Andrea Laycock writes, ClusterNews, a bi-monthly electronic newsletter sponsored by Linux NetworX, is now posted on http://www.linuxnetworx.com/newsletter/. The newsletter provides subscribers with useful and timely information on Linux clustering technology, and serves as a resource for cluster administrators. The following content will be covered in this month’s newsletter:

Announcement: Linux NetworX Selected as One of Computerworld Magazine’s Top 100 Emerging Companies for 2002

White Paper: ICE (Integrated Cluster Environment)

Expert: An Introduction to Sistina’s Global File Systems (GFS)

In the News: Aberdeen Group: Is Linux Domination of the High-Performance-Computing Marketplace Imminent?

Speaking Engagements: LinuxWorld: Clusters in the Enterprise

Events: Internet World

FACQ: Frequently Asked Clustering Questions

To subscribe to this bi-monthly newsletter, please send an e-mail to clusternews@linuxnetworx.com with the word SUBSRCIBE in the subject line.

Reuters reports that a federal judge in Baltimore has postponed a decision on the proposed billion-dollar settlement of class-action antitrust cases against Microsoft.

SnapGear Inc, a leading supplier of consumer VPN Router appliances and OEM custom design solutions has developed a new reference platform that brings together USB, PCMCIA, WAN, LAN, and serial connectivity in a single powerful appliance design.

The platform, known as an SE2900, is a highly integrated reference platform in a single board design that has two 10/100BaseT ethernet ports, two USB host ports (compliant with OHCI specifications), RS-232 port. The PCMCIA slot works with traditional 16-bit PC Cards as well as the 32-bit 33 MHz CardBus, accomodating Type I/II/III PCMCIA cards. The board has JTAG interface support primarily intended for AMD’s JTAG software debugger.

Powered by the Linux 2.4.10 kernel the board can be configured with 8MB or 16MB of Flash, 1MB of Boot Flash, 64MB of SDRAM, and uses an AMD SC520 processor running at 133MHz.

Chief Software Wizard, Greg Ungerer, said: “Basic board bring-up only took a day or so and we were able to use standard kernel drivers so it was largely just a configuration issue. Then we really needed a way of demonstrating the versatility of the board and that’s where we had some fun”. Using a regular USB camera, PCMCIA wireless LAN card, and standard Linux tools the unit was quickly set up as a mobile, streaming-video web server.

Ungerer said: “We just attached a battery to it and walked around outside the building while friends and co-workers watched through their desktop web browsers. Next time we’ll add a USB audio input source to the other USB port and we can give walking tours of the area to people over the Internet!”.

The board presented considerable design challenges in being able to integrate so many PCI devices cleanly and in a small form factor.

Availability
The SE2900 Reference Platform is available immediately. For further information on the SE2900 USB/PCMCIA design please visit http://www.secureedge.net/products.html. Hi-res photo available from http://www.secureedge.net/images/se29001073x681.jp g

About SnapGear, Inc.

SnapGear Inc produces the popular SnapGear VPN Routers along with SecureEdge custom design solutions. SnapGear Inc has produced turnkey development, design, and even manufacturing and fulfillment services for large blue-chip companies. SnapGear solutions are characterised by affordability, tight integration, and design ingenuity. Recent examples include a sport/racing control terminal, an advanced VPN gateway router, and a network access point connecting petrol bowsers to the Internet. For more information on SnapGear please visit http://www.snapgear.com. For more information on SecureEdge reference designs and services please visit http://www.secureedge.net

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Press only, contact:
SnapGear
Bob Waldie / Miles Gillham
E-mail: press@snapgear.com

From PR Newswire: Already a leader in
U.S. Linux retail sales for more than one year, MandrakeSoft proves once again
that its long-term strategy of attracting Linux users is the best approach for
this market.
Recently, “Linux Magazine UK” conducted an extensive survey with 35,000 of
its readers; among the questions asked was: “What is the Linux distribution
that you use the most?” The results show that Mandrake Linux is now the most
widely used Linux distribution in the UK.

The Linux-friendly hardware and software review site has shut down, according to an annoucement on the site’s main page. We’re sad to see it go; best wishes to the crew there.

Anonymous Reader writes, “Another new filesystem test program was posted to the freebsd-hackers mailing list. This one, fsstress, was originally developed by SGI for XFS . Andi Kleen later modified it to work with non-XFS filesystems, too. Most recently, Matt Dillon modified it to compile under FreeBSD. (I compiled it without problems under Linux.) Matt has already used this program to find/fix another bug. He says, ‘This one normally wouldn’t occur too often. It happens when the filesystem syncing code is updating a VCHR vnode/inode. The vnode can get ripped out from under the ffs_update() code because the sync code doesn’t lock or reference the vnode while running UFS_UPDATE() on it.’ Kerneltrap has more here, including the GPL’d fsstress source code. More about the earlier fs test program ‘fsx’ can be found here.”

Linux Game Publishing writes: “Linux Game Publishing is proud to announce that our first product, Creatures Internet Edition is now shipping to retailers!”

Wired: “The company offers a free fix five weeks after an independent hacker discovers a serious flaw in the newest version of Windows that allows hackers to steal or destroy files or implant rogue software.”

LinuxSecurity: “This week advisories were released for mailman, htdig, xsane, OpenSSH, kerberos, libgtop, glibc, and the Trustix kernel. The
vendors include EnGarde, Debian, Immunix, FreeBSD, Mandrake, Red Hat, and Trustix.”

aldera International, Inc. today announced it has made Suites VII and IX of the
AIM Benchmark available under the GPL (GNU General Public License). The AIM Benchmark Suites – “AIM Multiuser
Benchmark” and the “Independent Resource Benchmark” – are expected to be available shortly as a SourceForge
project. They are currently available via FTP from Caldera at
http://www.caldera.com/developers/community/contrib/.

The AIM Benchmark technology has proved useful for more than a decade in measuring performance of hardware and
versions of the UNIX operating system. The benchmarks have been licensed by nearly all of the vendors of UNIX
system hardware. In all, more than 70 companies have used these benchmarks to compare and tune products. In
addition, because of the stressful multi-dimensional nature of the AIM Benchmark workload, many OS and
hardware vendors have used the benchmarks as part of their quality assurance process.

Caldera acquired rights to the AIM Benchmark Suite Software as part its acquisition of the assets of the
Server Software Division of The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. in May 2001. 

Open Source
>From its inception, Caldera has shared technology with the Open Source community. Technologies that have been
open sourced include Webmin - a Web-based administration tool, LIZARD - the award-winning Linux Installation
Wizard, Linux Unattended Installation (LUI), Linux Installation Administration (LISA), cscope, and Caldera
Open Administration System (COAS). 

Press and Analyst Contact:
Paul Hatch
(801) 932-5811
Email: phatch@caldera.com

Caldera, the Caldera logos, AIM Benchmark, LIZARD, and Webmin are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Caldera International, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group
in the United States and other countries.  Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other brand
or product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their
respective owners.

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