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A slew of rumors have started flying that IBM may be interested in purchasing Sun. However, the word on the Street is that the likelihood of this is pretty small, because IBM's business focus is not where Sun is at currently. Thanks to profesor for being the first to send this one in.

Cary Collett writes "Sun Microsystems and IBM will today announce the availability of the JavaOS for Business, a new Java-based operating system derivative targeted at network computer rollouts and other client devices such as kiosks. See the whole scoop here "

Shaw Terwilliger writes " IBM's found a way to actually photograph the electron flow through CMOS circuits for testing and analysis. PICA works by detecting the very faint light emissions from the individual gates in an integrated circuit. You can download MPEGs of the electricity in motion. They claim this will lead to better chips by shortening the testing process and making it more accurate. Neat stuff, those electrons. "

IBM will be annoucing today that their work in silicon-on-insulator has paid off. This will probably mean power requirements cut by a 1/3, and performance increases in the same area. It should be noted, however, that IBM is not the only to be working on this-they are just the only ones marketing it.

While some of the media reported that Acer was considering developing its own x86 processors, it would seem that it will be using Cyrix processors instead. Read more below. In related news, ARM will release specs on its ARM 10 chip at that the Embedded Processor Forum on October 15th. It is expected to run at 500 MIPS, well in excess of StrongArm, raising the question of how ARM will position it with respect to Intel's SA-1500 processors. There should be some interesting competition between the ARM architecture and the low end x86 market in the near future.

A while back, IBM semiconductor could manufacture all of the non-intel x86 clones: AMD, Winchip, and Cyrix. But the tide seems to have turned with AMD now relying on Motorola instead of IBM, and Cyrix accusing IBM of undercutting them on price. I wonder whether this has anything to do with IBM's recent alliance with ST Microelectronics, proud owners of Metaflow, another x86 design house... alliance which should result in production of a system on a chip by the end of this year.

Redhat's president Bob Young argues in an Internet World article that Java has not taken off, because it is not Open Source. Apparently the remedy for Redhat Linux will be including the latest version of Kaffe. With Kaffe and Jikes the ground would be covered. Let's just help and hope.

The authors of Jikes have set up a discussion database to help them write a proposal to make Jikes into Free Software. They hope to put a proposal together by the end of August, but of course that does not garantee their managers will buy into it... on the other hand their proposal to release Jikes for Linux was accepted. Please contribute to the discussion, but give them really good testimonials as to why that would help you in your development: they already know Linux's advantages, but need more data to make a really strong proposal. In related news, Jikes is now available for libc5, so everyone can try it.

The authors of Jikes have set up a discussion database to help them write a proposal to make Jikes into Free Software. They hope to put a proposal together by the end of August, but of course that does not garantee their managers will buy into it... on the other hand their proposal to release Jikes for Linux was accepted. Please contribute to the discussion, but give them really good testimonials as to why that would help you in your development: they already know Linux's advantages, but need more data to make a really strong proposal. In related news, Jikes is now available for libc5, so everyone can try it.

The authors of Jikes have set up a discussion database to help them write a proposal to make Jikes into Free Software. They hope to put a proposal together by the end of August, but of course that does not garantee their managers will buy into it... on the other hand their proposal to release Jikes for Linux was accepted. Please contribute to the discussion, but give them really good testimonials as to why that would help you in your development: they already know Linux's advantages, but need more data to make a really strong proposal. In related news, Jikes is now available for libc5, so everyone can try it.

Apparently the recent Slashdot article generated quite a bit of interest for IBM's Jikes java compiler. So much so that IBM sent me an email thanking us for over 10,000 hits. I took the opportunity to ask whether the source code could be made available. This is the answer I received: I talked to the Jikes developers and they told me they are conducting serious discussion about releasing the source. They are working on some bug reports right now from all the downloads. I'll get the source to you as soon as they release it to me. In the meantime, you can download the companion debugger to Jikes: JikesDebugger.

Apparently the recent Slashdot article generated quite a bit of interest for IBM's Jikes java compiler. So much so that IBM sent me an email thanking us for over 10,000 hits. I took the opportunity to ask whether the source code could be made available. This is the answer I received: I talked to the Jikes developers and they told me they are conducting serious discussion about releasing the source. They are working on some bug reports right now from all the downloads. I'll get the source to you as soon as they release it to me. In the meantime, you can download the companion debugger to Jikes: JikesDebugger.

