Latest Fastest

Latest Fastest

Say hello to Fujitsu’s SPARC64 VIIIfx or 'Venus' CPU chip, which, depending how you measure these things, is probably now the world’s faster computer chip. However, in the absence of a test sample, or any means to test it, we’ll just have to take that on trust. What is known is that the prototype has been clocked at 128 billion computations per second (128 gigaflops), which is apparently 2.5 times faster than its nearest rival from Intel and about a zillion times faster than the PC you are looking at now. Production is still some years away, as is the software that can make use of the phenomenal speed but the way these things work you can be pretty sure it’ll be outdated in a couple of weeks with the next world’s fastest CPU and before you know it, inside some cheesy gadget on the shelves at your local pound shop.

BMOW 1980s Flashback

BMOW 1980s Flashback

Here’s someone with way too much time on their hands… Engadget reports that game developer Steve Chamberlain has gone to the extraordinary effort of building a CPU (central processor unit – the main chip in a PC) from scratch, using nothing more that 50 or so standard off-the-shelf logic chips, and rather a lot of wires. That also explains the name, it’s been dubbed BMOW or Big Mess Of Wires, and I have no trouble whatsoever believing his claim that it took a year to build. For those that are interested it’s equivalent to CPU chips from the 1980s, used in the likes of the Commodore 64 and Apple II. It is an 8-bit design, runs at around 2MHz has 512Kb of memory and will run programs written in languages like BASIC, no

Data Storage in a Spin

Data Storage in a Spin

If you think your hard drives are a bit sluggish then you may be interested in a development by French physicists called Spin Transport Electronics or ‘Spintronics’, If speed is what you need then this technology promises transfer rates up to 100,000 times faster than current magnetic storage devices. Spintronics harnesses the natural ‘spin’ of electrons when they encounter magnetic fields. As they rotate they generate a secondary electrical signal that can be used to record data. However, the real breakthrough is the use of lasers to read and write data to the spinning electrons, by altering the spin speed and direction. Needless to say it’ll be a while before this turns into a commercially viable technology, but we’ll keep you posted.

Just Checking to see if you are using Linux…

Just Checking to see if you are using Linux…

Here’s one for those of you that find those dog-in-the-lawn garden ornaments amusing. It’s a USB drive, in the shape of a penguin. It comes from Active Media Products and here’s the good bit, 5 percent of the retail price goes to the World Wildlife Fund, so not only are you protecting your data (your info is safe for 10 years), in a funny, indirect sort of way you are also helping to protect the cute little guys. The drives themselves are available in 2, 4, 8 and 16Gb capacities, you can also get a Panda version, and to add to their green credentials, no mercury or lead is used in their production. Oh yes, and you do get a head, it’s the removable protective cap.

Soft Cell Netbook

Soft Cell Netbook

There’s no denying netbooks have become hugely popular and they are an essential travelling companion, but like all laptops, large and small, they have one big drawback. Somehow they always run out of power at the most inconvenient moment. That won’t be a problem with this new one from Norhtec? The Geko Edubook looks like just another 8.9-inch cheapie, and the starting price is competitive, the baseline model will be a touch under £170, but the big bonus feature is that it doesn’t use a proprietary rechargeable battery pack. Instead it uses a set of 8 standard AA cells. It will run for up to 4 hours on NiMh rechargeables, and if you get caught short all you have to do is pop into the nearest shop and drop in some Duracells and it’s good to go for another 6 hours, thanks to the very low power consumption (there’s no fan and it uses an LED backlight). It even has it’s own built-in charger so there’s no need to lug a mains adaptor around with you either. The rest of the spec is fairly routine. It has a 1Ghz processor, it comes with 256, 512 or 1Gb of RAM and there’s a choice of standard hard drive or SD flash storage. Needless to say it supports Windows XP or stick with the pre-installed Ubuntu Linux operating system. They’re taking orders now for US delivery, unfortunately there’s no word on the European release just yet.

XP Gets Another Reprieve

XP Gets Another Reprieve

It’s the operating system that just refuses to die. According to Engadget Microsoft has given the venerable old XP another extension that will see it carrying on until 2011. Before you get too excited, though, this applies only to the XP downgrade option, available on PCs sold with Windows 7 pre-installed. Now pay attention, it’s all rather complicated. Apparently this move follows complaints from business users, worried about Windows 7 licensing issues. Basically companies buying new Win 7 PCs before April 23rd next year will still have the option to downgrade to XP, to help them with the transition, but after April 23rd the only downgrade will be to Vista, which obviously isn’t much help to XP users wanting to make the change. Confused? You will be…

Memory for the Next Millennium

Memory for the Next Millennium

The big problem that few people ever bother to think about is how long will documents, photos, videos and so, stored as digital data, last? The short answer is no one knows. It depends how it is stored, and the bad news is that none of the storage mediums we current use are good for more than around 50 years, some a lot less, but even that’s just an educated guess because they haven’t been around long enough for anyone to find out. That’s only part of the problem, though; even if a storage device can guarantee data integrity indefinitely, can the same be said of the equipment needed to retrieve the data? Which brings us DRS Memory, a memory system that Tech-On reports was developed by researchers at Keio and Kyoto Universities, in collaboration with Sharp. DRS stands for Digital Rosetta Stone and it’s claimed that it can store large volumes of data for more than 1000 years. It’s a solid-state device, using stacked semiconductor wafers; with the data it contains recorded using direct electron beam writing technology. A stack of four 15-inch wafers can apparently store up to 2.5Tb of data, the data can be read off the stack using wireless systems. Of course at this stage it’s all conjecture and whether or not anyone will be around in 3009, with a working wireless laptop to see if they were right is another matter…