Hardware Archive

E-Ink Devices Suddenly Become Real

E-Ink, the pioneering electronic paper developer that's been announcing handheld devices "in a year or so" since 2001, has quietly found a manufacturer for its screens, and is not only offering developer kits, they've got an actual mass-market product set to launch in China q4. The folks at Hong Kong-based Jinke, makers of the $299/E250 E-Ink devices, are so excited, they're talking a V2 model running Linux with an SDK that allows for user-created apps before next summer. Read more.

Genesi To Develop Dual PPC970MP Server; Dual-Core G4 Delayed

Two interesting newsbits from the PPC world. Firstly, Genesi has announced that it will develop a dual 970MP (dual-core G5) server, named Open Server Workstation, following their Open Desktop Workstation. Secondly, Freescale has said that their dual-core G4 processors have been delayed until the second half of 2006. Update: "Libfreevec is a free (LGPL) library with hand-optimized replacement routines for GLIBC, such as memcpy(), strlen(), etc. These routines have been written specifically to take advantage of the AltiVec, and will only work on processors that include this unit."

Object Code for the PowerPC 405 and 440 Core Models

As of September 20, 2005, you can download object code (free reg. req.) for the PowerPC 405 and PowerPC 440 core models for Open SystemC-compatible EDA design tools. The code is useful for software engineers interested in developing boot firmware, operating system, or application code for a PowerPC-based chip. Also, for hardware engineers interested in architecture decision support, early benchmarking, or high-level system design trade-offs.

The Mini-ITX Project

This article outlines the designing and building of a Mini-ITX computer which runs off of a USB flash drive. The designer's goal was to build a system which was silent and as simple as possible. In the end it was little more than a USB drive, a VIA motherboard, and a case. Puppy Linux was used for an operating system due to its light weight and ability to boot off of a USB drive.

The ATX Case and Power Supply

The recent Blade.org announcement heralds that IBM and Intel are looking to standardize blade hardware designs, allowing blade systems from multiple vendors to work together. It's no surprise that Intel is interested in this -- its own ATX standard has been a massive success. This article looks at the history of ATX and some of the lessons learned about power supply and chassis standardization.

Nanotech To Enable 100GB Solid State Memory?

Researchers at Imperial College London claim to have developed technology that would enable the creation of three-dimensional microchips, which will dramatically increase their memory capacity. According to their press release: "by using nanotechnology it is possible to reproduce the key functions of semiconductor electronics in microchips using only the 'spin' of electrons, which is responsible for magnetism, rather than the more conventional 'charge' that traditional microchips use."

US ‘World Genius’ Touts 6.8GHz ‘Quantum-Optical’ CPU

Intel, AMD, IBM and all other chipmakers are doomed. In any case, that's the case if you were to believe the claims made by the Atom Chip Corporation, "which maintains it will show off a 2TB diskless notebook based on a 6.8GHz 'quantum-optical' microprocessor at next January's Consumer Electronics Show." Pictures of the notebook and various parts are available. Whether these claims hold truth is of course under debate, "but Gendlin (creator) has his patent - and more pending, apparently - and so we look forward to seeing Atom Chip's kit in the flesh at CES."