News Blog

UPDATE: AMD and Nvidia aim to wrest control of a crucial PC specification from Intel, arguing that the chip giant is trying to box them out as they move to a new era of faster peripherals.

Intel showed off a prototype USB 3.0 connector and an add-in card last year.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)

In play is the USB 3.0 specification, a next-generation high-speed connection standard due in 2009. It is significant not only because all future PCs and devices will use connectors based on the standard but because it will offer 10 times the speed of USB 2.0--used in virtually all PCs introduced in the last few years--or roughly 5 gigabits per second.

Intel formed the USB Implementers Forum in 1995 with other industry players, including Microsoft, "to support and accelerate adoption of USB-compliant peripherals," according to an overview of the specification on the chipmaker's Web site.

"The challenge is that Intel is not...giving the specification to anybody that competes with CPUs and chipsets," said a source close to AMD who is familiar with the dispute.

As a result, AMD, Nvidia, Via Technologies and others (not yet specified) could be driven to create their own USB 3.0 specification. "We are going to be forced to create a secondary specification" that would be introduced along with the Intel spec, the source close to AMD said. "To create a new open host controller standard for USB 3.0."

"We are starting development on it right now," the AMD source added. The first meeting of members of the alternate "open" specification is slated to take place next week, a source close to Nvidia said. "We fully intend to productize this spec."

Nvidia and AMD are offering no official comment.

Intel, meanwhile, says it's moving with all due speed.

"Just as with previous generations of USB, Intel is working hard to get the complete spec to the industry with as little delay as possible in order to drive the wide adoption of USB 3.0," the company said in a statement.

The USB 3.0 specification is hammered out in the USB 3.0 Promoters Group, in which Intel is a working fellow. Other members include Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC, and NXP Semiconductors.

A source close to Intel said AMD and Nvidia are being disingenuous about what they're actually seeking. In short, AMD and Nvidia are seeking technology--referred to as the "host controller" specification--that Intel says is beyond the USB 3.0 specification. "Think of it as a guide to building hardware for USB 3.0. This is the part that Intel invests dollars and engineering man hours in and then licenses to the industry (so far, for zero dollars). We will give this out as soon as it is finished (or close to finished)," the Intel source said.

The AMD source described USB 3.0 as "essentially PCI Express over a cable. And that intellectual property came from the PCI SIG"--the point being that Intel does not have a large intellectual property stake to defend. PCI Express is a data transfer specification for add-in card slots in desktop PCs today. The PCI SIG (Special Interest Group) promotes the Peripheral Component Interconnect specification, a standard used in all PCs today.

The problem, as AMD and Nvidia see it, is that Intel would virtually own the USB 3.0 market--a powerful competitive advantage--for many months if they waited for Intel to release the host controller specification. "Tack on six to nine months. Then we get USB 3.0," the AMD source said.

Intel countered that AMD and Nvidia are not willing to do the hard work that is necessary. "They could spend the time, engineers and money developing their own host controller spec," the Intel source said. "In the past they have chosen to let us do the work and then benefit from the fruit of our labor."

"Intel only gives it out once it's finished. And it's not finished." said the source. "If it was mature enough to release, it would be released." (AMD and Nvidia claim that Intel has working silicon and thus the part of the specification they are seeking is mature enough for release.)

"If you have an incomplete spec and give it out to people, these people will build their chipsets and you'll end up with chipsets that are incompatible with devices. That's what (Intel) is trying to avoid," the Intel source said.

One possible reason for the frustration, the source said, is that Intel is "a little bit behind and that's what might be causing some of the resentment. You could take the opinion that Intel is giving stuff out for free and people are complaining because (Intel) isn't giving it out fast enough," this person said.

"We're not doing anything differently now than we did with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1," he added.

AMD rejects this argument because people at the company were around when the earlier 1.0 USB specification came out and claim that Intel stonewalled back then too. Intel denies the assertion.

A separate specification--though designed to be compatible with the Intel USB 3.0 spec--has the potential to create incompatibilities, the source close to AMD said. "This is not good for users. But we have no choice."

(Credit: Sony)

Got a stack of old records that you would like to get onto your iPod? Sony's PS-LX300USB may be just what you need. The turntable can be connected to any standard Windows PC via a USB cable, where your 33 1/3rpm albums or 45rpm singles can be captured and edited via the included Sound Forge Audio Studio software. Prefer to listen the old-fashioned way? The PS-LX300USB also works as a standard record player--just connect it to a receiver with a dedicated phono input (or, with the help of a phono preamp, any standard stereo input will do). How does it compare with USB turntables from Ion and Stanton? We'll find out when the $150 PS-LX300USB hits stores in March. In the meantime, check out the last Sony turntable we reviewed--the totally analog PS-LS250H.

