Fraud E-mails 'From' FDIC Link Computer Users To Viruses

Nowadays cyber criminals are using fake messages claiming to be from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to deliver a virus capable of stealing unsuspecting victims' bank passwords and other sensitive personal information, says Gary Warner, the director of research in computer forensics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Warner says the spam is being delivered with one of two subject lines:-
1. FDIC has officially named your bank a failed bank
2. You need to check your Bank Deposit Insurance Coverage
Warner says that once the message is opened the spam asks users to visit a specific Web site, a link to which is included in the message. Those that follow the link are taken to a page that asks them to click and download a copy of "your personal FDIC insurance file." "Unfortunately, anyone who clicks that download link will be downloading a version of the Zeus Bot virus, which has the capacity to steal bank passwords and other financial and personal information," Warner says. Warner and his research team in the UAB Spam Data Mine have been tracking the new spam for a number of days and report its delivery volume to be very high. The spam claims to be from the e-mail address consumeralerts@fdic.gov, which is a real e-mail address used by the FDIC, but has obviously been forged by the malware distributors in this situation, Warner says. "The cyber criminals behind this spam have gone to great lengths to mimic the logos and look of FDIC communications, including going so far as to forge an official FDIC e-mail address in an effort to confuse consumers into following links and downloading harmful programs," Warner says. "As is the case with any agency or company e-mail, do not follow links or click downloads embedded in the messages. Instead, visit the site in question through your Web browser and log in as you normally would," he says. "If an entity has an important message for you, you'll be able to find it on its Web page.

Now New Technology May CooYour Laptop

If some one say,”Does your laptop sometimes get so hot that it can almost be used to fry eggs?” New technology may help cool it and give information technology a unique twist, says Jairo Sinova, a Texas A&M University physics professor. Sinova and colleagues from Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, Institute of Physics ASCR, University of Cambridge and University of Nottingham have had their research published in the renowned journal Nature Physics. Laptops are getting increasingly powerful, but as their sizes are getting smaller they are heating up, so how to deal with excessive heat becomes a headache, Sinova explains. "The crux of the problem is the way information is processed," Sinova notes. "Laptops and some other devices use flows of electric charge to process information, but they also produce heat. "Theoretically, excessive heat may melt the laptop," he adds. "This also wastes a considerable amount of energy." One approach may be found in Sinova's research -- an alternative way to process information. "Our research looks at the spin of electrons, tiny particles that naked eyes cannot detect," the Texas A&M professor explains. "The directions they spin can be used to record and process information." To process information, Sinova says, it is necessary to create information, transmit the information and read the information. How these are done is the big question. "The device we designed injects the electrons with spin pointing in a particular direction according to the information we want to process, and then we transmit the electrons to another place in the device but with the spin still surviving, and finally we are able to measure the spin direction via a voltage that they produce," Sinova explains. "Transmission is no problem. You can think for comparison that if the old devices could only transmit the information to several hundred feet away, with our device, information can be easily transmitted to hundreds of miles away," he says. "It is very efficient." Talking about its practical application, Sinova is very optimistic. "This new device, as the only all-semiconductor spin-based device for possible information processing, has a lot of real practical potential," he says. So wait and watch.

Now Intel seeks new 'microserver' standard

In September, Intel introduced its idea of tiny 'microservers'. Now the company wants to make the design into a standard others can use, too. The chipmaker will offer its design specification to the Server System Infrastructure Forum by the end of the year, said Jason Waxman, general manager of Intel's high-density computing group. If the group's board votes its approval for the specification, group members may use the designs royalty-free, he said in a meeting with reporters in San Francisco on Thursday. The computer industry is in constant tension between proprietary designs and standards that anyone may use. The former can mean tidy profits for companies, as long as the technology is widely adopted, but the latter can spur broader adoption. Intel's primary business, selling processors, benefits more from the latter when it comes to cultivating a new server market segment.

Google Android 2.0 OS Eclair Released

The new Android 2.0 code named ‘Eclair’ has been released. This new version of OS comes with quite a few improvements. The latest version of this operating system includes new API's supporting Sync and Bluetooth support apart from having new user end features. It also has a support for multiple accounts, search functionality within SMS and an improved virtual keyboard to provide the flexibility in using the keys. The other features include certain modifications in its camera menu such as the scene mode, digital zoom, colour effects, white balance and macro focus. The Android 2.0 Version features a refreshed browser UI as well as support for HTML5. Apart from that the user can double tap the browser to enjoy the zoom in feature. Motorola will be the first mobile to use the Android OS in its latest mobile sets.

