A former Intel executive pleaded guilty on Monday to providing insider information to Galleon Group's founder, Raj Rajaratnam.
The case revolves around Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund that managed $7 billion in funds. In total, 22 people have been charged with criminal or civil charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ten, including the Intel executive, have pleaded guilty to date.
Rajiv Goel, a former Intel treasury department executive, has admitted to providing Rajaratnam, in 2007, details about Intel's earnings before the information was publicly available. He also told Rajaratnam about a future Sprint Nextel joint venture that Intel had targeted for a $1 billion investment.
Goel pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and securities fraud, according to a report in The New York Times. If convicted, he would face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
"I cannot express how sorry I am for my conduct," Goel said in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Monday, according to the Times. "I intend to do the right thing," he said.
Prior to the plea, Goel had been placed on administrative leave. He eventually quit his job at Intel.
IBM on Monday is launching its long-anticipated Power7 processor and systems based on the chip.
IBM Power7 chip
(Credit: IBM)The processor is a big step for IBM, integrating eight processing cores--four times the number of cores in the prior-generation Power6--in one chip package, with each core capable of executing four tasks--called "threads"--turning an individual chip into a virtual 32-core processor. As a yardstick, Intel's high-end Xeon processors--systems that Power7 will compete with--typically have two threads per processing core and contain four cores.
Blg Blue has already tipped its hand on the Power7 chip in discussions about its upcoming Blue Water supercomputer.
Power7 fuses the flagship Power chip design with key technology from a separate "Cell" processor--the latter was part of IBM's Roadrunner supercomputer system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. "We took some of that genetic material from the Cell program--ways to do floating point (calculations)--and embedded that right into the Power7 core," Bradley McCredie, an IBM Fellow in the Systems and Technology Group, told CNET last year.
Rivals include Hewlett-Packard servers based on Intel's Xeon and "Tukwila" Itanium processors and servers from Sun Microsystems.
New Power7 systems
The new Power7 systems include:
- IBM Power 780: a new category of scalable, high-end servers, featuring an advanced modular design with up to 64 Power7 cores.
- IBM Power 770: a midrange system with up to 64 Power7 cores, featuring higher performance per core than Power6 processors and using up to 70 percent less energy for the same number of cores as Power6 processors.
- IBM Power 755: a high-performance computing cluster node with 32 Power7 cores.
IBM is touting the Power7's ability to manage millions of transactions in real time--necessary for applications such as smart electrical grids. IBM said electric utilities can move from processing less than one million meter reads per day, in a traditional grid for example, to more than 85 million reads per day in a smart grid.
eMeter, a leading maker of software that runs e-grids, ran a successful benchmark on IBM Power6 systems for more than 20 million smart meters. "Combining eMeter and IBM's Power7 we are confident we can hit much higher numbers to meet their needs," Scott Smith, eMeter client business manager, said in a statement.
The apology from Toyota President Akio Toyoda is being interpreted by the U.S. media as a uniquely Japanese thing.
Really?
Let me say up front that I lived in Japan for 10 years. I made every effort to become proficient in Japanese, as it was crucially important for me, as a journalist, to be as fluent in the language as possible. That does not make me a Japanese expert, (as others who have spent much less time there claim to be, by the way) but language is the best window on a culture--and it does give me some extra perspective compared to the average American.
Toyota's President Akio Toyoda bows during a news conference at the Toyota headquarters in Nagoya, central Japan, Feb. 5, 2010.
(Credit: CBS News)Let's begin with this piece from ABC News where it is claimed that somehow Toyoda's bow has something to do with bushido (or way of the Samurai). To me (and Japanese people I know, at least), this analysis was over the top.
The media in America--which generally knows little about Japan--is often trying to make Japan out to be a mystical place where everyone lives by some ancient samurai--or Buddhist, take your pick--code. In short, a special, inscrutable culture that defies understanding.
Not true, in my opinion.
What I learned in my 10 years in Japan is that the Japanese culture is different of course but not nearly as different as unwitting Americans make it out to be. In other words, the shroud of mystery that some Americans cling to in order to explain Japanese ways more often than not simply makes Japan much harder to understand than necessary.
Toyota made mistakes. After some foot dragging, the Toyota president finally apologized. There is nothing uniquely Japanese about this. Quite universally human, in fact. Though "experts" appearing on ABC news will ascribe ancient bushido tradition to the bow (and the depth of the bow), that only serves to get in the way of seeing it as a simple apology.
Do you think Toyoda would have apologized if there wasn't such an outcry in the U.S.? Of course not. Just as former GM CEO Rick Wagoner only apologized when up against the wall. A common human trait.
