14 MA XIMUMPC JANUARY 2006
quickstart THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL
Researchers at IBM have developed technology than can slow down light using
inexpensive materials, making it possible for photons to replace electrons in
CPU designs in the distant future. Using light instead of electricity inside silicon-
based circuits dramatically reduces the amount of heat generated by current
CPU technology, avoids the problems with quantum interference and electron
migration that CPU designers are beginning to encounter, and reduces the
amount of energy required to power the CPU.
The chip is called a silicon waveguide, and resembles a chunk of PCB with
holes scattered all over it, which allow light to pass through in an organized
fashion. The IBM chip slows light from its standard speed of 186,000 miles per
second to just 1/300th of that speed.IBM Slows Light, Paving the Way
for Optical CPUs
Needham & Co. analyst Charles Wolf just
released a report indicating that more than a
million PC users have switched from Windows
to the Mac in 2005. Heck, even Maximum
PC wrote an article titled “Making the Mac
Switch” last month. People are report-
edly won over by the Mac’s association with
their beloved iPods, and freedom from the
onslaught of viruses and malware that have
ravaged PCs this year.One Million New
Apple Users?
According to a report in the Wall Street
Journal, Microsoft honcho Bill Gates has
sent a rousing memo to top executives
at Microsoft. The memo details a “sea
change” taking place in the technology
industry, a change that doesn’t bode well
for the software giant unless it gets off its
ass (our words, not Bill’s). “This coming
‘services wave’ will be very disruptive,”
said Gates, describing the emergence
of online services that could threaten
Microsoft’s core cash cow—Offi ce. “We
have competitors who will seize on these
approaches and challenge us,” said Gates.
These web services use a new tech-
nology dubbed AJAX (short for asynchro-
nous Java and XML). The upshot is that
websites written using AJAX techniques
behave more like applications that run onyour PC than websites. Portions of the
page can refresh without requiring a reload
of the entire page, and they’ll work on
any OS as long as you have a supported
web browser (IE4 and higher, Firefox, and
Mozilla are all supported). Gmail, Flickr,
and Exchange servers that you log into
using Outlook Web Access all use AJAX.Microsoft Sounds the Alarm
In a memo to top execs, Bill Gates warns of ‘disruptive’ changes in the
world of PC software—namely, Google and other competitors on the webquickstart THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL
DELL STARTS SELLING AMD CPUS
We all knew it was just a matter of time before
Dell would cave and begin selling AMD proces-
sors. The time, it seems, has finally come. Dell
still isn’t offering AMD-based desktops, but rath-
er individual processors
for sale instead. At press
time the Dell online
store was offering six
AMD processors for sale,
ranging from an Athlon
64 3500+ to a dual-core
X2 4400 for retail sale.
The reason? “Customer
demand,” according to a
Dell spokesman.AMD TRUMPS INTEL... AGAIN!
When AMD beat Intel at retail desktop and note-
book sales in August, industry insiders claimed
it was a fluke, but AMD repeated the feat once
again in October, besting Intel by 1.3 percent
according to a report from Current Analysis. AMD
CPUs accounted for 49.8 percent of all PCs sold
at retail, whereby Intel chips accounted for 48.
percent. This allowed AMD to increase its U.S.
retail percentage from 52 percent in September
to a whopping 67.7 percent.ATI TAKES A TUMBLE
ATI’s recent blunders have caused the company
to lose market share to nVidia. Research from
John Peddie shows that in Q3 ATI’s shipments
increased by a mere 7.6 percent while nVidia
ramped up shipments 28.3 percent. The result-
ing conflagration diminished ATI’s market-share
lead over nVidia to a measly 1.3 percent. On the
“discrete desktop” side of things, nVidia saw
shipments increase three-fold last quarter, no
doubt thanks to its stellar 7800 series of graph-
ics cards.USE BIT TORRENT, GO TO JAIL
A file-sharer in Hong Kong was sentenced to
three months in jail recently—one month for each
movie he was sharing over the highly popular
Bit Torrent P2P network.
The illegally obtained—and
shared—movies were dis-
covered during a so-called
“customs raid” on the man’s
house by Chinese officials.
Sadly, the man will likely be
treated harshly in jail. The
movies he was sharing—
Daredevil, Red Planet, and
Miss Congeniality—will cer-
tainly earn him an unflattering jailhouse moniker
such as “lame movie guy” or “rom-com weenie.”FUNSIZENEWS
Windows
Apple