IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 12/03/2010

Khronos debuts OpenGL 4.0 specs, Nvidia already claims support
At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco the Khronos Group took the stage to announce the 4.0 version of OpenGL, the open source rival API to Microsoft's DirectX 11. Defined by the OpenGL ARB (Architecture Review Board) working group, OpenGL 4.0 includes better interoperability with OpenCL (open source GPGPU framework) as well as the new GLSL (OpenGL Shading Language) 4.00 which provides developers with more options to tap into GPU power, the goal being to deliver enhanced graphics quality, acceleration performance and programming flexibility.

As listed by Khronos, the OpenGL 4.0 specifications bring the following updates:

- two new shader stages that enable the GPU to offload geometry tessellation from the CPU
- per-sample fragment shaders and programmable fragment shader input positions for increased rendering quality and anti-aliasing flexibility
- drawing of data generated by OpenGL, or external APIs such as OpenCL, without CPU intervention
- shader subroutines for significantly increased programming flexibility;
- separation of texture state and texture data through the addition of a new object type called sampler objects
- 64-bit double precision floating point shader operations and inputs/outputs for increased rendering accuracy and quality
- performance improvements, including instanced geometry shaders, instanced arrays, and a new timer query

"The release of OpenGL 4.0 is a major step forward in bringing state-of-the-art functionality to cross-platform graphics acceleration, and strengthens OpenGL's leadership position as the epicenter of 3D graphics on the web, on mobile devices as well as on the desktop," said Barthold Lichtenbelt, OpenGL ARB working group chair and senior manager Core OpenGL at Nvidia. "Nvidia is pleased to announce that its upcoming Fermi-based graphics accelerators will fully support OpenGL 4.0 at launch."

The full OpenGL 4.0 specs can be accessed via this page.

Siemens loses appeal in patent case with Seagate
This week the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit favored Seagate and denied Siemens' appeal in the patent case filed by the latter back in 2006. After two years of trial a Californian jury ruled that Seagate did not infringe on a Siemens patent (which was found to be invalid) regarding a particular type of sensor used in read heads for hard disc drives.

Siemens appealed the 2008 ruling and asked the Court of Appeals for a re-trial or an overturn but a three-judge panel backed the original decision.

"We believed the jury's verdict was well supported by the evidence, and we are very pleased that the court of appeals agreed with us," said Faegre & Benson attorney David J.F. Gross, who served as lead trial and appellate counsel for Seagate.

Galaxy gets ready with its GeForce GTX 400 cards
Nvidia-exclusive add-in board maker, Galaxy Technology is very excited about the upcoming GeForce GTX 400 series launch and is preparing some events in China to mark the date. On March 26, the company is expected to be ready to sell both the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470, a render of the latter being seen just below.

Based on the 40nm GF100 GPU, the first chip to make use of the Fermi architecture, the GeForce GTX 470 will be the main weapon in Nvidia's initial DX11 wave, and take on AMD's Radeon HD 5800 series models. The new card is expected to have 448 CUDA Cores, a 320-bit memory interface and will pack 1280MB of GDDR5 memory. DirectX 11 support will be present as will PhysX, CUDA, 3D Vision Surround, and 3-way SLI.

The GTX 470 has one HDMI and two DVI ports, boasts a PCI-Express x16 interface, takes up two slots and requires extra power via two 6-pin PCI connectors. Galaxy and its rival AIBs are currently building up their stocks of GF100 cards so hopefully we'll have a decent amount of units two weeks from today. Fingers crossed cause we need the competition.

ESET Smart Security, NOD32 Antivirus 4.2 go final
After almost three months of open beta testing, the Service Build 4.2 for ESET's Smart Security and NOD32 Antivirus software has become available in a final form, ready to protect PCs around the world. Offered for free to existing ESET customers, the 4.2 update includes the following:

- Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) 2.0 for Windows 7
- Improved performance HTTP scanning
- Limited support for NT 4.0 SP6 (ESET NOD32 Antivirus only)
- Support for Thunderbird 3 and Opera 10 (ESET Smart Security only)
- Trusted network zone authentication (ESET Smart Security only)
- Firewall profiles (ESET Smart Security only)
- Support for centralized quarantine management (with ESET Remote Administrator 4 Beta)
- Support for firewall rule merge wizard (ESET Smart Security with ESET Remote Administrator 4 Beta)
- GUI enhancements
- Fixes for known issues

To download ESET Smart Security and NOD32 Antivirus 4.2 see this page.

