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_ALL_ Sun servers are very stable, but slow. SPARC speed is poor, take a look at SPEC CPU2000 Results. The memory bandwidth is _very_ low. In Linpack-top500 you won't see SUN in the 100 first places.

The Fujitsu SPARC64 V is better chip and 100% compatible with SUN solaris/SPARC. And better servers with 128 CPUs !!!!

LiNUX is a better alternative below 8 CPUs: Migrating Oracle9i - Based Sun Servers to Dell Servers Running Linux and Migrating Oracle9i - Based Sun Servers to Dell Servers Running Linux, Part 2. LiNUX+x86/ia64 , and soon AMD x86-64, is cheaper and faster than Solaris/SPARC

DEC/Compaq/HP have the best chip(Alpha EV7) and the best UNIX servers (ES47,ES80,GS1280) in RISC arch. It's a pity that Alpha is going to die to put intel ia64 instead.

And if you need NUMA machine, SGI Altix is for you.

Why do you need to buy a SUN server?
- because my programs _only_ run with solaris/sparc

For two cool Free Software approaches to robots see Fujitsu's project or even better, the Open PINO Platform

No major manufacturer except for Sony endorses memory stick.

http://www.konica.co.jp/global/press/020924_8e.htm l
http://www.konica.com/products/digital/cameras/kd4 00z_features.htm
http://www.konica.com/products/digital/cameras/kd3 10z_features.htm
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/news/digital_med ia/com_news_1042258148609_001300.html
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/news/digital_med ia/com_news_1042258779765_001300.html
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/camcorder/digita l_camcorder/b_scd590.html
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/camcorder/digita l_camcorder/g_scd87.html
http://www.brother.com/usa/fax/info/mfc5200c/mfc52 00c_ove.html
http://h30015.www3.hp.com/products/detail.php?prod num=Q3000A
http://h30015.www3.hp.com/products/detail.php?prod num=C8443A
http://h30015.www3.hp.com/products/detail.php?prod num=Q1605A
http://www.lexmark.com/US/products/overview/0,1224 ,MzM1NHwx,00.html
http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/printer/ink jet/pm860pt/pm860pt1.htm
http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/printer/ink jet/pm850pt/pm850pt1.htm
http://www.kenwood.com/j/products/home_audio/digit al_avino/sj_7ms/index.html
http://www.pioneer.co.jp/catalog/sys/x-sv7dv.php
http://www.pioneer.co.jp/av-sys/hd1/index.html
http://www.sun-denshi.co.jp/scc/bb/index.htm
http://www.sharp.co.jp/sc/eihon/wahp1/text/index.h tml
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/CDA/CarP roducts/CarProductDetails/0,1429,21417,00.html
http://www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp/mobile/mova/d2 51is/index.html
http://www.sharp.co.jp/products/sh712m/
http://global.acer.com/products/pda/s60.htm
http://global.acer.com/products/pda/s50.htm
http://www.global.acer.com/products/pda/n20w.htm
http://www.global.acer.com/products/pda/s15.htm
http://www.clevo.com.tw/products/images/8880.pdf
http://pr.fujitsu.com/jp/news/2002/10/8-2.html
http://www.nec.co.jp/press/ja/0210/1004-30.html
http://121ware.com/product/pc/lavie/200205/pro/spe c01.pdf
http://www.alpine.co.jp/alpine/navi02/n02.html
http://www.datatec.co.jp/sr/index.html
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_prod uct_lobbypage.asp?product=847

Shall I go on?

And yes, the memory stick format is much more expensive

I just paid $30 for 128 MB MS. Show me a better price for CF or SD/MMC.

not to mention has various confusing variations (e.g. magic gate)

You mean 2? Magic gate, non-Magic gate? Boy, that is confusing.

and is still proprietary

"Proprietary", eh? Guess what? All of the major formats are proprietary. Want to sell a CF device? You can if you ante up to the CF org. Sony has released quite a few specifications (http://www.memorystick.org/topics/eng/aboutms/for mat.html).

