Mark Hachman

As Bluetooth slowly inches its way into the market, a video-game-controller startup is taking aim at the emerging wireless standard. Meanwhile, how Bluetooth will evolve remains an open question. Eleven Engineering Inc., a Canadian startup, has already been signed by Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc. to develop an ASIC for Microsofts Xbox console based upon Elevens […]

The prices of DRAM are slowly rising, as expected in the height of the fourth-quarter selling season. Spot market watchers and Wall Street have noted a sudden jump in the spot market price for various flavors of memory modules. One industry analyst attributed the price increases as a genuine sign that the PC market was […]

Hewlett-Packard Co. is entering the server blade market with its own products and a bid to secure third-party industry support as well. Tuesday, HP is expected to announce a family of bladed products, including server, storage, networking, and management blades. Additionally, through an open hardware program, HP will attempt to convince third party companies to […]

Microsoft Corp. tried–again—to push the company from the den into the living room, with a presentation on the “eHome” on Monday. During a presentation at the companys Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View, Calif., Microsoft executives described yet another corporate effort make technology simple enough for all to use. The difference? Microsoft will apparently ask […]

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has essentially exited the Athlon chipset market, focusing its design work on multiprocessor implementations and the upcoming 64-bit Hammer family. AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif., phased out its AMD-760 chipset a few weeks ago, and motherboard vendors report that the company has no plans for a replacement. In an interview Tuesday, Tim Wright, […]

LAS VEGAS–When all else fails, look ahead. In the midst of a prolonged downturn in the technology sector and in the overall economy, both Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Corp. demonstrated concept PCs showcasing emerging technologies like USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, and Bluetooth. In its booth here at Comdex, Intel demonstrated “Hannacroix,” the companys name for […]

Compaq Computer has delayed shipments of its planned Itanium-based servers because the chip did not pass certain undisclosed tests, officials confirmed Tuesday. Compaq, Houston, has yet to ship its Proliant PL590 server, officials said. However, the unit, which uses both the 733-MHz and 800-MHz version of Intel Corp.s Itanium processor, has failed a “stress test”, […]

Security concerns will likely make this years Comdex show in Las Vegas even more chaotic than it normally is, due to new restrictions placed on attendees. Gone will be the omnipresent computer bags, full of business cards, daytimers, product literature—and computers. Dont expect to take a snapshot of Bill Gates, either. Cameras wont be allowed […]

Intel Corp. trimmed prices on its Pentium 4, Pentium III and server lines this past Sunday, as expected. Both Intel and its rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., are instituting price cuts to attract buyers as the holiday selling season begins to ramp up. Although the overall technology industry is laboring to pull out of its […]

Dell Computer Corp. is entering the prebuilt PC arena, competing with traditional vendors of non-configurable PCs traditionally sold at retail. “We continue to appeal to more experienced computer users,” said a spokesman for Dell, Round Rock, Tex. “Now, were going after more retail-prone customers to widen our net.” The Dell SmartStep is a prebuilt PC […]

While Microsoft Corp. attempts to sway buyers on the ease-of-use and features of Windows XP, both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices will be using the intricacies of computer code to sway OEMs. At the heart of the estimated $500 million joint marketing program between Intel and Microsoft is an effort to convince customers the two […]

The largest vendor of CD rewriteable drives, Hewlett-Packard Co., will phase out its entire retail CD+RW product line by the end of the year in favor of rewriteable DVDs. The news caught analysts by surprise, since the rewriteable CD market is still booming. But stronger competition in the rewriteable CD market is forcing HP out, […]