vpnsite.net

The world of the cellular phone and cellular phone service has certainly grown up quit ea bit since the first cell phones hit the market. The first cell phones were utilitarian devices only, great for an emergency but certainly not something you would want to carry around all the time or show off to your friends. These days, of course, the cell phones offered by companies like T-Mobile are stylish, beautiful and affordable.

In addition, the service offered for cellular customers has changed quite a bit sine those first clunky cell phones hit the market. These days, services like T-Mobile are ready to help customers connect wherever they travel and whenever they need to keep in touch.

These days cellular phone service has become nearly a necessity for many people, and many of those in the corporate world are required by their companies to carry cell phones in order to be instantly in touch should an emergency arise. These kinds of business critical cell phones are the perfect candidates for T-Mobile service, which is known for its reliability and its strong network coverage.

Even for personal use, a cellular phone service such as T-Mobile can be a great choice. Every personal cell phone user needs to decide for him or herself just what is important in the phone and the service, since today’s cellular phones are packed with so many different features. From cameras to special ring tones, there are so many different things to love about cell phones, and it is important to determine just what features are most important to you.

For instance, it is possible to purchase a T-Mobile cell phone nearly as thin as a credit card, and these stylish cell phones are easy to use as well as attractive. In addition, there are a number of excellent flip style and traditional style T-Mobile phones, some equipped with cameras, others equipped with MP3 players and still others which can connect wirelessly to email and the internet. With all these choices it is a good idea to chat with a T-Mobile cellular consultant in order to make the best choice.

The world of cell phones and cell phone technology has certainly come a great way in a very short period of time. From the first clunky car phones that weighed many pounds, to today’s ultra-thin cell phones that fit easily in even the smallest pocket, the world of the cell phone has certainly changed and evolved over the years, as has the technology needed to connect those phones to one another and the wider world.

For more information on T-Mobile go to http://www.tmobilela.com

[tags]T-Mobile[/tags]

You may ask, isn’t tape an anachronism in the age of optical disks, removable hard drives and a plethora of whiz-bang, random-access storage media? In many ways it is, but because of the nature of backup it doesn’t really matter that tape is slow and sequential-access. Remember, tape is cheap. Businesses use tape because they find it to be a cost-effective backup solution.

However, if you have any problems with tape backup, you’ll probably be interested to know that there are several alternatives to tape.

Backup to NAS devices

NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices are attached directly to your network and can act as a backup store. Obviously, it’s very convenient to backup files to NAS, as there are no disks or tapes to insert and remove. There are many NAS devices specially designed for small businesses. NAS is an excellent choice for network backup.

Backup to REV drive

In April 2004, Iomega released the REV drive — a new storage device that has greater capacity than tape and is 5 to 8 times faster. Key features are:

* Backup to REV drive is much faster than tape backup.
* REV drive units are more durable than tape.
* While tape requires regular cleaning, no cleaning is required for REV drive units.
* Backup to REV drive may in fact prove more cost-effective for your business than tape, depending on your backup scheme and other factors.

Otherwise, REV backup is very similar to tape backup in principle.

Final notes

Several reliable backup software solutions exist. Choosing one is simply a case of deciding which is most suitable for your business. As always, invest in quality backup software. Rather than purchasing specialist REV backup software and NAS backup software, your choice in software should allow backup to numerous devices. You will then be able to change your backup hardware in the future without buying new software.

Linus Chang is a backup expert and the lead developer of BackupAssist — backup software that is simple and affordable, and perfect for small and medium businesses. Protect your Windows servers, including SQL Server and Exchange Server, to tape, REV drive, hard drive, NAS and more, at a fraction of the cost of other backup programs. It transforms NTBackup into a script-free and simple-to-use tool.

[tags]backup software, tape backup, rev drive, NAS[/tags]

System Buses Explained

I don’t know about you, but I for one, despite thinking to myself that I had it all under my grasp always get confused when thinking about the array of buses in a modern computer. Bandwidth of the CPU, memory, AGP plus new technologies such as Hypertransport always leave me in a spin, especially when you’re talking to someone about it who manages to make you question your own knowledge.

I thought I would write it down for reference, and hopefully provide an understanding to those who want to know all about this topic.

Throughout this article we will try to grasp an understanding of all the components that make a viable computer system and hopefully see past the marketing which preys on our lack of understanding.

The Aim

Computers are not marketed these days from a purely technical point of view. All retailers or manufacturers will attempt to give their product an edge over very similar products in their class. Graphics cards and motherboards are an excellent example of this right now. Different names, same technology.

Marketing even goes so far as to deviate away from the correct technical terminology of computers. Kilo, Mega, Giga are not the same when it comes to making numbers “easy” for joe public.

Technically and correct:

1 bit is a single unit of information depicted in the form of a 1 or a 0.

There are 8 bits in a byte

There are 1024 bytes in a kilobyte

There are 1024 kilobytes in a Megabyte

There are 1024 Megabytes in a Gigabyte

And incidentally, although not used in this article…

There are 1024 Gigabytes in a Terabyte

1024*1024*1024 is awkward and provides results that are not nice for marketing.

