Intel’s Centrino 2 Processor Details Leaked

Details of the first few processors belonging to Intel’s latest Centrino 2 mobile platform have been leaked on a PC maker’s Web site, preempting Intel’s official launch of the platform at the middle of this year.

The Centrino 2 platform, codenamed Montevina, is an upgrade to Intel’s current Centrino platform and will include five Core 2 processors running at clock speeds between 2.26GHz and 3.06GHz.

The processors will be offered by an Australian PC maker, Pioneer Computers, in its DreamBook Style 9008 Centrino 2 laptop, one of earliest based on Intel’s latest mobile platform.

The Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor running at 2.26 GHz will include 3MB of cache, and the Core 2 Extreme X9100 processor, running at 3.06GHz processor, will include 6MB of cache.

Other Centrino 2 processors listed on Pioneers’ Web site include the Core 2 Duo P8600 running at 2.4 GHz with 3MB of cache, the Core 2 Duo P9500 running at 2.53GHz with 6MB of cache and the Core 2 Duo T9600 processor running at 2.8Ghz with 6MB of cache.

The chips, which belong to the Penryn family, are manufactured using the 45-nanometer process.

Intel has said that Centrino 2 includes a chip that combines both wireless and WiMax capabilities. Pioneer is offering both capabilities as options with the laptop. The laptop, priced starting at $1,303 supports up to 4G bytes of memory and weighs 2.8 kilograms (6.2 pounds).

At the Intel Developer Forum last year, Intel talked about shrinking the size of chips by up to 60 percent for the Centrino 2 platform. Intel has small-form-factor chips will be released shortly after the normal-sized chips.

IBM Lays Claim to Cheaper, Faster Memory

IBM is developing a type of memory that it says could one day be faster and more reliable than today’s hard drives and flash memory.

Called “racetrack,” it is a solid-state memory that aims to combine the best attributes of flash, like having no moving parts, and the low cost of hard drives for an inexpensive form of nonvolatile memory that will be stable and durable, said Stuart Parkin, an IBM Fellow.

Racetrack memory stores information in thousands of atoms in magnetic nanowires. Without the atoms moving, an electrical charge causes data to move swiftly along a U-shaped pipe that allows data to be read and written in less than a nanosecond, Parkin said. A nanosecond is a billionth of a second and commonly used to measure access time to RAM.

The memory reads 16 bits of data through one transistor, so it reads and writes information 100,000 times faster than flash memory, Parkin said.

“In flash memory and hard drives, one transistor can access 1 bit, or with flash, maybe 2 or possibly even 4 bits, that’s it. We are going to use … a transistor to access many bits of information.”

Racetrack is still in its early days. The concept was proposed four or five years ago, Parkin said, and IBM hopes to be able to provide terabytes worth of storage from such devices in a few years.

“It will take two to four years to build a prototype in which we build these reading-and-writing elements on a nanoscopic scale. In four years we can perhaps demonstrate it works and then manufacture it,” Parkin said.

Racetrack memory has no moving parts, it is “virtually unbreakable” and will never wear out, unlike flash drives, which could wear out after 10,000 read-and-write cycles, Parkin said. He likened the U-shaped design of horizontal pipes to a racetrack.

The memory keeps atoms constant, making it more durable than hard drives or flash. “Whenever you start to move atoms you have problems and devices wear out from fatigue after a time,” Parkin said.

Racetrack memory’s storage capacity is similar to flash’s and may soon exceed hard-drive capacities, Parkin said.

Hard disks rotate to access information, while racetrack memory uses an electrical charge to read and write data, so it also uses less electricity, he said.

It will be inexpensive to manufacture because fewer transistors will be required and each memory chip will hold thousands of nanowires in a small footprint, Parkin said.

The premise behind racetrack memory is spintronics, a technology that manipulates the charge and spin properties of electrons. Using spintronics, hard-drive makers have developed drives that read data from a microscopically small area.

Parkin is widely noted for his work on spintronics and helping double the density of hard drives every year. Scientists Albert Fert, of France, and Peter Grunberg, of Germany, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2007 for their spintronics research.

Nikon Intros Three new Coolpix Digital Cameras

Nikon on Thursday introduced three new models to its Coolpix digital camera line. The P80 will be released in April for $399.95. The S52 and S52c are coming in May for $249.95 and $299.95, respectively.

