Stories by Sharon Gaudin

Researcher: RFID market to hit US$9.7 billion by 2013

The Radio Frequency Identification business should see double-digit growth over the next several years, leading to a US$9.7 billion market by 2013, according to an analyst firm.

Five IRS employees charged with snooping at tax records

Five federal workers at an Internal Revenue Service office in California have been charged with computer fraud for illegally accessing the confidential records of taxpayers.

New chip detects heart attacks better than an EKG

University researchers have developed a silicon chip that they say will more quickly and accurately diagnose heart attacks.

NASA moves to save computers from swarming ants

A flood of voracious ants is heading straight for Houston, taking out computers, radios and even vehicles in their path.

AMD shake-up may be harbinger of major restructuring

An executive shake-up at Advanced Micro Devices earlier this week has left some analysts speculating that the move may be a prelude to a major corporate restructuring.

Microsoft makes space explorers of all of us

Always wanted to know more about that star overhead? Now you can.

New IBM blade billed as supercomputer for the average IT Joe

IBM Tuesday unveiled a new blade server based on the Cell chip that was originally designed to run a video game console.

IBM set to test the fastest computer in the world

Engineers and technicians at IBM are assembling the final pieces of what they hope will soon become the world's most powerful supercomputer - doubling the speed of the today's fastest machine.

AMD unveils low-power Opteron processor

Advanced Micro Devices Monday unveiled five low-power quad-core server processors, and said that manufacturers are planning to use the chips in both blade and rack-mounted servers.

Swarming spy bots that share information being built for military

A group of US Marines hunker down beside a building, enemy fire coming at them from somewhere up ahead. One soldier reaches into his pack and pulls out a few robots that look like large bugs. The bots fly down the street, sending back images that show where the enemy troops are hiding, how many there are and what weapons they're using.

NASA's new supercomputer aims for 10 petaflops by 2012

SGI and Intel are teaming up to build a supercomputer for NASA that they expect will pass the petaflop barrier next year and hit 10 petaflops by 2012. A petaflop is 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

AMD lays out plans for six-core and 12-core chips

Advanced Micro Devices Wednesday announced that it plans to release a six-core chip next year and a 12-core chip in 2010.

Discovery may lead to faster, more powerful processors

Researchers at Princeton University this week reported that they have found a way to literally melt away miniscule defects in computer chips, a discovery that could help manufacturers build more powerful processors.

Purdue builds own supercomputer -- on Monday morning

Technicians at Purdue University wanted to assemble their own supercomputer, and they had some high expectations. Apparently, they could have set them even higher.

Intel boosts Atom production to avoid supply squeeze

Early demand for an Intel chip that's being designed for small laptops and desktops is so much higher than anticipated, the company has been forced to ramp up pre-release production.