Instead they move to multiples of 1000. 1000 bytes in a kilobyte, 1000 kilobytes in a megabyte and so forth. This provides nice round numbers.

Take this for example (we will cover the calculations later on):

Technically:

PC2100 DDR Memory / DDR266 Memory

64 (bits) * 266,000,000 (Hz) = 17024,000,000 bits/s

(17024,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 2029.4MB/s

Marketing:

PC2100 DDR Memory / DDR266 Memory

64 (bits) * 266,000,000 (Hz) = 17024,000,000 bits/s

(17024,000,000/8) / (1000*1000) = 2128MB/s

Convenient don’t you think? Not only does it provide a magical 100MB/s of bandwidth, it’s also a nice number (no decimal places etc..)

Latency

The problem with high multipliers in modern CPUs is the latencies involved. The processor clock speed (we will use 1.73GHz as an example) is far in advance of the relatively paltry speeds of the memory bus, AGP bus etc.. the CPU finds itself having to wait around for the rest of the system to catch up.

We shall use an example to illustrate:

A processor with a 133MHz bus speed running at 1.73GHz has a clock multiplier of 13 (13*133 = 1733).

# The CPU sends a request to the system memory for information
# The CPU then waits one cycle (commonly known as the command rate (1T)
# The memory undergoes what is known as a RAS/CAS latency
# The memory has a delay in finding the data known as a CAS latency

Thus whilst the CPU has waited 1 CPU cycle and then 4 bus cycles it has had to wait for 1 + (4 * multiplier) CPU cycles to get the data it was after. For every memory bus cycle the CPU has undergone 13 cycles. Not much when you consider this 1.73GHz CPU has 1.73 billion cycles per second, but how many times does the CPU access main memory? Quite a bit and so it all adds up.

Memory

We will consider 3 different types of computer memory in this article.

# SDR-SDRAM (Single Data Rate - Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) - SDR-SDRAM was the dominant memory of the late 90s. Later version were available at speeds of 66/100/133 MHz as standard. This type of memory is/was used by both Intel and AMD for their recent offerings, even used in the i845/845G chipset with the Pentium 4 processsor. Later we will show what a mistake or distinct waste of CPU that was.

# DDR-SDRAM (Double Data Rate - Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) - DDR-SDRAM has taken over where SDR memory left off. Particularly with AMD systems (Thunderbird / XP / Thoroughbred) DDR memory has come to the fore as the mainstream memory for the forseeable future, with DDR-II on the horizon.

# RDRAM (RAMBUS Dynamic Random Access Memory) - Although only really made popular in the mainstream computer market via the Intel Pentium 4 processor, RDRAM technology dates back earlier than DDR memory.

Bandwidth Calculations

To avoid confusion later on here is a reference table for bits, bytes, Mega, kilo, Giga etc…

1 bit is a single unit of information depicted in the form of a 1 or a 0.

There are 8 bits in a byte

There are 1024 bytes in a kilobyte

There are 1024 kilobytes in a Megabyte

There are 1024 Megabytes in a Gigabyte

And incidentally, although not used in this article…

There are 1024 Gigabytes in a Terabyte

SDR-SDRAM

To calculate memory bandwidth we need to know 2 things. Its data width and its operating frequency. The latter is easier to find out as it is usually part of the marketing/retail title.

We usually see SDR memory at 100 or 133MHz. Taking 133MHz as the example, this means that the memory can perform an operation 133 million times every second.

Finding the data width, well that’s just something you have to look up. SDR memory has a data width of 64 bits or 8 bytes (8 bits in a byte).

PC100 SDR Memory

The calculation is as follows : data width * operating frequency = bandwidth (in bits/s)

To convert to more realistic and manageable figures, divide the result by 8 to give bytes/s and then divide again by 1024 to get kilobytes/s and then by 1024 again to get Megabytes/s.

Thus : 64 (bits) * 100,000,000 (Hz) = 6400,000,000 bits/s

(6400,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 762.9MB/s memory bandwidth.

PC133 SDR Memory

Using the same forumla as we did for PC100 SDR memory we can easily calculate theoretical memory bandwidth for PC133 SDR memory.

64 (bits) * 133,000,000 (Hz) = 8512,000,000 bits/s

(8512,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 1014.7MB/s or roughly about 1GB/s memory bandwidth.

DDR-SDRAM

DDR memory is slightly more complicated to understand for 2 reasons. Firstly, DDR memory has the ability to transfer data on the rising and falling edge of a clock cycle, meaning theoretically DDR memory doubles the memory bandwidth of a system able to use it.

Secondly, as a marketing push to compete with a rival technology at the time DDR was introduced, RAMBUS; DDR was sold as a measure of its approximate peak theoretical bandwidth. Similar to AMD and the PR rating of the XP processors we have today, People buy numbers, and DDR was seen to be faster if it was sold as PC1600 and PC2100 instead of PC200 and PC266.

