged company will be called AMD (or at least the AMD folks say it will; the ATI folks say the name isn't official yet). And frankly, that's about it.

Everything else is just guesswork, for now. Executives say it's not clear which product lines and brands will remain, though I can't imagine the new company would do anything to drastically retool either its desktop CPU or GPU brands.

One thing that is clear when you talk to AMD and ATI executives about the merger: It's not really about making a faster desktop processor, or GPU. At least not right away.

Bummer.

Fact is, AMD is already very competitive with Intel on the consumer desktop (Conroe benchmarks notwithstanding). No, AMD is betting $5.4 billion dollars on ATI because it thinks that, together, the companies are better equipped to take on Intel in areas such as mobile computing, commercial desktops, and emerging markets (where integration and low prices are most important).

With AMD's processors and ATI's graphics and chip-set products, the new company will be able to offer manufacturers a more complete menu--the same way Intel currently does.

However, AMD spokesperson Jon Carvill is quick to point out that AMD has no intention of closing off such a future platform to outside companies. "We're not going to close our architecture," he says. "The open approach that AMD has always offered will remain."

As a result, Carvill is confident that AMD and nVidia will continue to work together well, even as nVidia's fiercest competitor sets up shop under the same roof.

"nVidia has been a great partner to AMD for many years," he says. "If the best solution is nVidia at some price point, then we want vendors to be able to make that choice." (Over at nVidia, CEO Jen-Hsun Huang had his own spin on the merger, according to this BusinessWeek story: "I thought it was just impossible to get a gift like this," he said. "ATI is basically throwing in the towel, leaving us as the only stand-alone [graphics chip] company in the world."

Platform Evolution
ATI supporters shouldn't worry that the graphics side of the business will play second fiddle to CPUs, says Chris Evenden, ATI's director of public relations. "ATI fans should be excited--our objective is to be the number one graphics company, and now we're going to have some distinct advantages."

One of those advantages will be the ability to work closely with AMD's CPU engineers to create more cross-platform ideas, he says. "Together we can innovate on the PC architecture. There haven't been big innovations in a long time--the block diagram hasn't changed in PCs for years. We could change that."

For example, Evenden says, future AMD chips could have video controllers built right into the CPU. Another option could be a CPU and GPU on a single chip. Bringing the two companies' engineering teams together could lead to evolutionary, or revolutionary, changes in the PC platform, he says.

"Maybe there are different ways of getting multiple CPU cores or graphics cores into one machine," Evenden says. "Once you have the whole platform, you can go different places."

Nothing New Soon
Nobody should expect new products from the merged company right away, says Dean McCarron, principal analyst, Mercury Research.

"It takes 18 months to three years to develop new semiconductor products," he says. "Once they get the go-ahead [on the deal], they'd start on new product design, but we wouldn't see that until the second half of 2008."

In the meantime, both AMD and ATI will need to keep their existing customers happy. AMD's Carver says the company is very conscious of its status with PC enthusiasts. While this deal may not garner immediate benefits for those folks, he's confident they'll stick by the company, and reap the benefits in time.

"I think with the enthusiasts if you demonstrate the ability to support them and give them what they want, they'll stick with you. They want their feedback to be taken seriously, and you can't become complacent. I think from our perspective that the enthusiasts remain front and center for us."

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The IBM Personal Computer's 25th Anniversary

Twenty-five years ago, IBM changed the world. It wasn't intentional. When Big Blue announced a microcomputer called the IBM Personal Computer on August 12, 1981, it hoped only to make a nice profit.

The company did make money--but more important, the IBM PC, also known as the Model 5150, made a significant impact on the culture. Today, for instance, we call our desktops and laptops PCs, not microcomputers. The vast majority of the ubiquitous machines scattered around our offices and homes are direct descendents of IBM's 25-year-old box.

Former IBM engineer David J. Bradley joined the microcomputer project in September 1980. It was "one of those things that engineers dream about...a brand new thing; a blank piece of paper."

Before the IBM PC, business computers were mainframes or minis, large and expensive investments that weren't intended for a single person's use. Since the resources were shared, computing jobs ran slowly during business hours when everyone was at work. Dedicated, technology-savvy employees would often work through the night.

Personal computers existed prior to the IBM PC--the Apple II came out in 1977, and the Atari 800 came out in 1979, for example. However, these systems used proprietary components and designs.

IBM was in a hurry, so Bradley and his coworkers had to break company policy and use other people's technology, including a processor from Intel and an operating system from Microsoft. The PC's lack of IBM-owned technology made cloning possible, and cloning--Columbia Data Products' MPC 1600-1 in 1982 was the first clone--made the PC a standard. "If we'd [built the PC] from the ground up," Bradley told me, "we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

Although extremely significant, the original IBM PC ranks only sixth in PC World's list of The 25 Greatest PCs of All Time.

