A judge has disconnected a pair of California teenagers from their computers, after the duo broke into government and military computers in January and February, 1998. The boys were put on three years probation, and not allowed to have a computer or modem. They can sign up for computer classes in school if they are closely monitored by teachers. They also must perform 100 hours of community service and pay reparations.
Dave Babcock, a software engineer at Silicon Graphics with fond memories of the IBM 1620 (a "cheap" $85,000 mainframe for scientific computing introduced in 1959), wrote a 1620 emulator that ran on a PalmPilot. News about Babcock's work caught the eyes of Joe Crespo, one of the original designers of the 1620, and David Wise, who has a working 1620 running in his basement.
Babcock, who volunteers for the Computer Museum History Center in San Jose, California, knew that the History Center was interested in restoration projects and owned a nonworking 1620. So Babcock proposed to lead a team of volunteers that would restore the 1620 as a pilot project for the Center. "We had access to an original designer, we had someone who had done it, and there was all this information we could capture," said Babcock.
So far, Babcock's efforts have attracted several volunteers and many interesting anecdotes. Upon hearing about the project, IBM CEO Lou Gerstner sent several folders on the 1620 from IBM's archives, and software pioneer J.A.N. Lee donated some of his original Fortran code.
The restoration team is seeking as much information as it can gather on old 1620s (either to restore or to cannibalize for parts), peripherals, software, documentation, and anecdotes. If you have stories to share or equipment to donate, contact Babcock at daveb@sgi.com.
Scientists at IBM Research have developed a flat-panel display technology that doubles the resolution of today's typical desktop displays. The prototype Quad-SXGA, codenamed "Roentgen," is a 200-pixel-per-inch (ppi) active-matrix LCD with a screen of more than 5 million full-color pixels. Key specifications include: 200 ppi, 16.3-inch active-matrix LCD, 2560×2048 pixels (5,242,880 full-color pixels), 42×126 micron subpixels, 15,728,640 high-performance amorphous silicon transistors, 1.64 miles of thin film wiring (low-resistance aluminum alloys), aperture ratio of 27.3 percent, and backlight power of 44 watts for a brightness of 230 cd/m2. The prototype is 21×16.5×2.5 and weighs less than 20 pounds.
The ACM has launched a pair of programming contests, one for Java and the other for Windows CE. Now in its third year, the Quest for Java is cosponsored by ACM and IBM. Contestants can compete as individuals or members of a team of up to three programmers. Cash prizes are offered.
The Quest for Windows CE, cosponsored by Microsoft, Casio, Everex, and Hewlett-Packard, offers more than $20,000 in cash prizes. All entrants get free copies of a Windows CE toolkit for either Visual C++, Visual Basic, or Visual J++. For more information, see http://www.acm.org/.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Silicon Graphics (SGI) have unveiled what they claim is the world's fastest computer, with the world's most powerful advanced graphics system. The machine, codenamed "Blue Mountain," ran Linpack at 1.6 trillion operations per second (teraOps). The DOE is developing five generations of high-performance computers as a part of its stockpile stewardship program with a goal of reaching 100 teraOps by 2004. Blue Mountain is the second of two DOE computers built with a peak speed of at least 3 teraOps.
At the heart of Blue Mountain are 48 commercially available SGI Cray Origin2000 servers containing a total of 6144 processors. Blue Mountain is organized into 48, 128-processor shared-memory multiprocessors (SMPs). The system is designed so the cluster of 48 SMPs -- all commercially available servers -- behave like a single computer. These 48 SMPs can communicate with each other at sustained speeds in excess of 650 gigabits a second.
Carnegie Mellon University has formed Carnegie Learning Inc., a company to commercialize software-based, cognitive tutors for teaching algebra and geometry. The software is based on a learning model or expert system that blends research in cognitive psychology with artificial intelligence to diagnose learning difficulties and coach students as they work through a problem. The original tutor was developed by John R. Anderson, a professor of psychology and computer science at CMU. It's built around the theory that students learn best by actively participating in the learning process rather than receiving static, verbalized information. According to CMU studies, tutor-taught students learn material in one-third less time than in traditional learning situations. They are more attentive and show greater achievement gains. They score 15 percent higher on standardized tests and are 100 percent better than their peers in applying mathematics in authentic problem solving situations. For more information, see http:// www.cmu.edu/.
Controversy continues to swirl around one variation on the Year 2000 theme. Dubbed the "Crouch-Echlin Effect" after the two men who first documented it, this Y2K problem mainly centers on older 80286-generation PCs with nonbuffered real-time clocks, of which there are millions still in service. In a nutshell, say Jace Crouch and Michael Echlin, the clocks on many machines will begin to unpredictably speed up even after a successful December 31, 1999, rollover to January 1, 2000. Among the reported malfunctions due to the problem, which has also been referred to as "time dilation," are data loss, startup disruptions, and incorrect calculations. While not denying that something strange is, in fact, going on with older systems, critics -- who sell books, hold conferences, and provide consulting services -- have pooh-poohed Crouch and Echlin's findings, saying that the pair is only trying to make money by selling a software fix. Crouch and Echlin claim that they were ready to give the software away, but Compaq-Digital (the distributor of the fix) thought best to charge for it. In the meantime, Compaq-Digital and other organizations will continue Crouch-Echlin testing. For more information, see http://www.intranet.ca/ ~mike.echlin/bestif/tdpaper.htm.