DARPA Grants Sun $44M for 'Macrochip' Development

Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA) has locked down a US$44.29 million research deal with which it could develop a "macrochip" that speeds up ultra-complex computing processes through laser technology.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has finalized a 5 1/2-year contract with the U.S. Department of Defense's chief research and development agency -- the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- that Sun says presents "a unique opportunity to develop supercomputers through interconnecting an array of low-cost chips, with the potential to overcome the fundamental cost and performance limits of scaling up today's large computer systems."

Combining unprecedented bandwidth, low latency and low-power interconnections this way could help create applications for an array of organizations to use in energy exploration, biotechnology and weather simulation, Sun said.

Yielding New Technologies

"The most significant bit here is when we -- I mean the entire industry -- build supercomputers, we feel constrained in data communications," Ron Ho, distinguished engineer at Sun Labs and one of three researchers heading the project, told TechNewsWorld. "Schlepping all this data back and forth uses a lot of power."

The researchers -- Sun engineer Ashok Krishnamoorthy is principal investigator, assisted by Ho and John Cunningham, from Sun's microelectronics group -- hope to cut the power to transmit data by two or three orders of magnitude, Ho said.

The research also is likely to yield new technologies along the way, he added.

"The nature of research at an industrial company is that you set these long-term goals for long overarching projects and what comes out gets inserted in the product development line as you go along," Ho noted. "The focus of the program is to make optical communication extremely efficient. If you think about people communicating using optics today, the focus has been getting data over long-haul communications paths, but power hasn't been the focus. You need to get the power costs lower."

The project is part of DARPA's Ultraperformance Nanophotonic Intrachip Communication (UNIC) program and will begin with $8.1 million paid to Sun's Microelectronics and Laboratories divisions.

"Currently, microprocessor chips have of the order of one billion transistors per square centimeter, and this number will increase over the coming years," DARPA spokesperson Jan Walker told TechNewsWorld. "Facilitating communication between these ultrahigh density functional elements and the external world is becoming increasingly more difficult."

The UNIC program will address this communications challenge directly and efficiently "at the chip level," Walker said.

"By restoring the balance between computation and communications, the program will significantly enhance DoD's capabilities for applications such as image processing, autonomous operations, synthetic aperture radar and supercomputing," she added.

iphone Lets Developers Inside

In a special media event for journalists and industry analysts Thursday, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) unveiled its iPhone Software Roadmap. As was widely expected, Apple announced details for its Software Development Kit (SDK) for the iPhone and in a surprise move went even farther than expected by announcing significantly beefed up support for enterprise environments.

All of the new features are tied up in the iPhone 2.0 software, which is available to businesses and developers now in beta form but won't be available to consumers until late June.

When late June arrives -- which happens to to the one-year anniversary of the iPhone -- consumers will be able to install the 2.0 software update on their iPhones and buy third-party applications and games.

"We're excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch," noted Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

"iPhone's enterprise features combined with its revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface and advanced software architecture provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform ever for a mobile device," he added.

Hard Drive Dominos

I found this funny clip of someone who gathered some hard drives. I think we can do that too over here at computer giants.

Free tool blocks Facebook, MySpace, and Yahoo ActiveX vulnerabilities

A researcher over at the Internet Storm Center has created a powerful GUI that will set the kill-bits on vulnerable ActiveX controls used in Facebook, Myspace, and Yahoo apps. These popular apps came under attack on Monday after researchers Elazar Broad and Krystian Kloskowski disclosed their findings to a online security newsgroup.

On Tuesday, exploits for the Yahoo apps were reported circulating. There is currently no patch from the individual vendors, so the only workaround is to disable the several specific, vulnerable ActiveX controls.

The SANS tool, available here eliminates the risks associated with editing the Windows system registry file. A command line version is available here.

The kill-bit tool first checks your system to see if any of the vulnerable CLSIDs exist. If so, the tool saves a copy of any values currently set, then updates the display to show that the CLSID exists. It also shows whether the kill-bit flag is set. To set the kill-bit, just check the box beside any of the affected ActiveX controls then click on the "Set" button. Unchecking any of the boxes will either reset the "Compatibility Flags" to their saved value or remove the CLSID entirely (if you didn't have the control installed in the first place).

SANS suggests setting the kill-bits for all of the affected ActiveX controls, and, even if you don't currently have one or more of these CLSIDs installed on your machine, go ahead set the kill-bit for controls that might be added to your system in the future.

Computer Giants Launches IT Services Division

Computer Giants announces the launch of the IT services Division.

Across the nation IT services are in high demand these days . Services ranging from 24 hour on-site surveillance to monthly maintenance programs. Computer Giants has the capability to handle all size projects on a national level.

Computer Giants has developed a network of highly skilled engineers to spearhead the operation. Sue Borgman from the midwest sales division of Computer Giants will be the main contact for IT services nation wide. Sue brings her years of experience to Computer Giants IT Division. Combined with the outstanding relationships with hardware suppliers around the globe. The IT services division will be an automatic success.

With todays competition Computer Giants continues to push the envelope in the Tech Industry. Striving to come up with creative ideas and innovation have been a big part of the
success. The working partners have a lot of passion for the tech industry. This is what keeps Computer Giants among the leaders in storage technology.

For more information. There is a dedicated section for contacts regarding IT services

Computer Giants IT services information

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