Toshiba develops fuel cells

Toshiba is gearing up to release a fuel cell cartridge powered by methanol that could keep an iPod running for an additional two-and-a-half days without a recharge, reports CNET.

The Tokyo-based company said it is testing prototypes of what it calls a direct methanol fuel cell.

The cartridge contains a passive supply of the alternative fuel in highly concentrated form, which produces electricity by causing a chemical reaction.

After three years of delays, Toshiba said commercial products based on the technology are expected to appear on store shelves in 2007.

Toshiba is developing two versions of the cell. One is formatted for flash-based digital music players such as Apple Computer`s iPod Shuffle, and the other is for digital music players based on hard disk drives, such as the iPod photo or Toshiba`s Gigabeat player.

ATI may be gearing up to announce its R5xx family of next-generation graphics chips, but that hasn`t stopped the company from unveiling parts based on the previous generation of its technology, reports the Channel Register.

The company has unwrapped the Radeon X800 GTO, a 12-pipeline chip that sits between the X800 XL and X800 XT.

It supports GDDR 3 memory clocked at up to 1GHz effective and installed on a 256-bit bus. ATI didn`t provide a core clock speed, but it`s believed to be around 400MHz.

As per other X800 chips, the GTO supports the latest incarnations of ATI`s SmartShader, SmoothVision, VideoShader and HyperZ technologies, along with its 3Dc normal-map compression system.

IBM and Red Hat have created a program to boost Linux-based solutions among independent software vendors in emerging markets, reports ZDNet.

Under the initiative, technical resources and implementation services will be made available to developers so that they can port and certify applications on IBM software and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the companies said.

IBM will offer 29 tutorials covering Linux systems and network administration, while Red Hat will provide copies of its enterprise software and access to its technology partner programme.

"This collaboration with Red Hat will help the developer community worldwide test and certify their applications at IBM innovation centres for Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM platforms, expanding customer choice to deploy affordable Linux-based applications in their existing environments," says Todd Chase, program director of IBM innovation centres.