You might find prices on Amazon.com come close to CF or SD/MMC but I can walk into any camera shop and be offered compact flash cards by 3 or 4 manufactures where I'd be lucky if could find 2 for memory stick.

I count 6 manufacturers of Memory Stick: Lexar, SanDisk, Sony, I-O Data, Apacer Tech.

click for PrimePower web site

There's some info related to the SPARCLite here .

There's also some on Fujitsu Semiconductor's Web site as well.

Is this related to the embedded Java processor Sun announced a while back?

No.

I never read up on that, and I wasn't sure if they really meant it was running Java bytecode, or if it was merely a processor that was well-suited for Java. Native bytecode sure sounded unlikely.

"Sounds unlikely" does not necessarily imply "not true"; picoJava does, indeed, run Java bytecode as a native instruction set - or, at least, did, or was intended to; I can't find anything from Sun's home page that speaks of them selling any processors other than UltraSPARCs. A Google search for "Sun Microelectronics" found, as the topmost hit, a page for UltraSPARC processors, so perhaps they've killed off picoJava and microJava (I think microJava might not have had bytecode as its native instruction set), along with the MAJC chip (some VLIW thing) they were working on at some point. (You can still find stuff about picoJava, microJava, and MAJC on Sun's web site from the search box, but the papers you find look suspiciously orphaned.)

Fujitsu Cobol.Net
Download

Some Examples
Hello World
Message Box
Database Access

That's odd, considering neitherDell, Sony, Toshiba, nor Fujitsu require you to purchase Office XP. IBM was the only one that I saw from a quick glance.

"New York , N.Y. - 01/15/2001 -- Fujitsu-ICL Systems Inc. announced today the Liberator, a new Linux-based point-of-sale software solution that supports and enhances existing IBM 4690 point-of-sale (POS) supermarket applications. The combination of Liberator and the Fujitsu TeamPoS(r) 2000 POS terminal gives supermarket retailers using IBM 4690 systems a low-risk POS hardware alternative that reduces costs, adds power and graphics, and provides an open systems environment. Liberator, available in March, is the first Linux offering from Fujitsu-ICL."

Fujitsu Liberator gives retailers open-systems options for IBM 4690 POS systems

Until recently I worked as a technician in a retail computer shop, and we had terrible luck with Fujitsu hard drives, the MPG3204AT in particular. Some drives wouldn't detect at all on POST, most just had the "click of death", and as a result were subjected to the "freezer of doom" so we could try and rescue some of the customer's data (not that it usually helped)

Maxtor/Seagate/WD drives seem to be quite a bit more reliable, but one of the OEM's we were buying premade systems from was using "Fush*tsu" drives, so we encountered quite a few of them (I'd say at least 50% failure rate)

We also had problems with MSI K7T Pro mainboards we recieved from the same OEM, so it could just be we were getting shafted w/ known-bad product.

In any event, in the past few months I've seen the same articles on The Reg and other spots, and I'm not at all surprised to have seen it.

It may be news to some of you that Fujitsu has subsequently pulled out of the desktop HDD business (they still manufacture laptop and enterprise drives) Fujitsu's Hard Drive Lineup

If you guys are interested in Tablet PC's, here's a link I came across accidentally yesterday. Fujitsu's new Tablet PC. It's not like the 'detachable screen from the laptop' type.

Instead, it's a stand-alone tablet that you carry with you and use with a pen. HOWEVER, there are 3-USB-port desktop stations that you just put the Tablet into, and voila--a desktop system with a real keyboard and mouse attached. The tablet becomes the monitor--WHICH YOU CAN TILT to view in LANDSCAPE or regular view! And adjust these settings straight with one button presses straight on the TABLET, so you can easily make the tablet LANDSCAPE even without using the desktop configurator.

Also, at the end of the video, the Fujitsu guy says you can take the keyboard along instead of the whole desktop system if you're going on the road. I don't know if the keyboard plugs into that Tablet PC (didn't sound like it at the beginning of the vid.), but what you do is probably plug the keyboard straight into the tablet versus the desktop station.