Appeal court reafirms verdict in Microsoft Word patent case
For the second time around, Microsoft has been shot down in its appeal of the verdict given in August 2009 for the patent infringement case filed by i4i. Last year Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Microsoft had willfully violated a i4i patent with the XML tagging features in Word 2003 and 2007.

Microsoft lost the first appeal in December (2009) but contested the decision once more in January, just as it was forced to stop selling Office products that infringe i4i's property. The Redmond company's latest appeal was now rejected by a three-judge panel but there's still the possibility of a full review that will see all 12 judges in the US Court of Appeals looking into the matter and giving a verdict. There's hope for Microsoft yet but somehow it seems like it will have to pay i4i $290 million in damages sooner or later.

I-O Data preps 12x internal Blu-ray writer
I-O Data has just announced its intention to release, later this month, a new internal Blu-ray writer, one capable of burning 25/50GB discs at up to 12x speed. Seen below, the drive has a SATA interface, 4MB of buffer memory, and provides maximum write speeds of 12x for BD-R, 2x for BD-RE, 16x for DVD-R/+R, 12x for DVD-RAM, 8x for DVD-R/+R DL and DVD+R, 6x for DVD-RW, 48x for CD-R and 24x for CD-RW.

I-O Data's BRD-SH12B writer is set to be backed by a one year warranty and cost about $315.

Office 2004, 2008 for Mac updates resolve Excel issue
In addition to the two Windows-oriented patches released, this Tuesday Microsoft has rolled out a couple of updates targeting Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac. The patches close a vulnerability (rated 'important') in Excel that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted file.

The Office 2008 update also brings improved performance, enhanced stability, and fixes a formatting issue with importing content from a text file.

The Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.8 update can be downloaded here while the Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.4 patch is available here.

Apple Mac Pro rumored to get hexa-core update next week
The introduction of a Gulftown-powered Mac Pro has been rumored since last year but it's only now that talk is heating up since Intel's 6-core 32nm CPU is less than three weeks away. On that note we kinda have to mention a new report which claims that the Gulftown Mac Pro will be launched next week, on March 16 (that's Tuesday).

Given Intel's relationship with Apple it's very likely that the Core i7-980X will land into Mac Pro systems before it reaches retail but we'll have to wait a few more days to know for sure.

Beside the 6-core upgrade, the upcoming Mac Pro was said to feature on-board 10 Gigabit Ethernet (as opposed to the current 1Gb), as well as support for 8 and 16GB memory modules, enabling configurations with up to 128GB of RAM.

Texas company sues Apple, Samsung, others for patent infringement
Last week one SmartPhone Technologies LLC from Frisco, Texas has made a big step towards getting its 15 minutes of fame by filing a lawsuit against Apple, Samsung, RIM (Research In Motion), LG, Motorola, AT&T, Sanyo, Insight Enterprises and Pantech Wireless.

According to SmartPhone Technologies' complaint, which was submitted with the US District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, the companies named are violating one or more of seven patents which cover Bluetooth connectivity, email syncing technologies, background processing, low bandwidth communication, and other smartphone functions.

There are no surprises when it comes to the demand made with the suit and that's cash for damages and legal fees (BEd: it's a 'show me the money' lawsuit). SmartPhone Technologies LLC requested a jury trial in the hopes of a favorable result.

Opera Mini 5 beta 2 available for Android too
Already available for Symbian and Windows Mobile-based smartphones, the second beta version of Opera Mini 5 has today been released for the Android platform. Opera's mobile browser includes a new Download Manager, the Opera Link feature that lets you synchronize personal browser settings with your Opera desktop browser, as well as other connected devices, and comes with a fresh look, Opera Turbo, support for both touchscreen or keypad navigation, and a powerful password manager

"Android users should not have to compromise when it comes to surfing the Web on their phones. Opera Mini will give Android users a fast and cost-efficient access to their favorite Web sites and services," said Dag Olav Norem, Vice President of Products, Opera Software.

To download Opera Mini 5 beta for Android see m.opera.com/next or the Android market.

Friday, March 12, 2010

IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 12/03/2010

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