Worldwatch

AOL plans Internet through

cable

AOL has

entered into talks with the Internet portal Excite@Home, as it wants to

provide Internet access through the AT&T cable network. AT&T had

acquired its current stake in Excite@ Home in March through a

$59.4-billion purchase of Tele-Communications, which had a controlling

ownership in Excite@Home. Excite@ Home is currently the second most

popular Internet portal after Yahoo!

Bugs found in Xeon chips

According

to Intel, two versions of its PIII Xeon processor for servers have been

found to contain a bug. The chip involved is the 550 MHz Xeon, the

versions are one with 512 kB cache memory and the other with 1 MB

secondary cache. Both chips run in a configuration of eight processors on

the Intel Sabre motherboard. Intel has advised customers not to use

them with the Sabre motherboard. The bug appears when a system is pushed

to its highest performance limit, resulting in a total system crash.

However, Intel also added that most of the Xeon 550 MHz chips are sold

with 2 MB secondary cache memory, and don’t have the bug.

HP and Oracle come together

for e-services

Hewlett-Packard

and Oracle have entered into an alliance to develop technology for

deploying e-services. The technology will include HP’s e-speak–a

language for dynamic brokering for e-services integrated with Oracle8i,

and a variety of Oracle’s Internet platform products. Along with joint

sales and marketing efforts, the two companies will also set up expert

centers to provide services to clients such as ISPs, ASPs, and dot com

companies.

Palm and Symbian join hands

Users

of handheld devices will now be able to check their calendars, read mail,

send faxes, and call their office, all from a single device. 3Com’s Palm

group and the Symbian alliance of companies have announced plans to

develop pen-based mobile computer and communication devices using the Palm

user interface. These devices will use the Epoc OS developed by

Psion.

IBM to make processors for

Sun

IBM

Microelectronics–the semiconductor research and manufacturing division

of IBM, has announced that it will make Sun’s MAJC 5200 processor. The

chip will power future Sun computers, as well as television set-top boxes,

graphics cards, and networking equipment. The MAJC will go into production

in mid-2000.

Motorola

and AOL to integrate Instant Messaging

Motorola

and America Online have announced plans to integrate AOL’s Instant

Messenger messaging software with Motorola’s wireless devices.



This will allow users of Motorola’s wireless communications devices and
AOL’s Instant Messenger to engage
in live, real-time

communication. Motorola will offer Instant Messenger with devices such as,

the Timeport P1088 smart phone and the Timeport P930 two-way wireless

pager. The products are expected to hit the market next year.

Merced renamed as Itanium

Intel’s first 64-bit

processor Merced will now be called Itanium. Itanium is the first in a

series of 64-bit processors based on the IA-64 architecture, designed in

conjunction with Hewlett-Packard. The processor is scheduled for

production in mid-2000. Meanwhile, at the recently held Microprocessor

Forum in San Jose, California, AMD announced K-8, a competitor to Merced.

The K-8, of which relatively little is known, will take a few years of

development before it reaches the market.