Intel takes the high road

Intel today announced a new method of creating transistor materials which reportedly allows for cooler and more efficient processors.

The traditional silicon dioxide material that forms the gate dielectric of a transistor is prone to power leakage. This limits the extent to which processors can continue to be manufactured in ever decreasing sizes.

According to Ken David, Intel's co-director of components research for the Technology Manufacturing Group, the company will use a new 'high-k' material to make the dielectric gates. Unlike the current leaky silicon dioxide technology, high-k materials can be shrunk to smaller sizes yet still retain their ability to stop leakage. According to David, this is necessary to keep processor technology advancing at a steady rate.

"[High-k] will continue to scale to Moore's Law," said David at a press conference. It will not be limited solely to processors; rather it "is extensible to other technologies".

The new technology is a significant step for Intel to bring its chips down to a 45nm die size in the next few years.

"Intel is on track to put this new transistor design into production in 2007," stated David.

Source:

Xbox 2 raises its head

COMMENTARY: When Microsoft first set aim at Sony and announced its move into the gaming console realm with Xbox, much was made of the underlying hardware and its affinity with the PC.

Xbox used a hybridised Intel Celeron Processor, slightly modified NVIDIA GeForce3 graphics chip and NVIDIA designed core logic that became a motherboard chipset called nForce.

The strange side effect was that it pushed interest in console hardware to new levels. The same enthusiasts who were obsessed with PC components suddenly saw glimpses into the future coming through the Xbox hardware, and then wondered why the PlayStation2 and GameCube were so different.

Current generation consoles are now midway through their lifespan, with the next generation expected to arrive in late 2005/early 2006. So it is reasonable to expect that work is well underway designing hardware for the systems.

While Sony and IBM have been touting the revolutionary Cell computing architecture that is destined for PlayStation 3 for almost a year now it has only been in the last few days that a rounded Xbox 2 picture has emerged.

In August Canadian graphics company ATI announced that it had entered into an agreement with Microsoft to develop the graphics hardware for Xbox 2. ATI is NVIDIA's strongest competitor in the PC graphics market and so this was seen as a big win for ATI and its technology.

Yesterday IBM announced that its CPUs would power Xbox 2, usurping the obvious contenders Intel and AMD for the deal. This announcement also solidified IBM's position as one of the few companies that provides technology to all three major players in the console industry. IBM's chips power the GameCube and it is Sony's major research partner in the CPU development for PlayStation 3.

But the surprise announcement overnight was that Taiwanese chipset manufacturer SiS had scored the deal to make the core logic for Xbox2. SiS is a high volume; low cost manufacturer and its chipsets are not usually associated with gaming platforms.

Until now the industry buzz was that ATI would take over a similar role to NVIDIA and supply the core logic as well. NVIDIA was quite cunning in its involvement with the original Xbox -- it used Xbox developer feedback to hone performance of its GeForce4 line of graphics chips, and the work done for the core logic has become the foundation for a very successful entry into the PC chipset market. In fact, during his recent Computex Keynote, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Sen Huang stated that the digital media functionality of its nForce chipsets would be a major focus for the company from now on.

ATI has recently launched its first serious foray into the motherboard chipset market with a product called the RADEON 9100 IGP, so the assumption would be that ATI would use the Xbox experience to pump up the currently poor digital media functionality of the chipset, and try to ape NVIDIA's success.

The most likely reason for this is that the relationship between NVIDIA and Microsoft soured when breakthroughs by the surprisingly large Xbox hacking community necessitated changing security codes. This wouldn't have been a problem except the codes were hardwired into the core logic that NVIDIA had made for Xbox. This meant that NVIDIA essentially had to swallow its stockpile and start fabricating redesigned chips, which set the two companies at each others throat for a while.

It is not a path any company would like to walk down, so unlike the original Xbox it appears Microsoft is going directly to the specialists in each area for its hardware, even if it means Microsoft coding an OS for IBM's CPU architecture for the first time since DOS.

We won't know the final specifications until Microsoft actually announces the next Xbox product, but with companies like ATI, IBM and SiS onboard we can be assured that it will again revolutionise how we perceive the humble gaming console.

