20Gb mobile phones?

Toshiba has announced two thumb-sized hard drives for mobile devices. The tiny MK2003GAH and MK1003GAL drives offer 20Gb and 10Gb of storage respectively in units measuring just 54 x 78.5mm. ...more

Microsoft takes on US eBay counterfeit traders

Microsoft is ramping up its campaign against counterfeiting, filing eight suits in the US against eBay traders selling dodgy software. Microsoft fingered seven of the defendants through customers using its Windows Genuine Advantage tool, which determines whether Microsoft software is genuine and allows them to submit reports of where they bought the software if it proves counterfeit. Other evidence came from complaints made to the company's anti-piracy hotline. ...more

Nvidia to buy PortalPlayer

Nvidia has announced that it is to pay $357 million to acquire PortalPlayer, a manufacturer of processors, firmware and software for portable devices. PortalPlayer was founded in 1999 and is credited with pioneering technologies such as system-on-chip (SoC) that enabled the current generation of high-performance handhelds, including iPods, many of which also make use of graphics technology from Nvidia. Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia said that modern mobile devices are miniaturised yet powerful multimedia computers based on the integration of technologies. ...more

Rambus revamps memory controller interfaces for DDR-based system

Chip developer Rambus has announced a new range of memory controller interfaces for DDR-based memory solutions. It claims that its new series of controllers are 'drop-in' designs making developer's lives easier and improving times to market. The company says that its DDR memory controller interfaces are complete interface cells instead of technology building blocks, such as I/O pads and delay lock loops (DLLs) that development teams would normally attempt to build from scratch. ...more

PlayStation 2 sells out

If you are thinking of buying yourself (or your children) a brand-spanking new Sony PlayStation 2 for Christmas you had better get your skates on. There are only 200,000 units being shipped to the UK and the pre-order scheme introduced by Sony has proved very popular with console-hungry consumers, who are paying a ?25 deposit in the first-come, first-served scheme. The console costs ?299 and features start-of-the-art hardware and DVD playback. ...more