Intel bringing out server chip with several processors

Intel, the largest semiconductor maker, is expected to unveil on Monday its first server processors that place multiple microprocessors on a single piece of silicon, stepping up its efforts to compete head-to-head with Advanced Micro Devices, which introduced its first dual-core server chip in the spring.

The New York Times reports (10 October) that Intel has been developing the new Xeon processors under the code-name Paxville. The dual-core chip technology used in the servers effectively speeds performance while preventing the overheating that can plague high-performing processors. Also, the company will introduce a multicore version, putting four microprocessors on one piece of silicon.

The newspaper says that in April, AMD released dual-core versions of its Opteron server processor.

According to the repoprt, IBM and Dell have both said they will use Intel's newest Xeon processors in future machines. Last month, Dell said it was abandoning Intel's Itanium server chip in favor of the dual-core Xeon, and expected systems using the chip to show a 50 percent increase in speed over the single-core version.

The NYT says that Intel released its last Xeon chip based on single-core technology in September. The dual-core and multi-core Xeon chips were originally due in 2006, but in August, the company announced that development was ahead of schedule.

Strong demand for mobile phones will continue into next year, defying forecasts of a slowdown, Nokia's Chief Executive Jorma Ollila said in an interview published on Monday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (10 October) that the Finnish mobile firm cited unexpectedly large sales as well as cost controls and one-off items when raising its forecasts last month for third quarter earnings.

Growth has come from stronger-than-expected demand in mature markets as people replace their handsets, as well as from emerging markets, where Nokia is the leader in low-cost phones, reports Reuters.

The Nokia chief executive told the paper the group's recent performance reflects its product line.

Reuters says that Nokia's rivals gained when it failed to read the market demand for folding or ``clamshell phones,'' with number two handset firm Motorola making particular gains. And analysts have also said the company needs to come up with phones that can displace those like Motorola's iconic Razr, the report says.

Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson is in talks to buy UK rival Marconi and a deal could be announced within weeks, people familiar with the negotiations said on Sunday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (9 October) that the Financial Mail newspaper said in an unsourced report on Sunday that Ericsson saw a total valuation for Marconi of up to 1.3 billion pounds, roughly twice its current market value.

Marconi, which nearly collapsed in the 2001 telecoms industry meltdown, declined to comment.

Reuters says that, in Stockholm, a spokeswoman for Ericsson said the group never commented on ``rumours and speculation.''

According to Reuters, Marconi received a major blow in April after BT Group cut the group out of its 10 billion-pound network upgrade plan. It has since announced plans to cut 800 jobs and promised to look at all of its strategic options.

The possible deal comes amid a flurry of activity in the telecoms sector as chief executives get back into buying mode after years of restructuring, reports Reuters.

The report adds that last week, British cable operator NTL agreed to a long-awaited deal to buy smaller rival Telewest for US$6 billion.

In July, France Telecom grabbed control of Amena in a deal valuing Spain's third-ranked mobile phone group at 10.6 billion euros.

Hoping to tune into the latest craze in digital media, Yahoo is introducing tools for finding, organising and rating ''podcasts'' -- the audio programs designed to be played on Apple Inc.'s iPod and many other portable music players.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (9 October) that the company, which operates the world's most visited web site, plans to begin testing the new service Monday at https://podcasts.yahoo.com.

According to AP., although it can do several things, the free service focuses on making it easier for people to sift through the tens of thousands of podcasts currently available on the web to find the programming best suited to their personal interests.

Yahoo isn't the first web site to search podcasts. Specialty web sites such as Odeo.com and Podcast.net already do the same thing.

But, reports AP., Yahoo is the first internet heavyweight to tackle the task, adding that it's only a matter of time before Yahoo's rivals, including online search engine leader Google, introduce similar podcasting features, predicted Phil Leigh, an analyst for Inside Digital Media.

''Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the future of search is in audio and video. Searching through text on the Internet has really reached a maturity point,'' he said. ''If you look 10 years down the road, everyone is going to be searching for podcasts.''

All the major search engines are adding more bells and whistles in an effort to retain and attract visitors. The traffic is crucial because the search engines need a substantial audience to continue generating the ad sales that account for most of their profits.

Yahoo estimates that up to 5 million people currently listen to podcasts, which run a gamut of topics. Everything from the president's weekly address to ordinary citizens ranting about their pet peeves are available on podcasts.

The potential market is much larger. Apple so far has sold more than 20 million iPods, accounting for about three-fourths of the MP3 players in the United States.

But the podcasting phenomenon remains a mystery to most of the country -- something that Yahoo believes it can change by delivering more comprehensive search results and enabling users to store the podcasts in their computer's music players, including Apple's iTunes and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Player in addition to Yahoo's.

That way, people can listen to the podcasts at their convenience, even if they don't have an iPod or another portable device that plays MP3 audio files.

Besides the iPod, Yahoo's service also is compatible with the iRiver player, Dell Inc.'s DJ and Creative Technology Ltd.'s Zen.

Korean regulators could investigate whether Apple broke competition laws by buying memory from Samsung at below market rates.

