China chip an Intel rival?

China's Godson-3 chip is ambitious: it proposes to be everything a world-class processor should be, and then some, says CNet.

Developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it also has a larger goal: microprocessor independence for China. "Their motivation is pretty clear. They don't want to be totally dependent on the outside world for something as important as microprocessors," said Tom Halfhill, an analyst at In-Stat.

Its singular head-turning feature is the proposed Intel "x86" compatibility mode. "The most interesting part of the chip is that they're adding about 200 new instructions to assist with x86 compatibility," Halfhill said.

Google, whose new, faster Web browser Chrome has raised privacy concerns on both sides of the Atlantic, said yesterday it was taking steps to mask the identities of people who use the tool, reports The Washington Post.

The move comes as privacy advocates expressed concern that the browser had the potential to give Google a way to track even more of users' online behaviour and create rich profiles of them.

Jane Horvath, Google's senior privacy counsel, said the company would "anonymise" the Internet Protocol address and the cookies that track users when they type search terms or Web pages into Chrome's Omnibox, an all-in-one search and address bar.

Justice minister Jack Straw has ordered an inquiry into the loss of a portable hard drive containing the details of 5 000 prison staff, reports Computing.co.uk.

The disc was lost by IT supplier EDS, which has successfully bid to be part of the National Identity Card Programme. "I am extremely concerned about this missing data," said Straw.

"I was informed of its loss by the News of the World and have ordered an urgent inquiry into the circumstances and the implications of the data loss and the level of risk involved."

Canadian police have cuffed a notorious Israeli hacker over allegations of financial fraud, seven years after he avoided jail after being convicted of hacking into Pentagon systems, says The Register.

Ehud Tenenbaum (aka The Analyzer), 29, has been detained with three suspected accomplices over allegations they hacked into the systems of a financial service firm in order to transfer funds into prepaid debit card accounts under their control.

The group allegedly used these cards to withdraw $1.7 million from ATMs in Canada and other countries prior to their arrests.