Apple Continues To Defy Recession, Releases New Hardware

Category: Networking, Mobile, Input Devices, Prebuilts
Posted: October 21, 2009 02:35AM
Author: d3bruts1d

On Monday Apple announced their FY09 Q4 earnings which ended on September 30, 2009. Net profit for the company rose nearly 46-percent to $1.67 billion on sales of $9.87 billion. During the quarter, Apple sold:

• 4.7 million iPhones, a 7% growth over a year ago,
• 3.05 million Macintosh computers, a 17% increase over a year ago, and
• 10.2 million iPods, which while it appears to be a staggering number, is actually a decline of 8% from last year.

"We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010."

Continuing on the momentum of the Q4 earnings, Apple on Tuesday released a slew of new hardware in a very un-Apple-like way. Rather than a big media event, Apple simply pushed out the new hardware with a press release and update splash page on the main Apple website.

Magic Mouse - Apple introduced multi-touch technology as a new way to interact with mobile devices on the iPhone and Mac Book, and now they are taking it to a new level with the "Magic Mouse". The low-profile seamless top is a multi-touch surface that allows you to scroll in any direction with one finger, swipe through web pages and photos using two fingers, and click or double click anywhere on the device. Apple claims that the sensor inside the mouse can determine when you are simply resting your hand on the device, swiping, or clicking. It will be interesting to see how well the device works, as previous Apple mice have been less than stellar.

iMac - The iMac lineup comes in 21.5" and 27" varieties. While the 21.5" iMac uses the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the new 27" offers an Intel i5 or i7 quad core option. Both screens are LED-backlit, and the 21.5" supports a resolution of 1920x1080. Screen space on the 27" is increased by 78% more pixels and has a resolution of 2560x1440. Sony may use the slogan "Beyond High Definition" for Blu-ray, but it certainly applies to the 27" iMac. Speaking of Blu-ray, it would have been nice to see that as an option in the 27" iMac. Also used in the 27" iMac is a ATI HD 4850 video card. Apple is also really happy about the design of the new iMacs, check out the video (Quicktime) for more on that.

MacBook - The $999 MacBook now has a unibody design with rounded contours to make it easier to pick up and slide in or out of a bag. The rugged polycarbonate body makes it ideal for everyday usage by students and those on the go. It also has added a glass trackpad with, you guessed it, multi-touch support. The non-removable battery claims a 7 hour battery life, with 1000 charges. Some will be said to learn that along with the update, the MacBook lost its FireWire port. Interested in what the MacBook looks like on the inside? iFixit already has a teardown of the device.

Mac Mini & Mac Mini Server - The Mac Mini is a nice little system, though often feels neglected by Apple. It was nice to see it get an update in processing power and memory. What is interesting here is not the updated specs, but Apple has finally decided to embrace the little system as server worthy. For years now many people have taken the Mac Mini and used it as a cheap, entry level OS X server. Small business now have a more affordable server option, the Mac Mini Server. For $999 you get a nice little system than can easily be tucked away some place, but you also get OS X Server with unlimited users, no extra client access license fees required. Anyone who has ever spec’ed out a Windows Server will know that the CALs for the Server OS can end up costing more than double the hardware. TUAW goes into the other big possibilities of the Mac Mini Server.

Other Stuff - Apple's Mighty Mouse has been renamed to Apple Mouse due to the lawsuit by Man and Machine. An updated Apple Wireless Keyboard was release, the new version only requires 2 AA batteries whereas the previous used 3. A new 60W MagSafe power adapter has an aluminum connector to make it more durable. The Apple remote is now aluminum, looks goofy, and can control your iPhone or any iPod connected to the Universal Dock. The AirPort Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule devices now have a bigger and more powerful antenna which promises 50% better Wi-Fi performance and 25% better range, and are certified 802.11n.

