PC News for Week Ending Oct 27 2002

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webtechgeek.com | Windows LongHorn New Features Summary

New hot patching technology, hot swapping technology, new 3D graphics architecture, and new storage system.

New File System: In addition to security enhancements, Windows "Longhorn" will also include a SQL Server file system. This new file system, which Microsoft has been wanting to implement in Windows for over a decade, will allow users to more efficiently locate and work with information regardless of format or location.

The User Interface: Windows "Longhorn" will include an improved interface which will extend on the task-based design first introduced in Windows XP. The start menu in Windows "Longhorn" will most likely become a task pane which will occupy the right or left side portion of the screen.

The user interface in "Longhorn" will also make full use of 3D rendering technology, which will deliver a much better visual appearance of Windows.

While not much more is known about "Longhorn" at this time, here are some other new features slated for the release:

DVD Burning Building on the CD burning capabilities in Windows XP, "Longhorn" will allows users to burn DVDs as well. Microsoft plans on supporting the DVD+RW format.

Windows Movie Maker 2 Windows Movie Maker will be rebuilt in "Longhorn" and include a variety of new features. This new version of Windows Movie Maker will be based upon Microsoft Producer, a PowerPoint 2002 add-on.

Improved Windows Powered Smart Display Support Windows Longhorn will improve upon the Windows Powered Smart Display technology introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 1. Specifically, Windows "Longhorn" will allow for two people to be logged on to the same system, one using the primary display and the other with a smart display. Improvements in speed can also be expected.

...Longhorn, once upon a time the intermediate point release on the way from Windows XP to Blackcomb, the real big one, is now not-a-point-release, but is instead "a radically new version of Windows, code-named Longhorn...

...Microsoft's plans to put a database at the core of the OS file system, originally in Blackcomb but then in Longhorn instead, mean that in this case it has to be true. Now the applications line has to be rebuilt, and yes, MSN morphs once more.

The decision to go with all of the major stuff in Longhorn was taken last August, at the prompting of Steve Ballmer, according to Gates. Prior to this the plan had been to make changes incrementally, but Ballmer apparently voted for a big bang, with all of the components synchronized, instead.

Gates's list of what's planned for Longhorn is largely user's eye view, classic eye-candy of the sort that gets bolted on to the company's interim releases, but given that we're currently talking about a major overhaul, these ought to be more integral to the finished product than has often been the case in the past. Gates alludes to the database angle by asking of current operating systems: "Why are my document files stored one way, my contacts another way, and my e-mail and instant-messaging buddy list still another, and why aren't they related to my calendar or to one another and easy to search en masse?"

Gates also suggests using the computer for screening phone calls and emails, getting in touch with you when you're out of the your office, letting you pick up your data from anywhere, with any device, arranging meetings for you, making it easy to set up web sites that can do group scheduling, finding and reading documents, etc etc...

These "cluster" supercomputers made of low-cost Linux computers are chiefly an academic phenomenon, where researchers have tight budgets along with the expertise to assemble their own supercomputers. Increasingly, Linux clusters--also known as Beowulf clusters--are moving into the commercial domain.

Beowulf clusters are good for brute-force tasks, but some users have begun applying the systems to jobs that require more finesse, such as chip design and financial analysis.

For example, digital animation studios such as DreamWorks and Pixar began their Linux use with large "render farms" to flesh out skeletal images. But they later started using Beowulf clusters to create the skeletons as well.

Mainstream computing companies such as IBM, Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard started selling clusters as early as 1999, but the products now are regular items on a price list rather than more customized products built on a case-by-case basis.

The Chrysler system uses 108 IBM IntelliStation M Pro 6850 workstations, each with two 2.2GHz processors and 1 gigabit-per-second network adapters. The system also uses an IBM TotalStorage FastT500 storage system with 2.6 terabytes of capacity.

A massive supercomputer to be built by Sandia National Laborites and Cray Inc. will use next-generation microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. the chipmaker said on Monday.

..."These are very nice bragging rights, but from a business perspective it doesn't mean all that much because there just aren't that many supercomputers built each year," said Dan Scovel, an analyst at Needham & Co.

The supercomputer, to be called Red Storm by Sandia, will cost about $90 million. Additionally, the supercomputer will use proprietary technology developed by Cray, which is a move away from how supercomputers have been designed and built in recent years.

For the most part, U.S. supercomputers have been built using standard components in commercially available computers. Sandia, which does research for the U.S. Department of Energy (news - web sites) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is aiming to hit 100 trillion operations a second with Red Storm.

AMD said Red Storm is expected to be at least as seven times more powerful than Sandia's current "ASCI Red supercomputer.

...Opteron is AMD's brand name for the server-computer version of its next-generation line or microprocessor chips, code-named Hammer.

The entire line of chips -- for servers, desktop personal computers and laptops -- is seen by analysts as one of AMD's best chances at returning to competitive parity with Intel, its far-larger rival.

