IBM disclosed a cross-company project to integrate the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) with the IBM mainframe for the purpose of creating a hybrid that is blazingly fast and powerful, with security features designed to handle a new generation of "virtual world" applications, such as the 3D Internet. The project capitalizes on the mainframe's ability to accelerate work via "specialty processors," as well as its unique networking architecture, which enables the kind of ultra-fast communication needed to create virtual worlds with large numbers of simultaneous users sharing a single environment.

Using techniques that could revolutionize manufacturing for certain materials, researchers have grown carbon nanotubes that are the longest in the world. While still slightly less than 2 centimeters long, each nanotube is 900,000 times longer than its diameter. The fibers--which have the potential to be longer, stronger and better conductors of electricity than copper and many other materials--could ultimately find use in smart fabrics, sensors and a host of other applications.

Two chips designed for combination (contact and non-contact) smart cards, in 72KB and 144KB capacities with embedded EEPROM, have been given Common Criteria (CC) certification and an Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 4+ rating. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., now satisfies the product standards used in such smart card applications as electronic passports and electronic identification, which require an extremely high level of data security.

Scientists have announced they have begun assembling an Internet catalog of every living thing on Earth. The organizers say the new website will become the single location where researchers can go to study the nearly 2 million known plant and animal species. An electronic Encyclopedia of Life has long been a goal of researchers. They say it is possible only now because of advances in Internet technology, high resolution digital photography, and the ability to quickly read the genetic codes of species.

Sometimes we need to dispose objects in VB.NET to be able to use the resources again which are used before or just to free those resources. Many classes in .NET have .dispose method for this purpose. In C# v1.1 was a keyword "Using" which makes the dispose process to launch automatically after the needed code launch with needed object finishes. We have got this useful keyword in VB.NET v2.0 too.

One of the best features in SQL2005 is the integrated CLR .NET languages support. What does it mean? You can use your common .NET programming language to code stored procedures in SQL 2005. In SQL2000 it was possible only with standard SQL statements. Let"s create our first Stored Procedure.

Toshiba has commercialized a new series of embedded NAND Flash memory devices which is compliant to eMMCTM*1 , that achieve the industry's largest capacity. The new 16 gigabyte (GB) devices are designed for application in mobile consumer products, such as mobile phones and video cameras. Samples will be available in the second quarter of this year and mass production will start in the forth quarter. Ahead of that, Toshiba will start shipping 8GB samples from this month, and start mass production in the third quarter.

SanDisk® Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Sony Corporation have agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU ) with the intention of developing the SxS(S-by-S) memory card specification, with high-speed transfer technology compliant to the ExpressCard industry standard.

SxS memory cards will leverage the technology strength of SanDisk and Sony, who have a long and successful history of co-developing and promoting flash memory products. With this high-performance and high-reliability memory card, both companies are targeting workflow improvements for professional camcorders and non-linear video editing systems.

An interactive "supermap" that portrays the mutations and spread of the avian flu around the globe over time should help researchers and policy makers better understand the virus and anticipate further outbreaks, according to a new study involving University of Colorado at Boulder and Ohio State University researchers.

The research team used data from the known evolution and spread of the avian flu, known as H5N1, to create a roadmap of viral spread in time and space, said CU-Boulder ecology and evolutionary biology Assistant Professor Robert Guralnick, a study co-author. The team projected genetic and geographic information onto an interactive globe using Google Earth technology, allowing users to fly virtually around the planet and analyze movements and changes in the genomes, or genetic blueprints, of known avian flu sub-strains that have been sequenced since the virus was first detected in Guangdong, China, in 1996.

A sixth defendant has pleaded guilty in connection with Operation D-Elite, the first criminal enforcement action targeting individuals committing copyright infringement on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network using BitTorrent technology, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Gregory A. White for the Northern District of Ohio announced today.