Stories by Tom Yager

Apple WWDC: Nothing to see here?

With developers unable to grab iPhones and Leopard still under wraps, what of note will come out of WWDC?

Intel FUD versus AMD fact

At the AMD CTO Summit held last week in Monterey, California, AMD put a few members of the press under nondisclosure and gave us an unusually detailed look at unpublished products and plans. Much of it is to be kept under wraps, but we were given lea...

Apple II turns 30

The news out of Cupertino, California, was mostly dour last week, as Apple announced that it was delaying the delivery of the next version of its OS X operating system by four months so that it could complete work on the iPhone cell phone.

Content in lockdown

I'm increasingly aghast at the erosion of the traditional freedom we've enjoyed to do whatever we please with our personal computers -- but intrigued by the science behind it.

Where x86 hits the wall

Your desktop computer is fast. It's faster than you can type, faster than you can browse, and unlike you, it can do many things at once. Sure, you multitask. You can be on a conference call with your boss while you're buffing your nails, but when you...

Ahead of the Curve: Mac sense and nonsense

A couple of columns ago, I introduced you to a friend and lifelong professional Windows user who agreed to let me observe and document her trial run at switching to the Mac. I set her up with a can't-lose bargain: She would swap her desktop Windows P...

Otellini's famous last words

The leading quote from this week's news comes from Intel CEO Paul Otellini: "We're doing product refreshes every two years, which is the model we invented and then stopped doing after Pentium 4, shame on us," Otellini said. "We fell off it -- mea cul...

The Green Grid gets going

Pleas to improve datacenter power-efficiency tend to be vague: Consolidate to fewer and more efficient systems; use virtualization to allocate resources based on need; and choose microprocessors, infrastructure components, and system architectures th...

IBM's Power6 looms large

AMD's Barcelona CPU is loaded with "invented here" innovation. It is also inspired by IBM's Power architecture. IBM's newest Power CPU, Power6, is due mid-year, along with quad-core processors from Intel and AMD. And while x86 will get more headlines...

Dell's dicey fortune

I wrote a column in 2005 called "How will Dell Offset the Loss of Intel's Generosity?". In it, I asserted that Dell needed to overhaul its strategy and focus to make up for the coming loss of Intel's ... oh, call it what you like: price supports, sub...

AMD reinvents the x86

AMD's next-generation processor line, code-named Torrenza, has gone from a block diagram to living, breathing silicon. The first incarnation of AMD's redesigned x86 CPU is Barcelona, that which your non-co-readers will call quad-core Opteron. Barcelo...

Don't stick a fork in AMD

With all the vigour and exactness of stock market analysts explaining a one-point shift in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, pundits are penning obits for AMD in the aftermath of Sun Microsystems' recent decision to buy chips from Intel. Poor AMD: fi...

Ditching AMD is just business for Schwartz

If nothing else, Intel's reversal of AMD's exclusive contract to supply CPUs to Sun Microsystems shows just how far some CEOs are willing to go on the first date.

Kill trees, roll tape

Early advocates of a pervasive online culture cast the stereotype of mainstream media outlets as closed-minded, slow, dictatorial, William Randolph Hearst-style machines bent on shutting out differing viewpoints and smaller voices. More sober minds s...

A glimpse at a true superphone

IPhone, along with ultra-converged handsets shown at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) from Nokia, Samsung, and others, all look like the devices I have longed to bring with me on the road. Finally, I've got a shot at that mobile Holy Grail: a device t...