IBM Mainframe

If you think about it, a computer only needs to measure the change of state to, well, compute — be it ones and zeros or the state of subatomic particles. That’s why there is such interest in the development of the mythical quantum computer (think supercomputer in a teaspoon).

For the most part, efforts in quantum computer development have focused on a property called entanglement. But Vancouver startup D-Wave is focusing on quantum tunneling instead and hope to exploit this to develop a quantum computer within three-years (with a prototype by close of 2006). At the heart of their “less than fully functional” quantum computer is an analogue chip which must be cooled with liquid helium to -269 °C — just 4 °C shy of absolute zero folks! However, these purpose-built semiconductors rely on existing fabrication techniques and do not need the gee-whiz guts (delicate lasers, vacuum pumps) required by other quantum computers. While cryptographers will have to wait for their dream machine, intractable problems such as the infamous traveling-salesman (optimal route among cities) and optimization of financial portfolios and traditional computer chip layouts could be quickly sorted. Don’t bother raiding the kid’s college fund yet ‘cause D-Wave expects to sell computational services not quantum hardware.

IBM’s Blue Gene/L has again crushed its own supercomputer record now pumping out an amazing 280.6 teraflops (trillions of calculations per second).

The Exclusive Kasparov is the latest in the line of Exclusive Chess Computers. The new built in program has outstanding strength, just like itsnamesake, making it the strongest Mephisto Chess Computer ever!
The elegance of the Exclusive line is maintained in the beautifully handmade wooden board, and exquisitely hand-crafted wooden pieces. Remote sensors detect the pieces from below the smooth wooden board so the game can be played without the need to consciously press the pieces down on the squares. Each square also has its own red LED to signal the moves. There is also an integral LCD 5-digit Display.

The search giant is poised to jump into e-commerce with a service called Google Base.

Google on Tuesday appeared close to launching a service called Google Base that would pit the search giant against eBay, Amazon, and Craigslist by allowing users to list everything from used cars to real estate.

 A screen shot of the service appeared on several web sites, although Google appears to have blocked access to the page shortly after it was discovered. The service invited users to “Post your items on Google” and appeared online at base.Google.com.
Google May Take on eBay

Dell is preparing a 19-inch wide-screen notebook for release next year, which it is expected to add to its XPS lineup. Currently, Dell's least-expensive wide-screen is its 15.4-inch Inspiron 6000, which runs on a 1.6GHz Intel Celeron M chip and sells for $699 after rebates.

 Even larger screen sizes are in the pipeline. Samsung has already shown its upcoming 19-inch laptop to CNET Reviews. The product is expected to ship later this year. Dell, a major partner of Samsung, could easily adopt the large screen format for its high-end XPS laptops. And, LG Philips is also touting its 20-inch LCD displays for laptops, Shim said.