There was only one product at CES 2008 that I couldn't wait to get--a new model of safe from the Sentry Safe company. I even tried to buy one from Sentry's website one evening while I was still in Las Vegas, but that turned out to be impossible; it has to be shipped by truck freight, so I had to place the order with Sentry over the phone to make those arrangements.

The Sentry QE5541 Fire-Safe offers commercial-grade protection for computer media at a price low enough for home computer users.

(Credit: Sentry Safe)

I ordered the safe when I got back home, and it arrived here last week--a good bit sooner than the company predicted. I've got it all set up and it's all working. I'm very happy with it.

I got the QE5541, the largest model in a new line of six fire- and water-resistant safes designed to protect CDs, DVDs, flash drives, iPods, etc. from fires lasting up to two hours at temperatures up to 1,850° F.

And the really cool thing is that it'll also protect a 2.5" USB hard drive...while the drive is operating and connected to a computer outside the safe via a USB passthrough in the safe door. So for the first time, your backups can be continuously protected, even if you're not around.

If you're like most people, you don't even make regular backups of your personal computer. Most people who lose digital family photos, electronic book manuscripts, and disk files containing critical financial records to house fires don't make backups, either. But the worst thing must be to have a full set of backups get burned up along with your computer.

It's never happened to me, but I try to learn from my own mistakes before I make them. During 2007, I nearly placed an order for the Phoenix Datacare 2025 Media Safe, which is available from the Keystone Safe Company and other Internet vendors. The 2025 is another fire- and water-resistant safe designed to protect computer media. It has an internal volume of 1.22 cubic feet and costs $1,579 from Keystone. Compared with other safes I considered, the Phoenix was a pretty good deal.

Sentry's QE5541, by comparison, has an internal volume of 2.0 cubic feet and costs $519.99. Freight costs for both safes are similar, around $75 for basic delivery. So the Sentry safe is a really great deal.

And then there's that USB connection. That's unique. It makes the Sentry safe useful in a way the Phoenix safe could never be. I can stick a USB-powered hard disk inside--there's a pocket for it on the door--and run my nightly backups, or Apple's Time Machine software, without having to remember to move the disk drive into the safe after the backup finishes.

There are some limitations. The disk drive has to be a 2.5" USB-powered model because there's no separate power pass-through on the safe, just the USB connection. In my testing, a new Western Digital Passport 320GB drive worked fine but some older USB-powered drives didn't. Even the Passport didn't work unless I hooked up the second power connector on the USB cable Sentry provides to hook up the safe to a computer.

The problem is that USB ports provide +5V DC power and USB-powered hard drives require +5V DC power. That may sound more like a solution than a problem, but the USB specification also requires that power-hungry USB peripherals such as hard drives be connected to a USB port through just one cable. On the Sentry safe, there are effectively three cables: one outside the safe, one inside the safe, and one buried in the door of the safe to bring the USB connection through.

The resistance of all that extra wire and the extra connectors causes a voltage drop that could interfere with proper operation of the hard drive. I tested the power inside the safe with the hard drive running using a special USB cable I built for testing purposes some years ago. The final voltage was only barely in spec with the Passport and significantly lower with those older drives. But Sentry provides high-quality cables and connectors, and I think it should be reliable as long as you're using the provided cables and a good hard drive.

There's another consequence of this issue: there isn't enough power coming into the safe to run more than one hard drive. You'd need a hub in the safe, but bus-powered USB hubs don't provide enough power for USB hard drives anyway. I was able to use a bus-powered hub to hook up several flash drives just for testing purposes, but there's little practical value to that. I'd like to see Sentry offer a model that can support one or more full-size (3.5") drives, but in that situation, heating could be a problem; a fire safe has to be well-insulated, so even the ten watts or so produced by a 3.5" hard drive might be too much.

(I have my own solution to that problem, which I hope to discuss with Sentry at some point.)

I said earlier that the QE5541 is one of six new safes from Sentry, but that's an oversimplification. Two of these models, the QA0002 and QA0004, are actually just hard drives permanently sealed in a protective safe-like case. They're like big, heavy, virtually indestructible external USB-powered hard drives. Unfortunately, they're also just 80GB and 160GB drives based on Maxtor mechanisms, well behind today's state of the art in USB-powered drives. And at $339.99 for the 160GB model, they're expensive, too.

Sentry provides an interesting service for these two models. From the Web page: "If your Sentry Safe hard drive experiences fire or water damage, we will attempt to recover your data free of charge and send you a new unit." That's a good deal.

Sentry's $99.99 QA0110 is designed to protect up to 100 CDs or DVDs, but doesn't have a USB pass-through, so I don't find this model particularly attractive.

