Well, you want a patent to be enforceable agaist others. So either you patent the entire microprocessor concept, or you patent one small invention that all microprocessors need to use. Intel probably patented the binary adder or something.
Speaking of which, I've always been confused as to why Apple decided it could get better performance with Intel instead of IBM, whereas Microsoft at the same moment made the exact opposite switch with the Xbox. What the heck is going on here? Anyone know a good reason?
For the lifetime of a console, you want every box to have a processor running at the same spec and for the price to decline as the years go by. Intel, on the other hand, would like to offer you a faster processor at the same price. For the 360, owning the hardware designs for Microsoft was an absolute imperative, because they found that they could not sufficiently drive down the price of the chips used in the original XBox console, unlike the PS2 and Sony, which saw the chips shrunken and merged and driven down in price.
That, and the fact that they didn't want people turning their subsidized game hardware into super-cheap multicore PCs.
But every time a technological war is waged between two competitors in the United States, the default winners are the companies in the Philippines and other silicon producing countries.
Sort of true. TSMC in Taiwan is a big winner, being the foundry for the ATI and Nvidia GPUs, while Chartered in Singapore has been doing great as a second source for the XBox chip, the original source being IBM's East Fishkill fab. However, the Cell chip is made by IBM in East Fishkill and Sony in Nagasaki. The Wii chip is made by IBM in East Fishkill. The GPU in the XBox also a second die in the package fabbed by NEC in Japan. But no doubt there's a number of other chips from foundries and IDMs all over.
I would knock Sony for doing an immediate system update
I would knock Sony for delaying the release date yet again to factory-load the update. Now that would be stupid. Parallelizing software development and hardware manufacturing sounds like a good way to catch up to schedules, if you ask me.
That's a very good point. I believe that most people view (or would like to) the OS, Office Software, and AntiVirus software on a machine in the same manner as they view their car stereo. Sure, you can change it, but generally no one wants to touch the factory install.
People who want proper representation in this republic should move to a state that is part of the republic. Living in the District is their choice. I live in Northern VA and I get a little sick and tired of seeing all the D.C. "Taxation without representation" license plates.
Like your 1/500000th of a congressman is worth the hassle of moving! That's like telling the fans of a local NFL team to stop complaining about non-broadcast non-sellouts and move out of the TV blackout zone. Geez, just shut up and move, Cardinals fans. You're not allowed to complain if there is a simple solution like moving. Duh. (Yes, satellite TV might be a solution, but I'm being facetious.)
Alameda County in CA has ditched (at least for now) its Diebold machines in favor of the black arrow ballots and it made me feel much more comfortable that my ballot would be counted.
I filled in some black ovals this morning and fed my ballot into a Diebold scanner. At least it doesn't shred the ballot on the way out.
The "old" theory said that the entire planet was resurfaced in one huge volcanic event. The "new" theory says that it was not one big event, and the the age of the surface varies more considerably from location to location that previously supposed.
Juries cannot be expected to spend the defendant's money in a rational way; there is no benefit for thrift. Politicians cannot be expected to spend corporations' money in a rational way, unless incentives are provided--and they often are.
I'm surprised nobody yet seems to have cropped down to that heavily tracked part of the image and made it more widely available. Guess it comes with the problems of working with even an 11.7Mb JPEG in an image editor unless you have a machine up to the task, which I won't till well into 2007.
If you really want to see the hobbyist-created imagery (and sometimes real planetary scientist-created imagery) then browse on over to unmannedspaceflight.com
That's less than 1/3mb per photo which is very smallby todays standards. guess NASA are using old tech cos of the time it took the rover to get there, or for reliability.
Or perhaps they're using a grayscale CCD imager with color filters and a low susceptibility to radiation-induced noise.
AMD and Intel have their own fabs that are at the leading edge of semiconductor technology. I highly doubt that nVidia will open up a fab for their chips. But who knows, IBM may produce their chips for them.
Why not just stick with TSMC? It's not like TSMC doesn't also have a few gagillion dollars to spend on process development. Is there something wrong with Nvidia's current chips?
In Chapter 11, the shareholders are the last creditors in line. Your shares are still and permanently worthless, and whatever banks SGI was indebted to now own the company.
In the past three years, the one Slashdot article with Alexa in the title was in December 2005. No doubt a few slashdotters took a quick look at the toolbar, and the quickly decided it was worthless.
Even if I were to agree that it is "mere" advertising and not also the media on which the advertising is delivered, do you believe that all companies providing fungible services and not physical products are pretty much worthless? Lawyers and accountants don't necessarily do anything that the other lawyers and accounts can't do, but that doesn't mean their firms are worthless.
I tend to think that google looks kind of expensive as well, but it's a huge cash generating machine, and its downfall is not certain.
The worst part is that the Fed thinks they have lernt the lesson of the great depression - that the solution is more liquidity.
Don't forget the FDIC. If you think hyperinflation is better than deflation, tell me what happens to the average indebted american when wages decline, unemployment rises, and yet the mortgage, student load, credit card and car payments don't decrease? Ooooh yeah, that's bad.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, you want a patent to be enforceable agaist others. So either you patent the entire microprocessor concept, or you patent one small invention that all microprocessors need to use. Intel probably patented the binary adder or something.
That, and the fact that they didn't want people turning their subsidized game hardware into super-cheap multicore PCs.
A few here and there, but not most.
Whew, take a joke.
The "old" theory said that the entire planet was resurfaced in one huge volcanic event. The "new" theory says that it was not one big event, and the the age of the surface varies more considerably from location to location that previously supposed.
In Chapter 11, the shareholders are the last creditors in line. Your shares are still and permanently worthless, and whatever banks SGI was indebted to now own the company.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, join Gartner.
I tend to think that google looks kind of expensive as well, but it's a huge cash generating machine, and its downfall is not certain.
s/is/isn't: "If you think hyperinflation isn't better than deflation... yaddah yaddah yaddah."