PC1600 DDR Memory / DDR200 Memory

DDR memory has the same data width as SDR memory: 64 bits.

We use the same calculation to measure bandwidth, with the additional frequency.

64 (bits) * 200,000,000 (Hz) = 12800,000,000 bits/s

(12800,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 1525.9MB/s.

Notice the bandwidth is twice that of PC100 SDR memory.

PC2100 DDR Memory / DDR266 Memory

64 (bits) * 266,000,000 (Hz) = 17024,000,000 bits/s

(17024,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 2029.4MB/s or roughly 2GB/s memory bandwidth.

With the advent of improved memory yields, modules able to run at higher clock speeds are being released to the market. PC2700 has finally come into its own with the introduction of the AMDXP2700+/2800+ and the Intel i845PE chipset.

Here are some bandwidths for the latest memory available:

PC2700 DDR Memory / DDR333 Memory

64 (bits) * 333,000,000 (Hz) = 21312,000,000 bits/s

(21312,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 2540.6MB/s.

PC3200 DDR Memory / DDR400 Memory

64 (bits) * 400,000,000 (Hz) = 25600,000,000 bits/s

(25600,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 3051.8MB/s.

PC3500 DDR Memory / DDR434 Memory

64 (bits) * 434,000,000 (Hz) = 27776,000,000 bits/s

(27776,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 3311.2MB/s.

RDRAM

RDRAM memory is slightly more complicated in that the bus operates at an effective 64 bit bus width ala DDR but is seperated into 2 16/32 bit channels. What does this mean? well currently 2 sticks of RDRAM have to be used in a system. DDR has the advantage (usually from a cost point of view) of being able to be used in single DIMMs.

The caclulation is basically the same however, we just need to take into account the extra channel and additional memory speed.

PC800

16 (bits) * 800,000,000 (Hz) = 12800,000,000 bits/s

(12800,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 1525.9MB/s. Multiplied by 2 because of the dual channel configuration - 3051.8MB/s

PC1066

16 (bits) * 1066,000,000 (Hz) = 17056,000,000 bits/s

(17056,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 2033.2MB/s. Multiplied by 2 because of the dual channel configuration - 4066.4MB/s

nForce

nForce is special as it heralded the future of memory interfaces, for DDR at least. Dual DDR technology gives 2 64bit channels instead of 1 making an effective 128bit memory bus. This allows twice the bandwidth through the bus.

Although DualDDR technology never really made a huge impact on nForce memory bandwidth (so the benchmarks tell us at least), it has great potential to a recent DDR convert.

The Intel Pentium 4 processor, a long standing advocate of RAMBUS/RDRAM has pledged to move away from the serial memory technology and embrace DDR. Unfortunately, as the memory bandwidth calculations on page 4 showed, DDR in its current form has neither the bandwidth or the potential to scale up to RDRAM bandwidths in its current iteration.

Dual DDR will make a big difference to Pentium 4 chipsets. P4s with QDR architecture can achieve bandwidths of around 4GB/s, perfectly matched with PC1066 RDRAM. The fastest DDR memory currently available on the other hand, PC3500 has a bandwidth of around 3.1GB/s. The P4 is crippled with current DDR chipsets.

Doubling the memory bandwidth then is something Intel is looking forward to.

PCI Bus

The PCI bus is one of the older buses in a modern system. It is the bus which connects all the expansion cards in a system to the main chipset, along with IDE and USB.

The PCI bus is a 32-bit wide bus running at 33MHz. Using our familiar calculation we can now easily calculate its maximum bandwidth.

32 (bits) * 33,000,000 (Hz) = 1056,000,000 bits/s

(1056,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 125.9MB/s. Rounded up to 133MB/s

It is relatively easy to imagine, that with modern ATA133 Hard Drives, PCI network adapters, sound cards and the like, the PCI bus can easily become saturated. There are 3 ways around this solution. 2 have already been implemented.

# Expand the bandwidth of the bus - Server motherboards, especially with the prevalence of SCSI hard drives requiring more bandwidth than the PCI bus can transfer, have moved to a 66MHz bus using 64bit slots. This quadruples the bandwidth afforded.

64 (bits) * 66,000,000 (Hz) = 4224,000,000 bits/s

(4224,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 503.5MB/s. Rounded up to 533MB/s

# Move to a dedicated bus - The obvious example here is graphics cards. With ever increasing speeds of graphics cards needed to deal with ever complex games the PCI bus of old simply cannot deal with the sheer amount of information needed to get to the northbridge and vice versa. Thus the AGP bus was born. A direct link from the AGP card to the chipset running at 66MHz with a 32bit bus gives a maximum bandwidth of:

32 (bits) * 66,000,000 (Hz) = 2112,000,000 bits/s

(1056,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 251.77MB/s; rounded up to 266MB/s

IDE

IDE hard drives transmit data to the CPU and vice versa, via the PCI Bus. Of course this means that any transfers is limited by the speed of the PCI bus, 133MB/s or thereabouts meaning ATA133 is as high as IDE can get (even though in reality it never gets close anyway).