The QE5541 I bought has a smaller sibling, the QE4531, with 1.2 cubic feet of interior space plus the USB passthrough. If I bought the Papa Bear model, the QE4531 is for Mama Bear.

The remaining model, then, would be Baby Bear's--the QA0121, which can hold 60 optical disks plus a standard 2.5" USB-powered hard drive like the Passport. I think this one will be "just right" for most people, and at a price of $169.99, it's a lot more affordable than the big models. The one downside to the QA0121 is that the fire protection is only good for 30 minutes at 1,550° F. That's probably adequate for most residential fires, but you should think about how long it's likely to take for your local fire department to respond, how soon they can get to your home office, and what the construction of your house is like.

I wanted the extra protection and security of the QE5541, however, so that's what I bought. Sentry said it would take 3 to 5 weeks to arrive, but it got here in just ten days. It was delivered to my driveway in a big cardboard box with a small forklift-type wood pallet on the bottom; it was up to me to get it up the front steps and into the house. I was prepared for that, but if you need inside delivery, be sure to ask for it. (Sentry didn't mention that service when I placed my order, but it's a routine add-on from most shipping companies.)

Once I had the safe inside and located where I wanted it, I drilled a couple of holes through the bottom of the safe as directed in Sentry's documentation so I could use the provided lag screws to secure the safe to the floor. This procedure is easy enough, but if you want to do the same you'll need a drill with the right bit, plus a suitable tool for driving in the lag screws.

Then it was just a matter of installing the batteries for the electronic lock, testing the combination a few times (the safe comes with one predefined combination; you can set more), and hooking up the hard drive.

I've moved in all my backup media, some old external hard drives I'm not using, original install disks for my commercial software, and three complete older laptops. (The product page mentions "protects up to 72 CDs and DVDs" but this refers only to the capacity of a removable shelf provided with the safe. The safe will actually hold hundreds of DVDs on spindles or in the Maxell Double Slimline jewel cases I use.) I feel a lot better knowing that these items are now much more likely to survive a house fire.

If I have a fire, I'll post here about how well the safe works. But I hope I never have to make good on that promise!

(Credit: Meritline)

So you pulled that cramped old 40GB hard drive out of your notebook and replaced it with 160GB of storage goodness. Ever wonder what you should do with the leftover drive? Simple: stick it in an enclosure and use it as a portable USB hard drive.

You supply the drive; Meritline.com has an enclosure for just $10.99 shipped (after entering coupon code HW1971413OFF, which expires 1/25). It's compatible with all 2.5-inch IDE and SATA drives, and it includes both IDE and SATA external interfaces (cables, too). You also get a carrying case and a little screwdriver for opening and closing the enclosure. The drive itself gets powered by the interface, so there's no need for an AC adapter.

For 11 bucks you can get yourself a terrific little portable hard drive for transferring files, on-the-fly backups, and so on. Sweet.

Care should be taken when plugging holiday gift gadgets into your personal computer and laptop, said security researchers at Sans.org, Microsoft, and Kaspersky in recent blog posts. Reports of strange files being found on USB storage devices increased over the holiday season. Reporting Monday on the SANS' Internet Storm Center blog, director Marcus Sachs said, "In years past this would have been limited to iPods and USB memory sticks, but now it includes digital photo frames, GPS devices, external hard drives, and of course digital cameras."

The unofficial Sans.org investigation started on Christmas after researcher David Goldsmith received an ADS Digital Photo Frame - 8". He soon discovered that the built-in 128MB of storage included file cfhskjn.exe. When he tried running the mystery file, he received several error messages.

Others have noticed odd behavior with storage devices as well. Kaspersky antivirus reports purchasing a Kensington memory card in Napal which contained Worm.VBS.Small.n, a computer worm. A second Kaspersky blog mentions Victory LT-200, an MP3 player that includes (at no extra charge) the malware Worm.Win32.Fujack.aa.

Coincidentally, the January 2008 issue of Microsoft TechNet magazine includes a report on "island hopping", the act of using USB storage devices to infect personal computers. The author of the article, Jesper M. Johansson, said many USB controllers are Direct Memory Access (DMA) devices that bypass the operating system and directly read and write memory on the computer. "Bypass the OS and you bypass the security controls it provides--now you have complete and unfettered access to the hardware. This renders device control implemented by the OS completely ineffective. I am unaware of any hacking tools that currently use this technique, but I very much doubt that this has not already been done."

Kaspersky said most removable media exploits in the wild use the Windows autorun functionality. Kaspersky said the autorun vector is not perfect. In Windows XP SP2 the autorun.inf feature is disabled and the user is asked whether or not to run the file. A similar process occurs within Windows Vista. In both cases, however, researchers note that the user can still infect themselves by selecting Run setup.exe.