In the course of my interviews this week about the Toyota recall, Americans who I interviewed would invariably bring up their idea about Japan and its culture of shame (haji).
Yes, it exists to some degree. But if you're going to ascribe this as a unique Japanese trait then also ascribe another a trait I saw in Japan--in the extreme--compared to other cultures: denial. When push comes to shove, I saw a tendency to go into deep denial. More so than Western cultures. Japan's dark history in World War II being just one prominent example.
I was starting to get a sense of this denial from Toyota. Only a great hue and cry in the U.S.--Toyota's largest market--made this impossible at the end.
A lawsuit filed in California on Thursday alleges that a fatal crash in which a Toyota Camry accelerated out of control was caused by faulty electronics.
The lawsuit is centered on Toyota's "drive by wire" system, which is the technology underlying the electronic throttle control, the alleged cause of the uncontrolled acceleration cited in the lawsuit. That is a separate issue from the mechanical accelerator pedal problems that Toyota is addressing with its massive recall.
The suit claims that the crash killed Upland, Calif., resident Noriko Uno, 66, when her Camry suddenly accelerated to 100 miles per hour. After weaving to avoid hitting other drivers, the car hit a curb, sending it into the air, and then, finally, into a tree, according to a Reuters report.
Drive by wire replaces traditional mechanical and hydraulic control systems with electronic control systems. While drive by wire allows for a more refined, computer-controlled acceleration, it has also introduced a new set of hard-to-trace problems.
Toyota would not comment on the suit. More generally, the company is saying, at least publicly, that it has found no evidence of electronic problems. John Hanson, national manager of environmental safety and quality in Toyota's communications group, when contacted Friday, stood by a statement he made earlier this week to CNET. "We have not found any evidence of an electronic problem that would have led to unwanted acceleration. That doesn't mean that we've written it off. We are aggressively investigating any claims," he said.
The case is similar to a longstanding allegation made by Jordan Ziprin of Phoenix. In a well-documented case detailed in a petition to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Ziprin claims that, in 2005, when backing out of a driveway near his home, his 2002 Toyota Camry XLE suddenly accelerated and slammed into a utility box. He has also claimed this was due to a faulty electronic throttle system.
Toyota has recalled approximately 8 million vehicles worldwide, including more than 2 million in the U.S., because of mechanical glitches with its accelerator pedals. Uno's family members said that they hope their lawsuit will force Toyota to widen its recall to include all models equipped with an electronic throttle and "to retrofit those automobiles with a brake override system," according to Reuters.
Garo Mardirossian, a lawyer for the Uno family, said Toyota's recall should cover model years 2002 through 2006, according to the Reuters report. He added that Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had knowledge of 389 complaints of out-of-control acceleration in those model years.
On top of mounting criticism of mechanical glitches in its cars, Toyota faces a much more complex set of issues related to car electronics, based on consumer complaints and analysis by an electronics engineer familiar with Toyota's history of throttle control.
This comes as political problems continued to pile up for the company, in the wake of of its recall of 6.5 million vehicles--including recent Camrys, Corollas, and RAV4s--because of potential acceleration problems and its subsequent halt of production on the affected models.
2010 Prius comes with what Toyota calls 'Electronic Throttle Control System with intelligence (ETCS-i)'
(Credit: Toyota)The U.S. Department of Transportation upped the pressure on Toyota when the agency's head, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, told owners of recalled vehicles to stop driving them during remarks he made Wednesday before a House appropriations hearing. He later backed away from this statement and said he meant only that Toyota owners who are worried about their cars should take them to dealerships.
And in Japan on Wednesday, authorities told Toyota to investigate reports of faulty brakes on its high-profile Prius hybrid car as federal safety regulators in the U.S. began a broader investigation into Toyota's electronic systems.
The Prius also came under scrutiny this week after Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak claimed that he had been experiencing sudden acceleration in his 2010 Prius because of an alleged "software" glitch.
Wozniak's claim, valid or not, underscores questions about Toyota's electronic systems raised by less-famous consumers. In a well-documented case detailed in a petition to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Jordan Ziprin claims that, in 2005, when backing out of a driveway near his home in Phoenix, his 2002 Toyota Camry XLE suddenly accelerated and slammed into a utility box.
He did not have his foot on the gas pedal and the car accelerated under its own accord, Ziprin claims. This appears to be an electronic glitch: an issue very different from the mechanical defects cited in the accelerator pedal cases that Toyota is trying to address now with its recall.
"The problem began with 2002 Toyota and Lexus vehicles," Ziprin said in a phone interview. "That was the year that Toyota introduced electronic throttle control," he said. (Toyota introduced it selectively prior to 2002, but first used it on a large scale in 2002.) Reports of unintended acceleration jumped after drive by wire systems were adopted, according to a review by the Los Angeles Times of thousands of consumer complaints filed with the NHTSA.