IEEE Passes 802.11n Wireless Standard

Category: Networking
Posted: September 14, 2009 01:12AM
Author: Daryn Govender

The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) has finally certified the 802.11n wireless standard. This news comes after the approval of the 802.11n-2009 amendment last weekend which "defines how to design interoperable WLAN equipment that provides a variety of capabilities including a wide range of data rates, quality of service, reliability, range optimization, device link options, network management and security" and describes "WLAN Enhancements for Higher Throughput" which "will enable rollout of significantly more scalable WLANs that deliver 10-fold-greater data rates than previously defined while ensuring co-existence with legacy systems and security implementations." This approval is long overdue, seven years in total! Wireless-N products currently available are of the "draft-n" specification and "proper-n" devices should be available from manufacturers in the near future. The 560 page amendment document should be published next month. The differences between the draft-n and proper-n specifications are minimal, and shouldn't affect consumers significantly. Here's to the next faster wireless standard, and in the meantime we can feel confident knowing that wireless-n is fully certified!

New WPA Attack Revealed

Category: Networking
Posted: August 27, 2009 03:13PM
Author: Nick Harezga

A new attack developed by a pair of Japanese researchers will allow an attacker to intercept certain packets, but won't give them access to the encryption key. This new attack on the WiFi Protected Access encryption scheme improves on a previous attack developed by a German team. The previous attack took nearly 15 minutes, but this one can be executed in around 1 minute. The attack will work on any WPA network using TKIP encryption. The attack is executed by acting as a wireless access point, and passing the packets from the computer to the real wireless access point. The attacker can then send falsified packets to the wireless access point and they will appear to be completely legit.

Wi-Fi Alliance promises compatibility between 802.11n draft and final products

Category: Networking
Posted: July 27, 2009 04:05AM
Author: d3bruts1d

Earlier this month it was announced that the 802.11n "draft" standard could become finalized by as early as September. Now the Wi-Fi Alliance has announced that it will not be changing any of the baseline requirements for the 802.11n certification, allowing for backwards compatibility with the nearly 600 Wi-Fi Certified 802.11n Draft 2.0 products that have been released since June 2007. The final certification process will include testing for some optional features now included in the standard. Product testing to the new certification is expected to begin in late September.

802.11n May Be Finalized by September

Category: Networking
Posted: July 22, 2009 08:06AM
Author: redtigerdragon

Routers may not have to specify "Draft N" wireless anymore. The 802.11n wireless standard may be finalized as early as September 11th. That's according to a recent email from Bob Heile, the chairman of the IEEE 802.15 working group on Personal Area Networks.  

"On other fronts, 802.11 was granted unconditional approval to forward 11n to RevCom. After a bit of a rocky period on getting acceptable coexistence language included in the draft, I was pleased to support this approval."

 The standard has been around since 2004, and in 2006 the Enhanced Wireless Consortium had to be formed to get a draft version approved in January of that year. In May of that year, the draft standard failed to pass, so the Wi-Fi Alliance agreed to certify draft-n products in May 2007.

App Store turns One

Category: Networking
Posted: July 15, 2009 02:48AM
Author: kingdingeling

You may not believe it, but it's just been one year since the Apple App Store was launched! The App Store is a platform for the iPhone and the iPod Touch where users can download applications to enhance the experience from their mobile devices. Just recently in April, the App store saw its 1 billionth download (OCC News), a number that has increased to 1.5 billion up to now, which is only 3 months behind the 1 billion mark. Recently, downloads have been fueled by the release of the iPhone 3GS. Apple says there are about 65,000 apps available for download, a number that is steadily increasing. However, some of the developers are not happy with Apple's ambiguous policies regarding which apps are approved and which are not. For example, an application that lets the user watch live baseball matches was approved, however an app that allowed for TV on the go was not. Even at the WWDC, Apple did not answer any questions regarding these policies, but only told the developers to go to the website for clarification.

Of course, a working concept is often copied, as is the App Store. Phone developers Palm, RIM and Nokia have launched similar platforms for users to download applications to their mobile devices. Google Android and Windows Mobile also have the option of enhancing the operating system with programs. Verizon might also launch an App Store for their devices soon.

On Vacation? Better Check That Wireless Network You're On...

Category: Networking, Internet
Posted: July 10, 2009 01:35PM
Author: redtigerdragon

A recent study done by AirTight Networks, a wireless security company, shows some shocking statistics about Wi-Fi at airports. They sent some "white-hat" staff members to check to see how secure the wireless was in 27 airports: 20 in the U.S., five in Asia and two in Europe. What they found was not good. At JFK International Airport in New York, the baggage-handling system was being run on network with no security measures in place. At other airports, even the ticketing systems weren't secured. In fact, 88% of the Wi-Fi networks surveyed were secured by Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), which has been cracked since 2001. Even worse, 77% were actually peer-to-peer networks, not even official hotspots but instead running off of someone else's computer. And almost everywhere they went, they found fake Wi-Fi networks set up by hackers. To quote AirTight investigator Rick Farina: "We found a lot of people using insecure Wi-Fi, and people engaged in all sort of dangerous activity — checking their e-mail, doing their banking, buying stock. These are not the kinds of thing you want to be doing on public Wi-Fi." Be wary next time you go on vacation, and be doubly wary what you do on the wireless networks.

ASUS Release RT-N16 Wireless-N Router

Category: Networking
Posted: June 29, 2009 08:08PM
Author: Dale Shuck

ASUS today announced the release of the ASUS RT-N16 wireless-N Gigabit router that offers compatibility with the 802.11n draft specifications with emphasis on speed, simplicity and security. In addition to the wireless capabilities, the unit also offers four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a pair of USB connections that allow you to connect printers and external hard drives. ASUS' emphasis on speed means the powerful CPU and 128MB of memory will allow for multiple simultaneous streams across several users. The unit also features bandwidth management capability through the EZQoS feature that ensures priority to the applications that need extra bandwidth such as gaming and VoIP. The unit also comes with an advanced graphical user interface that makes setup easy and allows users set up secure Wi-Fi networks within minutes using the latest encryption standards including WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, WPA-Enterprise and WPA2-Enterprise. ASUS did not make any information on availability or pricing available.

American Airlines, Now With Wi-Fi

Category: Networking
Posted: March 31, 2009 06:09AM
Author: redtigerdragon

American Airlines will soon be joining Delta as a US passenger airline service offering wireless service. The service for laptops will cost $9.95 on flights 3 hours or less, and $12.95 on longer flights. There is also a service for PDA's and smartphones that will cost $7.95 for any flight length. American is reluctant to add service for cellphones due to technical and bandwidth reasons, but also to balance out the noise level on planes between passengers that want to sleep, and those that want to talk above the jet engine (CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?). So far, the wireless, in-flight service is only in the US, as it relies on signals from cell towers, although Southwest is currently testing the service using satellites. Virgin America Plans to have the service by June, and both Southwest and JetBlue are experimenting with it on planes flying inside the USA.

Bigfoot Networks Offers Updated Killer NIC

Category: Networking
Posted: March 23, 2009 09:00AM
Author: Nick Harezga

The makers of the Killer NIC have announced a new model, the Killer Xeno NIC to further cater to the gamer and enthusiast markets. Improvements include increased memory, a new network processing chip and voice processing hardware. The new voice hardware will allow the card to offload VoIP services and in-game chat programs, taking some stress off of the CPU. The Xeno will be offered initially through Alienware and EVGA, with a cost of $129.99 in April 2009. The Ultra model will have double the RAM and will ship in May 2009 at a cost of $179.99. It comes as no surprise that Alienware would be the first to offer this overpriced network card.