Recent innovations have tried to bypass the PCI bus for IDE transfers. VIA’s VLink technology is a dedicated bus running at 266MB/s between the Southbridge and Northbridge.

Serial ATA

The successor to IDE. Why is this in the PCI section? Well currently despite all the hype, Serial ATA connectors all use the PCI bus to transfer information. SATA150 with a theoretical maximum transfer of 150MB/s is limited to the paltry 133MB/s of the PCI bus. Future chipsets will alleviate Serial ATA of the PCI bus burden and allow direct access to the chipset probably on a dedicated bus. This is needed for the next generation of SATA devices able to run at 300/600MB/s.

AGP Bus

As partly explained on page 6, the AGP bus was born to accomodate the ever expanding bandwidth needs of graphics card. The 133MB/s capacity of the PCI bus simply wasn’t able to handle the likes of cards faster than the Voodoo 3, one of the last PCI graphics cards.

The AGP bus was a 32bit bus like the PCI bus, but it operated at 66MHz giving it a maximum bandwidth of 266MB/s. This was and is known as AGP 1x.

Similar to the QDR implementation of the Intel Pentium 4 processor, the AGP bus was redesigned to allow data to be processed 2, then 4 times every clock cycle. This is known as AGP2x/4x. More recently AGP8x has been introduced.

Each iteration of AGP has doubled the bandwidth of the previous standard:

# AGP1x = 266MB/s
# AGP2x = 533MB/s
# AGP4x = 1066MB/s
# AGP8x = 2132MB/s

Hypertransport

In all walks of life, things move on. Standards described 10 years ago ad beyond can never hope to achieve scaleability to today’s needs.

As the 8bit ISA bus was superceded by the PCI bus, thus the outdated PCI needs to be phased out and a new interconnect protocol defined. The leading contender for the throne at the moment is Hypertransport.

An AMD led consortium hopes to make Hypertransport the defining interconnect protocol of the forseeable future.

What Is Hypertransport?

Hypertransport is a point-to-point interconnect primarilly designed for speed, scaleability and the unification of the various system buses we have today. The same link can be used to retrieve data from a network card and a bank of DDR memory.

Here is an example of the typical computer bus layout as we know today:

Hypertransport would eliminate most of the bottlenecks found in today’s systems. The PCI bus as explained earlier is easily saturated with the high bandwidth peripherals in use.

In terms of speed, Hypertransport is capable (at the moment) of delivering throughputs of up to 51.2Gbps.

Using 500MHz clock rate as an example

2 (bits * 500,000,000 (Hz) = 1000,000,000 bit/s

(1000,000,000/8) / (1024*1024) = 119.2MB/s - with the ability of DDR signaling this is doubled to 238.4MB/s.

or to use Gbits (basically because it sounds more):

1000,000,000 / (1024*1024*1024) = 0.93Gbps (rounded up to 1Gbps). With the DDR signaling this is shunted up to 2Gbps.

We see Hypertransport in today’s technology through one company’s innovation to break from the norm. NVIDIA’s nForce (and nForce2 of course) use Hypertransport as the primary interconnect offering throughputs of 800MB/s (nForce1) and 1600MB/s (nForce2). Not top speed Hypertransport but more than enough for today’s components.

VIA have validated Hypertransport for use in their upcoming K8 AMD Hammer chipsets so the future is certainly picking up for the fledgling protocol.

Roundup

Before we talk about what will come let us briefly cover what is going on at the moment.

It should have hopefully become apparent that there are many pitfalls when deciding on a new computer system, for both home users and businesses alike. As always, technical details are buried under a big pile of marketing. Minor advancements in technology that in reality, do nothing are heralded as the “next big thing”. A quick look under the surface however, shows this not to be the case.

It pains me to see users asking whether they should upgrade their VIA KT266a based motherboard to a VIA KT333 chipset because “it must be faster”, bigger numbers mean faster right?. Wrong, a balanced system means you can squeeze the most out of your setup, be it for gaming, CAD or other intensive operations. Nobody wants to spend money needlessly so read this article again, get a feel for the numbers involved and come to your own conclusions.

The Future

We covered briefly the aspects regarding future IO buses. Hypertransport and PCI-Express are on the horizion, or indeed are already here. We need the peripherals and components to make use of this additional bandwidth. At the moment it seems wherever you look, there is a bottleneck.

Hopefully in the future manufacturers will settle on fewer buses, it’s less confusing for the consumer and it also means that computers will become less complex. Take for example USB2.0 and Firewire (not covered in this article), two competing protocols that basically do the same thing. Hot-pluggable, scaleable, high-bandwidth connections. Why not settle on one and stick with it?

Anyway, end of the ranting. We hope you enjoyed this article. It will be constantly updated as new technologies emerge in this ever-changing industry.

At the end of the day, this is a reference for us all.