However, Sunnyvale, California-based AMD has had to delay at least one of its Hammer chips. The introduction of Clawhammer, the code-name for the desktop PC version of Hammer, has been pushed out to the first half of 2003 from the fourth quarter of this year

Although two recent studies show that the number of IT layoffs has been dropping, hiring remains slow, and salaries in many areas have taken a beating. Still, some skills are in high demand, and job seekers should focus on them to increase their chances in a tough market.

The first study, conducted by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, showed that job cuts in the high-tech sector fell 31 percent to 91,000 in the third quarter of 2002. Telecommunications jobs accounted for nearly two-thirds of tech-sector layoffs this year, while the remaining third occurred in the electronics, computer and e-commerce industries.

The second, a survey by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), looked at IT layoffs and hiring in all companies, not just the high-tech sector. (More than 90 percent of IT workers are employed by non-IT firms, according to ITAA.) This study found that the number of IT layoffs dropped from 218,000 per month in calendar year 2001 to 116,000 per month from June 2001 to June 2002.

Hiring and Salaries Stalled - But it is probably too early to celebrate, according to John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, who told NewsFactor that several high-tech indicators have not yet shown much promise. Supporting that contention, the ITAA report noted that companies are doing less hiring as well as less firing. New hires fell from 2.1 million in calendar year 2001 to 1.6 million for the year ending June 2002.

With the falloff in demand for IT workers, salaries have either stalled or shrunk. Diane Morello, vice president and research director at Gartner, told NewsFactor that many employees are no longer receiving performance increases or bonuses, and that companies are hiring at the midpoint of salary ranges rather than at the high end.

Allan Hoffman, tech jobs expert at Monster.com, agreed, saying that there appears to have been a reduction in salaries across "a whole spectrum of the IT landscape," and that new hires' salaries are lower than laid-off workers' salaries were.

High-Tech Sector Hardest Hit - The ITAA report found that "IT companies continue to be buffeted by unfavorable economic conditions, and IT job prospects are more favorable outside of the IT industry."

In a similar vein, John Challenger said, "The falloff is in the tech industries and in centers like San Francisco. In IT departments in companies, there probably isn't much of a falloff; they just aren't hiring as much as they were."

After beating analysts' expectations Friday with a surprise profit of $2.71 billion in its first fiscal quarter, software giant Microsoft acknowledged over the weekend that a repeat performance in the coming year is not likely.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told Australian news sources that the company still sees the software business as a rocky one. He pointed to a small increase in Microsoft's stock price after market close Friday as evidence that Wall Street understood the earnings increase was not a sign of a trend.

...Microsoft chief financial officer John Connors credited the increase to customer adoption of Microsoft's licensing program. He also noted that the new licensing structure boosted adoption of Windows XP (news - web sites), Office XP and .NET Enterprise Server.

...Microsoft's top line also was boosted by "unearned" revenue reaped from customers that have committed to pay licensing fees but have yet to make payments. Unearned revenue totaled more than $9 billion in the quarter.

...While participation in Microsoft's licensing program was high, Ballmer admitted that the company could have done a better job of handling issues that arose in connection with the program.

10Gbps Ethernet could run on copper, and the next speed version could be 40Gbps, says Bobby Johnson, CEO of Foundry Networks

Ethernet will continue to surprise us, says Johnson. Not only is 10Gbps running over copper cable unexpected, but Gigabit and 10Gbps Ethernet are finding uses in the enterprise, says Johnson. This is just as well for Foundry, since the company has specialized in Gigabit Ethernet, and found the majority of its market in dot-com service providers--until recently.

"Ten Gigabit is already running on copper--for distances of around 15 feet," said Johnson. "We need this to be 100 meters, but there should be products that do this in around two years."

In fact, there are two separate efforts to put 10Gbps Ethernet on copper cabling--even though when the standard was first finalized, it was widely believed that a worthwhile transmission distance would never be achieved on copper cables. A November meeting of the IEEE 802.3 group that coordinates Ethernet standards will help determine which becomes a potential standard.

"The first is being called 10GBase-CX4, the second 10GBase-T," according to Intel Fellow Bob Grow, chair of the IEEE 802.3 working group, a principal architect at Intel, and a former chair of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance. The 10GBase-CX4 suggestion uses XAUI (10 Gigabit Attachment Unit Interface, pronounced "Zowie"), which is defined in IEEE standard 802.3ae-2002.

As with other Ethernet standards, XAUI reuses physical interconnections designed for other networks, in this case 10Gbps Infiniband and Fibre Channel, which can be run on short copper cables. "10GBASE-CX4 is targeted to rack and stack interconnection within an equipment room, by running XAUI over 4x Infiniband cables and connectors," explained Grow. This will require some additional specification to the 802.3ae; standards work on this could be kicked off in November and would be completed quite quickly, said Grow. Among the companies working in this area are Xilinx.

Meanwhile, 10GBase-T refers to efforts to get 10Gbps running on conventional twisted-pair cables. "This effort would take more time to generate a standard than 10GBASE-CX4," said Grow. A standards effort for 10Gbase-T might run it over 100-meter lengths of "horizontal cabling" (specified in TIA 568 or ISO/IEC 11801), but might settle for a shorter distance.

Before a standards effort is started, the proponents have to convince the IEEE 802.3 that the effort is worthwhile.