Toyota, at least publicly, is saying that it has found no evidence of electronic problems. "We have not found any evidence of an electronic problem that would have led to unwanted acceleration," said John Hanson, national manager of environmental safety and quality in Toyota's communications group. "That doesn't mean that we've written it off. We are aggressively investigating any claims."
Hanson continued. "NHSTA over many years of investigation on a wide variety of complaints has found no evidence of any electronic problem with the electronic control system. That doesn't mean it's not possible. We're not ruling out any possibility. And we continue to investigate actively."
The birth of drive-by-wire
At the center of the alleged incidents is the electronic throttle control, ... Read More
During a talk at Discovery Forum 2010 in San Francisco Monday, Apple founder Steve Wozniak goes off topic about a "very scary" problem with his 2010 Toyota Prius.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)More problems may be lurking for Toyota. Speaking at an event in San Francisco on Monday, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak waxed eloquent about a "very scary" problem with his 2010 Toyota Prius.
Wozniak was speaking at Discovery Forum 2010 when he went off topic for a few minutes and spoke about problems with his 2010 Toyota Prius.
"I don't get upset and teed off at things in life, except computers that don't work right," was his segue into the Toyota comments. Then he said he had been trying to get through to Toyota and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) for three months but could not get anyone to explore an alleged software-related acceleration problem--as described below.
Wozniak in conversation Monday at Discovery Forum 2010 with journalist Dana King. He was speaking to the importance of hands-on learning and encouraging creativity to prepare children for the challenges of the 21st century.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)"Toyota has this accelerator problem we've all heard about," Wozniak said. "Well, I have many models of Prius that got recalled, but I have a new model that didn't get recalled. This new model has an accelerator that goes wild, but only under certain conditions of cruise control. And I can repeat it over and over and over again--safely."
"This is software. It's not a bad accelerator pedal. It's very scary, but luckily for me, I can hit the brakes," he said.
Toyota said it investigates all complaints. "We're in the business of investigating complaints, assessing problems and finding remedies," said John Hanson, national manager environmental safety and quality communications at Toyota. "After many years of exhaustive testing, we have not found any evidence of an electronic [software] problem that would have led to unwanted acceleration."
CNET's James Martin contributed to this report.
The most power efficient of Intel's new series of mobile processors will start appearing in new laptops in February, according to the chipmaker.
Sony Vaio Y series uses Intel ultra-low-voltage processors
(Credit: Sony)The Core i3, i5, and i7 processors are slated to replace most of Intel's older generation of Core 2 processors across its mobile, desktop, and server lines. At the Consumer Electronics Show last month, Intel introduced mainstream mobile processors based on the Core i design--the Core i3 and i5.
Though laptops using Intel's standard-power Core i mobile processors have already hit store shelves en masse, systems using the chipmaker's ultra-low-voltage, or ULV, Core i processors will begin to appear "in early February," according to an Intel representative. These new processors include the i5-520UM and i7-640UM. Because ULV chips consume relatively little power, they are used in laptop designs in order to offer longer battery life.
High-profile laptop lines that currently use Intel's older Core 2 ULV chips include the Dell Adamo, Toshiba Portege R600, Sony Vaio Y, and Hewlett-Packard Envy 13. The most widely used processors have been the SU9400 and SU9600. Dell, last week, began offering steep discounts on its Adamo laptops that use the SU9400, cutting prices by about $500.
With the new i3 and i5, Intel is changing the way it rates power efficiency to account for the new "Arrandale" chip design that packages the graphics silicon together with the main Intel processor.
A Core i chip rated at 18 watts will now be considered a ULV processor, compared with the 10-watt rating of the older Core 2 technology. This is done to account for the additional power load of the graphics circuits that, before, were in a separate chip package called the chipset.
To date, Apple's MacBook Air has used Core 2 low-power processors but the Air's processors run at relatively high speeds of 1.86GHz or 2.13GHz, higher than ULV-designated chips in other ultrathin laptops, and therefore are not as power efficient.
Though Apple is expected to use Core i5 processors in its upcoming MacBook Pro lineup, it is not yet clear which processor Apple would opt for in a new MacBook Air model--if indeed Apple is planning an imminent update for this model.
This Aava Mobile design uses the upcoming Intel Moorestown chip. Devices using the chip can multitask.
(Credit: Aava Mobile)How important is the ability to multitask on tablet-class devices like Apple's iPad? Important enough that the feature will likely be touted as a trump card for Intel-based smartphones such as a tablet-size phone from LG due later this year.