Something Special
The final result of the IBM team's work was a cool, grey, horizontal box. The keyboard and monitor were not built in, but attached with cables--common today but somewhat unusual then. If you didn't want to load programs and save files on a cassette tape, a floppy drive cost extra, as did a printer.

But the PC wasn't only well made, it was well documented, which contributed to successful cloning. Dan Bricklin, cocreator of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program, recalls that IBM "provided wiring diagrams and BIOS listings with comments that made it easy for programmers to write for this thing."

It wasn't your only PC choice in the early 1980s. Many popular microcomputers of the day ran an operating system from Digital Research called CP/M. Commodore's PET 2001 and Tandy's TRS-80 Model I were also established players. And two guys named Steve had a big business going with the Apple II.

But this computer had the IBM imprimatur. In 1981, if you told your employer that you wanted an Apple or an Atari, well, bosses in that era tended to think of those machines as toys. The name IBM probably did more for the PC's initial success than any other factor. Big Blue had a serious image that contrasted with the hobbyist nature of previous microcomputers.

Bradley says the question of the day was: "Do you want to buy a computer from International Business Machines or from a company named after a fruit?"

Software Contributors
Members of the IBM team weren't the only ones involved in getting the IBM PC out the door. Bricklin remembers receiving a prototype of the IBM PC, "a piece of plywood with a motherboard," well before that August date.

Dan BricklinIBM wanted him to port VisiCalc to the new platform, as it was one of the few business-oriented programs then available for microcomputers. Bricklin remembers the first IBM PC as "a really well-done machine," expandable, with a "very readable [monochrome] screen" and "a great keyboard." Two decades later, he collected his memories about the project in an essay titled "Thoughts on the 20th Anniversary of the IBM PC."

Mitch KaporMitch Kapor, whose Lotus 1-2-3 would soon supplant VisiCalc as the leading PC spreadsheet, got no early preview. But he was impressed by IBM's use of the 16-bit Intel 8088 processor. "I thought to myself, 'there's somebody very smart inside IBM,'" he says.

The 8088 had an additional advantage over its stablemate, the 16-bit 8086: It used an 8-bit data bus. So, although it could run 16-bit applications and address a full megabyte of memory, it was paired with existing 8-bit components, which kept its cost comparable to its 8-bit competition and ensured its success.

Of course, what impressed people in 1981 can seem laughable today. When Phil Lemmons, later a PC World editor in chief, reviewed the IBM PC in the October 1981 issue of Byte magazine, he was careful to note: "The system supports both uppercase and lowercase characters." (The original Apple II supported only uppercase characters.)

Others weren't that overwhelmed. Frank Wylie, now a lab supervisor for the Library of Congress Motion Picture Division, was then a computer-savvy adolescent who owned an Atari. "From the standpoint of a 13-year-old, [the IBM machine] didn't have any of the fancy graphics," Wylie remembers. In comparison, the Apple II and the Atari 800 both offered color graphics by that time.

Nobody was really prepared for the IBM PC's instant, explosive success, especially for a machine whose $1265 base model didn't include a monitor, video card, parallel or serial port, operating system, or floppy drive. In 2001, Bradley told PC World that IBM hoped to sell 241,683 PCs over five years. Before those five years were up, the company was selling nearly that many units a month.

The Ghost in the Machine
Of course, IBM no longer makes PCs. In the mid-1980s the company attempted to take back control of the standard with a significant upgrade--the Micro Channel Architecture PS/2, which was software-compatible, but not hardware-compatible, with the PC. However, it was Compaq, the first and largest of the clone manufacturers, that offered the upgrade everyone really wanted: a PC based on Intel's 32-bit 80386 processor.

Big Blue remained a major player in the PC market throughout the 1990s, but it was no longer the biggest player. During that time it concentrated on its ThinkPad notebooks rather than desktop PCs. In 2005 IBM sold its PC division, including the ThinkPad, to the Lenovo Group.

The IBM PC is, according to Kapor, "clearly the lineal ancestor. Ninety-eight percent of the genes in its DNA are the same, but functionally today's PCs are different."

Today's computers are especially changed in how data moves in and out of them. Early PCs had no optical drives or hard drives; initially, having even a floppy drive was a nice upgrade over tape storage. Other advances we take for granted, such as PCI slots and USB ports, were still many years in the future. Modern PCs lack 5.25-inch floppy drives (if they have a floppy drive at all), parallel and serial ports, and ISA slots. "The only thing that is really the same between the original and today's [PC hardware]," says Bricklin, "is the power connector."

But today's PC can still run a great deal of early DOS software, including Bricklin's 1981 version of VisiCalc, now available for free from his Web site.There's no question about it: Bradley and his long-ago collaborators created something that lasted long beyond their hopes and expectations. Had he known, would Bradley have done anything differently? Yes, indeed. "I would have bought shares of Microsoft and Intel," he says.