John Gillooly is Atomic's technical editor. More information about Atomic can be found at: http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/

Source:

We\’re innocent, Epson claims

Printer vendor Epson has defended recent US-based lawsuits and allegations that it was misleading consumers by prematurely warning them to replace ink cartridges.

In July, Dutch consumer organisation Consumentenbond alleged Epson misled buyers, warning them to replace the cartridge via an integrated chip that prevents the cartridges being run dry. The company has since retracted all claims and issued an apology, Epson said.

Three lawsuits were also filed by the same law firm in several US jurisdictions and are 'based on allegations that Epson believes are completely without merit, the company said.

Epson printers are designed to retain a small safety reserve of ink to ensure good image quality and prevent damage to the print head that could be caused by drawing in air bubbles when there is no ink remaining in the cartridge, Epson claimed.

The integrated chip records the number of ink droplets that have been dispensed from the cartridge and also lets users swap cartridges between printers as needed to handle various print jobs, Epson said.

Michael Pleasants, director of marketing and communications at Epson Australia, said the company's customers get the full benefit 'of the ink we promote if they use our printers as we recommend'.

'Therefore we take these ill-founded accusations very seriously and deny them vigorously. Furthermore, we are concerned that some of the people making these accusations are doing a disservice to consumers by recommending that they override our ink replacement message, which will cause poor quality prints and damage the printers,' he said.

Jim Forrest, an imaging expert with US-based Lyra Research, said the lawsuits and allegations are frivolous. 'An Epson inkjet cartridge that runs completely dry could damage the hardware's printing mechanism.

'Yes, there may be some ink left over, but that is by design for the protection and longevity of the printer. And, since its cartridges are priced by page yields, not volume, consumers are in fact getting all that they paid for,' he said.

Source:

Brothers open Sydney's Matrix

The MD of Sydney's newest network integrator has claimed Australian system integrators have done a poor job filling network integration needs, opening a gap in the market for specialist companies like his own.

Deni Saupin, managing director of Matrix CNI, said he believed his new consultancy and integration company had the customer relationships and expertise to revolutionise Australian network integration.

"Here's something a bit contentious. A lot of system integrators believe they have network expertise, but we don't think so. They might do business on the basis of existing customer relationships they have, but they should do their customers a favour and send them to a network integrator," he said. 'We're looking to exploit those existing relationships.'

Saupin and his two brothers, Jacques and Gilbert, spearhead the new specialist network integrator, which officially launched with a private screening for customers, partners and news media of the final movie of the Wachowski brothers' sci-fi action series, The Matrix: Revolutions, in Sydney's North Ryde on Thursday, 6 November.

Saupin said Matrix CNI would adopt a multi-vendor approach to what were expected to be next year's networking hot buttons -- wireless, wireless security and IP telephony and specialise in emerging verticals such as healthcare and education.

The three Saupin brothers, who hail from different IT industry backgrounds, had been working on building relationships since operations began in May, with a range of system integrator, vendor and customer contacts gleaned from 15 years of previous industry involvement, he said.

"We're not picking any particular vendor and targeting their marketplace, but have customers coming out of traditional PBX to IP telephony. We're partnering with Mitel as a product we sell. If you look at other countries, Cisco and Mitel are number one and number two in IP telephony,'" Saupin said.

Although the company wasn't specifically targeting any other vendors or channel players' business, Matrix CNI had found synergies with Mitel in particular, he said.

"Mitel's approach is much the same as ours. Let's not just look at what customers want, do they want the technology for technology's sake, but look at the business requirements of that customer," Saupin said.

Matrix CNI had also taken on a wireless Vocera communications device distributed by Logical Solutions, which Saupin claimed had done 'very well' in hospitals overseas. The device enables staff wearing the device in range of a WLAN to talk to each other either individually or in a group without disturbing other activities or people in the area.

"We have also been talking to Regal IT and a number of others [about deals]," Saupin said.

Matrix CNI has moved its 10 staff into an office in Artarmon on Sydney's North Shore.

Source: