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RSA chief puts his trust in the cloud

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Defense Dept. targets Silicon Valley with new IT Exchange Program

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New MacBooks Get Faster Chips, Thunderbolt Port

Apple's new MacBook Pros gained faster chips and a new connectivity standard. Image courtesy Apple.

Apple on Thursday refreshed the MacBook family with faster processors, more-powerful graphic cards and, most notably, a new connection port called Thunderbolt.

Ranging from 13 to 17 inches in screen size, the notebooks ship with the brand-new Thunderbolt connectivity standard that Apple co-developed with Intel.

Thunderbolt can transfer up to 10 Gbps, which is theoretically 12 times faster than the previous FireWire 800 connectivity standard. This is usually where you’d connect an external accessory such as a hard drive.

Apple has historically been nimble with pushing new connectivity standards. Apple created the FireWire connectivity standard before it became widely adopted in the PC industry.

The updated 13-inch MacBook Pros include Intel’s newer Core i5 and Core i7 chips, which were previously codenamed Sandy Bridge. Meanwhile, the 15- and 17-inch notebooks get quad-core Core i7 chips.

For anyone who cares, the MacBooks have updated graphic cards: the 13-inchers get the Intel HD Graphics 3000 chip; the 15- and 17-inchers have the AMD Radeon HD processor with up to 1GB of memory.

All the MacBook Pros have a reported battery life of 7 hours, according to Apple ? lower than the previous generation, which got up to 10 hours battery life. This is presumably due to the speedier chips and graphic cards.

The MacBook Pros range from $1,200 to $2,500 and are available today at Apple retail stores or Apple.com.

Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/h6J0Rp7LwaI/

How Thunderbolt Could Hook Up Notebooks With Powerful Peripherals

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Thunderbolt ports are the same shape as Mini DisplayPort ports, and are backward-compatible with monitor cables that use that standard. Image courtesy Apple.

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Intel’s new high-speed port technology is called Thunderbolt. But what is it, exactly?

Think of Thunderbolt (formerly code named “Light Peak”) as two cables in one. One is a fast PCI Express cable for transferring data, and the other is DisplayPort, for driving an external display.

A Thunderbolt cable is capable of delivering data between a computer and a peripheral (say, an external hard drive) at 10 Gbps in either direction, Intel claims. That’s fast enough to transfer a full-length HD movie in under 30 seconds.

It’s also 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and 20 times faster than USB 2.0, according to Apple.

Because a ThunderBolt connector is also a DisplayPort connection, that means a single port on a notebook — such as the new MacBook Pros, which have Thunderbolt ports — can connect to an external monitor, which in turn can connect to storage devices via PCI Express. We call this “daisy-chaining” devices.

In theory, the monitor could also connect to a keyboard, mouse, additional displays and even a gigabit ethernet connection, with all the data for those peripherals going through the single Thunderbolt cable connecting the monitor and the notebook. The makers of these hardware devices simply need to add a small Intel chip to decode the Thunderbolt signal into its PCI Express and DisplayPort signals.

“All Thunderbolt technology devices share a common connector, and let individuals simply daisy-chain their devices one after another, connected by electrical or optical cables,” Intel’s press release states.

In short, a monitor could become a hub for PCIe peripherals to which you can easily dock your notebook with a single cable connection. For that to work, of course, you’ll need a Thunderbolt-compatible monitor — and none currently exist.

Fortunately for Mac users, Thunderbolt plugs have the same shape as the Mini DisplayPort connectors in all recent Macs, and it’s compatible with them, so you can plug an older monitor into a new Thunderbolt port (even using a DVI, HDMI or VGA adapter) and it will still work. You won’t have a data channel, but the video connection will function.

In the longer term, the speed of the PCI Express bus makes it possible for a variety of devices to be connected through simple, external cables rather than internal expansion cards, greatly increasing the expandability of notebooks and even netbooks. Video-capture devices, RAID arrays and who knows what will all be easy to add simply by plugging in a Thunderbolt port.

For now, Apple is the only company we know of offering Thunderbolt-compatible gadgets. Intel lists several other partners who will be using the standard, including storage makers LaCie and Western Digital, and says it is working with other companies to bring the technology to “computers, displays, storage devices, audio/video devices, cameras, docking stations and more.”

NAO report highlights education success in STEM subjects

Dawinderpal Sahota, Computing, Monday 15 November 2010 at 14:09:00

Take up of Maths and Science subjects on the up, but Department of Education
not meeting its teacher recriuitment targets

The Department for Education has made good progress in improving take up and
achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects,
according to a recent report from the National Audit Office, although there has
been less success in attracting more teachers to these areas.

The report, entitled
Educating
the Next Generation of Scientists, recently published claims that take-up
and achievement in A-Level Maths and GCSE Triple Science has improved, and that
the knock on effect of the success has been that pupil take-up of the three
individual sciences at A-Level has increased by almost 150 per cent in the last
five years.

The NAO claims that there is evidence that pupils taking Triple Science GCSE
are more likely than those studying combined science to choose science subjects
at A-Level and to achieve higher grades. However, by June 2009, almost half of
secondary schools still did not offer Triple Science.

It is often said that qualifications in the pure sciences are a good basis
for a career in IT and technology.

Meanwhile, take-up of Maths A-Level has already exceeded the targets for 2014
set by the Department of Education, but take-up of physics A-Level has increased
only slightly since 2005-06.

The Department is not on course to meet the targets set by the previous
government for recruiting more mathematics and physics teachers by 2014.

?The Department for Education has focused its resources on improving pupil
take-up and achievement in school science and maths, and has made good progress
in areas such as A-Level maths and GCSE Triple Science,? said Amyas Morse, head
of the National Audit Office.

?To make further progress, what?s needed is a more joined-up approach,
bringing together key success factors to maximise successful results and
efficient use of public resources.?

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2273121/report-highlight-education

Motorola Xoom review: iPad finally has competition

The Android tablets out on the market have been weak in the face of the iPad. But after testing out Motorola's Xoom, it's clear the first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet has what it takes to compete head to head.

Full story at http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/23/6118906-motorola-xoom-review-ipad-finally-has-competition

Shuttle Discovery blasts off on its final flight

After a last-minute glitch, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off Thursday on its final voyage, heading for the International Space Station with six astronauts and a humanoid robot.