Hardware

C|Net is carrying a story about researchers from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications that have assembled a supercomputer from 70 PlatStation 2 console systems.

The resulting system, with components purchased at retail prices, cost a little more than $50,000. Researchers at the supercomputing center believe the system may be capable of a half trillion operations a second, well within the definition of supercomputer, although it may not rank among the world's 500 fastest supercomputers.

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This reference guide contains a categorized listing of various embedded Linux devices, including PDAs, mobile and IP phones, entertainment devices, tablet PCs, access points, and other devices the defy categorization. It also includes a special do-it-yourself category.

Information about most devices contains pictures, descriptions, and specifications. Check it out.

Embedded Linux Reference Guide

This article discusses the current market push to 64-bit computing, and how Linux's flexability and portability make it an ideal choice for whatever new hardware platform is chosen.

While the title emphasizes Linux, the article itself mainly delves into 64-bit computing, including the current players, the history and future directions of 64-bit computing, and a great comparison of the different 64-bit architectures available. If you haven't read much on this subject yet, this is a great intro.

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It seems like AMD might have a leg up on Intel on this one... and apparently the system integrator who did this also sells Itanium and Xeon systems.... and says that he gets significantly better performance from Opterons

Of course you have to compile the binaries on a Xeon machine... thats the catch

Read the article[The Inquirer]

This article caught my eye... especially since everyone is focusing on speech recognition and such.

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Finally! I read some initial announcements about this on xiph.org a while back, but I never did see anything about it from Neuros (the manufacturer) until now. Strangely, though, the press release appears to have been up for 2 months. Wonder how I missed it before...

Anyway, it basically says that Neuros and xiph.org are working together on adding Ogg Vorbis playback support to Neuros hardware devices, as well as native Linux support. Nice.

The updates will be available to existing Neuros owners through a firmware upgrade, and are targetting a Spring '03 release date.

Read the full press release for any additional details, and check out the Neuros player while you're there. It actually looks to be a very capable device, and I'm looking forward to purchasing it the very day Ogg support is officially added.

Well, if you read the article you'll see that it's not exactly a confirmation, but it's the strongest evidence yet that Apple and AMD are working together. Worth a glance.

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Yes, it's a day late, but certainly worth mentioning. Yesterday, AMD formally launched Opteron, their 64-bit server and workstation processor. Unlike Intel's Itanium, however, Opteron also natively supports 32-bit code, which will make migrating to the new platform easier and much cheaper.

Read the full article on CNet for additional details about the technology behind the chip:
http://news.com.com/2100-1006-997529.html?tag=nl

Sun has been testing AMD's Opteron for the past few months, and they seem fairly happy with it. No guarantee that they'll use it, but this story alone is good news and quite an endorsement for AMD.

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This is an update to the story below. Dell includes a hardware sensor that detects refilled ot 3rd-party ink cartridges, and refuses to allow use of them. So, either buy a separate printer, or expect to pay out of the ass for ink cartridges for your Dell printer.

For more information , see the Slashdot post or the original Yahoo article