Cisco Enters the Server Market With Project California

Category: Networking
Posted: March 16, 2009 05:39AM
Author: Nick Harezga

Cisco plans to reveal more details on Project California, its upcoming venture into the server market, today. Cisco, which has traditionally focused on networking, hopes to increase efficiency in data centers and corporate environments by combining its technology with Intel based servers. Cisco has released some information on this new venture already, namely that it will take 7 servers and 1 networking product to form one unit. This will then be combined with virtualization software in the hopes of creating more efficient server rooms. With the constant push to reduce power consumption and increase efficiency, this new venture could be very attractive to businesses.

Using Model Helicopters to Provide Wireless Access in Disaster Areas

Category: Networking
Posted: March 3, 2009 04:14PM
Author: Dale Shuck

A professor at Germany's Ilmenau University of Technology is working on a project to use 'quadcopters' to build self-assembling ad-hoc wireless networks in disaster areas where existing network infrastructure may have been destroyed. The helicopters are autonomous flying machines carrying VIA pico ITX computers with radio equipment. Equipped with satellite navigation, the machines can fly into an area and spread out to form a radio network for first-responders and for people to call for help. Using off the shelf parts the network can be assembled quickly, often before people on the ground can get in to the affected areas. The limiting factor is the batteries, which only provide about 20 minutes of flight time. But that's enough for the little fliers to reach a high point such as a building and land and then operate for several hours.

South Korea Aims For 1Gbps Net Connections By 2012

Category: Networking
Posted: February 2, 2009 02:07PM
Author: Ben Grantham

Thankfully the days of dial-up connections and the "distinctive" modem squeal that goes with it are behind us (well most of us, anyway), but a lot of countries still have a long way to go before super fast broadband connections are ubiquitous. So in steps South Korea to instill jealously into the hearts of us less fortunate beings by announcing plans to roll out broadband connections that are ten times faster than those available at the moment, within three years. Now considering Koreans already enjoy pretty snappy speeds, that could see 1Gbps connections become a reality by the time 2012 comes around. Naturally the Korea Communications Commission is hoping the move will enable more interactive TV, home schooling and e-commerce services, along with 120,000 or so jobs the whole thing is likely to create.

ITU Approves New Standard for Home Networking

Category: Networking
Posted: December 15, 2008 10:11AM
Author: Dale Shuck

Networking over existing home wiring systems has never fully lived up to its promises. It doesn't help that there are three different standards bodies, one each for phone lines, power lines and cable lines. The International Telecommunications Union has ratified a new set of standards for networking over the three different categories of home wiring. The new standard, dubbed G.hn, will be capable of delivering 20 times faster than existing wireless networks and 3 times faster than wired networks. With a standard consolidating all three types of networking under the same umbrella, network vendors should see increased economies of scale and lower retail prices for the consumer. But don't get excited as consumer products are expected until 2011.

WPA Encryption Cracked

Category: Networking
Posted: November 6, 2008 10:37AM
Author: Dale Shuck

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption for wireless connections is considered a better and safer alternative than the older Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) standard that was cracked a long time ago. Security professionals may have to rethink their stance on WPA as researchers have developed a way to partially crack the encryption used. By 'partially', the researchers said they developed a way to intercept and read the data being sent from the router to a laptop computer but they have not yet been able to crack the encryption used to send the data from the computer to the router. The researchers, Erik Tews and Martin Beck, found a way to crack the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) key fairly quickly without using a dictionary attack. By tricking the router to send them a large amount of data, the research team developed what they call a “mathematical breakthrough” to crack the key in under 15 minutes. The newer WPA2 standard is believed to be safe from this method of attack.

802.11v Wireless Standard To Lower Power Consumption

Category: Networking
Posted: September 19, 2008 12:23PM
Author: Ben Grantham

Work on the 802.11v wireless LAN standard began in 2004 and is scheduled to finish in 2010, with power saving measures being among the features you can expect. That will include a Sleep Mode that could see devices such as Wi-Fi phones making the most savings. There will also be management features which allow for greater detail when analysing network performance, as well as features that will improve accuracy for location based services such radio frequency identification (RFID). It's certainly hard to keep up with standards and what they offer, which may be even more confusing when you start running out of letters to denote them (there is already an 802.11aa task group apparently).