The P80 is a 10.1 megapixel model featuring an 18x optical zoom lens that offers a 27 – 486mm focal length (35mm equivalent). It also features optical vibration reduction. Other features include an all-new Sports Continuous Mode, which lets you shoot up to 30 consecutive pictures at four, six or 13 frames per second (depending on resolution). It has light sensitivity up to ISO 6400 and a 2.7-inch LCD monitor with anti-reflective coating and 230,000 pixel resolution.

The S52 and S52c both sport 9.0 megapixel sensors, 3x 38-114mm zoom lenses, optical vibration reduction and ISO 3200 sensitivity. They also have 3.0 inch LCD displays and use Nikon’s “Expeed” image processing, which the company claims reduces noise in images.

The S52c can send images through e-mail using a built-in Wi-Fi connection and supports Nikon’s “My Picturetown” online service and Flickr. The S52 uses USB 2.0 to connect to a host Mac or PC, instead. The S52 will be available in red or black; the S52c will come in black only.

Buffalo Intros External Blu-Ray HD DVD

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Buffalo recently announced the MediaStation Blu-ray HD DVD (BRHC-6316U2), its first external Blu-ray HD DVD player. It is the first device of its kind from Buffalo in the market that allows users to both read and write Blu-ray content. It provides the ability to save high-definition content, giving users an all-in-one solution to meet their entertainment needs.

Users can also connect the player to a notebook or other mobile device via USB and view their favorite video content while on-the-go. In addition, the player allows for playback of HD DVD content.

The Blu-ray HD DVD player also comes with Nero’s proven software for playback and burning, which allows for seamless integration with all recent versions of Microsoft Windows. Backed by a limited one-year warranty and toll-free technical support, the MediaStation Blu-ray HD DVD will be available in May 2008 for Indian market at a price of Rs 45,000.

Microsoft Fixes Vista SP1 Reboot Bug

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Microsoft Monday said it has fixed a Vista SP1 reboot bug that had caused some users to suspend migrations and that the revised software will again be offered via automatic distribution.

The Vista Servicing Stack Update (SSU) was a prerequisite for installing Vista SP1 via Windows Update that was made available by Microsoft in February. The software, designed to ease installation, instead had the opposite effect by throwing some users into an endless reboot cycle.

At the time, Microsoft called negative reaction to the issue “a feeding frenzy.”

Microsoft says the problem is fixed and it will again offer the SSU prerequisite code starting April 8th. Users who have already successfully installed SSU do not need to reinstall it. In addition, users who have a copy of SP1 acquired by any means other than Windows Update do not need to install SSU.

Microsoft is fixing the problem by issuing a fix that installs prior to the installation of the SSU, a prerequisite for the prerequisite.

The new piece of code will ensure a “smooth install of the SSU by working to prevent the system from rebooting during the SP1 SSU installation,” according to the Microsoft Product Update Team Blog. The blog also says Microsoft made additional changes to the SSU installer code that will ensure the pre-SSU is installed before it attempts to load SSU.

The company said the original problem occurred during some “unknown and rare” instances when the SSU thought it needed to reboot when it did not. The resulting reboot try then touched off a never ending cycle of attempts and failures.

Microsoft says users with Windows Update activated do not have to take any action before April 8 to receive both the pre-SSU and the SSU code.

AMD Finally Ships Quad-Core Opterons

Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday announced it was shipping the quad-core Opteron chip in volume after fixing a bug, but concerns are being raised about AMD’s abilities to stick to its product roadmap, analysts said.

The chip, code-named Barcelona, was delayed in December because of a bug in the L3 cache that caused applications to fail. The chip maker started shipping the chip in September in limited quantities to vendors running high-performance computers.

The new chip is shipping in volume to computer makers including top server vendors Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, IBM and Dell.

AMD didn’t feel comfortable shipping a chip with the problem, said Steve Demski, AMD Opteron product manager. “We’re glad to have this one errata behind us. This is a product we’ve been waiting to offer for a long time.”

The Barcelona chip created much enthusiasm 18 months ago as the first quad-core chip when it broke away from Intel’s traditional multicore architecture, said Richard Doherty, research director at The Envisioneering Group. In an industry that has its own challenges, customers were waiting for Barcelona and still kept waiting until interest waned, Doherty said.

“The goodwill and camaraderie and enthusiasm at a peak two years ago has more than waned. In the silicon [industry] you have to ship on time,” Doherty said.

Computer makers want to offer customers an alternative, but need from chip makers a clear message and dependable delivery schedule from which they can plan shipments. “Nearly everyone wants a robust competitive economy besides Intel,” Doherty said, referring to Intel’s dominant position in the chip market.