While everyone else is moving ahead at breakneck speed to integrate the new copper technology Intel has declared that they will be taking a more conservative stance, not looking towards using it until 2001-2. They remain convinced that they can boost the chip speed by using conventional aluminum.

IBM has released an incremental Java compiler called Jikes. It's faster, produces more warnings, and might herald the porting of other IBM products to Linux, like their java-bytecode to native compiler (hint, hint). These products are the result of their researchers, rather than their product teams, which means that they can compete with the product line (like Visual Age for Java) yet be given away (no source).

IBM has released an incremental Java compiler called Jikes. It's faster, produces more warnings, and might herald the porting of other IBM products to Linux, like their java-bytecode to native compiler (hint, hint). These products are the result of their researchers, rather than their product teams, which means that they can compete with the product line (like Visual Age for Java) yet be given away (no source).

IBM has released an incremental Java compiler called Jikes. It's faster, produces more warnings, and might herald the porting of other IBM products to Linux, like their java-bytecode to native compiler (hint, hint). These products are the result of their researchers, rather than their product teams, which means that they can compete with the product line (like Visual Age for Java) yet be given away (no source).

IBM has released an incremental Java compiler called Jikes. It's faster, produces more warnings, and might herald the porting of other IBM products to Linux, like their java-bytecode to native compiler (hint, hint). These products are the result of their researchers, rather than their product teams, which means that they can compete with the product line (like Visual Age for Java) yet be given away (no source).

arp writes "Motorola and AMD plan to announce Monday a technology swap intended to speed development of microprocessors made with copper, an important alternative to the aluminum long used in the brains of computers and other electronics. "
Very cool. With IBM's work in this area, it is good to see this start to enter into the real world.

Simon Janes and Brett James wrote about IBM's claim that it vehemently disputes Microsoft's claims of having the biggest capacity server. IBM said its own online database of U.S. patents dwarfs Microsoft's TerraServer. IBM's patent site, includes drawings and descriptions of all U.S. patents since 1971 and is 1.5 Tbytes compressed and 15 Tbytes uncompressed.

IBM and Motorola will be ending their joint venture at the PowerPC chip design plant near Austin, TX. This announcement came today, and also included the news that Motorola will take over sole ownership and control of the facility.

Andrew Leonard wrote in to tell us that Lycos has Patented the Web Spider. I'm wondering if they actually were the first to do this? For that matter, if only Lycos can have a spider, then I guess only Lycos can have a search engine. /me smells trouble. The article says Lycos plans a "vigorous defense of its rights" that is most definately going to shake things up. In any case, it seems to me that this isn't the "Save As" dialog box, but its pretty close. Update Here is the actual Patent. Apparently it isn't as broad as the article above describes.

Intel is having a bad month. C't now reports over 500 re-labeled Pentium II chips have been found, including in channels Intel claimed secure. More worrying is that some remarked chips may be undetectable until the overclocked chip is damaged. More info is available here.. In particular the class action suit in Taiwan is worth reading. The announcement that Merced will be late caused Technology stocks to tumble yesterday. And today, news.com reports that the top FTC litigator is recommending that Intel be sued for alleged antitrust violations.

(Read more below)

Meanwhile, the competition is heating up. Newcomer Rise has demonstrated its new mP6 x86 processor, designed (like Centaur's) for the notebook market.

Interestingly, Centaur is abandonning its unipipe solution for its second generation Winchips, using 2 6-stage pipelines at up to 300Mhz. A third 12-stage pipe line architecture is planned, which will running at frequencies between 400 and 600Mhz, should improve performance by 80%. Centaur is also jumping onto the integration bandwagon, proposing its Winchip 2+NB which reduces board area (and costs) by combining the C6 core and a north-bridge on the same die.

AMD has released its K6-2, at a higher price, and with little OEM interest. However this chip is a screamer, profiting from being the first to use the new 100Mhz front side bus, and the new 3DNow! instructions. Centaur, Cyrix, and IBM also plan to deliver these features in their upcoming processors.