The Register reports (10 October) that Samsung is widely thought to be Apple's key memory supplier, a lucrative deal given the recent launch of the flash-based iPod Nano.

The publication says that the Korean Fair Trade Commission chairman Kang Chul-kyu said he was considering an investigation into whether Apple and Samsung had behaved improperly, according to Yonhap news.

Observers have questioned how much more Apple would have to pay by switching from mini hard drives to Flash memory for use in the iPod nano. Flash memory costs almost twice as much as the eqivalent storage on a disc, reports The Register.

Database giant Oracle has made another acquisition - picking up a small Finnish open source developer.

The Register reports (10 October) that Oracle has bought InnoBase for an undislosed amount. The Finnish firm develops InnoDB which is distributed as part of MySQL.Oracle said it wants to continue developing the product and "expand our committment to open source software".

According to The Register, the statement also notes that InnoDB's agreement with MySQL is up for renewal next year - Oracle hopes to extend that contract.

Oracle has been snapping up firms all year. Apart from the big buys of PeopleSoft and Siebel the firm has picked up security, retail and business process firms this year.

Claims that user authentication schemes will reduce spam are not just wrong but "wrongheaded", a security researcher warned on Friday.

According to a report in The Register (10 October), user authentication schemes such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and Sender ID check if machines are allowed to send email from a claimed domain - a kind of caller line identification on email authentication). But "this doesn't tell you who the actual sender was or the spaminess of a message," Nick FitzGerald, of Computer Virus Consulting in New Zealand, said.

The Register says that, worse, botnets - networks of "zombie" PCs controlled by hackers - "screw anti-spam authentication", Fitzgerald noted. "User authentication is worse than nothing at all. For example, SPF is broken before implementation because it's not just breakable but trivial to break," Fitzgerald said, reports The Register.

Although current spam bots don't directly beat SPF it would be trivial to add a few lines of code to do just that, according to FitzGerald, who was speaking at the Virus Bulletin conference in Dublin on Friday.

However, The Register says that Vesselin Bontchev of anti-virus firm FRISK disagreed with FitzGerald's conclusions, arguing that user authentication will at least help ISPs to identify compromised PCs. But FitzGerald said the economics of the ISP business meant that it cost too much to use this data to mount clean-up operations.

And, Dmitri Alperovitch, principal research scientist at security appliance firm CipherTrust, agreed with FitzGerald that user authentication schemes are unlikely to have much impact on spam, according to The Register's report.

In the United States, recording labels want a bigger slice of Apple's success in digital music by seeking higher prices on downloaded songs. Japan's music industry has a different idea: putting a fee on iPods, reports The New York Times (10 October).

The newspaper reports that the industry has asked the Japanese government to charge a royalty, to be added to the retail price of portable digital music players like Apple's iPod, which has been explosively popular in Japan. Money earned from the fee, which will be probably be 2 to 5 percent of the retail price, would go to recording companies, songwriters and artists as compensation for revenue lost from home copying.

According to the NYT., it is a familiar story of vested interests feeling threatened by new technologies. Like their counterparts in the United States, Japanese recording companies are struggling to catch up with the internet and the advances in digital recording technology that are transforming their industry.

But, says the newspaper, in Japan the proposed fee has also touched off an unusual public battle over the influence that industry groups here still wield over the government and economy.

The NYT says that the recording industry has already succeeded in slowing the arrival of Apple's iTunes music download service to Japan through its reluctance to negotiate licensing deals, people in the industry said.

The report says that Apple opened a Japanese version of iTunes in August, two years after its introduction in the United States, but without songs from the major Japanese labels like Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Japan, which still have not signed licensing agreements.

ITunes received a warmer welcome from Japanese consumers, who bought one million songs in the first four days, according to Apple, which declined to comment for this article, reports the newspaper.

Two internet gaming companies are planning to list on London's junior AIM stockmarket with valuations around 100 million pounds, newspapers said on Sunday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (9 October) thay no comment was immediately available from the companies.

According to Reuters, the Business newspaper said Irish internet gaming site Gameaccount was planning to list on AIM if it succeeded in buying an unnamed larger rival this weekend.

The Independent on Sunday said British internet gaming group Trident Gaming also had plans for a listing on AIM that would value it around 100 million pounds.

Foreign companies spent more than US$500 million in acquiring 15 Israeli software firms over the past 12 months, Israel's Manufacturers Association said on Sunday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (9 October) that one of the largest deals took place in April, when manufacturing software maker UGS bought Israel's Tecnomatix Technologies for US$228 million.

The Manufacturers Association said that, over the past decade, foreign companies have bought more than 30 Israeli software firms for about US$6 billion. It added that Israeli software firms have spent about US$700 million over the past 12 months on purchasing foreign companies -- mainly in the United States, China and Romania.

According to Reuters in the NYT report, the association said that over the first half of 2005, Israel's software exports grew about 6 percent from the same period a year earlier to US$3.18 billion.

Israel has more than 2,000 start-up companies, over half of which are in the software sector, it said.