| Microsoft
Chooses New Product Names |
| REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft Corp. announced
that Windows XP and Office XP would be the new names for the
next versions of the software maker's biggest products.
Previously, this operating operating system had been code-named
Whistler with the applications suite was known as Office 10.
XP stands for experience.
``These breakthrough versions of Windows and Office
will give people the most powerful end-to-end computing experiences
ever available,'' said Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman
and chief software architect. He Gates said both products
would be linked closer to the Internet through the Microsoft.NET
strategy.
``The .NET platform uses XML to expand the platform
from a single PC to include other PCs, servers, smart devices
and Web services,'' Gates said, referring to extensible Markup
Language, a programming language that helps link users to
the data they need.
``Now, instead of having individual applications on
each device, users will get a rich experience that spans all
their devices,'' he said. ``This evolution from applications
to experiences starts with Windows XP and Office XP.''
According to a Microsoft news release, Windows XP
will provide for real-time voice, video and application sharing
and greater mobility. Office XP is designed as ``an information
hub that will enable people to harness information from multiple
locations."
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Windows
XP is the first operating system for businesses and consumers
that uses the software code found in Windows NT and Windows
2000, rather than an earlier and less stable code structure.
Office XP is scheduled for release late in the first
half of this year and Windows XP is scheduled for general
release in the second half the year.
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| Dell
New Product Targets NAS Market |
| (02/12/01,
4:35 p.m. ET) TechWeb News
Dell Computer Corp. (stock: DELL)
is expanding into storage with the advent of its PowerVault
735N, a mid-range NAS
system. The PowerVault 735N, designed fro small to midsize
businesses and departmental workgroups, can be managed anywhere
from a web browser and enables storage expansion on a network.
The price starts at $9,999, It can supply up to 1.44 Tbytes
of storage. Dell also introduced its PowerVault 701N, an upgrade
of the 705N NAS that supplies 60 Gbytes of storage for $1,399.
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New Product
Makes Optical Networks Faster And Cheaper
|
| 02/08/01 -- Optical networking company
Corvis Corp. announced Wednesday a hardware component designed
to reduce regional and undersea networks costs. The products,
the CorWave XL and XF, reduce the need to boost signals over
long distances while still allowing high bandwidth rates.
"In a normal fiber-optic network there are amplifiers
which [strengthen] the signal every 40 miles or so,"
Corvis VP Shyam Jha says. But by using Corvis' Raman amplification
technology, Jha says, signals can be transmitted more than
200 miles without being regenerated. He says this saves significant
labor on maintenance, allowing the network to be operated
at half the cost of typical optical networks.
Jha maintains that the technology is particularly
useful for undersea applications, which can be expensive to
operate. He expects the system to be implemented in island-to-island
or island-to-mainland situations, particularly in Europe and
Asia. Corvis will launch the products in the second quarter
of this year.
Robertson Stephens analyst Paul Johnson says the products
are really an evolution of Corvis' existing technologies,
however the company has increased the amount of data the network
can transmit for short-range applications. According to Johnson,
"It has the advantages of being repeaterless with a bandwidth
no one else can match."
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