6th June 2006 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Nvidia launches dual-GPU GeForce 7950 GX2

Computex 2006 Connect two of 'em using Quad SLI

Nvidia has launched its anticipated "world's fastest" desktop graphics card, the double-slot, dual-GPU GeForce 7950 GX2 which sandwiches two graphics cards together. Each 7950 GPU has 48 pixel shaders and 16 vertex shaders and connects to 512MB of GDDR 3 for a total of 1GB of graphics memory. The board's memory bandwidth is a …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 00:07
Nvidia rolls out Intel edition nForce 500 chipset trio

Computex 2006 Ultra and SLI incarnations

Nvidia has announced Intel-oriented versions of the nForce 500-series chipsets it rolled out last month for AMD's new Socket AM2 processors in time for the Computex show in Taipei. The line-up includes three parts: the 570 Ultra, 570 SLI and 590 SLI. All three support Intel's Core 2 Duo and Core2 Extreme processors, along …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 00:28
AMD to re-badge Transmeta CPUs

Computex 2006 Efficeon to oust Geode?

AMD has decided it's more effective to offer Transmeta's Efficeon x86-compatible processor in emerging markets than one of its own - at least as far as chips that support Microsoft's developing-world PC rental scheme go. Transmeta announced a version of its Efficeon chip that supports Microsoft's FlexGo programme last month. …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 04:02
ATI claims crown in physics-on-GPU performance

Computex 2006 Collision course

ATI will use GPU-hosted physics processing to "overtake" arch-rival Nvidia's SLI technology "by this time next year", Godfrey Cheng, the company's head of platform marketing said today during the Computex show in Taipei. Like Nvidia, ATI is looking to games middleware developer Havok to connect game code to its GPUs. The …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 06:36
Intel rolls out P965/ICH8 chipset

Computex 2006 Bye-bye, IDE

Intel has officially launched its first 'Broadwater' chipset, the P965 Express, pitched at the upcoming Core 2 Duo dual-core processor - aka 'Conroe' operating on a 1066MHz frontside bus. As expected, the P965 supports dual-channel 800MHz DDR 2 SDRAM with bandwidth-optimising Fast Memory Access (FMA) technology, which can re- …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 07:19
Apple posts fix for overly hot MacBooks

DIY

"Some MacBooks may have left the factory with a thin piece of clear plastic covering the rear vent," Apple has admitted after some consumers who bought its latest laptop complained the Intel Core Duo-based machines were running too hot. In a support document posted last week, the Mac maker said the plastic strip - discovered …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 07:48
ATI pitches CrossFire certification scheme

Computex 2006 Touts full list of compatible products on website

ATI has launched a website it claims will make it easier for its fans to choose CrossFire-enabled hardware. The site list the 90-odd graphics cards, mobos, PSUs and memory that have passed the company's CrossFire compatibility certification procedure, it said today. The website, www.aticrossfire.com specs out sample PC …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 08:10
Ransomware Trojan cracked

Cash from chaos scam curtailed

Security experts have cracked the password needed to retrieve files encrypted by a Trojan horse, dubbed Arhiveus-A, that claimed a number of victims following its appearance on the net last week. The malware scoops up files in infected users' 'My Documents' folders and packs them in an encrypted file called EncryptedFiles.als …

Anti-Virus 6 Jun 2006, 08:15
TfL keeps schtum on underground radio plans

Connect in the dark

Transport for London (TfL) has declined to shed any light on its timetable for implementing a digital radio network, despite criticisms in a report into the 7 July bombings. London Assembly published the 7 July Review Committee report on 5 June 2006. It calls for TfL to speed up the process of installing a comprehensive digital …

Public Sector 6 Jun 2006, 08:36
Google offers spreadsheet beta

Taking over the world, cell by cell

Google is launching an online spreadsheet that will let you load Excel files and share documents online. Up to 10 people can work on the spreadsheet at the same time - the names of people editing and reading it will appear in a chat window. Users can save the documents to their Google account or export them as .csv, .xls or …

Applications 6 Jun 2006, 08:48
IBM promises $6bn for India

Big Blue promises big spending

IBM is spending $6bn in the next three years to extend and improve its operations in India. This is triple the $2bn IBM has spent in India over the last three years. IBM chief executive and chairman Sam Palmisano, speaking in Bangalore, said: "India and other emerging economies are increasingly (becoming) important part of IBM …

Financial News 6 Jun 2006, 10:06
Carphone overwhelmed by 'free broadband' interest

Straining to cope with 340,000 sign-ups

The Carphone Warehouse has been blown away by the response to its "free broadband forever" promotion with demand for the bundled product exceeding its own forecasts. TalkTalk - Carphone's retail phone business - only launched its bundled offer of line rental, calls and broadband for £21 a month in April. Since then, some 340, …

Telecoms 6 Jun 2006, 10:12
Intel comms business 'for sale'

