AMD chips arrive early

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is expected to launch new Opteron chips later this month that combine dual processing engines onto a single slice of silicon, reports News.com.

AMD is expected to announce availability of the first dual-core Opteron processors on 21 April, months ahead of schedule. The company is also expected to announce its dual-core chips for PCs will go on sale in June.

The News.com report speculates AMD will sell some of the new chips at the same prices as the corresponding single-core models they are intended to replace in an attempt to encourage rapid adoption.

Microsoft will provide a variety of patches when it delivers its monthly batch of security updates next week, reports CNet.

Eight patches are expected, including critical fixes for Windows, Office, MSN Messenger and Exchange. Microsoft is also expected to release a new version of its malicious software removal tool.

A survey by the Sophos security firm has revealed that more than a third of all spam e-mails originate in the US.

According to BBC News, the survey shows computers in the US are responsible for more than 35% of global spam, while South Korea is responsible for almost 25%, PCs in China send almost 10%, while France, Spain and the UK were each responsible for between 1% and 3%.

Sophos says more than 50% of all spam is sent from "zombie" PCs or computers that have been taken over by hackers or virus writers.

A move by IBM and Network Appliance, establishing a strategic relationship to capture market share away from EMC, may shake up the storage industry, reports BetaNews.

Under the agreement, IBM will sell NetApp`s attached storage and information lifecycle management solutions and NetApp will make IBM its preferred supplier of tape products and use IBM`s Tivoli Storage Manager.

The International Data Corporation says by partnering with IBM, NetApp will have access to more international markets than it would through its OEM resellers.