TurnKey Internet combines latest server hardware with Parallels (www.parallels.com) virtualization software

Combining the latest server hardware with Parallels (www.parallels.com) virtualization software, TurnKey Internet (www.turnkeyinternet.net) has created a new line of virtual private servers servers that offer the performance and reliability of TurnKey’s dedicated servers, yet offer increased energy efficiency and a reduced price. According to TurnKey’s announcement this week, the optimized resources on TurnKey Internet’s “hybrid” servers provide dedicated server-like performance performance for up to eight clients on a single machine. This ensures peak operation while using less energy per client, giving environmentally conscious businesses and individuals the opportunity to purchase a high-quality web hosting solution that saves them money while reducing their carbon footprint. “The hybrid server finds the perfect balance of price, performance and reliability and it’s very environmentally friendly,” TurnKey Internet president and chief executive officer Adam Wills said in a statement. “Choosing a hybrid server over a dedicated server is like car-pooling, saving energy while still getting where you need to go.” A traditional dedicated web server is often under-used, consuming a large amount of electricity even when it is idle. The new line of servers offers a choice of Windows or Linux, as well as free cPanel or Plesk, bare metal off-site back-ups, a managed firewall, system administrative assistance, security monitoring and auditing and free server migration assistance.
According to the new announcement, all of TurnKey Internet’s new hybrid servers are backed by 24/7 premium support, previously only available on their dedicated line. Along with its environmental causes, TurnKey has also been active in social issues. In July, when thousands of Iranians took to the Internet to protest the controversial results of the country’s election, Turnkey Internet provided hosting services for IT consultant Austin Heap (www.austinheap.com), who built a proxy network for bypassing government filters to help reroute Iranians on the web.

Zune HD To release On September 15

Zune HD, from Microsoft’s Zune series, which is its answer to Apple iPod, is going to hit the markets this September 15. The slick media player can be pre-ordered at select outlets, such as Micrsoft Store, Amazon, Walmar, Amazon. ZuneHD has a 3.3-inch OLED screen in 16:9 descreen display. Users can easily access music, movies and other content. It has been reported that the music player will come in five colors. However, the colors are not yet confirmed. The much-hyped player has a built-in high-definition radio receiver. This betters the sound quality of radio, as compared to traditional radio channels. It also enables users to access multicast channels from their local FM radio stations without any extra charge. Its HD video output enables user to watch better-than-DVD-quality video on television at home. But for that users would have to buy a premium HDMI A/V docking station separately. After buying relevant support device, music can be played from Zune HD through car stereo too. The built-in Wi-Fi enables streaming, browsing or downloading music from Zune arketplace. The device supports full-screen web browsing. Its internet browser is optimized for multi-touch screen. The device also accepts zoom-in and zoom-out gestures. This portable digital media player’s 16 GB version would cost $219.99, while the platinum finish 32GB would cost $289.99. Its pre-ordering has started on August 13, and would hit the shelves on September 15.

Quantum Computers Are More Powerful Than Current Computers

The latest research has found that “Quantum computers” are more stable than our classic computers. Previously, the Quantum computer technology was surrounded by many ifs and buts but the new research claims that they are more reliable. According to, Tom Stace, a University of Queensland physicist states that with loss of 50 percent component the Quantum computer can still work not like the present computers which would have crashed down. "Our results demonstrate that relatively large errors and losses can be tolerated, and so may confirm that quantum computers are genuinely feasible," Tom Stace said. "What our work shows is theoretically a useful quantum device can be built even if up to 10 percent of its components suffer an error, or up to 50 percent of the mponents are completely lost”, the physicist claims. "Quantum devices are very sensitive to noise in their surroundings, and their performance can be greatly impaired by errors. Our research is therefore focussed on how one could build a useful device from imperfect components”, Tom Stace adds. "This theoretical work gives a quantitative idea of how precise quantum engineering needs to be in order to make useful devices”, he said. According to Tom Stace, the Quantum computers are much more powerful than the current computers and can be of great help in the field of banking where security of transactions is paramount.

