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July 31, 2005
Computer hackers angered by Cisco's attempts to hide news of a flaw that could allow an attacker to take control of the Cisco Systems routers that direct traffic across much of the Internet are working hard to discover and map out the vulnerability reports Reuters.
The hackers apparently have no intention of hijacking e-commerce payments, reading private e-mail, or launching any of the other malicious attacks that could be possible by exploiting the flaw. They want to illustrate the need for Cisco customers to update their software to defend against such possibilities. Many Cisco customers have postponed the difficult process because it could require them to unplug entirely from the Internet.
Cisco's routers direct traffic across at least 60 percent of the Internet.
Security researcher Michael Lynn first described the flaw on Wednesday at the Black Hat conference over the objections of Cisco and his former employer, Internet Security Systems Inc.
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July 25, 2005
AMD will upgrade its Athlon 64 X2 and 64-FX processor lines early next year. The FX-59, clocked to 3GHz, will ship in Q1 2006. So will a 2.6GHz dual-core Athlon X2, possibly with a 5000+ rating, according to AMD roadmaps seen by AnandTech. The two chips are derived from AMD's 'San Diego' and 'Toledo' cores, respectively reports the Register.
The roadmap points to Athlon 64s clocked at 2.2 and 2.4GHz, with either 512KB or 1MB of on-board L2 cache, yielding model numbers 3500+, 3800+ and 4000+. That suggests AMD will simply replace today's Athlon 64 processors with the new, DDR 2-supporting version.
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Yahoo Inc. said on Monday it bought Pixoria, a company that provides small, downloadable programs that let computer users quickly get up-to-the-minute information, such as stock quotes and weather reports without using a Web browser.
So now according to Yahoo, you could bring life to your desktop with fun Konfabulator Widgets. These little guys hang out on your screen and give you quick, easy access to favorite content. You can even change their style to match yours.
Get Widgets
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July 24, 2005
AMD began offering Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)-compliant(a) processors earlier this month after the European Union established a directive that restricts the use of lead by electronics manufacturers. AMD RoHS)-compliant products include the AMD Opteron(TM), AMD Athlon(TM) 64, AMD Athlon 64 X2, AMD Athlon 64 FX, AMD Turion(TM) 64 Mobile Technology and AMD Sempron(TM) families of processors. AMD also has several RoHS-compliant chipsets already available, including the AMD-8111(TM), AMD-8131(TM), AMD-8132(TM) and AMD-8151(TM) chipsets.
"AMD has been committed to using environmentally friendly materials in our operations," said Dirk Meyer, President and Chief Operating Officer of AMD's Microprocessor Solutions Sector. "AMD is steadfastly developing effective technical solutions that reduce lead content and achieve RoHS compliance without sacrificing other product features."
AMD began identifying solutions for production of lead-free semiconductor packages in 2001. AMD has formed a lead-free research and development program, and is working with suppliers and other industry leaders to establish lead-free standards and testing requirements, as well as to identify lead substitutes.
In addition to its own manufacturing initiatives, AMD is actively supporting a number of key consortia among industry, universities and trade associations to expedite the development of lead-free technology.
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July 19, 2005
The US Department of Defense or DoD has selected HP Opteron-based servers for a cluster contract .
DoD staffers will set up a 1,024 processor system in Sept. at the Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) Major Shared Resource Center (MSRC) based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The cluster consists of hundreds of ProLiant DL145 servers running on AMD's Opteron chip and the Voltaire InfiniBand interconnect for high-speed networking reports the Register.
The 10-teraflop HP box used for research projects such as advanced weapons tests and simulations will run Linux and be used for warm, fuzzy research projects such as advanced weapons tests and simulations.
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July 18, 2005
While introducing an update to its Itanium line with the first two processors in the chip family to features a 667 MHz front side bus (FSB), Chip Giant, Intel touted the expected performance boosts for its next generation, the forthcoming dual-core Itanium processor, code-named Montecito.
The dual-core Montecito line will feature the same bus as the Itaniums announced today.
"The preliminary performance results we are seeing on Montecito-based systems will further expand Itanium's leadership in its targeted market segments," said Kirk Skaugen, general manager of Intel's server platforms group.
Intel said platforms using Montecito are expected to deliver up to twice the performance, up to three times the system bandwidth, and more than 2 1/2 times as much on-die cache as the current generation of Itanium processors. While boosting performance, Montecito is expected to also deliver more than 20 percent lower power than previous generations of Itanium processors due to new technologies for power management reports Internet News.
Montecito will also utilize Intel Hyper-Threading technology, enabling four times the threads as the current generation.
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July 13, 2005
Consumers prefer Sony's Blu-ray Disc as their format of choice over Toshiba's HD- DVD a poll conducted by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates shows. Consumers were given a side-by-side comparison of the two formats on the following dimensions: technology company support, Hollywood studio support, gaming console support, disc capacity, potential movie title availability and anticipated launch dates.
The launch of Blu-ray Disc is expected to offer consumers a broad selection of movie and broadcast content from Walt Disney Pictures and Television , Miramax, Touchstone, MGM, ESPN and Sony Pictures. A selection of Blu-ray players, recorders and computer drives are expected from Sony , Hitachi, Sharp, Panasonic , LG Electronics, Pioneer, Philips, Mitsubishi, and Samsung as well as PC hardware from Dell and HP. Gaming hardware will be available from Sony with the release of PlayStation 3, and software will be available to the leading gaming software manufacturers.
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Samsung and LG have announced plans to develop mobile phones that make use of a new technology from Kineto Wireless.
The new technology, called Unlicensed Mobile Access or UMA, is said to promote better call quality when one is making or taking a call indoors with his cell phone reports MobileMag. UMA will enable the new Samsung and LG cell phones to switch a call from a cellular network (whose signals are known to get weak indoors) to a WiFi network without cutting the connection.
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ICANN or Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has approved the ".mobi" suffix specially designed for use by mobile phones.
The first Web sites for mobile devices, which will be fit for a small screen and limited memory and bandwidth, will be ready in 2006.
The new domain name was requested by a group of mobile phone operators and handset makers, including Hutchison 3, GSM Association, Ericsson, Microsoft , Nokia , Samsung, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
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