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Microsoft to Supreme
Court: We're no AT&T Microsoft to Supreme Court: We're no AT&T Microsoft Corp. on Aug 22 asked the Supreme Court to decline jurisdiction in the company's appeal to a ruling that would divide the company into two separate entities, arguing that a fair and accurate review of the ruling was more important to the American economy than a swift resolution in the landmark antitrust case. In a 10-page brief filed with the high court, Microsoft attorneys attempted to poke holes in the Justice Department's request to bypass the court of appeals and expedite the case directly to the Supreme Court. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant would prefer to keep the case in the appeals court, which has overturned decisions against Microsoft in previous cases. In its own brief filed with the court last Monday, the Justice Department told the Supreme Court that the case should not be left to the appellate courts because a quick and final decision on the case was needed to protect the interests of the American economy and the average consumer. But Microsoft said that, while no one was more anxious than it to see the case brought to a prompt conclusion, the benefits of a comprehensive review of the case by the court of appeals far outweighed whatever time, if any, might be saved by direct review in the Supreme Court.
Lucent unveils high-speed USB 2.0 chips Lucent Technologies has taken the wraps off an integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 chipset that moves data between PCs and peripherals up to 40 times faster than the current crop of USB 1.1 specification chipsets. Announcing the speed throughput at the Intel Developer Forum Conference in San Jose, Lucent said that the USS-2000 host controller chipset can support a wide variety of higher-bandwidth peripheral devices. These include high-resolution printers and scanners, digital video cameras, and DSL (digital subscriber line) and cable modems, using a much faster data transfer without compromising the performance of other peripheral devices plugged into the main USB of a PC. Higher speeds were always built into the USB specification, but were never implemented because of the USB port's requirement to share data between the various USB peripherals. Lucent, however, says it has now beaten this speed limitation. The most important feature of the new chipset, however, is that it is a single chip system, effectively reducing the USB hardware down to a single chipset, reducing the costs and time-to-market intervals for USB-connectible devices. The new chipset, which was developed by Bell Labs, fully supports the USB 2.0 specification, which moves data at an impressive 480 megabits per second (Mbps). Lucent says that the new chip can also service four 12 Mbps USB 1.1 hosts at the same time, meaning that each port has its own USB 1.1 dedicated host for full and low-speed device support.
Ericsson and WorldCom join forces for wireless Net Later this year, the two companies will also conduct joint trials of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) software, which enables mobile phones to surf the Internet, and GPRS, which enables the customer to stay permanently online, but is slower than the still-to-come third-generation technology.
MIT study says you should prepare for "me
commerce" "Many talented professionals no longer view themselves as loyal to the company," write researchers Robert Laubacher and Thomas Malone of MIT's Sloan School of Management. "Instead they consider themselves free agents, akin to professional athletes or Hollywood actors, who look out for their careers and personal relationships, not just the interests of a single company." Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics seems to bear that out. In 1997, the bureau concluded that of the nearly 14.3 million jobs added to the economy from 1988 to 1996, more than 22 percent were in industry groups that provide flexible labor services. In 1999, nearly 10 percent of the work force were employed in flexible arrangements. CDI estimates that by 2010, full-time, permanent employment will be the exception rather than the norm.
CentreCom deploys Cisco software platform CentreCom, the Virtual Local and Long Distance Service Provider (V-LEC), is deploying a suite of enhanced Internet telephony and unified communications solutions from Cisco. Using the Cisco uOne unified communications software platform, Centrecom will enable its customers to control the receipt and management of e-mail, fax mail, and voice mail messages, as well as control over inbound and outbound calls. CentreCom provides local and long-distance phone service over the Internet through ISPs, DSL service providers and broadband solution providers. It operates an infrastructure that combines circuit-switched and VoIP applications to offer differentiated QoS to its subscribers.
blue-silicon introduces messaging solution blue-silicon, the provider of extended enterprise messaging solutions to businesses, has introduced its product, a globally accessible and outsourced messaging solution which integrates with existing e-mail, PBX and Centrex Systems. The vendor had earlier last month secured $10m in venture capital funding led by SOFTBANK Venture Capital with NEXUS Group and WK Technology Fund. Combining voicemail, fax, wireless and e-mail messaging, blue-silicon's mid-source service extends the reach of service providers and telecom interconnects. Expanding on its network, company now has coverage across the US. Accessible through over 100 POPs, businesses can establish a virtual presence in multiple cities using local telephone numbers. Employees will be able to send and receive e-mail, voice mail and fax messages using any messaging terminal such as an e-mail client, web browser, telephone, fax machine or pager for costs comparable to those of local phone calls. The ability to listen to email from a cell phone and then reply to that email with voice is a notable productivity gain for mobile business.