[Rasputin]

Desktop Killers

Go on, admit it. You've been thinking about ditching your desktop in favor of a laptop. You're not alone--many people have already made the switch and now revel in the ability to pick up their computer and go. Thanks to dual-core processors, dual hard drives, multiformat DVD burners, powerful graphics, and brilliant 17-inch wide-aspect screens, the latest crop of high-performance portables stand ready to replace your desktop PC. Who wouldn't be tempted?

To help you decide whether to opt for a big, powerful laptop instead of a desktop PC, we looked at seven notebooks. Four of these were entertainment-focused: Alienware's Aurora m7700, Dell's Inspiron E1705, HP's Pavilion dv8000z, and Toshiba's Qosmio G35-AV600. We also tried two big business-minded laptops--the Gateway M-685E and the HP Compaq nx9420. The final model in our test group, Acer's TravelMate 8200, possesses both entertainment and business appeal.

To gauge how these notebooks stacked up against desktop PCs, we tested each model using our WorldBench 5 benchmark, conducted our regular battery life and graphics tests, and completed a thorough series of hands-on evaluations.

Ultimately, we determined that two notebooks--HP's Pavilion dv8000z and Toshiba's Qosmio G35-AV600--deserved Best Buy awards. The dv8000z offers the best balance of speed, usability, and features, for a reasonable $2200, while the $2548 Toshiba Qosmio is the best audiovisual notebook on the market today.

Of the others, we liked the HP Compaq nx9420's 7.4-pound weight and the Acer TravelMate 8200's built-in Webcam. The pricey Alienware Aurora m7700 offers the option of dual hard drives and dual optical drives, while the Gateway M685-E is a good all-around small-business desktop replacement for graphics pros. The Dell Inspiron E1705's superb graphics results will entice gamers.

While the entry point for ownership is now remarkably similar for desktops and laptops--about $500--feature for feature, you'll still pay about 40 percent more for a notebook. You might spend $2400 on a portable with a dual-core CPU and a 17-inch screen, or you could invest $1400 in a faster desktop and a 20-inch flat-screen panel--and save $1000.

Desktops continue to have the edge in expandability, too, because of their size and the easy access to internal components they afford. Though you can replace a notebook's hard drive and upgrade its RAM, in most cases you can't swap out the graphics card yourself or add another internal hard drive or a second optical drive. Finally, desktops are usually the first to incorporate new technologies--whether a line of new processors, an improved drive interface, or bigger and faster hard drives. But notebooks also have an edge: Most now offer the added convenience of built-in Wi-Fi, and some support mobile broadband services, so you can work wirelessly almost anywhere.

[abadani69]

شرکت وسترن دیجیتال که یک شرکت پیشرو تولید کننده هارد درايوهای دیسک سخت در سراسر جهان محسوب می شود، نسل بعدی هارد درايوهای 5/2 اینچی خود با نام WD Scorpio tm را به بازار معرفی کرده است. این هارد درايوها با استفاده از طرح WD و تکنولوژی ضبط مغناطیسي عمودی تولید شده اند.
یکی از مدیران ارشد اين شرکت در خاورمیانه ، آفریقا و جنوب آسیا در همین خصوص می گوید : " روند صعودی و رو به رشد استفاده از موبایل و تجهیزات الکترونیکی مصرفی با برنامه های کاملا دیجيتالی نظیر ویدیو، موسیقی و عکس همراه با گسترش پی در پی تولید اطلاعات ، در واقع نیاز به انواع هارد درايوهای با کیفیت و با ظرفیت بالا را افزایش می دهد ."
وی در ادامه می افزاید: " کاربرد تکنولوژی PMR ( ضبط مغناطیسی عمودی) توسط شرکت وسترن دیجیتال در موبایل ها که در واقع به عنوان یکی از بازارهای گسترده و رو به رشد شرکت ما محسوب می شود، قابلیت های کاربردی اینگونه ذخیره سازی را که با استقبال زیادی هم همراه است، افزایش می دهد." هارد درايوهای WD Scorpio با ارائه عملکردی با کیفیت بالا با سرعت چرخشی معادل 5400RPM (چرخش یا دوران در دقیقه) با الزامات نیرویی قابل مقایسه با 4200 RPMو مصرف نیروی کمتری در بلند مدت در سیستم های باطریی و هم چنین ضریب اطمینان بالای دستگاه دیسک ران در بلند مدت، عمل می کنند.
پیشرفت های تکنولوژیکی در دستگاه های دیسک ران WD Scorpio 5/2 اینچی موبایل، همچنین بالاترین حد عملکرد آکوستیکی را در اختیار مصرف کنندگان قرار می دهند.
همچنین این دستگاه ها با ارائه ظرفیتی از 40گیگا بایت تا 120گیگا بایت با برخورداری از یک حافظه نهانی با ظرفیتی 8مگا بایت در بازار موجود هستند.