Virtutech Simics is a systemlevel, instruction set simulator, capable of simulating high-end target systems with sufficient fidelity and speed to boot and run operating systems and commercial workloads. Simics provides a controlled, deterministic, and fully virtualized environment. Simics can simulate a variety of target systems, including systems based on the PC (x86 and x8664), SPARC V9, PowerPC, and Alpha architectures.

Members of developerWorks open source projects can now compile their code on the first compiler farm in the open source community that runs on an IBM eServer zSeries server. The zSeries is the world's first dedicated Linux mainframe server.

"AMD showed off prototypes of its x86-64 Hammer technology yesterday even as Intel Corp failed to dampen speculation that it is developing a similar hybrid technology,Joe Fay writes. AMD's Hammer technology is designed to support both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems and applications and yesterday the vendor for the first time publicly demonstrated Hammer chips running Windows XP and a 64 bit version of Linux. The demonstration was held just a few blocks away from the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco." Read the rest of the report at TheRegister.

"One of the great advantages of Cocoa is getting a lot of functionality with little code. There are classes in the Cocoa Framework that handle much of the necessary work in creating applications that have multiple documents. NSDocumentController, NSDocument and its closely related cohort NSWindowController combine to give you a powerful starting point when building your own multiple document applications. The best way to illustrate the power that these classes offer is with an example; that's how HTMLEditor.app was born. HTMLEditor is a basic text editor that has file associations for HTML. No big deal right? Well, over the next month or so, HTMLEditor will be extended to include a number of additional features, forming the basis of a series of articles." Read the rest of the MacOSX Cocoa/Project Builder step-by-step tutorial at StepWise.

"This article describes how to have fun and impress your friends by obtaining old Alpha workstations and installing Debian GNU/Linux on them. I'll be installing "potato" (2.2.R3) on my AlphaStation 250. This is a 1995-vintage workstation with an Alpha CPU. It's the main application/DNS/NFS/DHCP server on my home network, and is presently my favorite machine. I had been running RedHat on it, but after seeing "apt-get dist-upgrade" run for the first time earlier this year, I've been upgrading all my boxes to Debian." Read the rest of the article at DebianPlanet.

"For many years now, the question "Which should I use: Direct3D or OpenGL?" has elicited heated arguments. Most of the things said do very little to help you decide which API you should use. There are fanatics on both sides; some people will tell you that OpenGL is the only way to go, and others will swear by Direct3D. Others will talk about how they have used both, and that you should do the same and decide which you like better, but for someone starting out, that's not much help either. The point is, it can be a tough decision to make, and I am writing this article to help you do it. My specialty is primarily in Win32 programming, so that will be my focus. No need to fear though, I discuss other platforms as well." Read the rest of the article at GameDev.

Opera today released Opera 6.0 for Linux Beta 1 with a wide range of speed-boosting functions and exclusive features only available to Linux users. Opera for the first time displays non-Roman alphabets for Linux users, opening up the local markets in the Asia/Pacific and Eastern European region to true browser competition. In a related note, the OffByOne original browser for Windows (only 400 KB) now supports SSL and the full spectrum of HTML 3.2.

KernelTrap has posted an interview with Rik Van Riel. Rik is most recognized for his impressive rmap VM efforts. He's also the founder of kernelnewbies. Living in Brazil, he works for Conectiva Linux.

ExtremeTech features a review (screenshots included) of the desktop-targetted "Lycoris Linux", also used to be known as "Redmond Linux". The author examines the user friendly distribution and its installation procedure, the environment used and more. However, the review is a bit single-sided, as it does not list any problems or disantvantages found on the distribution. In other Linux news, kernel 2.4.18 was released today, but almost everyone from the Linux kernel team advises that after untaring the new kernel, you should immediately patch the source for the 2.4.19-pre1 kernel, as it includes more bug fixes, especially for the SPARC users. Linux kernel compilation tutorial here.

The new Xeons server-oriented CPUs, known by the code name Prestonia, will be offered at 2.2GHz for $615, 2GHz for $417 and 1.8GHz for $251. The Xeons, based on the Pentium 4 architecture, are also the first to incorporate a performance-enhancing technology called hyperthreading. The new feature essentially enables a single Xeon to act like virtual dual processors. When used in conjunction with software designed for multi-CPU systems, hyperthreading can provide up to a 40 percent boost in performance compared with a same-speed Xeon with hyperthreading disabled, Intel officials said. In other hardware news, Seagate demonstrated a Serial ATA-enabled hard drive at the Intel Developer Forum today in San Francisco.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that its .NET-based "Terrarium" game has been downloaded by more than 9,000 developers just one week after its launch. "Terrarium" is a peer-to-peer distributed computing game written using the Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft's new programming model for developing and running applications and XML Web services. In "Terrarium," developers use code to design herbivores, carnivores or plants and then introduce their creations into a peer-to-peer, networked ecosystem where they compete for survival.

Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology allows a single physical processor to execute multiple threads (instruction streams) simultaneously, potentially providing greater throughput and improved performance. Intel will introduce Hyper-Threading Technology in their Intel Xeon processor family for servers in the first quarter of 2002. This article provides an overview of how the Windows Server operating system works with Intel Hyper-Threading technology. It explains the implications for performance, compatibility, and licensing.

According to a heise article, free versions of Star Office will now only be available to Solaris users. Free versions for Linux and Windows users will no longer be offered. However, Mark McLoughlin of Sun mailed the gnome-hackers mailing-list announcing the deal between Sun, Ximian and Wipro. The deal means that Wipro will assign up to 50 people to work on GNOME including hackers, QA people, documenters and more.

InformIT features two interesting articles (free registration required), excerpts from the two books: Modern Operating Systems (again) & WindowsXP Unleashed. "The first general-purpose electronic computer, the ENIAC, had 18,000 vacuum tubes and consumed 140,000 watts of power. As a result, it ran up a nontrivial electricity bill. After the invention of the transistor, power usage dropped dramatically and the computer industry lost interest in power requirements. However, nowadays power management is back in the spotlight for several reasons, and the operating system is playing a role here." Read the rest of the excerpt article from Tanenbaum's book. "Microsoft’s Windows XP Professional and Home Editions can be made to perform faster than their default installed configurations by making a few modifications at the user level. Louis Columbus shows you the steps you need to take to increase Windows XP’s overall performance." Read the first out of ten articles regarding the optimization of WindowsXP.