LAS VEGAS--Sony's got its own solution for shuttling data wirelessly.

TransferJet, a technology under development at the Japanese electronics giant, passes data between cameras, cell phones, video cameras, and other devices at 375 megabits per second (sustained) to 500 megabits per second (optimal). The idea behind TransferJet is to let people swap music or photos without worrying about wires.

While the technology functions like a wireless USB cable, it is an entirely new technology, Sony said.

Want to give someone a video clip from your camera? Just stick it next to a phone with TransferJet embedded in it and press go. The file swaps over. Sony unveiled the technology for the first time during a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show taking place here this week.

The technology, moreover, is somewhat insulated from privacy concerns because the two devices can only be 1.75 inches away from each other for the connection to work. Someone would have to snuggle up awfully close to extract the contact list from your phone.

TransferJet in action

(Credit: Michael Kanellos )

It could also be embedded into kiosks so shoppers could download songs at a record store. In the picture, the video camera sits on a large TransferJet module. But when it comes out in products, cameras and whatnot will just speak directly (albeit wirelessly.)

Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing at Sony Electronics, tried to demonstrate it during the press conference and it failed to work. The TransferJet stations at the Sony booth, however, worked fine. Sony showed a TransferJet-enabled video camera sending video to a PC and a camera sending photos to a PC. It was the coolest new thing in the Sony booth.

Ultimately, Sony hopes to embed TransferJet into products. The company has not announced a schedule to put it into products yet.

Tons of storage on sale

(Credit: CNET Networks)

We all need a little backup sometimes. Fortunately, Circuit City's running a discount on Western Digital's 1TB My Book Essential edition external hard drive. Currently listed elsewhere at $350 or more, its easy install and flexible USB/Firewire interface make it a good choice for all your backup needs. Check out the CNET.com product overview for details on compatibility, speed, and performance.

What: Western Digital 1TB My Book Essential edition external hard drive
How much: $279.99
Shipping: Free
Where: Circuit City (via LogicBuy)
When: Through unknown date
Click here for CNET.com's Western Digital 1TB My Book Essential edition external hard drive product overview.

SanDisk is suing 25 companies for infringing on its patents on removable flash storage devices.

The flash memory maker filed a suit with a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin and another with the U.S. International Trade Commission Wednesday evening, seeking damages, a permanent injunction and an order from the ITC banning the importation of the products.

SanDisk is suing other memory vendors that make products like this CompactFlash card.

(Credit: SanDisk)

The roll call of the companies is a long one, but here goes: ACP-EP Memory, A-Data, Apacer, Behavior Computer, Buffalo, Chipsbank, Corsair Memory, Dane-Elec, Edge, Imation/Memorex, Interactive Media, Kaser, Kingston, LG Electronics, Phison Electronics, PNY, PQI, Silicon Motion, Skymedi, Transcend, TSR, USBest, Verbatim, Welldone Company and Zotek/Zodata.

SanDisk says it's just enforcing its patents to be "fair" to the companies that already license its technology for flash storage devices. "Our goal is to resolve these matters by offering the defendants the opportunity to participate in our patent licensing program," said E. Earle Thompson, SanDisk's chief intellectual property counsel, in a statement. If the 25 companies don't get on board and pay SanDisk to license the patents in question, Thompson promises to "aggressively pursue" legal damages and a ban on the importation of the named companies' products.

TakeTV offers a cheaper, easier alternative to streaming videos from a PC.

(Credit: SanDisk)

It was first shown at January's Consumer Electronics Show--and then leaked on Buy.com just days ago--but the Sansa TakeTV is now official. It's not the first device designed to put PC-based digital videos on the TV, but what sets SanDisk's TakeTV apart is its simplicity: just drag and drop videos to the flash drive from your PC, and then plug it into the included video dock to watch them on your TV. The straightforward operation is a notable counterpoint to most other PC-to-TV digital video alternatives, which involve either cumbersome direct hook-ups (video and audio runs from a PC to a TV); installing digital media adapters (such as the Apple TV or Xbox 360), which require some knowledge of home networking; or burning video files to disc for playback on compatible DVD players.

Concurrent with the TakeTV launch, SanDisk is also debuting Fanfare, a premium video download service. TakeTV is the first device that can play back Fanfare content, but SanDisk is aiming to expand compatibility to other products in its Sansa line. Currently in beta, Fanfare is little more than a proof of concept, but the addition of content partners beyond CBS and Showtime could certainly position it as a worthwhile alternative to Apple's iTunes Store.

For a more in-depth look at the SanDisk Sansa TakeTV--including a first look at the Fanfare service--check out CNET's complete hands-on review and the accompanying photo gallery.