Google Skype Phone In India

Great Google Skype phone will help the users to put a control on the rising international phone bills. All that is required for using this phone is a wireless router which can be installed at home as well as in office. Once the phone detects a Wi-Fi environment, it automatically logs into the user’s Skype account. Once the user logs in, you have to dial the Skype number or the mobile number of the person whom you want to talk to. The person can be in India or in any destination outside India. Calls rates are as cheap as Rs 1 per minute via Skype to other mobile phones overseas. But it is better to avoid making ISD calls from this phone as it is expensive when compared to the calls from other services. But if you have friends who are always logged in on Skype, the phone can be of excellent use. The scarceness of Wi-Fi zones in India, but, does pose a handicap. When compared with the Skype phone, GSM Wi-Fi phones can log on to Skype from anywhere. But the drawback of GSM phones is that a Skype call will get disconnected once a GSM call is received. The voice clarity is, but, much higher in the Skype phone. The drawback for the phone is its inability to work on other VoIP platforms and its low battery power. Even though the company claims a talk time of two hours and a standby time of 30 hours, the battery gets discharged earlier. The landline Belkin Skype phone comes in India for Rs 7,300 where as the cordless Skype phone that is much handier costs you, Rs 9,712. The phone is a good choice for those people who wish to merge the comfort of mobile phones and VoIP phone. So, if you have to conduct a business meeting, over ISD, you can choose a mobile VoIP phone. With touch and feel of a regular mobile phone, this phone can be handled by the elderly people also in an easier way.

List of All the 140 search engines

* A9 Amazon books, Live results
* Abbreviations For abbreviations
* Abcsearchengine Index based, fairly small
* About Lots of articles on lots of things
* Accoona Excellent for news, good for focussed searching
* Acronymfinder Find acronyms
* Aftervote Social search engine
* Ajaxwhois Great for site statistics searches
* Alexa Good for background information on a site
* AllPlus Good meta engine, lots of options
* Alltheweb Part of the Yahoo family
* Altavista Oldie, but still a goodie, suprising enough
* Answers Good for factual information
* AOL Search Google in a different guise
* Archive, Internet Good for older versions of a site
* Ask One of the big four
* Azoos Painfully bright yellow index engine
* Beaucoup Index based, not impressed
* Better Who Is Information about a website owner etc
* Blinkx Multimedia search engine
* Brainboost Part of the Answers family
* Buzzle Index based, not impressed
* ChaCha Search with a human guide
* Clusty Good all rounder
* Collarity Personalised search engine. Very good.
* Complete Planet Excellent for hidden/invisible web
* Convert To convert from one to another
* Country Search Engines 4,000 country search engines
* Definitions Good for various definitions
* Digital-librarian Collection of links from a librarian
* DMOZ (Open Directory Project) Good index/directory
* Dogpile Multisearch GYMA
* Draze Compare GYM on one screen
* Ebingbong Social search, lets users rate results.
* Eurekster Good for building your own engine
* ExaleadSuperb functionality, good advanced options
* ExciteDoes anyone still use that any more?
* Factbites Factual information
* FaganFinder Superb collection of engines
* Fazzle Good all round meta search engine
* Feedster
* Findsounds Audio/sound search engine
* FinQoo Multi search engine, doesn't say what the sources are
* Freesearch UK based engine, global scope
* Galaxy Index based
* Google Do I need to say anything about this one?
* Google Blogsearch Best blog search engine going
* Google Directory Same as DMOZ
* Google Groups Good for obscure information
* Google Images Yahoo image search is superior
* Google Local Local to the UK that is.
* Google News Adequate. Good for email alerts
* Google Personalised Tailor results to your interests
* Google Scholar Good(ish) for academic stuff
* Google Trends Who is looking for what?
* Healia Excellent medical search engine
* Hotbot Blast from the past!
* IAF People search Searches for people! US biased.
* iBoogie Multi search engine, strong on clustering
* Icerocket Good for blog searching
* Illumirate Index based
* InfoMine For scholarly internet resource collections
* Infopeople People search
* Infoservice Index based, bizarre collection of headings
* Intute Superb directory, very authoritative
* Irazoo Social search engine, vote for results
* Ixquick Excellent meta search engine
* Jayde Business to business
* Jux2 Excellent meta search & compare results
* Kartoo Visual search engine, good reputation
* Kazazz Free text search engine, not particularly exciting
* KidsclickChildren's search engine
* Librarians Internet Index Superb resource
* Linkopedia Index based, not exciting
* Live Search One of the big 4
* Lycos Almost lost in the midst of time, but still trying
* Mahalo Social search engine, some like it, I don't
* MammaMulti meta search engine that's been around for years
* Mastersite Calls itself #1 though I can't work out why
* Metacrawler Meta search engine
* Monstercrawler Meta search engine
* Mooter Visual search engine
* MsDewey Microsoft folly; annoying and pointless
* Oaister Emphasis on hidden web academic material
* Omnimedicalsearch Excellent medical search engine
* Peerbot Very unusual engine, as it searches for favicons
* Pepesearch Does not stand out
* Pinakes Superb collection of Virtual Libraries
* Questfinder Selective web directory
* Quotations for Quotations
* Quintura First rate, uses clouds of terms. Recommended
* RedZee Visual search. Awful. Used to be excellent
* References Good all round resource
* Re-quest Index/Directory web search engine
* Scandoo accurately indicates a level of trustworthiness
* Scirus Scientific search of web and selected journals
* Scrubtheweb Nothing to recommend it
* Search-beat Uses Google's database
* Searchbug Search for people and companies in the US
* Search.com Metasearch engine
* Searchhippo Metasearch engine, unimpressed
* Searchy Personalised search
* Searchmash Google test bed
* Search Medica Excellent medical search engine
* Searchthe.net Meta search engine
* Searchtheweb Index/Directory
* Selectsurf Selective web directory
* Similicio.us Find similar sites
* Silobreaker Superb news resource
* Slider Full text search engine that searches DMOZ
* Smartlinks Index/Directory
* SMEALSearch Academic authoritative content
* Sproose Social search engine
* Sunsteam Index/Directory
* Supercrawler Index/Directory
* Synonyms Good reference resource
* Technorati Excellent weblog search engine
* Thenet1 Index/Directory
* Thunderstone Index/Directory
* Trooker Superb video search engine
* Turbo 10 Great for hidden/invisible web
* TurboScout Very good multi search engine
* Ujiko Visual search engine
* Zip codes Information about US zip code areas

