System Diary Technology News Blog

Announced last December, the fourth version of the wireless Bluetooth interface technology has recently received final approval from the organization of Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). Sources close to the Bluetooth SIG report that the device, equipped with modules Bluetooth 4.0, can appear on the market in the fourth quarter of this year, after the producers hold all the necessary tests. According to a press release, the main distinguishing features of the new version of Bluetooth are increased data rates, low power consumption, and increased range.

SIG representatives argue that new modules can provide data rates up to 24 Mbps (ie eight times more abundant now, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR), with the battery module, fed with the standard battery type CR 2025, can reach to several years. Range is 100 meters and more. It is also reported to increase security when transmitting data through the use of protocol encryption AES 128-bit key.

Through the application of new energy technologies, Bluetooth 4.0 modules can be implemented in low-power devices with low power. Thus, it becomes possible to use them in electronic devices in various spheres, including medicine, entertainment, sports, safety, and others.

All team members will be able to live Bluetooth SIG acquainted with devices equipped with Bluetooth technology modules fourth version of the conference, which is scheduled to start on October 4 this year. It is expected that upon closing, device manufacturers can begin active implementation of a new type of communication modules in their own products.

Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. federal government is working on the defense program, known as the Perfect Citizen technology. The objective is to create a means of detection of cyber attacks on private companies and government agencies that control critical infrastructure such as electricity, nuclear power, chemical and biological industries, and t n.

Supervises the draft U.S. National Security Agency. Now running the NSA is already in the lion’s share of the government and military networks of the U.S. technology. The new project is planned to create interfaces for the partial merger of government and corporate networks and on all the networks put the sensors, which will fulfill the role of early detection of attacks. The sensors will continuously monitor the state of networks and listen to them for “atypical” activity. Through such “points of interaction, can be avoided the need to monitor all networks at once, at a cost of enormous resources.

Sources familiar with the implementation of the program, said that recently an American defense contractor Raytheon Corp won a government tender closed at $100 million. Now the company to design a monitoring system to protect against hacker attacks. Implement a system will most likely other contractors. From the official comments so far and representatives of the NSA and Raytheon refused, wrote CyberSecurity.

However, WSJ notes that the program in its current form quite flawed and American business is not burning with desire to take part in it, believing that Perfect Citizen – this is another attempt of intrusion “Uncle Sam” in the privacy of companies and citizens. There are, however, and the company that called the program an important and say they are ready to cooperate. Sources in the WSJ Raytheon argued that the system is constructed so that the government simply wants to ensure the security and critical infrastructure to get into the personal affairs of the companies it did not intend.

Independent military experts in Washington say that the need for the program has long been evident, and the probability of invasion of privacy is comparable with the probability of invasion of privacy from the outdoor surveillance cameras, which had been long established in the city streets. “This (program) is a logical extension of the federal agencies, done in the past to protect critical infrastructure” – said in Washington.

In this case, an unnamed military official said that while the system is still very far from complete, and even in the States at the level of the federal government has no common vision and understanding of the system.

The company ESET said that in June, with the help of early-warning systems ThreatSense.Net was recorded increased activity of the Trojan JS / TrojanDownloader.Pegel.BR.

This malware is a script that is added to the Web page and automatically redirect visitors to infected sites. After this occurs downloading and execution of malicious code on vulnerable computers. This threat, known as specialists ESET as JS / TrojanDownloader.Pegel.BR, distributed throughout Europe very rapidly. As a percentage equivalent to the total number of infected computers, its share is already 2.29%, which ensured Troyan fifth place in the world ranking of threats. Despite the fact that malware JS / TrojanDownloader.Pegel.BR had not yet spread in Ukraine, experts strongly recommend ESET Ukrainian users to be extremely careful when downloading files from the Internet network.

In June, the family Conficker continues to be active. Win32/Conficker which holds monthly palm among malicious software in the world (9,79%) and Ukrainian (19.42%) ratings of threats. This worm spreads through the vulnerability of Windows, which is located in the subsystem RPC (RPC), as well as through unprotected public folders and removable media. Also widespread is the threat of INF / Conficker – another representative of the famous family. Using the file autorun.inf, this malware is circulating last variation Conficker worm to infect PCs. A large number of infected computers around the world and in Ukraine, including (1,47% 1,66%, respectively, and) provides this threat lidiruschie positions in ratings of malware.