Alan Ogden
Former Owner and Writer DeviantPC
Hardware Evaluations And Technical Writings
Now Owner of 3dpixelnet.co.uk premier UK hosting

[tags]System Buses Explained[/tags]

Remember the telephone companies’ deregulation of the 1980s? If someone were to ask me then to switch my phone service I would have said ‘no way’. You see during this initial period it really was all about the network.

Well, the times have certainly changed. For some of us in the United States, we’ve seen the TV commercials trying to instill fear of switching providers. By the way, it probably goes without saying, but you do know who’s funding those advertisements right? The big name providers who obviously don’t want to loose your business.

The times have changed. The networks have stabilized, are reliable and offer the same quality. Let’s face it; even the major local providers need to interface with other companies network. A local provider is not providing end-to-end long distance. Once they get out of their ‘network’ they need to interface with another providers ‘network’ in order to complete your call.

At the start of this, I stated I would not have switched my long distance provider back in the 1980’s. I’m happy to say, I’ve switched my long distance provider a long time back and have been extremely happy with the service, quality and reliability. Actually, I’ve experienced no difference at all in service, reliability or quality of calls between my
smaller named long distance carrier and the big name carrier I used to use. The biggest difference, for me, was a HUGE cost savings.

Everyone’s calling habits are different. I live in a large midwestern city and my long distance calling is generally to New York City and southern California. I for one cut my long distance by over HALF what it was. Anytime we can save money without loosing quality of service is a no brainer. Get past the hype and the fear the major providers try to stir up.

Having said all that, how would you choose a provider? First, we’d certainly like you to use our web site, but there are many web sites today that provide free quotes for you. Learn how to read your quote. Don’t to lured by a cheap per minute rate because that is only part of what your overall bill will be. Terms, conditions, taxes and fee’s can quickly exceed any perceived cost savings on rate alone.

There are reliable, lower cost carriers out there. There is money to be saved. There is a way to learn how to read your quote and know exactly what you’re paying for. Use our site, use someone else’s site, but learn to read your quote and you will happily save money every month.

Provided by Full Service Broadband Provider. We offer unbiased and informative information on broadband and communication products and services. This service is made possible through Try Right Technology, Inc

[tags]phone service, long distance[/tags]

If you are shopping for a small business Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solution and you run MS Outlook, the answer might be closer at hand than you realise!

CRM software will revolutionize the way you approach the sales, marketing and service aspects of your business. Your sales will flourish through improved sales tracking and automation; your customer service and customer loyalty will improve with enhanced relationship management and your marketing costs will be reduced through better targetting.

There is a growing range of CRM products that do more than merely integrate to MS Outlook - they are actually embedded in Outlook. They are an extension of Outlook and appear to be an integral part of the system. So when you open up your MS Outlook you are automatically opening your CRM system, too.

Outlook already provides you with a database, but one that is rather limited. These Outlook CRM products change that for you.

There are many advantages to Outlook based CRM software compared to alternative CRM solutions.

Here are a few:

* Cost effective. Outlook based CRM applications are often considerably cheaper per seat than their counterparts.

* The standard features of Outlook are greatly enhanced. You will enjoy better sales automation, marketing and customer service functionality, as well as improved email, document, task and reporting management.

* Strengthened database. Most vendors use more robust database engines than the standard Outlook PST database. One can manage bigger lists quicker, more reliably and efficiently. Some also offer an upgrade path to an industrial strength SQL database engine if needed.

*Database sharing. You can now share your Outlook database/s (or, in Outlook terminology, Addressbooks) across your network.

*No need for MS Exchange. You can share your database with other users across your network without having to purchase and support this expensive, complex and clunky beast.

*Calendar sharing across your network is also typically supported.

*Much readier acceptance of your CRM initiative by your staff due to their existing familiarity with MS Outlook.

*Reduced training costs. As your staff already know (or should know) how to use Outlook, the induction period is dramatically reduced and less expensive compared to other CRM software.
*Reduced support costs.

*Happier user experience. You won’t have to constantly toggle between Outlook and some CRM application as they are now effectively one product.

*Integration and synchronization between Outlook and external CRM software in no longer necessary.

*Minimal installation costs. Without over-simplifying the process, you typically just download, install and customize to suit your needs.

Certain software products in this genre also support synchronizing with your hand-held or PDA.

Many of these applications are developed from the ground up in .NET, Microsoft’s new development platform, making for stronger internet, email and 3rd party software integration.

If you are running a small business using MS Outlook, these CRM solutions deserve your serious consideration.

——————————

Perry Norgarb has specialized in CRM solutions for small businesses for the last 16 years.

Contact him or find out more about Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Contact Management and other Sales Tracking software tips and solutions for small businesses at: http://www.smallbizcrm.com

Find out more about Outlook based CRM solutions for small businesses

You are free to re-publish this article as long as this bio box and copyright remain intact and the links remain ‘live’. © 07 February, 2006.