India's Government Wants Wireless Internet Secured

Category: Networking
Posted: September 17, 2008 05:45AM
Author: IIxNullxII

The Federal Government of India wants wifi users and companies who have implemented wifi networks to insure their connections are secured with a password or other means following several terrorist attacks. The terrorists reportedly used hacked wifi connections to send emails to the media claiming several bombings. Suspicions that terrorists were using technologies like wifi and cell phones were confirmed by the attacks in Delhi. View the whole story on PC World.

The iPhone as a Stealth Hacking Tool

Category: Networking
Posted: August 11, 2008 09:55AM
Author: Dale Shuck

Two security consultants gave a presentation at Defcon on what may be the most ingenious, if devious, use of an iPhone to date. Robert Graham and David Maynor of Errata Security came up with an idea to use the iPhone to sniff out a company's internal network and defeat its defenses from within. The devious duo came up with the idea after a client requested a penetration test at a remote facility. Instead of investing a lot of time and money in travel, they decided to use an iPhone with custom scanning tools installed. They simply shipped the phone to a non-existent employee at the company. While the package awaited delivery to the phantom employee, the researchers waited for the phone to call home using an secure connection. Once the connection was established, they used it to launch sniffing tools to check out the target's networks. Generally, these networks were wide open and once the package was deemed undeliverable, the phone made its way home via return FedEx. Unfortunately, the pair couldn't demo the device at Defcon because they had inadvertently left it in a Las Vegas cab.  Oops!

San Francisco Network Fiasco Resolved

Category: Networking
Posted: July 23, 2008 09:46AM
Author: Dale Shuck

Administrators had been locked out of San Francisco's FiberWAN network for nine days after a former network administrator changed the passwords to the routers and switches and refused to divulge them to his bosses. That resulted in the administrator, Terry Childs, being jailed and charged with four felony counts of computer tampering. Bail was set at $5 million. Yesterday San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom, met secretly with Childs and obtained the access codes. Apparently Childs was peeved at his superiors for being lax about security and changed the passwords when he was charged with insubordination. While Childs may have only been trying to protect the system he designed and implemented, authorities were not amused and he has been languishing in jail since July 13 in lieu of the $5 million bail set by the judge. Perhaps not coincidentally, Childs' lawyer approached the mayor's office and arranged the meeting prior to a new bail hearing set for today. (For more background on this story check out our coverage here and here).

San Francisco's Network Saga Continues

Category: Networking
Posted: July 19, 2008 04:41AM
Author: Dale Shuck

Earlier this week we reported on an interesting story about San Francisco's FiberWAN network being held hostage by what first appeared to be a rogue network administrator. The admin, Terry Childs, had  locked all other adminstrators out of the network and refused to divulge the passwords. While the network was up and functioning normally for users, no one was able to get in to perform maintenance if needed and Childs was arrested and charged with several counts of computer tampering and causing a denial of service. Jailed and held on a $5 million bail, Childs refused to give up the passwords. As is often the case when stories like these break, there is more to the issue than was first reported. Childs, by all accounts, is a very intelligent and highly competent network admin and his actions may have stemmed more from a sense of trying to protect his creation from a perceived sense others' inability to handle the complex nature of the network than any malicious intent to cause harm. The real crime here may be one of pride and a failure on the part of San Francisco's IT management to implement better oversight and controls.

