New AMD Chipset Integrates ATI Logic
When AMD acquired graphics card producer ATI last year, the immediate expectation was that the two companies would converge toward a common platform - specifically a notebook CPU/graphics/networking platform that could hold its own against Intel Centrino. But whether the combined entities would propel AMD into the integrated desktop chipset market was uncertain, especially with Intel both leading that market and languishing in it - it's not that company's major revenue-producer by a long shot.
This morning, AMD took its own long shot by announcing its introduction of a desktop-level integrated chipset that will combine its designs for systems and peripheral bus controllers with ATI's graphics logic, all in one package. AMD's announcement this morning specified only one chipset, the 690, though enthusiast sites everywhere with sources in the motherboard community are actually expecting two versions: the 690G which uses ATI's X1250 logic, and the 690V to address the value market with X1200 graphics logic.
Sony's Comeback Gamble to Reclaim the Mainstream CE Market
Not just recent statements from its executives, but recent actions by Sony have made it clear that the company is fully aware that its reputation suffered a beating in 2006. Once synonymous with innovation, Sony today conjures up images among CE enthusiasts of exploding lithium batteries, overpriced HD components, rootkits lodged on CDs published by a company that unfortunately bears the same name, and most recently, lines of hundreds of hopeful customers whose Christmas wishes last year were left unfulfilled.
Yesterday, Sony launched the next stage in a comeback campaign to reposition itself, not only in its key markets but in the public mind. The campaign involves some controversial moves, including expanding its high-end Bravia brand to smaller and less expensive HD displays - some of which are not 1080p; launching a new wave of less expensive surround-sound audio systems; and perhaps staking a good chunk of the company on a $300 set-top box that connects Bravia HDTV viewers to IPTV content supplied by AOL Video and others.
House Bill Seeks to Exempt Backups from DMCA Violation
UPDATED with new information 9:45 am February 28, 2007
In an announcement Tuesday afternoon prior to the publication of the bill by the Library of Congress, Reps. Rick Boucher (D - VA) and John Doolittle (R - CA) introduced a bill that apparently would grant a new exemption for private, non-commercial copies of digital content, from violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act - technically creating a new class of "Section 1201 exemptions."
VMware: Microsoft is Rigging the Virtualization Market
4:55 pm ET February 27 – After BetaNews’ report yesterday about VMware’s open white paper accusing Microsoft of exercising underhanded tactics and schemes to lock competitors out of the virtualization software market, Microsoft general manager for virtualization Mike Neil re-assessed his earlier response to our inquiry, and decided a stronger rebuttal was in order.
The full rebuttal follows our original story from yesterday, which re-inserts some inadvertent omissions from excerpts of VMware's white paper:
Three-year-old JavaScript Bug Continues to Plague IE7
Last Friday, Polish researcher Michal Zalewski reported discovering an interesting little JavaScript trick that keeps a user stuck on a Web page even though he's trying to navigate somewhere else. His discovery involves the simple use of a JavaScript event to make it appear as though a browser is displaying any particular URL, when it's not.
When the exploit works, the onunload() event triggers the execution of JavaScript code the moment the user exits a Web page - which is how this JavaScript event is designed to work. But from there, the exploit would write information to the Web page without changing the contents of the address bar, potentially enabling a phisher to drop genuine-looking contents into a page to fool the user into thinking he's on a legitimate site.
Intel to Invest $1.5 Billion in 45-nm CPU Facility
Last month, Intel's announcement of its discovery of the formula and design for producing stable, more miniaturized transistors for future 45-nanometer CPUs beat IBM's announcement of its own such discovery by mere minutes. But what may distinguish the two developments is how quickly the two rivals will put them to use.
Late yesterday afternoon, Intel announced it plans to invest as much as $1.5 billion in the retooling of its Fab 11X production site in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, so that it can produce 45 nm CPUs with the HK+MG technique during the second half of next year.
AACS Subversion Continues with Device Key Extraction
A new user of the same online forum where one user last December reported having retrieved the title key for a specific HD DVD movie, and another user demonstrated a method for extracting a title key that could be applied to an automatic process, reports that he has been able to fish for the AACS device key -- the unique cryptographic element licensed to each player hardware or software component by AACS LA -- using a memory dump during the execution of the Windows-based player WinDVD 8.
Other users of the same forum, including the user with handle arnezami who earlier had automated the process to locate title keys, confirmed the discovery of device keys in independent tests.
IP Stability of MP3 Unravels as Texas Firm Sues Apple, Others
Just days prior to a tremendous loss by Microsoft in a jury trial over the MP3 format sent warning signs about the uncertain structural integrity of MP3's intellectual property, a previously unknown Texas-based firm filed suit ten days ago in federal court in Marshall, in defense of patents it claims it acquired from one-time MP3 chip powerhouse SigmaTel. The suit charges SigmaTel's former competitors and some former customers, including Apple, Samsung and SanDisk, with infringement.
While the patent in question protects a methodology that's enacted in hardware, not software as in the MP3 format patent case which Microsoft lost, the new company may be rushing to file the proper paperwork before a potential landmark decision by the US Supreme Court - which could come any time - redefines the boundaries of American technological patents.
