Pentium 4 pushed to 8320MHz!

It was Team Italy who first broke the 8GHz barrier with their golden P4 which went on to achieve speeds of 8180MHz. Today, they’re still hard at work – and who’d blame them as they now have upped the anti to 8320MHz (520×16).

The final result was achieved with a ‘Cedar Mill’ based P4 641, mounted to a Gigabyte P35-DQ6 motherboard. If they hadn’t run out of liquid nitrogen, who would have guessed what results they could have gone on to achieving. Throughout testing the CPU’s temperature was -170C and had a voltage of 1.95v.

We’re as excited as you are to see what numbers they achieve next.

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Sun/Google and Adobe now gunning for Microsoft Office

Whether Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a full-fledged Microsoft Office competitor is up for debate. But StarOffice, Sun’s desktop-productivity suite, is definitely a head-to-head Office rival. And StarOffice distributed by Google? There’s no way anyone could claim that isn’t meant to be a direct shot across the Microsoft Office bow.

Over the weekend, Google began offering StarOffice for download as part of its Google Pack. Instead of charging the $70 per copy that Sun has levied for StarOffice, Google made the office suite available for free.

As the Google Operating System blog notes, the next logical step, from Sun/Google’s perspective,

“would probably be the addition of a plug-in that lets you synchronize local documents with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, so you can have the best of the both worlds: edit complicated documents offline, collaborate and store files securely online. For now, StarOffice is integrated with Google Search and Google Desktop.”

I asked Sun what gives. I received the following response from a spokesperson:

“Sun is soon going to make an important announcement regarding Sun’s StarOffice software, and it is related to the questions you asked (which was, “What’s up with Google distributing StarOffice for free”?). The announcement is likely to have significant impact in the industry about the adoption of Open Document Format and availability of free MS Office-compatible comprehensive office suite.”

Wasn’t this Sun-Google StarOffice arrangement the big announcement expected from the Dynamic Microsoft-fighting Duo back in 2005 (that never materialized)? Sounds like it to me.

I’m not sure why Sun is waiting until August 15 to reveal more particulars, since Google basically preannounced the deal by making StarOffice available for download. Guess we’ll hear more tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Office might get yet another credible competitor in the not-too-distant future: Adobe Systems. Wired couldn’t quite get the Adobe folks to admit their office-suite aspirations, but they came pretty close:

“According to Adobe group manager for platform evangelism, Mike Downey, it wouldn’t be outlandish to predict the company throws its hat into the ring soon.

“‘Though we have not yet announced any intentions to move into the office-productivity software market,” he says, “considering we have built this platform that makes it easy to build rich applications that run on both the desktop and the browser, I certainly wouldn’t rule anything like that out.’”

At long last, it looks like Microsoft Office, with its 90+ percent market share, may get some serious competition.

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Xbox Live user base reaches 7.1 million

GAMEFEST: Microsoft has released statistics of its download service

The format holder has announced that there are currently over 7.1 million Xbox Live users, reported Games Industry.

Chris Satchell, the company’s game developer group general manager, also said that more than 25 million downloads have been recorded on the Xbox 360.

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Microsoft rolls out nine patches in monthly update

Microsoft has released nine fixes for flaws in its software, six of them labelled critical, as part of its monthly patch Tuesday update.

The six critical updates affect Windows, Office (both Mac and PC), Internet Explorer, Microsoft XML Core Services and its Visual Basic development software. These updates fix vulnerabilities in the software that could allow hackers to run malicious code on remote machines.

The other three updates are marked as important. Two flaws in Windows and Windows Vista also allow remote code execution, while a third, affecting Virtual PC and Virtual Server products can allow a hacker to gain elevation of privileges on a target host.

The company will also release an update to its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool as well as releasing four high-priority non-security updates on Microsoft Update and two on Windows Update.

Last week, Microsoft released two updates to Vista in a bid to bolster performance and reliability in the mammoth operating system. Also several fixes will resolve compatibility problems.

In July, Microsoft released six security bulletins, including three critical patches for Office and .Net Framework.

More details on the fixes can be found here.

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Novell Acquires Senforce

Novell has acquired endpoint security management vendor Senforce Technologies in a play to extend Novell’s policy-management offerings. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. In July, Novell and Senforce, based in Waltham, Mass., announced a OEM partnership and gave birth to a new product, ZENworks Endpoint Security Management, which is available today as a stand-alone product or as part of the Novell Secure Desktop offering.