Admin Locks Everyone out of San Francisco's New FiberWAN Network

Category: Networking
Posted: July 15, 2008 11:41AM
Author: Dale Shuck

It's got to be a sinking feeling to wake up and realize that someone has locked you out of your new multi-million dollar network. That's the situation the city of San Francisco is facing due to the actions of a disgruntled IT admin. The former employee, Terry Childs, was arrested Sunday and is refusing to divulge the password. The network in question handles payroll, email, jail bookings and documents for law enforcement agencies. So far the network is still operational but other administrators have limited access. Childs is being held in lieu of $5 million bond and could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

ASUS Show Off WiMAX Products At Summit

Category: Networking
Posted: June 2, 2008 11:59AM
Author: Ben Grantham

Neatly fitting into the beginning of Computex in Taipei is the WiMAX summit, which gives companies from around the world the opportunity to get together and talk about where the technology is going. It also gives those companies the chance to show off any WiMAX compatible kit they may be flogging to you in the near future. ASUS was showing off several porducts that make use of WiMAX, including the new Eee PC 901. If you don't fancy buying a new notebook just for WiMAX support then the WUSB25E2V2 (nice name!) USB dongle might be a bit more useful. WiMAX is aimed at delivering last mile broadband services, so ASUS was also showing Customer Premesis Equipment (CPEs), such as the WMV25E1+ as part of its lineup. If you are confused about WiMAX and whether it is something you should be interested in, then you can read more at the WiMAX Forum site. You can expect more from ASUS (as well as every other big company) during Computex this week. Watch out for coverage of the event from OCC as well.

The Successor to HomePlug Technology

Category: Networking
Posted: May 29, 2008 09:52AM
Author: Chris Benjamin

Many times, it's hard for homeowners and renters to establish a reliable Wi-Fi connection in the home, so some of those people turn to other non-traditional networking technologies like powerline networking. While powerline networking is capable of delivering a solid Internet connection to connected computers, devices based on this technology are sometimes hard-pressed to consistently deliver high quality VoIP and high-definition content. Today, D-Link announced its Ethernet-to-Coax, an alternative networking solution that relies on the coaxial (Cable) cable already laid in most homes to provide a high-bandwidth, high-speed transfer mechanism. Users can realistically expect enough bandwidth for streaming high-def content and gaming online without interfering with CATV reception. E-t-C's physical setup is very similar to HomePlug devices, and is priced competitively in relation to a complete HomePlug kit. Look for this new network tech to become available in Q3 of this year.

Allergic to Wi-Fi?

Category: Networking
Posted: May 27, 2008 05:45PM
Author: Dale Shuck

A group of activists in New Mexico is seeking to have Wi-Fi removed from all public buildings based on claims that it causes allergic reactions. Member of the group claim to be hypersensitive to Wi-Fi and cell phone emissions and want the technology banned from all public libraries and other public buildings. The group is claiming discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but local officials aren't putting much credence in the claims although they are investigating the legal ramifications of the matter.

Consortium Seeks to Establish Home Wired Network Standards

Category: Networking
Posted: April 29, 2008 12:50PM
Author: Dale Shuck

A group of electronics and chip manufacturers lead by Panasonic, Texas Instruments, Infineon and Intel have joined together under the aegis of the HomeGrid Forum in effort to establish standards to connect consumer electronics such as TVs, computers and audio/visual systems. Using existing wiring infrastructure such electrical, coax and phone lines, the group expects to establish and test a set of common standards to link these devices together, enabling them to easily share data amongst them. A standard already exists for wireless enabled devices using Wi-Fi, but wired networks can offer advantages such as higher capacity and increased stability. An additional advantage is that these types of wiring already exist in virtually all homes worldwide. Instead of having to connect all the electronics in a home by adding separate wires, the group seeks to set standards allow any certified device to talk to another and hope to have the first such products on the market sometime next year.

Motorola to Split Into Two Separate Companies

Category: Networking, Mobile
Posted: March 26, 2008 08:19AM
Author: Dale Shuck

Motorola has announced that it will split itself into separate publicly traded companies with one entity handling its mobile devices business and the other containing the networking and broadband products. Motorola's board began a review of its mobile phone business at the end of January as a way to increase flexibility and provide better investment opportunities for its shareolders.  The move is expected to take place in 2009 as a tax-free distribution to sareholders.