* Web Brain Visual search engine
* Webcrawler Meta search engine for GYMA
* Web-search Meta search engine, one at a time
* Webworldindex Index/Directory
* Whatuseek Web/Index based, not worth the trouble
* Windseek Meta search engine
* WWW Virtual Library Second only to Pinakes
* Yahoo One of the big 4
* Yahoo Buzz What's going on?
* Yahoo Directory Yahoo as it used to be
* Yahooligans For children
* Yahoo Local Local information
* Yahoo Mindset Emphasis research or shopping
* YouTube Video engine. Use Trooker instead
* Zapmeta Allows for various methods of re-ranking
* Zensearch Uses the Google database

Rambus DDR3

Rambus' memory controller interface solution for industry-standard DDR3 DRAMs features a fully integrated macro cell which provides the physical layer (PHY) interface between the controller logic and DDR3 or DDR2 DRAM devices for data rates of up to 1600 MHz. Optimized for low power and reduced silicon area, the Rambus DDR3 memory controller interface cell is designed to accommodate a broad range of applications including PC main memory, consumer electronics, servers, and workstations. To serve these applications, Rambus has architected and developed a DDR3 memory controller interface macro-cell that engineers can seamlessly integrate into their customer owned tooling (COT) or application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip.
The Rambus DDR3 interface solution incorporates Rambus innovations such as:
• FlexPhase™ timing adjustment circuits for precise on-chip data alignment with the clock
• Calibrated output drivers
• On-die termination
• LabStation™ software environment for bring-up, characterization and validation of the DDR3 interface in the end-user application
Other key interface features include:
• 800 to 1600 MHz data rates
• Support for DDR3 and DDR2 signaling modes
• On-chip phase-locked loop (PLL)
• On-chip delay-locked loop (DLL)
• Levelization support for fly-by command and address architecture
• Rambus FlexPhase™ based in-PHY module that provides characterization and testing capability in the production system
• Multi-drop bus and multi-rank module support for large capacity systems
• Variable data bit-widths (8-, 16-, 32-, and 64-bit) with optional ECC support
Rambus interface solutions provide a comprehensive architecture and system design, as well as design models and integration tools. Included in the solution are reference GDSII database, timing models, layout verification netlists, gate-level models, place-and-route outline, and placement guidelines. Package design and system board layout services are also available.