Experts strongly recommend ESET users to reliably protect personal data, because they do not concede its position such threats as Win32/Agent, Win32/PSW.OnLineGames and Win32/Tifaut, designed to steal confidential information. Users should also beware of malware INF / Autorun, which uses the opportunity to autorun on removable storage media and runs malicious code every time you connect a removable storage media to the computer, as well as “novelty” of last month – Win32/Sality, predstavlyauschuyu a polymorphic virus that modifies the EXE and SCR files and disables antivirus programs.

The beginning of summer could not “please” users with new viruses. In the top-10 world ranking of threats in June, presented two “novelties» – Win32/Qhost (1,16%), and HTML / ScrInject.B (0,84%). Trojan Win32/Qhost distributed via e-mail and gives hackers access to infected computers. Before starting this threat copies itself to the folder Windows% system32%, and then modifies the host file to redirect traffic to the domains of the attacker. The threat of HTML / ScrInject.B detects HTML web pages with confusing scripts or IFRAME tag, which automatically redirect to malicious software downloads.

No sooner had the company submit its new Intel dual-core chip Atom N550, specifically designed for netbooks, the company introduced the Asus netbook, Asus Eee PC 1015N, equipped with this processor, followed by a groove moved the company Acer, announcing Netbook Acer Aspire One D255.

Design of new products from Acer copied from a model Aspire One D260, and except for a few minor external changes there are no differences. But the 1.5 GHz dual-core processor Intel Atom N550 promises to increase productivity in daily tasks and true multitasking.

Recently, manufacturers of netbook does not make us happy models with matte screens: more gloss, not only on display, but also in the material body. The more interesting announcement netbook Asus Eee PC 1005PX with matte display (housing, unfortunately, still glossy).

In essence, netbook Asus Eee PC 1005PX – a well-known to us Asus Eee PC 1005PE – the same body, 1.66 GHz processor Intel Atom N450, Intel GMA 3150 video, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and six-cell battery. But the devil lies in details: the Asus Eee PC 1005PX only two USB-ports instead of the usual three, and six-cell battery less powerful than the predecessor and the battery is only 8.5 hours. Only plus – the price of the novelty will be slightly less than that of Asus Eee PC 1005PE.

Issue-One “Southbridge” AMD SB850 allowed the company to upgrade the entire line of chipsets. Upgrading is a modification of the seventh family (770, 780G, 790GX, 790FX), which resulted in the light of an eighth – 870, 880G, 890GX, 890FX. And if the “north bridge” with integrated graphics core, AMD engineers have something to do, the creative freedom for discrete chipsets, they have proved very little. However, nothing is perfect, and some work on the bridge 890FX still were. Surely the developers with some of the shortcomings 790FX chip at the hardware level, which allowed a modest increase in productivity. The fact is that any chip (chipset, processor, video core) of any manufacturer has minor errors that the user never sees, thanks to the additional program code in the drivers. And, as a rule, these errors are eliminated in the next stepping chip, resulting in an additional code is not needed, and the system works a little faster. Therefore we can say that, despite the almost complete identity specifications “northern” bridges 790FX and 890FX, the last chip – better.

The only significant difference between these “bridges” is a new version bridge compound A-Link Express 3 with a capacity of 4 GB / c. This is logical, since the “southbridge” SB850 adds support for interface SerialATA 6 Gbit / s, and the increased capacity of the disk subsystem must meet the bus bandwidth between the “south” and “north bridge”.

Purpose of chipset AMD 890FX completely changed compared to the 790FX. This chipset is still designed for high-end motherboards, which are three or four slots PCI Express x16. However, we note that in the version with four PEG-slots on each of them stands out for eight lines of tires, but thanks to the support of PCI Express v2.0 specification with double bandwidth (compared to v1.0), about any performance drop it no go.

Motherboard ASUS Crosshair IV Formula is based on chipset AMD 890FX, and, as you guessed, it is the top product in the range of AMD-cards from this manufacturer. Incidentally, the family of motherboards ASUS Crosshair Formula very rich past. In particular, the first generation of this board (more on the chipset NVIDIA) was considered the best of all AMD-products, and third-generation (already on chipset AMD 790FX) showed record results in the field of overclocking. We are therefore very interesting to see how the fourth generation motherboards ASUS Crosshair Formula will be consistent with such a high fence, given predecessors.

Gigabyte company released a very interesting motherboard X58A-UD9 on chipset Intel X58, which immediately attracted the attention of the whole IT-industry. The reason is quite clear – on this board is installed, seven (!) Slots PCI Express x16, and board size exceeds the size of a standard form factor ATX.