Microsoft Manager Says It Considered Banning Vista Virtualization
In a story for the Associated Press carried on many online news services this afternoon, one of the directors of Microsoft's Windows Client Product Planning team appears to make a curious and perhaps astounding statement. Scott Woodgate is quoted as saying that a Black Hat security conference demonstration last August, where virtualization functions were exploited to plant an active rootkit onto a beta of the Windows Vista kernel, scared Microsoft to the point where the company seriously considered removing virtualization capability from Vista entirely.
Ostensibly, the AP article was about Microsoft's decision to ban Home Basic and Home Premium editions of Vista from serving as guest operating systems in virtualization engines. This was a recent discovery for Macintosh users, though it was public knowledge for Vista users since last July, when Woodgate himself made the announcement.
Novell: Deal with Microsoft Not an Admission of IP Infringement
Responding to our story yesterday on comments made last week to an analysts' conference by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, which were interpreted later as a threat against Linux distributors and/or users - and whose interpretation Microsoft repeatedly refused to deny - Novell's global public relations director Bruce Lowry told BetaNews this afternoon that his company interprets its cooperation agreement with Microsoft as mutual decision not to press the issue of whose code appears in whose operating system.
On February 15, Ballmer repeated an oft-spoken claim that Windows in the enterprise is less expensive to use and maintain than Linux - a claim which indeed has been substantiated by independent research, although other researchers present evidence to dispute it. But a sentence he spoke immediately afterward -- especially when presented out of context from Ballmer's "cheaper Windows" build-up -- appears to say that Novell's agreement with the company places a monetary value on the intellectual property Microsoft has often claimed that Linux authors have misappropriated.
Analyst: Microsoft Loss in MP3 Case Sets Dangerous Precedent
With Alcatel-Lucent having been awarded $1.5 billion from Microsoft by a Jury in San Diego yesterday, the other hundreds of companies who hold Fraunhofer/Thomson licenses to the MP3 audio format whose names aren't "Microsoft" must be asking themselves whether similar fates await them in the near future. Now that the descendent of Fraunhofer's former partner is staring at a potential platinum mine of litigation success, has this verdict set a legal precedent that the party who has an idea for an invention can successfully sue anyone who implements that idea - even if it was done with consent?
We took this question, among others, to Info-Tech senior research analyst Carmi Levy, who frequently provides his insight to BetaNews.
Alcatel-Lucent Victory in MP3 Dispute Signals Trouble for Digital Audio
In the first of a series of patent disputes regarding its claims to rights to technologies used in MP3 audio codecs, French telecommunications firm Alcatel-Lucent -- which now owns the IP first conceived by Bell Laboratories -- was awarded $1.5 billion in a jury verdict against Microsoft in a federal district court in Seattle this afternoon.
The verdict is an indication that the jury did not side with Microsoft's contention that Lucent, prior to its acquisition by Alcatel, posted a retroactive date on a patent re-application for so-called layer-3 audio technologies, thus to give the appearance that AT&T Bell Labs -- Lucent's predecessor -- worked on MP3 prior to its involvement with Fraunhofer Labs, one of Germany's leading technology research institutions. Microsoft's license to use MP3 in its Windows Media Player and other software and devices was issued by Fraunhofer, which continues to claim co-ownership of MP3.
Microsoft Responds to Alleged Ballmer 'Threats' Against Linux
Comments made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last Thursday to an analyst conference for the most part went unnoticed until stories this morning cited excerpts from a freshly published transcript of that conference. In one such story, an excerpted partial sentence was interpreted as part of a statement that Microsoft may yet exercise its option to sue manufacturers of Linux operating systems other than Novell for infringement of patent.
A fresh read of the extended excerpt from that transcript, however, suggests at first this may not have been Ballmer's intended meaning. Here is the extended excerpt from Ballmer's speech to the analysts' group:
Intel CPU Price Declines Help it Retain Value Edge
Earlier this week, AMD's introduction of the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor at the $464 suggested price point signaled the start of CPU price reductions in its midrange segment. But since that time, pre-order prices for the 6000+ have risen, not fallen; and meanwhile, street prices for Intel CPUs have declined a tick or two, according to Pricewatch.
As a result, based on our latest computer models, you're likely to be able to purchase a better performing processor from Intel than AMD for purchases of about $375 and higher. For lower purchases, AMD will offer the better value. AMD has made some gains in pushing that mark higher, though Intel prices have responded almost in kind. Last November, the crossover point was closer to $350.
Settlement Secures 'Apple iPhone,' 'Linksys iPhone' Uncertain
While an agreement reached between Apple and Cisco over the use of the iPhone trademark allows both companies to continue to use it, Cisco spokespersons have been non-specific this morning with regard to whether its Linksys division will continue to use "iPhone" with regard to its VoIP products.
Last December, just weeks ahead of Apple's iPhone announcement at Macworld -- which was easily the worst kept secret in consumer electronics -- Linksys re-christened some of its voice-over-IP products that had carried the CIT and WIP model numbers as "iPhone." Linksys claims ownership of the iPhone trademark, having gained those rights through an acquisition of original trademark older Infogear in 2000.
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