AMD is fl oating a set of new instructions
that could make it easier for programs
to tune themselves. Called Lightweight
Profi ling (LWP), the new instructions
would become part of AMD’s AMD
instruction set.
LWP would add little overhead yet give
applications direct feedback from the CPU
on how a process for the application is
running. If the process is generating exces-
sive cache misses, branch mispredictions,
or thread locks, the app—with real-time
feedback from the CPU—would, in theory,
correct the problem and run faster.
LWP could help programmers in
the daunting task of optimizing for the
increasing number of execution cores in
PCs. That number is predicted to reach
from eight to 16 within a year or two.
AMD hasn’t said when LWP will be inte-grated into its CPUs, but it will apparently
not be available in upcoming quad-core
Opteron and Phenom FX CPUs.Program, Optimize Thyself
AMD proposes psychic extensions
for CPUs14 MAXIMUMPC NOVEMBER 2007
quick start THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL
JOURNALISTS SUE HP
It’s been a year since
Hewlett-Packard officials
were caught spying on
company board members
and journalists to root
out a media leak, but the issue is getting
renewed attention. Several journalists from
the Associated Press and News.com are filing
suit against HP, citing invasion of privacy and
violation of California’s business code. HP had
earlier offered the affected parties a financial
settlement, which they rejected.ABC.COM STREAMS HD
ABC.com is stepping up its online strategy by
now streaming many of the network’s shows
in HD. The site’s
HD channel is
still in beta, but
theoretically, a
person with a
monitor capable
of high-def res-
olutions (at least
1280x720),
a broadband
Internet connection, and the affiliated media
player by Move Networks can view entire tele-
vision shows, such as Lost, Ugly Betty, and
Grey’s Anatomy, in HD for free over the web.VISTA DISSED, AGAIN
Windows Vista won’t be taking top honors in
the 2008 Olympic Games. Lenovo, the official
sponsor of the event, has
decided to run Windows XP
on all of the Games’ mis-
sion-critical PCs, citing the
need for “mature, stable
technologies.” Vista will
still make a showing as the
OS for the computers in the
athletes’ Internet lounges.LIMEWIRE GOES LEGIT
Following the leads of Napster and
BitTorrent, LimeWire is looking to put its
peer-to-peer prowess toward the service
of good. The company, whose eponymous
P2P software has been popular with content
pirates, hopes to gain a more wholesome
following with a new online portal that offers
only legal content. A stand-alone website,
which will eventually be accessible via the
LimeWire software, will connect people to
legitimate DRM-free music for a competitive
price. So far, LimeWire has struck deals with
two indie music publishers.FUNSIZENEWS
Malicious Wiki Edits Exposed!
WikiScanner reveals who’s been cleaning up their own pages and
slamming the competitionSomeone at the BBC seems to think Dubya’s middle name is Wanker. A new pro-
gram called WikiScanner ( http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ ), which automatically matches
Wikipedia edits to the IP addresses they came from, reveals instances of vandalism,
whitewashing, and trickery by everyone from the FBI to the Vatican to the BBC.
While most of the edits are mild and quickly rectifi ed, others are more insidious.
Users from Exxon, Microsoft, and the Turkish government have been caught remov-
ing references to, respectively, the ecological impact of the Exxon Valdez spill, Xbox
360 failure rates, and the Armenian genocide.
WikiScanner, which was written by grad student Virgil Griffi th, shows that not all
users of the peer-edited encyclopedia have transparency in mind. Thankfully, fi nding
these confl ict-of-interest edits just got a whole lot easier.Defi nition: A person who’s convinced
he or she has a particular medical con-
dition based on information found on
the Internet.
Surely, the last thing a doc wants
to see is a patient clutching a fi stful of
printouts, but the Internet’s vast store
of health-related information is prov-
ing irresistible to web surfers. A recent
Harris Poll found that the number of
adults who’ve gone online for medical
info has increased 37 percent in the
last two years.Cyberchondriac
WORD WATCHProgrammers wary of multiply-
ing cores will appreciate AMD’s
Lightweight Profiling.