Of course, the market already present on board chipset Intel X58, which has four PEG slots, in particular – a model ASRock X58 SuperComputer, which is made in a standard form factor ATX. However, the fundamental difference between these boards are. The standard Intel X58 chipset provides for the needs of developers of 36 lines, bus PCI Express v2.0, that in the case with four PEG slots for maximum configuration of 4×8. At the same time, the motherboard Gigabyte X58A-UD9 for each of the four “core” PEG slots allocated to 16 lines of tires, that the amount required to 64 lines. Gigabyte engineers have additional lines PCI-E by installation fee of two chips NVIDIA NF200, in this case is a “core” PCI-Express slot with alternation, which allows you to install four video cards with dual slotted cooling system.

Between these slots are “additional” PEG slots, which are allocated to eight lines of bus PCI-E. Moreover, the data lines are collected “from the” core “slots, and the final distribution lines, PCI-Express bus is as follows – 8 8 8 8 8 8 16. It is clear that the installation of two additional chips NVIDIA NF200, as well as other essential elements, has led to the need to increase the size of payments to the form factor XL-ATX – 262 mm x 345 mm.

The motherboard X58A-UD9 is the flagship product line Gigabyte, so it is not surprising that the developers have set her a large number of additional controllers. The most powerfully realized disk subsystem, which includes 10 (!) Channels SerialATA 3 Gb / s and two channels SerialATA 6 Gb / s. In this case the engineers left the support of one channel ParallelATA, that allows you to connect to the board a total of up to 14 drives! Other possible extensions are also made at a high level, as a set of overclocking tools. Therefore, the reasons for the hype around the board Gigabyte X58A-UD9 become so understandable.

A wide range of products Antec recently includes power supplies under the general title EarthWatts, interesting especially the presence of certification 80PLUS. In practice this means that the efficiency of the power supply is not below 80% in the range of workloads from 20% to 100%. That is why the manufacturer positions the whole series as a cost-effective “green” solutions.

To date, the family of PSU Antec EarthWatts includes five models with a root certificate 80PLUS – it EA380-EC, EA430-EC, EA500-EC EA 650-EC and EA750-EC, a capacity of 380 watts, 430 watts, 500 watts, 650 watts and 750 W, respectively. In addition, the series includes three models with a certificate 80PLUS Bronze – EA-380D Green, EA-430D Green and EA-500D Green.

Our present material is devoted to acquaintance with the characteristics and capabilities of senior 750-watt power supply series EarthWatts, model EA750, equipped with a powerful cooling system with a quiet 135 mm fan. The model is also interesting modular hybrid system of cables, resulting in the possibility of disconnecting the cables, only those whose use is really unusual for the average PC of that class.

Model Antec EA750 has 4-channel distributing tire supply 12, an active PFC and a full range of modern methods of system protection, including overvoltage, overload and short circuit.

ASUS has introduced a multimedia notebook NX90, has already managed to “light up” at CeBIT 2010. Appearance of new items dealt designer David Lewis (David Lewis) from Bang & Olufsen. Specialists of the company together with staff and ASUS worked hard to improve sound quality. As a result, NX90 supports technology Bang & Olufsen ICEpower and SonicMaster, providing a very high quality sound. The notebook NX90 installed power capacity of 11 watts, and the sides of the screen are great speakers. For comparison, in the usual laptop usually costs 3-watt amplifier.

NX90 Features include 18.4-inch display with Full HD resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, a processor with a clock speed of 1.6 GHz (up to 2.8 GHz mode Turbo Boost), 6 GB of RAM, expandable to 12 GB, two hard drives total capacity of 1 TB and optical drive Blu-ray. The laptop is running an operating system, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.
Available ASUS NX90 appears in July, the price of the device starts at $ 3000.

Microsoft has announced the availability of beta versions of the first service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Recall that the first service pack for Windows 7 does not contain any fundamental innovations. This update includes fixes that were released during the time that has elapsed since the release of the OS, as well as some other patches, correcting errors and improving the stability of the system.

As for Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2, it includes two new virtualization technology – RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory. Technology RemoteFX provides an opportunity to remotely manage the system, while maintaining the contents of any remote PC screen, including full-screen video applications based on Silverlight, 3D-applications. Dynamic Memory Technology allows administrators to Hyper-V allocate the available memory on the physical host, and from there dynamically reallocate it to all the virtual machines that are working on it.