Rambus XD2 Memory Architecture

The XDR2 memory architecture is the world's fastest memory system solution capable of providing twice the peak bandwidth per device when compared to a GDDR5-based system. Further, the XDR2 memory architecture delivers this performance at 30% lower power than GDDR5 at equivalent bandwidth. Designed for scalability, power efficiency and anufacturability, the XDR2 architecture is a complete memory solution ideally suited for high-performance gaming, graphics and multi-core compute applications. Initial systems can achieve memory bandwidths of over 500GB/s into an SoC. Each XDR DRAM can deliver up to 38.4GB/s of peak bandwidth from a single, 4-byte-wide, 9.6Gbps XDR2 DRAM device, and the XDR2 architecture supports a roadmap to device bandwidths of over 50GB/s. Capable of data rates of 6.4 to 12.8Gbps, the XDR2 architecture is the latest generation in the award-winning family of XDR products. With backwards compatibility to XDR DRAM, the XDR2 architecture is part of a continuously compatible roadmap, offering a path for both performance upgrades and system cost reductions. The XDR2 memory architecture is the first to incorporate innovations from Rambus' Terabyte Bandwidth Initiative along with other key Rambus innovations including:-
1. 16X Data Rate enables high data rates (up to 12.8Gbps) at lower system clock and on-chip bus interface speeds.
2.Fully Differential Memory Architecture improves signal integrity, reduces power and enables the highest memory performance available.
2. Enhanced FlexPhase enables high data rates, simplifies layout and eliminates trace length matching.
3. C/A reduces system costs and controller pin-count while providing scalable capacity and flexible access granularity.
4. Micro-threading increases transfer efficiency on micro-threaded workloads while reducing power consumption.

AMD unveils six-core server chips

Advanced Micro Devices has unveiled its first six-core server processors. The news follows on the heels of archrival Intel Corp.'s debut of its Xeon 5500 chips that sport four, dual-threaded cores. The AMD Istanbul family beats Intel's Xeon 5500 in cores per chip. However Intel rolled out a six-core server chip—called Dunnington—based on its previous generation design. John Fruehe, director of AMD's server business, said AMD's four-core CPUs out-performed nnington on some tasks because the Intel part used an external memory controller, causing bus ontention. AMD's Istanbul fits into existing AMD sockets. The Xeon 5500 required new motherboard esigns because it was Intel's first chip with an integrated memory controller and a new processor interconnect. Intel used the need for a new motherboard design to shift to support for DDR3 memory. AMD will not shift to DDR3 in server CPUs until next year.
"DDR3 is a great tech for 2010," said Fruehe. "Today it has a price premium, consumes about 1W per DIMM and has higher latency but early next year there will be versions with lower latency and power and no price premium," he added. AMD is expected to release its first server chip set, the 5690, before the fall that will sport performance and energy enhancements. The resulting Fiorano platform will support both enhanced Istanbul systems as well as 2010 designs using both DDR3 and new six- and twelve-core processors coming next year. The new AMD processors come in versions supporting two, four and eight chips in a multi-processing system. The Xeon 5500 is only available for two-socket systems now, with four-socket versions coming later this year. Intel still claims an edge by supporting dual-threading, running up to 16 threads simultaneously on the Xeon 5500. AMD has not adopted multi-threading, claiming it does not offer significant performance advantages. "This is the fifth major product we have shipped on or ahead of schedule," said Leslie Sobon, AMD's vice president of marketing.