Wrangling over satellite locations may lead
to FCC ruling The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported on 12 August that the companies vying for slot assignments in the Ka-band of the spectrum have been unable to devise an orbital assignment plan for their satellites and have asked the agency to intervene. The slots, which lie in geostationary orbit 35 887 km above the Earth, provide the higher frequencies necessary for broadband Internet service. An FCC official, who said the agency is reviewing documents filed by the individual companies, noted that auctioning the slots is one possibility. Clayton Mowry, of the Satellite Industry Association, said "The FCC sometimes uses the auction as a big stick to threaten companies." The threat of an auction, which would drive up the price of slot assignments, may force the companies back to the bargaining table. The FCC has been under pressure from the U.S. Congress to quickly review the license applications for the slot assignments because the United States will lose its priority rights to the slots if satellites are not placed there by 2004. Fifty such licenses were granted in 1997, but no satellites have been launched. The agency recently revoked three licenses because the companies failed to meet deadlines stipulated by the license agreement and did not file for extensions. The companies, Morning Star, PanAmSat, and Netsat28, are appealing the revocations.
Quantum computer a microscopic workhorse IBM Corp. announced on 15 August that it had developed a quantum computer prototype that uses five atoms as its processor and memory. The computer takes advantage of the spin of subatomic particles like electrons. The direction of molecules’ spin (up or down) can be read as either ones or zeros that correspond to the binary language of conventional computers. But unlike the transistors in traditional computers, the quantum particles can also exist in a state called superposition that could represent one, zero, or everything in between. Computers would be able to do billions of calculations simultaneously. Isaac Chuang, the IBM researcher who led the team of scientists that developed the computer, said they used the quantum computer to find the period of a function–a mathematical problem commonly used in cryptography. It solved the problem in one step, unlike a conventional computer, which would solve it over the course of numerous cycles. Quantum computers are also expected to extend the ability of computer designers to make processors ever smaller and faster. "Quantum computing," said Chuang, "begins where Moore’s Law ends–about the year 2020, when circuit features are predicted to be the size of atoms and molecules." Computer scientists believe that lithography, the process currently used to create processors, will not allow for the creation of microchips that small.
Encryption gets really small Scientists at the University of Geneva are collaborating with the Swiss Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on an experiment that uses quantum computers to run an unbreakable encryption algorithm. Cryptography could, in fact, be the first commercial application for the nascent technology. Quantum computers can process data millions of times faster than the quickest supercomputer. But being so small, they also can take advantage of the peculiar rules of quantum physics. Conventional computers create bits of information, and each bit is either a 0 or a 1. Quantum bits, or qubits, can be both 0 and 1 or any combination of the two numbers. What's more, qubits can't be cloned or copied, making it virtually impossible for someone to break code encrypted with a quantum computer. Before quantum computing goes commercial, many hurdles must be cleared, not the least of which will be deciding if the minuscule machines will support open-source Linux or Windows from Microsoft Corp.
A city with a broadband future "The city could have died when its textile industry faded. But instead they built fiber-optic networks, and offer(ed) low-cost broadband services to local businesses and the town's citizens. They should be commended. Too many small towns simply build an industrial park and offer relocation assistance to lure companies in. LaGrange offers all of that, and sophisticated Internet infrastructure. They understood that big bandwidth wins business for small cities." LaGrange also offers all of its residents free, fast Internet access via cable modem connections. The city provides all the needed hardware, software, and access fees. The town's 60-mile fiber network and 150-mile broadband hybrid fiber-coax network also provides businesses with two-way, high-speed connectivity and advanced voice, data and video transmission capabilities. Zacharilla said that the WTA defines cities or regions as "intelligent" when they use information and broadband communications technology to attract businesses, stimulate job creation, generate economic growth, and improve the delivery of government services.
The Grid is
next wave of computing What makes the Grid so revolutionary is that a university researcher, even using a standard PC, would have access to data from the original supercomputers. That much data would overwhelm a computer downloading it from today's Web. The CERN scientists admit that the Grid is still a project very much under development--the Large Hadron Collider itself is not due to begin work for another five years--but they are very optimistic about its potential.
Are
marriages between CLECs and ASPs made in heaven?
Transbeam and Polycom deploy VoDSL
McAfee aims to shield networks from PDA viruses Source: Digitalmass Intel Corp.'s new, turbocharged Pentium 4 processor aims to make computers into hotrods capable of ripping through even the most demanding applications. Problem is, analysts say, there aren't many challenges for the microprocessor's extra horsepower yet - especially considering the expected sticker shock. At the Intel Developer's Forum that begins Aug. 22, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company will be touting the Pentium 4, trying to encourage software developers to write programs that exploit its ability to speed up graphics, speech, and streaming video. Intel's new chip initially will run at 1.4 gigahertz, or 1.4 billion cycles per second. Most computers sold now run much slower - at 700 megahertz or less. A radical redesign of Intel's consumer-targeted processor line, the Pentium 4 squeezes 42 million transistors onto a single chip, up from 28 million transistors on the Pentium III. New ''NetBurst'' technology divides work into smaller sets of instructions, completing it faster. And the data channel to the computer's memory - called the system bus - will operate at 400 megahertz, allowing the transfer at speeds of 3.2 gigabytes of data per second. Intel has declined to reveal how much more the Pentium 4 chip will cost than the Pentium III, the fastest of which now sells for nearly $1,000.
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