[tags]outlook based crm,ms outlook,small business crm,sales management,sales tracking software,online crm[/tags]

The current age may be described as an age of machinery just because of modern technology. It has done wonders in the field of science, means of travel and communication and mechanical inventions.Great educationist of the world has considered this type of modern technology a part of education. For example the last decade brought the computers to the forefront and today we find computers being widely used in houses, factories & hospitals. Man is able to do several things which are thought impossible before some years. Here are some details of greatest inventions of Intel that will be launched in 2006.

Intel is likely to introduced a device with several flavors, Yonah (a dual-core notebook chip based on a new design)and another best device for home entertainment Viiv (designed to store music, record TV shows, so forth). Intel promised that in Yonah multiple applications can be run at a time.

“You will be able to do a skip voice call while playing video game”Keith Kresslin, Director of mobile platforms.

The Viiv PCs will come out in 9 countries first and spread to other soon after. Intel also plans to test the Viiv PC extensively for compatibility with other devices, such as handhelds and LCD TVs, and with services for downloading contants.These are great discoveries and stepping stones for us. These devices are based on scientific know-how and vast experience gathered over the years in scientific field and bringing facilities to the world of computer.

Intel Expected to give the guarantee of Yonah that it will perform 68% better than current Intel notebook chips. Computer with Yonah will also be better than PCs today at running many applications at once. Yonah is expected to consume only 3 watt of power on average less than the 4.2 watt average seen on current cutting-edge laptops.

The debut of Viiv PCs will also be seen in first quarter of 2006 which will contain several chips and software from Intel. Intel expect that these computer will be positioned as nerve centers for home entertainment, these are designed to store music, record TV shows, serve up family photos & videos and also allow people to pass movie to handhelds.

Eric Kim, the chief marketing officer at Intel said, “There is no unifying platform that puts these things together”

“It (Viiv) will play a role in the living room”
RAID functionality will be included in Viiv PCs, so files can be back up in two or more drives. In the 2nd half of 2006, they will come with two bits of software…..Intel HUB connection technology & Viiv media server through this we can setup home network & make connection with peripheral devices, Executive said.

Intel said that TVs, Internet-enabled DVD players and other devices for Viiv compatibility, along with the Viiv certified content services, will be released in the second half of the next years.

These PCs will be quick resume.With this Yonah hit a button and the PC switches on “I don’t need to wait anymore to turn on the PC and reboot” said Merlin Kister, a technology program manager for Viiv.

Owing to these new advance technologies, men are getting very close to understand that how life can be changed with the help of these numerous & innumerable blessing. It has best owed on mankind & Intel has given right efforts to help us to achieve success.

Samer Iqbal
Educationist

[tags]Samer[/tags]

You know you should take care of your computer, but you don’t know what registry is and what’s the difference between hard-drive and memory stick is. Don’t worry, these tools will do it for you and you don’t even have to set them up.

O&O Defrag Professional (O&O Software GmbH)

The new O&O Defrag Professional Edition for Windows-based workstations unlocks the hidden performance of your computer. This software will optimize your hard disk in Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows NT 4 Workstation, securely repacking fragmented files together for more efficiency.

O&O Defrag’s O&O OneButtonDefrag Technology lets you sit back and relax while the optimal defragmentation configuration is tailored directly to your system. A job is created and then executed, making performance improvements on your system noticably faster. Even in large networks, this sort of automation can lead to unbelievable savings in network administration resources.

Webroot Window Washer (Webroot Software)

Many people do not realize that Internet browsers, as well as many other software products, store information about what they have been doing on their computer systems. Anyone can simply turn on your system and see exactly what you have been doing on your computer. Also, the tracks that are left behind can take up large quantities of valuable hard drive space. Recovering this space can be very beneficial by improving the overall speed and performance of a computer.

Cleaning up the history of your activities can be a tedious chore of manually removing each history file or entry. If privacy and disk space are to be maintained, this process must be performed every time you use your computer. Window Washer can automatically clean up your browser’s cache, cookies, history, recent document list, and much more! Window Washer can run in the background and clean up your tracks when you are done surfing the internet or any other time you choose.

Acronis Disk Director (Acronis)

Acronis Disk Director Suite is disk partitioning software that allows you to automatically or manually resize, copy, and move partitions without losing data. It also lets you reorganize the hard disk drive structure and optimize disk space usage. Acronis Disk Director Suite provides a powerful, reliable, and easy-to-use way to manage booting of multiple operating systems on a single PC.

Disk Director’s integrated Disk Editor program is the only utility in a consumer-level package that can read and write raw data directly from NTFS disks, and only experts should touch it.
The interface is packed with essential tools for jumping to special disk sectors like partition tables and boot sectors. The help system is a detailed technical reference to disk structures.

Download Links:

http://www.deprice.com/oodefragpro.htm

http://www.deprice.com/webrootwindowwasher.htm

http://www.deprice.com/acronisdiskdirectorsuite.htm

John Deprice runs a website devoted to PC tools specifically for newbie users. Visit it at http://www.deprice.com/utilities-8-1.htm

[tags]pc,tweak,tweaks,linux,mac,computers[/tags]

The term bandwidth is very common these days, especially because its technology affects almost all aspects of our lives. You use bandwidth when you connect to the internet, when you use the telephone, when you watch television, and in many other activities. But what exactly is bandwidth? Read on to find out and see how it can change your life.

