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NewsVac: News from around the Web

• Apple, AT&T Sued Again Over iPhone 3G Issues 50 minutes ago
  
  A New York iPhone 3G user has filed a class action suit against Apple and AT&T Wireless, claiming the device does not deliver promised network capabilities and the smartphone's casing is prone to hairline cracks.
• USB devices spreading viruses 5 hours, 20 minutes ago
  
  USB thumb drives are convenient, popular and often free--and they're spreading viruses like sailors on shore leave.*
• Nvidia announces "personal supercomputer" 14 hours, 50 minutes ago
  
  Hardware maker Nvidia has announced a new computer that has the power of a cluster of computers at a small fraction of the cost.
• Multicore Is Bad News For Supercomputers 2 days ago
  
  With no other way to improve the performance of processors further, chip makers have staked their future on putting more and more processor cores on the same chip. Engineers at Sandia National Laboratories, in New Mexico, have simulated future high-performance computers containing the 8-core, 16‑core, and 32-core microprocessors that chip makers say are the future of the industry. The results are distressing. Because of limited memory bandwidth and memory-management schemes that are poorly suited to supercomputers, the performance of these machines would level off or even decline with more cores. The performance is especially bad for informatics applications—data-intensive programs that are increasingly crucial to the labs’ national security function.
• Open Comparability: against anti-benchmarking EULAs 3 days, 1 hour ago
  
  It is time that legislators, regulators and procurement officials put an end to end-user license agreements (EULA) that prevent publication of comparative benchmarks.
• NVIDIA VDPAU benchmarks 4 days, 8 hours ago
  
  "NVIDIA is bringing PureVideo features to Linux through a major update in their binary display driver. The NVIDIA 180.06 driver adds VDPAU support on Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD operating systems, with VDPAU being a set of APIs designed by NVIDIA to accelerate video decoding, provide post-processing capabilities, timstamp-based presentation of video frames, and compositing of sub-picture elements. We have now had the time to benchmark the Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix and have seen the benefits of PureVideo features finally arriving on alternative platforms."
• AMD Finds Its Way To Shanghai 1 week ago
  
  Does AMD have its act together for the next generation Opteron processor?
• World Wide Web ensnaring the living room 1 week ago
  
  The number of digital TVs, gaming consoles, and set-top boxes equipped with embedded web browsers will grow from 60 million in 2008 to 214 million by 2013, forecasts ABI. The research firm lists the open source Webkit rendering engine and CEA-2014 UI standard among key emerging technologies shaping the market.
• Amazon to Sell OLPC XO Laptops With the Get One, Give One Arrangement 1 week, 1 day ago
  
  Amazon will have XO laptops for sale on Monday, November 17th. The XO laptops at Amazon are sold in the same manner as they were initially at the OLPC site, with a $400 donation securing a laptop for the customer, and a laptop for a child in a developing country. This donation (or at least the portion used to purchase the laptop for the child) is tax deductible.
• Report confirms AMD gains on Nvidia 1 week, 1 day ago
  
  Advanced Micro Devices' new graphics chips are taking market share from Nvidia, a report issued Wednesday confirmed.
• Multicore Is Bad News For Supercomputers 1 week, 4 days ago
  
  With no other way to improve the performance of processors further, chip makers have staked their future on putting more and more processor cores on the same chip. Engineers at Sandia National Laboratories, in New Mexico, have simulated future high-performance computers containing the 8-core, 16‑core, and 32-core microprocessors that chip makers say are the future of the industry. The results are distressing. Because of limited memory bandwidth and memory-management schemes that are poorly suited to supercomputers, the performance of these machines would level off or even decline with more cores. The performance is especially bad for informatics applications—data-intensive programs that are increasingly crucial to the labs’ national security function.
• AMD, Red Hat Show Virtual Server Move From Intel Server To AMD 1 week, 4 days ago
  
  AMD and Red Hat have demonstrated the first instance of migrating virtual machines between Intel-based and AMD-based servers, but cautioned that the capability is still far from ready for commercialization.
• Dell spins dual-core thin client 2 weeks, 4 days ago
  
  Dell has announced a device billed as the company's first-ever thin client design. The Optiplex FX160 has single-core Atom 230 or dual-core Atom 330 processors, up to 4GB of RAM, an optional 2.5-inch hard disk drive, gigabit Ethernet port, and available 802.11b/g wireless networking, says Dell.
• COM Express module targets display systems 2 weeks, 4 days ago
  
  Adlink announced an entry-level, display-oriented Intel Atom-based COM Express module. The Express-AT incorporates a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, supports CRT resolution up to 1600 x 1200, and provides a gigabit Ethernet port and two SATA ports, says the company.
• Networking platforms run Pentium M SoCs 3 weeks, 1 day ago
  
  Yet another embedded system vendor has jumped on Intel's EP80579 system-on-chip (SoC), previously code-named "Tolapai." Win Enterprises announced its EP80579-based PL-10540 and PL-10550 desktop networking platforms, both of which are designed for SOHO/SMB network management and network security applications, says the company.
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