All in all, pretty nifty. BUT THERE ARE PROBLEMS:
IT doesn't look like it is comfortable to hold because there aren't grips for the hands on the sides (I'm pretty sure this is the fact.) And, holding the Tablet with your right hand to write with your left you could end up pressing those screen layout buttons I just described. And of course, the cord for the pen better be long enough for comfortable LEFT-HANDED use!

Also, the scroll bars BETTER BE ABLE TO BE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE SCREEN for us left-handers.

Fujitsu's 12-years-in-the-making Table PC

This is a good video sponsored by IBM but about Fujitsu and CNET's 5 minute demo video/interview. It seems to be more of a MARKETING video rather than an interview, but addresses the major questions a TABLET PC newbie could have!

For a REAL PBX, see the Fujitsu 9600. You may be more familiar with Nortel Norstar, (look at companie's phones) but that's the Ford Escort of PBX's.

You can right now go and buy 2.3GB 3.5" magneto-optical media and the drives they work with. Their dimensions are very similar to that of 3.5" floppies, but look much cooler.

On the downside, complete lack of mass marketing means that they're still expensive.

Have a look at Fujitsu's magneto-optical products for more info (it's in Japanese.)

I would love to see these take off and replace floppy drives. MO has a long reputation of speed, stability and robustness. Certainly they are an order of magnitude faster and more reliable than Zip disks, not to mention storing over two gigabytes per disk.

Ugly little beastie, isn't it?

Of course, this tells us nothing about how easily fooled the system is. Considering the recent success of a Japanese researcher in breaking fingerprint systems, I wouldn't trust this for a second.

This line from Fujitsu seems to be a favorite with Chicago trading firms.

Fujitus makes some of the things I've seen on CNBC, so if you're looking for a specific one it's probably them.

I had a bookmark to a distributer that dealt w/ older Fujitsus, but I seem to have lost it, so yeah. Try eBay under the laptop category and select Fujitsu as manufacturer, they're under there. And try their site

Also Viewsonic makes the "SuperPDA" Viewpad 1000

These things are out there, you just have to look. New stuff is expensive and older (ie. cheap) stuff isn't gonna be anythin' special.

If that fails you as always, just do a Google search.

"Consider a future where all appliances with power cords can be networked using universal plug and play including:

computers
telephones
stereos
even refrigerators"

http://www.powerlinecommunications.net/smarthomes. htm

Nice diagram of the LG I-fridge as a "Residential Gateway":
http://www.slfp.com/011302BIZp.htm

"Internet Refrigerator"
http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/may98/0121.html

"Can Your Refrigerator Surf?"
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,14675,00 . sp

But, most of all, I want to point out the comments that my own company makes about *its* I-fridge:

"We created the first Internet refrigerator to show how the Internet will merge into our everyday lives"
http://au.fujitsu.com/FAL/CDA/Articles/0,1029,546, 00.html

This is very relevant new for me - I just bought a Fujitsu Primepower200 off an auction site, and I'm currently downloading the Solaris 8 installation CD.

The thing is, this machine has 2 CPUs. What I want to know, is it physically impossible for the Solaris 8 Free Binary version to run on multiple CPUs, or will it actually require a license? (I want to make sure the machine works before I fork out $249 for a license...)

One of the most overlooked computer companies on ./ is Fujitsu. They are the second biggest computer company, behind only IBM. They have been in the Unix server market in Japan and Europe for years, and have started in North America with their Primepower SPARC servers. The Primepower 2000 is a very powerful 128 SPARC CPU (SPARC64 GP) Solaris box. Fujitsu owns a good chunk of Sun already (25-30% I think, I have no hard numbers on this). If any body were to buy Sun, its Fujitsu.

Sure IBM makes chips for Sun, so does TI, Motorola and Fujitsu. Everybody makes chips for everybody these days, its the way of business. Infineon does a lot of chips for IBM, Infineon is owned by Siemens, in turn, owned by Fujitsu. Give the market 10 more years, and there will only be 3 computer companies.