Finally, IBM has released a PR333 version of the Cyrix-designed 6x86 MX, which apparently partially gains its speed from a new type of chip-package. This comes as IBM revealed that it expects its Slot1 solution to be developed by Cyrix.

Erik Hovland writes "I was looking at SUNs website and noticed that they are going to webcast the computer bowl. I thought the slashdot faithful would like to know that Marc Andreessen is on the West coast team along with other nerd notables. The other interesting thing is that the browser for the competition is only available for windows! They should have contacted IBM to do a modification to their cool chess servlet."

AMD has announced the K6 300MHz. Available at US$246 in quantities of 1000, it's not as cheap as its older cousin, the 266MHz, priced at US$156. IBM has already announced two new models in its Aptiva line using the new chip. More evidence IBM is hoping to oust Jerry Sanders as CEO and become a major investor in AMD?

Sun and IBM will be working together to roll-out yet another network based computer, that will be (surprise!) based on a JavaOS. The JavaOS, to be called JavaOS for Business, will be used in the new NCs that they are working on together. This deal calls for the rollout of machines in about a year and half.

Arctangent wrote in to pass on a rumor that Blizzard (creators of Diable and WarCraft II, a pair of the greatest games ever) is Willing to port StarCraft to Linux if enough demand is shown. Update: Erik contacted me and said this was just a rumor. Bummer. Blizzard is probably making a mistake here especially since they could get volunteer coders to help do it if they were willing to GPL the older games. Guess that means I won't get to play StarCraft. At least WC2 runs under Dosemu...

In the continuing worrisome trend of US patent office incompetence, news.com reports that Open Market has been awarded extremely broad patents covering much of the software in common use today for Internet shopping and credit card payments. Larger companies can cross-license or claim patent infringement against Open Market, but smaller ones will be screwed. Nice to know that the fine tradition of patenting prior inventions, such as wheels (also awarded this year) continues in the US.

By the end of this year, there will be 7 somewhat incompatible versions of Windows. In addition to the current four x86 vendors there will many more, among which Imes, CPU Tech, Metaflow, Rise, Transmeta ( ? ), and Exponential (??). While new hardware ages computers before they are sold, M$'s bloatware obsoletes them within a year. To compensate, consumers are turning to cheap "disposable" computers. But this trend driven by Microsoft's feature-adding strategy, risks back-firing. As component cost is driven down, and specialised vendors disappear, more application specific devices will emerge. Just like Cyrix's MediaGX, they will be geared towards providing the maximum bang for the buck in a specific environment. This will slowly push the single-OS-for-all paradigm to the side. Indeed, as hardware cost goes down, the direct and indirect price of using Microsoft increases: Windows/Office costs money, it also costs a very powerful environment: memory, harddrive, etc. And if computers are application specific, the choice of an OS becomes irrelevant, and each new feature is clearly costed.

While HotSpot will be delayed until the summer, other vendors are testing alternative technologies. A favorite seems to be compilation to a native instruction set, which gives an insight into the speeds that could be obtained. New garbage collection algorithms and a better understanding of memory allocation issues should also help. And while current JIT's deliver lower performance, there are reasons to believe that JIT compilers might eventually become more efficient than native code. However, this does not mean that Java need be the portability solution: Taos is selling a new portable OS, Elate, written in a virtual assembly code based upon a run-time translator.

Wirehead writes "This article, found over at the San Jose Mercury compares how Microsofts present woes closely compare to how IBM was changed in the 60's and 70's by the DOJ as well. An interesting read, since it compares much of how IBM the and Microsoft now companies have and are reacting under the presure by the DOJ investigation(s). Perhaps Microsoft will end up alot like IBM? The Article can be read here."

Cefiar writes the following: "IBM Microelectronics has recently announced a 275 Mhz version of it's PowerPC 750 processor. IBM apparently is aiming the processor at Mac OS applications. Newer Technologies and Interware Co. will apparently have CPU cards available soon/now."

Cefiar writes the following: "IBM Microelectronics has recently announced a 275 Mhz version of it's PowerPC 750 processor. IBM apparently is aiming the processor at Mac OS applications. Newer Technologies and Interware Co. will apparently have CPU cards available soon/now."