However, AMD did not deliver chips on time, and customers shifted to Intel quad-core processors, which have stayed on schedule and fairly faithful to their roadmap. Intel currently has a sizeable lead over AMD in the global microprocessor market. Meanwhile, AMD has filed antitrust lawsuits and complaints globally accusing Intel of anticompetitive behavior.

The Envisioneering Group, which benchmarks chips, hasn’t yet received a Barcelona chip from AMD for benchmarking despite requests.

“[It] is not good because every vendor who has said we are going with multiple suppliers wanted [AMD] to succeed better. Now there’s just tremendous doubt,” Doherty said.

Barcelona’s bugs and delays cost AMD momentum, time, money and credibility, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64. The company has a lot of work to do with customers and computer makers to build back its reputation, he said.

“Now that the product is available and [AMD] put the chips in systems, they can get back on track” and compete with Intel, Brookwood said. “There’s been a lot of concern, and what AMD’s saying here, is we’ve got it under control.”

The Barcelona delays have also generated concern about AMD’s ability to deliver its next quad-core server chip, Brookwood said. Code-named Shanghai, the chip will be manufactured using the 45-nanometer process and is due to go into production in the second half of 2008, he said.

“They said they will be able to. It’s just not enough to say that, they have to do that. If they can, they can be back in the game,” Brookwood said.

Intel is also making moves in the multi-core game. As the quad-core Shanghai goes into production, Intel plans to ship a Xeon server chip, code-named Dunnington, which will have six cores. Intel will start shipping server chips based on its new architecture, code-named Nehalem, in the second half of 2008. Nehalem chips will come with four and eight cores.

AMD said that in the “latter half” of 2009 it will ship its next server chip, code-named Montreal, which will come with four and eight cores.

Microsoft Releases Visual C++

In separate moves, Microsoft has released its Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack but discontinued extended support for the Visual Basic 6.0 IDE.

The feature pack had been available in a beta release since January, said S. “Soma” Somasegar, senior vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division, in his blog this week.
“The Feature Pack provides several exciting features for C++ developers, such as a major update to MFC (Microsoft Foundation Class) and an implementation of TR1 (Technical Report 1). Using the included MFC components, developers can create applications with the ‘look & feel’ of Microsoft’s most popular products — Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, and Internet Explorer,” Somasegar said.

TR1 is a document that featured a Visual C++ implementation with extensions to the C++ ISO standard. Microsoft’s implementation of TR1 contains such features as regular expression parsing and sophisticated random number generators.

Also included in the feature pack are a component for the Office 2007 Ribbon Bar, Visual Studio docking, auto hide windows, and Windows Vista theme support.

The feature pack is downloadable by any Visual Studio 2008 Standard or above customer, Somasegar said.

Also this week, Microsoft ended extended, paid support for the Visual Basic 6.0 IDE, which is more than 10 years old.

“If you haven’t converted all your apps to .Net, shame on you, but don’t freak out. Microsoft will continue to support the VB 6.0 runtime for all existing application in all the next versions of the Windows OS, including Windows Server 2008 and Vista,” said Microsoft’s Jeff Nuckolls, a technology specialist, in a blog entry from last week. Nuckolls still advised that users devise a migration plan.

An online petition in 2005 sought to save Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Basic for Applications. Still available, that petition has gathered 13,341 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon. A Visual Basic user who had participated in the petition drive downplayed his need for support of Visual Basic 6.0 Wednesday afternoon.

“‘Support’ is not something I need or have needed outside the peer support of other VB developers,” said Visual Basic user Don Bradner. “Now if it gets to where I can’t write a VB6 app or my VB6 apps won’t run, that’s a lot different; it is also likely to be a long way into the future.”

Adobe Patches ‘PWN To OWN’ Bug in Flash Player

Adobe Systems Tuesday plugged the Flash Player hole used by a hacker two weeks ago to take down a Windows Vista machine and claim a $5,000 prize in the “PWN To OWN” exploit challenge.

Adobe’s update to Flash Player — the popular program and browser plug-in used to view online content — patched seven vulnerabilities, including several that could be used by attackers to hijack machines running the flawed software. Among the seven was the one used to break into a Fujitsu notebook during the hacker contest sponsored by 3Com’s TippingPoint, which operates a bug bounty program called Zero Day Initiative.

Last week, Adobe claimed it had known about the Flash bug before it was used by Shane Macaulay of Security Objectives to hack one of the laptops up for grabs at CanSecWest, and would add a fix for it to a previously scheduled update this month.