Strategic review gets real

Intel may sell off its communications business as part of a deep review of its business. Boss Paul Otellini said in April the firm was beginning a detailed strategic review. He suggested this would go beyond just cutting jobs. Analysts said last month that the comms business was first in the firing line. Intel's IXP network …

Financial News 6 Jun 2006, 10:19
Stick your own pin in Google maps

Mark spot. Add text. Email link

We reckon this will appeal to anyone who's trying to organise a wedding reception and is dreading the obligatory "yeah, well, the map you sent was bloody awful so we ended up driving the wrong way up the M1 for three hours" - a smart new initiative which allows you to mark a spot on Google maps, stick a pin in it with added text …

Applications 6 Jun 2006, 10:34
ONStor Hammers on UK channel door

Which is NAS

Hammer, the specialist storage distie, is to start wholesaling ONStor's NAS gateways to the UK channel. This is a RAID value-add thing: ONStor's technology is open, unlike many competitors which "typically include NAS gateways as part of a broader proprietary storage solution," Hammer says. And it's cheaper too: “With ONStor …

Channel Register 6 Jun 2006, 10:51
Vigilante eBayer obtains refund in person

Do not mess with this man - or his mates

Here's a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of messing around certain UK eBay vendors: do so at your peril, as the following transcript of a bulletin board posting shows. Certain details have been deleted/altered: eBay, PayPal & one dim witted thicko eBayer How we got our money back & filmed it all happening. (This is 100% …

Music and Media 6 Jun 2006, 11:14
New businesses spawned from handbag hype

Kiwis jump on the bagwagon

Handbag fever has hit bizarre new heights in New Zealand with a raft of boutique industries springing up to cash in on the hype. Following on the success of the NZ$22,000 (£7,800) sale of the fashion weapon used by rugby legend Tana Umaga to wallop some sense into Hurricanes team-mate Chris Masoe, auction site TradeMe has been …

Bootnotes 6 Jun 2006, 11:16
Bleak outlook for IT outsourcing

Poor communication means gov.IT projects 'doomed'

Most government organisation's IT outsourcing (ITO) projects are "doomed before they begin", according to new research. Government organisations and suppliers are not aligned when it comes to interpreting and agreeing IT outsourcing objectives, says PA Consulting Group's 2005/06 Understanding Misunderstanding survey, released …

Public Sector 6 Jun 2006, 11:25
Older sperm produce more dwarves

The male biological clock

Scientists have found that the genetic quality of sperm decreases with age. A study at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at Berkeley found that DNA can fragment in older men and the frequency of a mutation which causes dwarfism rises. The work, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, …

Biology 6 Jun 2006, 11:41
VoIP firm backs 'virtual' yacht race

Cunning stunt or art?

A yachtswoman is acting out a bizarre "virtual" solo transatlantic voyage on a 40-foot racing trimaran - while being firmly anchored in the courtyard of Chelsea College of Art in London. Lia Ditton, 25, may already be an accomplished yachtswoman having already competed two transatlantic crossings, but she's also a performance …

Music and Media 6 Jun 2006, 11:47
Kingston DDR 2 memory blasts past 1GHz

Two new speeds of DDR 2 memory hit the streets

HyperX KHX8000D2 DDR2 1000MHz (PC2-8000) and HyperX KHX8500D2 DDR2 1066MHz (PC2-8500) are unbuffered modules with Latency Timings of 5-5-5-15-1 and 2.2 Volts operation. This will be welcome news if you're shifting to the AMD AM2 platform which uses DDR2 memory rather than old-school DDR. The integrated memory controller in …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 12:53
Western Digital My Book goes Pro with Firewire 800

That's one for the Mac brigade then ...

Western Digital has added a new member to its range of My Book external hard drives. My Book Pro Edition sports three interfaces to give a choice of Firewire 800, Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 and is available in capacities of 250 and 500 GB. Inside the casing the drive spins at 7,200rpm and has 16MB of cache with a read seek …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 13:11
IBM blows open development silos

It's only Rational

Developer silos: who needs ‘em? IBM says they are a Bad Thing and here is why: In a typical product development cycle, multiple teams are designated to manage specific functions such as testing software for bugs, creating a software blueprint, and pushing the final code into production. The hand-offs between these …

Software 6 Jun 2006, 13:14
IBM a go-go to the Ajax Dojo

Gift-wrapped software

IBM is donating some home-grown software and technology know-how to Dojo, an open source Javascript toolkit for Ajax web development. It will help to integrate Dynamic Web Accessibility, a standard being developed under the auspices of the the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to the Dojo Toolkit widget set, so making it easier …

Developer 6 Jun 2006, 13:35
ESP and CEP...what's the difference?