ZENworks Endpoint Security Management works to protect against data leaks and threats to the network by enforcing encryption policies at the desktop whether or not a user is on-line, and offers removable device security, personal firewalls, wireless security and application control. According to Richard Whitehead, director of product marketing for Novell, the company plans to integrate this technology into other ZENworks offerings in the future.

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Former Adelphia Executives Report to Prison

After fighting one of the US’s largest corporate fraud cases, Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas and his son Tim Rigas, the company’s former chief financial officer, reported to federal prison in North Carolina today; the pair was convicted in 2004 on multiple charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud but had remained free while an appeal was pending. John, 82 years old, recieved 15 years while Tom, 51, received 20 years. Although the two had requested that they be allowed to serve their time together at a facility close to their homes in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, the federal Bureau of Prisons had other plans, sending them to the Butner Federal Correctional Complex, located about 45 minutes northwest of Raleigh.

Among the Rigas’s crimes leading to the collapse of one of the US’s largest cable companies were concealment of over $2.3 billion in debt to investors and use of company funds for personal gain, including the purchase of 100 pairs of slippers for Timothy Rigas. Authorities began investigating the company in 2002 after the company announced its 2001 results with a press release that included a footnote on its final page noting Adelphia had billions in liabilities not previously reported on its balance sheet.

Full Story on SiliconValley.com

Microsoft’s Bach Unloaded More Stock Than Reported

Although it was previously reported that Microsoft’s Robbie Bach unloaded $6.2 million in stock before the company’s 360 warranty announcement, it turns out that number’s a bit too low.

According to new filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bach actually unloaded something in the neighborhood of $9.2 million in stock during the period from May 1 to May 30th.

According to Microsoft spokesperson Eric Hollreiser, the discrepancy was due to a simple administrative error that prevented the extra $3 million from being registered with the SEC in a timely manner.

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Intel tapes out high-end desktop chipset for Nehalem core

Industry sources confirmed to TG Daily that Intel has received first silicon of its “Tylersburg” chipset, which will be available for high-end desktop processors built on Intel’s new Nehalem architecture due in 2008.

Tylersburg HEDT (”high-end desktop”) is a 65 nm chipset that is likely to follow Intel’s “Logan” and “Bigby” single- and dual-socket 3-series chipsets (formerly code-named “Bearlake”). The chipset, scheduled for a H2 2008 release for desktop Nehalem processors will be released side-by-side with Thurley, a chipset for DP servers and workstations as well as “Foxhollow”, which will be offered for UP servers and workstations.

Information on Tylersburg are scarce at this time, but we hear that the “AO rev” case out after one and a half years of development and exceeded internal expectations in terms of performance and power consumption. Apparently, the chipset will drop power consumption by 2X when compared to its direct predecessor – using features such as packet detect during low power states as well as low-power state support from third party PCI Express (PCIe) vendors and Intel’s own PCIe devices.

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‘Ionic Breeze’ Could Cool Chips

Researchers at Purdue recently demonstrated their new “ionic wind” technology that can improve the cooling rate of internal computer components by as much as 250 percent.

This is the sort of dramatic cooling improvement needed for the computer industry to develop lighter weight computers and laptops that are still powerful enough to run high-intensity programs without frying your CPU.

The researchers tested the experimental technology on a mock computer chip for observers. It works by generating ion movement between two oppositely charged electrodes. Electrons colliding with air molecules create positively charged ions that then flow toward the negatively charged electrode producing an “ionic wind.” This breeze increases the airflow on the surface of the chip, cooling it down.

Researchers used infrared imaging to show that the technology reduced heating on the mock chip from 140 degrees Fahrenheit to about 95 F.

The next step in the research will be to reduce the size of components within the cooling device from the scale of millimeters to microns. They’ll also have to make the device more rugged before it is ready for commercial use. If they are able to shrink and toughen the device, Purdue researchers predict the new cooling technology could be introduced into computers within three years.

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Trend Micro to Host Beta Test Event

Security software vendor Trend Micro is hosting a two-day beta testing event to help the company prepare its Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 suite for release. Participants will be asked to bring their laptops and use the product over a three hour period, providing feedback and working directly with developers.

The event will be held on August 17 and 18 at The Grand Hotel in Sunnyvale, California. At the end of the day, participants will receive a $200 American Express gift card and Trend Micro gift pack. In addition, the company will send everyone a 1-year free license for TIS 2008. The event is open to Windows XP and Vista users, but space is limited. To sign up, select a time: August 17, 7pm to 10pm; August 18, 9am to 12pm; August 18, 2pm to 5pm.

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