Supercomputer on a chip

Engineers from IBM, Sony and Toshiba have wrapped up the design for a radical new processor design known as cell, reports ZDNet UK. The chip, which is being touted as a "supercomputer" on a chip, is apparently well on the way to completion and may even be used in the next-generation PlayStation 3. The name "cell" comes from the design that includes multiple processing cores on each chip. What promises to make the chip so powerful is its extensibility, or its ability to share and combine resources with other devices, making for a super-powerful peer-to-peer network. A cell-powered set-top box, for example, could share processing power with a cell-powered television to render high-definition graphics. The chip, which has also been described as a beehive, may be available sometime in 2004. [More at ZDNet UK]

Want a little online privacy? Then you`ll be glad to know that Anonymizer, provider of online privacy services, has upgraded its product to version 2.0. Called Anonymizer Private Surfing 2.0, it is an online "gateway" to the Internet. Using the service, users can defeat workplace snoops as well as online marketing vultures. Typically online marketers track users` online activities to build up personal profiles that they can then exploit for sales pitches. Many Internet service providers and most Web sites also use these tactics. Anonymizer promises to make time online as "unnoticeable" as possible by providing protection against privacy hazards such as cookies, Java, JavaScript, AxtiveX and Web bugs. What is most interesting is the claim that Anonymizer can protect employees from the prying eyes of their employers by circumventing network monitoring.

An Israeli newspaper reports that five teenagers have been charged with creating and spreading the W32/Goner-A virus in December last year. The five Israelis have apparently been charged with wilfully causing damage to computers belonging to companies and private individuals. One of the minors has been charged with writing the virus code while the other four have been charged with disseminating it. The Goner worm, which spread itself through e-mail posing as a screensaver, was also able to disable personal firewall applications. What gave the teens away was a message coded into the screensaver that read: "pentagone coded by: suid tested by ThE_SKuLL and |satan| greetings to: TraceWar, k9-unit, stef16, ^Reno. greetings also to nonick2 out there whereever you are." Apparently this was a message from the virus writer to his friends. These names were picked up by investigators and used to track down the teenagers.

Sources: ZDNet UK, PRNewswire

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