Neowin.net

The long-awaited launch of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s (AMD's) Athlon64 processor is less than a week away, and it's only a matter of time before rival Intel Corp. duplicates AMD's approach, the company said Wednesday.

AMD thinks it has a winner with the Athlon64, which can run both 64-bit and 32-bit applications on a PC with a 64-bit operating system. The idea is to give users excellent 32-bit performance right away, and allow them to migrate to 64-bit applications when they are ready, said John Crank, senior brand manager for AMD's Athlon product line.

AMD will launch the chip on Tuesday at an event in San Francisco. Desktop and notebooks will be available with the processor as of Tuesday, Crank said.

News source: Infoworld.com

"Every service will ultimately become a shared network service. So the purpose is to enable and encourage shared network services and making it simple," he said.

So, for instance, network identity, communication and collaboration, portal services, web and application services are all integrated into the single Java Enterprise System.

In addition, Schwartz said that Java smartcard access was becoming the de facto secure authentication method for e-commerce. Java card authentication services was one of the new products announced.

To avoid such things as identity theft, everyone must move towards smartcard authentication, according to Schwartz. "Anonymity breeds mischief," he said.

Also announced at the conference were 10 new or enhanced network services components included in the Java Enterprise System.

These include Software Express, a method for allowing customers early access when key software environments are revised and enhanced.

The six Sun systems with their US pricing are:

Java Enterprise System
This consolidates the entire Sun network services architecture. Price: $100 per employee per year covering unlimited internet application access.

Java Desktop System
Formerly Project Mad Hatter, this includes new StarOffice version 7, Mozilla browser, Ximian Evolution e-mail and calendaring, RealNetworks RealONE and Macromedia Flash. Price: $100 per desktop or $50 per employee as an add-on to Java Enterprise System.

Java Enterprise Studio
An integrated development environment and consolidated developer tool-set including plug-ins, connector builders, code samples support and runtime environment. Price: $5 per employee as an add-on to Java Enterprise System.

N1
An operator's environment which provides virtualisation and provisioning services for storage, servers and blade servers. Newly-released N1 CentreRun 4.0 aims at one-keystroke deployment for any new shared services. (Pricing not supplied.)

The remaining two services were announced for future deployment:

Sun Java Mobility System
An integrated environment for delivering services to Java-enabled devices including phones and PDAs. (Sun estimates that there are over 200 million of these available today.)

Sun Java Card System
This provides personal authentication services for secure e-commerce and service delivery on Java-based smartcards. (Sun estimates that there are 500 million already deployed worldwide.)