Dr. Dobbs’ latest weekly edition of Python news and links is now available at LWN.net.

ZDNet reports: “It’s over a year late, but the computer maker is finally close to launching a technology that will double the speed of the PCI data pathway. Compaq Computer Corp. has released its first prototype computers to let hardware companies start testing a new connection technology called PCI-X.”

“(Intel) will release a paper Monday at the IEEE International Electron Devices conference in San Francisco showing that the company can produce transistors with elements as narrow as eight angstroms, or three atoms, far smaller than today’s chips. IBM also plans to announce Monday that it has started production of chips using 0.13-micron wires.” Story at ZDNet.

ZDNet reports: “IBM Corp. is planning to invest $1 billion in Linux in 2001 and another $4 billion in “e-sourcing” over the next three years, IBM chairman and CEO Louis Gerstner said Tuesday morning.”

IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner believes that companies like Sun and Microsoft will only decline in popularity, as developers and consumers demand open-standards connected devices that can talk to each other. “”That’s why we’re betting a big piece of IBM’s future on Linux,” Gerstner said. He argued that Linux “can do for business applications what the Internet did for networking and communications” — that is, allow any-to-any computing to flourish.” Full story at Bloomberg.

“BulkRegister.com today announced the launch of its Partner Program, which integrates the latest version of its BulkRegX API software. This XML-based application software is the first of its kind in the domain name registration market, and designed to be compatible with all leading operating systems including Unix, Linux and Windows environments.” Press release at PR Newswire.

“Forlink Software Corp. Inc. (OTCBB:FRLK-news) and Intel Corporation (China) announced the formation of an alliance to deliver solutions and Internet applications deployed on Intel Itanium architecture and Linux systems.” Full press release at Business Wire.

From a press release at PR Newswire: “Oracle(R) Technology Network (OTN) members have demonstrated that they just can’t get enough of Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) software on Linux. Over the past three months, more than 400,000 developers have downloaded one of many Oracle enterprise software products for Linux available today on OTN.”

“Linux, the free computer operating system, is expected to win another high profile victory on Tuesday when Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch/Shell (RD.AS) will announce it is going to install the world’s largest Linux supercomputer. Shell’s Exploration & Production unit will use the supercomputer, consisting of 1,024 IBM X-Series servers, to run seismic and other geophysical applications in its search for more oil and gas.” From a Reuters report on Yahoo.

“Tower Technology Corporation, the industry leader in Java Performance Management Solutions, announces release 3.6 of its TowerJ(TM) Java Virtual Machine (JVM) at the eBusiness Conference and Expo today. Companies can expect an enhanced customer experience with the new release, as the upgrade features improved performance, scalability, and support for Java 1.3. In addition, advanced ease-of-use supports simplified migration from existing JVMs to TowerJ 3.6, so that organizations requiring the benefits of TowerJ 3.6 can gain access quickly and easily.” Press release at Business Wire.