Tom Krazit

If there is a buzz around the PC industry this year, it's about wireless LANs (WLANs) and the notebooks that access them. Four of the world's top five PC vendors, as compiled by Dataquest Inc., are using a dual-band chipset from Atheros Communications Inc. to enable those wireless connections in their notebooks, Atheros announced Wednesday.

Quite a few customers are getting Dell Computer Corp.'s Axim handheld, but not all of them are waiting patiently. Several customers have complained on a message board on Dell's Web site about the length of time they'll have to wait for their new handheld, and Dell acknowledges the product isn't shipping as quickly as it would like it to.

IBM Corp. claims it will enable DB2 database software users to build Linux clusters on IBM servers more quickly and cheaply than before with a new package of hardware and software, the company announced Monday.

Fresh off their agreement to collaborate on advanced chip-making techniques, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and IBM Corp. are teaming up with UnitedLinux to help determine what features wind up in forthcoming versions of the Linux operating system from the group, the companies said in a release.

Intel Corp. released several new processors and a new chipset for notebook computers Tuesday, making them immediately available in systems two days after Intel lowered prices on its Mobile Pentium 4 processors.

Six months after Hewlett-Packard Co. closed its Compaq Computer Corp. acquisition, customers polled by market research firm IDC are content with most portions of the reconstructed company, but feel there is still work to be done before the merger can be called a success, IDC said last month.

Energy and life sciences companies are just some of those expected to take advantage of IBM Corp.'s new supercomputing on-demand initiative, which allows users to avoid the purchase and maintenance costs of large servers in favour of short-term agreements with IBM to process specific jobs.

Silicon Graphics Inc.'s (SGI's) new Altix 3000 machines are penguins on steroids, combining the Linux operating system with Intel Corp.'s Itanium 2 processor into a server that can scale up to 64 processors.