Maximum PC standards RSS Feed

New 60 GHz Antenna Paves Way for Instantaneous Wireless Transfers

Pulkit Chandna — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:07:14 -0500

Researchers at Singapore’s Nanyang Technology University (NTU) and Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) have developed a low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) antenna for use in the unlicensed 57 - 64 GHz millimeter-wave bands. The development has paved the way for instantaneous wireless USB file transfers. It has the potential to replace Bluetooth as the preferred technology for nearby remote data exchanges.

SIMTech’s AIP (antenna in package) is not only economical but also practical per se. IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, Inc.) is busy devising standards for applications for the unlicensed 60 GHz band.

For Shame: Only 4% of the Web is Standards Compliant

Alex Castle — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:27:49 -0500

We’re willing to bet that a lot of readers of the Max PC blog have experience with building or maintaining web sites. If you have, then we’re also willing to bet that you’ll be interested to know that the early results of a study conducted by Opera examining the composition of some 3.5 million web pages have been published, and Ars Technica has posted an analysis of the findings.

Among the more interesting information to be gleaned from the study, only 4.13% of websites passed the W3C’s standards validation test, and only 50% of sites sporting standards compliance badges were actually valid. Ryan Paul at AT suggests that “This could indicate that many sites which are initially designed with valid HTML later cease to be valid as changes are made and new content is added.”

The study also examined which HTML tags people are using, which rich web content people are using the most (hint: it’s Flash), and a whole bevy of other statistics about how people are writing the web.

There’s way too much information to cover in one blog post, so if you’re interested, go check out the results for yourself and let us know what you think.

How Reliable is That SSD? Seagate and JEDEC Work to Establish Standards

Mark Edward Soper — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:45:40 -0500

SSDs are the hottest trend in storage, but how long will an SSD last? Right now,there's no industry standard for longevity or reliability. However, Cnet reports that Seagate and JEDEC are working together to establish a standards-based method for determining those factors.

Seagate isn't alone in working with JEDEC, the standards body responsible for standards in the solid-state industry. Earlier this year, X-bit Labs reported that JEDEC's JC-64.8 committee, which is responsible for developing SSD standards for embedded and removable storage, is being co-chaired by Micron Technologies and Seagate.

Micron brings its experience in memory technologies, while Seagate brings its experience in drive reliability to the endeavor. As Cnet reports:

Seagate says it can tap into the decades of expertise it has in error correction. "Some of the skills we've picked up along the way, to deal with imperfect media, has applicability to dealing with imperfect media on NAND."

Seagate's own SSDs won't hit the market until 2009, but hopefully its work with JEDEC to set standards for reliability will help make all SSDs more reliable.

So, what do you think? Will Seagate's presence on the JEDEC committee responsible for SSD standards make this latecomer to SSDs the one to trust when product finally hits the street? Or, are you ready to use SSDs right now? Join us after the jump for your chance to sound off.

Oracle, Intel Announce Cloud Computing Initiative

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:43:55 -0500

Many tech firms of varying stripes have launched their cloud computing initiatives in recent times with much hope and many more are expected to do so in the near future. Now, Oracle and Intel have forged a partnership for the proliferation of cloud computing.

Their initiative that is aimed at speeding up the adoption of cloud computing amongst enterprises was announced at Oracle OpenWorld 2008 the conference in San Francisco. They will be focusing on developing standards for cloud computing. They also intend to make clouds more secure and efficient. Everyone is heading for the clouds!

The Difference Between Standards and “Standards”

Michael Brown — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:51:51 -0500

When you shop for new technology, you should be aware that some standards are more standard than others.