Bandwidth defined

The term ‘bandwidth’ refers to the amount of data or information that can be transmitted over a network in a given time, or, in much simpler terms, is a measure of how much ’stuff’ is sent through any connection. Information sent can take many forms depending on the channel.

How bandwidth affects you

Bandwidth in internet terms is usually expressed in either bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (kbps), or megabits per second (mbps). The higher the bandwidth of your connection, the faster you can upload and download data from the internet. Dial-up connections are low speed at only about 50+ kbps, while better cable connections go from 500 kbps and up. Whether you need a connection that has bigger bandwidth depends on your purposes for using the internet. If you only use the net for text-based research purposes, you don’t need much bandwidth. A whole page of English text is only about 16,000 bits, so if your modem can move about 57,000 bits per second, you are more than covered. You may need higher bandwidth if you upload or download full-motion and full-screen video, which, depending on compression, requires roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second. It is wise to subscribe to a high-bandwidth connection if you use the internet for pictures, graphics, music and videos.

The telephones use bandwidth, too - in fact, a bandwidth of about 3,000 ‘cycles per second’ (cps) is required for voice transmission. The bandwidth required for television broadcasting is even higher at about 6 million cps, and satellite system prevent interference by spreading television signals using bandwidth of as little as 17.5 MHz to a as much as 72 MHz.

Bandwidth provides detailed information on Bandwidth, Bandwidth Tests, Bandwidth Management, Bandwidth Meters and more. Bandwidth is affiliated with Colocation Hosting.

[tags]Bandwidth, Bandwidth Tests, Bandwidth Management, Bandwidth Meters [/tags]

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. By using a VoIP phone and VoIP technology you can effectively use the internet to make phone calls. VoIP does this by placing the voice calls on network which encrypts the voice in data packets at one end and encrypts it in voice calls at the other end. In VoIP, encryption and decryption is from a analog signal (i.e. your voice call) into digital signal (data packets) and again into the analog signal.

You can make VOIP calls by a regular phone with VOIP adapter or even from your computer using a simple microphone. VoIP applications can generally be used with a simple microphone and computer speakers, but IP telephones or VoIP boxes can also be used, providing an experience identical to normal telephoning. Many VOIP manufacturers are designing phones which are specially meant to work with this technology, called SIP phone, and now extensively used by growing VoIP users.

In the past year, the quality and reliability of VoIP technology has improved to the point that vast numbers of users have abandoned their standard telephone contracts entirely, in favor of VoIP. Local as well as long distance calling is available for VoIP. Rates and plans can vary from one VoIP service provider to another VoIP service provider.

Advantages of using VOIP

Using VOIP you can effectively cut down your phone bills, since you just pay to your regular internet connection and small fees to your VOIP service provider. Setting up conference calls with VOIP is very easy.

You can even set up your own VoIP network and don’t need any special equipment like PBX etc. You can call to any local telephone, mobile, long distance number or any international number through VoIP phones. More importantly, the person you are calling by using VoIP technology does not need any special equipment; just a regular telephone.

Many additional features like call forwarding, call tracing, reminders, caller ID are readily available in VoIP Phones. You can even assign a local telephone number to your VOIP phone set, and just need a fast internet connection to use your VOIP service anywhere in the world.

VoIP Dilemma

VoIP applications and services require data transfer in real time. During a call an interactive data voice exchange takes place. Unfortunately, TCP/IP is not well suited for this purpose. Sometimes you have to wait for a few seconds, to hear the other side answering. But with recent developments streaming the flow of voice signals has improved. PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone calling quality is still not as sharp as regular PSTN calls. However, with SIP phones and a reliable high speed internet connection there is little or no difference….and sometimes the quality is even better.

SIP Phones

SIP Phones are the phones which are specifically designed to work as VOIP phones. SIP phone can be considered as a network endpoint routing voice via its IP address. This allows a DID (direct inward dialing) number to move with a user. With SIP phones you can use advanced features like voice mail to email etc. Using a SIP phone also closely resembles a regular analog phone in look, feel, function, and ease of use.

FCC and VoIP

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates VOIP Services in the USA. They are in charge to create and promote telecommnuication regulations….such as VOIP services….to benefit consumers. In November, 2004 FCC ruled that individual States do not have the jurisdiction to impose taxes on VoIP services, which made the cost of VOIP services even more attractive in relation to standard PSTN phone services.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire
Communications….including Business-VoIP-Solution and
DS3-Bandwidth.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you’re always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, resources, and insights.