AMD 785G Chipset Launch

For the last several years AMD has delivered a series of solid, cost-effective mainstream chipsets with integrated graphics. First with the original 690G which offered a wealth of features and surprisingly competent IGP performance. Then later with the 780G and 790GX chipsets, which added a little more graphics horspower and IGP features, while keeping the price palatable. Now AMD is ready to kick it up another notch with today's announcement of the new 785G chipset. You might not be entirely surprised to hear the 785G being announced. The 785G is one of the worst kept secrets this season, with plenty of leaks and glimpses over the past month. However, today we are able to bring you full coverage of the new chipset with a complete shakedown on our test bench. We have three retail samples in our lab from ASUS and Gigabyte, and we're going to lay them out spread eagle before your ogling eyes. But first, let's check out what's new in AMD's latest mainstream chipset. and Gigabyte, and we're going to lay them out spread eagle before your ogling eyes. But first, let's check out what's new in AMD's latest mainstream chipset. The block diagram above shows a high-level overview of the chipset's main features and illustrates how each component is connected in the architecture. The first thing you'll notice is the big Athlon II badge at the top. While the 785G is compatible with all existing AM3 processors, AMD seems to think the Athlon II is an ideal companion for 785G, considering its affordable price point.
Another obvious new addition to the 700 series is DDR3 support. While the 780G and 790GX were primarily DDR2 chipsets, the 785G swings both ways. The 785G northbridge can also come partnered with either the SB710 or SB750 southbridges. While both the SB710 and SB750 southbridges offer native support for RAID 0, 1 and 10, the SB750 gets the addition of RAID 5 support. Perhaps the biggest new feature offered by the 785G over its predecessors is a Radeon HD 4000 series integrated graphics processor.
The 780G had been equipped with a Radeon HD 3200 which was clocked at 500MHz, while the 790GX had a HD 3300, which was essentially just a HD 3200 with a higher 700MHz core clock. The new 785G is equipped with a Radeon HD 4200 which is clocked at 500MHz.While the HD 4200 carries the same default clock as the older Radeon HD 3200 IGP, it offers a host of new features which help boost performance. And as we'll see in later pages, there also seems to be quite a bit of room left for overclocking. Like all Radeon 4000 series cores, the HD 4200 supports DirectX 10.1. It also offers HDMI 1.3 compatibility and it has AMD's second generation Universal Video Decoder (UVD) technology which allows the GPU to assist in decoding video during playback. New in UVD2 is support for multiple stream acceleration (useful for Picture-in-Picture) and a host of video quality enhancement features like Dynamic Contrast, HD Flesh Tone Enhancement and HD Color Vibrance.
Like all recent AMD IGP equipped chipsets, the 785G offers support for Hybrid CrossFire, which allows you to link the IGP up with a discrete graphics card for additional performance. Partnering the IGP with a discrete Radeon card (up to the HD 3450) can boost performance, though higher performance Radeons will likely perform best on their own. Lastly, as we draw nearer to Windows 7's public release, the new 785G comes with a full set of Windows 7 WHQL drivers.

Acer Gaming Laptops

For those of you who just can’t be without a few rounds of Team Fortress 2 even when you aren’t at home, then a Gaming laptop is the way to go. No longer the poorer cousin to desktop rigs, these days gaming mobility is a realistic option. The key attributes of a good gaming achine are high spec processor, dedicated graphics chip and a large amount of system memory. Dual Core processors such as Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD Turion X2 are recommended to ensure the laptop have the computing power to handle the complex code behind modern games. Dedicated performance graphics processors are vital if you don’t want your games to slow to a crawl in the middle of a firefight. Both major graphics vendors Nvidia and ATI have offerings to suit. Some mobile graphics have a base amount of dedicated memory and use additional system RAM as required, this is known are “HyperMemory” or “Turbocache”. For the ultimate performance look out for SLI based laptops which have two dedicated graphics chips and offer blistering speed at the highest levels of detail.
2Gb system RAM is the minimum we recommend for smooth gaming. Upgrading to 3Gb offers performance gains, but 32Bit operating system limits mean there’s little point moving to 4GB.
For the most vivid and realistic gaming experience, chose a laptop which features screen technology such as CrystalBrite from Acer or X-Black from Sony. Most manufacturers have their own version which ensures a crystal clear display with much sharper colours, ensuring you can appreciate the detail found in the latest games. A 15.4” widescreen display will provide a large enough viewing area but a 17” screen would provide the ultimate experience if mobility and cost aren't large factors. Most laptops in this price range come packed with excellent features as standard, like wireless online gaming and DVD writers for large backups.