How do we know this? Watch the embedded CNET video below, which I took at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, and find out. Toward the end of the video (the 2:55 mark), Pankaj Kedia, director of Intel's Global Ecosystems Program for Mobile Internet Devices and Smart Phones, makes it clear that multitasking--in this case using Intel's Moblin operating system--is a marquee feature for devices running on Intel's Moorestown chip technology, due sometime in the next few months.
Kedia shows three applications running but is quick to add that "you can have more apps running."
Of course, on an Apple laptop, where a user can easily have a dozen or more apps active, multitasking is taken for granted. For example, users can watch a video feed while writing an e-mail. For the iPad, however, Apple is betting that the snappy interface, as demonstrated in this CNET video, will more than compensate for the lack of multitasking.
On Friday, I asked Keida about the importance of multitasking on Intel-based smartphones and tablets.
"Consumers want to do multiple things at the same time: listen to music while browsing the Web, look for directions while looking at your calendar and talking with your friends, and so on," he said in response to an e-mail query. "Multitasking is one of the key differentiators for the LG GW990 smartphone, based on the Intel Moorestown platform," he said.
To date, Intel has gone public on three Moorestown-based designs. The LG GW990 smartphone, the Aava Mobile smartphone, and the OpenPeak tablet. "The LG GW990 is a product, while the Aava and OpenPeak are two of our leading reference designs, which will generate multiple end-user products," he said. "As we launch Moorestown in [the first half of this year] and products begin to ship in (the second half of the year), you will hear about additional customers."
Salacious charges in a federal case against Henry T. Nicholas III, co-founder and former CEO of chip giant Broadcom, have been dropped, bringing the scandal-packed case to a close.
Broadcom co-founder and former CEO Henry T. Nicholas III
(Credit: Broadcom)On Thursday, a judge threw out the remaining charges against Nicholas, granting a request by the prosecutor to dismiss drug-trafficking counts, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. This comes after the judge dismissed criminal charges connected to stock-option backdating against Nicholas and co-founder Henry Samueli.
Nicholas was indicted in 2008 on charges that he had provided cocaine and Ecstasy to friends and business associates. One of the more striking drug-related allegations centered on a flight to Las Vegas in which Nicholas' pilot allegedly had to resort to using an oxygen mask because marijuana smoke was clouding the cockpit, according to the Times report.
And in 2007 court documents made claims about a "secret and convenient lair" at Nicholas' Laguna Hills home in suburban Los Angeles with secret entries to indulge his "manic obsession with prostitutes" and "addiction to cocaine and Ecstasy."
The judge Thursday ruled that the government hadn't proved its case and also found that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct.
Broadcom was founded in 1991 by Nicholas and Samueli. The two first met in 1981 while working for defense contractor TRW, according to a history on Broadcom's Web site. Samueli specialized in communications systems design and Nicholas in chip design. Both were working on the Defense Department's Very High-Speed IC (VHSIC) program.
In 1988, when Samueli was teaching at UCLA's School of Engineering, he convinced Nicholas, his first Ph.D. candidate, to join him full-time at PairGain Technologies. In 1991, they formed Broadcom based on "their shared visions of cable and high-speed networking," according to Broadcom's Web site.
For many people, it's a safe bet that the iPad will not replace or preclude the purchase of a Netbook. A quick look at the specifications and it's pretty obvious why.
The iPad is definitely not a laptop and that's not necessarily a good thing.
(Credit: Apple )As this tweet succinctly put it: "What has no webcam, no multitasking, no HDMI port, and (possibly) no Flash, and costs $500? Hint: Not a netbook." This tweet, of course, is referring to the Apple iPad. And, by the way, you can eliminate the parenthetical; the iPad definitely does not support Adobe Flash video. (Also see this post at Gizmodo.)
But specifications aside, here's the most fundamental difference. The iPad is what analysts call a purpose-built device. It does certain things very well (e.g., video, Web browsing, e-reading) and other things (most notably office productivity apps) not so well or not at all.
The Netbook--though not as fast as a standard laptop and handicapped by a relatively small screen--is still a PC and is capable of doing pretty much everything a standard PC does. In other words, it's a general-purpose device.
Then there's the physical difference. Consumers who make the leap from a notebook or Netbook to a tablet will immediately recognize the ergonomic limitations of a tablet. In short, the inconvenience of not having a physical keyboard: the keyboard on a laptop also acts as a ballast--or stand--for the screen. Needless to say, that's why laptops decorate Starbucks tables and airplane trays. (Yes, Apple will sell an iPad case that serves as a stand but that does not make it a laptop.)
That said, preemptively panning the device is foolhardy. Consumers will undoubtedly find novel ways to use the iPad. And I will likely be rubbing elbows with an iPad user at Starbucks as soon as it hits stores.