Adobe had announced the April update about four weeks ago, but had left the timeline vague, saying only that it would refresh Flash sometime during the month.

The majority of the patches applied to Flash Player quashed bugs in how the software handled .swf files, the proprietary Shockwave Flash format. One of the .swf vulnerabilities had been reported to Adobe back in December 2007 by Google researcher Rich Cannings, who pointed out the format could be used to launch cross-site scripting attacks, which are commonly deployed by identity thieves and phishers.

Earlier, Adobe had issued updates to its Web developer tools that crank out .swf files, and told Web operators and site designers to make changes to their pages before it released yesterday’s end-user update. If they didn’t get rid of the older .swf files, they risked users being unable to access Flash content on their sites, Adobe warned.

Sun to Tout Hosting Platform

Sun will discuss on Thursday a research and development project intended to provide a hosting platform for delivering Internet-based services.

Called Project Caroline, the technology is on the agenda of a Sun Labs Open House taking place at Sun offices in Menlo Park, California. The platform comprises a programmatically configurable pool of virtualized compute, storage, and networking resources, according to Sun.

The Project Caroline Web page states that the project is designed to serve an emerging market of small and medium-sized SaaS providers.

“Anticipating needs driven by new SaaS business models and processes, Project Caroline helps SaaS providers develop services rapidly using high-level programming languages like the Java programming language, Ruby, Python, and Perl to update in-production services frequently and to automatically flex their use of platform resources to match changing runtime demands,” the Web page states.

Services can programmatically allocate, monitor, and control virtualized compute, storage, and networking resources via Project Caroline. Interfaces are featured for managing platform resources.

Developers can build services that update and flex platform resources usage. Project Caroline resources are exposed via high-level abstractions, including virtual machines, networks, and network-accessible file systems and databases. A horizontally scaled pool of distributed resources is presented as a single system to provide developers with a unified platform for allocating and controlling resources.

Also on the Open House agenda are OMS, pertaining to a royalty-free media system; Project Live, approaching software distribution and configuration by combining the firmware model with customization; and the Lively Kernel project for Web programming.

Other agenda items include: Project Wonderland, an open-source toolkit for building 3D virtual worlds for business and education collaboration; Project Darkstar, which is a gaming server; and Project MiRTLE (Mixed Reality Teaching and Learning Environment).

HP Ships Ultraportable Laptop with Via Inside

Hewlett-Packard unveiled its Compaq 2133 ultraportable laptop, which uses a C7-M microprocessor from Taiwan’s Via Technologies instead of a chip from Intel.

The sleek device represents a significant design win for Via, which has struggled to win business from top-tier PC makers in the face of stiff competition from Intel. The win is even more remarkable because Intel just released its Centrino Atom package for handheld computers and will start shipping a line of low-cost Atom chips designed for laptops like the 2133 during the third quarter.

HP chose the C7-M because it met the thermal requirements needed for the 2133, according to Philip Devlin, a product marketing manager at HP Asia-Pacific, adding that Via has long provided microprocessors for HP’s line of thin clients.

Another important consideration was timing. The C7-M was ready when HP wanted to make the 2133 available, Devlin said.

The 1.19-kilogram 2133 has an aluminum-alloy case and is priced from US$499 to $899, depending on the configuration. The laptop comes with a C7-M processor running at 1GHz, 1.2GHz or 1.6GHz, and runs Windows Vista or SuSE Linux Desktop 10. Standard features include an 8.9-inch screen with a resolution of 1,280 pixels by 768 pixels, a nearly full-size keyboard, a Secure Digital (SD) memory card slot, and an ExpressCard slot. It also has wireless interfaces for Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

When it comes to storage, users have the choice of a 120G-byte hard disk or a 160G-byte disk. A 4G-byte solid-state drive is available for Linux, and HP expects to offer an 80G-byte SSD as an option for both operating systems during the third quarter.

The 2133 gets around two hours of battery life with the standard 3-cell battery and four hours with a 6-cell battery, Devlin said.

Devlin declined to comment on whether HP plans to use Via’s upcoming Isaiah processor with the 2133, but said the chip is “a point of conversation” between the two companies.

Isaiah is expected to offer significantly more performance than the C-7M processor while offering the same thermal characteristics. The two chips are pin-compatible, which means that no work will be required to adapt the 2133 — or any other computer that uses the C7-M — for the new processor. Laptop makers simply swap the C7-M for the newer chip, when it becomes available.