Further extending its reach beyond graphics processors, Nvidia will produce chipsets for Transmeta's Efficeon processor, the companies said Tuesday. The Nvidia C8000 will essentially connect the processor to other components inside a computer and likely significantly enhance the speed at which data flows inside a Transmeta-based PC.
The C8000 will contain an AGP port for connecting the processor to the graphics chip, a standard feature in Intel-based PCs but a new one for Transmeta computers. Along with speeding up graphics performance, incorporating an AGP port will allow manufacturers to insert Transmeta chips inside of notebooks with larger 13- and 14-inch screens, a market the company hopes to penetrate, said Dave Ditzel, Transmeta's chief technical officer. The C8000 will also connect to the processor through a HyperTransport link.
The chip in many ways will be similar to the chipset Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia will produce for the Athlon64 chip that Advanced Micro Devices will release Sept. 23. Although called a chipset, the upcoming Nvidia parts for AMD and Transmeta actually consist only of a single chip. Both Transmeta and AMD have integrated the traditional second half of the chipset, the memory controller, into their processors. The Efficeon processor, formerly code-named Astro, comes after a difficult two years for Transmeta. The company has endured a spate of layoffs, management changes, financial losses and delays since 2001. Recently, however, Hewlett-Packard incorporated chips from the company into thin-client terminals and Web tablets.
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News source: news.com
The C8000 will contain an AGP port for connecting the processor to the graphics chip, a standard feature in Intel-based PCs but a new one for Transmeta computers. Along with speeding up graphics performance, incorporating an AGP port will allow manufacturers to insert Transmeta chips inside of notebooks with larger 13- and 14-inch screens, a market the company hopes to penetrate, said Dave Ditzel, Transmeta's chief technical officer. The C8000 will also connect to the processor through a HyperTransport link.
The chip in many ways will be similar to the chipset Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia will produce for the Athlon64 chip that Advanced Micro Devices will release Sept. 23. Although called a chipset, the upcoming Nvidia parts for AMD and Transmeta actually consist only of a single chip. Both Transmeta and AMD have integrated the traditional second half of the chipset, the memory controller, into their processors. The Efficeon processor, formerly code-named Astro, comes after a difficult two years for Transmeta. The company has endured a spate of layoffs, management changes, financial losses and delays since 2001. Recently, however, Hewlett-Packard incorporated chips from the company into thin-client terminals and Web tablets.
View: The full story News source: news.com
In an effort to stem the widespread copying of music over the Internet, the Recording Industry Association of America sued 261 computer users last week, and it plans to sue hundreds more. Several of those sued have expressed dismay that their Internet providers turned over information about them without their permission.
The association is the first to apply the subpoena provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 to identify people who make files available for others to copy from their personal computers using file-sharing software like KaZaA. Under the statute, copyright holders do not need a judge's signature to compel Internet service providers to turn over the names of subscribers.
The appeals court decision, expected later this fall, could have important consequences for the music industry's antipiracy campaign. Cary Sherman, president of the recording industry group, said today that using the subpoenas made it easier and less expensive for the organization to file so many lawsuits because it could consolidate the lawsuits in geographic regions under local lawyers hired for that purpose.
Verizon contends that the law was meant to apply only to material that subscribers post on Web sites that reside on computers controlled by Internet providers. The rise of peer-to-peer technology, which lets Internet users find and retrieve files on one another's computers, the company says, was not foreseen by Congress when it passed the law.
Verizon is also challenging the constitutionality of the law, arguing that if it does allow the subpoenas to be used in this way, it violates subscribers' rights to privacy and due process. Judge John D. Bates of Federal District Court in Washington ruled against the company earlier this year, forcing it to turn over the names and addresses of at least four Internet subscribers.
Sarah B. Deutsch, a vice president and lawyer for Verizon, said the company had received 200 subpoenas since then. It is complying with all of them, except for one in which a New York woman has challenged the recording industry's use of the subpoenas to identify her.
The hearing came as two Congressional committees prepare to examine the 1998 statute more closely. On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hear testimony about copyright protection and consumer privacy from lawyers for Verizon and SBC, which has filed a separate challenge to the subpoenas in federal court in San Francisco. John Rose, executive vice president of EMI, and Mr. Sherman of the recording industry trade group will also testify.
Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, has scheduled a Sept. 30 hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that will address privacy issues as well as the broader effect of technology on copyright enforcement.
And Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, introduced a bill today to protect Internet providers from the controversial subpoenas. His proposal would block subpoenas except in pending civil lawsuits or in cases where unauthorized copies were stored on Web sites.
News source: New York Times
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