Tom Krazit

Transmeta Corp. released six new processors for embedded systems such as point-of-sale terminals and industrial automation devices Monday, focusing on an energy-efficient design that alleviates the need for a cooling fan within the device.

Hitachi Ltd. this week completed its purchase of the majority of IBM Corp.'s hard disk drive manufacturing business for US$2.05 billion, IBM said in a statement.

New products due out early next year from major server vendors IBM Corp., Dell Computer Corp., and Sun Microsystems Inc. will feature the Infiniband technology for high-speed data exchange inside servers and other devices, the companies announced Thursday.

IBM Corp. is now shipping a server with 16 of Intel Corp.'s Xeon processors that fits into an 8U (14-inch) rack space, it announced Wednesday.

The Internet can be a scary place for home users with always-on broadband Internet connections, because these connections make PCs more vulnerable to hackers. To help these broadband consumers protect themselves, Dell Computer Corp. is offering new purchasers of its Dimension desktops or Inspiron notebooks a free 90-day trial of McAfee Security software, Dell announced Monday.

Intel Corp. has added 10 server components to its product lineup that support its new Xeon chips with faster front-side buses and larger cache, it announced Monday.

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 Wednesday.

Intel Corp. is forging ahead with making purchases and selling its products through the RosettaNet Internet exchange standard. More than 10 per cent of its customer and supplier transactions were executed through RosettaNet in 2002, a total of about US$5 billion, Intel said last week.