<IT
WORLD>
Never mind the meltdown
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - The processor wars continue to rage, with Intel touting its
latest and greatest creations at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits
Conference in San Francisco this week. The company claims the Nehalem family of
8-core processors it is developing is still able to maintain the same power
envelope used by Intel's current dual and quad-core chips. Power efficiency
over performance will be the focus of future Nehalems from Intel.
A staggering 2.3 billion transistors will be homed on the new multi-core
Enterprise Xeon server CPU, although the chipmaker did not divulge much more
than that. It did state that 32 nanometer processors are still on track for
production before the
end of this year and 22 nanometer technology will be in development in 2011.
Intel also announced intentions to spend an estimated US$7 billion in the US
over two years to build next-generation chip-manufacturing plants. Despite the
economic downturn, the company stated that its 2009 capital spending would be
flat to only slightly down from 2008's $5.2 billion, and that it had more than
$8.68 billion in cash and short-term investments at the end of last year.
The investments are likely to support around 7,000 jobs in the US as Intel
forges ahead with its 32-nanometer production plans. The company said its
global investments would continue, including a new assembly test facility in
Vietnam and a new factory in China.
AMD upped its efforts to outdo its rivals in the price-performance category by
introducing a number of new Phenom II desktop processors to its range this
week. The 45 nanometer triple and quad core chips will fit in either AM2+ or
AM3 sockets and support DDR2 or next generation DDR3 memory technology. The new
offerings range in price from $125 to $175 and they compete directly with
Intel's current Core 2 Duo and Quad processors.
Utilizing these new processors, and with some slick marketing, the company also
launched its performance-driven Dragon platform this week. The desktop-based
platform combines the Phenom II CPU with the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series graphics
GPU and AMD's 790GX chipset amalgamating into a seriously powerful machine.
Primarily aimed at gamers and high-end PC users, the Phenom II processors have
already broken records for performance by being cranked up to 6.5GHz at last
month's CES exhibition in Las Vegas. Motherboard manufacturers such as ASUS,
Biostar and Gigabyte are already rushing to get their Dragons out to the
masses.
Software
Microsoft's notorious "Patch Tuesday" rarely offers good news and this week was
no exception. Eight security flaws were patched in Windows, with half of them
earning the dreaded "critical" rating, meaning that no user action would be
required to allow attackers to compromise the computer. Internet Explorer 7 had
a couple of major security holes allowing remote code execution following a
visit to a malicious web site, and the business e-mail server application
Exchange also needed patching.
Gadgets
The hype this week on the net has been all about Amazon's Kindle 2. For those
not yet in the know, Kindle is the company's e-book, a hand-held device that
allows a reader to view downloadable digital books and material on the move.
According to the stats boasted on Amazon's web site, the device can store over
1,500 books, is thinner than an iPhone at under 10mm, lighter than a typical
paperback, fully wireless and able to connect to the Internet and 3G networks.
The drawback is that it weighs in at $359.
The new Kindle is due to ship on February 24 and will have access to 230,000
books plus US and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs. No doubt
Apple will soon be jumping all over it as they did with Palm's Pre - a
touch-screen rival to the iPhone. Early thoughts on tech blogs however indicate
that competitors such as Apple have nothing to worry about considering its
price.
Internet
Beijing's puritanical ruling party has angered thousands of Internet users by
censoring "vulgar content" in the latest online clampdown. Many would assume
that this is not such a bad thing, but when it was revealed that China's
Internet police were censoring Renaissance nude art, including Titian's Venus of
Urbino, the protests started. Images posted on blogs as part of the
protest included Michelangelo's statue David shown in a Mao Zedong suit,
while a necktie covering strategic areas was added to the artist's depiction of
Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The big red team of morality
enforcers has shut down 1,635 web sites and 200 blogs in a month.
Science
The latest from the atom-smashing boffins at CERN in Switzerland is that their
sick hadron collider will get fired up for some first beams in September, with
collisions commencing in October. The delays have been attributed to the
implementation of an enhanced protection system for the busbar and magnet
splices, installation of new pressure-relief valves to reduce the collateral
damage in case of a repeat of the incident that caused a premature shutdown
after the collider was first started last year and a number of more stringent
safety constraints. The press release also stated that the atomic race track
will be shutdown over Christmas 2009 before running through to autumn 2010.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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