Comment Patterns and exceptions

If you talk to some vendors you could be forgiven for thinking that ESP (event stream processing) and CEP (complex event processing) are one and the same. Indeed, I have previously suggested that CEP is a misnomer because the events in event processing are actually quite simple entities. This is true, but it is not the whole …

Developer 6 Jun 2006, 13:55
NHS IT costs hospitals dear

Fujitsu scores £19m compo

More bad news for the UK government's NHS IT programme - cash-strapped health authorities are having to pay millions in compensation to Fujitsu and CSC . When contracts were first set up by central government, NHS trusts promised to provide staff to help work on the new systems. But according to reports, health authorities in …

Public Sector 6 Jun 2006, 14:37
Times to flick switch on net TV

Thunderer at the speed of light

The Times is to launch an internet TV service later this week as part of a strategy to branch out into online and mobile content. Details of the venture, called Times TV, have yet to be revealed but Reuters reports that content would be provided by a number of different partners. The whole shebang is being sponsored by Cisco. …

Telecoms 6 Jun 2006, 14:44
UK trials multimedia over DAB

Sound and Vision

Boffins from South Korea and the UK are teaming up to trial mobile data broadcasting over DAB (digital audio broadcasting) networks. Researchers say the technology is capable of supporting both public service and commercial multimedia applications, such as mobile TV. The trial will showcase enhancements of the DAB platform …

Mobile 6 Jun 2006, 14:50
Getting on the right side of IE 7 security

Like it or loathe it, you have to know about it

As Internet Explorer tries to get serious on security, you have to find out how to make sure you don't look like one of the bad guys. When it comes to security, things are rarely black and white: my handy IM Web client is your potential security hole. The issue is, who is in control: you as the site developer; or the user who …

Applications 6 Jun 2006, 14:55
McAfee bolsters risk management with Preventsys buy

Compliance alliance

Net security firm McAfee has acquired risk management and security compliance firm Preventsys for an undisclosed amount. The deal, announced Tuesday, is designed to enhance McAfee's risk management portfolio while helping it tap into the growing market for products that help corporates establish compliance with stricter …

Channel Register 6 Jun 2006, 15:11
Proles warm to 'groupthink'

Letters Doubleplusungood

Morgan Stanley was recently awarded the domain mymorganstanleyplatinum.com - wrested without pity from it previous owner Baroness Penelope Cat of Nash DCB. Here' some more background from the horse's mouth, Mike Woods, who acted for said feline: Hi I liked your article but cats never slink off, the reason Penny lost was …

Letters 6 Jun 2006, 15:41
Ad-supported P2P service signs EMI

Qtrax gets on-track

EMI has agreed to release its music portfolio through an ad-support peer-to-peer service. The deal is a significant coup for Qtrax, which plans to begin offering music downloads supported by ads, as well as a more conventional ad-free premium service, in the US later this year. EMI is the first major label on Qtrax's roster. The …

Financial News 6 Jun 2006, 16:20
Iwill punts 16-FB-DIMM Xeon mobo

Computex 2006 How much for 64GB?

Iwill displayed its latest range of server motherboards for the Intel Dempsey and Woodcrest range of Xeon processors at Computex this week. The DPK66S series of motherboards all features support for dual Socket 771 Xeon processors and no less than 16 FB-DIMM slots for up to 64GB of RAM which would set you back in the region of £ …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 17:13
Asus readies HDMI-enabled graphics cards

Computex 2006 Red and green cards with HDMI spotted

Asus showed two graphics cards with HDMI connectors on its stand at Computex this week. The first was an ATI Radeon X1600 Pro-based low-profile card with an HDMI and D-sub connector - a similar design to the ones that Sapphire has shown in the past. However, the second card was based on an Nvidia GeFore 7600GT and featured S/ …

Reg Hardware 6 Jun 2006, 17:20
UK passport forgery free-for-all ends tonight

Loophole Office moves to plug the gap that wasn't there

The Home Office has plugged an embarrassing legal loophole while continuing to deny that the loophole ever existed. As of tomorrow (7 June) it will again be illegal to forge a UK passport, or alternatively, if it never stopped being illegal, tomorrow it will stop being illegal and start being illegal again instantaneously. …

Music and Media 6 Jun 2006, 17:33
Sun Labs edges toward practicality

Games, Solaris and DARPA - Oh my!

You never know what will turn up when Sun Microsystems opens the doors to its Labs operations, as it did for reporters last week. In the past, the company has tried to woo observers with things as trite as drying paint - or at least drying paint full of sensors. This time around, Sun offered some more gripping - and reality …

Servers 6 Jun 2006, 21:48
Fine looms, as Microsoft sees EU settlement recede

No hols without homework

Much like the Vista release date, Microsoft's hopes of a speedy European antitrust case settlement are receding. The company is "some more months" away from a settlement with the European Commission, Microsoft's european president Jean-Philippe Courtois said today. But there's one aspect of the ruling Microsoft that has tried …

Music and Media 6 Jun 2006, 21:54