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AMD

AMD brings hexa-core computing to desktop->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Until now the only six core CPU on the market was Intel's ultra-expensive Gulftown chip. This has changed with AMD's launch of the Phenom II X6, which brings hexa-core processing to the market at a much cheaper price (less than $300). This article points out a few reasons why the new 'Thuban' AMD chip is so interesting, including a new chipset with native support for SATA 6b/s which is yet to appear on Intel's chipsets. But perhaps the most interesting thing about the chip is that even though single core performance lags behind Intel, the strength of the Phenom II X6 really lies in the combination of multicore performance at a ridiculously cheap price point, making it an attractive option for building a reasonably priced powerhouse PC."
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Crime

REACT Crime Task Force 'Steered' by Apple

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes "Yahoo! News reports that California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT), the police task force that raided Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's home over the leaked iPhone prototype, counts Apple as a member of its steering committee. Questioned about Apple's presence on the committee, Stephen Wagstaffe, the chief deputy DA in the San Mateo District Attorney's office, told Yahoo! News that 'I don't know if Apple is on the steering committee.' Neither Apple nor REACT responded to requests seeking comment. But according to the 2008 High Technology Crime In California: Annual Report to the Governor & Legislature (pdf), 'REACT receives direction and oversight from a local Steering Committee' that did indeed include Apple Computer as a member. Some visitors to REACT's Guest Book are voicing their displeasure with the raid: 'Being Apple's personal bully against reporters,' opines jo, 'is such a great use of taxpayer money.' BTW, Chen might be advised to decline any offers of a 'Nexus Two' — Google was also listed as a member of the REACT steering committee."
Encryption

How To Replace FileVault With EncFS 65

Posted by timothy
from the for-secretive-tweakers dept.
agoston.horvath writes "I've written a HOWTO on replacing Mac OS X's built-in encryption (FileVault) with the well-known FUSE-based EncFS. It worked well for me, and most importantly: it is a lot handier than what Apple has put together. This is especially useful if you are using a backup solution like Time Machine. Includes Whys, Why Nots, and step-by-step instructions."
Space

Astronomers Discover the Coolest Known Sub-Stellar Body 60

Posted by Soulskill
from the miles-davis's-home-planet dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Science Daily reports that using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, astronomers have discovered what may be the coolest sub-stellar body ever found outside our own solar system. Too small to be stars and with insufficient mass to maintain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, 'brown dwarfs' have masses smaller than stars but larger than gas giant planets like Jupiter, with an upper limit in between 75 and 80 Jupiter masses. 'This looks like the fourth time in three years that the UKIRT has made a record breaking discovery of the coolest known brown dwarf, with an estimated temperature not far above 200 degrees Celsius,' says Dr. Philip Lucas at the University of Hertfordshire. Due to their low temperature these objects are very faint in visible light, and are detected by their glow at infrared wavelengths. The object known as SDSS1416+13B is in a wide orbit around a somewhat brighter and warmer brown dwarf, SDSS1416+13A, and the pair is located between 15 and 50 light years from the solar system, which is quite close in astronomical terms."
Games

Palm Pre and WebOS Get Native Gaming 49

Posted by Soulskill
from the break-out-your-rocket-launcher dept.
rboatright writes "WebOS developers have been waiting, and with the 1.3.5 release, Palm's open source page suddenly listed SDL. Members of the WebOS internals team took that as a challenge and within 24 hours had a working port of Doom running in SDL on the Pre, in a webOS card. 48 hours later, they not only had Quake running, but had found in the latest LunaSysMgr the requirements to launch a native app from the webOS app launcher from an icon just like any other app. At the same time, the team demonstrated openGL apps running. With full native code support, with I/O available via SDL, developers now have a preview into Palm's future intent with regard to native code SDK's, and a hint of what's coming."

Apple Orders 10 Million Tablets? 221

Posted by ScuttleMonkey
from the pricepoint-better-be-right dept.
Arvisp writes "According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. If Lee's blog post is to be believed, Apple plans to sell nearly twice as many tablets as it did iPhones in the product's first year."
Operating Systems

Mathematical proof of OS kernel code 1

Submitted by
felix.rauch
felix.rauch writes "about an iTWire article:

Breakthrough software testing technology hailed by a Cambridge University expert as a tool able to deliver "currently unimaginable standards of reliability" to software has been unveiled by NICTA chief executive officer Dr David Skellern. [...] researchers last week completed the world's first formal machine-checked proof of a general purpose operating system. In short the technology is a way for developers to test that the software they have designed works the way it is expected to, before it is put into production. According to Dr Skellern, NICTA's formal verification research team has completed the world's first mathematical proof of a general purpose operating system kernel. The Secure Embedded L4 (seL4) microkernel is being initially targeted at applications in defence and safety-critical sectors.

Is it finally time to switch our desktops to microkernels in order to get bug-free OSs?"

In like a dimwit, out like a light. -- Pogo