One of the most overlooked computer companies on ./ is Fujitsu. They are the second biggest computer company, behind only IBM. They have been in the Unix server market in Japan and Europe for years, and have started in North America with their Primepower SPARC servers. The Primepower 2000 is a very powerful 128 SPARC CPU (SPARC64 GP) Solaris box. Fujitsu owns a good chunk of Sun already (25-30% I think, I have no hard numbers on this). If any body were to buy Sun, its Fujitsu.

Sure IBM makes chips for Sun, so does TI, Motorola and Fujitsu. Everybody makes chips for everybody these days, its the way of business. Infineon does a lot of chips for IBM, Infineon is owned by Siemens, in turn, owned by Fujitsu. Give the market 10 more years, and there will only be 3 computer companies.

One of the most overlooked computer companies on ./ is Fujitsu. They are the second biggest computer company, behind only IBM. They have been in the Unix server market in Japan and Europe for years, and have started in North America with their Primepower SPARC servers. The Primepower 2000 is a very powerful 128 SPARC CPU (SPARC64 GP) Solaris box. Fujitsu owns a good chunk of Sun already (25-30% I think, I have no hard numbers on this). If any body were to buy Sun, its Fujitsu.

Sure IBM makes chips for Sun, so does TI, Motorola and Fujitsu. Everybody makes chips for everybody these days, its the way of business. Infineon does a lot of chips for IBM, Infineon is owned by Siemens, in turn, owned by Fujitsu. Give the market 10 more years, and there will only be 3 computer companies.

Another factor in pricing is simply "what will the market bear?" People won't pay $10k for a desktop machine, but companies will pay $30k for a small server that's hardly more capable than the desktop, because they can. And the producers then have little incentive to lower prices, because everybody's paying that much already... Then too, there's the issue that price can affect people's impression of quality - everybody like to think they're getting their money's worth, and surely that $30k server must be better than that desktop machine...

Sun hardware really is better than cheap Intel hardware, no doubt about it. You're not going to get four processors, hot-swappable drives, fault isolation, LOM, etc. on a budget. A lot of these factors are becoming available on Intel-based servers, but guess what? You end up paying almost as much for them as you would for a Sparc server.

I don't know of any such resource, but there's surely sufficient users here to form an idea of what to buy and what not to, just from their experiences.

Only last week I was agreeing with fellow LinuxSA members that Seagate, Fujitsu, and IBM drives are reliable, and Maxtor and Western Digital drives are not. The last-mentioned brands seem far more likely to seize or develop bad clusters after a few years of use.

I also does not seem coincidental that larger reputable companies seem to sell those drives perceived to be reliable and smaller "iffier" companies (such as those marketing only on cost) seem to sell those drives perceived to be unreliable.

As far as specs go the P-1000 weighs 3.5 pounds and is only 1.5 inches thick. This includes a combo DVD/CDR drive for only $1500 with 128 megs. It can be upgraded to 256 megs of ram.

As the press release says they are targeting to sell 100 robots over a span of three years.

Who is going to have the means to purchase these? labs, schools, corporations. not you and me brotha...

I was searching for mainly pictures, and i found the following:

http://pr.fujitsu.com/en/news/2001/09/10.html - a generic article with a picture. Discusses specs.

It looks like it will be rather expensive, they have set the price to "open" with a sales expectation of 100 over three years. It has 20 degrees of movement. It uses RTLinux(like the other article mentioned) and uses USB to act as the "Direct Interface and Robot's Internal Network." also, it mentions that HOAP-1 stands for Humanoid for Open Architecture Platform

Imagine - a small army. A cluster if you will. wouldn't that be "wyrd" :)

It appears the device runs on a 300Mhz pentium

the fujitsu site has abit more info and a picture
http://pr.fujitsu.com/en/news/2001/09/10.html

here. Postercomment compression filter? WTF?

This category is most often described as a "tablet computer", not to be confused with a "tablet" (an input device). Alternatively, you'll see them described as a "pen computer". My favorite manufacturer is Fujitsu.

I agree that the cell phone form factor is only useful for being ... a phone.

All of these seem to run those nasty "OSes" from Redmond but check out these pretty things from Fujitsu Personal Systems