[tags]voip, voip phone, voip technology, IP phones, voip application, SIP phones[/tags]

2005 literally took the world by storm. The tragedies of the Asian Tsunami, the Hurricanes that blew through the US Gulf Coast and the earthquakes that swallowed parts of Pakistan have left an indelible mark on 2005. While mother nature cast a shadow on 2005, it was technology that delivered the impact that resulted in a huge outpouring of donations. The world was touched by the human element seen real-time in pictures and videos. Today’s technology was able to deliver the graphical grittiness that portrayed the nightmares occurring half a world away.

Technology is usually thought of as impersonal, but something needs to be recognized; without technology the personal elements of the 2005 tragedies would not likely have been conveyed to the extent and timeliness they were. Reflecting on 2005 and looking forward to 2006, technology will undoubtedly continue play a significant role in the future both on a personal and impersonal level.

In 2005 Blogs gave birth to splogs, where senseless web scrapers generated massive amounts of senseless content. Spam reached a whole new level, right along side the ethical debate of content scraping. Copyrights have been stepped on and I foresee a new host of tools that will emerge to protect content.

SPAM and phishing scams were easier to recognize, but to their credit, spammers showed off their creativity, finding additional channels to inundate. From splogs to forum spam, 2005 tech users saw spam as one of life’s continued annoyances. Looking into a crystal ball, I fear that social bookmarking will become the spam vehicle of 2006, weakening the value of a collective voice.

Sadly the blog saturation has resulted in web clutter. Due to increased competition and vast quantities of blogs on free hosted blog networks services, bloggers competing for audiences and web traffic will result in significant abandoned content, cluttering the web with useless ramblings. The ease of blogging that resulted in saturation will be its downfall. Credibility will again become important. Journalist, who have suffered from the blogosphere in 2005, will have a reprieve as credibility becomes an issue for bloggers. In 2006 web surfers are going to look for multiple sources to confirm facts, and rely on reliable respected sources, community content, and collaboration like Wikipedia is going to suffer and become less relevant in 2006. While Wikipedia scores well in search, it does not perform as well with accuracy. The Wikipedia community is haunted by spam and like DMOZ, it’s success will be its downfall. The relevance of successful community wiki’s will fade in 2006.

Cell phones have become personal homing devices, and it is near impossible to locate a cellular phone that is not capable of manipulating or taking photos, videos, graphics and text messages in addition to the traditional voice calls. It is likely the PDA will become extinct in 2006, as travelers move to a single multifunction device. In 2007 MP3 players will likely be a common feature of cell phones.

Wireless growth is still worth noting, as it has moved from hotspots, to hot zones, to hot cities. Philadelphia and San Francisco are leading the way as wireless cities in 2006.

What is in store for 2006? Privacy is a hot topic that is not going to disappear. Google and the US Government are battling a Big Brother image. Data mining has made the collection of data meaningful. Anti-Google sentiment is growing. Google has fallen from grace, while Google has made friends on Wall Street, it has disappointed surfers who have turned to Yahoo and MSN in growing numbers. 2006 will likely result heat up the search engine war with MSN and Yahoo scrambling for marketshare and Google walking a tightrope with privacy advocates on one end and monopoly theorists on the other end.

Google wants to make money, and like it or not data, is a commodity. Google will likely use the data from their various ventures to develop new technologies and personalize content. Conspiracy theorists believe that the Google’s aggregate data will also be used to optimize the fees charged for pay-per-click, influence organic ranking, or worse yet, sold.

Google’s growth will continue to motivate privacy advocates and those in the technology field behind the Attention Truste movement, to work together, to improve how personal information and subscription information is used online. I expect we will see a lot of energy and effort in this area.

Personalized content will be a buzz word for 2006. Whether it is users selecting Podcasts, iTunes, or purchasing Amazon recommendations the web is learning how to cater content based on user selections and choices. Web surfers see personalized content as regaining control of what they want to watch, see, or listen to. From Tivo to podcasting, users are taking back control. Yet when the web serves content that is based on past surfing habits, who is really in control?

In 2005, marketers were told in no uncertain terms, if they are not using syndication and RSS, they will not survive. Well, they have one more chance to get it right. In 2006, marketers must use RSS as an alternative communication channel. It will no longer be cutting edge, it will be a must to survive. Web surfers no longer expect to provide personal information (an email address) for marketing materials, they expect to have a choice about how they wish to receive the content.

Vendors selling through affiliate programs lost ground in 2005. Publishers found the easy money of pay-per-click advertising not fraught with the inherent problems of affiliate tracking and cookie-killers. The increase in click-fraud and content scraping on AdSense sites will even the playing field and make affiliate programs more attractive in 2006.

The world is getting smaller, and technological advancements has not only brought us tragedy, but also has opened doors and the global market is now a viable option for small businesses. I believe the globalization trend will continue in 2006.

Top 10 Winners Predicted for 2006:

Cyber Security

VOIP

Attention Data

RSS/Syndication

Copyprotection

Credibility

Privacy

Alternative Energy (reusable fuel, clean energy)

Content Filtering

VideoTunes (iTunes with Video)

About The Author
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

[tags]computers, technology, technology developments[/tags]