Intel shows off 80-core processor

Chief Technical Officer Justin Rattner demonstrated the processor in San Francisco last week for a group of reporters, and the company will present a paper on the project during the International Solid State Circuits Conference in the city this week. The chip is capable of producing 1 trillion floating-point operations per second, known as a teraflop. That's a level of performance that required 2,500 square feet of large computers a decade ago. Intel first disclosed it had built a prototype 80-core processor during last fall's Intel Developer Forum, when CEO Paul Otellini promised to deliver the chip within five years. The company's researchers have several hurdles to overcome before PCs and servers come with 80-core processors--such as how to connect the chip to memory and how to teach software developers to write programs for it--but the research chip is an important step, Rattner said. A company called ClearSpeed has put 96 cores on a single chip. ClearSpeed's chips are used as co-processors with supercomputers that require a powerful chip for a very specific purpose. Intel's research chip has 80 cores, or "tiles," Rattner said. Each tile has a computing element and a router, allowing it to crunch data individually and transport that data to neighboring tiles. Intel used 100 million transistors on the chip, which measures 275 millimeters squared. By comparison, its Core 2 Duo chip uses 291 million transistors and measures 143 millimeters squared. The chip was built using Intel's 65-nanometer manufacturing technology, but any likely product based on the design would probably use a future process based on smaller transistors. A chip the size of the current research chip is likely too large for cost-effective manufacturing.
The computing elements are very basic and do not use the x86 instruction set used by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices' chips, which means Windows Vista can't be run on the research chip. Instead, the chip uses a VLIW architecture, a simpler approach to computing than the x86 instruction set. There's also no way at present to connect this chip to memory. Intel is working on a stacked memory chip that it could place on top of the research chip, and it's talking to memory companies about next-generation designs for memory chips, Rattner said. Intel's researchers will then have to figure out how to create general-purpose processing cores that can handle the wide variety of applications in the world. The company is still looking at a five-year timeframe for product delivery, Rattner said.
But the primary challenge for an 80-core chip will be figuring out how to write software that can take advantage of all that horsepower. The PC software community is just starting to get its hands around multicore programming, although its server counterparts are a little further ahead. Still, Microsoft, Apple and the Linux community have a long way to go before they'll be able to effectively utilize 80 individual processing units with their PC operating systems.
"The operating system has the most control over the CPU, and it's got to change," said Jim McGregor, an analyst at In-Stat. "It has to be more intelligent about breaking things up," he said, referring to how tasks are divided among multiple processing cores.
"I think we're sort of all moving forward here together," Rattner said. "As the core count grows and people get the skills to use them effectively, these applications will come." Intel hopes to make it easier by training its army of software developers on creating tools and libraries, he said.
Intel demonstrated the chip running an application created for solving differential equations. At 3.16GHz and with 0.95 volts applied to the processor, it can hit 1 teraflop of performance while consuming 62 watts of power. Intel constructed a special motherboard and cooling system for the demonstration in a San Francisco hotel.

Microsoft Office For Mac Gets Outlook

Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit has shared details about the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac, announcing that a new application, Outlook for Mac, will replace Entourage for Mac. MacBU is providing this early information to meet the planning needs of enterprise customers. For current Entourage users, Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition is available today, enabling users to sync Tasks, Notes and Categories. MacBU has also announced a simplified SKU lineup to help make product selection more intuitive for customers. The new lineup introduces Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition in addition to the current offering of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition.
“It is an exciting time for the MacBU with updates to our current products and the first public announcement about the next version of Office for Mac. For several years, we have focussed on providing the best Microsoft Exchange client for the Mac, and the Web Services Edition delivers that today for Entourage users,” said Eric Wilfrid, general manager, MacBU, Microsoft.
“Outlook for Mac will bring features our customers have long requested — such as Information Rights Management — that make working across platforms even easier. I think people will see that this move to Outlook for Mac is more than just a name change.”
MacBU says the infrastructure changes in Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition, provide more agility in development for the future — marking the first step in delivering Outlook for Mac. Web Services Edition provides faster data synchronisation so current Entourage users on Exchange will experience improved e-mail and calendaring support. The beta was launched earlier this year and has since been used by several large enterprise customers including NASA and Wesleyan University. Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition is available to current Entourage users on Office 2008 for Mac SP2, with all updates applied, on Exchange 2007 SP1 RU4 or later.
Outlook for Mac will also feature Cocoa -- built from the ground up using Cocoa providing users with improved integration with the Mac OS; new database -- a high-speed file-based database with support for backing up files with Time Machine and Spotlight searching; and information rights management -- helps prevent sensitive information from being distributed to or read by people who do not have permission to access the content.
The new Office 2008 for Mac lineup now includes two Office 2008 editions -- Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition (, and the new Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition.
Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition will launch on 15 September 2009 and will be available for pre-order on 18 August 2009 for the estimated retail price of $399.95 and $239.95 for customers eligible for Version Upgrade. Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition is currently available for the estimated retail price of $149.95 for the full retail version. The free Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition, can be downloaded now.