Apple Release Draft N Version Of Airport Express

Category: Networking, Manufacturers
Posted: March 17, 2008 07:39AM
Author: Ben Grantham

It's generally tradition for Apple to introduce new products on a Tuesday, but then I guess the new version of the Airport Express isn't exactly a major release. It does pretty much exactly the same things as the old Airport (Wireless Printing, Music Sharing), but gives you the speed and range enhancements that all that draft n goodness brings. The compact little Airport is compatible with both Macs and PCs and is available from Apple from today for $99.

Fast Wireless Internet Access; How Does 1.2Gbps Sound?

Category: Networking, Internet, General News
Posted: February 25, 2008 07:41PM
Author: Ben Grantham

InventorSpot -

Once Japan's 'Kizuna' satellite begins its service this summer, that is the kind of bandwidth it will be able to provide. A speed of 1.2Gbps (yes, that's gigabits per second) is insane no matter how you look at it, being over 100 times faster than a majority of commercial broadband services. In fact it's faster than pretty much well, anything available and should be a boon for the Asian cities able to put it to good use. So why spend $342 million in development on a project like this? The simple answer is earthquakes. The Kizuna satellite will be able to maintain communication links when ground based services are interrupted. The satellite is also scheduled for a number of experiments during its expected 5-year lifespan, one of which being test broadcasting for next-gen high definition television. I'm sure everyone is quite aware of how clued up Japan is when it comes to technology in general so it'll be interesting what weird and wonderful things they will do with the new piece of kit they have orbiting up there.

Hit up the read link for more information and a video of the launch of the satellite (in Japanese of course, so good luck working out what they are saying).

Sun Takes On IBM With New Supercomputer

Category: CPU's, Networking, Manufacturers, General News
Posted: February 13, 2008 06:23PM
Author: Ben Grantham

c|net -

Sun hasn't been a big player in the supercomputer arena for a while now, something which they will freely admit. However if everything goes as planned, the Univeristy of Texas' Advanced Computing Center (TACC) will lauch a Constellation System provided by Sun on the 22nd of this month. The system has already been up and running, but this gives those involved a day to make it official (and an excuse to have a party). Sun will look to sell Constellation Systems to other customers after the official launch. Now Supercomputers have always been things which take up a bit of space, and this one is no different. Made up of 82 Sun blade racks, the Constellation system is good for a peak performance of up to 500 teraflops (that's 500 trillion operations per second). That would be a considerable chunk of the cpu power behind the entire Folding@Home project!

The key to achieving this kind of performance is the special switch that Sun has engineered to link everything together. Code-named 'Magnum' it has 3,456 ports (an increase on the norm) that allows data pathways to be freed up and speeds along traffic among data storage, servers and memory. Sun also had to invent a new type of cable to connect the Constellation system together. Now if Sun can get a few more of these systems out to customers it may be able to challenge IBM and its Blue Gene systems in the supercomputer rankings. I'm not sure if the Big Blue will be worried yet though.

Hardware Roundup: Thursday Edition

Category: Video Cards, Networking, Power Supplies, Input Devices, General News
Posted: February 7, 2008 05:15AM
Author: Dale Shuck

Thursdays seem to be a slow day in the roundup so that gives us a perfect opportunity to welcome our newest affiliate Fudzilla and give you a chance to check out their review of the Diamond dual slot 3850 512MB Ruby Edition.  On the green side ThinkComputers offers up the Palit GeForce 8600 GT Super+1GB Video Card.  3dGameMan has posted a video review of the Tuniq Ensemble 1200W Power Supply.  Powerline networking is one of those technologies that seems to offer a lot of promise but so many of the products out there have failed to deliver.  Techgage evaluates the Actiontec MegaPlug AV200 Mbps Ethernet Adapter to see whether it offers a viable option to extend your network.  PCApex has published an interview with Mark Friga Jr. owner of FrozenCPU.com.  Before you go, be sure to check out the SteelSeries Ikari Laser Gaming Mouse at OCModshop.